00:00The next time you want to complain about your neighborhood,
00:03remember that some people live inside the crater of a volcano.
00:07You can visualize their village on Google Maps,
00:10by observing the island of Madagascar.
00:12You will then see a dark point, almost perfectly round on the map.
00:16Roads pass from side to side, but none cross it.
00:19By zooming in enough, you will discover a village,
00:22with houses located in the middle of the crater.
00:25The nearest city is 8 km away.
00:28One might think that the inhabitants have been living here
00:31for immemorial times, refusing to move.
00:33But by examining the maps of previous years,
00:36we see that the village does not shrink, it grows.
00:40The first houses appeared in 2008.
00:43Why then, someone living in the 21st century,
00:46would he choose to settle voluntarily in such a remote place?
00:51This question intrigued Vox's team,
00:53an American news website.
00:55They decided to solve the mystery,
00:58without having any clue about this unusual village.
01:01The first logical step was to find someone in the area,
01:05and to simply ask him what was going on behind the walls of the crater.
01:09It turned out to be more complicated than expected,
01:12because some places indicated on Google
01:14turned out to be fictitious, or inspired by mangas.
01:18The places themselves had no contact information.
01:23They then contacted an organization
01:24that had published some photos on Instagram from the nearest city.
01:28Although they replied, it was of no great help,
01:31because they had never gone near the mountain in question.
01:34The journalists then decided to contact experts in agriculture
01:38and biogeography, likely to have connections in the region.
01:42It was obvious at that time that a simple search on Google
01:46or a brief exchange would not be enough.
01:48They therefore asked someone based in Madagascar to go see on site.
01:52Our mystery hunters then contacted
01:54the head of a local video production company.
01:58Surprised that someone lives in this area because of earthquakes,
02:02she nevertheless agreed to form a team
02:04and travel about 130 km from Tananarive to the village.
02:09The date of the expedition was set for January.
02:12In the middle of the rainy season.
02:14The closer they got to their destination,
02:17the more the roads deteriorated.
02:19To a certain extent,
02:20they had to abandon their cars to continue on motorcycles,
02:23then finally walk for an hour to reach their goal.
02:26A storm reversed their plans,
02:29forcing them to turn around before the slippery terrain became impractical.
02:33For safety reasons,
02:35they ended up postponing their expedition
02:37at the end of the rainy season, in May.
02:40During the four months separating the two expeditions,
02:43Vox's team sought to learn more about this mysterious place.
02:47They discovered that the mountain dates back to the Cretaceous,
02:5066 to 145 million years ago,
02:54and that it was of volcanic nature.
02:56An expert explained that the mountain we know today
03:00was about 90 million years old,
03:02which makes it even older than Mount Everest or the Grand Canyon.
03:06The volcano has been extinguished for a long time.
03:08The massif surrounding the crater is a huge alkaline annular complex.
03:13In the past, this site was a prosperous village
03:16due to its high position and its access to fresh water.
03:19The soil there is very fertile,
03:21thanks to the alkaline chemical compounds it contains.
03:24With the end of the rainy season,
03:26the team on site was ready for a new attempt to attack the crater.
03:30This time, the weather and the road were impeccable,
03:33but a new problem came up.
03:36When they arrived at the village,
03:37the inhabitants did not show themselves to be very welcoming.
03:40Finally, the head of the village, Danosi Bay,
03:43whose name translates to
03:45agreed to let them visit the site.
03:48They discovered about 50 houses in the village,
03:51occupied by about 300 people,
03:53each belonging to the Bethsileos ethnic group.
03:56When their original village was overcrowded,
03:59they understood that it was time to look for a new home.
04:02An old man from the village, who traded cattle in the region,
04:06then remembered this vast open space.
04:09So they traveled about 400 km from their old home
04:13to found this new hamlet in the crater.
04:17Since then, they mainly grow lemons and oranges there,
04:20which they sell on the markets of the neighboring cities.
04:23The transport of goods is particularly difficult
04:26due to the dilapidation of the roads leading to the village.
04:30The volcano was a witness to the separation of Madagascar and India
04:33about 88 million years ago.
04:36Since then, the island has remained cut off from the rest of the world,
04:39which has led to a unique flora and fauna.
04:42Madagascar houses 40 species of lemurs that can't be found anywhere else on Earth.
04:46Long live King Julian, if you know what I mean.
04:50In addition, Madagascar houses about 800 species of butterflies.
04:5492% of the mammals,
04:5689% of the flora,
04:58and 95% of the reptiles on the island are endemic.
05:01Thus, to meet unique creatures such as the giraffe charençon,
05:05the panther chameleon,
05:07the tomato frog,
05:08the ferocious fossa,
05:09or adorable lemurs such as the sifaka or the indri,
05:12and many other fascinating animals,
05:14you don't need to go any further than Madagascar.
05:17Scientists have three main theories
05:19to explain the remarkable diversity of terrestrial animals on the island.
05:23First, some species may have been present in Madagascar
05:27even before it became an island.
05:29Secondly, they could not have swum there
05:32or drifted on dead wood from continental Africa
05:34when the currents were unfavorable.
05:36Finally, there is the hypothesis of a terrestrial bridge.
05:39The problem is that Madagascar has very few fossil traces
05:43from the time of the dinosaurs until about 2000 years ago.
05:47In a recent study,
05:48researchers compared the genes of the current Madagascar species
05:52with those of their African relatives
05:55to determine when the ancestors of each species had reached the island.
05:59They discovered that some had been present in Madagascar
06:03for more than 80 million years
06:05and had witnessed the separation of the island from the Indian subcontinent.
06:09This means that creatures such as the big-headed turtle
06:13survived the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
06:18However, most reptiles, mammals and amphibians
06:22have opted for a more adventurous journey.
06:25They descend from small animals
06:26that have probably drifted to Madagascar on fortune rafts.
06:30Lemurs, for example,
06:33have probably the microcebes as ancestors.
06:36Turtles, on the other hand,
06:38may have simply floated through the Mozambique Canal
06:41without needing a raft.
06:43The first human colonization of this island dates back to about 1,300 years ago.
06:48And its name is still a bit of a linguistic mystery.
06:52The legend would suggest that Marco Polo,
06:54the famous Venetian merchant,
06:56would have given this name by confusing the island
06:58with the kingdom of Mogadiscio in East Africa.
07:01This geographical confusion would have resulted in the name of Madagascar.
07:06Despite the uncertainty as to the origin of the name,
07:09the language and culture of the island clearly denote an Indonesian influence.
07:14Some researchers argue that the first inhabitants
07:17would have come directly from Indonesia,
07:19with African influences being added later.
07:23Others think that it would rather be a mixture of migrations
07:27along the coasts of India,
07:29the Arabian Peninsula and Africa,
07:31creating a diversified cruise.
07:34Most of the inhabitants speak Malagasy,
07:37the national language that uses the Latin alphabet.
07:40French is also widely spoken and officially recognized.
07:44If you regularly use vanilla,
07:47there is a chance that it comes from Madagascar.
07:50The island provides about 80% of the world's natural vanilla,
07:54which represents 25% of the country's exports.
07:57Madagascar also exports clothing and textiles,
08:01clove, fish and seafood,
08:04as well as various food products.
08:07Most of the land is dedicated to cattle raising,
08:10which benefits from this rich green grass.
08:13Some of the island's oldest villages were built
08:16on hills surrounded by ditches for better defense.
08:19But they were later rebuilt on lower and more convenient land
08:22for agriculture.
Comments