UK Deadly 60

My name's Steve Backshall. Whoo!

And this is why sharks are in the Deadly 60.

It'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 are coming with me every step of the way.

This time on Deadly 60, we are in the UK,

travelling the length and breadth of the country

to a whole range of habitats.

Land, freshwater, sea and sky,

to try and prove to you

that my home nation has scintillating predators

to match any place on earth.

From ancient woodlands to its rugged coastline,

the UK is home to some stunning wildlife.

The British Isles are surrounded by extraordinarily fertile seas

and wherever you find small fish,

you're going to find big fish that feed on them.

My hunt for predators is taking me beneath the waves

on a search for sea monsters.

Britain's seas are home to some truly weighty wildlife

and offer some of the most breathtaking encounters

you could ever ask for.

It may be harmless, but it is the world's second biggest fish -

it's the basking shark.

Weighing in at up to a ton, and munching down on jellyfish,

the leatherback turtle, not to mention the bizarre sunfish,

and the elite dynamo known as the orca.

But I've set my sights on a truly creepy submarine stealth hunter -

the conger eel.

OK, guys.

We're sitting on the outside of Plymouth Sound,

it's a really important shipping lane

but it's also lined with jagged rocks and islands.

So it's not surprising that over the years,

many ships have met their final end right here.

And at the moment we're sitting over

the wreck of the Glen Strathallan in about 15 metres of water.

Now, these wrecks are incredibly important for animals

because they become fabulous artificial homes.

All the nooks crannies are the perfect hiding places

for all sorts of animals.

But it's also where we are going to start our search for a conger eel.

They're shy, often solitary creatures

that hunt to mainly in darkness.

So there is no guarantee we will see anything at all.

And during the daytime, we have got even less chance.

But it has got to be worth an exploratory dive.

A local diver once told me he had glimpsed

a truly monstrous conger on this wreck.

We'd taken his tall tale with a pinch of salt,

but we're all secretly quite excited.

I'll be keeping in communication with the crew

back up on the surface as we descend into the depths.

Look forward to seeing you on the surface, over.

All of these holes left in the wreck

are perfect places for animals to make their homes.

You can see there are lots of small fish inside, these are pollack.

This is the exact kind of place

that I'd expect to find an out-water predator.

What I really need is something to entice it to come out into the open.

And luckily, I have just the thing.

This bag is full of sardines

and hopefully the fishy scent will just drift inside

and entice them to come out.

Come on!

Look, there's one! Johnny, Johnny, it's right out, look!

-Look at that! Look!

-He's a big old boy.

-Good Lord!

Let's see if we can just entice him

to come out and investigate a little bit more. Come on.

My goodness! Look at that!

This is absolutely incredible!

That's a really good-sized conger eel.

And even though this is a nocturnal animal

that's usually only active night, it's come right out to the open.

Look at that!

Conger eels are true sea monsters.

The largest ones that have ever been recorded

have been twice the weight of me.

Wow! Ooh!

I'll need to let go of the fish quicker than that.

Congers have an incredible sense of smell but don't have great eyesight

and have been known to mistake divers' fingers for fish.

I wasn't expecting this at all in the middle of the day like this.

The head, as you can see, is quite broad shaped.

And houses strong jaws.

The teeth are quite small but very, very sharp.

Conger eels are opportunists

and will snap at anything that swims by -

fish, crabs, squid, even octopus,

munching up to 30% of their body weight in a single day.

They're quite like crocodiles, actually, in how their jaw works.

They're not able to take a bite out of their food, so unless they can

swallow it whole, they have to grab hold of it and then spin around

using their whole body to lever out chunks of meat.

Here he comes again.

Conger eels are fish.

Although highly, highly specialised.

No, don't go away. I've got more!

Hey, where are you off to?

How's about that!

Well, that was a total result!

Our first conger in broad daylight.

What on earth could night-time bring?

Dusk is when congers switch into hunting mode.

So as it got darker, our chances of a dazzling encounter increased.

I still didn't dare to dream

the giant conger was more than just a myth. But you never know.

