Original subtitles

♪

Narrator: TODAY THE EARTH IS HOME TO OVER 10 MILLION SPECIES

OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS,

LIVING IN VIRTUALLY EVERY HABITAT IMAGINABLE...

♪

BUT DESPITE THIS VAST DIVERSITY,

SCIENTISTS AGREE THAT EVERY ORGANISM ON THE PLANET

SHARES A SINGLE COMMON ANCESTOR.

WHICH RAISES A COMPELLING QUESTION:

Man: A QUESTION THAT DARWIN HIMSELF NEVER ANSWERED.

Man: WHERE DO SPECIES REALLY COME FROM?

Narrator: HOW DOES ONE SPECIES SPLIT INTO TWO?

CHARLES DARWIN CALLED THIS "THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES."

IN THE JUNGLES OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS,

SCIENTIST AL UY IS TRYING TO SOLVE THIS MYSTERY.

USING TOOLS DARWIN COULD ONLY DREAM OF,

HE’S DOING SOMETHING ONCE THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE...

CATCHING EVOLUTION IN THE ACT OF CREATING A NEW SPECIES.

Al Uy: WE ACTUALLY HAVE THE MUTATIONS

THAT CREATE THE NEW SPECIES.

Narrator: BUT WHILE ON THE VERGE OF AN AMAZING DISCOVERY,

UY’S WORK IS IN DANGER.

WITH THE SOLOMON ISLANDS UNDER THREAT,

HE MUST GATHER THE EVIDENCE

THAT WILL PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF A NEW SPECIES

BEFORE IT’S LOST.

♪

[INSECTS CHIRPING]

♪

[MAN SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]

Narrator: THERE’S AN ANCIENT STORY

TOLD IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

ABOUT HOW THE WORLD CAME TO BE.

[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]

IT DESCRIBES HOW A SERPENT SPIRIT CALLED AGUNUA

CREATED THE LAND, SEA AND SKY.

HE CREATED THE FIRST MAN AS A BROTHER FOR HIMSELF.

AGUNUA GAVE HIM A SINGLE YAM

AND TOLD HIM TO CUT THE YAM INTO PIECES

AND SCATTER THE PIECES ON THE EARTH.

♪

FROM THE PIECES OF THE YAM GREW EVERY KIND OF PLANT AND ANIMAL,

AND THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF ALL LIFE ON EARTH.

♪

FOR MILLENNIA, CREATION STORIES LIKE THAT

WERE AT THE HEART OF MANY CULTURES,

EXPLAINING NOT ONLY THE ORIGIN OF LIFE,

BUT, IN SOME CASES, WHEN IT BEGAN.

AS RECENTLY AS THE 1800s, MANY DEVOUT WESTERNERS

BELIEVED THE EARTH WAS JUST 10,000 YEARS OLD...

WITH ALL LIFE ON THE PLANET UNCHANGED

FROM THE MOMENT OF ITS DIVINE CREATION.

THEN, IN 1859, CAME A REVOLUTIONARY BOOK.

CHARLES DARWIN’S "ORIGIN OF SPECIES"

SUGGESTED THE EARTH WAS MORE THAN 10,000 YEARS OLD,

AS MANY SCIENTISTS THEN BELIEVED.

BUT HE ALSO SAID THAT PLANTS AND ANIMALS CHANGED OVER TIME

THROUGH A PROCESS HE CALLED NATURAL SELECTION.

DARWIN WENT ON TO CLAIM THAT ALL ORGANISMS--

EVERY LIVING THING ON EARTH-- CAME FROM ONE COMMON ANCESTOR.

HE PORTRAYED THIS BOLD IDEA IN THE FORM OF A FAMILY TREE,

WITH EVERY PLACE THE TREE BRANCHES

SIGNIFYING THE BIRTH OF A NEW SPECIES.

MAKING SENSE OF THE EARTH’S DIVERSITY

MEANS UNDERSTANDING WHAT HAPPENS

AT THESE BRANCHING POINTS.

TODAY SCIENTISTS CALL THIS PROCESS "SPECIATION."

EVERYWHERE AROUND US WE SEE THE RESULTS OF SPECIATION--

INCLUDING THE HUMAN SPECIES EVOLVING FROM OTHER PRIMATES.

BUT EXACTLY HOW THIS DIVERSITY OF SPECIES CAME ABOUT

REMAINS A MYSTERY.

DARWIN EXPLAINED HOW AN EXISTING SPECIES

COULD ADAPT TO ITS ENVIRONMENT,

BUT HIS THEORY WAS STILL INCOMPLETE.

Christopher Filardi: DARWIN DID THIS INCREDIBLE JOB

OF DESCRIBING HOW SPECIES CHANGE OVER TIME,

BUT IN HIS BOOK, RIGHT,

"THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES,"

IT SORT OF LEFT A QUESTION MARK ABOUT WHERE THOSE LINES STARTED.

THAT IS, WHERE DO SPECIES REALLY COME FROM?

Narrator: BY THE EARLY 20th CENTURY,

BIOLOGISTS BELIEVED THAT THE ANSWERS

TO HOW NEW SPECIES APPEAR

WOULD BE FOUND IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS--

AN ARCHIPELAGO OF ISLANDS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC.

IT WAS HERE IN THE LATE 1920s

THAT DR. ERNST MAYR TOOK ONE OF THE MAJOR STEPS

TOWARD COMPLETING DARWIN’S THEORY.

Jared Diamond: ERNST MAYR IS USUALLY CONSIDERED

THE GREATEST EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST SINCE DARWIN,

AND HE’S ESPECIALLY KNOWN IN THE 20th CENTURY

FOR HAVING ESSENTIALLY SOLVED THE PROBLEM

OF HOW SPECIES ORIGINATE--

THE THEME OF DARWIN’S BOOK,

BUT A QUESTION THAT DARWIN HIMSELF NEVER ANSWERED.

ERNST WAS A MEDICAL STUDENT,

BUT WHILE STUDYING MEDICINE AT UNIVERSITY, HE ALSO GOT A PhD

STUDYING THE EXPANSION OF A FINCH IN EUROPE.

AND THEN HE WANTED TO STUDY BIRDS.

HE HAD NEVER BEEN OUT OF EUROPE, AND SEVERAL EUROPEAN MUSEUMS

THEN ARRANGED FOR HIM TO GO TO THE SOLOMONS.

Filardi: WHAT’S INCREDIBLE ABOUT THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

IS THAT THEY’RE REALLY THE GALAPAGOS

THAT CHARLES DARWIN WAS LOOKING FOR.

Narrator: IN THE LATE 1920s,

THE SOLOMON ISLANDS WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR PRISTINE BEAUTY

AND EXOTIC SPECIES OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS.

HERE WAS AN EVOLUTIONARY EXPERIMENT

MILLIONS OF YEARS IN THE MAKING.

MAYR SPENT TWO YEARS COLLECTING HUNDREDS OF BIRD SPECIMENS

FROM ALL THE MAJOR ISLANDS.

STUDYING THEM AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY,

HE DETECTED A PATTERN IN A BIRD CALLED THE MONARCH FLYCATCHER.

MONARCH FLYCATCHERS APPEAR THROUGHOUT THE SOLOMONS,

BUT FROM ISLAND TO ISLAND,

THE BIRDS VARY, MOST NOTICEABLY IN COLOR.

SOME WERE CHESTNUT-COLORED BROWN BIRDS.

OTHERS WERE COMPLETELY BLACK.

TODAY, DR. CHRIS FILARDI

OVERSEES ERNST MAYR’S FLYCATCHER SPECIMENS FROM THE 1920s.

IT WAS THIS COLLECTION

THAT LED MAYR TO SUSPECT THE BLACK MONARCHS

WERE TRANSFORMING INTO A NEW SPECIES...

PUTTING HIM IN THE UNIQUE POSITION

OF WITNESSING EVOLUTION AS IT WAS HAPPENING.

Diamond: IT’S SOMETHING THAT RARELY HAPPENS

FAST ENOUGH TO BE OBSERVED.

USUALLY, THOUGH, SPECIATION OCCURS SLOWLY

OVER HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

WE HUMANS CANNOT OBSERVE IT DIRECTLY.

INSTEAD WE HAVE TO RECONSTRUCT IT...

BY FINDING DIFFERENT CASES WHICH REPRESENT INTERMEDIATE STAGES

IN THE PROCESS OF SPECIATION.

Narrator: IN THE WAKE OF DARWIN’S THEORY

THAT ORGANISMS CHANGED OVER TIME,

ERNST MAYR DEVELOPED A CONCEPT THAT DEFINED WHAT A SPECIES WAS.

IT WOULD COME DOWN TO A SIMPLE THREE-LETTER WORD: SEX.

Diamond: MAYR SAID A SPECIES IS A GROUP OF POPULATIONS

THAT INTERBREED WITH EACH OTHER BUT NOT WITH OTHER POPULATIONS.

AND SO, FOR EXAMPLE, HUMANS CONSTITUTE A SPECIES,

BECAUSE EUROPEANS, CHINESE, AFRICANS

AND ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS, GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY,

HAVE ALWAYS INTERBRED WITH EACH OTHER.

BUT HUMANS ARE A SPECIES DISTINCT FROM CHIMPANZEES

BECAUSE THERE’S NO RECORDED CASE OF HUMANS INTERBREEDING

OR ATTEMPTING TO INTERBREED WITH CHIMPANZEES.

Narrator: MAYR’S DEFINITION--

CALLED THE BIOLOGICAL SPECIES CONCEPT--

HELPED SCIENTISTS DRAW THE LINES

THAT SEPARATE ONE SPECIES FROM ANOTHER.

BUT THE REASONS WHY CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES

DID NOT INTERBREED REMAINED ELUSIVE.

♪

MORE THAN A CENTURY AND A HALF AFTER DARWIN,

BIOLOGIST AL UY IS FOLLOWING IN HIS AND ERNST MAYR’S FOOTSTEPS--

EXPLORING THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

IN A QUEST TO DISCOVER THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

IT’S A QUEST THAT BEGAN WHEN HE WAS A BOY.

Uy: I WAS BORN IN THE PHILIPPINES

RIGHT OUTSIDE THE CAPITAL, MANILA...

AND MOVED TO THE UNITED STATES WHEN I WAS 13 YEARS OLD.

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN BIODIVERSITY.

I THINK THAT’S A NATURAL CURIOSITY

THAT MOST PEOPLE HAVE, YOU KNOW, WHY IS THE EARTH SO DIVERSE...

AND WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?

SO I THINK A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF HUMAN NATURE

IS WE ARE ALWAYS INTERESTED TO FIGURE OUT

WHAT IS OUR PLACE IN LIFE

AND WHAT IS OUR PLACE IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS.

Narrator: IN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS,

UY LOOKED TO ERNST MAYR.

Uy: ERNST MAYR INSPIRED GENERATIONS OF SCIENTISTS

AND THE WAY SCIENTISTS THINK.

HE HELPED ME, AS A YOUNG SCIENTIST,

TRULY UNDERSTAND HOW EVOLUTION WORKS

AND TO START ADDRESSING

SOME OF THE PRESSING QUESTIONS IN EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY.

Narrator: ARMED WITH THE BIOLOGICAL SPECIES CONCEPT,

UY IS IN THE SOLOMONS TO TEST

WHETHER TWO BIRD POPULATIONS ARE SPLITTING INTO SEPARATE SPECIES.

HIS SUBJECT-- THE MONARCH FLYCATCHER.

Uy: WE KNOW FROM MAYR’S DESCRIPTIONS

THAT POPULATIONS FROM DIFFERENT ISLANDS LOOK DIFFERENT...

BUT THE QUESTION THEN IS DOES IT MATTER TO THEM

THAT IN THE ONE ISLAND THEY’RE BROWN-BELLIED

AND THE OTHER ISLAND THEY’RE FULLY BLACK?

AND NOW WE CAN REALLY, AS SCIENTISTS,

COME UP WITH EXPERIMENTS AND STUDIES THAT TEST THE PROCESS

OF HOW YOU GET THAT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN POPULATIONS.

Narrator: ARE THE BLACK MONARCH FLYCATCHERS

BECOMING A SEPARATE SPECIES FROM THE BROWN ONES?

IF SO, WHAT’S CAUSING IT TO HAPPEN?

ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS PROMISES TO BRING UY

CLOSER THAN EVER TO UNLOCKING

THE ELUSIVE SECRETS OF SPECIATION.

SCIENTISTS HAVE IDENTIFIED 96 SEPARATE SPECIES OF FLYCATCHERS

LIVING IN HABITATS FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

TO THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.

THESE SPECIES HAVE EVOLVED FROM A SINGLE COMMON ANCESTOR

THAT LIVED MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO.

BUT NO SCIENTIST HAS WITNESSED A POPULATION OF MONARCHS

IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING A NEW SPECIES...

UNTIL NOW.

Uy: SPECIATION, OR THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES,

IS A COMPLEX PROCESS.

TO UNDERSTAND HOW NEW SPECIES ARISE,

YOU NEED DATA TO CONNECT THE DOTS.

AND THESE DATA BASICALLY COME TOGETHER TO FORM A STORY.

Narrator: AL UY’S FIRST CHALLENGE IN THE SOLOMONS

WAS FIGURING OUT WHETHER

THE DIFFERENT-COLORED MONARCHS HE SAW ON VARIOUS ISLANDS

WERE BECOMING DIFFERENT SPECIES.

ERNST MAYR BELIEVED THAT GEOGRAPHICAL BARRIERS--

WATERWAYS, MOUNTAINS, EVEN ROADS--

CAN ISOLATE POPULATIONS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS

FROM EACH OTHER AND PREVENT INTERBREEDING.

OVER TIME, BEING IN ISOLATION CAN LEAD TO ENOUGH CHANGES

THAT THE POPULATION MAY BECOME A NEW SPECIES.

AND THERE’S NO BETTER PLACE TO STUDY THIS PROCESS

THAN ON ISLANDS.

Diamond: WHY SEND ME TO THE SOLOMONS AT CONSIDERABLE EXPENSE,

RATHER THAN JUST HAVE ME WATCH BIRDS

HERE IN MY BACKYARD IN LOS ANGELES?

THE REASON IS THAT THE SAME PROCESSES OPERATE

ON ISLANDS AS ON MAINLANDS,

BUT THEY’RE MUCH CLEARER ON ISLANDS

BECAUSE OF THOSE GEOGRAPHIC BARRIERS.

Narrator: SCIENTISTS HAVE FOUND THE ISOLATION

THAT ISLAND ORGANISMS EXPERIENCE

CAN ACTUALLY DRIVE SPECIATION.

Uy: ISLANDS, LIKE THE SOLOMON ISLANDS--

OR THE GALAPAGOS IN DARWIN’S CASE--

REALLY DO PROVIDE THESE KINDS OF EXAMPLES

OF SPECIATION IN ACTION.

ONE OF THE MAJOR THINGS THAT INSPIRED DARWIN WAS,

AS A YOUNG NATURALIST ABOARD THE BEAGLE,

HE WAS SEEING THE SAME THING

THAT MAYR FOUND IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC.

HE WAS FINDING POPULATIONS THAT ARE SIMILAR-LOOKING ENOUGH

WHERE YOU WOULD CLASSIFY THEM AS ONE SPECIES,

BUT THERE WERE SUBTLE DIFFERENCES

WHERE YOU NOW SUSPECT

THAT THEY ARE STARTING TO BECOME NEW SPECIES.

Narrator: TO UNDERSTAND HOW NEW SPECIES EVOLVE,

CONSIDER HOW HUMAN LANGUAGES DEVELOP.

LATIN IS THE COMMON ANCESTOR OF TODAY’S ROMANCE LANGUAGES--

INCLUDING SPANISH, FRENCH, PORTUGUESE,

ITALIAN AND ROMANIAN.

WHEN THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE SPREAD ACROSS EUROPE,

IT BROUGHT LATIN TO REGIONS

THAT WERE GEOGRAPHICALLY AND CULTURALLY ISOLATED

FROM EACH OTHER.

OVER TIME, LATIN TRANSFORMED INTO NEW DIALECTS

AND EVENTUALLY NEW LANGUAGES.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES

ARE NOTICEABLE

IN WRITTEN OR SPOKEN WORDS,

PHRASES AND GRAMMAR.

WITH THE LINGUISTIC BARRIERS SEPARATING THEM,

PEOPLE SPEAKING THESE

DISTINCT LANGUAGES TODAY

HAVE A HARD TIME COMMUNICATING

WITH ONE ANOTHER.

LANGUAGE EVOLUTION IS ALSO EVIDENT IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.

PIDGIN--SPOKEN THROUGHOUT THE SOLOMONS--

AROSE IN THE 19th CENTURY,

WHEN AUSTRALIAN PLANTATION OWNERS

KIDNAPPED THOUSANDS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

TO WORK AS LABORERS ON THEIR PALM PLANTATIONS.

TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR WORKERS--

WHO SPOKE MANY DIFFERENT LANGUAGES--

THESE PLANTATION OWNERS ENCOURAGED THE USE

OF SIMPLIFIED ENGLISH MIXED WITH NATIVE WORDS.

THIS GRADUALLY TRANSFORMED

INTO THE DISTINCTIVE LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN THE ISLANDS TODAY.

John Murray: "I’M GOING FOR A WALK IN THE FOREST"

IN ENGLISH.

IF I SAY IT IN PIDGIN,

"BAE MI GO WAKABAOT LONG BUS."

Narrator: PIDGIN CLEARLY SHARES RECENT COMMON ANCESTRY

WITH ENGLISH.

BUT NOW IT’S DIFFERENT ENOUGH

THAT ENGLISH SPEAKERS CAN’T EASILY UNDERSTAND IT.

Joyce Murray: IN ENGLISH I’LL SAY

"THIS IS MY HUSBAND."

BUT LO PIDGIN, BAE MI SAY

"HEM NA HASBAN BLO MI YA."

Narrator: JUST AS SHARED LANGUAGE

ALLOWS HUMANS TO FORM BONDS WITH EACH OTHER,

THE COLORS AND SONGS OF BIRDS

ALLOW THEM TO IDENTIFY MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN SPECIES.

LIKE MAYR, UY SUSPECTS THAT THE ALL-BLACK BIRDS

MAY BE TRANSITIONING INTO A NEW SPECIES,

DIFFERENT FROM THEIR BROWN-BELLIED COUNTERPARTS.

Uy: THEY CAN’T INTERBREED

AND THEY MAINTAIN THOSE WHAT’S CALLED "SPECIES BOUNDARIES."

THAT IS THE NET PRODUCT OR THE ULTIMATE PRODUCT OF SPECIATION:

THAT EVEN IF YOU PUT THEM IN THE SAME LOCATION,

THEY WILL HAVE PROBLEMS MATING

OR PRODUCING OFFSPRING OR BABIES.

Narrator: TO TEST HIS HYPOTHESIS--

AND TO CONTINUE THE WORK THAT DARWIN AND MAYR STARTED--

UY HEADS INTO THE FOREST,

ACCOMPANIED BY A GROUP OF ISLAND MEN

WITH WHOM HE’S FORMED A SPECIAL BOND.

Uy: FOR NOW I HAVE AT LEAST THREE GUYS

WHO I CONSIDER AS MY RIGHT, LEFT, WHATEVER, RIGHT-HAND MEN

IN TERMS OF COLLECTING DATA.

SO THERE’S LONSDALE,

WHO FUNCTIONS BOTH AS THE LEAD FIELD GUIDE

AND THE CAPTAIN OF OUR SMALL BOAT.

THE OTHER TWO THAT I’VE GOTTEN TO KNOW OVER THE YEARS,

ONE IS HIS BROTHER, JAMES, AND ANOTHER HIS COUSIN, GEORGE.

AND OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS, I’VE BEEN TRAINING THEM

SO THAT THEY CAN INDEPENDENTLY COLLECT DATA FOR ME.

A LOT OF THE WORK THAT WE DO REQUIRES, AT THE MINIMUM,

MONTHS OF OBSERVATIONS AND MONTHS OF CATCHING BIRDS,

AND AS MUCH AS I’D LIKE TO STAY IN THE SOLOMONS THE ENTIRE YEAR,

I CAN’T!

AND SO TRAINING THESE TOTALLY TRUSTED FIELD GUIDES

HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN MOVING MY WORK FORWARD.

♪

Narrator: ALSO JOINING AL IN HIS WORK

IS HIS WIFE, FLORIA MORA-KEPFER,

A BIOLOGIST SPECIALIZING IN ENTOMOLOGY,

THE STUDY OF INSECTS.

Floria Mora-Kepfer: I’VE BEEN PARTICIPATING IN THE RESEARCH,

AND I THINK IT’S BEEN GOOD TO BE ABLE TO COMBINE OUR EXPERTISE

IN THE SENSE THAT AL NEEDS TO KNOW THE INSECT COMPOSITION

AND THE POTENTIAL FOOD SOURCES

FOR THE FLYCATCHERS IN DIFFERENT ISLANDS...

BUT NOT ONLY FIGURE OUT

WHAT INSECTS ARE LOCATED ON WHAT ISLAND,

BUT ALSO BEING ABLE TO RELATE IT

TO CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLYCATCHERS.

Narrator: AL’S APPROACH TO RESEARCH

IS COLLABORATIVE AND TEAM-ORIENTED.

Uy: THERE’S ONE.

Narrator: WHILE HE HEADS THE PROJECT IN THE FIELD,

HE ALSO BENEFITS

FROM THE EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE OF HIS GUIDES.

Uy: THEY’VE HAD TO LEARN FROM ME

SOME OF THE TECHNIQUES THAT WE’VE USED...

AND IN TURN, WHAT I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO LEARN FROM THEM

IS SOME OF THE MORE BASIC NATURAL HISTORIES

OF THE BIRDS THAT WE’RE LOOKING AT.

THEY, FOR INSTANCE, KNOW

THE BEST PLACES TO SET UP THE NETS

’CAUSE THEY KNOW THE GENERAL BEHAVIOR OF HOW THE BIRDS FLY,

THEY KNOW WHERE THEY FEED,

AND I THINK THAT’S BEEN

A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF OUR SUCCESS.

Narrator: UY’S RESEARCH INTO SPECIMENS COLLECTED

BY MAYR AND JARED DIAMOND

LED HIM TO THE PERFECT TEST CASE...

THE BLACK MONARCH FLYCATCHERS OF SMALL SANTA ANA ISLAND,

JUST FOUR MILES FROM THE BROWN-BELLIED FLYCATCHERS

ON THE LARGE ISLAND OF MAKIRA.

Uy: IT IS VERY SURPRISING TO US THAT THEY ARE THAT DIFFERENT.

AND SO WE FOCUS ON THAT GROUP

BECAUSE WE WOULD WANT TO STUDY A POPULATION

WHERE THEY’RE CLOSE ENOUGH

WHERE THEY MIGHT ACTUALLY COME INTO CONTACT WITH EACH OTHER.

Narrator: WERE THE COLOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE BIRDS

A SIGN THAT SPECIATION WAS IN PROGRESS?

TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION, UY NEEDED TO DETERMINE

WHETHER MONARCHS RECOGNIZE OTHER BIRDS WITH THE SAME COLOR

AS MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN SPECIES.

LIKE MANY SONGBIRDS, MONARCH MALES AND FEMALES

FIERCELY DEFEND THEIR TERRITORIES IN THE FOREST.

INTRUDERS THAT HAVE THE SAME APPEARANCE

ARE POTENTIALLY COMPETITORS, BOTH FOR FOOD AND FOR MATES.

Uy: SO IMAGINE A SITUATION

WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING QUIETLY AT NIGHT.

THINGS ARE GREAT.

AND YOU HEAR A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS.

WELL, WHAT DO YOU DO?

IF YOU WERE AN ALPHA, MACHO MALE,

CLEARLY WHAT YOU WOULD DO IS GRAB A BASEBALL BAT

AND CHECK OUT WHAT’S GOING ON DOWNSTAIRS...

AND IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE AN INTRUDER, YOU WILL ATTACK.

WHAT WE’VE DONE IS MIMIC AN INTRUDER

COMING IN TO YOUR HOUSE OR YOUR TERRITORY.

Narrator: UY FOUND MONARCH TERRITORIES

AND PRESENTED THE RESIDENT BIRDS WITH A TAXIDERMIC MOUNT--

A REPLICA--EITHER OF A BIRD FROM THE SAME POPULATION

OR FROM ANOTHER POPULATION.

Uy: AND TO MAKE THE BIRD FEEL MORE REALISTIC,

WE WOULD ALSO HAVE TO PLAY THE SONG

THAT ACCOMPANIES THE PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF THE BIRD

SO THAT THE LIVING BIRD WOULD THINK THAT THE DEAD BIRD,

THE TAXIDERMY BIRD, IS ACTUALLY ALIVE.

[SQUAWKING]

WHAT WE FOUND IS THAT THEY REALLY ATTACKED

THE MOUNTS OF BIRDS THAT LOOK LIKE THEM.

SO FOR CHESTNUT BIRDS, THEY ATTACK CHESTNUT MOUNTS.

FOR BLACK BIRDS, THEY ATTACKED BLACK MOUNTS

TO THE POINT WHERE THEY WOULD TRY

TO TEAR UP AND PULL THE FEATHERS

AND KNOCK THE TAXIDERMY MOUNTS DOWN TO THE GROUND.

♪

Narrator: IN THE BIRDS’ FURIOUS BATTLES WITH THEIR SIMULATED FOES,

UY SEES A TELLING PATTERN.

Uy: YES, COLOR IS IMPORTANT.

REGARDLESS OF HOW YOU INTERPRET IT,

COLOR’S AFFECTING THE WAY THEY INTERACT,

AND THEY’RE USING IT

TO RECOGNIZE MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN SPECIES.

THE NEXT INFERENCE IS THAT THIS IS A MATE CHOICE ISSUE,

A COMPETITION FOR MATES ISSUE.

Narrator: THE FLYCATCHERS DON’T SEEM TO RECOGNIZE

DIFFERENTLY COLORED BIRDS AS MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN SPECIES.

THEY’RE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO ATTACK BIRDS

THAT LOOK LIKE THEMSELVES.

[SQUAWKING]

UY’S EXPERIMENT SUPPORTS ERNST MAYR’S SUSPICION

THAT THE BLACK MONARCHS OF SANTA ANA ISLAND

ARE ON THE PATH TO BECOMING A NEW SPECIES.

BUT WHAT CAUSES THE DIFFERENT COLORS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

AND COULD SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS A CHANGE IN COLOR

REALLY BE CREATING A NEW SPECIES?

AL UY WILL HAVE TO LOOK DEEPER THAN APPEARANCES

TO FIND ANSWERS TO THOSE QUESTIONS.

[SPEAKING PIDGIN]

FOR THE LAST EIGHT YEARS,

TRACKING THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW MONARCH FLYCATCHER SPECIES

HAS BEEN THE FOCUS OF AL’S RESEARCH IN THE SOLOMONS.

DURING THAT TIME, HE’S IMMERSED HIMSELF IN THE COMMUNITIES

ON THE ISLAND OF MAKIRA WHERE HE’S WORKING.

Uy: WHEN I CAME HERE, ESPECIALLY THE MAKIRA PROVINCE,

I’VE HAD TO START FROM SCRATCH.

DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS, MEET PEOPLE,

FIND OUT WHO WE SHOULD INTERACT WITH

AND BE PART OF A COMMUNITY

RATHER THAN COMING IN AS A SCIENTIST,

GET YOUR WORK DONE AND GO HOME.

Narrator: LIVING AMONG THE PEOPLE HAS GIVEN HIM INSIGHTS

INTO A WAY OF LIFE FAR DIFFERENT FROM SOUTH FLORIDA,

WHERE HE TEACHES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI.

Uy: LIFE IS VERY SIMPLE.

THERE’S NO ELECTRICITY.

COOKING IS STILL TYPICALLY DONE USING FIREWOOD.

RUNNING WATER IS BASICALLY A PIPE

WITH SEVERAL OUTLETS COMING OUT.

THE PEOPLE CAN GET BUCKETS AND GET WATER.

SO EVERYTHING IS STILL COLLECTED FROM THE ENVIRONMENT

TO BUILD THEIR HOUSES.

AND SO IT’S STILL VERY MUCH DEVELOPING,

WITHOUT A LOT OF THE AMENITIES

THAT WE, UH, FORGET, OR WE TAKE FOR GRANTED.

Narrator: SOLOMON ISLANDERS HAVE LIVED OFF THE FOREST AND THE SEA

FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

THEIR LIVES ARE INTIMATELY TIED

TO THE PLANTS AND ANIMALS AROUND THEM.

BUT ONE PLANT IN PARTICULAR TAKES PRECEDENCE.

Uy: IF YOU ARE TO LIVE AND WORK IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS,

YOU WOULD HAVE TO LOVE COCONUTS.

EVERYTHING IN THEIR LIFE REVOLVES AROUND COCONUTS:

THEIR MEALS, WHAT THEY DRINK, THINGS THAT THEY BUILD

ARE ALL BASED ON COCONUT.

EVERY SINGLE PIECE IS USED,

AND THEY REFER TO THE COCONUTS AS BASICALLY THE TREE OF LIFE.

Narrator: THE PEOPLE OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

HAVE VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING THEY NEED AT THEIR FINGERTIPS.

BUT IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY, COCONUTS AREN’T CURRENCY.

[THUD]

Filardi: 80 TO 85% OF THE PEOPLE WITHIN THE SOLOMONS

LIVE A SUBSISTENCE-BASED LIFESTYLE,

WHERE THEIR PRIMARY NEEDS ARE NOT DELIVERED THROUGH CASH.

THEIR PRIMARY NEEDS ARE DELIVERED

FROM THE DIVERSITY AND RICHNESS

OF THE SYSTEMS THEY’VE STEWARDED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

♪

Narrator: BUT AS THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

BECOME LESS ISOLATED FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD,

THE RICHNESS AND DIVERSITY OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

IS UNDER THREAT.

Uy: AND I THINK IT’S NO EXAGGERATION IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

THAT THIS DANGER IS IMMEDIATE.

Narrator: LUSH RAINFOREST COVERS MUCH OF THE REGION

OF MAKIRA PROVINCE IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.

BUT INCREASINGLY SCENES OF DEFORESTATION--

LIKE THESE IN NEW GUINEA-- ARE BECOMING COMMON.

♪

ACROSS THE SOLOMONS’ THOUSAND ISLANDS,

RAMPANT LOGGING OPERATIONS

HAVE DEVASTATED LARGE SECTIONS OF THE RAINFOREST.

SOME ESTIMATES SUGGEST THAT THE NATION’S TROPICAL FORESTS

COULD BE DECIMATED WITHIN A DECADE.

MEANWHILE, UNREGULATED COMMERCIAL FISHING OPERATIONS

HAVE REDUCED FISH STOCKS IN THE REGION,

DAMAGING MARINE HABITATS--

A CRITICAL RESOURCE THE ISLAND PEOPLE NEED TO SURVIVE.

♪

THE TENSION BETWEEN THOSE

SEEKING TO EXPLOIT THE RESOURCES OF THE SOLOMONS

AND THOSE WANTING TO CONSERVE THEM

PUTS MANY COMMUNITIES IN A DILEMMA.

Uy: I THINK MOST COMMUNITIES ARE AT THAT CROSSROADS

OF WHETHER THEY USE THEIR RESOURCES TO ITS FULLEST EXTENT,

BUT THEN MAYBE DEPLETE IT,

OR TRY TO CONSERVE IT SO THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS

HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE RESOURCES THAT THEY’VE HAD.

♪

EACH PIECE OF LAND, EACH ISLAND, IS OWNED BY A TRIBAL COMMUNITY

IN A LEGALLY BINDING OWNERSHIP THAT THE GOVERNMENT RECOGNIZES.

SO IN THAT WAY, CONSERVATION BIOLOGISTS

CAN MAKE USE OF THIS KIND OF VERY PERSONAL INTERACTIONS

YOU CAN HAVE WITH COMMUNITIES.

BUT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT COIN,

CLEARLY LOGGERS AND FISHING INDUSTRIES

CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SAME SITUATION...

AND SO, IN THAT SENSE IT’S A RACE

BETWEEN CONSERVATION AND RESOURCE USE.

YOU KNOW, IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS,

THE SOLOMON ISLANDS WILL BE A VERY, VERY DIFFERENT PLACE

UNLESS SOME CONSERVATION INITIATIVES

HAVE BEEN SET IN PLACE,

AND I THINK THIS IS THE PLACE TO DO IT.

♪

Narrator: WITH THE SOLOMON ISLANDS’ NATURAL RESOURCES AT RISK,

UY’S RESEARCH TOOK ON A NEW URGENCY.

CLEAR-CUT LOGGING ON THE ISLANDS

COULD DESTROY THE HABITAT OF THE MONARCH FLYCATCHERS

AND POSSIBLY ARREST THE EMERGENCE OF THE NEW SPECIES.

BUT IT’S NOT JUST THE MONARCHS THAT ARE THREATENED.

SOME 80 SPECIES OF ANIMALS FOUND NOWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD

COULD ALSO BE LOST TO HABITAT DESTRUCTION.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

AND WITH THEM WOULD GO THE CLUES

THAT WOULD REVEAL HOW EACH EVOLVED ON THE ISLANDS.

UY NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND

THE LIVING DIVERSITY OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

WHILE HE STILL COULD.

HIS FIRST EXPERIMENTS HAD SHOWN WHAT ERNST MAYR SUSPECTED:

THAT THE BLACK AND THE BROWN-BELLIED MONARCHS

WERE DIVERGING INTO TWO DISTINCT SPECIES.

THIS PUT UY CLOSER TO UNDERSTANDING SPECIATION

IN THE MONARCHS.

BUT HE STILL HADN’T FIGURED OUT

WHAT CAUSED THE BIRDS ON SANTA ANA TO BECOME BLACK,

WHILE FOUR MILES AWAY ON MAKIRA, THE MONARCHS WERE BROWN.

Uy: THE NEXT STEP REALLY NOW IS TO TRY TO UNDERSTAND

WHAT ARE THE MOLECULAR CHANGES THAT UNDERLIE THESE DIFFERENCES.

BECAUSE TO TRULY UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES,

WE REALLY NEED TO CONNECT THE MOLECULAR CHANGES

WITH THE PHYSICAL CHANGES.

Narrator: TO DO THAT, UY NEEDED TO LOOK

INTO THE FLYCATCHER’S GENES.

PROBLEM WAS, HE WASN’T A GENETICIST.

Uy: I QUICKLY REALIZED THAT, ONE,

I DID NOT HAVE THE SKILL SET.

AND TWO, I NEEDED TO GET IT.

Narrator: UY HAD TO MAKE A DIFFICULT DECISION.

HE CHOSE TO PUT HIS PROJECT ON HOLD

AND LEAVE THE SOLOMON ISLANDS...

RETURNING ONLY WHEN HE HAD THE SKILLS AND THE TOOLS

TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

THAT HAD BROUGHT HIM THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.

♪

IT MEANT HE WOULD BECOME A STUDENT AGAIN--

WORKING IN THE LAB,

LEARNING THE GENETICS HE WOULD NEED

TO PUSH HIS RESEARCH WITH THE FLYCATCHERS FORWARD...

ALL WHILE HOPING THE LOGGING COMPANIES

WOULD NOT INTRUDE ON THE AREAS OF HIS RESEARCH.

Uy: AND I BASICALLY SPENT THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS

LEARNING ANYTHING FROM WHAT EQUIPMENT TO USE

TO HOW TO ANALYZE DATA.

SO THAT I AT LEAST GOT THE MOST BASIC TRAINING

AND EXPOSURE TO SOME OF THE MOLECULAR GENETICS

THAT I WOULD NEED TO USE TO ANSWER SOME OF THESE QUESTIONS.

Narrator: IT WOULD BE A YEAR LATER

BEFORE AL RETURNED TO THE SOLOMONS,

EAGER TO PUT HIS NEW SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST.

NOW HE HOPED TO FINALLY ANSWER THE QUESTION

THAT HAD ELUDED CHARLES DARWIN AND ERNST MAYR:

HOW NEW SPECIES ARE CREATED.

[STUDENTS SINGING]

AL UY KNOWS THE OPPORTUNITY

TO DO RESEARCH IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

IS A PRIVILEGE--

ONE THAT HE REPAYS BY GIVING TALKS TO ISLAND SCHOOL KIDS

IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE.

[SPEAKING PIDGIN]

ENGLISH?

[LAUGHTER]

YEAH?

OR PIDGIN?

Uy: WE ARE ON UGI ISLAND, IN PAWA SECONDARY SCHOOL,

DOING OUR YEARLY OUTREACH

OF TALKING TO STUDENTS ABOUT WHAT WE DO,

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHY SCIENTISTS TRAVEL

ALL THE WAY FROM AMERICA TO THE SOLOMONS.

THIS IS STILL A CULTURE THAT BASICALLY LIVES OFF THE LAND,

AND SO TO THEM IT’S A BIG PUZZLE

WHY WE WOULD INVEST SO MUCH MONEY AND RESOURCES

TO COME OUT HERE AND MONITOR THESE BIRDS.

SO I THINK IN THE MOST BASIC SENSE

IT’S A MINIMAL COURTESY, IF YOU WILL,

THAT WE TELL THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES WHY WE’RE HERE.

Narrator: UY IS COLLECTING DATA ON THE MONARCHS

THAT ERNST MAYR COULDN’T GET IN THE 1920s--

DATA THAT WASN’T AVAILABLE EVEN 80 YEARS LATER,

WHEN JARED DIAMOND CO-AUTHORED A BOOK WITH MAYR

ABOUT BIRDS IN THE SOLOMONS.

Diamond: ERNST AND I TOGETHER

DEDUCED HOW DIFFERENT THEY WERE FROM EACH OTHER.

BUT OUR EVIDENCE WAS ALL BASED ON WHAT YOU CAN SEE IN PLUMAGE.

WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY GENETIC EVIDENCE.

IN FACT, AT THE TIME WE WROTE OUR BOOK,

THERE WAS NO GENETIC INFORMATION WHATSOEVER

ABOUT ANY SOLOMON ISLAND BIRDS.

Narrator: FOR THE FIRST TIME, UY WAS ATTEMPTING TO LOOK

BENEATH THE MONARCH’S PLUMAGE TO THE MOLECULAR LEVEL...

IN SEARCH OF THE GENES THAT COULD RESULT

IN THE CREATION OF A NEW SPECIES.

BUT THERE’S A CATCH.

A MONARCH’S GENOME CONTAINS OVER A BILLION BASE PAIRS,

THE LETTERS OF THE GENETIC CODE.

IDENTIFYING THE GENES THAT INFLUENCE COLOR

IS LIKE TRYING TO FIND A NEEDLE IN A FIELD OF HAYSTACKS.

THE SEARCH COULD TAKE MONTHS.

STILL, UY HAD AN IDEA ABOUT WHERE TO LOOK.

A GENE CALLED MC1R CONTROLS A PROTEIN

THAT REGULATES WHICH TYPE OF PIGMENT A CELL PRODUCES...

PHEOMELANIN, WHICH CAUSES YELLOW AND RED COLORS,

OR EUMELANIN, WHICH PRODUCES BROWN OR BLACK.

IN A WIDE RANGE OF ANIMALS, A MUTATION IN THE MC1R GENE

CAN CAUSE HAIR, FEATHERS OR SKIN TO TURN BLACK.

UY WAS ON THE VERGE OF SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES

THAT HAD PUZZLED DARWIN.

Uy: AND WHAT WE FOUND WAS A STRIKING PATTERN.

ALL THE BIRDS SOUTHEAST IN SANTA ANA

HAVE ONE UNIQUE CHANGE IN THE MELANOCORTIN RECEPTOR GENE

THAT PERMANENTLY ACTIVATES THE MELANOCORTIN RECEPTOR

TO CREATE COMPLETELY BLACK BIRDS.

THEY’RE BLACK BECAUSE THEIR MC1R IS PERMANENTLY TURNED ON.

SO IF COLOR IS AN IMPORTANT WAY

FOR INDIVIDUALS TO RECOGNIZE MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN SPECIES,

THAT SINGLE MUTATION,

THAT SINGLE CHANGE IN A SINGLE PROTEIN

CAN HAVE A DRAMATIC CASCADING EFFECT

SO THAT ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU HAVE A NEW SPECIES OF BIRDS,

OR ANIMAL, ON ONE ISLAND,

BECAUSE THEY LOOK DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT.

SO WHAT WE HAVE SO FAR, THEN, IS THAT WE ACTUALLY HAVE

THE MUTATIONS THAT CREATE THE NEW SPECIES.

♪

Narrator: FOR ERNST MAYR, NEW SPECIES EMERGED

WHEN POPULATIONS OF AN ORGANISM

DEVELOPED A NUMBER OF MUTATIONS OVER TIME

THAT KEPT THEM FROM INTERBREEDING

WITH OTHER RELATED POPULATIONS.

BUT WHAT UY FOUND DIDN’T FIT THIS PICTURE.

THE GENETIC DIFFERENCES

IN THE BROWN MAKIRA BIRDS AND BLACK SANTA ANA BIRDS

CENTERED ON MC1R.

ALL THEIR OTHER GENES WERE IDENTICAL--

MEANING THAT THIS SINGLE MUTATION

WAS JUMP-STARTING THE CREATION OF A NEW SPECIES.

BUT SANTA ANA ISN’T THE ONLY ISLAND IN THE SOLOMONS

WITH BLACK MONARCHS.

Uy: WELL, WE STILL HAVE ANOTHER GROUP OF BLACK BIRDS

NORTH OF MAKIRA IN THE ISLANDS OF UGI AND THREE SISTERS.

OUR NEXT QUESTION IS

WE HAVE THE SAME PHYSICAL APPEARANCE,

THE SAME TRAIT ACROSS DIFFERENT ISLANDS.

DID EVOLUTION FIND DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS TO THE SAME PROBLEM?

DID THEY FIND A DIFFERENT PATHWAY

TO CREATE THESE BLACK BIRDS?

AND OF COURSE, THEY’RE ALL IN THE SAME ISLAND GROUP.

WE HAD THOUGHT, IT’S GOT TO BE THE SAME.

IT HAS TO BE THE SAME MUTATION IN THE MELANOCORTIN RECEPTOR.

Narrator: IN FACT, IT WASN’T.

AL DISCOVERED THAT THE BLACK BIRDS ON UGI

DID NOT HAVE THE MC1R MUTATION

THAT HE FOUND IN THE SANTA ANA BIRDS.

SURPRISINGLY, THE GENE IN THE BLACK UGI BIRDS

WAS IDENTICAL TO MC1R IN THE BROWN-BELLIED MAKIRA BIRDS.

SO WHAT MADE THE UGI BIRDS BLACK?

AL’S RESEARCH SHOWED THAT THE BLACK MONARCHS ON UGI ISLAND

HAD A MUTATION IN A DIFFERENT GENE--

CALLED AGOUTI--WHICH CAN ALSO TURN ANIMALS BLACK.

THIS ISN’T THE ONLY CASE OF SIMILAR PHYSICAL TRAITS

APPEARING FROM MUTATIONS IN DIFFERENT GENES.

IT’S KNOWN TO HAPPEN IN HUMANS, TOO.

Filardi: ONE OF THE MORE INTRIGUING AND MEMORABLE THINGS

THAT ALMOST EVERYBODY WHO GOES TO THE SOLOMONS ENCOUNTERS

ARE THESE INDIVIDUALS WHO’VE GOT THIS BLEACH BLOND HAIR...

AND THERE ARE BLUE-EYED PEOPLE THERE AS WELL.

AND YOU KNOW, THOSE BLUE EYES ARE EURASIAN, CAUCASIAN.

THEY ARE THE LEGACY OF LONELY SAILORS

TRAVELING THROUGH THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.

AND PEOPLE HAVE OFTEN THOUGHT THAT THAT’S, WELL,

THAT’S WHERE THAT WHITE HAIR CAME FROM, RIGHT?

IT’S BLOND HAIR, JUST CAME FROM THOSE SAILORS.

BUT RECENT WORK HAS SHOWN THAT THAT’S NOT THE CASE--

THAT THAT BLOND HAIR COMES

FROM A DIFFERENT SINGLE-POINT MUTATION

THAN THE STUFF THAT CAUSES BLOND HAIR IN A EURASIAN PERSON.

JUST LIKE THOSE BLACK BIRDS.

AND THERE’S AN INCREDIBLE PARALLEL THERE.

SINGLE-POINT MUTATIONS,

DIFFERENT MUTATIONS IN DIFFERENT POPULATIONS,

TURN THOSE BIRDS JET BLACK.

SO, YOU KNOW, HUMAN EVOLUTION AND BIRD EVOLUTION?

MAYBE NOT THAT DISSIMILAR.

Narrator: THE UGI AND SANTA ANA BIRDS LOOK IDENTICAL,

BUT DIFFERENT GENES ARE TURNING THE BIRDS

IN THESE TWO POPULATIONS BLACK.

WHICH MEANS THAT NOT ONE BUT TWO POPULATIONS OF MONARCHS

ARE EVOLVING INTO NEW SPECIES,

SEPARATE FROM THE BIRDS ON MAKIRA ISLAND.

UY’S DISCOVERY HAS OPENED THE DOOR TO REVEAL

THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF HOW NEW SPECIES EMERGE.

Diamond: AL UY’S GREAT CONTRIBUTION

HAS BEEN THAT HE HAS BEEN ACCUMULATING GENETIC EVIDENCE

FOR ONE OF THESE TEXTBOOK CASES OF SPECIATION IN THE SOLOMONS.

THERE ARE BLACK MONARCH FLYCATCHERS ON UGI

AND THE BLACK MONARCH FLYCATCHERS IN SANTA ANA.

ERNST AND I HAD NO WAY OF KNOWING

WHETHER ALL OF THOSE BLACK MONARCH FLYCATCHERS

WERE RELATED TO EACH OTHER.

AL’S GENETIC EVIDENCE SHOWS NO,

THEY’RE NOT RELATED TO EACH OTHER.

THEY SEPARATELY EVOLVED BLACK PLUMAGE.

THOSE SMALL NUMBER OF GENES HAVE BIG CONSEQUENCES.

Uy: NICE BOY. REAL NICE.

Narrator: UY’S RESEARCH CONFIRMS

SOME OF WHAT SCIENTISTS THOUGHT THEY KNEW ABOUT SPECIATION.

BUT IT ALSO SUGGESTS SOMETHING THAT ERNST MAYR DIDN’T PREDICT:

A MUTATION IN A SINGLE GENE

CAN TRIGGER THE EVOLUTION OF A NEW SPECIES

IF IT CAUSES A CHANGE IN MATING BEHAVIOR

AND PREVENTS ONE POPULATION FROM INTERBREEDING WITH OTHERS.

UY’S FINDINGS WITH THE BLACK MONARCHS ARE REMARKABLE.

BUT IT’S ONLY THE BEGINNING.

NATURAL SELECTION IS AT WORK

ON THE SMALL ISLANDS OFF THE COAST OF MAKIRA--

TURNING THE PLUMAGE OF BROWN MONARCH FLYCATCHERS BLACK.

Uy: AND WHAT WE’RE FINDING IS THAT AS ISLANDS GET SMALLER,

YOU GET MORE BLACK BIRDS,

WHICH IS CONSISTENT WITH THE IDEA

THAT BLACK BIRDS DO WELL IN SMALL ISLANDS.

Narrator: BUT WHY DO THE BIRDS DO WELL?

WHAT ADVANTAGE DOES THE MUTATION IN THE MC1R OR AGOUTI GENE

GIVE TO THE BLACK MONARCHS ON THE SMALL ISLANDS?

THAT’S A QUESTION UY IS INVESTIGATING.

