A series of eight animal films Introduced by David Attenborough
Once, on a tiny coral atoll in the middle of the South Pacific, the US Navy fought - and lost - a battle against birds. They burnt flares, fired bazookas and even blew up the birds with shrapnel bombs. Some died, a few moved off... and more came back to breed again.
It was the gooney birds of Midway Atoll that beat the US Navy.
Now the sailors have not only learnt to live with them, but to love them as well... there are gooney bird badges and T-shirts, gooney parties and gooney golf balls. Gooney mania is a widespread condition and the gooney, the most beautiful Laysan albatross, has become the emblem of the island.
BBC Bristol
Preview: page 19