Episode 4 Deadly Mission Madagascar

This is Madagascar.

It's a vast island in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa.

And it's home to some of the most unique

and rare creatures on the planet.

Incredibly, 80% of the wildlife here exists nowhere else on Earth.

HOWLING

But it's a paradise under threat.

So I've sent eight ordinary kids from the UK to have the

deadly adventure of their lives.

They'll face the toughest challenges

and discover for themselves how to save this lost world...

..before it's too late.

Over the past few days, the guys have had an unforgettable time.

Yes, have it! Woo!

Seeing the wonderful wildlife that lives in the National Park

of Ranomafana.

Ah...

They've discovered that, once protected,

even damaged forests can burst back into life.

But now they have a new challenge.

This protected forest clearly benefits the wildlife.

But what about the people?

How are they affected by the national park?

The gang are going to have to find out.

Ranomafana is the jewel in the crown of Madagascar's national parks,

a real magnet for wildlife lovers.

About 30,000 tourists come here each year

from all around the world.

During their bio blitz,

the guys were amazed by the number of tourists they encountered.

We've come to the spot with red-bellied lemurs

and there's, like, so many tourists around us, it's absolutely packed.

The park's great for tourists and animals.

But on the flip side, now that the forest is protected,

the local people can't use it for resources such as wood

and food, as they once did.

So this challenge is going to be tough.

They need to find out

how the national park helps the local communities.

The best way for the gang to find an answer to that

is to start at the top.

Charlie, Raina, Okechukwu and Gwen are granted an interview

with one of Ranomafana's National Park Officers, Donal.

He's keen to explain to the guys how the park

benefits the local people.

Half of the tourists' entrance fee go to the park.

The other half to the surrounding villages -

a compensation for not being able to use the forest as they once did.

It's sort of a win-win situation,

because the people around and all the tourists, they're paying to see

the amazing things in the parks which goes to good use afterwards.

It's like people that work in the parks also get paid to look after.

As well as entrance money,

the second way that the park helps people is providing jobs.

With all these tourists, someone needs to show them around.

And the people that know the rainforest best are those

that live on its doorstep.

Guides like Emile and Loret now share their knowledge of the forest'

to paying visitors.

And there's a third benefit, as well.

Okechukwu and Jamie Rose are going to find out what that might be.

But while they wait for their ride,

they spot a tiny example of why tourists love the area.

There's loads of moths everywhere and I've just found a yellow,

orangey-pink one, it's beautiful.

SHE LAUGHS

This one seems really heavy-footed, though, and it's got quite

a fat body, so I'm a little bit cautious about this one.

The pair have arrived at a small community project that's

found another way of generating income from all these tourists.

Salama.

Well, we've just come into this place where these women are weaving,

and even the children are weaving, on these kind of wooden machines.

But they're doing it all by hand, it's amazing.

Weaving is famous in Madagascar and these women make a living

from selling their beautiful handmade scarves to visitors.

How long does it take you to make one scarf?

One week? Whoa.

The women make it look effortless.

Can Okechukwu and Jamie Rose do the same?

It's so difficult.

Okechukwu is a fast learner...

..and good at managing the distractions.

For Okechukwu, being creative is exactly what he loves.

I think it's good to have a wide range of different things

to make and cook. I have a big appetite.

Finished.

But perhaps what compels Okechukwu more than anything

is his appetite for language and culture.

English is one of my favourite subjects.

It's a strong way to just let out your emotions.

I'm really interested in people and cultures and different countries.

You need to be able to speak to someone in a way that they

can either feel welcomed, and feel safe, and you can make them

feel like they have someone to talk to, and just feel warm inside.

His compassion for others will be a great asset out here in Madagascar.

Jamie, how's yours going?

I don't want to ruin anything, in case, like,

this lady spends ages doing this, so I don't want to ruin anything.

But as our team are finding, making a living out here is hard work.

It's so delicate, you have to do everything just, like, perfectly,

or it just goes all wrong.

The maths is pretty simple, though.

Each scarf sells for up to £10,

and the guys have found out that the ladies weave one scarf a week,

so the daily wage for each woman is around £1.50...

..which is more than double the national average

of people in Madagascar. So it is worth it.

Okechukwu has found a deep respect for what they do.

Less than half an hour at the loom has got too much for him.

You have to be really patient because your back starts to hurt

quite a lot, and your legs as well,

here at the backs.

Really, really good.

Appreciating all the hard work that's gone into these scarves,

the guys turn into tourists for a few minutes.

I think it's out of these three.

At first, I didn't get the hang of weaving,

but at the end, I had a little like rhythm going and I bought my mum

a scarf. And to see their faces glow when I bought it made my day.

Thank you.

Misaotra. Thank you.

They don't complain because that's how they get their money.

So I think that it's a good thing that they're trying their best.

I'm really surprised that they do that for seven days a week,

all by themselves. It's really hard.

So this investigation by the team has had great results.

People and wildlife can both benefit

from a protected forest open to tourists.

It pays for everyone to protect it.

But their challenge is not over yet.

There's another way that the wildlife here is benefiting people.

Something so important, it could change the lives

of not just the locals, but everybody across the planet.

ValBio is a high-tech research centre in the heart of the park.

It enables scientists to study the forest

and the animals that live within it.

It's a wonderful wild and living laboratory.

And there's one creature that

lives in the forests of Ranomafana that is at the heart of one

of the most important research projects on the planet...

..the mouse lemur.

Scientists here are hoping that they can work with wild mouse lemurs

to find cures to some of the worst diseases

that affect people across the globe.

Oak, Eilidh, Jamie and Yoran are going to become research scientists

for the night and join in with this ground-breaking project.

Their first job is to safely collect some mouse lemurs.

To do this, they'll set some traps baited with

a mouse lemur's favourite snack - banana.

I'm going to turn into a banana if I keep eating them. That's all...

You are what you eat.

These traps are simple.

Mouse lemurs, driven by their craving for bananas,

push open the door to get in, but can't open the door to get out.

Instead, they sit there eating banana

and waiting for a scientist to come and let them out.

They must be really small because, I mean,

the great bamboo lemurs, which I held, they were quite small

for lemurs and they were about this long,

2.7kg. And that trap is tiny.

But I reckon they'll just be like miniature normal lemurs.

And miniature is what mouse lemurs do best.

They are in fact the smallest primates in the world,

and so there's plenty of room for them inside those little boxes.

Everything about them is tiny.

The smallest species could sit in a spoon

and weigh no more than a packet of crisps.

But they're hard to find as they only come out at night,

hunting for food in the trees.

They will feed on insects...

..but especially love the sweet taste of banana.

The guys spread out and set their traps.

See, if you just hold that.

Oak and Jamie Rose get to grips with the process,

but not everyone's finding it as straightforward.

JAMIE ROSE LAUGHS

I'm quite proud of myself.

No.

If we tie it round.

Perfect.

Job done! They'll be back later when it's dark

to see if they can have their first encounter with a mouse lemur.

While the mouse lemur team have been setting their traps,

Okechukwu and his team have been scrambling to get ready

to go back to their first location.

A call has alerted them to a chance of a lifetime.

The team at Kianjavato have located the nest

of the strangest living animal in the world,

and no trip to Madagascar is complete without seeing it.

Plus, it gives them a chance to hook up with some of their old friends...

Susie, the local research team, plus Fabrice

and his buddies, all preparing for another jungle hike.

The locals are essential to locate any wildlife out here,

especially our curious, elusive beast.

Almost immediately, they're reminded what makes this place so special.

You know what that is? It's a sanzinia.

-Sanzinia.

-Sanzinia.

-Yes.

Sanzinia are otherwise known as Malagasy tree boas.

They're constricting snakes that squeeze and eat birds,

reptiles, even small mammals like mouse lemurs.

Yes, let's keep on going. Well done, guys, well spotted. Thank you.

We've only been going for like five minutes, but still,

because we've had, like, days of this.

My thighs are burning so bad,

and the heat is just making it ten times harder, and like half

of these trees are all spiky so you can't even grab onto them.

SHE SIGHS

The guys that live here, however, are way ahead.

It's no sweat for them...

How can I be sweating while I'm sitting down?

..unlike our Brits.

-You can even see it.

-I know.

It looks like we've just poured oil over ourselves to make us look...

It's not just the gang struggling to keep up with the Malagasies,

the crew are soon left way behind, as well.

Ha-ha. Ah, good.

Back with Team Mouse Lemur in Ranomafana,

night's fallen so the crew have switched to night-vision cameras.

Yoran, Eilidh, Oak and Jamie Rose head out with the researchers

to see if they have any mouse lemurs.

There we go.

Oh, it's a lemur. It's a lemur.

(This is so exciting, we've just got three lemurs now.)

After checking all the traps, that number goes up to four.

Four safe and sound mouse lemurs stuffed with banana

that will join the scientists back in the lab.

Over in Kianjavato, Susie has halted the team's

gruelling trek to find their mysterious creature.

The Madagascan kids here aren't even breaking a sweat

and we are, like, proper caked in it.

They're now two hours deep into the forests

but it should be worth it, there's something truly special here.

OK. So we've just gotten here, you guys,

and we are right under the nest of the rare and elusive aye-aye.

-Cool.

-Cool. Wicked.

Aye-ayes are Madagascar's strangest-looking animal.

But their strange looks have got them into trouble.

Many people across Madagascar believe that aye-ayes are evil

and a symbol of death.

And this is one of the reasons why aye-ayes are now very rare.

Susie's hoping that by getting the local kids to see

really how amazing these creatures are, Conservation Fusion

can change people's opinions of the aye-aye before it's too late.

Whilst they sit and wait for any sign of the aye-aye

coming out of its nest,

some fun wildlife-spotting tools get handed around.

And the crew unearth some fancy kit of their own.

This thermal camera will hopefully give everyone a chance

to see an aye-aye in the wild.

They used to use it with the military, so it's mega-posh.

And then you can swap.

The sound man is their first test subject.

-You're hot, man.

-He went really hot.

-Really?

-You're 28 degrees.

-Wow.

-Oh, you go.

-Yeah.

Fabrice and his gang have lived alongside the forest

all their lives.

Oh, man.

They know it well and they're really good at spotting animals.

You guys, Fabrice is the one that found it.

-Nice one, Fabrice.

-It's really tickly.

It's the team's first Madagascan millipede, and it's a beauty.

They might be common here, but that doesn't mean they're easy to find

in amongst all the leaf litter.

The animals they find just keep on coming.

-Gwen, come and see a spider.

-OK, OK.

ALL: Chameleon!

Back turn, go.

With all this wildlife and such enthusiastic guides,

it's amazing to think that this forest in Kianjavato is not

a national park like Ranomafana.

I don't know how these guys spotted it.

These are all welcome distractions, but Charlie

and Gwen turn their attention back to the thermal camera.

Go down, go down, go down a bit. Keep on going.

-Right there.

-Now down.

What's that?

Oh, yeah. Found something big.

It's something red.

-Oh, I see it!

-Where is it?

It's right up there, like, I can see...

If what we're seeing on here is an aye-aye, that'd be wicked.

Back in Ranomafana in the high-tech lab with scientist, John,

Jamie Rose and Oak are about to get their first look at a mouse lemur.

So we have our four lemurs that we trapped tonight.

So you'll get your first close-up view of a mouse lemur.

-You can get in close there.

-Oh, my gosh, it's tiny.

So what do you notice about it?

They've got, definitely got very large eyes.

Yes, so its large eyes.

Quite a thick tail.

It's got a thick tail, that's right.

If he has a fat tail, that means food's out there,

he's getting a lot of food. So he's a healthy animal.

And it looks a lot like a mouse, except this is a primate.

So just think about that, we're primates, chimpanzees,

gorillas are primates, monkeys, and this is a primate,

so this is one of our cousins.

And because it's one of our cousins, what we understand about this animal

can help us also understand something about ourselves.

Mouse lemurs and humans are so alike that we can get similar diseases.

These lemurs have been studied for many years and scientists know

when one of them is sick.

To understand these illnesses,

researchers take samples of their cells and blood.

But it doesn't hurt the wild mouse lemurs.

Any test results will be similar to what happens in our cells

when we get the same diseases.

Knowing that could lead to cures for Alzheimer's, HIV, malaria,

and even, hopefully one day, cancer...

..which could save millions of people's lives all across the globe.

Yoran and Eilidh are itching for their chance to see

these special creatures.

Take a look at what they're doing. So how does that look?

-Oh, it's so cute!

-Yeah.

-It's amazing.

-Isn't that cool?

At one point, it just sort of sat up and went... And looked at me

straight in the eye and it was the strangest feeling,

as if you were looking at your long-lost cousin.

It's amazing because this research lab is in the middle of nowhere

and it could hold the secret to unlocking human genetics.

It's amazing.

It's late, their challenge is almost complete, but before they can

head off to bed, there's one final task that needs to be done.

We're just heading back to camp and, on our way there,

we're releasing the lemurs that we just caught.

The lemurs are released in exactly the same place as they were trapped.

THEY LAUGH

They need to live wild and free for this project to work.

Wow, that jumped far.

So keeping these mouse lemurs

and their forests protected is essential for everyone.

Ta-ta, mouse lemur.

Be free, little lemur.

Stay healthy in your environment.

In your natural habitat.

Wow. Amazing creatures.

This vital work proves that saving the wildlife of Madagascar benefits

not just the local people, but also people all around the world.

The team searching for the mysterious aye-aye have

definitely seen something, but what?

They flick to their special night-vision camera

to get a clearer shot.

Okechukwu.

It's an aye-aye out hunting for something to eat.

I can see it, I can see its face.

I can see its finger. Oh, wow.

It's tapping. It's tapping, it's tapping.

Wow.

The aye-aye's long, pointy finger, large ears

and sharp teeth are all shaped by their love of grubs.

They tap on trees to find larvae inside.

TAPPING

Once they hear where the grub is, they gnaw a hole in the wood...

..and use their thin middle finger to wiggle them out.

This way, they can reach prey that no other mammal here can reach.

If Fabrice and his friends see the aye-aye as exciting,

not evil, it bodes well for the future of these animals.

I'm just going to show Fabrice what we're doing and explain the gear.

Fabrice, this camera picks up heat that the aye-aye's going to put off.

So we think that bit might be the aye-aye because it's red and hot.

What do you reckon?

Yeah?

But that's not all.

There's something else moving up in the tree.

The aye-aye does not seem to be alone.

We think we've just seen the baby one waking up.

It's really exciting to see it.

Someone put the big torch on.

The aye-aye has a baby with her.

He's eight months old and forages for food alongside his mum.

These local researchers check on the aye-aye regularly.

Without monitoring these remarkable animals,

nothing would be known about them.

And if the aye-ayes are allowed to disappear,

we'll never know what secrets they might hold.

And it's animals such as this that could attract tourists

to Kianjavato and bring more money to the forests and to locals.

But right now, it's time for a celebration.

Their aye-aye challenge has been a success!

Wow.

Are you excited?

It's their last night in the jungle, and it's ended on a high.

They've had an incredible few days, seeing some of the craziest

and rarest creatures in Madagascar,

and experienced first hand how important the wildlife

and the forest is for people.

The protected forests of Ranomafana bring in much-needed cash

to the locals...

..and also provide a home to the mouse lemur, a creature that could

hold the key to curing some of the world's most widespread diseases.

Who knows what else the scientists could discover out here?

It's more proof that protecting the wildlife

and the forests of Madagascar is a truly global issue.

The guys get ready to move on to their next location

and a new set of challenges...

It's starting to get a bit creepy.

Wow!

..where they'll be encountering animals on the verge of extinction,

and working directly with the scientists on the front line...

What is that?

..trying their best to stop this from happening.

SHE GASPS

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd