Asia's Wild Secrets

From Sri Lanka to Indonesia and Japan, Asia's wild islands teem with some of the world's wildest creatures. Some arrived by sea, others crossed land bridges when sea levels were lower. But all of them have had to adapt in fascinating ways to their isolated lives. Discover how creatures from the slow loris to the komodo dragon, the mugger crocodile to the proboscis monkey have adapted to island life.

Tigers cool off in it, fight over it and lie in wait for prey on its edges. Elephants, rhinos and buffalo guzzle it, submerge in it, depend on it. The great hornbill and lion-tailed macaques depend on it too, to create forests big enough to sustain them. Hokkaido's brown bears wouldn't survive without it. Whether it comes from the monsoon, from Himalayan meltwater, the tides or snow, every animal in Asia has a story to tell about water.

Snow leopards stalk the highest living sheep on earth, while Japanese macaques relax in volcanic hot springs. Giant Pandas spend half their day eating woody grass, while their relatives the Tibetan brown bear must work hard to dig up a rabbit-like pika from burrows. Asia's highlands are home to some of the world's harshest environments and the highest-living species in the world have had to adapt in unique ways in order to survive at high altitude.