Costa Rica Jungle Naomi's Nightmares of Nature

Welcome to my nightmares of nature.

I'm Naomi Wilkinson...

SHE SCREAMS

..and I'm coming face-to-face with the nightmares of the animal world.

The ones that make your spine tingle...

'..your heart beat faster...'

..and your blood run cold.

Are they truly terrifying?

Or is there a twist in the tale?

Come with me as I shine a light

on wildlife's deepest, darkest secrets...

..and see if you can guess which will be my worst nightmare.

Hello. This time I am in Central America,

exploring the deepest, darkest jungles of Costa Rica

and if it's nightmares that you're after,

then this really is the place to be.

Costa Rica may only be a small country,

but its jungles are big on wildlife.

I'll meet a colourful character

'with a toxic taste in fashion...'

What can you see?

Wow!

'..investigate the horrific habits of high-level hanger-on...'

Wait, wait, wait, what? They only go to the toilet once a week?

Once a week.

'And scale to new heights for a surprisingly scary sleepover...'

I cannot believe I'm going to be sleeping up here this high.

But before all of that, it's time to face one of my greatest fears.

I have been scared of spiders since I was a little girl,

but during my search for nature's nightmares,

I have overcome my fears several times.

Oh-oh-oh!

-Right, there we go.

-Ohhh...

But the jungles here in Costa Rica are absolutely crawling

with spiders of all different shapes and sizes,

so when it comes to my own personal nightmare,

a trip in here is going to be the ultimate test.

At least I don't have to do it in the dark.

Oh, you are kidding me!

Yes, unfortunately for me,

the best time to see the eight-legged residents

of the rainforest is at night.

My guide for this nocturnal nightmare is spider fanatic

Tracie Stice...

Now, a lot of people like me are scared of spiders.

Why do you love them?

Oh, I think they're the most incredible creatures on the planet.

So do you think I could learn to love spiders?

I think anybody could

and I think everybody should.

So Tracie believes she can turn my fear to fascination.

Her plan is to show me three very different spiders,

but will any of them persuade me

that they aren't just a total nightmare?

I have something really incredible to show you here.

-Oh, dare I ask what it is?

-Oh, you're going to love this.

-Really?

-I would say, for the spider enthusiast,

this is one of the top five spiders to see in the world.

Wow.

Right here, we've got the door to a trapdoor spider's home.

-I do not know how you knew that was there.

-Let's open it.

-Would the spider come out?

-I think we'll see it.

-OK.

-NAOMI GASPS

-There it is.

-Oh!

-It just closed the door.

-It just closed the door.

It went, "Get off, leave me alone."

Talk me through what it's doing.

When an insect walks on top of the door,

the spider will feel the vibration and from that, it will analyse if

it's capable of taking the creature on. It will wait for the insect

to walk off the door and right at that moment the spider will leap out,

grab the prey, pull it down into the home

and there it will have dinner.

Oh, sounds pretty nightmarish.

The spiders dig these holes themselves, then use silk and soil

to make the ingenious camouflage door.

DOOR CREAKS

How venomous is this spider?

They do pack a punch,

but it's not a spider that we would really need to be concerned about,

because they spend their entire lives hidden away inside their home.

Well, it may be a nightmare to a passing bug,

but with all that door-slamming,

I actually find these spiders rather comical.

DOOR SLAMS LOUDLY

What will I make of spider number two?

-Oh, Naomi take a look at this.

-Oh, my word. Are you serious?

-That's the biggest web I've ever, ever seen.

-Isn't it amazing?

Hang on, let me come over there.

This is Latin America's largest orb-spinning spider.

It's called the golden orb spider.

And I can see why, it's got kind of golden dots all over its body.

Yeah, and actually the silk itself is this brilliant gold colour

and that's why it gives it its common name...

Oh, yes. Like it's made with golden thread. Wow.

-Oh, oh, oh, something's just landed in her web.

-Uh-huh.

-So what's she doing?

-Well, she's going to envenomate it...

-By biting it?

-Uh-huh.

And there she's delivering the deadly bite.

So that will kill that moth quite quickly, will it?

Basically, what they're going to do is liquefy the contents of the insect

and then they're going to slurp it up like you would a milkshake.

Eww.

This silk is actually stronger than steel, stronger than Kevlar,

so now you could take this and turn it right into a bulletproof vest.

Wow. That's incredible.

Would you like to harvest some spider silk?

-Can we do that?

-We can try.

-Yeah, OK.

So what we're going to do is just gently ask our spider

to come to a more open area.

Now, as she moves, she leaves behind a line of non-sticky silk

and if we just grab a hold of that, we can just, hand over hand,

pull it right from the spider.

So you've got it, you've got it.

I've got it, I've got it!

-There we go.

-So now I'm attached to this spider?

If I just keep pulling, she keeps making it?

Uh-huh, and you're pulling that right from the rear-end of the spider.

-This doesn't hurt her, or bother her?

-No, not at all.

And she can just make as much as she needs?

Well, there would be a limit,

but you might get a total of, say, 1,000ft, if she would let you.

That's 300m,

enough silk to stretch the length of three football pitches.

Wow. It's like lovely blonde hair.

And despite all our technology,

we can't come up with something of equal quality,

nothing as strong and as elastic as spider silk.

-That is naturally beautiful, isn't it?

-It's incredible.

So with its stylish looks and stunning silk,

I have to admit that the golden orb weaver doesn't seem creepy, either.

Can I really get through three spiders without a single scare?

Look what we've got here.

What? Where?

It is actually one of the world's most dangerous spiders.

-Where, where, where?

-Come over here.

Right there.

Oh, I don't like that one!

This is the Bolivian wandering spider.

There's actually eight species.

Their scientific name is phoneutria boliviensis

and "phoneutria" is the Greek word for "murderess".

So we're not picking this one up?

-No, definitely not.

-Good.

The venom is a neurotoxin, so it works very, very fast

and it can put down, say, a tree frog in a matter of seconds.

What would happen if we were bitten?

If you did receive a full venom load,

it could be deadly within two to 12 hours of the bite.

Whoa!

If you were to put your finger even slightly near this spider,

it would likely pounce on.

If you were to shake your hand...

It might even be difficult to shake it off and when you finally do,

it will just sit back down on that leaf as though nothing ever happened.

Urgh, creepy.

It's a very bold spider.

-You need to treat this spider with a lot of respect?

-Definitely.

You know, these spiders,

they are not only one of the most venomous in Latin America,

but they are also one of the most aggressive.

So there you have it,

three dates in the dark with three very different spiders.

I survived!

As night-time strolls go, this was definitely on the scary side,

but even for someone like me who's nervous around spiders,

it is incredible to see the ingenious ways

they have of catching prey.

It does not, however, take a genius to work out which one gave me

the biggest shivers.

Because of its aggressive attitude and its virulent venom,

the creepy wandering spider is in with a very good chance

of being my worst nightmare.

Here on Nightmares Of Nature we love the unexpected

and when it comes to weird wildlife, my next jungle critter

is head and shoulders above the competition.

There is an animal that lives here in Costa Rica

that spends almost all of its life up in the trees.

Half of that time it's sleeping,

the other half its just hanging around.

Sounds more like a dream than a nightmare.

The sloth is a tree-living mammal, native to Central and South America

and, as its name suggests,

it doesn't like to do things in a hurry.

In fact, these furry forest residents

are the kings of taking it easy.

But is being a sloth really all rest and relaxation?

Or can life in the slow lane be a bit of a nightmare?

I'm at the Toucan Rescue Ranch,

a wildlife rehabilitation centre run by Leslie Howle...

..and she's about to introduce me to one of their newest arrivals.

So, Leslie, who do we have here?

-This is little Cooper.

-Cooper.

He's a young three-toed sloth

and he came in from the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, he was rescued.

Why are they this slow?

Well, they're slow because they're conserving their energy.

They eat leaves and there's not a whole lot in the leaves and so they

want to take that energy and only use it when they absolutely have to.

Does their slowness make them really vulnerable to predation?

Yes, when they're up in the tops of the trees,

they could be prey for Harpy eagles and so eagles and hawks

and things like that will take a young sloth.

And then when they come down once a week to potty, they...

Wait, wait, wait, wait...what? They only go to the toilet once a week?

Once a week.

That sounds uncomfortable!

Yes, with a blistering average speed of about 1 metre a minute,

a sloth has to choose its toilet breaks very carefully.

If a predator spots them on the ground, they've no chance of escape.

RUDE NOISES

So they prefer to hold it all in for a gut-busting seven days at a time.

TOILET FLUSHES

Before he climbs too far away, might I be able to hold him?

Yes, let me go and see if I can bring him back down.

I'll grab this blanket, shall I?

Come here then Cooper, come and say hi.

I'm expecting him to feel all wiry like a coconut.

-He's actually really soft.

-Is he?

-And he's got these...

-Yes, he is.

..big claws that he's just going to clamp on.

He's giving your hair a comb.

So, are they for climbing?

For climbing and for reaching leaves

and they're also a way to defend themselves. They can take the claws

-and go wheesh!

