Hot Travelers in the Cold Desert:Camels of Mongolia | Destination Wild: Wild Mongolia | Episode 1

Hot Travelers in the Cold Desert:Camels of Mongolia | Destination Wild: Wild Mongolia | Episode 1

land locked at the heart of Asia Mongolia is a vast country stretching over 1 and a half million square kilm between Russia and China The birthplace of a once great and powerful empire guarded by mountains to the north and giving way to a vast desert in the south these lands are home to some of the toughest and most adaptable animals on Earth [Music] Trapped on a mountain plateau over 1,500 m above sea level gray clouds are all but banished This is the land of the blue skies Mongolia is at the mercy of a mountain range thousands of kilometers away The Himalayas cast a rain shadow that stretches across China and extends into southern Mongolia Rainclouds struggle to get past this nearly 9,000 m high barrier and as a result over a third of the country is held hostage by the largest desert in Asia the Gobi [Music] Literally translating as waterless place the Gobi Desert receives less than 20 cm of rain a year [Music] The Gobi covers an area nearly twice the size of Texas but desertification means the desert is expanding far beyond its borders claiming over 3 12,000 km of East Asia every year The Gobi’s elevation means temperatures here fluctuate wildly throughout the year reaching highs of over 45° C during summer plummeting to -24° in winter Despite these conditions Mongolia’s desert is host to many weird and wonderful animals as unique as the country itself Every living creature found in the desert is specially adapted to the arid landscape But that doesn’t make living here any easier These extremes make the Gobi one of the harshest desert environments in the world In November winds from Siberia in the northeast bring the Gobi Desert its main source of water in the form of snow But like everything in the desert the bitter winds drive the snow onwards never allowing it to settle for long [Music] Mongolia is a nation of nomads The Bactrian camel is perhaps the wildest and rarest of them all In summer their movements are restricted to traveling between watering holes But in winter snow allows them an escape [Music] But it comes with a catch Eating too much snow could be fatal [Music] So they have to eat small amounts constantly throughout the day They’ve evolved to cope with the limitations of life in the goi Their kidneys and intestines reabsorb water far more efficiently than other mammals As they exhale in the cold air water vapor is trapped in their nostrils and reabsorbed So water is never wasted The camel might seem out of place among snow but it’s been discovered that these incredible animals may have evolved in the tundras of the high Arctic Everything about them that seems ideal for the desert could also be an adaptation to snow Their feet are made up of two fleshy toes which flank a wide hoof preventing them from sinking in either sand or snow On the bottom of their feet a pad of fat protects them from either extreme heat or the freezing cold Three eyelids and two rows of eyelashes prevent sand and snow from entering their eyes Not one but two humps store fat to help the camel get through leaner times The camel it turns out is more mysterious than it gets credit for All over the world camels are often referred to as ships of the desert because of their ability to make extraordinarily long journeys with very little resources And these skills are still very much in use During winter camels are constantly on the move wandering vast distances in search of food This herd is made up of females with young led by an alpha male With their seasonal freedom comes the most exciting time for a male Bactran camel [Music] The rutting season [Music] This male’s bizarre stance is an attempt to attract a female He uses his tail to spread his masculine scent His distinctive cologne also serves to intimidate bachelor males who might want to muscle in Hopefully it will be enough Bacterium camels only fight as a last resort Energy is a precious resource better spent on fun with the females Despite the apparent lack of interest from the ladies it’s still early in the season It won’t be long before the hard wooing pays off By late April most of the females have given birth to his offspring Now that summer has almost arrived in the desert mysterious animals wake from a winter of hibernation [Music] As night falls in the Gobi the temperature drops [Music] It’s cold enough to send many of the desert’s animals underground but the darkness entices many more curious creatures out of hiding [Music] An owl uses the cover of darkness to hunt Beetles conduct a standoff All over the world nighttime in the desert is ruled by predators specializing in stealth and their prey trying to remain unnoticed [Applause] But not everyone here is a confident killer [Music] There is at least one creature in the desert who still isn’t quite used to things that go bump in the night At this time of year young long-eared jaboa are experiencing their very first few weeks alone without parental protection Like most jiboas these animals usually live alone and are entirely nocturnal But night life above ground takes some getting used to Their long ears are incredibly