Moving 15,000 km to Siberia's southern steppes, the landscape dramatically changes. Pine forests give way to what look like African plains. Here, wild horses run free. They share the land with small groups of camels and the strange goitered gazelles. These nomadic gazelles once roamed across the Central Asia by the tens of thousands, but hunting and habitat loss have taken their toll. They meander across the plains eating grasses and shrubs, in the autumn rut, the male’s throat swell up, giving them their name. A threatened gazelle can dart from its enemies at 60 km per hour. They slip like a breeze through the Mongolian border fence.

 

Heading southwest along the 3400-kilometer Mongolian border, the terrain turns mountainous. The Altai mountains stretches 4500 meters into the sky and are even twice as long as the European Alps. In this arid, harsh and wind-swept environment, the world's largest sheep make their home, the argali, weighing about 160 kilos prized by hunters for their size.