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In the seas around Australia, cataclysmic
forces have formed thousands of islands -

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of all shapes and sizes,

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from tiny tropical ones to giants
with huge snow capped peaks.

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They stretch from
Australia in a great arc,

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from New Guinea in the north,
right out into the Pacific

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and down to New Zealand.

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If Australia itself seems strange,

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its island relatives and their
unique creatures are stranger still.

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No other continent has given birth

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to such an explosion of fabulous island
landscapes and their weird wildlife.

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So how did the dry, old giant, Australia,

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end up surrounded by such a glittering
necklace of wild ocean jewels?

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Just a few thousand years ago,
the tip of Northern Australia

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oozed out into a vast swampy plain that
stretched all the way to New Guinea.

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Today, in Australia's Top End,

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you can still get an idea
of that great swamp

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in a watery landscape called Kakadu.

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It's an oasis for water birds,
including huge flocks of magpie geese.

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Kakadu's swamps are created
every year by monsoon floods.

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They transform the parched
landscape into a rich,

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living broth and millions of
water birds find it irresistible.

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And something else finds
them irresistible too...

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...the salt-water crocodile.

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Muddy water provides the perfect
camouflage for these huge,

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six metre long reptiles.

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A magpie goose makes
a nice bite-sized snack.

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It will probably last him a week.

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Kakadu may be full of life,

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but it can give us only a tiny glimpse of

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what those enormous swamps of thousands
of years ago must have been like.

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In those days, sea levels were much lower.

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But about 10,000 years ago,
world sea levels rose

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and the swamp was drowned by the ocean,

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completely cutting off
New Guinea from Australia.

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The tops of a few hills
survived the flooding,

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and today, like stepping stones,

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they lead a path from Australia to
the giant new island of New Guinea.

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It was connected to the mainland
for millions of years -

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but now, it couldn't look more different.

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While much of Australia is dusty and dry,

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most of New Guinea is covered
in lush tropical rainforest.

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The landscape may look very different,

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but the wildlife still has

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that eccentric Australian blend of
the improbable and the ingenious...

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This is the long beaked echidna.

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It's about twice the size
of its Australian cousin.

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It's also called the giant spiny anteater,
but it doesn't eat ants.

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Instead, it uses its long nose
to probe for worms,

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sniffing for them as it
wanders through the forest.

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When it catches the merest whiff of
a worm, it uses its nose like a dibber,

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poking it in and out of the ground
until it finds a snack.

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To haul the worm in, it spears
it on a special barbed tongue...

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...then up it goes,
like a piece of spaghetti.

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Because New Guinea was connected
to Australia for so long,

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it has a lot of familiar
Australian animals,

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like kangaroos.

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But these are not your typical roos -
they live up in the forest canopy.

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Although they spend
most of their time in trees,

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they don't look very sure-footed.

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But it's worth the effort.

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There are no monkeys or squirrels
to compete with here,

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so if the kangaroos can reach it,

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the entire canopy of leaves
is there for the taking.

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This baby will learn from its mother
about which leaves to eat...

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...and which fruit or lichen
to round off the meal.

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It's not an easy world for Joeys
to learn to move about in

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and they'll stick by their mothers
for up to two years

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before they're ready to live on their own.

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New Guinea is covered in dramatic
mountains and it has Australia,

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one of the flattest continents
on earth, to thank.

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Over millions of years,
Australia has been drifting northwards

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and New Guinea has buckled up
under the pressure.

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Some of these rise as high as 5000 metres,
into peaks of ice and snow.

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These huge mountains have divided

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the island into hundreds
of ridges and valleys.

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Within these, an endless variety of
different landscapes have been created,

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many with isolated pockets of
extraordinary and unique wildlife.

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And you don't get much more extraordinary
than the birds of paradise.

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Like animated neon signs,

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these fabulously adorned
males advertise to females

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in an explosion of colour and sound.

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And in case this isn't eye catching
enough, they dance as well.

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38 of the world's 42 species of bird
of paradise live only here.

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Of all of these, the Raggiana
must be amongst the most dazzling.

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Males dance together on
a specially prepared stage,

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which they've completely
cleared of leaves.

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And this is who they're
desperate to please.

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When these drab females arrive,
the males give it everything they've got.

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Females are hard to satisfy

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and they'll only mate with the male
who impresses them the most.

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When a female flies in for a closer look,
it sends the males into a frenzy.

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And when she finally makes her choice -
he's unstoppable.

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He's laying it on a bit thick here...

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...but she seems to like it.

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These beautiful feathers

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also make fabulous costumes
for the people of New Guinea.

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Each year, tribes from all over
the highlands gather in displays

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that almost outdo the showmanship
of the birds themselves.

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Hundreds of isolated
cultures have evolved here,

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with as many different languages -

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more than any other place on earth.

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The dry landscape of Australia couldn't
support great numbers of Aborigines,

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but the fertile mountains of New Guinea

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allowed the development
of settled agriculture

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and a huge explosion
of peoples and cultures.

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On this one island,

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there are as many different ways of life
as there are valleys and mountainsides.

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Many of these tribes were so isolated,

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they weren't discovered by Europeans
until the middle of the 20th century.

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While Australia was a harsh,
unpredictable place to survive in,

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these mountain slopes
could not be more hospitable.

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Over 9,000 years ago,
people started gardens here.

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From plots like this, of sweet potato,

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they've now manicured entire hillsides
into a patchwork of allotments.

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Even so, large parts of the island
are too steep to cultivate.

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Rugged cliffs and a lot of rain
keep these areas thick with forest.

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Where there are gaps, waterfalls
plummet down to join streams below.

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With so much rainfall, these streams
very quickly swell into rivers.

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It's such a wet place; the rivers are
huge, twisting across vast floodplains.

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The largest of them

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has more water in it than all the rivers
in Australia put together.

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Eventually, they flow through extensive
deltas until they meet the ocean.

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In these seas around New Guinea,
hundreds of smaller island stretch out -

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to the west, towards Indonesia,
and eastwards, into the Pacific.

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Almost all of them are highly volcanic.

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Violent eruptions literally blasted
new islands out of the sea.

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These are some of the most
volcanically active islands on earth -

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Vanuatu, the Solomons,
New Ireland and New Britain.

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The volcanoes are on a sort
of geological conveyor belt -

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new ones are continually being born,
and then worn away -

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creating thousands of miles
of coastline for coral to grow on.

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And as these islands begin to die
and sink back beneath the waves,

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the tips of extinct volcanoes
form more coral reefs.

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In just a single bay
on any of these reefs,

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you could find as many coral species
and different kinds of fish

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as there are on the whole
of the Great Barrier Reef.

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It's a kaleidoscope of life and colour,
with layer upon layer of species,

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like an intricately
constructed Russian doll.

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Barrel sponges live on the corals...

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...feather stars live on
the barrel sponges...

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...and tiny fish live on
the feather stars.

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Anemones here have anemone fish
and tiny little transparent shrimps.

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And on some parts of the reef,
creatures move about in costume.

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This little prawn masquerades
as a sea whip.

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This tadpole sized pygmy sea horse
is disguised as a piece of coral.

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From a distance, it's virtually invisible.

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Some animals take
this deception even further.

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These razor fish already wear beautiful
striped costumes to look like sea whips,

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but they add to the disguise
by swimming vertically,

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like a weird piece of performance art.

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They only swim horizontally to dash
from one group of whips, to another.

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It's safer to move about in disguise,

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because this busy neighbourhood
attracts plenty of predators -

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like these jacks.

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They work the reef in gangs,
trying to flush out smaller fry.

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But as they muscle in on a patch,
the neighbourhood dives for cover.

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One bully heads underneath,
scaring all the fish out through the top,

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while the other members of the gang
wait above... mouths open.

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The gang does well with these tactics,

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but they're just a bunch
of small time thugs -

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not even in the same league
as some of the predators here...

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Huge saltwater crocodiles roam these seas.

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They are capable of swimming great
distances to find new territories -

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large ones have been seen several
hundred kilometres out to sea.

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With this sort of range,

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it's been easy for them to colonise many
of the volcanic islands of the pacific.

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But while these islands have attracted
all sorts of marine life,

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including crocodiles,

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land creatures like mammals
have found it harder to get here.

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Unless they can raft across or swim,

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they're too far out.

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But there has been one exception...

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An invasion by air.

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Squadrons of bats,
especially the larger fruit bats.

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In fact, New Guinea and the islands

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that surround it are probably
the fruit bat capital of the world.

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There are more species here
than anywhere else on earth.

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These large fruit bats
are strong travellers -

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they can fly fifty kilometres in
an evening in search of food.

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Island hopping across the pacific
is all in a night's work.

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It's well worth the journey

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because the island forests
are full of all sorts of fruit.

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With such a wide selection, there's room
for lots of different fruit specialists -

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this tube nosed bat is
a professional fig eater.

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00:22:24,175 --> 00:22:26,541
As these bats move about
from island to island,

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00:22:26,811 --> 00:22:29,371
they can also act as seed couriers.

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00:22:34,685 --> 00:22:36,812
They make unorthodox postmen though,

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00:22:37,088 --> 00:22:38,919
opening their parcels with strong teeth

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00:22:39,090 --> 00:22:40,455
and either dropping their contents

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00:22:40,625 --> 00:22:43,822
where they eat, or swallowing
and depositing them,

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perhaps on another island.

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00:22:58,276 --> 00:23:02,474
Beyond this chain of islands,
the explosive activity begins to die away.

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00:23:02,947 --> 00:23:07,281
And further out in the Pacific,
there's a graveyard of extinct volcanoes.

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00:23:09,787 --> 00:23:11,778
One of these is Lord Howe Island.

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00:23:12,023 --> 00:23:16,756
It retired from life as an active volcano
about 6 million years ago.

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00:23:19,897 --> 00:23:22,593
A small speck in a vast expanse of ocean,

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00:23:22,934 --> 00:23:26,870
it's become a valuable service station
for thousands of sea birds.

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00:23:35,379 --> 00:23:38,746
Each Spring,
it transforms into seabird city.

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00:23:39,116 --> 00:23:42,210
Fourteen different species
stop here to nest and breed,

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00:23:43,020 --> 00:23:44,612
like this booby...

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00:23:47,592 --> 00:23:49,787
...and noddy terns too.

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00:23:55,233 --> 00:23:58,600
Above them, the skies are filled
with acrobatic tumblers,

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00:23:58,803 --> 00:24:00,998
Tropic birds in full display.

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00:24:01,372 --> 00:24:04,466
The males are busy trying to impress
a mate and outdo each other,

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00:24:04,842 --> 00:24:08,175
by performing a series of
extraordinary backward loops.

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00:24:38,242 --> 00:24:40,107
The sooty tern is more graceful.

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00:24:48,486 --> 00:24:52,149
They arrive in their thousands,
to breed and bring up their chicks.

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00:24:55,426 --> 00:24:57,485
But with so many crammed onto this island,

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00:24:57,828 --> 00:25:01,389
how on earth does a parent
find the right mouth to feed?

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00:25:03,534 --> 00:25:07,026
And how does this chick make sure
it doesn't miss out on a meal?

211
00:25:14,211 --> 00:25:16,042
That one's getting pilchard...

212
00:25:21,485 --> 00:25:23,715
And another's got a lump of squid...

213
00:25:24,655 --> 00:25:26,816
This is getting difficult to watch...

