London Zoo has announced that a maidenhair fern that is part of its Rainforest Life exhibition has taken its own picture. It’s a bit blurry, but at least he’s not camera shy

Name: Pete.

Occupation: Plant.

Appearance: Delicate leaves and shiny stalks.

Hobbies: Respiration, differential growth, photography.

Wait, photography? I thought you said Pete was a plant? He is! He’s a maidenhair fern, of the genus Adiantum, to be precise. He lives at London Zoo, in the Rainforest Life exhibit.

OK. But you said he enjoyed photography? That’s right.

How is that possible? Don’t try to put limits on what Pete can do. It’s very dehumanising.

Does he also play boardgames and go to Zumba classes? He does not. Mainly he just grows, photosynthesises and deposits biomatter into the soil around his roots.

That’s disgusting, Pete! The microbes in the soil don’t think so. They munch it all up and release energy in the process.

Do these microbes have names? Do they play squash? I don’t think so. But the energy they release does slowly charge a super-capacitor. When this is full, it releases enough electricity to operate a digital camera … which has just made Pete the world’s first plant to take a selfie.

Or a photograph of any kind, I imagine? Yes, I expect so.

Pete’s selfie tries to capture his fronds at their best. Photograph: ZSL

What’s it like? Well … it’s a blurry picture of some leaves (see above). But Pete’s doing his best! London Zoo encouraged visitors over the past few months to come and cheer him on.

Come on, Pete! Respire! Deposit that biomatter! That kind of thing? Yes, that kind of thing.

Is Pete doing any interviews? He’s played it cool so far.

Very wise. Too much fame too fast can damage anyone. Although the technology specialist at the Zoological Society of London, Al Davies, is very proud of him.

I’m not surprised! “Seeing Pete’s first selfie was an incredible moment for the ZSL team,” Davies says. “Plugging into plants unlocks the potential to deploy sensors, monitoring platforms, camera traps or other electronics that require power and must operate for extended periods of time – all remotely and without interference.”

Why would you want to do that? It allows scientists to record data in remote and shady places without having to replace batteries all the time.

Lazy scientists, you mean? That’s right. Although it is valuable work that can help us to understand climate change and habitat loss, and thereby protect plants, fungi, animals and other organisms.

So Pete’s a humanitarian? Or a plantitarian, I guess.

Do say: “Can I follow Pete on Instagram?”

Don’t say: “In reality, Pete spends hours posing for those ‘spontaneous’ snapshots.”