Madagascar continues to change.
In the interior, different jungles, mountains and wetlands conserve the unique natural heritage
of a world of independent evolution.
There are more endemic species here than any other place on earth, and that means that
each animal, each plant and each ecosystem are irreplaceable pieces in the global ecology
of our planet.
The world that astonished Sclater, the inhabitants of the enigmatic Lemuria, are as strange as
ever, as astonishing as ever, and as fragile as ever. In the singular Madagascar, they
all live in a world for which there is no substitute anywhere else on earth and that,
though it makes them extraordinary, also means they are extremely vulnerable.
Evolution continues to act with slow but unstoppable force. The changes that led to these sifakas
or any other animal or plant in the world, including our own species, have not come to
an end. But that life force of never-ending changes requires time, a great deal of time.
And the drastic changes that man is causing in a matter of just a few years could break
forever evolutionary lines which began with the origin of life on earth.
In Madagascar every corner contains fresh surprises. Every rock, every plant, every
fragment of soil and every trunk of the jungle may contain worlds that science still has
not discovered or understood.
They are unknown universes and different living beings which we are now beginning to appreciate.
And each one of these hidden creatures, each one of these apparently insignificant forms
of life sustains and contributes to the development of all life on the island.
Many of the living beings of Madagascar still remain to be discovered. They are secrets
that Lemuria still keeps for its ghosts, for the silent beings that arose from millions
of years of solitude.
In the Atlantis of the south, night is drawing in.
The Madagascan night reveals another life that until very recently had remained hidden
to the eyes of man. The kingdom of the shadows brings the cover needed by these timid creatures
of the dark. The spirits of the legends turn flesh. And life returns to the prehistoric
jungles of Lemuria.
The most recent genetic analyses indicate that all the lemurs derive from a single colonising
species similar to the present-day mouse lemurs or dwarf lemurs like this one.
In the cold light of the moon, the sportive lemurs once more become active and search
for fruits and small insects in the Madagascan night.
Dwarf lemurs and sportive lemurs, giant rats, tenrecs and mouse lemurs - the children of
Lemuria again come to life.
They are living shadows, animals of mysterious appearance and habits which have aroused fear
among the indigenous population since those first
human settlements, 2,000 years ago.
After many generations living on the island, the Madagascan natives also have their theory of the origin of such strange animals.
According to their legends, a man and a woman once walked together through the jungle.
Shortly afterwards, the woman gave birth to a great number of children.
As they grew, some of these children began to cut down trees and grow rice, while others continued to feed only on the leaves of the jungle.
As time went by, the former began to fight amongst themselves: they were the ancestors of man.
The others, horrified, sought refuge among the treetops and turned into lemurs.
And since then, it has been known that humans and lemurs are brothers.