0:00:06 > 0:00:12This is a story of an ancient island, an extinct giant
0:00:12 > 0:00:16and a mystery that I have been puzzling over for half my life.
0:00:18 > 0:00:2350 years ago, I came here to the island of Madagascar
0:00:23 > 0:00:26to make a series of programmes about the island's remarkable wildlife.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31That was way back in the early days of television
0:00:31 > 0:00:33when everything was in black and white.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37It was one of the first natural history series that I had made.
0:00:37 > 0:00:42Madagascar lies in the Indian ocean, here,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45and even on a globe this size, it looks a tiny island,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49perhaps because it is dwarfed by this vast continent of Africa.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51But in fact it is an immense island.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55Over 1,000 miles long, it is bigger than the British Isles.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00I was astonished by the animals I saw.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03They were unlike anything living elsewhere.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07And while I was here, much to my surprise,
0:01:07 > 0:01:12I acquired an extraordinary object that has been one of my most treasured possessions ever since.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18Down in the south of the island, I found lying in the desert sand
0:01:18 > 0:01:22pieces of what looked like very thick eggshell.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26I knew that a huge extinct bird had once lived down here.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29These must be bits of its eggs.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32I asked the local people about them.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34They were more than obliging.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43The fragments were all small and could give little idea
0:01:43 > 0:01:48of the size of a complete egg, but then a young boy brought in these.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58At first I thought they were just a collection of exceptionally big bits
0:01:58 > 0:02:01that he had picked up over some time,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05but then I noticed that two of them looked as if they might fit together.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09I had apparently got myself a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14And they did fit,
0:02:14 > 0:02:19so I joined them with the sticky tape we used to seal our film cams.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Soon I had built up two halves.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34This was a single immense egg
0:02:37 > 0:02:41and it was virtually complete.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46I reckoned it must have contained as much as 140 chicken eggs.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49The bird that laid it must have been a giant indeed.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53But this raised all kinds of questions.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57How old was this egg? When did this bird die out?
0:02:57 > 0:03:01And what does it tell us about man's relationship with the wildlife here?
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Here is the egg, professionally put together, almost as good as new.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18It is to me at any rate a wonderful object.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23After all it is the largest egg ever laid by anything.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26But what particularly fascinates me
0:03:26 > 0:03:29is the thought of the bird that laid it.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31What sort of a creature was it?
0:03:34 > 0:03:39Well, stories about gigantic birds have been circulating in Europe
0:03:39 > 0:03:46since the 13th century when Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveller and explorer,
0:03:46 > 0:03:49came back from the East with stories of a huge bird,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53"so big that its wings covered an extent of 30 paces
0:03:53 > 0:03:58"and its quills were 12 paces long, and it's so strong
0:03:58 > 0:04:01"that it will seize an elephant in its talons
0:04:01 > 0:04:05"and carry him high into the air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces."
0:04:05 > 0:04:11Stories of a bird so big they could lift an elephant.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14And that's what gave it the name of elephant bird.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19But after those rather unbelievable stories,
0:04:19 > 0:04:25there were other more concrete stories too, in the 17th century.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28This is an account of Madagascar written by Flacourt
0:04:28 > 0:04:30who was a French governor of the island
0:04:30 > 0:04:37and he lists all the animals that he knows in the island of Madagascar and he draws most of them,
0:04:37 > 0:04:43but if you look through here, there is no picture of a bird that could be an elephant bird.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47There's an egret, there's a heron, but nothing bigger.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54But he does say that there was a big ostrich-type bird
0:04:54 > 0:04:56in the south of the island.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00So maybe he heard stories
0:05:00 > 0:05:03of the elephant bird.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05But was it alive then?
0:05:05 > 0:05:08He doesn't say. Of course,
0:05:08 > 0:05:14we know now that the bird is certainly extinct,
0:05:14 > 0:05:17but when did it disappear?
0:05:17 > 0:05:21Since I collected this egg, techniques have been developed
0:05:21 > 0:05:27which enable us to date it, so I've sent off a small fragment of it for that to be done.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32It will take a little time for the results to come through
0:05:32 > 0:05:36but after 50 years, I guess I can wait a few weeks longer.
0:05:40 > 0:05:46Meanwhile, I'm off to Madagascar to have another look at its wonderful animals
0:05:46 > 0:05:50and see how things have changed in the last 50 years.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Some species are thought to have disappeared since I was last here
0:05:54 > 0:05:56and new ones have also been discovered.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01Could the story of the elephant bird, whatever it turns out to be,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04help me to understand what is going on there today?
0:06:10 > 0:06:1550 years ago, Madagascar was little known, certainly in Britain.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Until only a few years before, it had been a French colony.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25I really didn't know anything about it when I started to read about it
0:06:25 > 0:06:29and the only illustrations I could find were drawings or photographs
0:06:29 > 0:06:31of stuffed specimens in French publications.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36So I thought, OK, that's great, nobody else has filmed there,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39and I don't really think there had really been
0:06:39 > 0:06:44any natural history film made from Madagascar at all in 1960 that I could find.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51It was just me and Geoff Mulligan with his camera, and we were there for four months.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Because the island has been cut off for so long,
0:06:55 > 0:07:01evolution has had a chance to produce a whole range of unique animals and plants.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09But first, what about the elephant bird?
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Beyond the legends, what more do we know about it?
