Episode 6 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.

But it's a paradise under threat.

So I've sent eight ordinary kids from the UK...

Oh, tenrec!

..to have the deadly adventure of their lives.

Oh, that did not just happen!

They'll face the toughest challenges...

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

..before it's too late.

Last time, our team arrived in Ankarafansika Wildlife Reserve -

a hot, dry forest in the north of Madagascar.

Their challenge was to find out how the animals here have come

so close to extinction,

and found hope in a captive breeding programme, discovering that

safe release sites are a way to secure an animal's future.

Back in the reserve, this time they have a new challenge.

They'll be tracking down Madagascar's most elusive

creature, the fossa.

Madagascar is unique. 80% of the animal species ONLY live here,

they don't exist anywhere else in the world.

But some of these creatures are facing extinction.

It's thought they're being pushed out by animals that have only

recently arrived to Madagascar.

They're called invaders...

..and the fossa is on the front line.

Our group want to find out which invader is threatening the fossa.

Their first challenge is to catch a glimpse of a fossa in the wild.

And to this end they're going to need help from a top

carnivore specialist.

Hi, guys. How are you?

So my name is Luke, and I study fossa,

and so what I hope you guys are going to do today is come with me

to help put out some camera traps so we can see which individuals

are here, put out some cage traps so maybe we can trap them.

Are you ready? All right, let's do it.

The group split into two, and Raina's team go with Luke.

They don't have to go far.

In fact, surrounding their campsite is perfect territory for fossa.

We're just going into the forest

and we're off to set some fossa traps, and we've got to get to

some specific places where they know that fossas will be around

so they have the best possibility to catch one, and I have some

bait which we're going to use in the traps for the fossa, and it's

sort of disgusting - it's got ants and things crawling over it.

Luke's been studying fossa for over ten years

and is passionate about protecting them.

He only tries to trap them a few times a year,

so he can collect important data and check on their health.

All right, so here... so this is our first cage trap.

All right, so the way these traps work is pretty simple.

You see the meat here in the back and it's staked down

so fossa can't just come along and pull it out the side.

So what happens is, it walks in there, it's trying to get to

the meat, it steps on this treadle right here and when it does...

You don't have to worry about it catching their tail, you see

there's a lot of give here and so it's not going to,

to cut a tail off. That would make me very sad as well.

Is it possible that the fossa could go in without touching the plate?

Absolutely, it's possible.

We have been defeated by fossa in every way imaginable,

-getting in and out of these traps.

-Taking the meat?

What are the chances of us catching one?

I think the chances of us catching one are pretty good

but this is wildlife,

so you never know, it's not that...

it's not like we can call for a fossa delivery.

So that's how the cage traps work. Let's set up

a couple of camera traps and see if we can see one going in.

-Cool?

-Cool.

-Yeah.

Fossa are about this high.

These camera traps are equipped with a motion sensor.

They'll be triggered and take a picture when anything walks past.

-About that high?

-I think that's good.

-Pointing this way and then

if anything crosses over the path, we'll know.

-Yeah. D'you think that's good?

-It looks great.

What's the most important thing in setting a camera trap?

It's facing the right way.

That's probably second most important.

-Turning it on?

-There you go.

-Yeah, looks pretty good.

-Perfect.

-So that's on.

-All right.

-See what we get.

-Put up the next one and better our chances.

And to increase their chances, Raina tempts them

with just what a fossa likes.

-Is that enough?

-More than enough, that's perfect. Well done.

On their way back, they get a clear sign that fossa have recently

been in the area.

This is tiny little piece of fossa poo,

and you can see it's kind of grey.

It's really nice being in the dry forest like this

because things stay pretty well preserved.

But here there's good clues. Uh-oh, there's a jaw.

Does anyone see the little biddy teeth in there?

Fossa are best known for hunting lemurs,

so this little rodent had no chance.

And that's how you find out what a fossa eats for a living.

While Raina's team are yet to see an animal, Jamie's team are at camp...

..and Yoran has managed to catch a lizard.

Over in a tree over there we just found this lizard.

It's a spiny-tailed iguana, which is awesome.

Back home, Yoran has a passion for sports.

He's also known for being mad about animals.

Yeah, I've got a massive obsession with animals.

I've got at least 50 books.

There's animals all over my room, from models to pictures.

I've got these three animals. My leopard gecko called Lucky.

This American train millipede.

But his favourite animal would struggle to fit in his room.

My favourite type of animal is crocodile.

It's because resembling to like dinosaurs and that

and they haven't changed in millions of years.

I love having all these animals and if it was up to me

I'd fill the whole house with them.

In camp, Yoran returns the iguana safely to its home.

Best catch of the trip for me so far, that I'VE caught,

not like a guide or someone, which is cool.

-D'you think you're Steve Backshall?

-Me and Gwen helped him.

Ah! I think I'm on the road to being Steve Backshall.

I mean, catching a lizard has got to be...got to get me close.

D'you know what that sounded so pathetic,

you were like, "Catching a lizard, got to get me close."

It's a lizard, and it's an iguana.

Which is a type of lizard.

I know. I knew that.

It's a good find, but it's not the animal they're looking for,

the fossa.

This is one that's been filmed at night.

They're successful nocturnal hunters

and unfortunately for their prey, they're also good in the daytime.

The top native predator of the forest, their long tail

certainly comes in handy when chasing lemurs through the canopy.

An agile moving creature like this will be tricky to trap or

film on their remote cameras.

Jamie's team are up early and it's their turn to go into the forest.

They're checking the fossa traps that Raina's team set yesterday.

It's really early. We had to be up at half five, well five o'clock.

Here we go.

I was born ready.

I was born to do this.

And no fossa in that trap,

but we've got lots more left to check.

So there's two back here, one after the other, so I'll run,

check 'em both, but I'll be a little bit longer, OK?

Luke approaches the traps alone first to make sure

if anything's caught, it's not stressed out.

He's going to check the fossa traps, but there's two.

Hopefully we'll get something, fingers crossed.

These are empty. There's more to go.

After 15 empty traps, our team remain hopeful for the final one.

All right, guys. We're coming up to the last trap on the trap line.

Does everybody have their fingers crossed?

This is the last one.

I don't know... We haven't got anything.

I've just seen him shaking his head, I don't think we've got one.

-All right guys, last trap's empty.

-Ah.

The team begin to wonder why they haven't seen a fossa.

To find out if something's scaring them off,

they set up extra camera traps.

-Here?

-Yeah, let's put it right here, facing back towards that cage trap.

Turning it on.

-Somebody's learning.

-Right there?

Straight up the trail, maybe just like that.

What animal would be pushing out the fossa?

The team want to discover if there's an invader in the forest.

It's not just animals that are invading Madagascar

and threatening the wildlife. There are plant invaders too and on the

way back to camp, Luke's keen to show the team

one species that's causing

a big problem for the creatures that live in the local lake.

It's the water hyacinth.

If you guys look across through here, all this green that you see

actually has water beneath it.

And so this is Lake Ravalobe, which is very important to this area,

and these water hyacinths are an invasive plant species that

just arrived here about three years ago and in the meantime, they've

covered, I reckon, half of the lake and that's really messing up the

habitat for the fish and the turtles and everything that goes on there.

Water hyacinths have spread rapidly throughout the lakes of Madagascar.

Originally from South America, they're now widespread after

humans introduced them into their garden ponds.

If not controlled, these plants will choke this lake, starving

the water from oxygen, and killing the fish that live here.

Luke's come up with a great solution, removing

the hyacinths, drying them and using them as a fuel for cooking.

But to burn the hyacinths, you need a special rocket stove.

Raina's team has gone to the local village to see how these

special stoves work.

The best way to learn is to get stuck in and make one from scratch.

We're just about to make some stoves

and the final product's going to look like these,

and we're using some of the clay in that wheelbarrow to make them.

So let's go! Going to start.

Move it down.

So we need to mix up the mud here, to make it into clay

and then it'll be good to put into the mould.

I'm rolling my sleeves up. It looks like it's going to be dirty work.

And watch your hands as well.

I'm just kneeling down and getting these trousers dirty.

I'm not doing too well, these kids are much faster than me.

And Charlie begins to see how useful these stoves might be.

These stoves are going to be given to the local people,

and their only way of making fires and cooking is using the wood.

They're chopping it down, it gets rid of the wildlife,

the trees - just affects everything. So making these stoves means

they don't need to use as much wood, cos it funnels

the heat upwards, which also helps the local people, because that's less

money they've got to spend on buying the wood, so it helps everyone.

Look. Look at my hand.

Look at my rings.

-You'll wash it later.

-This is going to give me the skin of a tortoise.

The next stage is to put the mould together.

We're fixing this onto the base so it doesn't move when we're using it.

I'm not very good at DIY.

You haven't tightened these. We've been breaking the clay into bits,

then throwing it in the mould and I think that's to get all

the air out, so you can put as much clay in it as possible.

That was just hard work over there, but this is rewarding.

It's good for anger management, really.

This is why we're behind.

Just as our team get the hang of it, their aim seems to be out.

Oh, you got it in my ear, Oak.

Sorry.

Well, I think Oak's just bad at it, you know.

He just can't admit it, cos he can't admit if he's bad.

Mine split mid-air.

While Raina's team wait for the clay to set,

over at the lake, Jamie and Yoran meet up with wildlife expert Lance.

And head out onto the water.

I've never been on a boat before.

Having learnt that invading hyacinth plants can choke up lakes,

they want to find out just how important areas of open water

can be for animals that live there.

That's called a... That's a purple heron.

Although there's one animal that Jamie's really keen to avoid.

God, is that a crocodile?

No, see - I told you I was being paranoid, it's a log.

It's not that I don't like them it's just that,

-I dunno, I'm just really scared of 'em.

-Yeah.

But they're like the most successful predator that's ever lived.

No crocodiles yet, but in the trees there's an incredibly rare bird.

It's on the top, sitting up on the top, on the right, calling now.

It's the Madagascan fish eagle.

Because it's such a big bird and it needs nice big lakes,

it's become quite endangered.

So you can see when it moves,

the feathers aren't completely white but the ruffle is, so

when it moves, the feathers, you get this white flash, and a pale face.

Madagascan fish eagles are one of the most endangered

birds in the world.

Their closest relatives live on mainland Africa

and like all fish eagles, are expert fishermen.

They need to hunt over open water,

waiting till the last moment to snatch their prey.

If invading hyacinths were to choke their hunting grounds, then

it would be difficult for these eagles to find fish,

and it's this that threatens the fish eagle.

By removing the invader, Luke's project helps to keep the lake clear

for the eagle, and the hyacinth provides fuel for rocket stoves.

Raina's clay has finally set. It's time for the finishing touches

and the final judgement.

So we are going to set this like this, exactly the same.

So the firewood would go in there, and then the pot sits up there,

so that's like the hob on the cooker.

Ta-da!

So is our stove a bit dodgy, or does it past the test?

I think it's not too bad.

It's good, it's really good.

Ah, for me too! Why not?

Yeah?

Back on the lake,

Jamie's getting increasingly nervous about crocodiles.

I think it's a log, but it looks a lot like a crocodile.

Yeah, every log looks like a crocodile!

But actually she's right to be on edge.

On the bank is the one animal that she's really scared of.

A huge animal, right in there.

Oh, wow!

Oh, my God!

-I don't like it.

-That's awesome.

You don't have to worry, because he's over there.

Oh, God!

Jamie doesn't need to worry.

It would be much more interested in fish than in her.

I'm scared now.

While Jamie's struggling, Yoran's excited to see his favourite animal.

How big can they get?

A little bit bigger than this one.

They can get probably another metre on this one.

Jamie starts to relax.

Bye, Mr Crocky!

If you look in the corner over there

there's what looks like a log in the water,

but then next to it to the right, that's the head of a crocodile.

That's a big one.

This one's bigger than him on the right.

A bird came out of the bush and then it did this weird movement.

I jumped out of my skin.

There it is. Come back up over here, you guys.

Really beautiful though, even though they're really scary.

It's only by keeping the lakes healthy

and free from invading plants that animals like the crocodile

and fish eagle will be able to survive in Madagascar.

As night falls, they head back to shore.

It was exciting to see the first

crocodiles of the trip, also to see the Madagascan fish eagle, which are

really endangered and only found here in Madagascar,

which is amazing.

They're my favourite animals in the whole wide world ever.

Crocodiles, they're awesome.

That first one that we saw, though, that really scared me.

I just jumped out of my skin

and when one of 'em moved, like did a kind of roll...

You jumped so bad.

I was like, "Argh!" It was such an amazing experience, though.

Yeah, it was really good fun. Just can't wait to go tell the others.

All right, guys. So we were just like,

we were just cruising down the river, we saw some herons,

some herons, nothing...

-Parrots?

-Egrets and herons and then just cruising, we saw

two Madagascan fish eagles and seven or eight crocodiles.

Is that meant to be a joke? Are you really not interested?

LAUGHTER

It's their last night and spirits are high,

but tomorrow is their final chance to catch a glimpse of the fossa.

Raina, Eilidh, Oak and Charlie

head out early to check the fossa traps for a second time.

And this one's open too.

It's another empty one.

Five empty traps down, but the team are remaining optimistic.

Every one we've been past have been empty.

You know it only takes one of them to be triggered off

and then it's all worthwhile so

although it looks bad now, if we do catch one it'll just be brilliant.

Charlie's positive thinking could be about to pay off.

All right, so we've caught something but it's not a fossa,

it's a bird. There are some big ground birds around here.

Why don't you go right in there on the side,

just wave your hand back here like this,

so he can... And he's going to come out right on you guys there.

Just let him run right, there he goes!

Now that bird is going to have a story to tell his friends!

It wasn't a fossa. It was a small bird

and it was, it's a ground bird so it

went in to eat the bugs off the meat, but it got trapped

so we just released it, and it was sort of disappointing not to see

a fossa, but catching something in traps is still a good achievement.

All right, guys, so this is our last trap of the trap line for the morning

so today was a bust, maybe check, see

if we got something on the cameras instead.

-Yeah.

-All right? Cool.

Well, we all knew that it was a bit of a... you know, it was a

big chance we were taking, but we all feel disappointed anyway,

cos we were all hoping that we could turn up to the others, and say

"Guess what we found! We saw a fossa!"

Which is one of the most elusive creatures in Madagascar

but no such luck, the elusive has remained elusive.

Camera traps in hand, they head back to the camp to view

the footage on their laptop.

-That's a fossa.

-That there, no, that's a dog.

-It's a dog.

-That's a dog. A fossa has spots and stripes.

-Charlie caught a dog.

-Yes, got some action.

So there's a dog.

Yeah, look. The dog's been sabotaging...

We keep finding the dog.

Don't let it get the meat. Look, he's taken the meat.

If the fossa was nearby,

and the dog was there, would it have still gone for the cage trap?

No. We've been looking at this for a long time and the

village dogs here will sometimes go in the forest

and when they go in, they completely displace the fossa from the area

so this explains why there weren't any in the cage traps

because if that dog was running around the forest up there,

you can guarantee, because the dog is actually bigger,

that no fossa would have been in that area.

If the dog found the fossa,

what do you think would happen? Would the fossa run away?

I don't think they'd fight directly

but I think the fossa would just run away, because the dog's taller.

The other thing, often times when you see one dog that's sort of feral,

you see more than one,

and if they're social they can scare the fossa out of an area.

So do you think all the times you've been unsuccessful it's

-because of a dog, or...?

-I do.

So you think that if you were to reduce the dog population...

I think if we reduced the dog population, we're going to do

a big favour for the fossa.

We've all heard about problems that invasive species present

for nature. This is a perfect example -

the dog is an invasive species.

Man's best friend is becoming the greatest threat to the fossa.

Another example of how invaders can impact on Madagascan wildlife.

Dogs have been introduced by humans

and are the reason why our team haven't seen a fossa.

Right, guys. So we gave it our best. We didn't get fossa.

I'm glad you guys came and gave me this opportunity

to show these things to you, so thank you for coming.

-Thank you for having us.

-And guiding us.

While our team have been unlucky, they don't go away empty-handed.

Gwen and Yoran head to the zoo and finally get to see a fossa.

-Mini fossa.

-Baby fossa.

Ah.

This rescued female has just had a baby.

It's a rare opportunity and a positive sign for the future.

I've never seen fossa before in any zoo or anything

but it's, like, they're much, much smaller than I was expecting.

It kind of looks like a cross between a cat and a dog

with like a stretched out body and a lemur tail, basically.

It's amazing to get this close to such a small,

like, a baby fossa, it's amazing. I've never seen a baby fossa before.

You haven't seen any fossa before.

Looks like it's quite comfortable... Oh, there we go!

FOSSA GROWLS

Did you hear that?

-"Baa-aah."

-No, that's a sheep.

I dunno - it's weird, you try.

Yeah, it actually sounds like a sheep. "Meh!"

-It sounds like a sheep.

-It's like a sheep with a growl.

The main reason we didn't see a fossa in the wild

-was cos of the dog.

-Definitely, cos now you can see how downsized

they are compared to the dog,

cos the dog was about that big off the ground.

This is like...way smaller.

If the dog wasn't there maybe we'd have seen something,

maybe we wouldn't, you never know.

If we'd caught one in a trap that would have been amazing.

The camera traps would almost have been as good but to see,

to have one like in front of us, a wild fossa would be really cool.

Since we didn't, then this is pretty...

A privilege to see it.

Join us next time as our Deadly adventurers travel to

a remote island off the coast of Madagascar.

Here they undertake a challenge on a colossal scale.

They get beneath the waves to find out how the marine life is

coping under pressure...

..and meet the people who live here to find out

how complex conservation can be.

With paradise itself at risk, will our group discover the key

to securing its future?

-Go!

-Ah! Hooray!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd