Sir David Attenborough sets new record with Instagram debut

At the age of 94, British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, on Thursday broke the world record for the fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram, according to the Guinness World Records.

Attenborough joined Instagram on September 24, and within four hours 44 minutes, he reached one million followers.

Speaking on his move to the Instagram, with his first recorded video on the platform, the environmentalist said, “I am making this move and exploring this new way of communication to me because, as we all know, the world is in trouble . . . Over the next few weeks, I'll be recording messages to explain what the problems are, and how we can deal with them.”

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With his debut post, Attenborough beat out the previous record-holder F.R.I.E.N.D.S. actor Jennifer Aniston, who reached the benchmark in five hours and 16 minutes after joining the platform last October.

Attenborough presently has over 2.4 million followers on his page.

The British naturalist is no newcomer to the Guinness World Records, and holds two world records — one, for the longest career as a TV presenter, and second, for the longest career as a television naturalist. Planet Earth — one of Attenborough's popular projects — holds the record for the most in-demand documentary TV show.

With a career spanning almost seven decades, his latest project, a Netflix documentary called, 'David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet,' is all set to release in October this year.

Earlier this month, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conferred the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize on the British broadcaster at a virtual event. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who was also present during the online award function, described David Attenborough as one of Nature's "most staunch conscience keepers" for over half a century.

Accepting the award for the year 2019, Attenborough said, "We have to change from being nationalists to being international."