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Night...
A sea of stars
in a sky full of mystery.
This bright, clear, heavenly ocean
is viewed from a parallel world.
From a tiny constellation
lost in another mighty expanse...
..the Atlantic Ocean.
In the heart of this boundless immensity,
a tiny, unique volcanic cluster -
the Canary Islands.
A micro-cosmos,
intimately bound with the rest of the universe.
From the strange peaks of its oceanic mountains,
reaching nearly 4,000 metres into the clear blue sky,
the stars seem so close.
There are few places on the planet
where the rest of the universe can be contemplated so intensely.
Here, the connection with the infinite, enigmatic
and unknowable universe is palpable,
and here also begins a journey from the remotest of places,
from the origin of life itself,
right up to now,
to witness the fruits of millions of years of evolution.
The mountain peaks of the Canary Islands
are an exotic window onto the universe.
They climb directly out of the ocean.
The Teide rises vertiginously,
over barely a few dozen kilometres,
to an altitude of 3,700 metres.
It's the highest peak in all the Atlantic Ocean
and the third highest volcano in the world.
Its summit is an island amongst the islands,
a remote place,
only suitable for the most special of travellers.
This mountainous terrain,
along with the steep-sided Caldera de Taburiente
on the neighbouring island of La Palma,
share an environment unseen anywhere else on the planet.
These high-mountain ecosystems
are the most extreme places on the Canary Islands,
with temperatures that can vary
between minus-16 and 34 degrees centigrade.
In this tough, broken, volcanic landscape
live strange plants and animals
that are experts in surviving the freezing cold, the stifling heat
and the intense solar radiation.
(BUZZING)
Very few animals are so well-adapted to this environment
as the Tenerife or Western Canaries lizard.
(PLAYFUL MUSIC)
Nine million years ago,
this reptile's ancestors arrived from the oldest islands -
Fuerteventura and Lanzarote -
and gradually conquered the entire territory
until they reached its summit.
The peaks are where Tenerife lizards have the fewest predators
and where they can pursue their reproductive instincts unhindered.
Large males compete, chasing each other
to keep rival suitors away from females in heat.
Their courtship races reach their peak in the spring.
These are intensely indulgent moments.
Food and sex are in abundance.
In late spring, the peaks of La Palma and Tenerife
are transformed from an unforgiving landscape
into a fleeting but incomparable garden of delights.
The striking red flowers of the tower of jewels,
also known as red Tenerife or Mount Teide bugloss,
are among the most beautiful and spectacular in the world.
In crowded colonies, they grow only now and only here,
in spring, at the top of the Teide
and La Caldera de Taburiente. (BUZZING)
Growing in columns two to three metres high,
the inflorescences of the tower of jewels
are loaded with nectar and pollen
which attract many endemic insects.
Though ephemeral,
lasting only a few weeks,
their brief lives are crucial for the insect species on the summit.
Like prisoners of the peaks that are their only home,
the towers of jewels mimic these volcanoes
that seem to be suspended from the sky.
(EXPLOSION)
(SOARING MUSIC)
The volcanic origin of the Canary Islands
can be seen everywhere...
..from the highest peaks
to the low-lying coasts.
The ocean crashes into the Canary coastline,
revealing the islands' fundamentally volcanic nature.
All of the islands of the archipelago have steep, rugged coastlines
where the evidence of ancient lava is unmissable.
On the islands with the highest altitudes and steepest sides,
the elevated volcanic ravines
plunge into the sea.
In the north of La Gomera, basalt columns emerge
like the last remnants of Atlantic temples.
All these geological features are the result of volcanic activity
which started creating each of the islands
20 million years ago.
Lava is the essence of a bright, burning universe
of distant stars and planets.
Here, in the middle of the ocean,
it takes beautiful and primitive forms.
(WIND HOWLS)
The ancient appearance of some islands, such as Lanzarote,
brings to mind what the earth might've looked like
as it was erupting into existence.
The beauty of a wild and ancient land is on display
in the area's geological formations.
But life has found a way even here,
on the most ancient of the archipelago's islands.
A harsh and hostile environment,
but one which plants, lizards and birds have all made their home.
Volcanic landscapes are found throughout the island group
and each island has become a unique place,
thanks, in part, to the wild tourists that visit.
In the remotest islets of north Lanzarote,
Eleonora's falcon spends the summer.
(FALCON SQUAWKS)
After an incredible journey of thousands of kilometres
from its wintering quarters in Madagascar,
they take respite in Alegranza,
where the last puddles of recent rains remain.
Eleonora's falcons have established their summer breeding colonies
on the steep sides of the volcanoes.
The chicks are fed exclusively on accidental tourists -
migratory birds that their parents hunt
out in the middle of the ocean.
Chill winds from the Atlantic drive the migrating birds
into the falcons' path,
but they also move the ocean currents between the islands.
There, caressed by waves and wind,
amongst the islands that make up this oceanic constellation,
dolphins jump and play.
These too are inhabitants of the islands and also its hunters.
A cloud of small fish attempts to escape,
closing ranks and tightening into a shoal.
But the dolphins pick them off one by one,
enjoying the delicious snacks brought by the currents.
Falcons in the air, dolphins among the waves,
and high above everything, the clouds,
pushed by the trade winds.
As the trade winds - the Alisios or easterlies —
blow across the ocean,
they pick up moisture, which is then transported in the form of clouds.
The lowest-lying Canary Islands watch the clouds pass overhead,
their life-giving moisture tantalisingly out of reach.
But islands with areas of higher altitudes,
with summits at hundreds or thousands of metres above sea level,
act like a barrier to the clouds,
which crash against them in enraged waves.
(ROUSING MUSIC)
On the Caldera de Taburiente,
below the peak of the Teide or in the heights of Gran Canaria,
the clouds launch their attacks against the kingdom of the pines.
(WIND HOWLS)
Canary Island pine trees form their forests on high, dry land.
They are very spartan trees and unique to this region.
Canary pines are robust,
but their leaves are feathery and light,
giving them a delicate appearance.
Their long, thin needles
allow the pines to capture the moisture
coming from the sea of clouds that washes over them.
In these volcanic forests
lives a small and unusual group of unique animals.
They arrived here slowly from Africa and Europe,
taking a leap to conquer this little new world.
Over time - millions or hundreds of thousands of years -
they evolved into new species and subspecies
that live exclusively in the Canary pine forests.
The Tenerife blue chaffinch, for example.
The Tenerife blue chaffinch is a unique prisoner,
living in seclusion
in the pine forests of only two islands,
Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
Its intense blue plumage, somewhat unusual among birds,
is a reminder of the universe it inhabits,
trapped between the infinite sky and deep blue ocean.
(CHAFFINCH TWEETS)
The origin of the Tenerife blue chaffinch
goes back hundreds of thousands of years
along the lineage of common finches.
The Tenerife blue chaffinch has evolved
to be able to exploit the Canary Island pine forests,
influenced by their ecological rules.
This forest specialist
feeds almost exclusively on pine seeds,
so its existence depends directly on the survival of the pine forests.
(VARIOUS BIRDS TWEET)
The great spotted woodpecker, curiously,
also lives exclusively on the same islands
as the Tenerife blue chaffinch.
But these are arrivistes,
having landed here from the mainland recently,
only a few thousand years ago.
Discovering the large pine-covered mountains
was like reaching paradise for the great spotted woodpecker -
a territory replete with food and places to raise a family,
without rivals and only a few predators.
Every year, the great spotted woodpeckers confirm their conquest
by bringing new generations of carpenters
to this unusual wooded Eden.
Every species in the Canary pine forest
has its own story to tell. (BIRD SQUAWKS)
Canary Island or Canarian red-billed choughs
only live on the steep slopes of Caldera de Taburiente,
on the island of La Palma,
where there are neither blue chaffinches nor woodpeckers.
They arrived here tens of thousands of years ago
from the Atlas Mountains in Africa,
and on the walls of the Caldera
found rocky, protected areas where they could nest.
They easily adapted to the most abundant resource -
Canary pine seeds.
In between volcanic peaks and scudding, moisture-laden clouds,
the pine forests provide them with a huge pantry.
The islands, like planets from a distant constellation,
float in a blue universe.
But not an empty one.
The ocean surrounding the Canary Islands' universe
is full of life.
Barely a few kilometres from the Canary pine forests
that surround the ancient volcanoes,
next to the coastal cliffs patrols a family of pilot whales.
(WHALES WHISTLE)
(HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLING)
Pilot whales orbit the islands
like little satellites.
The ocean of the coastline plummets and plunges
thousands of metres down.
The pilot whales know how to exploit the richness
of the deep and unknown world that lies just off the islands.
They dive in search of large squid
and then the pod returns to the surface to breathe and play,
reaffirming their close family bonds.
Like interstellar travellers,
the pilot whales move among the currents,
following invisible paths that unite the Canary Islands underwater.
And as always, far above, the clouds slip through the skies,
heavy with their invaluable load of fresh water,
urged on unceasingly by the tireless trade winds.
The ever-restless clouds
lash the steep, high sides of the archipelago's highest islands.
While on the coasts, it is warm and dry.
Where the clouds crash day after day,
it's very wet and cool.
Up here, where the clouds break,
one of the most extraordinary woodlands on the planet endures.
This forest is almost always enveloped by mist.
The mist hides its mysteries behind a veil,
moved by the wind.
The laurissilva...
This subtropical forest,
hidden between clouds and volcanic peaks,
is a true lost paradise,
millions of years old.
Laurissilva, or laurel forests,
are botanical relics of the Neogene period
that took up refuge in some corners of El Hierro and Gran Canaria.
But it's on Tenerife, La Palma and especially La Gomera
that the last great laurel forests
have survived to this day.
The laurissilva is a mysterious jungle -
wet and fertile.
The lichens and mosses that cover the trunks and branches
absorb the water that hangs heavy in the atmosphere -
woodland experts in milking the clouds.
Every square centimetre of laurel forest
is dedicated to absorbing moisture from the mist.
Drop by drop, a constant flow is created,
allowing countless lianas, ferns and species of trees to grow here
and nowhere else in the world.
This exuberant, enigmatic atmosphere is home to other lost beings,
other prisoners of the mist.
Living like forest phantoms, or will-o'-the-wisps,
some birds' fates depend entirely on the survival of the laurissilva,
their only home.
Bolle's pigeons move discreetly among the branches of the ancient trees
of the unique Canarian jungle.
Hidden among lichens and lianas,
they seek the nutritious fruits that grow all year.
Bolle's pigeons barely make a sound
and flee at the first hint of a threat.
They only let their guard down when taking their daily bath
or when drinking from the abundant puddles found in the laurel forest.
The laurel, or white-tailed laurel pigeon,
is as discreet and elegant as Bolle's,
but can escape the laurel forest to reach open country,
even heading to the cliffs and into ravines,
where it establishes its nests and looks for food.
Laurel pigeons, shy and skittish,
are very terrestrial birds.
They band together in small flocks that roam among the leaf litter,
gathering seeds, grains and fallen fruits.
The pigeons of the Canary Islands
are perhaps as old as the very forests where they live.
Other birds, in comparison,
are more recent arrivals.
From its birth, this small constellation of islands
has received the advance parties of explorers
on an eternal search.
Both occasional visitors and pioneers from the natural world,
with greater or lesser fortune,
stake their claims on new territories
on islands in a state of constant change.
And although it might appear almost counterintuitive,
the most sought-after places by wild travellers
are the most extreme.
Violent, exaggerated geography
turns out to be just what some of the Canaries' most remarkable beings
like best.
Volcanic ravines are the result of aggressive processes of erosion
that have excavated the land here to produce amazing locations.
Deep, sheer-sided gorges,
measuring hundreds of metres in height,
form some of the most characteristic landscapes of the Canary Islands.
The highest islands are the most abrupt,
possessing the most extraordinary chasms.
These are perhaps the most characteristic natural features
of Canarian geology.
These ravines are home to stunning ecological tapestries.
The plants and animals of these gorges
are extraordinarily closely connected.
(PLAYFUL MUSIC)
(BUZZING)
Gran Canaria giant lizards are the masters of these ravines
and, as such, their main ecological protagonists.
These lizards move over the whole area to fulfil their role.
Canaries lizards are almost wholly herbivorous.
They mostly feed on endemic fruits and flowers.
This diet makes these reptiles
the main dispersers and pollinators of the plants of the ravines.
Many plant species owe their survival
and their distribution to the lizards.
But they are not the only ones responsible
for pollinating and dispersing seeds.
Small archipelago birds, such as the Canary Islands chiffchaff,
are actively involved in the reproduction
of their favourite plants.
Birds and flowers have co-evolved in a mutually beneficial relationship.
The birds exclusively exploit a very nutritious food
and, in return, the plants reproduce effectively.
But part of the symbiotic harmony and diversity of the ravines
also depends on predators.
The gullies offer excellent locations
for a little falcon.
(BIRD SQUAWKS)
The prior conquest of the islands by insects, reptiles and small birds
allowed Canarian kestrels to take up residence
without fear of going hungry.
The diversity of resources here, and the kestrel's adaptive capacity,
has meant that the Canary Islands kestrel
is now the most common raptor on the archipelago.
The Canary Island lizards, the kestrel's favourite food,
lost their paradise when these little birds of prey arrived.
The kestrels are masters of the sky above the tiny islands.
But the archipelago is also sea.
(LIVELY MUSIC)
The space between the islands is not at all an interstellar void.
The sea binds the islands together
and with them forms a unique place on the planet.
Universal travellers from sea and sky
pass here from their birth.
Explorers, astronauts taking flight to other worlds -
whales, such as sperm whales,
and many other cetaceans swim among the volcanoes.
The combination of geographical situation,
ocean currents, submarine relief and climate
have made the Canaries archipelago one of the richest places,
in terms of cetaceans, in the world.
Here, rather than separate,
the sea unites two worlds -
the solid and the liquid.
Each island offers its own set of opportunities
to travellers brave enough to cross the ocean.
Ancient forests,
cloud-dwelling pine woodland...
..towering peaks...
In the Canary Islands, lost in the ocean,
a complex world has been created.
But there is also room for the most fundamental ecosystems...
..such as desert.
(SOMBRE MUSIC)
The influence of the nearby Sahara
is keenly felt on islands such as Fuerteventura,
Lanzarote and the south of Gran Canaria.
The beauty and breadth of the desert occupies the heart of these islands.
Surprising animals leave their own traces in the sand.
Here, African travellers have found hospitable habitats.
The Canarian houbara, a small bustard,
arrived a mere 20,000 years ago
and discovered desert plains
offering an excellent opportunity to live.
Among the jables, the local dunes,
the houbara found plants and insects attractive and plentiful enough
for it not to need to return to its African origins.
The peculiar wealth of this desert, which occasionally bursts into bloom,
also provides refuge to stone curlews
hiding their camouflaged eggs among the bushes.
(PLAYFUL MUSIC)
The Canarian stone curlew's plumage
allows it to virtually disappear when the flowery desert is in bloom,
hiding it from gulls.
Gulls come from the coast to hunt locusts,
but they will happily take a seat at a lunch table
of a stone curlew's nest with an egg inside.
Gulls are aggressive and dangerous,
so the stone curlews,
barely perceptible in their excellent camouflage,
hold their position with admirable sang-froid
until the danger has passed.
(OMINOUS MUSIC)
The wild travellers who came, saw and conquered the archipelago
have created a complex ecological network.
A recent arrival found no competitors
and so took its place at the top of the food pyramid...
..a Canarian subspecies of the Egyptian vulture,
the guirre.
This is the only carrion-eater on these islands.
Barely 2,500 years ago,
the first humans landed on the islands with their flocks of goats.
The guirres followed not far behind.
(BUZZING)
While all Egyptian vultures in Europe
migrate every year between Africa and Europe to complete their life cycle,
their Canarian cousins have found no need to travel
beyond the islands' boundaries any more.
The deserts above which the guirre flies
merge with the coastline.
Sea winds push the sand towards the interior of the islands,
creating voluptuous dunes.
(SOARING MUSIC)
A silky white sheet of fine sand
is laid out on top of the volcanic rock.
These are the crushed remains of shells and conches,
forming endless beaches.
On the beaches of the Canaries,
the quintessences of two worlds -
the terrestrial and the marine - meet.
In addition to the migrating birds
that make their rest stop on the Canary Island coasts, further inland,
strange creatures of alien aspect
rapidly create their peculiar designs.
These tiny star maps
are in fact deadly traps.
Antlion larvae build their traps to catch other insects.
One after another is sacrificed
without a hint of remorse.
Just a few metres away, on the other side of the beach,
where the ocean surrounds the islands,
another surprising creature lies submerged.
The Canaries are the last refuge of many beings
who have been decimated in other seas.
In the case of the angelshark, or monkfish,
good numbers of this flattened shark survive here.
Angelsharks, like the antlions on the nearby shore,
use the sand to hide...
..and to hunt!
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
In addition to the angelshark,
these deep and rich waters
are home to hundreds of species of plants and animals
that depend on the islands to survive.
Below the surface, above the waves or soaring high through the sky,
wild travellers and explorers have, since time immemorial,
laid in a course for the small constellation of Canary Islands.
(DOLPHINS WHISTLE)
As if a mirror of the sky above,
starfish tirelessly move across the infinite sands.
Every day, from the bottom of the ocean
to the tops of the volcanic peaks,
a miniature universe, made from the same elements as the stars above,
lives out its intense life.
And like the constellations that move through the universe beyond,
the Canary Islands,
floating in the Atlantic, lonely but lush,
ancient but ever-renewed,
intimately bound to the stars and to infinity,
await the arrival of new intrepid, interstellar explorers.
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