Lace Monitor Deadly 60 Bites

On Deadly 60, I've had loads of incredible animal encounters.

Here's just one of my many favourites.

This is Deadly 60 Bites.

For the next animals on my Deadly 60 list, I'm going looking

for Australia's reptiles.

You'd think forests would be the best place to look.

Not always.

He's just within my reach.

Oh, he's an absolute beauty!

You'll have to excuse my undignified climbing.

There he is.

He's a Boyd's forest dragon.

This is a good-sized male and he really doesn't seem too bothered

about the fact that I've taken him out of his tree.

Look at that.

He's got a huge, extendable pouch there,

underneath the jaw. That's used for signalling to females

and he really will spend the majority of his day just sitting,

really chilled out, not doing an enormous amount,

pretty much like he's doing now actually, clinging to that tree

using these fearsome claws. Look at that one there!

That's really extended. The digit on that. Look, that's awesome!

When something wanders underneath him, maybe a small insect,

perhaps a frog or another lizard, he'll just drop down

at lightening speed onto his prey, gobble it up and then scamper back

up the tree and sit there for the rest of the day.

Ah! That is just ridiculously lazy.

'Sorry, Mr Dragon, you're way too chilled to make it on the list.'

That is one extraordinary reptile but my next Deadly 60 animal

comes from a very special group of lizards...

the monitors.

This is just about as close as we get nowadays to a genuine dinosaur.

And the reason that I'm considering him for my Deadly 60

is the amount of weapons that he has at his disposal.

You find monitors all over the world.

They're the reptile equivalent of a terminator.

They have hardcore body armour, razor-sharp claws for close combat,

a sixth sense, tasting the air with their tongue.

They can even sniff out crocodile eggs buried in the sand.

With all-terrain capability,

and unbelievably they can hold their breath for an hour.

Nowhere is too steep or too high.

No prey is too fast.

They'll even take on the king of beasts.

And that tail... could whip your eye out.

It's recently been discovered that monitor lizards have venom.

It was thought until very recently

that there were only a couple of lizards in the world

that were truly venomous.

But it turns out this guy here has truly venomous spit.

And...if I got bitten, it would not be a good day for me.

But as he is just wandering around, checking me out,

it's a very good day for me.

It's not often you get that close to a wild monitor lizard of this size.

I'm not going to move at all, see what he does.

Look at that. Nose to nose with a lace monitor.

I can almost smell your breath from here, mate.

< He can probably smell yours as well, Steve.

He's just snuffling around with this tongue in the leaf litter.

I can feel... His tongue just flicked all up my arm.

Around here, the reptiles really are the top predators.

The crocodiles and the monitor lizards take the place

of the lions of the African plains.

He's a living dinosaur with a venomous bite,

a whip for a tail and tearing talons.

The lace monitor is definitely going on my Deadly 60.

These living dinosaurs are kitted out with truly lethal weapons...

protective armour, razor-sharp claws and a whipping tail.

And as if that wasn't enough, they're also venomous.

These guys have to be on the Deadly 60.

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