The six-episode series, which screens on Channel 9 from February 15, took three years to make across 40 countries and 117 filming trips but as these stunning pictures show, the result has been worth it.

The new series comes a decade after the ground-breaking original and features revolutionary new technology — including drones and miniature low-light cameras — to get viewers closer than ever before to the animals.

“What Planet Earth II is doing is saying ‘Let’s get ourselves into the lives of the animals, and see it from their perspectives,” executive producer Mike Gunton says.

The series is broken into six episodes covering islands, mountains, jungles, deserts, grasslands and, surprisingly, cities.

“The highest concentration of leopards in the world live in a city, Mumbai,” Gunton says.

“Why do these animals do so well?

“It’s because humans bring this incredibly intense concentration of resources, like food and energy. Animals suddenly have the opportunity to piggyback on that.”

The most spectacular scenes take place in the wild as cameras get up close to a lioness stalking her prey in Namibia, tree frogs in Costa Rica, pygmy sloths in Panama, and spider monkeys in Guatemala.

In Madagascar, a locust swarm stretches over 300 square kilometres. In Botswana swamp lions prey on the deadly opponent, Cape buffalo, five times their size.

Sneak Peek! David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II

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For the first time, four incredibly rare snow leopards were filmed together in the Himalayas. The most humorous sight is grizzly bears in Canada rubbing against trees like crazy pole dancers.

Footage of racer snakes chasing newborn iguanas on the beaches of the Galápagos Islands has already gone viral on YouTube.

Gunton is most proud of the sequence that takes place on Zavodovski, a small volcanic island in the Sub Antarctic which is home to the world’s biggest colony of chin strap penguins.

“It took us over a year to plan the trip,” Gunton says.

“The island’s beaches are too rough to land on so you have to access it via the cliff with 12 metre waves crashing around you. It is a powerful story of the penguins’ challenge to survive and raise their chicks.

“Sir David was very excited about the material we were getting for Planet Earth II because we were able to show him things that were completely new. It is a very positive reassurance that you’re on the right track when he thinks it is good.”

Planet Earth II, 7.30pm, Wednesday February 15, Nine.