Cave Crocs of Madagascar

Millions of years of isolation from the African mainland have meant that Madagascar has a great variety of novel plants and animals. In fact of the 200,000 species that occur on the island, 75% occur nowhere else in the world. In the depths of a remote cave system in northern Madagascar; rumors abound about a mysterious population of subterranean crocodiles, which could be a new sub-species of the Nile crocodile. The Ankarana Nature Reserve holds a subterranean secret amongst its limestone cliffs, razor-sharp pinnacles and tropical forests. Under the Ankarana plateau are more than 100 miles of caves, passages and rivers that are believed to be home to the world's only cave-dwelling crocodiles. National Geographic Television & Film goes with herpetologist Brady Barr and Spanish biologist Gerardo Garcia Herrero into the caves of Ankarana to unravel the mystery of these rare crocodiles. They enlist the help of a colorful Malagasy character commonly referred to as Madagascar's "Crocodile Dundee". This is no place for the faint-hearted. The caves are home to blind fish, eels as thick as a man's thigh, bats and scorpions. Passages veer off on all sides and it would be all too easy to get lost in these depths amongst the man-eaters. How do the crocs navigate in these pitch-black corridors? What do they eat? Have generations of underground living produced a whole new sub-species of crocodile? Before the team can answer these questions they will have to venture deep into the caves and capture some of them. Join us in the underground depths as we track the Cave Crocs of Madagascar.