Fiercest Deadly Top 10

Welcome to my Deadly Top 10.

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 10?

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

And believe me, I've met a few!

Many animals need to be fierce to survive.

Wild lives really are a battle fought out tooth and claw.

So who are the fiercest of them all?

Let's kick off the Top 10 fiercest countdown.

I'm going to start at number 10...

..with the tiger,

the biggest of the big cats

and the fiercest feline in India - if you get on the wrong side of it.

There's a tiger!

Well, that sounds good.

They said that down here somebody is actually watching a tiger.

So we've hit the gas

to get there as quickly as possible.

I hope it hasn't gone. Fingers crossed, everyone!

Three cars up ahead.

(Oh, yes, I see it!)

There's one just lying in a puddle up ahead of us.

Breathing heavily in the shade.

That's bound to be the best wildlife encounter in India.

Just there, right in front of us.

Tigers are territorial. Solitary hunters who can't stand competition.

If a tiger feels you're intruding,

beware!

LOUD ROAR

Move, move, move! Back up! Back up!

That shows how fast things can change with wild animals.

We were congratulating ourselves about the wonderful tiger sighting.

But we drove too close on the left-hand side

and it turned.

I could see Johnny, the cameraman, nearly jumping out of his skin!

You're sweating a fair bit, Johnny.

I thought I was a gonner! I thought it was going to jump in the truck!

Even though it was quite a distance from me,

I could feel it reverberating through the ground,

up through the jeep and it gets you in the pit of the stomach.

You wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that animal!

Tigers need ferocious focus to hunt successfully.

Their deadliest weapon is surprise.

They creep up slowly on their prey.

And then a last-minute lethal sprint,

clearing six metres with every stride.

And a cat this size needs something bigger than a mouse for its tea!

It's monkey on the menu tonight.

But there's one big snag for supersize sprinters.

Their size and their weight.

A big male can weigh as much as four of me.

So they don't have much stamina.

Tigers need their stripe-enhanced stalking skills

along with magnificent muscles, teeth and claws.

If a tiger wasn't fierce, it would starve.

Number nine has to be fiercer still.

The largest terrestrial carnivore in the world.

He has to be ferociously tough.

It has to wrestle walruses and whales for food.

As if that's not enough, it must swim through miles of open ocean

and hunt out in the frozen sea.

Smashing through sea ice to catch sleepy seals in their lairs.

Their problem is they never know where the next meal will come from.

Tragically, desperate, hungry bears can even be a danger to people.

He's coming back that way!

Polar bears have to be really fierce and incredibly tough.

It's the only way they can find food in their harsh, cold Arctic home.

They truly are the kings of the icy north.

So, we've had a big cat and the ultimate bear.

Which fierce predator do you think is next?

A clue for number eight is that it's fishy and ferocious.

It's...

This five-metre long battle cruiser of tropical seas

has the fin power to tackle just about anything.

They'll swim for miles to snap up breeding seabirds.

And their serrated teeth mean they can even chew up turtles.

Right, chaps!

It's surprisingly tough for tiger sharks.

Although warm seas look beautiful and blue,

the water is poor in nutrients and food can be sparse.

Look!

That's a seriously big tiger coming in!

A huge female.

She's coming right in! Right up to Simon!

She's like a swimming bus!

I reckon in this situation

the sharks are quite used to divers.

They're totally relaxed, so it's safe for me to be here.

I can't believe it!

Here we go!

Now we'll see them in action.

Look at that!

That is awesome!

I hope I don't get any closer than this.

That was unbelievable!

There's a choice of two closely-related

and very badly-tempered mammals for number seven.

The honey badger and the wolverine.

It's hard to decide which is fiercest

so let's watch them in action and choose.

I met a young captive honey badger in South Africa called Buster.

HISSES

Honey badgers are in the weasel family

which contains some of the meanest animals on earth.

Weasels, stoats, wolverines,

they're all notorious for being capable of taking on

other animals way bigger than they are

and having no fear whatsoever.

Honey badgers hunt grubs, small mammals and honey.

Being small, they have to be fierce enough

to defend themselves out on the African plains.

They punch well above their weight!

They'll even see off big cats!

Don't mess with these guys or you'll get mullered!

So, with all that attitude,

Buster's fierce enough to make me stay well clear

of her teeth and claws.

Aghh!

Phew!

Tell you what, when she snarls at you...

Good girl!

Whoa!

I've never been terrorised by something so small in all my life!

Crikey!

When she turns, it's a really frightening sight!

She's only small, but it's enough to put the wind up you!

Well, Buster really was fierce, wasn't she?

But what about the bigger wolverine?

They've been known to fight with bears!

What would happen with me?

Jasper is a very unusual wolverine.

He was born in captivity here in Alaska.

