Michaela Strachan has called for more people to go vegetarian in order to help wildlife all over the world.
Michaela Strachan
The British TV presenter - who is famous for her work on nature programmes for four decades - has been meat-free for many years after realising it was better for the environment to follow a diet which didn't include meat products, and better for her health.
Michaela has seen firsthand the damage that is done to natural habitats by intensive livestock farming and has urged people to consider going veggie to help save many species affected by man-made problems.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, she said: "Becoming vegetarian and following that lifestyle is one way of helping wildlife because it's a lot more efficient to eat vegetables than it is to eat meat. "You don't need the same amount of land to give you the same amount of food you'd get if you were growing crops compared to if you were rearing livestock. If we all are more vegetables and less meat than we'd have a lot more land available for wildlife. You look at so many farms they're monoculture farms, they don't grow anything but one thing. I always find it interesting when people are on a hilltop and look down and have a view of farmland and they'll say, 'What a gorgeous view.' And I look at it and think, 'What a depressing view.' That's because there's no woodland, no trees, no hedges, there's nothing, monoculture."
Although Michaela is an advocate for vegetarianism she doesn't think she wants to take the next step and become a vegan, cutting all animal -related products from her plate and her life.
The 'Springwatch' presenter believes that it is a too radical a step for most people and she personally is happy at where she has drawn her line with her commitment to vegetarianism.
She said: "I think veganism is quite radical for a lot of people. I'm not going to do it. I think because I travel so much I think being vegan could be quite difficult to eat in some of the places that I go to. I'm actually happy with where I've drawn my line at the moment, that might change, but I'm happy now."
Michaela is currently working with charity Kiwis for kiwi and Old Mout Cider on a campaign to save New Zealand's indigenous kiwi bird from possible extinction.
The kiwi population has declined by 99 per cent over the past 50 years and it could die out in the next 50 if its plight is not addressed.
Michaela is supporting a scheme to make predator-free islands to protect the flightless bird and help numbers grow and has made a short documentary film called 'The Forgotten World', which shows her travelling to New Zealand's Kapiti Island - an isolated sanctuary for the birds who have lived for 50 million years.
The public can join Michaela's kiwi crusade by visiting Oldmoutcider.co.uk/help-save-the-kiwi to donate 20p to the cause.
Discussing the campaign, she said: "Everyday something becomes extinct and that's often plants, or things in the sea that nobody has ever heard of and because nobody's heard about then nobody cares about them and they never get on the pages of newspapers. But when it's an iconic species that's when people wake up and if we can save animals like the kiwi then we're saving a lot of other animals as well because you're saving the environment that all that wildlife lives in."
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