By the time people arrived, the Solomons were packed with almost a quarter of the plants and animals found in New Guinea...including their old adversary,the saltwater crocodile.
A 60-mile swim would be an unimaginable feat for most animals but salties are not most animals.
One of the few crocodiles to tolerate saltwater, they are also the largest and strongest swimmers.
Guided by an internal compass, they made landfall throughout the Solomons and became the most easterly population of crocodiles in the Pacific.
Once arrived, they'd have had plenty to feast on.
The waters surrounding New Guinea and the Solomons are the richest and most diverse in the world.
Indeed, there are more species of fish on one of these reefs than in the whole of the Caribbean.
But how did all this life reach the Solomons from New Guinea?
You might think it would be easy for a fish to swim between these small islands.
But not so.
You wouldn't find these little fish in deep water.
The open ocean beyond their shallow reef is, in fact, a huge barrier.
So how did all these fish come to be here?
Colonising new reefs is a challenge faced by fish across the South Pacific,but they have a simple solution.
Once a year, thousands of groupers gather on the reefs.
With the coming of the full moon,an extraordinary event unfolds.
They spawn.
A female darts up and releases millions of eggs, quickly followed by the males,who jostle to fertilise them.
But starting new life can end in death.
Grey reef sharks.
Groupers are normally too quick for sharks...but a distracted grouper is shark bait.
The sharks may snatch a few adults,but millions upon millions of fertilised grouper eggs are picked up by the current.
Out in the open ocean, they hatch into larvae and become part of the vast plankton soup.
And it's not just fish that depend on the whim of the open ocean to disperse their larvae.
Land crabs and other crustaceans do too.
But there's a deadline.
They each have a set number of days to reach new islands.
Astonishingly,
these larvae are able to home in on the smells and sounds of distant reefs.
Out of the millions of larvae
that set off, only a small fraction will succeed in colonising new islands.
Curiously, some freshwater fish also spawn at sea and use the sea to help their larvae colonise rivers.
These freshwater eels in the Solomons began their lives hundreds of miles away,possibly in a deep sea trench off New Guinea.
Yet as larvae and then elvers, they made their way into these freshwater pools and over 40 years,grew into two-metre giants.
The eels are highly prized by the locals.
These Solomon Islanders hand feed them, not to fatten them up for dinner but to encourage them to stick around.
By scavenging on whatever's decaying here, the eels clean the islanders'precious pools of drinking water...and over time, the honorary guests have become tame.
One day, these adult freshwater eels will return to the sea to spawn...after which they'll die.
For now, they are as good as pets.


North of the equator, 2,500 miles from the nearest landmass of North America,lies the most isolated chain of islands in the world - Hawaii.
The longest archipelago in the Pacific, Hawaii consists of over 100 ancient volcanic islands, stretching for 2,000 miles.
Yet it is so remote that less than 500 kinds of animal settled here in 30 million years.
But for those who did make it to this lush and fertile land,the world was their oyster.
Here, coconut palms have been replaced by giant tree ferns standing over seven metres tall.
From the 13 kinds of spider that made it here, over a 100 new species evolved - like the happy-face spider.
From just one species of fruit fly came over 1,000 others.
And here, caterpillars were free to become carnivores.
CATERPILLAR CRUNCHES
Hawaii's 20 surviving species of honey creeper also evolved from just a few individuals.
Compared to seabirds, honey creepers are poor fliers.
So how did the ancestors of these forest birds and Hawaii's other castaways get here?
The answer may be blowing in the wind.
Even the gentlest breeze can have a huge impact.
Tree ferns stir and release their lightweight spores.
Thermal updrafts can carry the spores 30,000 feet into the jet stream.
And there are even animals designed to ride these high-altitude air currents.
Near-weightless spiderlings are expert ballooners, catching the wind with their gossamer threads.
Like spores, they, too, can hitch a ride on the jet stream.
Enduring temperatures of minus 30 degrees centigrade,a spider can cross the breadth of the Pacific in a matter of days.
Larger insects and animals need more than a breeze to carry them away.
Vast tracts of warm water are a perfect environment for cyclones.
Over half the cyclones on the planet - around 30 a year - form in the Pacific Ocean.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Heated by the warm tropical sun,water evaporates and forms massive thunderstorms,fuelling a whirling vortex...in some cases up to 500 miles wide.
When they collide with islands,they unleash their fury.
Winds in excess of 100mph can uproot a forest.
Large insects can be sucked up into the sky...so why not birds, bats and lizards?
In fact, all these creatures are known to have been carried hundreds of miles out to sea by cyclones.
When the storm subsides, most will meet a watery grave.
But a very, very lucky few will land on firm ground and from these survivors,a whole island dynasty may be born.
No matter how remote the Hawaiian islands are, or how hostile,there is one creature that has reached almost all of them.

It was time to move on.
70 miles to the east, they reached the island of Liapari,in the central Solomons.
We're hoping to film some crocs in a freshwater lake,which we...we hear is "stacka".
The big question is, is there going to be stacka too much crocodiles or stacka little bit?
Once more, they were regaled by stories of giant crocodiles.
You say the old man, he talk to the crocodiles?
I try to explain it.
He knows the crocodiles, he's got some, you know, magic...Magic.
...That they can work together.
But there were words of warning.
Unnerved by tales
of man-eating crocs, Mark and Wade headed off in search of the crocodile lake.
On the way, they passed some sinister sights.
A skull shrine - evidence of the island's head-hunting past.
SPEAKS IN PIDGIN
So this sacred place with theYeah, yeah.
..Is guarded by the crocodiles of the lake?
Reaching the lake, Wade and Mark edged as close as they dared.
Would they see any of these legendary crocs?
(We've got no idea how big these saltwater crocs are,(but we don't dare get any closer - it could be too dangerous.)That afternoon, Wade got his first shot of a modestly sized,two-metre crocodile.
Despite camping out for three days,they failed to spot anything larger.
Whatever big crocs were out there did not materialise.
It was beginning to feel like a wild croc chase, but they decided to push on to new islands.
A hundred miles east, they dropped anchor in Marovo Lagoon.
Wade explored the maze of mangroves - prime crocodile country.
INDISTINCT SPEECH
That was rather sobering advice.
I was paddling quite close to the bank - he told me to come back out into the middle because that's where the crocodiles are.
They called in at the local village to ask their advice on where to stake out,discovering worrying signs of big crocodiles at large.
SPEAKS IN PIDGIN
Only a large crocodile
would be capable of inflicting such a horrific injury.
The village chief confirmed that attacks on both the villagers and their livestock were on the increase.
With displaced crocodiles now encroaching on villages, there appeared to be a growing conflict.
CHILDREN SING
WADE: Do you think he's a danger?
# ..Thank you for your love... #To learn more about these problem crocodiles,the team headed to the Solomons' capital, Honiara - headquarters for the international peacekeeping force policing both the islanders and their crocodiles.
We've had some tragedies here where people have lost their life or been injured.
Not nice at all, and that worries us,but I think we have a system to manage that inasmuch that we've got this team of people that are skilled and well trained to go and destroy them.
Not that we really want to do that,but when it's asked for, we'll go and do it.
So the large crocodiles have good reason to be camera-shy.
Hunted down, only the wiliest crocs survive.
It seemed that the team's best chance was away from people.
The peacekeepers had recommended the wild and mostly uninhabited coast of Guadalcanal.
On the tip-off of a large crocodile seen laying up on this lonely stretch of beach,Wade set up his camera hide one last time and the long wait began.
It's almost dawn. It's been a long,long, long, long night.
Absolutely nothing.
All I've seen is a dog and some crabs.
I can only figure that the crocodile knows I'm here.
He's a big, old, smart bugger, for sure, and if he's grown that big,it's obviously from being smart,and he's outsmarted me.
Yet it was at dawn, after a three-day vigil, that an impressive, three-metre crocodile finally appeared.
In the end, Wade only managed to record a few minutes of footage of these camera-shy giants.
But these images were proof of the existence of large saltwater crocodiles in the Solomons - the last living legends in the South Pacific.


But that's no problem for the sea lions, who simply scare them out with bubbles.
With the sea lions distracted, the fish regroup and the chase starts all over again.
The riches of the Galapagos were something the survivors of the Essex could only fantasise about.
One month into their ordeal, and still adrift in the Desolate Region,they were slowly starving.
What the sailors didn't know was that the endless blue hides a secret.
At dusk, huge areas of otherwise empty ocean are transformed.
Squid shoot up from the depths to feed near the surface.
Surprisingly, there are more squid in the ocean than fish...and they take part in the greatest migration of animals on the Earth.
Every night, a world of creatures rise up from the depths to dine on the small amounts of surface plankton.
They are among the strangest- looking life forms on our planet.
In this dark world, some are see- through,perhaps for camouflage.
Some create their own light to communicate or lure in their prey.
Others form inexplicable alliances.
This young slipper lobster may be using this jelly as a buoyancy aid.
Some of these ocean vagrants may offer protection,like this pyrosome is doing for the shrimp.
In the world's deepest ocean, averaging over two-and-a-half miles deep,new species are constantly being discovered.
Like this seahorse, never filmed before.
At dawn, these little-known creatures retreat into the safety of the abyss.
CLICKING
But there are some predators that can follow them down.
Short-finned pilot whales are accomplished deep-sea divers.
Leaving the barren upper layers behind,they can swim over half a mile down and use their sonar to track the huge shoals of squid.
CLICKING
But they too are being tracked.
FAST CLICKING
Oceanic whitetip sharks, three metres long,and completely at home in the open ocean.
They may not be able to dive deep enough to catch the squid themselves... but that won't stop them hanging around for scraps.
Or maybe they're sizing up the calf.
This one, however, is well guarded by the bulls.
CLICKING
But in the endless blue, where the odds of finding a meal are so low,even the slimmest opportunity is worth a try.
Perhaps this is why the oceanic whitetip is thought to be responsible for more attacks on shipwrecked sailors than any other shark in the Pacific.
The survivors of the Essex were at the mercy of sharks.
As one sailor wrote, "Our utmost efforts, which were at first directed to kill him for prey,"became, in the end, self-defence." Now, more than ever, they needed the salvation of land.
SQUAWKING
Seabirds would have been a ray of hope.
While tropic birds can survive at sea for months on end,others, like frigate birds, return to roost every night, so are a sure sign of nearby land.
Guided by the sun, stars and the Earth's magnetic field,seabirds navigate over thousands of miles of featureless ocean.
They must all return to land to breed, often on little more than dots of sand, which makes their navigational skills even more impressive.
The greatest ocean wanderer, with its two-metre wingspan,is the albatross.
To find enough food for its oversized offspring,this black-footed albatross may have travelled a staggering 6000 miles across the open ocean looking for hotspots of squid and fish.
BEAKS CLATTER
SQUAWKING
The albatross nest
on the tiny Hawaiian islands of French Frigate Shoals.
This island may be only half a mile long,CHEEPING
CHEEPING
With food so hard to come by in the open ocean,newly hatched sooty tern chicks are easy pickings for the larger frigate birds.
For hours on end, they survey the nesting grounds...waiting for a chance to strike.
SQUAWKING
A mother tries desperately to protect her helpless chick.
CHEEPING
SQUAWKING
But an unguarded chick is desperately vulnerable.
It's what the frigate has been waiting for.
FRENZIED SQUAWKING
CHEEPING
SQUAWKING AND CHEEPING
CHEEPING
No wonder the crew of the Essex called them the "man of war" birds.
SQUAWKING
For two weeks, the frigate birds keep up their relentless aerial assault until finally the sooty tern chicks are old enough to get away.

Bull sperm whales also undertake epic voyages across the Pacific.
To reach such a gargantuan size,young bulls must leave their family groups in the tropics and go in search of richer pickings.
SNORTING
And so they head for the temperate seas of the higher latitudes.
Crossing thousands of miles of ocean, many voyage to one of the greatest feeding grounds in the South Pacific - New Zealand.
and journeying south, its coastal waters become progressively cooler and weather-beaten.
known as the Roaring Forties blast the coastline.
Yet it is the foul weather that produces the abundance of life found in these cold waters.
Storm-churning and colliding currents unlock the deep's great reserve of nutrients and send them to the surface.
In these temperate seas, corals are replaced by forests of seaweed.
In the summer, giant kelp can grow a staggering foot and a half a day.
These waters may not support the diversity found in coral reefs, but they boast a far greater volume of animals.
And a lot of fish means a lot of fish-eaters.
Dusky dolphins off the coast of Kaikoura in New Zealand's South Island are so well fed that they can form superpods a thousand strong.
SQUEAKING
SQUEAKY BUZZING
CLICKING AND BUZZING
SNORTING
After their epic journey from the tropics, the young bull sperm whales have finally made it.
Sperm whales dive deeper than any other whale.
They are drawn here by the fabulous wealth of deep-sea creatures - even the giant squid that lurk in the depths of a vast underwater canyon.
To dive so deep and remain there for over an hour,whales must spend around ten minutes filling their lungs and blood with oxygen...much to the interest of a passing fur seal.
These young bulls will now spend another 15 years bulking up in the nutrient- rich seas.
Only when they have become 30-tonne giants will the largest predators on Earth finally return to the tropics to compete for a mate.
200 years ago, on the other side of the South Pacific,the journey of our whalemen was coming to an end.
94 days after the ship was scuttled by a sperm whale,one of the whale boats was finally spotted 400 miles off the coast of Chile.
Only Captain Pollard and Ramsdell remained,gnawing on the bones of their dead shipmates.
RIGGING CREAKS
17 days earlier, in their darkest hour, they had drawn lots, executed and eaten them.
WATER SLOSHING
Of the three boats that were cast adrift, two resorted to cannibalism.
One was never seen again.
Navigating and surviving in this vast, remote wilderness had proved almost impossible for these experienced sailors.
And at times, even the ultimate ocean travellers need help.
Natural harbours may be safe havens for sailors, but for the migratory whales, they can be death traps.
WAVES CRASHING
A pod of 12 bull sperm whales has become fatally stranded.
Was this stranding caused by one whale making a navigational error?
No-one knows.
But with social bonds so strong,the other whales can't help but follow.

第四集 海洋火山
This tiny South Pacific island may not look like much.
But it was once a mountain that towered above the waves.
Now it barely breaks the surface.
Yet still it attracts a spectacular array of wildlife.
There are thousands of islands just like this scattered across the Pacific,and all are teeming with life.
So what has reduced the mountains of the Pacific to this?
Almost seven miles deep, the Pacific is the deepest body of water on the planet.
But sometimes, the seabed shoots to the surface.
Behold one of nature's rarest sights...
(MUFFLED EXPLOSION)
(STEAM HISSES)
..the creation of a new island.
This is Kavachi in the Solomon Islands...one of the most active undersea volcanoes in the world.
(MUFFLED EXPLOSION)
(HISSING)
In the last 100 years, Kavachi has emerged above the waves just a handful of times,but so far to no avail.
Powerful waves keep sweeping its efforts away.
This is a view of the Pacific as seen from space - a vast expanse of water that covers almost a third of the Earth's surface.
is land, and much of it owes its existence to the explosive powers of volcanoes like Kavachi.
1500 miles north of the equator,perhaps the most famous group of volcanic islands in the world - Hawaii... still one of the most volcanically active areas on Earth.
And this is Kilauea.
Like all volcanoes, it's plumbed into the very heart of the Earth - home to a lot of hot, angry rock.
below the ocean's floor, this lava has flowed nonstop for 25 years.
(GLOOPING)
On the lower slopes, the lava travels at less than 100 metres an hour betraying little of its awesome power.
(CREAKING AND SPLINTERING)
Nothing can survive this smouldering blanket.
As the crust cools, it is lifted by the lava still flowing beneath it.
The advance is relentless and unpredictable, changing direction without notice.
(FIRE CRACKLES)
Roads here are regularly swept away and some are now buried under 35 metres of rock.
In the last 20 years, more than 200 homes have been destroyed by Kilauea's flow.
And it doesn't stop here.
(ROARING)
Rivers of liquid rock plunge over the cliffs and into the water below.
(HISSING)
This is the front line in a battle between the elements.
(WAVES WHOOSH AND STEAM HISSES)Most of the lava is swept away before it can settle.
But inch by inch, the island grows.
(MUFFLED CLATTERING)
Below the waves, the battle rages on.
(SMASHING)
As the lava hits the water, it's burning at over 1000 degrees Celsius.
(SHATTERING)
Cold currents from the deep send its temperature plummeting,releasing steam with explosive consequences.
(EXPLOSION AND SHATTERING)
The lava fights on, but it's only a matter of time before its fire goes out.
(EXPLOSIONS)
The commotion attracts attention.
But it will be some time before it's safe to settle here.
Pouring into the sea, Hawaii's lava has forged almost 2.5 square kilometres of new land in less than 25 years.
It's cold, hard rock - bleak, threatening and barren.
But there are some colonisers who just won't be put off.
'Ohi'a lehua, a native plant and symbol of Hawaii,is among the first to flourish on this new land.
This spindly bush will grow into a 30m-tall tree, its bright flowers food for a variety of birds, like these Hawaiian honey creepers.
But how on earth can a seed become a tree in a place where there is no soil and no sign of fresh water?
The long, tenacious roots of the 'ohi'a wend their way through the cracks and penetrate deep into the rock in search of trapped water and nutrients.
Their quest leads them to a remarkable, subterranean world.
(DRIPPING WATER ECHOES)
Once, a raging torrent of lava flowed right through here.
When it stopped, this was all that remained.....a lava tube.....pitch black,constantly damp...and very cold.

(DRIPS ECHO)
Can anything survive in this harsh world?
Amazingly, yes.
Patches of bacteria line the walls,feeding on the minerals in the volcanic rock itself.
But that's not all.
This is the small-eyed big-eyed hunting spider - a curious name for any spider,let alone one whose eyes barely function.
But in total darkness, eyes are little use.
Although he can't see it, the spider has company.
Rare crickets scale the rocks... while translucent earwigs and milky millipedes forage for food.
These are cave specialists, or troglobites, and they never leave the lava tube.
Over time, most have lost their eyes and colour...like this plant hopper.
Its tail has a curious function.
Any predator biting it from behind will be left with nothing but a mouthful of irritating, waxy hair.
This is a place of ghostly stillness - a definite advantage for the small-eyed big-eyed hunting spider.
With its super-sensitive leg hairs,it can pick up the slightest movement in the air...and it senses the cricket's presence long before it's close enough to ambush.
As prey are few and far between,this may be its last meal for some time.
With no light and little vegetation,only the specialists survive here.
But that isn't the case for all lava tubes.
Southeast of Hawaii, straddling the equator, lie the Galpagos Islands.
As on Hawaii, some of the volcanoes here are still very active.
(WHOOSHING)
The coastline of Isabela - the largest island - is covered in volcanic rock.
Here a very different kind of animal can be found in the rocky tubes.
(CHEEPING)
The chicks of Galpagos penguins.
Without the lava tubes, they wouldn't survive.
Cool and sheltered, the tubes are the perfect nursery, protecting the chicks from the unforgiving temperatures outside.
Unforgiving if you're a penguin,that is.
Adult Galpagos penguins only cope by doing something the chicks can't yet do.
They take a dip.
The adults plunge into cool waters that have travelled all the way from the Antarctic.
Who says penguins can't fly?
There's lots of food here, as schools of fish are drawn to the shelter of these rocky, volcanic shores.
But while the parents are out fishing... their chicks are home alone.
Back in the lava tube, there's something creeping around.
A Sally Lightfoot crab has penguin on its mind.
(CHEEPING)
It's dark, so the crab can't be sure exactly what it's up against.
(CHEEP)
(CHEEPING)
This time, it's taken on more than it can handle.
Had the encounter been just a few days earlier, the outcome might have been very different.
Crabs are major predators of baby penguins.
Far to the west, in the Solomon Islands, lives an animal that depends on another characteristic of volcanoes for its survival.
Heat.
(BURBLING)
Meet the megapode, also known as the incubator bird.
Megapodes work hard to find the perfect spot to lay their egg.
And thanks to this island's volcanic springs, that spot is just a foot or two below the sand,where the temperature is an ideal 33 degrees.


But some megapodes don't seem as keen to dig as others... and this can sometimes lead to fights.
(SQUAWKING)
With the dispute finally settled,the victor lays an egg and covers it with sand.
Parenting over, the megapode leaves the time-consuming job of incubation to the volcano.
(CHIRRUPING)
While the megapode thrives on a volcano's heat, back in Hawaii, there's a creature that thrives on the exact opposite.
This is Mauna Kea...a dormant volcano and Hawaii's tallest mountain.
Incredibly for a tropical island,its peak is covered with snow.
Little can survive at such freezing heights.
Bugs blown up here don't stand a chance.
Stunned or trapped in snow, they slowly die.
(ICE CREAKS STEALTHILY)
But not everything succumbs to the cold.
These tiny creatures are wekiu bugs.
Their cells are filled with a special kind of antifreeze that allows them to live around the snow line.
Originally, wekiu bugs were seed-eating vegetarians, but their descendants have adapted to this hostile environment.
Now with a taste for blood, they are the Pacific's own vampire bugs.
Needle-sharp mouthparts pierce their dead and dying victims,before they suck out anything that's left inside.
Measured from the sea floor, the wekiu's home is the tallest mountain in the world...about a kilometre taller than Everest.
But it won't hold this record for ever.
After millions of years of growth, this mountain is slowly but surely losing height at a rate of 20 centimetres every 100 years.
In fact, it's so massive that it's buckling the seafloor beneath it and sinking into the ocean.
Mauna Kea's future can be glimpsed in the Society Islands of French Polynesia.
The peaks of these islands once rose much higher than this from the ocean floor.
It's been almost two million years since their volcanoes first broke through the ocean.
But erosion is washing away their volcanic cores.
Now the only growth occurs just below sea level, on what was once the mountain's sloping flanks.

In the shallow waters around an island's base, coral reefs rise towards the surface.
Of all the formations in the Pacific,these reefs are by far the richest in life.
There are hundreds
of different kinds of coral.
And all are made up of millions of tiny creatures called polyps,each covered in a hard skeleton.
Reefs are home to thousands of specialists...like these razorfish that blend in to the staghorn coral around them.
But not all animals here need to blend in.
Grey reef sharks.
The reef's top predators, these sharks patrol the waters on strong currents.
But without all the life on the reef here, they could never exist in such numbers.
They may be idle right now, but they won't remain this way for long.
As night falls... it's feeding time.
Needlefish stalk the coral shallows in search of food.
Predators by day, at night they become the prey.
Speeding away at 20mph, the needlefish give the chasing sharks a run for their money.
But it's hard to escape from so many.
Daylight reveals another reef predator.
Crown-of-thorns starfish... coral killers.
Climbing over their prey, they secrete digestive juices that turn the inside of the coral to liquid.
Then they suck out the nutrients,leaving nothing behind but a ghostly skeleton In only a few days, they can kill huge swathes of the reef.
Fortunately, coral has an unlikely ally...the Triton's trumpet.
Believe it or not, this is a predator on the prowl...its killer pounce revealed only when time is speeded up.
An unlikely hero, perhaps.
But the Triton's trumpet is an invaluable control on these starfish.
And the crown-of-thorns isn't the only coral killer on the reef.
The razor-sharp beaks of bumphead parrotfish also put a dent in this living landscape.
A single fish can chew its way through a staggering five tonnes of coral a year.
Smaller parrotfish, colourful cousins of the bumphead, are also at it.
