“Completely overwhelmed” Attenborough feted on 100th birthday, new wasp species named after him

A new species of wasp has been named after Sir David Attenborough as the naturalist celebrates his 100th birthday.

Sir David Attenborough says he has been “completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings” as he thanked well-wishers “most sincerely” ahead of his centenary.

The beloved naturalist said he had hoped to celebrate his 100th birthday on Friday “quietly”.

Instead the milestone will be marked with a live event at the Royal Albert Hall featuring music from his programs, as well as stories and reflections from public figures and leading advocates for the natural world.

In a recorded audio message shared the night before his birthday, he said: “I had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly but it seems that many of you have had other ideas.

“I’ve been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings from pre-school groups to care home residents and countless individuals and families of all ages.

“I simply can’t reply to each of you all separately but I would like to thank you all most sincerely for your kind messages.”

The National History Museum paid tribute to Sir David by naming a new species of wasp after him.

The insect native to the Patagonian lakes of Chile will be known as Attenboroughnculus tau.

Others species named after him include a wildflower, butterfly, grasshopper, dinosaur and ghost shrimp.

The wasp specimen, which was collected in 1984 in the Valdivia province of Chile, may be the only record of the entire species’ existence, according to the museum, and was found by chance four decades later after someone peeked into a drawer.

The museum said the naming was in recognition of the “incredible work that Attenborough has done to show us the wonder and beauty of nature, but also to inspire generations of scientists to pursue careers in natural history”.

In a post on LinkedIn, Fortescue chief Andrew Forrest said few individuals had shaped how humanity sees the world as profoundly as Sir David Attenborough.

“His latest documentary Ocean with David Attenborough, supported by Minderoo Foundation, powerfully told the story of our natural world, bringing urgent global focus to the overfishing of our oceans, bottom trawling and coral reef bleaching in more than 110 countries,” Forrest wrote.

“But it also concluded that ocean recovery is still within reach, within a single human lifetime. We know what must be done.

“Protect at least 30% of the ocean. Properly enforce it. End destructive practices like bottom trawling and deep-sea mining, and stop illegal fishing.”

Forrest said his Minderoo Foundation is supporting the High Seas Treaty – the first global framework to protect the two-thirds of the ocean that lies beyond national borders.

“Thank you, Sir David, for such extraordinary service to this planet and to humanity over the last 100 years.”

Encouraging everyone to care for and conserve our natural world will define Sir David’s legacy, Ecological Society of Australia president Dieter Hochuli says.

“He told us stories about these animals and plants and what they were doing while they were doing it,” Professor Hochuli told AAP.

“That little bit of knowledge we all got from the different bits just all of a sudden gave us a really strong connection with them, compared to if you just saw a picture or a comment on something being in decline.”

While he hasn’t been lucky enough to meet Sir David in person, Prof Hochuli vividly remembers watching one of his seminal documentaries, Life on Earth, as a teenager in the late 1970s.

“I’d always liked nature and been interested in animals and plants …  but it was just a really different way of looking at nature,” he said.

“The real focus wasn’t just on what was living there, but why it was doing it and how it was doing it.”

AAP