Toxic Deadly Top 10


Toxic

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'Welcome to my Deadly Top Ten.

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'A chance to choose the top ten fiercest, fastest, most tactical,

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'toxic and well-armed animals on the planet.

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'All deadly in their own world, and sometimes deadly to me!

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'Who do you think will be Number One of my Deadly Top Ten?'

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'In this countdown, I'm choosing my top ten toxic animals,

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'creatures who are poisonous.

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'They all have deadly bites,

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'stings, spit

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'and even sprays.

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'Not the kind of critters you want to get too close to,

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'let alone try to handle.'

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Ow!

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'Time to kick off my Toxic Top Ten countdown.

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'The creature with a massive sting in its tail.

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'Scorpions are very well-armed animals.

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'As well as a sting at the back, they have claws at the front.

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'They inject poisonous fluid into their prey to kill it.

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'This is called venom, and a fat tailed's sting is full of it.

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'Very nasty venom, too.'

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Ooh!

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OK. Got to hold my nerve here.

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I'm getting pinched, but the pinch is not the problem.

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This is probably one of the most venomous scorpions in Africa.

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This one has a really nasty punch.

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An extraordinary thing about this species

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is that it doesn't stop there.

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It can actually flick its venom at an attacker,

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and it can be really accurate.

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'They need this deadly capability as they have formidable predators.

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'To a scorpion, a meerkat is like a T Rex.

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'Meerkats are deadly scorpion-hunters

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'who can dig into the earth for their prey.

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'But this scorpion has fat-tailed fire power.

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'It takes aim with its flicking tail, the venom sack pulses

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'and the sting squirts venom.

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'The toxic spray could blind the meerkat who, wisely, backs off.

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'Trust me, this is not a creature to pick a fight with.

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'Neither is Number Nine,

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'the Sydney funnel web spider -

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'perhaps the most deadly toxic of all spiders,

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'which lives around the Australian city of Sydney.'

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In England, if I find a spider in my house, I pick it up

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and throw it out in the garden.

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In Sydney, you have to be more careful, and here's why.

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That's certainly the most aggressive spider I've ever seen.

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She's standing up with her legs up like this.

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It's a classic threat posture.

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She's saying, "I'm big. I'm dangerous. Don't mess with me!"

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'They use venom to paralyse invertebrate prey.

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'What makes them dangerous to us is their habit of wandering about.

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'Lovesick funnel webs often enter houses searching for a mate.

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'But there's nothing romantic about their bite.

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'The one-centimetre fangs can stab through your toenail!

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'It can bite many times and its venom is especially toxic to humans.

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'It's one of the most potentially dangerous spiders in the world.

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'AND they like hiding in boots!

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'People sometimes get bitten on the foot. It's excruciatingly painful.

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'The venom is so toxic because it gets injected directly

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'into victims' bodies and blood streams.

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'Funnel web venom affects the human heart and lungs,

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'and victims need special medicine, an antivenom, to pull through.

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'This, curiously, comes from other funnel web spiders.

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'In special captive spider milking centres,

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'venom is sucked off their huge fangs with a mini vacuum.

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'This is used to make life-saving antivenom.

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'A single drop can save a person's life.

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'But I'd still check your boots if you go to Australia.

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'We've had a scorpion and a spider. What do you think I've chosen next?

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'They're long, thin, have venomous bites...

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'One of the most toxic snakes in the world.

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'These slinky sea snakes swim and hunt under water,

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'and live in the tropics.

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'Snakes aren't everyone's cup of tea but watch how elegantly they swim.

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'Each has enough venom

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'to, theoretically, kill several people.

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'Happily, they're not aggressive to humans.

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'It would be a different story if I was a fish.'

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It's a really murky, spooky place, this.

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Just the kind of place you expect to find a sea monster,

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or one of the most venomous snakes in the world.

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'The sea krait is quite easy to find as it lounges about on rocks,

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'waiting to catch its prey.'

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The reason the venom needs to be so strong

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is that fish, once they're bitten, can swim away.

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If the venom is powerful enough to work quickly,

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the fish can't get far away, and he gets a meal.

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'Toxic snakes have a pair of hollow fangs,

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'teeth which inject venom into their prey.

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'The venom is stored in special sacs called venom glands in their heads.

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'The effect of the sea krait bite is almost instantaneous,

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'so they can tackle fish as long as they are.

