Although horses have been used across the world both for riding and for pulling chariots, carts, and carriages, nomadic peoples of Central Asia and Mongolia also relied on them for meat and for milk, which was fermented into the alcoholic drink called kumis. Some species have a poisonous bite! The Eastern Himalayas alone contain some 10,000 species of plant, 900 species of bird, and 300 species of mammal—many of which are found nowhere else on the planet. In the subtropical southern parts of China and Japan, the Palearctic temperate forests transition to the subtropical and tropical forests of Indomalaya, creating a rich and diverse mix of plant and animal species. A surprising number of common domesticated animals actually originated in Asia. Sumateran Tiger. The goat-antelopes (Rupicaprini) are represented by the goral and the serow. The result is loss of biodiversity and loss of livelihoods. Asia - Asia - Animal life: The Himalayas, stretching from east to west, form a barrier that largely prevents the movement of fauna southward or northward. Asia's tropical forests accommodate one of the world's three principal primate communities, about 45 species including lorises, tarsiers, leaf-eating langurs, the orangutan of Borneo and Sumatra, and the gibbons. The list of extinct animals of Asia features the animals that have become extinct along the history in the Asian Continent. Cattle were first domesticated around 9,000 years ago. South Asian Rainforest Indian rainforests are mainly found along the country's eastern coast. Bird species diversity along the Himalaya: a comparison of Himachal Pradesh with Kashmir J. Bombay Nat. Ecology, evolution, and conservation. Koi fish are the only animals on this list that were developed primarily for decorative purposes. Sheep soon became very important to people in Middle Eastern cultures from Babylon to Sumer to Israel; the Bible and other ancient texts make many references to sheep and shepherds. These countries have tropical rainforests, bamboo groves and mangrove forests suited for it. The Indochina bioregion Asia shows a notable diversity of habitats, with significant variations in rainfall, altitude, topography, temperature and geological history, which is reflected in its richness of animal life. The mountains of southwest China are also designated as a biodiversity hotspot, the Himalayas containing for example about 8% of the world’s bird species. Conservation International has designated the Mediterranean basin as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. Water buffaloes were domesticated independently in two different countries—5,000 years ago in India, and 4,000 years ago in southern China. Learn about all the amazing animals in Asia. The Manis javanica is a pangolin species found across Southeast Asia including Singapore. It covers the richest part of the Indomalayan realm, with dominant biomes of tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests and dry broadleaf forests. The two types are genetically distinguishable from one another. Glaciation during the most recent ice age and the immigration of man affected the distribution of Asian fauna (see also Sahara pump theory). 100:394–410, Helgen, K.M., Groves, C.P. Learn about all the amazing animals in India. A rare species of antelope known as the oryx is found on the fringes of the desert areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Temperate Asia is the eastern part of the Palearctic realm (which in turn is part of the Holarctic), and its south-eastern part belongs to the Indomalayan realm (previously called the Oriental region). The second largest animals in Asia are the several species of Asian rhinos. Asian elephant. There are also about 100 species of turtles and tortoises (Russian tortoise, keeled box turtle, Batagur, Aspideretes, Chinemys, Chitra, Cistoclemmys, Cuora, Geochelone, Heosemys, Indotestudo, Mauremys, Pangshura, Pelochelys, Rafetus, Sacalia etc.). Map of Asia Global Holocene extinctions Mammalia. China and Japan are more humid and temperate than adjacent Siberia and Central Asia, and are home to rich temperate coniferous, broadleaf, and mixed forests, which are now mostly limited to mountainous areas, as the densely populated lowlands and river basins have been converted to intensive agricultural and urban use. Domestic cats are difficult to distinguish from their nearest wild relatives, and can still easily interbreed with such wild cousins as the African wildcat. More than 5,000 pets found dead in cardboard boxes at Chinese depot after being stranded for a week. This rare species can only be found in Southeast Asia, mainly in Borneo. Asian Animals Printouts of animals from Asia. There are also several Asian lakes with saline or brackish water, and with peculiar fauna (Caspian Sea, Lake Balkhash, Aral Sea, Issyk Kul, Qinghai Lake). The first goats were probably domesticated in the Zagros Mountains of Iran around 10,000 years ago. [8] Southeast Asia has the highest relative rate of deforestation of any major tropical region, and could lose three quarters of its original forests by 2100 and up to 42% of its biodiversity. Animal Domestication - Table of Dates and Places, History of the Domestication of Cows and Yaks, Pastoralism and Subsistence Methods Involving Herds of Animals, The Origin Histories of Dromedary and Bactrian Camels, The Domestication History of Chickens (Gallus domesticus), Lactose Intolerance and Lactase Persistence, Mammals: Definition, Photos, and Characteristics, Dairy Farming - the Ancient History of Producing Milk, The Origins and History of Rice in China and Beyond, History and Origins of Your Favorite Beverage, J.D., University of Washington School of Law, B.A., History, Western Washington University. Southeast Asia's animal markets are notorious. Mayfly. The Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Himalaya, and Patkai ranges bound the bioregion on the northwest, north, and northeast; these ranges were formed by the collision of the northward-drifting Indian subcontinent with Asia beginning 45 million years ago. All the animals living in Asia and its surrounding seas and islands are considered the fauna of Asia. Animals. and blind snakes. https://www.planetdeadly.com/animals/dangerous-animals-asia [10], C.B.Cox, P.D.Moore, Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach. Discover Indian animals you've never heard of, and learn amazing facts about the ones you have! Dogs are not only man's best friend; they are also one of our oldest friends in the animal world. The only animal on this list that is not common outside of its home continent of Asia is the water buffalo. Camels seem to have been domesticated fairly recently—only about 3,500 years ago at the earliest. While the Malesia has much in common botanically, the portions east and west of the Wallace Line differ greatly in land animal species; Sundaland shares its fauna with mainland Asia, while the islands east of the Wallace line either lack land mammals, or are home to a land fauna derived from Australia, which includes marsupial mammals and ratite birds. Isolated small outposts (sky islands) occur as far south as central Myanmar, northernmost Vietnam and the high mountains of Taiwan. The langur eats leaves, flowers and fruit. It includes the Malay Peninsula and the western Indonesian islands (Sumatra, Java, Borneo and others, known as Sundaland), the Philippines, the eastern Indonesian islands, and New Guinea. Of those, 38 are marine dolphins and 4 are river dolphins. The Mediterranean basin is also one of the world's most endangered biogeographic regions; only 4% of the region's original vegetation remains, and human activities, including overgrazing, deforestation, and conversion of lands for pasture, agriculture, or urbanization, have degraded much of the region. This is the list of all animals of Asia (and spoken facts) kids will have to discover in the app. Kraits are found only in Asia, they eat not only small lizards but also snakes, including other kraits. This vast region is characterized by many shared plant and animal species. Across Asia wildlife populations and habitats are being decimated by poorly controlled industrial and agricultural exploitation, by infrastructure development (construction of dams, roads and tourist facilities), and by illegal activities such as poaching and timber theft. Asia. https://www.thoughtco.com/domestic-animals-that-originated-in-asia-195149 Mole. Animal markets appear like a variation of slave markets. Other species have been successfully re-introduced, such as the endangered Arabian oryx and the sand gazelle. The middle altitude foothills of the Himalaya between about 2000–2500 m form the boundary between the Palearctic and Indomalaya ecoregions. As with dogs, the domestication of pigs seems to have happened more than once and in different places, and again two of those places were the Middle East or the Near East, and China. Mainland Southeast Asia is divided into the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, and the small city-state of Singapore at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula; Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, which occupy the eastern portion of the mainland, often are collectively called the Indochinese Peninsula. See also the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. Over 500 reptile and over 300 amphibian species are also present, including numerous endemics. It is found in southern Asia, China, western Indonesia, parts of India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Sodhi et al., Southeast Asian biodiversity: an impending disaster. Asian elephants are generally more docile than their African counterparts and can be domesticated. Humans have domesticated dozens of different kinds of animals. These mountains harbor an amazing diversity of life. There are 2,500 known species worldwide! Asia has a rich reptile fauna. Animals that live in Asia and the oceans and seas surrounding the continent. Antarctic Animals Antarctic animals are adapted to life at very low temperatures. Sunda Pangolin . The largest land animal found in Asia is the Asiatic elephant. The boreal and temperate European-Siberian region is the Palearctic's largest region, which transitions from tundra in the northern reaches of Russia and Scandinavia to the vast taiga, the boreal coniferous forests which run across the continent. Biodiversity in Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats. [4] In Southeastern Asia, high mountain ranges form tongues of Palearctic flora and fauna in northern Myanmar and southern China. They're primarily found in Southeast Asia and prefer to avoid humans but can kill us with their bite. Asia shows a notable diversity of habitats, with significant variations in rainfall, altitude, topogra… Some archaeologists suggest that they may have been tamed first for cock-fighting, and only incidentally for meat, eggs, and feathers. The Mediterranean basin's mosaic of Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub are home to 13,000 endemic species. Pigs are smart, adaptable creatures that breed easily in captivity and can convert household scraps, acorns, and other refuse into bacon. Animals are bought for various reasons, e.g. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005, Price, T. D., J. Zee, K. Jamdar, and N. Jamdar. They’re just 4 – 6 inches tall, but they’ve… https://themysteriousworld.com/10-amazing-animals-found-only-in-africa Asia also contains several important freshwater ecoregions as well, including Rivers of Russia, which flow into the Arctic, Black, and Caspian seas, Siberia's Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest lake on the planet (home to numerous endemic sponges, oligochaetes, and crustaceans and the Baikal seal), Khanka Lake, and Japan's Lake Biwa, Lake Dongting, Lake Tai and Lake Poyang in China. Science, vol 308, 8.apr. Goats are also remarkably efficient at clearing brush, a handy trait for farmers in arid lands. Water buffalo are used across southern and southeastern Asia for meat, hide, dung, and horn, but also for pulling plows and carts. The Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalaya are a major biogeographic boundary between the subtropical and tropical fauna of the Indian subcontinent and the temperate-climate Palearctic realm. It’s rare to see an … 2005, R.J.Whittaker, J.M.Fernández-Palacios, Island Biogeography. African Animals Africa has many varied environments. Docile domestic cattle are descended from fierce ancestors—the long-horned and aggressive aurochs, now extinct, of the Middle East. In southern Asia the boundary of the Palearctic is largely altitudinal. (2017) Understanding the drivers of Southeast Asian biodiversity loss, Ecosphere. Humans hunted horses for food as early as 35,000 years ago. Asia blends elements from the both ancient supercontinents of Laurasia and Gondwana. Also characteristic are pittas, bulbuls, Old World babblers, cuckoo-shrikes, drongos, fantails, flowerpecker, helmetshrikes, hornbill, nuthatch, orioles, parrotbills, shrikes, sunbirds and woodswallows. Found throughout Asia, India and China! [9] The Southeast Asian region's biodiversity is arguably the most threatened, with some of the highest rates of forest loss combined with severe hunting pressure and a variety of other threats (Hughes, 2017). Two orders of mammals, the colugos (2 species) and treeshrews (19 species), are endemic to the Indomalayan realm, as are families Craseonycteridae (Kitti's hog-nosed bat), Diatomyidae, Platacanthomyidae, Tarsiidae (tarsiers) and Hylobatidae (gibbons). includes most of mainland Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as the subtropical forests of southern China. Millipede. This list only involves extinctions of the Holocene epoch. Animals. Gazelles, oryx, sand cats, and spiny-tailed lizards are some of the desert-desert-adapted species that survive in this extreme environment. Photo: Mark Dumont. Early sheep were used for meat, milk, and leather; wooly sheep only appeared around 8,000 years ago in Persia (Iran). The Asian ungulates include bharal, gaur, blackbuck, the wild yak and the Tibetan antelope, four-horned antelope, ox-sheep (Ovibovini), takin, kting voar, several species of muntjac, Bubalus and others. Soc. See also List of reptiles of South Asia. Chickens were domesticated approximately 7,000 years ago and quickly spread to India and China. The lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea in southwestern Asia are home to the Mediterranean basin ecoregions, which together constitute world's largest and most diverse mediterranean climate region of the world, with generally mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. The deep-water fauna of the Mediterranean has no distinctive characteristics and is relatively poor. The orangutan lives on the island of Borneo. The more common of the numerous snakes are pipe snakes (Melanophidium, Plectrurus, Rhinophis, Uropeltis), sea snakes, Elapids (king cobra, Bungarus, Calliophis, Naja, Walterinnesia), vipers (Azemiops, Daboia, Dendrelaphis, Echis, Hypnale, Protobothrops, Trimeresurus, Ovophis, Pseudocerastes, Gloydius etc. It is home to about 500 native mammal species. [3] See also List of extinct animals of Asia. She has taught at the high school and university levels in the U.S. and South Korea. From dog-sized deer to the 'Asian unicorn', a report by WWF has revealed that 13 ungulate species (animals with hooves) found in the Greater Mekong region are close to extinction Early ancestors of horses crossed the land bridge from North America to Eurasia. Only around 200 animals survived, animal activists say ... News World Asia. Both are a result of events after the Messinian salinity crisis. They grow up to 11 feet tall and can weigh up to 5 tons. By Letter (A-to-Z) By Scientific Name; ... Found throughout Asia, India and China! East Asia was not much affected by glaciation in the ice ages. The first sheep likely were tamed from wild mouflon in Mesopotamia, today's Iraq, some 11,000 to 13,000 years ago. Discover Asian animals you've never heard of, and learn amazing facts about the ones you have! One bird family, the accentors (Prunellidae) is endemic to the Palaearctic region. Many animals in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originated, have died or are at risk of dying after residents evacuated their homes in the wake of the city's lockdown. In the morning, instead of finding a pile of ruined waste, Lindt found that the chocolate smelt wonderful and melted in the mouth, releasing rich flavours. The earliest known site of domestication is Kazakhstan, where the Botai people used horses for transportation up to 6,000 years ago. Animals of Asia. There are millions of known animal species in the world, and every year there are hundreds, if not thousands, more animal species being discovered. 10.1002/ecs2.1624, Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub, tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, Fauna & Flora International in the Asia-Pacific region, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fauna_of_Asia&oldid=991314042, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 29 November 2020, at 12:07. ), Xenosauridae (Shinisaurus), monitor lizards, skinks. A great belt of deserts, including the Arabian desert, separates the Palearctic, Afrotropic and true Asian ecoregions. The Holarctic has four other endemic bird families: the divers or loons (Gaviidae), grouse (Tetraoninae), auks (Alcidae), and waxwings (Bombycillidae).