South Pacific

Looking at the remote South Pacific islands. Their extraordinary isolation has created some of the most curious, surprising and precarious examples of life found anywhere on Earth, from giant crabs that tear open coconuts to flesh-eating caterpillars that impale their prey on dagger-like claws. Human culture is different, too.

They may be the most isolated in the world, but every one of the region's 20,000 islands has been colonised. This is the story of the ultimate castaways - from saltwater crocodiles and giant eels to crested iguanas - who have reached islands thousands of miles apart. The voyages of the South Pacific's first people, the Polynesians, were no less remarkable. Their journeys were some of the greatest ever undertaken.

A large part of the remote, blue wilderness of the South Pacific is a marine desert. Many animals that live in the ocean, among them sharks, whales and turtles, must go to extraordinary lengths to survive. Tiger sharks travel hundreds of miles to feast on fledging albatross chicks and, every year, sperm whales journey from one side of the South Pacific to the other in their search of food and mates.

Witness the birth, growth and death of an island in the greatest ocean on earth. From the violent volcanic beginnings emerge coral reefs of unparalleled richness supporting large groups of grey reef sharks and giant manta rays. The rising lands of the South Pacific have also given life to some very strange creatures, from the vampire bug that thrives in tropical snow, to the megapode, a bird that uses volcanic springs to incubate its eggs.

Flightless parrots, burrowing bats, giant skinks and kangaroos in trees - on the isolated islands of the South Pacific, the wildlife has evolved in extraordinary ways. But island-living can carry a high price, for when new species arrive, all hell breaks loose. While the human history of the region is further evidence that, however idyllic it may appear, life on a South Pacific island may never be very far from catastrophe.

The South Pacific is the greatest ocean on earth - still relatively healthy and teeming with fish. But it's a fragile paradise. It's home to the planet's richest coral reefs and most iconic ocean wildlife; whales, sharks, albatross and tuna. The whales' future looks secure, for the moment, but international fishing fleets are taking a serious toll on the sharks, albatross and tuna.