Planet Earth II's penultimate episode took us around the world's grasslands and the creatures who inhabit it - from Asia's saiga antelope to the giant anteater of Brazil.

Beautiful timelapse footage of the grasses rising above the water after a huge storm shows the transformation which takes place in the Okavango Delta in Botswana: 5,000 square miles of grassland which is flooded every year.

(BBC (BBC)

Here we were shown three-month old lion cubs seeing water for the first time, along with one of the most impressive scenes of the series: a huge buffalo who shrugs off his literal weight 9900 kilos) in five lionesses.

"The biggest bulls don't run," narrator David Attenborough explains. "They're simply too huge to be scared of lions."

A bit closer to home for UK viewers was one adorable little harvest mouse in Norfolk, who made a slightly less impressive getaway from a hungry barn owl.

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The way the Planet Earth team manages to get such close shots of the mouse going about its business is jaw-dropping, and the added sound effects make for some extra drama.

Jackson's Widowbirds made for an entertaining spectacle with their mating dance; using trimmed grass stems to create a stage (or "bachelor pad", as Attenborough calls it).

Getting us into the Christmas spirit, the team travelled to the snow-covered prairies of North America to see some hardy bison and a snow-diving fox.

Audiences were also able to see caribou during calving season: over 70,000 caribou babies are born in the space of a few days.

(BBC (BBC)

Soon after birth, they can already run faster than an Olympic sprinter - handy when you need to make a quick getaway from a hungry wolf.