New Zealand Deadly 60

My name's Steve Backshall! Whoo!

And this 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.

This time on Deadly 60, we're in New Zealand.

The team and I will travel the length of the country

'to the southern coastline in search of an ocean giant.'

Wow!

'And to the alpine mountains to find a parrot, yes, a parrot,'

with incredible intelligence.

But we begin on the North Island,

'where an unusual, strangely beautiful hunter lurks.'

So we're starting down in the darkness.

We're in the Waitomo Caves, in the North Island of New Zealand.

They're really stunning,

raging rivers cutting through limestone caverns

full of beautiful geological features.

But we haven't come here to see that.

We've come here to find a very peculiar animal,

one which feasts on the tiny flying insects

that move through these passageways.

These are the larvae of the fungus gnat.

More descriptively known as glow worms.

They live in cave systems like Waitomo,

preying on hatching mayflies, midges and mosquitoes.

They lure these flying insects in with their glowing bottom

and when the prey flies too close,

they get trapped in the sticky, mucus-covered lures.

Once ensnared, there's no escape.

The glow worms sense the vibrations of the struggling creature below

and reel them to their mouth, where they're devoured.

Many of these glow-worm cities are found deep inside Waitomo,

so we're journeying into the blackness.

OK, you'll have to pass me the camera here, Graham.

Slithering through the caves

with a chilly stream rushing round our ankles is pretty tricky,

especially as we need to stop the cameras taking a swim.

But there are many creatures who love the security of the caverns,

not just the Waitomo glow worms,

like this water spider.

It's a female. I know that for sure, because underneath her

is what looks like a kind of slightly dark, shrunken ping-pong ball.

That's her egg sac. It's made out of silk.

Inside there, there's probably 60, maybe 80, tiny eggs

that will eventually hatch out into tiny spiderlings,

which will scurry off and disperse.

She carries them around like this,

clutched in her mouth parts, until they're ready to hatch.

Many spiders have this same maternal instinct.

Some will carry their babies round on their backs when they hatch out.

Spiders really don't deserve their grisly reputation.

The deeper we go, the tighter it gets.

I'm kind of wishing I'd eaten a little less for dinner last night!

'I don't want to get stuck.'

OK, Gray.

Oh, that is nasty!

HE GROANS

Caves and me just don't get on.

You hang here for a sec, Gray. 'But it was all worth it'

for the bizarre, dangling prize we find in the blackness.

Isn't that spectacular? It's like some fabulous natural chandelier.

All of these silken threads

are the work of tiny little larvae from fungus gnats.

If you look at them closely, along the length of them,

you can make out tiny blobs of mucus.

It's very sticky.

They work like fishing lines, hanging out in the air,

trying desperately to catch a hold of flying insects.

You can see here where it's worked.

Right there is an adult winged mayfly.

And it's just hanging suspended, caught in that silk.

The vibrations it set off will alert the fungus gnat larvae

and it'll reel in that line and munch down the insect.

And they really are remarkable little predators.

They have created here

one of the most beautiful spectacles, in miniature,

you will ever see.

They are just like living stalactites made of silk.

This is a truly exquisite display.

But there's one perhaps even more beautiful,

certainly more bizarre thing

that these fungus gnats can do to attract prey.

But to see that, we need to go to a different part of the cave system.

In this part of the cave, there are even larger aggregations

of the fungus gnat larvae and their glorious silken threads.

You can see them hanging underneath the roof in the cave.

But this is a much better place to see the next incredible trick

that this animal has for enticing insects into its trap.

Unfortunately, we can only see that in total darkness

and this camera is no good at all at seeing in the dark.

So we're going to have to switch to infrared.

OK, hopefully, now, under infrared light,

you can see the true beauty of these creatures.

It looks like the stars at night on a particularly clear evening.

That's actually created by chemicals inside the body

of the fungus gnat larvae.

And those are mixed together with oxygen to create a light,

which is almost without heat, but is incredible in its intensity.

And looking up here at the underside of this rocky ceiling,

you can just see those larvae are everywhere.

They can use that light to entice flying prey to come in close.

Then, obviously, it gets stuck in this sticky, silken trap.

It's just an incredibly inventive way, I guess,

of getting your food to come to you.

This bright light is genuinely a sinister neon attractant,

as no insect can resist it.

There can be literally hundreds on one cave wall and, in fact,

the hungrier they are, the brighter they glow.

Luring insects to their death, they're a real deadly beauty.

So the fungus gnat larvae.

They may be incredibly beautiful, but at the same time,

they're fabulous experts at catching flying insects on the wing

and, for that reason, I reckon they've got to go on the Deadly 60.

It's a cave-dwelling predator

with mucus covered fishing line lures

and a beautiful, but irresistible, glow.

The fungus gnat larvae definitely deserves its place on the Deadly 60.

'Next up, a true giant. We've got some travelling to do.'

New Zealand is made up of two major islands.

We've been on the North Island so far, but now we're heading south.

The South Island's famous for its marine life -

from sea lions to dolphins.

But also an animal that does battle with sea monsters

in the depths of the ocean.

We're just pulling into the South Island

and this is really very exciting.

Because the destination we're heading to now

is a place where we hope to find

one of the largest predatory animals on Earth.

An animal that has a larger brain than any other creature -

the magnificent sperm whale.

These mighty giants are multiple world-record holders.

They're the largest toothed whale, weighing up to 50 tonnes.

They have the biggest brain and they're a champion free driver,

regularly diving to over 1,000 metres to hunt giant squid.

Forget T-Rex,

this is one of the biggest predators that has ever lived.

Kaikoura, here on South Island, is one of the best places in the world

to see these predatory giants.

And, as a tantalising tease, the local museum has artefacts

that hint at the true scale of the sperm whale.

This is half of the jawbone of a sperm whale.

I guess the first and most impressive thing about it

is just the size of it.

It's absolutely vast.

This half of the jawbone weighs as much as I do

and it's filled with teeth like that.

Unbelievably impressive.

These are used primarily for scoffing down its prey, which are

things like giant squid, down in the darkest parts of the ocean.

But they're also used amongst males for battles

and you'll often see on mature males

they'll have scarring where teeth have been raked down

the side of their body.

This here?

That is one of its main weapons.

Sperm whales come unusually close to shore by Kaikoura,

'but they could be hundreds of miles away.'

So we have an awful lot of deep blue sea to search

in order to find our target.

If only we had some eyes in the sky. Luckily, we've got just that.

Woo-hoo!

A perfect way to go looking for a whale.

It gives you so much better perspective from up high.

We can see for miles and they are such large animals,

that when they come to the surface, they should become obvious,

particularly when the sea is as flat as it is now.

We're scanning the sea, looking for a tiny tell-tale puff

of what looks like smoke.

It's the spray that's exhaled from the whale's blowhole.

'Then suddenly, I spot something in the distance.'

OK. We've got one!

There's a whale-watching boat we can see about a mile in front of us.

And just a tiny puff of spray in front of it,

so there's a whale at the surface there.

All we've got to rely on now is it stays there long enough

for us to get a good look at it.

Yes, I see it!

Wow!

That is magnificent.

I mean, really, it's only from up here

that you get any sense of the scale of the animal.

I can actually see this alongside a whale-watching boat

and it's longer than the boat. It's enormous!

I reckon it's got to be 16 or 17 metres long.

At the moment, it's just resting at the surface.

Any second now, it will give a big kick of those mighty tail flukes,

move forward and dive down.

Once it's gone, it's going to be underwater for a very long time.

This is one of mother nature's greatest free divers.

They can dive to several thousand metres,

diving for well over an hour on one breath of air.

And the reason for these long dives

is they have to eat more than a cow's weight of fish

and squid every day.

OK, Gray, stay on him.

Here comes the dive. Get ready for it.

How's about that?

One big dive and he's down into the depths of the ocean.

But that was out of this world!

'Later on, we'll aim to put ourselves into the sperm whale's world'

for an intimate encounter with this vast, regal beast.

But, first, inland to the mountains

'for a truly curious contender for my list.'

Usually on Deadly 60, we feature animals that I guess are obvious.

