On Plymouth Hoe, the birthday tribute came with singing and chalk.

Members of the Plymouth Climate Choir sang a song called Natural World in the hope it will be included in a worldwide chorus due to be released ahead of Sir David Attenborough’s birthday on 8 May.

Versions of the song have been filmed around the world, with support from musicians Pete Townshend and Brian Eno.

At the same event, Plymouth-based environmental conservation organisation Rebel Botanists created a large chalk design on Plymouth Hoe to celebrate Sir David’s work.

The group’s founder, Elizabeth Richmond, designed the artwork and said Attenborough meant “everything” to her.

“The design follows a theme with the planet in the middle,” she told BBC.

“On the far side we have the mountain’s alpine species coming across woodlands and the sea.

“We’re looking at the transition of the [Earth’s] systems and plants within our chalking.”

Richmond said Rebel Botanists also wrote the names of wild plants in chalk along pavements to raise awareness of their importance.

She described the singing and drawing as a “lovely collaboration”.

Ann Read, from Plymouth Climate Choir, said the event was a way to raise awareness of climate change and encourage people to look after the natural world.

“We are on the side of nature and helping people to choose to live more sustainably in time to sustain this beautiful, wonderful place that we’ve inherited, and hand on this still beautiful, still wonderful and still sustainable place – because how can you not love it?” she said.

Read said clips from different choirs would be used in a montage as a birthday gift for Sir David.

Richmond said Sir David had been a “teacher” all her life.

“I think for 90% of the people on this planet, he’s been their teacher,” she said.

“They’ve been zoned into him on the TV or not, he’s been there and he’s still going at 100 years old.

“He’s trying to show us a message that we have to do more, we’ve got to save this planet.

“The man’s amazing.”