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My name's Steve Backshall. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
You can call me Steve. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:07 | |
I'm on a mission to find the deadly 60. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
That's 60 deadly creatures. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
I'm travelling all over the world. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
And you're coming with me, every step of the way. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
Shark! | 0:00:23 | 0:00:24 | |
This time I'm about here, | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
in Queensland in Eastern Australia. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:34 | |
And to show you some more of the amazing landscapes around here, | 0:00:34 | 0:00:39 | |
I'm taking to the skies. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:40 | |
This aircraft's called a microlight. It's like someone's taken | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
a hang-glider and stuck an enormous fan on the back of it. | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
It's a wonderful way of getting up high | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
for a good view of the landscape | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
to see what it is that makes this part of Queensland so special. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:09 | |
Behind us we've got the mountains of the Great Dividing Range | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
and below, a huge forest of Eucalyptus trees. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
It's a wonderful place to look for wildlife, | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
there's bound to be some animals here that make my Deadly 60. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
So many that it's gonna be seriously tough to choose my top three. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:28 | |
Really getting up some speed now! | 0:01:28 | 0:01:30 | |
You really can't avoid seeing the works of man. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
Particularly, here in Queensland, these fields. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:40 | |
This is sugar cane. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
It's the second largest industry in Queensland | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
and these fields are everywhere. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
There's one animal which will always be linked with the sugar cane | 0:01:48 | 0:01:53 | |
and has made its way across Australia | 0:01:53 | 0:01:55 | |
eating everything in its path. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
It's poisonous, has a gigantic mouth, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:00 | |
it'll eat pretty much everything. Worst of all, it's an alien! | 0:02:00 | 0:02:05 | |
And it lurks somewhere in these sugar cane fields. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:10 | |
Well, that is our alien. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
It's a cane toad and these don't belong here in Australia at all, | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
they were introduced by people in the 1930's | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
from Central and South America. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
We call any animals that's brought into a country that's not its own, | 0:02:30 | 0:02:35 | |
an alien species. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:36 | |
The cane toad has caused more havoc in Australia than you can imagine. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:41 | |
They were brought in to prey on the cane beetles | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
which were devastating the sugar cane crops. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:48 | |
But things didn't go quite to plan. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
One of the genius things with bringing the cane toad to Australia | 0:02:50 | 0:02:54 | |
is they were brought here to eat beetles. The cane toad lives | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
down on the ground and the beetles live way up there. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
One thing cane toads can't do is climb. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
Though they can jump. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
Sugar cane beetles might be off the menu, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:10 | |
but they'll eat just about anything else. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
Honey bees as a starter. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:16 | |
And native creatures make the perfect main course. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
Everything from insects to small, furry mammals. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
And then how about a spot of dog food for pudding? | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
The dog had better watch out though, if he fancies cane toad for tea | 0:03:37 | 0:03:43 | |
he'll be off to the vets, cos cane toads are also poisonous. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:47 | |
Because they poison what eats them and eat everything else, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
cane toads have rampaged across all of Australia. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
From the original 102 there are now over 200 million! | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
They even live in the rainforest, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
which is why I'm here on a dark and rainy night. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
This one here, it looks a pretty good size but I've seen cane toads | 0:04:05 | 0:04:10 | |
that are about the size of a cycle helmet. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
The reason these are so deadly to so many animals around here | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
is these two big lumps here. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
They're called parotoid glands and they...oh, did you see that?! | 0:04:19 | 0:04:24 | |
Did you see that great... | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
..firing of white goo, there? | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
I know that looks like squeezing a rather large, unsightly zit, | 0:04:32 | 0:04:37 | |
but that's the reason the cane toad is so dangerous. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:41 | |
That goo, coming out of these glands here, | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
is the poison the cane toad uses to defend itself. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
Unfortunately, if any of the native creatures around here, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:51 | |
just about anything, snakes, small mammals, birds, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
get a hold of the cane toad, | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
they eat this poison and that's all bad for the animals around here. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
Certainly ugly, certainly a total menace, | 0:05:01 | 0:05:05 | |
but it's only here they're doing incredible damage, | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
and that's our fault. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:10 | |
So he's not going on my Deadly 60. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
My next Deadly 60 animal is a blood sucking vampire. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:19 | |
Which strikes even in towns and cities. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
It puts more children in hospital and kills more pets | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
than venomous spiders and snakes combined. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
We've just had a call from a local vet that an animal has been attacked | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
by our lethal blood sucking parasite. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
The parasite is still attached to the prey. We've got to get there | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
quickly as all the time it's attached it pours toxins | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
into the blood stream of the animal. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
If we don't get there soon, it'll be in big trouble. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
Hello! You've got a patient's just come in? | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
-Yes, in the surgery, through there. -Magic, thank you very much. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:57 | |
-Hello! -Hello! | 0:05:58 | 0:05:59 | |
I hear you've got an animal suffering from a paralysis tick? | 0:05:59 | 0:06:03 | |
Yes we do, this gentlemen, Lindsay. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
Yeah, I'm the paralysis tick! | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
Ah, sorry! I was expecting a dog or something. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
'After all, this is a vets!' | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
-Here. -Oh, wow! | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
That is absolutely tiny. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
It is actually about the size of a pinhead. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
There's no way you'll see it on the big camera, have we got... | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
This is what we call a lipstick camera | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
which magnifies anything really small. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
Lindsay, do you mind if I just poke around behind your ear? | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
Knock yourself out. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
It's just there. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:37 | |
Absolutely tiny. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
The head of the tick is buried... | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
into the flesh. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
And it's just pumping Lindsay's blood into it. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
But they have, in their saliva, their spit, almost like a venom, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
which can totally paralyse the creature that they're feeding on. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:58 | |
It's not just people | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
and it's not just people's pets that are affected, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
there's a lot of wild animals that suffer from paralysis ticks too. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:08 | |
The tick lurks in the undergrowth and lies in wait | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
for a fresh blood meal. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
It senses the vibrations and tastes the carbon dioxide | 0:07:13 | 0:07:17 | |
from its victim's breath. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
As the animal or person brushes past, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
the tick jumps on and clings to the fur or the clothes. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:26 | |
Finally it's guided by heat down to the skin and begins to feed. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:31 | |
Large fruit bats, also known as flying foxes, | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
are very badly affected. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
As the tick bites it injects its deadly saliva. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
The flying fox starts to become paralysed. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
Finally it falls out the tree and dies slowly on the ground. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:56 | |
But not always. Sometimes help is at hand. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:01 | |
This gorgeous, cute little baby is, in an indirect way, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
a victim of the paralysis tick because its mother was infected | 0:08:11 | 0:08:16 | |
and, obviously when the mum became paralysed, | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
couldn't take care of the baby | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
and so that's why it's ended up here at the orphanage. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
Volunteers here rescue and raise up to 500 baby orphans every year. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:31 | |
But not every adult flying fox that's bitten dies. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
If they're brought into the sanctuary early enough, | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
they're given tick anti-venom and looked after till they recover. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:43 | |
Bats are incredibly important to forests, they poo out seeds of fruit | 0:08:43 | 0:08:48 | |
and keep the forest going, so if they're wiped out | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
it's very bad news. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:52 | |
Don't feel any closer, do you?! | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
This is interesting! | 0:08:56 | 0:08:57 | |
This one's getting on great with Rich the sound man. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:01 | |
But don't worry, Mark, your camera's gonna be fine. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
This one was found in time | 0:09:10 | 0:09:12 | |
and is now nearly strong enough to be released back into the wild. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:17 | |
You've gotta say an animal the size of a pinhead | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
that can bring down a human, a dog, even a flying fox. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
Paralysis tick has got to be on my Deadly 60. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
These blood sucking vampires are silent but deadly | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
and they have a paralysing venom | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
which means they have to go on my Deadly 60 list. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
I don't want you to think these forests are filled with things | 0:09:50 | 0:09:54 | |
that are out to get you, I want people to enjoy wild places, | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
not be scared of them. | 0:09:58 | 0:09:59 | |
But in these jungles there's one thing you have to look out for. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:03 | |
It can be such a problem that to even get close to it, | 0:10:03 | 0:10:08 | |
I have to dress like this. What do you reckon, guys? | 0:10:08 | 0:10:13 | |
Great, Steve, great(!) | 0:10:13 | 0:10:15 | |
I'm dumbfounded. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
What an idiot! | 0:10:19 | 0:10:20 | |
I think you look good, Steve. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:24 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
How about we actually shoot the sequence? | 0:10:29 | 0:10:32 | |
How about we keep you dressed like that for the rest of the day?! | 0:10:32 | 0:10:36 | |
Cut! | 0:10:36 | 0:10:37 | |
Oh, I feel like a prize fool dressed up like this. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
Watch where you're walking through here, cos they're everywhere. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:46 | |
Joking aside, I really do need to wear this suit | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
cos I'm the one who'll get close enough to get stung. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
