When the man, the myth, the legend David Attenborough told us that the snow leopard scene in tonight's 'Planet Earth 2' was "one of the most moving pieces in the whole series," he was 100 percent correct, as you'd expect.
In many ways, the tension supersedes that of the young iguana escaping from a den of snakes, which we thought was very hard to beat.
Tonight, a mother and daughter were caught up in a war with two rival males (mainly thanks to the mum getting the horn) and, when you consider how rare the animals are, this makes what ensued all the more terrifying. She has spent two years raising the cub. However, males can kill children if they are not their own, and the mother ultimately had tho divert their attention to save her cub.
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A spraying snow leopard. Credit: BBC
After putting a call out to mate, a young male finds her but then another one also comes into the frame.
To stop all attention going on her cub, she rolls around and creates a scene so her daughter can escape. A three-way scrap ensues and it's utterly intense. The older male mated with the mother but in the process she got injured, meaning she was unable to hunt. Luckily she got better and the cub reached adulthood. Phew!
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In the programme, the 90-year-old naturalist explains that there are "only about four of them [snow leopards] in 40 square miles." It's always been incredibly difficult to spot them so this footage is very rare. Rare, compelling, breathtaking and awe-inspiring.
Getting so close to the incredible creatures was something utterly spectacular.
Here is some of the scene of the snow leopards leaving their scent, kindly provided by the BBC.
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Credit: BBC/Planet Earth 2
And here's a bunch of people on Twitter going mad over it.
The episode also showed hungry eagles, a group of bears, hunting bobcats, flamingos, and a whole lot more.
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Bring on next week!
Main image credit: BBC
Featured Image Credit:Topics: david attenborough
