Original subtitles

That I've been Puzzling over for halfmy Iife.

Fifty yea rs ago, I ca me here to the isla nd of Madagasca r

to ma ke a series of prog ra m mes a bout the isla nd's rema rka ble wi ld life.

That was way back in the early days of television,

when everhing was in black and white.

It was one of the first natural history series that I'd made.

Madagasca r lies i n the Ind ia n Ocea n, here.

And even on a g lobe th is size, it looks a ti ny isla nd,

perha ps beca use it's dwa rfed by th is vast conti nent of Africa.

But, i n fact, it's a n i m mense isla nd,

over 1,000 m i les long, bigger tha n the British Isles.

I was astonished by the animals I saw.

They were unlike anhing Iiving elsewhere.

And wh i le I was here, m uch to my su rprise,

I acq u i red a n extraord i na ry object

that has been one of my most treasu red possessions ever si nce.

Down in the south of the island, I found, Iying in the desert sand,

Pieces of what Iooked Iike very thick eggshell.

I knew that a huge, extinct bird had once Iived down here.

These must be bits ofits eggs.

I asked the Iocal PeoPle about them.

They were more than obliging.

The fragments were all small,

and couldgive Iittle idea of the size ofa comPlete egg.

But, then, a young boy brought in these.

A t first, I thought they wereJust a collection of eXcePtionally big bits

that he hadPicked uP over some time.

But then I noticed that two of them Iooked as if they might fit together.

I had, aPParently, got myself a three-dimensionalJigsawPuzzle.

And they did fit.

So IJoined them with the sticky taPe we used to seal our film cans.

Soon, I had built uP two halves.

This was a single, immense egg.

And it was virtually comPlete.

I reckoned it must have contained as much as L4Ø chicken eggs.

The bird that Iaid it must have been a giant, indeed.

But this raised all kinds ofquestions.

How old was this egg? When did the bird die out?

And what does it tell us about man's relationshiP with the wildlife here?

H ere is the egg, professiona lly put together, a lmost as good as new.

It is, to me at a ny rate, a wonderfu l object.

After a ll, it's the la rgest egg ever la id by a nyth i ng.

But what pa rticu la rly fasci nates me is the thoug ht of the bi rd that la id it.

What sort of a creatu re was it?

Well, stories a bout g iga ntic bi rds have been ci rcu lati ng

i n Eu rope si nce the 1 3th centu ry.

When Ma rco Polo, the g reat Venetia n traveller a nd explorer,

ca me back from the east with stories of a h uge bi rd,

so big that its wi ngs covered a n extent of 30 paces

a nd its q u i lls were 1 2 paces long,

a nd it's so strong that it' ll seize a n elepha nt i n its ta lons

a nd ca rry h i m h ig h i nto the a i r a nd

d rop h i m so that he is smashed to pieces.

Stories of a bi rd so big they cou ld lift a n elepha nt.

And that's what gave it the name of "elePhant bird".

But after those rather u n believa ble stories,

there were other, more concrete stories, too,

i n the 1 7th centu ry.

Th is is a n accou nt of Madagasca r written by Flacou rt,

who was a French governor of the isla nd.

And he lists a ll the a n i ma ls that he knows i n the isla nd of Madagasca r,

a nd he d raws most of them.

But if you look th roug h here,

there's no pictu re of a bi rd that cou ld be a n elepha nt bi rd.

There's a n eg ret, there's a heron, but noth i ng bigger.

But he does say that there was a big, ostrich-li ke bi rd

i n the south of the isla nd.

So maybe he hea rd stories of the elepha nt bi rd.

But was it a live then? H e doesn 't say.

Of cou rse, we know now that the bi rd is certa i n ly exti nct.

But when d id it d isa ppea r?

Si nce I collected th is egg,

tech n iq ues have been developed wh ich ena ble us to date it.

So I've sent off a sma ll frag ment of it for that to be done.

It will take a Iittle time for the results to come through,

but, after Ø years, Iguess I can wait a few weeks Ionger.

Meanwhile, I'm off to Madagascar,

to have another Iook at its wonderful animals

and see how things have changed in the Iast Ø years.

Some sPecies are thought to have disaPPeared since I was Iast here

and new ones have also been discovered.

Could the story of the elePhant bird, whatever it turns out to be,

helP me understand what's going on there today?

Fiftyyears ago, Madagascar was Iittle known, certainly in Britain.

Until only a fewyears before, it had been a French colony.

I really didn 't know anhing about it and started to read about it.

And the on ly i llustrations I cou ld fi nd were d rawi ngs

or photog ra phs of stuffed speci mens i n French pu blications.

And so I thoug ht, "Okay, that's g reat. N obody else has fi lmed there."

And I don 't th i n k there had rea lly been a ny natu ra l h istory fi lm made

i n Madagasca r at a ll i n 1 960 that I cou ld fi nd.

It wasJust me and GeoffMulligan with his camera.

And we were there for four months.

Because the island has been cut off for so Iong, evolution has had a chance

to Produce a whole range of unique animals andPlants.

