The third of a five-part series looking at humans and nature in the South Seas of Polynesia.

When Fletcher Christian discovered the remote Pitcairn Island, he and his crew literally burnt their boat and became castaways on this speck of land for the rest of their lives. The plants and animals of the South Sea islands, similarly isolated, adapted in unique ways, such as the chicken bird of Henderson Island, which gave up the power of flight a long time ago. And on the mysterious Easter Island, the most lonely place in the Pacific, the extraordinary way of life of its statue-worshipping inhabitants eventually led to the degradation of the land.