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Born of fire from the depths of the earth

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baked by an infernal sun

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home to the strangest creatures imaginable

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When people first came here

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they thought that they had found a hell on earth

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But this is no hell

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it is a vibrant crucible of life

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In time, one man saw the truth

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and changed much more than
just our view of these islands

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His name was Charles Darwin

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This is the story of how the lonely
Galapagos islands came from obscurity
to change the world for ever

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Your sacred Majesty

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we had this 6 day calm

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the currents were so strong
and engulfed us in such a way

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that on the 10, March,
we were brought to some islands

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Thomas de Berlanga, the bishop of Panama
was sailing from Panama to Peru

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But when winds failed him,
strong currents took hold

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and he was carried wildly off course

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Eventually, the bishop and his men found land

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But what a land!

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It seems as though at some time
God had showered stones

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and the earth is like slag - worthless

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Both the land and its creatures
seemed infernal

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They dug a well,
but found water saltier than the sea

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Two men died

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They prayed for deliverance

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The winds returned

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and the bishop and his men got away
to record their tale of a hell on earth

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They had discovered the Galapagos

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600 miles off the coast of South America
right on the equator

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the Galapagos are a small group
of a dozen or so islands

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alone in the vast Pacific Ocean

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For millennia, their lava-clad shores
and great volcanic mountains

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remained unnoticed, uncharted, untainted

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until fate brought the bishop of Panama
here nearly 500 years ago

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At first sight

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it's easy to see why the bishop
was horrified by this place

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From the sea come dragons
marine iguanas

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slithering onto the land

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As black as the lava itself
they seemed to spit a curse

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as they purge themselves of salt
from drinking sea water

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In the deserts behind

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larger dragons

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For 5 days
the bishop was forced to survive on cactus pads

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these land iguanas eat little else

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They bite right through the needle sharp spines
to reach the surprisingly juicy flesh

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And in the smoldering interior,

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there are giants

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Tortoises, as heavy as 4 grown men

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In their huge bodies

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they can store enough fat to go for a year
without eating or drinking anything

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To survive here

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it seems you need to be a monster

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Or is it just that you need to be different?

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A bird, phoenix-like, emerges from
the ashes of this barren coast

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A cormorant

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But its wings are scruffy and small

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It looks like it could never fly

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It can't

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But there is another world
beneath the waves

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The ocean is rich

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And this is where the flightless cormorant
has found its way of surviving

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by trading flight for streamlining

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With what's left of its wings tucked flat
against its body

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enlarged feet take over

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propelling it on in search of octopus,
eels and small fish

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A female is on the nest

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She makes it from seaweed,
expertly weaved into a comfortably bed

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protection for her and her eggs
from the razor-sharp lava

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The male brings a gift for his mate

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for the nest
and also to bond their relationship

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Without the power of flight
these birds are marooned here

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but they have no predators

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and on their doorstep
is all the food they need

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For the strange creatures that
have made the Galapagos home

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life is harsh but not hell

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If the bishop of Panama had been luckier
he might have seen things differently

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In January each year

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the cold Humboldt current that
makes Galapagos so dry, loosens its grip

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and gives way to warm water from the north

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In good years
it brings a remarkable change to the islands

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Suddenly, a very different Galapagos appears

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From the ash hidden seeds come to life

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Palo Santo trees that seem long dead are resurrected

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from black and white to color

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A Galapagos spring

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but even spring here is different

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The golden meadows are grazed by land iguanas

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relishing a pleasant change from cactus pads

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And this female carpenter bee also
drawn to the new flush of flowers

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visits many different kinds

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But strangely, almost all of them are yellow

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She is the only kind of bee in Galapagos

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If she likes yellow

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there's little point in a flower being anything else

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The rain has also brought out little birds
and all around they start to sing

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This male finch tries to entice the female
to inspect his nest

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Carefully built in the protection
of a spiny cactus pad

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She likes it and settles in

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But even these ordinary-looking birds
are extraordinary

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On the ground, in the trees where you
would expect to find many different birds

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Here one kind rules

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These are all finches

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In Galapagos there are 13 different species
of finch taking the place of the other birds

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The key is
that each has a different beak

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Thicker, stronger for cracking seeds

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Long and sharp for flowers

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Delicate and pointed for winkling
tiny creatures from cracks in rocks

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There's even a woodpecker finch

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But without a woodpeckers tongue

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it can't reach grubs that deep inside burrows
so it has to use all its canny to get what it wants

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It breaks off a twig,

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a tool for probing

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Not quite right

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Yes, just right

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Another tool for another burrow

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another fat grub

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There's a lot more to this world
than at first meets the eye

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For many years, this brighter side
of Galapagos remained completely hidden

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Cursed by the bishop of Panama

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given no name

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Nobody came near

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But then nobody was even sure
the islands existed

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shifting currents, mists, like ghosts

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Now you see them, now you don't

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In the minds of mariners

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the Galapagos were Las Encantadas, enchanted

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Then, in the late 1500s

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somebody put them on a map

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Just 12 crude marks and a name

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Isla de Galapagos - islands of the tortoises

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Put it on a map and it becomes real

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The first to come were pirates

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The Galapagos was the perfect base
for raids on Spanish galleons
carrying gold from South America

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But piracy is nothing new to Galapagos

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frigatebirds looking for plunder

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In these cliffs are the nests of
hundreds of thousands of seabirds

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With so much traffic, it's not long
before something gets into trouble

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A storm petrel

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But another frigate is in there like a shot
and another

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two, three white headed juveniles

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They harried the all black male

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forcing it to drop the petrel

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Frigates have a fearsome reputation

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but the odds are not all in their favor

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If they ditch in the sea

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their long wings can get critically waterlogged
With every swoop, they risk drowning

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In the colony, the males inflate
their extraordinary red-throat pouches

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They are trying to be irresistible
to females passing overhead

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He's got one

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She soon settles in and tidies up his nest

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He watches over her very carefully

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After all, he is surrounded by pirates

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Another male tries to muscle in

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Now she joins in

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She's already made her choice and
helps drive the newcomer away

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Her partner wastes no more time

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And when it's all over

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she gets a rest on a comfortable pillow

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Hidden away from the rest of the world
this is a place for pirates to find peace

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The next wave of people came to Galapagos
not to plunder passing ships

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but for the riches of the islands themselves

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In the far west

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the deep Cromwell current collides
with the massive islands and rises
bringing nutrients from the abyss deep

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These are some of the richest seas
on the equator

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But it wasn't fish that draw people to these waters

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A sperm whale

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They dive to over 3,000 feet for squid

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It's so deep even the equatorial sun is
completely shut out

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So they find their food via echo-location

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Today, they are protected

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We see them as beautiful giants

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But not so long ago, the view was very different

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These were monsters to be killed for profit

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It was the rush for whale oil and
stories of battles with Levithians of the deep

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that brought the Galapagos to
the attention of the world at large

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But it wasn't just the whales that
were paying the price of discovering

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There was one thing that
pirates and whalers all wanted -

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fresh food

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Their rich fat, their giant size
made tortoises perfect for the ship's larder

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In 200 years

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over 200,000 were taken

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On some islands
tortoises were completely wiped out

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But out of the tragedy came some good

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As more people came to Galapagos

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a clearer picture of the islands
began to appear

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Each got its own name

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Some parts were still deemed infernal

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But others had sheltered places to anchor

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or a few trees - vital timber for repairing ships

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Though still enchanted, the islands
took on more recognizable shapes,

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More accurately fixed on a map

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It was a start of coming to understand them

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When His Majesty's Ship Beagle
reached the Galapagos on the 15, Sep. 1835

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It was a last minute stop
before a long journey home

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She had been charting the coast
of south America for more than 3 years

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She now had just 5 weeks
to make a modern and accurate map
of this little known outpost

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But this was much more than
just another landfall

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It was to change the course of history

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On board, was naturalist Charles Darwin

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not the wise, grey beareded Darwin we know
so well but young, impressionable, just 26

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At first, he saw the place
much as those before him

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Nothing could be less inviting

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Nothing more rough and horrid

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00:26:01,829 --> 00:26:11,290
The black rocks heated by the rays
of the vertical sun give to the air
a closer sultry feeling

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like a stove

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00:26:15,829 --> 00:26:18,291
But he soon began to see more

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The very ground on which he was walking
seemed solidified only yesterday

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It looks like the sea petrified
in its most boisterous moments

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00:26:47,830 --> 00:26:55,293
On the Beagle, his head had been buried
in a new and controversial book,
called 'Principles of Geology'

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which described a physical world
constantly changing molded by nature's forces

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00:27:02,293 --> 00:27:08,293
And just weeks before, in South America
he had been caught in an earthquake

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Inspired by what he had read and experienced

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fired up by a young and fertile mind

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00:27:21,929 --> 00:27:27,293
He was opening his eyes
to a very different Galapagos

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Where others had seen it
as hellish, ancient and unchanging

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00:27:32,293 --> 00:27:36,293
Charles Darwin saw a brand-new land

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00:27:36,829 --> 00:27:44,293
made fresh from the depths
of the ocean by forces still
very alive today right beneath him

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He was right.

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In the west, right under the island of Fernandina
is a volcanic hotspot

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Here, constantly, islands are being born

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But what he couldn't see

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was that as each island is created, it is carried
off that hotspot on shifting oceanic plates

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as though on a conveyer belt

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00:28:26,829 --> 00:28:30,496
They move slowly, a couple of inches a year

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00:28:30,829 --> 00:28:35,496
But in geological terms, that is staggeringly fast

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Since Darwin saw them, they have now
moved about 35 feet further to the southeast

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As HMS Beagle moved methodically
through the archipelago

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Darwin had no idea that the islands
they were mapping were moving

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or how important that movement was

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As the islands go on their journey,
they change

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They become a touch less infernal

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Some turn green

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Others become flat and dry

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Each is also carried into a slightly
different mix of ocean currents

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and so gets a slightly different climate

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The result is that each island ends up
with its own unique character

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One of the most remote islands
the Beagle passed is also the most unusual

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In the far northeast is Genovesa

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remote, barren, lava-clad

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00:30:02,830 --> 00:30:06,163
and home to a million seabirds

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00:30:07,830 --> 00:30:10,885
The birds forage far out in the Pacific Ocean

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00:30:11,785 --> 00:30:14,274
but every day once they run
the gauntlet of frigate birds

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they return to this battered rock,
to their nests

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Behind the cliff

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00:30:26,830 --> 00:30:30,830
just the right type of lava
has cooled in just the right way

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to form a labyrinth of tiny tubes and cracks

248
00:30:36,274 --> 00:30:38,832
into the perfect size for Galapagos storm petrels

249
00:30:43,833 --> 00:30:46,833
Nobody knows how they find which crack is theirs

250
00:30:47,833 --> 00:30:51,093
But as they swoop over the ground
they turn upwind

251
00:30:51,277 --> 00:30:54,693
so it's thought they smell their way home

252
00:31:03,277 --> 00:31:06,693
However they find their way it's a miracle

253
00:31:07,277 --> 00:31:11,693
From the middle of the Pacific
to a single tiny egg

254
00:31:21,277 --> 00:31:24,693
But it's just now that they are most vulnerable

255
00:31:30,277 --> 00:31:32,693
A short-eared owl

256
00:31:37,277 --> 00:31:38,832
The petrels are too quick in the air

257
00:31:39,167 --> 00:31:43,167
and the owl too big to follow them
deep inside their tiny tunnels

258
00:31:43,721 --> 00:31:48,166
So its best chance is
to grab a bird coming in or out

259
00:32:04,277 --> 00:32:10,166
First, it uses its sharp eyesight to
spot an entrance to an active burrow

260
00:32:14,277 --> 00:32:17,166
It doesn't go for a petrel straight away

261
00:32:17,832 --> 00:32:20,721
but positions itself just outside

262
00:32:28,832 --> 00:32:32,721
It creeps closer, more cat than owl

263
00:32:37,055 --> 00:32:39,721
It listens

264
00:33:05,055 --> 00:33:07,721
It gets away

265
00:33:09,055 --> 00:33:11,721
but the petrel is stunned

266
00:33:12,855 --> 00:33:16,721
The owl spots it trying
to get back underground

267
00:33:36,499 --> 00:33:41,721
A second owl is watching
but now makes a challenge

268
00:33:49,055 --> 00:33:53,721
It'll have to hunt for itself

269
00:34:05,055 --> 00:34:09,721
It can just squeeze into the entrance hall
of one of the tunnels

270
00:34:10,055 --> 00:34:15,721
Now it waits for a petrel coming in

271
00:34:38,055 --> 00:34:46,721
There are short-eared owls
on other islands but only on Genovesa
have they learnt to hunt like this

272
00:34:49,388 --> 00:34:56,721
And it seems that every island on the map
has a similarly strange story to tell

273
00:34:59,055 --> 00:35:04,721
It's not surprising the Galapagos are named
after these lumbering giants

274
00:35:05,055 --> 00:35:07,721
Their great dome shells look
just like the islands they inhabit

275
00:35:09,388 --> 00:35:15,610
Those islands high enough to catch rain
can be surprisingly lush

276
00:35:16,277 --> 00:35:21,610
Here, the round shells are perfect
for budging through the undergrowth
without getting snagged

277
00:35:25,277 --> 00:35:29,610
But on other lower islands
there's almost no rain

278
00:35:30,277 --> 00:35:33,610
And here, the tortoises look very different

279
00:35:39,277 --> 00:35:47,166
They have shells with a curved arch at the front
that looks just like a Spanish saddle or Galapagos

280
00:35:47,677 --> 00:35:51,166
The islands were actually named
after these tortoises

281
00:35:53,166 --> 00:35:55,610
Here there's so little to eat on the ground

282
00:35:55,833 --> 00:36:00,388
that they need to stretch their necks
to reach more suckling vegetation

283
00:36:05,055 --> 00:36:10,055
The curved arch in their shells
allows for that extra stretch

284
00:36:15,055 --> 00:36:21,055
On different islands,
Galapagos life is taking a different course

285
00:36:23,055 --> 00:36:26,721
As yet, Darwin was unaware of it

286
00:36:27,610 --> 00:36:33,721
But as the Beagle hopped from island to island
he took any opportunity to go ashore

287
00:36:35,110 --> 00:36:39,721
On the island of Floreana
he was met on the beach at Post Office Bay

288
00:36:39,944 --> 00:36:46,721
by a governor of the first ever settlement
in the Galapagos, an Englishman called Lawson

289
00:36:47,944 --> 00:36:51,055
Lawson's tales of the strange Galapagos life

290
00:36:51,610 --> 00:36:56,722
encouraged Darwin to go deep
into the interior of the islands

291
00:36:57,610 --> 00:37:01,721
And wherever he went, he collected

292
00:37:41,610 --> 00:37:45,721
He saw the tortoises,
though only the dome shelled kind

293
00:37:45,833 --> 00:37:49,722
so didn't see their secret

294
00:37:52,610 --> 00:37:58,721
He saw the little birds with their different beaks
but didn't guess they were all finches

295
00:37:59,388 --> 00:38:02,721
He called one a black bird
another a wren

296
00:38:04,388 --> 00:38:07,499
There was anothe bird too, the mockingbird

297
00:38:08,388 --> 00:38:13,499
He'd seen them in South America
but these were somehow different

298
00:38:13,833 --> 00:38:19,499
For now he had no idea
how important that difference would be

299
00:38:24,388 --> 00:38:28,499
As Darwin went further and further
into the heart of the islands

300
00:38:28,832 --> 00:38:34,499
He found a sight to Galapagos
that no naturalist had seen before

301
00:38:48,832 --> 00:38:54,499
In the highlands of Floreana and Santiego
he found enchanted forests

302
00:39:06,832 --> 00:39:12,499
And in a handful of places he found freshwater

303
00:39:13,166 --> 00:39:17,055
the only freshwater for 600 miles

304
00:39:18,721 --> 00:39:20,721
Ducks dabble as though in a park

305
00:39:21,721 --> 00:39:27,055
Tortoises wallow in thick volcanic mud

306
00:39:28,833 --> 00:39:36,055
Frigatebirds come from
the harsh world outside to drink

307
00:39:46,721 --> 00:39:53,055
This is no hell on earth
but garden of Eden

308
00:39:57,055 --> 00:40:01,055
Darwin asked himself the crucial question

309
00:40:02,721 --> 00:40:09,055
Why are these small islands blessed
with such strange and unique life?

310
00:40:13,721 --> 00:40:15,721
But just a breath away from revelation

311
00:40:15,944 --> 00:40:21,056
Darwin was taken away never to return

312
00:40:21,721 --> 00:40:25,499
At sunset on the 20, October, 1835

313
00:40:25,832 --> 00:40:31,277
The Beagle set sail for Tahiti and then home

314
00:40:33,833 --> 00:40:35,055
But all was now lost

315
00:40:36,721 --> 00:40:42,055
the enchanted islands had cast their spell

316
00:41:10,721 --> 00:41:16,055
No sooner had Darwin left the Galapagos
than he began to see the truth

317
00:41:16,944 --> 00:41:20,833
As he spent the long hours at sea
sorting through his collections

318
00:41:21,499 --> 00:41:24,610
one specimen suddenly caught his attention

319
00:41:24,833 --> 00:41:29,055
not tortoise, not finch, but mockingbird

320
00:41:32,055 --> 00:41:35,055
I have specimens from 4 different islands

321
00:41:36,055 --> 00:41:41,055
On 2 islands they appear the same
the other 2 they are different

322
00:41:41,832 --> 00:41:46,055
In each island, each kind is exclusively found

323
00:41:46,833 --> 00:41:50,833
Different islands within sight of each other
have different mockingbirds

324
00:41:51,277 --> 00:41:58,056
with slightly different feather
and like the finches
slightly different beaks

325
00:41:59,055 --> 00:42:02,832
Darwin now remembered something governor
Lawson had told him about tortoises

326
00:42:03,055 --> 00:42:08,832
He claimed to could tell
which island the tortoise came from
just by the shape of its shell

327
00:42:09,610 --> 00:42:14,832
Different island, different tortoise, same thing

328
00:42:15,055 --> 00:42:20,832
He had seen from the dramatic
Galapagos landscape that the islands
were constantly changing

329
00:42:22,055 --> 00:42:25,832
Could living things be changing too?

330
00:42:26,610 --> 00:42:29,832
He began to see back through time

331
00:42:32,055 --> 00:42:36,832
I fancied myself brought near
to the very act of creation

332
00:42:38,055 --> 00:42:43,832
He saw that the Galapagos had been born of fire,
sterome from the depths of the ocean

333
00:42:45,055 --> 00:42:49,832
but life had then come from elsewhere

334
00:42:52,055 --> 00:42:55,832
In isolation on the Galapagos

335
00:42:56,055 --> 00:43:00,499
and then further isolation from island to island

336
00:43:01,055 --> 00:43:04,499
it had changed one form into another

337
00:43:10,388 --> 00:43:15,277
Darwin had caught a fleeting glimpse
of Galapagos' great secret

