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This is a special edition of Deadly 60. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
You might think that because all the animals we feature are deadly | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
that they can take care of themselves, but that's not the case. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
Tough as they are, there's an awful lot of Deadly 60 animals | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
that are facing a real struggle for survival. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:15 | |
My name's Steve Backshall. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
I'm on a mission to find the Deadly 60. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
Ow! | 0:00:27 | 0:00:28 | |
That's 60 deadly creatures from around the world. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
You're coming with me every step of the way. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
Ow! | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
Some of my best memories from this series are of animals | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
that despite their deadly reputation, | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
are in serious trouble. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
The threats each of these animals face are very different, | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
but the one thing they have in common is that they're all manmade. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:03 | |
Oh, cool. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:12 | |
Sharks have been the stars of this series. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:17 | |
There are four species on the list | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
and there could have been many more. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
Surprisingly they're in real trouble | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
and even face the threat of extinction. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
Some sharks are wrongly perceived as man-eaters | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
and that is part of the problem. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:33 | |
Anybody who thinks that sharks are genuinely dangerous to humans | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
should know that last year in 2007 | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
only one person worldwide was killed by sharks. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
In that same amount of time, around 70 million sharks | 0:01:44 | 0:01:48 | |
were killed by people. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:49 | |
70 million. Just think about that for a second. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:53 | |
That's like every single person living in the UK | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
being wiped out every year. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
You'd be forgiven for thinking that we're deliberately trying | 0:02:02 | 0:02:06 | |
to exterminate every shark on Earth. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
But, no, actually, all this destruction is about a soup. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:14 | |
Quite a lot of soup. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
It's called shark fin soup. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
So no prizes for guessing what it's made out of. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
The crazy thing is that shark fins themselves | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
don't add any taste whatsoever. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
The fins are simply added for texture. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
But it is a status symbol in some cultures. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
There are millions of people that want to eat it. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
Even though they're super-deadly predators of the oceans | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
they're actually quite easy to catch, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
as I discovered when I joined up with Dr Sam Gruber | 0:02:46 | 0:02:49 | |
and his Shark Lab team in Bimini in the Bahamas. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
Until recently, most of the life cycle of the shark | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
was a total mystery to us. | 0:02:58 | 0:02:59 | |
The folks at Shark Lab have done more than just about anyone else on | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
the planet to help our understanding and knowledge of these creatures. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:06 | |
The best way to find out about sharks is to catch them | 0:03:06 | 0:03:08 | |
and that's what we're going to try to do. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
They're trying to tag and take DNA samples of large, | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
potentially dangerous, tiger sharks. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
So unless someone volunteers to swim up to one deep underwater | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
and poke it with a stick, the only way to get this information | 0:03:22 | 0:03:26 | |
is to fish for them. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:28 | |
By bating hooks at the right depths, they set a simple trap. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
The tiger sharks are so good at sniffing out their food | 0:03:32 | 0:03:37 | |
that a single line may bring in several sharks. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
Of course, none of these are going to be harmed. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
We got something, got something. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
A little tiger. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:46 | |
Woah! Woo! | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
Pull it up, pull it up. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
-You got this? -We got something! | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
A small tiger. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:53 | |
We've got a small tiger shark. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:55 | |
Couldn't even feel it pulling until the very last minute. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
Just on the end of the line here. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
He's not very big. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
Probably 2.5 metres. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
OK, so the first thing we need to do is to bring the tiger alongside | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
and then the doc, here, has certain tests that he needs to do on it. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:22 | |
Take some blood, get the length and the approximate weight of it. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:25 | |
Wow. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:27 | |
'Tagging a shark is like giving it a collar with its own name. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
'If it's caught again anywhere in the world and reported, | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
'the team will know where it's been. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
'It sounds obvious, but it's exactly the kind of knowledge | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
'that marine biologists are crying out for. And knowledge is power. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
'I'll come onto that again later.' | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
This looks stressful for the shark, but they are such tough creatures. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
-OK. -Yeah. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:53 | |
If you can hold the dorsal fin so we can just... | 0:04:54 | 0:04:56 | |
-That's it. -OK, 172. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
It's really important that we minimise the amount of time | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
that we have this shark kept like this. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
So now all we need to do is to tag it | 0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | |
so we can identify the individual and then let it go. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
OK. There you go. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:12 | |
Read it out. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:13 | |
That's the tag in there and the tag number is 323871. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:18 | |
Now we need to let this wonderful creature go. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:21 | |
But in order to get it to get moving again | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
I'm gonna need to get in the water with it | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
and help it start swimming. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
Always stay behind, always stay behind. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:42 | |
And just grab his dorsal fin. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
Don't irritate him just go very easily. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
OK, you're free. You're free. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:50 | |
All the sharks the team catch | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
are returned none the worse for the experience. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
More about this later on. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
But now, from tiger sharks to tigers. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
There's something about deadly animals, the real top predators, | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
that make people sit up and take notice. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
Tigers, tigers. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:41 | |
Sadly, this isn't always for the right reasons. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
When I travelled to India I had the opportunity to see, arguably, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
the most formidable land predator alive today. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
Oh, yes. I see it. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
Oh, wow. | 0:06:58 | 0:06:59 | |
It's just so beautiful. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
It's getting up now. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
Moving further away into the forest. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
You'd think that bright orange, black and white would be | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
a lousy colour scheme and show up anywhere, | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
but in amongst the brown leaves with the dappled light | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
I can barely see her. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
Absolutely amazing. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
It's about to come out and cross the road. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
Look at that. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
Just sauntering across the road in front of us. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
She's gone. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:52 | |
Just like that. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
That an animal that size can just disappear into the undergrowth | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
in the blink of an eye... Well... | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
We got one! Fantastic. Yes! | 0:08:02 | 0:08:06 | |
Not everyone who comes to see tigers gets lucky, | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
but we had three encounters which is something I'll never forget. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:15 | |
This would have to be the best wildlife encounter in India. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:20 | |
Just right there in front of us. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:22 | |
Seeing tigers was a life-changing experience for me. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
It made it all the more unbelievable | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
that despite all the protection they get | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
people still want to kill these animals. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
It's not for sport. It's for bits of their bodies. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
Yes, you did hear that correctly. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
There are people that think that eating or drinking things | 0:08:40 | 0:08:43 | |
that include bits of tiger, perhaps ground-up bones, | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
will in some way gain some of the powers of this deadly predator. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
This is all despite the fact that science has shown | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
that none of these supposed medicines actually work. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
This is a big part of the reason that there are now only | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
around 4,000 or 5,000 tigers alive in the wild. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
There used to be over 100,000. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
Just like the sharks, by being a powerful deadly predator | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
people seem to want a piece of you...literally. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
In India, I'd heard of another formidable contender | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
for the Deadly 60. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:30 | |
It's called a sloth bear. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
'The statistics claim that sloth bears | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
'are more dangerous to us than tigers.' | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
Hello! Hello. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:39 | |
'It's hard to believe. And when I asked some locals | 0:09:39 | 0:09:42 | |
'they certainly seemed surprised.' | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
-Tiger and a bear. -Yeah. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
Which animal do you think is the most scary? | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
This one is more. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
It's very dangerous. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:53 | |
-This one. -Ah-ha. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:54 | |
-Tiger. -Tiger? | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
-Tiger. -Tiger. -Tiger. -Tiger. -Grr! | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
Which one do you think is more dangerous? | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
-This one. -This one? | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
That's very good. Everyone says the tiger. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
'Perhaps she knows something I don't. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
'To find out more about these rare animals | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
'I travelled to a bear sanctuary.' | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
Being deadly wasn't the only surprise about them | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
that I was going to discover. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
Up close, they were certainly pretty impressive. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:21 | |
Actually, let's be honest... | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
I was a bit, well, scared. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
Oh, my life! | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
It's just gone absolutely mad! | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
All of a sudden they've just gone form gentle feeding teddy bears | 0:10:35 | 0:10:39 | |
to just a whirling mess of teeth and... | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
I'm glad I'm not in there. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
A fight between sloth bears is a very frightening sight. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
You wouldn't want to be around one when it got angry. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
I discovered that they were clearly a candidate for the Deadly 60, | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
but I also discovered a dark secret about Indian sloth bears. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:04 | |
Many are enslaved as youngsters | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
and trained to dance for the amusement of passers-by, | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
which earns money for their captors. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
The dancing of the bears has been done | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
for hundreds of years by a gipsy tribe, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
originally to entertain emperors and kings, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
but then later on as street entertainment for tourists. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
It's actually illegal, but still goes on all over India. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
All right, Steve, you're in. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:39 | |
-Thank you. -Let's feed you to the bears! -OK. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
How many do you have in here? | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
This enclosure has about 26 bears. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
And, um, as you know, every single one of these bears | 0:11:47 | 0:11:51 | |
has been rescued from a really barbaric practice | 0:11:51 | 0:11:55 | |
-called bear-dancing. -Yeah. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
And each of these bears have actually been poached, stolen, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
their mother has been killed and the cub is removed when it's really tiny. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:06 | |
And then this little bear cub is sold for maybe five or six pounds. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:11 | |
Basically they use the principles of pain and fear | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
to make the animal perform. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
And then the animal lives this life at the end of a rope. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
To see such an impressive animal being protected in captivity | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
when they should be running around in the wild | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
was not what I had in mind. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:28 | |
'But there's hope. These rescued bears gave me and many others | 0:12:28 | 0:12:33 | |
'the opportunity to see them up close and learn more about them | 0:12:33 | 0:12:38 | |
'as animals, not as entertainment.' | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
Three deadly animals - sharks... | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
tigers...and sloth bears. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
And all of them in trouble directly because of one other species - | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
humans. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
Are humans really so dangerous to every other animal? | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
Would they have got on my Deadly 60? | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
A person can't compete physically with something like a tiger | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
but we have one weapon that beats just about anything... | 0:13:16 | 0:13:20 | |
..a huge, developed brain. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
A single person with a few simple tools can hunt and kill | 0:13:27 | 0:13:31 | |
just about any creature on the planet. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
When we cooperate and use technology, | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
the results are potentially devastating. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
So the problem is that we are just too good. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
Humans are the most deadly animals that have ever lived. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
We would definitely get on the Deadly 60. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
But with that awesome power comes great responsibility. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:59 | |
It's one thing to kill a few animals to feed ourselves, | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
but by far the most damage we cause | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
is destroying the homes where animals live. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:09 | |
As more and more people live on the planet, | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
it leaves less space for animals and less wild places. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
Take the ocean. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
It's vast and it's tempting to think that sharks could live everywhere. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:24 | |
But, actually, they have their own favourite places that they hang out. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:29 | |
We only know this because of research by biologists | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
like the guys at Shark Lab in the Bahamas. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:37 | |
They've discovered that lemon sharks like to give birth in the water | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
around mangroves. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
Mangroves are shallow areas where trees grow in the saltwater. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
The roots provide a shelter, creating a nursery for sharks | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
as well as many other baby marine animals. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
It's a bit like a soft-play area for fish. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
Unfortunately, these areas are often exactly where | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
people want to build hotel resorts. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
In somewhere like the Bahamas, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
a single resort could demolish a huge area of mangrove, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:23 | |
affecting many hundreds of sharks. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
'Dr Gruber showed me some of the babies that spend a short while | 0:15:32 | 0:15:36 | |
'at Shark Lab before being released. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:39 | |
'Over the years many baby sharks have been tagged and released | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
'so they know exactly where they go and how long they'll spend there. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:47 | |
'When I visited, it was the turn of one baby shark | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
'to go back to the wild.' | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
All the measurements have been done that we need to take, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:56 | |
so we're going to release this young lemon shark | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
back into the place that, at this stage in its life cycle, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
it will be most comfortable - here amongst the mangroves. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
All these roots offer plenty of places for them to hide | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
so he should be right at home here. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
OK, little fella, off you go! | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
Whoa! | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
He actually jumped right on Simon the cameraman! | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
We've met a few animals on Deadly 60 that take their deadly abilities | 0:16:34 | 0:16:38 | |
to the extremes. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
Oh, look at that! | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
They've become specialists. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:55 | |
They've evolved to be so good at what they do | 0:16:55 | 0:16:57 | |
that they pretty much can't do anything else. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
But being such a specialist can have its drawbacks. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:05 | |
Take the weird and wonderful gharials we met in India. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:10 | |
There's probably only about 200 adult gharial left in the world. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
So the seven or eight that I'm looking at down here | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
on the edge of this lake are a significant portion of what's left | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
to the world of this amazing animal. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
It's very difficult from this far away to get a real sense | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
of what's so special about this animal. But I do know a place | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
where we can get closer. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
Croc Bank in Chennai is a reptile park | 0:17:47 | 0:17:49 | |
where they have some adult gharial in captivity. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
It was a great opportunity to see | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
'what makes them such specialist predators.' | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
Now, this is more like it! | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
That...is a big male gharial. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
Probably not completely fully grown. They get as big as 6 metres. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
But this one is going to be absolutely huge. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
Look at that faceful of teeth! | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
That is amazing! | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
Although they are massive, they're only interested in eating one thing, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
and luckily that's not me. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
Gharials are complete fish specialists, | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
that's what they feed on. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
He won't try and take a bit of me because he doesn't want to eat me, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
I'm hoping! Fingers crossed! | 0:18:39 | 0:18:41 | |
Let's see if we can get to see those amazing jaws at work. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
Wow! | 0:18:48 | 0:18:49 | |
Did you see him catch that? | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
I know it looks ridiculous, the way they throw back their heads | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
and chug the fish back in one go, but it's down to the fact | 0:19:20 | 0:19:23 | |
that crocodiles can only open their mouths open and shut, | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
they can't go side to side, their jaw won't allow it. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
So they throw their head back and just let gravity drop the fish | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
into their gullet. Looks crazy but it's worked for 100 million years | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
so it must be pretty good. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
To us, the gharial's totally harmless | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
but an utterly unique marvel of nature. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
To a fish, though, it's an absolute swimming nightmare. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
And that's the gharial's problem. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
They're such perfect fish-hunters, if anything happens to those fish, | 0:19:56 | 0:20:01 | |
then it affects the gharial. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
And in India, that's exactly what's happened. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
As more and more people need these fish, | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
the gharial has been squeezed out. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
The gharial's cousin, the mugger crocodile, | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
is no specialist. It's under the same pressure from people | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
as the gharial but it's less fussy | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
about where it lives and what it eats. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
Its broader snout allows it to catch reptiles, birds, rats, monkeys, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:29 | |
even the odd stray dog. By keeping its options open, | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
it has a much better chance of survival. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
So what does the future hold for the gharial? | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
Croc Bank had a captive breeding programme that's been successful. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:45 | |
This gave me a wonderful opportunity to see some babies up close. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:50 | |
Ooh, there's one! | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
Ah-ha! | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
-IT SQUEAKS -You beauty! | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
That is the cutest sound in the world. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:06 | |
IT CONTINUES TO SQUEAK | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
Look at that! | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
I have to say, it's not often that I get an animal in my hand | 0:21:16 | 0:21:20 | |
and I'm just speechless, but that's got to be | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
one of the weirdest, one of the most beautiful, | 0:21:24 | 0:21:28 | |
one of the most touching, I guess, animals I've ever been close to. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
It's terrifying to think that an animal that's been around | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
since before the dinosaurs can be coming to the brink of extinction | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
because of us. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:46 | |
There are fewer gharials left in the wild | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
