LogFAQs > #983524484

[1985] S03E10: Kinabalu - Summit of Borneo

This time, the Nature crew goes to the highest peak in Malaysia, first climbed by Sir Hugh Low in the 1800s and, accordingly, the crew inspects the animal and plant life on the pinnacles that now bears Low's namesake. Some types of fauna are practically living fossils, predating the mountain itself (estimated to be 1.5 million at time of this show). One conifer discovered in the Sixties seems to be the missing link between oaks and beeches.

And the show spent a LOT of time on the fauna. Not necessarily a bad thing, considering all the cool stuff growing here, from rafflesias and rare orchids (the mountain was once robbed of many by collectors before it became protected) to the always-cool pitcher plants. When Low discovered a pitcher plant for the first time, he actually found a dead rat inside. I'm assuming he found a different sample to take back to England, haha.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/92c417c5.jpg

Overall, the upper mountain was very nice: angular, danger lurking in shadowed mountain passes, the "thick Scotch mists" that threaten to engulf any traveler, etc. They say that if the temperatures dropped a few degrees, the glaciers that used to cap the mountains could start reforming. When they show the ice-scoured peaks in that washed-out, VCR-quality of Eighties recordings, it reminds me of those old Lord of the Rings shots. Hell, all Kinabalu was missing at times was Gandalf shepherding some hobbits.

Hopefully Borneo's beauty won't be completely effed up due to deforestation and fires. I've definitely seen other Nature-esque programs on areas being cleared to harvest palm oil en masse, which naturally ruins biodiversity.