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Boy draws 99 animals for David Attenborough's 99th birthday

Charlie Buckland
BBC News
Samantha Evans-Browning A little boy in a blue school uniform holds a cuddly monkey toy and in front of him are A3 pieces of paper joined together with animals drawn on themSamantha Evans-Browning
Max Evans-Browning spent hours researching Sir David's favourite animals for his 99th birthday card

A five-year-old boy has drawn 99 animals to mark Sir David Attenborough's 99th birthday.

Max Evans-Browning has been a fan of Attenborough from the moment he could talk, said mum Samantha, and wanted to do something special to mark the birthday of the renowned British biologist.

Spanning across eight A3 sheets of paper, the project took Max four days to complete, as he spent every evening after school drawing Attenborough's favourite animals.

Samantha has now put out a plea on social media for his animals to be shared "far and wide" in the hopes of the reaching the man himself.

In the post on Facebook, Samantha, from Pembrokeshire, said she would love to see the card reach Sir David as it's "her little boy's dream".

The post gained hundreds of shares in under 24 hours, with people leaving comments of praise.

"Max is fascinated people in Australia could see the post," Samantha said.

"We spent hours researching [Sir David's] favourite animals. He really wanted to get it right."

Sir David entered his hundredth year on 6 May, and has dedicated his life to documenting the natural world.

Samantha Evans-Browning A little boy dressed in safari gear as he emulates his hero Sir David Attenborough. Next to him is a board that says "2nd March 2023. World Book Day. Max is Sir David Attenborough." Behind him a soft cuddly toys of various sizes and animals, including a sloth, koala bears, a lion, dolphin, orca, rhino and a monkey.Samantha Evans-Browning
Max dressed up as Sir David Attenborough for World Book Day in 2023

"[Max] watches animals, reads about animals, his bedroom is animals," Samantha said.

"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."

Samantha said Max had watched all of Sir David's documentaries and he had more animal encyclopaedia's than she can keep track of.

Samantha Evans-Browning A woman and a little boy looking at the camera. The boys face is painted as a tiger and he is holding a stick.Samantha Evans-Browning
Max's mum Samantha put out a plea for help to get the drawings to Sir David and "make her little boy's dream come true"

Max takes any occasion to dress like him, Samantha said, and aged just three he decided to be Sir David for World Book Day.

Speaking of the animal documentaries, she said: "He listens to everything and takes it all in.

"He goes litter picking, he loves the ocean, but all the plastic makes him angry.

"Some of the scenes you would think might upset him, but ever since a young age it hasn't. He would say 'well a predator goes after its prey, that's life'," she said.

"It's true but it's funny coming out of a little person."

Samantha Evans-Browning A boy in a blue school uniform is drawing pictures of animals on a piece of paper, he is writing Happy 99th birthday to Sir David Attenborough.Samantha Evans-Browning
"Thank you in advance and Mr Attenborough, if you ever see this… Happy Birthday from Max Evans-Browning, age 5 from Pembrokeshire"

But despite all of the attention, all Max is hoping for now is that Sir David will get his birthday card.

"Thank you in advance and Mr Attenborough, if you ever see this... Happy Birthday from Max Evans-Browning, age 5 from Pembrokeshire."