Wild Thing

Nick Baker is up a tree looking for bats when I first track him down.

He is also meant to be writing a book about bugs, but is distracted with finding some eucalyptus leaves for his caterpillars and some earthworms for his insects.

Welcome to the weird world of Nick Baker.

Just another day in the office then? “Yes, sorry,” the TV presenter apologises. “I’m training for my bat licence at the moment and was tramping around a nature reserve in Dartmoor looking in bat boxes.

“But then I’m a naturalist, and naturalists can’t stop. I just love living things and get such a buzz from living organisms. As long as it’s wildlife I’m there.”

So where did this curiosity come from? “I was brought up in Sussex and had 500 acres of the Ashdown Forest as my stomping ground. It was Winnie The Pooh land, but then the bakery went, and the Post Office, and the butcher, and it turned into a commuter village.

“So when I went to Exeter University I discovered Dartmoor and I’ve been here ever since” he says grinning happily.

And with a three-year-old daughter to introduce to the delights of the animal kingdom, Nick is excited about spending more time at home, exploring his own back garden. “Yes I’m very proud to say her first word was ‘moth’. I think she’s taking after her dad,” the 37-year-old adds. “I’m not pushing her into it but so far so good.”

Mind you, it’s hardly surprising. At the moment Nick’s domestic zoo includes praying mantis’ and moths in the office, tropical fish in the dining room, turtles in the garden, bugs in the backroom, oh, and did I mention the barn full of scorpions, spiders and snakes, which he breeds.

“Actually I took my daughter to an insect fair this weekend and came back with some African snails and some cockroaches,” he admits. And what did his wife say about that? “I think she just wondered why she’d married such a wildlife nerd,” he grins. “But although she finds it amusing when I get out my moth trap, she doesn’t rush to join me. She appreciates nature but isn’t obsessed with it.

“But that’s why it works. This is my second marriage and the first time I was with a broadcaster and zoologist and we were so similar we clashed.

“Now I have my area of expertise and my wife has hers,” he says philosophically.

In case you were underestimating him, this wildlife nerd is about to go global.

His next series of Nick Baker’s Weird Creatures comes out on TV in the UK after Christmas and is about to go big in the States, championing animals which never get into the limelight.

“We can’t have any more programmes about dolphins or anything wet-eyed and fluffy.

“Don’t get me wrong I love them all and have experienced them all. But lions, for example, are so boring. They spend most of their time sleeping and scratching. So Weird Creatures is about things no one has seen before and people love it because it’s new and interesting.

“But then, I have always loved the underdog – the human tapeworm and the wasp,” he says.

“So what do they do for us?” I ask innocently. Nick’s smile disappears instantly. “Why does it always have to be about what they do for us? Wasps are extraordinary creatures actually.

“They are the early pollinators of soft fruit, they build incredible homes, are systematic pest destroyers, and very social, organised creatures. We certainly don’t do anything for them,” he pauses, “and they are part of the system, especially as we are the ones causing all the problems on Earth.”

Which brings us nicely round to why Nick can be found in Culham soon at the 50th anniversary of the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust, of which he is vice-president.

“It’s a cliché, but the younger generation will be our conservationists and politicians, so it’s important that we encourage them.

“I’ll be explaining how to get your knees dirty, go out there and make a difference.”

Nick Baker and Tony Juniper will at Culham Science Centre on Saturday, November 14. Go to bbowt.org.uk for more information or call 01865 775476.