Nicholas Rowan BakerAncestry.com. England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. (born 22 April 1972) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

naturalist and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for ...

, notably on Children's

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

's ''

The Really Wild Show ''The Really Wild Show'' is a long-running British television show about wildlife, broadcast by the BBC as part of their CBBC service to children. It also runs on Animal Planet in the US. The show was broadcast each year from 21 January 1986. In ...

''.

Early life

Baker graduated from the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

in 1993 with a degree in

biological sciences Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

, but was a keen naturalist from an early age. He co-founded Exeter University's Bug Club and was a member of the Royal Entomological Society's Youth Development Committee. As a field naturalist, he has researched the

high brown fritillary ''Fabriciana adippe'', the high brown fritillary, is a large and brightly colored butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, native to Europe and across the Palearctic to Japan. It is known for being Great Britain's most threatened butterfly and is li ...

butterfly on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

and worked with

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united b ...

s, also in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

Career

BBC

In ''Nick Baker's Under the Skin'' on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

, Baker attempted to get under the skin of animals such as

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small anim ...

s and

rhino A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

s - examining their habitats and behaviour in his own way. In 1999 Baker worked on two science series. He presented ''Twister'' and joined the presenting team of the science series, ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...

.'' Other ventures have included co-presenting

's ''Watch Out with Simon King.'' ''Nick Baker's Weird Creatures'' was frequently ridiculed on ''

Harry Hill's TV Burp ''Harry Hill's TV Burp'' (also known as just ''TV Burp'') is a British television comedy programme broadcast between 2001 and 2012 on ITV. The show was produced by Avalon Television and was written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. Each epis ...

''. Selections of the show were shown featuring Nick Baker performing poorly, or where a mundane or disappointing animal is featured. This included one episode where Nick went to find a basking shark off the coast of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, but instead found only otters, seagulls and a dog. After the last of the episodes had been shown Nick Baker appeared on TV Burp and called Hill a 'cheeky git', after throwing a

custard pie A custard pie is any type of uncooked custard mixture added to an uncooked or partially cooked crust and baked together. In North America, custard pie commonly refers to a plain mixture of milk, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and sometimes ...

in Harry's face at the end of a musical number. Nick Baker is the Vice President of the national wildlife charity,

Butterfly Conservation Butterfly Conservation (BC) is a UK-wide nonprofit environmentalist organization and charity dedicated to conserving butterflies, moths, and the environment. The charity uses its research to provide advice on how to conserve and restore butterfly ...

Radio

Baker is a regular contributor to Radio 4's ''The Natural History Programme'' and writes for many publications including the ''

BBC Wildlife ''BBC Wildlife'' is a British glossy, all-colour magazine about wildlife, operated and published by Immediate Media Company. It produces 13 issues a year. ''BBC Wildlife'' was launched in January 1963 as ''Animals Magazine'', edited by filmmaker ...

Magazine, Wildlife Watch,'' RSPB's ''Bird'' and ''Birdlife'' magazines, the ''Young Telegraph,'' the ''Bug Club'' magazine, ''Wild About Animals'' and ''FBX'' magazine.

Publications

Baker wrote ''Baker's Bug Book'' and the Natural History Almanac for the UK. He has also been involved in

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

and

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

productions and has worked for ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

.''

Education

He regularly tours schools with his animals to educate school children and often works with the RSPB. Baker lives in

Chagford Chagford is a market town and civil parish on the north-east edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, England, close to the River Teign and the A382, 4 miles (6 km) west of Moretonhampstead. The name is derived from ''chag'', meaning gorse or broom, and ...

along with a growing menagerie of small animals including spiders, scorpions, stick insects, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and moths. He keeps pet leeches in the fridge at home and often feeds them by attaching them to his leg. Among his favourites are cane toads and a collection of hissing cockroaches.

Personal life

Baker married long term girlfriend Ceri in 2009 at

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13,028 ...

Register Office A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in England, ...

."Dartmoor honeymoon for newlywed Nick"
''Western Morning News'' (9 May 2009). Retrieved 10 August 2015. The couple originally met after Ceri was in the crowd at a gig that Nick, then an amateur musician, was playing with his band in Chagford's Jubilee Hall. They have a daughter together.

References

External links

*
Nick Baker Website (Official)

Nick Baker Forum (Official)

Nick Bakers (Official Shop)

''The Really Wild Show''
(BBC)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Nick 1972 births English television presenters English naturalists Alumni of the University of Exeter Living people