Nick Baker
TV presenter and naturalist
Television wildlife presenter Nick Baker has travelled to the wildest parts of the planet in search of weird, bizarre and incredible creatures. Nick writes a monthly Hidden World column in BBC Wildlife Magazine where he shares wildlife stories from around the globe.
Recent articles by Nick Baker
It looks like a woodlouse, but is the size of a pet cat and has an impressive 14 legs – and can take on a shark if desperate…
Nick Baker takes a look at the super-sized crustacean that lives in the deepest, darkest ocean: the giant isopod
"You’ll see a beautiful, delicate, glassy animal. The whole body is encased in a transparent hinged ‘clamshell’ arrangement…"
Nick Baker takes a look Daphnia pulex and how its reproduction strategy helps future generations survive
Meet Britain’s very own tarantula – the purse-web spider, complete with huge fangs
Does Britain have tarantulas? Yes says Nick Baker, or at least a spider that belongs to the same family. Meet the purse-web spider
"What dangles from its rear end needs some explaining, though…"
When it comes to wooing a female, size matters for this colourful moth
"The attack is fast and deadly accurate: the goo fires from the tips of their fangs at a speed of around 30m per second…"
Nick Baker takes a look at the behaviour of the spitting spider
"Once they near emergence, the female's thin skin bulges and pulsates with the struggles of the impatient offspring within…"
Discover the Surinam toad, a weird South American frog whose young erupt from the mother’s back
"Some weigh up to a massive 300kg and can grow to be 1.3m long…" Where do giant tortoises live and why on Earth are they so big?
Nick Baker explains how giant tortoises became - well - giant
"Their most obvious function is for digging, used like bulldozer buckets to shift and shovel the mud into shape and create their home…"
Nick Baker takes a look at the life of a mud scud?
They have a bizarre sex life as each beast have both male and female organs – leading to confusing orgies and extraordinary mating chains developing…
Nick Baker takes a look at the life of a sea hare
It's the size of a Labrador and barks like a dog, yet has fangs like a snake and doesn't eat meat. Meet one of the weirdest wild animals in the world
Discover all you need to know about muntjac deer, including why it has glands on its face
It looks like a big earthworm – but this is no ordinary worm. It has teeth, tentacles, a pseudo penis – and can pop its own eyes out of its head
Don't be fooled this is not an ordinary worm …
"The whole process, from bluff to capture, is faster than a human eye can perceive – game over in less than 30 milliseconds." Tentacled snake is stuff of nightmares
Nick Baker, the popular naturalist, author and TV presenter reveals a secret realm of overlooked wildlife
It looks like a bundled-up sheet of bubble wrap or a weird ball of jelly bubbles and often washes up on beaches – but what on earth is it?
"It will slowly consume their host from the inside-out, leaving only the essential organs, to keep the surrogate womb ticking over…"
Life gets pretty grim for a caterpillar if it becomes infected with a parasitic wasp says Nick Baker? Who says zombies aren't real?
It looks like a friendly garden bird, sings like one too – but it's one of the most toxic creatures alive
Just how poisonous is the hooded pitohui?
“The fish’s brain, nervous systems and internal workings of the head are visible.” Meet the see-through deep-sea dweller
Down in the twilight zone, this fish’s head is see-through for a reason
"The result is a medieval-looking bit of engineering designed to lodge and entangle the limbs, palps and mouthparts of any attacker"
Loaded with a weaponised derrière, this baby beetle dares to go where few insects would: right into a spider’s web.
"It can handle the ionising radiation of space, exist in suspended animation for 30 years & will be the last beast standing in a nuclear holocaust"
Tardigrades are one of the toughest and most intriguing creatures on Earth. Nick Baker takes a look at these microscopic bear-like creatures, also known as water bears
"To survive the winter it builds itself a life-support bubble. We can assume that the structure is more or less sealed..."
Nick Baker takes an in-depth look at the marsh fritillary's winter survival skills
"Dice it any which way and each fragment will in time become a fully functional creature. How, though, is not fully understood..."
Discover one of the bizarrest creatures in the world
The vampire spider that drinks human blood and has a liking for smelly socks
Too small to bite a human, this arachnid manages to get a taste of the red stuff elsewhere. Nick Baker introduces us to the vampire spider
"A bubble appears at the top of the head, over the snout. It expands, stretches, connects with the rest of the air pocket surrounding its body"
Discover the riparian reptile that evades danger by blowing bubbles.
"Its eyestalks pulsate and throb in high-contrast patterns of green, black and red in a light show fit for Mardi Gras..."
Nick Baker takes a look at the fascinating life of a green banded broodsac, which turns snails into disco zombies
“It can live forever & devour prey many times its size, which stand no chance of escape; the more the victim struggles, the more tangled they become”
Nick Baker takes a look at the fascinating hydra