sensitive to sound a useful skill with so many predators Being a bit jumpy pays off around here Longia jabellas are so skittish they’re rarely seen in the wild And when they are it’s only for a brief second before [Music] They are the most evolved of all jumping rodents Their back legs are four times as long as the front enabling them to leap almost 3 m into the air but they usually save those sorts of heights for big emergencies After calming down she can concentrate on the task at hand Now that mom’s left this female is having to learn how to be entirely self-sufficient These jiboas are so good at hearing they can even pick up the sound of sleeping insects [Music] But catching them is a little trickier Insects are pretty much all long jaboas eat Their bounding stride allows them to travel long distances to hunt without expending much energy [Music] With each success her skills improve Jabboas don’t drink water so this meal provides her with all the liquid she’ll need for another few days In Mongolia’s parched desert this is a life-saving adaptation proving that necessity really is the mother of invention [Music] At this time of year the nighttime only lasts a few hours [Music] It’s a small window for catching dinner in the dark Long-eared hedgehogs make the most of it wandering over 8 km a night in search of food This male has a voracious appetite but out here the options can be limited Long-ED hedgehogs have evolved to be able to withstand long periods of famine If he had to this hedgehog could go over 2 months without food and water But hopefully that won’t be necessary [Music] Like most hedgehogs he has limited eyesight But what he lacks in visual abilities the long-earaed hedgehog more than makes up for His long ears are an adaptation to the desert During the day they radiate heat but by night they provide him with an acute sense of hearing which alongside his remarkably keen nose give him excellent foraging abilities [Music] These hedgehogs are omnivores but they prefer their food alive Despite their cute looks they are ferocious assassins But he might have competition [Music] The desert is home to a vicious night crawler [Music] Scorpions are adaptable arropots and have been around for hundreds of millions of years They are nothing if not survivors With a tough exoskeleton there is no need for bones Instead they have armor for skin making them no easy meal Scorpions are ruthless killers carrying a menacing venom injecting barb at the end of their tails This spur is fueled by two glands bursting with a venomous neurotoxin used to paralyze and kill unfortunate prey or any animal brave enough to take it on This scorpion is more than ready to fight for its life [Music] Despite the scorpion’s best attempts to sting his way out of being eaten the hedgehog takes the hits like a seasoned pro The pain is worth it for a meal in this desert Who knows when he might eat again The fight is over in seconds For the hedgehog the scorpion is packed full of protein and will sustain him until the next battle As the sun rises in the desert the gobies midnight marauders retreat to underground lairs But there are new horrors on the horizon This desert dweller has been an enigma to science since it was first discovered All over the world this creature is the stuff of legend It has two black beady eyes and two sets of terrifying jaws are used to tear their food apart Camel spiders are even able to chase down prey bigger than themselves at speeds of up to 16 km an hour That’s as fast as the average man can run But the camel spider is misunderstood Despite its name this is not actually a spider In fact they’re more closely related to scorpions But even so the camel spider is unlike any other invertebrate in the world They diverged from their arropod cousins over 200 million years ago evolving into a distinct order known as solifers loosely translating as those who run from the sun For a desert animal an aversion to the sun is more than a minor inconvenience Camel spiders earned their title when explorers noticed them fleeing from underneath camels mistakenly believing the camels had somehow fallen victim to the spider’s jaws All they were doing was hiding from the heat In the absence of shade they dig burrows into the ground excavating the sand with industrial efficiency Long legs double up as construction tools methodically shoveling sand and gravel before huge jaws systematically plow the debris out of the way It’s a remarkable process and it’s easy to see why these creatures have become folklore legends But aside from the camel spider’s unusual quarrying skills their mouthbound machinery makes them formidable predators Their giant jaws aren’t venomous Instead the camel spider uses their extraordinary strength to latch onto its victim with a vicelike grip Their jaws are so strong that in some parts of the world these spiders were nicknamed hair cutters Legend has it they would seek shade in the long hair of women becoming entangled and forced to cut themselves free If true this would be a horrifying ordeal for both woman and spider The fine hairs on their legs and body are used to detect prey picking up the tiniest vibrations They rely on these hairs more than their eyesight A sand lizard would make an excellent catch