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A monsoon storm on the coast of
an island in the Indian Ocean.

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But this is not a
normal tropical island.

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This is Madagascar.

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Once joined to Africa, Madagascar has
been isolated for millions of years,

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and it has evolved a set of
wildlife all its own.

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More than 80% of it
is found nowhere else on earth.

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This strange island is split in two by
a line of mountains running its length.

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The eastern slopes are drenched
with rain and cloaked in jungle.

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But cross these mountains into the
western side, and you are in another world.

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To live here, you need to cope with a
landscape that is bone dry for most of the year.

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A land where rain is fleeting
and quite unpredictable.

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And yet Madagascar's arid lands
are full of life.

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Everything that lives here has its own fight for
survival and resources as the seasons swing by.

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In this eccentric land, some of the strategies
wildlife has developed are quite extraordinary.

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Madagascar is a vast island.

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A thousand miles from north to south, it is so big
it has the variations in climate of a continent.

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The mountainous spine down its length
is a barrier to rain.

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The land to the west
is in a rain shadow.

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And the further south you go,
the drier it gets.

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This is a journey through
Madagascar's most challenging season,

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the great drought that grips the south and west of
the island for more than nine months of every year.

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To survive these months, you
need to be tough and ingenious.

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And Madagascar's wildlife
is certainly both.

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Rising up from the southern flatlands is
a strange, Grand Canyon-like landscape...

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a great plateau of sandstone beaten
down by millions of years of erosion.

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It's August. Deep inland,
far from the sea, it's searingly hot.

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And it hasn't rained for months.

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But it's not entirely dry here.

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In deep, dark canyons
there are slashes of green.

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These lush forests are leafy all year,
thanks to a constant source of water.

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The very depth of the canyon shades it
from the sun and keeps it permanently moist.

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It's a rare oasis in an otherwise parched
land, and it's a great attraction for wildlife.

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A dragonfly
patrols a patch of stream.

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He's jealously guarding
his precious territory,

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pushing out male rivals while he
waits for the females to visit.

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And in this fortunate place lives a
small family of lemurs Verreaux's sifakas.

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They spent the chilly night in high
rocky caverns, safe from predators.

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At dawn, they move down into the canyon,
stopping to warm up in the first rays of the sun.

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And there's
another member of the family.

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A daughter,
just a couple of weeks old.

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She has been able to grip her mother's fur
unaided since she was born, and just as well...

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.. because her mother crosses the canyon with vast
leaps, as much as nine metres in a single bound.

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There is no shortage of food
here for these vegetarian lemurs.

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But for now, the baby
is totally reliant on milk.

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It will be another six months
before she's completely independent.

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Like all lemurs, sifakas are primates,
and their social bonds are strong.

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She will stay with her family in this
vast canyon for the rest of her life.

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These lush canyons
are a rare leafy oasis.

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The further south you go,
the drier it gets.

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There are rivers here in the deep
south, but they are highly seasonal.

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As the dry season takes hold,
they run flat and broad...

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ankle-deep streams on a bed of sand.

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But the rivers carry just enough water and
nutrients for ribbons of forest to grow.

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And the masters of these
river forests are these.

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Ringtailed lemurs.

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In gangs of 15 strong,
they have the run of the place.

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And it's the females
who are in charge.

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With the burden of raising young,
they must have access to the best food.

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These lemurs are protective of
their patch.

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Scent marking makes it clear to
other gangs where the border lies.

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As a group, they need to keep
hold of their home territory.

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LEMURS WAIL AND SCREECH

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Intruders are seen off promptly.

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Green as this river forest looks, at
this time of year there is only

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just enough food to go round, and
these females all have babies to feed.

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They all gave birth at
around the same time.

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By the time the rains return,
the forest will be full of fruit,

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and that is just when the babies will
be old enough to feed for themselves.

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It's a crucial adaptation to suit a
place so driven by seasonal change.

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Motherhood is taking its toll...

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they are thin,
and their fur is less than sleek.

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But the dry season
will eventually pass

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and at least their forest is green
all year.

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Further to the west is a swathe of
forest that is much more demanding.

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It swings dramatically
between wetness and desiccation.

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For most of the year,
it is cracklingly dry.

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The most distinctive trees of these
western dry forests are the Baobabs.

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Their trunks are huge and bulbous,
the better to store water.

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They live for hundreds of years.

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A tree like this
will have seen many dry seasons pass.

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It's now October, the height of the dry season, and
it will be months before any significant rain falls.

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For everything that lives here,
it's a test of endurance.

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Water is in short supply,

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just a few little temporary pools
dotted between the trees.

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Everything must come here to drink.

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And that's risky. Their predators
will know where they are.

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Brown lemurs creep timidly
around the waterhole.

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With very little fresh greenery to eat, they must
drink every day or risk death from dehydration.

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But every step on the carpet of dry
leaves could reveal their presence.

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At this time of year,
they have babies too.

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They're an easy target.

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But this hawk is only after water,

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a drink and a bathe.

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In such tough times, there are battles for
territory in the most unexpected places.

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As night falls in the Baobab forest,
an extraordinary crowd emerges.

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They are baby flatid bugs.

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By day they are barely visible, but at night
they swarm over the trees and start to feed.

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They drink sap, and each settles
itself into a spot on the branch.

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But even at this miniature level,
there's a battle for resources,

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and here and there
fist-fights break out.

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This curious spat has
never been observed before.

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For the most part,
however, they feed quietly.

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And as they feed, they excrete
unwanted liquid, called honeydew.

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It coats the
branches and remaining leaves.

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And this is very attractive to other
insects that are out and about at night.

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And that, in turn,
provides a feast for mouse lemurs.

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At around 60 grams, mouse lemurs
are the world's smallest primates.

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These are all males.

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The females are fast asleep in tree
holes, and have been for months.

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They can sleep right through the dry season,
and they'll only emerge when the rains come.

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It's a way of saving energy.

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So for now,
the males are on their own,

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feeding on anything that will take
them through the lean times,

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and waiting for the day
that the females awake.

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But of all Madagascar's southern habitats,
none seems more challenging than this.

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This is the far south of the island,
where there is little standing water.

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Rain is rare,
and some years doesn't fall at all.

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The sandy, porous rock
drains quickly.

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The forest that grows here
is one of the strangest on earth.

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It's called the spiny forest,
for good reason.

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There is nothing like
it anywhere else in the world.

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The plants are viciously spiny...

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the spines collecting what little water there is
in the air, and draining it back to the tree itself.

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These plants are seriously odd...

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with twisted, sprawling branches,
these are octopus trees.

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And euphorbias,
looking like strings of sausages.

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They barely even
bother with leaves...

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they photosynthesise
through the green of their stems.

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These are among the world's
toughest plants.

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It would seem there is
nothing edible here...

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what leaves there are are small,
the better to avoid water loss,

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and tucked down among the spines.

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This place looks totally hostile.

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But here too
live ghostly little lemurs.

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Verreaux's sifakas are among
the hardiest of all the lemurs.

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And they are quite at home here too.

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They are perfectly adapted to this desiccated
place, because they can go without drinking at all.

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They get all the moisture they need
from these unappetising looking leaves,

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which they pick
from between the spines.

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They even relish the euphorbia fruit, apparently not
bothered by the fact that these trees are dripping with

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chemicals so strong
they'd burn your skin.

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And they too have babies,

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born at what looks like the
very worst time of the year.

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Life here seems generally
much more challenging.

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Not only is there little to eat,
these sifakas have to cope with

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jumping between thorns
that would go through your fingers.

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It's hardly surprising that only half
of sifaka babies make it to adulthood.

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Within just a few months,
these babies will have to

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take the plunge and learn
how to jump all by themselves.

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For now, they cling to their mother
and discover what's edible.

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Back in the central canyon lands, the weeks
pass. It's November, and there is still no rain.

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There hasn't been for eight months.

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The grassy plains are dry, but inside the
canyon, thanks to the constantly flowing spring,

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it is still almost ludicrously
luxuriant and full of life.

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Ringtails, the most
adaptable of all lemurs,

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have found a home here too.

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They are the most widespread of lemurs, and
they live all over the south of the island.

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And here they seem to
have found a life of ease.

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They are able to take advantage of a
range of food as it becomes available.

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They'll eat leaves,
flowers and even insects.

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In an unpredictable place like
Madagascar, that has helped them to thrive.

