BBC viewers are up in arms about the way in which veteran wildlife preseneter, Bill Oddie, described animal mating sessions on Tuesday night’s Springwatch.

After finding a pair of mating sparrows Oddie commented:

“The female is asking for it - and getting it basically.

“She was fluttering her wings and pretending to be a child - that’s kind of weird when you think about it. Oh and again.

“She is doing that wing-fluttering thing like that as if to say ‘I am a baby, feed me’, she is getting quite the opposite basically.”

Oddie added: “That’s a wing-trembler she’s just had there.”

The Daily Mail reports that one viewer, who has a ten-year-old daughter, complained: “I am sick to death of the constant innuendo being offered by Bill every time a scene of mating appears.

“It isn’t funny or witty…just downright embarrassing when you are watching it with children of my daughter’s age. For example being asked by my ten-year-old ‘what does horny mean daddy?’, when watching mating stag beetles isn’t right.

“I would never try to stop her watching and understanding how animal reproduce but commentary such as ’she got more than she bargained for’ and ‘he has his wicked way’ isn’t called for and I am considering stopping her watching it.

“Mating scenes are perfectly acceptable, but can we please be grown up about it and stop the silly almost perverse comments please.”

Another added: “This is schoolboy sniggering behind the bike sheds type of humour from Bill Oddie and it’s out of place in a programme which is otherwise marvellously educational for all age groups.”