Fauna of Asia

Asia is a vast and diverse continent with many types of climates, temperature extremes, and large and small human populations. Many portions of Asia, such as Siberia, are almost empty of people. Some areas are quite densely populated, such as Java in Indonesia, Japan, India, and much of China. In areas where the human population is thin, the extremes of climate do not allow for an abundance of wildlife. Many species are near extinction, endangered, or at risk because those areas of Asia that have a climate good for fauna are also densely populated. Some species, however, may have become too specialized for survival. The giant panda eats only bamboo and has an inefficient digestive system. This requires a giant panda to eat large quantities of bamboo. The panda also reproduces slowly. This characteristic may have evolved because the panda has few or no natural enemies—except humans. This type of adaptation can prove to be fatal for a species when factors such as climate, habitat, and predators change.

Much of Asian fauna is under pressure as a result of loss of habitat and overhunting. Most primates worldwide live only in tropical rainforests. The tropical rainforest is being rapidly cleared for timber, firewood, and land for agriculture. Species, such as the rhinoceros, disappear because they are hunted for their horns, which have been used for dagger handles in Yemen and for medicinal purposes. Many animals of all species are slaughtered because they are considered pests or just in the way of the ever-growing human population.

The Tundra, Taiga, and Steppes

Northern Siberia can be characterized as a tundra. Because the tundra is partly free from snow only during the short summer, conditions for life are poor. The principal animals of the tundra are the reindeer, arctic hare, arctic fox, wolf, and lemming. Except for the lemming, they live in the tundra in the summer only and migrate in autumn. Birds live in the tundra, but with the exceptions of the willow grouse and ptarmigan, they also desert the tundra in winter. Many species of waders, the gray plover, and several kinds of sandpipers migrate to the tundra and breed there in the summer. The snow bunting and the Lapland bunting are also found there. Gyrfalcons (a type of large arctic falcon), buzzards, and skuas feed on these smaller birds and lemmings.

The taiga takes in much of the rest of Siberia and is forested mostly by pine trees. Fauna are richer and more diverse in the taiga than in the tundra because the greater degree of vegetation provides more food and cover. Mammals found there include the brown bear, wolf, glutton (a kind of wolverine), otter, ermine, sable, lynx, elk, and forest reindeer. The rivers of northern Asia have many species of freshwater fish and several types of sturgeon.

The steppes are the southern edges of Siberia, portions of Kazakhstan, western China, and northern Tibet. Those areas are relatively treeless and similar to the northern Plains states of the United States. The steppes were the place of origin of the northern cattle, the horse, and the Bactrian (two-humped) camel. The animal life of the steppes includes burrowing rodents, jerboas, marmots, and piping hares, and larger animals, such as diverse types of antelope. Wild sheep and goats live in the mountains and the plateau areas north of the Himalayas. Tibet is the home of the wild yak, which is an endangered species because of poaching and habitat destruction.

East and Southwest Asia

Northeastern and eastern China, Korea, and Japan have several native species of deer. The giant panda lives in the lower mountain area of China near Tibet. The lesser panda, a member of the raccoon family or perhaps its own distinct family, is native to the Himalayas. A rare animal in East Asia, the endangered Siberian tiger, feeds on elk and inhabits a corner of the Russian Far East and possibly small portions of China and North Korea.

In 1997, there were estimated to be 360 to 406 wild Siberian tigers, but by 2024, only 400 remained in the wild. Their numbers declined primarily because of poaching and habitat loss but also because of overhunting of their main food source, the elk. Another endangered animal is China’s true dragon, the Chinese alligator. The remaining populations of these timid reptiles, less than 100 in the wild in 2024, are limited to just a few village ponds in heavily populated southeastern Anhui Province. One of just two alligator species in the world, Chinese alligators are believed to have diverged from their American counterparts at least twenty million years ago. They reach lengths of about six feet (two meters), which is only half the size of American alligators.

The great rivers of China have a rich variety of fish. In the Yangtze and Huang Ho Rivers, the paddlefish is found. Its only close relative is the paddlefish of North America. The giant salamander, which can grow to a length of 4 feet (1.2 meters) or more, is found in Japanese waters. Most members of the carp family are in Southeast Asia and southern China.

Japan’s fauna include the bear, wild boar, fox, deer, and antelope. Some of these species are very different from those on the Asian mainland. The Japanese macaque inhabits many areas. Those at the northern tip of Honshu form the northern limit of monkey habitat in the world. There are eagles, hawks, falcons, pheasants, and more than 150 species of songbirds. Waterbirds include gulls, auks, grebes, and albatrosses. Reptiles include sea turtles, freshwater tortoises, sea snakes, and two species of poisonous snakes.

The Philippines has about 220 mammal species, including as many as seventy-nine species of bats. There are more than seven hundred species of birds, including 288 that are endemic, like the jungle fowl (related to the chicken). The rare and critically endangered monkey-eating eagle is found in a few locales, mostly in Mindanao, but also in Luzon, Samar, and Leyte. Many other animals in the Philippines are endangered, largely because over 70 percent of the country's habitats were destroyed between 1970 and the 2020s. Fossils show that elephants once existed in the Philippines. It is possible that the climate of the Philippines was much drier in the somewhat distant past. If so, there may have been savanna-like grassland that would have favored elephants. As the climate subsequently became wetter, tropical rainforest grew, which would have reduced the elephants’ habitat and thus their population.

West Asia

Fauna in Iran includes the leopard, bear, hyena, wild boar, ibex, and gazelle that inhabit the forested mountains. Seagulls, ducks, and geese line the shores of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Buzzards nest in the desert. Deer, hedgehogs, foxes, and more than seventy-five species of rodents live in the semidesert high-altitude regions. Palm squirrels, Asiatic black bears, and perhaps a few lions inhabit Baluchistan in the southeast. Amphibians and reptiles include frogs, salamanders, boas, racers, rat snakes, cat snakes, and vipers. More than two hundred varieties of fish are found in the Persian Gulf, along with shrimp, lobsters, and turtles. Sturgeon is one of thirty species found in the Caspian Sea.

Arabia has camels, both wild and domesticated, sheep, goats, and Arabian horses. Gazelles, oryx, and ibex are becoming rare. Other wild animals are the hyena, wolf, and jackal. The baboon, fox, ratel, rabbit, hedgehog, and jerboa are among the smaller animals. Reptiles include the horned viper, a species of cobra; striped sea snakes; and the large desert monitor. Common birds include eagles, vultures, owls, and the lesser bustard. Flamingos, pelicans, and egrets live on the coasts.

Common insects include locusts, which can descend on fields like a biblical plague. Turkey has the wolf, fox, boar, wildcat, beaver, marten, jackal, hyena, bear, deer, gazelle, and mountain goat. Game birds are the partridge, wild goose, quail, and bustard. The rest of Southwest Asia—Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq—have fauna that are a mix of those found in Arabia and Turkey.

The Oriental Region

The Oriental region includes India and extends eastward from India over the mainland and much of insular Southeast Asia. A major portion of the Oriental region is tropical. That climate supports malaria-bearing mosquitoes and water-borne flukes carrying the schistosomiasis-causing parasite. These two problems are present in much of tropical Asia and Africa.

In tropical rainforest areas, monkeys are common. Larger primates are found only in tropical rainforests because the kind of cover and food supply that they seem to need exists only there. Gibbons are found in Assam in northeast India; Myanmar (formerly Burma); the Indochinese peninsula—Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam; and the Greater Sunda Islands—Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. The orangutan is found only in Sumatra and Borneo. Indonesia is home to the world’s two most endangered rhinoceros species, the Javan and Sumatran. The largest group of Javan rhinoceros is in Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java, but the number of rhinoceros there was fewer than seventy in the late 1990s. The only known wild population of Javan rhinos outside Indonesia, a small group of fewer than fifteen animals, is found in Cat Loc Nature Reserve in Vietnam.

India is an important part of the Oriental zoogeographic region. Almost all orders of mammals are found in India. The primates there include diverse types of monkeys, including the rhesus monkey and the Hanuman langur. Wild herds of Indian elephants can be found in several areas, such as the Periyar Lake National Park in Kerala and Bandipur National Park in Karnataka. The Indian rhinoceros is protected at Kaziranga National Park and Manas Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam. There are also four species of large cats: the leopard, snow leopard, Bengal tiger, and lion. The Asian lion, once ranging into West Asia, including the Levant, is now found only in the Gir Forest Lion Sanctuary in the Kathiawar Peninsula of Gujarat. Tigers are found in the forests of the Tarai region of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Assam; the Ganges delta in West Bengal; the Eastern Ghats; Madhya Pradesh; and eastern Rajasthan. The snow leopard is found only in the Himalayan regions.

Nearly fourteen hundred species and perhaps two thousand subspecies of birds are found in India. Herons, storks, ibises, and flamingos are well represented, and many of these are found in the Keoladeo Ghana National Park in Rajasthan. The Rann of Kutch forms the nesting ground for one of the world’s largest breeding colonies of flamingos.

Crocodiles are found in India’s rivers, swamps, and lakes. The estuarine crocodile, which can grow as large as thirty feet (nine meters), feeds on the fish, birds, and crabs of muddy delta areas. The long-snouted gavial or gharial, which is similar to the crocodile, is found in several large rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra. There are almost four hundred species of snakes. One-fifth of these are poisonous, including kraits and cobras. The Indian python inhabits marshy areas and grasslands. More than 2,200 species of fish are found in India, and around 20 percent are freshwater species. Commercially valuable insects include the silkworm, bees, and the lac insect. The lac insect secretes a sticky, resinous material called “lac,” from which shellac and a red dye are made.

Southeast Asia is located where two important divisions of the world’s fauna come together. It constitutes the eastern half of the Oriental zoogeographic region. Bordering on the south and east is the Australian zoogeographic region. The eastern part of the Southeast Asian islands—Sulawesi (Celebes), the Moluccas, and the Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali, Sumba, Flores, and Timor)—forms an area of transition between these two faunal regions. Southeast Asia thus has a considerable diversity of wildlife throughout the region. The region has placental mammals as opposed to the marsupials of Australia but also has hybrid species, such as the bandicoot of eastern Indonesia. Small mammals, such as monkeys and shrews, are the most common. Larger mammals have been pushed into remote areas and national preserves.

Indonesia is located in the transitional zone between the Oriental and Australian faunal regions. The so-called boundary between these two zones is known as Wallace’s Line. The line runs between Borneo and Sulawesi in the north and Bali and Lombok in the south. A unique species of proboscis monkey lives only in Kalimantan (southern Borneo). The babirusa (a hoglike animal with curved tusks) and anoa (a small, wild ox with straight horns) are found only in Sulawesi. A giant lizard, the Komodo dragon, occurs on four small islands—Komodo, Rinca, Gili Montang, and Gili Dasami. Insect life in Indonesia includes giant walking sticks that attain 8 inches (3.2 centimeters) in length, walking sticks, large atlas beetles, luna moths, and bird-wing swallowtails.

Mammals in Vietnam include elephants, tapirs, tigers, leopards, rhinoceros, wild oxen, such as gaurs and koupreys, black bears, sun bears, and several species of deer, such as the small musk deer and barking deer. In Cambodia, small populations of elephants, wild oxen, rhinoceros, and several deer species can still be found, along with tigers, leopards, and bears. Snakes abound, with the four most dangerous species being the Indian cobra, the king cobra, the banded krait, and Russell’s viper. The fauna of Myanmar and Thailand is similar to that found in Cambodia.

Principal Terms

Grazer: An animal that eats grass; some are wild, but many grazers have also been domesticated

Herbivore: An animal that only eats plants

Nocturnal: Active at night and dormant or asleep during the day

Predator: An animal that obtains food by hunting other animals

Taiga: A moist, subarctic forest, primarily coniferous

Tundra: A rolling arctic or subarctic plain, located too far north for trees to grow

Bibliography

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