Australia 2 Deadly 60

My name's Steve Backshall...

..and this is my search for the Deadly 60.

That's not just animals that are deadly to me,

but animals that are deadly in their own world.

My crew and I are travelling the planet

and you're coming with me every step of the way.

'Deadly 60 is back in Australia,

'one of our most productive locations,

'and we're going to be taking you to the extremes.

'From the far south in Tasmania

'for a close encounter with two of the most lethal of all snakes...'

Snake! Just, Gray, just don't move cos you are right on it.

'..to Darwin in the far north

'in search of the most venomous animal on earth.'

Around me now, I know that there are - even though I can't see them -

quite a few of the animal that has been known to kill people

faster than any other venomous creature.

'But if you thought Deadly 60 couldn't get any crazier...'

Well, it just did. We're in the Northern Territories in Australia

and this is about as crazy as it gets -

hanging underneath a helicopter in search of saltwater crocodiles.

We start on the Adelaide River near Darwin,

one of the most croc-rich rivers around.

They're an obvious choice for Deadly -

a reptile that managed to outlast the dinosaurs

and has the highest recorded bite force of any animal on earth.

They're the largest living reptile,

but despite that, they're so dynamic in attack

that they can launch their whole body out of the water

to catch unsuspecting prey,

and that body may be six metres long and weigh as much as a car.

We featured salties before when I had to relocate a problem croc

showing signs of turning into a man-eater,

but this time we're taking it a stage further.

We'll measure their bite

and come face-to-face with a female on her nest protecting her young -

not a situation to take lightly.

We've done some pretty out-there things on Deadly 60 over the years,

but today could be the most extreme.

This time of year, female saltwater crocodiles

have laid their eggs into nests and they're fiercely guarding them.

The people we're working with today have to get into those nests

and monitor the populations of crocodiles.

Only problem is, the ones we're going to are in the swamp.

You can't walk there, drive there, you can't even take a boat -

in fact the only way you can get into them is in a helicopter...

..slung underneath the helicopter on a length of rope.

And I'm not even joking.

Due to the dangerous nature of what we're doing,

it's just me, Graham the cameraman

and local crocodile wrangler Matt Wright heading to the nest.

We have to leave the rest of the crew behind.

This is out of this world.

We'll scan the area in search of nests - not easy from the air,

as essentially they just look like a compost heap

of rotting vegetable matter.

Once we locate one, we'll land and head in slung under the helicopter.

We'll check the nest, make sure it's safe from flooding,

and monitor the number of eggs.

All this information helps build up a picture of croc populations.

Now, it's really important at this time of the day,

it's starting to warm up, so they're going to be getting active,

so we need to make sure we have eyes on the crocodiles

before we commit to a nest,

otherwise it could be really dangerous.

The danger is going to come from the female croc herself.

They're fiercely protective of their nest and their young

and won't take kindly to us being there.

It often surprises people quite what determined parents

crocodiles really are, but that same commitment to their babies

can make them a real handful.

We spot a nest and decide to land nearby.

We're going to get slung in. Put me back off, OK?

'Matt gets the sling ready to take us right to the crocodile's nest.

'To protect us on the nest, we have a crate and a pole.

'Hopefully, if the croc has them to chew on, it won't chew on me.'

And that's yours.

Good luck, mate.

The croc's nest is just on the other side

of that really dense cane grass,

so Matt's going to be dropped down just at the side of it

and he's going to check out the lay of the land,

make sure everything's safe before we come in.

'It looks tantalisingly close, but the cane grass is so dense

'it's impossible to go in on foot.'

I can't quite believe that he's dropping out of sight

onto the nest of one of the most dangerous animals

in the whole world.

He's got some guts. OK, they're coming back for me.

'My heart rate's gone through the roof.

'We are about to be lowered into the crocodile's world.

'Anything could happen.'

We're now flying in on the sling, heading into the nest.

This is absolute madness.

I can see the nest - it's down there in that really dense cane grass.

I'm now coming down, trying to find somewhere to land -

hopefully not right on top of the nest.

There's a croc on the nest. Right on top of it.

'I hadn't expected to feel so exposed. I can't see her -

'she could easily charge and be on top of us in seconds.

'Very few animals in the world scare me,

'but an angry saltie is easily capable of killing all three of us.

'We need to move with extreme caution.'

This is where it's going to get dangerous, Steve.

She's just here sitting on her nest.

OK, now, as soon as we start advancing on her,

making noise, she's going to come towards us,

so we're just going to make sure that we've got a getaway.

This is seriously nerve-wracking stuff.

The undergrowth here is incredibly dense

and we can't see her from this level.

So Matt's just trying to edge forward,

but it's very, very important to keep tabs on how many there are

and how they're doing, and the most important time is now,

when they've got eggs and they're pretty close to having their young.

OK.

