[Music] we're here in the Forest hiking with Mina looking for what is in many ways the Hawaiian equivalent to Darwin's FES uh each honey creeper has its own unique shaped beak very much like that of Darwin's finches in the galopus and you're in for some serious exploring as we discover why the Hawaiian Islands are one of the greatest natural Laboratories for exploring Darwin's theory of evolution [Music] [Applause] [Music] see honey up there [Music] this is what I'm talking about this is iing for honey [Music] creepers all the time we really are in one of the most amazing forests in the world here in Hawaii 100% of the forest birds are endemic meaning they're found nowhere else in the world and in most cases each island has its own unique set of birds but why is that to help answer this question let's first take a closer look at where we are the most isolated island chain in the world is right here the Hawaiian archipelago you see the Pacific Ocean is a vast body of water which is dotted with small Oceanic Islands let's take the galpagos islands for instance they lie 900 miles off the coast of South America but it's roughly 2400 M from here to the closest island or Mainland try flying or swimming that far the islands are also very new well in geologic time that is the Hawaiian island chain resulted from the movement of the Earth's Pacific crust over stationary magma hotspot now molten magma seeps through the Earth's crust and over hundreds of thousands of years forms an island now the crest continues to move moving the first island with it towards the Northwest as the magma continues to flow a second island emerges and so on and so on now the newest islands are popping up over the hotspot while the oldest islands are slowly eroding away as the plate moves geologically speaking the Hawaii islands are basically brand new they just popped right out of the ocean if nothing else is really close by how did anything really get here so one way things could have gotten to the islands is through a process called rafting organisms basically cling onto things in the sea like Driftwood that later wash the shore on the islands paddle pattle another way fser Sports could have gotten here is through wind currents drifting across the Pacific and then falling here in Hawaii let's go up again or other things might have gotten clear out here to the Hawaiian Islands on the wings of birds or inside their guts but look most plants and animals didn't even make it to the islands in fact we humans didn't even show up until about 2,000 years ago and before humans got here there were no mammals besides a species of bat and seal there were no reptiles no amphibians no ticks no ants no mosquitoes and no cockroaches things most people think are everywhere just weren't here in Hawaii so clearly all the plants and animals that are found in Hawaii came from somewhere but why is it that almost everything that's native here not found anywhere else in the world one hypothesis using the concepts of evolution is that once a species got here it became isolated from his parent population this isolation in combination with random mutations in the population unique selective pressures and other genetic factors caused the Hawaiian populations to evolve and over time become distinct enough to be called a new species one group or flock of finches were likely blown here in a storm and then because of the many different environmental niches stretching from the coastline up through the mountains they speciated into many different species some of the honey creepers were specializing in eating particular insects from particular plants they were developing shorter beaks that were easy to see past the tip of and NAB up those insects quickly or their beaks were specializing and being able to fit into particular clearly shaped flowers so we've discovered why Hawaii's Forest birds are found nowhere else in the world because they evolved here from ancestors that got here through hitchhiking rafting or being blown here and we've also learned that Hawaii is an excellent place to study the concepts of evolution because of this extreme isolation but remember this isolation also occurred in the galpagos led to the speciation of Darwin's finches galpagos tortoises yeah but the story of Hawaii doesn't stop at isolation like the gpus what makes Hawaii unique is that it's isolated populations evolved without Predators till next time never stop exploring your [Music] world my name is min Fox reporting here live from the top of the poly Lookout [Music] he [Music]