May 8, 1926

David Attenborough (born 8 May 1926) is a famous figure in the world of popular science and wildlife conservation. From a youthful clumsiness to a paternal openness his presence has illuminated natural history for five decades. A recent venture involved again the company that has sent him on many journeys, BBC2, and the premise for this nature program is Attenborough selecting "10 animals he would take on his ark... the 10 endangered animals he would most like to save from extinction."

Here are more notes from a British writeup about the new (2012) show, penned by Richard Gray:

Top of his list is a type of monkey found in Brazil known as a black lion tamarin. There are just 1,000 of the animals left and they were thought to have gone extinct until a small population was found in forest near São Paulo in 1970.....[And]

... an unusual salamander called an olm, which lives in the underground lakes and rivers in caves of central European countries including Croatia....– it has adapted to living in total darkness and can survive for up to 10 years without food. ...but perhaps the most interesting thing about it is that it lives for up to 100 years.” However water pollution in the areas where they live is threatening these unusual animals. [Also]

the solenodon, a prehistoric throwback that is directly descended from some of the first mammals to roam the Earth.These nocturnal creatures are one of the few mammals to have a venomous bite, but in the Dominican Republic where they live, they are threatened by cats and dogs that have been introduced to the island by humans.

...a small, mouse-like marsupial from Australia known as the Northern Quoll. In the past 10 years the population of these animals has fallen by more than 50 per cent, mainly because of the introduction of cane toads, which produce a poison on their skin that kills the meat-eating marsupials....Scientists in Australia are now attempting to train captive quolls to avoid cane toads by feeding them toads that have had the poison removed but instead contain a substance that will make them feel ill, but not kill them. They hope that the quolls will associate illness with the cane toads and so avoid them when released into the wild...

an unusual sea creature called Venus’s flower basket – a kind of sponge that lives at depths of more than 3,100 feet and builds its body out of silica, the same material used to make glass. He said: “This complex glass structure is a marvel of design. What is remarkable is that the sponge grows its glass structures and does not need a red hot furnace that human glass makers use....

a rare hummingbird from the foothills of the Andes in Peru called the marvellous spatuletail, ....

a strange scaly creature called a sunda pangolin that he rescued from the cooking pot while filming in Asia early in his career.

and an amphibian, named Darwin’s Frog, and the  Sumatran rhinoceros makes, .... nine...

Hey David!,  didn't you forget something?

Sir David, who is president of the Butterfly Trust, also chooses a brightly coloured butterfly from New Guinea called Priam’s birding for its “exquisite beauty” and because it “lifts the heart”.

What, that's ten, but ---where's the rare feline? I am certainly not giving you any life jackets for this ark unless you find room for a cat.

“There are a lot of animals today that face the same fate as the dodo. I’ve been asked to ...[name] 10 species I would take me with me on my own personal ark.

“I could chose those that grab the headlines – the majestic tiger, the spectacular polar bear, the beautiful snow leopard or the magnificent mountain gorilla. They are all animals that I wouldn’t want to lose.

“But there are many other extraordinary creatures out there not in the limelight. These few give a glimpse of the outstanding diversity of nature.”

Okay, makes sense, the ark is just a hook. Watch for it, on American telly soon, we hope:
“Attenborough’s Ark”