No-one's going to complain if I put a great white shark,

a Bengal tiger or a Nile crocodile on my list.

But, every once in a while,

we feature an animal that is more off the wall,

perhaps a little unusual.

That's exactly the reason

that we're heading into the mountains of New Zealand.

The animal in question is called the kea.

It's a montane parrot,

capable of surviving the most extreme alpine conditions.

It has a reputation as a highly intelligent bird

that works cooperatively with its mates

and is naturally inquisitive.

They do a lot of scavenging, going through our rubbish

and tearing the rubber out of tourists' windscreens.

So far, so...well, charming.

But, their can opener of a beak serves many purposes

and it's a major part of what makes them deadly.

'More of that later. First, let's meet this mischievous bird.'

Because they're such brainy birds,

they always take an interest at anything new in their environment.

And, um, our tripod

is obviously something that needs to little bit of investigation.

HE LAUGHS

You can see him just looking at me and thinking,

"Can I get away with it?" No! Not a chance!

Oh. Now he's going for the other camera!

I love the way they just cock their heads to one side,

it really speaks of intelligence.

Further up the road is a mountain pass

'where the kea gather in large numbers.'

Keas, lots of them. It's a good sight.

Here we go, this is more like it.

So this is a slightly wilder location

and there are keas just about everywhere.

KEA SCREECHES

I guess this really shows what makes the kea such a tough bird.

We're in a high alpine pass.

At night time here, it would be down to almost freezing

and, in the winter, well below freezing.

But this animal is certainly tough enough

to endure even the coldest temperatures

with that thick, feathery plumage.

But that's not why I'm thinking of putting them on the Deadly 60.

'This is why.'

They're a mastermind hunter, using team work and intelligence

to track down and kill shearwater chicks

before they have a chance to escape.

The kea will stalk through the warren of shearwater nest holes,

bending down, listening for any tell-tale sounds.

When the chicks make the slightest movement or call,

the kea swiftly digs down, using its beak like a pickaxe,

tearing away the earth around the entrance.

The chick is pulled from the nest to become kea food.

So you can see how that sharply curved beak

is not just at all for ripping apart windscreens.

It can also be used to lethal effect.

However, I really think it's this bird's intelligence

that is the most interesting thing about them.

Keas have actually learned to solve quite complex puzzles and tasks.

But here in the wild, they're completely protected,

so we're not allowed

to intentionally interact with them.

I do, however, know a place

where I can show you for sure

that keas are anything but bird-brained.

So we are in Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch

and this is the perfect opportunity

to show you the problem-solving skills of the kea.

This rather impressive puzzle has a whole bunch of notches

and tricks that the kea is going to have to solve to get its food reward.

The food reward is a big lump of tasty cheese.

Before we've even started,

we've got our first intrigued customer.

So it goes in the top.

And we sit back and watch.

'The kea here have never seen this puzzle before,'

but they're instantly interested.

They have this unusual ability to learn

and to create new solutions to whatever problems they encounter -

very much like human beings.

It's this intelligence that helps them find prey

and track down carcasses in the wild.

That was absolutely brilliant.

It's putting its eye down

so it can look down into the tube at the cheese.

The fact that it spotted it is a really good start.

Now it has to figure out how to get at it.

This kea seems to have decided to start the puzzle halfway down.

Who knows if it's working out a solution or just destroying stuff?

Whatever, it's created a shortcut in the puzzle,

speeding the reward down the tunnel towards their waiting beaks.

Yes! Fantastic.

Stage one of the problem solved.

Now it's got to figure out where that cheese is.

And it doesn't take them long.

This is good. Yes.

The next stage of the puzzle solved.

Just turn the wheel.

They've done it again. Fantastic.

Yes. Go on.

'The food rewards

'are almost at the bottom.'

We're all secretly willing the kea on.

Go on!

One last stage to go.

And success.

The bold, beautiful, big-brained kea.

They're kind of destructive,

but they've got bags of personality and they're on my list.

How about that?

One of the most intelligent birds on Earth.

Stealth hunters who can creep up on their prey unnoticed.

A razor sharp beak that can be used for all kinds of deadly deeds.

They aren't bird-brained, they're on the Deadly 60.

