Endangered Deadly 60

My name's Steve Backshall.

Whoo!

And this is my search...

for the Deadly 60.

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

But animals that are deadly in their own world.

'My crew and I are travelling the planet.'

And you're coming with me!

Every step of the way.

On Deadly 60 we're incredibly lucky.

Oh, my goodness! 'Travelling the world...'

Wow, it is a massive herd!

'..to see wild animals...'

No way.

'..at their lethal best.'

But even the toughest animals in an ever-changing world,

can come under threat and this special programme is about them.

This is Deadly Endangered.

Animals become endangered when their numbers drop dangerously low.

So low that they're at risk of becoming extinct

and disappearing for ever from the wild.

Around 5,600 species

are listed as being endangered, plus almost 4,000

that are critically endangered.

The cat family is very much at risk,

with all 36 species under threat and declining in numbers -

including the mightiest of them all - the tiger.

The tiger is critically endangered,

with fewer than 3,200 left in the wild.

The Caspian, Balinese and Javan tigers have already gone extinct.

So we were incredibly lucky to see tigers in the wild.

ALL: Tiger, tiger!

'When in India, I had the opportunity to see

'arguably the most formidable land predator alive today.'

Oh, yes, I can see it.

Oh, wow!

That's just so beautiful.

It's getting up now, moving further away into the forest.

You'd think that bright orange,

black and white would be a lousy colour scheme

and would show up anywhere but I can barely see her.

It's about to come out and cross the road.

Look at that!

Just sauntering across the road in front of us.

'So why is this tough, top predator in so much trouble?'

Well, one of the reasons is the very thing

that makes them so treasured.

Cats have incredibly beautiful fur coats, and sadly,

these have become objects of human desire.

For many, wearing a fur from an animal like a tiger

is a status symbol.

But attitudes can change.

In countries like Tibet, people stopped wearing these skins

after the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader,

called for a ban on wearing them.

But there is still much to be done.

Records show around 800 animals have gone extinct in recent times.

Animals like the dodo became extinct in the late 17th century,

when these large flightless birds were hunted for food.

The thylacine or Tasmanian wolf

was systematically hunted to extinction by humans.

The last known animal died in a zoo in Tasmania in 1936.

Today, there's another animal that's currently very close

to going the same way as the Tasmanian wolf.

This time, it's the endangered Ethiopian wolf.

These are the Central Highlands of Ethiopia - a really special place.

Some of the animals that occur here are found nowhere else on earth.

But one animal we've come here to find is under tremendous pressure.

In recent years, it's suffered from hunting, habitat loss,

and most recently, from disease.

It's the most threatened species of the dog family,

it's the Abyssinian wolf.

Even more endangered than the tiger, the Abyssinian or Ethiopian Wolf

is the rarest member of the dog family.

And with less than 500 in the wild, it's teetering on the edge.

It could easily disappear for ever in the next few years.

So given this animal is so rare, it's one of my greatest privileges

to have had a glimpse of one

when we were in Ethiopia's Guassa mountains.

That's it, that's it, that's it, that's it!

OK, come on, guys, get out very, very quietly.

This is unbelievable.

The hillside here is covered in gelada baboons and heading off,

right through the middle of them, up through that valley,

is an Ethiopian wolf.

I don't know what to say about this, really,

I mean, wolves are my favourite animal in the whole world

and this is the rarest member of the dog family

found on the whole planet.

There's anywhere from 200 to 500 individuals left in the wild.

This really is one of the most privileged sights you can have

in wildlife

in the whole world.

The main reason this wolf is so rare is habitat loss.

Ethiopia's population is expanding at a frightening rate.

All those people need more and more space to live,

and also to grow their food.

And as people take over the land

for farming, that means less and less space

for the Ethiopian Wolf to live and raise their own families.

Now, all the wolves have been squeezed into the highest

mountain ranges of Ethiopia, which is where we are now.

He sees something, he stops dead

and then just goes into stealth mode,

moving really, really slowly.

There's definitely something in front of him.

CAMERAMAN: Think he caught a mole, I think, too.

No, no.

Well, that is conclusive proof

that this is a seriously effective predator,

and there's more than enough of its favourite rodent prey up here

for it to feed on.

But sadly this wolf isn't just threatened by habitat loss.

Local Ethiopians, like so many people around the world, keep dogs,

and pet dogs in Ethiopia

have one of the highest rates of rabies in the world,

a disease which ultimately is fatal.

And wolves can easily catch rabies

when they come into contact with pet dogs.

DOGS BARK

So vaccinations are being given to these local dogs

to reduce the threat of rabies to the Ethiopian Wolf.

Such a distinctive, striking-looking animal, really bright red colour

with a white rump and a dark tail.

The Abyssinian wolf,

probably the rarest animal we'll ever encounter on Deadly 60

and I think, one of the most special and definitely,

definitely, going on my list.

This truly is one of the rarest and most endangered mammals on earth.

The crisis that's affecting the world's wildlife is perhaps

even more acute out at sea.

Our oceans have long been seen as an endless source of infinite food.

But we catch fish by the billions

and harvest sharks by the millions

in order to meet a seemingly insatiable demand

for shark fin soup.

It's recently become clear that we're simply emptying the seas.

Over the years, there's one kind of animal that's suffered more

at human hands than perhaps any other, and that's the whales.

Hunted for their meat, their fat and special oils

that they keep in their heads.

There's two basic kinds of whales - toothed whales, like sperm whales...

..and the baleen whales -

those that sieve food out of the water,

using special plates that hang from their upper jaw.

This is the skull of a minke whale,

which is, believe it or not, the smallest of the baleen whales.

But this monster,

this belongs to a fin whale.

Now the fin whale is the second largest creature

that's ever known to have lived on this planet.

This is the top of the skull

and running down here is the upper jaw.

All the way down to there.

But there's another kind of whale that dwarfs even this -

the largest animal on earth, the blue whale.

The blue whale is the largest animal that's ever known to have lived,

even bigger than the dinosaurs.

30 metres long and weighing as much as a jumbo jet,

its tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant.

But after years of persecution, by the 1990s,

it was in serious trouble.

Numbers of this icon amongst animals

had been reduced from around a quarter of a million

to just a few thousand

and that's because they were hunted by man for their meat and oil.

The hunting of whales had been occurring for centuries.

At its peak, as many as 30,000 blue whales were killed every year.

Huge factory ships used cutting edge technology to find whales,

run them down and harpoon them.

There was simply no escape and more and more were killed every year.

Whales take a long time to mature and reproduce.

Populations simply couldn't sustain so much plunder.

Eventually things got so bad that in 1986,

the International Whaling Commission

banned the commercial hunting of whales.

Though a few countries still continue whaling,

slowly the numbers of some whales have been building back up.

In particular, the humpback whale,

which I was lucky enough to encounter in Alaska.

Keep an eye out if you see any whales, relay it back to us,

cos these folks are interested in filming 'em.

There's quite a lot of bird activity here.

You see lots of different seabirds, all off the side of the boat

and this is all down to the fact that these seas

are just stuffed full of life.

They're very cold, but because the tides are so heavy

and there are so many currents, it brings up nutrients from down low.

The small fish feed on that, the bigger fish feed on those

and the predators feed on them

and that's why these seas are so full of some of the largest,

some of the most spectacular animals in the whole world.

And humpbacks are certainly one of those.

They're the most playful and social of all whales,

breaching,

slapping the water and charming us

with one of the most beautiful mournful songs imaginable.

If hunting had continued at previous levels,

these animals would almost certainly be extinct and sights like these

would be for ever forgotten.

-Straight ahead.

-That, yes, yes, I see one.

Ooh, yes!

'When I was a kid, these animals were so rare

'that few people would ever see a sight like this.

'Commercial whaling decimated the numbers of humpbacks

'to just a few thousand, in all the oceans of the world.'

It's a humpback

and it looks to me like probably a mother and calf.

Just off to the side of us here.

Just here, Johnny, look.

That's definitely a calf.

Humpback whales migrate throughout the year.

So in the summer months,

they come up here where it's really rich and the sea is full of food,

and gorge themselves.

They get really, really fat.

After not eating all winter,

the whales here will be really ready to feed up.

Their plated throats expand as they gulp in huge mouthfuls of water,

full of shrimp-like krill, plankton and small fish.

They then strain the water out through their baleen plates.

Pretty impressive stuff.

