Springwatch's Michaela Strachan details 'challenge' as she admits ...

Springwatch presenter Michaela Strachan has confessed that the prevelance of social media is making it more difficult to get children engaged with wildlife. The nature expert returns to screens tonight for the first episode of the annual three week long BBC Springwatch event.

She made the sad admission about the challenge in advance of the live broadcasts. “I think it's getting harder and harder to get kids connected with wildlife because of the competition between watching wildlife and the draw of social media and all the other platforms that kids get involved with," she said.

"So I think the way to get kids into nature is using social media to inspire them. I think we've just got to find new ways of keeping kids connected, most kids are born with a fascination for wildlife.

"So the challenge is not to let kids disconnect with that, you know, to keep them with that fascination and I also think we just need inspiration from young people. And we're doing that more and more on the show,” she revealed.

Michaela is hoping that Springwatch will prove inspirational for viewers and encourage them to get out and about with wildlife and nature.

"I think like as in every Watch our aim is to inspire our viewers, inspire them to see wildlife, care about it, and then protect it.

"If you don't know about wildlife, you're not going to be interested. You're not going to care about protecting it.

"So, I think that's what we really want viewers to take home from any series of the watches that we do," she said.

"Every series we learn something fascinating and something that surprises the experts," she pondered.

"And I love it when we show those things and people go away with a wow moment from something that they would have totally overlooked.

"We want them to go away with wow moments and wow facts about things that they would never know about never had the chance to see."

BBC Springwatch returns to BBC iPlayer and BBC Two from Monday 27 May for three weeks of live programmes.