It is one of the greatest pleasures in life, observing the natural world. David Attenborough narrates a survey of the Order Primates, beginning with the earliest to evolve, the Prosimians, followed by New World Anthropoids and then Old World Anthropoids. First we travel to Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, where lemurs abound. Sifaka Specializing in leaping from tree to tree, using depth perception and grasping ability, their long legs force them to hop comically across the ground. The largest lemur, its has a well developed voice to communicate through the thick forest canopy, communicating with others of its own group and defending their territory against outsiders.
Brown lemur Appears briefly as another example of a lemur that uses vocal signals.
The rarest of the lemurs, gnaws wood and uses its long middle finger to probe eggs and pull out the yolk. According to Attenborough, twenty species of lemurs survive on Madagascar, but elsewhere in the Old World they died out, except for a few in nocturnal niches. Explain why, naming the forces of evolution involved in this change. Tarsier With huge eyes, this primate is clearly nocturnal. Marmoset The most primitive of the monkeys, they use visual signals such as mustaches, bonnets, plumes, and ear tuffs.