Product Description
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From Executive Producer Mike ton (Life) comes a
fascinating exploration of one of the most unique habitats in the
world, Madacar! For 65 million years, Madacar was lost to
the world, isolated, undiscovered and untouched by humans. Left
to its own devices it became a hotbed of evolution, resulting in
the greatest concentration of unique creatures anywhere on the
planet. More than 80% of Madacar's animals and s are
found nowhere else on Earth. Recognized as one of the world's
most important biodiversity hotspots, this is an
Alice-in-Wonderland island of eccentric animals, outlandish
s and extraordinary landscapes. It is a truly remarkable
island. In this three-part landmark series from the BBC and
Animal Planet, viewers will discover what makes Madacar
different from the rest of the world, and how evolution created
an island rivaling the Galapagos for mystique, beauty and
scientific wonder.
.com
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The BBC may not be able to top Planet Earth, the
landmark 2006 production that is arguably the finest nature
documentary ever made, but they have once again come close with
Madacar. This spectacular three-part series, coproduced with
Animal Planet and featuring the familiar voice-over of David
Attenborough, reveals the many wonders of the world's biggest
island, a place of startling variety in terms of both geography
and wildlife. That's due to an event that occurred 60 million
years ago, when Africa and India separated, creating the
thousand-mile-long island a few hundred miles off the African
coast, a place so isolated that more than 80 percent of its
animal species can be found there and nowhere else. Left to their
own devices, these creatures evolved and diversified to an
extraordinary degree, each adapting to its own environment,
whether it be the barren ains that divide Madacar in
half, the hot, arid western side, or the lush rain forest on the
eastern side. There are, for instance, some 80 different types of
lemur, the dog-faced primate that is the island's most
recognizable inhabitant. These include the tiny mouse lemur
(weighing in at about two ounces); the child-sized indri; a lemur
whose diet consists of bamboo loaded with lethal doses of
cyanide; the ghostly white silky sifaka, of which only about 200
remain; and many more. But that's not all. We also see a
chameleon about the size of an ant; tenrecs, small, hedgehog-like
creatures capable of giving birth to 32 babies in one litter;
white, eyeless, cave-dwelling fish that swim upside down; the
fossa, a giant mongoose that's the island's biggest predator; and
a plethora of other insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, and flora.
As usual, all of this is breathtakingly photographed, with a
clarity and vividness that are only enhanced in the Blu-ray
version (each chapter includes about 10 minutes detailing the
lengths the filmmakers went to in order to capture their footage,
much of it depicting animals and behaviors never photographed
before). Of course, as human civilization encroaches inexorably,
many of these animals face extinction--all the more reason that
this superb documentary belongs in any serious nature lover's
collection. --Sam Graham