214
00:25:30,428 --> 00:25:32,555
He's got squid as well.

215
00:25:38,302 --> 00:25:41,169
At last, the hungry chick
calls out for room service,

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00:25:41,572 --> 00:25:44,132
and he's located by one of his parents.

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00:25:48,612 --> 00:25:53,140
The response is instant, and at last
he gets a lump of his own to choke on.

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00:26:01,125 --> 00:26:05,562
Australia has island relatives
further out, even than Lord Howe.

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00:26:09,100 --> 00:26:12,228
This is New Caledonia -
Captain Cook called it

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00:26:12,403 --> 00:26:14,894
that because it reminded him of Scotland.

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00:26:15,539 --> 00:26:18,508
Jurassic Park might be more appropriate.

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00:26:19,176 --> 00:26:23,078
New Caledonia didn't erupt from
the seabed, like the other islands.

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00:26:24,048 --> 00:26:26,448
It's an ancient chunk
of eastern Australia,

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00:26:26,684 --> 00:26:29,084
that broke off about
80 million years ago -

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00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,255
a lost world, so old and strange,

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00:26:32,556 --> 00:26:36,424
you could almost believe
that dinosaurs still live here.

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00:26:41,165 --> 00:26:43,258
In fact, at the time it broke away,

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00:26:43,501 --> 00:26:46,664
many of these plants would
have been eaten by dinosaurs.

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00:26:59,150 --> 00:27:03,177
But this island is so remote,
there are no land mammals here.

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00:27:03,721 --> 00:27:05,746
After 80 million years of isolation,

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00:27:05,923 --> 00:27:10,724
New Caledonia is still ruled by reptiles.

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00:27:14,432 --> 00:27:18,459
Its modern masters are lizards,
geckos and skinks.

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00:27:22,473 --> 00:27:24,498
New Caledonia has more species of lizard

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00:27:24,675 --> 00:27:28,372
for its size than probably
anywhere else on earth.

235
00:27:37,021 --> 00:27:41,458
And New Caledonia has its own monster -
the giant gecko.

236
00:27:41,625 --> 00:27:44,822
It's as big as a rat,
the largest gecko in the world,

237
00:27:45,062 --> 00:27:47,690
with a ferocious reputation to match.

238
00:27:53,270 --> 00:27:55,636
This really is the land of the lizard.

239
00:27:55,806 --> 00:27:59,139
Over 80 per cent of
the species here are unique.

240
00:28:14,024 --> 00:28:16,652
At the same time that
New Caledonia broke away,

241
00:28:16,894 --> 00:28:18,589
an even larger chunk of Australia

242
00:28:18,762 --> 00:28:22,425
drifted off and floated right down
towards the southern ocean.

243
00:28:23,300 --> 00:28:26,463
It eventually became New Zealand.

244
00:28:31,942 --> 00:28:34,877
It lies on the edge of
the Australian continental plate,

245
00:28:36,347 --> 00:28:40,215
which drops away into the really
deep water of the Pacific Ocean proper -

246
00:28:41,218 --> 00:28:45,655
so deep that sperm whales come
to feed right on its doorstep.

247
00:28:53,697 --> 00:28:57,360
And because New Zealand sits at
a crossroads of cold and warm currents,

248
00:28:57,635 --> 00:29:00,263
it's a magnet for
all sorts of marine life.

249
00:29:05,109 --> 00:29:09,978
Dusky dolphins are one of many species of
dolphin that play in these deep waters.

250
00:29:26,597 --> 00:29:29,157
They are some of the most
acrobatic of all dolphins -

251
00:29:29,533 --> 00:29:32,331
if one starts to somersault
and spin out of the water,

252
00:29:32,536 --> 00:29:34,504
the whole group joins in.

253
00:30:02,032 --> 00:30:05,729
Although New Zealand broke off from
Australia about eighty million years ago,

254
00:30:05,970 --> 00:30:10,839
it's still drifting across the ocean
creating huge geological forces.

255
00:30:14,411 --> 00:30:17,346
It's a highly active piece
of the earth's crust.

256
00:30:18,549 --> 00:30:21,643
Fire and steam seep to
the surface from volcanoes,

257
00:30:21,919 --> 00:30:25,320
mud pools and explosive geysers.

258
00:30:40,571 --> 00:30:43,335
This long history of violent
geology has contorted

259
00:30:43,507 --> 00:30:47,204
the islands into a spectacular
variety of landscapes.

260
00:31:03,827 --> 00:31:08,196
These Southern Alps are
4000 metres high and still rising.

261
00:31:36,694 --> 00:31:40,255
It's as if this part of New Zealand
never escaped the Ice Age.

262
00:31:48,472 --> 00:31:51,134
It could not be more inhospitable here.

263
00:31:55,179 --> 00:31:56,476
And yet...

264
00:31:57,081 --> 00:31:59,015
...It's a mountain parrot.

265
00:31:59,183 --> 00:32:03,017
The only alpine parrot in the world
to live right up in the snow.

266
00:32:04,755 --> 00:32:06,484
And they seem to enjoy it.

267
00:32:08,892 --> 00:32:13,158
They're called Keas and to survive up
here, these birds aren't just hardy.

268
00:32:13,497 --> 00:32:16,762
They need to be sharp operators
to live on these harsh mountains.

269
00:32:25,509 --> 00:32:27,409
To learn all the tricks
they'll need to survive,

270
00:32:27,578 --> 00:32:31,674
they have extended childhoods
and live for up to 20 years.

271
00:32:32,049 --> 00:32:34,517
So there's plenty of time to play.

272
00:32:42,493 --> 00:32:44,518
Monkeying around on the slopes like this,

273
00:32:44,762 --> 00:32:47,390
they seem more like primates than parrots.

274
00:33:04,448 --> 00:33:07,246
These alpine Keas are unique
to New Zealand...

275
00:33:07,618 --> 00:33:09,950
In fact, after such long isolation,

276
00:33:10,254 --> 00:33:13,815
most of New Zealand's wildlife
and plants are unique.

277
00:33:15,425 --> 00:33:19,259
This is a place that does weird wildlife
better than anywhere else...

278
00:33:19,830 --> 00:33:24,631
and one of the strangest creatures of all,
hunts in the forest, at night.

279
00:33:30,340 --> 00:33:34,436
It has fur-like feathers and
it sniffs out its food like a mammal.

280
00:33:34,845 --> 00:33:38,178
It even keeps its body temperature
at the level of a mammal.

281
00:33:38,448 --> 00:33:40,643
But it's a flightless bird.

282
00:33:42,386 --> 00:33:45,651
New Zealand seems to excel
in these oddball birds -

283
00:33:46,023 --> 00:33:50,983
and the Kiwi has to be one of the oddest
balls of fluff on the forest floor.

284
00:33:54,932 --> 00:33:56,923
There are no ground living mammals here,

285
00:33:57,167 --> 00:34:00,364
so when the Kiwi auditioned for
the part of hedgehog or badger,

286
00:34:00,537 --> 00:34:05,668
it got the job - sniffing out grubs
and worms, just like they would.

287
00:34:08,579 --> 00:34:12,276
Sometimes it goes fishing for shrimp
in the forest streams.

288
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,085
It even has whiskers, like a cat.

289
00:34:35,172 --> 00:34:36,366
And like many mammals,

290
00:34:36,607 --> 00:34:39,974
the males hold territories,
and defend them by calling.

291
00:34:56,426 --> 00:34:58,223
But when it comes
to looking after the eggs,

292
00:34:58,395 --> 00:35:01,364
male Kiwis are different
from most animals.

293
00:35:01,665 --> 00:35:04,657
The males take on the job
of incubating them, all alone.

294
00:35:04,835 --> 00:35:07,599
And they do this in underground burrows.

295
00:35:13,110 --> 00:35:15,340
This father has a newly hatched youngster

296
00:35:15,612 --> 00:35:18,274
and an egg that still needs incubating.

297
00:35:20,984 --> 00:35:22,884
Kiwis lay enormous eggs -

298
00:35:23,153 --> 00:35:26,020
the largest of any bird,
relative to its size -

299
00:35:26,323 --> 00:35:28,518
and they take ten weeks to hatch.

300
00:35:29,593 --> 00:35:31,424
It's not always easy to sit still,

301
00:35:31,595 --> 00:35:34,564
with a toddler constantly
messing up the nursery.

302
00:35:45,142 --> 00:35:47,337
This chick is probably
pestering for food -

303
00:35:47,844 --> 00:35:49,903
and if it is, it'll be disappointed.

304
00:35:50,180 --> 00:35:54,879
Male kiwis are dedicated incubators,
but meals are not included.

305
00:35:59,756 --> 00:36:03,317
Eventually, this youngster will become
hungry enough to leave the nest

306
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:05,721
and look for food itself.

307
00:36:20,110 --> 00:36:24,376
Some of New Zealand's strangest creatures
live down here on the forest floor.

308
00:36:25,182 --> 00:36:27,878
The Weta - the world's largest cricket.

309
00:36:34,324 --> 00:36:36,884
Just as the Kiwi fills
the role of a hedgehog,

310
00:36:37,227 --> 00:36:39,991
the Weta is New Zealand's
answer to a mouse.

311
00:36:40,731 --> 00:36:44,667
And just like a mouse,
it forages around amongst the leaf litter.

312
00:36:52,676 --> 00:36:54,166
But whatever role it fills,

313
00:36:54,344 --> 00:36:58,872
it still looks like a big juicy insect
and it had better watch out.

314
00:36:59,216 --> 00:37:03,152
In this strange forest,
even the bats do things differently.

315
00:37:08,959 --> 00:37:13,089
These short-tailed bats are beginning
to spend less and less time in the air,

316
00:37:13,296 --> 00:37:18,324
and more and more time on the ground -
doing their impression of a mole.

317
00:37:21,338 --> 00:37:24,603
Just like some of the birds,
they seem to be becoming flightless

318
00:37:24,841 --> 00:37:28,709
and prefer burrowing under
the leaf litter for grubs and insects.

319
00:37:38,555 --> 00:37:40,819
These bats are hardly
bigger than the wetas,

320
00:37:41,058 --> 00:37:45,222
but a jumbo-sized snack like
this is too good to miss.

321
00:37:57,407 --> 00:38:02,276
The weta puts up quite a fight,
but eventually the bat gets its meal.

322
00:38:12,255 --> 00:38:14,280
New Zealand's strangeness has a lot to do

323
00:38:14,458 --> 00:38:17,621
with its long isolation from
the rest of the world.

324
00:38:18,095 --> 00:38:21,963
And that's also why it took so long
to be discovered by people.

325
00:38:29,306 --> 00:38:31,035
It was only a thousand years ago

326
00:38:31,308 --> 00:38:36,302
that the first Polynesians paddled
their way from Hawaii and settled here.

327
00:38:46,156 --> 00:38:48,750
They began to make
changes to the landscape

328
00:38:49,226 --> 00:38:52,161
but nothing like
what was to come later on...

329
00:38:58,902 --> 00:39:02,030
Europeans arrived here only 200 years ago,

330
00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:04,969
but in that time,
they have transformed it.

331
00:39:05,175 --> 00:39:10,078
Forests have been replaced by fields
and roads, towns and modern cities.

332
00:39:16,052 --> 00:39:18,179
Almost every corner of New Zealand

333
00:39:18,488 --> 00:39:21,013
now has felt the influence
of the modern world -

334
00:39:21,558 --> 00:39:25,858
even the remote southern
alps are now buzzing with skiers.

335
00:39:33,336 --> 00:39:38,239
And the wildlife, once so isolated,
has had to adapt.

336
00:39:46,850 --> 00:39:49,580
For the Keas, at least,
this has not been difficult.

337
00:39:49,853 --> 00:39:54,347
An invasion of brightly coloured human
beings is like a dream come true.

338
00:39:54,858 --> 00:39:59,022
The arrival of crowds like these
just widens their scope for fun.

339
00:40:06,236 --> 00:40:08,170
And always on the lookout
for something to eat

340
00:40:08,538 --> 00:40:10,904
they've learnt some new tricks as well.

341
00:40:40,870 --> 00:40:44,397
Younger keas roam about like
gangs of delinquent teenagers.

342
00:40:44,774 --> 00:40:46,765
And of course,
as any teenager will tell you,

343
00:40:47,077 --> 00:40:49,807
the place to hang out is the car park.

344
00:40:57,887 --> 00:41:00,014
There are plenty of things
to dismantle here -

345
00:41:00,457 --> 00:41:01,788
rubber trim is easy...

346
00:41:03,927 --> 00:41:06,794
...but these ski racks are more difficult.

347
00:41:14,471 --> 00:41:16,462
They're just doing what comes naturally -

348
00:41:16,740 --> 00:41:20,540
making a detailed investigation
of the world around them.

349
00:41:33,189 --> 00:41:34,884
But even though they enjoy the party,

350
00:41:35,058 --> 00:41:38,755
New Zealand is becoming
too crowded, even for Keas.

351
00:41:47,637 --> 00:41:52,665
For many of the rest of New Zealand's
birds, man's arrival has been devastating.

352
00:41:56,012 --> 00:41:59,743
Even though humans rarely visit
valleys and forests like these,

353
00:41:59,949 --> 00:42:03,578
the cats, stoats and rats
they brought with them have all

354
00:42:03,753 --> 00:42:06,847
but massacred the local bird population.

355
00:42:08,024 --> 00:42:11,425
And another animal has invaded
forests throughout New Zealand...

356
00:42:19,369 --> 00:42:22,236
...the Australian Brush-tailed possum.

357
00:42:22,405 --> 00:42:23,736
It may look cuddly -

358
00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:27,567
but when 90 million of them bulldoze
their way through every forest,

359
00:42:27,744 --> 00:42:32,044
eating eggs and chicks,
they cause complete havoc.

360
00:42:35,585 --> 00:42:37,109
None of these animals belong here

361
00:42:37,454 --> 00:42:40,719
and all of them have had a devastating
effect on the wildlife,

362
00:42:40,890 --> 00:42:43,256
especially on the unique birds.

363
00:42:46,963 --> 00:42:49,193
When explorers first came to New Zealand,

364
00:42:49,466 --> 00:42:51,900
they described the dawn
chorus as deafening -

365
00:42:52,335 --> 00:42:56,396
now, these same forests are almost silent.

366
00:43:03,913 --> 00:43:08,350
But New Zealand has 700 smaller islands
scattered around its coastline.

367
00:43:08,985 --> 00:43:11,317
Many of these are rarely
visited by people,

368
00:43:11,688 --> 00:43:14,851
and on some the cats,
stoats, possums and rats

369
00:43:15,024 --> 00:43:18,255
that have exterminated so much
wildlife everywhere else,

370
00:43:18,561 --> 00:43:20,426
have been kept way.

371
00:43:21,698 --> 00:43:26,965
These islands are now the last refuge
for some of New Zealand's rarest birds.

372
00:43:28,471 --> 00:43:32,805
This is the Kakapo and it has
every reason to look depressed.

373
00:43:33,243 --> 00:43:35,404
It's a flightless relative of the Kea,

374
00:43:35,712 --> 00:43:37,873
and although it's
the world's largest parrot,

375
00:43:38,114 --> 00:43:41,015
it's also the world's
slowest breeding bird.

376
00:43:41,484 --> 00:43:45,682
It may raise a chick successfully
only once every ten years.

377
00:43:51,661 --> 00:43:55,028
Today, it survives on just
a couple of offshore islands,

378
00:43:55,331 --> 00:43:59,165
and only because of a huge conservation
campaign to keep it alive.

379
00:44:00,570 --> 00:44:02,800
Biologists feed the adults...

380
00:44:03,773 --> 00:44:06,640
...and monitor their chicks
round the clock.

381
00:44:11,948 --> 00:44:16,715
In fact, they keep the entire population
of kakapos in intensive care.

382
00:44:20,824 --> 00:44:26,387
Every nest has its own 24-hour security,
complete with CCTV.

383
00:44:27,964 --> 00:44:31,593
Miniature cameras inside the nest
record every last move.

384
00:44:31,768 --> 00:44:34,862
Each bird gets its own personal diary.

385
00:44:39,576 --> 00:44:42,568
This military style campaign
is beginning to work.

386
00:44:42,812 --> 00:44:44,279
By giving them this backup,

387
00:44:44,514 --> 00:44:46,209
the kakapo population has increased

388
00:44:46,382 --> 00:44:51,843
from just a handful of birds
to over 100 in just a few years.

389
00:45:02,298 --> 00:45:07,326
These offshore islands are also vital for
many more of New Zealand's unique birds.

390
00:45:10,206 --> 00:45:12,003
This is a kokako...

391
00:45:20,416 --> 00:45:23,044
...and this is a nectar eating Tui.

392
00:45:31,794 --> 00:45:34,092
And here's yet another
relative of the Kea -

393
00:45:34,397 --> 00:45:35,864
a Kaka.

394
00:45:36,099 --> 00:45:40,092
It's a forest parrot, and it lives
nowhere else but New Zealand.

395
00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:47,633
In these island forests there are
even penguins amongst the trees.

396
00:45:55,852 --> 00:45:58,616
The New Zealand that
so excited early explorers,

397
00:45:58,888 --> 00:46:01,550
with its bustling variety
and deafening choruses,

398
00:46:01,858 --> 00:46:05,726
seems to have found a last sanctuary
on these smaller offshore islands.

399
00:46:12,535 --> 00:46:15,368
This is what much of New Zealand
might have been like

400
00:46:15,538 --> 00:46:17,563
before the invaders arrived.

401
00:46:17,740 --> 00:46:20,004
Even ground nesting birds, like penguins,

402
00:46:20,176 --> 00:46:22,201
can relax as they used to.

403
00:46:30,086 --> 00:46:33,055
They can raise their chicks here
in relative peace.

404
00:46:43,666 --> 00:46:46,794
Some of these islands seem
almost overloaded with birds -

405
00:46:48,204 --> 00:46:52,504
here the bushes bubble with thousand
upon thousand of shearwaters.

406
00:46:56,512 --> 00:46:59,675
They still live in massive colonies.

407
00:47:07,190 --> 00:47:11,593
New Zealand's offshore islands
are bursting with unique wildlife.

408
00:47:12,362 --> 00:47:14,922
They're like a microcosm of
the whole extraordinary island

409
00:47:15,098 --> 00:47:16,998
chain around Australia.

410
00:47:31,447 --> 00:47:36,441
Strung out across the sea, from the cold
southern ocean almost to the equator,

411
00:47:37,153 --> 00:47:38,677
nowhere else in the world can you see

412
00:47:38,855 --> 00:47:41,585
such a variety of
different kinds of islands.

413
00:47:53,036 --> 00:47:55,834
Lost worlds, full of ancient treasures.

414
00:47:59,642 --> 00:48:02,076
Every one of them a unique gem -

415
00:48:02,745 --> 00:48:05,578
the island jewels of Australia.