It took two and half years filming with 40 hidden cameras in one of the world’s most hostile terrains…
But, for the first time in history, Frozen Planet II documentary-makers have captured two of the world’s rarest big cats covering each others tracks.
The Amur Leopard, the rarest big cat in the world, and the gargantuan Siberian Tiger - the largest big cat in the word - were caught on camera tracking each others footprints as they hunted for the same animals.
The pair were filmed by remote hidden cameras in Russia ’s remote Land of the Leopard National Park pre-pandemic.
They appear on the BBC ’s penultimate episode - Frozen Lands - this Sunday.
Crew built specially housed cameras strong enough to sustain the sub-zero winter conditions which could be left out for months on end.
They also had to create software that could be triggered from a distance so they could capture more of these rarely seen creatures.
They worked with Russian park rangers to maintain the cameras and move their locations, as and when they got sightings.
But getting footage did not come without its challenges.
Speaking ahead of the episode - called Frozen Lands - producer Jane Atkins says: “We had a a bear chew one of the cameras and break it. We had a tree fall on another and we had cables just snap because of the minus 35 degree temperatures.
“There were also massive snowstorms. It really was a challenge.
“We also had to play detective, moving the cameras around each time we got a sighting to work out where they were most likely be next.”
It wasn’t until two years in, that they caught a Siberian tiger covering the tracks of an Amur Leopard.
Jane adds: “When we showed that footage to David Attenborough he stopped and said, ‘congratulations. That’s extraordinary to get two big cats walking the same paths.
“It felt really special - this idea that we’re seeing these really extraordinary, really rare big cats, sharing the same paths and same forest.
“They were avoiding each other but being within proximity so that you could see the leopard walking with footprint and then the Syberian Tiger later walking over them.”
Atttenborough says: "Hunting has brought it close to extinction. Only 120 are left in the wild and very few have ever been caught on film."
Yet thanks to ranger's the populations have almost tripled in the last ten years - a truly positive conservation story.
The episode opens with a pack of 25 wolves - one of the largest ever recorded - taking on American bison in northern Canada to avoid starving to death in the winter.
Jane says: “There were days when the temperatures got so low that even the helicopters couldn’t take off.”