THE ANSWER WILL TAKE MORE EXPERIMENTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

BEFORE IT WILL BE REVEALED.

IN THE MEANTIME, UY HAS OTHER WORK TO DO

TO ENSURE THE NEW MONARCH FLYCATCHER SPECIES

ON SANTA ANA AND UGI--

AS WELL AS OTHER SPECIES UNIQUE TO THE SOLOMONS--

CAN SURVIVE A THREAT LOOMING ON THE HORIZON.

THE SOLOMON ISLANDS ARE NO LONGER

THE PRISTINE, FAR-FLUNG ARCHIPELAGO

THAT ERNST MAYR VISITED IN THE 1920s.

LOGGING AND FISHING COMPANIES HAVE PLUNDERED THE REGION,

ENDANGERING SPECIES UNIQUE TO THE ISLANDS...

AND SEVERING FOR GOOD

MANY BRANCHES OF THE ISLANDS’ TREE OF LIFE.

WITNESSING THIS EXPLOITATION HAS CHANGED AL UY’S OUTLOOK.

Uy: AS A SCIENTIST I’VE ALWAYS FELT, YOU KNOW,

PROTECT THAT IVORY TOWER OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

AND JUST BASIC SCIENCE.

BUT WHAT THE SOLOMON ISLANDS REALLY HAS MADE ME

IS A SELF-TRAINED CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST, IF YOU WILL.

THE THINGS WE DO OUGHT TO MATTER

TO THE COMMUNITIES THAT WE CARRY OUT OUR PROJECTS IN.

[SPEAKING PIDGIN]

Narrator: INCREASINGLY, SCIENTISTS WORKING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

ARE FINDING THEIR ROLE EVOLVING FROM RESEARCHER TO ADVOCATE.

Filardi: I THINK THE ROLE OF ANYONE

WHO GOES INTO THESE COMMUNITIES

IS TO PROVIDE REALLY A SPACE AND AN OPEN DIALOGUE

THAT SHARES A NEW PERSPECTIVE WITH THOSE PEOPLE.

Narrator: UY’S WORK ON MAKIRA

HAS EARNED HIM THE TRUST OF JOHN AND JOYCE MURRAY,

THE PATRIARCH AND MATRIARCH OF A VILLAGE ON THE ISLAND.

Uy: BASICALLY WHAT HAS HAPPENED

IS THEY’VE ADOPTED ME AS THEIR OWN SON...

AND WHEN I COME, YOU KNOW, I LIVE WITH THEM,

I EAT WITH THEM, I DO EVERYTHING WITH THEM.

SO I THINK THAT UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE

OF BEING PART OF THE COMMUNITY

AND REALIZING THAT THERE’S MORE TO SCIENCE THAN JUST SCIENCE,

HAS BEEN, HANDS DOWN,

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THEY’VE GIVEN ME.

Narrator: IN HONOR OF THEIR ADOPTED SON,

THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF THE MURRAY FAMILY

IS NAMED AFTER AL.

Uy: AND MIRACULOUSLY, ALBERT, LITTLE ALBERT,

WAS ALSO BORN ON MY BIRTHDAY,

SO WE NOT ONLY SHARE A NAME BUT WE SHARE A BIRTHDAY!

♪

Narrator: FOR CENTURIES, SCIENCE HAS BEEN SEEKING THE ANSWERS

TO THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS OF LIFE--

REPLACING THOSE ONCE PROVIDED BY MYTHS AND LEGENDS.

Filardi: WHY IS IT WORTH TRYING TO FIGURE OUT

WHERE NEW SPECIES COME FROM?

Uy: THAT’S THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION.

SCIENCE AND BIOLOGY IN PARTICULAR

REALLY DRIVES THE MESSAGE HOME THAT WE ARE JUST PART

OF THIS BILLIONS OF ITERATIONS OF NATURAL SELECTION,

THIS GRAND TAPESTRY OF LIFE.

EVOLUTION AND ECOLOGY HAVE REALLY HELPED US UNDERSTAND

HOW LIFE IS INTERCONNECTED.

Narrator: BUT THAT INTERCONNECTEDNESS IS AT RISK.

♪

EVERY TIME UY RETURNS TO THE SOLOMONS,

HE SEES CHANGES IN ITS GRAND TAPESTRY.

RESOURCE EXPLOITATION

IS DISRUPTING THE PROCESS OF EVOLUTION

THAT’S BEEN OPERATING FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

AND THAT EXACTS A HEAVY PRICE--

NOT ONLY IN THE LOSS OF A SINGLE SPECIES OF BIRD,

BUT IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FRAGILE BALANCE

OF THE SOLOMONS’ ECOSYSTEM.

♪

EVEN AS SCIENTISTS STRIVE TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD AROUND US,

THERE GROWS A DESIRE TO EXPERIENCE A DEEP CONNECTION

TO NATURE AND ITS MYSTERIES.

Filardi: I THINK BY UNDERSTANDING

THE SORT OF GENESIS OF ORGANIC DIVERSITY,

WE UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT BEAUTY.

WE UNDERSTAND A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE ENGINES

THAT ARE SORT OF CONSTANTLY HUMMING

UNDERNEATH THE THINGS WE LOVE.

Uy: TRADITIONALLY IN THE MAKIRA PROVINCE,

FOLKS USE THE TERM "FIGONA" TO DESCRIBE SPIRIT...

BUT OVER THE YEARS, IT HAS BECOME MORE OF A WORD

TO DESCRIBE SOMETHING THAT IS AWE-INSPIRING.

♪

WHEN I ENTER A RAINFOREST, IT HAS THAT UNIQUE SMELL

THAT JUST REALLY RINGS TRUTH IN ME, AND I SMELL IT.

IT’S THAT SMELL OF MOSS AND DECAY

THAT REALLY GIVES ME THE SENSE OF, OF WHERE I CAME FROM.

AND WHEN YOU GET TO THIS FOREST AND WHEN YOU SEE,

RIGHT WHEN THE SUN IS RISING

AND SUN IS BEAMING THROUGH THESE EMERALD LEAVES,

I MEAN THAT, TO ME, IS LIKE... IT’S AMAZING!

AND THAT’S KIND OF LIKE... I GUESS THAT’S MY FIGONA, UM...

AND I’M ALL TEARY NOW!

[LAUGHS]

BUT IT’S WHAT KEEPS ME KIND OF GOING BACK.

♪

Narrator: AL UY’S DISCOVERIES IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

HAVE BROUGHT US CLOSER TO UNDERSTANDING

WHAT DARWIN CALLED "THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES."

HERE, ON THESE DISTANT ISLANDS OF CREATION,

THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS

UNDERLYING ALL THE BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY ON THE PLANET

IS STILL EVIDENT.

IT’S A PROCESS WE’RE A PART OF...

ONE THAT LED TO THE BIRTH OF OUR OWN SPECIES

MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO...

AND ONE THAT CONNECTS US BY A COMMON ANCESTOR

TO ALL THINGS LIVING ON EARTH.

♪