Source: Radio New Zealand
Sir David Attenborough’s favourite bird is the New Zealand kākāpō .
That’s how Department of Conservation’s (DoC) Kākāpō Recovery Programme operations manager Deirdre Vercoe came into contact with the legendary British naturalist, who turns 100 today .
“In 2016 we just had a kākāpō breeding season and it was really significant at the time. It was a record breaker. We had 33 chicks hatched and fledged and the population grew to 160.
“So, off the back of that, we wrote to Sir David to tell him the news and we also wanted to share with him the fact that our team had decided to name one of that year’s chicks in his honour.”
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That led to an invite to Sir David’s home later that year.
“There we are at his front door and I’m thinking, I’m having one of those moments like, ‘how did I get here?’ I’m suddenly feeling five or six years old in my lounge watching him on TV, very nervous. And he opened the door with a big booming ‘hello!’ and welcomed us in.”
They had a “lovely time” she says, Sir David particularly interested in New Zealand’s pest control and conservation programmes.
Shona Pengelly remembers when the documentarian came to stay on Kapiti Island where she lived with her ranger husband back in 1997, Sir David had a more personal antipathy to rats, which had just been eradicated from the island.
“It was a bit of a joke when he said, ‘this is just the one animal I have to train myself when I’m around not to jump on the table’.”
Sir David was filming a segment for The Life of Birds there at the time.
Deirdre Vercoe and Andrew Digby at Sir David’s London house in 2016.
Deirdre Vercoe
While “a little awestruck” at first the famous wildlife filmmaker, who was 70 back then, showed no air and graces, she told RNZ’s Checkpoint .
“An absolute gentleman. So polite, full of stories, great sense of humour and just so knowledgeable, of course,” Pengelly says.
Sir David was on the island to film the little spotted kiwi, the North Island saddleback, and the kākā , she says. Her late husband, ranger Peter Daniel, helped the documentarian scout for locations.
There was a sad end to the visit when Sir David got news his wife Jane was seriously ill back in the UK.
“By the time he got straight back to England, she was in a coma. And the doctor had said to him, ‘hold her hand’.
“And he said, ‘he squeezed her hand and he felt that she squeezed back and then she passed away’.”
Both women recall Sir David’s warmth and unostentatious manner.
Sir David Attenborough holds a baby salt water crocodile during a photo opportunity at Taronga Park Zoo October 13, 2003 in Sydney, Australia.
Daniel Berehulak
“An incredibly humble man who was so grateful for the meal and insisted on doing the washing up with me at the end. And there were no airs or graces. He was just full of passion for everything out there in the wild,” Pengelly says.
“What a gentleman. What a dude. What a lovely man”, says Vercoe.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