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'They devour their meal whole. One like this will last for weeks.

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'Sea kraits advertise the fact they're toxic with bright colours.'

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That banded black and white colouration is incredibly pretty.

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It's there for a reason.

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These markings show potential predators...

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..that it's dangerous. They're a warning.

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'Being deadly beautiful is great defence.

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'It's perhaps why sea kraits seem so chilled out.

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'Potential predators avoid them.

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'Smelly seven is also one to stay away from - the skunk.

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'Such a toxic animal, the military are copying its deadly chemistry.'

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Look at that! I think he's quite a young one, actually.

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Just scampering off into the bushes.

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I have to say, I'm secretly quite glad.

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You wouldn't want to get sprayed by a skunk.

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There is nothing funny about it.

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If a skunk sprays you, you are in a world of pain.

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I remember our dog got sprayed a few years back.

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Everything it sat on or even went close to had to be thrown away.

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The smell was so powerful it made you want to vomit just being close.

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'Skunk-size mammals are often on the menu for all sorts of predators.

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'One spray from the skunk's under-tail glands, they soon learn.

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'This young mountain lion is about to be taught a valuable lesson.

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'The mountain lion is ten times the size of our hero.

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'But eau de skunk is nature's most unstomachable stench -

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'a grizzly cocktail of garlic, burnt rubber and rotten eggs.

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'This horrific smell is so effective,

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'it's used to disperse crowds of people.

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'Now, did you know there are deadly toxic...

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'snails?

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'A marine mollusc with a shocking weapon, it lurks in coral reefs,

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'and sometimes hangs out in rock pools.

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'The size of a carrot, it's one seashell you never want to pick up.

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'For all its sluggish behaviour, it has a lightning strike.

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'You won't believe how! Watch closely.

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'The cone shell glides into range.

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'This alert little fish has no idea what's going to hit it.

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'The cone shell extends its lethal weapon, a snake-like harpoon.

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'The sinister piece of spaghetti reaches the fish

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'and fires a toxic spear!

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'The venom is so strong, the fish is paralysed immediately.

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'Game over.

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'Time for a toxic recap.

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'We've had a squirting scorpion, the fearsome funnel web,

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'slinky sea kraits, a super-spray skunk

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'and the chilling cone shell.

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'Which toxic animals do you think are to come,

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'as we count down towards Number One?

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'It's a clash of the Titans fighting for position five.

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'Both are so awesome and so toxic, I can't choose between them.

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'See what you think.

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'I got too close to a massive water monitor in the Philippines,

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'a seriously impressive reptile with a seriously toxic bite.'

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I'm going to sit very, very still.

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Nose-to-nose...

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..with a living dinosaur.

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This is a bit closer than I would really be comfortable with.

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Inside that mouth is one long line of teeth

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that are, honestly, razor-sharp,

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backwards curving

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and covered with...

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He's tasting my face! He just stuck his tongue in my eye!

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This is where I start to get a little bit nervous.

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From there, he could have my arm in his mouth in a second.

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Look at him tasting my hand!

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As I was saying, the mouth...

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has razor-sharp teeth

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which are covered in bacteria.

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Those bacteria, once they get into a wound,

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will almost instantly start to become infected.

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Any bite from a monitor lizard is very serious indeed.

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Wow! He is utterly, utterly beautiful.

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'Pretty awesome, isn't it? But if you think he was impressive,

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'wait till you meet his bigger, badder cousin, the komodo dragon.

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'They can be three metres long and twice as heavy as me.

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'These lizards evolved in Australia, where their even bigger ancestors

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'developed venom to attack megafauna, giant mammals.

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'Those monsters are extinct, but the komodo dragon survives.

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'It's the largest lizard on Earth,

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'and it's the biggest venomous animal alive.

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'It's like a dinosaur fight when two of these three-metre monsters clash.

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'Their lethal weapon is killer drool.

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'It's laden with a venom which many snakes would be proud of.

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'Administered with a savage bite,

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'the venom induces a critical drop in blood pressure

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'and helps the victim bleed to death.

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'So, who to crown at Number Five?

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'The magnificent monitor

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'or kingly komodo?

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'Even though I had such an intense encounter with the water monitor,

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'for sheer size, weight and its savage toxic bite,

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'the komodo dragon steals the show.

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'Now, time to go from my biggest to my smallest candidate.

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'These sneaky blood thieves are found in Australia.

