David Attenborough

**Sir David Frederick Attenborough** (; born 8 May 1926) is a British naturalist and television personality.

## Life

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

He is the only person to have won a BAFTA for programmes in each of black and white, colour, HD, 3D and 4K.

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".

In 2025, at the age of 99, Attenborough became the oldest person to win a Daytime Emmy Award.

## 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

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

### Plants

Plants named after him include
- an alpine hawkweed (_Hieracium attenboroughianum_) discovered in the Brecon Beacons,
- 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_).

### Arthropods

Arthropods named after Attenborough include
- a butterfly, Attenborough's black-eyed satyr (_Euptychia attenboroughi_),
- a dragonfly, Attenborough's pintail, (_Acisoma attenboroughi_),
- the millimetre-long goblin spider _Prethopalpus attenboroughi_,
- an Indonesian flightless weevil (_Trigonopterus attenboroughi_), and
- a Madagascan ghost shrimp (_Ctenocheloides attenboroughi_).

### Living vertebrates

Vertebrates have also been named after Attenborough, including the
- Namibian lizard _Platysaurus attenboroughi_.
- the bird _Polioptila attenboroughi_.
- the Peruvian frog _Pristimantis attenboroughi_ and
- one of only four species of long-beaked echidna (_Zaglossus attenboroughi_).

### 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_.
- 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_. 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.
- The fossil grasshopper _Electrotettix attenboroughi_ was named after Attenborough.
- In March 2017, A 430 million year old tiny crustacean  was named after him.

## 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".

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″.

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”.

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".

## Other websites

- Official David Attenborough website
- As patron of Population Matters

## Infobox (person)

- **honorific prefix**: Sir
- **name**: David Attenborough
- **image**: Weston Library Opening by John Cairns 20.3.15-139 David Attenborough.jpg
- **caption**: Attenborough in 2015
- **birth name**: David Frederick Attenborough
- **birth place**: Isleworth, Middlesex, England
- **nationality**: British
- **years active**: 1951–present
- **alma mater**: University of Cambridge (BA)
- **title**: Controller of BBC2 (1965–1969)
President of the The Wildlife Trusts, Royal Society for Nature Conservation (1991–1996)
- **children**: 2
- **parents**: Frederick Attenborough
- **signature**: David Attenborough signature.png