Peering into the darkness and, while the world sleeps, discovering and filming the secrets of nature. Achieving this feat for the first time is the Netflix original series Night on Earth. It consists of six episodes, available from 29 January on the streaming platform, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the wonders of nature during its darkest hours. An opportunity not only to savour the beauty of Mother Nature when the human eye cannot capture it, but also to allow for extraordinary scientific revelations.

Night on Earth, this is no ordinary documentary

While many documentaries have been made about nature and animal behaviour, it had never before been possible to observe up close what happens in the animal world at night. What makes it possible is revolutionary technology, employing thermal cameras and the latest generation of ultra-high-sensitivity cameras, which have allowed intrepid and tenacious film crews to capture incredible images.

Scattered across the planet's most fascinating habitats, the camera operators and directors of Night on Earth, accompanied by experts and biologists, braved extreme conditions to accomplish something never done before: discovering how prey and predators behave after the sun goes down.

The result is a breathtaking series, capable of illuminating the darkest hours in a new and captivating light, discreetly spying on animals of every species. From the polar bears of the Svalbard Islands in the Arctic Ocean to the cheetahs of the African savannah; from vampire bats hidden in caves along the Pacific coast of Peru to the countless species of the Argentine jungle and of Borneo; from the long-tailed macaques of the urban jungles of Thailand to the ocean depths, where human activity forces species to adopt new behaviours in order to survive.

Nature, the sole (and unsettling) protagonist

The series chooses to leave the entire stage to nature, with no human interference intruding. The only exception is the narrator's voice, entrusted, in the Italian version, to Alessandra Mastronardi, who guides us with discretion and elegance through this long, and at times unsettling, nocturnal journey.

In the first episode, Moonlit Plains, we cross the African savannah following a group of cheetahs on the hunt, venture into the scorched lands of Mexico — where we discover the fundamental role of bats in the survival of cacti and the immense biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert — and travel all the way to the Peruvian desert, where we witness an unprecedented confrontation between vampire bats, fur seals and sea lions. These are stories that show how the life and death of prey and predators are closely bound to lunar phases, and how super senses, honed over centuries by different species, help them cope in the most extreme situations, where sight alone is often not enough.

The series continues with Frozen Nights: a journey through the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth. From the long Arctic nights, where a family of polar bears struggles to survive, to Japan, where a community of macaques, on the edge of survival, withstands the cold thanks to a thermal spring.

Full of surprises and terrifying wonders are Jungle Nights. The third episode takes us where most of us will never have the opportunity (or the courage) to go: into the densest jungle vegetation, where the darkness beneath the thick canopy can at times seem impenetrable, and where during the night hours only 2 per cent of moonlight reaches the ground. Here we will encounter a wide variety of animal species that populate the undergrowth and hide among the trees. Frightening insects, monkeys, flying squirrels, but also bioluminescent fungi and carnivorous plants.

From dark seas to cities that never sleep

The next-generation cameras also descended into Dark Seas, with an episode entirely dedicated to showing what happens in the pitch-black depths of the ocean. A journey that reveals how the age-old lunar cycles mark, through the tides, the rhythm of aquatic life during what are described as the "most magical nights on planet Earth". From the Australian Great Barrier Reef, where the high tide of the full moon allows turtles to come ashore to lay their eggs, to the Lembeh Strait in Indonesia, home to the richest waters on the planet, teeming with thousands of the most bizarre species, whose lives unfold almost entirely at night.

More unsettling is the fifth episode, Sleepless Cities, which takes us to places around the world where nature comes face to face with urbanisation. As we know all too well, urban habitat is expanding at an unmatched pace across the planet, forcing many animals to adapt to city environments and adopt new survival strategies. Long-tailed macaques, which populate Thailand's metropolises, are one example; as are the elephants of southern Africa, which now find their migration routes blocked by sprawling new urban centres that effectively bar their way.
These are stories that invite reflection and allow us to see with our own eyes the impact that human activity, heedless of the surrounding natural world, can have on wildlife too.

The final episode, Dusk to Dawn, reveals how wildlife around the world behaves during the night-time hours. From the poetic images of Caribbean flamingos in the Yucatán, bathed in the light of the full moon, to the army of 20 million bats in Texas — in effect the largest gathering of mammals in the world — fleeing from hungry hawks.

A leap into the dark, the episode that shows the heroic behind the scenes

To unveil the story behind the undertaking, the episode Night on Earth: A Leap into the Dark was also produced. A behind-the-scenes look that delves into some of the most incredible discoveries and shows how the crew used the latest technologies for night-time filming, amid extremely rare sightings and unexpected revelations.

Such as the one made at the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya, which confirmed the research of Dr Femke Broekhuis. Her studies had hypothesised that cheetahs, considered diurnal predators, also hunt at night — a claim that attracted considerable scepticism from her colleagues. Joining the crew in a vehicle fitted with a camera sensitive to moonlight, she was able to witness it for herself. An indescribable thrill for someone who has devoted more than a decade of her work to these studies.

Particularly fascinating are the thermal camera sequences, which detect body heat and produce on screen a strikingly sharp, high-contrast image of great visual impact. Using this technology, and with the help of infrared lights, a remarkable and exceedingly rare event was captured on film: a family of owl monkeys in the Argentine forest. These are the only monkeys in South America to be active at night, when all the forest's fruits are theirs for the taking.

Also deserving of our full gratitude is camerawoman Justine Evans, who — as we discover only by watching the behind-the-scenes episode — agreed to climb an extremely tall tree in the Borneo jungle. A task that required her to spend entire nights alone, surrounded by giant ants, on a platform installed thirty metres above the ground. The feat was rewarded with one of the most memorable sightings in the entire series: that of a young orangutan searching for ripe fruit in the darkness. Another unexpected discovery for the scientific world, and another unforgettable moment for viewers.