The BBC's pioneering biggest ever natural history series – Planet Earth – has been launched.

The corporation's Natural History Unit says the programme aims to give a definitive portrait of life on our planet. Sir David Attenborough said shots allowed by new technology "simply blow the mind."

The presenter also claimed the series was the best he had ever worked on. "Every series, I think, gets better, largely because of the technology," he commented. "We can do more things better than we ever did before... you get animals you never could film before."

Six episodes of Planet Earth - starting today (Sunday) – will be followed by another six later in the year. The series has been in production for four years.

One of the many on-screen firsts in the series is footage of a complete wolves' hunt filmed from the air. Series producer Alastair Fothergill said: "The aerial shots that you will see in Planet Earth simply blow the mind - at least they blow my mind."