Lemon Shark 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.

The centre for shark research here in the Bahamas is called Sharklab.

Run by the Doc, his team study pretty much

all the shark species in the area.

To help their research, they keep some baby sharks for a while

in pens, just off the beach.

Here at Sharklab, we get a unique opportunity

to get close to some baby sharks.

They are so cute, you are just not going to believe it.

OK, so these babies are not exactly deadly, but they have

the same awesome sensory abilities that adult sharks do.

Seeing them up close will give me an insight into

what makes the adults deadly predators.

Now, if you'll just stay on this fence here

and walk around that way, I'll try to bring these guys to you.

Here we go, here we go.

Yeah!

So there we go. Our first baby shark.

I'd be careful, now. Really.

OK, now, this is just the baby shark -

I do need to be quite careful

about how I handle it, cos this is a lemon shark,

and this species is well-known for being incredible mobile.

They can whip right round and bite their own tail.

So, actually, if I let go with my right hand now,

I would almost certainly get bitten.

What we can do is - let's put him in tonic immobility.

Put him to sleep, now, together.

-Just roll him over like that, hold his tail.

-OK.

Now he's going to go to sleep.

So, what's the theory with these sharks? You flip them over and

they almost act as though they're hypnotised.

They are. We also call it animal hypnosis.

When you turn their senses around and make everything the wrong way,

it confuses the animal and there's so much sensory input that they

just go into this state of relaxation.

This does actually work for adult sharks

-as well as for juniors, doesn't it?

-Yes, it does.

We have five senses, but these baby sharks have an extra two,

giving them the power to detect movement and electricity in water.

Take our hypnotised shark...

and we'll wake her up.

There she goes. Look at that! Almost as soon as

she turns back over, starts moving again. It's incredible.

Right, it's a very special day for this little lemon shark.

It's time for her to go back into the wild.

Come on, little lady!

He's certainly feeling very excited at being back out in the sea.

I reckon if we release him now, he's going to be right at home.

There you go.

Wow!

Ha! Actually jumped right on Simon, the cameraman!

Lucky for Simon, that was just a tiddler.

But I want to show you just how big these guys can get.

For that, my crew and I are going to need a bigger boat,

and a very early start.

-Morning, Cap.

-Morning.

Oh-oh-oh-oh! Come and have a look at this.

I can see one, two, three, four, five, six...

six sharks already.

I think this is going to be a pretty good day.

Let's go down below, shall we?

These fully-grown sharks couldn't be more different to the cute,

vulnerable babies I'd seen back at Sharklab.

And don't be fooled by their name. The only lemony thing about them

is their colour.

Particularly at dawn, dusk and in murky water, they are killers.

And with more sensing capabilities than a submarine.

If you're a fish, you can run, but hiding from them is not an option.

Good job that it's day time and that I'm not a fish.

Look at the size of that!

We're absolutely surrounded by lemon sharks!

Wow! What an unbelievable sight!

Look at this one here!

This shark is absolutely covered in sucker fish.

They're covering the body!

Look at that!

It's such a serene shark.

They're totally unbothered by our presence.

This is extraordinary!

Oh! I've literally only just got in the water

and I can already see, what, nine? Ten, I think!

Ten adult lemon sharks.

And they look like they're all fully-grown females.

You can see how incredibly close they're comfortable getting to me.

They have absolutely no fear of me whatsoever.

And why would they? In this environment, they really are king.

They're very distinctive, with small yellow eyes and their mouth

is just spilling over with teeth.

These lemon sharks can turn right around and bite their own tail.

They're that flexible.

You can see how easily this amazing predator

can suddenly become a terrible threat.

I mean, we're in their environment, not they in ours.

Although I'm not on the menu,

these sharks can be incredibly intimidating.

They'll go around, over and even through you after the bait.

Just imagine if you were a fish and they were after you.

Look how close they're getting to Simon, the cameraman!

They're probably sensing electricity from the camera.

Thank you, Doc.

This stick, here - at the end of it are two different kinds of metals,

and it gives off a weak electrical field,

which the sharks can sense

with loads of tiny sensors in their snout.

They think that the end of the stick is food.

Hey, there, big fella!

See that?

It's actually taking a bite of the stick.

Incredible stuff.

As for what I think about sharks and their lack of danger to humans,

they're still a predator that's right at the top of their game,

and you can see why.

Nothing rivals them.

That was remarkable.

Anybody thinks that sharks are mindless killers can think again.

I mean, even when there's loads of food in the water

and they're thrashing around, teeth and sharks everywhere,

they still leave us well alone.

That said, if you were a fish in there,

and you were faced with that face full of teeth

and those incredibly manoeuvrable bodies,

you wouldn't stand a chance.

And that's why the lemon shark is definitely going on the Deadly 60.

Can I go back in now?

THEY LAUGH Did you enjoy that?

Super-sensitive electro sensors

enable them to track their prey

better than any submarine,

and they have the weapons

to finish it off.

The lemon shark.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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