North Carolina Deadly Pole to Pole


North Carolina

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Transcript


LineFromTo

My name's Steve Backshall!

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And this is Deadly Pole To Pole!

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Ohhh!

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From the top of the world to the bottom!

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Whoa! Ha-ha!

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Deadly places!

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Deadly adventures!

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And deadly animals!

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

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HE SHOUTS

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'This time on Deadly Pole to Pole,

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'the team and I have journeyed to North Carolina.

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'We encounter a canine comeback kid.

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'And I have a near miss

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'whilst looking for a sinister underwater killer.'

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Cor!

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'But first, we're going to try to capture an ambush striker

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'in super slow motion.

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'North Carolina is on America's east coast.

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'3,700 miles from the North Pole,

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'7,000 miles short of our destination in Antarctica.

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'Surprisingly, there are more venomous snake bites here each year

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'than anywhere else in the United States.

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'Our target is one of the most toxic on the continent.'

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We've made our way to the coastal forest in the south of the state

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and we are out on a snake hunt.

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These snakes will, over the winter, have been hibernating,

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but this time of year, as the sun comes up,

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they're starting to think about coming out, basking in the sunshine.

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So we're going to go out and try and find ourselves a venomous serpent.

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'And that serpent is the infamous timber rattlesnake.

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'Timber rattlesnakes are ambush predators that feed mainly at night.

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'Lying in wait, ready to strike out at passing rodents.'

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'Their venom is so toxic, it can drop prey down within minutes.

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'They'll also strike in defence, and the venom is fiery enough to cause

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'a human harm, so we'll be watching out for snakes beneath our feet.'

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And it's very important not to put your hands in there

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without looking first to see what's underneath it.

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Cos if there is something venomous in there, you could get bitten.

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You can see that all of this area is blackened and charred.

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There has been a forest fire come through here,

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and, although that's not always great for wildlife, it's really good

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for helping to find snakes because it's got rid of lots of the

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scrubby undergrowth, so it makes it much more easy for us to see things.

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Snakes are what are known as cold-blooded animals.

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It means that they get the warmth in their body to be able to be

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active from the outside environment.

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In the winter, when it's very, very cold,

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they really just don't have enough pizzazz to get up

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and do anything, so they hibernate, and they'll lie up in there

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and just stay doing nothing until the warm months come round.

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No, nothing.

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We've been hacking our way through this stuff for ages now,

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and absolutely no sign whatsoever of a snake.

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Luckily though, I do have a back-up plan.

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So our wild search may not have been a success,

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but we are not leaving here empty-handed by any means.

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Because this is the snake that I was hoping to find.

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This one here was caught in this area and it is going to be

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released here too and it gives us a wonderful opportunity to see

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all of the fabulous attributes of this glorious snake.

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There it is.

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The timber rattlesnake.

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It is one of the most widely-distributed

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and feared snakes on the whole continent.

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But I think the fear thing is pretty much unjustified.

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This is a snake that will do anything

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to avoid biting a human being.

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TAIL RATTLES

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This is the early warning system of the rattlesnake

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and the feature that gives it its name, its rattle.

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As these snakes grow, they shed their skin

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and leave behind brittle cusps at the end of the tail.

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Those can be vibrated to create this iconic sound,

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and that's a fabulous warning to large animals that might

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stumble nearby but are way too big for the snake to eat.

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'The tail vibrates with one of the fastest moving

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'muscles in the whole vertebrate world.

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'Too fast for us to see properly.'

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So we've got Luke, our cameraman,

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ready on standby...

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..with a super slow motion camera.

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'Once it's captured in slow motion, 16 times slower than real time,

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'you can see the vibrations passing through the tail.

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'Ripples pass through the cusps, making that classic buzzing sound.

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'The sound of the American wild.'

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All of this is happening in a fraction of a second.

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Actually, this snake can rattle as many as 60 times in a single second.

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'And that sound is a rattlesnake's number-one defence.

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'But when it comes to catching prey, the business is at the other end.'

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But to show you its finest weapons,

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I'm going to have to get control of the snake.

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So there are the snake's finest feature, its fangs.

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They're sheathed in kind of extended gums, which hides them

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right up until the second that they actually inject into the prey.

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Let me just see. Wow, look at that!

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OK.

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So I just want to gently slip this stick

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along the upper jaw

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and expose those fangs.

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There. Look at that.

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They're incredibly sharp, genuinely needle-sharp.

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But actually quite fragile as well, so I don't want to damage them.

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You can see that it's quite flexible as well.

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It's hinged at the end so that the fang can swing forwards

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as the snake goes to bite, and stab down into its prey.

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This may look uncomfortable for the snake

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but this is exactly what it would do

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as it's biting into a small mammal.

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'So how does the snake propel those fangs into its prey?

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'Well, the secret is in the strike.

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'The snake senses the warm water in the balloon

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'with heat-sensitive pits between the eyes and nostrils.'

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'The fangs can be moved independently...

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'..and propelled forward with a lunge of the head.

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'Venom is pumped through the middle of the fang

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'and into the bloodstream.'

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And the venom is a really complex toxin which goes to work

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on all different elements of its prey's body.

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The prey is just going to simply start to shut down.

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Its muscles will start to spasm, it'll have its heart

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and nervous system start to just completely go into overload,

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and eventually, it will simply cease to function.

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The wondrous timber rattlesnake.

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This is a snake that really means human beings no harm whatsoever,

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BUT is an absolute denizen of the forest.

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A snake that is really bad news for any small mammals that happen

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to be wandering around by night.

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This, I would have to say, is a truly lethal snake.

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'With their needle-sharp fangs...

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'..potent venom, one of the most toxic in the Americas,

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'and lightning-rapid strike,

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'timber rattlesnakes are the ambush artists of the southern States.'

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North Carolina has all of the icons of American wildlife.

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Bear, beaver, bobcat, gators, snakes,

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but we're here looking for an animal

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that can be found here and nowhere else,

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and the best way of looking for one is getting airborne.

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ENGINE REVS AND WHIRRS

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The purpose of this flight is to track down an elusive,

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critically-endangered animal, the red wolf.

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And the only place you can find it is right here.

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No!

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'I've filmed wolves all over the world with Deadly,

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'and they've become my favourite animal.'

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Hello. Wow.

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'But we've never filmed the red wolf before,

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'as it's one of the rarest creatures on Earth.

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'Red wolves were once top dog in the south-eastern States.

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'They're opportunistic, preying on rabbits, rats and deer.

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'Tracking one down is going to be tricky though.

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'They were declared extinct in the wild in 1980.

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'Thanks to a reintroduction programme, there are 100 red wolves

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'roaming free, just a handful in the area we're flying over.

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'To find one will take luck, patience

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'and some Deadly technology.'

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In this area there are four animals that have been radio-collared,

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so on the outside of the aeroplane, on the wing struts,

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we have antennae.

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In the back here we have Art,

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who is a biologist who's studying the wolves,

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and we can try and track down their exact locations

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by zeroing in on the signals that are coming out from their collars.

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Once we have a vague idea of where the animals are,

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we can get down and track them on the ground.

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TRACKER BEEPS

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So, Art has his first signal.

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It seems the wolves are beneath us right now.

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'Back at land level, we're on the hunt.

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'The radio tracking has given us the wolves' general position,

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'but down here there are other, more basic, methods

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'of knowing where they are.

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'And these old ways are often the best.'

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Ooh!

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This is fantastic.

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OK, I can clearly see from looking at this print,

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that it comes from a member of the dog family.

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Each one of the toes has a clear imprint of a claw

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at the front of it, and you don't get that in cats at all

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because they hold their claws retracted

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so all you see is the pads of their toes.

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That there is definitely from a dog,

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and from the size of it, it's not a coyote.

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That is from a red wolf,

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and I would say that it's from a male red wolf as well.

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They're larger than the females.

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Very crisp, very fresh, this was here within the last 24 hours,

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and heading in that direction.

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Fantastic, couldn't ask for a better start.

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'It's likely that the wolves are laying up in cover.

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'We just need to wait till they set off to hunt.'

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Just had a shout from Art that the male wolf is on the move, so we need

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to get moving ourselves up to where we stand a chance of seeing them.

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From here on in, everyone has to be silent.

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Everyone good, everyone ready? Let's go.

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'And there are more signs that we're in the right place.'

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Lots and lots of wolf scat round here, and I don't actually

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need to break it apart to know that it's quite fresh cos I can smell it.

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Guys, when you walk past, don't tread in that.

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That'll stink.

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This is all good.

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More scat.

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'Now we have to wait for dusk to fall

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'and hopefully for the wolves to appear.'

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We've picked our spot. It's kind of a natural T-junction,

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and if the wolves are coming out of this thick brush here

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and coming out to forage, they may well come right past us.

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This is one of the longest long shots I have ever, ever had.

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All we can do is keep ourselves as camouflaged,

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as low a profile as physically possible and just hope.

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'As the hours pass, we get out the filming gear that'll enable us

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'to see in the dark, a heat-sensitive camera.'

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The sun's gone down now, so our eyes are completely useless

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and we've had to switch to technology.

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That's Simon the sound recordist there.

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This camera was originally designed by the military,

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and it sees warmth.

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It sees the moving muscles and the warm blood, particularly of mammals.

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So the grasses and scrub are cool,

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and they're coming out in blue and green and light yellow.

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'But even with this kit, the odds were always stacked against us.

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'Red wolves are incredibly endangered

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'and are rarely seen in the wild.

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'So, as hopes dwindle, we might as well give it one last shot

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'and see if we can tempt them out.'

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STEVE HOWLS

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Well, we've been out here for hours now,

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and I honestly can't feel my fingers, it's so cold.

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But unfortunately the wolves have moved away

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and we've lost our chance to see them in the wild.

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However, there's no way that we could leave North Carolina

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without seeing one of its most exciting inhabitants.

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It's just not going to be here.

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'Thankfully, Art and his team have a way that we will be able

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'to see these rare wolves closer than we've ever thought possible.

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'This secret facility is the key to the future of red wolves.'

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Inside this pen are two animals

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that are part of the captive breeding programme,

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and we've got a fabulous opportunity to see them up close.

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OK, we good? Thanks very much, Mike.

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OK.

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There they are.

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'Two red wolves.

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'The animals we've come all the way to North Carolina to find.'

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These are my first-ever red wolves, and, OK,

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they're not out running in the wild but they are the next best thing.

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These animals here are the future for the species.

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It's possible that their pups, their young,

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their offspring could be allowed to go back out into the wild

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and could be the next generation of red wolves running free

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in North Carolina and that's a wonderful thought.

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These are not tame animals by any means.

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They're certainly not used to human contact

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and you can see that as we've come in here, they're very uncertain.

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They're looking towards us all the time, inquisitive, interested,

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and that's not really surprising.

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Wolves and human beings have had a very, very difficult

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relationship over the years, and red wolves are no different.

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The majority of the reason why these animals went extinct in the wild

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is down to human beings.

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Well, I've now seen red wolves up close,

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and they're just as beautiful as I hoped. But what I'd really like

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would be to see their deadly side, to see them feeding,

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and I think our best bet is to bring in some food,

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put some cameras around it,

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and then leave them be.

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'These camera traps will film into the night.

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'We've brought in a deer that was knocked down on the road,

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'and hopefully we'll catch shots

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'of the wolves' jaws and claws in action.'

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So we'll come back tomorrow morning and see what we've got.

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OK, so we've downloaded all of our footage

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from our cameras onto the laptop.

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Let's see what we've got.

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Right. OK.