They’re not as fast as the camel spider but their size makes them ambitious rewarding prey But this lizard’s no fool Luckily for the camel spider not all lizards are as savvy A younger lizard is an unfortunate victim It’s the camel spider’s jaws that are their primary weapon After seizing a victim with a vicelike grip they turn flesh into a digestible pulp with their jaws It’s a gory but essential process and probably the real reason these creatures are so notorious As the day advances in Mongolia’s desert the sun stretches across the landscape tailed by winds that whip the plateau In spring they can reach speeds of almost 100 km an hour picking up sand in the process blasting any and every rock that dares stand in their way The sandstorms they create can often be seen from space These winds have played a major role in shaping the landscape of the Gobi But in the canyons on the southern edge of the desert it’s a very different story Few birds are as formidable as the bone eating bearded vulture 80% of their diet is made up of the skeletons of other animals Dropping the bones from great heights shatters them into more manageable pieces which are then swallowed whole The bearded vulture’s stomach is so acidic that it can digest bone in just 24 hours It is the only bird in the world that specializes in this gruesome diet of marrow They are one of the largest oldworld vultures an intimidating gatekeeper at the edge of the desert As the sun warms the goi the bearded vulture takes flight on rising thermals From such lofty heights they can easily find food To them the goi is nothing but a large graveyard And from here it’s easy to understand why [Music] From above the vast emptiness of the Gobi is obvious [Music] The sand stretches over the fifth largest desert in the world 20 times the size of America’s Mojave Desert The view is nearly always uninterrupted Mongolia is known as the land of blue skies With 250 cloudless days a year over 3,000 km away heavy rainclouds struggle to cross the nearly 9,000 m high Himalayas The southern side of the mountain range is dowsted in water as the clouds ascend and are forced to drop their cargo By the time the winds reach the Gobi Desert the air is dry and offers little in the way of moisture But that doesn’t mean the Gobi is barren The grassy plains at the edge of Mongolia’s desert are home to a surprising sprinter Quit gazels are members of the antelope family more typically associated with Africa than the east But these are desert specialists Spanning across the breadth of Asia from Iran in the west to the eastern edge of Mongolia [Music] they extract water from the plants they browse barely ever having to drink [Music] Their narrow jaws have rows of incizers so they can easily pick only the most nutritious growth Even their coats have been designed with heat in mind reflecting the midday sun If that wasn’t enough they can also tolerate an increase in their body temperature by as much as 5° C Humans by comparison would die after an increase of just 2° [Music] If all else fails they can cool down by rapidly panting through their nose [Music] But heat isn’t their most deadly enemy Goited gazels are now almost endangered Both wolves and humans hunt goited gazels So it’s just as well they can run fast They sprint through the goi at speeds of almost 50 kmh True athletes of the desert Surprisingly they’re not the fastest animals here That title goes to the humble camel capable of speeds of up to 65 km an hour but they rarely feel the need Mongolia is home to an estimated 250,000 domestic Bactrian camels Though they might look the same recent science has discovered that these domestic camels have been managed by humans for so long that they’re genetically different to their wild counterparts [Music] For centuries camels have been depended on for a number of different uses Camels are a nomad’s transport Their meat is eaten their wool is worn and camel milk is a food staple in rural Mongolia Despite the spread of modernity in a region this remote an estimated 40% of Mongolians still live as nomadic herders As the day draws to a close a local herder appears on the horizon His Bactrian camels close at his heels His wife Cigar has been waiting for him [Music] All their camels except one are female and nearly all have babies waiting for them at their homestead Most of these were born in April and still rely on their mother’s milk but are already the height of a man [Music] They’re kept apart from their mothers during the day to ensure they don’t exhaust their mother’s milk supply This is what Cagar and her family rely on But as the mothers and babies are reunited she must hurry before the mothers are drained by their impatient babies While Cigar milks the camels one by one her husband Huralong keeps an eye on the herd making sure no one’s behaving badly [Music] She works quickly She and her family have been doing this everyday since she was a child so she knows exactly how to handle her animals [Music] Once collected she takes the milk inside the g This traditional style of housing has been used for centuries and has everything the family needs Zagar adds the fresh milk to a vat of soued milk which has been fermenting with natural bacteria for several days [Music] Once they have been thoroughly mixed she turns her attention to the next stage Amazingly Cigar is going to use her camel’s milk to make alcohol She heats up the sour milk mixture on the fire until it’s almost reached boiling point [Music] A metal cylinder acts as a distillation tank which she blocks off the top with a bowl of very cold water [Music] Even the rope she uses is made from camel wool As the soued milk evaporates it cools on the bowl above and is collected into a bucket suspended inside the structure This yields around 2 L of Shabbat camel milk alcohol These camels are much more than a livelihood They are a way of life almost as important to their family as their own children Their camels make life in Mongolia possible and have been essential for humans ekking out an existence here since the very beginning The Bactrian camel is the largest wild animal in the Gobi but hiding amongst the hardy grasses of the desert floor it’s possible to find one of the smallest [Music] Gerbles are one of the most popular mammals in the pet trade But these peculiar little animals evolved and originate from right here on the grassy fringes of the world’s deserts Because of their habitat these rodents were once known as desert rats But that would be an unfair comparison to these tiny sand specialists Great gerbles are the most sociable species of their kind living together in large family groups They are also the largest gerbles in the world and would make a perfect snack for any airborne assassins [Applause] Out here hiding places are hard to come by Instead they’ve developed a number of anti- predator techniques [Music] Their sandy colored backs blend in with the desert floor from above And they have a large middle ear which allows them to hear low frequency sounds like the ominous flap of a predator’s wings Large bulbous eyes allow them an open field of vision and the toughs of hair on the end of their tails acts as a predator decoy If all else fails they can always dive head first into a network of burrows The tunnels lead to food stores nesting areas and escape routes running almost 2 m deep and sprawling almost 8 m across For now the coast is clear and this male can get on with the endless task of filling the burrow’s food stores and his stomach He’ll spend almost every waking minute collecting seeds roots and shrubs knowing everything he can get his paws on at an alarming rate and hoarding the rest Gerbles are omnivores but prefer a vegetarian way of life [Music] But others in the Gobi are nothing but cruel when it comes to catching dinner [Music] Mongolia’s desert is home to a barbaric killer sand wasps This gang of wasps are digging a nest Or perhaps we should call it a grave Sand wasps predate on other insects Underneath this female’s body she clasps tight to an unlucky blowfly Paralyzed with venom but still alive She’s adding a tunnel to the burrow where she will bury her prey ready to be eaten alive by her unborn lavi But someone’s beaten her to it A Mongolian racerunner lizard has moved in while she was away And these wasps are unwelcome He headbutts her out of his way But she’s persistent These sand wasps are thugs and won’t quit until he’s been evicted Finally he gives in Life is hard for a lizard in the goi If being evicted by a bug wasn’t enough a flock of chukar partridge are also on the prowl These birds get their name from their distinctive call Their alert and vocal nature means they act as sentinels for the neighboring wildlife Most of their day is preoccupied by scavenging for food amongst the sand and rocks of the goi Their buff coloration helps them seamlessly merge into the background Luckily for local lizards the adults here are vegetarians Feeding on the leaves and seeds of tough grasses that grow year round They even eat grit which helps grind and crush food in a special part of their stomach called a gizzard And there’s plenty of grit here in the Gobi It’s summertime in the Gobi Desert At its peak temperatures can reach over 40° C This is a land of extremes where the temperature can rapidly shift 30° centigrade within a single day Any animal surviving in this harsh environment must come fully equipped with an abundance of adaptations in order to exist [Music] Bactrian camels are experts in preserving water They can endure a phenomenal 9° increase in internal body temperature before even beginning to sweat saving them 5 L of water a day [Music] All this water saving means camel dung is much drier than the average cowpat in this barren desert Piles of pooh are far and wide So for one of the desert’s dwellers there’s no use being choosy Despite the dryness this fresh pile of dung still counts as a feast for a passing dung beetle [Music] capable of pushing dung balls up to 50 times their own weight makes these mighty little beetles the strongest animal in the world relative to their size As long as it belongs to a herbivore dung beetles aren’t fast [Music] They have been around so long their ancient ancestors used to feast on dino dung After all that hard work this determined beetle certainly deserves the banquet awaiting inside They dine on nutritious juices full of delicious microorganisms This opportunistic appetite has meant dung beatetles have conquered almost every continent [Music] Unfortunately the Asiatic wild ass hasn’t managed the same feat of world domination as the prolific dung beetle The range of Asiatic wild ass has dramatically decreased with only a few strongholds left [Music] These are members of the horse family Mongolia’s subspecies are the most widespread of their kind and have been around for over 40,000 years But their numbers have dwindled and they are now rarely seen in the Gobi [Music] Over 6,000 km away in the Middle East their cousins have been reintroduced In Jordan and all over their range they are desert specialists living on scarce plant life Finding water is a constant challenge But across the world their territory is being claimed by livestock and their habitats are becoming increasingly fragmented In Mongolia domestic cattle are taking their only food resources And to make matters worse an estimated 20% of the population are poached every year for food The hardy constitution of the wild ass is what ensured their success in times gone by But to survive in Mongolia now they’ll need the cooperation of humans Recent changes to the law means that many Mongolians are now returning to their nomadic roots If humans can find a way to work with nature and share rather than dominate resources there is room for both in the Gobi Desert On the furthest western edge of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert the sandy plateau gives way to the Alai mountain range This mountain range also serves as a divider between Mongolia and three other countries Russia to the north China to the south and Kazakhstan to the west The Asiatic Ibex is the master of these mountains They are oversized wild goats living in groups of up to 20 These animals are built for a life at great heights Their hooves act like suction cups on the rock meaning they are always firmly anchored no matter the incline A stocky build provides them with a huge lung capacity a crucial adaptation for climbing these steep cliffs At these altitudes at the Gob’s margin winter arrives early For these Ibecks it’s a sign of exciting things to come A young male tastes the air to see if any of the females are ready to mate He’s sexually mature for the first time and he’s definitely new to the game and the females are having none of it Males reach maturity at the age of five but it will probably be years before he sees any action The older and bigger males weighing over 100 kilos are the real Kasanovas and have total control of their harims Their coats get darker in time for the mating season A social indicator if their giant horns weren’t enough This young male would normally have to fight to earn the right to approach any female But today the boss doesn’t seem that bothered He knows that the females are not ready yet So he lets the boys embarrass themselves [Music] It’s a few weeks before the females entertain any serious contenders And by now the herd is assembled ready for the biggest event of the year The mature males live alone or in bachelor groups for most of the year and join the females in time for the rutting season [Music] Scratching his impressive horns on a bush is enough to assert his dominance and maybe put him in the mood [Music] He follows the female indicating his interest [Music] A sniff and a lick of the air detects whether she’s fertile She plays hard to get but he’s in with a chance [Music] It might be a quickie but it counts [Music] Now he has to ensure it’s only his seeds that take root [Music] Fighting off other suitors will ensure his legacy remains intact for the next generation As the effects of global warming are increasingly felt worldwide the Gobi is expanding its claim on Central Asia The Alai Mountains are the only thing that stands between the Gobi and the West But to the south the Gobi advances unchallenged Every year the desert smothers an area larger than Euseite National Park For millions of years the animals of the Gobi Desert have become accustomed to the hardships of life here adapting to a life with little water and the extreme flux of the desert temperatures It seems the limitations of life in this hostile desert have advanced wildlife to the extremes of evolution The Gobi is home to animals who are masters of their kind But the pressure of existing in such an unforgiving landscape has always meant the odds of survival balance on a nice edge Mongolia is a nation of nomads and the success of humans here is dependent on nature They now have a common cause With compromise the Gobi will continue to be an unlikely haven for remarkable creatures all eking out in existence beneath an endless blue sky

Desert Survivors

Mongolia, a landlocked country hidden deep in the interior of Eastern Asia. Roughly the size of all the countries of western and central Europe combined it hides a vast range of habitats and wealth of wildlife. The country boasts 139 species of mammals and 450 species of birds.

The remarkable and varied scenery consists largely of upland steppes, mountain ranges and deserts. The Mongolian Steppe is part of the largest grassland on earth, here wildlife runs wild across the untouched beauty of Mongolia – The Land of Blue Sky.

This iconic series celebrates Mongolia’s vast wilderness and the wildlife that inhabits this great natural arena
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