0:00:04 > 0:00:08On Deadly 60 I've had loads of incredible animal encounters.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11Here's just one of my many favourites.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16This is Deadly 60: Bites.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21Although, I personally much prefer looking for wildlife in the wild,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25in the forest and jungle, there's no getting away from the fact
0:00:25 > 0:00:28that some of the best places to find animals
0:00:28 > 0:00:30can be right in our back yards.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34This is the ideal place to look for spiders.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38Australia's well known for having some of THE most venomous,
0:00:38 > 0:00:42THE most potentially dangerous spiders on the planet
0:00:42 > 0:00:45and it's obviously those that I'm looking for.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Actually I'm looking for one in particular,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Australia's best known and most feared.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54Watch your head, Steve.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58- Mind your head, Steve. - Not doing very well at the moment.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03Yeah, that's gonna work.
0:01:06 > 0:01:12Tucked in here is one of the most feared spiders in the world.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18In some other parts of the world this is known as the Black Widow,
0:01:18 > 0:01:21here in Australia it's called a Redback.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23Let's see if I can get her out.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25Just coax her out onto the web.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Here she comes.
0:01:27 > 0:01:28There.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30There she is.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Probably, to Mark at the moment,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36that's just a tiny little black blob,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39let's see if I can light it up with my torch.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46Isn't she wonderful?!
0:01:46 > 0:01:50It probably looks like this is just an untidy mess of a web,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54certainly in comparison to the beautiful dew drop covered ones
0:01:54 > 0:01:56you'll find in your back garden,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00but actually this is an absolutely brilliantly designed way
0:02:00 > 0:02:03of catching flying insects.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09The real genius of this three dimensional web is found below.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13These threads here are placed under high tension,
0:02:13 > 0:02:15it's like someone's got an elastic rope
0:02:15 > 0:02:18and stuck it down using a big patch of glue.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22They're all over the place, a maze of trap lines.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24So when an insect, like this ant here, wanders up,
0:02:24 > 0:02:30it snags one of those trap lines and fires it up into the air.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35So it's just dangling there, suspended, they mostly ensnare ants
0:02:35 > 0:02:40but the lines are strong enough to catch large trapdoor spiders
0:02:40 > 0:02:41and even lizards.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47The victim's struggle causes the line above to vibrate,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50alerting the ever ready female Redback.
0:02:50 > 0:02:55Then she heads down to haul it up, bite it and paralyse it.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58That venom, designed to immobilise its prey,
0:02:58 > 0:03:03has the unfortunate side effect of being extremely painful
0:03:03 > 0:03:04and toxic to us too.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07About 600 people a year get bitten.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10Right, to get a closer look at her
0:03:10 > 0:03:13we're going to have to bring her out the web.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16As this is one of the most venomous spiders in the world,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20one of the only ones that has a bite dangerous to humans,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22I'm gonna do that carefully.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25'I use my rope knife to coax her out.'
0:03:25 > 0:03:26Come on, lady.
0:03:27 > 0:03:28Here she comes.
0:03:30 > 0:03:31Come on.
0:03:33 > 0:03:34There she is.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Wow!
0:03:36 > 0:03:42The way people usually get bitten is if they put on a pair of shoes
0:03:42 > 0:03:45or something that has a Redback inside of it
0:03:45 > 0:03:49and she'll get squashed and bite in defence.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55This is a very, very careful, cautious process.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01As long as she doesn't feel restrain and restricted,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05then really she's very unlikely to bite.
0:04:10 > 0:04:11Right.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17You can see that wonderful red flash down the abdomen
0:04:17 > 0:04:19that gives her her name.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26With her amazing elastic web
0:04:26 > 0:04:31and a bite which could even do me some damage,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34the Redback spider is definitely on the Deadly 60.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Small but deadly, Redbacks employ genius tactics to catch their prey
0:04:40 > 0:04:43and there's enough venom in a bite from one of these guys
0:04:43 > 0:04:45to stop me in my tracks.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49That's why they have to be on the Deadly 60 list.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:04:56 > 0:04:59E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk