Planet Earth is so spectacular,
it's easy to miss the smaller things in life.
But take a closer look...
and there's a whole undiscovered world.
A world where tiny heroes...
and little monsters...
need incredible superpowers...
to help them triumph against giant odds.
The Caribbean.
It looks like paradise.
And it seems a pretty nice home for the Cuban bee hummingbird.
Not all that much bigger than a bee.
It's the smallest bird in the world.
There are all sorts of little castaways
that have found their way to these islands.
Many are the tiniest of their kind and found nowhere else on Earth.
Food and space is so limited on islands.
It's often survival of the smallest.
But paradise has a darker side.
When hurricane season hits,
tiny animals must face some of the greatest forces on the planet.
On sunny days, life on a Caribbean island is buzzing with possibilities.
A male bee hummingbird.
Looking for a mate...
and dressed to impress.
But this female's busy.
She's caring for two chicks,
just hatched from eggs the size of coffee beans.
Into a home the size of an espresso cup.
In four days, they'll double in size on a diet of insects and nectar.
Providing all this food is a mammoth task.
Hummingbirds burn energy faster than any other animal.
So she must visit hundreds of flowers a day.
She's so tiny, bugs are major competition.
And while she feeds, the nest is unprotected.
Even a single ant is a threat.
And as more swarm in, the chicks are in serious danger.
Just in time.
She's back to save the day.
Over time, Caribbean creatures have evolved,
shrinking down to make the most of what little food they can find.
A thread snake,
as thin as a strand of spaghetti...
and half as long.
He's an ant hunter...
of sorts.
Adult ants are too large to get his tiny jaws around.
But their larvae go down nicely.
Many of these miniature marvels are unique to a single island.
Just half the length of a matchstick,
the dwarf gecko is one of the smallest lizards in the world.
The perfect size to hunt micro-bugs down here in the leaf litter.
But perhaps a little on the small side when up against a tropical storm.
Raindrops hit like bombs.
The mother hummingbird does all she can to shelter her chicks.
Others fly for cover.
But the storm is so overwhelming...
there's no choice but to abandon her nest.
On the forest floor, the runoff becomes a tidal wave.
But size is a dwarf gecko's superpower.
So small, so light, he literally walks on water.
And stays afloat until the flood recedes.
With over 15 tropical storms battering the Caribbean each year,
paradise can quickly turn into hell.
The hummingbird's chicks have been swept away.
She must start all over again...
before the next storm hits.
In the wake of a storm, vegetation is washed out to sea.
And with it, creatures are cast adrift.
Occasionally, a voyager is lucky enough to reach new shores.
This is how many animals colonize new islands.
Small and hardy, Anolis lizards make successful stowaways.
But others arrived here long before her.
Hutias and iguanas survive by scavenging on whatever washes up.
She needs to get off the beach.
Just a few meters between her and safety.
It only takes a few brave pioneers to start a whole new population.
The storm has delivered a bounty for beachcombers of all sizes...
from hutia to sand hoppers.
But not everyone's on the hunt for food.
This hermit crab is looking for a new home.
Hers is in serious disrepair.
A new supply of shells has washed up in the storm.
But finding the right fit isn't easy.
She's only the size of a golf ball.
But hermit crabs can grow as big as a coconut
and must keep upgrading their shells to match.
With a never-ending demand for bigger homes,
hermit crabs have come up with an ingenious solution.
When a crab finds a shell that doesn't fit...
it signals to others to come and inspect.
And when the right-sized hermit arrives...
they form a housing chain.
Big to small.
The largest moves first.
Then each takes the newly vacated property one size up.
She's late to the party.
But there's always one shell left over.
The smallest.
Somehow, a crab just knows when it's found the right home.
Finally, a proper shelter.
She'll need it.
This time of year, bad weather is never far away.
Further inland, rivers are still raging from the last storm...
carrying rainwater out to sea.
But some are heading the other way.
Tri-tri gobies travel upstream to find the best place to breed.
To avoid the competition, some males go to extraordinary lengths.
He's smaller than a teaspoon,
but using his fins as suction cups and his mouth to grip,
he can conquer rapids.
This, however...
could be more challenging.
Gobies can scale waterfalls 350 meters high.
Almost as high as the Empire State Building.
The ascent will take days.
Many attempt the climb...
but less than 1 in 100 survive.
It pays to take it steady.
Success.
And a chance to breed.
Sending a new generation back downstream.
The humidity of storm season triggers an explosion of life.
A Jamaican montane crab is only the size of a sugar cube.
It doesn't need to be in water to survive.
But a mother still needs it to breed.
There's rainwater trapped in tiny rock pools,
but it's too risky to raise a family out here.
She has just the solution.
Using specialized hairs, she draws a film of water onto her shell.
Now she just needs a place to keep it.
An empty snail shell the size of a matchbox.
Perfect to hold a few drops.
And secure enough for a new family.
Twenty little crablets,
each no bigger than a grain of sand.
For the next three months,
she'll keep them fed, watered, and protected
in their little snail shell home.
As storm season progresses, there's so much moisture in the air,
coqui frogs can breed out of water entirely.
The miracle of life begins as a single cell.
Their devoted father watches over them.
Only the size of a strawberry,
but ready to defend his brood against any threat.
A hungry snail...
twice his size.
He can't move his eggs.
There's no escape.
He fights back...
but the snail is relentless.
This fearless father still has two more weeks of guard duty
before his eggs finally hatch.
The female hummingbird is looking for a new mate.
Such a small male could be hard to find.
If he wasn't so desperate to be noticed.
He'll have to work hard if he's gonna win her over.
A tiny dancer.
Finally, persistence pays off.
Soon to be a mother again, she needs to build a new nest.
Spiderwebs make the ideal glue to stick it all together.
She begins by weaving the foundations.
And in just a few days,
her nest will be ready to cradle a new clutch of precious eggs.
But out at sea... something big is brewing.
As ocean temperatures rise through the year,
they fuel ever more powerful tropical storms.
Caribbean anoles are surprisingly well-adapted
to endure such extreme weather.
Extra-large footpads help them hang on
in winds of 200 kilometers per hour.
But this storm is still building.
This is Hurricane Dorian.
A storm the size of Kansas.
When the world's most powerful weather events strike...
small creatures are at their mercy.
Winds increase to 300 kilometers per hour.
A direct hit brings utter devastation.
Every year, the Caribbean is ravaged by hurricanes.
But of the thousands of islands, only a few bear the full brunt.
Who survives is down to luck...
and size.
Tiny animals often have the best chance of sheltering from the storm
and recovering quickly.
In the middle of storm season, come rain or shine,
hermit crabs head back to the beach.
The new moon triggers their mass migration.
Over three days and nights, thousands gather.
All female, all carrying eggs.
The moment they touch water...
the eggs hatch.
Millions of microscopic larvae swept out to sea.
They'll ride on the currents as they grow...
until it's time to come ashore
and colonize new lands.
It's the tiniest animals that make the most
of the limited opportunities on Caribbean islands.
The coqui froglets are now fully formed...
and ready to emerge.
Their father's devotion
has given them the chance to make their own way
in this big wide world.
And this mother's resilience has earned her a fresh start.
A new generation of tiny miracles...
found nowhere else...
but on these treasured islands.