The BBC is to repackage Sir David Attenborough’s wildlife programmes for pre-schoolers, turning his most famous animal encounters into cartoons.

The natural history presenter’s meeting with a family of mountain gorillas in the Rwandan jungle, filmed for the 1979 series Life On Earth, will feature in the first episode of Attenborough’s Adventures.

Attenborough’s Adventures will appear on the CBeebies Storytime app, allowing children to interact with the stories.

David and the Gorilla Quest and David and the Dragon will be followed by three further episodes: David and the Hidden City, based on his exploration of a giant termite mound in the 1990 series The Trials of Life; David the Treasure Hunter, another Zoo Quest moment in which he encountered birds of paradise; and David and the Giant Dinosaur, based on last year’s programme in which he followed the discovery of titanosaur remains in Argentina.

Recent research from Ofcom found that the under-fives spend more than four hours a day in front of a screen, taking into account television, tablets and mobile phones.

The BBC believes the new series can connect young children to nature through technology.