Venezuela Deadly 60


Venezuela

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Transcript


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My name is Steve Backshall!

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Oooh!

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This is a white shark!

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These are the Deadly 60.

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

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but animals that are deadly in their own world.

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My crew and I are travelling the planet.

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Are you coming with me?

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Every step of the way.

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This time on Deadly 60, we are in Venezuela.

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It's an absolute wonderland, at the wild crossroads

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between Central America and the jungles of the Amazon.

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But are there any deadly animals here? Well...

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..One or two.

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'We are travelling to the far north of the country

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'and into a sinister cave system.'

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Have a look at the cave above us.

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How cool is that!

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'To track down our most creepy contender yet.

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'But we begin in the south.'

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One third of Venezuela is covered

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by the world's richest tropical grasslands, called the LLanos.

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There are extraordinary amounts of predators here.

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More crocodiles than anywhere I've seen.

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And that's down to a robust food chain

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with loads of wildlife at every level.

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Put simply, it's an animal Eden.

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For me, the Llanos is one of the finest wildlife destinations

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in the whole world.

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The colours of the bird life,

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the diversity of the life here is just extraordinary.

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And it is the best spot I know of to find

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the world's largest, heaviest, strongest snake -

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the green anaconda.

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The green anaconda can grow up to nine metres in length

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and weigh more than I do.

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With all that bulk, they are sluggish on land.

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But in the water, they are sleek and stealthy.

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The eyes and nostrils are on top of the head,

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allowing it to stay submerged in wait for prey.

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And it can do that for days,

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conserving its energy just waiting for an opportune moment.

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When a prime sized animal gets too close,

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the anaconda lunges forward, biting and then constricting.

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They are so strong that they may kill simply

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by bursting the internal organs of their prey before swallowing whole.

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Right. This is a perfect place to start looking for anaconda.

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But, before we do,

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I thought I'd introduce you to what makes this animal so special.

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This is the cast of a green anaconda skull.

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It's from a quite decent-sized animal. Definitely a female,

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the girls are much bigger than the boys.

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And this one here,

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I'm guesstimating, from the size of the skull,

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was probably about four, maybe even five metres long.

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But get a load of those gnashers.

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So, on the upper jaw,

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there are two rows of teeth -

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in the upper roof of the mouth,

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and two at the sides.

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All of them are wickedly curved

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and very, very pointed.

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And these would actually draw the prey back towards the throat.

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Once this animal has a hold of something,

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there is simply no way it's letting go.

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Look at that.

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Now, it may not be venomous,

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but it can deliver an absolutely ferocious bite.

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There is certainly no way I'd want to get bitten by a snake like this.

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To find an anaconda, we need to really put in the hours.

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With as many eyes as possible,

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scouring the landscape.

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During the wet season, this entire area is flooded.

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But now, it's the dry season.

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The pools that are left behind are the best place

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to start our anaconda search.

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Really tricky.

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You certainly can't see anything with your eyes here.

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There's no visibility whatsoever, so you just have to feel your way.

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This really is a particularly creepy way of going looking for wildlife.

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Particularly because the last time

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I went searching for anaconda like this,

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I ended up in a hospital.

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'Whether we see them or not, big predators are never far away.'

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Aaah!

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That was a caiman.

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'Let's hope that doesn't happen again.

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'Another animal keeping an eye out for big snakes

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'is the largest rodent in the world - the capybara.

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'Despite their size, these are a favourite food for anacondas,

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'so they need to be always vigilant.'

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You can see a bit of a line through the vegetation here.

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That's a capybara highway.

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It's somewhere where these enormous rodents

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are moving through these ponds.

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And, if I was an anaconda,

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then I'd set up shop right next to one of those.

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So around here is a really, really good spot.

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'If we're going to find our big snake,

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'it's going to be by learning to read the signs,

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'by tracking them down.

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'And some of our local friends have done just that.'

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They've got something! Great, great!

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Well done, well done, well done!

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OK.

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So there's the tail, and...

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where is the head?

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There he is.

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OK.

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At this size, it could be a male

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or an immature female.

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Fantastic! Well done, guys.

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Very, very good job!

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This is an absolutely beautiful...

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There's another one here.

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Oh!

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And...

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OK, so in this area here are several anacondas,

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most of which seem to be this kind of size.

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And the possibility is,

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is that these are all males

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and that they've come together around a female.

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So right here is an absolute hotspot.

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It's possible, because what happens is, is called a breeding ball.

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The males would follow the scent of the female,

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they'll all come together around her

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to try and get the right to breed with her.

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OK. Oh, that's a skinny one!

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Really skinny, my goodness!

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Well done, Jack!

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OK. Now, look at the difference between these two animals.

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So they are about the same length,

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but, on this one, you can clearly make out the backbone,

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the flesh is really, really slack.

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This one hasn't eaten for a good while.

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Whereas this one is very, very full and thick.

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It has good fat reserves.

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This has been eating very, very well.

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I kind of wish that we had smellovision right now,

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because one of the anaconda's best way of defending itself

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is to release a whole bunch of kind of sticky paste from here,

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essentially from the bottom.

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And it has a smell that I just can't describe.

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The last time I handled anacondas I had to throw all of my clothes away.

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There was no way I was getting rid of it.

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And, unfortunately, I'm getting covered with it right now.

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And er...it's really, really horrid.

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That stinks.

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You see the tongue now, flicking out onto the air,

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curling up at the end,

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drawing in different wonderful tastes from the air

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and processing them.

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It's an absolutely wonderful snake,

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but pretty diddy for an anaconda.

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What I really want to do is to show you one of the mammoth females.

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They are the ones that are most impressive.

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'A glorious start, but I'm convinced we can do much better.'

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And, in a couple of seconds, that is going to totally disappear.

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And gone.

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You'd never know it was there.

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'And that, in a nutshell, it's why finding anacondas is so difficult.

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'There are hundreds of species living here in the swamps.

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'And a few genuine surprises.'

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Oh, my goodness! It's that...?

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That's not what I think it is, is it?

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It is! Look at that!

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I don't believe it.

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It's a giant anteater wandering around by the shore.

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Just there. Its nose is sticking up.

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Out of the water hyacinth.

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Oh, that is beautiful.

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'We're walking around on mats of vegetation above boggy ground.

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'No ant or termite mounds for miles around.

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'What's he doing here!?'

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This is truly one of the great animal oddities found in the world.

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'Giant anteaters have featured on Deadly before.

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'They are real specialist, using a long tongue covered in sticky mucous

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'to slobber up as many as 35,000 ants and termites in a day.

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'But, right now, I think he's just taking a nap.'

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It looks like he's enjoying a quiet snooze.

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And I still have an anaconda to find.

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So let's just move around him.

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'My next tactic is to use a truck,

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'driving the sandy roads that crisscross the Llanos.

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'When anacondas cross the roads,

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'they leave distinctive tracks behind,

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'like this.'

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This has happened relatively recently.

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It's crossing the road!

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'And this is how those telltale tracks were made.'

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Really quite beautiful motion.

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You can see it's scrunching the body up

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and then extending forwards,

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anchoring itself again here.

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And then, moving forwards again.

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Isn't that wonderful?

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'Anacondas everywhere but, so far, all males.

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'The females are much bigger so they have reserves of fat to sustain them

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'when they are bearing young.

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'Let's hope the new day brings more luck.'

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Jesus, donde?

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'And, in the next morning, everything goes frantic.'

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We've just had a shout from Jesus.

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He's been out on the road and he's seen a big anaconda.

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This is the moment we've been waiting for.

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We have to mobilise, get there very, very quick.

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Unfortunately, my Spanish isn't great,

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so I haven't understood exactly what he's said.

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Just that he's seen a BIG snake.

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'And a big anaconda is the biggest snake on Earth.

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'Here's hoping!'

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So, finally, we have our anaconda.

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And this is probably always going to be our best chance of finding one,

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it was just pure luck.

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The guys were out on the road,

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and they saw this wonderful female at the waterside,

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and that's really what we were hoping to find.

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It's a good size. I'm guessing that it's probably

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2,5 metres in length.

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Possible even, actually,

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getting on for three metres in length.

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And an animal of this size can certainly take down

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the largest birds that you'll find around here at the waterside.

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It might even take on a baby capybara,

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despite the fact that their head is so small,

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it can swell to take in very decent-sized prey.

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And look at the length of it.

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It is really a mighty animal,

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and incredibly strong.

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But, even this one here

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is a baby compared to the true monster anacondas.

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The largest ones that have ever been found are for sure seven metres,

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possibly even as much as nine metres,

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which is as long as a bus.

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And an animal like that is capable of eating a fully-grown capybara,

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even a deer.

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It's a great swimmer.

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It moves with incredible ease through the water

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with a beautiful serpentine motion.

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And also, all of these wonderful colours give it perfect camouflage

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down there in the vegetation from its prey,

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and also from potential predators too.

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Right, OK.

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I'd quite like to show you the teeth,

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and to do that, I need to get control of the head.

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Right, OK.

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Now, looking into the mouth of an anaconda,

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you can see those incredibly sharp, pointed teeth.

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They are covered up by a layer of skin.

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There's two rows on the upper jaw

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and one on the lower jaw.

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And because they are so sharp,

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once they've hooked into prey,

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they is simply no way a prey animal is going to escape,

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and it can be funnelled down into that throat.

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'It takes a firm grip to restrain an anaconda.

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'But these snakes are tough enough to constrict crocodiles to death,

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'so this isn't going to hurt the snake one little bit.'

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I'm kind of being wound at the moment

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into a serpent straitjacket.

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'The anaconda was doubtless crossing the road

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'to head to a better hunting pond.

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'So that's where I release it.'

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This is its true environment.

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This is the place where this animal absolutely rules.

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Before I put it back though,

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I just have to say that the green anaconda,

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perhaps the most iconic, legendary snake in the whole world,

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the heaviest, largest-bodied and strongest of all snakes.

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Definitely going on my list.

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This camouflage constrictor is formidably muscular,

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using its bulk to squeeze

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the life out of its prey

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before swallowing it down in one mammoth mouthful.

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The largest, heaviest, biggest-bodied snake on Earth.

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'We're journeying to the north of Venezuela

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'in search of an animal that put the creep in creepy crawling.

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'Ever since I heard of their existence, over a decade ago,

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'I've been dying to find one,

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'so it'll take more than a bit of mud to put me off.'

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We lost all brake power coming down there.

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This could get a little bit messy.

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It doesn't look like we're going anywhere at the moment.

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I think we're walking.

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Pretty sure we're walking. What do you reckon?

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'Walking with all our filming kit, ropes, first aid - the works.

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'It's going to be quite a hefty hike,

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'even to get to the cave where our target lives.'

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What lies ahead is hopefully going to be well worth

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the mud and the sweat.

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In the cave that we are heading to is a truly venomous monster.

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It's one of the most sinister creatures we've ever featured.

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It's called the giant scolopendra.

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The largest species of centipede in the world,

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reaching over 30 centimetres in length,

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that's as long as my forearm.

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The giant scolopendra has up to 23 body segments,

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each with a pair of curved spiky legs.

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And, at the business end,

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a venomous bite with chemicals that cause paralysing pain.

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If this doesn't scare you, well...

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It should.

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'Scolopendra centipedes are found throughout the tropics.

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'They are all venomous and are particularly adept in the dark.

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'But in a few caves in Venezuela,

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'they've been witnessed doing something extraordinary -

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'hunting bats,

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'possibly even catching them midair as they fly past.

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'And there are certainly plenty of bats in here.

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'They've left their mark over hundred of years

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'in piles and piles of stinking droppings known as guano.'

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These cockroaches are feeding on this stuff.

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This is guano.

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It's one of the richest fertilisers in the world.

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And it's also very, very good

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for these horrible, great big cockroaches to feed on.

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I don't like it in here.

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HE LAUGHS

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'It's smelly, humid and just plain horrid,

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'but we've come here to find something special.'

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Look at that - bats!

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'And this is the first part of the puzzle.

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'There's about ten species in here - bats that feed on fruit,

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'on insects and on something a little more grisly.'

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These droppings are all kind of black and slimy.

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This is definitely...

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bats roosting above

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and I reckon that's vampire bats myself.

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That kind of really greasy, slick black droppings.

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It looks like the remains of...

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blood. Mwahahaha!

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Vampire bats are the only mammal to feed solely on blood.

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They are pretty deadly in their own right.

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But we are out looking for a centipede

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that actually snatches, catches and eats bats.

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Above us, you can see

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the ceiling has actually caved in

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and this is one of the largest exits out of this cave system.

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Come dusk, the thousands of bats in here

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are going to be heading out of there to hunt and, believe it or not,

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this giant scolopendra, the largest centipede in the world,

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that can be as long as my forearm,

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climbs up into the roof of this cave

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and tries to catch the bats as they fly out.

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Now, I'd love to get up there obviously,

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but these walls are overhanging

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and much too steep and greasy for me to climb.

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So I think the best thing to do is to get up high

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and abseil down from up there.

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And the best time to do that is when the bats start leaving.

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BATS SCREECHING

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'This skylight in the roof of the cave should allow us

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'to abseil down to the ceilings where the centipedes hunt.

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'As the light fades, the bats will start to emerge.'

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Here we go!

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Oh, that is incredible! Wow!

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Well, I can see bats.

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And lots and lots of cracks and crevices

0:19:270:19:30

that are perfect for our giant bat-eating monster.

0:19:300:19:38

The bats are starting to get active now.

0:19:380:19:41

And this is the time of day

0:19:410:19:42

when they are really at their most vulnerable,

0:19:420:19:45

because they are being funnelled out through this bottleneck here,

0:19:450:19:48

and also because they are predictable.

0:19:480:19:50

Any predator knows that this time of day

0:19:500:19:52

is when they are going to be heading out to hunt.

0:19:520:19:55

And its vantage points, like these cliff faces here,

0:19:550:19:58

they are exactly the sorts of positions that the scolopendra

0:19:580:20:01

would climb up to and actually hang out to try and catch a bat.

0:20:010:20:06

Just checking out every crack and crevice.

0:20:060:20:10

These are animals that like to cram themselves into little tiny gaps.

0:20:120:20:17

Right now tough, I can't see any.

0:20:170:20:20

Passed the cave around hanging,

0:20:200:20:22

so I think the best plan is to get down to the bottom

0:20:220:20:24

and try to find another exit

0:20:240:20:26

where more bats are being funnelled out of the cave.

0:20:260:20:29

We had no luck in the very roof of the cave.

0:20:410:20:45

There are still plenty more entrances and exits

0:20:450:20:48

where the centipedes could be lurking.

0:20:480:20:51

I think though, it's possible that our lights,

0:20:510:20:53

our bright white light might put them off.

0:20:530:20:56

So I think the next thing we should try is that just Graham,

0:20:560:20:59

the cameraman, and I should go searching for them

0:20:590:21:02

and get rid of the light and just film in infrared.

0:21:020:21:05

So if this place was spooky before, it's going to get even worse.

0:21:050:21:09

Let's go down into the darkness.

0:21:170:21:20

Of course the only problem is

0:21:240:21:26

that we can't see very much without our eyes,

0:21:260:21:28

so it makes everything around you even more creepy.

0:21:280:21:31

'Even with the special cameras,

0:21:340:21:36

'we can only see a suggestion of what's lurking out in the darkness.

0:21:360:21:41

'When you know that could be a highly venomous centipede,

0:21:410:21:43

'as long as my forearm,

0:21:430:21:45

'it gives you the shivers.

0:21:450:21:46

'And that's not all that's here.'

0:21:460:21:48

Look at that.

0:21:480:21:50

15 pairs of legs and it's off like a shot.

0:21:500:21:55

I have to admit there's something about this cave

0:22:060:22:08

that I really don't like.

0:22:080:22:10

Maybe is the fact that I'm being surrounded by vampire bats

0:22:100:22:13

and there could be, out there in the darkness somewhere,

0:22:130:22:16

this lethal venomous centipede.

0:22:160:22:19

Have a look at the cave above us.

0:22:190:22:22

How cool is that!

0:22:220:22:23

'Despite the fact that this cave is dark all the time,

0:22:230:22:27

'it still comes alive by night.

0:22:270:22:30

'Countless animals emerging from the cracks and crevices.'

0:22:300:22:33

Look at that, that's wonderful.

0:22:330:22:35

It's another centipede,

0:22:440:22:46

but not the one we're looking for.

0:22:460:22:48

Much, much smaller.

0:22:480:22:50

'We pretty much decided to give up for the night, when...'

0:22:540:22:58

Come here!

0:22:580:23:00

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:23:000:23:02

OK.

0:23:020:23:03

Here it comes. It's coming out, it's coming out, Graham.

0:23:060:23:09

Oh, it's big. It is a big one, look at that!

0:23:120:23:16

Oh, my God!

0:23:160:23:18

OK.

0:23:200:23:22

Whoa! I've got to hold my nerve now,

0:23:220:23:24

cos these are very, very strong.

0:23:240:23:27

And it has a set of fangs

0:23:270:23:30

that can probably penetrate

0:23:300:23:34

some parts of the gloves.

0:23:340:23:36

But this is what we came here to find.

0:23:380:23:41

The giant scolopendra.

0:23:430:23:44

The largest species of centipede found on Earth.

0:23:440:23:48

OK, now, we were actually looking in infrared light,

0:23:480:23:52

because we didn't want to freak it out.

0:23:520:23:53

But now that I've got it, we can probably switch back to white light.

0:23:530:23:57

-Do you want to grab the other camera, Graham?

-OK.

0:23:570:23:59

Eez! It's really trying to get stuck into my glove.

0:24:010:24:06

I'm a little bit nervous, because the fabric on the back of my hand

0:24:060:24:09

isn't actually strong enough to prevent a bite,

0:24:090:24:12

and if I did get bitten by this,

0:24:120:24:14

it probably wouldn't kill me, only probably.

0:24:140:24:16

What it'd certainly do is make sure that for the next couple of days,

0:24:160:24:19

there would be nothing in my world apart from pain.

0:24:190:24:22

The venom that this centipede has is very, very fast-acting.

0:24:220:24:25

It can take down a bat or a small rodent in a matter of minutes.

0:24:250:24:29

To a human being, it would just cause excruciating pain.

0:24:290:24:34

I guess now, for the first time, I can really see

0:24:350:24:38

how a centipede could be capable of catching a bat.

0:24:380:24:42

Scolopendra mostly feed on other invertebrates,

0:24:430:24:47

but will take rodents, frogs, lizards, even snakes.

0:24:470:24:50

In these caves though, they do something truly extraordinary.

0:24:500:24:54

They climb into parts of the cave where bats funnel through

0:24:590:25:02

on their way out to feed.

0:25:020:25:05

Then attach themselves to the ceiling

0:25:050:25:07

with the last five pairs of legs,

0:25:070:25:09

the other legs outstretched.

0:25:090:25:12

If a bat flies too close,

0:25:120:25:16

they grab it,

0:25:160:25:17

injecting a lethal venom that overcomes it in seconds.

0:25:170:25:21

This is pretty much the exact posture

0:25:210:25:25

that this animal would take up.

0:25:250:25:26

Hanging on to the wall with these back legs

0:25:260:25:29

and then the front part of the body

0:25:290:25:30

just up into the air,

0:25:300:25:32

feeling around with those antennae,

0:25:320:25:34

and those two claws

0:25:340:25:36

at the front of the head

0:25:360:25:38

open wide, just ready to bite.

0:25:380:25:41

Right now, it's sinking them right into my finger.

0:25:410:25:44

Those claws are actually the front pair of legs.

0:25:440:25:48

They become modified into a venom-injecting apparatus.

0:25:480:25:52

At the base of them, it's a massive, massive venom gland.

0:25:520:25:55

And it has a venom that is capable of overcoming things like bats

0:25:550:26:01

and rodents in a very, very quick time.

0:26:010:26:04

Look at that.

0:26:040:26:06

Those antennae are its primary means

0:26:060:26:08

of sensing the environment around it.

0:26:080:26:10

It has very, very poor eyesight.

0:26:100:26:12

The eyes are a little more

0:26:120:26:14

than a way of sensing the difference between light and dark,

0:26:140:26:16

but the antennae are incredibly acute.

0:26:160:26:19

They are almost like a nose, a tongue, they can pick up scents,

0:26:190:26:22

they can pick up different tastes from the world around them.

0:26:220:26:25

And they can also detect movement as well.

0:26:250:26:28

So that's what it's going to use to actually get a hold of bats.

0:26:280:26:31

It's going to sense their flight as they move past the centipede,

0:26:310:26:34

and then it's just going to grab them.

0:26:340:26:36

Absolutely phenomenal.

0:26:360:26:38

And, I have to admit, really kind of frightening.

0:26:380:26:42

The giant scolopendra -

0:26:530:26:54

the largest species of centipede found in the whole world.

0:26:540:26:58

There is no doubt that this animal is going on my Deadly 60.

0:26:580:27:01

The largest species of centipede

0:27:040:27:06

on Earth.

0:27:060:27:07

Injecting a fatal venom

0:27:070:27:09

into its prey,

0:27:090:27:10

which can kill a flying bat

0:27:100:27:12

in seconds.

0:27:120:27:14

And the strongest creature for its size I've ever handled.

0:27:140:27:17

Certainly puts a shiver

0:27:170:27:18

up the spine.

0:27:180:27:20

Could this get any creepier?

0:27:250:27:27

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

0:27:270:27:32

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0:27:380:27:41

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