Watched the BBC documentary Wild China on DVD. If you ever get a chance to watch this, do. The photography is superb, absolutley top quality. The narration is a little plebian, but remarkably accurate and evenhanded when it comes to discussing environmental issues, not ecocrap like far too many wildlife documentaries.

The series has six episodes, discussing in turn: southeast inland China, the Yunan abutting the eastern Himalayas, Tibet, Mongolia, northeast inland China, and the coast. Filming includes landforms, climatic regions, ethnic populations, ruins, wildflowers and wild animals.

I watched it particularly to see if I could identify the modern consequences of Mao’s war on the “Four Pests” where he set out to eliminate rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. With rats went all small mammals, with flies went native insects, with mosquitoes went wetlands, and with sparrows went many species of small birds up to at least the size of a grouse. The massive spraying of insecticides also killed off fish and amphibians, and insectivores. At the same time, cottage industry ironmaking caused the destruction of 10% of China’s forests.

I found that I couldn’t identify the modern consequences of that environmental catastrophe, the ecological effects were almost totally swamped by the destruction caused by the expansion of agriculture, and by the tendency of the Chinese to catch and eat anything and everything that moves. Wildlife in southeast and northeast inland China is in a terrible state, but in the other four areas is relatively healthy. Ecological initiatives since the early 1980s have helped a lot. Swifts and swallows have become the main insect eating birds of farmland.

I tried to identify as many as possible of the animal species filmed or mentioned throughout the series, including livestock. Only about half of these rated a mention in the narration.

(More to follow)

I saw that some years ago, and yes it’s a beautifully photographed series.

Help wanted in identifying these.

Probably two images of the same squirrel

Birds from the Yunan (Just east of the Himalayas):

Bird and butterfly from inner Mongolia. The bird behaves just like a little woodpecker but I don’t see it on any list of woodpeckers.

Three birds of the Chinese coast:
If this is Wilson’s Plover then it’s on the wrong continent, what do you think?

Is this a Pacific golden plover in non-breeding plumage, or perhaps a female Ruddy Turnstone, or a short-billed sort of Sandpiper, or other? It’s not particularly small or big for a wader.

Some type of flycatcher? It was filmed during a hurricane.

mollwollfumble said:

The narration is a little plebian, but remarkably accurate and evenhanded when it comes to discussing environmental issues, not ecocrap like far too many wildlife documentaries.

So, David Attenborough had nothing to do with it then!

The_observer said:

mollwollfumble said:

The narration is a little plebian, but remarkably accurate and evenhanded when it comes to discussing environmental issues, not ecocrap like far too many wildlife documentaries.

So, David Attenborough had nothing to do with it then!

No, D Att works out his dialog before he goes anywhere near the camera. You’ll find no filming of unknown species in an Attenborough. Wild China was done differently, do the filming first then write dialog to go with what has been filmed.

I’m becoming convinced that some of the species on the Wild China have never had their pictures on the Web before. For example, the squirrel may be “Callosciurus inornatus” the Inornate squirrel. If so then no other images of this squirrel exist on the web. If the second bird above is a Pitta then, again, there are no other images of this sex and species on the web. If a Pitta then it may even be a new species.

Perhaps ditto if what I’ve called a “woodpecker” really is a woodpecker.

Some more species I’d like help in identifying, I promise that this is the last batch.

Starting with something different, fish filmed on a Chinese coral reef.

The small fish are probably Blue damsel. But what are the other two?

Not the same as the larger fish in the previous image, but what it is?

The only small fish I know with a similar blue stripe is the neon tetra. Would that be right?

Any ideas about either of these fish?

The following are migrating birds found on a small island (Shedao) off the coast of northern China.

Does this look like a tit?

If this is an eastern kingbird then it’s on the wrong continent.

A Little bunting perhaps?

in that first pic, of the fish, I can identify the green wrasse

and possibly blue damsel fish

Have had both in an aquarium

The_observer said:

in that first pic, of the fish, I can identify the green wrasse

and possibly blue damsel fish

Have had both in an aquarium

Terrific. Yes!

3. is a Yuhina – possibly Whiskered
4. is possibly a Tit
5. is a Chestnut Vented Nuthatch
6. is probably a Kentish Plover
7. probably a PG Plover

Jing Joh said:

3. is a Yuhina – possibly Whiskered
4. is possibly a Tit
5. is a Chestnut Vented Nuthatch
6. is probably a Kentish Plover
7. probably a PG Plover

> #3 is a Yuhina – possibly Whiskered
Yes! It’s so comical looking, here’s another screen-dump of the same bird.

> #4 is possibly a Tit
I agree. The patch of white on the top of the head is slightly larger than that of any that I can find on the web, but the overall shape and colouration is very similar.

> #5 is a Chestnut Vented Nuthatch
Yes again! That’s the one I thought was a woodpecker. Wikipedia says this about nuthatches:
“Nuthatches are omnivorous, eating mostly insects, nuts and seeds. They forage for insects hidden in or under bark by climbing along tree trunks and branches, sometimes upside-down. They forage within their territories when breeding, but they may join mixed feeding flocks at other times. Their habit of wedging a large food item in a crevice and then hacking at it with their strong bills gives this group its English name.” It was the hammering on the tree upside down that fooled me.

> #7 is probably a Kentish Plover
Wonderful, yes. My original Wilson’s was on the wrong continent.

> #8 probably a PG Plover
Pacific Golden Plover. Yes.

Thanks for all that.

Here are a few that I didn’t know in advance, that I was able to ID successfully.
1. Not a Manta Ray. This is the Spinetail Mobula.

2. Grey-backed shrike.

Here’s a typical example of the amazing detail in the Wild China (BBC) filming of one of their featured animals, in this case a Red-crowned crane.

!!