Original subtitles

At the southern tip of the Australian continent

lies a remote island.

An immense wilderness...

..divided by mountains.

It's a world of ancient forests...

..of pristine rivers...

..and a coastline...

..that's both wild and beautiful.

Its animal inhabitants are as extraordinary

as they are bizarre.

This is a land of black devils...

..and white wallabies...

..where lights dance in the southern sky

and trees tower to 100 metres.

This is Tasmania -

the weird and wonderful isle at the bottom of the world.

Tasmania is full of surprises.

Australia, yes, but with a twist.

It was once connected to the dry Australian mainland.

Today, along with its plants and animals, it's physically cut off.

Though it lies just to the south,

Tasmania is a world apart.

Its isolation and cooler climate

has created a sanctuary

unlike any other part of Australia.

And a strong seasonal cycle makes life here very different indeed.

Winter means a struggle for survival.

In Tasmania's mountains there are meagre pickings on offer.

This is the last landfall heading south before Antarctica.

Cold air from further south brings snowfall and freezing temperatures

throughout these winter months.

Many animals, like this female wombat, are Australian species,

but their habits and lifestyles are most definitely Tasmanian.

Mainland wombats are largely nocturnal...

..but here she feeds at any time of the day,

kept warm by her thicker coat of fur.

She must take every opportunity to find food.

Winter is felt right across this island wilderness.

Even lower down in Tasmania's forests

temperatures can fall below freezing.

The first Europeans to explore these forests

claimed they heard devils screaming in the night...

EERIE CRIES

..and so Tasmania's most famous animal got its name.

The Tasmanian Devil.

AGGRESSIVE RASPING CRIES

Primarily scavengers,

they can smell a carcass from half a mile away...

..and relative to body size they have the most powerful bite

in the natural world.

They can easily crunch through bone.

Devils once lived throughout Australia

but vanished as the continent dried out and humans arrived.

Today, this is their last stronghold.

Like most Australian mammals, they're marsupials.

While they may appear dog-like,

devils are more closely related to kangaroos than canines...

..and being marsupial they rear their young in a pouch.

A few weeks ago this female gave birth to 40 young...

..each the size of a grain of rice.

Inside her pouch she has just four teats,

so only four young will survive.

A devil's race for survival begins early.

It's a tough start but this mum will dedicate most of her year

to looking after the four babies who survive.

She overcame extraordinary odds to reach adulthood.

Now, it's her turn to raise the next generation.

Marsupials like the devils live here because Tasmania was once

connected to mainland Australia.

The island and its inhabitants became isolated some 12,000 years

ago when sea levels rose following the last Ice Age.

But Tasmania is a window on a far more ancient past.

Some of these forests have barely changed since dinosaurs

walked the Earth,

when the southern continents were a single landmass called Gondwana.

There is still a creature here whose ancestors roamed

that ancient supercontinent.

It lives in Tasmania's rivers

and is one of the island's longest lived survivors...

The Tasmanian giant lobster.

Weighing up to five kilos and a metre long,

they're the biggest freshwater invertebrates on our planet,

taking some 40 years to reach full size.

Tasmania's isolation, together with the lack of sizeable predators,

may be one reason why they grow so massive...

..but they're not entirely free from threat.

Tasmanian platypuses are enormous...

As much as three times heavier than their mainland counterparts.

It's an adaptation to the cooler southern climate.

This male is after tiny invertebrates found on the river bed

including young lobsters...

..and to stay warm in winter he must find a lot.

He needs to keep moving.

With no large predators to worry them, platypuses here

get about in an unusual way.

Only in Tasmania does the platypus walk between rivers

in broad daylight.

Out of water, it's easy to see why the platypus was once dismissed

as a fraud, the work of a hoaxer.

But down here he is in his element.

His strange assemblage of body parts soon begins to make sense.

Webbed feet help him move...

..while his otter-like fur keeps him warm.

His beaver-like tail stores fat.

But the platypus is best known for its duck-like bill..

..which it uses to find food.

Underwater, he's completely blind.

Not ideal for avoiding rocks.

But some 40,000 receptors in the bill detect electrical signals

given off by the muscles of prey animals.

With the need to eat a lot just to keep warm,

a platypus can stay on the hunt for some 12 hours a day.

Though also found on the mainland,

Tasmania's platypuses are by far the biggest and boldest.

They, like others,

are adapted to the island's isolation and cooler climate.

Lying 150 miles south of Australia...

..Tasmania is surrounded by a vast expanse of open ocean.

To the west, the next landfall is South America...

..thousands of miles away.

To the south, lies the great Antarctic continent.

And as winter comes to an end,

new arrivals come ashore to breed...

Penguins.

Hidden among the rocks,

this female has two newly hatched chicks...

..but nothing to feed them.

Her partner left some 14 hours ago

and is yet to return.

He's out fishing,

but quite unlike any other penguin,

he must wait for nightfall to leave the water.

Gulls and birds of prey patrol the coast by day,

it's only safe to return after sunset.

That is because these are little penguins.

At only 30 centimetres tall,

they're the smallest penguins in the world.

And with nests several hundred metres inland...

..the only safe way to get there is to make a dash

in the darkness.

There's safety in numbers.

MULTIPLE PENGUINS CALL

With hundreds of nests in the colony, the night soon fills with

the calls of returning adults...

The sound of early spring on Tasmania's coast.

CRIES AND CALLS

This will be a welcome meal

for the newly hatched chicks.

The little penguins' presence is a reminder

of Antarctica's proximity.

But while early spring brings them ashore to breed,

it also brings wild and unpredictable weather.

Prevailing winds carry most of the bad weather from the west...

THUNDER

LOUD CLAP OF THUNDER

And Tasmania's mountains cause much of the rain to fall

on the western half of the island.

The result divides Tasmania in two,

with a wet western side

and a dry eastern side.

Some western areas are among the wettest in all of Australia.

It rains here nearly every day...

..and all the water supports a surprising spectacle.

Caught in a bizarre trap,

these insects are doomed.

How they got stuck only becomes apparent as night falls.

These strange lights belong

to the larvae of a type of gnat.

The light is formed by a chemical reaction in the larva's abdomen

and can be turned on and off at will.

The sticky threads hang from its silk and mucus laden nest.

Insects drawn to the light are ensnared, then devoured.

Each glow-worm's thread is made up almost entirely of water,

so the high rainfall in Tasmania's wet west provides ideal conditions.

And the rain that supports these tiny glow-worms

also sustains one of the largest organisms on the planet...

Mountain ash.

They are a type of eucalyptus,

fast growing trees that evolved on the dry Australian mainland.

In Tasmania they've become giants.

Strangely, for trees living in a wet forest they need fire to reproduce.

ANIMAL SQUEAKS

The mountain ash stores its seeds in small pods...

..which are released as the pods burn.

Beneath the ash, the seeds live on,

quickly germinating without competition from other plants.

This makes sense in a dry habitat with regular fire...

..but not in Tasmania's wet forests.

Young mountain ash can grow at a rate of several metres a year.

All that holds them back is

the next fire or a lack of water.

And that is the secret behind their staggering height.

In Tasmania's damp west, fire is so infrequent

these trees keep growing for centuries.

Those standing in this valley all germinated following the same

devastating fire 400 years ago.

Today, they reach almost 100 metres into the sky.

They may have evolved on the dry Australian mainland,

but it's Tasmania's wet forests that have turned mountain ash trees

into the tallest flowering plants on Earth.

The moisture laden air that blows in from Tasmania's west

brings several metres of rainfall each year.

Although it can rain most days,

winter and spring are the wettest times,

and seasonal waterfalls burst into life.

All who live here must adapt to the regular downpours

and cooler temperatures...

..and like so many of Tasmania's species

their adaptations set them apart.

It may not look like it

but this is the closest living relative of the platypus.

The echidna, Australia's most widespread native mammal.

