Zoo Quest

Episode 1

To Madagascar: I

First transmitted in 1961, this series captures the four months David Attenborough, cameraman Geoffrey Mulligan and Malagasy ornithologist Georges Randrianasolo spent travelling several thousand miles throughout the island of Madagascar. They set out to meet the people of Madagascar and study their local customs as well as film some of the remarkable animals which occur nowhere else in the world. Starting in the south of Madagascar, David Attenborough hopes to find an Aepyornis egg. The Aepyornis, or elephant bird, may have given rise to the legend of the gigantic bird known as the rukh or roc. Attenborough reconstructs an Aepyornis egg from fragments, and also sees tortoises and sifakas.