But to capitalise on the food bonanza of the Alaskan summer,

the humpbacks are doing something more extraordinary.

They've developed a unique way of hunting as a team.

After diving down and taking their positions,

the herd circles the fish, keeping them contained,

before another whale dives below the shoal and emits a deafening cry

that's as loud as a rocket launch.

These sounds drive the fish upwards as they try and escape the noise.

Next, another whale begins blowing a net of bubbles around the shoal.

As the fish are driven up and herded from the sides,

they're forced into this bubble net. There's no escape.

With their mouths wide open,

the team of hunters come charging up through the tunnel of bubbles,

engulfing the fish in their mouths.

They can eat more than ten times my weight in food every day.

Some countries continue whaling, even today,

and still lobby to allow commercial whaling to return,

again exposing the few thousand humpbacks to the hunter's harpoons.

But many other countries

are learning from the mistakes of the past,

using human reasoning to plan for a more understanding future.

One of the new ways to make money from whales is tourism,

tracking them down with cameras,

rather than harpoons and spears.

Every year, millions of people pay billions of pounds

to go and watch whales,

and now, some countries are realising

that whales are worth more alive than dead.

The ban on commercial whaling is starting to work,

with the populations of many kinds of whales starting to recover.

Another marine mammal that faced extinction from hunting

wasn't hunted for food, but for its glorious fur.

Far from being an ocean giant,

this is the smallest marine mammal.

The sea otter.

Now, this is the reason that sea otters have struggled

so much over the years. This is its pelt.

And what you're looking at here is just remarkably soft and warm.

It's so good at insulating, just putting your hand on it,

it instantly starts to feel hot,

almost like the fur has some heat of its own.

It's just down to the density of the fur here.

There's as many as a million hairs per square inch.

It's absolutely remarkable for keeping the sea otter warm,

but human hunters have valued this more than almost any other fur.

In the 1700s and 1800s,

this animal was hunted to the brink of extinction.

But now, in Alaska, it's made a remarkable recovery.

In fact, about 90% of the world's sea otters are found right here.

As many as 150,000 animals.

It is, without doubt, one of the cutest animals

we've featured on the Deadly 60.

But I wouldn't advise trying for a cuddle!

They're in the weasel family

and have a brutal bite.

They're also resourceful,

one of the few mammals to use tools to get at their food.

They dive down, chose a nice, flat rock, place it on their chest,

and repeatedly smash stubborn, hard to open shellfish against it

until the tasty snacks are revealed.

They've even been known to hammer open shells

on the sides of expensive yachts.

And we're at one of their favourite hangouts.

Wow. There's a pretty good raft just over there.

Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve...

Oh, my goodness! That's unreal!

Wow!

The recovery of sea otters has been a real success story.

This animal was hunted almost to extinction for its fur.

And just off our bow here, there must be 20 animals,

all tied into the kelp in what's known as a raft.

They're just making sure they don't drift away

and can just rest easy at the surface.

They're just wonderful animals, like little floating bears.

And luckily for us, they breed all year round.

So there are loads of pups about,

looking even more like fluffy teddy bears than their parents.

And although they're no longer hunted for their fur,

there are still other threats to the sea otter.

In 1989, a huge oil tanker called the Exxon Valdez

spilled millions of gallons of oil

in one of Alaska's most pristine environments.

Despite huge efforts to clean up the oil,

it was inevitable that wildlife would suffer.

A huge spill like this in one of the sea otter's strongholds

killed hundreds, if not thousands, of them,

along with tens of thousands of sea birds.

Man-made environmental disasters

remain a serious threat to our endangered wildlife.

But with protection,

the otter population has recovered

and Alaska is one of the best places in the world to see sea otters.

Hunting of the sea otter for its fur

was the main cause of its decline.

But now that it's protected by law,

its populations are recovering.

But even if animals are protected,

life is very tough if there's nowhere for them to live.

Habitat loss is probably

the main cause of animals becoming endangered,

and of animals being pushed to extinction.

The human population continues to expand at a fast rate

and the pressure on our wilderness and wildlife is growing.

There are over double the amount of people in the world now

than 50 years ago.

Those people are moving ever outwards

into lands that were once safe for wildlife.

But we can help preserve some of the wildest countryside

for our endangered animals.

The first ever national park was Yellowstone,

set up in America in 1872.

