| [00:00.200] |
Carrying undigested fruit seeds from New Guinea in their stomachs, |
| [00:04.700] |
they inadvertently helped sow the Solomons' rainforests |
| [00:08.400] |
By day, these nocturnal fruit bats roost communally in the safety of the tallest trees |
| [00:14.930] |
From the few bats that made it here, there are now 18 different species |
| [00:20.120] |
They have become the most widespread native mammal in the South Pacific |
| [00:25.500] |
East of the Solomons, the distance between islands increases dramatically |
| [00:31.410] |
It's now 1,000 miles of open ocean before the next island groups -Fiji, Samoa and Tonga |
| [00:40.980] |
Of all these island clusters, Fiji is the largest |
| [00:47.000] |
Made up of over 300 volcanic islands, formed some 40 million years ago, |
| [00:52.490] |
Fiji is around 2/3 the size of the Solomons, |
| [00:56.360] |
so remained a reasonable target for would-be colonisers |
| [00:59.750] |
Despite its isolation, |
| [01:02.020] |
it is still home to nearly half the number of plant species found in the Solomons |
| [01:06.860] |
But animal colonisers were not so successful |
