Baja Mexico Deadly Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall.

And this is Deadly Pole To Pole.

Oh!

From the top of the world to the bottom...

Whoa!

..deadly places,

deadly adventures

and deadly animals.

And you're coming with me every step of the way!

HE SCREAMS

(Deadly.)

Our odyssey across the planet has brought us to Baja, Mexico.

4,000 miles from the North Pole, it's the thin peninsula that breaks

the Pacific ocean and the Sea of Cortez.

And this place is bursting with life.

We'll be heading out into the ocean...

Look at that! Look, look.

..in search of an animal of mammoth proportions.

And I have a rather close encounter with a male sea lion.

Look at the size of him!

But first we're heading inland in search of the largest

and deadliest snake in Baja.

Oi, ya, ya, ya!

For the next few days and nights, we're going to be staying

in a remote base camp in those desert mountains.

But to get there, we're not going by car - and certainly not by that car.

Instead, we're going to do things the local way.

So I'm going to be heading up on this beautiful girl.

Right, let's saddle up.

The team and I journey into the desert.

Although it's anything but deserted.

Most of the year this is completely dry, there's no rain at all,

but in the last few weeks they've had quite a lot and the whole desert has bloomed.

It's very, very green, there's loads of flowers around

but also all of the desert life here is taking its chance to flourish.

And I'm really confident we're going to find more than our fair share

of desert deadlies.

But with just two days, we're going to be up against it.

Fortunately, I know this area is a hot spot for rattlesnakes.

So hopefully, luck will be on our side.

What a breathtaking place!

This looks like the perfect spot for our base camp.

Now all we have to do is find out who else is living here.

Our snake hunt begins as the light fades just before dusk.

In the middle of the day, the heat here in the Baja desert

can be punishing. There are very few animals that can endure it.

Right now, though, it's not too hot, it's not too cold,

in fact it's just right.

This is the time when the majority of life gets out and about

and so for us, it's perfect.

'Although it's not the easiest environment to move around in.'

It kind of seems like everything here is out to get you.

Particularly the plants.

All of the cactus are covered in really nasty spines

but this is even worse.

It's almost like a stinging nettle but a turbo-charged one,

and it can sting right through your clothing

and it's the gift that just keeps on giving.

It's absolutely agonising.

My entire crew are now itching and scratching and almost crying

with pain. And they're everywhere.

But Nick the sound man has found the perfect protection.

Black shin pads. Very nice, aren't they?

'Yeah... Not sure that'll catch on. Anyway, back to our snake search.'

They could be anywhere, so no stone is left unturned.

Yes! Fantastic, what a find.

This is a speckled rattlesnake.

-RATTLING

-What a wonderful sound!

That is perhaps the most classic warning mechanism

in the entire natural world.

The rattle of a rattlesnake. This serves no purpose whatsoever

for catching its prey. It's only there

so that this animal doesn't have to strike out at large creatures

that could be a threat to it but are too big for it to eat.

When it's born, the rattlesnake doesn't have a full rattle

like this. It just has one tiny little button at the end

of the tail. But as it grows and sheds its skin, it'll build up

successive cusps of dry, brittle skin over the top.

Until it's formed a complete rattle like this,

and this is vibrated with probably the fastest moving muscle

in the whole vertebrate world, to create that wonderful buzzing sound.

And I reckon it wouldn't matter if you'd ever seen or heard of

a rattlesnake before. You hear that sinister sound

and you know it means a warning.

You know it means "Leave me well alone,

"because at my business end I've got some serious venom."

This is the perfect start to our snake search.

But there's another rattlesnake round here that's even bigger

and even more venomous.

And that's the one I'm really hoping to find.

It's the largest snake found in Baja.

It's called the red diamond rattlesnake.

Unfortunately, as it gets darker and darker, our chance of finding one

is looking less likely. But we do find an eight-legged predator.

This is a good find. This is the Baja tarantula.

At the moment, this animal is out on the hunt.

This is a male tarantula and they... Unlike the females, they don't

tend to stay for many years in burrows. Instead, they'll go out

and actively search for their prey.

So I'm just going to let him scamper off and carry on hunting.

'It looks like tonight isn't going to be our lucky night,

'so it's back to camp and our sleeping bags.

'Hopefully, tomorrow we'll be able to find that elusive

'desert giant.'

After a quick breakfast,

it's back out into the desert again,

as during the day, some very different critters are up and about.

This lovely looking scorpion.

This is a classic scorpion that hunts on other scorpions

and on hard-bodied invertebrates like millipedes and centipedes.

There's over 1,000 different species of scorpions found

around the world and the venoms differ enormously,

from some which are easily powerful enough to kill an adult human being

to others that are no more than a wasp sting.

This one here is somewhere in the middle.

It'd really hurt for probably a couple of days, might make me sick

but it isn't going to kill me.

But to be on the safe side,

I'm going to put him back where I found him.

'And as we continue searching, I find another mini marvel.'

This bizarre little bit of wandering fluff,

which kind of looks like a clockwork toy, is a velvet ant.

'But they aren't actually ants - they're flightless wasps

'and this female has a deadly trait not to be messed with.'

They actually have a surprisingly unpleasant sting.

But at the moment it's not showing any signs of getting stuck into me.

Let's hope it doesn't change its mind.

I wouldn't want to get stung by one.

They have the nickname The Cow Killer,

because the sting is thought to be so painful, it could kill a cow.

'As we get into golden hour again,

'I'm hoping we're going to find our elusive rattler.

'We have everyone out looking, and it pays off.'

Here we go.

Sounds like one of our fellas has found something.

We have a snake on the move hunting. It's a rattlesnake.

Let's get in and get a closer look.

Ah, perfect. Because this is exactly what I really hoped to find.

Yeah, ya!

All of a sudden it's the last place you want to be handling

a highly venomous snake. There's spines and prickles

and stinging bushes everywhere, but none of them compare

to what this snake is capable of doing.

This is the red diamond rattlesnake.

It's an absolute beauty

and a really good size as well. Oi, ya, ya, ya!

It's quite warm because we are now at the end of the day,

it's had the whole day to warm up and now...

..it's thinking about heading out in search of food.

'And their hunting technique is all about senses.'

And it's got very big eyes.

Its visual acuity is actually really, really good.

That tongue that's flickering around at the moment,

its sense of taste, is incredibly accurate.

But it also has the heat-sensitive pits in its face.

They are pit vipers and able to sense prey even in total darkness

purely from the heat that their body gives off as they move.

Like all rattlesnakes,

they can perceive the world like a thermal camera,

forming an image of the animal using just heat.

Even in complete darkness, they can catch their prey

with perfect accuracy.

The red diamond rattlesnake is actually quite unusual.

What we saw earlier on as we came up to it is quite typical of this

particular animal.

They go out and they actively seek their prey. Most rattlesnakes

will find themselves a good spot and sit and wait, but the red diamond

is much more proactive in how it finds its prey.

I have to say that I really wouldn't want to be a rat or a mouse

out on a night like tonight with snakes like this

just waiting to feed.

If you look at the centre of this snake, it's got quite a decent bulge

where the stomach is.

I reckon this one has had a meal of at least a couple of rodents

in the last 24 hours. But it's still hungry for more.

The red diamond rattler.

Fiercely toxic, active hunter

and the largest rattlesnake in Baja.

Undeniably deadly.

With fast-acting and fiery venom,

actively seeking out its prey...

..hunting with heat-detecting pits...

..there's no doubt this Mexican rattler is... Deadly.

Next, we leave the desert behind and head to the Baja coast.

To find an animal of mammoth proportions.

The crew and I are heading out into the Sea of Cortez for

a mind-blowing encounter with a real serene, sublime, super-sized giant.

This is the largest fish on the planet.

The biggest cold-blooded creature on earth.

It's the whale shark.

This huge fish can be up to 20m in length

and an incredible 34 tonnes,

which is as much as a passenger jet plane.

Even though they're big, they actually feed on

the smallest animals of the ocean - plankton.

So they need to eat huge amounts of them, and that means they need

a mighty big mouth.

And they've got one. It's up to one-and-a-half metres wide.

Even though they're so big, they pose no danger to human beings,

so this will be a truly magical experience.

But before we've even left the harbour,

we spot another ocean beauty.

Dolphin!

Big pod of dolphin just ahead of us.

I think they're bottlenose dolphins.

The Sea of Cortez is one of those places on Earth that just

seems to be bursting with life.

It doesn't matter what you go out looking for, you always find

something else exciting

and any day when you're surrounded by this many dolphins

is going to be a good one.

And Johnny, the cameraman, and I can't resist getting in the water

to take a closer look.

'There are so many of them.'

But unfortunately we can't stay long.

We need to get back on the mission.

That's a pretty good start to the day,

but this is nothing compared to the main event.

And our luck is in.

We have some friends further down the coast who have another boat

and they've seen a whale shark. They've given us a call.

So we're getting down there as fast as we possibly can to try and see

if we can get there before it disappears.

Look at that! Look, look, look.

See the mouth open coming straight towards us now, it's feeding.

This great, cavernous black hole, look at that!

Gulping right close to the surface.

I think we need to get in the water.

It's hard to believe, but this whale shark is actually a small one.

They can be four times bigger.

Even the tail seems to be bigger than I am.

Despite the fact that they just seem to be cruising along with just

a few lazy flicks of the tail, they're moving surprisingly fast.

Believe me, trying to keep up with them is really, really tough.

But there are lots of other predators here that are much

quicker than the whale shark and would choose to try

and get stuck into them for a meal.

The way they get around that is by having the thickest skin

of any animal on earth.

The skin itself can be that thick, it's like an incredible

suit of armour that protects them as they're feeding.

This may be a big, lumbering giant, but it's far from defenceless.

The shark is motoring along, chowing down plankton.

So we get back on the boat to keep up with it.

Well, Johnny gets on the boat - I try a different method.

There is an easier way to travel.

You know, by sitting on the boat like a normal person.

Each to their own, I suppose.

It seemed like a good way to travel but it really isn't!

'No, it was a terrible idea,

'so I get back on the boat and we catch up

'with our whale shark and get back in the water.'

Now the whale shark's doing big circles while it's feeding,

so hopefully it'll be easier to keep up.

This huge fish feeds on such tiny organisms.

The plankton float in the ocean currents and although microscopic,

whale sharks gulp them down in their millions.

As the whale shark's swimming along, it's not just passively opening

its mouth and letting the plankton flow through,

it's gulping down food. It can sense where it is,

and it snatches out with its mouth towards it.

This is actually, bizarrely as it seems, an active predator,

and they have even been seen gulping down shoals of fish too.

But these fish are taking the chance,

hitching a ride on the pressure wave created by the whale shark.

Although it seems risky being so close to that giant mouth.

It is one of the great animals to be in the water with.

They're so huge, they just make you feel very, very small.

What an experience, swimming alongside this giant of the ocean.

The whale shark hoovering down millions of baby animals

every single day. The largest fish on the planet

and the largest shark. It's a true Deadly record breaker.

The largest cold-blooded animal.

With the thickest skin on Earth.

And a huge mouth to gulp down prey.

The whale shark - a Deadly record breaker.

Deadly.

But before we head in for the day, there's one more Mexican predator

I'd like to try and see.

And there's an island here that's famous for them.

The Sea of Cortez is truly stuffed full of fish

and whenever you've got an ecosystem like that, you're bound to have

top-of-the-line predators who are scoffing them down.

Right here it's Californian sea lions.

One of the most playful but also the most potent predators

you'll ever find.

Sea lions are the speed demons of the natural world.