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The babies are growing up.

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Born at roughly the same time, every ringtail
baby in the south is now about two months old.

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And this young male is starting to find
his way around this bountiful place.

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But it will be a while before he's
totally competent as a climber.

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He won't even be fully weaned
for another three months.

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Although there is moisture in the leaves they eat, the
ringtails can't go more than a day without drinking.

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But finding water
is not difficult here.

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The stream never runs dry.

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00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:39,120
Outside the canyon,
however, the grass is tinder dry.

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Fire has been a factor
here for millions of years.

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The grass burns rapidly,
and the fire spreads quickly.

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These spots of flame and smoke
flush insects from the grass,

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so they are a huge attraction
for kites and kestrels.

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Back in the Baobab forest in the far
west, it seems as parched as ever.

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00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:52,405
But now, in late November, there are
signs that things are about to change.

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The Baobabs' scrappy branches suddenly begin
to put out a first flush of green leaves.

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They are drawing on the precious water
they've stored in their fat trunks.

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There will soon be rain here, and
the Baobabs sense that it's coming.

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There is a scent of rain in the air.

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Other life is beginning to stir.

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This little chameleon
has not long hatched

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but already it's in a race.

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00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:30,360
And it has one of the strangest strategies
of all for dealing with the extreme dryness.

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They are Labord's chameleons, and they
only live in this part of the island.

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This little male
already has a voracious appetite...

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although this spider
may be beyond him.

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These strange little chameleons have the shortest
lifecycle of any land vertebrate in the world.

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They spent the last nine months
underground, inside an egg,

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and now they have just eight
weeks to grow to adult size.

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00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:44,200
They will have to grow more than a
centimetre a week.

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00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:51,605
There is no time to waste.

194
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:56,380
Conditions are so tough that
living fast is the best strategy.

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00:26:56,415 --> 00:27:01,120
By the time the rains begin,
his life will be almost over.

196
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:14,765
In fact the rains
have already started...

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00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:17,600
only a splash,
but a sign of a deluge to come.

198
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,565
For now,
it's barely enough to wet the ground,

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but it's enough to bring the mouse
lemur females out of hibernation.

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And the males are getting
themselves ready for them.

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They only have one chance to mate
during the entire year.

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Tonight's the night,
and they can hardly wait.

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It's understandably competitive,

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these two males are fighting
outside a female's tree.

205
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:41,280
One of the males
tries his luck with her.

206
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:47,400
A swift left hook
seems to make her feelings clear.

207
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:59,400
But he persists.

208
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,040
And she finally allows him in.

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00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:27,640
The first splash of rain seems to trigger
a race for everything in the Baobab forest.

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00:29:27,675 --> 00:29:31,440
In this opportunistic place
you have to move fast.

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The rain is a cue for another event that
only happens on one night in the year.

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The forest floor is alive
with little brown frogs.

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00:29:44,755 --> 00:29:48,600
They have been living
quietly in the forest all year.

214
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:57,520
But when dawn breaks at the waterhole after one rainy
night, an astonishing transformation has happened.

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00:29:57,555 --> 00:30:03,040
While the females have stayed brown,
all the males have turned bright yellow.

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00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,685
The reason is not certain,
but it might be so that the males

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00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:15,080
and females can tell each other apart
in the mass mating frenzy that follows.

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00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:31,320
They are taking advantage of the fact that the
waterhole has filled just enough to lay their eggs,

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but the rain is not yet strong
enough to wash the eggs away.

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It's a very narrow window
of opportunity.

221
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:51,000
And after just a few hours, the males will all turn
brown again and they'll all return to the forest.

222
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:58,320
They won't be back to this waterhole
again until this time next year.

223
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:05,280
Although a drizzle of rain has prompted
the Baobab forest to start to green,

224
00:31:05,315 --> 00:31:08,085
the lean times are not over.

225
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:14,080
Everywhere in the forest, animals are
finding their own particular ways to survive.

226
00:31:14,115 --> 00:31:17,685
Life is so challenging
here that one bird

227
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:22,360
has resorted to an extraordinary
subterfuge to see her through.

228
00:31:22,395 --> 00:31:28,040
She's a vasa parrot, another
Madagascar speciality.

