1 00:00:07,341 --> 00:00:09,843 Planet Earth is so spectacular, 2 00:00:10,636 --> 00:00:13,680 it's easy to miss the smaller things in life. 3 00:00:15,766 --> 00:00:17,643 But take a closer look... 4 00:00:18,143 --> 00:00:20,562 and there's a whole undiscovered world. 5 00:00:22,648 --> 00:00:24,983 A world where tiny heroes... 6 00:00:26,485 --> 00:00:27,861 and little monsters... 7 00:00:29,029 --> 00:00:31,406 need incredible superpowers... 8 00:00:34,618 --> 00:00:40,040 to help them triumph against giant odds. 9 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:01,687 For 150 million years, 10 00:01:01,770 --> 00:01:07,693 the island of Madagascar has been slowly drifting on its own unique course. 11 00:01:09,862 --> 00:01:13,532 And those cast away on this lost world 12 00:01:13,615 --> 00:01:17,744 have been evolving in weird and wonderful ways. 13 00:01:20,581 --> 00:01:24,501 These precious rain forests are home to extraordinary creatures... 14 00:01:25,627 --> 00:01:27,671 found nowhere else on earth. 15 00:01:33,844 --> 00:01:35,053 The smallest... 16 00:01:36,430 --> 00:01:38,265 are the most wonderful of all. 17 00:01:40,809 --> 00:01:42,144 A tiny tenrec. 18 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,442 Until now, she's had her mother to guide her. 19 00:01:50,235 --> 00:01:51,904 But at only four weeks old... 20 00:01:53,447 --> 00:01:55,282 and only four centimeters tall... 21 00:01:56,408 --> 00:01:58,285 it's time to take her own path. 22 00:02:08,044 --> 00:02:09,838 In this mysterious forest, 23 00:02:10,672 --> 00:02:13,425 the animals are armed with secret weapons... 24 00:02:14,676 --> 00:02:15,677 special skills... 25 00:02:17,721 --> 00:02:19,181 and cunning defenses. 26 00:02:26,063 --> 00:02:27,773 To survive out here, 27 00:02:28,482 --> 00:02:32,152 a tiny tenrec needs to discover its own superpower. 28 00:02:49,545 --> 00:02:51,797 It's a difficult time to set out alone. 29 00:02:57,302 --> 00:02:58,762 The rains are late this year. 30 00:03:06,687 --> 00:03:08,146 The forest is dry. 31 00:03:11,567 --> 00:03:12,985 Food is scarce. 32 00:03:14,152 --> 00:03:16,697 And the more time animals spend looking for it... 33 00:03:19,199 --> 00:03:22,077 the more they risk being caught out in the open. 34 00:03:26,540 --> 00:03:28,834 Tree boas lie in ambush. 35 00:03:31,962 --> 00:03:34,840 Carnivorous fossa stalk the forest floor. 36 00:03:39,428 --> 00:03:41,889 Little creatures must stay out of trouble... 37 00:03:45,976 --> 00:03:48,312 and try their best to disappear. 38 00:04:02,367 --> 00:04:07,664 This deadly game of hide-and-seek has fueled an evolutionary arms race. 39 00:04:11,585 --> 00:04:13,670 Ever more cunning disguises... 40 00:04:14,671 --> 00:04:17,716 to combat ever more deadly threats. 41 00:04:24,139 --> 00:04:26,808 There are hunters here with vision so acute... 42 00:04:30,812 --> 00:04:34,525 they can pick out even the most camouflaged creatures. 43 00:04:39,655 --> 00:04:41,406 A panther chameleon. 44 00:04:43,450 --> 00:04:46,662 With eyesight five times sharper than our own... 45 00:04:47,996 --> 00:04:51,166 and almost 360-degree surveillance... 46 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:54,920 there's not much he misses. 47 00:05:05,472 --> 00:05:07,349 What looks like a dead leaf... 48 00:05:11,186 --> 00:05:13,814 is actually a ghost mantis. 49 00:05:23,323 --> 00:05:26,285 A chameleon's vision is attuned to movement. 50 00:05:32,708 --> 00:05:36,628 If the mantis stays still, he might just stay alive. 51 00:05:42,759 --> 00:05:44,553 But he needs to eat too. 52 00:06:01,612 --> 00:06:03,405 The chameleon locks on... 53 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:09,119 then unleashes his deadly weapon. 54 00:06:13,916 --> 00:06:17,753 Zero to 60 in 1/20th of a second. 55 00:06:28,555 --> 00:06:32,267 Few insects are safe from the stealthy panther. 56 00:06:39,358 --> 00:06:42,653 And few lizards are safe from the helmet vanga... 57 00:06:46,406 --> 00:06:49,326 especially when she's hunting for two. 58 00:07:04,758 --> 00:07:06,927 A tenrec is a bit prickly for her chick. 59 00:07:10,514 --> 00:07:14,434 But a leaf-tailed gecko would go down a treat. 60 00:07:18,105 --> 00:07:19,648 If she can catch it. 61 00:07:23,610 --> 00:07:28,407 This crafty little lizard is one of the finest escape artists around. 62 00:07:31,827 --> 00:07:35,998 By selecting just the right branch to blend with the color... 63 00:07:38,959 --> 00:07:41,044 and the texture of his skin... 64 00:07:44,548 --> 00:07:47,259 he has a cloak of invisibility. 65 00:07:58,770 --> 00:08:00,772 Madagascar's forests conceal 66 00:08:00,856 --> 00:08:04,193 some of the most amazingly cryptic creatures on the planet. 67 00:08:08,530 --> 00:08:11,950 But being hard to find can make it... 68 00:08:12,951 --> 00:08:15,370 hard to find each other. 69 00:08:20,042 --> 00:08:22,127 No bigger than a paper clip, 70 00:08:22,211 --> 00:08:25,839 this is one of the smallest chameleons in the world. 71 00:08:27,174 --> 00:08:29,343 A male leaf chameleon. 72 00:08:30,844 --> 00:08:32,804 On a mission to find a mate. 73 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:43,357 With danger all around, 74 00:08:44,107 --> 00:08:45,943 he plays the slow game... 75 00:08:49,530 --> 00:08:53,992 freezing between steps to move undetected. 76 00:08:59,790 --> 00:09:06,380 These chameleons are so hard to spot, males need a superpower to find a female. 77 00:09:10,342 --> 00:09:12,803 He can see things others can't. 78 00:09:17,933 --> 00:09:20,352 The radiant glow of a female. 79 00:09:26,233 --> 00:09:29,236 Her body reflects ultraviolet light... 80 00:09:32,573 --> 00:09:34,575 for his eyes only. 81 00:09:40,414 --> 00:09:42,749 Finding a female is hard enough. 82 00:09:45,878 --> 00:09:47,171 Catching up with her... 83 00:09:49,631 --> 00:09:51,758 will be even more of a challenge. 84 00:10:00,767 --> 00:10:03,103 Without any cool camouflage of her own... 85 00:10:04,479 --> 00:10:06,190 the tenrec hides underground. 86 00:10:14,323 --> 00:10:18,577 Her small burrow is a safe place to hole up until the rains arrive. 87 00:10:21,914 --> 00:10:24,041 And with a bit of home furnishing... 88 00:10:24,917 --> 00:10:26,919 it could be fit for a family. 89 00:10:45,229 --> 00:10:48,732 Madagascan millipedes don't bother hiding at all. 90 00:10:50,817 --> 00:10:54,446 Packed with so much poison that most predators won't touch them. 91 00:10:56,323 --> 00:10:58,492 They're free to roam the rain forest. 92 00:11:03,413 --> 00:11:04,748 Most of the time. 93 00:11:09,545 --> 00:11:12,798 The millipede's toxin won't harm a lemur this size. 94 00:11:14,174 --> 00:11:16,677 But it's the ideal insect repellent 95 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,388 for getting rid of parasites living in their fur. 96 00:11:29,398 --> 00:11:33,610 The lemurs have also discovered a rather strange side effect. 