Man and the Earth

The Island of the Gannets

On a flat islet covered with glasswort, in the middle of the Venezuelan Coral Sea, brown boobies nest. The reproductive biology of this immense colony is the subject of this episode of Man and the Earth. For a European, explains Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, "someone accustomed to animals fearing his presence, the most surprising thing is the calm with which these boobies welcome these new 'animals.'"