All language subtitles for Travel.Quest.With.Bill.Ball.S01E06.CONVERT.1080p.HDTV.H264-CBFM

BILL BALL: Everyone knows
there are seven continents, right?

Well, as far as wildlife,
culture and human history goes,

an argument can be made
for adding another.

It is a place where
royal families ruled with impunity,

where immigrants
from many parts of the world merged

and the wildlife
is absolutely unique,

an island only a few hundred miles
off a major coast

where even the birds rarely overlap
with any other place.

In this relatively narrow
strip of land, you can find

rainforest,
temperate woodlands and desert.

This special place is Madagascar,
the eighth continent,

and it is my quest to find
two rare primitive monkeys,

one that dances and the other sings.

Really. Dancing and singing primates.
(ANIMALS CALL)

Since I was young,
I had an intense desire

to discover the world around me.

That hasn't changed,
just the level of adventure.

Now, every journey has a purpose,

and each time
I venture out to explore

new destinations around the globe,

I am following my travel quest.

Madagascar is an island
975 miles long

and about 355 miles wide.

Slightly larger
than California,

it lies 400 miles
off the coast of Africa,

across from Mozambique.

The main hub and airport
for the country

is located in the capital city

and largest populated metropolis
on the island, Antananarivo,

but called locally just Tana.

This 1.7-million-person urban sprawl
continues to grow,

drawing residents
from the surrounding countryside.

With the economy still predominantly
agricultural and mining,

the lure of steady-paying jobs
in a city is hard to resist.

The history of this country
really begins

with the power struggle
between many competing tribes,

ending with one ruler
consolidating power

that united the island
at the beginning of the 18th century.

Under this legendary king,
the first united capital was built.

Today,
the remains of the royal palace

is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

so designated for its universal
importance in culture and history.

Many of the early kings and queens
are buried here.

Under British influence,
the first king's son, Radama I,

was recognised
as the king of Madagascar

and the palace was expanded and began
to take on its European appearance

in decor and styling.

Though just an hour drive
out of the capital,

this unusual royal residence
is rarely visited by tourists,

which is one reason
it is such a great find.

You can literally have the palace
to yourself.

Local onsite guides
will take you through

its many rooms and courtyards,

regaling you with stories
about the Royal Family,

including one
about a particularly cruel queen

that killed Christians,
both missionaries and converts,

in an effort to halt colonisation,

and stories
about the more popular rulers

who brought civilisation and style
to this island nation.

As the monarchy grew
in power and wealth,

they added
another royal residence in Tana.

This was larger and more grand,

and all the later kings and queens
were buried here,

in these unique house tombs.

Malagasy traditions
believe the spirits of deceased

need a house to live in
after their passing.

Though the body may be buried,

the spirit continues on
in the house above the tomb.

Unfortunately for Madagascar, the
cruel queen's fear about colonisation

proved oh, so true
with the French invasion in 1883.

The monarchy was ended

and the Royal Family was exiled
to Reunion Island and Algeria.

The French would remain in control
for nearly 80 years,

finally leaving in 1960,
when Madagascar became independent.

Today's Madagascar is a mix
of all that came before.

French language is widespread,

as are French placenames,
foods and institutions.

English is also widely spoken,

and the early British ties
have been renewed.

The people themselves
are an ethnic melting pot.

Madagascar was probably first settled
around 300 AD,

making it one of the last
major landmasses to be populated.

The earliest explorers,
researchers believe,

came from what is today Borneo,

with the Bantu African tribesmen
arriving some 600 years later

along with Arabs and Indians.

The Bantu brought the zebu cattle

that are so common
on the island today.

Those early people found a land
totally unfamiliar to them.

It was populated by animals
like nothing they had seen.

Giant lemurs and predatory fossa
were the only large mammals,

and the biggest feathered creature
ever to exist, the elephant bird,

was common.

It was here that I learned one of
the greatest truths of conservation

was not true at all.

It had been a modern fallacy

that early humans lived one with the
environment and did not destroy it.

That is simply not true.

The first inhabitants of Madagascar

drove the giant lemurs
and the incredible elephant bird

to extinction,

just as the Polynesians
in New Zealand

killed off the moa,
another giant flightless bird,

and the North American hunters
adversely affected

the large Ice Age mammal populations.

In the south of Madagascar,
there are still large clutches

of broken elephant bird eggs

left after their demise
a thousand years ago.

The current wildlife population is as
threatened as the elephant bird was,

but hunting is not the major culprit.

It is now habitat destruction.

With human numbers
exceeding 22 million and growing,

Madagascar
has a very young population.

The pressure on the environment
is unrelenting.

This is where tourism comes in.

Seeing lemurs and birdlife
of this island

brings in
much-needed foreign exchange.

Setting aside both public and
private reserves is good business.

The government,
local and foreign conservationists

have begun to work together
to preserve

what is left of the wilderness

so the fate of the elephant bird
is not repeated.

We visited one of those
private education centres

just outside the capital of Tana.

The goal of the park is to provide
easy lemur access for tourists

and as an education base
for the youth of Madagascar.

Over 55,000 students
and 1,800 teachers

have been brought to this park
to see lemurs up close

as well as other native species
like tortoises and chameleons.

It is true when they say
that you only save what you love

and you only love what you know.

The future of the wildlife
on this island

depends on the diligence
of the next generation.

There are at least
nine different types of lemurs

here roaming throughout the park.

A local guide accompanies you,
helping to spot the different species

and explaining
their unique adaptations.

This is a great introduction
to the endemic wildlife of this land.

'Endemic' is just a fancy word

meaning "found nowhere else
in the world but here".

They are quite mischievous,
and no camera part is safe.

What the...?
Are you licking the lens?

Having gotten addicted
to lemurs and their antics,

I wanted to see some in the wild.

One of the best places to do that

is in a private reserve in the
south of the island called Berenty.

This is where I can fulfil
part of my quest,

finding the dancing lemur.

We booked a flight on Air Madagascar
to Fort Dauphin,

where it is a pleasant 2-hour drive
to the park.

A word of warning - locally,
Air Madagascar is known as Air Maybe.

There are many travellers' tales
of the airline cancelling flights

or overbooking and bumping passengers
to a later or a next-day flight.

And, sure enough,
our flight was cancelled,

causing us to shift our schedule,

but, having been forewarned,

we planned for such an eventuality.

Don't book your interior flights
too close to your international ones.

International carriers aren't liable
should you get bumped,

and missing your homebound flight
can be costly.

Berenty was founded
by a local family of French descent

to preserve a biologically rich area
of the spiny forest,

a unique eco zone
of desert plants resembling cactus

and home
to a wide assortment of fauna.

It is the best place to see
the gregarious ringtails in the wild.

These are the most recognisable
lemurs for two reasons.

First, they are the most widely
displayed in zoos around the world,

and secondly,
because one of them portrays the king

in an animated movie
that is strikingly similar

to the name of this island.

Ringtails thrive
in dry or warm conditions.

They are the most social
of all lemur species,

sometimes found
in groups of 30 or more.

Their primary diet consists
of leaves, vegetation and insects,

though, if you don't watch
your breakfast or lunch,

they may share your meal.

The ringtails
are not the only local lemur species.

The more entertaining one,
if that is even possible,

is the Verreaux's sifaka.

These large lemurs, more than
twice the size of the ringtails,

have a particular habit
that blew me away.

Early in the morning,
as the sun rises,

the sifaka climb up
to the top of the spiny forest plants

and sun themselves.

This by itself is quite fascinating,

watching them play
and enjoy the early morning heat.

But that is just a prelude

to the most fascinating behaviour of
these rare primates.

Yes, I did say primates.

Lemurs are prosimians,
or early primates,

so they are our distant cousins.

These particular adorable relatives
have a style of movement

that sets them apart
from all other lemurs.

They dance when they travel
on the ground from tree to tree.

This is what I came here to see.

OK, maybe nature didn't design them

to travel in open spaces
between trees as a dance,

but that is exactly
what it appears to be.

For some reason, sifaka move
on the ground on their hind legs

like a human.

This is not a normal posture
for them,

so their balancing act comes across
like a comical dance.

This strange and fun sight is
worth a trip to Berenty on its own,

fulfilling my first quest,

but there is so much more here
to see.

The invertebrates
are even interesting in Madagascar,

from weirdly proportioned weevils
to one of the largest cockroaches,

the famous, or,
depending on your taste, infamous,

Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

Don't worry, these cockroaches
wouldn't be caught dead,

or alive, for that matter,
in your hotel room.

They are exclusively forest dwellers,
living under the bark of trees.

Another common invertebrate,
an animal without a backbone,

is the scorpion,

but don't tell them
they don't have a backbone,

because they may take offence,
and you don't want that.

Madagascar is a birder's dream.

There are at least 109
endemic species

and another 20 or so
found only in Madagascar

and the surrounding islands.

One of those
is the Madagascar nightjar.

Nightjars are nocturnal birds and are
notoriously hard to see in the day

due to incredible camouflage
keeping them safe from predators.

The guard, though,
knew right where to look

or we could have
easily stepped on it.

A few minutes later,
he proved himself a second time,

locating another day sleeper,
the local Madagascar scops owl.

How did he find that?

The best way, especially if you don't
have access to an eagle-eyed guard,

to see night creatures

is by doing a walking spotlight tour
of the spiny forest.

We're looking for the nocturnal
animals - the sportive lemurs,

the mouse lemurs, chameleons,
maybe tenrecs.

Uh, several of the species
of animals in this area

are found only in the night.

And so we're looking
for their eye glow.

And that is the only way
we'll be able to spot 'em.

Most of the small lemur species
are nocturnal.

Night animals' eyes glow
when the light hits them,

making them easy to see.

Nights are not only for lemurs

but also
for Madagascar's famous chameleons.

Related to but distinct
from their mainland cousins,

Madagascar has both
the largest chameleons in the world

and the smallest.

Again,
they are all endemic to Madagascar.

In fact, 90% of
all plants and animals on this island

are found here and here alone.

One of the most remarkable aspects

of this fourth-largest island
in the world

is its diversity of eco zones.

Even more astounding is that there is
virtually no overlap in species,

birds, mammals, insects, plants,

from one ecosystem to the next.

That makes Madagascar one
of the richest bio zones on earth.

I wanted to see
another of those wilderness areas,

the one famous
for its singing lemurs.

So it was off to the most accessible
rainforest park in Madagascar.

Perinet, or, more correctly,
Andasibe, is a national park

set up to preserve the diversity
of the rainforest habitat,

but more specifically,
the critically endangered indri.

A close relative
of the dancing sifaka,

the indri has its own special
performance and musical proclivities.

It sings really, really loud!

These teddy-bear-looking lemurs
are found

only in two adjacent national parks

just a 4-hour drive out of Tana.

We arrived at the park

and I immediately began to focus
on my quest at hand.

We're in Perinet National Park,
on the trail of the indri.

The indri are a special lemur
that can call over a mile

to claim its territory.

So tracking it in the morning
is essential,

because that's the only time
that they vocalise.

Critically endangered,
there are less than 700 in the wild

and none in captivity.

These large prosimians
are a big draw at Perinet.

They are hard to photograph
or even see

since they rarely come down
from the heights of the trees.

Because they have
a natural resonating chamber,

their voices can be heard miles away.

They have different sounds
for alarm, mating

and most commonly,
territorial claims.

(INDRIS CALL)

These calls let other family groups
know where they are.

We had the opportunity to visit
two groups and record their calls.

To the human, it is hard,
maybe impossible,

to distinguish one call from another,

but to the indri, it is a signature
of a particular individual

within a specific family group.

(INDRIS CALL)

Trekking through
the dense forest in the rain

to see these rare creatures
was worth it,

despite hazards such as bloodsucking
leeches and thorny bushes

that tore holes in our clothing.

Andasibe is known for two other
diurnal, or daytime, lemurs.

The most common is the brown lemur,

a side of the family
that includes the ringtail

and
the black-and-white ruffed lemurs.

These three species
are most likely the ones

you might see in a zoo
outside of Madagascar.

But as beautiful as these are, they
are not the most gorgeous of all.

That was my next target, and, boy,
will it knock your socks off.

The diadem sifaka,

closely related to the dancing
Verreaux's sifaka, of Berenty,

are considered by many

to be one of the most beautiful
lemurs in the world,

with their black-and-white coat

mottled
with reddish-orange undertones.

They are also one of the largest.

Living in small family groups,

these sifaka are vegetarians,
eating fruits, leaves and flowers.

Unlike the indri, they have
long tails equal to their body.

All nine species of the sifaka
are threatened, some critically,

and they all dance
while they're moving on the ground.

Powerful jumpers,
they can leap 30 feet between trees.

After an incredible day of watching
lemurs navigate the dense forest,

I was ready to relax and recharge

both my literal
and figurative batteries.

What I needed was a wilderness lodge

that was both eco-friendly
and comfortable.

Vakona is that and more,

as it blends in with the environment
using solar power

to keep the lights on
until 10 at night.

That's when, by candlelight, you can
listen to the jungle come alive.

(CREATURES CALL)

I wanted to get a closer
and more personal look at the lemurs,

and to do that, I would take
the shortest boat ride of my life.

The Vakona Lodge
has a private reserve on its grounds.

This special island is separated
by only 20 feet of water,

and for good reason -
its furry inhabitants can't swim.

This is
a once-in-a-lifetime experience,

and it made for an exciting morning.

Here, orphaned and captive lemurs
interact with visitors.

They are very comfortable with humans

and will eat
literally right out of your hand.

(LAUGHTER)

Come on. One at a time only.

These primates serve as ambassadors

to their wild kin.

People can't help but fall in love

with their playfulness
and friendly disposition.

We were allowed on the island

only under the watchful eye
of one of their caretakers.

(WHISTLES)

BILL BALL: Part of the reason
they are so adorable

is they remind us of ourselves,

a more playful, lighthearted self,

but one we may wish for more often.

You can't go lemurless for long
and you'll get another lemur.

Ah!
(LAUGHS)

You're next, lemur.

(LOUD CHATTERING)

Is that really necessary?

Cameramen are usually stoic,
focused on getting the shot,

and would never turn their camera
over to an amateur like me,

but the lemurs got to Dave,
and I ended up filming him with them.

I just couldn't figure,
which is the zoom?

That's the zoom?

DAVE: Yeah.
That's focus right there.

BILL BALL: That's focus?
DAVE: Yeah. Zoom is on...

BILL BALL: On the side.
It's the...W and the T.

DAVE: Right.
BILL BALL: That's what I thought.

OK. So I did it right.

Yep. I can see a videographer award
in my future.

Like at Berenty,

a night walk can allow us to see
a side of the rainforest

that would otherwise be lost.

The rainforest is full
of tree frogs and small chameleons,

all different species
from the ones we saw in Berenty.

These tiny chameleons are full-grown

and have odd names like stump-tail,
short-nose and nose-horned,

making them sound more like gangster
nicknames than species of lizards.

I love night walks and drives
anywhere in the world,

because you can see wildlife that are
outside the normal daytime creatures

that we're more accustomed to.

All good things must come to an end,

and the wildlife of Andasibe
was no exception.

I had seen many species of lemurs
but no predators.

No ecosystem is complete
without the hunter.

Here, that is the fossa.

These nocturnal civets
are extremely elusive.

Our guide has seen only one
in the wild his whole life.

None are in zoos outside Madagascar,
but there IS one here.

Viewing an animal in captivity
is not the same as in the wild,

but this is the only one
I may encounter.

Very cat-like, these strong, swift
hunters are a lemur's nightmare.

Predators often come across
as the bad guy in movies,

but they are an essential part of the
ecosystem, stopping overpopulation,

which leads
to starvation and disease.

Unfortunately for the fossas,
with lemur numbers falling

and their populations
becoming more fragmented

due to slash-and-burn farming,

predator numbers drop even
more precariously than their prey.

As we head back to the city,
I have time before our flight

for just one more stop in Tana.

And I know what I want -

the handicraft and food market.

This market is so immense.

Nearly a mile long,

there are carvings,
baskets and woven textiles,

intermingled with fossils
and all things edible.

I collect native art, and so

any chance to see the work firsthand
is great.

Berenty
was a mind-boggling wonder of nature.

From the cute
marauding ringtail lemurs

to the first of my quests,
the dancing sifaka,

with virtually every mammal,
bird and invertebrate being endemic,

this is where life lists are made.

The rainforest of the east
yielded my second quest,

with the singing lemurs
known as indri.

And I will never forget
those crazy antics

of our friends on Lemur Island.

And, of course,
the capital city of Tana,

with its UNESCO World Heritage palace
and handicraft market,

where anything can be found
for a very reasonable price.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2023