Madagascar: A World Apart • 2016 • episode "Part 2" • Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution

Category: Nature

Fortey travels to the rainforests of Madagascar - an ancient island that has spawned some of the most extraordinary groups of plants and animals anywhere in the world. From beautiful Indri lemurs, toxic frogs, and the cat-like giant mongoose called the fossa, to evolutionary oddities like the giraffe-necked weevil and the otherworldly aye-aye, he uncovers the secrets of the evolutionary niche - examining how, given millions of years, animals and plants can adapt to fill almost any opportunity they find.

Make a donation

Buy a brother a hot coffee? Or a cold beer?

Hope you're finding these documentaries fascinating and eye-opening. It's just me, working hard behind the scenes to bring you this enriching content.

Running and maintaining a website like this takes time and resources. That's why I'm reaching out to you. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support my efforts, would you consider "buying me a coffee"?

Donation addresses

BTC: bc1q8ldskxh4x9qnddhcrgcun8rtvddeldm2a07r2v

ETH: 0x5CCAAA1afc5c5D814129d99277dDb5A979672116

With your donation through , you can show your appreciation and help me keep this project going. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a significant impact. It goes directly towards covering server costs.

Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution • 2016 • 3 episodes •

Hawaii: A New Eden

Hawaii: A New Eden

Fortey is on Hawaii to investigate how life colonises a newly-born island. The most remote island group in the world, by some estimates only one new species successfully colonised Hawaii every 35,000 years - yet the Hawaiian Islands teem with a great diversity of life. In search of the evolutionary secrets of how one species becomes many, Fortey encounters beautiful honeycreeper birds whose evolution rivals that of the Darwin's famous finches; carnivorous caterpillars who now can't eat leaves; and giant silversword plants that thrive in parched volcanic soil at 10,000 feet.

2016 • Nature

Madagascar: A World Apart

Madagascar: A World Apart

Fortey travels to the rainforests of Madagascar - an ancient island that has spawned some of the most extraordinary groups of plants and animals anywhere in the world. From beautiful Indri lemurs, toxic frogs, and the cat-like giant mongoose called the fossa, to evolutionary oddities like the giraffe-necked weevil and the otherworldly aye-aye, he uncovers the secrets of the evolutionary niche - examining how, given millions of years, animals and plants can adapt to fill almost any opportunity they find.

2016 • Nature

Madeira: Island Ark

Madeira: Island Ark

Fortey travels to Madeira to examine what happens to a volcanic island as it nears the end of its life-cycle and starts sinking back into the sea. Here, in the island's laurisilva forest, he examines the remains of an ancient forest that once carpeted all of Europe, finds island lizards that live to be four times older than their mainland counterparts, and meets a huge wolf spider. With the help of local divers, he also discovers an unexpectedly rich marine habitat populated by whales, dolphins and unusual deep-sea species that have much to tell us about the changing nature of our seas.

2016 • Nature

You might also like

The Secret Lives of Jaguars

The Secret Lives of Jaguars

The first jaguar scientists struggled to go anywhere near their subjects. But times have changed. There are now a couple of places in the world where seeing a wild jaguar is a possibility rather than a dream.

S1E6 • The Secret Lives of Big Cats • 2019 • Nature

Amazon Explorers: Into the Peak of Mist

Amazon Explorers: Into the Peak of Mist

A pioneering team of zoologists and botanists, in search of new creatures and plants, gets rare access to Brazil's highest and most isolated mountain, the Pico da Neblina.

2018 • Nature

Creepy Crawlies

Creepy Crawlies

The ultimate guide to invertebrates, with key biological themes to show a wide range of species. Chapter 1: The Bug Buffet Bugs are the base of the food chain, food for just about everything else, but to start the process, they too must eat. Just like the bigger animals of the plains, there are grazers, scavengers, and predators that hunt them, termites growing fungi, and bees making their own honey. Chapter 2: Breeding Rutting deer and flirting love birds might be what we think of with animal courtship, but even bugs need to breed, and they face all the same challenges of winning a mate and raising their young. Some display, some caress, others fight. There are even insects that care for their young. Chapter 3: Army Few creatures have complex levels of regimented society as social insects. Bees, termites, ants, and wasps can form armies to help them build elaborate homes, defend their territories, grow their own food, raise their young and hunt their prey.

2021 • Nature

Tropics

Cameras follow a family of gorillas, with Spy Grub and Spy Fruit testing their intelligence. Elsewhere in Brazil, Spy Jaguar Cub explores a beautiful gathering of water birds, capybara and caiman, and joins Spy Caiman to film a feeding frenzy.

S2E1 • Spy in the Wild • 2020 • Nature

Spinners and Weavers

Spinners and Weavers

We'll find out how nature is incredibly inventive and has produced two unique mechanisms of natural construction that have fascinated scientists for centuries; weaving in birds and silk.

S2E8 • Natural Curiosities • Nature

Daughter of the Mountains

Daughter of the Mountains

A journey to the source of the Ganges in the Himalayas unearths deep gorges, lush forests and flower-filled valleys, and brings encounters with wildlife, elusive snow leopards and black bears, to bone-crunching vultures and the monkeys that may lie behind the legend of the yeti. Plus a look at the journeys made by Hindu pilgrims to worship at the four sacred sources of the river.

S1E1 • Ganges • 2007 • Nature