Zoo Quest was a series of multi-part nature documentaries broadcast on BBC television between 1954 and 1963. It was the first major programme to feature David Attenborough.

In each series, Attenborough travelled with staff from London Zoo to a tropical country to capture an animal for the zoo's collection (the accepted practice at the time). Although the programme was structured around the quest for the animal, it also featured film of other wildlife in the area and of the local people and their customs. Attenborough introduced each programme from the studio and then narrated the film his team had shot on location. At the end of each series, the animals the team had captured were introduced in the studio, where experts from the zoo discussed them.

With the exception of the original 1954 series, (which survives as edited compilations repeated the following year) all episodes of Zoo Quest exist in the BBC Archives. The series was the most popular wildlife programme of its time in Britain, and established Attenborough's career as a nature documentary presenter.

Sir David Frederick Attenborough /ˈætənbʌrə/ OM CH CVO CBE FRS FLS FZS FSA Kt (born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster and naturalist.

He is best known for writing and presenting the nine Life series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on the planet. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. He is the only person to have won BAFTAs for programmes in each of black and white, colour, HD, and 3D.

Attenborough is widely considered a national treasure in Britain, although he himself does not like the term. In 2002 he was named among the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote. He is the younger brother of director, producer and actor Richard Attenborough.

Early life and family

Attenborough was born in Isleworth, West London, but grew up in College House on the campus of the University College, Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal. He is the middle of three sons (his elder brother, Richard, became an actor and director and his younger brother, John, an executive at Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo). During World War II, through a British charitable programme known as Kindertransport, his parents also fostered two Jewish refugee girls from Europe.