But they all give a little back...as the ground-up coral comes out as sand.
This is island building of a different kind.
So some of the Pacific's most elegant beaches have sprung from a less than stylish birth.
Above the water, time seems to stand still.
But the Pacific islands are always changing...if slowly.
This is Bora Bora...a volcano in what could be called "late middle age".
The sloping flanks have slipped further into the sea,pushing the reef away from the shore.
A lagoon is formed.
It's a patchwork of coral outcrops and sand.
Protected from the powerful waves of the surrounding ocean,all kinds of animals take refuge in these calm, shallow waters.
Some take comfort in their bold appearance.
But others take shelter in the coral.
Such as these sedentary and appropriately named Christmas tree worms, filtering food from the gentle currents.
For many, entire lives are played out within the clumps of coral.
Mandarin fish.
A dozen of them may inhabit one outcrop.
Males are always on the hunt for a mate.
And competition is fierce.
Disputes start with a polite warning.


The rising dorsal fin is a clear signal to back off.
But sometimes, going for the jugular is the only way.
The fight over, it's time to get down to business.
Spawning is a brief affair.
Then the eggs are left to the mercy of the current.
Life in the lagoon depends on a daily flushing of water from the open ocean.
This flows in through channels formed by natural gaps in the reef.
With each changing tide, a soupy river of debris and nutrients flows out of the lagoon and into the blue.
This attracts all sorts of life.
One regular visitor to the channels is the gently gliding manta ray.
It filters out minute creatures floating in the currents.
But there's more than enough to go around.
Schools of snapper take the lead... while a wall of fusiliers mops up the remains.
Across the South Pacific, time continues to work its magic on rock.
Millions of years of erosion and sinking have reduced the volcanic mount of Maupiti to little more than a hill.
Eventually, this hill will disappear too.
And when it does, it will look like this...Mataiva, a coral atoll.
Rising above the waves, a coral atoll's reef surrounds a shallow lagoon.
Where there was once a mighty peak,now there is only water.
There are thousands of atolls like Mataiva dotted around the South Pacific their size and shape determined by the original volcano.
Some atolls are round, their rings unbroken...while others have been bent out of shape by ocean currents and earthquakes.
And a few span huge distances,a testament to volcanoes whose size and power were once truly colossal.
Rangiroa in French Polynesia.
Over 30 miles wide, its lagoon is so large that if you were floating in its centre,you wouldn't see land in any direction.
The story of land building in the South Pacific may start with volcanic eruptions...but it doesn't end there.
A volcano once formed an island here,but it sank back below the surface.
Now it's on the rise again.
This is the extraordinary Kingman Reef.
from the nearest continent, it is one of the last pristine coral reefs left in the world.
As tourism and fishing are banned here,the reef is about as close as you'll get to the Pacific as it used to be,before humans arrived.
Part of what makes Kingman extraordinary is the 200types of coral found here.
But there's also something else.
And it's helping to build the reef.
Giant clams...everywhere.
More than you'll see on any other reef in the world.
When giant clams spawn, they expel millions of eggs into the water.
And when one starts, all the others quickly follow.
The sea soon turns cloudy...with life.
Giant clams can live for over 50 years.
But it's their death that is crucial to the creation of land in Kingman Reef.
These few hundred metres of coral rubble and dead clams are the only visible signs of Kingman above the water.....providing a valuable rest stop to passing voyagers.

Eventually, seeds brought by ocean currents and birds will turn it into a new island.
And once vegetation is established,wildlife is never far behind.
Being good long-distance travellers,fairy terns island-hopped their way here to French Polynesia.
The ancestors of these blue lorikeets, however,were brought here by some of the earliest Polynesians.
It could be described as the ultimate honeymoon destination.
Though the waters off these shores don't always appear too inviting.
Blacktip sharks have adapted to swim in less than a foot of water.
They come to these shallows to hunt for smaller fish.
Like Kingman Reef, all signs of these islands' volcanic past have long since disappeared.
But without it, land could never have got started here.
In the very west of the Pacific,however,volcanoes have had a helping hand.
Palau - the jewel of Micronesia.
As with many islands in the Pacific,its volcanic peaks still linger on.
Beyond their shores are other familiar scenes...barrier reefs...
..and small coral atolls.
But here, there's something different.
The reefs of Palau have risen from the deep not slowly, like Kingman, but suddenly.
earthquakes forced them high above the waves.
And Palau's rock islands were created.
Exposed cliffs now reveal their rock's true origins.
It's limestone, created by crushed coral and ancient shells.
Since those earthquakes, there's been another big change here.
At the end of the last ice age,large areas of this landscape became flooded as the ice melted.
were created.
Cut off from the outside world,these lakes produced some unique animals.
One of these was an ocean predator with long tentacles.
But here, it evolved into a harmless, graceful wanderer.
