Sri Lanka 1 Deadly 60


Sri Lanka 1

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Transcript


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My name's Steve Backshall.

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Woooo!

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And this is my search... for 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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And you're coming with me!

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Every step of the way.

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Deadly.

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This time on Deadly 60, we're in Sri Lanka.

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It's absolute paradise.

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But even paradise has deadly animals!

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South of India, a tear-drop shaped island

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in the midst of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is impossibly exotic.

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'We're going to be glimpsing the big blue, and a true marine monster...'

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There, there!

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'..tangling with a snake that could be the most dangerous on Earth...'

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Whoa!

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Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

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'..and facing down the continent's largest land mammal.'

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But we begin all at sea,

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seeking the king of animal record breakers,

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the largest animal ever known to have lived -

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the blue whale.

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Weighing as much as 180 tonnes and 30 metres in length,

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that's as long and heavy as a passenger jet.

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Their tongue alone weighs more than an elephant.

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And they're predators. With gargantuan mouths,

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they consume up to four tonnes of small animals called krill

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every single day.

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Which makes them the hungriest predator on Earth.

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Despite their size, they're difficult to film.

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They're constantly moving and deceptively fast,

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and our eventual aim is to film them in their world,

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something few people have ever done.

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Spotting one will only be the start of our monumental challenge.

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Blue whales are an animal I genuinely never thought I'd see.

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Until quite recently, they were almost impossible to see.

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They're an animal that's endangered, that lives way out in the deep sea.

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But a few years ago, scientists realised that there's a population

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of blue whales actually living off the coast of Sri Lanka,

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between here and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

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'The whales are attracted here by an upwelling of nutrients

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'from currents that sweep deep sea trenches near the coast.

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'These nutrients lead to blooms in krill,

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'the animals blue whales feed on.'

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'And richly-stocked oceans lead to an abundance of hunters.'

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Heading towards us, towards us, towards us! Oh-ho-ho!

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Oh, my...! Look down, look down, look down!

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Oh-h!

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'These are spinner dolphins.

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'They're named for their habit of spinning around their axis

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'as they leap from the water.'

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Oh, I don't BELIEVE how high they're jumping.

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Any day where you see a dolphin is, in my book, a very, very good day.

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Even better, when we come across the ocean equivalent of an animal track.

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The water below is filled with fluorescent orange junk.

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It kind of looks like melted plastic,

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but it's actually blue whale poo.

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This is all the mush that's left over from that krill diet.

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The crustaceans they feed on are bright, bright orange.

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And these are the indigestible bits that have been pooed out

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of the back of the whale.

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Oh, we've actually got some in a bucket!

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So we've hoisted some of this orange goo out of the water.

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That is blue whale droppings.

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Very fierce, bitter, kind of salty smell to it.

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Very, very much seafood. Bright, bright orange.

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And that is the indigestible remains of krill and the crustaceans

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that blue whales feed on.

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Eugh! Eugh. Actually... Eugh!

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Eugh!

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God, that's rancid.

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Don't think I've been quite so excited about poo in my entire life.

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'A whale must have surfaced here just minutes before.

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'But our search is getting harder.

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'The waves are increasing, and we're lurching about all the place.

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'Even a surfacing blue whale could be hidden by the swell,

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'and filming is next to impossible.'

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Spare a thought for Johnny the cameraman.

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This would have to be about as hard as wildlife film-making gets.

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Bouncing up and down on a boat,

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being hung onto in a bear hug by Mervyn.

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'But then, a spout,

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'and for a split second, we think we see a whale.'

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The boat's motors have slowed, because...

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There, right in front of us! Johnny, over to the left!

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Right alongside the boat!

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And it's going to dive under us. It's going to dive under the boat!

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No more than 20 metres.

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Oh, my word!

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No way!

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Yes, I see it, I see it.

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The only comparison I can make is like a nuclear submarine.

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Just breaking the surface. It's almost silent,

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and you just see the water dripping off its flanks.

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The spray just came back and hit us all in the face. It's that close!

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'There's a reason this is seen as the best place on Earth

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'to see blue whales.'

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There's two animals, side by side,

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and for the first time, you can really get a sense of the scale

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of the animal. It is genuinely bigger and longer than our boat.

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Blue whales are the largest of the baleen whales.

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Baleen whales don't have any teeth.

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Instead, hanging from their upper jaw,

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they have plates of a substance called baleen, made of keratin,

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same thing that our fingernails are made of.

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And they'll open their mouths,

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they'll take in GIGANTIC amounts of water and krill,

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then close the mouth up,

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squeezing all the water out.

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And all the food is trapped on the inside.

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The baleen acts like a sieve.

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They then use their ENORMOUS tongue to slurp down all of that food

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and that can be tonnes of food in a day.

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'Which makes them a very fitting subject for my list.'

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My goodness!

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You beauty!

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This has been an experience I will never forget.

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But, if this has been challenging,

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our next task is even more difficult.

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'That's to get into the water with blue whales and see them

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'in their full glory and in their world.

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'But the conditions right now are not in our favour.

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'We'll have to return another day.'

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In the meantime, we're going to look for an animal that is to the land

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what the blue whale is to the sea.

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It's another giant.

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Elephants are the largest of all land animals.

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The Asian elephant weighs almost six tonnes,

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and has a strength that is unmatched in the natural world.

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Here in Asia, they've been used as a beast of burden for centuries.

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'Three years ago in India,

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'we were charged by a female elephant

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'who was protecting the young of her herd.'

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-ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

-Go, go, go, go!

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'Most displays are mock charges designed to frighten,

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'but there's no doubt in my mind that there was genuine intent

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'and fury in this stampede.'

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Keep rolling, keep rolling!

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Don't stop! Go, go, go!

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ELEPHANT TRUMPETS ANGRILY

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'When female elephants fly into this kind of a rage

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'no animal or person is safe.'

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'But there's a time in the elephant's year

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'when the males can be even more dangerous.

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'To explain, I'm in Udawalawe,

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Sri Lanka's top national park for elephants.' At this time of year,

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something happens to the males which turns them into

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a completely different animal.

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It's called musth, and it can happen for as much as a couple of months.

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Essentially, the meals are just thinking about finding a female,

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and they can become really angry and aggressive.

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When that happens, they can become a totally unpredictable animal

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and genuinely very, very dangerous.

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So, we are hoping to find one, but obviously,

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we're going to have to keep our wits about us.

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'Large herds are dominated by females,

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'and our one frightening experience with them

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'is definitely not the norm.'

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We've just driven right into the midst

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of a full-on herd of elephant.

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There are many adult females. I can't see all of them right now.

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And a couple of tiny, tiny calves.

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This is just so beautiful.

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'Mature males keep themselves to themselves,

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'and when they're in musth, females fear for their calves' safety.

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'There certainly isn't a male nearby

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'if the others are so calm and content.'

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We're just turning around, because our guide, Ashoka,

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said that as he drove down this lane,

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he actually smelt the musth of a male elephant.

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He said it smelt like a combination of rotting meat and honey.

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And he could actually smell that as the car drove past.

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That is the value of local knowledge right there.

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'An argumentative male elephant is, to my mind,

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'the most terrifying animal on Earth.

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'They can outrun you,

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'can crush a car like a tin can,

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'and when you're near a male in musth,

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'you must ALWAYS be on your guard.'

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White-shouldered kite.

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Ooh, yes!

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-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

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-Is this him?

-Yeah.

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'So, to have a musth male bearing down on us

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'was, frankly, unsettling.'

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OK, I'm not entirely sure why they've turned the engine off.

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Is this safe? Are you sure?

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ELEPHANT GROWLS

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Are you totally sure?

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Yeah, I know him.

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OK, this is a male elephant...

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..in musth.

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I daren't move. I barely even breathe.

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I have to admit, having him stroll past us like that,

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my heart was in my mouth.

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I don't know about you guys!

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-HE LAUGHS

-Do you smell him?

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-Yes.

-Yeah, it's really strong.

-Yeah. An incredibly strong smell.

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'Lucky for us, he was moving on, intent on finding a girlfriend.

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'But I've seen elephants in a far worse mood.

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'When they're being protective, or in a foul temper,

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'they're unstoppable, and for that reason,

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'they take a place on the list.'

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Elephants are the largest of all land creatures,

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with phenomenal strength unmatched in the natural world.

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Mostly docile, but not always.

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They may not be a predator,

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but you come face to face with a charging elephant!

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Trust me, they're deadly.

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Much of Sri Lanka is covered with rice paddy fields.

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Mice, rats and birds love them, and snakes come in to feed on them.

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Amongst them, perhaps the most dangerous snake on earth,

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the Russell's viper.

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It's not an evil, malicious snake that wants to cause us harm,

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but nonetheless, causes more human deaths

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than any other species.

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I'm here, as the sun sets, to see why.

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Sri Lanka's one of the very few places in the world

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where snakes are significantly dangerous to human beings.

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Around about six in every 100,000 deaths in this country

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are caused by venomous snake bite,

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and most of those are down to just a few snakes - the cobras...

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..the saw-scaled vipers...

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and probably around 48-50% of those venomous snake bites

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from the Russell's viper that we're going to find now.

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'Several local villagers are helping us out by keeping a look-out.

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'Any snakes we find will be taken far from people

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'and released in the forest.'

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We've just had a call come through that a snake's been spotted

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on the road up ahead of us somewhere.

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We're going to just try and get there as quickly as we can.

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We don't know what kind of snake it is or how far away it is,

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but hopefully it's going to be our Russell's viper.

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And...it looks like it's ahead of us.

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We've got a lot of people.

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OK, it's over in the field, over there.

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So it looks like all of these guys

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have surrounded the snake in the field ahead of us.

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Let's go find out what it is.

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'If we hadn't been here,

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'the snake would probably have been killed on sight.

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'Let's see what it is.'

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Ah, it's a Russell's viper.

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'Many eyes made light work of our snake search.'

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OK, whoa!

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A very violent strike back towards the snake stick there.

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I'm holding in my hands what could be the most dangerous snake

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to human beings in the world.

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And it's fed fairly recently.

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If you look at the centre of its body,

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you can see a couple of large lumps, one particularly big one,

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which is probably a rat

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that this snake's been feasting on in this field.

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And that's exactly what attracts Russell's vipers into areas

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where they come very close to human beings.

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The reason that the Russell's viper

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is one of the only snakes in the world

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that is significantly dangerous to people

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is down to its hunting strategy. This is a classic viper.

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It'll sit in one position and wait for prey to come nearby.

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When someone steps close to it, it strikes out at it, very, very quick,

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and injects venom from its hinged fangs,

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which are at the front of the upper jaw.

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That venom is very, very toxic indeed,

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and very harmful to human beings.

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If people can't get to hospital in time,

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then it's going to be very bad.

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But obviously, it isn't a snake that actually wants to do us harm.

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It's just reacting to having

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something warm-blooded walk close to it.

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The Russell's viper - unpredictable,

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with an incredibly rapid strike and seriously toxic venom.

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It's a superb hunter of rats and other rodents,

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and probably the most dangerous snake to people on the planet.

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And for that reason, it's going on my list.

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Quick to strike and with penetrating venom,

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its virulent toxins work fast on its rodent prey.

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But it's also one of the few snakes that's dangerous to people,

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and is a fiery addition to the list.

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We told everyone we were looking for snakes, so the calls kept coming,

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and one rather bigger snake was brought right to us.

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So, this snake was found close to people,

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and needs to be released into the forest.

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But let's see what we've got.

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Oh, my word.

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That is beautiful and absolutely enormous.

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'An Indian rock python, one of the world's serpent giants.'

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OK, I'm going to need to tip this out,

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because they can be quite snappy.

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So, everyone, watch yourselves.

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That is absolutely massive.

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And very, very strong.

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OK, where's it going?

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OK.

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OK, what I need to do is get control of the head.

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Cos once you've done that, you have control of the snake.

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OK, yes, got it.

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Crumbs, that was harder than I was expecting! OK.

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HE EXHALES DEEPLY

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'This snake is near four metres long, mightily impressive,

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'but they can be up to six.'

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It's extraordinarily strong, and obviously doing very,

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very well for itself, because this particular animal is very fat,

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very healthy, and has obviously been feeding with great regularity.

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It senses its prey with highly sensitive scales

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running down the upper lip,

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which can actually pick up warmth from warm-blooded prey.

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'These lip or labial scales help pythons to detect prey.

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'Once it's been caught, the snakes in this group will constrict,

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'enveloping their victims in muscular coils,

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'squeezing and squeezing till there's no life left.'

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A snake of this size could quite easily feed on pig or deer,

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and it would swallow them in one mouthful,

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as all snakes have to do,

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because they're not capable of chewing their prey,

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and swelling - this head just distending the jaw

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and walking it down,

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the massive animals that it's capable of feeding on.

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It was found near the village, possibly on the hunt for livestock.

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Normally, it would have been killed, but for us,

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they're agreed to spare its life.

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This marvellous, precious,

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beautiful snake will now go back to the forest, where it can be

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safe from people - as far away from human beings as possible.

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But before we do that, you've got to say,

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this huge, incredibly strong, muscular,

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magical animal has to go on the Deadly 60.

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Indian python. Deadly.

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It has long, thin teeth, and lots of them.

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Constricts the breath out of its prey, and grows to an enormous size.

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No danger to us humans, but they're big, bold and brilliant.

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'We started our Sri Lankan adventure on a marine mission,

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'in search of blue whales.'

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There, right in front of us!

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There! Over to the left, right alongside the boat!

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Oh, my word!

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'Now we're back, to try

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'and film these wild record-breakers in their own deep blue world.'

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Now, you've seen how fast they move,

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you've seen how difficult they are to predict.

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This is one of the biggest challenges we've ever taken on.

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We've got a small rib behind us, which is more manoeuvrable,

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which'll make it easier for us to get into a good position,

0:21:200:21:23

and then Johnny the cameraman

0:21:230:21:24

and I are just going to have to dive in and swim like crazy.

0:21:240:21:27

But if we pull it off,

0:21:270:21:29

it'll be one of the greatest things we've ever done on Deadly 60.

0:21:290:21:33

'My hope is to free dive with them,

0:21:330:21:36

'with both Johnny and I filming on underwater cameras.

0:21:360:21:39

'We'll use the rib to position ourselves

0:21:390:21:42

'where we think the whales might surface.'

0:21:420:21:45

Now that we're in the rib, we're much more manoeuvrable.

0:21:460:21:48

It's much easier to get ourselves into a good position.

0:21:480:21:51

-You see it? Johnny's got a vision on it. How far?

-150 metres.

0:21:510:21:57

150 metres ahead of us, OK.

0:21:570:21:58

Hold on to your hats!

0:22:010:22:02

'The plan is to predict where we think the whales will come up,

0:22:040:22:07

'and make sure we're there waiting for them.

0:22:070:22:10

'But with the whales moving at 20mph,

0:22:100:22:12

'that's a tough task.'

0:22:120:22:14

Tracking them down is next to impossible,

0:22:140:22:17

particularly when you've got this vast expanse

0:22:170:22:19

of open blue ocean to look in.

0:22:190:22:21

There, though, there, right over there!

0:22:210:22:23

Gear up, Steve?

0:22:250:22:26

Yes, it's no more than 100 metres away.

0:22:260:22:29

Get the gear up.

0:22:290:22:31

Can you see it, Johnny?

0:22:310:22:32

'Blue whales can be as long and heavy as a passenger jet,

0:22:340:22:38

'so you'd think seeing them would be easy. Well, no.'

0:22:380:22:42

This is even harder than I thought it was going to be!

0:22:440:22:49

'But we're learning.'

0:22:490:22:50

We're beginning to build up

0:22:500:22:51

a reliable picture of what this animal's doing.

0:22:510:22:53

At the moment it seems to be spending

0:22:530:22:56

about two or three minutes at the surface, and then diving.

0:22:560:22:58

And it's going down for almost exactly eight minutes.

0:22:580:23:02

In all probability, what it's doing is diving down

0:23:020:23:05

to maybe 200 metres below the surface and feeding on krill.

0:23:050:23:08

There are probably great big, thick

0:23:080:23:09

mats, shoals of those crustaceans down there,

0:23:090:23:12

and it's taking enormous mouthfuls of them - probably tonnes

0:23:120:23:15

with every single dive, and then coming back up to the surface.

0:23:150:23:19

I mean, it is an extraordinary thought that these deep blue seas

0:23:190:23:22

that surround us are home to this incredible deep blue giant.

0:23:220:23:27

'Suddenly, the whale surfaces, just metres away from us.'

0:23:310:23:35

'An animal I've waited a lifetime to encounter.

0:23:430:23:47

'Very few people have ever managed to film them underwater.

0:23:470:23:51

'It's a vast, blue shape in the crystal-clear seas.

0:23:510:23:55

'Sunlight dapples its flanks.

0:23:550:23:57

'It cruises past, barely seeming to move at all.

0:23:570:24:00

'But no Olympic swimmer could ever keep pace.'

0:24:000:24:05

'Both the whales and I have to surface to breathe,

0:24:080:24:11

'but while I can dive for just minutes,

0:24:110:24:13

'whales can disappear for an hour or more.'

0:24:130:24:15

'This is our big chance. It's diving right in front of me.'

0:24:170:24:20

'The tail flukes can be as broad as a bus,

0:24:230:24:26

'yet swoosh past my eyes mere metres away.

0:24:260:24:29

'It's disappearing to impossible depths

0:24:290:24:32

'in search of krill to feed on,

0:24:320:24:33

'and my lungs are bursting.'

0:24:330:24:36

HE GASPS

0:24:380:24:41

I think we got it! I think we got it.

0:24:450:24:48

It swam right underneath me, it dived in front of me,

0:24:480:24:51

and I just saw the tail flukes disappearing below me.

0:24:510:24:55

I think I may have just got a shot of the largest animal on earth

0:24:550:25:00

swimming underneath me.

0:25:000:25:01

'Johnny and I head back to the big boat to check our shots.

0:25:100:25:14

'But before we have a chance, another whale surfaces.

0:25:140:25:18

'And this one is right alongside us.

0:25:180:25:21

'We get kitted up in record time,

0:25:210:25:23

'and jump straight off in hot pursuit.'

0:25:230:25:26

'For a second, it seems we've missed our golden opportunity.'

0:25:310:25:34

'But it practically swims right over the top of us.'

0:25:430:25:47

'This whale's more relaxed, less eager to return to the depths.

0:25:560:26:00

'For a few seconds, we have the privilege of sharing the seas

0:26:010:26:04

'with a true marine marvel,

0:26:040:26:07

'as it blows out bad air and gulps in oxygen.'

0:26:070:26:11

'I've never felt so tiny in my whole life.'

0:26:150:26:18

'Then its nose drops and the tail flukes go up.

0:26:250:26:28

'This one will be a deep dive, and I follow as far as I can.

0:26:280:26:34

'But I'm just a temporary visitor here,

0:26:340:26:37

'this is definitely a whale's world.'

0:26:370:26:40

Whoo!

0:26:440:26:46

That was like nothing I have ever seen before.

0:26:490:26:53

Just a giant submarine cruising below us, and totally at ease.

0:26:530:26:59

Didn't seem to care at all that we were there in its world,

0:26:590:27:02

and I have never felt so utterly dwarfed

0:27:020:27:06

by a living creature in my life.

0:27:060:27:08

The largest animal that has ever lived.

0:27:080:27:11

The blue whale, definitely on my list.

0:27:110:27:14

Yes!

0:27:170:27:18

It's the biggest creature that's ever known to have lived.

0:27:200:27:24

With the largest appetite,

0:27:240:27:25

eating four tonnes of food every single day.

0:27:250:27:28

No krill is safe with this deep sea predator around.

0:27:290:27:32

And I for one will never, ever forget it.

0:27:330:27:36

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

0:27:420:27:48

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

0:27:480:27:51

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