Monday June 23 at 7.30pm

Within a paw’s swipe of the world’s bears

Camouflaged roving cameras provide the most intimate portrayal of these engaging creatures ever seen.

Bouldercam took us to within a whisker of lions in Spy in the Den; Dungcam got close and personal with elephants in Spy in the Family, but Spy in the Woods is the roving camera’s most ambitious deployment yet.

An army of camouflaged cameras unravels the lives of one of the world’s most popular groups of animals: bears. As the cameras blend in with the bears’ environment they capture footage of unprecedented intimacy. The cameras plunge into the water as bears dive for salmon, they are with polar bears as they swim between ice flows and they also follow the antics of some of the cutest spectacled bear cubs one could ever hope to see. The cameras also penetrate the bamboo curtain to gain an astonishing glimpse into the private lives of pandas – even capturing them doing handstands!

The most astonishing device in the arsenal of roving cameras is ‘Magicam’ – a caterpillar-tracked device that uses lessons from the world of magic to effectively vanish into the bears’ environment. As with the best magic tricks, it’s all done by mirrors! ‘Magi-cam’ literally takes on the appearance if the local environment, making it all but invisible to its enchanting subjects.

Using such remarkable technology, this film looks at the giant panda and unravels the mystery of its relationship to other bears. As well as filming totally wild pandas, it also presents a new view of the brown bear and its white cousin: the polar bear. The far-reaching investigation also introduces less well-known bears such as the spectacled bear – the only bear to inhabit South America and the inspiration for Paddington Bear.

State-of-the-art remote techniques bring back truly spectacular footage. In fact, wherever bears hang out, camouflaged cameras are there to record them. And this intimate portrait will make you feel as if you’re just behind the lens.