Nick Baker's weird creatures go on tour

TV presenter Nick Baker talks about his love of all things weird and wonderful.

It was supposed to be a quiet stroll in Nick Baker's garden, but what he reveals has more in common with a horror movie – a savage drama involving body snatchers and carnage.

"Look at this," he whispers as he lifts a leaf and reveals a somewhat sickly-looking caterpillar. "A moth using a needle-sharp tube has laid its eggs in its body and those eggs are gnawing away at the creature's essential organs. It's paralysed and can''t do a thing about it."

The naturalist, who has presented various TV shows including BBC's The Really Wild Show and Channel Five's Weird Creatures enthuses: "There's a dark, gory skulduggery going on out here and in ordinary gardens everywhere, with parasites living off other insects and causing their downfall.

"An equivalent human drama wouldn't be suitable for children to watch on TV. But it's all out here anytime for free."

Baker is one of those lucky individuals who has translated a boyhood passion into a livelihood, and he never ceases to marvel at his good fortune.

"I call myself a professional amateur naturalist nowadays. As a kid I was never happier than when I had a jam jar and some creepy crawly inside it.

"As I got older I graduated on to a collection of tarantulas and snakes, much to the despair of my parents who sometimes wished I'd study books more," he says at his cottage home on Dartmoor's National Park in Devon.

Following his graduation with a degree in biology, Baker's projects to introduce children to nature won him a great deal of press attention. His original, engaging delivery coupled with undeniable good looks led to appearances on BBC's Blue Peter and Channel 4's Big Breakfast that launched his screen career.

"Sometimes I don't feel any different from that little boy but weirdly, after all that grubbing around in the garden, I've somehow found myself going all over the world looking for creatures," he says.

"Mind you, it's been a bit hairier than my idyllic childhood patch in Sussex. I've had some lucky escapes while diving with Great White sharks, had to climb up a tree to get away from a charging rhino and I nearly got my head bitten off by a polar bear. All in all, quite a journey!"

* Nick Baker is this month embarking upon a lecture tour based on his experiences filming Weird Creatures. It will reach our region on March 16 when he plays Tamworth Assembly Room, call 01827 709618, and April 11 when he plays the Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury, call 01743 281281.