Their manoeuvrability and acrobatic prowess

means they can catch their prey with ease.

And with sea lions all around, we don't waste any time.

We kit up and get straight into the water.

One, two, three, go!

'We've met sea lions before on our Pole to Pole journey,

'but I want to take this one stage further.

'This time I'm hoping for an encounter with one of

'the huge males.'

This is like swimming in the most extraordinary aquarium!

Literally hundreds of different species of brightly coloured fish

all flying around my ears like little birds.

It's exquisite.

-'And

-we seem to have found the young seals' playground.'

Hello!

These cracks and crevices in amongst the rocks are protected

from the waves and the tides.

It's the perfect place for the females and for the youngsters

to relax and lounge around.

This is wonderful!

'But it's the males I really want to see,

'so we continue looking around the reef.

'And in no time at all, the guest of honour arrives.'

This is a male and he is enormous.

Look at the size of him!

When you see a male and a female together, you might almost think

they were different animals.

He is so much bigger.

I mean, what you can see now is the reason why the male sea lions

are so big.

It's all about battling other males to gain the right to territory

and to females.

These battles can be terrifying.

They draw blood and can even kill.

I wouldn't want to be stuck in between a territorial battle

of that nature.

I'm trying very hard not to breathe out too much.

Because quite often sea lions will blow bubbles underwater

as a symbol of defiance, as a threat,

and the last thing I want to do is to make this big fella think

that I'm trying to challenge him!

You see that? As he came round towards the camera there,

blowing out bubbles.

That, along with barking underwater and showing off the teeth,

those are all big signs of dominance.

Always the sea lion letting us know that he is the most powerful kid

on the block.

These animals really have the potential to do great damage.

A fearsome bite force...

And a little nudge like that towards the camera or towards me

is a way of letting us know what he is truly capable of.

He's just kind of lying on the bottom as if he's having a snooze.

But this is an air breathing mammal.

Oh, wow!

Well, that was definitely a threat.

There's no doubt this big male wants to let me know who's boss.

He's back again, to your left, Johnny!

'This male is warning us off, so we back away and head for the surface.'

Sea lions have an image as being comics of the underwater world,

and that is justified, they're very, very playful, but then when

you come nose to nose with a big adult male, all of a sudden

you feel very, very small and insignificant.

Oh, wow!

They're so territorial, those big teeth

and they let you know who's boss.

'But as the male moves on, I've got one last thing I'd like to try

'with these top predators.'

I think it's the great curse of being a human being that

the only way you can be in a seal's world is with all of this kit.

Scuba tanks and a mask and it makes you really cumbersome.

What I'd really like to do is experience things as the seals do.

It's called free diving.

It's probably the most liberating and exciting way of experiencing

the sea, and when you've got seals around you as well, even better.

Before I enter the water, I'll need to take series of very deep

breaths and saturate all my muscles with oxygen,

then I'll dive down on a single breath.

As I dive, I instantly find a playmate.

Being able to stay under the water for long periods of time

is so important to the sea lions.

It means they can hunt continuously for up to 30 hours,

doing hundreds of dives.

They're one of the natural world's top free divers.

They can hold their breath for up to 12 minutes on a single dive

and they're hard to keep up with, even without my tanks.

Although this girl allows me to glide alongside.

'What an experience.

'I could stay down here all day - if I had the lungs for it.

'But I haven't, so I head for the surface.'

Well, it's one thing to be in the water with a sea lion on tanks,

all cumbersome and heavy, but seriously, to do it

on their terms is almost a life-changing experience.

I think that sea lions are dazzling, dainty dancers of the deep,

and definitely deadly.

Staying underwater for 12 minutes on one breath.

Males will fight to the death for the best territories.

And they're the fastest seals on the planet.

They're beautiful, but undeniably...

Deadly.

Join me next time for more Deadly Pole To Pole.

Oi, ya, ya!

Look at the size of him!

Oh, wow!

Deadly.