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David Attenborough Madagascar The great mystery of Madagascar is why it has such a unique and varied flora and fauna - a diversity of life that makes even the famed Galapagos Islands pale by comparison. What is it that makes Madagascar so different from the rest of the world? This series finds clues from Madagascar's extraordinary animals, plants and landscape to discover how the island's remarkable past has produced its intriguing present, like the Tsingy - a series of jagged limestone peaks that have cut off animals in isolated gorges, allowing them to evolve into their own unique species. On the east side of the island, rugged mountains rise dramatically from the palm fringed Indian Ocean. Travelling from the highest mountains, where trees are few and it's cold enough for frost, through the lush, cloaking rainforests, down to the tropical coast, discovering the ring-tailed lemurs, the jewelled geckos and the giant predatory wasps. So what is it that has made this narrow eastern strip in particular so rich in life? South of Madagascar is home to its most extraordinary landscapes - from forests of 'upside down' trees, to alien 'spiny deserts'. In stark contrast to the east, this is a place that's bone-dry for most of the year yet it's extraordinarily rich in wildlife. Here only the toughest and most opportunistic survive and some of the strategies to survive here are ingenious. This DVD follows the long dry season of this landscape to see how life copes, as it waits for the brief rains. Profiles the variety of different species that live on the island of Madagascar. Because of its distance away from the African continent, Madagascar remained undiscovered for many years and its isolation from man has allowed it to become a hot bed of evolution. This series examines the various different animals and plants that are indigenous to Madagascar and the reason which set it apart from anywhere else on the planet. For 65 million years Madagascar was lost to the world - sat in splendid isolation, undiscovered and untouched by man. Left to its own devices it became a hot bed of evolution - creating the greatest concentration of unique creatures anywhere on the planet. More than 80% of Madagascar’s animals and plants are found nowhere else on Earth. Recognised as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, this is an Alice-in-Wonderland island of weird animals, strange plants and extraordinary landscapes.
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