North Carolina Deadly Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall!

And this is Deadly Pole To Pole!

Ohhh!

From the top of the world to the bottom!

Whoa! Ha-ha!

Deadly places!

Deadly adventures!

And deadly animals!

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

HE SHOUTS

'This time on Deadly Pole to Pole,

'the team and I have journeyed to North Carolina.

'We encounter a canine comeback kid.

'And I have a near miss

'whilst looking for a sinister underwater killer.'

Cor!

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

'in super slow motion.

'North Carolina is on America's east coast.

'3,700 miles from the North Pole,

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

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

'than anywhere else in the United States.

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

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

and we are out on a snake hunt.

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

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

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

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

'And that serpent is the infamous timber rattlesnake.

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

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

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

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

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

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

without looking first to see what's underneath it.

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

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

There has been a forest fire come through here,

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

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

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

Snakes are what are known as cold-blooded animals.

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

active from the outside environment.

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

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

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

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

No, nothing.

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

and absolutely no sign whatsoever of a snake.

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

So our wild search may not have been a success,

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

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

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

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

all of the fabulous attributes of this glorious snake.

There it is.

The timber rattlesnake.

It is one of the most widely-distributed

and feared snakes on the whole continent.

But I think the fear thing is pretty much unjustified.

This is a snake that will do anything

to avoid biting a human being.

TAIL RATTLES

This is the early warning system of the rattlesnake

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

As these snakes grow, they shed their skin

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

Those can be vibrated to create this iconic sound,

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

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

'The tail vibrates with one of the fastest moving

'muscles in the whole vertebrate world.

'Too fast for us to see properly.'

So we've got Luke, our cameraman,

ready on standby...

..with a super slow motion camera.

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

'you can see the vibrations passing through the tail.

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

'The sound of the American wild.'

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

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

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

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

But to show you its finest weapons,

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

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

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

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

Let me just see. Wow, look at that!

OK.

So I just want to gently slip this stick

along the upper jaw

and expose those fangs.

There. Look at that.

They're incredibly sharp, genuinely needle-sharp.

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

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

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

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

This may look uncomfortable for the snake

but this is exactly what it would do

as it's biting into a small mammal.

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

'Well, the secret is in the strike.

'The snake senses the warm water in the balloon

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

'The fangs can be moved independently...

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

'Venom is pumped through the middle of the fang

'and into the bloodstream.'

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

on all different elements of its prey's body.

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

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

and nervous system start to just completely go into overload,

and eventually, it will simply cease to function.

The wondrous timber rattlesnake.

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

BUT is an absolute denizen of the forest.

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

to be wandering around by night.

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

'With their needle-sharp fangs...

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

'and lightning-rapid strike,

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

North Carolina has all of the icons of American wildlife.

Bear, beaver, bobcat, gators, snakes,

but we're here looking for an animal

that can be found here and nowhere else,

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

ENGINE REVS AND WHIRRS

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

critically-endangered animal, the red wolf.

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

No!

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

'and they've become my favourite animal.'

Hello. Wow.

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

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

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

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

'Tracking one down is going to be tricky though.

'They were declared extinct in the wild in 1980.

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

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

'To find one will take luck, patience

'and some Deadly technology.'

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

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

we have antennae.

In the back here we have Art,

who is a biologist who's studying the wolves,

and we can try and track down their exact locations

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

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

we can get down and track them on the ground.

TRACKER BEEPS

So, Art has his first signal.

It seems the wolves are beneath us right now.

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

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

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

'of knowing where they are.

'And these old ways are often the best.'

Ooh!

This is fantastic.

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

that it comes from a member of the dog family.

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

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

because they hold their claws retracted

so all you see is the pads of their toes.

That there is definitely from a dog,

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

That is from a red wolf,

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

They're larger than the females.

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

and heading in that direction.

Fantastic, couldn't ask for a better start.

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

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

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

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

From here on in, everyone has to be silent.

Everyone good, everyone ready? Let's go.

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

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

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

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

That'll stink.

This is all good.

More scat.

'Now we have to wait for dusk to fall

'and hopefully for the wolves to appear.'

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

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

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

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

All we can do is keep ourselves as camouflaged,

as low a profile as physically possible and just hope.

