Fat-Tailed Scorpions 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!

I don't want you to think this series is only about

animals that are dangerous to people.

You've as much chance of being hurt by a wild animal

as you have of being struck by lightning.

Whilst wearing a gorilla suit.

What it IS about, is animals who are dangerous in THEIR world.

After all, if you're an insect...

..a chameleon is the most dangerous animal in the world.

Yuck!

With that in mind, we're heading into the South African Bush

to see if we can find some contenders for my Deadly 60 list.

Ooh!

Got something.

This is gonna be the only... Ow!

This...

..is a flat rock scorpion.

And...it's got quite a pinch on it!

But it's actually really the pussycat of the scorpion world,

as far as the sting goes.

The rule of thumb is to look at a scorpion

and look at the size of its pincers.

If those are big, like this one here -

he's trying to get hold of me with those -

those are gonna be its primary weapon.

The great thing about this flat rock scorpion is that even though

his sting really isn't very potent,

because he has these massive, powerful pincers,

he'll flatten himself inside a crevice and if other scorpions

which might have much more potent venom come nearby,

he can literally tear them apart.

So, although he's not very harmful to us,

he is quite potentially harmful to other scorpions

and that's gotta make him a candidate for the Deadly 60.

'With so much more to see, we decide to keep going on into the night.'

You may have noticed that I have two different colours of torches -

the white bulb on my head and this purple light.

Hopefully you'll see quite soon why I've got this.

He's coming right towards me!

With a little luck, I might not even have to wrangle him!

It's exactly the species we're hoping to find, as well.

Ooh!

OK...

Gotta hold my nerve here...

cos I'm getting pinched but the pinch is not the problem.

I can hold him down.

This is the scorpion I was really hoping to find round here.

Now I'll show you why I've been carrying this torch around.

I get rid of my normal light...

Look at that.

This is one of the most curious things about scorpions -

their exoskeleton, - their skeleton on the outside of their body -

has this amazing glow when it's put under ultraviolet light.

The reason for this, probably, is that because all invertebrates

see really well in this kind of light,

that a scorpion that's hiding in a crevice can see another one

by seeing that ghostly green glow.

Now, you'll notice that I haven't got this one on my hand,

like I did the other one,

and nor am I trying to get it to sting me, for the very simple reason

that if it did, erm...my trip would certainly be over.

This is probably one of the most venomous scorpions in Africa,

and if you look at the size of the pincers and the size of the tail,

you'll see it's exactly reversed from the scorpion I had earlier.

The tail's big and fat, the pincers, small and thin.

This one here has a really nasty punch.

One of the most extraordinary things about this particular species

is that it doesn't stop there.

It can actually flick its venom at an attacker,

and it can be really, really accurate,

I've gotta say, this extraordinary creature is going into my Deadly 60.

This scorpion is one of the very few in the world that could kill me,

and if it didn't, it would almost certainly put me out of action

for a long time.

More importantly, its large tail and sting,

laden with powerful neurotoxic venom,

combine to make this scorpion extremely deadly in its own world.

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