A World of Wonder Planet Earth II

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 is 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 200mph -

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 has 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.

Jungles are the richest places on Earth,

because of one remarkable fact.

They make their own weather.

Rain is the lifeblood of every jungle...

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

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 is 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 is always someone out to get you.

This wasp is a specialist hunter of frogs' eggs.

It has 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 has 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.

There are hundreds of thousands of islands on the planet.

The struggle to survive on these remote lands

brings its own very particular problems.

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.

HIGH-PITCHED SQUEAL

That is 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.

Seagoing 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 is an incredible adaptation

that allows them to survive in a barren landscape.

Marine iguanas lay their eggs in sand.

In June, when the hatchlings emerge, they are vulnerable.

They must join the adults at the edge of the sea,

but the journey will be a dangerous one.

Racer snakes.

The snakes missed their chance.

But more babies are hatching...

..and now the snakes are on the alert.

This is the best feeding opportunity they will get all year.

On flat ground, a baby iguana can outrun a racer snake...

..but others are waiting in ambush.

Another hatchling has its first glimpse of a dangerous world.

A snake's eyes aren't very good...

..but they can detect movement.

So if the hatchling keeps its nerve, it may just avoid detection.

A near-miraculous escape.

The lucky survivors can begin learning the unique way of life

demanded by this hostile island.

There are habitats on Earth

where food seems abundant.

One quarter of the land on Earth is covered by a single remarkable

type of plant.

Grass.

On the plains of Africa,

Jackson's widowbirds seek out the freshest grass stems,

but this has nothing to do with finding food.

This male wants a mate.

He has grown elaborate breeding plumage for this moment...

..but he needs a stage on which to show it off.

By carefully selecting grass blades, each trimmed to the correct length,

he is creating something very special.

He needs an even surface...

..and a centrepiece.

The stage is set.

His bachelor pad is sufficiently neat and tidy to attract a female.

The problem is, can she see it?

He has competition.

It might take more than a little gardening to impress the ladies.

Jumping is the right idea...

..but he has misjudged the height of the grass.

His rival makes it look easy.

Time to raise his game.

It's not only who jumps the highest,

but who can keep doing so the longest.

Unable to go the distance, his rivals drop out, one by one.

Stamina has won him admirers.

Now he can show off his courtship arena.

And engage in a little romantic hide and seek.

Finally, he's done enough.

In the American Rockies,

spring meadows that only a few weeks ago were buried in snow

are now full of life.

Bears have emerged from their winter dens.

It's becoming warmer,

and they are keen to shed their thick winter coats.

Mothers show their cubs what to do about this.

They'll soon catch on.

Some trees, it seems, are particularly suitable for rubbing.

Bears have their favourites,

and will travel long distances to visit them.

Some itches just have to be scratched.

There are now 30 bears in this one valley.

As they rub, each leaves an individual and recognisable scent.

So the tree soon carries a list of who's around...

..which might help individuals to avoid a fight.

To best spread their scent,

they really have to put their back into it.

But the summer is short.

Itches satisfactorily scratched, it's time to eat.

Dawn in the high Andes.

The sun's warmth brings some relief to animals living among these peaks.

At over 12,000 feet,

this is the highest flamingo colony in the world.

At night, it gets so cold that even this salty water freezes over.

And now the flamingos are trapped in the ice.

Eventually, the sun thins the ice.

But it's still a struggle for the flamingos to break free.

Walking on thin ice is always risky.

And it's hard to retain one's dignity.

Especially when you're wearing stilts.

At these altitudes,

the sun's power can quickly turn

from salvation to threat.

Out on the lake, there is nowhere to hide.

The white crust of the soda lake reflects the sun's glare,

and increases the impact of its ultraviolet rays.

By midday, uncovered human skin will burn in four minutes.

But this doesn't seem to bother the flamingos.

In fact, they are on parade.

During the breeding season,

flamingos perform these peculiar courtship dances,

even through the hottest time of the day.

They're so eager, they don't even pause to feed.

The rules are something of a mystery.

But after a month of dancing, all the birds will have paired off

and will be getting ready to mate.

Up here, there are few other creatures to bother the flamingos,

but then, few other creatures could even tolerate these conditions.

Such extreme habitats require wildlife

to be extraordinarily resilient.

And nowhere more so than in the desert.

With temperatures reaching almost 50 degrees Celsius,

there's no escape from the scorching sun,

the wind and the dust.

This is the oldest desert in the world -

the Namib, in south-west Africa.

Life here, for the hunter, is as hard as it gets.

A pride of lions.

One of the very few that endures

this desert's scorching temperatures and lack of water.

These are desperate times.

A dry riverbed on the edge of their territory.

The only animals here are giraffe.

But these one-ton giants could kill a lion with a single kick.

Lions seldom tackle such formidable prey...

..but this pride can't go on much longer without food.

The whole pride must work together as a team if they're to succeed.

The giraffe has the speed and stamina to outrun the pride.

But it's being chased into a trap.

Up ahead, the lead female waits.

It's now up to her.

Most lion hunts end in failure.

But no lions fail more often than those that live in the desert.

In the last 6,000 years,

a new habitat has appeared,

entirely designed and constructed by one species for its own purpose.

We humans create homes for ourselves, cities -

with consequences for wildlife, good and bad.

One enterprising species of monkey

has moved into the city of Jaipur in India.

The Rhesus macaque.

But how to get a share of all this juicy fruit?

Every morning,

the troop make the same journey through the urban jungle,

just as human commuters do.

Sometimes, inevitably, there are traffic jams.

Once they get to the market, trouble begins.

Being both intelligent and brazen

is the key to beating human beings on their home turf.

It's daylight robbery.

In the city, conflict between man and animal might seem inevitable.

We create these cities for ourselves,

and some of the changes we introduce

can be hard for animals to cope with.

One of the greatest changes of recent times

has come from a single invention made less than 140 years ago.

Electric light.

It has become more and more powerful...

..filling our streets with light.

It's everywhere in the city.

The difference between day and night

has become less and less perceptible.

And that has a profound effect on the activities of wildlife.

In the wilderness, light triggers all kinds of behaviour.

On the night of the full moon,

hundreds of tiny hawksbill turtle hatchlings emerge

from the safety of their nest, deep in the sand.

Their instinct is to reach the sea as quickly as possible.

And their guide is the light of the full moon, reflected on the water.

But this young hatchling...

..is confused.

It's going in the wrong direction.

Bright light is coming from the land.

And all these hatchlings are travelling up the beach towards it.

The lights become more and more bewildering.

80% of all hatchlings on this beach

are now disoriented by the lights of the town.

Roads bring many to their end.

Hundreds get trapped in storm drains every night.

Exhausted by the effort of travelling

such a distance on land...

..this hatchling's chances of surviving the night are slim.

This turtle is one of the countless species

that have been unable to adapt

to the change brought about by the urban environment.

Whether we choose to live in harmony with wildlife is up to us.

But there is one city where that idea

is being applied on a major scale -

Singapore.

Two million trees have been planted here in the last 45 years.

This city is now richer in species than any other in the world.

And this practice extends to all parts of the city.

The waterways have been cleaned up

and smooth-coated otters are coming back.

But perhaps the most spectacular example of city greening

is this grove of "super trees".

These 150-feet-high metal structures are now full of life.

Creepers have been planted to grow over the outermost branches.

This is a new urban world that we have now designed and built

with others in mind.

Create the space and the animals will come.

Is this a vision for our cities of the future?

It could be possible to see wildlife thriving

within our cities across the planet.

We, after all, are the architects of the urban world.

Looking down on this great metropolis,

the ingenuity with which we continue to reshape the surface of our planet

is very striking.

It is also sobering.

It reminds me of just how easy it is for us

to lose our connection with the natural world.

Yet it's on this connection that the future of both humanity

and the natural world will depend.

It's surely our responsibility to do everything within our power

to create a planet that provides a home, not just for us,

but for all life on Earth.