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My name's Steve Backshall. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
Woooo! | 0:00:04 | 0:00:05 | |
And this is my search... for the Deadly 60. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:10 | |
That's not just animals that are deadly to me, | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
but animals that are deadly in their own world. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
My crew and I are travelling the planet. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
And you're coming with me! | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
Every step of the way. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
Deadly. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
This time on Deadly 60, we're in Sri Lanka. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
It's absolute paradise. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:34 | |
But even paradise has deadly animals! | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
South of India, a tear-drop shaped island | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
in the midst of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is impossibly exotic. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
'We're going to be glimpsing the big blue, and a true marine monster...' | 0:00:45 | 0:00:51 | |
There, there! | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
'..tangling with a snake that could be the most dangerous on Earth...' | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
Whoa! | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! | 0:00:59 | 0:01:01 | |
'..and facing down the continent's largest land mammal.' | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
But we begin all at sea, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
seeking the king of animal record breakers, | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
the largest animal ever known to have lived - | 0:01:15 | 0:01:17 | |
the blue whale. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
Weighing as much as 180 tonnes and 30 metres in length, | 0:01:25 | 0:01:30 | |
that's as long and heavy as a passenger jet. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
Their tongue alone weighs more than an elephant. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
And they're predators. With gargantuan mouths, | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
they consume up to four tonnes of small animals called krill | 0:01:39 | 0:01:44 | |
every single day. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:45 | |
Which makes them the hungriest predator on Earth. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
Despite their size, they're difficult to film. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
They're constantly moving and deceptively fast, | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
and our eventual aim is to film them in their world, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
something few people have ever done. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
Spotting one will only be the start of our monumental challenge. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
Blue whales are an animal I genuinely never thought I'd see. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:14 | |
Until quite recently, they were almost impossible to see. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
They're an animal that's endangered, that lives way out in the deep sea. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
But a few years ago, scientists realised that there's a population | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
of blue whales actually living off the coast of Sri Lanka, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
between here and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
'The whales are attracted here by an upwelling of nutrients | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
'from currents that sweep deep sea trenches near the coast. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
'These nutrients lead to blooms in krill, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
'the animals blue whales feed on.' | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
'And richly-stocked oceans lead to an abundance of hunters.' | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
Heading towards us, towards us, towards us! Oh-ho-ho! | 0:02:51 | 0:02:56 | |
Oh, my...! Look down, look down, look down! | 0:02:57 | 0:03:02 | |
Oh-h! | 0:03:02 | 0:03:03 | |
'These are spinner dolphins. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:05 | |
'They're named for their habit of spinning around their axis | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
'as they leap from the water.' | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
Oh, I don't BELIEVE how high they're jumping. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
Any day where you see a dolphin is, in my book, a very, very good day. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:21 | |
Even better, when we come across the ocean equivalent of an animal track. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:26 | |
The water below is filled with fluorescent orange junk. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:32 | |
It kind of looks like melted plastic, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:34 | |
but it's actually blue whale poo. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
This is all the mush that's left over from that krill diet. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
The crustaceans they feed on are bright, bright orange. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
And these are the indigestible bits that have been pooed out | 0:03:43 | 0:03:47 | |
of the back of the whale. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
Oh, we've actually got some in a bucket! | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
So we've hoisted some of this orange goo out of the water. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
That is blue whale droppings. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
Very fierce, bitter, kind of salty smell to it. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:07 | |
Very, very much seafood. Bright, bright orange. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:11 | |
And that is the indigestible remains of krill and the crustaceans | 0:04:11 | 0:04:15 | |
that blue whales feed on. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
Eugh! Eugh. Actually... Eugh! | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
Eugh! | 0:04:22 | 0:04:23 | |
God, that's rancid. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:26 | |
Don't think I've been quite so excited about poo in my entire life. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
'A whale must have surfaced here just minutes before. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
'But our search is getting harder. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
'The waves are increasing, and we're lurching about all the place. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:44 | |
'Even a surfacing blue whale could be hidden by the swell, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
'and filming is next to impossible.' | 0:04:47 | 0:04:51 | |
Spare a thought for Johnny the cameraman. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:53 | |
This would have to be about as hard as wildlife film-making gets. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
Bouncing up and down on a boat, | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
being hung onto in a bear hug by Mervyn. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
'But then, a spout, | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
'and for a split second, we think we see a whale.' | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
The boat's motors have slowed, because... | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
There, right in front of us! Johnny, over to the left! | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
Right alongside the boat! | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
And it's going to dive under us. It's going to dive under the boat! | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
No more than 20 metres. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:23 | |
Oh, my word! | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
No way! | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
Yes, I see it, I see it. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
The only comparison I can make is like a nuclear submarine. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:38 | |
Just breaking the surface. It's almost silent, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
and you just see the water dripping off its flanks. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:45 | |
The spray just came back and hit us all in the face. It's that close! | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
'There's a reason this is seen as the best place on Earth | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
'to see blue whales.' | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
There's two animals, side by side, | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
and for the first time, you can really get a sense of the scale | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
of the animal. It is genuinely bigger and longer than our boat. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:07 | |
Blue whales are the largest of the baleen whales. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:12 | |
Baleen whales don't have any teeth. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
Instead, hanging from their upper jaw, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
they have plates of a substance called baleen, made of keratin, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
same thing that our fingernails are made of. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
And they'll open their mouths, | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
they'll take in GIGANTIC amounts of water and krill, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
then close the mouth up, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:29 | |
squeezing all the water out. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:31 | |
And all the food is trapped on the inside. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
The baleen acts like a sieve. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
They then use their ENORMOUS tongue to slurp down all of that food | 0:06:35 | 0:06:41 | |
and that can be tonnes of food in a day. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
'Which makes them a very fitting subject for my list.' | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
My goodness! | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
You beauty! | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
This has been an experience I will never forget. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
But, if this has been challenging, | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
our next task is even more difficult. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
'That's to get into the water with blue whales and see them | 0:07:10 | 0:07:14 | |
'in their full glory and in their world. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
'But the conditions right now are not in our favour. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
'We'll have to return another day.' | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
In the meantime, we're going to look for an animal that is to the land | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
what the blue whale is to the sea. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
It's another giant. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
Elephants are the largest of all land animals. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
The Asian elephant weighs almost six tonnes, | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
and has a strength that is unmatched in the natural world. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:52 | |
Here in Asia, they've been used as a beast of burden for centuries. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:56 | |
'Three years ago in India, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
'we were charged by a female elephant | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
'who was protecting the young of her herd.' | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
-ELEPHANT TRUMPETS -Go, go, go, go! | 0:08:12 | 0:08:14 | |
'Most displays are mock charges designed to frighten, | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
'but there's no doubt in my mind that there was genuine intent | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
'and fury in this stampede.' | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
Keep rolling, keep rolling! | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
Don't stop! Go, go, go! | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS ANGRILY | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
'When female elephants fly into this kind of a rage | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
'no animal or person is safe.' | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
'But there's a time in the elephant's year | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
'when the males can be even more dangerous. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
'To explain, I'm in Udawalawe, | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
Sri Lanka's top national park for elephants.' At this time of year, | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
something happens to the males which turns them into | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
a completely different animal. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
It's called musth, and it can happen for as much as a couple of months. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
Essentially, the meals are just thinking about finding a female, | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
and they can become really angry and aggressive. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
When that happens, they can become a totally unpredictable animal | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
and genuinely very, very dangerous. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
So, we are hoping to find one, but obviously, | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
we're going to have to keep our wits about us. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
'Large herds are dominated by females, | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
'and our one frightening experience with them | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
'is definitely not the norm.' | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
We've just driven right into the midst | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
of a full-on herd of elephant. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
There are many adult females. I can't see all of them right now. | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
And a couple of tiny, tiny calves. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
This is just so beautiful. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:08 | |
'Mature males keep themselves to themselves, | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
'and when they're in musth, females fear for their calves' safety. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
'There certainly isn't a male nearby | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
'if the others are so calm and content.' | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
We're just turning around, because our guide, Ashoka, | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
said that as he drove down this lane, | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
he actually smelt the musth of a male elephant. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:33 | |
He said it smelt like a combination of rotting meat and honey. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:38 | |
And he could actually smell that as the car drove past. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
That is the value of local knowledge right there. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
