Prized specimen: Television’s Dolittle becomes honorary doctor

HE collects accolades these days the way he used to collect specimens, but while scrolls and titles may lack the exoticism of jungle crawlies and undersea oddities, David Attenborough is no less gracious in receiving them.

The latest addition to Attenborough’s academic menagerie is an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin, which he picked up yesterday in the company of a number of similarly lauded luminaries from the world of scientific and literary endeavour.

Sadly, the 82-year-old Attenborough is considered something of a protected species himself, and although the veteran naturalist has encountered komodo dragons, killer whales and parasites far more unpleasant than reporters, the organisers did not permit the assembled media to speak with him.