Could the story of the elephant bird, whatever it turns out to be, help me to understand what is going on there today?

50 years ago, Madagascar was little known, certainly in Britain.

Until only a few years before, it had been a French colony.

I really didn't know anything about it when I started to read about it and the only illustrations I could find were drawings or photographs of stuffed specimens in French publications.

So I thought, OK, that's great, nobody else has filmed there, and I don't really think there had really been any natural history film made from Madagascar at all in 1960 that I could find.

It was just me and Geoff Mulligan with his camera, and we were there for four months.

Because the island has been cut off for so long, evolution has had a chance to produce a whole range of unique animals and plants.

But first, what about the elephant bird?

Beyond the legends, what more do we know about it?

The country's capital is Antananarivo, or Tana, as the locals call it, and the place to go if you want to find out about the island's natural history is obviously its museum.