0:00:03 > 0:00:07'On Deadly 60 I've had loads of incredible animal encounters.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09'Here's just one of my many favourites.
0:00:09 > 0:00:15'This is Deadly 60 Bites.'
0:00:15 > 0:00:20This is the wonderful eyelash pit viper.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23'It might look pretty relaxed coiled around this flower,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27'but this Costa Rican snake is a high-speed hunter,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30'and I want to show you it in action.'
0:00:30 > 0:00:34Even if you're someone who hates snakes, you'd have to admit
0:00:34 > 0:00:37that that is a really beautiful animal.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41But they're also very highly-adapted hunters.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44And the clue to that is in their name. Pit vipers.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48That doesn't mean, as I thought when I was a kid, that they live in pits.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50Actually what it's talking about
0:00:50 > 0:00:54is a tiny pit that they have between their nostril and their eye
0:00:54 > 0:00:57which is incredibly sensitive at picking up heat.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Typical food for the eyelash pit viper
0:01:02 > 0:01:04would be something like a small mouse,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07perhaps a bat, they'll even catch hummingbirds on the wing.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10The core body temperature of a bird or a small mammal
0:01:10 > 0:01:12is around about 38 degrees.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15So what I've got here is a balloon filled with hot water
0:01:15 > 0:01:18that's almost exactly that temperature.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20I'm going to move it in, close to the viper,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24and hopefully I'll get it to strike towards the balloon.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Here, we've got our mini-cam set up and ready to record at high speed.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32That means that we should see the strike slowed right down,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35and be able to really appreciate quite how awesome it is.
0:01:35 > 0:01:36Right, let's give it a go.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Let's see what happens.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47HE LAUGHS
0:01:47 > 0:01:49That was amazing.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52What do you reckon, Nick? You think you got it?
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Yeah, definitely. Let's see, let's see.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03Incredible. Absolutely incredible.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08Saw the mouth open almost so it was fully wide like that.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11Almost so it was creating a stabbing kind of shape
0:02:11 > 0:02:14rather than a downward strike.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18And the fangs were almost used like daggers to pierce into the balloon.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21That was amazing.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Can I have another go? Is it all right?!
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Can I have another go?! Definitely. I could do this all day!
0:02:37 > 0:02:41That's so perfect, you can just see it re-setting itself at the end.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Just setting the jaw back, letting the fang come back into position.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49That's incredible, absolutely incredible.