Taking a closer look at the natural process beyond ‘the survival of the fittest’, Professor Richard Fortey studies the life cycle of islands, from their birth and colonization, through the flowering of abundant new species, to the changes an island endures as it grows old and nears its end. As he searches for the rules of island evolution Fortey encounters wild lemurs in the rainforest of Madagascar, acid-resistant shrimps in the rock pools of Hawaii and giant wolf spiders in Madeira.