0:07:18 > 0:07:23The country's capital is Antananarivo, or Tana, as the locals call it,
0:07:23 > 0:07:29and the place to go if you want to find out about the island's natural history is obviously its museum.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36It had stuffed examples of some of the animals I already knew something about.
0:07:41 > 0:07:48But I also found a mounted skeleton of the huge bird that interests me so much,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51one of the very few that exists.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57So how tall was the elephant bird?
0:07:57 > 0:08:03Not an easy question to answer because very few skeletons are totally complete
0:08:03 > 0:08:07and so many of the mounted specimens have been put together
0:08:07 > 0:08:10with a number bones from different specimens,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14and if you get overenthusiastic maybe it's quite possible
0:08:14 > 0:08:17that you stick in one or two extra neck bones.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20So we can't be sure about the length of the neck,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24nor can we be sure about the posture, really.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27This one looks to me rather front heavy
0:08:27 > 0:08:32and it could well be that in life the animal was more upright,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35in which case it stood very tall indeed.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39What - ten feet, 12 feet, that sort of size -
0:08:39 > 0:08:43in order to be able to reach the leaves of trees on which it browsed.
0:08:43 > 0:08:48But a more safe characteristic is weight,
0:08:48 > 0:08:53and you can be fairly sure the estimate of that,
0:08:53 > 0:08:57and it's reckoned that the elephant bird weighed around half a tonne.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07The extinct moas of New Zealand might perhaps have been taller,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10but this was certainly the heaviest bird that ever existed
0:09:10 > 0:09:13and, of course, it was flightless, like an ostrich.
0:09:14 > 0:09:19Most of its remains have been found down in the dry, hot, southern end of the island
0:09:19 > 0:09:22where I had collected my egg fragments,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26so, on leaving Tana, that's where we headed.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Sounds like forever, 50 years, to me,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32but it's really the day before yesterday, I reckon,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35that I was here doing that sort of stuff.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38I can't believe that it's 50 years.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Southern Madagascar really is one of the oddest places on the world,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52if only because of its bizarre vegetation.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00I hadn't known what the spiny forest was.
0:10:00 > 0:10:06They showed me plants like long fingers 20 feet high,
0:10:06 > 0:10:1030 feet high, with spines all over them and little leaves, you know.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12Extraordinary.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16This spiny forest was once widespread in the south,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19but now there are only a few pockets of it left.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Big leaves would lose a lot of precious water in a hot desert,
0:10:28 > 0:10:34so these plants have very small ones that are protected from browsing animals by sharp spines.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37But what browsers?
0:10:37 > 0:10:41Presumably, one was the elephant bird.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Some browsers, however, are still around,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50and 50 years ago, we went to look for them.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58The spines make this a fairly uncomfortable place to move around in.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07But eventually we found those browsers.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10And they are still here.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Sifakas, a wonderful type of lemur.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19They are feeding on bark, stripping away the bark.
0:11:23 > 0:11:30They are not particularly upset by my presence any more than they were when I first saw them 50 years ago.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37What is astonishing about them is the way they move through the forest.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40Very unlike monkeys.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Monkeys, when they leap, leap hands first,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46their torso more or less level,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49but these marvellous creatures
0:11:49 > 0:11:53jump upright because they land with their feet first, which accounts for
0:11:53 > 0:11:57why when they come down to the ground very rarely
0:11:57 > 0:12:01their legs are so long they can't walk on all fours,
0:12:01 > 0:12:09as many monkeys do, but have to stand upright on their very long legs and their rather short arms,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13and that gives them this lovely balletic movement
0:12:13 > 0:12:15when they get around on the ground.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23There are quite a number of different species of these
0:12:23 > 0:12:26and they differ mostly in their colouration.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31This one with its dark brown...cap.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35And I think this is actually one of the loveliest.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42I can just hear them making that slight...siffa, siffa noise,
0:12:42 > 0:12:47which is a kind of, I think, uneasy noise that they make
0:12:47 > 0:12:52when they are just a little worried and which gives them their name of sifaka.
0:12:57 > 0:13:03Their faces with that long snout and moist nose,
0:13:03 > 0:13:06really rather dog-like,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09but it's when you see their hands
0:13:09 > 0:13:13that you realise that they are related to monkeys and to us.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15These grasping hands.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22I've actually had a pet lemur a long, long time ago
0:13:22 > 0:13:26and it held onto my hand in the most charming way.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33On that first trip, I kept a journal and reading it now reminds me
0:13:33 > 0:13:37of how excited I was, seeing these creatures for the first time.
0:13:39 > 0:13:46"Before they started feeding, the adult male and female treated us to a captivating display of wrestling.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49"The female was sitting on her bottom on the branch, her feet dangling,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52"while the male came along and put a half nelson on her.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54"Then the match started.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58"There was no question of sex nor of aggression, for they often broke off to look at us.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01"It was pure play and enchanting to watch."
0:14:08 > 0:14:12I've got notes here of what we filmed.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14It's all 100-foot reels.
0:14:14 > 0:14:19A 100-foot reel runs for two minutes 40, you know, two minutes 40,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21and you've got to stop and take the thing out as well,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24and of course the lenses we had were very poor
0:14:24 > 0:14:27and we didn't have zooms either,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30so now, if you see something up there, you've got the wide shot
0:14:30 > 0:14:33and then you zoom in quickly and you've got it.
0:14:33 > 0:14:40But if you did that then you'd have to take that lens out and put on another socking great lens.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51I had never seen a living sifaka until I came here to Madagascar.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55It was such a shock and a thrill
0:14:55 > 0:14:59to see them in the wild for the first time.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04And it's just about as great a thrill right now.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06They're bounding away on the ground.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24Sifakas are well adapted to living in this world of spines and thorns,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27and so, doubtless, was the elephant bird,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30but adaptation is often a two-way process.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35This is the seed of a particularly strange plant
0:15:35 > 0:15:38that grows in this arid, spiny forest.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42It is armed with a series of ferocious hooks
0:15:42 > 0:15:46which would have caught on the legs of the elephant bird
0:15:46 > 0:15:49and so be distributed throughout the forest.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55Now, presumably, it's us and our cattle who do the job.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01As you go further south, it gets drier and hotter until eventually
0:16:01 > 0:16:05there's not enough moisture to sustain even the spiny forest.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07And here, once again, I found egg fragments.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Lots of them.
0:16:09 > 0:16:1450 years ago, I thought I had been amazingly sharp eyed to find a few bits
0:16:14 > 0:16:20and I certainly was very lucky to be brought enough to reconstruct an egg.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22But there were so many pieces here,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25I think that I must have been half blind before,
0:16:25 > 0:16:26or in quite the wrong place.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33Of course, these thick shells don't turn to powder,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37like say, chicken egg shells would do over a few days,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40but remain solid and firm for a long time.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44Even so there are vast quantities of shells out there
0:16:44 > 0:16:49so there must have been a very substantial population of birds.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51What happened to them?
0:16:53 > 0:16:56Now, it's so arid that it's difficult to imagine
0:16:56 > 0:17:01huge flocks of giant flightless birds living here,
0:17:01 > 0:17:02but they must have done so.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07How greatly has the climate of Madagascar changed?
0:17:07 > 0:17:11We can get clues from examining the fossilised bones of other animals
0:17:11 > 0:17:15that were around at the same time as the elephant bird,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18and there were certainly some very extraordinary ones,
0:17:18 > 0:17:22some quite tiny and some giants, quite unlike anything around now.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32This is the skull of the biggest of all the lemurs.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34It's got a head much bigger than mine
0:17:34 > 0:17:39and indeed it was probably about the size of a young gorilla.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42This animal lived in trees
0:17:42 > 0:17:47and that's confirmed by a look at its teeth.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51These were the teeth of a leaf-eating animal.
0:17:51 > 0:17:57Not a grazer, not a meat eater, but a leaf eater.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02So this animal lived in trees and probably hung around
0:18:02 > 0:18:07rather like a koala, only very, very much bigger,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11and that tells us that where this lived there was forest.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19The rolling hills of the island are now nearly all bare of trees,
0:18:19 > 0:18:25yet bones of this giant lemur have been found in many widely separated places all over the island.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29Strong evidence that once the whole of Madagascar was forested.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31When I was here 50 years ago,
0:18:31 > 0:18:37I speculated that elephant birds had disappeared because their habitat had dried out
0:18:37 > 0:18:40and I put that down to a change in climate.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45Now we know that, although the climate here has indeed become much drier,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48that change took place many thousands of years ago
0:18:48 > 0:18:53and elephant birds living in the spiny forest managed to survive it,
0:18:53 > 0:18:58so climate change alone can't be blamed for the bird's extinction.
0:19:03 > 0:19:09Are there any other clues that might suggest an alternative explanation for that
0:19:09 > 0:19:14and for the fact that the giant lemur's forests have also gone?
0:19:16 > 0:19:22Well, it's been discovered that those giant lemurs all disappeared over a very short space of time.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26And that was when human beings arrived.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59Madagascar was one of the last places on earth to be reached by human beings.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02They didn't get here until around 2,000 years ago
0:20:02 > 0:20:05and then, of course, there were just a few hundred.
0:20:05 > 0:20:0850 years ago, there were around six million.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Today, there are 20 million.
0:20:14 > 0:20:20Was it human beings who exterminated much of the island's animals,
0:20:20 > 0:20:22the elephant bird, as well as the giant lemurs?
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Did they perhaps hunt them for food?
0:20:26 > 0:20:30One of the ways that you can tell whether or not human beings
0:20:30 > 0:20:34hunted an animal is to look at the animal's bones.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39This is the bone of an extinct lemur
0:20:39 > 0:20:43that dates from about 2,000 years ago
0:20:43 > 0:20:46when human beings first came to this island,
0:20:46 > 0:20:50and when you look at it, you can see at the top there,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52cut marks.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55So we know that this lemur was killed,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59or at least eaten, by human beings
0:20:59 > 0:21:04who cut the flesh away from the bone with some kind of knife.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07But the interesting thing is,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10although we also find elephant bird bones,
0:21:10 > 0:21:15hardly a one of the elephant bird bones have cut marks,
0:21:15 > 0:21:22so we can't really blame the disappearance of the elephant bird on hunters.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29If it wasn't climate change or hunting, what else could it have been?
0:21:29 > 0:21:35Although Madagascar is only separated from Africa by a relatively narrow stretch of sea,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38many of the first settlers came not from there
0:21:38 > 0:21:41but from Southeast Asia, thousands of miles away.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45In fact, the people who live in the centre part of Madagascar
0:21:45 > 0:21:50originally came from right across the other side of the Indian Ocean,
0:21:50 > 0:21:52here in the Malayan region.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56They must certainly have hunted the animals,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59but they also did something else which in the long run
0:21:59 > 0:22:02was far more devastating for the island's wildlife.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06They were farmers, and they cleared the forest to grow rice
0:22:06 > 0:22:09and provide grazing for their cattle.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11As the numbers of people increased
0:22:11 > 0:22:14so more and more forest was cut and burned.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17It is a process that is still going on.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34So, all over the island, the landscape began to change.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50I am on my way to the west of the island
0:22:50 > 0:22:54where a few small patches of that ancient forest still remain.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56These strange, beautiful trees,
0:22:56 > 0:23:01baobabs, are fire resistant and too big to cut down
0:23:01 > 0:23:04so in many places they are the only remnants left
0:23:04 > 0:23:08of the original forest that once covered this land.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12It would have been difficult for a creature the size of an elephant bird
0:23:12 > 0:23:14to live without vegetation of some kind,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18and today even the smallest of animals are struggling to survive here.
0:23:21 > 0:23:27One of those that have managed to do so is the tiniest of all known lemurs.
0:23:27 > 0:23:33It's called Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, and it was only discovered ten years ago.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Melanie Dammhahn is part of a team of scientists
0:23:37 > 0:23:41who are studying the animal, trying to work out how to protect it.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Ohh!
0:23:46 > 0:23:49- Tiny, tiny.- Tiny, tiny.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51Just only 30 gram body weight.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54- Yeah. Smallest primate in the world. - Smallest primate in the world.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57- Big eyes, small ears.- Very big eyes.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59- Yeah.- And a wet nose.
0:23:59 > 0:24:00- Yeah.- Yeah.
0:24:00 > 0:24:06'Melanie and her colleagues catch these lemurs and tag them to build up a picture of their behaviour,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10'essential knowledge if they are to be properly protected.'
0:24:10 > 0:24:12And how long will he have been in there now?
0:24:12 > 0:24:15- A few hours.- Is that all? - So we collect him at night...
0:24:15 > 0:24:19- Yeah.- ..and he stays in camp and sleeps in there, then we release him the next day.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21- And you have caught him how many times?- Maybe around 20.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25- So he's accustomed to it. - He's accustomed to it.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28- And do they travel very far? - They travel very far.- Really?
0:24:28 > 0:24:34- They have three-hectare home range so that is quite a bit for an animal like that.- Certainly is.- Yes.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37- They might even run five kilometres a night.- Really?
0:24:37 > 0:24:41- Yeah. An animal like that.- Amazing. - I think that is amazing, yeah.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43OK, let's see him go.
0:24:48 > 0:24:49He's coming.
0:24:51 > 0:24:52Come on.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Come on, little one.
0:24:56 > 0:24:57That's it. That's it.
0:24:57 > 0:24:58Oh!
0:25:02 > 0:25:08The work Melanie and her team are doing is vital for the survival of this little lemur.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13It's also revealing just why it is that this tiny creature lives here and nowhere else.
0:25:16 > 0:25:24This particular liana belongs to a species that only grows in this part of the forest
0:25:24 > 0:25:29and on it, and on no other kind of liana, lives this little insect.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33It's a bug which feeds by sticking its mouth parts
0:25:33 > 0:25:36into the liana and sucking out the sap.
0:25:37 > 0:25:44It then digest what it wants and excretes the rest as honeydew, a sort of sugary liquid.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48And it's that honeydew, that sugar,
0:25:48 > 0:25:53that Madame Berthe's lemur needs in its diet.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57So Madame Berthe's lemur is only found
0:25:57 > 0:26:00in this particular part of the forest
0:26:00 > 0:26:03because of this insect and this liana,
0:26:03 > 0:26:08which just shows how complicated ecological connections can be
0:26:08 > 0:26:11and how much you have to know about an animal
0:26:11 > 0:26:14if you are really going to conserve it.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24It's more than likely that the elephant bird was nowhere near as fussy as a mouse lemur,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28but it certainly needed much greater quantities of food.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36So, as more and more of the forest was cleared,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40there was less and less room for animals of all kinds.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51Elephant birds were among the first victims of deforestation.
0:26:51 > 0:26:57As people came in and cleared the bush, in order to make space for their own crops,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00there was less and less foliage for birds to browse on
0:27:00 > 0:27:04and no leaves whatever on the great trunks of the baobabs.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09And if we know that, unlike the giant lemurs,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12the elephant bird didn't disappear as soon as the people arrived.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17Recent archaeological research suggests that the birds lived
0:27:17 > 0:27:19alongside human beings for hundreds of years.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Perhaps they were protected by something
0:27:24 > 0:27:27that is still deeply rooted in the lives of the Malagasy people -
0:27:27 > 0:27:33fady - a belief about the intimate way in which human beings are connected with the natural world.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38They believe, for example, that many species of animal contain
0:27:38 > 0:27:41the spirits of their ancestors and must not therefore be killed.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48When I was here making the Zoo Quest programmes, we watched a traditional ceremony
0:27:48 > 0:27:55which centred around a fady connected with Madagascar's only surviving giant, the crocodile.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Here, at the sacred lake of Anivorano,
0:27:58 > 0:28:03they tell the story of a wandering holy man who appeared in the village.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08No-one apart from one old woman offered him refreshment.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10After warning the old woman to leave,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14he then flooded the whole village, drowning everyone in it except her.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18The people here believe that the crocodiles in this lake
0:28:18 > 0:28:21are descendents of those original villagers
0:28:21 > 0:28:24and they come here to give them sacrifices of meat
0:28:24 > 0:28:26in return for their blessings.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37Many animals in Madagascar have some kind of fady attached to them.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43This is a chameleon
0:28:43 > 0:28:48and Madagascar is the home of the chameleons.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51There are more different kinds of chameleons
0:28:51 > 0:28:53and more spectacular chameleons here
0:28:53 > 0:28:55than anywhere else in the world.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59They are, of course, very specialised lizards,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02but local people are very frightened of them.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06They move in this odd way and they have these bizarre eyes
0:29:06 > 0:29:11and they think that one glance from a chameleon is risking death
0:29:11 > 0:29:13and to hold one would be disaster.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16And when we were last here,
0:29:16 > 0:29:21somebody broke into our car with all our equipment in it
0:29:21 > 0:29:25and broke the window and so we couldn't lock the car.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30So I took one of these splendid chameleons and put it on the steering wheel
0:29:30 > 0:29:36and when anybody opened the car door it sort of glowered at them
0:29:36 > 0:29:39and nobody did...except us.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55These beliefs in fady are still very powerful
0:29:55 > 0:29:58and widespread in Madagascar
0:29:58 > 0:30:02and in some cases it's they that have been responsible
0:30:02 > 0:30:04for the very survival of a species.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12This giant baobab is one of the most famous individual trees
0:30:12 > 0:30:14in the whole of Madagascar.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20The people believe that it's the home to the spirits of the dead
0:30:20 > 0:30:23and they bring offerings which they place around its base,
0:30:23 > 0:30:28of rum and other things, to ask the ancestors to bring them luck.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30But the spirits will only remain
0:30:30 > 0:30:34as long as the forest surrounds the tree,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37so, thanks to this tree and that belief,
0:30:37 > 0:30:43one of the best pieces of dry forest in the whole of Madagascar is still protected.
0:30:46 > 0:30:51Many Malagasy communities have such beliefs about the natural world.
0:30:51 > 0:30:57Could it be that it was fady that helped to protect the last dwindling populations of elephant birds,
0:30:57 > 0:31:01enabling them to survive longer than they might otherwise have done?
0:31:03 > 0:31:09It's easy to imagine that creatures whose eggs were big enough to start legends all over Europe
0:31:09 > 0:31:13would be surrounded by feelings of awe or even fear.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18But that did not save the elephant bird in the long run.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22The territories they required were just too big.
0:31:25 > 0:31:31Madagascar has one of the highest rates of forest loss of anywhere in the world.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34It's estimated that 80% of it has now gone.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42All the wetter parts of the island were once covered by rainforest,
0:31:42 > 0:31:44which, like rainforest everywhere,
0:31:44 > 0:31:47was hugely rich in animals and plant species.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52And this being Madagascar, most were species that existed nowhere else.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57The changes here have been particularly dramatic.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00When I was here in 1960,
0:32:00 > 0:32:04all this land was covered in rainforest,
0:32:04 > 0:32:09trees 100 feet high, with lemurs and all kinds of birds and insects.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14And then they built this sawmill
0:32:14 > 0:32:17and for 25 years it operated,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21consuming the forest until the forest was all gone.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26So then they left the sawmill and the land has gone to waste.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34They also started to mine here for nickel.
0:32:35 > 0:32:41Madagascar, in fact, has some of the richest untapped mineral deposits in the world.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45Exploiting them requires great corridors to be cut through the forest.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50Many animals that require big territories won't cross such corridors,
0:32:50 > 0:32:52so, just like the elephant bird,
0:32:52 > 0:32:56they are squeezed into smaller and smaller patches
0:32:56 > 0:33:00and ultimately they vanish, just as the elephant bird did.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09This patch of forest in Andasibe on the eastern side of the island
0:33:09 > 0:33:17is one of the largest remaining fragments and it's the last home of the biggest of all surviving lemurs,
0:33:17 > 0:33:18the indri.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26Joseph has lived here all his life.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32In fact, he was here when I was filming in 1960, although we didn't meet.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Then, he was hunting the indri for food.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49At that time, I had an idea that stories about the indri
0:33:49 > 0:33:52might have given rise to myths almost as fantastic
0:33:52 > 0:33:55as those surrounding the elephant bird.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02Many people consider that this strange creature is the origin
0:34:02 > 0:34:05of the legend of a dog-headed man.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08Marco Polo wrote about the dog-headed man
0:34:08 > 0:34:14and this is an illustration from a natural history book published some 300 years ago.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Obviously we wanted to film this
0:34:16 > 0:34:18and before we went to Madagascar
0:34:18 > 0:34:21I visited a very distinguished British naturalist
0:34:21 > 0:34:25who had spent seven years there and asked him about the indris.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29He told me that as far as he knew it had never been photographed or filmed alive.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34The animal which was the most dramatic in the series by a long way
0:34:34 > 0:34:39was the indri, which we had been the first people to photograph alive.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45It took us a hell of time to find it, we were traipsing through the forest
0:34:45 > 0:34:51and nearly always, you heard a call so you'd go through the bush
0:34:51 > 0:34:54and look for it and then, as soon as it saw you, whoof, it was gone,
0:34:54 > 0:34:58bounding through the forest. So all we got for days and days
0:34:58 > 0:35:01was nothing but backsides of these things sailing away from you.
0:35:03 > 0:35:08Since people at that time, like Joseph, were still hunting indris,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11it was hardly surprising that they were scared of us.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15After several days of failure, I had an idea.
0:35:15 > 0:35:20I decided to record their extraordinary calls and then replay the sound in the hope
0:35:20 > 0:35:26that the animals might call in response and reveal themselves, or even come closer.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29SCREECHING
0:35:40 > 0:35:42SCREECHING CONTINUES
0:35:42 > 0:35:44And it worked.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Although we didn't get as close as I might have wished,
0:35:50 > 0:35:52we watched them for several days.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55SCREECHING
0:36:08 > 0:36:12"We never saw a group of more than four.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14"This I think is the source of much of the charm of it.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17"Monkeys living in troops have a troop discipline,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20'an order of seniority is savagely maintained by battle,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23"the males fighting one another ferociously.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25"Not so with indri.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29"They live en famille. The old male doesn't need to assert his rank
0:36:29 > 0:36:32"by fighting, and consequently the atmosphere is one of affection.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35"Once we saw a young male join a young female,
0:36:35 > 0:36:39"sitting behind her, his legs stretched out on either side of her.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43"They licked and embraced one another for half an hour,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47- "then suddenly a bird screeched..." - BIRD SCREECHES
0:36:47 > 0:36:48"..loudly and startlingly.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52"Immediately, the male put a protective and reassuring arm around her.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54"It was most touching to see."
0:36:54 > 0:36:58- SCOFFS - Anthropomorphism run riot, but there you are, that's what I wrote here.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09Joseph, the one-time hunter, still uses his skills to track the indri,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11but no longer in order to kill them.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14Now he works as a forest guide.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21What made you stop hunting them?
0:37:50 > 0:37:54Have people's attitudes towards the indri changed over the years?
0:38:23 > 0:38:28Without Joseph to help us, it would have been impossible for us to get near the indri,
0:38:28 > 0:38:32but this group is so used to him that they are not frightened.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36Indeed, it seemed to me that they almost welcomed his company.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45Thanks to him, I now had a chance, for the very first time,
0:38:45 > 0:38:47to get really close to them.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57Oh.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34They could easily collect these leaves from the trees themselves
0:40:34 > 0:40:38but they seem to choose to take them from the hand of a human being.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47Well, that was an astonishing experience.
0:40:49 > 0:40:5150 years ago
0:40:51 > 0:40:57I spent days and days and days searching the forests for these,
0:40:57 > 0:40:59following the noise,
0:40:59 > 0:41:05but now this group is so accustomed to seeing people around
0:41:05 > 0:41:10that I have been right close up to them,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13something I had never believed could have been possible.
0:41:16 > 0:41:22I thought these were the most elusive, shy creatures,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26it certainly took me a long time to find them,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29but that they can now be so trusting
0:41:29 > 0:41:31is a marvellous testament
0:41:31 > 0:41:36to how people here now react towards them and cherish them.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44A heart-warming kind of realisation
0:41:44 > 0:41:48that wild creatures like this and human beings
0:41:48 > 0:41:52can live alongside one another in harmony.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56And they are such astonishing creatures.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58I mean, apart from being so beautiful,
0:41:58 > 0:42:00they have these very staring eyes
0:42:00 > 0:42:04looking straight at you, straight through you,
0:42:04 > 0:42:08and then they have these very human-like hands,
0:42:08 > 0:42:09just taking them.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14When you look down at their feet,
0:42:14 > 0:42:16huge great calliper feet,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19when they decided that they've had enough of you,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22they simply flex those enormous hind legs
0:42:22 > 0:42:26and just with vast bound of, what, I suppose...
0:42:26 > 0:42:30three yards, four yards, just whoo and they've gone.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39It was wonderful to see how the relationship
0:42:39 > 0:42:43between the indri and the local people living alongside them
0:42:43 > 0:42:46has changed so much.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49But then, our attitudes have changed too.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53When I came here 50 years ago, I was asked to collect some animals alive
0:42:53 > 0:42:55and bring them back to Britain.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58That was how zoos operated in those days,
0:42:58 > 0:43:03believing, misguidedly, that when one of their exhibits died,
0:43:03 > 0:43:06you could always go out and catch more to replace it.
0:43:06 > 0:43:11And I did my best to assemble a few animals I thought might make interesting displays.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30The Zoo Quest series started as a collaboration with the London Zoo,
0:43:30 > 0:43:35so I found myself as an animal-catcher as well as everything else.
0:43:35 > 0:43:41One centetes, one coracopsis, one roller.
0:43:41 > 0:43:4324 foly, those are like sparrows.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49Ten chameleons, six assorted lizards, three boas, a hundred myriapods!
0:43:51 > 0:43:55Bonkers. And I had to feed all these damn things.
0:43:55 > 0:44:00Funny way to make television programmes, I can tell you.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05And I have collected some beautiful myriapods... What did I say there?
0:44:05 > 0:44:06I think a hundred or something.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08They were lovely millipedes
0:44:08 > 0:44:11the size of golf balls when they were rolled up
0:44:11 > 0:44:15and when they weren't, they would run around like little trains,
0:44:15 > 0:44:17red with black stripes on them.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21And they got out in the middle of the night in the hotel
0:44:21 > 0:44:28and they were all over the corridor and all of the rooms and madame was not pleased, not at all pleased.
0:44:34 > 0:44:40In rainforests like this, you come across all kinds of unexpected delights.
0:44:46 > 0:44:47This rather large snake...
0:44:50 > 0:44:52..is quite harmless, in fact,
0:44:52 > 0:44:57but it's quite mysterious too,
0:44:57 > 0:44:59because that,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02you would think in Africa, was a python,
0:45:02 > 0:45:04and Africa is just over the way.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08But in fact, it's a boa constrictor
0:45:08 > 0:45:11and its nearest relatives
0:45:11 > 0:45:15are right on the other side, in South America.
0:45:15 > 0:45:20It's one of the mysteries of Madagascar's fauna.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25The last time I was here, there was a belief
0:45:25 > 0:45:27that animals like this, this boa,
0:45:27 > 0:45:32were the incarnations of people's grandmothers.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35I did have some inhibitions
0:45:35 > 0:45:38about what people would think if I caught one of those
0:45:38 > 0:45:41and took away their grandmother, so I never did.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12This beautiful lemur has now become a symbol
0:46:12 > 0:46:14of the fight to conserve the forest
0:46:14 > 0:46:15and save it from the fate
0:46:15 > 0:46:21that overtook so many of Madagascar's animals in the recent past.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30So, why did the elephant bird disappear?
0:46:30 > 0:46:36It could have been climate change which turned much of its land into desert.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40It could have been that people destroyed the forests where it browsed.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43I doubt if it was hunted to extinction.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Anyone who's seen an ostrich in a zoo
0:46:46 > 0:46:49knows it's got a kick that can open a man's stomach,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53and an enraged elephant bird many times the size of an ostrich
0:46:53 > 0:46:56must have been a truly formidable opponent.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59I suspect it was these.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01His egg.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04They may not have been able to tackle an adult bird
0:47:04 > 0:47:10but they could take its eggs, which were a huge source of nourishment.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12And so I think it's probably these
0:47:12 > 0:47:16are the reason why the elephant bird is no longer here.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25Even if the bird itself was held in awe, or maybe fear, by the people here,
0:47:25 > 0:47:30they might not have had too much trouble in robbing it of its huge, nutritious eggs.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34So, although there were several factors threatening the bird's survival,
0:47:34 > 0:47:40it could have been people eating the eggs who dealt the species its final blow.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53Today we've come to realise that if you want to preserve a species,
0:47:53 > 0:47:57you have to preserve the whole community of plants and animals.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02Some people here are trying to tackle that problem.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10Ryan manages one such group in indri country.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14I asked him how much forest remained.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17As we speak, it's very fragmented.
0:48:17 > 0:48:23Unfortunately in this particular area, we have almost no continuous forest any more.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27This is a fragment of about 800 hectares.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30One crucial issue for conservation
0:48:30 > 0:48:33is to link these fragments with each other
0:48:33 > 0:48:36so that there could be genetic exchange
0:48:36 > 0:48:40between plant and animal species that life there.
0:48:40 > 0:48:46So if they remained as fragments, really the inhabitants, the animal habitants, are doomed?
0:48:46 > 0:48:52Yes, that's pretty much the case, and there are studies concerning the indri, for instance,
0:48:52 > 0:48:58saying that a minimum size for a forest
0:48:58 > 0:49:04in which the indri can survive is about 1,000, 2,200 hectares.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07- You have to link them up.- Exactly. - And how are you doing it?
0:49:07 > 0:49:14One thing that we try to do is actually re-establish the rainforest in-between these fragments
0:49:14 > 0:49:16by planting trees
0:49:16 > 0:49:23that we actually raise in this nursery here from the seeds that we collect in the forest.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28And how's it going? How many are you replanting?
0:49:28 > 0:49:34Well, we now have replanted an area of about 1,000 hectares.
0:49:34 > 0:49:39We ideally have at least 60 species per hectare that you plant,
0:49:39 > 0:49:42so this is kind of hard work.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45How many trees to do you think you have planted?
0:49:45 > 0:49:50If you take 1,000 trees per hectare as a rule of thumb
0:49:50 > 0:49:53then this makes slightly more than a million trees now.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58- A million trees in how many years? - That's in three years of planting.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Fantastic. A million in three years.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03That is a lot of trees.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14This is just so heartening and exciting.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18How long do you think you're going to be before you can complete these corridors?
0:50:18 > 0:50:24Well, I would say that probably you would need 20 years or so
0:50:24 > 0:50:26to be sure that the trees replanted
0:50:26 > 0:50:30have actually re-grown to something that you would call a forest.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34So, we would actually look at all these reforested areas
0:50:34 > 0:50:38for the next two decades to come.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42Projects like this are wonderfully encouraging.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47When I was here 50 years ago, we had no idea how complex
0:50:47 > 0:50:49forest systems were like this
0:50:49 > 0:50:52and how difficult they would be to reconstitute.
0:50:52 > 0:50:58But plans like that can only work if they have the support of the local people.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08South of Tana, in the central highlands,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12there's a new initiative which is an inspiring example
0:51:12 > 0:51:16of how a local community project could help the future of the country's wildlife.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21The coordinator of this project, Eugenie,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25told me that the people here have very little to live on
0:51:25 > 0:51:28and that they need their local forest to survive.
0:51:57 > 0:52:02So, in order to provide work for local people which doesn't destroy the forest,
0:52:02 > 0:52:05Eugenie has helped set up a scheme to produce silk
0:52:05 > 0:52:10which, by tradition, the Malagasy use to weave a magnificent fabric.
0:52:12 > 0:52:17First of all, the caterpillars of a particular moth are released into the forest.
0:52:22 > 0:52:27When they change into cocoons, they are collected.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37Then the silk is unwound from the cocoon
0:52:37 > 0:52:42and spun into a thread which is dyed and ultimately woven.
0:52:44 > 0:52:50The scheme has created work for all the women in the village, including Marie.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22This project has completely changed people's attitude to their forest.
0:53:22 > 0:53:27The villagers now have an incentive to protect the trees
0:53:27 > 0:53:30which provide them with such a valuable income
0:53:30 > 0:53:32and that, of course, in turn protects the wildlife.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37Initiatives like this silk project
0:53:37 > 0:53:40bring hope for the future of Madagascar.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45For a young man, the Zoo Quest trip was an exciting adventure
0:53:45 > 0:53:50to what was then, in television terms at least, an unexplored land.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54Coming back after 50 years has been really fascinating.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59This time, I won't be returning home with a collection of animals for the London Zoo
0:53:59 > 0:54:04but I will be coming back with a greater understanding of how and why Madagascar has changed.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08I've seen a country which has been heavily exploited
0:54:08 > 0:54:12but I've also seen glimmers of hope for the future of the wildlife here
0:54:12 > 0:54:18and I've been thrilled to get so close to some of Madagascar's most wonderful species,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21a reminder of just how special this island is.
0:54:27 > 0:54:3150 years ago, I found the egg of what is surely among
0:54:31 > 0:54:34the most spectacular of all the animals to evolve here.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38Now there is still one final detail to fill in.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41How old is my egg and what might that tell us?
0:54:46 > 0:54:49Here in the archaeological department at Oxford University
0:54:49 > 0:54:52there's a carbon-dating apparatus
0:54:52 > 0:54:58which can accurately find the age of ancient objects, natural and man-made.
0:54:58 > 0:55:04It's a complicated process involving kinds of very sophisticated techniques
0:55:04 > 0:55:10but I've been told that Thomas Higham, who took the sample from my egg, has got a result.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15You took a tiny bit of this, I know...
0:55:15 > 0:55:18- A very small amount from the back. - A very small amount.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20And tell me, come on, what's the answer?
0:55:20 > 0:55:24Well, our dates suggest that this egg is 1,300 years old.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27- No!- Yes.
0:55:27 > 0:55:32- Say it again. One thousand... - 1,300 years old. - And that puts it at what date?
0:55:32 > 0:55:34About 700... 600 to 700 AD.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36And did that surprise you?
0:55:36 > 0:55:42- It was quite a lot younger than I thought it would be, actually. - You thought it could be older?
0:55:42 > 0:55:45I did, and I say that because I checked back
0:55:45 > 0:55:49on the other eggshell dates that we've dated from Madagascar,
0:55:49 > 0:55:54and the youngest date that we've ever got is about 900 AD.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57Here is 600 AD, 800 AD,
0:55:57 > 0:56:00and your dates are these ones that just sit in here,
0:56:00 > 0:56:01and these are the youngest ones.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05- So, it's quite a recent one in terms of...- It is. Indeed.
0:56:05 > 0:56:11So this, in fact, was one of the last of the elephant birds.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15I think within 100 to 200 years, perhaps.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17- Perhaps, yes.- Ah.
0:56:17 > 0:56:22The chick that came out of this was one of the last.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25- Absolutely amazing. - When do you think it disappeared?
0:56:25 > 0:56:30I think somewhere before 1000 AD it was extinct, largely extinct, yeah.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36So, there we have it.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38My egg is 1,300 years old
0:56:38 > 0:56:41and one of the most recent eggs of its kind
0:56:41 > 0:56:43that the university has dated.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46But that doesn't mean that it was the last ever laid,
0:56:46 > 0:56:51and it could be that some of these astounding creatures lived on until much more recently.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56But what we have discovered is that elephant birds and human beings
0:56:56 > 0:57:00did manage to live alongside one another for hundreds of years.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03So, it wasn't the usual story of finding a new species
0:57:03 > 0:57:07and then exterminating it within a few decades of finding it,
0:57:07 > 0:57:13as happened with the dodo in Mauritius, a much smaller island not far away from Madagascar.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17Nonetheless, the elephant bird did ultimately disappear.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22Another example of how human beings, in their ever-increasing numbers,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25can so easily have a lethal effect on the animals around them.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33For me, this egg is a reminder of how easy it is
0:57:33 > 0:57:37for species to disappear and be exterminated
0:57:37 > 0:57:42as human beings take over more and more of the natural world.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44But there is hope.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48We understand more about ecology and ecosystems,
0:57:48 > 0:57:52more about what needs to be done to protect the natural world.
0:57:52 > 0:57:58And I hope, certainly, that we take those lessons to heart in Madagascar
0:57:58 > 0:58:01to safe its wonderful wildlife,
0:58:01 > 0:58:05for it is indeed an island of marvels.
0:58:39 > 0:58:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd