In such a frugal environment, the Pika's farming helps to kickstart the food chain. But the Pika itself is a very tasty morsel. Its presence has enabled an uneasy relationship to develop between the two plateau most opportunistic predators, the fox a...
Even today,black-necked cranes are treated with reverence and are welcomed by farmers as they land in the fields around the villages.Here, they perform their elaborate sky pointing rituals.After the dignified business of parading,they begin to forage...
The possibility of escaping the cycle of life and death and the promise of enlightenment encourages people to perform activities that benefit all beings. This belief assigns as much importance to the environment and its creatures as it does to humans...
Yartsa gunbu sells for big money in the top department stores of Lhasa and there is a growing market outside of Tibet. Although Tibet is modernizing fast, it retains a deeply spiritual culture. Even today, Tibetan valleys resound to distinctive and e...
The yak has even led the Tibetans to buried treasure. In summer,people can be seen scouring the grassland,bent over in deep concentration.This is the world's weirdest harvest.Tibetans first investigated this strange root-like organism,known locally a...
While the males fence, the females look on. Injured and weakened by the battle, the loser will be an easy target for the predators and scavengers that patrol the wilderness. Out here, there is little room for mistakes. With a clear view of the endles...
It's about 5,000 meters above sea level, way above the point at which altitude sickness starts to affect humans. At this height, most people are gasping for breath. But lack of oxgygen hasn't cramped this creature's style. Chiru, or Tibetan antelope...
In this rugged and unforgiving terrain littered with fractured rock and ice-cold rivers, the slightest miscalculation may have fatal consequences. The snow leopard is the worlds highest living big cat. But theres another smaller predator that ranges...
The golden dome which is mounted right at the top of the prayer pole is the most sacred object of all. Or it will be once it's retrieved. The old Shamanic beliefs of Tibet ascribed magical powers to the landscape, but theres a far more tangible sourc...
Fed by the mountain glaciers, the Tibetan plateau even has its own inland sea. This is Qinghai Lake, China's largest. Millions of years of evaporation has concentrated the minerals in the lake, turning the water salty. Rich in fish, its waters attrac...
With hundreds of peaks over 7,000 metres and 13 peaks higher than 8,000 metres, they are the highest mountains on earth. The Tibetan region contains over 35,000 glaciers that cover over 100,000 square kilometres. They comprise the largest area of ice...
For the argali, the worlds largest sheep, it means searching for a few tufts of grass. Descending from the hilltops to lower altitudes, the argali band together for safety. Hopefully, down here theyll be able to find enough food to last them through...
The Tibetan Plateau is a quarter of China. Much of it is extremely remote and inhospitable. Its southern border runs through the worlds highest mountain range--the formidable Himalayas. Its central part is a wind-swept and freezing wilderness, the si...
To make sure Kepler's truely found a planet, scientists are using one of the largest earth-based telescopes for conformation. This telescope will also determine the planet's mass and distance from its star. Scientists are most interested in the small...
Because from trillions of miles away, these small planets get lost in the blinding glare of their stars brightness. The sad truth of the matter is that earth-like planets are near cosmic specks of dust. And therefore detecting them is really quite ha...
