In the mountains of Mexico, half a billion monarch butterflies cluster like tightly-knit leaves in the oyamel fir trees (Abies religiosa). A small robot hummingbird spy cam captures the moment from high and up close as the butterflies start to warm up and flutter. The scenes are breathtaking.
This surprising Nature on PBS clip from Spy in the Wild 2 – Episode Two: The North shares “a spectacle that has rarely been filmed.” And the small spy hummingbird, built to not damage the delicate butterflies, “is harmlessly in the very heart of it.”
John Downer Productions created more than 50 realistic animatronic spy creatures for the new miniseries, including a gorilla, Komodo dragon, hummingbird, King penguin, Pygmy elephant, koala, quokka, seal and polar bear. Each spy creature looks like the animals they film and behaves like them, too.
Watch more hummingbird spy cam footage in this calming video:
Plus, more monarch butterfly videos, more hummingbird videos, and these animal cam videos:
• The animatronic animals of Spy in the Wild
• The Best Bloopers from Penguins – Spy in the Huddle
• Spy Hippo spies on an underwater hippopotamus spa
• The secret belowground life of newborn meerkat pups
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