Australia 1 Deadly 60


Australia 1

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Transcript


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My name's Steve Backshall.

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Wo-o-oo!

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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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Here on Deadly 60, we have a real sense of the spectacular,

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so we've come to Australia, a place with more incredible,

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venomous creatures than anywhere else on Earth.

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And as it's going to be such an epic programme,

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I thought we'd start in an epic place -

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right at the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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It doesn't matter where you go in Australia,

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you can always find something deadly.

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From right in the heart of Sydney, where a toxic terror lurks...

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to the desolate desert centre,

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where the most venomous snake on Earth lives.

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And the forest at Tasmania, where a devil screams in the darkness.

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We're travelling the length of the country to prove that Australia

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is the lethal capital of the world.

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Our mission is way inland in the dead, red, centre,

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in search of the most venomous creature we've had on Deadly.

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Australia is a very, very big place indeed,

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and the vast majority of it is wilderness -

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what Australians call the outback.

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This is an absolutely superlative place to find venomous creatures,

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and one in particular - the most venomous snake on Earth.

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It's incredibly difficult to find, very shy,

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but I've got quite a good feeling about this.

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The animal I'm looking for is the fierce snake,

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also known as the inland taipan.

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It is THE most venomous snake on Earth, and has enough venom

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in one bite to kill 100 people and its prey in seconds.

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I've wanted to see one all my life,

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but they're one of the most difficult snakes to find.

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The location is so specific, it'll take us several days to get there.

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It's one of the most harsh environments on Earth,

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reaching temperatures of over 50 degrees,

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and the snakes are only seen for a few hours in the early morning,

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before it gets too hot.

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But the fierce snake is not the only desert reptile

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that makes a home in this harsh environment.

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In front of me on the road now, is...

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possibly Australia's best-known reptile.

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They're really wonderful animals.

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It's a bearded dragon.

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So...

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he's doing exactly...

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what we're hoping that our snake's going to want to do,

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and that's coming out using the surface of the road

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as a real mechanism for warming up at the start of the day.

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You can see the back of the bearded dragon is quite dark.

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It can actually change that colour, so, now, early in the morning,

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it's much darker, much more capable of soaking up the sun's rays,

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and its belly is right down flat getting as much surface area

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down on this warm road as it possibly can.

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And off he scuttles. I love 'em!

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But my heart's set on a far less obvious reptile for the lethal list,

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and it's still a few more hours' drive to the dried-out lake

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where the fierce snake rules.

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Such beautiful country.

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Unbelievably red.

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It's almost like being on the surface of an alien world.

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And this alien world is home to a desert dragon.

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There's a monitor lizard, a sand goanna, in this bush here.

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Should just be able...to grab him.

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Wow!

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That is a beautiful animal.

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This little dinosaur is known here as the sand goanna.

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It's actually a kind of monitor lizard. There you go.

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Just look at that tongue.

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It's forked, exactly like a snake's tongue,

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and draws in sense of the environment around it,

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to just figure out what's going on in its world.

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Monitor lizards have featured many times on Deadly 60,

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and for very good reason -

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they are superlative predators, but also opportunists.

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They'll scavenge for food that's been killed on the roads out here.

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They'll take eggs, birds, frogs, lizards,

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absolutely anything they can run down.

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They're very quick, great climbers, good at digging...

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I mean, this is an animal that does absolutely everything.

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I think they're wonderful.

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'A marvellous monitor, and things are really hotting up.'

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OK.

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Wow!

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Off like a little bolt of lightning.

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Finally, we're on the edge of fierce snake country - miles from anywhere.

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Time to find a place to camp.

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Perfect! We love it.

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Isn't it wonderful the way the wind has sculpted all these ripples

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on the surface of the sand?

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It's glorious!

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This is just such a dream of a place to go searching for wildlife.

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'And in crimson and gold sunset light, we set up camp.

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'No need for a tent - it only rains a few times a year here.'

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Here it goes.

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Easy as fire-lighting gets.

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In the dancing firelight, the crew bed down for the night,

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hoping to sleep soundly in the territory

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of the most venomous snake on Earth.

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Let's hope none of the local desert deadlies want to join me

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in my sleeping bag!

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-Night, Steve!

-Good night! Sleep well.

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It's about 4:30 in the morning, preposterously early,

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and we are in the true outback.

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In just a few minutes, the sun's going to come up

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over the horizon out there, and when that happens,

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one of the most remarkable snakes in the world is going to come out

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of the cracks where it's been spending the evening,

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and try and find a bit of warmth.

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That's only going to last for a couple of hours,

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and the place that's going to warm up most quickly

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is going to be the road.

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So...

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this road surface here, at the moment, is quite cool.

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Give it half-an-hour or so and that'll be baking.

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The snakes will come up here to bask

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and it's going to be the perfect place to see them.

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So, what we're going to do is just hop into the car

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and cover some miles.

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The warmth radiated from the road will warm up their blood -

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cold after the chilly desert night.

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This kick-starts the snake's metabolism,

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and gives them the energy to start hunting.

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However, the second it gets too hot, they'll slither for shade,

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and our opportunity will be gone.

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The snake we're here looking to find

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is an incredibly difficult animal to look for.

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They're very elusive, not massively common,

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and really only out in the open for a couple of hours a day.

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But, they are well worth us searching for,

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and it is the most venomous snake on Earth, full stop.

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I mean, I've filmed with some incredible snakes over the years.

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King cobras, black mambas, boomslangs, bushmasters,

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but none of them come even close to this remarkable toxic terror.

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To try and find one,

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we've got absolutely everything we can possibly have on our side.

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We've got two local guides, Kevin and Craig,

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who are absolute snake whisperers.

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I mean, if these guys can't find an inland taipan, then no-one can.

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All we've got to do now is just put in the hours

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and keep our eyes on the road.

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The sun's still below the horizon, and it's still a bit too cold

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for them to be on the roadside, so I decide to head out on foot

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and look for evidence of their favourite food - rodents.

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Yeah, come and have a look at this.

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This is the reason why where we are now

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is such perfect habitat for inland taipans.

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We're actually on a flood plain here.

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It's usually very, very dry, very, very cracked,

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and there's lots of small rodent burrows.

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And during the daytime, the snake's going to be in there hunting.

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And they're absolutely everywhere. The ground is peppered with them.

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The sun's up and the ground temperature's rising.

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So, the clock is ticking.

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We've got everyone out scouring the terrain.

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-Good luck, chaps!

-Good stuff.

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Yeah, good luck, guys!

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And animals that feed on snakes are also up and about.

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Aww!

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A wedge-tailed eagle.

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Coming across in front of us.

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Probably the most iconic bird in Australia.

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-N-o-o wa-a-ay!

-Wow!

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Snakes aren't the only predators round here.

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There's a brown right here on the left!

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Got a brown snake heading off here.

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It is a speckled brown! Look at THAT!

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Australia is full of highly venomous snakes,

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and perhaps the most feared...

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are the brown snakes.

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They have extremely toxic venom...

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and they are often quite fiery.

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But it's actually flattening the entire side of the body

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and just showing that to me.

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Making himself look larger than he actually is.

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And lots of little mock strikes towards me as well.

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Now, I know this is quite a small snake,

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but it certainly has the ability, the toxic venom,

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to do me damage, so I'm just going to keep my distance.

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So, on any other morning of snake-searching,

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I would be definitely putting this snake on the Deadly 60 list.

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But the snake that I'm really looking for is so toxic

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that it makes this look like nothing.

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So, I think I'm going to say it's an awesome snake,

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but for now, the speckled brown is just the start

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of what I'm hoping is going to be a classic morning's snake-hunting.

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A fierce snake's venom is at least double the toxicity

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of any brown snake, but we probably only have minutes left to find one.

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How'd you go?

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-Starting to come up now, is it?

-The ground's far from hot.

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Yeah, we've still got a bit of time.

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Yeah.

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'We're still feeling optimistic.

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'It's not time to give up just yet.'

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Stop, stop, there it is!

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Well, I don't actually believe what I'm seeing.

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We have, at the side of the road, the most venomous snake on Earth.

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This...is a fierce snake...

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sometimes known as an inland taipan...

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drawing itself up into a classic threat position.

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Head drawn back into an S-shape.

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Making out like it's ready to strike. You can come closer, Graham.

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It's OK, it's fixed on me at the moment, not on you.

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This is exactly the snake that we've come all this way to find.

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You see it's tongue flickering out on the air,

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sensing me, sensing whether I'm any threat to it,

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but it hasn't yet made any attempt at a strike.

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But what is fierce about this snake is its venom.

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This has the most toxic venom of any snake on Earth,

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and there's a very good reason for that.

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It's not, absolutely not, for attacking human beings.

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This is a snake that has never, to our knowledge, killed a human being.

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What it does have, though, is the ability

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to bring down and kill a rat within seconds.

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So around here, there are loads of burrows of rats,

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and those animals can be very, very fast.

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So what the fierce snake needs to do is to bite them,

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inject enormous amounts of very, very toxic venom,

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and stop them moving, very quickly.

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'Drawing the body into an S-shape prepares the snake for a strike,

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'like a coiled spring with lethal potential.'

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The venom is very complex,

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but the main constituent part is what's called a neurotoxin.

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SNAKE HISSES

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That is a toxin that affects the nervous system,

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and it's very, very fast-acting.

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This snake is in absolutely remarkable condition.

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It's about as perfect an example of this species as you will ever see.

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I've been catching snakes for most of my life,

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and I've seen some of the most impressive in the entire world,

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but this, for me, is the most special.

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It's an absolutely phenomenal hunter.

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Very rare, very difficult to find,

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and THE most venomous snake on Earth.

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There is no doubt that the fierce snake has to go on the Deadly 60.

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You're a very lucky man!

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Very lucky man.

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That's one of the best-looking wild fierce snakes I've ever seen.

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Yeah. Far out.

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A rapid strike that will kill its prey in seconds.

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The fierce snake takes one of the top spots on the Deadly 60.

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'Deadly.'

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To show you how diverse Australia is,

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I'm heading as far south as you can go - Tasmania.

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From red deserts to lush forests,

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to see the world's largest carnivorous marsupial.

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With it's fiery temper, a bone-crushing bite

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and devilish growl, it's unique to Australia.

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These nocturnal hunters are elusive,

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and due to a mysterious disease, are becoming really rare in the wild,

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so I've come to Trowunna Wildlife Park.

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Here, the species is protected and active in the day.

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so I can show you their foul tempers and fierce bites.

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It's the Tasmanian devil.

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TASMANIAN DEVIL GROWLS

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Inside this pen, we have an all-male group,

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and likely to be really quite crazy.

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We've also got a chunk of carcass - a wallaby killed on the road -

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and that should get some serious action.

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Just like in the wild,

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the addition of food causes all hell to break loose.

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I, for one, am not going to try and take the food off them.

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CREATURES GROWL

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They're extremely vocal animals, Tassie devils,

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and that's how they got their name, the devil, because early settlers

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in this part of the world heard their screaming, their wailing,

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and thought there was some kind of spirit ghost off in the wilderness.

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Actually, it was these guys.

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The reason they're so grumpy is all about dominance,

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and who gets the best bits of meat.

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THEY GROWL

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When they get a hold of a good chunk of bone or sinew,

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you can really hear the crunching sound as their powerful teeth

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just make mincemeat of this.

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They've got a very, very strong bite for an animal of this size,

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and although they are primarily scavengers

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and almost all their food is going to be found dead already,

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they are perfectly capable of taking down live prey,

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and will do - lizards, frogs, small mammals, birds,

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pretty much anything they get the chance to get their teeth into.

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Even Graham our cameraman, by the looks of things!

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Oh!

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-STEVE CHUCKLES

-Watch yourself there, Graham.

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And it wasn't just Graham.

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Even our small camera took their fancy.

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Paul the keeper's just rescuing it for us.

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-Well done, Paul. Done any damage to it?

-Doesn't look it.

-Eugh!

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It's covered in devil spit.

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CREATURE GROWLS

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In the wild, fighting for food is about survival of the fittest,

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or, in this case, the loudest.

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They use their incredible sense of smell to locate prey and carrion

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from up to 1,000m away.

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Once eating, they give a sniffing sound to warn off other Tassies.

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But if the warning's ignored, they launch into a maniacal rage.

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THEY GROWL FIERCELY

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But what makes these devils such good predators is, in fact,

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a strength that belies their size.

