''Lost Land of the Tiger'' is a three-part nature documentary series produced by the

BBC Natural History Unit The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including '' ...

which follows a scientific expedition to the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

n kingdom of

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

. The expedition team is made up of specialist zoologists, explorers and the BBC crew. Together, they explore wilderness areas from the lowland jungles to high-elevation slopes, in search of rare animals and plants. The focus of the expedition is to investigate the status of the

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...

in Bhutan, where little is known of the

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

's distribution or population density. Evidence of a healthy population of

s would elevate Bhutan's importance as a sanctuary for this endangered species. It would also support tiger conservationist Dr.

Alan Rabinowitz Alan Robert Rabinowitz (December 31, 1953 – August 5, 2018) was an American zoologist who served as the president, CEO, and chief scientist at Panthera Corporation, a nonprofit conservation organization devoted to protecting the world's 40 w ...

's proposal for a vast protected corridor linking the fragmented pockets of tiger habitat which lie to the south of the Himalayas. The expedition is notable for claiming to obtain the first footage of tigers living at in the high Himalayas. The BBC footage shows a female tiger lactating and scent-marking, followed a few days later by a male tiger responding, suggesting that the cats could be breeding at this elevation. Previously, anecdotal sightings from Bhutanese mountain villagers suggested tigers were capable of visiting such heights, but it was not known whether they were living and breeding there. The footage was obtained using remote

camera trap A camera trap is a camera that is automatically triggered by a change in some activity in its vicinity, like presence of an animal or a human being. It is typically equipped with a motion sensor – usually a passive infrared (PIR) senso ...

s which are triggered by motion. This discovery dramatically increases the known range of viable tiger habitat. The camera traps also recorded footage of other rarely seen forest creatures, including Indian wild dogs,

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus ''Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in the no ...

s, leopards and

leopard cat The leopard cat (''Prionailurus bengalensis'') is a small wild cat native to continental South, Southeast, and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List as it is widely distributed although threatened by hab ...

s. The series was broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

in the United Kingdom on three consecutive nights, starting on 21 September 2010. The presenters were

Steve Backshall Stephen James Backshall (born 21 April 1973) is an English naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC TV's ''Deadly 60''. His other BBC work includes being part of the expedition teams in ''Lost Land of the Tiger'', ''Lo ...

Gordon Buchanan Gordon John Buchanan (born 10 April 1972) is a Scottish wildlife filmmaker and presenter. His work includes the nature documentaries '' Tribes, Predators & Me'', '' The Polar Bear Family & Me'' and '' Life in the Snow''. Early life Buchanan wa ...

Justine Evans Justine Evans is a British wildlife filmmaker featured in many BBC Natural History Unit productions such as Planet Earth, Life, and Frozen Planet. She is a canopy specialist and an expert on filming nocturnal animals. Career Evans graduated ...

and Dr.

George McGavin George C. McGavin is a British entomologist, author, academic, television presenter and explorer. Background McGavin attended Daniel Stewart's College, a private school in Edinburgh, then studied Zoology at the University of Edinburgh from 1 ...

. ''Lost Land of the Tiger'' was the fourth of the BBC Natural History Unit's "Expedition" series, following ''

Expedition Borneo Expedition may refer to: * An exploration, journey, or voyage undertaken by a group of people especially for discovery and scientific research Places * Expedition Island, a park in Green River, Wyoming, US * Expedition Range, a mountain range in ...

'' (2006) and ''

Lost Land of the Jaguar ''Lost Land of the Jaguar'' is a 2008 British nature documentary series on the fauna of Guyana's rainforest. The four presenters are George McGavin, Steve Backshall, Justine Evans, and Gordon Buchanan. The series is a production of the BBC Nat ...

'' (2008) and ''

Lost Land of the Volcano ''Lost Land of the Volcano'' is a three-part nature documentary series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit which follows a scientific expedition to the island of New Guinea. The expedition team, which includes specialist zoologists, explor ...

'' (2009).

References

External links

*
Lost Land of The Tiger: Filming in Bhutan
– BBC blog post by Gordon Buchanan {{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Land of the Tiger 2010 British television series debuts 2010 British television series endings BBC high definition shows BBC television documentaries Documentary films about nature Films shot in Bhutan Television series about tigers

See also

References

External links