Grylls puts on his woggle and scouts out a new challenge

The adventurer and former SAS reservist Bear Grylls, most commonly seen on television jumping from helicopters, plunging over waterfalls, climbing inside dead camels and eating anything that still wriggles, has been appointed the chief scout.

In its boldest move for some years, the Scout Association handed the daredevil presenter a remit to help attract the 6,000 volunteer adult leaders it urgently needs to clear the waiting lists of 33,000 children – including Grylls's own.

"It's the proudest appointment I've ever had," Grylls said yesterday, explaining that he first learnt survival techniques as a scout. "Scouting is where it all began. It gave me a lot of confidence. Sitting round the camp fire, I would have laughed – as would the leader – if I had known I would one day become chief scout."

The posting is a good opportunity for Grylls to shake off a minor furore last year, when incidents in his popular Channel 4 show, Born Survivor, turned out not to be the quite the wilderness experiences they were billed as. The presenter apologised for misleading viewers after it was revealed that some action scenes had been staged.

An American survival consultant claimed that Grylls had spent nights in a Hawaiian motel for an episode in which he claimed to have been stranded on a desert island.

The programme consultant said that a smoke machine was used to exaggerate the shots filmed at Mount Kilauea volcano on the island, and that "wild" horses apparently tamed by Grylls were from a nearby trekking facility. In one episode, a raft built to escape from a desert island had already been constructed by the crew to ensure it floated, the consultant said – and then it had been taken apart again. Grylls was subsequently rescued by a "passing" fishing boat after the vessel slowly sank.

The position of Chief Scout was first held by Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Scout Movement in 1908. Grylls acknowledged that there had in the past been a stigma attached to becoming a Scout leader because of several historical cases of child molesting, but he said that the Scouts' particularly rigorous checks worked. "There aren't many organisations that are as careful as the Scouts," he said. "The Scouts are the pros at this. It's not the organisation it is for nothing. It's the biggest, greatest youth movement in the world."

He added: "I hope I can use this post to encourage masses of adults in the UK to volunteer as leaders. The young people in this country need them like never before, and we have more people wanting to join than there are places available."

Grylls added that he became a "neurotic wreck" as he got closer to being chosen as the chief scout. "I'll get a chance to influence a whole generation of youngsters," he said.

The outgoing chief scout, former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan who has held the post since 2004, said he would not mind being outshone by his successor: "As a working actor, Bear Grylls is the most brilliant piece of recasting I have ever been involved in. I wish him great success."

Safa Cheema, 14, an Explorer Scout from Bristol, said: "He's really inspirational and I think he's going to be a great chief. I am looking forward to doing loads of adventurous activities in the future – it's going to be amazing fun."

Scouting for boys: A shorts history

*Scouting began in 1907. At an experimental camp on Brownsea Island, Dorset, Robert Baden-Powell and a small party of boys put into practice his ideas for training young people in responsible citizenship.

*There are 482,442 scouts in the UK. About 33,000 children and young adults are on the waiting list to join, because of a lack of adult leaders. They need one leader for every five scouts.

*Record numbers of girls are joining. Female membership was up by 11 per cent last year, with over 50,000 girls now part of the movement.

*There are over 28 million scouts in 216 countries.

Two-thirds of them live in developing countries.

*In a departure from the traditional "knots" badge beloved to former scouts, the Americans now have the anti-terrorism badge. An educational program affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America is equipping teenage boys and girls with the skills to chase illegal border crossers and even to "take-out" a potential terrorist.