Sir David Attenborough has had a busy week. Not only did he set the Instagram record for the fastest time to reach one million followers, he met with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children for a private screening at Kensington Palace.
New pictures have been released showing Attenborough, 94, meeting with William and Kate, along with Prince George, 7, Princess Charlotte, 5, and Prince Louis, 2, who seemed particularly impressed by the naturalist and veteran broadcaster.
In one picture, Princess Charlotte is seen holding her hands to her face in excitement as mum Kate looks on with a smile, while in another, Prince George looks fascinated while examining a fossil gifted to him by Attenborough.
“When they met, Sir David gave Prince George a tooth from a giant shark, the scientific name of which is carcharocles megalodon (‘big tooth’),” a post on the Kensington Royal Instagram page read.
“Sir David found the tooth on a family holiday to Malta in the late 1960s, embedded in the island’s soft yellow limestone which was laid down during the Miocene period some 23 million years ago. Carcharocles is believed to have grown to 15 metres in length, which is about twice the length of the Great White, the largest shark alive today.”
The pictures were taken in the grounds of Kensington Palace last week, when the family attended a special outdoor screening of the upcoming feature film David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet.
In another picture, Attenborough and the Duke of Cambridge can be seen sat in black director's chairs printed with each other’s names on the back as they enjoy the film.
“With a shared passion for protecting the natural world, they continue to support one another in their missions to tackle some of the biggest environmental challenges our planet faces,” the post continued.
“This includes working together on The Earthshot Prize, the most prestigious global environment prize in history – further details of which will be shared in the coming weeks.”
News of his royal visit comes just days after Attenborough delighted the world by joining Instagram. Within four hours and 44 minutes of going public with his profile on the social media platform, he had gained more than one millions followers.
The race to a seven-figure following broke the record previously held by Friends star Jennifer Aniston, says Guinness World Records.
He launched his profile in what he explains is a bid to save the planet. “Hello, my name is David Attenborough and I’ve been appearing on radio and television for the last 60 years. But this is my first time on Instagram. I’m making this move and exploring this new way of communication, to me because, as we all know, the world is in trouble,” he says in his first post.
Attenborough goes on to name some of the environmental crises plaguing the planet before saying that over the next few weeks, he will be recording messages to explain what the problems are and how we can deal with them.
The account is being run by the team behind A Life on our Planet. The first post explains: "Social media isn't David's usual habitat, so while he's recorded messages solely for Instagram, like the one in this post, we're helping to run this account. In case you're wondering, 'we' are Jonnie and Colin and we worked with David on A Life on our Planet."