Ontelly

Galapagos - Forces of Change

Logo for Galapagos - Forces of Change

Natural history series exploring the Galapagos Islands - a land of fire set astride the equator and exposed to powerful forces of nature. This concluding episode reveals how, through time and isolation, the local animals and plants have evolved the most surprising ways to cope with the profound geological and climatic forces affecting them. Female land iguanas are forced to climb to the summit of the harshest and most volcanically active of all the Galapagos islands to lay their eggs in the few pockets of warm, soft soil that exist here. Fur seals have learned to seek daytime shelter from the equatorial sun in magical undersea lava grottos. The most bizarre collection of plankton rise from the abyss in the middle of the night on currents welling up from deep beneath the flanks of Galapagos. And comical blue-footed boobies have a flexible breeding season, reacting fast when the ocean currents are at their richest.