Madagascar: Africa’s Galapagos (2019)

Directed by: Boris von Schoenebeck | 50 minutes | documentary

Madagascar is a special island for several reasons. It started as part of the supercontinent Gondwanaland and split off from the African mainland about 160 million years ago. Then the connection with Antarctica broke. About 88 million years ago, Madagascar also broke away from South Asia and became a self-contained landmass. This makes it the absolute ancien among the still existing islands. Madagascar is also a rich evolutionary testing ground, home to thousands of animal and plant species found nowhere else on Earth.

The famous biologist Charles Darwin sailed close to the island during his Beagle voyage across the world’s seas, but never landed there. From hiding places in the dark jungle, a diverse ensemble of eccentric creatures may have watched as the legendary ship disappeared beyond the horizon of the Indian Ocean.

The documentary Madagascar: Africa’s Galapagos uses a piece of speculative history to highlight Madagascar’s remarkable wildlife. What would have happened if Darwin had set foot on the ‘Galapagos of Africa’? How would the sight of all the special creatures on the island have had on Darwin’s thinking about evolution? Using those intriguing questions, the film shows us some of the most iconic inhabitants of the African island. We are introduced to the fossa, the apex predator in Madagascar that combines the appearance and behavior of both felines and mongooses. And we also see the striped tenrek, a creature that looks like a colorful cross between a shrew and a hedgehog.

But most of the attention is devoted to the lemurs, primates found only in Madagascar and which have diversified into more than a hundred species over the course of evolution. Among others, the largest (the indri), smallest (the mouse lemur) and most mysterious (the aye-aye) lemurs are reviewed in a beautiful and intimate way. The chameleons should of course not be missed. Here, too, the differences in size are noticeable. The ground-dwelling Brookesia is barely larger than a postage stamp when mature, while the mainly tree-dwelling Parson’s chameleon can grow to a length of seventy centimeters.

What is particularly striking about ‘Madagascar: Africa’s Galapagos’ is the excellent balance between information provision and visual beauty. It is an instructive documentary that never bores. Razor-sharp close-ups of the special eyes of large and small chameleons are interspersed with beautiful action images of athletic indris, adorable-looking primates that leap from tree to tree like accomplished acrobats.

Towards the end of the film, the makers also mention the precarious state of Malagasy nature. Ninety percent of the forest in the poverty-stricken country has already been cut down since the arrival of humans. And about ninety percent of all lemurs are threatened with extinction. With this, the charismatic animals would follow the example of the giant lemurs (gorilla size) and huge flightless birds that inhabited the island thousands of years ago. Fortunately, ‘Madagascar: Africa’s Galapagos’ makes a strong case for preserving a unique biological treasure trove.