It's very difficult to see her, but she is no more than

a couple of metres away from us right now.

Stay there, girl. Stay there.

You're all right, we're just having a look.

-I'll try and clear some more.

-Can you see yet, Gray?

-Not really.

There's only a little hint.

Stay there.

GRASS RUSTLES Here she comes. Stay back.

OK.

-Can you see her there?

-Yeah.

GRASS RUSTLES

You can see how fast they move.

Very fast. She's in this wallow now. OK.

God, she's completely disappeared in that water.

-You'd never know she was there.

-Yeah. This is what she'll do.

-Can you see her at all?

-Not now.

WATER SPLASHES There she is.

Every time she takes a lunge, she's using up that energy.

-OK. Look out, Steve, that's your...

-Yeah, I've got the crate here.

So...

Saltwater crocodiles are so-called cold-blooded.

That means that they need the sun's warmth to get enough energy

to actually start being mobile, and as it's quite early in the morning,

she's not going to have a tremendous store of energy.

A couple of swipes at us and she's going to run out of gas

and it'll be much, much safer for us to be here.

So we just need her to show us where she is,

because when she's down there in that she could be anywhere

and this is obviously quite a dangerous time.

This here, this big mound, is the actual nest, and from her behaviour,

I would say almost certainly there are eggs inside that.

OK, now the tail's disappeared.

There she goes here. There she goes.

OK, so she's gone off into the undergrowth over there.

And you can hear her heading off that way.

-She's gone at least... six, seven metres away?

-Yeah.

And for her to come close to here, we'd hear it.

So this is time for us to get stuck into the nest very quickly. OK.

Oh, she's still moving. OK, Matt, do your thing.

I'll keep my eyes open.

By opening up the nest, we can see how many eggs there are,

see if the site looks vulnerable to flooding and log the position.

This'll help with building up data about how crocs are doing here.

This is a saltwater crocodile egg.

Inside there is a very, very small but perfect miniature crocodile.

Now, there's something really remarkable about this animal.

Like many reptiles, the temperature that the nest is kept at

determines what sex the baby comes out as.

It's a very odd way of doing things, but that's evolution for you.

This has been a thoroughly successful mission.

Now all we have to do is close the nest up,

leave it exactly as we found it

and get out of here before she comes back.

Coby, if you can hear me, you can crank up

and start plucking these boys out.

It's getting pretty hot in here, mate.

Examining the nest wouldn't have damaged the eggs in any way.

The female will return as soon as we're gone

to continue to protect her brood.

Though pretty terrifying, it proves that crocs

have as much maternal instinct

as any animals we may consider more cuddly.

My respect for salties has gone through the roof.

I can honestly say I can't quite believe we just did that.

Being that close to a female saltwater crocodile on the nest

is one of the great experiences of my life.

I jumped out of my skin when that croc made that move.

He certainly did - I've never seen you jump so far.

Unbelievable, but amazing, to be dropped in like that.

It's a first for me. Wicked.

But it's back to base,

where the rest of the crew are waiting for our return.

Well, that was an experience I won't be forgetting in a hurry.

But, really, all it proves is that saltwater crocodiles

are incredible mothers. What we really want to see

is a crocodile's bite, because that's what makes it

a predator worthy of the Deadly 60.

We seen their explosiveness and their agility,

we've seen how the saltwater crocodile's maternal instincts

mean they'll risk everything to protect the nest,

but what I really need to show you now is the crocodile's bite,

and this is the perfect place for it.

Inside here, hidden underneath all of those aquatic plants,

is a 4.7 metre-long crocodile

and we've got a perfect opportunity to actually test out its bite.

The facility we're at now is owned by this guy, Adam Britton.

He's a zoologist who specialises in crocodiles

and the animal that's inside here

is used as part of his research to find out

as much about the biology of this magnificent creature as possible.

OK. Let's head inside. Carefully, quietly, slowly -

the last thing I want to do is to spook him too early.

Are you ready for this?

What I've got here is a pressure gauge.

So if pressure is applied here to this part of the instrument,

it'll register on here.

Now, we've tried this before on Komodo dragons -

they actually registered about 600 pounds per square inch -

and on spotted hyenas. Although we didn't get a really good bite -

that registered about 400 pounds per square inch.

I'm hoping that this is going to be on a totally different scale.

I've also got this little camera here,

which hopefully should get a really, really close-up view

of that final strike.

Are you ready?

As we approach, the crocodile is just lying in wait

under the water, completely out of sight.

Try again.

Whoa!

OK. Well, that was a tiny little bite

and it registered 1,200 pounds per square inch.

And that was nothing. Let go of it almost instantly.

'So, we need to try again.'

I think just leave him for about five, ten seconds

-and then do the same as you did before.

-OK.

-OK.

Whoa!

-Are you OK?