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I've got bottom of wolf having a little sniff

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at the hindquarters of the deer.

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These animals are naturally going to be very shy, very careful,

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so I'm not expecting them just to come charging straight in

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and tear it to shreds.

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It's almost like the whole body is led by the nose.

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The nose is right down close to the ground, sniffing around,

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processing the world through scent.

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And, yes, she's starting to feed.

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This is fantastic.

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Now the male's sniffing the camera.

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There's so much communication that goes on with smell in these animals.

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Right, OK, this is at night now,

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and you can see they're much more confident now.

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That is much more classic of how I'd expect to see a wolf feeding.

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'The wolves are really digging in now.

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'They're efficient carnivores,

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'and can eat up to 10% of their body weight in meat in a day.'

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And when they want to actually get through all the tough muscle

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and even bone, they have to manoeuvre the meat back

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towards the rear of the jaw, exactly what it's doing there.

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Crunching away at the toughest parts of the food.

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'And having filled their stomachs through the night,

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'come morning, the animals become a bit more inquisitive.'

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Aah! It's got the camera.

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Getting a very good shot of the floor at the moment.

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Now he's off, he's off!

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Come back with our camera.

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And that is the end of our camera.

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I feel like I've been a secret midnight watcher of a world

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that very, very few people have ever seen.

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Personally, I really, really hope that red wolves are back, showing

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their deadly side in even more of the United States in the future.

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They're cunning, they're elusive, they're incredibly beautiful

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and I think red wolves are Deadly.

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With teeth strong enough to crunch through bone.

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A highly inquisitive predatory nature.

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And a real hunger for meat,

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consuming up to a tenth of their body weight in one go.

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Red wolves could once again be top

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dogs of the south-east States.

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Deadly!

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Our next mission is taking us about eight-hours' drive away

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up into the Appalachian mountains to a secret location where we're

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going in search of a monster that is straight out of hell.

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DRAMATIC SCREAMING

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This rather beautiful river seems like an unlikely location for

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a slimy, nightmare monster, but the early settlers here clearly thought

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this animal was some kind of demon from the names they gave to it.

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They called it the mud puppy, the Allegheny alligator,

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the mud devil, the snot otter.

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I think its modern name, though is even better,

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nowadays it's known as the hellbender.

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DRAMATIC THUNDER RUMBLE

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The only way to find a hellbender is to get right into the river where

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they live and right now that is going to be a little bit like hell.

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This river behind us is fed not only by rain but also by snow melt.

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It's going to be impossibly cold, which is why

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we have nice thick under suits and a dry suit but I don't think even this

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is going to stop the fact that today is going to be pretty miserable.

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Oh, dear. This is going to be cold.

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Uh-huh!

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Hellbenders have really suffered over the last few decades

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with pollution, habitat loss and people collecting them

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for the pet trade, so they're now a protected species.

0:22:240:22:27

You're not allowed to do this unless you have special permission

0:22:270:22:30

and we're working with the local hellbender survey

0:22:300:22:33

and looking under rocks like this is the perfect way to start.

0:22:330:22:38

Except that this rock is too heavy for me!

0:22:420:22:45

HE LAUGHS

0:22:450:22:47

Luckily, we're working with some hench local biologists

0:22:500:22:54

who have the heft to give me a hand.

0:22:540:22:56

Right, nothing under that.

0:23:020:23:04

It's an intense shock the first time you put your head under.

0:23:060:23:09

This one's really good. I've got a good feeling about this one.

0:23:110:23:14

Got a stick.

0:23:160:23:17

No, can't feel anything there.

0:23:200:23:22

Oh, this will have to be the weirdest way of going

0:23:240:23:26

looking for wildlife I've ever done.

0:23:260:23:29

There's one here.

0:23:310:23:32

There's one here. You got a net?

0:23:320:23:35

You got it?

0:23:400:23:41

Lost it. I had a bit of a jelly fingers moment.

0:23:410:23:46

Just grabbed one for a second and then, phew, off it went.