97 00:11:40,033 --> 00:11:41,243 A quick bite... 98 00:11:43,453 --> 00:11:45,163 and more toxin is released. 99 00:11:47,791 --> 00:11:49,543 And in small doses... 100 00:11:50,210 --> 00:11:52,379 it appears to be psychoactive. 101 00:11:59,970 --> 00:12:02,723 The millipedes are released relatively unscathed. 102 00:12:04,391 --> 00:12:07,352 But high in the trees, the lemurs... 103 00:12:08,061 --> 00:12:09,771 won't be coming down for a while. 104 00:12:38,884 --> 00:12:40,594 Under the cover of darkness... 105 00:12:41,470 --> 00:12:45,265 the tenrec emerges to hunt for worms. 106 00:12:47,768 --> 00:12:49,811 She eats around 50 each night. 107 00:12:54,024 --> 00:12:58,362 Her eyesight is so poor, she uses her sensitive nose to find them. 108 00:13:03,951 --> 00:13:07,412 But a tree boa has an even more sophisticated sense of smell. 109 00:13:17,965 --> 00:13:22,177 It locates its victims by tasting the air with a forked tongue. 110 00:13:37,067 --> 00:13:41,572 Once in range, it switches to heat-seeking mode. 111 00:13:43,490 --> 00:13:48,203 Temperature-sensitive pits around its mouth detect warm-blooded creatures. 112 00:14:10,392 --> 00:14:13,312 Even the deadliest predators have an off night. 113 00:14:16,523 --> 00:14:19,318 Maybe it will have a little more success higher up. 114 00:14:28,869 --> 00:14:31,663 But the tenrec's luck just gets better. 115 00:14:36,710 --> 00:14:37,920 A male. 116 00:14:42,007 --> 00:14:45,802 At only two months old, tenrecs are ready to meet a mate. 117 00:14:52,518 --> 00:14:55,187 This mouse lemur already has babies. 118 00:14:58,232 --> 00:15:00,400 One of the smallest primates in the world, 119 00:15:00,484 --> 00:15:04,279 she keeps them safe in the tiniest of tree holes. 120 00:15:10,786 --> 00:15:12,913 They depend on their mother for everything. 121 00:15:13,539 --> 00:15:15,958 So she needs all the energy she can get. 122 00:15:18,502 --> 00:15:20,546 And she knows just the thing. 123 00:15:24,007 --> 00:15:29,221 It's a bit of a climb, but a mouse lemur can leap eight times its own body length. 124 00:15:42,067 --> 00:15:43,569 And with huge eyes... 125 00:15:44,278 --> 00:15:46,113 she can find her way in the dark. 126 00:15:51,577 --> 00:15:53,579 But the most impressive night vision 127 00:15:53,662 --> 00:15:56,874 belongs to a creature that haunts the forest floor. 128 00:16:03,172 --> 00:16:08,635 Ogre-faced spiders have eyes 2,000 times more sensitive than our own. 129 00:16:13,098 --> 00:16:15,434 They're the largest eyes of any spider. 130 00:16:21,899 --> 00:16:24,234 She spins a net rather than a web. 131 00:16:29,448 --> 00:16:30,574 Then waits. 132 00:16:49,218 --> 00:16:51,970 Now her spider sense comes into play. 133 00:16:56,266 --> 00:16:57,392 Every night, 134 00:16:57,476 --> 00:17:01,772 a special coating builds up inside her eyes so she can see in the dark. 135 00:17:19,414 --> 00:17:24,877 Forward-facing eyes are great for hunting, but her peripheral vision is poor. 136 00:17:31,677 --> 00:17:37,307 At night, the satanic leaf-tailed gecko comes out of hiding to hunt bugs... 137 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:46,608 and spiders. 