Paralysis Tick 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 deadly animal we're for today is a blood sucking vampire.

Which strikes even in towns and cities.

It puts more children in hospital and kills more pets

than venomous spiders and snakes combined.

We've just had a call from a local vet that an animal has been attacked

by our lethal blood sucking parasite.

The parasite is still attached to the prey. We've got to get there

quickly as all the time it's attached it pours toxins

into the blood stream of the animal.

If we don't get there soon, it'll be in big trouble.

Hello! You've got a patient's just come in?

-Yes, in the surgery, through there.

-Magic, thank you very much.

-Hello!

-Hello!

I hear you've got an animal suffering from a paralysis tick?

Yes we do, this gentlemen, Lindsay.

Yeah, I'm the paralysis tick!

Ah, sorry! I was expecting a dog or something.

'After all, this is a vets!'

-Here.

-Oh, wow!

That is absolutely tiny.

It is actually about the size of a pinhead.

There's no way you'll see it on the big camera, have we got...

This is what we call a lipstick camera

which magnifies anything really small.

Lindsay, do you mind if I just poke around behind your ear?

Knock yourself out.

It's just there.

Absolutely tiny.

The head of the tick is buried...

into the flesh.

And it's just pumping Lindsay's blood into it.

But they have, in their saliva, their spit, almost like a venom,

which can totally paralyse the creature that they're feeding on.

It's not just people

and it's not just people's pets that are affected,

there's a lot of wild animals that suffer from paralysis ticks too.

The tick lurks in the undergrowth and lies in wait

for a fresh blood meal.

It senses the vibrations and tastes the carbon dioxide

from its victim's breath.

As the animal or person brushes past,

the tick jumps on and clings to the fur or the clothes.

Finally it's guided by heat down to the skin and begins to feed.

Large fruit bats, also known as flying foxes,

are very badly affected.

As the tick bites it injects its deadly saliva.

The flying fox starts to become paralysed.

Finally it falls out the tree and dies slowly on the ground.

But not always. Sometimes help is at hand.

This gorgeous, cute little baby is, in an indirect way,

a victim of the paralysis tick because its mother was infected

and, obviously when the mum became paralysed,

couldn't take care of the baby

and so that's why it's ended up here at the orphanage.

Volunteers here rescue and raise up to 500 baby orphans every year.

But not every adult flying fox that's bitten dies.

If they're brought into the sanctuary early enough,

they're given tick anti-venom and looked after till they recover.

Bats are incredibly important to forests, they poo out seeds of fruit

and keep the forest going, so if they're wiped out

it's very bad news.

This is interesting!

This one's getting on great with Rich the sound man.

But don't worry, Mark, your camera's gonna be fine.

This one was found in time

and is now nearly strong enough to be released back into the wild.

You've gotta say an animal the size of a pinhead

that can bring down a human, a dog, even a flying fox.

Paralysis tick has got to be on my Deadly 60.

These blood sucking vampires are silent but deadly

and they have a paralysing venom

which means they have to go on my Deadly 60 list.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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