But, first, what about the elePhant bird?

Beyond the Iegends, what more do we know about it?

The country's caPital is Tananarivo, or Tana, as the Iocals call it.

And the Place to go ifyou want to find out about the island's natural history

is, obviously, its museum.

It had stuffed examPles ofsome of the animals

I already knew something about.

But I also found a mounted skeleton of the huge bird that interests me so much,

one of the very few that exists.

So how ta ll was the elepha nt bi rd?

N ot a n easy q uestion to a nswer,

beca use very few skeletons a re tota lly com plete.

And so, ma ny of the mou nted speci mens have been put together

with a n u m ber of bones from d ifferent speci mens.

And if you get overenth usiastic, maybe it's q u ite possi ble

that you stick i n one or two extra neck bones,

so we ca n 't be su re a bout the length of the neck.

N or ca n we be su re a bout the postu re, rea lly.

Th is one looks to me rather front heavy,

a nd it cou ld well be that, i n life, the a n i ma l was more u prig ht,

i n wh ich case, it stood very ta ll i ndeed.

What, 1 0 feet, 1 2 feet? That sort of size,

i n order to be a ble to reach the leaves of trees on wh ich it browsed.

But a more safe cha racteristic is weig ht.

And you ca n be fa i rly su re the esti mate of that,

a nd it's reckoned that the elepha nt bi rd weig hed a rou nd ha lf a ton ne.

The extinct moas ofNewZealand might PerhaPs have been taller,

but this was certainly the heaviest bird that ever existed.

And, of course, it was flightless, Iike an ostrich.

Most ofits remains have been found

down in the dry, hot southern end of the island,

where I had collected my egg fragments.

So, on Ieaving Tana, that's where we headed.

Sou nds li ke forever, 50 yea rs, to me.

But it's rea lly the day before yesterday, I reckon,

that I was here doi ng that sort of stuff.

I can 't believe that it's Ø years.

Southern Madagascar really is one of the oddest Places in the world,

if only because of its bizarre vegetation.

I had n 't known what the spi ny forest was,

that there shou ld be pla nts, li ke long fi ngers,

2 0 feet h ig h, 30 feet h ig h,

with spi nes a ll over them a nd little leaves, you know?

Extraordinary.

This sPiny forest was once widesPread in the south.

But now there are only a fewPockets ofit Ieft.

Big Ieaves would Iose a Iot ofPrecious water in a hot desert,

so these Plants have very small ones

that are Protected from browsing animals by sharP sPines.

But what browsers?

Presumably, one was the elePhant bird.

Some browsers, however, are still around,

and Ø years ago, we went to Iook for them.

The sPines make this a fairly uncomfortable Place to move around in.

But, eventually, we found those browsers.

And they're still here.

Sifakas, a wonderful kind of Iemur.

They' re feed i ng on ba rk, stri ppi ng away the ba rk.

They' re not pa rticu la rly u pset by my presence,

a ny more tha n they were when I fi rst saw them 50 yea rs ago.

What is aston ish i ng a bout them is the way they move th roug h the forest.

Very u n li ke mon keys.

Mon keys, when they lea p, lea p ha nds fi rst,

with thei r torsos more or less level.

But these ma rvellous creatu res j u m p u prig ht,

beca use they la nd with thei r feet fi rst,

wh ich accou nts for why, when they come down to the g rou nd, very ra rely,

thei r legs a re so long that they ca n 't wa lk on a ll fou rs,

as ma ny mon keys do,

but have to sta nd u prig ht on thei r very long legs a nd thei r rather short a rms.

And that g ives them th is lovely ba lletic movement

when they get a rou nd on the g rou nd.

There a re q u ite a n u m ber of d ifferent species of these.

And they d iffer mostly i n thei r colou ration.

N ow, th is one with its da rk brown ca p,

a nd I th i n k th is is actua lly one of the loveliest.

I ca n j ust hea r them ma ki ng that slig ht "sifa, sifa" noise,

wh ich is a ki nd of a slig ht, I th i n k, u neasy noise

that they ma ke when they' re j ust a little worried,

a nd wh ich g ives them thei r na me of "sifa ka ".

Thei r faces, with that long snout a nd moist nose,

a re rea lly rather dog-li ke.

But it's when you see thei r ha nds that you rea lise

they' re related to mon keys a nd to us,

these g raspi ng ha nds.

And I've actua lly had a pet lem u r a long, long ti me ago.

And it held on to my ha nd i n the most cha rm i ng way.

Dn that first triP, I kePt aJournal.

And reading it now reminds me ofhow excitedl was

seeing these creatures for the first time.

"Before they sta rted feed i ng, the ad u lt ma le a nd fema le

"treated us to a ca ptivati ng d isplay of wrestli ng.

"The fema le was sitti ng on her bottom on the bra nch, with her feet da ng li ng,

"wh i le the ma le ca me a long a nd put a ha lf-nelson on her.

"Then the match started.

"There was no question ofsex, nor ofaggression,

"for they often broke off to Iook at us.

"It was Pure Play and enchanting to watch."

I've got notes here of what we fi lmed.

Well, it's a ll 1 00-foot reels.

A 1 00-foot reel ru ns for two m i n utes, 40.

And you know, two m i n utes, 40,

a nd you 've got to stop a nd ta ke the th i ng out, as well.

And, of cou rse, the lenses we had were very poor,

a nd we d id n 't have zooms either.

So that now, if you see someth i ng u p there,

you get the wide shot a nd then you zoom i n q u ickly a nd you 've got it.

But if you d id that then, you 'd have to ta ke that lens out

a nd put on a nother socki ng g reat lens.

I had never seen a livi ng sifa ka u nti l I ca me here to Madagasca r.

It was such a shock a nd a th ri ll

to see them i n the wi ld for the fi rst ti me.

And it's j ust a bout as g reat a th ri ll rig ht now,

as they' re bou nd i ng away on the g rou nd.

Sifakas are well adaPted to Iiving in this world ofsPines and thorns,

and so, doubtless, was the elePhant bird.

But adaPtation is often a two-wayProcess.

Th is is the seed of a pa rticu la rly stra nge pla nt

that g rows i n th is a rid spi ny forest.

It is a rmed with a series of ferocious hooks,

wh ich wou ld have ca ug ht on the legs of the elepha nt bi rd,

a nd so be d istri buted th roug hout the forest.

Now, Presumably, it's us and our cattle who do theJob.

As you go farther south, it gets drier and hotter,

until, eventually, there's not enough moisture

to sustain even the sPiny forest.

And here, once again, I found egg fragments, Iots of them.

Fiftyyears ago, I thought I'd been amazingly sharP-eyed to find a few bits.

Andl certainly was very Iucky to be brought enough to reconstruct an egg.

But there were so manyPieces here,

I think that I must have been half-blind before,

or in quite the wrong Place.

Of cou rse, these th ick shells don 't tu rn to powder,

li ke, say, ch icken eggshells wou ld do over a few days,

but rema i n solid a nd fi rm for a long ti me.

Even so, there a re vast q ua ntities of shell out there.

So there m ust have been a very su bsta ntia l popu lation of bi rds.

What ha ppened to them?

Now it's so arid that it's difficult to imagine

huge flocks ofgiant flightless birds Iiving here.

But they must have done so.

How greatly has the climate ofMadagascar changed?

We can get clues from examining the fossilised bones of other animals

that were around at the same time as the elePhant bird.

And there were certainly some very extraordinary ones,

some quite tiny, and some giants quite unlike anhing around now.

Th is is the sku ll of the biggest of a ll the lem u rs.

It's got a head m uch bigger tha n m i ne.

And, i ndeed, it was proba bly a bout the size of a you ng gori lla.

Th is a n i ma l lived i n trees,

a nd that's confi rmed by a look at its teeth.

These a re the teeth of a leaf-eati ng a n i ma l,

not a g razer, not a meat eater, but a leaf eater.

So th is a n i ma l lived i n trees,

a nd proba bly h u ng a rou nd, rather li ke a koa la,

on ly very, very m uch bigger.

And that tells us that where th is lived, there was forest.

The rolling hills of the island are now nearly all bare of trees.

Yet bones of this giant Iemur have been found

in many widely-seParatedPlaces all over the island,

strong evidence that, once, the whole ofMadagascar was forested.

When I was here Ø years ago,

I sPeculated that elePhant birds had disaPPeared

because their habitat had dried out.

AndlPut that down to a changing climate.

Now we know that, although the climate here has indeed become much drier,

that change took Place many thousands ofyears ago,

and that elePhant birds Iiving in the sPiny forest managed to survive it.

So climate change alone can 't be blamed for the bird's extinction.

Are there any other clues that might suggest

an alternative exPlanation for that,

and for the fact that the giant Iemur's forests have also gone?

Well, it's been discovered that those giant Iemurs

all disaPPeared over a very short sPace of time.

And that was when human beings arrived.

Madagasca r was one of the last places on Ea rth to be reached by h u ma n bei ngs.

They d id n 't get here ti ll a rou nd 2,000 yea rs ago,

a nd then, of cou rse, there were j ust a few h u nd red.

Fifty yea rs ago, there were a rou nd six m i llion.

Today, there a re 2 0 m i llion.

Was it human beings who exterminated much of the island's animals,

the elePhant bird, as well as the giant Iemurs?

Did they, PerhaPs, hunt them for food?

One of the ways that you ca n tell

whether or not h u ma n bei ngs h u nted a n a n i ma l

is to look at the a n i ma l's bones.

Th is is the bone of a n exti nct lem u r

that dates from a bout 2,000 yea rs ago,

when h u ma n bei ngs fi rst ca me to th is isla nd.

And when you look at it, you ca n see, at the top there,

cut ma rks.

So we know that th is lem u r was ki lled, or at least eaten, by h u ma n bei ngs,

who cut the flesh away from the bone with some ki nd of kn ife.