This is an animal with one of the worst reputations of any creature

for being utterly ferocious and utterly fearless,

taking on animals many times its own size.

I have to say I'm a little bit nervous

because this isn't a completely tame animal.

If it does turn, then it could take me apart.

But he's so beautiful, I just want to give him a big hug!

Oh, dear!

-Should I let him go?

-I think you should.

-Let's go!

Ow!

Aghh!

He'll grab your leg, Steve, but he won't puncture the skin, I think.

There you go. He likes you!

That's more than a love bite!

The wolverine can bite

with the strength of over a tonne per square inch.

It may not mean a tremendous amount to you, nor to me,

but if I say that a small saltwater crocodile

has about the same, then...

Aghh!

..it would probably make more sense.

If you look at them up close, look at those canine teeth!

Just built for ripping through meat.

Ah!

So who to choose?

Buster or Jasper?

I don't know about you, but I think the honey badger was miles snarlier

than Jasper the wolverine.

Bad-tempered Buster got my goat.

Sorry, gets my vote!

Aghh!

At number six, I've chosen a fearsome sea monster.

Jet-powered nocturnal carnivores

about the same size as me!

Super-smart and able to hunt together.

They have fearsome weaponry.

A slicing beak, ten grasping tentacles

and suckers lined with piranha-styled teeth!

Able to change direction in an instant,

the pluck fish from their shoals. Crazy as it seems,

these perfect underwater predators

are molluscs and distant cousins of snails!

But there's nothing sluggish about their firepower.

To swim with them, you have to take precautions,

like wearing metal chain-mail suits!

Another potential danger is being dragged down into the deep ocean

by a gang of squid!

So it's best to be attached to the boat with steel safety cables.

OK, Steve?

I'm fine, I'm fine!

Even with armour on, you still feel vulnerable,

especially in the deep, dark water at night.

And then we spot one.

And it's a big one, too.

Look at that!

Wow!

I'm going to very gently try and take control of the head.

I've got it!

My first Humboldt squid underwater!

Now you can see why they call them the red devil or the red demon.

Oh!

It's so strong!

Look there, it's got its tentacles around my arm

and I can feel them gripping.

You can feel it even through the chain-mail suit.

In here, that's where that snapping beak is.

Just there.

A great big mouth.

I won't get my fingers close to it because I think I'd lose them.

Well, I know I'd lose them.

That's the really ferocious bit of the Humboldt squid.

Ooh, look at the colour change there!

Bright red. Look at the pulsing there!

Oh, crikey, it's got a hold of my hand!

Ow! Dear me, this is... Aghh!

The length of the beak! It's bitten me through the chain-mail suit!

It really pinched my arm.

That really is one of the weirdest, most beautiful creatures I've seen.

OK, Scott, I'm just going to release it now.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing!

That really is a sea monster

if ever I saw one!

So, where are we?

Well, we've had a terrifying tiger,

a powerful polar bear,

titanic tiger shark,

a bitey badger

and a swarm of slasher squid.

Which fierce animals are still to come as we count down to number one?

At number five is the ultimate insect warrior.

It's the largest species of wasp in the world.

Japanese hornets live in colonies,

bloodthirsty insect empires.

Hornets are full-on predators

who specialise in hunting other insects.

Their problem is they have a hungry nest

full of ravenous larvae.

Demanding babies who shout out for fresh meat.

Not by crying, but by rasping their jaws.

But where to get enough insect flesh for these little monsters?

How about a hive of honey bees?

When hornets attack bees, it's a fearsome fight!

They both have lethal weapons and seem quite similar.

But here's how to tell them apart.

The bees are small and kind of brown. They're cute and furry.

And they like making honey.

They only sting in defence

and there are thousands of them.

But each can only sting once and then it dies.

Hornets?

Right, well, quite a different beast.

They are much, much bigger. They're yellow-headed

and they have a big yellow-striped abdomen...

..which houses a bigger sting which can be used again and again.

Back to the battle.

The hornets want all the succulent bee grubs inside

but the hive's defences must be breached.

An insect war is underway!

The bees desperately try to protect their hive

but their small stings are no match for the jaws of the hornets.

Each hornet can kill 40 bees a minute!

After a few hours, 30,000 bees are dead.

The giant hornets invade the helpless hive.

Here, they carve up the bee grubs and take home all the minced flesh.

No-one in the hornet empire will be hungry tonight.

What, you might ask, could be fiercer than these guys?

I mean, come on!

Well, for Fierce four, I've chosen a huge solitary hunter.

The big cat of the sea.

OK, I know it's really a seal,

but believe me, it's a killer that truly lives up to its name.

Not only is it spotty like a real leopard,

it's a fearsome hunter, too.

It patrols the ice floes of Antarctica.

Its trick is to lurk under ice shelves

waiting to snatch its favourite prey.

Penguins.

Penguins may look comical, but they're agile

and difficult to catch.

So the leopard seal has to be mean, muscley and manoeuvrable.

3.5 metres long with a menacing manner and a head full of teeth,

this is one seal you do not want to get into deep water with!

At number three, it's the true king of the cats.

The lordly lion.

Oh, look at that!

It's hard to believe, when you see them yawning in the shade like this,

that lions are Africa's most impressive,

most fearsome carnivore.

Look at this one, just looking straight at us!

And you have to say they have terrifying canine teeth!

It's not just their teeth that makes them so fierce.

The killer secret to the lion's success throughout Africa

is teamwork.

They live and work together in a hunting pack called a pride.

The real power base of the pride are its hunting queens, the lionesses.

After creeping up as close as possible, it's...

max power acceleration!

Lions have to be fierce enough to tackle serious hooves and horns.

Every hunt risks injury.

Oh, that's got to hurt!

But her ferocity pays off.

So, surely no-one can top the king of the beasts?

Well, how about my number two?

This monster is the world's largest species of reptile.

Weighing up to 1,000 kilos, around six times more than the lion.

They live in rivers, estuaries and the sea

and can even hunt down small sharks!

They're very patient predators.

With special sensors on their jaws, they detect the vibrations of prey

at the water's edge.

They know exactly where you are, but you can't see them.

Crocs can't bite off mouthfuls. Instead, they rip off pieces

by twisting their bodies.

It's called a death roll.

And it's bye-bye, kangaroo.

So if a salty starts to hang out too close to people,

Australian rangers have to intervene.

-Now, keep your arms free.

-Oh, he's a good size!

'I joined a Queensland ranger team capturing and relocating one

'who was thought to be unwell.'

-He's bigger than I thought!

-He's starting to roll.

Here he comes!

The croc's rolling and you can feel the power of it lifting the boat

up and down.

Watch your limbs, camera!

Do you want to get the rope on?

-OK, Charlie?

-Yep.

I know this looks hard on the crocodile,

but they're very tough and he's absolutely fine.

Just a little bit cross!

But we can't risk him biting anyone.

So this is the problem croc we were hoping to find.

They've been calling him Mr Stinky

because you can smell him.

He's not in good condition

and he's been hanging out where there are a lot of people

and picking up scraps.

A croc this size could do an awful lot of damage.

A crocodile that's playing dead takes some shifting.

Now that he's out of the water,

even though he's had his jaws taken out of the equation

with that sticky tape, you can really appreciate what it is

that makes this such an incredibly powerful animal.

Look at the size of the tail

down next to Mark the cameraman.

That is just packed with muscle.

Up here, there's nothing spare, even though he's not in good condition.

It really is a terrifying looking creature!

He's absolutely magnificent,

as close to a living dragon as you'll ever get.

So, if the croc isn't number one, can you guess who is?

Time for the top 10 fierce countdown.

Tense number ten, the terrorising tiger.

Nerve-wracking nine, polar bear.

At edgy eight, the tiger shark's great.

At snarly seven, honey badger heaven.

Slippery number six, Humboldt squid tricks.

Fearsome five, giant hornets survive.

At feisty four, leopard seal's jaw.

On the throne for three, the kingly lion.

And at terrifying two, we salute the saltwater croc.

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

The Great White shark is the largest predatory fish on earth.

Twice as heavy as a big saltwater croc, 28 times as heavy as me!

A mighty, magnificent master of the sea.

So of course I had to try and meet one face-to-face!

We lured one in with some bait in South Africa.

Shark! Great White shark!

Look at this! It's an active one as well.

Oh, wow!

Good action.

Whoa!

She is big!

Coming right under the boat! Look at this!

She's coming round the other side now!

This is absolute chaos!

She's back. She's here again.

Oh, look at that!

My life, look at the size of her!

She's going to hit the boat any second!

Oh, my goodness!

She's right up next to me! Look at this!

Unbelievable!

Oh, my goodness!

She just touched the camera in my hand!

She's shredded the rope and the buoy!

Look!

Torn to shreds with those teeth!

Magnificent!

What an extraordinary creature!

Despite all the evidence about how little danger

sharks actually pose to humans,

this is still the most feared animal in the world.

But in truth, even a Great White is not invincible.

Despite 300 meat-slicing teeth!

Their favourite prey, sea lions, are fierce predators, too.

So the shark has to hit them hard or it risks injury.

A sea lion could easily bite out a shark's eye.

So, once targeted, it's full throttle to the tail

and a shark becomes a rocket!

The fiercest fin power on the planet!

Top 10 fiercest.

Done!

Don't forget to join me next time

for more Deadly Top 10s!

Who's going to be the next Deadly number one?

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