Asia - Season 1

Asia has the longest coastline of any continent and the richest coral reefs on earth. Its seas are connected by some of the world's most powerful currents and are home to over 60 per cent of all marine species.

This groundbreaking film features the charismatic creatures of Asia's oceans, never-seen-before spectacles and brand new animal behaviour. From ocean giants in the big blue to tiny fish that climb trees, squid that glow in the dark and grey reef sharks in their hundreds, Asia's waters are as spectacular as they are diverse.

Asia is the most mountainous continent on earth. From the forested mountains of the tropics to the hostile heights of the Himalayas, Asia's mountains are home to an astonishing abundance of specialised plants and wildlife.

In India, elephants live in high altitude tea plantations, and in Thailand, mountainous caves hide the planet's greatest gathering of swifts. In Pakistan, markhor live life truly on the edge, fighting for mates atop towering cliffs, and in Nepal, the forested foothills of the Himalayas provide hiding places for one of Asia's shyest mammals, the red panda.

In northern Asia, life defies hostile extremes. In Russia's Lake Baikal, a seal pup must take evasive action when its ice den starts to melt. Hokkaido's thermal springs are a haven for dancing red-crowned cranes. On the Tibetan Plateau, a lone Himalayan wolf hunts antelope. Fish owls thrive in the forests where Russia and China meet. On the Kamchatka Peninsula, brown bears hunt salmon to prepare for hibernation. Elsewhere in Japan, bats hibernate beneath snow, while red foxes and sea eagles compete for food. In Arctic Russia, polar bears wait on isolated lands for the return of sea ice.

Asia's jungles are exceptionally diverse, but whilst they provide shelter, food and opportunity, they are also full of dangers and hidden threats. In monsoon forests, tigers tenaciously hunt their prey, and prehistoric-looking rhinos play courtship games akin to kiss chase. In tropical rainforests, female orangutans must search far and wide to find their perfect mates. And in the little-known forests of Iraqi Kurdistan, a new Persian leopard population is growing amid minefields.

In Asia, the most densely populated continent, animals have developed extraordinary ways to seize the opportunities of the human world. From tigers entering a city to hunt easy prey, to elephants stopping traffic to demand food from motorists.

A small park in central Bangkok supports 300 giant lizards, whilst a flying squirrel in Taipei has made a cosy home in a school. Yet the changing human world creates unprecedented challenges – proboscis monkeys are forced to venture uncomfortably closer to humans, and swifts in Jerusalem face tough competition for nest sites.

In the heart of Asia lie vast arid lands. These deserts and dry grasslands are so hostile that they push life to the limit. Here, one of the rarest animals on earth, the Gobi bear, searches desperately for water and bizarre looking long-eared jerboas use their striking features to catch prey. Asiatic lions must do whatever it takes to find food, and juvenile cormorants resort to cannibalism to survive. On the arid grasslands, Pallas cats need ingenious ways to get close to their prey, Mongolian gazelles must battle harsh winters and human barriers, and takhi are terrorised each night by Mongolian wolves. Life in the arid heart of Asia demands extraordinary resilience – those that live here are the continent's great survivors.

Remarkable people are dedicating their lives to saving Asia's extraordinary wildlife, using ingenious solutions. In Borneo, we follow a sun bear being released back into the wild, and in Java, we see how a breeding programme is saving the Javan green magpie. In Japan, orphaned shark embryos are being raised in an artificial uterus. And off Bali, fishermen are trialling new technology that could stop rare species being caught in their nets. We witness a Nepali police raid disrupting the illegal wildlife trade and also join a 24-hour wildlife rescue team saving Sunda pangolins in urban Singapore.