Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
ASIAN ODDBALLS
From caring orangutans to a cunning snake and a critically endangered rhino, the planet’s largest continent is home to some of its rarest creatures
On the trail of singing rhinos, talking monkeys – and the world’s most hedonistic bears
Deep in the Sumatran forest, a haunting song floats through the dense undergrowth... the sound of the singing rhinos. Emma Napper, producer of the Asia episode, could scarcely believe local stories that, to communicate in the impenetrable rainforest, Sumatran rhinos sing to each other. But their music was the first thing she heard when she opened her car door on the first day of the jungle shoot.
‘It’s almost like the song of the humpback whales,’ she says, ‘mournful and melodic. It’s a lovely, lyrical sound, and these rhinos are so sweet – they’re hairy, and much smaller than their African cousins. They’re heavily protected – there may be as few as 50 left in the wild, and their habitat is fenced off to protect them from poachers and loggers. Getting permission to film was hard, but I’m so happy we did: it’s my very favourite segment.’
In the lush rainforests of Kalimantan, where the trees tower more than 300ft high, the crew followed another lovable jungle character – Bibi the 40-year-old orangutan and her mischievous two-year-old baby Bayas. To help her adventurous toddler get around without falling, which could be dangerous from such a height, Bibi bends branches and knots them together to create aerial bridges between the trees.
Bayas is a lucky lad. Research shows that orangutan mothers are the best in the world, with about 91 per cent of babies surviving till they are fully weaned at around eight years old. One reason for this is that these adorable orange apes are solitary animals. Bibi and Bayas will just have each other for company, which means they’re less likely to pick up infectious diseases.
It doesn’t pay to be a loner if you’re a golden snub-nosed monkey in the mountains of China’s Shennongjia National Park, though. Living two miles above sea level where snow covers the ground for almost half the year, it makes more sense to huddle together in groups of up to 200. These sociable animals are great chatterboxes too. They gossip constantly, making a variety of noises without ever seeming to move their lips – like ventriloquists.
The males fight frequently to earn the right to the best of the limited food sources, and can even bite off each other’s tails in the heat of battle. But these miniature warriors dislike getting their hands cold. They walk upright in the snow, cartwheeling their arms, and when they’re on two feet they look like drawings of the fabled Abominable Snowman. Is this the real origin of the legend of the Yeti? Meanwhile, in the deserts of Iran the spider-tailed horned viper attracts its prey with a lure at the end of its body. To a hungry bird, that creamy bulb with spines looks just like a juicy spider. When the bird tries to grab it, however, the snake strikes, swallowing smaller victims whole. But only migrant birds, flying over on their way to a distant destination, run the risk of being fooled. The local birds are wise to the snake’s tricks and ignore it.