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My name's Steve Backshall. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
You can call me Steve. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
I'm on a mission to find the Deadly 60. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
Ow! | 0:00:11 | 0:00:12 | |
That's 60 deadly creatures from around the world. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
TIGER ROARS | 0:00:15 | 0:00:17 | |
And you're coming with me every step of the way. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
Ow! | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
We're here, in Louisiana, USA | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
looking for the swamp beasts with the biggest bite. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
Louisiana is in the heart of the Deep South. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
It's hot and humid and there's a lot of water about. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
The perfect place for all sorts of cool deadly critters to hang out | 0:00:44 | 0:00:49 | |
and in particular, reptiles. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
It's what many people call "gator country". | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
And what's a gator? | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
Well, it's a word you'll be hearing a fair bit in this programme. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
You could say it's my fee. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
This part of the States, the best known top-of-the-line predator | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
is the alligator. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:08 | |
And the first animal we're looking for is, well, | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
it's a kind of alligator and this is its skull. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
But believe it or not, it's not a type of crocodile. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
It's not even a reptile. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
In fact, this amazing skull and that face full of teeth | 0:01:19 | 0:01:24 | |
belong to a fish. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
The first stage for us to find one of these giant fish | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
was to get some help from a few locals. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
And then we took to the water. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
This part of Louisiana is an absolute labyrinth of saltwater marshes | 0:01:37 | 0:01:42 | |
and swamps and waterways. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
They call it the bayou. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:45 | |
And beneath the surface of this is an incredible amount of life. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
Huge quantities of shrimp and crab and fish, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
and that obviously brings in the predators. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
To find our monster fish, there's really only one way... | 0:01:55 | 0:01:59 | |
and that's to go fishing. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
So what we've got here is a bait fish, a mullet. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:12 | |
On a hook there. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
It doesn't have a barbed end so it won't hurt the fish. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
And this - soft drinks bottle - is going to act as the buoy | 0:02:19 | 0:02:23 | |
to float at the surface and tell us where the bait is. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
I'm going to chuck this in, and hopefully tomorrow morning | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
we should have our next Deadly 60 contender. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
He's steering the boat while trying to do sound! | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
STEVE LAUGHS | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
You didn't follow that one, that was a good one! | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
That was my first good throw! | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
It's just after dawn. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
The sun has just broken up over the horizon, starting to warm us up | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
and we're all really excited. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:10 | |
I know Nick, the sound man's particularly excited. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:12 | |
STEVE LAUGHS | 0:03:12 | 0:03:14 | |
Because out there, about 45 minutes away, | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
are all of our floats we put out last night | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
and we have no idea what's on the end of them. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
But we're really, really hoping that our next Deadly 60 contender | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
is waiting for us. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:26 | |
All along the banks of the bayou are absolutely hundreds | 0:03:34 | 0:03:39 | |
of herons and egrets. I've never seen so many in my entire life. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
The fact that there are so many of them means these waters | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
must be absolutely stuffed with fish. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
They're fantastic hunters. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
You see them standing along the river edge almost motionless | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
with their head back like this, and then wham, they strike like a snake. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
Incredible birds. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:57 | |
Fabulous! | 0:03:57 | 0:03:59 | |
Such regal birds. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:01 | |
Shrimp boat! | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
This is what Louisiana's really famous for. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:08 | |
INAUDIBLE | 0:04:09 | 0:04:11 | |
Johnny? Johnny? We've got one. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:12 | |
Our first buoy - just there. Look, in front of us. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
-One back there. -See them over there. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
No, nothing on that one. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
Ah! | 0:04:37 | 0:04:39 | |
Eugh! Ha ha! | 0:04:41 | 0:04:42 | |
OK. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
No go and a soaking. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:47 | |
-What do you think of this, Nick? -This is wicked! | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
He loves his fishing! | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
Oh! We got something! | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
When a bottle starts swimming away from you like that | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
it's definitely a good sign. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
Ah! | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
STEVE LAUGHS | 0:05:18 | 0:05:20 | |
This is the one. No! | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
Look at the speed of that! | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
So this... | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
..is it. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
Oh! | 0:05:36 | 0:05:37 | |
It's a drum. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
Wow! | 0:05:41 | 0:05:42 | |
Right, off you go, big fella. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
Oh! It's swimming away! | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
Did you see that? It dived! | 0:05:55 | 0:05:56 | |
Oh ho-ho-ho! | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
STEVE LAUGHS | 0:06:00 | 0:06:02 | |
We've caught something big. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
STEVE LAUGHS Look at that! | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
Well... | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
I don't believe it! STEVE LAUGHS | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
We've got our Deadly 60 animal. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
What we've got to do is figure out how to get it into the boat | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
without losing fingers. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
OK. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
So this... | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
is the Alligator Gar. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
Also known as the garpike. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
It's an absolutely magnificent creature. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
Take a look into those jaws. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
Look at those teeth! | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
Now we've got a little bit of leeway | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
with working with them out of the water. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:02 | |
They can stay out the water for as much as two hours and still be OK. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
You can certainly see where they get their "alligator" name from. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
If I hold the snout up like that... | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
And running down, those amazing scales. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
He certainly looks more like a crocodilian than a fish. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
Wonderful! | 0:07:19 | 0:07:20 | |
It's reckoned they've been around for as much as 60 million years. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:25 | |
This actually doesn't just catch fish around here, | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
they'll even come to the surface and catch birds, even squirrels. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
And he really is ferocious. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:35 | |
With a set of gnashers like that, | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
the Alligator Gar is definitely going on the Deadly 60. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
Right... | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
Oh. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:46 | |
That's a big fish. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
Off he goes. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
A huge prehistoric armour-plated fish | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
with two rows of deadly fangs. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:02 | |
Not what you'd want nibbling on your toes. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
But great for killing with. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
# East bound and down Loaded up and truckin' | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
# Are we gonna do what they say can't be done | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
# We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
# I'm eastbound just watch old Bandit run... # | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
It's one down and a drive to the north of the state for, well... | 0:08:32 | 0:08:36 | |
another swamp. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:37 | |
This swamp may look pretty grotty | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
but if you look at any part of the water for any length of time | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
just does seem to be alive. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:48 | |
There's absolutely hundreds of tadpoles, small shrimp, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:52 | |
tiny fish, all just playing around in the shallows here. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
And that means there's going to be something here feeding on them. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
That's what we're hoping to find. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:01 | |
The snake of the swamps is called the Cottonmouth. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:09 | |
The name comes from the inside of its mouth | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
looking like the locally grown cotton plants. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
This snake is a specialist at hunting fish. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
Their colour makes them almost impossible to see, | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
so to find one, we're going to have to get dirty. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
Every step and you get this disgusting stench | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
coming up from the mud | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
of rotting vegetation. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
It's hideous. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
This rather innocuous looking pile of sand here | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
is home to not one deadly animal, but tens of thousands. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:11 | |
Er, they're red fire ants. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
Not supposed to be in this part of the world at all, | 0:10:13 | 0:10:15 | |
they come from South or Central America, and they've been brought in | 0:10:15 | 0:10:19 | |
inadvertently by people. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:20 | |
And if you're wondering why they've got a fierce reputation, | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
all you need to do is get too close to this nest and you'll see. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
If I just tap it with my snake stick | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
within seconds... | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
you'll probably see an absolute volcanic eruption of ants. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
The watery world of the swamp doesn't bother fire ants. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
They can even cross the water by linking legs | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
and floating like some sort of prickly life raft. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:49 | |
Outside swamps, they can live almost anywhere. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
But wherever they do turn up, they cause trouble. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
In particular, their attraction to electricity | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
means they often short-circuit important equipment. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:03 | |
CAR HORNS BEEP | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
They get the name fire ants because every single bite and sting | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
um, feels like a burning hot needle being plunged into your flesh. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:14 | |
Problem is they don't just bite by the ones or twos, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
they bite in their hundreds. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:18 | |
They even have an attack signal that makes them attack at the same time. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
And, er... | 0:11:22 | 0:11:23 | |
this backbone here is from a small mammal that was unlucky enough | 0:11:23 | 0:11:30 | |
to either die near here | 0:11:30 | 0:11:31 | |
or to be too close to here and got stung to death | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
and it's been cleaned to the bone by these guys. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
Deadly and very cool animals. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
But I'm still holding out hope that I'll find myself a cottonmouth. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:45 | |
Here! | 0:11:51 | 0:11:52 | |
Big? | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
It is a cottonmouth! | 0:11:58 | 0:11:59 | |
Got it. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
OK. Come back. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
OK... | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
Right... | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
Out you come, fella. Oh! | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
It made a strike at my snake hook. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
OK, I just want to get you out into the open. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
So you can see him. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
Easy, Steve. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:30 | |
No, no. I know. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
Right... | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
I'm hoping if I put him down here... | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
Here you go, look at that display! | 0:12:38 | 0:12:40 | |
Showing off the white inside of the mouth. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
And striking. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:44 | |
Just hold there a sec. Not going to hurt you. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
Look at the tail. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
Going absolutely crazy back here. Flickering backwards and forwards. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
If Nick brings in his boom, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
we might just hear... | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
Look at that tail going crazy! | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
RATTLING | 0:13:01 | 0:13:02 | |
When it hits dry leaves, it makes a sound | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
just like a rattlesnake's rattle. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
I must have walked within feet of him and he didn't move at all. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
But then Nick the sound man, I guess stepped almost right on him | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
and just screamed out for me. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:15 | |
It really shows quite how much care they'll take not to be seen. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:20 | |
Good spot, Nick! | 0:13:20 | 0:13:21 | |
I'm not sure I screamed. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:23 | |
STEVE LAUGHS You did! | 0:13:23 | 0:13:24 | |
Now he's settled in place | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
you can really see how effective the camouflage is. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
The dark mottled colours of the ground here | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
match absolutely perfectly with the colours running down his back. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
It's only really when he shows off the inside of his mouth - | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
that white, cotton-like interior - | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
that that's when you see, not only how he gets his name | 0:13:44 | 0:13:46 | |
but how he creates a threat to scare away other animals. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
What's particularly unusual though about the cottonmouth | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
is the way that it chooses to hunt. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:56 | |
The Latin scientific name for this snake is "piscivorus", | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
means "fish eater". | 0:14:01 | 0:14:02 | |
And this is a snake that, very unusually for the vipers, | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
lives an enormous amount of its life in the water. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
It's a truly sub-aquatic snake. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
Which is very, very unusual for vipers. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
And though it will feed on all kinds of different things | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
its main diet is fish. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:17 | |
Vipers all over the world specialise in hunting warm-blooded mammals. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
But these snakes like nothing better than a nice cold fish. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:31 | |
The cottonmouth... | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
the master fisherman of southern America... | 0:14:39 | 0:14:44 | |
RATTLING | 0:14:44 | 0:14:45 | |
..with an incredible flickering tail threat display | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
and a white mouth that's going to scare anything away. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:52 | |
It's definitely going on the Deadly 60. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
Vipers that eat fish are about as common as pants on a parrot. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:01 | |
And for that reason this fish fancying cottonmouth | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
joins the Deadly 60. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
Ok, the snake was sensational. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
It's time to get back to the alligator theme. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
We couldn't come to these swamps without at least trying | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
to find an alligator. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
During the daytime, although there's a lot of them around | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
really all you tend to see is a fair of nostrils and eyes | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
above the surface of the water, if that. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
But at night time, we do have one thing in our favour, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:36 | |
which is that crocodilian eyes reflect light bright ruby-red | 0:15:36 | 0:15:41 | |
so I've got a big torch here | 0:15:41 | 0:15:43 | |
and I'm going to go out, see if I can spot some. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
Alligators are cousins of the crocodiles | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
and belong to the same group called crocodilians. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
They're similar looking, but if you look at them side by side | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
then it's pretty easy to tell the difference. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
Alligators on the left, have much broader, more rounded snouts. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
They can grow to 4.5 metres and weigh about five times more than me, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:09 | |
which makes them by far the biggest reptile in the USA | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
and top swamp predator. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
A rather magnificent raft spider. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
Just scampering over the surface of the steamy water. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
Very unusual to see them out completely in the water like this. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:50 | |
Usually they just sit at the edge with their front two legs | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
feeling the surface tension for anything coming close. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
Look at that! | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
It's big as well. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
About the size of the palm of my hand. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:04 | |
But he's right now hunting for small fish | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
and invertebrates. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:11 | |
Nick, torch! | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
Just...just there. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:38 | |
It's an armadillo! | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
I don't believe it! | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
OK, I know they're not deadly | 0:17:44 | 0:17:46 | |
but I really want to see it. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:48 | |
Whether it wants to be seen by us is another matter. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
It's somewhere in this thicket. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
Oh, no! | 0:18:02 | 0:18:04 | |
Oh, which way? | 0:18:04 | 0:18:06 | |
Do you see him? | 0:18:09 | 0:18:10 | |
INDISTINCT REPLY | 0:18:10 | 0:18:12 | |
Well, that was all rather embarrassing. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
He got away from me and ran straight between the cameraman's legs! | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
STEVE LAUGHS | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
Right, shall we go and find ourselves an alligator? | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
Luck just wasn't on our side and the wild gators were not letting me | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
get close to them. But if you can't win, then, well...cheat. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:48 | |
I'd heard about some very special alligators in a nearby zoo | 0:18:48 | 0:18:52 | |
that I just couldn't resist showing you. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
Deadly 60's all about animals in the wild. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
But here in the National Audubon Zoo in New Orleans | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
they have these impossibly rare white alligators. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:11 | |
They kind of look like a replica of an alligator | 0:19:11 | 0:19:16 | |
that's been carved out of soap or porcelain. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
Until they move. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:21 | |
And then all of a sudden they become very real. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
This is caused by a... Oh! | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
You're giving me a big gape! | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
See, all of a sudden, as soon as they move... | 0:19:29 | 0:19:31 | |
turns into a real animal. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
This whiteness is caused by a genetic abnormality, | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
which means they don't have the pigments that give them colour. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
He's incredible. He's like a ghost gator. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
This is Black Bayou wetlands. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
All of these cypress trees, turning autumn gold | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
reflected perfectly in this glassy smooth water. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
It's about as beautiful as a swamp could ever be. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
But somewhere beneath these dark waters | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
is a monster with one of the most powerful scalpel-sharp jaws | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
in the whole of the animal kingdom | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
and that's what we're hoping to find. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:17 | |
The monster in question is called an alligator snapping turtle. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
They spend a lot of their time sitting still, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
looking a bit like a log. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
And the clever thing is they get their lunch to come to them. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
On the inside of their open mouth a fleshy growth wiggles invitingly | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
to passing fish. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:38 | |
Any who take the bait find themselves grabbed | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
by some of the most powerful jaws in the world. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
To help find one, I've enlisted the help of an expert. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
This is Mitch. He's studying the turtles. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
The Black Bayou is pretty vast. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
And the water is, as you can see, it's pretty murky. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
So our chances of actually just happening across the animal | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
we're looking for, are pretty slender. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:21 | |
We put out these hoop net traps... | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
And there's fresh fish bait inside. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:29 | |
I'm really hoping... | 0:21:31 | 0:21:32 | |
..that we've caught something special. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
OK, our first trap's empty. We've still got six more to try. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
I'm still confident that we're going to find something. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
I should never, ever say that on camera! | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
STEVE LAUGHS | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
Next trap's just in front of us here | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
and it's a good deal lower in the water than the others. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
Which could mean that something heavy inside is keeping it down. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
Oh, wow! | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
Yes! | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
Oh, my goodness. Look at the size of it! | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
Two! There's two in there! | 0:22:26 | 0:22:27 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:22:27 | 0:22:29 | |
Look at the size of it! | 0:22:29 | 0:22:30 | |
STEVE LAUGHS | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
Wow! | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
Congratulations. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:38 | |
We actually have three. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:44 | |
