Giant Anteater 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.

Brazil's grassland savannas are unimaginably vast,

about the size of a small country.

If we were to stick to walking or using the trucks

we wouldn't even scratch the surface!

Luckily, though, we don't have to.

We can get a bird's-eye view!

What I'm looking out for is just one wild animal

that we're desperate to find here,

that I stand a chance to see from the air - it's big enough.

I'm keeping my eyes peeled.

'It's so big, it's known as a giant.

'It wasn't too long before we spotted one.'

Look at that! We need to fly as slow and low as we can, Dudu.

'The giant in question is a giant anteater.'

Oh, my goodness!

'This is an animal only found in South America

'and one I've been dying to see

'because they're incredible and unusual predators.'

I can't believe how close we are!

Look at that! This is ridiculous!

He is right next to us!

I think we should leave him alone cos we're maybe stressing him out.

Our best way of getting close to a giant anteater is on foot.

OK, Dudu.

'So now we know the area they're living in,

'we're going to track them on foot,

'and on the way I'll show you their favourite food

'and exactly what makes them so deadly.'

These bright orange boulders

that you can see littered around all over these fields

are not actually made of real rock.

In fact, they're created by insects. These are termite mounds.

Inside here are hundreds of thousands of tiny insects.

They make them themselves out of chewed up soil or sand

and termite spit.

'It doesn't sound much like a good building material,

'but these guys construct a mound as hard as concrete.

'And this is the problem for an anteater.'

I'll try and show you quite how hard these can be.

If I take this bush knife...

..you can see it's a bit dusty and it's coming away in chunks...

..but not easily at all.

Also, as you see, although I've taken off a fair bit already,

I still haven't come to any insects.

'Don't worry. The termites can rebuild this damage in minutes.

'But how does the anteater get at the termites deep in the mound?

'And how do they avoid the fearsome soldiers?

'The soldiers will sink their massive jaws into any intruders.

'But the anteater is well prepared.

'Firstly, they can sniff out insects

'with a sense of smell that's 40 times more powerful than ours!

'When they find them, they rip into a mound

'with some of the longest claws on any living mammal.

'They only need to break a small hole

'because they have the most ridiculously long sticky tongue,

'perfect for hoovering up 30,000 small insects a day!

'By feeding at each mound for a short period of time,

'they're long gone before the soldier termites start biting.

'And don't be fooled by their insect diet.

'They can stand as tall as a man

'and have been known to kill jaguar and even people in a death hug.

'Anteaters have poor eyesight,

'but they will hear and smell us if we're not careful.

'Luckily, the wind's blowing towards us as we approach it.'

The ground round here is recently burnt

which means that it's all quite crunchy.

A bit like walking on Rice Krispies!

Not the ideal ground when you're trying to creep up on an animal.

We're right by a road as well

so even though there's not been much coming past here,

it's still a little bit noisy.

'We've lost sight of the anteater.

'So Dudu and Charlie are going to try and head him off.'

I think Dudu's just seen it.

We're coming round to stop it going any further.

Hopefully we can get Steve and the rest of the team quite close.

He's feeding.

-Feeding?

-Yeah, right there.

'Guys, can you hear me, over?

'Dudu and I are level with the anteater now.

'We are level with the anteater. Over.'

I can't see it at the moment, Charlie. Is it still in the trees?

'It is in some trees, in a thicket of three or four. Over.'

There he is.

This has got to be one of the most remarkable,

one of the most bizarre creatures in the world.

This is absolutely perfect for us

because the wind is coming from him towards us.

He's got his snout right down an ant hole.

Looks like he's feeding.

Looks like he's feeling around the branches of a tree.

I just can't believe how close we're getting.

'Despite all our care, it was only a matter of time

'before the anteater caught a whiff of us.'

There you go. He's got me.

Once he starts running, it's all over.

Amazing!

I can't believe how close I've got

to one of the most bizarre animals in South America, if not the world.

A huge, hairy hoover of ants and termites

with a sticky tongue

and claws that rip through termite mounds

like they were made of butter.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd