A THERMAL imaging camera designed in Basildon helped capture remarkable pictures of wild wolves on the hunt.

The footage was used in BBC wildlife series Seven Worlds, One Planet.

The Horizon camera was produced by aerospace engineering firm Leonardo.

It captured footage of European Grey Wolves, for BBC One’s Seven Worlds, One Planet series during the Europe episode.

The show, presented by broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, captured rare footage of the wolves in the Italian mountains.

At the end of the programme, the crew explained the technology behind the Horizon HD TI camera, which allowed the crew to capture behaviours rarely observed in the wild.

Leonardo engineers, Paul Thwaites and Philip Lock, based at the site in Christopher Martin Road, Basildon contributed to the production of the camera.

It has also been used in other natural history series, including Big Cats, Planet Earth Two and Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch.

A spokesman from Leonardo said: “Not only do the cameras have the capacity to pick up nocturnal behaviours that have never been seen before, there are also potential applications to detect poaching and provide an extra layer of protection for these amazing animals.

“The great thing about the cameras, is the crews are able to use them in the toughest terrain – the equipment has to be robust enough to deal with all sorts of environments.”

Instead of detecting light, the cameras sense heat emitted by all objects with a temperature above zero.

Each pixel in the camera’s sensor is one 12th of the thickness of a human hair, and can detect changes as small as one 50th of a centigrade, producing sharp images.

The show which featured the Basildon created camera aired on Sunday, November 24.

The series takes an in depth look into the lives of creatures and wildlife across the seven continents including North America, and Europe. The final episode was due to be aired last night. It is hoped the footage will encourage greater care for the environment by revealing the wonder out there.