ISLANDS IN TIME – A WILDLIFE ODYSSEY

A land forged by colliding continents and ruled by volcanoes, where change is the only certainty. Volcano birds are an extreme adaptation to life on the islands of fire. For those able to cross the sea – like water monitors – new volcanic islands are a world of opportunity.

As the power of the moon wanes and the water slips away, the mud comes alive with fiddler crabs, crab-eating frogs and mudskippers. While proboscis monkeys and long-tailed macaques roam the trees, sea eagles are on the hunt for highly venomous sea snakes.

There is one power that has shaped these islands and has the greatest influence over all life here: it makes snakes fly, apes sing, and turns plants into killers. It is the power of the tropical sun. Sun-seeking giants, 80-metre-high dipterocarp trees, dominate the tropical rainforests. But it is the fig tree that is the most attractive to Sumatran Orang-utans, as it gives life to these charismatic primates all year round.