138 00:17:56,285 --> 00:18:00,247 High above, the mouse lemur has found what she's looking for. 139 00:18:10,048 --> 00:18:11,592 Flower bugs. 140 00:18:19,349 --> 00:18:23,604 These curious little creatures mimic flower petals to fool predators. 141 00:18:37,159 --> 00:18:38,994 But she doesn't want to eat them. 142 00:18:41,330 --> 00:18:45,959 As they feed on tree sap, the bugs release little drops of sugar. 143 00:18:55,719 --> 00:18:58,472 A high-calorie snack for a busy mom. 144 00:19:02,059 --> 00:19:04,811 But not all out tonight are quite so sweet. 145 00:19:30,879 --> 00:19:34,675 A bigger, freakier night stalker. 146 00:19:41,974 --> 00:19:43,183 The aye-aye. 147 00:19:46,645 --> 00:19:51,191 This strange lemur is a Frankenstein's monster of evolution. 148 00:19:52,442 --> 00:19:53,652 Ears like a bat. 149 00:19:54,611 --> 00:19:56,613 Teeth like a rat. 150 00:20:00,242 --> 00:20:01,785 And a witch's finger. 151 00:20:05,372 --> 00:20:08,750 She taps it to listen for the hollow sound of a tree hole. 152 00:20:16,258 --> 00:20:18,427 She's not hunting for mouse lemurs. 153 00:20:20,387 --> 00:20:23,140 She's searching for something even smaller. 154 00:20:25,309 --> 00:20:26,518 Grubs. 155 00:20:29,646 --> 00:20:33,317 Her crooked finger is also the perfect extraction tool. 156 00:20:40,407 --> 00:20:43,202 In this rain forest, it pays to find your niche... 157 00:20:44,286 --> 00:20:46,205 however weird it might be. 158 00:21:08,477 --> 00:21:10,479 The returning daylight reveals... 159 00:21:11,396 --> 00:21:12,606 an empty nest. 160 00:21:19,488 --> 00:21:22,407 But the vanga has invested too much to give up hope. 161 00:21:41,385 --> 00:21:45,305 Not far from the nest, her baby is still alive. 162 00:21:50,686 --> 00:21:55,524 Threatened chicks sometimes fly the nest before they're fully fledged. 163 00:22:04,867 --> 00:22:09,580 The mother will keep feeding it for a few more days until it's totally independent. 164 00:22:28,307 --> 00:22:29,308 Finally... 165 00:22:32,311 --> 00:22:33,937 the wet season has arrived. 166 00:22:57,878 --> 00:23:00,589 Water transforms the rain forest. 167 00:23:07,054 --> 00:23:08,555 It brings new life. 168 00:23:16,939 --> 00:23:18,357 And new food. 169 00:23:24,571 --> 00:23:29,660 As leaves flush green, a new trend in camouflage is called for. 170 00:23:36,625 --> 00:23:39,795 But some things in the rain forest never change. 171 00:23:43,924 --> 00:23:50,264 Those that have survived this far now face an even bigger challenge. 172 00:23:52,182 --> 00:23:57,855 When the rains return, the battle to breed erupts on all scales. 173 00:24:07,114 --> 00:24:10,242 Male giraffe weevils fight for the favor of a female 174 00:24:10,742 --> 00:24:14,621 by using their extra-long necks in jousting tournaments. 175 00:24:23,046 --> 00:24:25,799 These pea-sized fights rarely result in injury. 176 00:24:28,552 --> 00:24:33,724 But things get more brutal when panther chameleons clash. 177 00:24:43,066 --> 00:24:44,776 They turn bright colors. 178 00:24:46,737 --> 00:24:48,238 This is not camouflage. 179 00:24:50,490 --> 00:24:51,992 This is war paint. 180 00:24:54,786 --> 00:24:58,415 And their territorial battles are crucial to winning a mate. 181 00:25:29,363 --> 00:25:31,823 The victor claims this tree as his own. 182 00:25:33,534 --> 00:25:35,369 The loser must look elsewhere. 183 00:25:39,456 --> 00:25:41,500 Winning the fight is just the beginning. 184 00:25:43,418 --> 00:25:46,129 Securing a mate can be even more of a struggle. 185 00:25:56,056 --> 00:25:58,392 The little leaf chameleon is making progress. 186 00:26:02,646 --> 00:26:03,981 So close... 187 00:26:04,773 --> 00:26:06,233 yet so far. 188 00:26:10,737 --> 00:26:11,905 The vanga. 189 00:26:13,782 --> 00:26:16,201 He needs to tread more carefully than ever. 190 00:26:27,713 --> 00:26:29,131 Nothing to see here. 191 00:26:32,301 --> 00:26:36,180 Just two clandestine chameleons meeting "undercover." 192 00:26:40,851 --> 00:26:44,521 Mates found, it's time to spawn the next generation. 193 00:26:48,901 --> 00:26:53,280 A female giraffe weevil goes to a lot of effort to give her eggs the best chance. 194 00:26:56,700 --> 00:26:58,160 The male keeps guard... 195 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:02,289 while she lays a single egg in the fold of a leaf. 196 00:27:09,838 --> 00:27:12,633 Then she puts that neck to use. 197 00:27:17,429 --> 00:27:20,182 In a display of incredible strength, 198 00:27:20,265 --> 00:27:25,354 this supermom rolls a camouflaged cradle ten times her size. 199 00:27:32,986 --> 00:27:34,196 And hides it... 200 00:27:37,282 --> 00:27:38,867 in plain sight. 201 00:27:48,710 --> 00:27:50,838 The little tenrec has been even busier. 202 00:27:56,009 --> 00:28:00,639 Just four months after leaving her own mom, her burrow is full. 203 00:28:04,852 --> 00:28:06,854 A litter of three pups. 204 00:28:08,438 --> 00:28:10,858 Tenrecs may not seem the most cuddly... 205 00:28:12,818 --> 00:28:14,736 but for their first two weeks, 206 00:28:14,820 --> 00:28:18,782 these prickly little creatures like to snuggle up tight to keep warm. 207 00:28:34,464 --> 00:28:38,552 And they also need to stick together as they begin to explore the forest. 208 00:28:41,388 --> 00:28:46,977 Mom now has the experience to keep her family safe in such a dangerous world. 209 00:28:50,856 --> 00:28:52,274 But there's always one... 210 00:28:53,317 --> 00:28:54,818 that strays too far. 211 00:29:16,548 --> 00:29:19,009 The little pup instinctively knows to hide. 212 00:29:24,806 --> 00:29:29,770 But somehow, mom needs to get her baby back without alerting the fossa. 213 00:29:42,449 --> 00:29:45,452 Rubbing together special spines on her back, 214 00:29:45,536 --> 00:29:48,121 she sends out a secret homing signal. 215 00:29:55,879 --> 00:29:58,924 This high-frequency sound carries through the undergrowth. 216 00:30:00,884 --> 00:30:02,469 To guide her lost pup... 217 00:30:03,136 --> 00:30:04,346 to safety. 218 00:30:10,435 --> 00:30:16,149 Turns out, the tiny tenrec does have her own superpower after all. 219 00:30:31,039 --> 00:30:34,710 Madagascar's little animals have evolved in weird ways. 220 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:38,130 To make it... 221 00:30:39,464 --> 00:30:41,383 in this weird world. 222 00:30:52,895 --> 00:30:56,356 But there is one threat they are powerless against. 223 00:31:06,408 --> 00:31:10,913 Deforestation has turned Madagascar's once vast rain forest... 224 00:31:12,456 --> 00:31:15,250 into an ever-shrinking and fragmented world. 225 00:31:18,337 --> 00:31:20,214 Eighty percent has already gone. 226 00:31:25,636 --> 00:31:26,970 But little by little... 227 00:31:30,974 --> 00:31:33,435 we can turn the tide of destruction... 228 00:31:39,149 --> 00:31:43,904 and begin to rebuild this lost world.