The phrase ‘National Treasure’ gets thrown around a little too easily these days. Still, I feel safe in saying that for the majority of British people, David Attenborough truly is our greatest national treasure. His inspiring programmes and soothing narration have been the bedrock of some of the most remarkable and innovative television of the last 50 years.
I’ve had an interest in animals from a young age, thanks to the magazines and books my parents provided, but I still remember the excitement and awe I had as a 10-year-old watching the seminal natural history series Life on Earth.
Looking back on it now, it’s quite evident that its focus on the evolution of life had a profound effect on me, as I ultimately chose a career in geology, albeit not as a palaeontologist. That choice, together with some good fortune, led me to visit some of the most remarkable places on Earth, none more so than Antarctica.
My first journey “South” coincided with the broadcast of Life in the Freezer. I was suddenly walking in David Attenborough’s footsteps, and I’ve been trying to follow them ever since.
Thank you, Sir David, for inspiring so much wonder in the natural world and showing us the beauty and fragility of our planet.
“It is very difficult not to be excited by 10,000 king penguins” – DA
My first Attenborough moment – A King Penguin colony at St Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia, comprising an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 nesting pairs!
“There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than any other animal I know.” – DA
Those famous words from ‘Life on Earth’ as young mountain gorillas clamber over David Attenborough. It remains a truly jaw dropping moment in natural history filmmaking, one that was seared into my consciousness.
Thanks to the incredible conservation efforts that David Attenborough’s “Life on Earth” gave exposure to, these magnificent gorillas are still here for us to marvel at.
On the left is an image I took in 2010. It’s my ‘exchange of glance’ with a mountain gorilla in Rwanda. It was a dream come true and a profoundly moving moment.
“There is nothing like the thrill of walking through the jungle looking for a tiger and knowing they could be watching you already” -DA
David Attenborough has narrated many tiger documentaries, and I’ve been fortunate to see some of the very same individuals over the years. Seeing wild tigers for the first time ignited a passion for all wildlife, but especially for tigers. Surely, there is nothing more beautiful.
While we all love the large carismatic animals, some of the most wonderous stories told during David Attenborough’s programmes relate to the astonishing inter-relationships between species. Of those, the relationship between rain forest trees, leaf-cutter Ants and the fungi they grow is truly mind blowing. I never thought I’d spend 2 days in a Costa Rican rain forest and come out raving about ants and fungi.