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This pen is full of fully-grown animals.

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You're really pretty strong for such a little creature.

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Certainly, once the jaws have a hold of something,

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it's quite tough to get them to relinquish their hold.

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CARCASS BONES CRUNCH

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And that crunching sound as those rear teeth go through bone

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-is very, very impressive.

-CREATURE SNIFFS

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In fact, for their size,

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they have one of the strongest bites in the animal kingdom.

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Your really feel their strength, though,

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and they brace backwards, planting their front feet down on the ground

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and then levering with their whole body weight backwards.

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Actually they can generate an enormous amount of force.

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The Tassie devil looks really unusual, like the proportions

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are all wrong, with an enormous head and tiny little body.

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But, that head is so big,

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because it's loaded with muscles that power its brutal bite.

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Eugh-h-h! Aww, yuck!

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I'm getting covered in bits of rotten meat.

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CREATURES YELP VICIOUSLY

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Wow.

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That is a very vocal little scrabble, and that's exactly

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where this animal gets its name and its reputation from.

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All of a sudden, things just kick off, and when they do,

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it's very noisy, and really quite frightening.

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BONES CRUNCH

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So, those crunchy, munching sounds are the reason

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this animal has to go on the Deadly 60.

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It can crunch clean-through bone, it has appalling table manners,

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and an attitude well above its size.

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Tassie devils - deadly.

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They can sniff out a carcass from up to a kilometre away.

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It's the devilish marsupial of the south -

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whirling, screaming, raging, wailing,

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mighty-munching Tassie devils.

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'Deadly.'

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Back in Sydney, the team and I are in Manly Harbour.

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BOAT HORN BELLOWS

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This may seem odd, but here in the city

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is ANOTHER toxic terror - the blue-ringed octopus.

0:21:200:21:25

It might be small,

0:21:250:21:27

but it has a venom 10,000 times more potent than cyanide.

0:21:270:21:31

It's so toxic, that it can paralyse a crab in seconds

0:21:310:21:35

and could easily kill a person.

0:21:350:21:37

They're tiny and brilliantly camouflaged,

0:21:370:21:39

so I've got some extra eyes to help my search - Rob and Nick,

0:21:390:21:43

two blue-ringed octopus experts from Manly Sealife Sanctuary.

0:21:430:21:46

The blue-ringed octopus occurs in coastal waters,

0:21:460:21:50

so I am going to be free-diving to try and find them.

0:21:500:21:55

Looking in nooks and crannies, underneath rocks,

0:21:550:21:57

places they might hide out during the daytime.

0:21:570:21:59

If we do find one, we'll have to handle it more carefully

0:21:590:22:02

than we would any venomous snake.

0:22:020:22:05

There are cases of people picking up blue-rings,

0:22:050:22:07

only to die hours later without even realising they'd been bitten.

0:22:070:22:11

-Hang on to this one, I'm sure it'll be all right.

-Great.

0:22:110:22:14

Thanks very much.

0:22:140:22:15

-Tools of the trade.

-ROB AND NICK LAUGH

0:22:170:22:19

It's not quite a machete or a snake-stick, is it?

0:22:190:22:22

But the net will keep distance between my fingers

0:22:220:22:25

and the blue-ring's lethal venom.

0:22:250:22:27

This could be one of the most beautiful animals

0:22:270:22:30

we will ever see in the Deadly 60.

0:22:300:22:32

And, actually, one of the most venomous too.

0:22:320:22:35

So, I really have my fingers crossed about this.

0:22:350:22:38

It's quite something that such a miraculous,

0:22:380:22:42

multicoloured mini-marvel

0:22:420:22:44

lives right by the biggest metropolis in Australia.

0:22:440:22:47

I wonder if the city workers know what delights

0:22:500:22:53

lurk along their beaches?

0:22:530:22:54

There's so much life down here.

0:22:540:22:58

From tiny brittle stars to stingrays AND a different species

0:23:000:23:04

of octopus, but this one much bigger than our toxic target.

0:23:040:23:08

This place is actually absolutely perfect.

0:23:110:23:15

Considering that we're right in the middle of the big city,

0:23:150:23:18

there's loads and loads of marine life down here,

0:23:180:23:20

and also lots of places for blue-ringed octopuses to hide.

0:23:200:23:23

There are lots of rocks, chunks of old pipe,

0:23:230:23:27

and plenty of the kind of things that they love to feed on -

0:23:270:23:30

crabs, worms, small fish. It's perfect.

0:23:300:23:34

The blue-ring octopus is not the only creature down here

0:23:400:23:43

sporting chemical weaponry.

0:23:430:23:45

Just found something really cool!

0:23:510:23:54

It's a pufferfish.

0:23:540:23:57

They're remarkable animals. Really, really cool fish.

0:23:570:23:59

But the most remarkable thing about them is that these animals

0:23:590:24:03

have a poison in their skin and in their organs

0:24:030:24:06

which is exactly the same as the venom that's injected

0:24:060:24:09

by the blue-ringed octopus.

0:24:090:24:11

To find a pufferfish here while looking for a blue-ringed octopus

0:24:110:24:14

is just crazy!

0:24:140:24:16

For the vast majority of their lives, the blue-rings are drably

0:24:190:24:22

coloured, merging in with their background, practically invisible.

0:24:220:24:26

It takes a keen eye to see, but lurking under a shell,

0:24:300:24:35

our first blue-ringed octopus.

0:24:350:24:39

Fantastic! The guys have found one.

0:24:450:24:49

It's absolutely beautiful.

0:24:490:24:51

OK, the idea now is to transfer it into an aquarium

0:24:510:24:54

so we can see it up close.

0:24:540:24:57

I can't believe it - success!

0:24:570:24:59

This is the tiny wonder I've come halfway round the world to find -

0:25:020:25:06

the blue-ringed octopus.

0:25:060:25:08

The ones found here around Sydney are called blue-lined octopus,

0:25:080:25:12

because all running down the surface of the mantle,

0:25:120:25:14

you can see great big long neon lines.

0:25:140:25:17

Oh, look at that bright, bright colour change. Gorgeous!

0:25:170:25:20

But, they're still in the blue-ringed octopus group,

0:25:200:25:23

and, to show you how it got its name,

0:25:230:25:28

all I need to do is agitate it very slightly.

0:25:280:25:32

And you should see the plainly-coloured animal

0:25:330:25:35

take on incredible, agitated colours.

0:25:350:25:40

Bright, neon-blue circles.

0:25:400:25:43

Look at that! Wow!

0:25:430:25:46

It's just electric.

0:25:460:25:49

These are classic warning colours, and they're obviously used to

0:25:490:25:54

intimidate animals that might want to feast on a blue-ringed octopus.

0:25:540:25:57

That would be a very, very bad idea,

0:25:570:26:00

because this is one of the most toxic creatures on Earth.

0:26:000:26:03

The glorious neon-flash colours tell other predators to just swim on by.

0:26:030:26:08

It is such a superlative predator.

0:26:080:26:10

It has only one hard part to its body.

0:26:100:26:13

That's a beak, which is kind of like a tiny, miniature parrot's beak.

0:26:130:26:16

And that's located in here, right in the centre of all of those arms.

0:26:160:26:22

And that actually has a special venom that's dribbled onto the beak

0:26:220:26:25

and can be injected into prey - things like crabs, worms,

0:26:250:26:29

even small fish, and it's so potent

0:26:290:26:31

that it's going to make them stop moving almost instantaneously.

0:26:310:26:35

It's only tiny, but it has a bite that's easily capable

0:26:350:26:38

of killing a human being, and has done in the past.

0:26:380:26:41

It really is one of the strongest poisons on the planet.

0:26:410:26:45

The flamboyant blue-ringed octopus, one of the smallest animals

0:26:460:26:49

we've ever had on the Deadly 60, but also, one of THE most venomous.

0:26:490:26:54

These camouflaged predators can stalk their prey unnoticed.

0:26:560:27:01

Their hard, parrot-like beak is used to bite their prey...

0:27:010:27:04

chewing in a paralysing venom that would kill an adult human.

0:27:040:27:09

The miniature neon predator that could fit in the palm of your hand.

0:27:090:27:13

'Deadly.'

0:27:130:27:15

Now, very important, it goes back exactly where we found it.

0:27:150:27:18

There it is - whale!

0:27:260:27:27

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

0:27:270:27:32

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