Namibia Naomi's Nightmares of Nature

Welcome to my Nightmares Of Nature.

IT HOWLS

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...

-SHE GASPS

-SHE SHRIEKS

-..and your blood run cold.

Are they truly terrifying?

Ooh!

Or is there a twist in the tale?

Whoo-hee.

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.

I'm visiting some pretty nightmarish environments

throughout this series but this one takes it to extremes.

We're in Namibia,

and what you can see below me is the oldest desert in the world.

It's a desert that stretches the entire length of this country,

and is almost totally uninhabited.

It's one of the most inhospitable in the world,

so little escapes this barren wasteland.

What could possibly survive out there?

Well, I'm about to find out as we travel across the country

in search of Namibia's nightmare contenders.

I'll be meeting a cartwheeling critter with a need for speed...

Oh, my goodness! Ugh!

..a seriously social pack of dogs with a bit of an attitude

and a very voracious appetite...

..and an avian scavenger that dines out on rotting flesh.

But the first animal under my nightmare spotlight

lives right down there.

But these Cape fur seals seem ludicrously lovable.

So, right now, I have no idea how they're going to qualify

as a nightmare of nature.

-Pieter. 'I've come to meet Pieter...'

-Nice to meet you.

'..who spends a lot of time with the coastal wildlife here,

'and can get me closer to these super-streamlined marine mammals.'

Wah!

And it wasn't long before they started to make a show.

-Huh!

-There's one.

-We've got one coming right up next to us.

-Oh, ha-ha.

-SEAL GRUNTS

Ah. How adorable are you?

Hello.

It's really funny, everywhere you look there's a little nose with

whiskers popping up out of the water, or flippers in the air.

He-he-he.

Look at this little one. So nosy and inquisitive as to what's going on.

And he seems to be taking a particular interest

in our filming boat.

It's right up next to you. Ah!

-Ah!

-NAOMI LAUGHS

Told you they were nosy.

Ha-ha-ha.

That is some power in that body, isn't it?

To launch it straight out of the water and up onto your boat.

Amazing.

They just twist and turn and flip and move

in every direction, don't they?

Make it look completely effortless.

And fish is their favourite food, is it?

They're good fishermen?

Yes. 70, 80% of their food would be fish,

and then... You know, there'll be other things as well.

We see them here eating birds.

Well, that's my first insight into them

being a little bit of a nightmare.

I wonder if we can go on land and have an even closer look at them.

You know, there's a few things as we get closer...

Just going to get this out.

Presume you brought yours along, huh?

What's that?

Pieter, is that...?

Why are you all wearing them as well?

What's...?

What do we need that for, Pieter?

Nose peg? Eh?

Apparently, these vast colonies of seals

create a rather potent pong.

Oof!

Smelling a little bit ripe.

Thanks to a lot of damp bodies and rather a lot of poo.

-So, this is nightmare number two - quite literally.

-Yes.

SHE LAUGHS

SEALS BARK

Oh, what a sight!

Oh, look at the little ones.

-How adorable are they?

-I know, very cute.

-Let's go and take a look at them.

-Let's go and look.

Think we can try and get a little bit closer still

but I think we have to try and look a little bit like seals.

-OK.

-So, if we can waddle down slowly.

All right, so, do a waddle.

See if we'll fool them.

-Pup's coming right up to us.

-Here we go, look at that.

IT MAKES A "BAA" SOUND

PIETER MIMICS SEAL PUP

IT BAAS

PIETER MIMICS SEAL PUP

Precious.

But it wasn't long before my charming encounter was shattered.

Look at those two males in the water.

What are they fighting about?

These males are very dominant over territories cos it's mating season.

If they don't actively defend an area,

they won't have females, and they won't have mating opportunities.

So, they'll contest that fiercely.

Combat between male fur seals is fought chest to chest,

while they attack the tender parts of the body

with those powerful jaws.

These fights nearly always end in injury,

and, occasionally, in death.

Can see their teeth!

I never would have thought they'd have teeth that size.

Oh, it's quite frightening to be this close.

Nightmare number three.

Cor, you can see those pups right in-between these two males fighting,

-how easily they could be in trouble.

-Exactly, yeah.

They just can't move out of the way fast enough, can they?

These big males are fighting,

and they're totally focused on what they're doing.

And in that process, 300, 350kg of seal can move over a tiny

little one like this and injure them...even kill them.

Nightmare number four.

Hard to keep a track of what's going on where.

You've got the babies calling, you've got males roaring

and sizing each other up, it's just...

Activity everywhere.

Well, it really is one big beach battle.

And quite a smelly one at that.

This super-streamlined marine mammal does have nightmare credentials

hidden under that doe-eyed exterior, and I am

totally torn between the lovable pups

and the aggressive adults they become.

Could they be my worst Namibian nightmare?

I guess that depends what else is out there.

To find out...

I'm heading away from the coast

and into a completely different desert habitat,

where I'll be looking for one of my worst nightmares.

Sandwiched between the cool coastline

and its sweltering centre

are these famous Namibian sand dunes.

They look absolutely beautiful.

Living here requires some pretty serious survival skills.

And with temperatures here rising so high

it's hot enough to fry an egg on the sand, most of the desert inhabitants

choose to head underground for the cooler sands below.

And my next contender is no exception

but it could be lurking beneath my feet right now.

And, for that reason alone, it's already making my skin crawl!

Ooh!

The golden wheel spider emerges from its secret underground burrow,

casting an eerily sinister shadow on the sand.

It hunts by night, and by day, this arachnid is a master of camouflage.

It may have some pretty respectable dance moves up its sleeve

but I'm not sure even that's enough to win me over.

I'm meeting up with wildlife whiz Dayne...

..who's going to attempt to change my mind.

-I've got to be honest, Dayne...

-Yes.

..spiders are not my favourite thing in the world.

They're probably, in fact, one of my worst nightmares.

Am I right in thinking they could be under our feet?

There's a great possibility around here, yes.

How exactly are we going to find a spider though,

in all of this sand?

OK, what we're looking for now is signs from last night.

You'll see not a heap of sand,

but just sand scattered around in a circle.

-All right.

-And the hole will be in the middle.

And as we began our search, the task ahead seemed somewhat impossible.

It was easy to see the beetles scurrying on top of the sand

but not so easy to find what we we're out here to look for.

Just a tiny, tiny little sand door in the sand.

Who CAN'T find one of those?

If you come have a look here near me.

-Have you found something?

-Looks like it.

-Ah,

so, this is like a little silk entrance, a little flap.

Just a little flap.

But unfortunately, there was no spider at home.

Let's try again.

They are "wheely" good at hiding.

SHE LAUGHS

OK, Naomi,

-come and have a look here.

-Have you found one?

-Yep.

-Has it come out?

-Yeah, it's come out.

-Where, where, where?

-It just rolled down here.

Wow, it's a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be.

-Compared to the hand size, it's not...

-Yeah.

Not a very big spider at all.

And the reason being, if they run across the dunes,

they don't sink down.

So, very light.

And the all-important question, how dangerous is this spider?

Um, to humans, only allergic reactions have been recorded.

No serious bites.

Is it quite an aggressive spider?

Er, some of them are quite aggressive, yes.

-Oh.

-This one hasn't shown much aggression yet.

-Can we pick it up then?

-We can try...

-Can you pick it up then?

-I can try and get it onto the hand without biting.

-Ooh!

-Just get it very carefully.

-So, the chances are it could bite?

Yes. Any fast movement, or if I try

and grab her, she'll think I'm a threat and she will bite.

She's quite relaxed. Would you like to have a go?

-Yep.

-You ready?

-Yeah.

-Ooh.

-Going to walk her slowly onto your hand.

-Please, don't bite me.

-Ooh. Please, don't bite me.

-Check her...

Her pads are sticking onto me.

Ah, so light!

Barely even feel she's there.

Tiny.

Such a dainty spider. Please, don't bite me.

I...I used to call myself an arachnophobe.

I must be getting a bit better cos I feel all right holding her.

She's a sweet little spider.

But this heat is pretty powerful. Shall we get her in the shade?

I think let's try and get some shade for her.

And some nearby rocks provide the perfect cover.

-Phew-ew-ew.

-So, I'm going to run her quickly into the shade.

Oh, look! She's already using her legs like...power tools.

Pneumatic drills, digging.

And you'll see the abdomen come around in that same time as well,

starting to line the tunnel with silk.

This silk holds the sand in place around the edge

of their underground burrows.

The main reason this spider burrows under the sand then

is to keep cool.

Trying to keep itself cool, and also trying to escape predators.

The main predator for this spider is the pompilid wasp.

The pompilid wasp hovers across the desert,

searching for the tunnels of the wheel spider.

Once the wasps have located their target,

they encourage the wheel spider out of their hideouts,

paralyse them with their sting

and lay their eggs inside the body of the spider.

But to avoid such a bitter end,

these spiders do have one clever trick up their eight sleeves.

And that's where they get their name.

When under attack, the wheel spider will tuck in its legs and hurtle

down the dunes, escaping its prey

at an incredible 44 cartwheels a second!

Ugh, that's enough to make you feel sick, isn't it?

Imagine rolling down a sand dune that fast.

Ohh.

What?!

"Ever heard of dune zorbing?"

No.

Trust my supportive crew to have found an activity to mimic the moves

of this agile arachnid.

I can't say I'm looking forward to it though!

Are you ready, Naomi?

Yeah, ready.

Anyone have any sea sickness tablets?

-And three, two, one...

-Ugh.

Ugh, ugh.

The spider will get to the edge of the dune,

tuck it's legs in and basically just go with the momentum like this!

Woo-hoo, rolling! Ah!

So, I'm not going as fast as the wheel spider would travel... Ugh!

..but I still don't know which way is up.

Oh, my goodness. Ugh!

I'm starting to feel so dizzy.

That's because of what's going on inside my inner ear.

Wheel spiders don't have inner ears, so they don't feel dizzy

or disorientated... Lucky them.

In fact, they get up as soon as they stop rolling, instantly alert,

straight into that defensive stance.

I don't think I'll be doing that.

Ughhh.

I wish I'd brought a pin with me.

I am glad that is over.

I feel green.

Rolling... Ooh! Rolling down a sand dune even at that speed...

oh, that's horrible.

Hats off to the wheel spider. Granted, it might be smaller

than I thought it was going to be, and I guess you could say

it's cute...for a spider.

But because they hide themselves, camouflaging themselves completely

under the sand, and there could be thousands of them

on the Namibian desert,

I'm going to say that this amazingly-agile arachnid

could "wheely" be my worst nightmare

Who's got a bucket?

I couldn't come to Africa without tracking down one of its most

infamous inhabitants.

These soaring scavengers quite literally search out death.

Wherever there's rotting flesh, they'll never be far behind.

Sounds like a nightmare to me.

Vultures are the undertakers of the natural world.

Using their incredibly keen eyesight,

they can hone in on a target over a mile away.

A rotting carcass is like a bellowing dinner bell

for the vultures. And, once found, what follows

is nothing short of carnage.

Devouring it within minutes.

But are these bone-crunching carnivores

deserving of their rotten reputation?

Would you believe it? We've just had a call from a member of our team

to say there are a load of vultures on a carcass

right outside their accommodation.

So we are heading straight there now to see what's going on.

Look at the size of them as they take off.

Ah!

-SHE LAUGHS

-They're everywhere!

There's got to be at least 20 or 30 there at the minute that can see

in the sky.

Unfortunately, I think we've missed the main event

because they're all soaring up in the sky having had their fill.

But I want to take a look at what they've left behind

Well, isn't that incredible?

It's a hartebeest which probably died last night.

The jackals would've come in and taken the vast majority of it,

and then the vultures have come in. And look,

you can just see it is stripped to the bone.

There's next to nothing left.

So, I've had my first, albeit brief, encounter with wild vultures

but I want to get a closer look at the bird capable of doing this.

So, I've come to the Rare and Endangered Species Trust

to meet Maria, who has some willing volunteers.

OK, this is Nesher and Halle.

What sort of vultures are these?

-These are Cape griffons.

-Cape griffon. Are they the biggest?

-These are the heaviest.

-The heaviest vultures in Africa.

THEY LAUGH

And standing this close to them,

-they're pretty intimidating, aren't they?

-They're pretty big, yeah.

-Would you like to give them a little bit of food?

-OK, yes.

All right, well, what I'm going to do is...

We're very careful about it, OK?

-Vultures are very strong animals...

-Yeah.

..so, what I want you to do is put on the glove.

All right? Let's go ahead and stand behind here.

This is a nice perch for her, it's a good height for us.

Close your fingers and just let her work at it a little bit.

-You sure?

-You'll see her strength.

-She won't take my finger off?

No, she can't. You're wearing gloves. OK?

Oof, did you hear that sound?

-That's the beak just snapping together, is it?

-Yeah.

And it's got a very sharp hook on the end.

What's that for?

They've got to open that carcass up to get to the meat,

so they've got to have something that tears.

So it's a bit like a tin opener or something?

SHE LAUGHS A bit, yes.

-Rip it open.

-That's a good analogy.

WHOA!

Look at that wingspan!

That's enormous. Are you just showing it off for the camera?

Thank you very much, Halle.

How...how big is their wingspan?

Well, that wingspan is about 2.5m.

So, you can see, if you did this, that's about her wingspan

-at the moment.

-The length of me from the tip of my fingers to my toes?

Yeah, and she hasn't opened her wings fully.

-It's longer than that, isn't it?

-Yeah.

I suppose this comes in pretty useful

when she's soaring over the savannah.

-A vulture in the sky doesn't have to flap very much.

-Yeah.

Now, they're able to catch the wind and soar on that wind,

and the size of those wings allows them to do it for hundreds

and hundreds of kilometres.

They're not bad looking.

I must admit, these are quite good-looking vultures.

Although, having no feathers on his head is not helping

in the good-looking stakes.

Why don't they have feathers on their head?

If you think about it, where do they go when they eat?

-They stick their head right in a carcass.

-Exactly.

So, that allows them to stay clean in nature.

With a diet of dead and rotten decaying flesh,

does that mean they carry all sorts of diseases?

Well, you would think so, but actually, it's just the opposite.

They actually destroy a lot of these diseases by eating the carcasses

so quickly.

They're getting rid of diseases for everybody

-in the environment? People and animals?

-Yeah,

they're the garbage collectors. They clean up the environment

for everyone - humans and animals.

Vultures may have a gruesome reputation,

and their table manners do leave a little to be desired,

but without them we would be knee deep in rotting flesh,

and that would be pretty disgusting.

It seems they spend most of their time trying to keep clean

and soaring through the skies disease-free.

So, can I really make them my worst Namibian nightmare?

My next contenders

certainly have some serious nightmare credentials.

African wild dogs hunt in packs of up to 20 individuals.

And with over 80% of their hunts resulting in a kill,

they're the most efficient large carnivores in Africa.

Clocking up speeds of 34mph,

it's no wonder little escapes their powerful jaws.

But are they just cold-blooded killers?

I've come to a game reserve to meet up with Tim...

..an animal tracking expert...

which will come in handy, as wild dogs

are highly endangered and very rarely seen.

How are we hoping to find them today?

Well, today we're going to be using a device called a telemetry.

It's a tiny machine, and it works with the animals' collar.

One of the wild dog has a collar

that sends a little pulse out.

And this machine will tell us,

or pick up the pulse if it's close.

-So we can track the dogs.

-Exactly.

-Great.

And we soon reach an elevated position

perfect for tracking them down.

With this aerial we will be able to pick up the pulses sent out

from the collared dog, and hopefully see if the pack are close by.

We're in business now.

-Start picking up CBBC.

-Yeah.

And now, you'll swing it around trying to pick up a beep.

CRACKLY SOUND

-Is that it?

-Yeah, sounds like it.

-That was quick.

-We've got a beep, yeah.

These beeps indicate that the dogs are really close,

so there's no time to lose.

-Shall we go?

-Let's go.

-Cool!

First one to spot them gets a prize.

OK.

-There they are, there they are.

-Where, where, where?