338
00:43:15,832 --> 00:43:23,388
New plants, new animals, new life
was being made by the islands themselves

339
00:43:25,832 --> 00:43:29,388
He looked for the same pattern in other species

340
00:43:30,832 --> 00:43:34,055
One day, the little finches would
be named after him

341
00:43:34,832 --> 00:43:39,055
but though he had the best collection to date
with a whole range of different beaks

342
00:43:39,832 --> 00:43:43,055
He hadn't thought to label
which islands they came from

343
00:43:43,832 --> 00:43:46,055
So for now, they couldn't help

344
00:43:49,388 --> 00:43:54,855
And as for the tortoises,
45 adults were brought aboard the Beagle

345
00:43:55,632 --> 00:43:57,277
but every one had been eaten

346
00:43:57,832 --> 00:44:03,277
Their shells thrown over board
lost for ever

347
00:44:04,832 --> 00:44:13,055
Unable to return, Darwin would
never know the true story of
the finches' beaks and the tortoises' shells

348
00:44:14,055 --> 00:44:20,055
But in the mockingbirds
he had caught a glimpse of evolution

349
00:44:25,055 --> 00:44:29,277
In 1859, 24 years after leaving the Galapagos

350
00:44:29,944 --> 00:44:34,388
Charles Darwin's 'Origin of Species'
was finally published

351
00:44:34,832 --> 00:44:36,832
It changed the world for ever

352
00:44:38,833 --> 00:44:43,610
Until the end of his days,
he always held on to one certainty

353
00:44:44,277 --> 00:44:53,610
that the lonely Galapagos islands were the origin
of all his views, the origin of 'The Origin of Species'

354
00:45:20,833 --> 00:45:27,610
Giant tortoises so impressed the ancient mariners
that they named these islands after them

355
00:45:32,166 --> 00:45:35,832
Their fat flesh fuels the pirate's plunder

356
00:45:38,166 --> 00:45:43,832
In their shells is a clue
to the greatest mystery on earth

357
00:45:49,166 --> 00:45:51,832
But for a tortoise, life is simple

358
00:45:57,166 --> 00:46:00,832
The recent rain draws them to the green meadows
on the summit of Alcedo volcano

359
00:46:01,610 --> 00:46:05,832
not just for the lush grazing but to breed

360
00:46:37,610 --> 00:46:41,832
He tries to seduce her

361
00:46:43,055 --> 00:46:45,832
everything in time

362
00:46:54,721 --> 00:47:00,832
This age old ritual may remind us of permanence

363
00:47:01,721 --> 00:47:04,832
but that couldn't be further from the truth

364
00:47:10,721 --> 00:47:15,832
The offspring of these tortoises may
have a slightly different shell

365
00:47:16,166 --> 00:47:21,832
that gives them a slightly better chance
of surviving on their island

366
00:47:23,166 --> 00:47:30,832
Even these animals that move so slow,
and live so long are changing

367
00:47:32,166 --> 00:47:39,832
Since people first came to these islands
our understanding of them has changed too

368
00:47:40,166 --> 00:47:41,832
The Galapagos is not hell on earth

369
00:47:42,166 --> 00:47:50,832
but a vibrant, living demonstration
of evolution of life

370
00:47:54,166 --> 00:47:58,610
Here on this little world within itself

371
00:47:59,166 --> 00:48:02,610
we seem to be brought somewhat
closer to the great fact

372
00:48:03,270 --> 00:48:05,545
that mystery of all mysteries

373
00:48:06,166 --> 00:48:12,610
the first appearance of new beings on this earth

374
00:48:17,310 --> 00:48:19,187
In the next episode

375
00:48:19,270 --> 00:48:24,947
we discover how life in Galapagos
is driven by elemental forces of change

376
00:48:26,230 --> 00:48:28,949
Past, present and future

377
00:48:30,095 --> 00:48:37,201
Transcription by Andrew & Hattie