But while mainland echidnas are all spines, this Tasmanian one

is mostly covered in hair to help keep him warm.

The milder spring months

mean an abundance of his favourite food...

..ants.

But when you're this hairy, your food gets stuck everywhere

which is a pain when it can bite back.

Time to move on.

As spring turns to summer,

Tasmania's inhabitants get some relief from the wild

and cool weather.

BIRD CRIES

It's now that the young devils are ready to leave the den.

They've been out of their mother's pouch for a while,

but have remained safely hidden away.

Fully weaned,

this is the start of their independence.

This young female will have to learn to survive and find food

all by herself.

What's more, she and her sibling are much smaller than an adult.

They could easily be killed.

This will be her way out of danger.

Heavier adults can't climb,

so there are some benefits to being small.

Over the next few months she'll also find much of the food she needs

up here in the treetops.

But grubs and birds' eggs alone

won't be enough to sustain her as she grows.

RASPING CRIES

If she's to make it to adulthood,

she needs to find more substantial meals...

..and that brings her into direct competition with dangerous

and more powerful adult devils.

The scent and sound of crunching bones draw her in...

..but she needs to be careful.

Less than half of all newly weaned youngsters make it to adulthood.

If she is to survive she needs to earn her place.

There's no telling how this adult might react.

Confronting a stranger at a carcass is a gamble...

..but one she needs to take.

AGGRESSIVE CRIES

Spurred on by hunger, she seems to have the upper hand.

It looks as though her gamble has paid off,

but her competitor won't let the carcass go that easily.

The adult could kill her with a single bite...

..but that's not how devil society works.

Despite living most of their lives alone, devils can and do share.

They defend only the amount of meat they can eat

rather than the whole carcass.

The pecking order has less to do with size and strength

and more to do with whoever wants it most.

As this youngster is learning,

it's all about who can shout the loudest.

Devils may have a fearsome reputation

but the reality is quite different.

Summer brings warmer temperatures across Tasmania.

While in the west it still rains frequently...

..summer is most apparent in the dry eastern half of the island.

The driest areas of Tasmania receive

80% less rainfall than the wettest.

Here, the landscape is more reminiscent of parts

of the Australian mainland.

For marsupials that graze the open grasslands,

there's a bounty of fresh shoots in these warm summer months.

And although life here may appear more typically Australian,

the effect of Tasmania's isolation is felt just as strongly in this dry

half of the island.

It's given this group of wallabies something of a Tasmanian twist...

They've turned white.

About 100 of them live within this population.

They're so poorly camouflaged

that anywhere else they'd be easily killed.

On Tasmania, however, there aren't any predators big enough to kill

a wallaby, so many live full adult lives...

..and without the normal controls, their numbers are growing.

But although this may appear a predator-free paradise,

there are killers here.

One of Tasmania's deadliest animals

lives in these dry forests.

It's a species of ant known as the jack jumper.

Jack jumpers evolved on the ancient Gondwanan supercontinent.

Workers hunt alone,

a very primitive behaviour among ants which are mainly social.

And instead of using scent to hunt

they rely on acute vision.

They sting their victims to death with a venom that can kill humans...

Making these one of the deadliest animals in all of Australia.

Jack jumper ants are particularly abundant in this dry half

of Tasmania.

Their nests are small mounds within which their larvae are raised.

Workers cover the nest with dark materials to help absorb warmth

in the cooler southern climate.

In midsummer, however, temperatures soar...

..and the nest risks overheating.

with the intense sunlight.

On hotter days they switch building materials.

Now, the workers cover the nest in white stones.

These reflect the sun's energy,

keeping the young cool inside.

It's an inventive solution to Tasmania's changing seasons.

The dry eastern forests can be a challenging place

in the heat of midsummer...

..but one of Tasmania's few marsupial predators avoids the worst

of this heat by hunting at night.

It's the eastern quoll,

a close relative of the Tasmanian devil.

They're very rare,

but summer sees an increase in numbers as juveniles

leave the den.

Quolls are solitary hunters...

..and in summer are drawn to these dry pasture lands.

There's a rich bounty of moths and grubs at this time of year.

But with lots of youngsters around competition can be intense.

It's every quoll for itself.

SHARP SHRIEKS

Like Tasmanian devils,

Eastern quolls were once found on the Australian mainland.

Today, this dry eastern half of the island is their last refuge...

..and with an abundance of summer insects

they have every chance of thriving.

Summer is almost over...

..and as autumn arrives the stage

is set for a bizarre ritual.

TASMANIAN DEVILS CRY OUT

Familiar screams fill the forest.

It may not look like it but these devils are becoming amorous.

An eligible male clings on as a female guides him back to the den.

Female devils are receptive three times over a short period

during the breeding season.

To ensure the fittest offspring,

she'll try to mate with as many big males as she can.

And to increase his chances of fatherhood,

he must keep her in here for as long as possible.

Inside the den, he moves her around in an effort to mate.

To protect her from his biting grip,

the skin around her neck has thickened over the last few weeks.

Though it may appear aggressive,

this is part of a bizarre and complicated breeding system.

They'll remain in here, mating regularly, for several days.

In spite of that fearsome scream,

there is a sensitive side to these much maligned creatures.

Far from devilish, they are simply very determined survivors.

The devil mating season marks autumn's arrival.

GEESE HONK

Each evening, flocks of Cape Barren geese return to their roost.

Their silhouettes in the sunset a sign that the year is ending.

Back on the coast, the longer nights bring with them

a stunning spectacle.

The southern lights,

a reminder that the next stop from here is Antarctica.

For Tasmania's little penguins the breeding season has finished.

Only adults remain at the colony.

They've spent the last few weeks fattening up at sea,

almost doubling their weight.

The efforts of raising chicks have left them in need

of a new set of feathers.

Little penguins go through what's known as catastrophic moult...

..shedding some 10,000 feathers all at once.

Because their feathers keep them warm and waterproof,

they can't return to sea until they've grown new ones.

For three long weeks they're stuck on dry land, unable to feed.

It's a long wait for a little penguin.

The year is almost over...

..and high in the mountains there's time for one last surprise.

These are southern beech trees.

Unique to Tasmania.

Their change in colour makes for an autumn unlike anywhere else

in Australia.

These are the only trees on the continent to drop their leaves

during the cooler months.

The southern beech trees' closest living relatives are found thousands

of miles away in South America.

This rare splash of autumnal colour lasts just a few weeks

as across the whole of Tasmania temperatures begin to drop.

June marks the start of the winter season,

and for the devils the beginning of new life.

With young already inside her pouch,

she will provide milk for them through the harshest months.

Her life and theirs tied to Tasmania's seasonal cycle.

Just 12,000 years ago, Tasmania separated from its mainland parent.

The island is young,

yet rich in life,

and with a long and ancient past.

Now, Tasmania, and the animals it supports, are on a different course

to the rest of Australia.

It is, as a result, home to a cast as weird as they are wonderful.

Indeed, there's nowhere on Earth

quite like Tasmania.

Tasmania is roughly the size of Ireland, but with a population

of just half a million people, it's home to some of the greatest

expanse of wilderness left on our planet.

Despite all this room for nature,

some of Tasmania's most well-known animals face an uncertain future.

Tasmanian devils are endangered -

disease and historical persecution

have caused their numbers to plummet.

Right from birth, reaching adulthood is challenge enough.

But the devils' vicious reputation has made life

even more difficult for them.

One man, however,

has spent years helping to change people's perceptions.

Cameraman and ecologist Simon Plowright moved to Tasmania in 1981.

I'd been brought up as a nature lover back in Wales and to come

to this incredibly exotic place, it was very exciting.

Since then, Tasmanian devils have become very close to Simon's heart.

When I first came to Tasmania I heard devils in the forest at night.

SHARP RASPING CRIES

The screaming noises, the unusual calls the devils make

when they're having a bit of a tiff,

seemed really, really strange to a person from Wales.