229
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:34,405
Inside her nest hole, this odd-looking
parrot is raising a clutch of chicks.

230
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:40,760
But she is highly promiscuous, and the
chicks may have a number of different fathers.

231
00:31:40,795 --> 00:31:44,925
And she uses this fact to
her advantage.

232
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:50,600
Choosing a high perch, she belts out
her song across the Baobab forest.

233
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:55,480
PARROT SQUAWKS

234
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:07,685
She looks somewhat scruffy.

235
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:14,120
During the breeding season, her normally glossy black
head feathers fall out, and her head turns orange.

236
00:32:14,155 --> 00:32:17,400
But she can certainly
draw in the males.

237
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:29,125
None of the males know who
is the father of her chicks.

238
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:34,640
But as she's mated with them all, they
all bring her food in answer to her call.

239
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:51,400
The feeding sessions are interspersed with gentle little
head sways that seem to confirm their relationship.

240
00:32:51,435 --> 00:32:57,240
Each male feeds her, each perhaps believing
that he's the father of her offspring.

241
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:25,320
Finally, she returns to feed her chicks, having
gathered food with very little effort on her own part.

242
00:33:25,355 --> 00:33:28,320
An elegant solution
to difficult times.

243
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:57,600
By December in the southern river
forest, the river is at its lowest ebb.

244
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,640
Oddly, it appears to
be raining here,

245
00:34:02,675 --> 00:34:05,080
but it's not rain at all.

246
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:17,040
The trees are full of
large insects, cicadas,

247
00:34:17,075 --> 00:34:20,097
recently hatched and feeding on sap.

248
00:34:20,132 --> 00:34:23,120
As they feed,
they squirt out honeydew.

249
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:37,760
And for the river forest ringtails, always
on the lookout for something new to eat,

250
00:34:37,795 --> 00:34:39,640
there's a feast to be had.

251
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:55,680
But there's a problem -
the cicadas are quite hard to catch.

252
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:24,120
Cicadas are
a valuable source of protein,

253
00:35:24,155 --> 00:35:26,925
but it's a lot of effort.

254
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:30,680
And there is a much easier
way to get hold of them.

255
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:38,020
A giant wasp,
the size of a small bird.

256
00:35:38,055 --> 00:35:41,685
She is a specialist
in catching cicadas.

257
00:35:41,720 --> 00:35:45,440
She stings one, to paralyse it, and
drags it to her underground cache.

258
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:04,320
So all the ringtail has to do is to
watch where the wasp leaves one.

259
00:36:14,240 --> 00:36:18,525
The river forest ringtails are
nothing if not opportunistic.

260
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:23,440
It's an adaptability that sees them through
the worst of the southern dry season.

261
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:35,320
Eventually, these rivers will fill.

262
00:36:35,355 --> 00:36:39,045
The brief wet season is on its way.

263
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:44,485
It's February, the hottest time of
year. And there's a change coming.

264
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:52,040
It's the monsoon season in Madagascar, and heavy
rainstorms move down the island from the north.

265
00:36:54,720 --> 00:36:57,485
Thunderclouds begin to bubble up.

266
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:03,600
At last, after ten months of dryness, a
deluge hits the Baobab forests of the west.

267
00:37:03,635 --> 00:37:07,080
THUNDER

268
00:37:39,240 --> 00:37:43,320
Trees that looked lifeless
are now revived and green.

269
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:17,765
And there has been another
transformation.

270
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:22,040
The little Labord's chameleons
have grown enormously.

271
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:29,400
This male is now five times bigger,
and in full breeding colours

272
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:39,480
and this female has become a
real beauty.

273
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:49,680
The male
touches the branch with his tongue.

274
00:38:49,715 --> 00:38:52,280
He can taste
that she's been that way.

275
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:09,040
But before he can get to her,
he has to fight off a rival male.

276
00:39:09,075 --> 00:39:12,160
They're all racing against time.
CHAMELEON HISSES

277
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,720
Their lives are so brief that
they only have one chance to mate.

278
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:53,000
He approaches her,
but she seems less than keen.

279
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,680
It may be that she's already mated,
and is already pregnant.

280
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:02,600
He might be too late.

281
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:07,885
She couldn't afford to waste time.

