Far away, cut off by vast oceans...
..lie Earth's tropical islands.
Home to remarkable animal castaways...
..that have evolved in isolation...
..and human cultures that have
adapted in extraordinary ways.
From the jungles of Borneo, with
their staggering wild diversity...
..to Hawaii, the most remote island chain,
colonised by only the hardiest pioneers...
..and Madagascar,
the oldest island of all,
where time has given rise
to thousands of unique species.
ANIMALS CALL
These tropical islands
have developed into astonishing
and unique worlds...
..cradling precious life
found nowhere else on Earth.
In the heart of the Pacific Ocean
lies the most remote group of islands on Earth,
Hawaii.
And in its warm, tropical shallows,
a humpback whale gave birth
just two weeks ago.
This mother swam
2,500 miles from Alaska...
..because the conditions here
are perfect for her baby.
Hawaii's extreme isolation
keeps the calf beyond the reach of
most predators...
LOUD SPLASHING
..while the islands' shallow seas
offer the only warm water
for 1,000 miles.
A balmy 27 degrees,
crucial for a new-born calf
yet to develop a thick coat of insulating blubber.
The Hawaiian islands can also offer shelter from the winds
and currents of the open ocean...
..allowing her to rest...
..and put all the energy from
her mother's milk into growing.
For those that can reach these remote tropical shores,
Hawaii provides a sanctuary,
with extraordinary opportunities for new life.
Hawaii lies 2,000 miles west of North America,
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
It's made up of a chain of
over 100 islands,
stretching across 1,500 miles.
Furthest south in the chain is
the youngest and largest island.
Travelling north-west,
the islands become progressively
older and smaller.
This range of ages means
the islands offer a remarkable
variety of habitats.
From barren rock on the youngest...
..to lush tropical jungles...
..and shallow sand bars,
the remnants of islands 30 million years old.
All home to an incredible
wealth of wildlife...
..thriving
in this most remote of outposts...
..against the odds.
The Hawaiian islands all began life the same way.
At the very bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Hawaii sits above
a volcanic hotspot, like this.
Liquid rock,
heated to 1,200 degrees Celsius,
spews out from the Earth's core...
..forming the beginnings of
an underwater mountain.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, it grows...
..until its peak breaks the surface...
..and an island is born.
The newest of the islands
is known as The Big Island.
It began forming a million years ago,
and its volcanoes are still active today...
..turning lava
into precious new land.
The Big Island can grow by
as much as 900 acres a year...
..and has peaks so high,
they're capped with snow.
But soon, its growth will stop
because this vast island is actually moving,
inching away from the volcanic hotspot that created it.
Hawaii sits on a massive
tectonic plate that is carrying
all of the islands north-west.
As they form, each island
moves off the hotspot,
and another is made behind it.
The result is a chain of islands,
each younger than the last.
Furthest south, the Big Island
is still on the volcanic hotspot...
..and its freshly formed lava fields
are the most inhospitable habitat in Hawaii.
Yet, amongst the rubble,
there is life.
The wekiu bug,
meaning "summit" in Hawaiian.
To find enough food to survive up here,
it's adapted to living off the dead.
In temperatures that plummet to minus 11,
other insects blown in on the wind
quickly die.
But the wekiu's blood acts like antifreeze,
protecting it from the cold.
Using piercing mouthparts,
it punctures its victim's exoskeleton
and sucks out its juices.
The wekiu may have originally
come from South America, but how
did a tiny insect cross thousands
of miles of open ocean to get here?
The same way its food arrives -
blown by the wind.
Strong winds can carry spores,
seeds...
..and lightweight creatures
high into the jet stream.
The odds of being carried across the Pacific,
and then dropped on the only dots of land,
are minuscule.
Yet, over millions of years,
these airborne travellers did arrive...
..and life took hold.
The next island along Hawaii's chain is Maui.
Formed almost a million years before The Big Island...
..Maui too was once barren lava fields...
..but is now brimming with life.
Free of competition, the new arrivals
took advantage of every opportunity,
and evolved into countless new species.
A single flock,
carried in on a violent storm,
became 50
new species of honeycreeper.
20 types of spider
became over 100.
And from just one pregnant fruit fly
came over 1,000 unique new species.
And each one has
its very own courtship ritual.
Like this male silvestris,
which wiggles his rear end,
to send vibrations through the branch.
LOUD VIBRATIONS
But this female is unimpressed.
Another, the clavisetae fly,
fans pheromones from
his raised abdomen.
Sticking out his tongue
for added sex appeal.
But he hasn't impressed either.
One species,
the cyrtoloma, has grown
30 times bigger than its original
castaway ancestor.
For these giants,
size is everything.
But as new life forms evolved,
some turned into monsters.
The caterpillar of the Eupithecia moth.
Like most caterpillars,
its ancestors ate plants...
..but with so much prey,
and so few predators
to compete with, this caterpillar
switched to a meatier diet.
With especially sharp claws,
few escape its deadly grip.
The island of Maui may be full of wildlife, but it's shrinking.
Its now-dormant volcanoes no longer build new land.
Instead, extreme weather
wears down its peaks.
Maui's home to some of the wettest places on Earth.
2.5 metres of rain can fall in a single month.
And over time, the rainwater
eats away at the soft volcanic rock.
But across all the islands,
this process has also created
new rivers...
..and more opportunities for life.
Young Hawaiian gobies leave the sea
to take advantage of these pristine rivers.
But first, these two-centimetre-long fish
face enormous hurdles.
Like this 135-metre-tall waterfall.
At the top, there are few predators
and little competition for food.
It seems like an impossible climb,
and yet...
Just days ago, this female's body transformed.
Her mouth rotated 90 degrees,
enabling her to use it
like a suction cup.
As revealed under specialist filming conditions,
she uses her mouth in tandem with
another sucker on her underside...
..to slowly scale the vertical wall.
And she's not alone.
The odds are stacked against them.
Around 99% perish along the way.
It can take days of hard climbing
before finally reaching the top...
..where the lucky few can grow up
free from predators
and with a plentiful food supply.
While the islands are slowly being
eroded by waterfalls,
they're also being worn away by the sea.
Huge waves batter the coastline...
..wearing away the volcanic rock.
With no land for 1,000 miles,
waves that start out at sea
have plenty of time to grow.
Once they reach the shallows of Hawaii,
the waves rise up into giants
and break.
Maui is home to some of the biggest waves on the planet.
Up to 20 metres high.
But these monsters aren't just a force of destruction.
By mixing up the layers of water,
the pounding waves help
stir up nutrients...
..feeding microscopic creatures
called plankton.
Hawaii's shallows are around
80% richer in plankton
than the surrounding open ocean.
And at night, the plankton
rises to the surface...
..providing food
for manta rays.
With wingspans stretching over
4.5 metres, these rays can migrate
vast distances, which is how
they discovered Hawaii.
They use rows of tiny plates
in their mouths
to sieve plankton from the water.
When they hit a rich patch of food,
they somersault in loops,
to maximise their catch.
These waters are so bountiful,
they support one of the largest
resident populations of manta rays
on the planet.
The most extensive shallows surround
Hawaii's largest islands...
..and between Maui and
its neighbouring three islands
lie the most protected waters
of the archipelago.
It's the perfect location
for one of the largest gatherings of ocean giants.
After a summer feeding,
10,000 humpback whales leave the freezing waters of Alaska behind...
..and travel 2,500 miles south to get here.
It's one of the longest migrations of any mammal...
..and they do it not just to give birth,
but also to find a mate.
WHALES SING
The males fill the water with their love songs.
To show their strength,
they can breach 15 metres out of the sea.
WHALES SING
All in an attempt
to win over a female.
But to help her choose her partner,
she initiates a contest.
Slapping her flipper, she invites
the males to chase her...
..and they quickly rise to the challenge.
The winner will be the one
that manages to stay at the head of
the pack, closest to the female.
This is known as the heat run,
and it's the biggest
courtship battle in the world.
There are lots of tactics
to try to get ahead.
Blowing a screen of bubbles
disorientates the competition.
Head-butting,
ramming
and tail-slashing...
..can lead to serious injury...
..as these 40-ton rivals battle
to get to the female at the front.
After two hours of chasing,
there's finally a clear winner.
WHALES SING
Pairing off, she leads him away, to mate.
In a year's time,
the pregnant female
will return to give birth here,
in the very same waters where SHE was born.
Around 1,000 years ago,
another pioneer discovered Hawaii...
..and changed these islands forever.
The ancestors of the Polynesians
were a sea-faring people
that island-hopped their way across
the Pacific from south-east Asia.
Reaching these uncharted shores
was such a remarkable feat
that it's still celebrated today.
Each year, in honour of their pioneering ancestors...
..Hawaii hosts one of the world's largest canoe races.
It's known as the Na Wahine O Ke Kai.
Women of the Sea.
Before the race begins, the teams gather for an opening prayer.
WOMAN READS PRAYER
Many of those taking part
descend from those heroic Polynesian voyagers,
like Mahealani.
Paddling affords me to connect to
my ancestors, to my kupuna,
to my family.
Initially, our ancestors used it as a way of travelling,
to seek home and shelter.
And, er, you know, now, in these days,
we use it for racing.
KLAXON BLARES
The teams must paddle across
42 miles of gruelling open ocean...
..between the islands of Molokai
and the next island along the chain,
Oahu.
To make their voyages of thousands of miles...
..the ancestors of the Polynesians travelled in dugout canoes,
joined by a platform, and powered by paddle and sail...
..in journeys lasting months.
Today's race may be shorter,
but it's so intense that exhausted paddlers must switch over.
As with any relay, timing is crucial.
For Mahealani, the handover
has greater significance.
You go through the whole gamut of emotion,
and there's something magical that happens there, because I think
you just have to surrender yourself to the ocean.
Navigating without landmarks
requires remarkable skill.
But the ancient Polynesians
could detect distant islands
from wave reflections in the swell.
Just one of the cues that may have
helped them discover Hawaii.
With land in sight, the Red Team
are closing in on Mahealani
and her crew.
The finish line is in the shallows of Oahu's capital city, Honolulu.
After almost six hours of paddling,
Mahealani's team claims victory.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
Yeah!
Woohoo!
DRUMMING
CHEERING
It's a magical bonding experience of women,
from young to old. And, you know,
you're honouring the people that came before us,
and you're honouring the people that will come after us,
and ultimately honouring ourselves.
We don't know where
the original settlers landed,
but they quickly colonised all the large main islands...
..taking advantage of the abundant rainfall
and rich volcanic soil that's developed over time...
..and slowly transforming parts of Hawaii
into the buzzing metropolises they are today.
But some of the greatest changes
came with the new plants and animals they brought with them.
A trend that's continued into modern times.
In 1972, a pet shop imported several dozen
Jackson's chameleons from East Africa...
..but they escaped.
LAWN MOWER HUMS
DOG PANTS
Slowly but surely,
they found their way
out of the suburbs... DOG YELPS
..and up into Oahu's forests.
And that's where the trouble began.
Horned males joined the escaped females.
Free from predators,
and with an abundance of food,
they began eating their way through
Hawaii's unique wildlife.
Invasive species like these chameleons
have contributed to the extinction
of over 500 native species.
Attempts are now being made to re-capture the chameleons -
part of a much larger effort to save Hawaii's native wildlife.
Even in the most unlikely places.
NOISY BUZZ OF TRAFFIC
In Hawaii's busiest city, Honolulu,
a white tern chick is just a few days old.
With no nest to protect him,
he must cling to his street perch...
..while he waits for his parents to deliver
regular supplies of squid
and small fish.
These birds were revered by the ancient Polynesians.
They knew that if they saw a white tern with a bill full of fish,
it was a sure sign
that land was nearby.
And yet, it's likely the arrival of humans
wiped them out from the main islands.
But now, the terns are making a comeback.
In the last 60 years,
their numbers have risen from a single pair to over 2,000 birds.
Busy roads may help keep predators away.
And trees planted within the city
provide safety
and prime nesting habitat.
In six weeks' time, this chick
will take to the air...
..joining the island's now-thriving
white tern population.
Once humans arrived,
the large main islands began to change in completely new ways.
But on a far greater timescale,
Hawaii has always been changing.
From their birth, through gradual decline,
there comes a time when these islands finally die.
Journeying north-west,
Hawaii's islands become
progressively older and smaller.
Over tens of millions of years,
islands that were once lush,
towering peaks have been eroded
to little more than a patch of sand.
BIRDS SQUAWK
But while the land vanishes
above the water line,
new opportunities are created below.
These sinking islands, bathed in
warm tropical seas,
provide the perfect platform
for coral reefs to thrive.
They've become a magnet for
ocean drifters, green turtles,
who travel here for a service that's
not available in the open ocean.
A thorough clean by reef fish,
to remove algae from their shell.
The fish get a good meal,
and the turtle can swim more easily.
Many new species have evolved.
On some of these reefs,
every single fish
is unique to Hawaii.
The Hawaiian monk seal is another species found nowhere else.
After being hunted to the edge of extinction,
it's now one of the rarest seals on Earth,
with just 1,500 left.
Today, their numbers are stable,
thanks mainly to the creation of
one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world...
..which stretches from the last of the main islands
all the way to the top of the Hawaiian chain.
There lies Midway Atoll.
At 30 million years old,
it's one of the oldest of all the Hawaiian islands.
Today, all that's left of its once-towering volcanic peaks
are two square miles of sand.
But it's still highly-prized real estate.
BIRDS SQUAWK
Fiercely fought over in World War II,
it's now home to three million
nesting sea birds...
..including the biggest colony of
Laysan albatross in the world.
CLICKING
One four-month-old chick
is especially hungry.
Like the thousands of other albatross chicks,
he's still flightless, and dependent on his parents for food.
But his mother is the oldest known
living bird in the wild,
an astonishing 67 years old.
He hasn't seen her for over a week.
HE PANTS
In the searing tropical sun,
he pants, to cool down...
..and can only watch
while other parents return
to feed their chicks.
Finally, after two long weeks of waiting,
the world's oldest known bird
appears.
Identified as Z333 on her leg band,
she's more affectionately known as Wisdom.
To her chick, though,
she's instantly recognisable as Mum.
In her extraordinary lifetime,
Wisdom has flown around
three million miles
and successfully raised 37 chicks.
Today, she's surrounded by
three generations
of her extended family.
But this exceptional
great-grandmother
has no time to rest,
only staying for ten minutes,
before leaving
to search for more food.
The chick may have one of the most
experienced mums in the world,
but his future is uncertain.
The natural process that sees Hawaii's islands slowly sink back
into the ocean is accelerating,
with rising sea levels.
By the end of this century,
due to climate change,
many of the low-lying islands like Midway Atoll
are predicted to disappear...
..and, with them,
their unique wildlife.
And yet, as some of Hawaii's islands
are reclaimed by the sea,
others are rising up from the depths,
ready to form new land.
It's a cycle that's made Hawaii what it is today -
a remote haven for remarkable species,
found nowhere else on Earth.
The islands crew spent over a year documenting
Hawaii's unique and spectacular wildlife.
While the humpback whale heat run,
with its charging 40-ton whales,
pushed the team's physical
abilities to the limits...
..it was their attempt to capture
the astonishing story of Wisdom,
the world's oldest albatross, that proved
by far the trickier challenge.
To find this remarkable bird,
producer Evie Wright
and cameraman Paul Stewart flew halfway around the world -
6,500 miles, and across ten time zones.
Welcome to Midway Atoll, BBC.
A tiny dot of land, in a sea of blue, Midway provides
a vital nesting ground for over three million sea birds.
BIRDS SQUAWK
But the crew are here for one very special individual.
What we're looking for, in particular, is the oldest known
breeding bird in the world, er,
an albatross called Wisdom,
who's bred successfully
something like 37 times.
Scientists have been monitoring
this 67-year-old mother since 1956
and have given Paul the vital clues
needed to find her
among this sea of birds.
There's a little tussock of grass
and just beyond it is a little sort of, fur,
mound of fur, and that is Wisdom's chick.
The four-month-old chick can only sit tight,
waiting patiently for his mother to return.
The way to find Wisdom is to wait by that chick
and, sooner or later, she'll be in to feed it.
We hope. She will, probably.
Wisdom could be over 1,000 miles out to sea,
collecting fish and squid for her chick.
When she returns, she will only stay for a few minutes,
before heading off again.
As a result,
Paul must spend every waking hour by her chick,
to ensure he doesn't miss the opportunity
to film one of her rare visits.
Giving Paul plenty of time to meet the rest of the colony.
Morning.
Looked slightly offended by that.
The chicks appear
interested in Paul - or, at least,
in the shade he provides from
the intense tropical sun.
He just moved in
and took over that entire section,
and now I'm not allowed anywhere near it.
OK, fella. Now, I need
my suntan cream.
You're on my suntan lotion.
That's my sun... That's MY suntan lotion.
OK, you keep it.
WOMAN LAUGHS So, er,
they're basically like kids.
They're very sweet, I like them,
but they're also pretty annoying.
And whenever I try and shift,
I normally get quite healthy pecks,
because they seem to want my shade,
but they don't want me to be in it with them.
Leave it out!
I can't...
I can't work like this! LAUGHTER
Time is passing,
but there's still no sign of Wisdom.
We've been waiting six days now
and, as far as I can tell, the only chick
that hasn't been fed is the one chick we're looking for,
which is Wisdom's chick. So, feeling possibly
a bit unlucky. But, erm, what do they say?
Wisdom's worth waiting for!
Paul calls on US fish and wildlife biologist Kelly Goodale
for her advice.
So, Kelly, we haven't seen Wisdom, have we missed it?
Has she been and fed? I would say it's extremely rare
that we miss the adults coming in.
Their eyesight is not very good,
so they typically will fly in during the day.
And Wisdom is 67 years old,
and she probably needs to spend a little bit more time
not feeding than the average bird. Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah.
As days go by without a sighting,
Paul's impatience turns to
genuine concern for Wisdom's safety.
We're actually getting a bit
worried about whether Wisdom,
the world's oldest wild bird, is...
is still alive.
Erm, it would feel unlucky if she wasn't, it would be very sad,
but she hasn't been back, so you have to start
to think about that. So, yeah, we'll keep waiting.
Wisdom is almost 30 years past
the expected lifespan of a Laysan albatross.
There's every chance she could succumb to exhaustion
on one of her 3,000-mile round feeding trips.
And today, like all sea birds, she now
has to contend with man-made threats.
Dumped plastic is found in every corner of our seas,
including the fishing spots of the Laysan albatross.
Kelly has been gathering evidence of this unfolding tragedy.
These are boluses, indigestible food parcels, regurgitated
by the chicks, after months of being fed by their parents.
What's really fascinating about them is they can give us some indication
on our oceans' health, of what these albatross
are picking up and bringing back to their young.
There's a lot squid beaks
and things like that, but...
the other thing that we see are
pieces of plastic fragments, things
like bottle caps and toothbrushes,
lighters and things like that.
And then there's things like
line and foam, and so you can see
in this one in particular, there's
quite a bit of line in here, and
very large pieces of sharp plastic
that could cause harm to the chicks.
By mistaking bits of floating ocean plastic for food,
the adult birds unwittingly go on
to feed them to their chicks
and scientists have discovered
it's a widespread problem.
100% of the boluses collected have plastic in them.
And we estimate approximately five tons of plastic is being brought
to Midway Atoll every year from parents feeding it to their chicks.
The results can be fatal.
Over 25% of chicks fail to fledge every year,
and ingested plastic
may be partly to blame.
For the crew, at least,
there appears to be better news on the horizon.
Has this bird that's just arrived got a band on?
You don't think that's Wisdom, do you?
Yeah, she's got a band. 3-3-3.
Oh, wait, hang on, it's N-3-3-3.
Yeah, I don't think that's our bird.
There was some major excitement, because
Wisdom is Z333, and we saw a ring that appeared to have 333 on it,
and we found out it was N333,
who's actually one of her chicks from 2011, a male.
It's also come back to the exact
point where we're expecting Wisdom.
It just makes it all the more disappointing, if I'm honest.
Oh!
Meanwhile, Wisdom's chick
is starving.
Time is fast running out.
Evie?
Evie, Evie, what's that?
Have a very quick...
But this extraordinary mum
returns in time for her hungry chick,
and for Paul's very last hour of filming.
Evie! Our albatross!
Can you believe it? No. Last day.
She's here, I'm so happy, that's like...
I don't know, like, we had a lovely sequence on albatross,
they're beautiful and everything,
but this female right here is the heart of the sequence,
the oldest known wild bird.
She's right here, and, yeah, it's so cool.
So cool she's here, really thrilled. Really, really happy!
Her famished chick finally
gets to feed and, six weeks later,
the crew - long since departed -
receive the good news.
Wisdom's 37th chick successfully fledged the nest.
Her legacy as
the oldest albatross mother in the world continues.