Lemur Island

"Lemur Island" is a weekly documentary series seen on Animal Planet on friday nights in the UK. In a small, undisturbed corner of the remote island of Madagascar lives a remarkable and unique prosimian species: the ring-tailed lemur. This astonishing new ten-part series, filmed over a year, offers us a lemur’s-eye view of these fascinating creatures as they go about their daily routine of foraging for food, escaping the clutches of predators and fiercely guarding their territory.

The series follows two distinct families, or ‘gangs’, of ring-tails –the Graveyards and the Tornado Troop –who live in a four-square-kilometre patch on the island. This week’s show offers a compelling insight into the bitter internal politics of the Tornado Troop, and reveals the heartbreaking struggle for survival faced by a baby ring-tail with a broken leg.

As well as waging a constant battle for dominance with each other, the two troops have plenty of internal struggles, as the dominant female leaders are regularly in danger of being usurped by ambitious and aggressive footsoldiers. Tornado Troop member Alexis –not unlike her ‘Dynasty’ femme fatale namesake –has established herself literally at the top of the tree through sheer tenacity and bloody-mindedness. It is she who leads the Tornados about their daily business, and she who gets first taste of the best berries in the rainforest. But heavy lies the crown that Alexis wears, as her position is always under threat from the likes of Frieda and Amazon –two headstrong lieutenants who make sure Alexis is never allowed the luxury of complacency.
(Source: Animal Planet)