Wrapped in the Indian Ocean 250 miles off the coast of Mozambique, Madagascar is an Africa you can barely believe exists. Thanks to 90 million years of glorious isolation, the flora and fauna of the world’s fourth-largest island have developed in breathtakingly weird and wonderful ways. More than nine-tenths of the wildlife is found nowhere else, with new species still being discovered every year, making its depiction as a biodiversity hotspot anything but overblown. Its most iconic residents are the lemurs – which share a common ancestor with apes, monkeys and us – whose extensive supporting cast ranges from unique baobab trees to cat-like fossas, half of all known chameleons and an astonishing array of orchids.