than there are giant pandas. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
But seeing this baby does give me hope. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
Look at that! | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
So, with so many stars of the Deadly 60 in such deep trouble, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:07 | |
'am I worried for their future? | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
'Well, the short answer is yes. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
'But it's not all bad news. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
'Filming Deadly 60 brought the team and I in contact with many people' | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
who've dedicated their lives to studying deadly animals, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
like the Shark Lab guys in the Bahamas. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
It may seem that finding out small details about how long a shark is | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
or what it's had for breakfast isn't important, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
but that couldn't be further from the truth. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
Any detail, no matter how small, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:36 | |
can help our understanding of animals, and that knowledge | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
gives us power to make people in charge do something. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
'And it wasn't just with sharks. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
'I met amazing people all over the world who spend their whole lives | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
'studying, educating, filming the kind of creatures | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
'that most people avoid. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
'But why should we care about deadly animals? | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
'Well, the natural world is all about balance. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
'Deadly predators munch their way through a fair amount of pests | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
'and keep their numbers down. For example, a world without snakes' | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
would be a much easier place for rats to live. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
And a single bat can eat a thousand bugs a night, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
so lose the bats and you'd have a lot more insects like mosquitoes | 0:23:17 | 0:23:21 | |
buzzing around the place. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
But there is another reason to care. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
'Just being close to a truly deadly animal | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
'can be a life-changing experience. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
'In the Bahamas, filming lemon sharks, myself and cameraman Simon | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
'entered the water for our last dive of the day. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
'I had no idea I was about to see | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
'one of the rarest sharks in the world.' | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
There! Simon! Simon! Simon! | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
This is one of the most well-feared creatures in the sea! | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
I don't believe it. It's a great hammerhead. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
This is absolutely incredible. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
It's coming right up to us, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
right up in front of the cameraman. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
And it's now heading for me! | 0:24:12 | 0:24:16 | |
That hammerhead-shaped head | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
spreads out the electrical receptors | 0:24:20 | 0:24:24 | |
so that the hammerhead can sense | 0:24:24 | 0:24:27 | |
its prey from all different angles. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:31 | |
And this would have to be probably the second largest | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
toothed shark in the oceans. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:42 | |
I don't believe it! I do not believe it! | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
That is out of this world! | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
Simon, high five! | 0:24:51 | 0:24:53 | |
High five! | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
You can instantly see how different it is. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
The dorsal fin is huge. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
That's the first time I've seen one of those extraordinary sharks. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:11 | |
A tiger shark, as well. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
All of a sudden everything's changed. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
Two of the top four most dangerous fish in the seas | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
all around me. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
There he is again! There he is! | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
All of a sudden, though, it's a little bit dark. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
The water's not as clear as it was earlier on. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
And I have to admit it's a bit frightening to be down here now. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:50 | |
That was an extraordinary experience but I can't see anything now | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
and I must go up. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
I don't really believe what I've just seen. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
We were just sat down there | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
watching the lemon sharks | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
when all of a sudden I turned around | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
and just coming out of the deep blue in the distance | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
was a great hammerhead shark. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:27 | |
It just doesn't get any better than that. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
But unfortunately we haven't got any more light down there | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
so we had to come up. But I could have stayed down there all night! | 0:26:33 | 0:26:37 | |
I don't believe it! Come on! | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
This is out of this world! | 0:26:44 | 0:26:46 | |
'Deadly animals can be fast, powerful, | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
'beautiful...' | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
Ow! | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
'..inspiring and even life-changing. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:58 | |
'And when they do their thing, | 0:26:58 | 0:27:00 | |
'it takes your breath away.' | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
It's definitely going... It's definitely going... | 0:27:14 | 0:27:16 | |
It has to make it on to the... Deadly 60...on the Deadly 60. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
This is still the most feared animal in the world | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
but that's not why she's going on my Deadly 60. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
She's going on my list because she's magnificent. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 |