YOU’VE BEEN FREEZE FRAMED!

... or how cameras disguised as animals took the most magically candid shots of all

AT THIS time of year, we all dream of snow and Christmas card-like scenes. But do we really appreciate what it takes to survive in a winter wonderland?

In order to eat and breed in temperatures as low as -40C, you need a few tricks up your sleeve, as a stunning new wildlife documentary reveals.

The team behind Spy In The Snow, an hour-long special narrated by David Tennant, used lookalike cameras to film the secret lives of animals in some of the world’s most breathtaking icy landscapes, from Norway to New Zealand, to give a sneak peek into the lives of some of our most endearing creatures, from polar bears to sea otters.

Their cameras — including one disguised as a penguin, another the shape of a snowball and one that looked like an egg — cost up to €100,000 each and were so realistic some animals thought they were real and even made amorous advances to them.

Among the fascinating insights recorded was an astonishing display from some young Emperor penguins in the Antarctic.

At six months, the chicks are left to fend for themselves. One danger comes from petrels — scavenging birds with wingspans up to two metres. After an attack sees one chick escape by a feather’s breadth, ten young Emperors form a circle to keep the attacker out — behaviour never recorded before.

One plucky chick pulls himself up to his full height — nearly one metre — creating a tense stand-off, until a passing Adelie penguin helps fend off the attacker.

‘Even though Adelies are a different type of penguin, we did wonder if it was thinking, “I look after my own,”’ says producer Matt Gordon. ‘They’re very feisty and fearsome. Even petrels don’t mess with them.’

Another glorious moment involved a family of three-month-old polar bear cubs taking their first tentative steps out of their den and into the snow in northern Norway.

A snow-cam nearby aimed to capture the moment, with a three-man crew monitoring movement from a polar bear-proofed shed several miles away for two weeks.

Matt said: ‘They linked the snow-cam up to a satellite phone that would ring if any movement was detected near the den — finally the phone rang. But all they heard was heavy breathing.

‘It was the polar bear mother breathing into the camera. So basically it was the first phone call from a polar bear.

‘She had managed to control the camera, perfectly framing some shots, like the one inset right, and even pulling off a moving, racking shot — by pushing it down the hill.’

SPY In The Snow will be broadcast tomorrow at 7pm on BBC1.