I don't believe it! | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
Look at the size of the head on that one! | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
Mitch, is this a record for you? | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
Three in one trap IS a record. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
Steve, you're my good luck charm. | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
Look at the size of this one here! | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
It's got to be a big male, hasn't it, Mitch? | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
When they're that big, they're easy to tell male from female. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
I cannot tell you how heavy this is. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
That is an absolute monster! | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
Two enormous males. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
And one smaller turtle. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
I was just starting to feel that, er, the day | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
was going to have no results. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
We checked all our traps. This was the last one that was left. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:34 | |
And, um, well... | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
absolutely unreal. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:38 | |
Three giant alligator snapping turtles. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
We're just going to be real careful, real gentle | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
try to ease them out. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
Try and get the big male out first. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
You'll notice, as we're moving into the turtle, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
we'll keep our hands a lot further away from the head | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
than you would expect. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:01 | |
That's because it, actually... When it strikes, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
the head really extends forward from the front of the shell... | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
a good distance. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
And, where as with the small one here, I guess I'd be in danger | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
of losing a finger, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:14 | |
I think it's pretty safe to say that if my hand or even my arm | 0:24:14 | 0:24:18 | |
were to get too close to the jaws of this big fella | 0:24:18 | 0:24:22 | |
then I'd probably lose it. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:23 | |
Wow! | 0:24:25 | 0:24:26 | |
Well done, Mitch. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
OK. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:37 | |
Steve, if you hold what you've got | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
-then just do your best to keep your fingers clear. -Yeah. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:44 | |
Just make sure your right hand doesn't stray from that spot. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
OK. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
Right... | 0:24:51 | 0:24:52 | |
Good job, man. Good job. You've got him. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
Woo-hoo! | 0:24:55 | 0:24:56 | |
That is a big turtle. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
Probably the largest freshwater turtle in the world. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
But that isn't really what's so impressive about him. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
Look at the size of that head! | 0:25:07 | 0:25:09 | |
It's totally out of proportion to the whole of the rest of the body | 0:25:09 | 0:25:13 | |
and most of that is just pure muscle power | 0:25:13 | 0:25:17 | |
driving that jaw. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
At the edge of it is, well, it's incredibly sharp. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:24 | |
It doesn't have teeth cos it doesn't need to have, really. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
It's almost like a great big curved kitchen knife. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
You can see the hooked snout at the end | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
and... Actually, I'm not going to be able to hold him like this for long | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
cos he's just too heavy. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
They can get to be heavier than I am. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
What do you reckon, Mitch, how heavy is this turtle? | 0:25:39 | 0:25:41 | |
About 110 pounds, Steve. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
-110 pounds. -Pound for pound, probably a lot stronger than you or I! | 0:25:43 | 0:25:47 | |
That's for sure! | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
Absolutely sure. I'm having so much difficulty holding him. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
Oh, look at that! | 0:25:53 | 0:25:54 | |
You can see how I'm really straining to hold him | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
but you can see how far the neck extends. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
And that's how he hunts. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
I mean, looking at the shape of the head and the body | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
it's very irregular. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
The colour's quite dark and he blends in really, really well | 0:26:09 | 0:26:13 | |
with all the vegetation at the bottom of the water here. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
And then as soon as a fish gets too close, the head snaps | 0:26:16 | 0:26:21 | |
out like that. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:22 | |
The jaws clamp shut incredibly quickly, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
and the fish is history. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:27 | |
There's a lot of animals in this series that people say to me, | 0:26:28 | 0:26:32 | |
"What on earth are you doing putting that on the Deadly 60?" | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
I don't think anyone's going to say that | 0:26:35 | 0:26:36 | |
about the alligator snapping turtle. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
He really is a living dinosaur. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
I'm going to put him back cos I just can't hold him any more. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:46 | |
All right, big fella! | 0:26:46 | 0:26:47 | |
In you go. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
It's not only going in the Deadly 60 | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
but also on my personal list | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
of creatures that I never | 0:26:55 | 0:26:57 | |
want to get bitten by. | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
Monster-sized, monster-looking | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
with monster jaws - | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
it's a living monster. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
OK, big fella... | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
..in you go. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
Coming up next time on the Deadly 60... | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
Oh! | 0:27:18 | 0:27:19 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 |