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Sir David Attenborough Breaks Record for Fastest Time to Reach 1 Million Followers on Instagram

Danny Martindale/WireImage

Talk about a social media presence.

Sir David Attenborough has claimed the record for the fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram, breaking a record previously held by Jennifer Aniston, Guinness World Records confirmed on Thursday.

The 94-year-old naturalist and TV host racked up the impressive numbers just hours after joining the social media platform with a video warning about the effects of climate change.

The video, which currently has more than 12 million views, was posted at 2 AM local time and his account reached one million followers just over four hours later at 6:44 AM, according to Guinness World Records.

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After introducing himself in the Instagram video, Attenborough revealed that he is "making this move and exploring this new way of communication" in an effort to educate viewers that "the world is in trouble."

"Continents are on fire, glaciers are melting, coral reefs are dying, fish are disappearing from our oceans. The list goes on and on," he said in the clip. "But we know what to do about it."

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Attenborough's Instagram account will be run with the help of his two colleagues, Jonnie Hughes and Colin Butfield, and the pair wrote in a message accompanying the video that they are helping out because social media "isn’t David’s usual habitat."

"David Attenborough has spent a lifetime travelling, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder," they wrote. "He's also witnessed the damaged caused. Saving our planet is now a communications challenge. We know what to do, we just need the will."

Butfield and Hughes worked with Attenborough on A Life On Our Planet, an upcoming Netflix documentary.

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Aniston, 51, joined the social media app in October 2019 and gained 1 million followers in five hours and 16 minutes, according to Guinness World Records.

David Beckham, Pope Francis and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have all also been record holders in the social media feat prior to Attenborough.