BBC Wildlife December 2019 Seven Worlds, One Planet 11CONTINENTAL STATS
THE STATS
ASIA
4 Pacific walruses
brave a snowstorm
on Russia’s remote
Arcticcoast.These
marinemammalsare
verysociablebutare
aggressiveduringthe
matingseason.5 A Kamchatka brown
bear heads to the
Valley of Geysers
ina remoteregion
ofRussiatotake
advantageofthe
geothermallyheated
groundandhotsteam.To t a l l a n d a r e a : 44.58 million km
Human population: 4.6 billion
Population density: 103 per km
Number of countries: 48
(+ 3 dependencies)
Country with the most threatened
species: Indonesia, 1,472*
Conservation threats:
deforestation, habitat loss, human
population increase and encroachment,
poaching, invasive alien species, pollution
and climate change*Includes IUCN Red List categories: Critically
Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable.ASIA In a nutshell
Intense tropical heat, severe
Arctic cold, the wettest places, the
highest mountains... Asia has vast
areas undisturbed by humans as
well as some of the planet’s most
populous conurbations.4
5
4
1
In the seriously hot parts of
southwest Asia, the Asia team
discovered a very unusual creature.
Living in rocky outcrops in Iranian
deserts is a snake – not unusual in
itself, but this snake has the most
bizarre adaptation. The spider-tailed
horned viper has a tail that ends in
a bulb bordered by appendage-like
scales, that looks and moves just like a
spider. The snake moves its tail so the
bogus spider comes alive, and when a
bird flies down to catch it, the snake’s
lightning strike means goodbye bird.Fishermen’s friends
In southeastern Asia, beyond the
mainland, are the islands of Indonesia,
and on the north coast of New Guinea
is a very special place. Cenderawasih
Bay is a 300km-wide bay with vast
coral reefs. But it was not corals that
the crew had come to see. It was the
world’s biggest fish – the whale shark.A conservation success story, the
whale sharks, up to 10m long on
average, visit the bay for a free food
handout. They are gentle filter feeders
with an appetite for plankton, krill
and small fish, and the Cenderawasih
sharks get their fish from local
fishermen, who fish from platforms in
the sea, known as bagans. They lower
huge nets down to a depth of about
18m at dusk. Floodlights at the surface
attract millions of an anchovy-like fish,
the ikan puri, into the net.
But not all go to market. Some fish
are left in, and the whale sharks suck
them out through the mesh or are
handfed by the fishermen. They believe
the sharks bring them good luck. A
spin-off, of course, is that the sharks
are cherished and protected. In fact, the
Indonesian government has given the
bay protected status as a national park,
a real and positive contribution to
whale shark conservation.With scarce resources,
harmony breaks down and
the monkeys come to blows.
Missing tails show the fights
can be extremely violent.
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3
5
Snub-nose monkey: BBC NHU; orangutan & brown bear: Nick Green/BBC NHU; snake: Matthijs Kuijpers/Alamy; walrus: Patrick Evans/BBC Studios