It was a real honour recently to welcome wildlife presenter,  environmentalist, animal activist and Compassion Patron, Chris Packham CBE, to the stage of Oxford’s magnificent Sheldonian Theatre, to talk about his life and inspiration, about what troubles him and what gives him hope.

Kindly hosted by the Oxford Literary Festival, the audience were treated to a powerful, but also very personal and honest conversation about his inner feelings, his work and the challenges facing animals and nature.

Nature Inspiration

Straight talking and very funny, Chris spoke of his childhood and how his interest in wildlife was galvanised by “the simple beauty of nature”.  

His first favourite animal was the ladybird.  A creature that was in plentiful supply on a bush in his neighbour, Mrs Greenwood’s garden.  He was obsessed with ladybirds and loved to let them crawl all over his hands. He was fascinated by their colour, their symmetry, and their perfection.  ”But I always wanted to know how things worked”.  

By the time Chris was 12, his father had brought him a pair of binoculars. This meant Chris could study the wildlife in their own environment rather than his own, be it bedroom or garden.  

An Emotional Connection

As a result, Chris became passionate about kestrels. That summer, Chris trained a kestrel, getting up early to fly the bird before school, an experience he described as being ”bliss. Just amazing. Absolutely amazing”.  

Chris shared his unbridled love of nature.  Sitting together on the stage, he shared with me the ”spark in the hedgerow” and the ”wow” moment he feels when he sees the first male brimstone butterfly of Spring. ”I just felt the colour and that spark of brilliance, I find it uplifting, a physical response.”   

The sadness for Chris is that what seems to be getting lost in today’s society is that we are intertwined with nature – that ”we are part of that ecology and the fact we don’t recognise that, is our biggest problem.  We talk about wildlife as if it’s in a silo, an exhibit in an art gallery”.  

Animal Sentience

Talking about his love and affection for his two poodles, Sid and Nancy, Chris reminded us that people often ”de-personalise farmed animals, seeing them as cloned units”.

“They may recognise their dog has a personality, [but] they don’t want to think a pig has a personality because they will be purchasing pig meat from a supermarket.”

As Chris pointed out, pigs have a personality too – “every bit as varied and interesting as one’s dog”.

He also spoke eloquently about the link between the loss of the Amazon rainforest to grow soya to feed industrial chickens – “All for cheap chicken which is never cheap because the environmental cost is never considered”.

Closing Words

And Chris’s closing message – ”We can all use our voice and that empowerment.  All too often we think things are beyond our scope of impact and what I hear sometimes is ‘I can’t do anything, I am just a drop in the ocean’.  But then my retort is what is an ocean but a multitude of drops!  There are opportunities for us all, at different times and in different ways to do something positive and it makes us feel good too”.

Heartfelt thanks, Chris, for a truly inspiring conversation. Grateful thanks too to Sally Dunsmore, director of the Oxford Literary Festival, who so generously hosted us again this year. 

To see Chris’s enthralling and highly personal event for yourself, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzU7OZhD1dc