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

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

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

and we've had to switch to technology.

That's Simon the sound recordist there.

This camera was originally designed by the military,

and it sees warmth.

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

So the grasses and scrub are cool,

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

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

'Red wolves are incredibly endangered

'and are rarely seen in the wild.

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

'and see if we can tempt them out.'

STEVE HOWLS

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

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

But unfortunately the wolves have moved away

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

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

without seeing one of its most exciting inhabitants.

It's just not going to be here.

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

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

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

Inside this pen are two animals

that are part of the captive breeding programme,

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

OK, we good? Thanks very much, Mike.

OK.

There they are.

'Two red wolves.

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

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

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

These animals here are the future for the species.

It's possible that their pups, their young,

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

and could be the next generation of red wolves running free

in North Carolina and that's a wonderful thought.

These are not tame animals by any means.

They're certainly not used to human contact

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

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

and that's not really surprising.

Wolves and human beings have had a very, very difficult

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

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

is down to human beings.

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

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

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

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

put some cameras around it,

and then leave them be.

'These camera traps will film into the night.

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

'and hopefully we'll catch shots

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

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

OK, so we've downloaded all of our footage

from our cameras onto the laptop.

Let's see what we've got.

Right. OK.

I've got bottom of wolf having a little sniff

at the hindquarters of the deer.

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

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

and tear it to shreds.

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

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

processing the world through scent.

And, yes, she's starting to feed.

This is fantastic.

Now the male's sniffing the camera.

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

Right, OK, this is at night now,

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

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

'The wolves are really digging in now.

'They're efficient carnivores,

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

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

and even bone, they have to manoeuvre the meat back

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

Crunching away at the toughest parts of the food.

'And having filled their stomachs through the night,

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

Aah! It's got the camera.

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

Now he's off, he's off!

Come back with our camera.

And that is the end of our camera.

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

that very, very few people have ever seen.

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

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

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

and I think red wolves are Deadly.

With teeth strong enough to crunch through bone.

A highly inquisitive predatory nature.

And a real hunger for meat,

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

Red wolves could once again be top

dogs of the south-east States.

Deadly!

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

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

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

DRAMATIC SCREAMING

This rather beautiful river seems like an unlikely location for

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

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

They called it the mud puppy, the Allegheny alligator,

the mud devil, the snot otter.

I think its modern name, though is even better,

nowadays it's known as the hellbender.

DRAMATIC THUNDER RUMBLE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, dear. This is going to be cold.

Uh-huh!

Hellbenders have really suffered over the last few decades

with pollution, habitat loss and people collecting them

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

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

and we're working with the local hellbender survey

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

Except that this rock is too heavy for me!

HE LAUGHS

Luckily, we're working with some hench local biologists

who have the heft to give me a hand.

Right, nothing under that.

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

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

Got a stick.

No, can't feel anything there.

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

looking for wildlife I've ever done.

There's one here.

There's one here. You got a net?

You got it?

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

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

The search continues.

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

I can't feel my face at all

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

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

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

Cor!

-OK.

-OK, I got it.

Got one.

I've got one.

Got one.

It's a biggie!

CHEERING

Yes! Fantastic!

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

And it's a really good-sized animal.

One of the largest species of salamander in the whole world

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

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

but it has a really slimy skin

covered with sticky mucus

which does kind of look a bit like snot.

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

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

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

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

This is a really, really good-sized animal,

it was well worth all the search for.

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

as long as my arm.

The sinister name may be down to their appearance.

A creature from hell that's bent on returning.

Their flattened body shape means they can lurk under rocks

ready to snatch up passing prey, like crayfish.

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

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

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

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

smiling, gaping mouth.

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

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

and sucking in, creating a vacuum,

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

This wondrous creature has several other super-powers.

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

to regenerate limbs, to regenerate the tail,

so if they're snapped off by a predator,

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

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

well worth the cold and well worth the search.

The hellbender, the largest salamander on the continent.

It has the ability to regenerate its limbs.

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

With suction-powered mouths to slurp in crayfish.

The largest salamander in the Americas.

And flattened bodies that allow them to ambush passing prey.

Hellbenders are surprisingly...

Deadly!

Wow, look at that,

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

It's a biggie!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd