Nepal Deadly 60

My name's Steve Backshall.

Whoo!

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

That's not just animals deadly to me,

but animals 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!'

This time on Deadly 60, we're in Nepal,

gateway to the mighty Himalayas, my favourite place on the planet.

And it's a very fitting home for some extraordinary wildlife.

Oh! Ho-ho! 'From the dizzy heights of the Himalayas...'

That is phenomenal!

'..to the misty forests of Chitwan National Park...'

This is so exciting!

'..and the hustle and bustle of a town street,

'we put Nepal firmly on the Deadly map.

'Nestling between the vast countries of China and India,

'Nepal is a hidden gem.

'First stop, Chitwan National Park,

'home to some of Nepal's most stunning wildlife.

'Elephants, tigers,

'bizarre-looking crocodiles

'and the greater one-horned rhino.

'They weigh in at well over two tonnes and are one of the biggest

'and strongest of all land animals.

'But they're fast.

'When defending territories, males battle with other males.

'Their eyesight's poor and, if they're surprised

'or feel threatened, they'll charge. Even at people.

'They're the most aquatic of all of the rhino

'and are rarely found far from water.

'So the river is a good place to start looking.'

There's a gharial.

This is an incredibly rare animal.

This is an extraordinary privilege.

That is wonderful!

'Gharial are one of the rarest crocodilians in the world.

'There are less than 2,000 left in the wild.'

Looking at the riverbank over there, you can see very clearly

an area where large mammals are coming to the waterside to drink.

That's probably either elephant or rhino.

'Let's go find out which.'

With some animals, tracking is quite a difficult, tricky business.

But with others, it's easy. You can see exactly where they've been.

I mean, the animal that left those tracks

is certainly not discreet.

That is a very, very big animal

which has pretty much created a landslide

as it's come down here.

And at the same time, left behind

some pretty substantial droppings.

Looking at this, you can tell instantly

that it's a herbivore.

It feeds on grasses.

And that it's big.

A dropping that size has come out of a very large bottom.

This is a sign of the animal

we've come here to find, the one-horned rhino.

'Rhinos tend to leave their droppings together in piles,

'so probably come through here regularly.'

These dense, heavy grasses over here

are exactly the kind of place I'd expect to find a one-horned rhino.

They're incredibly dense. If we get closer, you'll see how dense.

This isn't an animal that you want to walk into and surprise it.

Because they can be very, very grumpy.

'Rhino spend most of their day in amongst impenetrable grasses.

'In here, I wouldn't see one until I was metres away.

'What I need is some kind of mobile, all-terrain, viewing platform.'

It's a fairly misty morning.

Quite tricky for looking for wildlife.

We have got something special on our side.

This beautiful old girl.

Asian elephants are an old friend of the Deadly 60.

And riding up there is one of the very best ways

of going out looking for wildlife.

'Wild Asian elephants naturally inhabit the park,

'so other wildlife like rhinos are used to the sight of them

'and won't be scared away.

'Not the easiest to film from, though.'

STEVE LAUGHS

-How are you getting on there, buddy?

-All right.

'Despite the rocky ride, this is the safest way to get through

'the three-metre-high and aptly-named elephant grass.

This is so exciting!

GRUNTING

Ooh! What's that?

I can hear them, but I can't see them.

There they are, they're just over there, look.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

-Behind you.

-Oh, yes! Wow!

That is extraordinary!

One's...turned to face us now.

They're both eyeing us up... quite cautiously.

'They're usually solitary animals

'and it isn't long before the pair go their separate ways.

'But on our sure-footed, four-footed 4x4,

'we were able to follow the rhino's tracks.

'One-horned rhinos love the water and one headed for the river.

'The other stayed on land,

'enabling us to witness a truly prehistoric-looking giant.'

The way the skin is folded over its skeleton,

you can see the ribs poking through,

you can see these lumpy bumps, they're called tubercles,

all over the folds of skin. It just looks like a suit of armour.

And just standing there in the mist, he looks like a dinosaur.

'Rhino are highly unlikely to charge elephant.

'If we were on foot, it would be too dangerous to get this close.'

My word!

Most of the animals we feature on the Deadly 60 are predators.

They're animals that actually feed on other animals.

But rhinos are herbivores. All they eat is plant matter.

The reason I'm suggesting this incredible animal for the Deadly 60

is really down to its temper.

-SNORTING

-Ooh!

That little snort and turn towards us

was, I think, a bit of a threat.

This is an animal that has to be

very, very good at looking after itself

because it has, in the Bengal tiger,

the largest of the big cats living right here in its own territory.

And a Bengal tiger will take a young rhino.

These animals have to be able to look after themselves

against one of the top predators in the whole world.

And the way they do that is just by having a really bad temper.

Wonderful!

The one-horned rhino - grumpy, short-sighted,

a little bit angry, armour-plated wonder.

Definitely Deadly.

'Huge, thick-skinned, armour-plated bulldozers.

'With a surprisingly quick top speed of 30 miles an hour,

'combined with a quick temper and aggressive nature,

'making the one-horned rhino defiantly Deadly.'

'Deadly!'

Our next target is a predator and one of THE most magnificent.

The Bengal tiger.

Chitwan is full of wildlife

and one of the few places you can still see tigers in the wild.

But with only 125 in an area twice the size of the Isle of Wight,

we needed to cover a lot of ground.

So, we swapped four legs for four wheels and hit the trails.

We're going to have a really tough time

trying to find wildlife in this.

It's very pretty, but the undergrowth here is very dense.

A tiger or a rhino could be just 10 or 20 metres alongside the road

and we would never see it.

We will need an awful lot of luck to find anything here.

Tiger territories in Chitwan are some of the smallest on Earth

at around only 20 square kilometres,

which probably means there's plenty for them to eat.

I'm off to look for some big cat clues,

and every cat loves a good scratching post.

Looks like someone's just taken a bunch of chisels,

whacked them into the tree and ripped them down

the side of the bark.

But actually,

those are a tiger's claw marks.

And they're really high as well - look how high they go.

That's really impressive.

Next stop, a likely-looking trail that leads down to a river crossing.

Oh, yes!

Yes, yes, yes!

That is as beautiful and perfect

a tiger print as you will ever see.

And another one here.

That is glorious!

So I reckon that the animal is using this as a thoroughfare.

You can see there is a trail over there and then animals,

including the tiger, coming across here

and heading into the forest over there.

Just going out and looking for tigers is a real gamble.

So we have some technology on our side.

This is a camera trap. What we can do is put this in a place

where we think it's possible a tiger might pass.

It has an invisible beam coming out of the front of it

and if that is broken,

it will start recording video of anything that comes nearby.

It's like having a silent cameraman waiting at the side of the road.

The best thing about this is that it will run through the night,

so we can be tucked up in bed and this will be looking for tigers.

I'm looking for likely sites where I think a tiger might wander

and putting the traps in place.

Game trails, crossroads, scent-marking hotspots

and places we see tracks or droppings.

Just knelt in a really fresh bit of rhino poo. Yuck!

Right, let's leave it to do its work.

Tigers are great ambush predators, relying on not being noticed.

So it's no surprise it's tough to find one in the wild.

They sneak up on their prey,

getting as close as they can before pouncing.

They're too massive for a lengthy chase. It needs to be over - fast.

The camera traps were left in the forest for three days.

Then we returned to see what we'd got.

OK, well, it's recorded something.

The question is what? OK.

Porcupine! There is the shape of a porcupine just shuffling off-camera.

What have we got here?

Elephant, big, male elephant, just wandering right out of the shot.

And there's a sloth, there!

Fantastic! Fabulous!

And it's come right up

and had a really good snuffle around the camera.

In fact, it looks like it's got a hold of the camera.

That is absolutely superb.

Still there, still sticking his snout into the camera.

Off into the distance. Fabulous!

Civet!

Wow! That's a great shot!

Absolutely beautiful shot of a civet running in and out of frame.

Very distinctive banded tail, fabulous eye-shine

from the infrared light source that's coming off the camera.

Wow!

Well, pretty much the only animal that we're missing off these

is a tiger.

We continue to check, but with no joy.

Nope, nothing on that one.

They were eluding us and our cameras.

It seemed we weren't going to get our tiger after all.

I've spent many months looking for tigers and it's never easy.

One of the main reasons is down to the fact

that they have just been hunted so excessively by human beings.

The reason for that is down to what makes them such a wonderful animal.

They've been hunted for their coat because it's so beautiful.

Also because human beings want to take on their powers,

so tigers are hunted in order to be used for medicines,

for traditional medicines.

It's meant that tigers now are in terrible trouble all over the world.

There's probably as few as 3,000 left in the wild

and here in Nepal, it could only be 150 animals.

There's an awful lot of forest, there are very few tigers.

Finding them is always going to be a challenge.

We've given up and we're heading back on our last day

when we finally got some of that good old Deadly luck.

Slow, slow, slow, slow!

There's a tiger just sauntering down the track.

Perhaps 200 metres ahead of us.

It's going in the opposite direction away from us.

Even at this distance, you can see the swagger this animal has,

the majesty, just the knowledge that this is an animal

that really rules this area.

It has absolutely nothing to fear.

It's just walking down the road with unbelievable ease,

almost with arrogance.

He just turned round to look at us.

Even at this distance,

he knows exactly how many people are in this car, exactly where we are.

And now, crossing over the road.

The tiger just sprayed up against a tree,

that's the spray that actually advertises

the edge of its territory.

It's so beautiful.

One of the most iconic sights in wildlife you will find anywhere

in the world and possibly THE most majestic animal, the Bengal tiger.

Definitely deadly.

Beautifully camouflaged and almost impossible to spot,

the largest of the big cats,

with claws that can rip through tough hide

and 7cm long canine teeth, as long as my thumb.

Painfully rare, heart-stoppingly beautiful.

We're leaving the lowlands now and making our way

to Himalayan high country.

My attention was caught by something at the side of the road.

It was unexpected but then that's what Deadly's all about.

As we were driving through this small Nepalese village,

something caught my eye on one of the buildings. Have a look at that!

These are Nepalese honeybees.

There are three quite substantial nests,

right on this family's balcony. Let's go and have a closer look.

Nepal is home to some of the largest honeybees found anywhere on Earth.

These are the appropriately named giant honeybee, up to 2cm long.

More often found on trees or cliffs,

they'll sometimes construct their nests on buildings.

It is absolutely extraordinary that this family are living with

three huge honeybee nests, effectively right in their house.

I am just going to go down to this one at the end here,

because it's the one that's closest to my level,

and see if I can get some shots.

We moved carefully. One bee sting would hurt,

but if the whole swarm decided to attack, it could be lethal.

The second these bees think they're in any kind of threat whatsoever,

they do something really rather remarkable.

They lift their abdomens in a wonderful Mexican wave

that rises up through the entire nest,

creating this incredible shimmering impression through the nest,

and it's enough to scare away a bird

that might want to tuck into a tasty larvae,

perhaps a hornet or a wasp that might want to eat the adult insects,

It's one of the most dramatic, beautiful displays in nature.

There is a tremendous deadly potential there as well.

There are tens of thousands of bees up there.

If they were to decide to get angry, I wouldn't stand a chance.

As long as I move calmly and casually and don't raise my voice

then I shouldn't be in any danger at all here.

When bees sting, they tear out a big chunk of their abdomen

and they die, so they won't actually sting

unless they really have to, unless they feel that they are protecting

their nest, so as long as I offer no threat to them whatsoever,

I will not get stung, I am absolutely certain of that.

But why share your balcony with a bunch of bees?

Nepalese honeybees produce some of the most delicious honey

found anywhere in the world.

These are all sisters, all female bees,

and they will fly off in sorties to go and find nectar and pollen.

Then they return here and they render the nectar down,

they get rid of as much moisture as they can and turn it into honey

and, obviously,

that's the reason that the people here allow these bees to stay here.

Bees - one of THE great wonders of the natural world.

I think they're fascinating.

Each bee is armed with a stinger attached to a venom sac,

and a mass attack with thousands of bees

could deliver a huge dose of venom that could prove fatal.

They certainly do make yummy honey.

We're continuing our journey north,

towards the might of the Himalayas and a soaring bird of prey.

Vultures - mostly scavengers,

but with all the killer tools a bird of prey needs.

We're in search of one very special species with its own deadly trait.

Vultures are one of THE most important of all creatures.

And to see why and how, we've come to a vulture restaurant.

So, up there, our guys are just setting up our little cameras

around the carcass.

Hopefully, fairly soon, the vultures are going to start accumulating,

so what we need to do is be very still and quiet

and hope for the best.

With the cameras in place, all we have to do is sit and wait

and see who turns up for dinner.

There's a dog sniffing round at the moment.

It's a good sign. Often, vultures will be watching from the skies

to see what happens when another animal breaks into the carcass.

If they see things are safe, then they head on down.

The vultures begin to circle and gather in the trees

but there's still no sign of the one I really want to see.

The first vulture has just landed alongside the carcass.

It's a white-ruffed vulture

and it's being incredibly cautious,

moving in towards the free food.

Vultures are intelligent birds

and so careful before descending to feed,

aware to the presence of other scavengers and predators.

It's just like someone rang the dinner bell.

The second the first vulture took a nibble,

all of a sudden, the skies are full of vultures.

They're all descending in towards the food. This is extraordinary.

There is now 20, 30, 40. This is incredible. Get a load of this.

There are feathers flying, beaks all over the place.

There are six or seven different species here.

Hide, blood, bone and sinew are flying everywhere

in a melee of beaks and feathers,

but the vulture I'm here to film is smaller, more discreet

and has bags of brains.

That small, white one, strolling around on the outside of the group,

that has a deadly attribute that has to be seen to be believed.

It's the Egyptian vulture. And it's incredibly intelligent.

They're one of the few birds

that's learned to use tools to get food.

They use stones to break into bird's eggs, even tough ostrich eggs.

For a human, breaking into one of these is difficult.

Whack too hard and the whole thing smashes,

and the food spills in the dirt.

Back at the restaurant, having waited hours for the vultures

to come dine with me, they were done in minutes.

Well...from empty skies to completely bare bones

in about 30 minutes. That is out of this world.

But perhaps the most majestic thing about vultures

is how they get airborne.

To see that in full effect, we're heading to the mountains.

In the foothills of the Himalayas,

it's possible to have the Egyptian vulture encounter of a lifetime -

paragliding alongside Kevin,

a rescued, hand-reared Egyptian vulture,

and my perfect wingman.

It takes pilots years of experience to learn how to ride the thermals

and the rising air currents here in order to stay aloft, like this guy,

something that our vulture here will do with absolute ease.

We're going to have a flight using the bird as our eyes to the skies.

While I pile on the equipment I need to fly, Kevin waits patiently.

As part of his rehab,

he's been flying with the parahawking team for years now.

We're going to see this smart bird showing off the soaring skills

and eyesight that help it scour the highlands in search of food.

-We're good to go?

-We're good to go.

Oh, ho-ho!

Ah-ha! Well, I've seen some views in my time, but that beats all of them!

Unbelievable!

Within seconds, Kevin cruises in,

almost disdainful of our limited flying skills.

Right, he's right alongside us, absolutely effortless!

And off he goes! That is phenomenal!

So totally effortless.

This is such a privilege to get this kind of view of this bird.

It's something that normally only another vulture would see.

Look at that delicate tweezer-like beak plucking away at the meat

and then he's off.

Oh-ho-ho!

Is that where we took off?

How can we be higher than we were when we took off? That's ridiculous!

This is one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life!

The thermal air current has carried us up hundreds of metres.

There's a real art to spotting these rising, warm currents of air.

If you can get into them, you don't have to flap your wings to fly.

You just open them broadly and glide into them, wings spread wide

and they will carry you aloft with absolutely no expenditure of energy.

So, these birds with their phenomenal eyesight

are looking out for the tiniest signals

that there could be a thermal air current.

That could be the rustling of leaves in trees down below,

it could be rising pieces of dust, or insects.

But this bird, with its eyesight,

can spot those from hundreds of metres, perhaps a mile away.

He's circling around behind us.

Ah, yes! Wow!

Every single rustling of that feather

tells them what the air is doing.

The Egyptian vulture,

with its extraordinary eyesight, its ability to solve problems,

it really is the master of the mountain skies.

Definitely Deadly.

Able to soar effortlessly and spy out thermal air currents

invisible to the human eye,

this winged wonder spies food from great distances

and is one of the few birds to use tools.

The Egyptian vulture makes me wish I was born a bird.

It's got some wicked-looking teeth. Look at those.

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

Whoa, whoa, whoa, is this safe? Are you totally sure?

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