If you find yourself facing down the barrel of wintertime , the good news is you’re able to escape to Asia every Sunday for the next seven calendar week , all without exit your living room . The BBC and Sir David Attenborough are ply some eye - ointment in extremist - high - definition 4 K withAsia , a seven - part series that will take you from beneath the waves to above the cloud as it explores the curious wildlife and innate wonder to be found across Earth ’s largest continent .
The project took four years to complete and in that time the various team were able to capture some noteworthy world - number one and bizarre creature behavior , from the “ kiss pursual ” antic of Nepal ’s rhinos to thieving elephants in Sri Lanka , and a collaboration between Pisces and sea Hydra in the Western Pacific .
They also covered some serious terrain , admit the Gobi Desert , Borneo ’s jungles , and Siberia ’s opposite wilderness . Week one , however , is assume usBeneath The Waves . Asia has more coastline than any other continent at over 161,000 kilometers ( 100,000 nautical mile ) long , and is home to some of the most abundantcoral reefson Earth . It ’s perhaps unsurprising , then , that there are some seriously weird fauna to be found there .
A very talented blob of a fish.Image credit: BBC/BBC Studios/Ben Harris
The first to catch IFLScience ’s eye was a Pisces that could climb a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree known as the dusky - gilled mudspringer ( Periophthalmus variabilis ) . These animals can most commonly be find sitting on mud in the mangrove of Ujung Kulon National Park in Java , Indonesia , but when they decide it ’s time to move , they get around in some really bizarre ways .
They have an altered fin that means they can go up vertical surfaces , including tree automobile trunk and rock nerve . These mudspringer can also urine - hop , which was an totally new sort of fish locomotion when it was report inApril 2020 – though we can read if you missed it at the time because of , well , * gesture at everything * .
In the Sea Of Japan , we meet another curious critter , the Pyrophorus noctiluca squid ( Watasenia scintillans ) . When it ’s time to couple , these squid venture on a one - way journey up from the deep so they can spawn in the shoal . They only live for 12 month so once the deed of conveyance is done , so are they , and theirglowingbodies lave up on the shoring .
These glowing squid venture up from the depths to mate, and then swiftly pop their clogs.Image credit: BBC One, Asia
You ’ll also no doubt be charm by the Western Pacific ’s ocean bunny rabbit ( Jorunna funebris ) . Do n’t be fooled by the lovely name of this tiny sea slug , as it packs a lick thanks to a dieting of poisonous aristocratic sponges . The squad used “ quadrangle seedcase ” to stabilize their cameras as they worked in irregular waters , enable them to capture intricate details like the sea bunny girl ’s “ capitulum ” , which are actually chemic detector .
An manifest favorite of Sir David Attenborough himself is a world - first clipping of grey reef sharks hunting Moorish perfection , which executive producer Roger Webb account as “ short fibre with their pursed lips . They remind me of some of the fish inFinding Nemo . They are just instantly magnetic . ”
“ Then the shark are also remarkable . The way they pursue the Moorish idol en masse shot in this frenzy is awful . The Energy Department and the euphony and , of trend , Sir David ’s narration compound with that to create a very herculean and engaging sequence . It is an incredible account , and it really sets us up on the right path for the serial . ”
The sea bunny gets its superpower from a diet of poisonous blue sponges.Image credit: BBC Studios/Stefan Hunt
Sound secure ? you could lose yourself inAsiaon BBC Oneon Sunday , November 3 , with all episode available as a seven - part loge set on BBC iPlayer on the same day .
Moorish idols swim out to sea to spawn, but chasing grey reef sharks are hot on their tails.Image credit: BBC One, Asia
