Toxic Deadly Top 10

'Welcome to my Deadly Top Ten.

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

'toxic and well-armed animals on the planet.

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

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

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

'creatures who are poisonous.

'They all have deadly bites,

'stings, spit

'and even sprays.

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

'let alone try to handle.'

Ow!

'Time to kick off my Toxic Top Ten countdown.

'The creature with a massive sting in its tail.

'Scorpions are very well-armed animals.

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

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

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

'Very nasty venom, too.'

Ooh!

OK. Got to hold my nerve here.

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

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

This one has a really nasty punch.

An extraordinary thing about this species

is that it doesn't stop there.

It can actually flick its venom at an attacker,

and it can be really accurate.

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

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

'Meerkats are deadly scorpion-hunters

'who can dig into the earth for their prey.

'But this scorpion has fat-tailed fire power.

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

'and the sting squirts venom.

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

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

'Neither is Number Nine,

'the Sydney funnel web spider -

'perhaps the most deadly toxic of all spiders,

'which lives around the Australian city of Sydney.'

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

and throw it out in the garden.

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

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

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

It's a classic threat posture.

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

'They use venom to paralyse invertebrate prey.

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

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

'But there's nothing romantic about their bite.

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

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

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

'AND they like hiding in boots!

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

'The venom is so toxic because it gets injected directly

'into victims' bodies and blood streams.

'Funnel web venom affects the human heart and lungs,

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

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

'In special captive spider milking centres,

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

'This is used to make life-saving antivenom.

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

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

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

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

'One of the most toxic snakes in the world.

'These slinky sea snakes swim and hunt under water,

'and live in the tropics.

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

'Each has enough venom

'to, theoretically, kill several people.

'Happily, they're not aggressive to humans.

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

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

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

or one of the most venomous snakes in the world.

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

'waiting to catch its prey.'

The reason the venom needs to be so strong

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

If the venom is powerful enough to work quickly,

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

'Toxic snakes have a pair of hollow fangs,

'teeth which inject venom into their prey.

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

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

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

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

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

That banded black and white colouration is incredibly pretty.

It's there for a reason.

These markings show potential predators...

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

'Being deadly beautiful is great defence.

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

'Potential predators avoid them.

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

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

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

Just scampering off into the bushes.

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

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

There is nothing funny about it.

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

I remember our dog got sprayed a few years back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'This horrific smell is so effective,

'it's used to disperse crowds of people.

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

'snails?

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

'and sometimes hangs out in rock pools.

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

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

'You won't believe how! Watch closely.

'The cone shell glides into range.

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

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

'The sinister piece of spaghetti reaches the fish

'and fires a toxic spear!

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

'Game over.

'Time for a toxic recap.

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

'slinky sea kraits, a super-spray skunk

'and the chilling cone shell.

'Which toxic animals do you think are to come,

'as we count down towards Number One?

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

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

'See what you think.

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

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

I'm going to sit very, very still.

Nose-to-nose...

..with a living dinosaur.

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

Inside that mouth is one long line of teeth

that are, honestly, razor-sharp,

backwards curving

and covered with...

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

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

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

Look at him tasting my hand!

As I was saying, the mouth...

has razor-sharp teeth

which are covered in bacteria.

Those bacteria, once they get into a wound,

will almost instantly start to become infected.

Any bite from a monitor lizard is very serious indeed.

Wow! He is utterly, utterly beautiful.

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

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

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

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

'developed venom to attack megafauna, giant mammals.

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

'It's the largest lizard on Earth,

'and it's the biggest venomous animal alive.

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

'Their lethal weapon is killer drool.

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

'Administered with a savage bite,

'the venom induces a critical drop in blood pressure

'and helps the victim bleed to death.

'So, who to crown at Number Five?

'The magnificent monitor

'or kingly komodo?

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

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

'the komodo dragon steals the show.

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

'These sneaky blood thieves are found in Australia.

'They put more children in hospital and kill more pets

'than venomous spiders and snakes put together.

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

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

-It's actually this gentleman, Lindsey.

-I'm not a paralysis tick.

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

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

Oh, wow! That is absolutely tiny.

It is about the size of a pinhead.

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

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

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

-Knock yourself out.

It's just there.

Absolutely tiny.

The head of the tick is buried

into the flesh.

It's pumping Lindsey's blood into it.

They have, in their saliva, in their spit,

almost like a venom,

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

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

a lot of wild animals suffer from paralysis ticks too.

'The tick lurks in the undergrowth and lies in wait

'for a fresh blood meal.

'It senses the vibration

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

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

'or clothes, if it's a human.

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

'Large fruit bats, also known as flying foxes,

'are very badly affected.

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

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

'But some bats get lucky.

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

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

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

even a flying fox.

'The paralysis tick truly is a toxic terror.

'Two more are jostling for Number Three

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

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

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

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

down here is perhaps the most frightening.

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

CRIES OUT

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

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

This is scutigera, the long-legged centipede.

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

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

It is quite venomous.

One guy living in the area here

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

not to get bitten.

They actually have...

Eugh! It just ran over my arm!

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

It's using every one of those feet

to feel everything about the surface,

building up a mental picture of its environment,

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

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

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

'Its toxic rival, the giant centipede,

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

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

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

'It hunts in the dark bat caves of Venezuela.

'It uses its antennae to feel for its prey.

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

'And it knows it can find that by climbing.

'It's heading for the ceiling.

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

'It reaches out into their flight path.

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

'Yes! It's got one!

'An injection of venom from its fangs kills the bat

'almost instantaneously.

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

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

'Scuttling scutigera or bat-eating giant centipede?

'Although the scutigera really creeped me out,

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

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

'Toxic Two, though, is even more awesome.

'The largest venomous snake on Earth.

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

'That's as long as a lorry!

'It can rear up as high as I am tall

'and has enough venom to kill an elephant.

'Not a snake to mess about with.

'I'm assisted by Mr Koom,

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

'And it's just as well.'

Even though this is a snake with incredible capabilities,

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

Its first instinct is to flee, to get away.

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

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

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

This snake is getting on for four metres long.

Its head is the size of my hand

and the fangs are long, thin needles that can inject

venom deep into the muscle.

That's what allows it to work so quickly

and why it's so potentially dangerous to people.

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

Where I am now, I'm safe.

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

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

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

It hunts far, far more dangerous quarry -

other snakes, like this Indian cobra.

This is a stand-off between toxic superpowers.

Between them, these two snakes have enough venom

to kill a platoon of soldiers.

The king cobra strikes first.

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

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

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

Not only is its venom terrifyingly toxic,

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

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

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

Utterly magnificent.

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

'Time for the Top Ten toxic countdown.

'Tail-spraying ten, the fat tailed scorpion.

'Noxious nine, the Sydney funnel web.

'Elegant eight, the sea krait's great.

'Super-spraying seven, stinky skunk heaven.

'Sinister six, the cone shell tricks.

'Fearsome five, komodo dragons alive.

'Freaky four, the paralysis tick.

'Terrifying three, the giant centipede.

'And titanic two, the king cobra.

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

'it's...

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

South and Central America, also known as Latin America,

has hundreds of poisonous and venomous animals.

The most poisonous animal in the world

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

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

'The ultimate toxic animal?

'Dart frogs secrete a poisonous fluid onto their skins.

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

'These technicoloured amphibians come in a kaleidoscope of colours

'warning how dangerous they are.'

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

about how small they are.

It's incredible to think that an animal this size

can be the most poisonous on the planet.

The poisons that are created by this little frog

are one of the miracles of nature.

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

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

There's one species of dart frog,

the size of this, found in Colombia,

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

When Colombian indians go hunting,

they wipe their darts on the back of the frog.

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

as darts inject it into an animal's body.

It kills in minutes.

Those bright colours are part of the reason

why this frog is active during the day.

Every other frog round here comes out at night.

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

predators see these colours and know it means one thing.

This is highly poisonous and certainly not good to eat.

The tiny frogs don't have to hide.

They can patrol their territories in broad daylight.

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

with their neighbours.

Check out the moves!

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

This tiny animal is a living chemical weapons factory.

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

Don't forget to join me next time

for more Deadly Top Tens.

Who's going to be the Deadly Number One?

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