-I just got absolutely smashed.

Good Lord, the power of the animal is phenomenal.

That is something else.

Unfortunately, now we've lost the bite gauge,

the camera and the stick,

but I think it's fairly safe to say

that the salt water crocodile has to go on the Deadly 60.

-Holy moly!

-HE LAUGHS

Explosive ambush predators,

they'll fight to the death to protect their young,

with the strongest known bite force of any animal on earth.

One of the most awe-inspiring animals alive,

there's no doubt, the saltwater crocodile is the king of Deadly.

No! He killed my bite gauge!

Next up, we're still in the Northern Territory,

but travelling to Darwin's coastline.

Even at the beach, there's no escape from the denizens of Deadly.

We've been working pretty hard on Deadly 60 recently,

so I decided that today we're going to have a day at the beach.

Only problem is that you can't really swim in the sea.

It's not so much the saltwater crocodiles or the sharks,

but this time of year in the Northern Territories,

the waters are brimming with an animal said to be

the most venomous on earth - the box jellyfish.

It means that normally, the waters are totally out of bounds.

But, obviously, not for us.

From October to April, box jellyfish make these seas unswimmable.

Their body's only up to 20 centimetres wide,

but the tentacles they trail behind have a real kick.

Reaching up to three metres in length,

each one contains thousands of stinging cells.

These microscopic cells are invisible to the naked eye,

but when they fire, they inject a burning venom.

They can paralyse their prey almost instantly

and even stop the human heart in three minutes.

So I'm not going to be heading into box jellyfish-filled seas on my own.

These guys, Dion and Kate, are going to be my safety advisers.

They're also experts on the box jellies

and we do have these on our side.

This is a stinger suit and what this'll do

is cover pretty much the entire body and because it's not organic,

it's not like skin or like the flesh of a fish,

hopefully, if a stinger actually attaches to this, it won't fire off.

Because what triggers the stingers to fire is not touch -

it's in fact the chemicals in our skin or in their prey.

OK, our job is now to head into the sea and try and catch one.

Looking for an animal that could kill you in three minutes,

you definitely pay attention to where you're walking.

The actual name "jellyfish" is really completely inappropriate.

These animals aren't fish at all.

They don't have any vertebrae, there's no spinal column,

they're just a big mass of jelly

and it's thought they could be one of the most ancient,

most primitive animals that's ever been on the earth.

Despite the fact that I know this stinger suit will protect me

from the stings of a box jellyfish, I have to admit that at the moment

it feels very, very thin and insubstantial.

I mean, around me now, I know that there are,

even though I can't see them,

quite a few of the animal that has been known to kill people

faster than any other venomous creature. So...yeah.

I think I could do with something a bit bigger,

like a suit of armour or something.

Looking for one of the deadliest animals on earth

is pretty intimidating,

as they have the fastest-acting venom known to science.

And when a person gets stung, the toxins attack the heart,

nervous system and skin cells causing horrific burns.

For us, the problem is more actually finding one in the murky water.

That is really disappointing.

There was a smack - that is, a group - of box jellies

spotted here just yesterday of about 150 animals,

but now they're clearly not here.

We've been out for about an hour and a half,

but now the waters starting to get really murky and churned up

so there's no more searching for today, but luckily

I do know a place near here where we can see a box jelly up close.

Let's go.

We're now behind the scenes as a local research facility

and they have actually got here, in a tank,

the most venomous animal on earth - the box jellyfish.

The box jellyfish swims far more actively than most jellies

and it can actually propel itself against currents and tides

with that fabulous swimming motion.

And it's this swimming motion that means, unlike many other jellyfish,

it can actively hunt and pursue prey.

But although this is the most venomous animal in the world,

there's one part of the body that is completely safe to touch -

the bell.

This part here,

I should just be able...to touch

because there are no stinging cells there at all.

The dangerous bit are these tentacles.

You can see them trailing off into the water, right out to here,

and these have thousands of stinging cells

running all the way down the lengths of them.

When it comes into contact with a prey item, those cells fire off,

injecting a tiny harpoon and quite considerable amounts of venom

into their prey. It's so fast-acting

that it'll paralyse a fish or a small shrimp in a matter of seconds.

It can, in fact, fire its stinging cells

three milliseconds after being activated.

That's 50 times faster

than maybe the fastest-striking snake on earth - the death adder.

In the tank, there are some small shrimp

which the researchers put there for the box jellyfish to feed on.

Almost... Almost...

Ooh, he just got away.

Or has he got him? No, he's got him. Look at that!

Wow, that was incredible. Just the very, very end

of one tentacle caught hold of that shrimp

and that was enough to paralyse it,

and it's now drawing it back in towards the stomach.

That was so fast.

The box jellyfish. They're made up almost entirely of water

and you can see right through them,

but they're commonly believed to be the most venomous creature on earth

and if that isn't worthy of a place on the Deadly 60

then I don't know what is.