It's starting to get really dark now.

Also starting to get quite cold,

the water's looking less and less appetising by the minute.

But now, just after dusk, is the perfect time.

For the Conger eels, their senses are going to be heightening,

they're going to be thinking about feeding, which hopefully means

they'll be more likely to come out

when I start waving bait around their hole.

How close are we, chaps?

You're good to go, Steve.

It's so spooky, descending down into the darkness

when you really can't see anything.

Oh! Look at this, Johnny. Johnny?

There's a flatfish on the side, on the wall of this boiler.

And it's so beautifully camouflaged, you just can't see it at all.

And it's actually put on an incredible colour change

to match its surroundings.

Look at that!

OK, so this is the big hole

where the conger eels have been living.

What we need to do is get some scent in there

and hopefully that should draw the congers out.

Well, if they're not already out hunting.

Come on, big fella! Come and show yourself.

Here it comes.

Oh, my goodness!

Unbelievable!

I never even saw him!

Come on, then, big fella.

Ah, you can see their attitude is totally different

at night-time. Snapping away.

Whoa!

Actually, I want to be quite careful,

because I don't want to get snapped by those jaws.

Now, actually, they're completely... Ow!

They're completely different animals at night-time.

They're at their peak, most active time.

Really, all they're thinking about is hunting.

An active conger snapping at my bubbles,

clearly mistaking them for small fish and proving their eyesight

isn't that good. But surely it couldn't get any better.

I can just see this big, dark shape lurking in the darkness.

Look at the size of this! It's huge!

Here he comes.

That's just madness!

Any conger of this monstrous size must be a female.

Conger eels can get to be 150 kilos.

This conger here wouldn't have been that big

but that's pretty much as big as you'll see in British waters.

This is quite typical of their hunting behaviour.

They'll stay in a hole like this, waiting for prey to swim close by

and then snatch out at it using their strong jaws

and small but very sharp teeth.

They're the classic ambush predator.

Come on. Wow!

Look at the size of its mouth!

This is absolutely incredible.

It just sucked that in, it actually created a vacuum

at the back of its throat, opening the mouth really wide.

It contracts small fish towards the throat.

They really are quite, quite scary spooky looking animals.

Oh wow!

Kind of primeval,

almost dinosaur-like.

Well, you've got to say that the conger eel

is one of the most impressive creatures

in British oceans.

And for that reason,

conger eels are definitely on the Deadly 60.

You are magnificent.

A opportunist that will eat anything that swims by.

Flexible and strong,

they can death roll their prey almost like a crocodile,

sucking food into their toothy mouths

like a swimming vacuum cleaner.

Creepy, slightly sinister, formidable.

From salt water to freshwater,

and our next contender, which leads a double deadly life.

This is Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire.

It's an environment that's defined by water.

Where you find boggy, still or slow-moving water like this,

often you find one of the most impressive predators

found anywhere in the world. They're incredibly agile.

Very manoeuvrable.

Very quick.

But their identity might surprise you.

They're dragonflies.

Dazzling in colour,

perfection in physical design,

dynamic in movement.

Dragonflies are spellbinding.

With their huge compound eyes,

darting flying skills,

and fearsome serrated mouth parts,

dragonflies munch their meals into mush

and are truly death on the wing.

And Wicken Fen, where I am right now,

is one of the best places in the UK to find them,

with 22 different species.

Dragonflies have to be one of the hardest creatures

to find and film,

because they almost never stop moving,

so it's a challenge for Johnny the cameraman today.

I'm going to attempt the impossible.

I'm going to try and catch a dragonfly using one of these.

This is never going to work.

Where are you? There's one.

As they move too fast for the human eye,

let alone a camera to follow,

catching one seems like the best plan,

but it's a bit like trying to snare a lightning bolt mid-strike.

And all I've got is this butterfly net.

Yes, got it.

Actually got to be quite careful.

I don't want to damage those delicate wings.

Yes.

This is a four-spot chaser dragonfly.

These legs here, that are kicking around now,

are what it uses to catch its prey in midair.

It almost forms a basket with these legs.

Dragonflies chase down other winged insects

like rocket-fuelled fighter jets.

From flies and midges to damsel flies and other dragonflies.

They latch onto prey with their huge multi-lensed eyes,

seize it,

then use their jaws to slice vertically and horizontally,

making mush of their prey.

They can consume a fifth of their body weight every day.

So, dragonfly in hand,

and I really want to see it in action,

but their flight is so fast and so complex

that the human eye just simply can't appreciate it.

So we have this fantastic bit of technology.

This is called a photron camera.

It films in superslow motion,

so you'll be able to see every intricate detail

of our dragonfly in flight.

So, hopefully what's going to happen is the dragonfly will take off,

Johnny the cameraman will press this button,

and it should take an image of the dragonfly in flight.

Then we have to wait a couple of minutes for it to download,

and hopefully we'll see one of the miracles of nature.

And see its flight in forensic detail.

Fingers crossed.

Might get lucky.

Let's have a look at what we've got.

That's brilliant. That's really, really good.

It couldn't be better. It's taking off vertically.

-Just Like a helicopter.

-Yeah.

So, let's see the result.

The ultra-slow-motion camera reveals each of the four wings working

independently, giving the dragonfly maximum manoeuvrability.

These four wings enable them to fly forwards, backwards or sideways.

They can make tight turns,

carry out high-speed chases

and even stop dead to hover in one place.

Some can fly at 40 miles an hour,

outpacing any other flying insect in flat-out chases.

And, to finally seal the dragonfly deal, they're deadly not once,

but twice in their life cycle.

The most familiar image we have of dragonflies

is of the winged adults doing their thing, catching other insects,

but that only lasts for about a month or two.

The vast majority of their life is spent as a nymph down in the water.

The best way to see one of those is to go pond dipping.

Pond snails, water boatmen...

Not supposed to be this hard!

-He's not very good at this.

-What about pushing him in?

There you are, you little beauty.

Oh, no! No, no, no, no! No, no, no, no, no.

Oh, I don't believe it. There's no way I just did that.

Oh, look at that!

You wait hours for a dragonfly and then two come along at once.

Look at those.

Right.

So, these remarkable little alien creatures are actually how

a dragonfly spends the majority of its life.

Usually a year, but in some species as much as two years,

down there in the water, in this form.

You can see the little buds there that will eventually become wings

but right now it just survives by scuttling along the bottom,

using those legs in search of food.

And they have a really remarkable,

actually quite disturbing way of catching their food.

The mask of the dragonfly nymph is an extendable force.

The double-hinged jaw powers forward and snatches its food...

in less than two hundredths of a second.

It can snatch up tadpoles, snails, aquatic bugs, even fish.

In the dark of night or in zero visibility,

they use their long legs and sensitive antennae

to sense moving prey.

They are simply inescapable.

The double-deadly dragonfly.

From winged wonder to masked alien assassin.

Either way, they're both deadly.

The double-deadly dragonfly. Hunts both underwater and in the air.

Their speed and manoeuvrability allows them

to defy even the most agile of insects

and their double-hinged jaw shoots forward to stab underwater targets.

Dragonflies. Dazzling...

The UK is home to a superb array of birds of prey.

From the mighty sea eagle and the fish-snatching osprey

to the super snooping peregrine

and woodland wonder the goshawk.

But one of the most common is the charming kestrel.

It's one of our smallest falcons and something that we tend,

I guess, to underestimate because we see them so regularly.

But that is a terrible mistake

because there is perhaps no more efficient,

no more sophisticated hunter then this wonderful bird of prey.

If you're small and don't have weight or strength on your side,

you need even more potent powers.

The first of which is eyesight.

As with all birds of prey, they probably perceive the world

in a whole different way to how we human beings do,

and that's down to the fact that their vision is extraordinary.

The eyesight is probably about eight times more potent than ours

but they can also see into the ultraviolet spectrum,

which enables them to see the urine trails

that are left behind by their prey.

The kestrel's main prey are voles.

Shy and quiet, they're elusive in long grass

but the kestrel's ultraviolet vision

allows it to see not only the voles but their urine.

The kestrel then follows the glowing trail,

which leads right to the unsuspecting vole.

As well as its keen eyesight,

the kestrel has fabulously controlled flight.

Kestrels are the world's master at hovering.

And the only way to appreciate this is to show it in action.

So Ashley here is a falconry bird and his owner, Lloyd,

has taught him to hover in exactly the way that a wild bird would do.

Lloyd's waiting down in the grass, pretending to be a vole,

and Ashley looks keen.

Let's see if we can get him to hover.

Yes! Look at that!

He's not even having to beat his wings, just turning into the wind

and allowing the wind to come underneath the wings.

Oh, wow! That was classic!

And he's back up again!

Kestrels love wind. By turning into it, air is constantly driven

under its wings, creating lift,

while its body remains stationary, hovering above the ground.

Look at that!

He's almost like a child's kite!

There's no fluttering of the wings going on.

He's just purely using the wind.

Hovering allows the bird to manoeuvre itself

into the perfect striking position, hanging effortlessly in mid-air.

Whoa! Ho, ho, ho!

The speed as it comes through!

That's when you can really see that this is a falcon.

Keeping their heads still means our kestrel can pinpoint their target,

in this case the lure, then plunge down to the grass.

OK, now are we going to see...?

Yes! Wow!

Now that was a classic falcon strike. Thank you, Lloyd.

I mean, he's just so beautiful.

The kestrel is unquestionably the master of hovering,

but honestly, how hard can it be?

Well, I'm about to find out.

I'm going to try and fly like a kestrel.

For me as a human being to try and hover like a kestrel,

I've come to the largest vertical wind tunnel in the world.

From here on in, things are going to get a little bit crazy.

The kestrel has evolved to be the perfect hovering machine.

Its wings and tail have spread to give it a large surface area

for the air to flow over

and with slight adjustments to their feathers,

they have precision control over their movement.

I however don't have such an aerodynamic form

so I've got to wear this suit with big chunks on the side

to increase my surface area

and I've also been told that I'm not allowed to wear a watch

or any jewellery because if they come off,

then they'll be fired up at me at 180 miles an hour by the fans,

so effectively anything I drop is going to turn into a bullet.

Right! I'm all kitted up. I've seen the master in action,

and I'm no ready to give hovering a go.

MACHINERY WHIRRING

That noise you can hear is the sound of phenomenally strong fans,

producing winds that are powerful enough

to keep my rather hefty bulk aloft.

I've definitely come to the right place to try to fly.

This could be less than elegant.

Whoo!

That's an extraordinary sensation!

Just incredible! OK!

That is the closest I've ever come to actually flying!

So, it's all about just relaxing! Just holding still!

The kestrel can keep its head in exactly the same position

as it makes all these tiny micro-adjustments with its feathers

to just keep itself in as steady a position as possible.

Just to stay motionless for me is almost impossible,

Claire's holding onto me.

But... Whoa! Up we go! Up we go!

If I was to try and sight down at the ground now, and dive towards it,

I'd probably bounce my head off the ground.

But the kestrel manages this at incredible speeds,

with tiny little adjustments to its feathers and its wings.

It really is one of the most extraordinary ways of moving in nature.

OK. And up we go! Ha-ha-ha-ha!

You just expand your surface area by a tiny amount, like that,

and up you go! OK!

Oh! Awesome! Absolutely awesome!

Well, that's probably the closest a human being can come

to experiencing the hovering power of a kestrel,

obviously with a lot less grace and elegance and much more noise.

The kestrel is the king of cool. Everything it does looks effortless.

It may be small, but with those talons, that beak, that eyesight,

it makes up for its size with sophistication and style.

With a kestrel around, you certainly wouldn't want to be a vole.

Like all birds of prey, incredible eyesight and terrible talons,

equipped with UV vision to track down its prey,

using the slightest breeze, the kestrel hovers silently.

One of my favourite birds and a justified inclusion.

Small but...

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

Done it again!

Subtitling by Red Bee Media Ltd