Mantis: I know kung fu.
Spider: ......... woah.

This is so incredibly well made it blows my mind.. Its almost too perfect.. makes you think if theres CGI at work here

Can't agree more, I can't believe how good the videography and editing is in this. Great little story.

"Use the force, Neo!"
- Gandalf

PWN3D!

"Or maybe not."

Indeed.

Insane quality.
Still, from a learning biology aspect, at 1:38 they commend its eyesight, but from what I see at 3:30 and the time leading up to it (it is walking right towards danger!) I am thinking "I have seen animals with better vision".

The BBC Natural History unit is one of Sir David Attenborough's finest achievements. They are head and shoulders above the rest of the world when it comes to wildlife film making. Amazingly talented people given the time and resources they need to do truly spectacular things.

It could also say a lot about the quality of the camouflage of the larger mantis.

This is something I've suspected for a few years now. If they are using CG for a lot of these nature closeups, they've got the best in the business because I can't spot it.
I sincerely doubt that's the case simply because they'd be producing hours and hours of flawless, ILM/WETA-level CG, and that's just not feasible.

I agree. This really is one of those situations where it's just easier to film a hell of a lot of footage and pick the best bits than to make it all up with CG. These guys are just really good at what they do, and are given the time and resources they need to make the shots happen.

Also worth remembering for anyone who thinks it's CG that we're not seeing animals performing to a script. The storyline is developed once the footage is taken. They take a look at the footage they have and decide which aspect of the animal's life they can show best with it and run with that. It's easy to watch the sequence above and wonder how they choreographed it all but they didn't. They took shit loads of footage and edited it together to tell a story.

If you take a load of footage and look for the story you want in it you'll struggle, but if you look for the story that's there you'll often find something.