Based on a series of ten "Survival Special" Anglia Television programmes from May 1991, this book explores the separation of the continents of Antarctica, India and Australia several hundred million years ago, and the subsequent redistribution of animal species during the gradual movement of tectonic plates. The theories of evolution held by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace are discussed in relation to particular animals and their progression southwards over seas, mountain ranges, ice and snow. From the tigers and elephants of India to the endangered groups of orang-utan in Sumatra, the routes move further south to the migration patterns of birds in Hong Kong and mainland China. From there, on the far side of the Wallace line, the book moves to the kangaroos and monotrines of Australia and the unique takahe and kwuia of the islands of New Zealand.