At nearly 9,000 square kilometres,

it's huge and is home to grizzly bears, grey wolves,

and the American bison.

Around 40 million of these mighty beasts used to roam North America.

But wholesale hunting,

with tens of thousands of buffalo killed in a single day,

meant that numbers quickly dropped to a few thousand remaining animals.

But with conservation efforts that began in the early 1900s,

numbers have risen and there are around 30,000 in the wild,

and the bison is no longer endangered,

with the biggest wild herd here in the protected lands of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone was the first, but today, 140 years later,

there are over 6,000 national parks around the world,

many of them home to endangered wildlife.

Africa's first national park was opened in 1925,

in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Today, it's home to one of Africa's most endangered

and probably most protected animals.

There are more people looking after mountain gorillas

than there are mountain gorillas alive on the planet.

A team of vets is dedicated to their welfare.

They're on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,

ready to respond at a moment's notice.

As well as these vets,

teams of wildlife rangers monitor the gorillas' every movement.

Anti-poaching squads protect them from harm.

And scientists study their behaviour.

Thanks to all this effort,

we can still see mountain gorillas in the wild,

as I did on one of my most memorable encounters

with this not-always-so-gentle giant!

For an animal that feeds entirely on vegetation,

gorillas are one of the most over-powered,

deadly creatures on the planet.

They're stacked with huge muscles and have enormous teeth.

But as they only feed on plants,

why are they built like an all-in wrestler?

Well, gorillas are fiercely loyal

and will fight to the death to defend their families.

That can mean big predators like leopards

and other massive mountain gorillas.

There, Johnny.

Our first sight. Look, they're all around us.

There! A silverback.

'It feels quite vulnerable to be so close,

'knowing if he wanted to charge, he'd be on me in a heartbeat.

'We try and keep a respectful distance,

'so we don't disturb the gorillas as they feed.'

Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.

'Suddenly a cheeky, confident young male moves menacingly towards us.

'The guides make me stand my ground as he comes in for a closer look.'

Ooh!

Right, well, that...

..is a black-backed gorilla, letting us know who's boss.

Ooh!

HE LAUGHS

The fact that mountain gorillas still exist in the wild

has taken superhuman efforts.

Although with only around 700 left in the wild,

they remain endangered and are still under constant threat.

But as long as we can protect them,

numbers will hopefully rise

and it proves that we can make a difference.

But perhaps one of the greatest back-from-the-brink

extinction stories occurs with another iconic African mammal.

Up to four metres long and weighing over two tonnes,

the rhino is the second biggest land mammal,

and although it's not a predator, it's certainly deadly.

They're bad-tempered, surprisingly fast

and, well, really big.

Territorial males and females with calves can be a real handful.

But wherever rhino are found, they're in trouble.

White rhino.

Black rhino.

The armour-plated Indian rhino are all endangered.

The Javan rhino is down to the last few individuals,

and is unlikely to survive.

Rhino might look like massive, living armoured tanks,

and you might think they're perfectly capable of looking after

themselves, but actually, every species that's found throughout

Africa and Asia is under threat and it's all for the same reason.

This giant, impressive horn

is actually made pretty much out of matted hair.

But many people believe that it can be used in medicines.

There's absolutely no scientific proof that it works but, regardless,

it can actually fetch as much as 60,000 per kilo

and because of that,

these animals are being absolutely plundered by poachers.

But there's been a superhuman effort to try and protect

rhinos around the world, with armed patrols

to prevent poaching.

At one point, the numbers of southern white rhino dropped

to as low as just 20 to 30 animals.

But what followed was one the greatest conservation

success stories of recent times.

Today, over 17,000 of these rhino can be found in Africa.

It's all due to the hard work of those who have chosen to protect

this magnificent animal.

Our attitudes to wildlife are changing.

My goodness, that's unreal!

We're realising that animals are important

and the planet would be a much poorer place

without our wild counterparts.

We've also realised that it's no good just giving up,

because we can make a difference.

We've got one!

Even animals that seem doomed can be brought back from the brink.

Ooh!

To enrich our world and totally overwhelm us.

Fill us with a sense of wonder

and make us realise what it is to be human.

These are the sights and sounds that make planet Earth wonderful.

Our world would not be complete without them.

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

Subtitles by Ericsson