BBC Wildlife December 2019SEVEN WORLDS | ONE PLANET
1 Goldensnub-
nosedmonkeyscan
withstandfreezing
temperaturesin
China’sforests.
2 A motherand
infantorangutanin
oneofthespecies’
fewremaining
habitats,theancient
rainforestsofBorneo.
3 Oneofthedriest
placesonEarth,
westernIran’s
desertshousea
masterofdisguise,
thespider-tailed
hornedviper.1
3
snub-nosed monkey. It might seem
odd that monkeys can survive in winter
temperatures that drop regularly
below zero, in a place that sees snow
on at least five months of the year,
but here they are living at altitudes
up to 3,400m. Feeding on lichens
and whatever the forest offers
each season, they withstand
the coldest average winter
temperatures of any non-
human primate. They
wander about infamily groups and, in summer, several
groups might merge, so over 100
monkeys are on the move together. In
winter, with scarce resources, harmony
breaks down and males might even
come to blows. Missing tails indicate
these fights can be extremely violent.
The odd thing, though, is that these
monkeys hate to get their hands
cold, so they walk upright in the
snow, looking to all the world like
abominable snowmen. Could they
be the original yetis?snow regularly accumulates on the
Japanese Alps of Honshu Island,
where a record-breaking 11.82m
fell on the slopes of Mt Ibuki on
14 February 1927.
Brass monkeys
The world’s highest mountains, the
Himalayas, form a natural barrier
between the tundra, taiga and steppe
to the north and the tropical and
subtropical deserts, grasslands, forests
and islands in the south, but it was
the mountain forests of China’s
Shennongjia National Park that
attracted the Asia production team.
Here, they encountered one of the
world’s rarest primates – the golden^2