0:23:460:23:49

The search continues.

0:23:510:23:53

Now four hours into our hunt, the icy river water is taking its toll.

0:23:550:23:59

I can't feel my face at all

0:24:020:24:06

and my fingers feel like someone's stabbing knitting needles into them.

0:24:060:24:11

But it's all good if we find a big hellbender.

0:24:130:24:15

And the slippery slabs of rock are certainly not making it easy.

0:24:170:24:21

Cor!

0:24:240:24:25

-OK.

-OK, I got it.

0:24:260:24:28

Got one.

0:24:330:24:34

I've got one.

0:24:360:24:37

Got one.

0:24:370:24:38

It's a biggie!

0:24:380:24:40

CHEERING

0:24:400:24:41

Yes! Fantastic!

0:24:410:24:44

Now that is what all of the effort's been about, an adult hellbender.

0:24:450:24:51

And it's a really good-sized animal.

0:24:510:24:54

One of the largest species of salamander in the whole world

0:24:540:24:59

and you can kind of see where the alternative common name,

0:24:590:25:03

the snot otter, comes from because it doesn't have any scales

0:25:030:25:07

but it has a really slimy skin

0:25:070:25:10

covered with sticky mucus

0:25:100:25:12

which does kind of look a bit like snot.

0:25:120:25:15

And it's thought that it's possible that that secretion has

0:25:150:25:19

something in it which doesn't taste very good, so it's a good

0:25:190:25:22

way of deterring predators because they'll get a mouthful of that

0:25:220:25:25

and decide that actually the hellbender is not a good meal.

0:25:250:25:29

This is a really, really good-sized animal,

0:25:290:25:31

it was well worth all the search for.

0:25:310:25:33

These freakishly-named hellbenders can grow up to 75cms long,

0:25:360:25:41

as long as my arm.

0:25:410:25:43

The sinister name may be down to their appearance.

0:25:450:25:48

A creature from hell that's bent on returning.

0:25:480:25:51

Their flattened body shape means they can lurk under rocks

0:25:530:25:56

ready to snatch up passing prey, like crayfish.

0:25:560:25:59

These animals are predators and, obviously, when you look at a

0:26:020:26:06

predator, you need to look at the business end and that's the head.

0:26:060:26:10

And it just looks like, look at the size of that head,

0:26:100:26:12

it's enormous and it's got this great big wide,

0:26:120:26:16

smiling, gaping mouth.

0:26:160:26:19

The way they'll catch their prey is by waiting till

0:26:190:26:22

they get close by, then opening that mouth good and wide

0:26:220:26:26

and sucking in, creating a vacuum,

0:26:260:26:28

which drags the crayfish into their mouth where it'll be munched down.

0:26:280:26:32

This wondrous creature has several other super-powers.

0:26:320:26:37

One of those is the ability to regenerate parts of its body,

0:26:370:26:40

to regenerate limbs, to regenerate the tail,

0:26:400:26:43

so if they're snapped off by a predator,

0:26:430:26:44

it can actually start to grow them back after as little as a few weeks.

0:26:440:26:47

I think that is just exquisite and well worth the journey,

0:26:490:26:54

well worth the cold and well worth the search.

0:26:540:26:56

The hellbender, the largest salamander on the continent.

0:26:590:27:02

It has the ability to regenerate its limbs.

0:27:020:27:05

It's covered in slimy snot and I think it's definitely Deadly.

0:27:060:27:11

With suction-powered mouths to slurp in crayfish.

0:27:140:27:17

The largest salamander in the Americas.

0:27:190:27:23

And flattened bodies that allow them to ambush passing prey.

0:27:230:27:27

Hellbenders are surprisingly...

0:27:270:27:29

Deadly!

0:27:310:27:32

Wow, look at that,

0:27:340:27:36

Join me next time as I continue my journey on Deadly Pole to Pole.

0:27:360:27:40

It's a biggie!

0:27:400:27:42

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