George Soper Cansdale (29 November 1909 – 24 August 1993) was a British zoologist, writer and television personality.
He was Superintendent of the Zoological Society of London, and one of the best-known presenters of wildlife programmes and items on British television between the 1950s and 1980s.
He then joined the Colonial Service, and in 1934 was appointed as Forestry Officer for the Gold Coast (now Ghana),[1] where he started collecting animals for a friend who worked at Paignton Zoo.
[2] From the 1960s onwards, he was a regular guest on Blue Peter, described by the programme's producer Biddy Baxter as "....television's zoo man - the large, avuncular studio guest who would show the presenters how to bath six-foot pythons, produce bush-babies from his trouser pockets and tarantulas out of his turn-ups....Children loved him because he was quirky, authoritative and uncondescending.
George Cansdale was Churchwarden of All Souls Church, Langham Place, from 1950 to 1971, and President of the evangelical Crusaders Union.