you're not alone.
You're no monkey's uncle.
But you are rather peculiar.
Where did you come from and who were your ancestors?
Nope.
Guess again.
(BUZZING THEN BEEPING)
That's right.
The story of lemurs begins over 60 million years ago.
Back in the time of the dinosaurs.
Long before monkeys, apes, or humans ever existed.
(SQUEAKING THEN ROARING)
Lemurs were small nocturnal creatures
and survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.
- They were living in Africa... - (THUNDER CRASHING)
...when a massive storm blew a tangled raft of trees out to sea...
and turned a family of tiny lemurs...
into some of the greatest explorers in the history of life on Earth.
(SQUEAKING)
(GURGLING)
(MEOWING)
(YELPING AND MEOWING)
(SQUEAKING AND CHIRPING)
NARRATOR: The lemurs landed on Madagascar.
A vast island isolated from the rest of the world.
(SNORTING)
For millions of years, there were no other mammals, or even birds.
With no predators to fear...
lemurs emerged into the daylight.
And over time they evolved into a wild variety of new shapes and sizes.
Their ancestors went extinct in Africa.
But in Madagascar, lemurs thrived...
and became the rulers of their glorious new world.
Lemurs are the most ancient primate alive today.
And Madagascar is the only place on Earth where they live.
For a scientist seeking to preserve our planet's rich biodiversity...
Madagascar is Treasure Island.
Dr. Patricia Wright is a primatologist from New York's Stony Brook University.
She's an expert in finding rare and elusive lemurs.
As a young scientist, her destiny was changed by a journey to Madagascar.
Back then, the country was changing fast.
And the lemurs' good luck was running out.
WRIGHT: I first came to Madagascar to solve a mystery...
about a lemur that we feared had gone extinct.
My mission was to find it.
The greater bamboo lemur once lived throughout Madagascar...
but hadn't been seen in 50 years.
I searched for months and never saw a single one.
I had almost given up, when I got to Ranomafana.
Then one morning...
there he was.
Alive.
Feasting on his favorite treat:
Crunchy, young bamboo shoots.
NARRATOR: After her discovery...
Patricia helped save this rain forest as a national park.
And she devoted her life to protecting the wild places of Madagascar...
and all the animals that call it home.
(CHIRPING AND HOOTING)
The word lemur means "wandering spirit."
And there is something otherworldly about the lemurs of this forest.
These lemurs are sacred in Madagascar.
There is a legend about two brothers who lived in the forest.
One ran off and became the first human.
The other stayed and became...
an indri.
There were once lemurs as big as gorillas.
But those were hunted to extinction just a few hundred years ago.
Indri are the largest lemurs that remain.
Indri live in small family groups that have their own territories.
They trade news with each other by singing haunting duets.
(WAILING)
NARRATOR: Each family member adds their part...
(CONTINUES WAILING)
...to a chorus that travels deep into the forest.
(LEMURS WAILING)
NARRATOR: The song of indri once echoed loudly across the eastern rain forest...
but now it's fading away.
No indri has ever survived in captivity.
You can only meet one here...
(YELPS)
...in Madagascar.
(MEN SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(MEN CONTINUE SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(ALL CHEERING)
WRIGHT: The town of Ranomafana is on the edge of the ancient rainforest...
where I found the greater bamboo lemurs.
(WRIGHT SPEAKING IN FRENCH)
WRIGHT: The people in the surrounding villages benefit from the park.
But they still rely on the land to survive.
Aah!
(SPEAKS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
Before I was a scientist, I was a social worker in Brooklyn.
It's my nature to solve problems.
And in Madagascar, humans and lemurs have the same problem:
Limited resources that they both need.
NARRATOR: Madagascar was one of the last places on Earth settled by humans.
They brought a small breed of cattle called zebu...
that need open space for grazing.
Since their arrival 2000 years ago...
people have burned down over 90 percent of Madagascar's forests...
to clear land for grazing and farming.
Every dry season...
thousands of fires still burn across the island.
The fires are set in fields, but grow out of control...
and spread to the forests where lemurs live.
It's the biggest threat to wildlife in Madagascar.
Many lemur species are dwindling as their forests disappear.
But one crafty lemur has bet its survival...
on the ability to adapt to changing conditions.
Beyond the reach of fire...
gangs of ring-tailed lemurs have found their perfect hideout.
(LEMUR WAILS)
Ring-tails live in groups of extended families.
And it's easy to observe one of the things that makes all lemurs special among primates.
The females are in charge.
The alpha female decides where they go and what they eat.
This troop's leader is hobbled by a broken hand...
but that doesn't affect her position at the top.
Even the smallest female...
is dominant over every male.
(SQUEAKING)
Females inherit their power from their mother.
They keep it through experience and attitude.
Ring-tails once covered much wider territory in Madagascar.
But as humans spread out, the ring-tails...
retreated into the cracks of this natural fortress.
Like lemur outlaws...
they live on the edge of civilization and launch raids on the farms below.
(WAILS)
At night, the day's squabbles are forgotten.
The ring-tailed family grooms each other and sleeps cuddled up in one big lemur ball.
(SQUEAKING)
They survive by sticking together.
(LEMURS WAILING)
Patricia's headquarters in Madagascar is the Centre ValBio...
a state-of-the-art research station perched on the edge of Ranomafana National Park.
Home to 15 kinds of lemurs.
It's here that she's training a new generation...
of Western and Malagasy scientists...
to build a future for the lemurs.
WRIGHT: Almost all the plants and animals in Madagascar are endemic...
and exist nowhere else on Earth.
The more we learn about their intricate relationships...
the more we can do to protect the forest and eventually to expand it.
(LAUGHING)
(SHRIEKS)
NARRATOR: To the lemurs, all this science can seem awfully mysterious.
Each night, Herman and Victor set traps in the forest around ValBio...
to catch the smallest primate in the world.
(BEEPING)
(SQUEAKING)
To these mouse lemurs, it's like being abducted by aliens.
They're taken to a strange laboratory and scanned, probed...
and analyzed by giant creatures.
They may be small, but mouse lemurs are fierce predators...
that strike terror into insects and frogs across the galaxy.
After a few hours, the mouse lemurs are released...
and head home to their nests with an out of this world story to tell.
(SQUEAKING)
WRIGHT: I'm happiest when I'm alone in the forest with lemurs.
Lemurs have a very calm presence.
The greater bamboo lemur has a special place in my heart.
They're not the most famous lemur, and they're not the most beautiful...
(SQUEAKING)
...but they have this mischievous charm that I just fell in love with.
There were once millions of them, but now they're extremely endangered.
These two are the only ones living in a protected forest.
This father and his daughter have been all alone for two years since mom disappeared.
For the species to survive, I have to help this family now.
They need new mates from outside the park.
And I'll have to play lemur matchmaker.
NARRATOR: All over Madagascar, the country's own scientists...
are also working hard to protect the lemurs.
Dr. Hanta Rasamimanana works in the spiny forest.
A bizarre habitat of euphorbias and prickly cactus-like trees.
She's a census taker, on the lookout for her favorite lemur...
the sifaka.
HANTA: Sifaka are so curious.
When they see me taking notes, they come down to study me.
It's like they are the primatologists.
Sifaka don't drink water.
They get all the moisture they need from fruits...
and the little leaves between the spines of plants.
I've followed them for 20 years and they still amaze me.
I teach my students that lemurs are Madagascar's living treasure.
But what's most amazing about the sifaka...
is how they dance.
NARRATOR: After months of searching...
Patricia's team finally found a new group of greater bamboo lemurs...
to provide mates for the family in the national park.
WRIGHT: Their habitat is awful, I mean, very degraded.
I am so relieved. I'm really relieved. I mean, my goodness...
we have been chasing those animals for a long time.
We have to catch them today.
When we reached the lemurs, fires were burning throughout the forest...
and I hoped we weren't too late.
NARRATOR: They captured them just in time.
But another piece of forest is gone.
WRIGHT: See if she has milk, or if she's pregnant.
NARRATOR: Back at ValBio...
the rescued lemurs are sedated and examined...
to make sure they are free from parasites and disease.
WRIGHT: The canine has tooth wear. Okay.
NARRATOR: The new lemurs wear radio collars...
so scientists can easily monitor their progress.
WRIGHT: I've studied these animals for so long...
but this is the first time I've ever held one in my arms.
You're really beautiful.
Mm.
So amazing.
I thought you guys were extinct. Yeah.
What a shame that would be.
Such beautiful animals.
But now you're going to be in the national park. Yeah.
NARRATOR: Soon after, Patricia brings the rescued lemurs...
to an enclosure in the rain forest...
so they can get used to the environment before meeting the residents.
WRIGHT: So much was at stake.
But even I didn't know what to expect.
Would they fall in love?
Would they fight?
Would they even find each other?
NARRATOR: The next day, the father and daughter discover the cage...
and realize they are no longer alone.
(SQUEAKING AND CHIRPING)
(PURRING)
(CHIRPING)
(CHIRPING AND SQUEAKING)
(CHIRPING)
(CHIRPING AND SQUEAKING)
(PURRING)
(CHIRPING)
WRIGHT: I didn't expect true love right away.
They have to get to know each other.
(GRUNTING)
But this seems like the start of a beautiful friendship.
(GRUNTS)
(SNORTING AND PURRING)
(SHRIEKS)
WRIGHT: If all goes well, next year we'll have babies in the park.
That's how we're going to save these lemurs.
One generation at a time.
(PEOPLE SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
NARRATOR: Across Madagascar, lemurs have an uphill battle to survive.
But momentum is shifting in their favor.
Some villagers have begun to fight fires...
not just start them.
(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
NARRATOR: And thanks to people like Hanta...
kids are teaching their elders about conservation.
And learning to avoid the mistakes of their ancestors.
(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
NARRATOR: Lemurs came to Madagascar as castaways.
Their epic adventure has lasted for 60 million years.
Fate brought the lemurs to Madagascar.
But they'll need more than luck to survive much longer.
They'll need help.
(LEMUR GRUNTING)
Hello.
How are you? Are you doing okay up there?
(LEMUR GRUNTS)
WRIGHT: The more I get to know lemurs, the more I love them.
And I want to share these incredible animals with the world.
(GIBBERING)
NARRATOR: Lemurs have a miraculous story.
Now it's up to us to keep it alive.
After all...
the best stories in nature are the ones that never end.