Ryan sticks up for Underdogs

Unlucky-in-love hyena and bum-hiding fish among world's natural blunders...

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A TINY, translucent fish flits across the screen. We've all seen nature shows - we know how this goes.

Predators are looming behind every rock and before long, that tropical pearlfish will be seafood.

Only this is Underdogs - and this little fishy has no shame whatsoever. So when it spots a giant sea cucumber on the sand, it slithers right up the creature's anus to hide.

Whatever it might lack in dignity, you've got to give the pearlfish credit for resourcefulness.

And for series executive producer Dan Rees, it’s the epitome of the underdog spirit.

"The sea cucumbers are normally highly toxic," he says.

GRUBS

“But the pearlfish is covered in this sort of mucus, which allows it to slip in there, but is also a barrier to the toxin. So it’s amazing behaviour.

"My team came to me and told me this story and I just thought, 'You're never going to be able to film that, are you?' But somehow, they managed it."

The sequence is just one of the never-before-filmed scenes in this expensive-looking five-part series.