Puff Adder Deadly 60 Bites

'On Deadly 60, I've had loads of incredible animal encounters,

'and here's just one of my many favourites.

'This is Deadly 60 Bites.'

Whoa!

This is a puff adder.

It's one of the most feared snakes in Africa,

but I think they are utterly fascinating.

And the most interesting thing, perhaps, is that its strike

can be over and done with in as much as a fifth of a second.

Now, I'm hoping to show you that by getting it to strike at...

this water balloon.

'We're using the balloon to simulate a small mammal.

'Hopefully, it will strike it in the same way.'

Oh-h-h!

That was glorious.

You can see the tongue flickering on the air.

It's drawing back into that classic S-shape which gives it

the possibility to extend to strike.

It's focused on the balloon.

Oh, wo-o-ow!

That is absolutely unbelievable.

It's a very, very short strike, but you could see as the mouth opened,

the sheath that covered the fangs being exposed.

They're very, very long those fangs,

and really act like tiny stiletto daggers.

And they have just knifed into the balloon,

and for a fraction of a second, the water is hanging there in one place.

If that was mammal prey, it would've carried it on pumping the venom

into its body, and then it retreats. It lets it go.

This is really important to the puff adder, because what it's doing is

it's making sure that its prey can't do it any damage.

It's now retreated, it's back to its original position,

and it's just going to wait for its prey to succumb to its venom.

The gloriously camouflaged, split-second striking

puff adder has got it, and is definitely going on the Deadly 60.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd