Young people should be encouraged to eat tadpoles, to teach them about the sanctity of animal life, the naturalist and television presenter Chris Packham has claimed.

The Springwatch presenter said that as a child he had eaten tadpoles, which he said had tasted “sort of gritty”, out of curiosity, and that doing so had instilled within him a “passion for life”.

He also called on pet owners not to keep rabbits in hutches, which he said were a relic from the days when the animals were kept as a source of food.

Appearing at the Hay Festival, sponsored by the Telegraph, to promote his memoir, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar, Packham recalled how he had eaten tadpoles when he was young.