How an epic Asian wildlife series was filmed

The filming of the BBC’s historical series Asia took its crew on a four-year odyssey from the open ocean to the “roof of the world”.

From frozen mountains to parched deserts and lush tropical forests to vast grassland steppes – Asia is Earth’s largest continent and home to an incredible array of environments.

Perhaps because of that size and variety, until last year the BBC had never devoted a series entirely to wildlife. The vastness, crowded megacities, and extreme diversity of environments make it harder to fit into a handful of episodes.

Natural History Unit historical series Asia it took four years to make. “Many parts of Asia are extremely remote, largely unknown, or often off limits,” says producer Matthew Wright. “Its wild skulls are less studied than those of Africa and the Americas, so we had less data to go on when we started our research.”

“We started by scouring scholarly papers, books, websites and social media looking for stories. We spoke to colleagues, conservationists and tour guides as well. After the execution orders were drawn up, we spent two years and over 2,500 days filming,” said Wright.

Here, we take a look at some of the behind-the-scenes images captured by the Asia crew during the series’ epic production.

The crew had to work out how to film the sharks on the reefs that followed Moorish idolsa brightly colored species of fish in the Pacific Ocean. Sharks move fast and are too dangerous to film up close when in hunting mode.

Moreover, the Moorish idols themselves were fast swimmers, with speeds of about 16 km/h. Researcher Seth Daood says the team created a retractable pole that could be submerged when needed and retracted when the boat needed to increase speed to reach the hunt.

Using the pole along with drones and other camera crew swimming alongside the boat, the team captured an hour of shark-like footage reduced the school of hundreds of fish almost to nothing.

The Asia team traveled to Qinghai province, in western China, to shoot the enigmatic fox in mountain meadows nearly 4.5km (14,800ft) high. It took the crew three days to acclimatise to the altitude and set out to find a female fox that had been filmed by the team earlier.

The fox had learned not to see the team as a threat, says researcher Joshua Chen. “There were times when we were sitting on the grass, and she would come around and settle into her sleeping position. She would sleep with her back to us, leaving us feeling like she trusted us completely,” he says.

The fox had given birth to a litter of cubs and spent most of its time hunting sparrows, small rodents, in the pasture. She employed a variety of techniques, including using the bodies of woodpeckers as cover, and the crew witnessed many successful hunts.

In another high pocket of the Asian continent, the team returned every now and then to catch not wild game but a meteorological oddity.

Khareef is a visiting monsoon rain system Dhofar Mountains in Oman. Moist air blown in from the sea is trapped by the peaks and forms fog; the fog pours droplets of water onto the surrounding slopes, resulting in massive plant growth. Drones were an invaluable tool in capturing this essential moment.

Over the past 15 years, the interlocutors have had a plan: increase the number of indigenous blue sheep and the endangered snow leopards will be less likely to attack the livestock of local villagers. The survival of these once-seen big cats, evolved to hunt on steep slopes, is now a cause for celebration for once-feared locals.

In the third episode of the series, The Frozen North, the production team traveled to the vast frozen expanses of the sparsely populated northern regions of Asia. Here, wildlife exists in very cold temperatures for most of the year.

One place the team went to was far eastern Siberia. The region, which makes up a large part of Russia east of the Ural Mountains, is home to some of the largest predators on earth, including the Siberian tiger and East Siberian brown bears.

On the remote Kamchatka Peninsula, where huge volcanoes dominate the landscape, the team filmed bears preparing for their winter hibernation. Bears fatten up for their long winter hibernation by munching on salmon, which are massive in lakes formed by craters made by volcanic eruptions long ago.

However, not all the wildlife in this expanse of ice and snow is so great. A few small birds remain as winter descends. The chick with a long tail has learned to feed on The sugar-rich sap that flows from the trees after the deer has been fed on its bark. The liquid can be a lifesaver for birds that would otherwise find meager harvests in the snow-covered desert.

In the fourth episode, Tangled Worlds, the series looked at some of the life found in the forests and jungles of Asia. Here, some of the crew take a break in a fallen tree while filming the elusive rhinos in the jungles of Nepal.

of larger one-horned rhinosalso known as the Indian rhinoceros, it is the second largest species of rhinoceros in the world and can be found in the forests of Nepal and India, but once ranged throughout the Indian subcontinent. Habitat loss amid human population growth and poaching have caused numbers to plummet; However, the latest defense has increased the numbers.

In the forests of Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, cameraman Will Foster-Grundy filmed forest elephants nearby. Elephants, much smaller than the Asian and African species, range across the rainforest-covered island, although numbers have dwindled to fewer than 1,500 individuals.

Filming in hot, humid locations in impenetrable jungles are sure challenges for crews shooting in such conditions, but the Asia team had another: bowel-inducing winds. of titanium arumfor example, it is the largest unbranched flowering plant on Earth, found in the jungles of Sumatra in Indonesia. The large flower blooms only for a short time, so the plant makes itself as attractive as possible to insects – its aroma has been compared to the smell of rotting meat.

Titan arum does more than just stink in an effort to attract pollinators; the red color of the flower and its texture also mimic the appearance of flesh. When it blooms, the plant’s spadix—a fleshy stalk in the middle of the flower—heats until it’s as hot as the human body.

In the Indian city of Bhopal, the team captured tigers that coexist with the bustling city’s human population. Bhopal is something of a success story, with the highest acceptance rate of tigers of any city in India. Tigers keep to themselves during the day, resting in caves and forest areas, mostly coming out at night.

The team had to set up cameras all over the city to film the Bhopal tigers, including at the watering holes where the tigers drank every evening. Cameras and lights had to be reinstalled after curious puppies and langur monkeys knocked them over. This angle gave the team a fisheye view of a thirsty tiger.

During filming for the fifth episode, called Crowded Continent, the team looked at how the continent’s wildlife has adapted to Asia’s large human population. Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, cameraman Oliver Mueller filmed rhinoceros beetles dueling on a tree trunk.

The close-up filming gave the series a clear picture of the battles between competing males, who fight for mating rights – the loser is kicked off the log and must look elsewhere for a partner.

Even some of Asia’s largest cities – such as Thailand’s capital Bangkok – are host to exotic wildlife. One of Asia’s largest reptiles, the menacing monitor lizard, has adapted to the waterways and lakes of the mega-city.

Shooting giant lizards in Bangkok it was a long task. “The nature of this shoot was incredibly dynamic – there was no sitting and waiting, instead the crew took more of a hunt and gather approach,” says Seth Daood. “With a walkie-talkie communication system, the whole team knew at any moment they could get a call to move inside the park. We used three carts to help us move all our heavy equipment as quickly as possible that it was possible.”

Observers radioed the location of active lizards, but the film crew had to contend with frequent rainstorms and even lightning that made recording very dangerous. But their patience was rewarded with more than six hours of footage – including one monitor capturing a giant catfish.

The elephants, including a large 40-year-old male named Raja, had learned that the buses on the road are a source of food with little effort. Unlike more aggressive young elephants, the calm Raja has learned that a gentle approach earns more rewards, says researcher Daood.

The Raja would block the way of the bus and – very politely – shake the passengers for a treat (such as melons or coconuts), putting his luggage through the open door or windows. Satisfied, he would then allow the bus to be on its way.

However, Raja’s gentle depredations point to an issue common to much of Asia’s wildlife. Increasing pressure from human population growth means that wild habitats are shrinking every year. Only 30% of Sri Lanka’s elephants, for example, live in protected or unpopulated areas.