On Friday Oct. 14, the first full-length trailer for the BBC documentary “Planet Earth II” was released. The trailer showed up close and personal, high definition excerpts of animals living in their natural habitats.
“Planet Earth II” is the long awaited continuation of the “Planet Earth” series, which first premiered on BBC in 2006. The miniseries is one of the most expensive attempts to capture the true beauty of the planet, with $25 million spent on production. The creation of “Planet Earth” was a five- year production process, with filming taking place at 200 different locations, 40 cameramen and over 2,000 days on location. The first edition of “Planet Earth,” directed by Alastair Forthergill and narrated by Sir David Attenborough, has 11 hour long episodes. Each episode focuses on a specific biome and shines a light on the different plants and animals that call this location home.
Some of the locations explored in “Planet Earth” included the oceans, forests, great plains, caves, jungles, deserts and mountain areas.
“Planet Earth II” is expected to premiere in the near future, so in honor of this upcoming premiere, here are some remarkable moments from the original “Planet Earth” series.
Undersea Volcanoes
This video features the ecosystems created within undersea volcanoes that are found on the ocean floor. Over time, the volcanoes collect different plant live to provide habitats for smaller animals and sea creatures. The volcano featured in this clip is extinct, so the plant and animal life growing on the volcano do not face any risk of harm.
Pygmy Hogs
This clip, from the episode of “Planet Earth” that featured great plain areas, shows a female Pygmy Hog building a nest for her 10 piglets. According to the narrator, the Pygmy hog is the smallest type of hog, and there are only a few hundred left in the wild.
Death Valley Bloom
In the episode where the miniseries was showcasing the unique beauty of deserts, the camera crew travelled to Death Valley in eastern California to capture the desert when the plant life is in bloom after a large amount of rain. The before and after shots for this sequence were filmed four months apart.
Giant Panda
This excerpt from the episode filmed in the mountains features the struggle that a Giant Panda goes through to find a decent supply of bamboo in the winter. The clip also includes an intimate moment between a female Giant Panda and her young cub. The episode lapses through time to show the young panda as it ages and begins to open its eyes and walk around. According to the BBC website, this was the first time a panda cub this young has been filmed in the wild, and the cameraman took an incredible risk to get these shots of the panda and its mother.
Polar Bears Emerge
The miniseries’ look at the North Pole features a group of Polar Bears entering into spring as they exit their winter den. This clip features a mother and her cubs enjoying themselves in the snow as the cubs take their first slippery steps.
As “Planet Earth” made its way across the world, audiences got a clear look at what makes our planet so beautiful and unique. The locations for the episodes of “Planet Earth II” have not been announced, but no matter where they go, it is evident that BBC will impress people once more with their intricate exploration of the world and the different living creatures that live there. The first “Planet Earth” series is currently on American Netflix.