But the i nteresti ng th i ng is, a lthoug h we a lso fi nd elepha nt bi rd bones,

ha rd ly a one of the elepha nt bi rd bones have cut ma rks.

So we ca n 't rea lly bla me the d isa ppea ra nce

of the elepha nt bi rd on h u nters.

Ifit wasn 't climate change or hunting, what else could it have been?

Although Madagascar is only seParated from Africa

by a relatively narrow stretch ofsea,

many of the first settlers came not from there,

but from Southeast Asia, thousands ofmiles away.

In fact, the people who live i n the centre pa rt of Madagasca r

orig i na lly ca me from rig ht across the other side of the Ind ia n Ocea n,

here, i n the Ma laya n reg ion.

They must certainly have hunted the animals,

but they also did something else, which in the Iong run,

was far more devastating for the island's wildlife.

They were farmers.

And they cleared the forest to grow rice and to Provide grazing for their cattle.

As the numbers ofPeoPle increased,

so more and more forest was cut and burnt.

It's a Process that is still going on.

So, all over the island, the IandscaPe began to change.

I'm on my way to the west of the island,

where a few, small Patches of that ancient forest still remain.

These strange, beautiful trees, baobabs, are fire-resistant,

and too big to cut down.

So, in manyPlaces, they are the only remnants Ieft

of the original forest that once covered this Iand.

It would have been difficult for a creature the size ofan elePhant bird

to Iive without vegetation ofsome kind,

and today, even the smallest ofanimals are struggling to survive here.

Dne of those that have managed to do so is the tiniest ofall known Iemurs.

It's called Madame Berthe's mouse Iemur, and it was only discovered LØ years ago.

Melanie Dammhahn is Part ofa team ofscientists

who are studying the animal, trying to work out how to Protect it.

Oh!

- Ti ny, ti ny. - Ti ny, ti ny.

J ust on ly 30-g ra m body weig ht.

- Yea h. Sma llest pri mate i n the world? - Sma llest pri mate i n the world.

- Big eyes, sma ll ea rs. - Very big eyes.

- Yea h. - And a wet nose.

- Yea h. - Yea h.

Melanie and her colleagues catch these Iemurs and tag them

to build uP a Picture of their behaviour,

essential knowledge if they're to be ProPerlyProtected.

And how long wi ll he have been i n there now?

- A few hou rs. - That a ll?

So we collect h i m at n ig ht a nd then he stays i n ca m p

a nd sleeps i n there, a nd then we release h i m the next day.

And you 've ca ug ht h i m how ma ny ti mes?

- Maybe a rou nd twenty i n th ree yea rs. - Twenty.

So he's accustomed to it.

H e's accustomed to it.

And do they travel very fa r?

- They travel very fa r. - Rea lly?

They have, li ke, a th ree-hecta re home ra nge,

so that's q u ite a bit for a n a n i ma l li ke that.

- Certa i n ly is. Yea h. - Yea h.

They m ig ht even ru n, li ke, five ki lometres a n ig ht.

- Rea lly? - Yea h.

An a n i ma l li ke that. I th i n k that's...

- Amazi ng. - Amazi ng, yea h.

Okay, let's see h i m go.

H e's com i ng.

Come on. Come on, little one.

That's it. That's it. Oh!

The work Melanie and her team are doing

is vital for the survival of this Iittle Iemur.

It's also revealingJust why it is

that this tiny creature Iives here and nowhere else.

Th is pa rticu la r lia na belongs to a species

that on ly g rows i n th is patch of forest.

And on it, a nd on no other ki nd of lia na, lives th is little i nsect.

It's a bug wh ich feeds by sticki ng its mouth pa rts

i nto the lia na a nd sucki ng out the sa p.

It then d igests what it wa nts a nd excretes the rest

as honeydew, a sort of suga ry liq u id.

And it's that honeydew, that suga r,

that Mada me Berthe's lem u r needs i n its d iet.

So Mada me Berthe's lem u r is on ly fou nd i n th is pa rticu la r patch of the forest

beca use of th is i nsect a nd th is lia na,

wh ich j ust shows how com plicated ecolog ica l con nections ca n be,

a nd how m uch you have to know a bout a n a n i ma l

if you ' re rea lly goi ng to conserve it.

It's more than Iikely that the elePhant bird

was nowhere near as fussy as a mouse Iemur,

but it certainly needed much greater quantities offood.

So as more and more of the forest was cleared,

there was Iess and Iess room for animals ofall kinds.

Elepha nt bi rds were a mong the fi rst victi ms of deforestation.

As people ca me i n a nd clea red the bush

i n order to ma ke space for thei r own crops,

there was less a nd less foliage for the bi rds to browse on,

a nd no leaves whatever on the g reat tru n ks of the baoba bs.

Andyet we know that, unlike the giant Iemurs,

the elePhant bird didn 't disaPPear as soon as the PeoPle arrived.

Recent archaeological research suggests that the birds

Iived alongside human beings for hundreds ofyears.

PerhaPs they were Protected by something

that is still deePly rooted in the Iives of the MalagasyPeoPle,

fady, a beliefabout the intimate way

in which human beings are connected with the natural world.

They believe, for examPle, that many sPecies ofanimal

contain the sPirits of their ancestors, and must not, therefore, be killed.

When I was here making these Zoo Quest Programmes,

we watched a traditional ceremony which centred around a fady

connected with Madagascar's only surviving giant, the crocodile.

Here, at the sacred Iake ofAnivorano,

they tell a story ofa wandering holy man who aPPeared in the village.

No one, aPart from one old woman, offered him refreshment.

After warning the old woman to Ieave,

he then flooded the whole village, drowning everyone in it, excePt her.

The PeoPle here believe that the crocodiles in this Iake

are descendents of those original villagers,

and they come here to give them sacrifices ofmeat

in return for their blessings.

Many animals in Madagascar have some kind offady attached to them.

Th is is a cha meleon.

And Madagasca r is the home of the cha meleons.

There a re more d ifferent ki nds of cha meleons

a nd more spectacu la r cha meleons here tha n a nywhere else i n the world.

They a re, of cou rse, very specia lised liza rds.

But loca l people a re very frig htened of them.

They move i n th is odd way a nd they have these biza rre eyes.

And they th i n k that once g la nce from a cha meleon is riski ng death,

a nd to hold one wou ld be d isaster.

N ow, when we were last here, somebody broke i nto ou r ca r

with a ll ou r eq u i pment i n it a nd broke the wi ndow.

And so we cou ld n 't lock the ca r.

So I took one of these splend id cha meleons,

a nd put it on the steeri ng wheel,

a nd when a nybody opened the ca r door, it sort of g lowered at them,

a nd nobody d id, except us.

These beliefs in fady are still very Powerful and widesPread in Madagascar.

And, in some cases, it's they that have been resPonsible

for the very survival ofa sPecies.

Th is g ia nt baoba b is one of the most fa mous i nd ivid ua l trees

i n the whole of Madagasca r.

The people believe that it's the home to the spi rits of the dead.

And they bri ng offeri ngs, wh ich they place a rou nd its base,

of ru m a nd other th i ngs, to ask the a ncestors to bri ng them luck.

But the spi rits wi ll on ly rema i n as long as the forest su rrou nds the tree.

So, tha n ks to th is tree a nd that belief,

one of the best pieces of d ry forest

i n the whole of Madagasca r is sti ll protected.

Many Malagasy communities have such beliefs about the natural world.

Could it be that it was fady that helPed to Protect

the Iast dwindling PoPulations of elePhant birds,

enabling them to survive Ionger than they might otherwise have done?

It's easy to imagine that creatures whose eggs were big enough

to start Iegends all over EuroPe

would be surrounded by feelings ofawe or even fear.

But that did not save the elePhant bird in the Iong run.

The territories they required wereJust too big.

Madagascar has one of the highest rates offorest Ioss ofanywhere in the world.

It's estimated that BØ% ofit has now gone.

AII the wetterParts of the island were once covered by rainforest,

which, Iike rainforest everywhere,

was hugely rich in animals andPlant sPecies.

And this being Madagascar, most were sPecies that existed nowhere else.

The changes here have been Particularly dramatic.

When I was here i n 1 960, a ll th is la nd was covered i n ra i nforest,

trees 1 00 feet h ig h, with lem u rs a nd a ll ki nds of bi rds a nd i nsects.

And then they bu i lt th is sawm i ll.

And, for 2 5 yea rs, it operated, consu m i ng the forest,

u nti l the forest was a ll gone.

So then they left the sawm i ll, a nd the la nd has gone to waste.

They also started to mine here for nickel.

Madagascar, in fact, has some of

the richest untaPPed mineral dePosits in the world.

ExPloiting them requires great corridors to be cut through the forest.

Many animals that require big territories won 't cross such corridors.

So, Just Iike the elePhant bird,

they're squeezed into smaller and smallerPatches,

and, ultimately, they vanish, Just as the elePhant bird did.

This Patch offorest in Andasibe, on the eastern side of the island,

is one of the Iargest remaining fragments,

and it's the Iast home of the biggest ofall surviving Iemurs,

the indri.

JosePh Randriada Thuandru has Iived here all his Iife.

In fact, he was here when I was filming in L96Ø, although we didn 't meet.

Then, he was hunting the indri for food.

A t that time, I had an idea that stories about the indri

might have given rise to mhs almost as fantastic

as those surrounding the elePhant bird.

Ma ny people consider that th is stra nge creatu re

is the orig i n of the legend of the dog-headed ma n.

Ma rco Polo wrote a bout the dog-headed ma n,

a nd th is is a n i llustration from a natu ra l h istory book

pu blished some 300 yea rs ago.

Well, obviously, we wa nted to fi lm th is.

And before we went to Madagasca r,

I visited a very d isti ng u ished British natu ra list

who had spent seven yea rs there, a nd asked h i m a bout the i nd ris.

H e told me that, as fa r as he knew,

it had never been photog ra phed or fi lmed a live.

The a n i ma l wh ich was the most d ra

matic a n i ma l on the series by a long way

was the i nd ri, wh ich we had been the fi rst people to photog ra ph a live.

It took us a hell ofa time to find it, you know, traiPsing through the forest.

And, nea rly a lways, you hea rd a ca ll,

so you 'd go th roug h the bush a nd try a nd look for it,

a nd then, as soon as it saw you,

woof, it was gone, bou nd i ng th roug h the forest.

So a ll we got for days a nd days was noth i ng but backsides

of these th i ngs sa i li ng away from you.

Since PeoPle at that time, IikejosePh, were still hunting indris,

it was hardly surPrising that they were scared of us.

After several days offailure, I had an idea.

I decided to record their extraordinary calls,

and then rePlay the sound, in the hoPe that the animals might call in resPonse

and reveal themselves, or even come closer.

And it worked.

Although we didn 't get as close as I might have wished,

we watched them for several days.

"We never saw a grouP ofmore than four.

"Th is i n fact, I th i n k, is the sou rce of m uch of the cha rm of it.

"Mon keys livi ng i n trou pes have a trou pe d isci pli ne,

"a nd a n order of sen iority esta blished a nd ma i nta i ned by battle,

"the ma les fig hti ng one a nother ferociously.

"Not so with indri.

"They Iive en fa m i lle.

"The old ma le doesn 't need to assert h is ra n k by fig hti ng,

"a nd, conseq uently, the atmosphere is one of affection.

"Once, we saw a you ng ma le joi n a you ng fema le, sitti ng beh i nd her,

"h is legs stretched out on either side of her.

"They licked a nd em braced one a nother for ha lf a n hou r.

"Then sudden ly, a bi rd screeched,

"Ioud ly a nd sta rtli ng ly.

"Im med iately, the ma le put a protective a nd reassu ri ng a rm a rou nd her.

"It was most touching to see."

Anth ropomorph ism ru n riot. But there you a re, that's what I wrote.

JosePh, the one-time hunter, still uses his skills to track the indri,

but no Ionger in order to kill them.

Now he works as a forest guide.

What made you stop h u nti ng them?

Have people's attitudes towa rds the i nd ri cha nged over the yea rs?

WithoutjosePh to helP us,

it would have been imPossible for us to get near the indri.

But this grouP is so used to him that they're not frightened.

Indeed, it seemed to me that they almost welcomed his comPany.

Thanks to him, I now had a chance, for the very first time,

to get really close to them.

They could easily collect these Ieaves from the trees themselves.

But they seem to choose to take them from the hand ofa human being.

Well, that was a n aston ish i ng experience.

Fifty yea rs ago, I spent days a nd days a nd days

sea rch i ng th roug h the forest with these, followi ng the noise.

But now, th is g rou p is so accustomed to seei ng people a rou nd,

that I've been rig ht close u p to them,

someth i ng I had never believed cou ld have been possi ble.

I thoug ht these were the most elusive, shy creatu res.

It certa i n ly took me a long ti me to fi nd them.

But that they ca n now be so trusti ng

is a ma rvellous testa ment to how people here

now react towa rds them a nd cherish them.

It's a hea rt-wa rm i ng ki nd of rea lisation

that wi ld creatu res li ke th is

a nd h u ma n bei ngs ca n live a longside one a nother i n ha rmony.

And they a re such aston ish i ng creatu res.

I mea n, a pa rt from bei ng so bea utifu l, they have these very sta ri ng eyes,

looki ng stra ig ht at you, stra ig ht th roug h you.

And then they have these very h u ma n-li ke ha nds,

j ust ta ki ng someth i ng.

But when you look down at thei r feet, h uge, g reat ca lli per feet,

when they've decided that they've had enoug h of you,

they si m ply flex those enormous h i nd legs,

a nd j ust with a vast bou nd, of what I su ppose

th ree ya rds, fou r ya rds, j ust whoosh, a nd they' re gone.

It was wonderful to see how the relationshiP

between the indri and the Iocal PeoPle Iiving alongside them

has changed so much.

But then, our attitudes have changed, too.

When I came here Ø years ago,

I was asked to collect some animals alive and bring them back to Britain.

That was howzoos oPerated in those days,

believing, misguidedly, that when one of their exhibits died,

you could always go out and catch more to rePlace it.

Andl did my best to assemble a few animals

I thought might make interesting disPlays.

The Zoo Quest series sta rted as a colla boration with the London Zoo.

So I fou nd myself as a n a n i ma l catcher, as well as everyth i ng else.

One Centetes, one CoracoPsis, one roller,

24 fody, those a re li ke spa rrows.

Ten cha meleons, six assorted liza rds, th ree boas, 1 00 myria pods.

Bon kers.

And I had to feed a ll these da m n th i ngs.

Fu n ny way to ma ke television prog ra m mes, I ca n tell you.

And I had collected some bea utifu l, well, myria pods.

What d id it say there? I th i n k it was 1 00 or someth i ng.

And they were lovely m i lli pedes,

the size of golf ba lls when they' re rolled u p,

a nd when they weren 't, they wou ld ru n a rou nd li ke little tra i ns,

red with black stri pes on them.

And they got out i n the m idd le of the n ig ht i n the hotel,

a nd they were a ll over the corridor a nd a ll i n the rooms,

a nd madame was not pleased, not at a ll pleased.

In rainforests Iike this, you come across all kinds of unexPected delights.

Th is rather la rge sna ke,

u m, is q u ite ha rm less, i n fact.

But it's q u ite mysterious, too,

beca use that, you wou ld th i n k i n Africa, was a python.

And Africa's j ust over the way.

But, i n fact, it's a boa constrictor.

And its nea rest relatives a re rig ht on the other side, i n South America.

It's one of the mysteries of Madagasca r's fa u na.

N ow, the last ti me I was here, there was a belief

that a n i ma ls li ke th is, th is boa,

were the i nca rnations of people's g ra nd mothers.

I d id have some i n h i bitions a bout what people wou ld th i n k

if I ca ug ht one of those a nd took away thei r g ra nd mother,

so I never d id.

This beautiful Iemur has now become a symbol

of the fight to conserve the forest and save it from the fate that overtook

so many ofMadagascar's animals in the recent Past.

So, why d id the elepha nt bi rd d isa ppea r?

It cou ld have been cli mate cha nge,

wh ich tu rned m uch of its la nd i nto desert.

It cou ld have been that people destroyed the forests where it browsed.

I dou bt if it was h u nted to exti nction.

Anyone who's seen a n ostrich i n the zoo

knows it's got a kick that ca n open a ma n's stomach.

And a n en raged elepha nt bi rd, ma ny ti mes the size of a n ostrich,

m ust have been tru ly a form ida ble opponent.

I suspect it was these, its egg.

They may not have been a ble to tackle a n ad u lt bi rd,

but they cou ld ta ke its eggs, wh ich were a h uge sou rce of nou rish ment.

And so I th i n k it's proba bly these a re the reason

why the elepha nt bi rd is no longer here.

Even if the bird itself was held in awe, or maybe fear, by the PeoPle here,

they might not have had too much trouble in robbing it

ofits huge, nutritious eggs.

So, although there were several factors threatening the bird's survival,

it could have been PeoPle eating the eggs

who dealt the sPecies its final blow.

Today, we 've come to realise that, ifyou want to Preserve a sPecies,

you have to Preserve the whole community ofPlants and animals.

Some PeoPle here are trying to tackle that Problem.

Rainer Dolch manages one such grouP in indri country.

I asked him how much forest remained.

As we spea k, it's very frag mented.

U nfortu nately, i n th is pa rticu la r a rea,

we have a lmost no conti n uous forest a ny more.

Th is is a frag ment of a bout 800 hecta res.

One crucia l issue for conservation is to li n k these frag ments with each other,

so that there cou ld be genetic excha nge

between pla nt a nd a n i ma l species that live there.

So if they rema i ned as frag ments, rea lly,

the i n ha bita nts, the a n i ma l i n ha bita nts, a re doomed, h u h?

Yea h, that's pretty m uch the case,

a nd there is stud ies concern i ng the i nd ri, for i nsta nce,

sayi ng that a m i n i m u m size for a forest

i n wh ich the i nd ri ca n su rvive is a bout 1,000 to 1, 2 00 hecta res.

- So you have to li n k them u p. - Exactly.

And how a re you doi ng it?

Well, one th i ng that we try to do is actua lly re-esta blish

the ra i nforest i n between these frag ments

by pla nti ng trees that we actua lly ra ise i n th is n u rsery here

from the seeds that we collect i n the forest.

And how's it goi ng? H ow ma ny a re you repla nti ng?

Well, we now have repla nted a n a rea of a bout 1,000 hecta res.

You, idea lly, have at least 60 species per hecta re that you pla nt,

so th is is ki nd of ha rd work.

H ow ma ny trees do you th i n k you have pla nted?

If you ta ke 1,000 trees per hecta re as a ru le of th u m b,

then th is ma kes slig htly more tha n a m i llion trees now.

A m i llion trees i n how ma ny yea rs?

That's i n th ree yea rs of pla nti ng.

Fa ntastic. A m i llion i n th ree yea rs. That is a lot of trees.

Th is is j ust so hea rten i ng a nd exciti ng.

H ow long do you th i n k you ' re goi ng to

be before you ca n com plete these corridors?

Well, I wou ld say that proba bly you wou ld need 2 0 yea rs or so

to be su re that the trees repla nted have actua lly re-g rown

to someth i ng that you 'd ca ll a forest.

So we wou ld actua lly look at a ll these reforested a reas

for the next two decades to come.

Projects li ke th is a re wonderfu lly encou rag i ng.

When I was here 50 yea rs ago, we had no idea how com plex

forest systems were li ke th is

a nd how d ifficu lt they wou ld be to reconstitute.

But pla ns li ke that ca n on ly work

if they have the su pport of the loca l people.

South of Tana, in the central highlands,

there's a new initiative which is an insPiring examPle

ofhow a Iocal communityProJect

could helP the future of the country's wildlife.

The coordinator of this ProJect, Eugénie Raharisoa,

told me that the PeoPle here have very Iittle to Iive on,

and that they need their Iocal forest to survive.

So, in order to Provide work for Iocal PeoPle which doesn 't destroy the forest,

Eugénie has helPed set uP a scheme to Produce silk,

which, by tradition, the Malagasy use to weave a magnificent fabric.

First ofall, the caterPillars ofa Particular moth

are released into the forest.

When they change into cocoons, they're collected.

Then the silk is unwound from the cocoon

and sPun into a thread, which is dyed and, ultimately, woven.

The scheme has created work for all the women in the village,

including Marie Razafumala.

This ProJect has comPletely changed PeoPle's attitude to their forest.

The villagers now have an incentive to Protect the trees,

which Provide them with such a valuable income.

And that, of course, in turn, Protects the wildlife.

Initiatives Iike this silk ProJect bring hoPe for the future ofMadagascar.

For a young man, the Zoo Quest triP was an exciting adventure

to what was then, in television terms at Ieast,

an unexPlored Iand.

Coming back after Ø years has been really fascinating.

This time, I won 't be returning home

with a collection ofanimals for the London Zoo.

But I will be coming back with a greater understanding

ofhow and why Madagascar has changed.

I've seen a country which has been heavily exPloited.

But I've also seen glimmers ofhoPe for the future of the wildlife here.

Andl've been thrilled to get so close

to some ofMadagascar's most wonderful sPecies,

a reminder ofJust how sPecial this island is.

Fiftyyears ago, I found the egg of what was surely among

the most sPectacular ofall the animals to evolve here.

Now, there is still one final detail to fill in.

How old is my egg and what might that tell us?

Here, in the basement of the archaeological dePartment

at Dxford University, there's a carbon dating aPParatus

which can accurately find the age ofancient obJects, natural and manmade.

It's a comPlicatedProcess,

involving all kinds of very soPhisticated techniques.

But I've been told that Thomas Higham, who took the samPle from my egg,

has got a result.

You took a ti ny bit of th is, I know.

- A very sma ll a mou nt from the back. - A very sma ll a mou nt.

And tell me, come on, what's the a nswer?

Well, ou r date suggests that th is egg is 1, 300 yea rs old.

- N o. - Yes. Yea h.

- Say it aga i n, 1,000... - 1, 300 yea rs old.

And that puts it at what date?

About 700... 600 to 700 AD.

And d id that su rprise you?

U m, I thoug ht it was q u ite a lot you nger

tha n I thoug ht it wou ld be, actua lly.

- You thoug ht it was you nger? - And I say that... I d id.

And I say that beca use I checked back on a ll the other eggshell dates

that we've dated from Madagasca r from th is species,

a nd the you ngest date that we've ever got is a bout 900 AD.

H ere is 600 AD, 800 AD.

And you r dates a re these ones that j ust sit i n here.

These a re the you ngest ones.

So it's q u ite a recent one, i n terms of...

It is, i ndeed.

So th is, i n fact, was one of the last of the elepha nt bi rds.

I th i n k, with i n 1 00 to 2 00 yea rs, perha ps, yes.

Ah.

The ch ick that ca me out of th is was one of the last.

Absolutely a mazi ng.

When do you th i n k it d isa ppea red?

I th i n k somewhere before 1,000 AD, it was exti nct, la rgely exti nct, yea h.

So there we have it.

My egg is L, ØØ years old,

and one of the most recent eggs of its kind that the university has dated.

But that doesn 't mean that it was the Iast ever Iaid.

And it could be that some of these astounding creatures

Iived on until much more recently.

But what we have discovered is that elePhant birds and human beings

did manage to Iive alongside one another for hundreds ofyears.

So it wasn 't the usual story offinding a new sPecies

and then exterminating it within a few decades offinding it,

as haPPened with the dodo in Mauritius,

a much smaller island not far away from Madagascar.

Nonetheless, the elePhant bird did, ultimately, disaPPear,

another examPle ofhow human beings, in their ever-increasing numbers,

can so easily have a Iethal effect on the animals around them.

For me, th is egg is a rem i nder of how easy it is for species to d isa ppea r

a nd be exterm i nated,

as h u ma n bei ngs ta ke over more a nd more of the natu ra l world.

But there is hope.

We u ndersta nd more a bout ecology a nd ecosystems,

more a bout what needs to be done to protect the natu ra l world.

And I hope, certa i n ly, that we ta ke those lessons to hea rt i n Madagasca r

to save its wonderfu l wi ld life,

for it is, i ndeed, a n isla nd of ma rvels.