Land of Heat and Dust
Series exploring Madagascar and its unique wildlife. This programme follows the animals' fortunes through the wet and dry seasons in this island of extremes.
Madagascar is an island of extremes. While the east is cloaked in soaking rainforest, the west and south is almost a desert. This is a scorching landscape where it might not rain for nine months of the year, and some years not at all. To live here, you have to be a specialist. The animals and plants of the dry southern lands are stranger and more mysterious than on any other part of the island, and their strategies for surviving the dryness are extraordinary.
Verreaux's sifaka, a kind of lemur, lives in Madagascar's 'spiny forest' where trees have savage spikes, and some drip toxic chemicals. Amongst the bulbous trees of the baobab forests, huge-eyed mouse lemurs, the world's smallest primates, emerge at night to feed on the sugary droppings of bizarre fluffy bugs.
When at last the rains come, everything changes. Labord's chameleon is the shortest-lived land vertebrate in the world. This striking animal lives just 12 weeks from hatching to adulthood. It spent nine months in an egg and has only three months to pack in the rest of its life.
These animals are all unique to Madagascar and exquisitely adapted to the island's seasonal changes. But this is not their only challenge. Much of Madagascar's extraordinary wildlife is under threat, from hunting and loss of habitat, and none more so than in the south of the island.
At the end of the episode, the filming team's biggest challenge is revealed - how to find and film one of Madagascar's most elusive animals, the rare and cat-like fossa. It lives in remote forests and is active mostly at night - and it has a fearsome reputation.
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Clips
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Madagascar's wildlife slipping away
Duration: 02:19
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No time to lose
Duration: 02:06
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Live fast, die young
Duration: 01:33
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Honeydew feast
Duration: 02:09
Music Played
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Sarah Class
Specially composed music for the series recorded by the 麻豆官网首页入口 National Orchestra of Wales
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John Devereaux
Balance Of Terror
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Jim Dooley
Creeping Fear
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Gy枚rgy Ligeti
Kammerkonzert
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | David Attenborough |
Executive Producer | Michael Gunton |
Series Producer | Mary Summerill |
Producer | Mary Summerill |
Broadcasts
- Wed 23 Feb 2011 20:00麻豆官网首页入口 HD & 麻豆官网首页入口 Two
- Thu 24 Feb 2011 00:30麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- Sat 26 Feb 2011 17:15麻豆官网首页入口 Two except Northern Ireland
- Thu 24 Mar 2011 19:00麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- Sat 26 Mar 2011 19:00麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- Wed 11 May 2011 01:35麻豆官网首页入口 One except Wales
- Thu 4 Aug 2011 19:00麻豆官网首页入口 Two except Wales
- Sat 6 Aug 2011 01:50麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- Thu 29 Dec 2011 10:05
- Sat 31 Dec 2011 20:00麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- Sat 2 Jun 2012 15:00麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- New Year's Day 2013 12:45麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- Wed 18 Dec 2013 13:30麻豆官网首页入口 Two Scotland
- Wed 18 Dec 2013 14:45麻豆官网首页入口 Two except Scotland
- Mon 24 Aug 2015 15:45
- Wed 8 Mar 2017 16:15
- Wed 25 Jul 2018 16:15
- Thu 4 Jul 2019 22:00
- Wed 29 Jul 2020 16:15麻豆官网首页入口 Two except Scotland
- Thu 9 Sep 2021 15:15麻豆官网首页入口 Two except Scotland
- Tue 6 Feb 2024 16:15麻豆官网首页入口 Two except Scotland & Wales
- Tue 6 Feb 2024 16:30麻豆官网首页入口 Two Wales & Wales HD only