'An argumentative male elephant is, to my mind, | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
'the most terrifying animal on Earth. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
'They can outrun you, | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
'can crush a car like a tin can, | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
'and when you're near a male in musth, | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
'you must ALWAYS be on your guard.' | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
White-shouldered kite. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:05 | |
Ooh, yes! | 0:11:05 | 0:11:06 | |
-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! -Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
-Is this him? -Yeah. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:11 | |
'So, to have a musth male bearing down on us | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
'was, frankly, unsettling.' | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
OK, I'm not entirely sure why they've turned the engine off. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
Is this safe? Are you sure? | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
ELEPHANT GROWLS | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
Are you totally sure? | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
Yeah, I know him. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:28 | |
OK, this is a male elephant... | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
..in musth. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:38 | |
I daren't move. I barely even breathe. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
I have to admit, having him stroll past us like that, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
my heart was in my mouth. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:54 | |
I don't know about you guys! | 0:11:57 | 0:11:58 | |
-HE LAUGHS -Do you smell him? | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
-Yes. -Yeah, it's really strong. -Yeah. An incredibly strong smell. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:05 | |
'Lucky for us, he was moving on, intent on finding a girlfriend. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:12 | |
'But I've seen elephants in a far worse mood. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
'When they're being protective, or in a foul temper, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
'they're unstoppable, and for that reason, | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
'they take a place on the list.' | 0:12:21 | 0:12:22 | |
Elephants are the largest of all land creatures, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
with phenomenal strength unmatched in the natural world. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
Mostly docile, but not always. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
They may not be a predator, | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
but you come face to face with a charging elephant! | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
Trust me, they're deadly. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
Much of Sri Lanka is covered with rice paddy fields. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
Mice, rats and birds love them, and snakes come in to feed on them. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:52 | |
Amongst them, perhaps the most dangerous snake on earth, | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
the Russell's viper. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:58 | |
It's not an evil, malicious snake that wants to cause us harm, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
but nonetheless, causes more human deaths | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
than any other species. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
I'm here, as the sun sets, to see why. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
Sri Lanka's one of the very few places in the world | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
where snakes are significantly dangerous to human beings. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
Around about six in every 100,000 deaths in this country | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
are caused by venomous snake bite, | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
and most of those are down to just a few snakes - the cobras... | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
..the saw-scaled vipers... | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
and probably around 48-50% of those venomous snake bites | 0:13:36 | 0:13:40 | |
from the Russell's viper that we're going to find now. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
'Several local villagers are helping us out by keeping a look-out. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
'Any snakes we find will be taken far from people | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
'and released in the forest.' | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
We've just had a call come through that a snake's been spotted | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
on the road up ahead of us somewhere. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
We're going to just try and get there as quickly as we can. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
We don't know what kind of snake it is or how far away it is, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
but hopefully it's going to be our Russell's viper. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
And...it looks like it's ahead of us. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:15 | |
We've got a lot of people. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:21 | |
OK, it's over in the field, over there. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
So it looks like all of these guys | 0:14:29 | 0:14:31 | |
have surrounded the snake in the field ahead of us. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:34 | |
Let's go find out what it is. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:36 | |
'If we hadn't been here, | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
'the snake would probably have been killed on sight. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
'Let's see what it is.' | 0:14:42 | 0:14:43 | |
Ah, it's a Russell's viper. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
'Many eyes made light work of our snake search.' | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
OK, whoa! | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
A very violent strike back towards the snake stick there. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
I'm holding in my hands what could be the most dangerous snake | 0:15:05 | 0:15:11 | |
to human beings in the world. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
And it's fed fairly recently. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
If you look at the centre of its body, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
you can see a couple of large lumps, one particularly big one, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
which is probably a rat | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
that this snake's been feasting on in this field. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:27 | |
And that's exactly what attracts Russell's vipers into areas | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
where they come very close to human beings. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
The reason that the Russell's viper | 0:15:35 | 0:15:36 | |
is one of the only snakes in the world | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
that is significantly dangerous to people | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
is down to its hunting strategy. This is a classic viper. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
It'll sit in one position and wait for prey to come nearby. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:49 | |
When someone steps close to it, it strikes out at it, very, very quick, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
and injects venom from its hinged fangs, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
which are at the front of the upper jaw. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
That venom is very, very toxic indeed, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
and very harmful to human beings. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:02 | |
If people can't get to hospital in time, | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
then it's going to be very bad. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
But obviously, it isn't a snake that actually wants to do us harm. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
It's just reacting to having | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
something warm-blooded walk close to it. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
The Russell's viper - unpredictable, | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
with an incredibly rapid strike and seriously toxic venom. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
It's a superb hunter of rats and other rodents, | 0:16:22 | 0:16:26 | |
and probably the most dangerous snake to people on the planet. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
And for that reason, it's going on my list. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
Quick to strike and with penetrating venom, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
its virulent toxins work fast on its rodent prey. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
But it's also one of the few snakes that's dangerous to people, | 0:16:43 | 0:16:46 | |
and is a fiery addition to the list. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:50 | |
We told everyone we were looking for snakes, so the calls kept coming, | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
and one rather bigger snake was brought right to us. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
So, this snake was found close to people, | 0:17:07 | 0:17:12 | |
and needs to be released into the forest. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
But let's see what we've got. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:17 | |
Oh, my word. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
That is beautiful and absolutely enormous. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:28 | |
'An Indian rock python, one of the world's serpent giants.' | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
OK, I'm going to need to tip this out, | 0:17:34 | 0:17:36 | |
because they can be quite snappy. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:38 | |
So, everyone, watch yourselves. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
That is absolutely massive. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
And very, very strong. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
OK, where's it going? | 0:18:03 | 0:18:04 | |
OK. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:07 | |
OK, what I need to do is get control of the head. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
Cos once you've done that, you have control of the snake. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
OK, yes, got it. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
Crumbs, that was harder than I was expecting! OK. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:34 | |
HE EXHALES DEEPLY | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
'This snake is near four metres long, mightily impressive, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
'but they can be up to six.' | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
It's extraordinarily strong, and obviously doing very, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
very well for itself, because this particular animal is very fat, | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
very healthy, and has obviously been feeding with great regularity. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:56 | |
It senses its prey with highly sensitive scales | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
running down the upper lip, | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
which can actually pick up warmth from warm-blooded prey. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
'These lip or labial scales help pythons to detect prey. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
'Once it's been caught, the snakes in this group will constrict, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
'enveloping their victims in muscular coils, | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
'squeezing and squeezing till there's no life left.' | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
A snake of this size could quite easily feed on pig or deer, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:33 | |
and it would swallow them in one mouthful, | 0:19:33 | 0:19:35 | |
as all snakes have to do, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
because they're not capable of chewing their prey, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:39 | |
and swelling - this head just distending the jaw | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
and walking it down, | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
the massive animals that it's capable of feeding on. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
It was found near the village, possibly on the hunt for livestock. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
Normally, it would have been killed, but for us, | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
they're agreed to spare its life. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:57 | |
This marvellous, precious, | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
beautiful snake will now go back to the forest, where it can be | 0:20:01 | 0:20:05 | |
safe from people - as far away from human beings as possible. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
But before we do that, you've got to say, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
this huge, incredibly strong, muscular, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
magical animal has to go on the Deadly 60. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
Indian python. Deadly. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
It has long, thin teeth, and lots of them. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
Constricts the breath out of its prey, and grows to an enormous size. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:34 | |
No danger to us humans, but they're big, bold and brilliant. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
'We started our Sri Lankan adventure on a marine mission, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
'in search of blue whales.' | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
There, right in front of us! | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
There! Over to the left, right alongside the boat! | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
Oh, my word! | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
'Now we're back, to try | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
'and film these wild record-breakers in their own deep blue world.' | 0:21:04 | 0:21:08 | |
Now, you've seen how fast they move, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
you've seen how difficult they are to predict. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
This is one of the biggest challenges we've ever taken on. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
We've got a small rib behind us, which is more manoeuvrable, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
which'll make it easier for us to get into a good position, | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
and then Johnny the cameraman | 0:21:23 | 0:21:24 | |
and I are just going to have to dive in and swim like crazy. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
But if we pull it off, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
it'll be one of the greatest things we've ever done on Deadly 60. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
'My hope is to free dive with them, | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
'with both Johnny and I filming on underwater cameras. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
'We'll use the rib to position ourselves | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
'where we think the whales might surface.' | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
Now that we're in the rib, we're much more manoeuvrable. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
It's much easier to get ourselves into a good position. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
-You see it? Johnny's got a vision on it. How far? -150 metres. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:57 | |
150 metres ahead of us, OK. | 0:21:57 | 0:21:58 | |
Hold on to your hats! | 0:22:01 | 0:22:02 | |
'The plan is to predict where we think the whales will come up, | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
'and make sure we're there waiting for them. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
'But with the whales moving at 20mph, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:12 | |
'that's a tough task.' | 0:22:12 | 0:22:14 | |
Tracking them down is next to impossible, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
particularly when you've got this vast expanse | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
of open blue ocean to look in. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
There, though, there, right over there! | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
Gear up, Steve? | 0:22:25 | 0:22:26 | |
Yes, it's no more than 100 metres away. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:29 | |
Get the gear up. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
Can you see it, Johnny? | 0:22:31 | 0:22:32 | |
'Blue whales can be as long and heavy as a passenger jet, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:38 | |
'so you'd think seeing them would be easy. Well, no.' | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
This is even harder than I thought it was going to be! | 0:22:44 | 0:22:49 | |
'But we're learning.' | 0:22:49 | 0:22:50 | |
We're beginning to build up | 0:22:50 | 0:22:51 | |
a reliable picture of what this animal's doing. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
At the moment it seems to be spending | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
about two or three minutes at the surface, and then diving. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
And it's going down for almost exactly eight minutes. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:02 | |
In all probability, what it's doing is diving down | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
to maybe 200 metres below the surface and feeding on krill. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
There are probably great big, thick | 0:23:08 | 0:23:09 | |
mats, shoals of those crustaceans down there, | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
and it's taking enormous mouthfuls of them - probably tonnes | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
with every single dive, and then coming back up to the surface. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
I mean, it is an extraordinary thought that these deep blue seas | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
that surround us are home to this incredible deep blue giant. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:27 | |
'Suddenly, the whale surfaces, just metres away from us.' | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
'An animal I've waited a lifetime to encounter. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
'Very few people have ever managed to film them underwater. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
'It's a vast, blue shape in the crystal-clear seas. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:55 | |
'Sunlight dapples its flanks. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
'It cruises past, barely seeming to move at all. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
'But no Olympic swimmer could ever keep pace.' | 0:24:00 | 0:24:05 | |
'Both the whales and I have to surface to breathe, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
'but while I can dive for just minutes, | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
'whales can disappear for an hour or more.' | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
'This is our big chance. It's diving right in front of me.' | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
'The tail flukes can be as broad as a bus, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
'yet swoosh past my eyes mere metres away. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
'It's disappearing to impossible depths | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
'in search of krill to feed on, | 0:24:32 | 0:24:33 | |
'and my lungs are bursting.' | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
HE GASPS | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
I think we got it! I think we got it. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
It swam right underneath me, it dived in front of me, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
and I just saw the tail flukes disappearing below me. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
I think I may have just got a shot of the largest animal on earth | 0:24:55 | 0:25:00 | |
swimming underneath me. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:01 | |
'Johnny and I head back to the big boat to check our shots. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:14 | |
'But before we have a chance, another whale surfaces. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
'And this one is right alongside us. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
'We get kitted up in record time, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:23 | |
'and jump straight off in hot pursuit.' | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
'For a second, it seems we've missed our golden opportunity.' | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
'But it practically swims right over the top of us.' | 0:25:43 | 0:25:47 | |
'This whale's more relaxed, less eager to return to the depths. | 0:25:56 | 0:26:00 | |
'For a few seconds, we have the privilege of sharing the seas | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
'with a true marine marvel, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
'as it blows out bad air and gulps in oxygen.' | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
'I've never felt so tiny in my whole life.' | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
'Then its nose drops and the tail flukes go up. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
'This one will be a deep dive, and I follow as far as I can. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:34 | |
'But I'm just a temporary visitor here, | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
'this is definitely a whale's world.' | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
Whoo! | 0:26:44 | 0:26:46 | |
That was like nothing I have ever seen before. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
Just a giant submarine cruising below us, and totally at ease. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:59 | |
Didn't seem to care at all that we were there in its world, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
and I have never felt so utterly dwarfed | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
by a living creature in my life. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
The largest animal that has ever lived. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
The blue whale, definitely on my list. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:14 | |
Yes! | 0:27:17 | 0:27:18 | |
It's the biggest creature that's ever known to have lived. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:24 | |
With the largest appetite, | 0:27:24 | 0:27:25 | |
eating four tonnes of food every single day. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
No krill is safe with this deep sea predator around. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
And I for one will never, ever forget it. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
'Join me next time as I continue my search for the Deadly 60.' | 0:27:42 | 0:27:48 | |
This is one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life! | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 |