You've NEVER seen animals do this before: 'Planet Earth II' will mesmerise you

If you haven't seen the clip of baby marine iguanas being hunted by about 20 snakes, maybe you don't live on planet Earth. Or, to be more precise, maybe you live unconnected to the world of YouTube and streamed TV.

Nearly nine million people have watched this gripping scene from the BBC's Planet Earth II, rooting for the hatchlings to escape death. (If you're not one of them, watch it below.)

This is far from the only mesmerising scene in a natural history series encompassing thrills, intrigue, conflict, romance and fun. Take the pygmy sloth from Escudo island, Panama, swimming a channel in desperate search of a mate. Komodo dragons from the Indonesian islands of Komodo and Rinca in a turf battle. Or a grizzly bear in Canada scratching its back against a tree, much like Baloo in The Jungle Book.

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The crews involved with Planet Earth II travelled to more than 40 countries and spent more than 2,000 days on 117 shoots to get unique footage, risking their safety to get to wild places.

Their dedication got results. They have captured animal behaviours which have never been seen on film before, like the way the chinstrap penguins of Zavodovski island hurl themselves into huge surf to go fishing for their families and risk being battered to death against cliffs on their way home.

Technological advances have also furthered scientific knowledge. Camera-stabilisation techniques free the crew from tripods and let them follow their subjects on foot.

Improved drones and infrared and high quality remote-trigger cameras have transformed the way animal behaviour is documented.

New low-light cameras reveal how glowing mushrooms fool a type of beetle, which uses bioluminescence to attract mates, into getting up close and personal. This allows the fungi to spread their spores.

The first instalment of Planet Earth, which came out a decade ago, was viewed by more than half a billion people, inspiring many to care more about the environment. The second series allows the filmmakers to get "eye to eye" with the animals and be immersed with them in each habitat, ranging from islands and mountains to deserts and jungles.

Executive producer Mike Gunton elaborates: "Where Planet Earth took an almost God-like perspective ... Planet Earth II is saying, 'Let's get ourselves into the lives of animals and see it from their perspectives.' The visual signature of the series is that you feel like the camera is with the animals."

Members of rare species like the snow leopard are seen interacting with each other and brushing up against camera traps in the field. In the original Planet Earth they were filmed from one kilometre away.

WATCH snakes chase down an iguana on an episode of Planet Earth II

What's also new is that cities are treated as a habitat on their own. Tom Hugh-Jones, producer of the series, says: "We wanted to show that the world isn't all jungles, deserts and mountains any more.

It's largely a man-made environment ... and we were determined to show animals surviving in remarkable ways."

Wildlife in the urban jungle is shown to be surprisingly adaptable, like the leopards that hunt at night in Mumbai - the biggest concentration of leopards in the world - and the hyena packs of Harar, Ethiopia, that wander the streets when people are in bed.

Planet Earth II has a haunting score by Hans Zimmer, which soars behind the familiar voice of Sir David Attenborough.

Attenborough's view of narration is that less is more - his silences add suspense, drama and tension to the stories playing out on screen. And only a cold-blooded reptile could watch the racer snakes - described by Gunton as "like something from Indiana Jones " - without a raised heartbeat and an anxious catch in the throat.

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•  Desert bats hunting the most venomous scorpions around, the death-stalker scorpion;

•  The Araguaia dolphin, a new species found about 1,500km from the sea in the Amazon River;

•  Snow leopards mating, hunting and fighting;

•  Catfish hunting pigeons in a similar ambush style to the way killer whales hunt seals;

•  Inside a locust swarm in Madagascar;

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•  Racer snakes hunting marine iguana hatchlings in the Galapagos, "nightmarish footage which shocked even Sir David Attenborough";

•  And more hunting: bobcats hunting in winter, railroad worms hunting millipedes, lions hunting giraffe, goshawks hunting sand grouse (in South Africa), leopards hunting pigs in Mumbai and peregrine falcons hunting in New York;

•  Aerial footage of the gorgeous birds of paradise in West Papua;

•  Luminous fungi and amorous beetles (advances in low light cameras made this possible);

•  The risky commute that chinstrap penguins in the sub-Antarctic make off cliffs every day to fish. The film crew sailed for seven days to get to the volcanic island of Zavodovski and camped among the world's largest penguin colony, more than 1.5 million birds, in extreme conditions, to capture this.

- Source: BBC Planet Earth II

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In the 'Story of Life' narrator Sir David Attenborough shares more than 1,000 moments in his 60-year career of exploring the wild world. Curated collections - including thrilling hunts, unique species first filmed, and babies stepping into the unknown - are among the options on the BBC Earth app, which is sure to be a hit.

Get the app here.

• 'Planet Earth II' starts on February 5 at 4pm on BBC Earth (DStv channel 184).