-(Ah, right there!)

-Yes.

-There are pups?

-Yes.

Oh, we've got all the pups together,

under that bush there.

-And they're totally fine for us to be this close?

-Yeah.

Look at the pups, they're so sweet.

Haven't they got big ears?

Massive ears.

-Is their...hearing their main sense for finding prey?

-Definitely, yeah.

And smell as well.

But they are looking all - especially the pups - quite skinny.

So, they're quite hungry.

So, they're all moving off in that direction now.

Yeah, so it looks like we might be hunting with the pack now.

So, we're actually going to see the whole unit work together

which is quite special.

-Shall we follow them?

-Yes.

Let's follow them...see what happens.

Look at them all, just stalking through the thicket,

ears back.

Got a job to do, this lot.

-There they go.

-They're off.

They're actually... Broken into a bit of a gallop now, haven't they?

Picked up. Speed is up.

They've gone into a sprint as well.

African wild dogs rely on teamwork and cooperation

when hunting their prey.

-Big antelope here.

-Oh, it's an eland.

Eland are the largest antelopes in Namibia.

One of the pack looks a bit sick and skinny.

-And they'll always go for the weaker one?

-Yeah, they've got it.

-They've got it?

-I think.

-They've got it.

-They've taken it down. Yes, there it is, over there.

See it.

BARKING AND GROWLING

Pff, cor, you can see how efficient they did that.

I'm sorry, I've never seen a kill before, so...

-Um, it's a very emotional thing to watch but...

-Yeah.

It's part of the circle of life though, isn't it?

For hundreds of years you've...

There's been wild dogs that have been roaming Africa,

-and they don't have a supermarket to go and buy food at.

-No.

It's turned my stomach a little bit.

But what a privilege to have seen that with such a rare animal.

One that's so endangered. We have been massively fortunate to have

found them in the first place.

And then, to see them all working cooperatively as a team

and killing an animal to feed on and feed those little puppies.

On the upside, you can see how skinny this animal is.

And so, it has been struggling throughout this dry season

in a drought in Namibia, so it would most probably have died quite soon.

The condition is very poor.

And it's quite rough to see wild dogs do this.

But it's going back into the ecosystem.

-Instead of dying and...

-Being wasted.

-..and being wasted,

it's feeding five little wild dog pups.

So, the adults eat first,

and then they will go and help the pups to feed?

Yes, exactly. If you notice now that the pups are actually now involved.

You can see the two pups fighting over a piece there.

-It's standing still.

-Oh, a stand off.

They're trying to show dominance by it.

Staying still, it's a tug of war.

-Oh, half each.

-Yeah.

Even amongst all this carnage, they're still looking out

for one another, making sure those points are well fed?

Exactly, exactly. It's all about family.

But, as well, the other dogs are also looking around for predators...

mainly hyenas.

So, again, it's all about the families.

Guarding their family.

Well, I've certainly seen the voracious side of these carnivores

during their fearsome feeding frenzy.

There's no doubt in during dinner time,

these cooperative hunters have some serious bite,

but between meals

they do have a softer side, where family is the centre of their world.

But is that enough to win me over, or are their mealtime manners

enough to make them my worst nightmare?

So, my search for Namibia's nightmare nominees is at an end.

But which one is going to take the title as my worst?

Will it be hundreds of voracious vultures devouring a decaying

carcass in no time at all?

Or the camouflaged cartwheeling critter

that darts across the dusty desert dunes.

I'm not going as fast as the wheel spider would travel... Ugh!

But I still don't know which way is up.

Or the fiercely-focused meat-eating wild dogs

that disembowel their dinner?

Cor, you can see how efficiently they did that.

I'm sorry, I've never seen a kill before.

Surprisingly, they are not going to be top dog on my list,

because, after all, they have to survive out here

and their teamwork was faultless.

My number one spot is going to go to

the super-streamlined yet positively-pongy marine mammal,

because its bullish bad attitude never lets up.

My worst Namibian nightmare is the Cape fur seal.

Can I get out? Can I get out?

Guys? Guys?

Guys? Yoo-hoo! Can I get out?

Can I get out?