282
00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:13,360
As soon as she's laid her eggs, she'll die,
and all the males will be dead soon after.

283
00:40:13,395 --> 00:40:17,437
Their lives are lived only
in the brief wet season.

284
00:40:17,472 --> 00:40:21,480
The violence of their short lives
hastens their end.

285
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:26,005
Living fast, and dying young.

286
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:31,240
It's a radical strategy for a place where
resources are low for most of the year.

287
00:40:48,720 --> 00:40:52,920
This is the richest time of
year in the Baobab forest.

288
00:40:52,955 --> 00:40:56,837
In the trees above, as night
falls, the Baobabs bloom...

289
00:40:56,872 --> 00:41:00,720
peculiar giant scented flowers
that open in minutes.

290
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:48,400
For the adaptable mouse lemurs,
the flowers are irresistible.

291
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:04,600
The nectar is a treat. But it also
brings in moths. A double feast.

292
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:14,680
The good times are back.

293
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:48,360
This is the most dramatic change
in all Madagascar's landscapes.

294
00:42:48,395 --> 00:42:52,697
But the rainy season will last only a
few more weeks,

295
00:42:52,732 --> 00:42:57,000
and desiccation will
soon return to these Baobab forests.

296
00:43:08,240 --> 00:43:13,120
But in the far south, the river
forest has stayed green all year.

297
00:43:13,155 --> 00:43:17,565
The river has been its lifeblood
in an arid landscape.

298
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:23,760
Fed by fleeting rainfall, it has briefly
filled, and the forest is at its richest.

299
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:29,760
The ringtails are well-fed,
and in peak condition.

300
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:39,725
It's now April, and the
babies have become independent.

301
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:44,805
One or two may still try to hang on, but
the breeding season has started again.

302
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:52,000
It will only last for just a week or two, and each
individual female will be fertile for just a few hours.

303
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:57,640
That means that things
are going to get intense.

304
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:10,805
Border disputes among
groups are common.

305
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:16,360
They are usually settled by a totally
unique way of fighting. With smell.

306
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:24,040
The males rub the glands of their wrists
on their tails and waft them at rivals...

307
00:44:24,075 --> 00:44:26,885
and that's usually
enough to send them off.

308
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:30,520
But at this time of the year,
things get more competitive.

309
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:03,840
The males also wave their
perfume at females,

310
00:45:03,875 --> 00:45:06,520
hoping to persuade them to mate.

311
00:45:18,680 --> 00:45:22,880
The most powerful males will usually
be the ones to mate with the females.

312
00:45:29,240 --> 00:45:36,240
But she is totally in charge, and has no
hesitation in seeing him off if she's not ready.

313
00:45:53,200 --> 00:46:01,120
If she approves of him, she retreats little by little
into the bushes, out of the way of other male attention.

314
00:46:01,155 --> 00:46:06,800
By the shifty look of these two, this
female is mating with a male of lesser rank.

315
00:46:06,835 --> 00:46:11,280
The mating season is so short,
it becomes a bit of a free for all.

316
00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:25,040
The cycle is complete.

317
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:36,085
Further south, by April,

318
00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:40,480
the fleeting rain has finally
come to the spiny forest.

319
00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:54,720
The difference is striking. This
strange, tangled forest has turned green.

320
00:46:56,520 --> 00:47:00,160
But it's still as spiny.

321
00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:05,800
The sifaka infants have
survived their first dry season.

322
00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:11,160
The little scraps of white fur
are seven months old.

323
00:47:11,195 --> 00:47:13,080
And now there is plenty to eat.

324
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:25,685
But even now, the season is turning.

325
00:47:25,720 --> 00:47:31,320
The greenery won't last long, and the
females are already pregnant again.

326
00:47:31,355 --> 00:47:35,360
In four months
new babies will be born.

327
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:43,885
The youngsters are now independent, and
must move around the forest by themselves.

328
00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:49,560
Which they do, among the vicious spines, with wild
abandon and without any apparent difficulties at all.

329
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:55,760
How they can do this without injuring
themselves remains a mystery.

330
00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:02,760
But then, much of Madagascar's
wildlife is still not fully understood.

331
00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:01,405
Lemurs leaping through
a forest of spines.

332
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:07,400
Nowhere else, outside this one patch in the
south of the island, can such a thing be seen.

333
00:49:07,435 --> 00:49:13,320
But then, most of Madagascar's wildlife
exists nowhere else in the world.

334
00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:18,725
The entire island is a hotspot
of biological diversity,

335
00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:24,960
a treasure house of natural riches that
is one of the most significant on earth.

336
00:49:24,995 --> 00:49:31,160
Each species has adapted in its own way
to the extremes of climate and landscape.

337
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:35,765
But many of them are under threat,

338
00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:39,685
from loss of habitat,
from climate change, from hunting.

339
00:49:39,720 --> 00:49:44,560
They're the same perils that face
so much of the world's wildlife.

340
00:49:44,595 --> 00:49:47,920
But here
they are especially poignant.

341
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:57,960
Madagascar is an unrepeatable
experiment, a set of unique animals

342
00:49:57,995 --> 00:50:03,560
and plants evolving in isolation
for over 60 million years.

343
00:50:03,595 --> 00:50:06,325
We are still trying to unravel
its mysteries.

344
00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:12,160
How tragic it would be if we lost
it before we even understood it.

345
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:37,840
Of all the strange and secretive
creatures there are in Madagascar,

346
00:50:37,875 --> 00:50:41,640
there is one that was the
biggest challenge of all to film.

347
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:50,160
It lives in the most remote forests,
it's nocturnal, and it's very rare.

348
00:50:50,195 --> 00:50:52,760
There's something in there.

349
00:50:52,795 --> 00:50:55,000
It's also dangerous.

350
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:01,720
It's the fossa.

351
00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:10,480
The team travelled to the dry western
forest, which is the fossa's stronghold.

352
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:22,360
Even the people living right at the edge
of the forest won't venture in at night.

353
00:51:22,395 --> 00:51:24,240
TRANSLATED

354
00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:41,760
The fossa is Madagascar's
most fearsome predator.

355
00:51:41,795 --> 00:51:46,205
Even the team's guide,
Jean, isn't too keen.

356
00:51:46,240 --> 00:51:49,205
I'm scared of fossa even
though I'm a guide here,

357
00:51:49,240 --> 00:51:53,240
since the fossa is very strong,
and it may attack people.

358
00:51:55,120 --> 00:51:58,605
But the team were not to be put off.

359
00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:01,880
They were joined by
scientist Mia-Lana Luers.

360
00:52:01,915 --> 00:52:05,120
She has been studying the
fossa for three years,

361
00:52:05,155 --> 00:52:07,485
but even she doesn't
know a great deal.

362
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:11,840
They usually have a secretive life
and it is difficult to observe them

363
00:52:11,875 --> 00:52:13,680
especially because they are
mostly solitary.

364
00:52:16,240 --> 00:52:19,965
But Mia has a plan. She explains to
director Emma Napper

365
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:24,200
that she has already fitted some
of the fossa with radio collars.

366
00:52:24,235 --> 00:52:27,845
Although they can't pinpoint an
individual fossa,

367
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:31,720
in the mating season the collars can
reveal where they are gathering,

368
00:52:31,755 --> 00:52:35,077
around big trees
where males court females.

369
00:52:35,112 --> 00:52:38,400
Jean goes in search of a
likely courtship tree.

370
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:46,080
To look for the tree where the fossa
mate in this place, it's... it's hard,

371
00:52:46,115 --> 00:52:50,000
but we'll work together.

372
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:56,045
Using Mia's data,
the team head for a likely spot.

373
00:52:56,080 --> 00:53:01,160
Jean finds signs that fossa may have
been using this tree for courting.

374
00:53:01,195 --> 00:53:03,800
So now the team must go
into the forest at night.

375
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:22,440
They carefully light the courting
tree with infra-red lights,

376
00:53:22,475 --> 00:53:25,897
visible to a camera,
but invisible to the naked eye.

377
00:53:25,932 --> 00:53:29,320
It means the team are
working in the pitch dark.

378
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:37,340
At night, the forest comes alive.

379
00:53:37,375 --> 00:53:39,920
For hours, the team listen and wait.

380
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:48,680
Cameraman Kevin Flay heads deeper
into the forest.

381
00:53:54,400 --> 00:53:57,485
The thing is,
it's really really black.

382
00:53:57,520 --> 00:54:01,280
So you are just relying on
your hearing all the time.

383
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:07,365
It's pretty unnerving because you
just don't know where they are.

384
00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:12,000
Just occasionally you might hear a
twig break or some rustling leaves.

385
00:54:12,035 --> 00:54:15,485
These people who live in villages
and they don't have torchlight,

386
00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:20,200
and they, they just hear this thing
coming into their village, it must be,

387
00:54:20,235 --> 00:54:22,040
you know, it must be
pretty frightening.

388
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:26,480
I can definitely hear
something moving out there.

389
00:54:26,515 --> 00:54:28,680
Then Mia hears a distant call.

390
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:33,160
WAILING AND SCREECHING

391
00:54:39,800 --> 00:54:42,920
And then suddenly the lights go out!

392
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:49,965
Next morning,
the team find the cause.

393
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:52,685
The lighting cable has big
teeth marks in it.

394
00:54:52,720 --> 00:54:57,520
We found that the wire was broken.
That was eaten by the fossa.

395
00:54:57,555 --> 00:54:59,037
It was amazing!

396
00:54:59,072 --> 00:55:00,485
And that's not all!

397
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:04,365
The fossa tried to steal
something from this bag.

398
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:11,040
See, the fossa you know, the fossa is
really clever and she eats anything, even...

399
00:55:11,075 --> 00:55:12,560
even your shoes!

400
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:19,400
In the dry season with little to eat, it
seems that fossa will have a go at anything.

401
00:55:27,360 --> 00:55:31,320
The following night,
it's back into the forest.

402
00:55:31,355 --> 00:55:34,045
For several hours, there is nothing.

403
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:37,360
But then those eerie sounds
begin again.

404
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:42,080
And suddenly, out of the darkness,

405
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:46,880
they're right there.

406
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:58,040
At last, the team get their first good
look at these extraordinary animals.

407
00:56:02,760 --> 00:56:05,165
Through the camera
they are transformed.

408
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:10,840
Elegant, relaxed, and totally at home
in the pitch black forest.

409
00:56:20,240 --> 00:56:22,485
These are two males.

410
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:25,080
And they seem in no hurry to leave.

411
00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:32,920
And then Jean finds the reason why.

412
00:56:32,955 --> 00:56:36,480
Up in the tree there is a female.

413
00:56:38,720 --> 00:56:42,360
One of the males climbs the
tree to try his luck with her.

414
00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:50,205
Eventually, they start to mate.

415
00:56:50,240 --> 00:56:54,765
And they continue their liaison
until dawn.

416
00:56:54,800 --> 00:56:59,040
It's a rare chance for Kevin to
capture shots of the fossa by day.

417
00:56:59,075 --> 00:57:03,280
Other males start to gather
around the mating tree...

418
00:57:03,315 --> 00:57:05,960
it's an astonishing sight.

419
00:57:17,720 --> 00:57:23,200
Thanks to the night filming, Mia has
learnt a little more about their behaviour.

420
00:57:23,235 --> 00:57:25,880
But she's concerned.

421
00:57:28,040 --> 00:57:31,085
Her data shows that this huge forest

422
00:57:31,120 --> 00:57:37,005
may only have ten females left in it,
and that's not nearly enough.

423
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:43,760
This beautiful and enigmatic creature may be critically
endangered, and yet we still know so little about it.

424
00:57:43,795 --> 00:57:49,600
As with so much of Madagascar's wildlife,
the challenge will be to discover more

425
00:57:49,635 --> 00:57:51,240
before it's too late.

426
00:57:54,920 --> 00:57:58,965
In the next episode,
I'm on a very personal journey.

427
00:57:59,000 --> 00:58:05,040
50 years ago, when I was filming in Madagascar,
I acquired the egg of a giant extinct bird.

428
00:58:05,075 --> 00:58:09,520
Now I'm trying to discover what
that bird's extinction might reveal

429
00:58:09,555 --> 00:58:13,160
about the fate of Madagascar's
Precious wildlife today.

430
00:58:23,520 --> 00:58:27,300
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431
00:58:27,335 --> 00:58:31,080
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432
00:58:32,305 --> 00:58:38,212
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