Overview:
The Galapagos archipelago is made up of thirteen main
islands and more than sixty other islets, rocks and reefs, scattered over four
hundred kilometres of open ocean. Sitting at a confluence of four major ocean
currents, the islands are actually the summits of vast undersea volcanoes, and
are steadily on the march.
How has such an odd assortment of life managed to find a footing in this unruly
world? Micro-climates and altitude have combined to form discrete environmental
zones: perfect habitats for the islands' diverse fauna - marine iguanas,
petrels, blue-footed boobies and giant tortoises being but a famous few.
Galapagos is a rare insight into an incredible landscape, a natural laboratory
and an exquisite evolutionary habitat that Darwin described as a 'world within
itself'. Both fragile and furious, the Galapagos is unlike any other place on
earth.
TX 29th September 2006, BBC2
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