Right, so back on the whale hunt. We're heading out at sea level

to try and catch up with a whale as it surfaces to breathe.

It's really important not to disturb the whale while it's resting,

so the main boat is not allowed closer than 50 metres from the whale.

But I have permission to approach in this kayak,

much too small to bother a 50-tonne mega-beast.

The seas off Kaikoura are incredibly rich,

which explains why there's so much life around.

But sperm whales tend to be associated with the deep sea.

Normally, you would never find them coming in close to the coast.

The reason they do here is because Kaikoura has

a very unique profile to its seabed.

So just a couple of miles out from the coast,

it's over 1,000 metres deep.

Go a little bit further, it's 2,000 metres deep.

This is one of the few places on Earth

where sperm whales will get very close to the land,

which makes it just about the best place ever for wildlife.

Although the seas can be a little bit rough.

HE LAUGHS

New Zealand's weather is famously changeable

and, right now, it's changed to rubbish.

With the swell, we could be metres from a whale and wouldn't see it.

There is, though, another key to tracking sperm whales.

And that's down to their being one of the loudest animals on Earth.

CLICKING

Sperm whales are really very noisy animals.

They create clicks using an organ called the monkey lips in their head

and send those sonic sound waves out into the water.

When those hit something solid - that could be the land itself,

it could be prey - the sound waves will bounce back to the sperm whale

and it picks them up in its lower jaw

and works out exactly what's in front of it

and decides where it's going to move and what it's going to try and hunt.

We've got here a hydrophone,

which can pick up those clicking sounds underwater.

So we're listening in now to try and hear where our sperm whale is.

When we work out what direction it's in,

we can just move towards it

and quickly be there when it comes to the surface.

CLICKING

But it could be a bit of a wait.

Sperm whales generally spend about an hour hunting in the depths.

The underwater battle between the sperm whale

and its prey the giant squid

happens so deep in the ocean, it's never been filmed.

But knowing it could be happening beneath me right now is pretty eerie.

-That way.

-That way.

'And our whale is on the move.'

So we need to keep tracking him.

They can travel a kilometre between dives, so we don't want to lose him.

When we check again, something's changed.

OK, we've been tracking our whale using the hydrophone and getting some

really loud clicks coming from this area we're over right now.

But it's gone silent.

Usually, a few minutes before they surface, that's what happens.

They stop clicking because they're not hunting any more.

So we're just waiting. Any second now it could break the surface.

Very, very exciting.

Come on, big fellow.

There he is! Over there! Just over there, do you see him?

Have you got him?

He's about this 200 metres in front of us.

OK.

This is as close as we can come in the main boat.

We have to keep our distance, but I can get closer in the kayak.

I'm going to approach cautiously.

The last thing I want to do is spook him.

After all, he's at the surface to recuperate.

This is his rest time in between hunts.

He'll spend eight to ten minutes at the surface after a dive,

taking in as much air as he can, oxygenating his blood,

then storing the oxygen in his muscles

before he heads back to the deep.

I need to keep clear of those mighty tail flukes.

One swipe could swat me and my kayak like a mosquito.

But up close, able to smell his breath and see the sheen on his skin,

it's one of most humbling moments imaginable.

This is one of nature's giants.

See, when you're up close,

the massive "S" shaped blowhole on the head,

which it's using to drive out all of the spent air from its lungs.

Wow!

The tail flukes are absolutely gigantic.

They're almost as broad across as my kayak.

And up they go!

Totally dwarfing me.

That was magnificent.

Today has been a day of giants.

And it's been one of the most special I have spent out on the seas,

but sperm whales, that massive animal that's hunting in the dark

beneath me now, just had to go on the Deadly 60.

Look at that glassy patch of water where he was.

That's all that remains of that mighty animal. Ha!

And a little fur seal in the middle of it!

It has the biggest brain on Earth,

is the world's greatest free diver

and they are the largest toothed carnivore ever known to have lived.

The sperm whale is a

world record breaking giant

and an animal we should all

be truly proud to have in our oceans.

Snake! Gray, don't move because you are right on it.

Ooh, hello.

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

The devil carried away the camera.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd