The mangrove forests of Barbuda's shallow lagoons provide ideal nest sites for the Caribbean's largest colony of frigatebirds.

The deep waters off Dominica are breeding grounds for sperm whales, filmed engaging in tactile social behaviour at the surface.

Caves are a feature of Cuba's limestone geology, and provide homes for millions of bats as well as Cuban boas and secretive hutias, the latter filmed for the first time in the wild.

The final island to be featured is Trinidad, cut off from South America by rising sea levels 2,000 years ago.

Stretching for 180 miles off the coast of Central America, the Caribbean barrier reef is the second largest coral structure on Earth, and home to an abundance of life.

By day, large creatures such as loggerhead turtles and the rare Antillean manatees browse peacefully, but at night, tarpon and other predators emerge to hunt.

As they rise to the surface and release clouds of milt and eggs, whale sharks move in to take advantage of the sudden feast.

With climate change scientists predicting more frequent and intense hurricanes in future, the ability of the Caribbean wildlife to survive and recover from them will be severely tested.

[4] The final instalment takes the form of a journey along the Caribbean shore of Central America, which runs for 1700 miles from Panama to Mexico.

Further north, coastal mangrove swamps are rich hunting grounds for two different creatures: white-faced capuchins are shown cracking open clam shells and Utila spiny-tailed iguanas catch fiddler crabs.

Mexico's limestone Yucatan Peninsula is riddled with flooded caves, home to strange creatures including remipedes and isopods.

Rare American crocodiles hatch in its sheltered mangroves, and magnificent frigatebirds mob red-footed boobies as they return to feed their chicks, forcing them to regurgitate their catch in mid air.