Last year, when Sir David Attenborough turned 99, a 5-year-old boy named Max Evans-Browning celebrated in an unconventional way. As a self-proclaimed super fan, the young boy drew 99 of the naturalist’s favorite animals, ranging from a peacock mantis shrimp and a grizzly bear to a hummingbird and a manatee. Now, a year later, Max has once again put pen to paper in recognition of Attenborough’s 100th birthday, which was commemorated globally on May 8, 2026.
Max’s latest tribute is a drawing of a platysaurus attenboroughi, a small, spiny lizard found across Namibia and South Africa. Also known as Attenborough’s flat lizard, the creature is among dozens honoring the beloved broadcaster and environmentalist, whose 100th birthday also inspired London’s Natural History Museum to name a species of parasitic wasp after him. In a letter accompanying the drawing, Max wrote: “I wanted to do something special for you, so I chose an animal named after you. I wanted to make it perfect and it took a while, but I hope you like it.”
According to his mom Samantha, Max has been enamored by Attenborough from the moment he could talk. “He watches animals, reads about animals, his bedroom is animals,” she told the BBC in a 2025 interview. “And he knows the most rare animals. He will say, ‘I know that it’s a pangolin,’ and I’m like, what, I don’t even know what that is.”
It should come as no surprise, then, that Max naturally gravitates toward Attenborough’s wildlife documentaries, which have brought the wonders of the natural world straight to our homes for decades. Even the scenes that may strike others as upsetting, Samantha added, are palatable to 6-year-old Max. “He would say, ‘Well, a predator goes after its prey, that’s life.’ It’s true, but it’s funny coming out of a little person.”
When Max decided to draw 99 animals for Attenborough’s 99th, he worked with remarkable diligence—and agility. In fact, the project took him only four days to complete, despite spanning eight A3 sheets of paper. Once Samantha shared her son’s work on Facebook, the post quickly garnered hundreds of likes, and eventually caught the attention of Attenborough himself. “Thank you very much for sending me these lovely drawings,” he wrote to Max. “I greatly enjoyed looking at them.”
This year, Max drew with the same level of passion. His drawing took him “all night,” Samantha recently explained in the BBC, and he and his sister “disappeared into her room” in search of her finest pens. “Now you are 100, so I had to draw you your 100th animal,” Max wrote in his note to Attenborough. “I hope you have the best birthday, and be careful blowing out 100 candles on your cake!”
In 2025, David Attenborough superfan Max Evans-Browning drew 99 of the naturalist’s favorite animals in celebration of his 99th birthday.
He even received a handwritten thank you note from Attenborough himself.
Now, the 6-year-old boy has continued the tradition by drawing his 100th animal for Attenborough’s 100th birthday, which was commemorated globally on May 8, 2026.
Max’s drawing is of a platysaurus attenboroughi, named after Attenborough by researchers in 2015.
A platysaurus attenboroughi, also known as Attenborough’s flat lizard. (Photo: Brian du Preez via Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0)
Sources: Attenborough superfan, 6, draws 100th animal for broadcaster's birthday; Attenborough's letter delights five-year-old superfan; Boy draws 99 animals for David Attenborough's 99th birthday
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