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00:0020 years ago, my good friend Douglas Adams spent a year tracking down endangered animals
00:10together with the zoologist Mark Carwardine.
00:14Now it's my turn.
00:16Mark and I are heading off to find out exactly what happened to those species that he had
00:20seen dangling on the edge of extinction two decades ago.
00:24It promises to be exhausting, exhilarating, believable, and exasperating, but I wouldn't
00:31miss it for the world.
00:43Having completed our expedition through Uganda and Kenya in search of rhinos, Mark and I
00:49have stepped off the beaten path, travelling directly to Madagascar.
00:54I have to confess, Mark, to me Madagascar is a children's film title and not much more.
01:05I know vanilla comes from here.
01:06That's terrible.
01:07Sorry.
01:08So tell me what there is that excites you about the place, because you've been bubbling
01:12about this for weeks.
01:13Well, the thing is, if you're into wildlife, this is probably the most exciting place in
01:17the world to come because most of the animals and plants here are found nowhere else.
01:22If you come here for the first time, virtually everything you're seeing is new.
01:29Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean, 285 miles off the coast of Mozambique.
01:37We've come in search of the aye-aye, a peculiar nocturnal lemur said to be so strikingly unattractive
01:44that it chills the heart of all who see it.
01:48Twenty years ago, Mark encountered the fearsome aye-aye on the little island of Nosy Mangabey,
01:54which is where he's decided we should begin our adventure.
01:58Nosy Mangabey.
01:59Oh, this is amazing.
02:00I never thought I'd come back.
02:01Let's see if we can leap off.
02:02Well, you say leap, you know what happens with me and boats.
02:09I know.
02:10Just be careful.
02:11Whoa.
02:12Hang on.
02:13Oops.
02:14Wait for the sea.
02:15Oh, my God.
02:17Okay.
02:18But for me, at least, encountering the unique wildlife won't be the only novel experience
02:27on Nosy Mangabey.
02:29Mark has arranged that we shall be camping.
02:31No, I don't.
02:32I haven't camped since I was 16.
02:34One night.
02:35You're joking.
02:36Chagford, Devon.
02:37Are you serious?
02:38I'm supposed to be four nights.
02:39First night camping.
02:40Hated it so much.
02:41Spent all my pocket money in the Ring of Bells pub.
02:44You are kidding me.
02:46You surely camped since 16?
02:47No.
02:48Only in the homosexual sense.
02:49Oh.
02:50I know.
02:51Oh, hell.
02:52Well, I wish I'd ordered two tents now.
02:53I'm going to go and sort that out.
02:54I know.
02:55In every way.
02:56The island of Nosy Mangabey is an idyllic tropical paradise and just the sort of place
03:06any self-respecting exotic species might choose to set up home.
03:11But Mark is keen we waste no time looking at the scenery.
03:14Oh, well.
03:17Look at this, Stephen.
03:20Look at this.
03:21This is a leaf-tailed gecko and look at its tail.
03:25Oh, my God.
03:26It's just like an old mouldy leaf.
03:27Oh.
03:28Flipped it.
03:29Oh.
03:30It's OK.
03:31But it is probably the most extraordinary example of camouflage you'll ever see.
03:36And it's even got this sort of ragged edge so that it breaks up the outline a little
03:40bit.
03:41Yes.
03:42And it's got these little stripes all over it that just match the tree trunk.
03:49This one's a panther chameleon.
03:52Even before our search for wildlife has properly begun, it seems to be finding us at every
03:57turn.
03:58They're wonderful creatures, aren't they?
04:01Fantastic.
04:02Do their eyes kind of go 360 degrees?
04:03They seem to go in any direction.
04:05They swivel up and down.
04:06They do.
04:07They're independent as well.
04:08They can do two things.
04:09So they can either look at and focus on two things at once, or they can put them both
04:13in front and then get binocular vision like Leo.
04:16That's to hone in exactly on an insect with their tongue, is it?
04:19Yes.
04:20For Mark, this island is also special for another reason.
04:23It was right here, way back in 1985, that the idea for Last Chance to See began.
04:29Now, as a matter of fact, Mark, I've gone through a great deal of trouble on this long,
04:35long journey for bringing this with me.
04:37Wow.
04:39What's this?
04:40See if this means anything to you.
04:41Oh, my goodness.
04:42Do you know what it is?
04:43I recognise it.
04:46Douglas Adams pursues one of the world's rarest animals.
04:49I haven't seen this for years and years and years.
04:52This was your first, was it?
04:54Yeah.
04:55What happened was Douglas and I came here to Nozomangubee, landed on this very beach
04:59in 1985 to look for the aye-aye.
05:03And the idea was Douglas was going to write an article for The Observer.
05:06Yeah.
05:07And the whole point was, because he had never had any involvement in wildlife or conservation,
05:11he'd look at it from a different point of view and hopefully add a whole new dimension
05:15to the story.
05:16Yeah.
05:17And we spent a few nights here, and I remember we sat on a rock or on the edge of a hut we
05:22were staying in on the last day and talking about how much we'd enjoyed the whole experience
05:28and so on.
05:29And I remember Douglas said, well, why don't we do more?
05:31And we did.
05:32It took us three years to get our act together.
05:34But that's how...
05:35We started travelling and, you know, looking for more endangered species.
05:39So where we are now is where it all began.
05:41I've lost my copy.
05:42That's great.
05:43Let's see it.
05:45Ah.
05:46Here we are.
05:47And we had the most amazing experience.
05:49Douglas and I went out with our torches 50 yards from the hut.
05:53We saw an aye-aye.
05:54Oh, my God.
05:55And we got an alan.
05:56And that's the picture?
05:57The photographer got this picture.
05:58We were running back.
05:59It was only like five seconds.
06:01And it was the first time one had been seen in the wild for years and years.
06:05Mark has long harboured an ambition to get his own photograph of an aye-aye in the wild.
06:11He's determined not to leave Madagascar without it.
06:18We're going to hunt in the exact spot where Mark found his aye-aye.
06:23So long as it hasn't moved in the intervening 20 years,
06:27our encounter is virtually guaranteed.
06:45It gets dark very quickly.
06:47It really does, suddenly.
06:50Is there something moving up there?
06:52You'd probably see, first thing you'd see would be the eyes.
06:54They're luminous eyes.
06:55They reflect the light?
06:56Yeah, exactly.
06:59It's alive, this jungle, though, isn't it?
07:01Oh, it's fantastic.
07:02Unbelievable.
07:04Bloody hell, what's that?
07:06Oh, it's a snake.
07:08Oh, yes, yes.
07:09It's very hard to identify as a snake.
07:11It's now coiled up.
07:12It's head's pointing directly at the light.
07:14How did he spot it?
07:15Because it was moving.
07:16Steve.
07:17Look what I've found.
07:18I've found the most amazing thing.
07:20Look.
07:22That is the smallest chameleon in the world.
07:25Pygmy chameleon.
07:26Oh, my God.
07:28And that's an adult.
07:30You're joking.
07:31I mean, everything about him is perfect.
07:33You can see.
07:34Look at the tail.
07:35That is fantastic.
07:37You can see there.
07:38You take that end again.
07:40There you go.
07:41There you go.
07:42There you go.
07:43You take that end again.
07:45There you go.
07:46There you go.
07:47Look at that.
07:48And his face is found.
07:49Look at this.
07:50Slightly, slightly annoyed.
07:52It looks so delicate.
07:53So delicate.
07:54I'm fighting to hurt it.
07:56Isn't that just fantastic?
07:58It's a finger wide.
08:00And you're telling me that is a full-grown adult?
08:03That is the smallest chameleon in the world.
08:06It just shows what's here.
08:07I mean, goodness knows what we're missing
08:09walking through the forest like this.
08:12We've been hunting now for a couple of hours
08:15and the one thing we do know we are missing
08:17is an aye-aye.
08:20Unlike bugs, every one of which we encounter.
08:24What are these things?
08:25What are they?
08:26Keep calm.
08:27Oh, you weren't.
08:28I should see you when it flew on you.
08:31You're a naturalist.
08:33You scream like a pansy.
08:37The thing is, not that many years ago,
08:39there were some trees that the aye-ayes really liked.
08:41Their favourite trees.
08:42But they got blown down in a cyclone.
08:44So the trouble is now,
08:45nobody really knows where they're going.
08:47It's a bit more hit and miss.
08:48And I think we'd be really lucky to find them.
08:51Still, we have seen something quite extraordinary.
08:53A piglet chameleon.
08:54I never would have thought we'd see that.
08:56It's just heaving with wildlife, this place.
09:11One more thing.
09:13Yeah.
09:23Oh, God, I hate camping.
09:26I hate it.
09:27It's so uncomfortable, so unnatural.
09:29I miss all the things I rely on at home.
09:32I miss my computer.
09:33I miss my wife.
09:35I miss the internet.
09:36Hang on.
09:37I'm not married.
09:38Oh, no, that's right.
09:39I miss my wife.
09:41I miss the internet.
09:43Wi-Fi.
09:44Oh, Wi-Fi.
09:45If only out here.
09:47Wi-Fi.
09:48Wi-Fi.
09:51Well, Stephen went to bed a few hours ago,
09:53but I just want to make the most of being on this amazing place.
09:57If you had to be cast away on a desert island,
10:00this would be the one to choose.
10:01It's absolutely heaving with wildlife.
10:03Thick forest.
10:04It's like a microcosm of how Madagascar used to be.
10:07I could stay here for months, actually.
10:09There's so much to explore and so much to see.
10:11It's absolutely brilliant.
10:19What?
10:20Oh, my God.
10:23Well, I slept in patches and snatches.
10:26I slept the sea to one side of me
10:29and the noisiest jungle in the world to the other.
10:33I suppose I can't complain,
10:35but I'd rather have had a bed
10:38to be perfectly honest.
11:04Having failed to make an early encounter
11:07with the world's ugliest lemur,
11:09Mark is not downhearted.
11:11While he rethinks our strategy,
11:13Mark has decided that what I need
11:15is a fully immersive crash course on lemurs.
11:19He's taking us 300 miles
11:21to the far south of Madagascar.
11:24I'm shocked by the stark contrast
11:26between this landscape
11:28and the lush island we've left behind.
11:37Wow.
11:40Well, let's have a look.
11:47Here we are.
11:48It's huge, isn't it?
11:50I know, it's phenomenal.
11:51That was Nosy Manga Bay is up here, isn't it?
11:53That's right.
11:54We've come all this distance down the east coast
11:56down to here.
11:57I don't know.
11:58One of the things I've noticed
11:59as we've been travelling
12:00is how little forest there is.
12:02I know.
12:03It's a bit like a jungle.
12:05It's frightening what's happening.
12:07You look all the way down here,
12:09it's just bare.
12:10Yeah.
12:11And this whole island pretty much
12:13is covered in forest.
12:14Four-fifths of it gone already.
12:16Terrible.
12:17Four-fifths.
12:18And what's frightening
12:19is I can see the difference
12:20from when I was here with Douglas Adams
12:2220-odd years ago.
12:23We can actually see that there's less forest
12:25and that's just in that short space of time.
12:27So it's only a matter of a few years
12:29before it all goes.
12:30And not only the forest,
12:31it means everything else.
12:34Not only the forest,
12:35it means the people will find it hard to survive
12:37and of course all the wildlife goes as well.
12:39Yeah.
12:54We've come to Berenty,
12:56a preserved island of forest
12:58in the sprawling desert.
13:04I'm assured
13:05that if you want an introduction to lemurs
13:07there is nowhere better
13:09owing to a 20-year study programme
13:11responsible for much of our understanding of lemurs.
13:16Josiah Razafindramanana
13:18and Raymond Tsaramanana
13:20are the latest researchers
13:21to contribute to the programme.
13:23We are doing a survey
13:25of the brown lemurs population.
13:27In 1977,
13:29eight brown lemurs being kept in cages
13:31escaped during a cyclone
13:33into this isolated forest.
13:3530 years later,
13:36the brown lemurs number many hundreds
13:38and are suspected of out-competing
13:40the native ring-tailed lemurs.
13:42To discover exactly how many brown lemurs there are,
13:45Josiah is undertaking a survey.
13:48First,
13:49attract your lemur with a banana.
13:51Oh, they're right up.
13:53Look at that row of them up there.
13:55Six or seven.
13:57Can't believe they'll spot it.
13:59Lemurs?
14:01Banana?
14:03Ready?
14:06Look out.
14:09Oh, they did see it.
14:10They're looking.
14:11Banana.
14:13I'll do it again.
14:14Ready?
14:15Yep, they're all concentrating.
14:17Yeah, there is one female looking at you.
14:19It's going to fall on the cameraman.
14:23There.
14:25Is it working?
14:33OK.
14:34They're getting interested.
14:37OK.
14:38They definitely know there's banana.
14:40Oh, look.
14:41So just gradually ease them in.
14:44Next,
14:45each surveyed lemur
14:46must be expertly marked
14:48with a harmless purple dye.
14:50And as the dye must be shot from a syringe,
14:52this is the part that requires
14:54someone with extreme skill and precision.
14:57Yep.
14:58Oh, excellent.
15:00Are you ready, Stephen?
15:02Just throw it and handle it.
15:10Yes, yes, yes.
15:11Ready?
15:13Mind it.
15:15Wait, wait, wait.
15:16Oh!
15:21Overshot.
15:24Let me tell you when you have to...
15:27OK, now you can't miss.
15:29It's from three feet away, this is going to be...
15:32Give a banana.
15:33Oh, no.
15:34Nerves.
15:35Nerves are getting the better of me.
15:39Come on, it's all right.
15:42Wow.
15:43Yeah.
15:44Oh, the tail.
15:45That is a really busy boy.
15:47Wow.
15:48Yes, well done.
15:49Great.
15:53The pressure, I can't tell you,
15:54was enormous.
15:55I thought I was going to miss every one.
15:56Never has a brown lemur
15:57been so professionally marked.
16:00You've just been kind enough.
16:08The following morning,
16:09Mark's ready to get to work on my lemur learning.
16:13Though there have been no reported sightings
16:15of aye-ayes in Perenti,
16:17the ongoing research has ensured a healthy population
16:20of various different species of lemur
16:22more than happy to be pointed at and talked about.
16:27It's a dancing shifak.
16:30Look at that.
16:32Funny animal.
16:35Like the elusive aye-aye,
16:36the dancing shifak are one of almost 100 species of lemur.
16:43Oh, wow.
16:44Oh, my lord.
16:46That's fantastic.
16:48That's extraordinary.
16:51That's fantastic.
16:52What a sight.
16:58That's brilliant.
16:59That is brilliant.
17:00Absolutely brilliant. I love it.
17:02There's nothing else quite like it, is there?
17:04It's extraordinary.
17:07Starting with the basics,
17:08Mark is keen to establish that all species of lemur
17:11live here and only here on Madagascar.
17:15And while distantly related,
17:17they are not, under any circumstances, monkeys.
17:21But they are primates.
17:22These are...
17:23Well, it's complicated,
17:24but a primate is surely what we are, isn't it?
17:26Yeah, they're primates like us.
17:27What happened was when Madagascar split away from Africa,
17:30from Gondwanaland, the big supercontinent,
17:33which was about 160 million years ago,
17:36there were no primates here at all.
17:38And what they reckon happened is the ancestors of these guys
17:42rafted out across the Mozambique Channel.
17:44You know you get these floating mats of vegetation sometimes.
17:47Well, the theory is that there were some of the ancestors,
17:50early primates, that got on one of these rafts
17:53and made it to Madagascar
17:55amazingly.
17:56And then, of course, because Madagascar is cut off,
17:59they have evolved separately.
18:01So they've evolved into lemurs here.
18:03Right.
18:04Whereas on the mainland of Africa,
18:06they evolved into monkeys and apes and so on.
18:08And into humans.
18:09And into humans, of course, yeah.
18:11So they're all primates,
18:12but they've evolved separately over all those millions of years.
18:15I see.
18:18Because the other thing that makes lemurs so interesting
18:21is that they...
18:22It's female dominance.
18:23It's very unusual in the mammal world
18:26where not just do you have female leaders,
18:28but the females are boss.
18:30How interesting.
18:32And it's actually the females that defend the territory as well.
18:35They have a hilarious way of doing it.
18:37When they meet other groups in the ring-tailed lemurs...
18:41See that one just leap up on the tree?
18:43Oh, yeah.
18:44They outstare one another.
18:48I had an ex-girlfriend who did that.
18:50It's really frightening.
18:54Look.
18:57There's a lot in that tree.
18:59Yeah.
19:04Deep in the heart of Berenty,
19:06it's hard to imagine that this idyllic lemur playground
19:09is just a small island of forest
19:12in an almost completely barren landscape.
19:24The trees that once covered these surrounding plains
19:27have now been cut down to be replaced by this commercial crop,
19:32sisal.
19:33And here's a thing.
19:34The reason sisal has replaced trees
19:36is because as we in the West have become concerned
19:39about the environment,
19:40we demand that packaging is recyclable.
19:43And one of the best materials to make recyclable packaging out of
19:48is sisal.
19:53For any conservation work to be successful,
19:55it's necessary first to understand the people
19:58whose lives it would impact upon.
20:00Mark has arranged a visit to a local village
20:03that promises to be truly eye-opening.
20:06I'm told this is to be the first time
20:08a film crew has ever been allowed into the village.
20:12HE GASPS
20:21We've arrived in the middle of a traditional healing ceremony.
20:25This is a country, I'm learning,
20:27in which tradition is very much a part of modern life.
20:36The lady in the middle has been possessed by a spirit.
20:39Oh, I see.
20:42In Malgash culture, nature is central to life.
20:46Nature is responsible for protecting, sustaining and healing.
20:53She looks all right. She looks like she's doing quite well.
20:56Maybe it's working.
20:58For longer than anyone can remember,
21:00it's been said that nature is an endless resource.
21:05The forests and the wildlife are there to be exploited
21:08and will always be replenished.
21:15I wonder what they're doing with the goats.
21:17Do you think there may be bloodletting?
21:19I hope not.
21:21I can't help feeling sorry for them.
21:32It seems like they're all a false alarm.
21:34They're not going to slaughter the goats or sacrifice the goats at all.
21:37They're just honouring them.
21:39They're just lying there in the centre of the arena.
21:41There has been some talk about sacrificing the vaza,
21:44the white man, the European, apparently.
21:46There's a strong chance there may be some throat-cutting yet,
21:50so stay tuned.
21:52Tallest first.
21:55This is not a people-wheeling-out tradition on high days and holy days.
21:59It runs through every aspect of life.
22:02One of the key things in Madagascar is what they call fadi,
22:05which is a kind of taboo.
22:07It's almost like it is dangerous to do something in a certain way
22:11or see something in a certain way.
22:13So, for example, some of them sound ridiculous to us,
22:17like it's actually bad luck to hand an egg to somebody directly.
22:21You have to place it on the ground and they pick the egg up.
22:25Others are a little bit more logical in a way.
22:28One is that if you're digging a grave,
22:31the handle on the spade has to be loose,
22:33otherwise you have too strong a connection with the dead.
22:36But what does all this have to do with our aye-aye adventure?
22:40I confess I fear the worst.
22:42Aye-ayes, generally speaking, are bad luck.
22:45If you see an aye-aye and it points at you with its middle finger,
22:50then it means you're going to die.
22:52And it's so extreme.
22:54They're animals of ill omen, essentially.
22:56Exactly, and they get killed as a result.
22:58They kill the aye-aye.
23:00And the feeling's so strong.
23:02I mean, there's one story of an aye-aye that walked into a village
23:06and the villagers saw it
23:08and they actually moved the entire village as a result,
23:11so it didn't bring bad luck.
23:13And this persisted right into the 21st century?
23:16Yeah, it still exists all over Madagascar.
23:24Leaving the village, I can't help feeling that,
23:27raised between the twin threats of modern farming and traditional superstition,
23:31the aye-aye's chances of long-term survival are slight.
23:39OK, I'm going to have a little bit of a moan
23:42because we're all tired and ill.
23:44We've travelled thousands of miles and we've all had stomach upsets.
23:48The cameraman's been on the loo non-stop for the last three days.
23:52We're all getting a bit tired and grumpy.
23:54I mean, my God, look at the bags under my eyes.
23:56I don't know where on earth they've come from.
23:58This shirt's about four days old and it's not nice.
24:03But anyway, mustn't grumble.
24:08With the whole team thoroughly dosed up against the worst Madagascar can throw at us,
24:13we elect for a day off in the capital city of Antananarivo.
24:18The only problem is that between us and the city
24:21lie some of the worst roads in Madagascar.
24:24With stomachs churning and buttocks clenched,
24:27never have aye-aye hunters more wished that a journey might be smooth...
24:35..and unhindered.
24:55MUSIC
25:15Antananarivo has a scattering of cafes, restaurants and hotels
25:20with internet connection.
25:22Antananarivo weighs the perfect place for a rest day in a hectic schedule.
25:27Mark, however, has his own idea of what constitutes a rest day.
25:33With his heart set on the closest of aye-aye encounters,
25:36Mark has had an idea of how we might while away an hour or five.
25:41Here, the city zoo is one of the few places in the world
25:45to keep the mysterious nocturnal aye-ayes captive.
25:49Last time I went into a cage with an aye-aye, there was a baby
25:52and it was spinning like a top and urinating.
25:55Spray urinating, just to warn you.
25:57Oh, thanks.
25:59Here we are. Merci.
26:01Oh, my goodness. Can you see them?
26:03Oh, there's one. I can hear them. Oh, yes.
26:10Let's just shut the door.
26:12That would be a disaster, wouldn't it?
26:15Oh, Lord, they're extraordinary.
26:17It's like sort of...
26:19Are these very old or do they naturally have those grey hairs in their coat?
26:22They're natural and they're very shaggy coats.
26:24They all look unkempt, don't they?
26:26There's nothing else like them. Completely peculiar.
26:29I must confess, the aye-aye is not an animal
26:32I was ever going to fall in love with at first sight
26:35and it's not hard to see how it gained its fearsome reputation.
26:40BEEPING
26:44I saw his reflection.
26:46He sniffed the camera and tapped the camera lens with his twinkie finger.
26:51Just checking it out.
26:55Sniffing, sniffing.
26:57It's so inquisitive, it's lovely.
27:06That's amazing.
27:08Look at this.
27:10Hello. Gosh.
27:12You're inquisitive, aren't you?
27:17Aren't you?
27:19My goodness. That was brilliant.
27:21I know. I mean, look so much.
27:23They're scary. There's something charming about them.
27:27You can just see the finger there.
27:29Can you see that long, long finger? Oh, yes, yes, yes.
27:32It is just like a twig, isn't it?
27:34It's unbelievable. And what's it for?
27:36It's for feeding.
27:38What the aye-aye is doing in Madagascar
27:40is basically filling the niche of a woodpecker, believe it or not.
27:43There are no woodpeckers here at all.
27:45So what it does, it goes along the branches like this
27:48and it taps with its middle finger
27:51anywhere along a branch or a tree trunk where it might be hollow
27:55and listens with that amazing ear.
27:57What they're listening for is hollow bits in the wood
28:00and grubs moving around.
28:02Escaping or rushing around.
28:05Oh, how brilliant.
28:07And then when they hear something moving,
28:09they use those amazing incisors and gnaw away a hole,
28:12just like a woodpecker tapping.
28:14And then, like a surgeon's instrument,
28:16it inserts the middle finger and pulls out the grub and eats it.
28:25It uses that finger for everything.
28:28It really does.
28:30This may not be Mark's wildest encounter,
28:32but it will have to do for now.
28:35That is brilliant.
28:37One extraordinary animal.
28:39They're little characters.
28:43Come on.
28:45Eggs, where are you?
28:47Look, look, look.
28:49That's an egg. Look.
28:51Look, there's an egg.
28:53Get your egg. Oh, it didn't want it.
28:55They're not so keen on the eggs.
28:57It's an egg.
28:59Well, if you're not going to have your breakfast egg,
29:01you've got to eat eggs.
29:05I just dropped on the egg.
29:07Oh, no.
29:09How embarrassing. I'm so sorry.
29:11I just dropped on the egg.
29:13Stephen. Oh, dear.
29:15It didn't want it anyway.
29:17Where's that honey?
29:21Look.
29:23Oh, yes, look.
29:25Look.
29:27You want it in his neck?
29:29Smell it.
29:31He's licking your finger.
29:33Oh, my God.
29:35That's fantastic.
29:37What an honour.
29:39Oh, wow.
29:41That's made my week.
29:43That is absolutely marvellous.
29:45Ay, ay, ay.
29:47But I didn't mean that.
29:49The strange thing is,
29:51after a couple of hours with this grotesque
29:53and, frankly, smelly creature,
29:55we're both utterly entranced
29:57and completely under its spell.
30:03I've never seen anything like you.
30:05You're very mysterious.
30:07And lovely.
30:09And kind of lovely in the end.
30:11There's a French expression, jolie lettre.
30:13Jolie means pretty and lettre means ugly,
30:15but it means unusual looking in such a way
30:17that it's actually attractive.
30:19It sums it up quite well. I think they're fantastic.
30:21But how do you change attitudes
30:23towards aye-ayes
30:25to people who can't spend an afternoon
30:27getting up close and personal
30:29in the city zoo?
30:35We're heading to one project
30:37that's trying to reshape
30:39deeply entrenched attitudes
30:41to an entire forest.
30:45We're on the road west,
30:47heading to Kirindi,
30:49one of the most threatened islands of forest
30:51in Madagascar.
30:55All around us on the journey,
30:57the landscape is littered
30:59with strange and wonderful peculiarities,
31:01but perhaps the strangest
31:03and most wonderful,
31:05ten miles from the nearest town,
31:07is an orange fridge.
31:09Fridge.
31:11Bonsoir.
31:13Oh.
31:15It's not bad, is it?
31:17Classico.
31:19Perfecto.
31:21Merci beaucoup.
31:23Merci à vous.
31:25A votre santé.
31:29This is an entrepreneurial response
31:31to one of Madagascar's most famous sites,
31:33known locally as Beobab Alley.
31:37If Beobab trees are your thing,
31:39this is where you need to come.
31:41They almost look upside down or something.
31:43There's something so bad.
31:45There's a great story that God
31:47gave each animal one tree to plant,
31:49and the hyena got the Beobab,
31:51and planted it upside down.
31:53Oh, there you are, you see.
31:55They look like giant Chianti bottles to me,
31:57with bad hair days.
31:59Yes.
32:03They're very spooky, aren't they?
32:05These lone fingers poking up
32:07in this sort of plateau of weirdness.
32:09It's just so odd.
32:11I know, but the thing is, of course,
32:13this whole area was clothed
32:15in native dry deciduous forests,
32:17and all the other trees have gone,
32:19and all that's left of that
32:21are these few Beobabs.
32:23Because a Beobab wood isn't very good for building,
32:25and it doesn't burn very well,
32:27so it's not very good for firewood,
32:29so people just leave the Beobabs alone,
32:31and they've taken the rest,
32:33and this whole region was covered
32:35in the kind of forest we're heading for now.
32:37That's why they look so lonely and strange.
32:39They do.
32:41Beobabs.
32:43Not so much the proud sentinels
32:45of a barren landscape
32:47as the beavers of a mighty forest.
32:49It's evidence that this was,
32:51within the life of these few trees,
32:53a mighty jungle
32:55and home to a cacophony of wildlife.
33:13A little way down the road
33:15is the encounter of what's known as
33:17slash-and-burn agriculture.
33:19The burning of trees returns nutrients
33:21to the ground,
33:23and for a single year following,
33:25this dust can be farmed
33:27before it's abandoned
33:29and the farmer moves on.
33:31It's a devastating fight for survival
33:33scratched out by some of the poorest farmers
33:35in the world.
33:45At the research station in Kerindi,
33:47we've hardly had time to get our bearings
33:49before we're whisked off to a cabin
33:51where Melanie Damhan,
33:53one of Kerindi's research scientists,
33:55has a surprise to show us.
33:57You promised a surprise.
33:59Oh, is it an insect?
34:01No, it's mostly an insect.
34:03What is it? It's a little box.
34:05It's trapped in a little box.
34:07Oh, my God, it's fantastic.
34:09Oh, yeah.
34:11This is another of almost 100 species of lemurs.
34:13This one is unique
34:15to the isolated forest of Kerindi.
34:19Oh, she doesn't like the light.
34:21We didn't even know this existed.
34:23Really? This is a recent discovery.
34:25Yeah, they thought it was babies of the other species.
34:27So what's it called again?
34:29It's called Madame Bert.
34:31Madame Bert's mouse lemur.
34:33It's called after a Malagasy primatologist.
34:35So this is a lemur. In other words,
34:37this is a primate.
34:39This is the same order as gorillas and human beings.
34:41It's the smallest primate in the world.
34:43It must be.
34:45It's actually small for a mouse.
34:47So this alone is a good reason
34:49for protecting this forest.
34:51It needs primary forests.
34:53It's only found in Kerindi.
34:55It's a very special animal.
34:57It'd be worth protecting it just for these.
34:59Melanie's research involves
35:01catching the little-known mouse lemurs
35:03for study before releasing them
35:05as quickly as possible.
35:07So we're going to release it
35:09in the original place that you found it now, are we?
35:11Yeah. Let's bring it home.
35:13Is that nearby? It's nearby.
35:15Let's do that. Let's bring it home.
35:17Oh, there it goes.
35:19Time to come out.
35:23Yeah, little faces.
35:25Oh, it's just appearing.
35:27It's just divine.
35:29Hello.
35:31It checks everything else in slow motion.
35:33It's perfect little hands and eyes.
35:35Oh, my darling.
35:37Oh, my darling.
35:41It's so nervous.
35:43Not surprised.
35:45Hello.
35:49Here it goes. Here it goes.
35:51That's sick.
35:53Up the tree.
35:55And then go for it.
35:57I'm sorry, but this is one of the most
35:59beautiful animals I've ever seen.
36:01I'm glad you know that.
36:03I really do. It's so, so beautiful.
36:05Kerindi
36:07is now just 3%
36:09of its original size, and Madam
36:11Bert's mouse lemur is just one of the
36:13many species that live only in
36:15this island of isolated
36:17and shrinking forest.
36:19This feels all too horribly like
36:21it could be a last chance
36:23to see. But there is a chance
36:25for the mouse lemur and the other species
36:27of Kerindi.
36:29The following
36:31morning, we're on our way to
36:33Sitakabasya.
36:39This is one of 10 villages dotted
36:41through the forest, and literally
36:43translates as far from the stars.
36:47Sitakabasya
36:49is one of the poorest communities in
36:51Madagascar, but the future of the
36:53forest rests with these people.
36:55We're being
36:57brought by Richard Lewis of the
36:59Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust,
37:01a man who is bringing very new ideas
37:03to a very old way of life.
37:09Richard is working with the people of the forest
37:11to establish an extraordinary
37:13competition.
37:15Each forest village has been given
37:17a section of forest to conserve.
37:19After one year, a
37:21survey takes place, and the village
37:23that's best conserved its piece of forest
37:25wins a significant prize.
37:27Today is the day
37:29of reckoning.
37:39So what exactly are we doing here, Richard?
37:41We look at all of the threats,
37:43for example, if we find tree stumps,
37:45freshly cut tree stumps,
37:47if we find fires, and then the positive side,
37:49the biodiversity, if we're looking
37:51for birds, for lemurs.
37:53When you say we, you mean the villagers?
37:55Yeah, it's a dual team.
37:58The team walk a transect,
38:00a straight line chosen at random,
38:02marking down all the positive
38:04and negative points they encounter along the way.
38:06Not an exhaustive
38:08survey, but a good indication
38:10of the health of the forest.
38:12You can't say there are this many animals
38:14in the forest, but you can say
38:16there are more animals in this forest than there are
38:18in another forest, and there are more
38:20animals this year than we saw last year.
38:22That's important, because you're doing it every year,
38:24at the same time every year.
38:26Biotechnology was always considered a hard
38:28scientific discipline for scientists.
38:30You had to have a bank of PhDs to do it.
38:32And we thought, well, you know,
38:34it's not rocket science, counting birds in the forest.
38:38It's our old friend, the shepherd.
38:40I know, it's lovely, isn't it?
38:42It was very well spotted.
38:44Well, that's great.
38:46It's a good sight, isn't it?
38:48Isn't it amazing they saw it?
38:50I think we'd have walked straight past.
38:52A lot of these fruits,
38:54what are they? I don't know if that's relevant to a transect.
38:56These are baobab fruits, so
38:58it must be a baobab tree.
39:00We looked in the Baobab Valley and there weren't any
39:02fruits or flowers.
39:04And these are one of the species of tree
39:06that we actually record on the transects,
39:08because they're important for biodiversity.
39:10It remains to be seen if the people
39:12of Tsitakabasya will win the competition,
39:14but it's immediately clear
39:16that the burning of trees in this part
39:18of Kirindi has ended.
39:24We're travelling east to an isolated
39:26piece of rainforest and a naturalist's
39:28dream.
39:30Mark has been making calls
39:32to anyone who may be able to lead him to an aye-aye
39:34and has heard that there have been
39:36recent sightings close to Andasebe.
39:50What was that?
39:52Did you hear something?
39:54That was black-and-white ruffed lemurs,
39:56a different kind of lemur, which really is
39:58a black-and-white amazing animal.
40:00They come out in the day, so they're sort of settling down
40:02for the night.
40:04A change of shift when the aye-aye comes out.
40:06They're mucking around in the dormitory.
40:08But with Mr Carwardine
40:10in charge, there'll be no
40:12dormitory for me.
40:16Let's be honest, aye-ayes
40:18don't make life easy for aye-aye
40:20hunters. Not only are they
40:22endangered, but they only appear in
40:24darkness and then prefer
40:26to stay in the tops of trees.
40:28And there's another thing. Mark has
40:30revealed that they also have the widest
40:32range of any lemur, each
40:34individual roaming up to 500
40:36acres of dense forest.
40:38So, just another 499
40:40and three-quarter acres
40:42for us to search, then.
40:44Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
40:46My torch is going.
40:51With another total fiasco
40:53under our belts, a new day
40:55beckons.
40:57Yeah. Yeah, this is what woke me up
40:59this morning. Amazing.
41:01Mark has arranged for us to meet with
41:03Dr Reiner Dolch and his guide
41:05Joseph. I don't know what it
41:07was about Joseph, but something
41:09told me we weren't the first team from
41:11the BBC that he had led
41:13into this forest.
41:17This is such a gorgeous
41:19forest, isn't it? It's lovely.
41:21Absolutely lovely. It's just dripping with life
41:23and water, but life.
41:25Look at all the moss and
41:27epiphytes that you have. I know, it's
41:29stunning. It's paradise
41:31wood, really.
41:33Reiner is fighting to protect
41:35every inch of this ancient fragment
41:37of forest, not just for the wide-ranging
41:39aye-ayes, but also for another
41:41lemur that needs a lot of space,
41:43the biggest lemur of all,
41:45the mighty Indri.
41:49I'm terrified of putting my hand on
41:51anything, because I've been warned there are leeches
41:53in this forest, and they hang under
41:55leaves and leaves and things
41:57like that, and they drop down on your neck.
41:59Yeah, they'll be up your trousers.
42:01That's the thing to worry about. Up your trousers?
42:03Yeah. Lord, are you wearing pants?
42:05Oh, dear.
42:07The Indri is not just the biggest
42:09lemur, but I'm told it's also the
42:11loudest. Mark has instructed
42:13me to listen out for a cry
42:15not unlike whale song.
42:19That's it, isn't it fantastic?
42:35Isn't it the most
42:37extraordinary sound? You're so right about
42:39whale song, it is very like it.
42:41It really is. It's so eerie, otherworldly.
42:43So what it is, is it's
42:45a male and a female
42:47calling that we're hearing now, and probably
42:49I think there's another one, a youngster as well, so it is
42:51literally like a family sing song.
42:53And there's some others calling
42:55off in the distance, harder to hear.
42:57But they're all listening, so they can
42:59tell where all the different groups are.
43:01And it's a lot easier than going off and
43:03scent marking the edge of the territory. It uses much
43:05less energy. Yeah, why whittle when you can
43:07yodel? Yeah, they're pretty close, I think.
43:09We should see if we can get right up to them.
43:17Just look for any sign of
43:19movement as they leap.
43:21And they're sort of black and white?
43:23Yeah, they look a bit like
43:25pandas gone wrong.
43:27They have been fantastic.
43:29That's a Channel 5 documentary,
43:31when pandas go wrong.
43:33Where are you looking?
43:35Oh, look, look, look.
43:37Right on the tree there.
43:43My heavens.
43:45It really is a big lemur, isn't it?
43:47It's wonderful.
43:51Nice jump. Where'd it go?
43:53Just to the left. Oh, yeah.
43:55There's a great view of two.
43:57Oh, yes.
43:59Got one? Absolutely.
44:01Look at that.
44:13That's amazing, isn't it?
44:15I can't believe I thought a fire alarm had gone off.
44:17I know, I mean, you know the sound has to be loud
44:19to travel across the forest.
44:21It's incredible.
44:31We've been so lucky because...
44:33Wow, God, that's sharp.
44:35That's serrated it is, isn't it?
44:37We've been so lucky to see such a range of lemurs.
44:39We've got such an insight
44:41into what variety there is here,
44:43from that tiny mouse lemur
44:45to these huge animals.
44:47Of course, am I right in thinking that
44:49when man first came to Madagascar
44:51there were also really giant lemurs,
44:53bigger than mountain gorillas,
44:55really huge ones?
44:57Yeah, there was an amazing selection.
44:59Some of those have become extinct already
45:01since people arrived.
45:03But, you know, when Douglas and I came,
45:05I remember there were 21 species of lemur known,
45:07and now there's more than 80.
45:09And there's probably more still to be discovered.
45:11But that's not because the animals are doing well
45:13and there are more of them.
45:15It's just because there's more work being done,
45:17they're discovering more.
45:19And, you know, what's scary is they're being discovered,
45:21new species, and they're immediately going
45:23on the endangered list, you know, that's the problem.
45:25Yeah, yeah.
45:27I've been to countries with two Sarah and I.
45:29I mean, at the time of Shakespeare, you know,
45:31there were more bear pits than there were theatres
45:33where they were tormenting and torturing bears.
45:35You know, we British have been just as stupid
45:37and cruel with our animals,
45:39and we've just as, you know,
45:41made just as much a mess of our woodlands.
45:43Well, yeah, and he made all the same mistakes before.
45:45Yeah.
45:57Yeah.
46:11Somewhere out there, there are aye-ayes.
46:15And we're still keen to see them.
46:17But in countering the injury,
46:19one can't help but be aware that such big
46:21and wide-ranging creatures
46:23won't thrive isolated from others
46:25in islands of forest
46:27hemmed in by paddy fields and farmland.
46:33But Reiner Doch has a solution.
46:37Reiner's vision is vast.
46:39He is leading a scheme
46:41to establish nurseries
46:43that will literally re-see the rainforest.
46:47So your solution, if I've got it right,
46:49is to grow, to plant corridors
46:51of living rainforest or living habitat
46:53through which they can pass
46:55from one island to another.
46:57The real challenge of this big project
46:59is to link forest patches
47:01via corridors that we restore.
47:03And so that's why in this area
47:05we are beginning to plant
47:07native trees that we produce
47:09in our nurseries.
47:11Can you really create a natural rainforest
47:13by planting like this?
47:15Well, this is a big question.
47:17Of course you cannot plant all the trees
47:19that occur in the natural forest,
47:21but you can do it back on its own.
47:23So you have these 120 species.
47:25And these are species that we have chosen
47:27because they are actually preferred
47:29by lemurs and other seed dispersers.
47:31How big is this actual corridor
47:33that we're seeing planted now?
47:35In this particular area
47:37we would have to restore about 3 million trees
47:39if you think that you're planting
47:411,000 trees per hectare.
47:43If they planted 3,000 trees a day,
47:45every single day of the year,
47:47that would be slightly over a million in one year.
47:49That gives you an idea of 3 million trees.
47:51And that's one corridor.
47:53This is a vast undertaking.
47:55And it's not just planting.
47:57So actually a restoration of natural forest
47:59is more than just digging holes
48:01and putting a tree in it.
48:03You're a youngish man, Reiner,
48:05but will you live to see these corridors
48:07as active places where animals can pass through?
48:09Well, I hope so.
48:11The whole project is designed for 30 years.
48:13So after 30 years we hope
48:15that these trees would have grown
48:17into something that is recognisable
48:19as a rainforest.
48:35We receive news from the forest of Kirindi
48:37where Durrell was running their competition.
48:39The results are in
48:41and the village has been victorious,
48:43winning about £1,000
48:45and choosing to spend its windfall
48:47on building a school,
48:49something the village has never had in the past.
48:51It has also made a commitment
48:53to put special emphasis
48:55on teaching about the forest environment.
48:57But for us,
48:59the real highlight of our time in Madagascar
49:01was always going to be an aye-aye encounter
49:03in the wild.
49:15Aye-aye!
49:35When Mark took a call from Louise Marie,
49:37a self-styled aye-aye tracker,
49:39claiming to know a tree
49:41where aye-ayes had been nesting very recently,
49:43we knew we were in with a chance.
50:13Do you know how many aye-ayes are on the island?
50:15There are four aye-ayes living here.
50:17Only four?
50:19Only four,
50:21but I hope that we are lucky tonight.
50:23We'll have to be lucky, my goodness.
50:25And they sleep in a tree during the day?
50:27Of course,
50:29in the trees, in the nests.
50:31They have a nest?
50:33Yeah.
50:35Oh, my goodness.
50:37They have a nest?
50:39Yeah.
50:41They have a nest, too.
50:43So do they have favourite trees
50:45that you know on the island?
50:47Because there are so many trees here,
50:49our chances of finding one of four aye-ayes
50:51is quite small.
50:53Even on a small island.
50:55Even on a small island, yeah.
50:57How will you do it?
50:59What's the trick?
51:01My favourite place of aye-aye is the coconuts.
51:03Oh, they like coconuts?
51:05Yeah, they like coconuts.
51:07Can they open them? Do they use their teeth?
51:09That's God's question.
51:13Interesting question.
51:15My first good question of the entire series.
51:17That's fantastic.
51:19Dizzied by the brilliance of my question,
51:21the answer is a blur
51:23of razor-sharp teeth
51:25and strength of jaw.
51:27I'm beginning to think Louise sees the aye-aye
51:29as more like a miniature cornered tiger
51:31than a benign lemur.
51:33It's very dangerous.
51:35Don't touch.
51:37I can see all the coconut shells here.
51:39Not from our eyes.
51:41Yeah, I'll show you later.
51:43I can show you later.
51:45Little chicks.
51:49So,
51:51from here, look up.
51:53That's what we have to do,
51:55is look up? Yeah.
51:57This kind of place you might see one.
51:59Oh, is that the nest up in there?
52:01Yeah, yeah.
52:03Dry leaves of a bunch
52:05of coconut.
52:07That's aye-aye nest.
52:09We found aye-aye,
52:11we caught aye-aye from this nest last night.
52:13Last night? So this is quite recent.
52:15Wow, that's good, isn't it?
52:17Did they stay in the same nest every night for a week
52:19or for a few days?
52:21No, they change every three days normally.
52:23Right.
52:29So, all we can do is wait for dark
52:31and hope the aye-aye hasn't moved on
52:33since last night.
52:55Oh, a snake.
52:57A snake on a stick.
53:03That's what you come up with to pass the time
53:05waiting for aye-ayes.
53:07Yeah.
53:11What about this
53:13sort of thing you get in the Jungle Book
53:15and various other...
53:17Is this your main source of information?
53:19As it should be.
53:21Literature is the only access to truth we have on this planet,
53:23Mark, you should know that.
53:25And there's this idea that snakes hypnotise their foe.
53:27Oh, yeah.
53:29Stand in front of it.
53:31But actually, they somehow cause them to freeze.
53:33No.
53:35Not at all?
53:37Not true, no.
53:43As the sun sinks below the horizon,
53:45all eyes are trained on a palm tree
53:47that may or may not contain an aye-aye.
53:51I'm starting to wonder
53:53if this is the closest we'll all ever come
53:55to a sighting
53:57and Mark's long-awaited photograph.
54:01Come on.
54:07Suddenly, Louise claims
54:09to see movement in the branches.
54:15I must confess, I didn't,
54:17but it seems rude not to make the effort.
54:21Then we see it.
54:25Not much of it, admittedly,
54:27but we see it, a real live aye-aye
54:29in the wild.
54:31Is it walking back over here?
54:33Yeah.
54:35Can you see it?
54:37Yeah, yeah, yeah.
54:39Be careful.
54:41Are you all right?
54:43Yeah.
54:45Well, very professionally done,
54:47is this it?
54:49There we are.
54:53Inside the branch.
54:55It's difficult to see from here.
54:57Can you see it?
54:59Yes.
55:01Look at that, right out in the open.
55:03Wow.
55:05One of the rarest and most unusual
55:07animals in the world.
55:09It's hanging upside down like a bat.
55:11They do that.
55:13When they come out from sleeping all day,
55:15they hang upside down and groom
55:17before it goes off and starts to feed.
55:19We've literally caught him just as he's woken up.
55:21We did it.
55:23I've seen one in the wild.
55:25I really didn't think we would.
55:27That's so fantastic.
55:29It's literally just come out of its nest.
55:31So this is the morning ritual, as it were.
55:33Yeah, just getting ready.
55:35As it wakes up.
55:37Shaving and showering and then it'll go off
55:39and feed.
55:41We might even see it eat a coconut
55:43or at least...
55:45Well, I hope so.
55:49I can't believe it.
55:51That is so lucky.
55:53One of the things we could never have hoped for.
55:55There are two.
55:57Oh, my.
55:59Look at that.
56:01That's half the population of this island.
56:03It's so lucky.
56:05Oh, my goodness.
56:07Look, it's actually tapping the coconut.
56:09See, it's got its middle finger.
56:11I can actually see.
56:13And it's tapping the side of the coconut
56:15to see how much milk or water
56:17is inside there.
56:19Oh, that's so clever.
56:21It'll actually gnaw a hole
56:23and then start getting the...
56:25It's gone behind.
56:27Let's go around.
56:29And at last, a chance for the shot
56:31Mark has waited for for 20 years.
56:33Look, it's moving down the front.
56:35Oh, yeah.
56:37That's it.
56:39Come on.
56:41It's moving again.
56:43Damn.
56:45That would have been superb.
56:47Look, he's got the...
56:49It's going to eat the coconut.
56:51It's not looking in the right direction.
56:53Come on.
56:55No, no, that was rubbish.
56:57Oh, that's hopeless.
57:01Come on.
57:03Yes!
57:05Did you get it?
57:07No.
57:09Very coy.
57:11Yes, that was it.
57:13You can see the fingers.
57:15And those bat ears.
57:17We've moved off a palm tree
57:19and onto one of these.
57:21What are these trees?
57:23Is it in a lychee tree?
57:25Yeah.
57:27We've spent three weeks on islands.
57:29I'm struck that it was this island
57:31of Madagascar that allowed
57:33such a peculiar creature
57:35to evolve in the first place,
57:37and it is shrinking islands
57:39of forest that threaten
57:41to wipe it from the face
57:43of the earth forever.
57:45There's nothing else anywhere
57:47quite like it.
57:49Oh, that's incredible.
57:51The aye-aye is beguiling,
57:53certainly bizarre,
57:55for some even a little revolting,
57:57and I say, long may it continue
57:59being so.
58:02In the next episode,
58:04we'll be exploring the animals
58:06that inhabit the margins
58:08between sea and land
58:10around the islands of
58:12Malaysia and Indonesia,
58:14getting up close and personal
58:16with sea snakes,
58:18sea horses, baby turtles,
58:20and the largest venomous animal
58:22in the world,
58:24the Komodo dragon.
58:31¶¶
59:01¶¶