Nigel Marven

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Nigel Marven (born 1960) is a British television producer, author, wildlife presenter and hobby ornithologist.

Marven studied botany at Bristol University and left at the age of 22. He began his career at the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, over the following years he worked firstly as a wildlife documentary reasearcher for such programmes as My Family and Other Animals. He then went on to produce such series as The Land of the Russian Bear, there he also enjoyed a 12-year professional collaboration with David Attenborough whom he holds in high esteem. In 1998, he moved to ITV, where, to his surprise, he found himself being asked to present wildlife documentaries as well as producing them.

He is known for his unorthodox, spontaneous and daring style of presenting wildlife documentaries as well as encompassing factual knowledge into the proceedings. This has led to be compared to Steve Irwin by some people. In his first television series for ITV, Giants, his unique approach led to him swimming with a great white shark without the protection of a cage. Other highlights included him having a goliath birdeater spider, arguably the largest spider in the world, walk over his face and he also grappled with a fifteen-foot rock python deep in its underground lair. This style of presenting has won him many viewers to his succeeding series and to date has presented 21 wildlife series for TV.

In 2003, the Impossible Pictures asked him to present in Walking With DinosaursEpisodes'Chased By Dinosaurs: The Giant Claw & Land Of Giants', and then Sea Monsters. Then he moved on to Prehistoric Park shown on ITV.

During a simulated dinosaur encounter in the latter series, Marven declared himself a 'vegetarian'. Throughout the series he applies the same term to naturally herbivorous animals.