Ah! Here's one. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
Put your mask on. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:01 | |
Right! | 0:11:08 | 0:11:09 | |
This is it. What all the fuss is about. Can you see it? | 0:11:10 | 0:11:14 | |
Well, it's not something living on the tree, it IS the tree. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:20 | |
This here is known as the Stinging Tree and for very good reason. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:26 | |
If you look at all these stems here, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:32 | |
and the leaves as well, they're covered with incredibly fine hairs. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:37 | |
I'm wearing this mask cos those hairs can get up in the air | 0:11:37 | 0:11:41 | |
and you can breathe them in, also go into your eyes as well. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:45 | |
Basically those hairs are like incredibly fine glass. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
So any animals that gets too close and tries to munch on this | 0:11:48 | 0:11:52 | |
will get those in its lips, tongue | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
and is gonna leave the plant and its leaves alone. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
Unfortunately this does have the side effect | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
that if you brush against it, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
those hairs break off, get into your skin and can work down | 0:12:03 | 0:12:07 | |
underneath the surface of the skin. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
I've been stung by this once before and three or four months later | 0:12:09 | 0:12:14 | |
I could still feel this horrible itching, burning sensation | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
under the skin. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:19 | |
Luckily, there is one way of treating it, if you're very quick. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:25 | |
I'm gonna move away from the tree and deliberately sting myself. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
So I can show you how to fix it. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
Now... | 0:12:32 | 0:12:33 | |
..all in the name of science. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
Ow! That stung right through the suit, there. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
Unbelievable! | 0:12:40 | 0:12:41 | |
I tell you this, it's so powerful | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
it makes a sting nettle look like absolutely nothing. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
There's one way of getting these hairs out your body, | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
have you got the protective measure, Mark? | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
You might recognise this, it's a wax strip used for getting rid of hair. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:58 | |
Then hopefully you can rip those hairs out. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:01 | |
Unfortunately it's gonna mean ripping | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
a fair bit of my own hair off too. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:07 | |
Right. Here we go. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
One, two, three. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
This better work. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
Takes a few goes to pull the spines out. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
Ow! | 0:13:21 | 0:13:22 | |
I felt that, Steve. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
So did I! That really hurt. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
Look at that, I've completely got all the hair off my arm. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
I tell you what, I absolutely hate you lot. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
I completely hate you! You made me dress up like a complete moron | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
in this ridiculous kit, get stung by the worst plant in the forest | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
and now you're making me rip my own hair off! | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
Wanna do your legs as well? | 0:13:45 | 0:13:47 | |
We've got some more here, if you need more wax! | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
So, while I'm busy ripping all of the hair out of my own body, | 0:13:56 | 0:14:00 | |
the Stinging Tree might not make it onto my Deadly 60 but, as plants go, | 0:14:00 | 0:14:05 | |
it's a total pain! | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
But I get the last laugh when Mark, our cameraman, | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
gets stung just afterwards. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
-Mark, you shouldn't have laughed at my suit! -That worked. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
For the next animals on my Deadly 60 list, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
I'm looking for Australia's reptiles. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
You'd think forests would be the best place to look. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
Not always. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
Working on this series, it's not all about glamorous locations. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:38 | |
I was just in the little boys room | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
and I spotted a few coils of a snake up here somewhere. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:45 | |
No idea yet what it is. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
But I'll see if I can get up there and bring it down. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:51 | |
Right out on the end here. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
Unfortunately...oh, it's bigger than I first thought! | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
The body stretches all the way back up here. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
Hey! Look at that. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
That's super! | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
This beautiful little Cat Snake | 0:15:11 | 0:15:15 | |
Ah, that is absolutely gorgeous! | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
I'll just bring it outside into the light. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
I love Cat Snakes. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:26 | |
I think even someone who doesn't like snakes at all | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
would have to say that, with those gigantic catlike eyes, | 0:15:29 | 0:15:33 | |
all of those movements that are so slinky, so catlike, | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
it's not just the eyes. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
I think they really are one of the prettiest snakes in the world | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
and this one, with that bronzy colour to it, beautiful! | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
Quite feisty in the way...look at that, stretching up | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
almost half its body held in the air. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
Just tasting the cameraman with his tongue. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
Absolutely wonderful. Look at that, he's really interested in you, Mark. | 0:15:55 | 0:16:00 | |
Obviously he likes your aftershave! | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
Well it's a contender. Let's see what else we can find. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
One of the next animals I've been looking for | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
spends the majority of its time up in trees. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
There's actually one in the spindly little tree | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
at the end of this veranda down here. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:18 | |
My only chance of catching it is to sneak up on it nice and quiet. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:23 | |
But to do that, you have to get up on the roof. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
So, as not to risk spooking him, | 0:16:33 | 0:16:35 | |
he's just on this tree in front of me now. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
He's just within my reach. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
Oh, he's an absolute beauty! | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
You have to excuse my undignified climbing. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
There he is! | 0:16:54 | 0:16:56 | |
He is a Boyd's Forest Dragon. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
This is a good size male and he really doesn't seem too bothered | 0:16:59 | 0:17:04 | |
about the fact that I've just taken him out of his tree. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
Look at that, he's got a huge extendable pouch there, | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
underneath the jaw. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
That's used for signalling to females | 0:17:14 | 0:17:17 | |
and he really will spend most of his day just sitting, chilled out, | 0:17:17 | 0:17:21 | |
not doing much, like he's doing now. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
Clinging to that tree using these fearsome claws, look at that one, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:29 | |
it's really extended, the digit on that. Look! That's awesome. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
What I really like about this dragon is we've got a lot of animals | 0:17:33 | 0:17:37 | |
in the Deadly 60 that are quick, always moving, full of energy. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
The Boyd's Forest Dragon takes things easier than that. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
He just sits around, very quiet, very still | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
and waits for his prey to come to him. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
When something wanders underneath him, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
perhaps an insect, frog or lizard, | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
he'll drop down at lightning speed onto his prey, gobble it up | 0:17:55 | 0:18:00 | |
then scamper back up the tree and sit there for the rest of the day. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:04 | |
Even being snatched out of a tree by a tele-naturalist, | 0:18:04 | 0:18:08 | |
he doesn't really seem to care much. It's all above him. Isn't it, fella? | 0:18:08 | 0:18:13 | |
Look at that, he's not even giving me a threat, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
not even gaping his mouth at me. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:18 | |
Aw! | 0:18:20 | 0:18:21 | |
That is just ridiculously lazy! | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
'Sorry, Mr Dragon, you're way too chilled to make it on the list.' | 0:18:23 | 0:18:28 | |
Two extraordinary reptiles, but my next Deadly 60 animal | 0:18:30 | 0:18:35 | |
comes from a very special group of lizards. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
The monitors. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:39 | |
I guess this is just about as close as we get nowadays | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
to a genuine dinosaur. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
The reason I'm considering him for my Deadly 60, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:49 | |
is the amount of weapons that he has at his disposal. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
You find monitors all over the world | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
and they're the reptile equivalent of a Terminator. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
They have hardcore body armour, razor sharp claws for close combat, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:04 | |
a sixth sense, tasting the air with their tongue. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
They can even sniff out crocodile eggs buried in the sand. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:14 | |
With all terrain capability | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
and, unbelievably, they can hold their breath for an hour! | 0:19:18 | 0:19:23 | |
Nowhere is too steep or too high. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
No prey is too fast. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:30 | |
They'll even take on the king of beasts. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
And that tail could whip your eye out. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
It's recently been discovered that monitor lizards have venom. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:54 | |
It was thought, until very recently, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
that there was only a couple of lizards in the world | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
that were truly venomous, | 0:20:00 | 0:20:02 | |
but it turns out this guy here has truly venomous spit. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
And, uh, if I got bitten, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
it would not be a good day for me. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
But, as he's just wandering around, checking me out, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:18 | |
it's a VERY good day for me. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
It's not often you get that close to a wild monitor lizard of this size. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:26 | |
I'm not gonna move at all, | 0:20:28 | 0:20:30 | |
see what he does. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
Look at that. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:36 | |
Nose to nose with a lace monitor. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
I can almost smell your breath from here, mate. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
He can smell yours as well, Steve! | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
He's just snuffling around with his tongue, in the leaf litter. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:55 | |
His tongue just flicked all up my arm. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
Around here the reptiles really are the top predators. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:02 | |
The crocodiles and monitor lizards, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
they kind of take the place of the lions of the African plains. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:09 | |
He's a living dinosaur. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
With a venomous bite, a whip for a tail and tearing talons. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
The lace monitor is definitely going on my Deadly 60. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:20 | |
These living dinosaurs are kitted out with truly lethal weapons. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:26 | |
Protective armour, razor sharp claws and a whipping tail. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
If that wasn't enough, they're also venomous. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
These guys have to be on the Deadly 60. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:37 | |
Although, I personally much prefer looking for wildlife in the wild, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:42 | |
in the forest and jungle, there's no getting away from the fact | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
that some of the best places to find animals | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
can be right in our back yards. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
This is the ideal place to look for spiders. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
Australia's well known for having some of THE most venomous, | 0:21:54 | 0:21:59 | |
THE most potentially dangerous spiders on the planet | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
and it's obviously those that I'm looking for. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
Actually I'm looking for one in particular, | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
Australia's best known and most feared. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
Watch your head, Steve. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:14 | |
-Mind your head, Steve. -Not doing very well at the moment. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:19 | |
Really not found very much, well, apart from cane toads. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:25 | |
Just under this one piece of black plastic there's one, two, three, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:30 | |
four, five, six, se... | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
Just everywhere. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:33 | |
But there is a place down the road | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
where I know we can find some spiders. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:38 | |
When I say down the road, | 0:22:38 | 0:22:40 | |
I actually mean South Australia, in a garage in Adelaide. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:44 | |
Come and get a load of this! | 0:22:44 | 0:22:46 | |
Um, OK, I'm not entirely sure how we're going to film this. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
Yeah, that's gonna work. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
Tucked in here is one of the most feared spiders in the world. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:04 | |
In some other parts of the world this is known as the Black Widow, | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
here in Australia it's called a Redback. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
Let's see if I can get her out. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
Just coax her out onto the web. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
Here she comes. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
There. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:21 | |
There she is. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:22 | |
Probably, to Mark at the moment, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
that's just a tiny little black blob, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
let's see if I can light it up with my torch. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
Yep. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:34 | |
Isn't she wonderful?! | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
It probably looks like this is just an untidy mess of a web, | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
certainly in comparison to the beautiful dew drop covered ones | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
you'll find in your back garden, | 0:23:49 | 0:23:51 | |
but actually this is an absolutely brilliantly designed | 0:23:51 | 0:23:55 | |
way of catching flying insects. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
The real genius of this three dimensional web is found below. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:06 | |
These threads here are placed under high tension, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
it's like someone's got an elastic rope | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
and stuck it down using a big patch of glue. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
They're all over the place, a maze of trap lines. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:19 | |
So when an insect, like this ant here, wanders up, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
it snags one of those trap lines and fires it up into the air. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:27 | |
So it's just dangling there, suspended, they mostly ensnare ants | 0:24:27 | 0:24:32 | |
but the lines are strong enough to catch large trapdoor spiders | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
and even lizards. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
The victim's struggle causes the line above to vibrate, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
alerting the ever ready female Redback. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
Then she heads down to haul it up, bite it and paralyse it. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:55 | |
That venom, designed to immobilise its prey, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
has the unfortunate side effect of being extremely painful | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
and toxic to us too. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
About 600 people a year get bitten. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
Right, to get a closer look at her | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
we're going to have to bring her out the web. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
As this is one of the most venomous spiders in the world, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
one of the only ones that has a bite dangerous to humans, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
I'm gonna do that carefully. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
'I use my rope knife to coax her out.' | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
Come on, lady. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
Here she comes. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
Come on. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:40 | |
There she is. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
Wow! | 0:25:43 | 0:25:44 | |
The way people usually get bitten is if they put on a pair of shoes | 0:25:44 | 0:25:50 | |
or something that has a Redback inside of it | 0:25:50 | 0:25:54 | |
and she'll get squashed and bite in defence. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
This is a very, very careful, cautious process. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
As long as she doesn't feel restrain and restricted, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
then really she's very unlikely to bite. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
Right. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:20 | |
You can see that wonderful red flash down the abdomen | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
that gives her her name. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:27 | |
With her amazing elastic web | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
and a bite which could even do me some damage. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:39 | |
The Redback spider is definitely on the Deadly 60. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
Go on, girl. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:47 | |
Small but deadly, Redbacks employ genius tactics to catch their prey | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
and there's enough venom in a bite from one of these guys | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
to stop me in my tracks. | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
That's why they have to be on the Deadly 60 list. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
I don't think I've ever seen a creature quite so aggressive. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:11 | |
Join me next time when I'll be choosing another three critters | 0:27:11 | 0:27:16 | |
for my Deadly 60. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:17 | |
I've lost my trunks! | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
It's just a question of waiting. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 |