Baker graduated from the University of Exeter in 1993 with a degree in biological sciences, but was a keen naturalist from an early age. He co-founded Exeter University's national 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 butterfly on Dartmoor and worked with badgers, also in Devon.
英文簡介
Nick Baker is an amateur naturalist who remains in a state of perplexity at the fact he cannot really use that title anymore. He has somehow turned a childhood passion for living things into a livelihood and therefore really should be described as a professional naturalist.
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All the same, to this day, he continues doing what he did when he was ten years old, and he has no intention of stopping!
The proto-naturalist made himself known as soon as he could crawl. It all started off in a fairly normal manner with little to worry about the boy who collected small and unfortunate creatures like spiders, ladybirds, frogs and toads and stuffed them into jam jars, tanks, buckets and ice-cream tubs. It is, after all, a healthy occupation for an eight-year-old.
His natural curiosity with the world around him, and an obsession with stocking his jam jar zoo, did make him unpopular with his parents, as he spent much time continuously over turning rockeries and trampling his mum’s prize nasturtiums in the endless pursuit of new specimens.
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Little did they know, his poor suffering parents had other horrors to come. Their curious little naturalist underwent a metamorphosis into a full blown adolescent, with not only spots and dodgy dress sense, but also some fairly unwholesome and socially taboo hobbies.
On the positive side, the butterfly house that he had constructed with his hard earned paper round money was a pleasant talking point at coffee mornings.
The darker side involved behaviour harder to explain; disappearing into the woods at night to be with badgers and foxes, boiling up skulls and skeletons for a growing collection, pots of owl pellets, otter droppings, bones and shells on shelves, turning his bedroom into a walk through moth trap (by leaving all the lights on and opening the windows!) and a clandestine production line of tarantula and silk moths under the bed and in the wardrobe.
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Things haven’t really changed all that much; he’s a little bigger and uglier but still doing much the same thing, albeit with a little more kindness directed toward his subjects.
Scared of being left alone in these pursuits he now spends quite a lot of time and effort trying to get the new generation of potential naturalists to do much the same!
He did apply his passion to the nature table turning it into a small Natural History museum and used, and to an extent abused, his ability to pick up spiders and worms to keep himself off the bottom of the school playground food chain!
Popping out of the rear end of his A levels he still didn’t really have a clue what to do with himself so he left his Sussex, England home and headed for the West Country and the University of Exeter. This was really a way for him to bide his time academically while deciding which particular discipline in the world of wildlife was suitable for him.
By 1993 he had achieved lots; he learned to play Harmonica and sing (for that read shout), grew his hair so he could sit on it, smelt of patchouli oil, had his ear pierced and developed a penchant for weird clothes from second hand shops.
By the end of 1993 he was gigging with various Jazz, Blues, Skiffle, Rock and Funk bands around the Exeter area and so it came as a surprise to all who knew him when he walked away with some kind of half decent biology degree.
As well as almost accidentally getting the said degree he also had an epiphany around about the same time.
While at the University of Exeter he met Dr. Clive Betts, who needed a willing slave to help him get an educational youth project off the ground for the Royal Entomological Society of London. This was known at the time as the Y.E.S (Young Entomologists Scheme) but later metamorphosed into a slightly funkier ‘Bug Club’, which is still running to this day.
He will be forever grateful for this opportunity. He took over the university greenhouses to breed stick insects and other exotica for shows and school tours but it was also here that he discovered his extrovert side – until now in life he had been a rather shy and meek geek.
Now he was the ‘bug man’ and enjoyed telling the stories of these much-misunderstood creatures’ lives.
He must have done a reasonable job as he started to feature on local radio and in local newspapers as well as guest appearances in the national press and media – including stints on the BBC’s Blue Peter and Channel 4’s Big Breakfast. The rest, as they say, is history.
Nick lives in Devon, England; he moved there originally because of Devon’s lumps and bumps; he fell in love with them and now he lives on one - one that is known as Dartmoor National Park.
He shares his life with Ceri, a very beautiful, tolerant and understanding partner, and his little daughter, Elvie. Their home includes a psychotic parrot called Thomas and an ever-expanding menagerie of weird and wonderful exotic creatures.
Career
BBC
In Nick Baker's Under The Skin on BBC Two, Baker attempted to get under the skin of animals such as grizzly bears, penguins, rattlesnakes and rhinos - 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. Other ventures have included co-presenting BBC Two's Watch Out with Simon King.
Nick Baker's Weird Creatures was frequently ridiculed on Harry Hill's TV burp. 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, 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 in Harry's face at the end of a musical number.
Radio
Baker is a regular contributor to Radio 4's The Natural History Programme and writes for many publications including the BBC WildlifeMagazine, 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 and Discovery Channel productions and has worked for National Geographic.
Education
He regularly tours schools with his animals to educate school children and often works with the RSPB.
Baker lives in Chagford on Dartmoor 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.
Baker's talents are not limited to natural history. He cycles competitively and learned to play the harmonica when he was in school. He is also a percussionist and singer, and he regularly performs in jazz and blues bands.
Personal life
Baker married long term girlfriend Ceri in 2009 at Tavistock Register Office. 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 named Elvie.
References
^ Jump up to: Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005 [database 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.
Jump up ^ Biological Sciences
Jump up ^ "Dartmoor honeymoon for newlywed Nick" Western Morning News (9 May 2009). Retrieved 29 March 2011.
