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| Salmon and Horse in Wild Asia |
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Vast numbers of pink salmon are preparing to travel upriver to breed. The river is riddled with obstacles. Shallow water challenges all the salmon, but especially the males. Their huge humps are good for display, but in the rapids they're a burden. The journey's taking its toll. Wounds fester. Aggressive growths invade their skin and eat them alive. Small river fishes stand by to feed on casualties—later, they'll even steal eggs once the salmon begin mating. As the main river divides into tributaries, each salmon follows the scent of the stream bed where it was born. Only the strong and the lucky will battle their way over the final barrier to the breeding ground.
The sandy deserts of India are separated from the parched interior by the mighty Himalayas. In Their rain shadow lie the deserts and dry grasslands of China and Mongolia. The stony Gobi Desert is further from the sea than any place on earth. Fierce summers are followed by bitter winters. North of Gobi on the grasslands of the Mongolia steppe, temperatures can plunge to minus fifty degrees. The long winter ends on the steppe grasslands, home to a wild animal the Mongolians know as takhi-the spirits. Westerners call them Przewalski's horses. They're the only true wild horses in the world.
(CCTV-2, Earth Stories, Oct. 2&3)
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| Editor: Zhao Xuan CCTV.com |
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