[3] Nepenthes attenboroughii was discovered by Alastair Robinson, Stewart R. McPherson and Volker B. Heinrich in June 2007, during a 2 month research expedition to catalogue the different species of pitcher plant found across the Philippine Archipelago.

The leaves are oblong to elliptic, obtuse at the apex and shortly attenuate at the base, clasping the stem by approximately two-thirds of its circumference and becoming decurrent for 2–3 cm.

[2][12] The summit flora of Mount Victoria includes Leptospermum sp., Medinilla spp., Dracaena sp., Vaccinium sp., various grasses, as well as the sundew Drosera ultramafica, which grows at similar elevations to N. attenboroughii.

[19] Nepenthes attenboroughii is assessed as Critically Endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) on account of its restricted distribution and the threat posed by plant poachers.

[2] In the latter half of 2009, this taxon received a great deal of publicity in the national press of various countries as a sensational new plant that catches and kills rats.

[2][21] In October 2012, however, a dead shrew was found in a pitcher of Nepenthes attenboroughii during a return expedition to Mount Victoria by Robinson and a group of naturalists.

It was found that the corpse of the shrew had, in the intervening weeks, progressed from a wholly intact state to mere skeletal remains, with only scant viscera and a matte of hair at the bottom of the pitcher still apparent.

[23][24] Nepenthes attenboroughii is closely related to the Palawan species, N. deaniana, N. leonardoi,[25] N. mantalingajanensis, N. mira, and N. palawanensis (which produces even larger pitchers),[26][27] to N. peltata from Mindanao, and to N. rajah from Borneo.

Based on this evidence, the authors reason that these species, predominantly found growing on ultramafic soils on Palawan and Mindanao, are likely to have arisen as a result of the radiative speciation of a common ancestor in Borneo.