Thousands of stinging cells that are activated in the blink of an eye.

A venom that can stop a human heart in three minutes.

The most venomous animal on earth.

It may be mostly made up of water and look like something

you should be eating with custard, but don't be fooled.

The box jelly is...

'Now, from the far north, we're taking a trip to the far south -

'Tasmania. Despite being cooler and wetter than most other parts of Oz,

'it still has plenty of snakes -

'in fact, some of the most venomous on earth.

'To help us are two local researchers from Reptile Rescue

'who've been monitoring snakes here for decades.'

Tasmania is an absolute wildlife paradise.

As much as a third of the island is actually national park

and is perfect habitat for all different kinds of wildlife,

some of which is cold-blooded.

CROAKING

That sound is frogs,

and frogs are wonderful creatures in their own right,

but they're also perfect food for snakes,

and Tasmania has some of the most venomous found in the whole world.

One of the snakes we're looking for is the tiger snake.

The tiger is highly venomous -

in fact, there is no land snake

outside of Australia that has venom as potent.

The other is the copperhead.

An active hunter, it uses its snappy strike

and fast-acting venom to gorge itself on frogs.

It's the king of the marshlands.

This really could not be more perfect.

We've got big areas of wetland here,

there's loads and loads of frog calling going on

and the day today is mixing between overcast and then sunny,

so the snakes are going to want to come out into the open,

they're going to want to bask

to try and soak up the heat from the sun...

Snake! Just, Gray, don't move cos you are right on it.

And we've got a tiger snake. First tiger snake!

Fantastic. OK.

Ooh, hello.

OK, you can see it hooding up at the moment.

That's because this is a member of the cobra family.

-Are you going to bring him out into the clearing?

-Yep. OK.

So... I can't believe, this quickly,

we have already found ourselves a tiger snake.

And you can see why it has the tiger snake name.

Running down the length of its body,

bright, bright yellow and dark bands.

It is gloriously coloured. Now, this wonderful snake,

which is hooding up so dramatically, is extremely venomous.

At the moment, it's whipping around

and just biting into my snake grabber,

but you can see the snake grabber has a nice, soft edge to it,

so it's not doing the snake any harm whatsoever.

Well done.

-All right. Clear?

-Yep.

'As part of their research to keep track

'of how the snake population's doing here,

'they need to measure and weigh any snake we find.'

So I have in this bag the fourth, or possibly the fifth,

most toxic, venomous snake in the world - the tiger snake.

Look at that.

What a dramatic animal, and a great start to our Tazzy snake search.

'It's going to be a tough call.

'I'm really tempted to put the tiger snake on the list.

'Let's see if we can find a copperhead first.

'Easier said than done. This place is wall-to-wall tiger snakes.'

Ten minutes, two snakes.

Oh, yes. Nice.

Got it.

Wow.

'This might seem like many people's worst nightmare.

'I mean, there are snakes that could potentially kill you

'absolutely everywhere, but for me

'it's one of the best days out I've ever had.

'Still no copperhead, though.

'But my great day just got even better.'

Whoa, it's a big one!

And he's fast.

Fantastic.

My first ever copperhead in the wild,

and this was the snake that we came here

really, really hoping we'd find, and it is an absolute monster.

I mean, this is my first and it looks pretty impressive to me,

but these guys have been doing this for the best part of a lifetime

and reckon it's the biggest they've seen around here.

-Is that right, Ian?

-Absolutely. Absolutely.

That is the biggest copperhead I've seen

in many, many years, if not the biggest.

The reason for that, really, is just the fact

that these snakes are constantly feeding,

so the tiger snake that I showed you earlier on

might have one large meal and then go for a good few weeks,

even longer, without eating, but these guys

are just constantly filling their mouths, and mostly with frogs.

And you can see that is an awful lot of frog feeding.

That's enormous for a venomous snake. Really, really heavy.

Like the tiger snake, this snake is in the cobra family.

It has fixed fangs at the front of the top jaw pointing downwards

and it injects a neurotoxin -

that is a toxin that affects the nervous system,

the heart and the lungs -

and can slow down and incapacitate its prey very, very quickly.

Round here, that's mostly going to be frogs

but it could certainly be mammals or small birds as well

and he is an absolute master at hunting here in this environment

and that's why I think this snake has to go on our Deadly 60.

Definitely not because of its danger to human beings,

but this is a snake that would be the absolute worst nightmare

of a frog and, I think, totally magnificent.

Copperhead - definitely deadly.

These are opportunistic predators

that will gorge themselves on prey.

They're a fast-striking hunter and have extremely toxic venom

that can kill their prey in seconds.

The Tazzy copperhead is a real treat and on the list.

Join me next time as I continue my search for the Deadly 60.

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