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Madagascar's Most Amazing Wildlife… — BBC Earth shadowing | TryShadowing
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Madagascar's Most Amazing Wildlife | BBC Earth
Madagascar's Most Amazing Wildlife | BBC Earth
BBC Earth
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29:40 · Apr 19, 2026
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Madagascar
has
had
a
turbulent
past.
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0:01
Madagascar has had a turbulent past.
0:03
At its birth, it was ripped from India and Africa,
0:07
and the geological upheavals have continued since.
0:18
The north of the island is speckled with slumbering volcanoes.
0:25
On the forested slopes lives another Madagascar speciality.
0:34
A chameleon.
0:37
Chameleons weren't amongst those pioneering castaways.
0:42
Theirs is a different story.
0:44
It's thought that they evolved here in Madagascar itself.
0:50
They're wonderfully adapted to a life in the trees.
0:54
Their toes are fused, so their feet grip like tongs.
0:59
And the arrangement of their legs is unusual for a reptile.
1:02
They're beneath their body.
1:04
This allows them to walk on branches thinner than their body.
1:18
A male panther chameleon, one of the biggest.
1:27
A second male is in his tree.
1:30
He won't like that.
1:32
If the intruder doesn't back down, there will be trouble.
1:53
They're evenly matched.
1:54
It's neck and neck.
2:21
The territory holder wins, and the loser takes the quickest way out.
2:37
These are crowned lemurs.
2:50
They don't live up here,
2:51
but they must cross the peaks to find fruiting trees in the forest pockets.
3:30
Exposed to the tropical sun, it's devilishly hot.
3:48
The group seeks shelter and a brief respite.
4:03
The lemurs are vulnerable here and need to get a move on.
4:24
There's still a way to go before they reach the forest.
4:43
They get to what looks like the most daunting part of the journey –
4:46
a 30-metre drop,
4:48
where the limestone has fallen away to create sheer cliffs.
4:56
But crowned lemurs are
4:57
as good at rock climbing
4:58
as they are at tree climbing.
5:16
Once down, they'll find shelter from the heat and plenty to eat.
5:20
But they must be on their guard.
5:29
There is one danger
5:30
that every lemur on the island fears – a hunter
5:33
that climbs as well
5:35
as they can.
5:36
The fossa.
5:40
No big African predators made it to Madagascar.
5:43
There are no lions, no leopards, no wild dogs.
5:47
Instead, the island's top predator is a giant mongoose.
5:53
And it eats lemurs.
6:01
But it has more curious habits.
6:05
It's the mating season,
6:06
and this female has stationed herself 15 metres up a tree.
6:11
She's chosen a branch that will just support her own weight,
6:14
plus that of a male.
6:22
A male approaches.
6:23
If she approves of him, she'll allow him to mate.
6:26
If she doesn't, she'll back away to a thinner branch
6:29
and he won't be able to get to her.
6:37
She's only fertile for a few days a year,
6:40
so setting herself up in this tall tree is a good way of advertising
6:44
her availability to suitors.
6:47
And it seems to work.
6:50
This is the sixth male she's entertained today.
6:55
Here in the far south of the island,
6:58
the extreme conditions make this a land of rare specialists.
7:03
There is wildlife that's found nowhere else in Madagascar.
7:07
A little nocturnal mammal, whistling in the dark.
7:15
It's Grandidier's vontsira, one of the world's rarest carnivores.
7:21
They survive on a diet of almost nothing but insects.
7:27
As the climate here dried, only the toughest and most adaptable stayed on.
7:32
Grandidier's vontsira, able to survive on such a diet, was able to hang on.
7:58
They're sociable and playful, but their lives remain largely a mystery.
8:09
The intense dryness of this end of the island has demanded some ingenious behaviour.
8:15
In this desert scrubland,
8:17
desiccation is just as problematic for a spider as for a mammal.
8:22
An empty snail shell would make a perfect refuge from the heat.
8:28
But it's not safe lying on sand.
8:34
So this spider begins an astonishing process.
8:38
It attaches silk to the shell and starts to haul it into a bush.
8:58
This is the first time this has been filmed,
9:01
and may be the first time it's even been observed in the wild.
9:12
Each new strand is shorter than the last,
9:15
so the shell gradually gets pulled up.
9:18
Technique is key.
9:20
It's important that the shell is secured from several angles, for maximum stability.
9:33
This spider has got it wrong, and when the wind springs up,
9:37
it totally loses control.
9:48
Ring-tailed lemurs are just
9:50
as suited to life on the ground
9:51
as up in the trees,
9:53
and that makes them far more adaptable than most of Madagascar's lemurs.
10:00
Several troops of ring-tails manage to make a living in these highlands.
10:11
Some of the luckier ones occupy a more sheltered valley where a few trees
10:16
have managed to take root.
10:20
Morning fog condensing on leaves is an important source of water.
10:30
Although the mornings still have a chill to them, life here seems more relaxed.
10:40
But also more crowded.
10:51
Pied crows need to be moved on,
10:54
not least because there are some vulnerable arrivals in the troop.
11:03
Almost every female is carrying an infant,
11:06
an indication that life is comparatively easy up here.
11:17
With more protection from the elements, and a little more food,
11:21
this troop is particularly large
11:24
and can devote plenty of time to their social lives.
11:42
One female even has twins…..a rare event amongst ring-tailed lemurs
11:52
and a direct result of a good food supply.
11:57
But this valley troop still has to work hard to collect food in this
12:02
broken landscape.
12:07
Few lemurs are such good rock-climbers.
12:30
There's a real bonanza at this time of year.
12:35
While some gather canopy fruits,
12:37
the mother of the twins stays lower and gathers fresh leaves.
12:45
The young are born during the fruiting season,
12:47
when demands on the mothers are heaviest.
12:55
As the gradient slackens, the rivers slow and spread.
13:05
Down here, the forests are even more luxuriant.
13:18
It's so wet that some tree frogs don't need to lay their eggs in
13:23
water.
13:29
Instead, they stick them to the underside of leaves,
13:33
well out of reach of hungry fish.
13:36
In less than a week, they've already developed into tadpoles.
13:41
They mature very quickly.
13:47
But not quite fast enough, in this case.
13:58
The most unlikely of predators has stumbled on these clumps of spawn.
14:08
The protective jelly merely slows down the wasps' smash-and-grab tactics.
14:29
The wasps return again and again,
14:33
chewing up tadpoles before taking them back to their own nest.
14:50
And yet, the tadpoles aren't entirely helpless.
14:58
By the time they're only five days old,
15:01
they're already able to react to the vibrations created by the hunting wasps.
15:15
They hatch prematurely when stressed like this, and as the jelly liquefies,
15:19
the tadpoles dribble down to the leaf tip and into the water below.
15:27
They may be underdeveloped,
15:29
but they can swim well enough to give themselves at least a fighting chance
15:33
away from the jaws of the wasps circling above.
15:40
Red ruffed lemurs are big and noisy.
15:46
This troop has hit the jackpot.
15:48
Two trees – a fig
15:49
and a harami – practically next door to each other
15:52
and both loaded with ripe fruit.
15:58
With so few seed-eating birds on the island,
16:01
the trees rely on lemurs like the red ruffs to disperse their seeds through
16:05
the forest.
16:11
After gorging all morning, the clan settles down nearby to sleep off their lunch.
16:26
But while most doze, one lemur stays behind.
16:31
It's his job to guard the trees from fruit robbers.
16:37
And in such a rich forest,
16:39
a fruiting tree quickly becomes a magnet for other interested parties.
16:49
Madagascar green pigeons are quickly seen off.
16:55
A vasa parrot has slipped in under the lemur's guard…..but it makes little impact
17:03
on the supply of figs.
17:13
Others need to be watched more carefully.
17:23
A gang of white-fronted brown lemurs has spotted the fruiting trees
17:28
and want to share.
17:38
The males have striking white caps, and they lead the raid.
18:05
It takes the red ruff guardian a while to catch on to what's happening.
18:21
The brown lemurs are quick and agile.
18:30
And with 10 of them and one of him,
18:33
it's not that easy to get control of the situation.
19:01
By the time he has finally seen them off,
19:03
the rest of the clan are on their way back to feed in the
19:06
harami tree.
19:26
With food just an arm's length away,
19:29
these particular lemurs appear to be living a good life.
19:33
At least for the moment.
19:39
In such tough times, there are battles for territory in the most unexpected places.
19:49
As night falls in the baobab forest, an extraordinary crowd emerges.
20:02
They're baby flatid bugs.
20:05
By day, they're barely visible.
20:07
But at night, they swarm over the trees and start to feed.
20:15
They drink sap, and each settles itself into a spot on the branch.
20:25
But even at this miniature level, there's a battle for resources.
20:29
And here and there, fist fights break out.
20:34
This curious spat has never been observed before.
20:41
For the most part, however, they feed quietly.
20:44
And as they feed, they excrete unwanted liquid, called honeydew.
20:50
It coats the branches and remaining leaves.
20:54
And this is very attractive to other insects
20:57
that are out and about at night.
21:06
And that, in turn, provides a feast for mouse lemurs.
21:12
At around 60 grams, mouse lemurs are the world's smallest primates.
21:30
These are all males.
21:32
The females are fast asleep in tree holes, and have been for months.
21:36
They can sleep right through the dry season,
21:39
and they'll only emerge when the rains come.
21:42
It's a way of saving energy.
21:48
So for now, the males are on their own,
21:51
feeding on anything that will take them through the lean times
21:55
and waiting for the day
21:56
that the females awake.
21:58
The baobabs' scrappy branches suddenly begin to put out a first flush of green
22:04
leaves.
22:04
They're drawing on the precious water they've stored in their fat trunks.
22:08
There will soon be rain here, and the baobabs sense that it's coming.
22:16
There's a scent of rain in the air.
22:20
Other life is beginning to stir.
22:25
This little chameleon has not long hatched, but already it's in a race,
22:30
and it has one of the strangest strategies of all for dealing with the
22:34
extreme dryness.
22:38
They are Labord's chameleons, and they only live in this part of the island.
22:48
This little male already has a voracious appetite.
22:53
Although this spider may be beyond him.
23:15
These strange little chameleons have the shortest lifecycle of any land vertebrate in the
23:22
world.
23:23
They spent the last nine months underground inside an egg,
23:27
and now they have just eight weeks to grow to adult size.
23:46
They will have to grow more than a centimetre a week.
23:55
There is no time to waste.
23:57
Conditions are so tough that living fast is the best strategy.
24:02
By the time the rains begin, his life will be almost over.
24:18
In fact, the rains have already started.
24:20
Only a splash, but a sign of a deluge to come.
24:29
For now, it's barely enough to wet the ground.
24:32
But it's enough to bring the mouse lemur females out of hibernation.
24:51
And the males are getting themselves ready for them.
25:08
They only have one chance to mate during the entire year.
25:13
Tonight's the night, and they can hardly wait.
25:23
It's understandably competitive.
25:25
These two males are fighting outside a female's tree.
25:44
One of the males tries his luck with her.
25:49
A swift left hook seems to make her feelings clear.
26:02
But he persists.
26:17
And she finally allows him in.
26:27
Trees that look lifeless are now revived and green.
27:02
And there has been another transformation.
27:05
The little Labord's chameleons have grown enormously.
27:13
This male is now five times bigger and in full breeding colours.
27:22
And this female has become a real beauty.
27:34
The male touches the branch with his tongue.
27:37
He can taste that she's been that way.
27:51
But before he can get to her,
27:52
he has to fight off a rival male.
27:56
They're all racing against time.
28:17
Their lives are so brief that they only have one chance to mate.
28:36
He approaches her, but she seems less than keen.
28:44
It may be that she's already mated and is already pregnant.
28:48
He might be too late.
28:53
She couldn't afford to waste time.
28:55
As soon as she's laid her eggs,
28:57
she'll die and all the males will be dead soon after.
29:01
Their lives are lived only in the brief wet season.
29:04
The violence of their short lives hastens their end.
29:10
Living fast and dying young – it's a radical strategy for a place where
29:16
resources are low for most of the year.
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