David Attenborough

Sir

David Attenborough
Sir; David Attenborough;
	Attenborough in November 2019
Born	David Frederick Attenborough; 8 May 1926 (age 98); Isleworth, Middlesex, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (BA)
Occupation	Broadcaster; naturalist; film narrator;
Years active	1952–present
Title	Controller of BBC2 (1965-1969); President of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation (1991–1996)
Spouse(s)	Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel; (m. 1950; d. 1997)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Frederick Attenborough
Relatives	Richard Attenborough (brother); John Attenborough (brother); Michael Attenborough (nephew); Charlotte Attenborough (niece);
Awards	Cherry Kearton Medal and Award (1974); BAFTA Fellowship (1980); Kalinga Prize (1981); Kew International Medal (1996); International Cosmos Prize (2000); RSPB Medal (2000); Michael Faraday Prize (2003); José Vasconcelos World Award of Education (2004); Descartes Prize (2004); Nierenberg Prize (2005); Princess of Asturias Award (2009); Fonseca Prize (2010);
	David Attenborough's voice
	Recorded January 2012 from the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs
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Signature

Sir David Frederick Attenborough (/ˈætənbrə/; born 8 May 1926)^[2]^[3] is a British naturalist and television personality.^[4]

Life

Attenborough was born in London and grew up in Leicester.^[4] He is one of the most famous naturalists in the world.^[5] He presents many programs about nature, talking about the lives of animals and has stopped millions of people polluting our oceans.^[6] He has won many prestigious award and honorable mentions. In 1980 he won the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, a lifetime achievement award.^[7]^[8] He is a younger brother of director, producer and actor Richard Attenborough.

He is the only person to have won BAFTAs for programmes in each of black and white, colour, HD, 3D and 4K.^[9]

In 2022, the United Nations Environment Programme honored him as a Champion of the Earth "for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration".^[10]

Filmography

Life on Earth (1979)
The Living Planet (1984)
The Trials of Life (1990)
Life in the Freezer (1993)
The Private Life of Plants (1995)
The Life of Birds (1998)
The Life of Mammals (2002)
Life in the Undergrowth (2005)
Life in Cold Blood (2008)
David Attenborough's Life Stories (2009)
David Attenborough's New Life Stories (2011)
Drawn From Paradise: The Discovery, Art and Natural History of the Birds of Paradise (2012) - with Errol Fuller
Planet Earth II (2016)

Species named in Attenborough's honour

Sirdavidia solannona

Trigonopterus attenboroughi

At least fifteen species and genera, both living and extinct, have been named in Attenborough's honour.^[11]

Plants

Plants named after him include

an alpine hawkweed (Hieracium attenboroughianum) discovered in the Brecon Beacons,^[12]
a species of Ecuadorian flowering tree (Blakea attenboroughi),
one of the world's largest-pitchered carnivorous plants (Nepenthes attenboroughii),
a genus of flowering plants (Sirdavidia).^[13]

Arthropods

Arthropods named after Attenborough include

a butterfly, Attenborough's black-eyed satyr (Euptychia attenboroughi),^[14]
a dragonfly, Attenborough's pintail, (Acisoma attenboroughi),^[15]
the millimetre-long goblin spider Prethopalpus attenboroughi,
an Indonesian flightless weevil (Trigonopterus attenboroughi),^[16]^[17]^[18] and
a Madagascan ghost shrimp (Ctenocheloides attenboroughi).

Living vertebrates

Vertebrates have also been named after Attenborough, including the

Namibian lizard Platysaurus attenboroughi.^[19]
the bird Polioptila attenboroughi.^[19]
the Peruvian frog Pristimantis attenboroughi^[20] and
one of only four species of long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi).^[21]

Fossils

In 1993 it was found that the Mesozoic reptile Plesiosaurus conybeari was not a species of Plesiosaurus. The palaeontologist Robert Bakker renamed the species Attenborosaurus conybeari.^[22]
A fossilised armoured fish discovered in Western Australia in 2008 was given the name Materpiscis attenboroughi, after Attenborough had filmed at the site and highlighted its scientific importance in Life on Earth.^[23] The Materpiscis fossil is believed to be the earliest organism capable of internal fertilisation.
A miniature marsupial lion, Microleo attenboroughi, was named in his honour in 2016.^[24]^[25]
The fossil grasshopper Electrotettix attenboroughi was named after Attenborough.
In March 2017, A 430 million year old tiny crustacean was named after him.^[26]

Views on population

In 2012 Attenborough was quoted as saying that the planet has always and will always look after itself but:

what worries him most about the future of the natural world is that people are out of touch with it ... over half the world is urbanised; some people don't see any real thing except a rat or a pigeon ... ecosystems are incredibly complex and you fiddle with them at your peril".^[27]

When David Attenborough began his career, in 1950, Earth's human population was measured at just 2.5 billion people ... in 2012 he said:

“We cannot continue to deny the problem. People have pushed aside the question of population sustainability and not considered it because it is too awkward, embarrassing and difficult. But we have to talk about it″.^[28]

In January 2013, while being interviewed by Radio Times, he said:

“We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now”.^[29]^[30]

In a Daily Telegraph interview in September 2013 he said:

"What are all these famines in Ethiopia? What are they about?" / "They're about too many people for too little land. That's what it's about. And we are blinding ourselves. We say, get the United Nations to send them bags of flour. That's barmy".^[31]^[32]

David Attenborough Media

Attenborough filming commentary for a documentary at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a Space Shuttle in the background
Attenborough at a screening of Great Barrier Reef, 2015
Attenborough speaking at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference
Attenborough in 2003 at the launch of ARKive – a global initiative with the mission of "promoting the conservation of the world's threatened species, through the power of wildlife imagery".
Attenborough and US President Barack Obama discuss the natural world at the White House (2015).
Sitana attenboroughii
Attenborough in 2018 receiving an honorary award for his sustainability work from Bergen Business Council and Fana Sparebank
Attenborough receiving the Landscape Institute Medal for Lifetime Achievement, and becoming an Honorary Fellow of the Landscape Institute in 2019