Animal species in isolated profusion

Press, 4 December 1981, Page 11

Animal species in isolated profusion

"South American Coast" in the “Untamed World" series, showing tomorrow on Two. is a journey through the continent of South America, cut off from the rest of the world for 70M years, where animal species evolved which are unknown in other lands. Some of the regions and animals dealt with in the programme are: The Andes in Ecuador, home of the condor, a carrion eater who is king of the mountains to the Indians and a bird with a life span of up to 60 years. The'Guano Islands off the coast of Peru, the greatest natural aviary in the world. Because of an abundance of fish, great flocks of pelican, gannets and cormorants have settled here for several million years. The vicuna, living on an

Andean plateau, looks like a strange cross between a deer and a sheep, but in fact is related to the camel, and its wool was much prized by the ancient Incas. The Amazon jungle, occupying one-third of South America’s mass, is home to storks. herons, toucans, dozens of varieties of exotic birds, snakes, caymans (crocodiles). capybaras (water rodents), the tapir (the South American “elephant”), the coati (racoon-like), the sloth . . . Deer species (whitetailed, Pudu, European red deer), the eagle, Darwin's rhea (relatives of the African ostrich) ... the armadillo. And 350 miles to the south, in a desolate ocean region, is a refuge for thousands of animals which have nowhere else to go, among them the sea lion and the penguin.