David Attenborough's Madagascar

AT Wahnfried
On Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st both at 4pm. David Attenborough’s nature documentary MADAGASCAR (2hrs each day).

Lying just off the coast of Africa, Madagascar is a land of misty mountains, tropical rainforests and spiny desert scrub – and home to strange wildlife, most of which is found nowhere else on earth.
Madagascar explores this extraordinary wildlife and the dramatic landscapes of one of the world's most bizarre islands.
Using the latest in filming technology, the BBC's Natural History Unit captures the diverse and rare wildlife that inhabits this incredible land, some filmed for the first time, and features surprising stories of the favourite and enduring symbol of the island, lemurs, as well as less familiar creatures.
There are frogs that turn from brown to bright yellow; wasps that pluck tadpoles from tree-nests; fish that swim upside down and the romantic life of the world's tiniest chameleon.
Narrated by David Attenborough, Madagascar is the BBC's ambitious and intimate portrait of a fascinating but perilously fragile island.

ISLAND OF MARVELS: Animals highlighted in this episode include the indri (Indri indri), an unspecified tenrec (order Tenrecidae), the giraffe weevil (Trachelophorus giraffa), the panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis), a pygmy chameleon (genus Rhampholeon or Brookesia), Lac Alaotra bamboo lemur (Hapalemur alaotrensis), crowned lemur (Eulemur coronatus), fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), Ward's flycatcher (Pseudobias wardi), crested drongo (Dicrurus forficatus), greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus), Verreaux's coua (Coua verreauxi), ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), Grandidier's mongoose (Galidictis grandidieri) and the radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata).

LOST WORLDS: Animals highlighted in this episode include the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), the Madagascar buzzard (Buteo brachypterus), the pied crow (Corvus albus), the jewel chameleon (Furcifer lateralis), the helmet vanga (Euryceros prevostii), the silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus), an unspecified bamboo lemur (genus Hapalemur), the brown leaf chameleon (Brookesia superciliaris), the indri (Indri indri), an unspecified 'striped' tenrec (order Tenrecidae), an unspecified tree frog (order Anura), an unspecified wasp (suborder Apocrita), an unspecified day gecko (genus Phelsuma), an unspecified snake (suborder Serpentes), the Malagasy paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone mutata), the Madagascar lesser cuckoo (Cuculus rochii), the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), the climbing mantella (Mantella laevigata, called 'golden bamboo frog'), an unspecified leaf-tailed gecko (genus Uroplatus), the red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra), the Madagascar green pigeon (Treron australis), an unspecified vasa parrot (genus Coracopsis) and the white-headed lemur (Eulemur albifrons).

LAND OF HEAT AND DUST: The episode focuses at life around the baobab tree (Adansonia). Animals highlighted in this episode include an unspecified dragonfly (order Epiprocta), Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), an unspecified brown lemur (genus Eulemur), an unspecified planthopper (superfamily Fulgoroidea), an unspecified mouse lemur (genus Microcebus), Labord's chameleon (Furcifer labordi), an unspecified colour-changing frog (order Anura), an unspecified vasa parrot (genus Coracopsis), an unspecified cicada (superfamily Cicadoidea) and an unspecified wasp (suborder Apocrita).

ATTENBOROUGH AND THE GIANT EGG: In this programme, David Attenborough undertakes a personal journey back to Madagascar to investigate the fate of Aepyornis, the island's extinct elephant birds. Believed to be the largest birds which have ever lived, evidence of their existence can still be found on the island. Whilst filming Zoo Quest to Madagascar in 1961, Attenborough pieced together a complete elephant bird egg from fragments of shell collected for him.