Fish Eagle 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'm here in South Africa.

It's about there.

I'm surrounded by the Kruger National Park,

one of the largest in Africa,

and it's full of animals that are fast and furious,

and some of them are deadly.

The deadly animal I'm here to find is the African fish eagle.

They're master fishermen.

When a fish eagle hunts, it uses all of its skill and precision

to hit the water at just the right angle.

Their excellent eyesight pinpoints their prey.

Rather than diving straight down,

they skim along the surface,

staying out of the fishes' field of vision

until the last possible moment.

Then they strike with those lethal talons.

When fish are scarce,

they've been known to hunt birds even as big as flamingos,

and will also take turtles, and even small crocodiles.

In order to get really close to these incredible creatures,

I've got a date with a very special fish eagle

called Bono.

Bono's story is that he was taken from the wild as a chick, illegally.

But, luckily, he was rescued,

and he spent his days very happily in a rescue centre near here.

I can tell you that he is really quite heavy.

It's quite a strain keeping him on my wrist.

He's got gigantic breast muscles, like huge pecs,

which drive those wings,

and the main weapon is those talons, look at those,

they are like razor blades.

Actually, feeling that with my finger,

I can tell you you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those.

He's called Bono because of his wonderful singing voice.

Let's see if we can get him to show it off. Bono...

Whoo-whoo, whoo! Whoo!

BONO SQUAWKS

Look at that.

The way he throws his head back at the end there

is to extend the vocal chords, to make the sound even bigger.

But I'm a little concerned, cos he's looking around...

at a wild fish eagle, which is circling around us...

..probably getting all territorial, cos Bono here is in his patch.

FISH EAGLE SQUAWKING

Can you hear that?

This is unbelievable. There's one over there, a wild one...

and they're having a wee chat.

What do you reckon to that, Bono?

Talk about eagle-eyed,

Bono's not paying me any attention,

he's just looking directly at the other eagle.

The wild one in the tree is just watching us, very closely,

from about a hundred metres away.

African fish eagles have the most extraordinary way

of fishing and hunting.

As I've already said, it's so effective,

they only need to do it for ten minutes a day.

As Bono's kept in captivity,

he doesn't get the chance to go out and fish in the wild.

So they've had him on a bit of a diet for a few days,

and we're hoping, fingers crossed,

he'll show us quite what it is that makes this bird so special.

Bono, hey!

If you've got sharp eyesight,

you might notice the guys are using a plastic fish to train Bono.

The idea is, it mimics a fish hanging around near the surface,

and also means that if Bono gets a hold of it, he won't eat it,

get full and lose interest.

With birds in captivity,

it's a key part of their fitness and development

to keep them flying and hunting like this.

It helps build and tone those large muscles needed to fly,

and literally gives them a chance to spread their wings.

In the wild, they'd be hunting like this every day.

For Bono, it's a relatively new experience,

and he hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.

While Bono gets his eye in, I have a cunning plan.

To show you quite how hard that is,

we've come up with a, well, a kind of scientific experiment.

With the help of my glamorous assistant, James,

and another plastic fish,

I'm going to become a fish eagle for the afternoon.

Aargh!

All I have to do is copy the fish eagle's grace and coordination,

its lethal precision timing and accuracy,

and its awesome, aerodynamic skills.

Well, as you can see,

I'm about as far away from the grace and elegance of an eagle

as it's possible to be.

Let's see how the experts do it.

Now Bono's had a few trial runs and got his eye in,

let's see if he can get those lethal talons working.

Hey!

-Hey!

-Bono's looking interested now...

Good boy.

-Wow!

-Stop.

That is unbelievable.

He did it!

And now he's just sat up here in a bush...

tearing the plastic fish to bits.

Stop it!

I don't really envy Mark, now,

having to convince this huge killing machine to give up its prey.

Mark, that was really quite remarkable.

He's eyeing up my toes, I don't like that.

There's not enough meat on those.

I'm going to try and get him back up on the glove.

-Good boy.

-How about that?!

-Well done!

-That's was awesome, eh?

-Wasn't it just? Third time lucky.

Bono, you are an absolute superstar.

And just to prove it wasn't a fluke...

Oh! That is extraordinary!

You can't tell me that's not worthy of getting on the Deadly 60.

African fish eagles are fast, skilful,

employing their deadly talons to maximum effect.

This eagle is a fish's worst enemy,

earning it a place on my Deadly 60 list.

Chocks away!

OK, it's got to be worth one last go.

I got it!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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