Jellyfish normally feed on small fish.
But in the lakes, there was little prey.
So their bells have become a home to millions of tiny photosynthesising algae.
When exposed to sunlight, these algae produce sugars, which in turn provide their hosts,the jellyfish, with food.
Now, each day, the jellyfish migrate across the lake, following the arc of the sun.
Their only obstacle, the occasional anemone that tries to catch them as they float past.
And sometimes fails.
So with little danger, and a never-ending supply of food,the jellyfish have multiplied...and multiplied...and multiplied.
It's strange to think that Palau was once just a piece of endless ocean.
But nothing lasts for ever.
The never-ending rise and fall of land in the Pacific will continue to produce strange and wonderful worlds like these.
At the start of it all will always be the incredible natural force that created land here in the first place...the ocean volcano.
During the making of this series, the team filmed in many remote locations across the South Pacific.
These isolated islands are home to some truly unique wildlife, many of them found nowhere else on Earth.
But life on remote islands comes at a price.
Any change can be disastrous.
And this is what the team came face to face with on the Galpagos Islands.
The Galpagos are very special.
It was of course these volcanic islands that inspired Darwin.
And here, there are an astounding number of creatures that exist nowhere else in the world.
One of these unique animals is the Galpagos penguin.
This is what the team wanted to film.
Recently, their survival has become increasingly uncertain.
And the crew knew this could make filming very difficult.
Fortunately, the cameramen had close ties with the Galpagos.
Richard Wollocombe worked as a wildlife guide on Galpagos for several years.
(THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH)
He was aware of the penguins'problems, so this filming trip was a chance to find out more.
Ironically, it's people's love of the islands which has actually caused some of the problems.
The major problem is the big increase in the amount of tourists going to Galpagos has meant that the service industries who supply those tourists have increased the amount of products going to the islands and those products can contain very damaging species, introduce species, which can have huge detrimental impacts on the native flora and fauna.
Richard hoped to film inside the nests of Galpagos penguins.
How easy this was going to be, nobody knew.
Today's penguin population dramatically less Now introduced species are adding extra pressure to the lives of the penguins.
When Richard arrived, the Galpagos authorities were tightening their regulations,and the final filming permission was down to a meeting with the National Park in person.
They've decided to collaborate with our filming.
And they're really excited we're doing the filming because they can collaborate with us with some scientific investigations.
Few observations had ever been made inside a penguin's nest, so filming might reveal some interesting behaviour.
I'm fascinated because I've never seen it on television or video, so it's a first.
However, filming couldn't start immediately.

First, Richard's equipment had to be fumigated and placed in a freezer to kill off anything living - plant or animal - that was carried in on the plane.
It's so amazing to see the level of dedication going on here in this job.
They're going through our equipment with a fine- tooth comb,taking absolutely everything apart and looking at the finest details.
The National Park had cause to be concerned.
Disaster had nearly struck Isabela Island, the very place Richard hoped to film the penguins.
Just a few introduced goats Their indiscriminate grazing devastated the landscape, destroying the shade and food of the unique giant tortoises.
Something had to be done.
The government of Ecuador took on the battle, and, against all odds, managed to eradicate every goat.
(GUNSHOTS)
With the goats gone, the landscape quickly recovered,and the population of the island's precious giant tortoises increased.
The goat invasion did not affect the penguins.
But the penguins have other pressures,and not all man made.
Galpagos penguins are the most northerly penguins in the world.
And they can only live here because of the cold, nutrient-rich current,flowing all the way from the Antarctic, which supports huge shoals of fish -
penguin food.
But just a small change in water temperature can dramatically alter this food source.
And that is exactly what happened.
In 1982, the strongest ever recorded El Nio hit the islands.
El Nio, a natural phenomenon, brings warm waters which destroys the huge shoals of fish.
As a result, penguin breeding failed,and their population crashed by almost 70%.
Ahoy, there!
After 72 hours in the freezer,Richard's film equipment had passed inspection and he was ready to set off.
He was joined by Carolina Larrea Angermeyer, a local scientist who had agreed to take Richard to a location where she knew penguins regularly nested.
It would take 16 hours to reach Isabela Island.
There, they hoped to find the chicks hidden in rocky crevices near the shoreline.
But the search didn't start well.
RICHARD: What's that?
A dead penguin. I saw two more over there.
- Do you think it's a cat?
- Probably.
I'm not sure because it's not very recent, so you cannot really see much of it.
There's the wing there.
Yeah, it's the wing there, but the rest of the body,you cannot really tell because...
RICHARD: Man, can you believe that?
It's pretty depressing if it was a cat.
So this is one of the troubles in Galpagos,is that we have introduced mammals that these animals have not evolved to compete with.
The search continued.
But they didn't find any penguin nests at all.
We still have to check a number of other nests, but, um...I don't think we'll get a chance to see penguin chicks here.
Carolina set up mosquito traps,as there were also fears that avian malaria may have reached the islands.
We might have a bit of a dilemma,because what we were expecting to find was life, not death.
We were expecting to find a new generation of penguins in their nests,um, being tended by their parents.
And it was really a big disappointment to find just dead penguins everywhere.
Tourism is growing by 10% a year in the Galpagos,and with people come invading species.
It's impossible to apply the strict fumigation regulations the filming kit was subject to on the importers and traders.
Other South Pacific islands, like Hawaii,are fighting the same battle.
There, an estimated 30 new species arrive every year.
For several days, Richard and Carolina travelled around the islands searching for penguin nests.
And at last, good news.
We have got two little babies,two-week-old chicks about this big,sitting abandoned on a nest.
Both parents are out feeding right now to try and ensure their survival.
(LAUGHING)
I'm so happy!
I'm really relieved, I have to say.
I am...Phew!
Richard worked quickly
to get the camera in place, and all his efforts were rewarded.
A great view of an adult feeding the chicks.
And to top that, an unexpected visitor to the nest.
RICHARD: The chicks didn't like the crab at all.
Suffice it to say, there was a constant tit-for-tat going on in the nest.
The crab would go forward and the penguins would bite it.
Then the crab would recede into the shadows.
It was really interesting for a while. It looked quite ominous.
No, it's quite unusual, I think.
I don't think that's... Certainly no-one in Galpagos has seen what goes on in the nests at night-time.
So this is all very novel, very new and very, very exciting.

第五集 奇异的岛屿
05 Strange Islands
Remote and isolated, the islands of the South Pacific have a life of their own.
Animals have been living in seclusion for so long, they've evolved in the most curious and surprising ways.
But island living can carry a high price.
Recently, some dramatic changes have been sweeping through these strange islands.
At the western limits of the Pacific Ocean, this is New Guinea, the world's largest tropical island.
In these isolated jungles, there are creatures only recently discovered by Westerners... and mountains that they have never visited.
This is the home of a mammal first seen by scientists as recently as 1994.
Even the locals rarely see it, and it has never been filmed...until now.
RUSTLING
It lives in trees, but it's not a monkey.
Primates never made the jump across the water to this island.
This is a rare glimpse of an almost unknown island oddity...
SNORTS SOFTLY
..the dingiso.
About the size of a Labrador
and with bear-like features, it is - amazingly - a type of kangaroo, a tree kangaroo.
It lives at a higher altitude than any other kangaroo, hence the woolly coat.
Kangaroos usually feed on grass, 30but here on New Guinea, they've climbed into the trees where the greenery is more abundant.
So the dingiso is a kangaroo which lives high in the mountains and climbs trees - but then islands do have a habit of producing rather unusual animals.
Why?
Because islands offer fresh opportunities to the creatures that find their way there.
With no monkeys in New Guinea,39the freedom to browse in the trees has gone to the kangaroos.
New Guinea is a vast island nestled close to the continental landmass of Australia.
As we move south and east, to smaller, more distant islands, the wildlife becomes even more unusual.
The little-known island of New Caledonia is a small sliver of Australia that was cast adrift over 60 million years ago.
It's home to a creature that seems to have evolved quite strangely.
DISTANT SQUAWKING, RUSTLING
It has wings, but it can't fly.
RUSTLING
THROATY GURGLES
It is the kagu.
WHISTLING TRILLS
FRENZIED TRILLING
Kagu families stick together, with young from previous years helping to declare the family territory.
FRENZIED TRILLS
All intruders are chased away.
It's the breeding season, when males rekindle the flame with their life-long partners.
It's hard to know what the kagu is related to - a heron, a rail, or maybe a pigeon.
Its closest relative may actually be the sun-bittern of South America, 7,000 miles to the east.
She may not seem too impressed, but then kagus always keep their feet very firmly on the ground.
Their wings are too weak to get them airborne, but why fly when all the food you need is on the ground?
And with no large predators stalking this island, there's not much cause to take flight.
But this life is not without its worries.
A newly hatched chick is hiding among the leaves.
As with babies the world over, getting food into mouth can be quite a challenge.
Perhaps slimy worms just don't appeal.
The chick's camouflage helps to hide it from aerial predators like the New Caledonian crow.
CAWING
Fortunately, Dad's wings still have a use...
CAWING
..to help him look big and intimidating.
The kagu may be an island oddity, but with few prowling predators reaching the Pacific's isolated islands, flightless birds are more common here than anywhere else on Earth.
Islands are a topsy-turvy world, where evolution seems to follow a different set of rules.
North of New Caledonia lies the Solomon Islands archipelago, a scattering of a thousand tropical islands.
For the select few animals that arrived here, these were brave, new worlds, filled with possibilities.
And to make the most of what they found here, some adopted a whole new way of life.