David Attenborough Joins Instagram, Smashes a Record

Naturalist reaches 1M followers faster than anyone else
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 25, 2020 2:25 PM CDT
David Attenborough Joins Instagram, Smashes a Record
David Attenborough accepts the award for Outstanding Narrator for "Seven Worlds, One Planet" for "Antarctica" during the first night of the 2020 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, streamed live on Emmys.com on Sept. 14, 2020.   (Invision for The Television Academy/AP)

Sorry, Ms. Aniston. Sir David Attenborough has just taken your Instagram record. The 94-year-old naturalist debuted on Instagram Thursday and reached 1 million followers in a little more than four hours, according to Guinness World Records. That broke Aniston's mark of 5 hours, 16 minutes, reports Mashable. As of Friday afternoon, Attenborough had 3.2 million followers. He also is being upfront about getting help with his page. "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," wrote Collin Butfield and Johnnie Hughes.

The same pair worked with Attenborough on his upcoming Netfix documentary, A Life On Our Planet. "As we all know, the world is in trouble," Attenborough warns in his debut video, in which he explains that he views communication—hence, the new Instagram account—as a crucial part of progress. "Continents are on fire," he says, per the BBC. "Glaciers are melting. Coral reefs are dying. Fish are disappearing from our oceans. The list goes on and on. Saving our planet is now a communications challenge." (More Sir David Attenborough stories.)

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