Planet Earth is so spectacular,
it's easy to miss the smaller things in life.
But take a closer look...
and there's a whole undiscovered world.
A world where tiny heroes...
and little monsters...
need incredible superpowers...
to help them triumph against giant odds.
The countryside is changing.
...pollinators.
Intensive farming has been identified as a key reason in the decline in bee numbers.
Rows of single crops now cover the land,
leaving little room for wildlife.
But there are a few precious places...
farmed in a more traditional way.
It may not look that special, but this is one of the rarest habitats on earth.
A European hay meadow...
buzzing with life.
It's an oasis for millions of tiny creatures,
and the ideal home for a harvest mouse.
Like every little marvel in the meadow, she has a lot to do...
and not much time.
By the end of summer, all this...
will be gone.
Springtime brings the meadow to life.
A nest, the size of a tennis ball,
makes a cozy bed for a harvest mouse.
But she can't afford to sleep in.
She needs to raise a family...
before her home is cut down for hay.
Only the size of a wine cork,
the harvest mouse is the smallest rodent in Europe.
But she has a huge appetite.
This early in the year, seeds and berries are thin on the ground.
So she has to forage far and wide across the meadow.
And she must also compete with other rodents.
A bank vole,
eight times her size.
Fast.
And with his own network of pathways through the grass.
To avoid competition, the harvest mouse seeks more exclusive dining.
Grasping feet and a prehensile tail allow her to climb like a little monkey.
Swinging on the thinnest stems...
she can reach places the vole can't...
to feast on the few remaining seeds from last year.
But up here... she's exposed.
Kestrels are specialist rodent hunters.
By hovering, it can spot tiny mammals hiding in the meadow.
The vole's grass tunnels provide some cover.
But with vision three times sharper than a human's,
a kestrel can spot the slightest movement.
All the harvest mouse needs to do...
is keep absolutely still.
Voles make up 90% of a kestrel's diet.
Sometimes the smallest come out on top.
By April, the first wonders of spring are emerging.
A snake's head fritillary packed with nectar and pollen.
There are half a million in this one meadow alone.
And they provide a vital lifeline...
for some of the first to wake after winter.
A queen buff-tailed bumblebee.
Still too cold to fly.
She needs food to warm up.
Queen bumblebees provide the fritillaries with an exclusive pollination service.
In return, these flowers provide all the nectar queen bumblebees need
to get airborne.
She'll visit up to 6,000 flowers a day...
to build up enough reserves for the enormous task at hand.
In just a matter of weeks, this queen needs to raise an army of hundreds.
Last year's seeds are now all but gone.
A hungry harvest mouse will even venture underground in search of food.
But there's no knowing what's lurking in the vole's deserted tunnel.
Sensitive whiskers help her feel her way in the dark...
as a keen sense of smell leads her deeper.
Buried treasure.
The vole's abandoned seed stash.
And...
a male harvest mouse.
Hot on her scent.
This brief encounter is her chance to start a family.
Vacated burrows never stay empty for long.
A meter underground, the queen bumblebee has begun her work...
building a miniature castle of wax.
Each chamber will house a grub, and the food it needs to grow.
Her little empire is taking shape.
As spring warms into summer...
some very exotic travelers fly in.
European bee-eaters journey 6,000 kilometers from Africa...
timing their arrival to the beginning of an insect boom.
They've come to feed...
and to breed.
Soon, the bee-eaters will be a force to be reckoned with.
Early summer, and the meadow is about to explode with life.
This may look like a tangle of weeds...
but to the smallest creatures,
it's a jungle with a canopy bursting with food.
Legions of tiny lives emerge ready to gorge on all the growth.
And monstrous predators emerge to gorge on them.
A newly-hatched praying mantis.
No bigger than a grain of rice.
In just a few weeks...
she grows...
and grows...
until she's 2,000 times the size.
A deadly ambush hunter comes of age.
Despite the growing danger, the summer meadow is still a world of opportunity.
Only the size of an almond, and not much heavier...
an Etruscan shrew.
The world's smallest mammal.
Virtually blind, she navigates through this forest of grass by touch.
She's looking for somewhere safe for her family.
And any spare burrow will do.
Getting them here is the trick.
It's the blind... leading the blind.
Each baby holds on tight to the next...
as Mom steers the world's tiniest caravan...
all the way to their new home.
There's plenty of room.
After all, the whole family could fit inside a matchbox.
At the height of summer, the meadow supports an extraordinary diversity
of rare wildflowers and little creatures.
For the harvest mouse, life has never looked so good.
To make the most of all the meadow's riches,
she builds several tiny tree houses high in the canopy.
The perfect outposts as she forages throughout her home range.
She can go where she wants without touching the ground.
Good thing.
The jungle floor is becoming a no-go zone.
But sometimes, even this little acrobat is pushed to the limit.
Staying safe is more important than ever now.
Because this is not just a nest.
It's her nursery.
She has five tiny pups...
each smaller than a cherry.
To make sure they're big enough to leave the nest before harvest...
Mom is working round the clock.
Underground...
the queen bumblebee has also been busy.
She now has hundreds of daughters.
Her own dedicated army.
The workers help tend the young...
and repair the nest...
as their queen lays more and more eggs.
Their most important job is keeping the expanding colony in supplies.
So her foragers work 14 hours a day,
collecting close to their own weight in nectar and pollen every trip.
A praying mantis can strike in one-twentieth of a second.
But the colony faces a much greater threat.
They're called bee-eaters for a reason.
A bumblebee can fly at 50 kilometers per hour.
But is no match for these aerial assassins.
Despite heavy losses, the loyal air force keeps flying.
The bees are outmaneuvered...
but not outnumbered.
The bee-eaters can't catch them all.
The bumblebees' selfless mission continues.
Their instinct to keep the queen and colony alive is unstoppable.
Well, almost.
It won't be long before the harvest mouse pups are ready to leave the nest.
Some seem to think they're ready now.
Luckily, Mom's always there to keep them out of trouble.
The once peaceful oasis is overrun.
Tiny hoppers that started life in the soil...
are now voracious vegetarians.
Millions of them eating over 500 kilos of vegetation a day.
Stripping the meadow bare.
The meadow viper.
The smallest venomous snake in Europe.
To a tiny insect, it's a monster.
But it's nothing compared to this.
The Etruscan shrew.
Officially, the hungriest mammal in the world.
She needs to eat every hour just to stay alive.
Four centimeters of insatiable fury.
She devours an astonishing six times her body weight each day.
And as soon as she's decimated one spot,
it's time for the family to move on.
Just a half meter up, the harvest mouse avoids the carnage below.
But there's trouble on the horizon.
Harvest is a time of celebration, but in the tiny world...
it's a brutal upheaval.
Some can escape the blades.
But not the birds.
The harvest mouse pups are too small to save themselves.
And their nest is next in line.
A mother will do whatever it takes.
But she can't rescue them all at once.
She must carry her babies one by one.
Safety is in the hedgerow.
The last pup.
The meadow is no more.
But this little mom just doesn't give up...
until the whole family is safe.
The annual harvest may seem destructive...
but it's what keeps the meadow so alive.
Cutting the hay late in summer gives plants a chance to set seed.
And tiny creatures a chance to complete their lives.
A new generation of queens is born.
Every one of them ready to start their own empires.
The young harvest mice can now explore their new home.
They'll stay in the hedgerow until spring.
As one tiny journey comes to an end...
big new adventures are just beginning.
Next year, the meadow will rise again.