Planet Earth II: A World of Wonder

Looking down from two miles above the surface of the Earth,

it's impossible not to be impressed by the sheer grandeur and splendour

and power of the natural world.

Ten years ago, in a television series called Planet Earth,

we revealed many of those wonders.

Planet Earth II brings you even closer to the lives of animals

than ever before.

With new technology and new insight,

we can show wildlife dramas in completely new ways.

In this programme, we celebrate some of the highlights of the series.

Journeying to every corner of the globe...

...to reveal the extreme lengths animals go to in order to survive.

And we also visit the newest habitat on Earth -

our cities.

Now is a crucial time for the natural world,

when our connection with nature is more important than ever before.

This is Planet Earth II.

The snow leopard.

Seldom seen, the detail of their lives has long been a mystery.

But now, at last, helped by the latest remote camera technology,

we're getting closer to them than ever before.

They are very rare - as few as four of them in 40 square miles.

In the high mountains, there is simply not enough prey

to sustain them.

They live solitary lives.

Nonetheless, they are well aware of the presence and the movements

of their neighbours,

because they leave messages in a few special places.

They rub particular rocks with their cheeks...

...and then spray them with urine.

Their two perfumes create a unique signature.

Any other leopard can know which of its neighbours passed this way

without ever making direct contact.

Life at extreme altitudes has shaped some of the toughest animals

on the planet.

In the Alps, Europe's highest peaks,

it's winter and food is desperately short.

A golden eagle has to spend every daylight hour

scanning the slopes for something, somewhere to eat.

Her seven-foot wingspan allows her to glide effortlessly

for 100 miles in a single day.

Her extraordinary eyes enable her to spot prey from two miles away.

But she is not the only one who's looking for food.

When she spots a chance, she must move fast.

She can dive at 200 miles an hour -

only a peregrine is faster.

During winter, even eagles rely almost entirely on carrion.

It's a dead fox, and it could sustain her for days.

Other scavengers must defer.

The hungry crows soon regain their courage.

They'll try any trick to steal a morsel.

And they are annoyingly persistent.

But this mob are the least of her worries.

A bigger eagle takes control.

But this kill is too important to give up.

So she must fight.

For the moment, she's won the carcass back...

...but a kill like this will attract every eagle for miles around.

As ever, the strongest wins the lion's share.

Unable to defend the carcass any longer,

the first eagle must now continue its search.

It may be many days before she feeds again.

Compared to the sparseness of the highest mountains,

the jungle is full of opportunity.

It is Eden.

It covers less than 6% of the Earth's surface,

but it's home to half of all the plants and animals on land.

The challenge here is dealing with the competition.

And that has driven animals to do a raft of ingenious things.

For some, it's about trying to stand out.

While, for others, the key to survival is blending in.

And these streams in Costa Rica are home to one of the most remarkable

masters of disguise.

A glass frog.

A male, and tiny.

No bigger than your fingernail...

....and almost entirely transparent.

As he needs to be.

Almost everything that walks past here could eat him.

Even a cricket.

His best chance is to stay absolutely still and trust

that the cricket looks right through him.

Danger passed...

...and that's just as well.

Because he is a father...

...and he's guarding some very precious eggs.

For the last few weeks, females, one after the other,

have visited him and entrusted him with their offspring.

Some are now almost ready to hatch.

There are several clutches on the leaf, and those at the top,

the most recently laid, are barely a day old.

But, in the jungle, there's always someone out to get you.

This wasp is a specialist hunter of frogs' eggs.

It's noticed the wriggling tadpoles at the bottom of the leaf.

He mustn't move.

The youngest eggs are the most vulnerable,

and he can't guard them all.

But these tadpoles are not as helpless as they might appear.

Incredibly, the unhatched tadpoles can sense danger and the oldest

and strongest wriggle free and drop into the stream below.

The eggs at the top of the leaf, however,

are still too young to hatch...

...and now the wasps know they're there.

But the male's back looks very like the youngest cluster of eggs...

...and that seems to confuse the wasps.

Using his own body as a decoy is a huge risk.

The wasps' stings could kill him.

He's managed to save most of his young.

He'll have to remain on guard for another two weeks.

But, in the jungle, just surviving the day can count as a success.

Jungles are the richest places on Earth,

because of one remarkable fact.

They make their own weather.

Every day, water rises from the surface of the leaves as vapour.

It's as if the trees breathe out clouds.

They gather over the forest, until finally...

...they burst.

Rain is the lifeblood of every jungle...

...and all have to do their best to endure the daily downpour.

In some jungles, like here in Brazil,

it rains so much that, for part of the year, the trees

are almost totally submerged.

This is a mysterious world, a place few people have ever explored.

Here, 1,000 miles from the sea, are dolphins.

A newly-identified species of river dolphin found nowhere else on Earth.

At the shallow margins of the flooded jungle,

food is so abundant it supports giants.

Capybara - the biggest rodents in the world.

Giant otters, the size of a man.

And the rulers of these rivers...

...caiman.

They grow to 10 feet long

and kill anything they get between their jaws.

But there are more artful hunters,

drawn here from the surrounding forest.

A jaguar - the supreme jungle predator.

Capybara are strong and wary.

The key is stealth.

She needs to get within a metre if she's to pounce.

Not this time.

She's not the only female here.

Each part of this jungle's edge is ruled by a different queen.

Few places on Earth have enough food to support so many big cats.

The male hunts in a different way.

Weighing over 130 kilos, it's hard to be stealthy.

And with so many other jaguars around,

he doesn't bother with wary capybara.

He seeks a different prey.

He's become a killer...

...of killers.

Jaguars have the most powerful bite

of any cat.

And he knows the caiman's most vulnerable point.

The back of its skull.

For some, isolation has provided an escape from the competition.

The tiny island of Escudo, off the coast of Panama.

Home to the pygmy three-toed sloth.

This is a male, and life here suits him well.

Mangroves provide all the leaves he can eat,

and there are no predators to worry him.

Island life may seem idyllic, but it comes at a price.

There are only a few hundred pygmy sloths in existence...

...and he needs a mate.

That's an enticing call...

...from a female...

...somewhere, out there.

And this, for a sloth, is a quick reaction.

The problem is there's deep water between them.

So what should any red-blooded sloth do?

Swim, of course.

Could this be her?

He does his best to put on a turn of speed.

But she's not the one.

She already has a baby,

and she won't mate again until it leaves her

in about six months' time.

Even life on a paradise island can have its limitations.

But at least she can't be far away.

Islands can be sanctuaries for wildlife,

but that doesn't mean that life is easy.

Some can be very challenging places indeed.

There are islands still forming today,

built by volcanoes.

Some erupt explosively.

Others pour out rivers of molten rock -

lava.

In the last 50 years, ten new volcanic islands have been formed.

Young volcanic islands can be tough places to survive.

This is Fernandina, one of the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific.

It is a desolate place, but the surrounding sea is rich with life.

And the frontier between these two very different worlds is the home

of one of the strangest of reptiles.

Sea-going iguanas.

They are vegetarians,

but since there is little food for them on land,

marine iguanas graze on the sea floor.

A big male like this one can dive to 30 metres and hold his breath

for half an hour.

It's an incredible adaptation that allows them to survive

in a barren landscape.