Wildest Islands

Explore the unique array of Asian and Arctic species that inhabit Japan, an expansive chain of 6,852 islands stretching over 2,400 kilometers and covering a range of wildly diverse climatic zones including snow-covered mountains and steamy mangroves. This is home to wildlife not found anywhere else on Earth, including some of the planet’s hardiest species. Winter in Japan’s central and northern islands can be savage. In bleak, inhospitable conditions in Honshu, snow monkeys or Japanese macaques endure the bitter cold of Hell’s Valley by basking in warm volcanic pools.

Learn about the amazing creatures that inhabit the thousands of isolated jungle islands spread along the Rio Negro and the Amazon River, the world’s largest freshwater archipelago. Stranded on the mighty Rio Negro, these islands are engulfed by seasonal floods changing their landscapes completely, so everything here is forced to adapt or die. At the heart lie the Anavilhanas and Mariua archipelagos surrounded by flooded forests and hidden dangers.

Over in British Columbia, Canada, lies Vancouver Island, a vast and wild island with a backbone of jagged mountains running its length. The largest island off the west coast of North America, its glaciers fuel the flow of some of Canada’s tallest waterfalls and an endless network of rivers and creeks make it the ideal habitat for the Pacific salmon. Turkey vultures gather for the migration south as they head for warmer weather in winter.

The Philippine archipelago is made up of over 7,000 tropical islands and is a breeding ground for many rare animals. On the stunning island of Palawan, where craggy limestone cliffs poke out from the dense jungle, giant bugs roam the land. Predators line the edge of the forests, while rivers help carve one of the world’s most extensive cave systems, a subterranean cavernous world crowded with bats, whip scorpions, tarantulas, and other insects. This is the home of the mysterious bearcat, an animal that looks like a cross between a bear and a cat though related to neither and is as agile in the trees as a monkey.

Its bleak, battered, and windswept archipelago lies 460 kilometres from the South American mainland. Rugged mountains and an expansive pristine coastline make The Falklands an unspoiled destination for wildlife, notably for one of the world’s most iconic flightless birds, the beloved penguin. The Falklands’ sandy beaches and rolling meadows combine to make it one of the world’s premiere penguin sanctuaries. Over a million breed on the islands each summer. Pandemonium breaks out in a rockhopper penguin colony, sea lions ambush gentoo penguins in the surf, Skuar scavenge carcasses of Megellanic penguins that have washed ashore, and black-browed albatrosses perform their romantic courtship rituals.