Wildest Islands - Season 1

Lying 40km off the east coast of Tanzania in Africa, the Zanzibar Archipelago has been labeled as the most exotic island chain in the world. Pristine sands and azure blue sea make it a much loved holiday destination, but bizarre creatures, many of enormous size also roam the islands. The world’s largest crab scales trees in search of coconuts, and clouds of giant bats fill the skies at dusk.

Situated 1000 kilometres west of Ecuador in South America, the Galapagos archipelago contains 13 main islands and a hundred or so smaller rocks and reefs. The region’s wilderness is so pristine and rich in life it altered our entire view of the natural world. Gigantic tortoises, sea-swimming lizards and cormorants that have evolved to no longer fly, are just some of the bizarre and unique creatures found here. Human influence has been so limited across the islands it allowed one man, Charles Darwin, to study and rethink the laws of Nature.

This film uncovers how all life on Sri Lanka centres on one precious resource: water. Unusually, two different monsoons visit the island each year, drenching the windswept coastal plains with weeks of torrential rain. For the rest of the year, the animals of the plains must endure months of drought. Elephants numbering in their hundreds gather on the shores of a vast lake in search of water. Bold Sri Lankan leopards stalk spotted deer visiting waterholes. Mugger crocodiles, confined within small pools, choose the dry season to mate. Bee-eaters dig nesting tunnels in the dusty ground, and troops of toque macaques battle for status and hierarchy in the island’s ancient Buddhist monuments.