Evolution Earth

At Earth’s extremes, as the planet changes at superspeed, animals are reacting in surprising ways. With their homes changing all around them, we follow remarkable stories of resilience and hope you might not expect. From humpback whales to mountain butterflies, to shrinking marine iguanas, to ingenious savanna chimpanzees, animals are sending us a powerful and emotive message about our world.

Islands are like miniature simplified Earths, where evolution is playing out at superspeed right before our eyes. We journey from the Galapagos to the edge of Antarctica to seek out animals responding in extraordinary ways to our changing planet. We find sealions hunting in a completely new way, lizards changing shape because of hurricanes, and monkeys eating charcoal in response to deforestation.

In the hottest extremes, species are going to extraordinary lengths to survive. From the Sahara Desert to the Australian outback, animals are providing new clues about our changing planet and what it will mean for the future of our heating world. Chimps are living in caves, camels are drinking salt water and zebra finches are singing to their eggs to make their chicks smaller.

Heading to the most remote and frozen ends of the Earth, we find that the poles are changing faster than anywhere else on the planet, a warming world in fast-forward. Tracking the shifts in the movement and behaviour of the animals that live here, from polar bears in the Arctic, to penguins in Antarctica, can reveal detailed changes and give us vital information about our future world.

Once overlooked, we now know that grasslands have a hidden power. Not only can they host the greatest gatherings of life on Earth, but they could even heal our planet. Key species, from the wildebeest of the Serengeti to the bison of the North American prairies, can revive forgotten habitats. Healthy grasslands could be more resilient carbon sinks than forests, and even slowing climate change.