Original subtitles

An island world in the vast Pacific.

A land of extreme contrasts.

Hellishly hostile in some parts

Idyllic in others.

Where survival depends on wits, guts

and a fair degree of luck.

Cut off from the rest of the world.

Life evolves differently here.

Thriving or struggling in this temperamental paradise.

A volcanic landscape

that looks like the surface of the moon.

It wasn't easy for life to colonize it.

And yet, somehow, it did.

Mighty ocean currents roll thousands of miles toward

the Galapagos Islands.

Often carrying some curious cargo.

(quirky music)

That's what happened to the ancestors

of the Galapagos penguin.

(wings flapping)

The Humboldt Currents washed them here.

All the way from Antarctica.

Imagine their surprise.

Black lava instead of white snow.

They had a lot to learn.

Lesson one, rocks can be as slick as ice

but not so forgiving.

The Galapagos penguins are the only penguins that

can survive at this latitude.

The Galapagos Islands lie around 600 miles off

the coast of South America.

Virtually on the equator.

You would think the ocean would be very warm here.

But, for six months of the year,

the ice cold Humboldt Current surges up from Antarctica

and bathes the islands.

Once upon a time, it brought the penguins and it still

keeps them alive.

They're in good company.

(splashing)

(playful music)

The ancestors of these baby fur seals were also delivered

by the current.

Life here isn't as heavenly as it looks.

Even though they've been here for millions of years,

they don't actually belong here.

And that is about to get painfully obvious.

The heat's too hellish to bear.

So they hide beneath the lava sheets.

Fur seals may look no different from other seals.

But, their much thicker fur

is suited for sub zero temperatures.

Here at the equator, they are way overdressed.

So, they sleep the day away.

Waiting for the cool of the evening to go hunting.

They're stuck working the night shift.

Conditions on the Galapagos can be harsh,

even for seasoned natives.

A crisis is brewing for the island's largest reptile.

The Galapagos Giant Tortoise.

This time of year the cold waters do him no favors

altering the weather.

On Santa Cruz Island,

not a drop of rain from July to December.

This very old male, a veteran of these hard times

can barely find anything to eat here.

While he can go for prolonged periods without food,

six months of no rain will push him past his limits.

To avoid starvation, he needs to act fast.

Something tortoises aren't known for.

He sets out on an exhausting journey.

As if by a secret signal,

more tortoises join him on their annual migration.

Over the millennia,

they've beaten paths through the vegetation.

But it never gets any easier.

Their heavy, yard wide shells add to the journey's burden.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Keeping one step ahead of the coming drought.

There's really no other way to heave several hundred pounds

over a tree trunk.

Migrating for days on end requires huge effort.

And not all of them make it.

Undeterred, the old male keeps going.

Where will his journey take him?

Now, the dry season has huge swaths

of the island firmly in its grip.

No rain, no gain.

Only one plant has the power to shrug it off.

The mangrove.

Dangling its feet into the salty sea it thrives

and forms lagoons.

Mangroves have evolved

to take what they need from the ocean.

Drinking it in with salt filtering roots.

And giving Galapagos animals a rare and generous shelter.

It's the nursery ground for fish.

And the dining table of the lava heron.

He succeeds only when the tiny fish are densely packed.

He's not the only hunter here.

Something strange lurks just below the surface.

Penguins.

An unusual sight among the tropical mangroves.

The penguins exiled from Antarctica had to adjust.

The warmer warmer shrank these tuxedos.

Today, they're no bigger than ducks.

Learning how to hunt here remains a challenge.

The heron doesn't appreciate these polar castaways

competing for his meal.

(quirky music)

The heron needn't worry, they're not very good at it.

The speedy fish keep guarding among the mangrove roots.

One of the penguins tries to drive them to the center

of the lagoon.

(quirky music)

It works.

Until it doesn't.

Those tantalizing little fish are just too fast.

The heron couldn't be happier.

The commotion corralled his prey right where he wanted it.

Evolution has pushed these penguins to the very limit

of their survival.

Conditions are so extreme that fewer than 500 remain.

Another of the Galapagos's flightless birds

isn't faring much better.

In fact, it wasn't flightless until it came to this island.

By picking this paradise,

the Galapagos cormorant found itself grounded for life.

Over the generations,

it's body grew while it's plumage plummeted.

Today, at three feet tall he's the biggest

cormorant on earth.

At least, up and down.

Not side to side.

So, unlike most cormorants that deftly fish from the skies,

the Galapagos cormorant has to wing it.

With food nearby, he doesn't need to travel.

He fishes right from his doorstep.

If only he didn't have to walk everywhere.

While evolution took away the cormorants flight suit,

it gave him the perfect diving gear.

Its small wings reduce drag in the water.

And it's giant feet work like an outboard motor.

The cormorant's enormous size lets it dive deeper

and for longer than any other sea bird.

As hard as he tries, it doesn't seem to be his day.

After a short rest, he'll try again.

The Galapagos Islands provide him

with all he needs to survive.

Courtesy of his humble servant, the Humboldt Current.

Not only the cormorants,

all seabirds benefit from the cold flow.

Even albatrosses who can go practically anywhere travel

thousands of miles to come here.

The nutritious waters infuse the Galapagos with life.

Isolated in the middle of the Pacific,

the island oasis has one of the largest populations

of fish in the world.

It's both a haven and a hunting ground.

Microorganisms attract small fish.

And then, come the big fish.

And then, even bigger fish.

Hammerhead sharks in huge schools

spend their honeymoon here.

And even the biggest fish on the planet, the whale shark,

drops by to say hello.

The Humboldt Current is the engine

that drives all marine life.

While it brings paradise to the sea,

it can also bring hell on earth for some island residents.

The island of Plaza is habitat for the hardy.

Even though the undemanding land iguanas have no predators,

they get pushed to their limits here.

In this hellish, dry season,

even their main source of food

presents a devilish challenge.

The prickly pear's thick skinned leaves are full of water.

Easy picking for a small finch.

An angel in disguise.

For the iguanas, unreachable.

They're waiting for a miracle.

Bellies empty, they sit and watch the cactus finches

having their fill of the forbidden fruit.

It's almost too much to bear.

Then, their prayers are answered.

Salvation at last.

But the single leaf won't feed them all.

The competition brings out their worst.

Some forget about the food and pick fights instead.

(thrilling music)

The situation leaves almost no one satisfied.

The tough, rainless season

keeps the iguana population in check.

Out of options, they'll have to wait for months

until the rains finally come.

On Plaza island, finches are the iguanas best friend.

But, on the Galapagos most remote island,

they play the villain.

Hundreds of miles from the other islands,

Wolf Island has very little vegetation

and no drinking water.

Not a problem for the Nazca boobies.

They've adapted to find everything they need in the ocean.

The island's isolation provides another advantage.

Boobies are the unchallenged kings of Wolf.

Sounds like paradise.

(quirky music)

If you're a little finch with a ghoulish appetite.

She's a blood sucker.

The razor sharp beak of the vampire finch can pierce the

skin with surgical precision.

Its ancestors probably started out pecking for parasites.

Drew blood, and developed a taste for it.

Her victim barely notices.

The skillful finch minimizes the bleeding to prevent

the booby from bolting.

And she's persistent.

One thirsty vampire finch is almost tolerable if she doesn't

overstay her welcome.

Or draw a crowd.

The finches need to take turns or their lunch will fly off.

But not everyone is willing to wait.

Eventually, their host has had enough.

Get off my back.

For boobies and finches,

life on this island paradise comes at a cost.

Neither resident has to worry about predators

or even competitors.

But the vampire finch owes its life

to the long suffering boobies.

And the boobies have to be willing

to shed a little blood now and then.

It's a small price to pay to live in Wolf Island's

peculiar peaceable kingdom.

It's not so different for the giant tortoise.

He also pays a price for the promise of paradise.

As he negotiates his way out of the dry forest

and into the greenery,

he's still not quite out of the woods.

His shell is burdensome.

The vines are oppressive.

Every step is an effort.

On this island, that both protects him and torments him

as he pursues his singular goal.

While the Galapagos Islands hold many inhabitants hostage,

these sea lions stay here voluntarily.

Around two million years ago,

a couple of Californian sea lions lost their way

and ended up on the island.

They stayed here, multiplied,

and their descendants became a new species.

The Galapagos sea lion, the smallest in the world.

When the ocean water turns cold,

it's time to care for the offspring.

This little one is only a few days old

but already very agile.

(cute music)

She'll need to hunt every couple of days to ensure

she has enough milk for her baby.

It means, she'll have to leave her pup behind.

The little one with no one to play with hopes to make

new friends among his fellow sea lions.

But they apparently have enough friends already.

(snarling)

Once the female realizes she's not her baby,

she wants nothing to do with him.

The bewildered pup beats a retreat.

(wailing)

Without his mother, he's completely on his own.

When will she be back?

On a different shore,

a male cormorant uses this time of ocean abundance

to start a family.

It begins with nest building.

And the love birds' first spat.

They disagree on the decorating.

(quirky music)

It's a common problem.

The neighbors argue over where to place the bone.

(squawking)

With all furnishing questions solved,

they move on to family planning.

(playful music)

It's giving the neighbors ideas.

Cormorants don't mate for life.

After the female lays her eggs,

she won't stick around for long.

The father will have to raise the chicks on his own.

He has no idea how difficult things will get.

But meeting the challenge of raising the next generation

is what brings stability and change.

And that includes the oldest inhabitants.

After days of traveling through the brittle forest,

the male tortoise finally reaches his destination.

A glistening lagoon.

He'll spend the night sleeping in a pool.

When he wakes the next morning,

it's easy to see why the Galapagos giant tortoises go

to such great efforts to migrate.

He's arrived in a dense forest of Scalesia trees.

Where the vegetation soaks up water like a sponge

and blankets the extinct volcanic craters.

The forest remains the only oasis on these islands.

A gift from the cold ocean current.

While it sends the lowlands into a drought,

it brings life into the highlands.

It's the season of the garua,

a moist, persistent mist.

Up here is where the Galapagos giant tortoises

find their paradise.

After their long trip, many are exhausted.

The male enjoys the tender greenery.

But he didn't come here just for the salad.

He's here for her.

(pretty music)

(breathing heavily)

He's following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

For millennia they've made the same arduous

annual trek to mate in these lush highlands.

But escaping to paradise is only an option on the

Archipelagos younger islands.

Here, big differences in altitude

create a variety of habitats.

The older islands have lost their volcanic mountains

and have no lush island for animals to migrate to.

The giant tortoise on Española Island

had to compensate somehow.

To reach more leaves

it learned to really stick its neck out.

The shell evolved a curve to give the reptile more

freedom to move.

The saddle shaped shell, Galapagos in old Spanish,

gives the tortoise and it's islands its name.

Though the tortoise goes to great lengths to eat,

once the leaves are gone, he's out of luck.

He'll have to wait for new growth.

On the beach, the sea lion pup is tired of waiting.

His mother's been gone for days.

Starved for milk, he's growing weak.

She'd better get back soon.

That's not his mother.

It's the alpha male of the herd.

He controls a harem of around a dozen females.

As sea lions go, that's not very impressive.

In his ancestral home in California he might guard

twice that many.

But here on the Galapagos life is more laid back.

Even by California standards.

And like his California cousins,

there's always time to catch a little surf action.

But look out,

the male is hardly gone before a beach bully rolls in.

An outside male who wants to take his harem.

(suspenseful music)

The drama has caught the little guy's interest

and the harem leader's attention.

Not on his watch.

(exciting music)

(snarling)

The reigning male kicks sand in the bully's face and

sends him packing.

These battles happen from time to time on the Galapagos.

But in California,

fights like this break out dozens of times a day.

The alpha bull enjoys his victory.

The starving pup no longer distracted has reached his limit.

(barks)

Is that his mother?

(barks)

Yes.

(barks)

(barks)

But how to catch her attention?

(barks)

(barks)

He summons his last ounce of strength.

Life is tough everywhere but the Galapagos sea lions have

found their paradise right here.

Unlike many inhabitants they could leave at any time

but they don't.

In this remote place,

they face less competition and have

more time to bask on the beach.

(waves lapping)

Elsewhere on the Galapagos,

the cormorant chicks are coming of age.

They've spent weeks in their nests slurping down free meals.

Now, those days are done.

Mother left to start a new family.

Leaving dad to push the chicks into the real world.

(squawking)

The older chicks have gathered by the water.

For them, it's not a question of learning to fly.

But figuring out how to swim and dive.

The father starts the lesson.

From now on he'll only serve food in the water

forcing the chicks to swim.

It's like riding a bike, keep moving your legs.

Easier said than done.

Instinct tells them to flap their useless wings.

Dad's not happy and withholds the fish.

But the chick really wants it.

And he's not the only one.

A magnificent Frigate bird.

These pirates of the air can't swim or dive.

They steal most of their food.

For the young hungry chick, a tough lesson.

Second attempt.

(suspenseful music)

Fathers have only a few weeks to train their chicks.

Growing up in the Galapagos is tough.

In fact, so tough,

only around a thousand of these cormorants exist.

Conditions here can only sustain a small population

of many animals.

Even underwater.

Tropical islands are normally bejeweled with corals.

Not on Galapagos.

Only small reef oases exist here.

The water is just too cold.

A challenge for coral connoisseurs,

the guinea fowl boxfish.

It uses its strong teeth to break open small pieces

and eat the algae that grows inside the coral.

And in the process leaves the coral with a carpet of scars.

It's the only food the boxfish eat.

So this reef dweller is found in very few locations

across the Galapagos.

This little coral garden is its gilded cage.

The vampire finches are also prisoners of paradise.

And though they eat only blood,

once a year they make an exception.

Eggs are on the menu.

(quirky music)

A booby has left its clutch.

But how to open one?

The finch's fine flesh piercing beak is useless here.

They wily bird hatches a plan.

Her efforts quickly draw hungry neighbors.

(fast paced music)

The finches will fight til the last drop.

On this island with no water to drink,

a juicy egg is a golden treasure.

The vampire finches are no different from so many other

inhabitants of the Galapagos Islands.

Thrown here by fate.

Facing a slim chance of survival in this remote part

of the world.

They made the best of it by adapting.

The result, a thriving Galapagos.

A small but vibrant and peculiar paradise.

A testament to the great power of evolution.