Of course, you're intrigued and want to go and find out

what this animal is.

One of my first experiences of being close to these animals

was going out with an old guy, he'd lived there all his life,

he knew the area like the back of his hand.

He still occasionally caught the odd wallaby to eat

because he'd been brought up on that sort of thing.

I went out with him, and he had a couple of spots

where he'd trapped a wallaby,

and the wallabies had been stolen by devils,

and that, to me, was fascinating.

Buoyed by tales of wallaby-stealing beasts that lurked in the night,

Simon was desperate to find out more.

He set out to try and observe wild devils.

The first time that I actually sat out with devils,

I was obviously a bit wary and, you know,

do these things attack people?

Are they going to start eating me?

Cos, you know, I had heard tales of devils eating people, dead people,

and all this sort of stuff and, "Oh, will they go for a live one?"

You know, I'm new to this country,

so I wasn't completely sure, but very soon I realised

that they're not the slightest bit interested in me.

Coming from the UK where foxes and badgers and all these things

are pretty scared of people,

I was amazed with how they didn't seem to care about me being there.

Simon quickly came to realise

that these weren't the terrifying monsters people thought they were.

He began to learn all about the Tasmanian devils' complex life cycle

and social structure.

AGGRESSIVE CRIES

The sounds that you hear around a carcass,

you'd think they were killing each other but they're actually not

harming each other at all.

All the noise, really, is just bluff.

Since then, Simon has used all he's learnt to raise

awareness of devils.

I've taken many, many people from all around the world out

to see devils and people who have been to all the continents

on Earth and have seen some of the most amazing wildlife spectacles,

have one and all said to me, this is as good as anything I've seen

on the planet.

Changing public perception has been an important step

in devil conservation.

Indeed, right here in Tasmania there's a stark example of where

persecution can lead.

Only a relatively short time ago it drove another top carnivore

to extinction.

A predatory marsupial called the thylacine once lived here.

This was the last known captive individual.

Filmed in Hobart Zoo,

this is the only footage of these extinct predators.

Nicknamed the Tasmanian tiger,

this island was the thylacines' final refuge.

But when Europeans arrived in Tasmania they saw the thylacine

as a threat to livestock.

It was soon hunted to extinction.

This individual died in 1936.

It's an important reminder of what's at stake for Tasmania's wild devils.

Today, however, despite a shift in public perception of these animals,

the last decades have seen the emergence of an even greater threat

to devil populations.

In recent times, the Tasmanian devil has been put on the endangered

species list because, er, of...

..the facial tumour disease.

Facial tumour disease is a transmissible disease

that causes cancerous growths.

It's devastated devil populations.

The horrible thing about it is there's no cure.

So, when an animal becomes infected, it will die.

In places where the disease has gone through the landscape,

the numbers have been reduced by 80% and 90%.

Where there are low numbers on the landscape it's not possible

to sit and watch wild devils any more.

That's really, really a sad thing.

And each time now,

when I pack up to leave a wild devil viewing session

I think, well, this could easily be the last time.

And...

Er.... Yeah.

Hm.

But there is hope...

A vaccine has been created and some devils seem to be evolving

resistance to the disease.

It is heartening, though, that this disease, having started

at this spot 20 years ago, there are still animals there.

It gives you an indication of how tough these little creatures are

and how they will hang on in the landscape.

As a safeguard, Simon also breeds devils as part of a wider human

effort to protect the species from extinction.

Tasmanian devils are only found in Tasmania.

They became extinct on mainland Australia a long time ago.

One of the worst things that could ever happen, I guess,

is the Tasmanian devil ends up like the Tasmanian tiger.

It's so vital that these animals are protected.

Let's hope for the future that the devils, with the help from us,

can once again be free in the wild

and beat this disease.

Tasmania is a refuge to some unusual species, many of which are long

extinct on the Australian mainland.

This island may be a vast wilderness

but even here the influence of our human world is felt,

and a great deal of hard work and dedication is still required

to ensure the survival of its wild residents.