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Shocking news from the world of wildlife – one of our most treasured beings could soon vanish from our lives.

David Attenborough claimed his TV presenting style was becoming extinct and he would not be replaced as a BBC nature frontman.

Asked about who could step into his shoes, the 86-year-old said: “I’m not sure there’s any need for a new Attenborough.

"The more you go on, the less you need people standing between the animal and camera waving their arms about.

“It’s cheaper to get someone in front of a camera describing animal behaviour than actually showing you it.

“The kind of programmes in which you really work at the commentary, you match pictures to words, is a bit out of fashion now, old hat.”

Attenborough, the face of natural history programmes for more than 60 years, was speaking to Radio Times as he launched a new series for the Eden channel, looking at animals with distinctive ­evolutionary quirks.

It would focus on “not only zoology and natural history, but also history in terms of science.”

And the presenter repeated his warnings of how man’s reckless behaviour was gradually destroying our planet.

He said: “We are a plague on the earth. It’s not just climate change, it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde.

“Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.

“Look at famine in Ethiopia, that’s what’s happening. Too many people there.

"They can’t support themselves. It’s not an inhuman thing to say. It’s the case.”

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