With state-of-the-art technology, unprecedented access and two years of filming, Into Wild Tibet (Wednesday 2 September 8pm) on Smithsonian reveals the astonishing wildlife that survives in one of the harshest environments on the planet, where the air is thin, the terrain unforgiving and the weather punishing.
At an average elevation of 15,000 feet, the Tibetan Plateau is known as ‘the roof of the world’. In this area of Qinghai, rarely glimpsed by the outside world, animals are elusive and filming conditions are extreme. Here, a pack of rare Tibetan wolves struggles to raise new pups, terrorising the herds of blue sheep that cling precariously to the peaks, where snow leopards also lie in ambush. In spring, the epic chiru antelope migration advances across the vast plateau as 30,000 females converge to give birth. Summer brings dramatic monsoons but, at three miles high, the torrential rain has a sting in its tail, falling as ice, which pummels the newborn calves. Executive Producer Karen Bass isa multi-Emmy award winning filmmaker who worked for more than 20 years with the BBC Natural History Unit. Working with her is an extraordinary cadre of multi-Emmy and Bafta award winning British cameramen: John Brown (Dynasties; Seven Worlds: One Planet), Rod Clarke (Blue Planet 2; Planet Earth 2; Hidden Kingdoms) and Mark MacEwenn (Dynasties 2; Planet Earth 2).
