Lilliputian adventure

Hidden Kingdoms reveals a world of drama and intrigue at the feet of giants

A lion and a dung beetle

While talking of the natural world, we are naturally drawn towards the biggest — creature, wave, mountain range or tree. However, there are equally exciting and dramatic adventures happening at the feet of giants. It is this miniature world that BBC’s Hidden Kingdoms explores. First broadcast in 2014, the three-episode show premiered on Sony BBC Earth on July 21. Filmed in different landscapes, the series follows two stories in diametrically opposite environments.

The first episode, Under Open Skies , follows two youngsters, an orphaned elephant shrew in the African Savannah and a curious young grasshopper mouse in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. There is no lack of drama in the youngsters’ lives. The elephant shrew or sengi, learns to use the trails of its mother, even as it battles hazards such as monitor lizards and forest fires. The sengi seems almost obsessive about keeping its trail scrupulously clean even as lumbering elephants mess it up. That is the cue for the savannah’s effective waste disposal expert, the dung beetle, to swing into action.

On the other hand, in the desert, a grasshopper mouse decides to leave home and explore the world coming across a sinister rattlesnake, a scorpion and a Harris hawk with vision “eight times as good as ours.” A flash flood results in what would be a trickle to us but a raging torrent for the little mouse. We get to see how the grasshopper mouse got its other name, scorpion mouse, as it battles a deadly scorpion and eats it.

The rainforests of Borneo and the woodlands of North America are the stage for the second episode,

Secret Forests . In the woodlands, a young chipmunk is industriously hoarding acorns for winter. When an older chipmunk raids his stash, the younger chipmunk is racing against time to collect more acorns before winter sets in. Desperate times call for desperate measures and the chipmunk is forced to go near the horned owl’s lair looking for acorns. Barely escaping by the skin of its teeth, the chipmunk fights and wins its stash back from the sly thief. The rapidly-approaching winter in the woodlands is contrasted with the lush rainforest of Borneo and a tree shrew’s constant search for food. When the mangosteen tree is stripped bare of fruit by orangutans, the shrew needs to go further afield to find nourishment. Along the way it meets the bearded pig, that is “as aggressive as it is greedy,” the reticulated python with its heat sensors to track the shrew, flying foxes, prickly porcupines and pangolins who feast on fire ants.

A different kind of jungle forms the backdrop for the third episode, Urban Jungles . A young marmoset is lost in Rio de Janeiro while a rhinoceros beetle battles for its life and freedom in Tokyo. The cities offer their own sustenance and dangers. The marmosets swing down electric cables in Rio to pick food from the trash, danger is in the form of predators and electric shocks. Their biggest enemies are the cats while in Tokyo the crow is the ultimate predator. Insects navigate by the moon but they cannot do so in a mega city like Tokyo with its many bright lights. The jumping spider being confused by the red light while getting its bearings on green is a fascinating study of adaptability.

Narrated by Stephen Fry, with stunning photography,

Hidden Kingdoms proves Mother Nature is an effortless auteur with an inexhaustible store of adventure, pathos and achingly-beautiful visuals.

Hidden Kingdoms airs on July 28 and 29 at 9 pm on Sony BBC Earth.