Now we’ve found him in his natural habitat (the gym), observers will be keen to break down Backshall’s anatomy, as well as his hunting and dietary predilections, ecological role, adaptations, social activity, reproduction and life cycle, and of course whether attacks on humans are common.
Some of those are immediately answerable: old Backers, as he will be known from here, does seem very sociable, and nice to the point of crying on
Desert Island Discs; he is married to double Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover, with whom he has a two-year old, Logan, and one-year-old twins, Kit and Willow; he has a black belt in judo; he can speak Japanese, if that counts as an adaptation, and climbs, dives, mountaineers, runs marathons, and is so tough that he once finished ninth in the UK Tough Guy competition.