The Greatest Birthday Card of All

A 6-year-old’s 100 animal drawings for David Attenborough’s 100th birthday

Max Evans-Browning is a pretty cool kid. His idols prove it, with Sir David Attenborough sitting firmly at the top of the list. While most 6-year-olds reach for cartoons and toys, Max prefers nature documentaries. And when birthdays roll around, he skips the cheesy Hallmark cards and makes his own.

Last year, the Pembrokeshire, Wales, native drew 99 animals for Sir David’s 99th birthday. It took four days, eight A3 sheets of paper, and countless hours of research to draw the legendary naturalist’s favorite creatures. The kid’s got more animal encyclopedias than we do magazine issues — and we’re fairly certain he’d school us on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? if it were still on air.

Then the Internet did its thing. Max’s mom, Samantha Evans-Browning, shared the card on Facebook, where it went viral, and somehow, made its way straight to Sir David himself. He even sent Max a handwritten reply thanking him for the elaborate birthday card. Proof that good news does exist.

"Max really thought about this and wanted to draw one that was named after Sir David! He went with the Platysaurus attenboroughi, otherwise known as Attenborough's Flat Lizard. It took quite a while, about an hour, but I think he did a great job and you can see how his drawing has improved in the last year!" — Samantha Evans-Browning

Since then, Max has become something of a professional animal lover. Chessington Zoo in England invited him to be the UK’s youngest zookeeper last summer, and for two years in a row, he’s dressed up as David Attenborough for World Book Day at school.

This year, to celebrate Sir David’s 100th birthday, we asked Max to add one more drawing. Giving him the creative reins, he came back to us with a very special animal —one named after Sir David Attenborough himself. Drumroll, please… the Platysaurus attenboroughi, better known as Attenborough’s flat lizard. Of course Max knows the scientific name.

We’re hoping Sir David sees it again — and that maybe this time we can help Max meet his hero.