Tiger Snake 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 on the search for animals to add to my Deadly 60 list -

not all of them will be deadly to humans, but they'll all be deadly in their own world.

We've come to Australia, a continent that has so many leathel contenders

that I'm having to scour both the sea and the land.

So where better to start than a typical Aussie backyard?

I'm in the outskirts of Perth,

the largest city in Western Australia,

but this being Australia,

there's bound to be some contenders for my Deadly 60...

even in people's backyards.

-Hi, Mitch. How are you doing?

-How you going, Steve?

Pretty good. This is a fantastic backyard - a good place to search.

We're going to have an easy time catching things.

Excellent! Let's go look.

'This is Mitch Ladyman, and he's just bonkers about snakes.'

-Oh, look, look, look!

-Oh, oh, oh!

-Woah!

-Oh-ho! Good catch!

Oh, dear! Don't bite!

Grumpy! Oh!

-Thought that was a tiger snake for a second!

-Well done! So did I!

You saw that black form and thought, "Here we go!"

-Is this a king's skink?

-Yeah, mate, Egernia kingii.

Most people think they're like a coastal skink.

They hang out a lot on the limestone cliffs on the coast.

You can still get them on the local beaches

down in Perth's local foreshore.

Really robust - they eat insects, vegetation, all-sorts of stuff.

-Really quite strong, so...

-Yeah.

..pretty much eat whatever comes along.

He is wonderful!

They don't hurt.

If you let them bite on... they'll bite...

Let go.

Woah!

-They'll let go...

-Look at that!

-..when they realise it's pointless.

That's great stuff!

-So, the jaw is incredibly powerful...

-Heaps powerful.

Ow!

That REALLY hurts!

I can't believe you just made me do that!

I knew what I was getting in for.

I think it surprises half of the, er...

-Let go, please!

-STEVE CHUCKLES

If you can imagine that on your knuckle or something like that,

so much more painful.

-He's starting to settle down now.

-Yeah.

-That is wonderful.

-Yeah, he's so cute.

-Yeah.

Well, he's pretty good,

but he's not going on my Deadly 60.

Look at that - he grabbed hold of my hand, didn't even make me bleed!

'So, if you get giant skinks in your backyard,

'what's lurking in the local park?

'I'm hoping for tiger snakes!'

Despite the fact that we are so close to all these houses,

this really is fantastic habitat for tiger snakes,

mostly because there's so much water, so many reeds, long grasses,

and that's perfect habitat for their main prey source, which is frogs.

If you're a snake and these super-fast frogs are on the menu,

then you want to be able to kill them quickly

so they don't hop away and leave you hungry.

That's exactly why the tiger snake's venom is SO strong

and fast-acting.

One bite and it's game over.

It's one thing to stop a frog dead in its tracks,

but here's the scary thing -

there's enough lethal venom in one bite from a tiger snake

to kill a handful of people.

Imagine you're unlucky enough to tread on one and it bites you.

The bite itself wouldn't feel that bad,

but inside your body, it's a very different story.

At first, your nerves stop firing

and you feel a tingling in your hands and feet,

then your muscles stop functioning properly,

you can't keep your eyes open and your throat starts to close.

Paralysis sets in.

Other toxins in the venom dissolve and eat your muscles.

It gets harder to move.

Meanwhile, your blood is being thickened into sticky clumps,

and as all the effects of the toxin combine, the organs start failing.

The muscles round your lungs seize up and you stop breathing.

If you don't get help in the form of anti-venom,

it could all be over within an hour.

You might think we're crazy to go looking for tiger snakes,

but both Mitch and I have been working with snakes for years.

We're all rooting for you!

-Yeah, yeah!

-This way, mate.

STEVE SIGHS

Follow me, mate, you're more likely to catch something.

Get stuffed!

That's a good patch.

These basking platforms, they're perfect,

-cos they'll sit on there...

-Good!

Oh, yeah, trying to get in front! I can run too!

Normally, I'd be going really slowly, really gently,

but because I'm all competitive, I'm half-running along!

To be honest, it's the best way,

because, really, the longer we take to come on top of them,

the more chance they've got of getting away.

Ah, got one!

'This method might look a bit gung-ho,

'but we're deadly serious.

'Using a snake hook like this keeps me at a safe distance

'and is also the gentlest way to handle the snake.'

It's all right, it's all right!

There's nothing worse than being patronised by an Australian!

THEY LAUGH

There's one!

All right, whip it out.

Go on, get it, get it, get it!

Gone.

Wahey! Good save!

I got it, I got it.

-Oh! Well done!

-Finally!

-OK...

We've been looking for... probably five minutes.

-Maybe two!

-This is incredible!

-Yeah!

We are right on the outskirts

of the biggest city in Western Australia

-and I have in my hand...

-Watch it.

..the fourth most toxic venomous snake in the world -

the tiger snake.

-Mitch, this is an absolute beauty.

-Yeah, it's cute.

Cute?! Only an Australian could describe a tiger snake as cute!

This is a snake

that needs to be treated with an amazing amount of respect

because drop by drop,

its venom is far more toxic than any of the cobras,

far more toxic than a king cobra, than a black mamba...

This has enough venom to bring down...

Mitch and I and probably the rest of the film crew as well.

But as you can see,

he has absolutely no interest in striking whatsoever.

What's wonderful about this

is that tiger snakes are in the same family as the cobras -

they're called elapids -

and you can actually see that it does have a hood.

It'll spread its body sideways,

making itself seem bigger that it actually is,

and standing a good portion of its body up off the ground as well.

-That is a classic cobra shape, isn't it?

-Yeah.

For me, the reason the tiger snake is such an amazing predator

is just that it kills its prey so quickly, you know?

If you're feeding on a frog,

the last thing you want is to bite it,

for it to disappear into the reeds and you never find it again.

But if a tiger snake bites a frog, it's got minutes to live.

What you can see here...

Tiger snakes commonly have a reputation for charging people,

but you can see where that misconception comes from.

All this snake wants to do... is go straight back into the bush.

At the moment, he's heading straight for between my legs.

Just let him go.

This is the amount of confidence that I have...

..in this snake and its behaviour.

There's no way he was gonna bite me.

Heading off into the grass.

That is absolutely fantastic.

The thing that really gets me about this

is the fact that we've seen people wandering through here,

there's houses right there, but nobody here ever gets bitten.

In all the time I've been here, wandering around, like we're doing,

I'll actually have people pull over on their pushies, their push-bikes,

or stop while they're jogging in absolute disbelief,

and they say, "What are you doing?"

I say, "I'm studying tiger snakes."

They have no idea.

And the reason is, is because, this... I mean,

they're sitting along the edge in the vegetation,

minding their own business...

-The second anyone gets too close...

-Yep, they disappear.

With one of the most potent venoms on the planet,

a tiger snake can kill its frog prey in minutes.

And that's why it's going on the Deadly 60.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd