A fan of Sir David Attenborough has shared a touching letter she received from the famed British naturalist.
The young British girl christened her pet stick insect Sir David Stickenborough in honour of her hero, and wrote to tell him that.
The girl’s name and age have not been revealed. But her father, Darren Logan, posted a photo on Twitter of his daughter cupping the leafy invertebrate in her palm.
“My daughter named her new pet, Sir David Stickenborough, after her hero. She wrote to tell him this,” he explained.
“Obviously he responded.”
In a signed letter, Attenborough had written: “I am so glad you are interested in stick insects. I am too and when I was your age I also kept some. They are indeed fascinating.”
Attenborough explains that there are at least 2500 different species of stick insects worldwide – most of them from the tropics.
“Scientifically speaking they belong to a group called the Phasmatoidea which contains two main groups – the leaf insects and the stick insects,” he wrote.
Attenborough provided a compendium of facts for the young nature-lover, gently letting her know that the insect in the photograph she had sent him was, in fact, a leaf insect.
“Many of them are even more like leaves than yours are, with outgrowths on their legs that look exactly like leaves.”
Tweet from @darrenlogan
Mr Logan’s daughter was thrilled by Attenborough’s response.
“Sir David is getting renamed, apparently, but my daughter’s fascination with nature has been reinforced. #NationalTreasure,” her father posted online.
Attenborough’s latest series, Frozen Planet II, premiered on the BBC last week in Britain. It’s not yet clear where and when the series will screen in Australia.
Frozen Planet II comes 11 years after the first series and tells the story of four years of remarkable expeditions by BBC Studios Natural History Unit to all the Earth’s frozen frontiers – the Arctic, Antarctic, Tundra, Boreal Forest and the High Mountains.
