Christopher Gary "Chris" Packham is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television
presenter and author, best known for his television work including the children's nature series
The Really Wild Show in the late 1980s.
He has presented the BBC nature series Springwatch since 2009.
Career Television
Packham is known for his television work, notably in the BAFTA-winning BBC1 children's
programme The Really Wild Show and nature photography series Wild Shots on Channel 4,
as well as the BBC One series The X Creatures and BBC Two's Hands on Nature and Nature's
Calendar.
He was the lead presenter on the BBC South's Inside Out, and also works on BBC South East
Inside Out with Kaddy Lee-Preston.
Since June 2009, he has presented the BBC Two nature programme Springwatch.
In 2014 he presented Inside the Animal Mind on BBC TV.
He formed the production company Head Over Heels with producer Stuart Woodman, making
wildlife programmes for Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the BBC.
In 2011, Packham won an episode of Celebrity Mastermind.
His specialist subject was the Battle of Rorke's Drift.
In 2014 Presented a two-part documentary in which Chris Packham and Martha Kearney reveal
the mysteries of the honeybee.
Wildlife Packham is president of the Hawk Conservancy
Trust and the Bat Conservation Trust, vice-president of the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, Butterfly
Conservation and the Brent Lodge Bird & Wildlife Trust and patron of Population Matters.
He is also patron of the Woolston Eyes Conservation Group, which manages Woolston Eyes Bird Reserve.
He has had papers on kestrels published in British Birds.
In 2011, he was awarded the British Trust for Ornithology's Dilys Breese Medal for his
"outstanding work in promoting science to new audiences".
He said:
"I have always been interested in scientific research and understood its importance in
underpinning conservation action, not just in this country but around the globe.
To receive this award from one of the leading scientific research establishments in the
country is a real honour [and] is also very poignant for me.
Dilys was instrumental in me getting my first wildlife-presenting job at the BBC.
I accept the award for her and citizen scientists everywhere."
Personal life Packham was educated at Bitterne Park Secondary
School, Taunton's College and the University of Southampton, where he received a BSc in
Zoology.
After graduating he cancelled his study towards a PhD to train as a wildlife cameraman.
He is the brother of fashion designer Jenny Packham.
He lives in the New Forest with his zookeeper girlfriend, Charlotte.
Packham has a stepdaughter, Megan, who lives with his ex-partner.
Packham has suffered with Ménière's disease since the age of 37.
Views In a 2009 interview with the Radio Times,
Packham suggested that the giant panda was too expensive to save, and that it "should
be allowed to become extinct" so that funds could be redistributed to protecting other,
less expensive animals and habitats.
He made a similar comment in 2008, saying that he would "eat the last panda" if doing
so would retroactively redistribute the money spent on panda conservation.
He later apologised for upsetting people, saying that he loved all animals but that
he was "glad it has raised a debate and that was always my intention".
In December 2009, Packham criticised reality TV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
for mistreating animals, accusing them of plugging up spiders' fangs, needlessly killing
insects and tying crocodiles' mouths shut.
In a 2010 interview with the The Daily Telegraph, Packham stated, "The human population is sowing
the seeds of a mass extinction event," and "The fact is there is not enough space".
"The excessive demands of the growing population is having a disastrous effect on biodiversity.
There are too many of us taking too much too quickly," he said.
"We need to do something about it."
In 2012 Packham stated, "The single most important thing is not climate change but human population
... we have to find a means of regulating the population so we can prosper as a species...
We haven't got unlimited space because we've only one planet."
Music and film referencing In 2009 music bloggers noted how Packham was
attempting to fit references to songs by the Smiths into his Springwatch dialogue.search
He did the same with songs by the Cure in 2010,search and Manic Street Preachers in
2011.search He has continued this in 2012's Springwatch, quite subtly inserting David
Bowie titles from 28 May,search and film titles in that year's Autumnwatch.
In Winterwatch he inserted Madness titles into his dialogue.search In Springwatch he
inserted titles by the Clash, opening the show by commenting that the weather had made
him wonder "Should I Stay or Should I Go".search In 2011's Autumnwatch, Packham fitted in titles
of songs by punk band The Damned, including New Rose, Neat Neat Neat, Smash It Up and
The History of the World.
Honours In 2011 the British Trust for Ornithology
ran a pioneering project to discover the details of cuckoo migration from Britain to Africa.
One of its five electronically tagged cuckoos was named Chris, after Packham, because the
BBC Wildlife Fund had funded much of the project.
The cuckoos were tracked by satellite during their migration from summer breeding grounds
in Norfolk across the Mediterranean and the Sahara Desert to their wintering grounds in
the Equatorial Congo.
Chris was one of only two birds to survive the trip and return to Thetford Forest in
May 2012.
In December 2013 Packham was made an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Southampton,
having originally graduated from the university more than 30 years ago.
Works by Packham Books
The Flying Gourmet's Guide Bird Brain of Britain
Chris Packham's Wild Shots, Collins and Brown Publishers, ISBN 1-85585-200-4
Chris Packham's Back Garden Nature Reserve New Holland Publishers ISBN 1-85974-520-2
Back Garden Nature Reserve ISBN 1-85605-846-8 Chris Packham's Wild Side of Town: Getting
to Know the Wildlife in Our Towns and Cities New Holland Publishers, ISBN 1-84330-355-8
Nature's Calendar ISBN 0-00-724646-3 Chris Packham's Nature Handbook ISBN 1-4053-5526-3
The Wonder of Birds: nature, art, culture [Norfolk Museums Service] ISBN 0-9031-0184-X
Papers Packham, Chris.
"Role of male Kestrel during incubation".
British Birds 78: 144–5.
Packham, Chris.
"Bigamy by the Kestrel".
British Birds 78: 194–5.
Video Go Wild at Windsor Terry Nutkins and Chris
Packham 1988.
References
External links Official website
Chris Packham at the Internet Movie Database BBC South presenter profile
Presenter of Seven Man-made Wonders of the South
Filming 'Nature's Calendar' at Woolston Eyes at the Wayback Machine – West Midland Bird
Club article about filming event with Packham.
Chris Packham Original Message Board