Kids do click in to the natural world

Wildlife tv presenter Steve Backshall says outdoor adventures not only help his three children sleep more soundly, but also promote “a far greater sense of wellbeing”. By CAMILLA FOSTER

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BRITISH wildlife presenter and father-of-three Steve Backshall encourages parents to nurture their children’s innate curiosity for the natural world, as he has seen firsthand how it can ignite “a fire in their eyes”.

“I've been lucky enough to work with kids for a long time now and I find that it is something pretty much universal, that kids do click into the natural world,” says the 52-year-old TV presenter, best known for presenting popular BBC children's wildlife show Deadly 60. “Kids have an immediate visceral response to seeing a sparrowhawk take a small bird for the first time. They have an immediate response to seeing a sand lizard, which is one of the most beautiful kinds of reptile you'll find in the entire world.”

Steve says his own passion for the great outdoors was evident from the moment he started crawling.

“My mum and dad have always said that this is something that was innate in me,” says the broadcaster. “From the first minute I could crawl, I was instantly out in the back garden turning over stones, looking for beetles, looking for worms and picking them up. I would also go through the compost heap looking for snake eggs.”