Attenborough, the Romantically-minded Naturalist

Happy 100th Birthday, Sir David Attenborough!

• Friday, May 8th is the centennial celebration of the renowned naturalist and broadcaster

• Attenborough’s passion for communicating his wonder for nature emblemises the Romantic Mindset of ICHK’s +1 thinker, Kieran Egan

• A Gorilla Story is the latest chapter in Attenborough’s vast canon of nature documentaries. It was released this week and is highly recommended for firing all imaginative, romantic hearts and minds! 

By Jon Rees, Sustainability Coordinator

May 8th, 2026

“Sheer bliss, you just wanted to hug him”- David Attenborough’s encounter with gorillas nearly 50 years-ago is perhaps the most iconic of his remarkable career as a naturalist and broadcaster. 

(L) David Attenborough with baby Pablo, all the way back in 1978; (R) Pablo’s grandson, the mighty Gicurasi, stares out across his kingdom in the Virunga Mountains, Rwanda.

*In general, we should admire wildlife at a respectful distance, but here playful Pablo chose to clamber upon the conservationist. Trying to hug Gicurasi is certainly not advised.

Zoom into Attenborough’s face on that photo above- it is one of absolute joy. In the Netflix release of Gorilla Story, Attenborough traces the legacy of Pablo, the little baby who sits upon his chest, and his descendants down to the current large social group that are still roaming the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda. The inter-generational nature of the story reflects many families’ experiences while watching Attenborough with their parents and grandparents, enthralled around the television; it is his voice that has accompanied generations on a Sunday evening in the comfort of your home surrounded by loved ones.

“There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than any other animal I know”

• Sir David Attenborough

This famous magical encounter was the first time that many people watching on their TV screens had ever seen a gorilla in its natural habitat outside of the confines of a zoo (and these places were far more spartan and unstimulating for animals back then, too.) The BBC team’s footage was responsible for helping to shift cultural attitudes towards these powerful creatures. People’s perceptions had been tainted in part through Hollywood’s depictions of a rampant gorilla tearing New York apart, as in the 1933’s King Kong. 

It was a joy to share this with some of our Gardening and Bushcraft students when we found our usual outdoor pursuits had been curtailed by heavy rain on Tuesday afternoon. Our faces lit up with joy and I must commend all students for particularly impressive chest thumping gorilla impressions as well! 

Capable of immense power, yes, but capable of such gentle care and affection. 

The work of Attenborough helped to communicate the truly pioneering scientific research of female biologists operating, often alone, out in the literal fields (and jungle mountains) of primate research. Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, helped to shatter cultural ignorance and false Hollywood myths. They revealed for the first time to the wider world the highly complex, deeply social nature of life within gorilla and chimpanzee troops. Jane Goodall passed at a golden age last year. Fossey’s end is very tragic- she was murdered by unknown assailants, but very possibly connected to the trade in wild species- and her life and work is worthy of further research. It was Fossey, I learned, through watching A Gorilla Story, that first brought Attenborough to the gorilla colony as they had become habituated to her presence across months.

In general, before the Environmental movement of the 1960s-  brought about in no small part due to the incredible image of “Earth Rise,” taken by the cameras of Apollo 11-  attitudes towards wildlife in Western Europe and America had often been based on attitudes of conquest and domination. Caution advised: To get a sense of how attitudes have shifted, take a look at this historical Time magazine link to a gorilla hunt from the 1950s– where powerful animals like gorillas were seen as brutal, savage beasts to be hunted for trophies.

Gorilla Story- Trailer: In this intimate documentary, David Attenborough tells the remarkable story of his first encounter with the baby gorilla Pablo, how that gorilla grew up to be a top Silverback and how Pablo’s direct descendants are doing today. Packed with extraordinary gorilla behavior never filmed before, this is a story of hope and joy.

Unfortunately, many of the issues around animal population collapses and the continued lucrative global trade in endangered animals for pets, trophies and traditional medicine- along with the myriad problems that comprise the polycrisis that include overpopulation, high resource consumption, high carbon emissions, and the manmade effects of global warming- are still prevalent, and indeed rising. Kadoorie Farm, located close to ICHK in the New Territories, is at the frontline of coordinated national and regional efforts in this area. https://www.kfbg.org/en/departments/Kadoorie-conservation-China-department

Some, such as author, journalist and environmental activist, George Monbiot, have warned that David Attenborough has fallen short in his duty to inform the wider public earlier about the calamity facing the wildlife he so warmly portrayed on screen. As students continue their academic journey with us, we have examined Monbiot’s articles in IGCSE First Language classes as students in later years begin to adopt what Kieran Egan calls a more questioning Philosophic and even Ironic mind, critiquing the assumed knowledge in the world around them. You can get a sense of this in his scathing piece for The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/07/david-attenborough-world-environment-bbc-films

It is not my wish to denigrate Attenborough’s achievements here, though. But just point to the dynamic and open-minded approach that is taken at ICHK to help students develop both empathy and a critical understanding of the world around them. 

**Images redacted**

Our mission is to educate all our students, unlock their potential and offer an experience that best prepares them for life beyond school.

Our vision is Learning together, thoughtfully

Look, too, at the expressions on the faces of our Outdoor leaders taking Y5 students to explore the Bridespool waterfall and streams, Human Technologies students learning about the structure of DNA, or intrepid students abseiling in Pat Sing Leng Country Park and you can see similar expressions of joy and exhilaration to those of Attenborough in the first photos of this article. 

This is what school can be when it is at its best, and the Deep Learning programme- which will begin its fourth iteration of the year in June- offers students many diverse opportunities to explore their passions and share unique bonding experiences together. Deep Learning is just one of the many programmes, along with the engaging mainstream curricular experiences, that typify ICHK’s pursuit of providing a Romantic approach to education. 

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This piece was informed through reading Kieran Egan’s article, “Teaching the Romantic Mind.” Egan is one of ICHK’s 5+1 thinkers. The intention writing this piece was to help raise awareness of one of our key thinkers, who along with Carol Dweck’s “Growth Mindset,” Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, Ericsson’s Psychosocial Development and Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis, are, along with recognising the “+1” uniqueness of the individual learner are foundational to the ICHK pedagogical philosophy.

Kieran Egan’s The Educated Mind is also a good further reading for those wanting to dive deeper into Egan’s ideas.