Black 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!

My crew and I are on a mission

high in the Drakensburg mountains of South Africa.

Because I've got a date

with the most astounding aerial assasin on the continent.

Look at this! He's folding his wings, stooping,

coming crashing in to land!

Wow!

That was extraordinary!

Keep your face away.

That's it.

So, obviously, this isn't a wild eagle.

This is Rourke. He was rescued as a very young chick

and has been living, for the last five years,

in very good human company.

He is an utterly magnificent predator

and if you want to see why, you don't have took any further

than those talons.

Look at those.

Each one is like a long, curved kitchen knife of a weapon.

Owner Doug assures me that,

if I wasn't wearing this thick leather glove,

he could punch that talon through my hand and out the other side.

Now, though he is magnificent sat in my hand,

you can see what he really wants to do.

He wants to show you what eagles are all about - and that's flying.

Come on, Rourke. Do your thing.

And there is only one way to see how difficult this flying lark is.

'Time to slip into something a bit less comfortable

'and catch some big air.'

OK, Hans? It's good to go.

One, two, three, let's go.

Run. Run, run, run, run, run.

Hay-hay!

And there he is! Look!

There he is, right there!

Just flying under my feet.

We are sharing the air

with Rourke, the black eagle. How good is that?!

He just soared right under our canopy!

That was unbelievable!

Just incredible!

OK, now the real trick...

to this paragliding lark, is very much the same thing

that the eagle will be looking for, and that's thermals.

A thermal is a rising current of warm air,

which would especially come up off a dark ploughed field,

a big area of road.

Just that warm air is enough to get you heading for the heavens

and that's the weapon the black eagle uses to get high.

'We're sharing the skies with a true master

'and Rourke is giving us a proper flying lesson.'

'Using every single air current,

'Rourke was soon way above us.'

Where's Rourke? Where's he gone?

Rourke will be up top, there.

'This Top-Gun ability

'allows black eagles to cover hundreds of miles a day,

'scouring the ground for their prey.

'And it's a lot harder than it looks.'

Aaaargh!

-CRASH!

-Ugh! Oh!

And that was the worst landing one could imagine.

-STEVE LAUGHS You're OK, are you?

-Yes.

That's what you call a crash-landing.

Yes. Absolutely.

Aw! Guessing that his landing was a little bit more graceful than ours!

In fact, everything about the black eagle

is done an awful lot better than we did it

and there's no way we're leaving here

without putting the black eagle on the Deadly 60.

What a bird! Come on!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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