Chris Packham: 'The virus has taught us that we are part of nature, not above it'

The naturalist has always spoken his mind - and attracted death threats in the process. But Covid-19 has given him a new perspective on how humans can live in harmony with the natural world 'I'm tramping through damp, long grass in the wake of two poodles," Chris Packham tells me, over the phone, at nine in the morning, from his home near Southampton. "One of the joys of the UK is this rich, verdant colour at this time of year, so green that it's almost blinding." The naturalist's voice, compelling and contemplative, draws you in and slows you down, to the point where you are concentrating hard enough to see what he describes, even when you can't.Generally, of course, you can see it: Springwatch has been back on screens, packed with the images - baby birds with their gaping maws, treecreepers blinking - we have always cherished and lately come to rely on. Packham, 59, has such a natural, contagious sincerity in his enthusiasm that he should be in the "national treasure" class, one of those rare figures who unites the country and is immune from politics. But he determinedly is not - he won't, today, talk about grouse, hen harriers or any of those bird-cruelty issues that have brought him death threats of the most lurid kind (dead birds hung up by his gatepost, Twitter abuse too awful to detail). The BBC, I am given to understand, would prefer him not to speak on these topics. But in January he fell foul of the neutrality police in another way: while promoting his documentary about the global population, he said that, for the sake of the planet, people should consider having fewer children (he has no biological children). Continue reading...