In an Instagram snap posted on Saturday, August 7, the 6-year-old princess holds a rare butterfly in her hands. The young royal wears a light blue T-shirt and floral-patterned, pink bottoms with her hair worn down around her face.

“We wanted to share these beautiful Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies as part of Big #ButterflyCount initiative taking place across the UK,” the Duke and Duchess, both 39, captioned the post. “@savebutterflies are encouraging us all to count these incredible creatures because not only are they beautiful creatures to be around but they are also extremely important. Butterflies are vital parts of the ecosystem as both pollinators and components of the food chain.”

Their note concluded, “Hopefully you can beat last year’s total, @savebutterflies 🦋.”

Charlotte and her brothers — Prince George, 8, and Prince Louis, 3 — are big fans of playing in nature. Their grandmother, Carole Middleton, even revealed how she keeps her grandchildren in tune with nature in an April interview.

“If I’m doing planting with my grandchildren, I like to have it all laid out at ‘activity stations’ with their own little trowel and pot so they can get started immediately,” Middleton, 66, told Saga magazine in their May issue. “It’s no good calling children over to an activity, only for you then to have to fuss about looking for the right equipment and clearing a space. They’ll soon lose interest and slope off. It’s important for children to grow up appreciating nature and part of that is allowing them to get a bit muddy.”

The Party Pieces founder explained that her grandchildren often help her with digging and planting vegetables in her backyard garden.

“There’s no better way to encourage healthy eating than to allow your grandchildren to see how food is grown and let them pick their own,” Middleton added during the interview.

A year earlier, in September 2020, the princess and her brothers were starstruck to meet broadcaster David Attenborough. In an Instagram post, the family of five chatted with Attenborough, 95, outside Kensington Palace. In the photo, Charlotte —wearing a blue dress — held her hands on her face in surprise when she first met the documentarian.

“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to share new photographs of their family with @DavidAttenborough,” the royal couple captioned their post. “The photographs were taken earlier this week in the gardens of Kensington Palace, after The Duke and Sir David attended an outdoor screening of Sir David’s upcoming feature film 🎞️ ‘David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet.’”

The couple also recorded a series of videos of their children prior to the visit, where each of them posed different nature-based questions for Attenborough via their official Twitter page. Charlotte asked, ”I like spiders, do you like spiders too?”

Attenborough replied, “I love spiders, I’m so glad you like them! I think they’re wonderful things. Why is it that people are so frightened of them? Have you ever watched one trying to build its web? That’s extraordinary.”

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Miranda Siwak