-Oh.

-They can scratch.

-Don't do that to me, please.

-And try to defend themselves.

Now he looks ever so neat and tidy,

you obviously care for him very well,

but they're not always this clean in the wild, are they?

Right, in the wild he would have this nice green, like, tint to him,

which is moss and algae that are growing in the fur,

just like you see in the rainforest in the trees,

and then along in that would be these little tiny moths

and all kinds of bugs that live within him like his own ecosystem,

like a moving little rainforest.

Yuck.

So the life of the sedentary sloth

may not be as straight-forward as it seems.

Yes, sleeping and hanging around all day might sound like

a very nice way to spend your time,

but eating leaves for every single meal, having to wait a week

between toilet trips and having bugs crawling all over your body...

that certainly sounds like a nightmare of nature to me.

When it comes to a line-up of nature's biggest nightmares,

this part of the world can provide quite a few...

but there is one colourful character that

lives in the jungles of Central and South America which I think

deserves pride of place on a list of notorious nightmare offenders

and its identity might just surprise you...

Talk about toxic animals and most people think of the three S's,

spiders, snakes and scorpions.

But lots of other creatures use venom and poison

for attack or defence.

And there's one creature in this jungle that has taken toxic terror

to a totally new level.

To help me track down this mysterious animal,

I've enlisted the help of local guide, Emmanuel.

CREATURE CHIRPS LOUDLY

We can definitely hear them, so we know they're all around us,

it's just a matter of finding one.

What can you see?

I don't know if you can see it cos it is very, very small,

but that there is the animal we have come to find.

It's a frog.

Now that might sound crazy, because you wouldn't normally think

of a frog as a nightmare of nature,

but this is a poison dart frog.

FROG CHIRPS

So Emmanuel has managed to grab one of these frogs

so we can have a good look at it.

I need to wash my hands with water first. A little bit of agua.

Thank you.

-That's to keep the frog safe, to protect the frog.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-OK.

-Will it stay still?

Oh! Tiny. Tiny little frog..

So this is a strawberry poison dart frog.

The Spanish name for this frog is rana con pantalones,

blue jeans frog, because of its bright blue legs.

There are hundreds of different types of poison dart frog

and they all come in an incredible array of bright colours.

But those bright colours aren't just for decoration,

they actually serve as a warning to any would-be predator,

because making a meal of this tiny frog would be a really bad idea.

They secrete their poison through their skin,

so even touching this frog could make you very, very sick.

Which means it doesn't matter that they stick out like a sore thumb,

because predators associate their bright colours

with a mouthful of lethal poison.

All poison dart frogs are toxic to varying degrees.

Luckily for me, this one doesn't have particularly strong poison,

but its close relative, the golden poison dart frog,

is one of the most toxic animals on the planet.

Its tiny body holds enough poison to kill, get this, ten people.

A frog might not be the most obvious nightmare animal, but this

tiny amphibian packs just as much toxic terror as any snake or spider,

so I think it just has to be in with a shout of being my worst nightmare.

Before I leave Costa Rica, I've heard there's another creature

living in this part of the rainforest

which I think would be perfect for a show about nature's nightmares.

Bats are classic creatures of the night,

mysterious cave dwellers clad all in black,

which only emerge after the sun sets,

in search of unsuspecting victims.

These dastardly denizens of the dark, with their fearsome fangs

and wily ways, have been scaring us all for centuries...

but do the bats here in the Costa Rican jungle

live up this petrifying persona?

'To investigate, I've teamed up with scientist Adriana.'

We're just setting up this special bat-catching net

which is designed to trap the bat as it flies out,

but it won't hurt or damage the bat in any way,

it'll just give us the opportunity to get a really good look at it.

So once this is all set up, we just have to stand back

and wait and see what flies by.

-IN THE DISTANCE:

-We caught one, we caught one!

Ooh, come and see, come and see.

We've got one already.

That happened so fast.

Ah! Teeny-tiny.

Adriana, we've got it out of the net.

'Time to meet this bone-chilling monster of the night.'

Oh, wow.

That is the tiniest, cutest little bat I've ever seen.

-What species is this?

-This is a Honduran white bat.

-And it's white!

-Yes.

-That's so unusual, isn't it?

I've never seen a bat like that before.

Does being white make it difficult for it to hunt at night?

Does everything see it coming?

Well, this bat is... didn't hunt.

-These bats are frugivores, so they eat fruit.

-Fruit eaters, ah.

-Yes.

And this bat, this species of bat, eats only one fruit.

-It eats a little fig.

-A fig.

-Yes.

So, being white is not a problem, really,

-cos figs don't need to run away from it.

-No.

So we've had a good look at it, shall we let it fly away?

-Yes, it's time for dinner.

-OK, let it go and find some figs.

You're free!

And it's gone.

So these Honduran white bats don't fit the nightmare image at all.

Unlike other species of bat, they don't dress in black

and they don't stalk victims in the night.

Next you'll be telling me they don't live in caves.

Well, believe it or not, that's true.

Because Honduran white bats are also called tent-making bats.

'To find out more,

'I'm heading back to where the bats hang out during the day.'

So here we have our tent-making bats roosted under this leaf and we

need to be really quiet and careful because we don't want to spook them.

Now, Adriana, it looks like they're just hanging

under a regular leaf, but that's not true, is it?

No, it's not. This is a bat tent and the bats make it.

How do they make that?

It's really interesting, because the bat use their teeth, so it bites

the leaf and then the leaf will fall just in the shape that you can see.

So with a simple nibble of the stem, the bats have a ready-made tent.

And this gives them protection from the wind and the rain.

From the wind and the rain, yes. It's like your home, for example.

Nice and snug and warm in there.

And not only does it protect against the weather,

it also hides the bats from predators, because the sunlight

that passes through the leaves makes their white fur appear green,

perfect camouflage for the jungle.

Are they all asleep at the moment?

Right now, yeah. At day, they usually sleep.

That's all they do, all day, hang around upside down, asleep?

Asleep and scratching...

-That's it.

-And then asleep again.

Tough life for a bat.

So it seems that tent-making bats are just full of surprises.

They're a completely different colour to most other bats,

their favourite prey is fruit and instead of caves, they live

in specially designed leaf tents that they've made for themselves.

So one thing is absolutely certain,

they are not a nightmare of nature!

Might have guessed there'd be one more surprise.

"Naomi, tent-making bats may not be a nocturnal nightmare,

"but their habit of hanging above the forest floor

"sounds like a seriously scary way to sleep...

"so we hope you have a head for heights?"

Oh, dear.

Yes, my crew ever inventive crew have arranged for me

to spend the night camping out in my very own tent...

..up a tree!

Now, they may only roost 1m or 2m above the ground,

but when you consider the size of the tent-making bat,

they're pretty small, so that's pretty high.

So to make this a fair comparison, I'm heading way up there.

SHE WHIMPERS

I've already seen about 20 bugs and I'm this high off the ground.

'As I don't have wings, I'm going to have to rely on ropes

'and some good old-fashioned muscle power to get me to my bed.'

I cannot believe I'm going to sleeping up here this high!

That's ridiculous.

So high. And so wobbly.

The reality of what we're about to do has just dawned on me.

We're going to be here for so many hours.

It's going to be fine.

Fortunately, like the bats in their roost, I'll also have some company,

in the shape of climbing expert Tim and director Adam.

This is just crackers!

Being up here, I can't quite get over how high we are,

how flimsy these beds feel. They're very wobbly, just swinging around.

As darkness falls, it's time to try and get comfy.

RUSTLING

I can't turn over or anything.

2:52 and I've just been woken up by some very strange noises.

DISTANT ROARING

It's a really creepy noise.

ROARING CONTINUES

DISTANT ROARING

Thankfully they sound pretty distant.

ANIMAL GRUNTS

I don't know what is making that noise.

LOUD SNORES

I think the strange sound I'm hearing now

is the elusive and very rare

purple-bearded director...

snoring.

Think I was actually asleep for a minute then. Quarter to four...

..it'll be light in about two hours.

This has got to be, by a long way,

the most unusual place I've ever woken up.

I say woken up. You have to be asleep to wake up, so...

It may have been a rather nerve-racking experience,

but I have to admit, the view is spectacular.

I did it, yay me! I slept the night in a tree,

in a tent, in the middle of the jungle, just like a tent-making bat.

Unlike the bats, though, I got no sleep at all.

Never mind, it just goes to show that, for us humans, sleeping this

high up in the dark on a very flimsy bed has real nightmare potential.

Now, how on earth am I going to get down?

Well, my jungle journey is at an end,

but which Costa Rican creature gave me the biggest scares?

'Was it a date in the dark with a giant venomous spider?'

Ew! I don't like that one!

Was it the festering fur of the super slow sloth?

Or was it the lovely, but lethal poison dart frog?

-Oh!

-SHE LAUGHS

No, it was none of those.

My worst jungle nightmare was trying to sleep like a tent-making bat,

hanging perilously 20m above the forest floor in the pitch black.

Now that really was a total nightmare.

I've just dropped my phone.

I think it went down that hole.