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'They put more children in hospital and kill more pets

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'than venomous spiders and snakes put together.

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'But they're really hard to find, so a vet's is a good place to try.'

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Hello. I understand you've got an animal with a paralysis tick.

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-It's actually this gentleman, Lindsey.

-I'm not a paralysis tick.

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I'm sorry, I was expecting a dog or something!

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'After all, this is a vet's.'

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Oh, wow! That is absolutely tiny.

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It is about the size of a pinhead.

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There's no way you'll see it on a big camera. Here we go.

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'This is a lipstick camera, which magnifies anything small.'

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-Do you mind if I poke around behind your ear?

-Knock yourself out.

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It's just there.

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Absolutely tiny.

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The head of the tick is buried

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into the flesh.

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It's pumping Lindsey's blood into it.

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They have, in their saliva, in their spit,

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almost like a venom,

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which can totally paralyse the creature they're feeding on.

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It's not just people or pets that are affected,

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a lot of wild animals suffer from paralysis ticks too.

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'The tick lurks in the undergrowth and lies in wait

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'for a fresh blood meal.

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'It senses the vibration

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'and tastes carbon dioxide from its victim's breath.

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'As the animal brushes past, the tick jumps on and clings to the fur

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'or clothes, if it's a human.

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'Finally, it's guided by heat down to the skin, and begins to feed.

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'Large fruit bats, also known as flying foxes,

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'are very badly affected.

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'As the tick bites, it injects its deadly saliva.

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'The flying fox becomes paralysed and, without treatment, they'll die.

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'But some bats get lucky.

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'They're taken to a bat rescue centre and given tick antivenom.

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'This one is nearly strong enough to be released.'

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An animal the size of a pinhead that can bring down a human, a dog

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even a flying fox.

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'The paralysis tick truly is a toxic terror.

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'Two more are jostling for Number Three

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'I've got two toxic centipedes to choose from.

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'It's a tough call, as I really don't like scutigera centipedes.

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'They live in caves full of bat poo in places like Borneo.'

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Of all the horrors that live in this absolutely nightmarish place,

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down here is perhaps the most frightening.

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Oh, crumbs! I have to say, I absolutely hate them!

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CRIES OUT

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One just ran over my hand. I'll be more gutsy this time.

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Careful, there's one the other side of that rock. >

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This is scutigera, the long-legged centipede.

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There's another one on the other side of the rock.

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So I'm being very careful about how I handle this.

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It is quite venomous.

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One guy living in the area here

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was bitten by one and spent a week in hospital, so I'm taking care

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not to get bitten.

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They actually have...

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Eugh! It just ran over my arm!

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As it moves, it'll stop and tap some of those legs over the rock surface.

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It's using every one of those feet

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to feel everything about the surface,

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building up a mental picture of its environment,

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and if there's anything that it might be able to eat.

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'It can grow to be as long as my foot, has a very venomous bite

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'and with those long legs, nothing down here can escape it.

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'Its toxic rival, the giant centipede,

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'looks very different, with shorter legs and a far chunkier body.

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'It's 35 centimetres long and is as strong as a small snake.

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'The poison in its black-tipped fangs is lethal.

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'It hunts in the dark bat caves of Venezuela.

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'It uses its antennae to feel for its prey.

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'It's not after the swarming beetles. It's after bigger quarry.

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'And it knows it can find that by climbing.

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'It's heading for the ceiling.

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'Now, in the darkness, it can sense bats flying past it.

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'It reaches out into their flight path.

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'No! I can't believe it's gonna...

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'Yes! It's got one!

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'An injection of venom from its fangs kills the bat

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'almost instantaneously.

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'It might take it an hour, but it will eat all of the bat's flesh.

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'They're both supremely toxic and pretty creepy, but who wins?

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'Scuttling scutigera or bat-eating giant centipede?

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'Although the scutigera really creeped me out,

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'for me, its bat-battering venom and superior strength

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'mean I have to crown the giant centipede at Number Three.

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'Toxic Two, though, is even more awesome.

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'The largest venomous snake on Earth.

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'It can reach a length of five and a half metres.

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'That's as long as a lorry!

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'It can rear up as high as I am tall

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'and has enough venom to kill an elephant.

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'Not a snake to mess about with.

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'I'm assisted by Mr Koom,

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'who's been working with snakes since he was ten.

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'And it's just as well.'

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Even though this is a snake with incredible capabilities,

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you can see all it really wants to do is escape from danger.

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Its first instinct is to flee, to get away.

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But when it realises that Mr Koom here doesn't want to let it go,

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it's putting on a display to make itself seem larger,

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make it seem more threatening - and it is unimaginably vast!

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This snake is getting on for four metres long.

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Its head is the size of my hand

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and the fangs are long, thin needles that can inject

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venom deep into the muscle.

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That's what allows it to work so quickly

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and why it's so potentially dangerous to people.

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He is figuring me out, making sure that I keep my distance.

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Where I am now, I'm safe.

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If I got a few inches closer, he'd be able to bite me.

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The king cobra needs to be very venomous. That's down to its prey.

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The king isn't interested in warm-blooded animals.

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It hunts far, far more dangerous quarry -

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other snakes, like this Indian cobra.

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This is a stand-off between toxic superpowers.

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Between them, these two snakes have enough venom

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to kill a platoon of soldiers.

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The king cobra strikes first.

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Its ultimate-strength venom paralyses and kills the other cobra.

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This is why the king cobra is toxically armed to the hilt.

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It's a predator of some of the most venomous snakes in the world.

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Not only is its venom terrifyingly toxic,

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it also has a degree of immunity to the bites of other snakes.

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The king cobra, the most magnificent regal snake in the world.

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It's on my list because it's the ultimate killer of other snakes.

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Utterly magnificent.

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'If the king cobra isn't my Number One, can you guess who is?

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'Time for the Top Ten toxic countdown.

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'Tail-spraying ten, the fat tailed scorpion.

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'Noxious nine, the Sydney funnel web.

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'Elegant eight, the sea krait's great.

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'Super-spraying seven, stinky skunk heaven.

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'Sinister six, the cone shell tricks.

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'Fearsome five, komodo dragons alive.

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'Freaky four, the paralysis tick.

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'Terrifying three, the giant centipede.

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'And titanic two, the king cobra.

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'So, at number one... I said, at number one...

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'it's...

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'What do you think? Well, a clue is where they live.'

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South and Central America, also known as Latin America,

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has hundreds of poisonous and venomous animals.

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The most poisonous animal in the world

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is here in Latin American forests, but its identity might surprise you.

0:24:570:25:02

'It's not a scorpion, a spider or a snake.

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'The ultimate toxic animal?

0:25:090:25:11

'Dart frogs secrete a poisonous fluid onto their skins.

0:25:110:25:16

'It's not a venom, as they don't bite or inject it.

0:25:160:25:20

'These technicoloured amphibians come in a kaleidoscope of colours

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'warning how dangerous they are.'

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Most people are blown away the first time they see a dart frog,

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about how small they are.

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It's incredible to think that an animal this size

0:25:380:25:42

can be the most poisonous on the planet.

0:25:420:25:45

The poisons that are created by this little frog

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are one of the miracles of nature.

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They start in the leaves of plants. Ants eat the leaves.

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Frogs eat the ants and they almost sweat the poison out.

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There's one species of dart frog,

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the size of this, found in Colombia,

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that has enough poison in its body to kill ten people!

0:26:070:26:13

When Colombian indians go hunting,

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they wipe their darts on the back of the frog.

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The poison now becomes the most deadly venom in the world,

0:26:190:26:24

as darts inject it into an animal's body.

0:26:240:26:27

It kills in minutes.

0:26:270:26:31

Those bright colours are part of the reason

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why this frog is active during the day.

0:26:360:26:40

Every other frog round here comes out at night.

0:26:400:26:43

These dart frogs can be active during the day because they know

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predators see these colours and know it means one thing.

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This is highly poisonous and certainly not good to eat.

0:26:530:26:59

The tiny frogs don't have to hide.

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They can patrol their territories in broad daylight.

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They're bolshie personalities who get into ninja-style fights

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with their neighbours.

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Check out the moves!

0:27:120:27:14

No other frogs in the world dare to display amphibian karate!

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This tiny animal is a living chemical weapons factory.

0:27:320:27:37

A daring daytime leaf fighter, and my totally toxic Number One.

0:27:370:27:44

Don't forget to join me next time

0:27:490:27:52

for more Deadly Top Tens.

0:27:520:27:55

Who's going to be the Deadly Number One?

0:27:550:27:59

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:27:590:28:02

E-mail [email protected]

0:28:020:28:04

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