Beastly Brazil Naomi's Nightmares of Nature

Welcome to my Nightmares Of Nature.

I'm Naomi Wilkinson!

SHE SCREAMS Oh, my goodness!

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

SHE SHRIEKS

The ones that make your spine tingle...

..your heart beat faster...

There it is! There it is!

..and your blood run cold.

Aren't 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.

Ola! Welcome, nightmare enthusiasts, to Brazil!

One of the biggest countries on earth.

It's got beaches,

it's got jungles,

it's got cities.

Plenty of space, then, for a multitude of monsters.

So, hop on board the... HONKS HORN

..Brazilian beast bus with me and my roadies.

And let's go and find some.

Our road trip will take us down the busy east coast of Brazil.

Along the way, we'll be battling with venomous vermin,

stinky scavengers and...balletic beauties?!

Eh?

Well, to find out what the balletic beauties are all about,

we're going to have to briefly abandon the beast bus for something

with hardier wheels.

When I'm not nightmare hunting,

there's one thing I love to do and that's to dance.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Ha-ha! So, there is one bird

I have always deeply admired for its fancy footwork,

but it's not a bird I ever thought I'd ever be crossing paths with on

this programme, because it is so far away from the stuff of nightmares.

In fact, it's the stuff my sweet dreams are made of.

Ah! Who wouldn't want to be a flamingo?

The prima ballerinas of the bird world.

Pretty in pink and gorgeously graceful.

Their beautiful ballet is the envy of any dancer.

So, please tell me, what have flamingos got to do with nightmares?

Time to find out.

Follow me!

Oh, I just had a thought. Do you think they'll see me coming in this?

That'll do it. Cheers, guys.

At times, this coastal lagoon

is home to hundreds of these dainty dancers.

Local guide Batista is going to introduce us to the flock.

With a bit of translation help from our linguistic legend, Roberta.

This is so exciting!

I'm seeing flamingos in the wild for the first time ever.

So, they're called Chilean flamingos b-

they've come all the way from Chile?

-SHE TRANSLATES

-They've come all the way from Chile to Brazil.

There are also flamingos from the Andes as well.

Wow. Because you think of flamingos,

you don't think they'd be very good flyers.

They are very hardy animals.

They can fly long, long distances.

Their huge 1.5-metre wingspan means that they can fly all

through the night without a break.

They travel here for their summer holidays.

They come here because it's warmer, and there is enough food for them

to feed. They come to relax a little bit from the cold weather.

Uh, unlucky, flamingos.

-It's usually very hot.

-Yeah.

-Not today, but they don't mind.

-HE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

-They can adapt very well.

They could have just come to the UK.

This is what we're all like on our summer holidays,

braving it out on the beach. SHE SHIVERS

Our flamingos don't seem the least bit bothered, though.

That's because these dainty dancers are so adaptable,

they can survive both in frozen mountain lakes

and in boiling volcanic lakes, too.

-They're strong, tough.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

They're a bit like me, really.

Dainty but daring?

Girly but...grrr.

I think I'd make an incredible flamingo.

Oh, no.

Am I sure?

Yes, I think I am, why?

"Are you ready for your flamingo initiation?"

Well, for once, that doesn't sound too bad, so, yeah, go on.

I'm up for that.

Ooh, it's a bit squidgy.

Flamingos spend many hours a day standing in cold, cold water.

So far, not too bad.

SHE GASPS

That's just mean.

To stay warm, they stand on one leg,

curling their foot up into their feathers so that only the other leg

touches the icy lake.

-Are you any warmer, Nomes?

-No, not really.

I'm getting a cold foot.

But there's more to being a hardy flamingo than braving the cold.

Ooh, thank you!

Thanks.

These big birds are rugged enough to survive in some of these saltiest

places on earth.

They drink fresh water but, when they eat,

they also take in a lot of salt.

Bon apetite...

Too much salt isn't good for anyone.

So they push the salty water out through their nostrils by pumping

their tongue up and down several times a second.

SHE SPEAKS NONSENSE

I can't do that.

Is there anything a flamingo does that I can actually do?

Flamingos fish for their food by scooping water up with their bills.

A built-in sieve sifts out

nutritious algae from the mud and the silt.

Fish.

I give up.

So in this mud is algae.

It's... It's so super tiny, you can't even see it.

But that's what flamingos like to eat.

It is full of beta-carotene -

the stuff that turns carrot orange.

And it's also the stuff that gives flamingos that lovely

pinky-orange colour.

So you're saying to me, if I want to be like a pink flamingo,

I've got to eat that?

-Fish!

-I'm not doing that! I give up.

I do not want to be a flamingo any more.

Flamingos, your lives are a total nightmare!

Purely because of your lifestyle,

you could hop to my number one nightmare spot.

Bleurgh.

Back in the Brazilian beast bus,

we're leaving the dunes behind us and travelling into civilisation

to grab a spot of lunch.

We're not the only ones who head into the city for a snack.

Our next contender is a regular visitor to homes right across

the Americas.

Where they get up to all sorts of mischief.

These pesky pests are scavengers.

Breaking into houses to scoff any food they can get their claws on.

Including the dog's dinner.

It's stained the carpet.

The opossum.

Looks pretty harmless to me.

But the locals here in Brazil seem to think it's a nightmare.

Let's go and find out why.

They think it's an ugly animal.

Ugly? I'm going to write ugly down. Ugly.

Ug-ly.

He seems that he's very dangerous, because it's make like this...

SHE RASPS Oh, yeah, scary.

People usually think that these animals stink.

-Got it. Thank you.

-You're welcome.

-Stinks.

Ugly! Scary!

Stinks! Clearly not very popular.

I'm taking my list to a rehabilitation centre,

to find out if these accusations are true.

Jefferson takes in up to 30 injured opossums a day in breeding season.

Oh, it's tiny!

So these are little opossums. Hello!

This brother-and-sister duo are just three months old.

They're a bit funny-looking, aren't they?

What has happened to these two?

HE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

The mother was killed by a dog and they also got her.

-This one has lost...

-All of the tail?

-All of the tail.

Oh, my word. Poor little thing.

They look so sorry for themselves, though.

I really want to help.

My first job is to bandage up their broken tales.

Oh, my goodness, it feels fragile in my hands.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Look at that, that we've just put on you!

Are you pleased with that new accessory?

It's like, "What have you put on my bum?"

Well, so far, these cuties are not exactly

living up to their reputation.

Accusation number one...

It's an ugly animal.

How can that face be a nightmare of nature?

OK, so what about the hissing part?

HE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

They are scared of being seen as food by us,

so they open their mouth...

It's just a way to defend themselves.

They do have quite sharp teeth.

50 of them, to be precise.

They only attack if they feel very threatened.

But they won't, they won't attack a human being.

-So they'd only bite to defend themselves?

-Yes.

Their sharp claws and heavy tail are not weapons, either.

Just tree-climbing implements to get at food.

Speaking of which...dinner time!

Om-nom-nom. Taste nice?

There you go.

So, not ugly and not bitey.

So what about the whiffy bit?

This animal stinks!

Well, that's just down to confusion.

In Portuguese, the word "opossum"

is very similar to the word for skunk.

Opossums don't stink.

Except in one very special situation.

When they think their life is in danger, they play dead.

Is that opossum dead?

Their body goes stiff,

their top lip curls back and they emit a foul smell.

-Oh, God, pick it up.

-I ain't touching that thing!

After a few minutes, though, or a few hours,

these tiny tricksters will come back to life.

-He's opened his eyes.

-He's a good pretender. He's the best.

So it seems that this little pair are more threatened by us

than they are a threat to us.

Look at these two now.

Look at them.

Yes, they might make a mess of your house, but they're only searching

for food, and that very weird trick they have of playing dead

and letting off a stink bomb will only happen if they're

really frightened and trying to protect themselves from predators,

so I don't think these little fluff balls are mean enough to take my

Brazilian beast crown.

Next, our road trip takes us into the Atlantic rainforest,

brimful of some of the most dangerous animals in Brazil.

But two in particular vie for the top deadly spot.

So, what are you picturing? Jaguar? Puma?

Pit vipers? Tarantulas?

Yes, they do all have the potential to be lethal and, yes,

they do all roam Brazil's jungles.

But, no, it's none of those.

The creatures I'm going to introduce you to

pack a super-sized deadly punch.

In the Brazilian rainforest, would you rather be attacked by...

..a caterpillar or a frog?

Confused?

Well, to help us decide, I've drafted in two scientists.

Modelled by Doctor Fan Hui Wen, we have the most deadly caterpillar,

Lonomia Obliqua.

AKA the assassin caterpillar.

In the frog corner,

we have Doctor Carlos Jared

with his Bruno's casque-headed frog, AKA,

well, just Bruno for short.

Oh, and by the way, he's a she.

Let's kick off with 30 assassin caterpillars.

What is so scary about this caterpillar?

In each spine, we have venom.

When you touch or compress the spines,

the venom can be injected and, in fact, the venom can kill people.

This venom can make bleeding every part of your body.

-The brain...

-Yeah.

-..the skin, or internal -

bleeding that you cannot see.

Whoa! Hui's job is to make a life-saving antidote

to their venom, to cure the hundreds of people

spiked by these killer critters every year.

You can see how people would mistake them for bits of the tree.

Kind of moth-looking, isn't it?

How do most accidents happen?

Well, children, because they like to climb the trees,

or because they are so cute.

-Yeah!

-They want to touch, they want to play with them.

Are there any other caterpillars that kill people?

-No, not in the world. Just this one.

-This is the only one?

-Yeah.

Well, so far, in the Would You Rather? game, the answer is,

I would rather not, thanks very much.

This frog is going to have to be pretty beastly

to beat the caterpillar.

Round two! Step forward, Bruno the frog!

Carlos, what is Bruno's superpower?

This is 25 times more venomous than the pit viper.

Like most frogs, Bruno contains poison but, very unusually,

he can inject it into a predator's bloodstream,

just like a snake or spider can.

That makes him not just poisonous, but venomous.

-How does it do it?

-The head of the animal has many, many,

many little spines, you see?

-Yeah!

-Yes.

-Spiky head.

-And when the predator tries to swallow the animal,

the animal puts the spines in the mouth of the predator.

-From its head?

-Yes.

But the spines are covered with poisonous glands.

So he goes to take a bite of nice, tasty frog

-and gets a mouth full of spiny, venomous poison?

-Yes.

It's possible to take one of this...

-You're going to take it out of the...

-Yes.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah, yeah.

-This could kill a person.

Carlos has first-hand experience of frog stings.

Some much less toxic cousins of Bruno's once

injected him with venom.

I feel all the arm,

very, very, very strong pain.

Five hours close to death.

-That's not funny!

-Yes, it is very problematic.

Do you want to take the frog in your hand?

No, not really.

-Um...fine, I'll do it with a glove.

-Yeah. Wow! This glove!

-Yes!

Well, you did say it's pretty dangerous.

Go on, then.

OK.

Wow.

SHE SHUDDERS

For the record, unlike the caterpillar,

there's no antivenom for Bruno.

You're just staring at me.

How quickly could it kill you?

Only a little part of venom, if you inject immediately...

-It would be instant, you think?

-Yes. Yes, yes.

-But no problem with spikes with this type of glove.

-It would...

Do you think I'm safe?

You're completely safe, yeah.

Good!

Well, Bruno, you are sweet by name, but not by nature.

Would I rather be spiked by a killer caterpillar, or skewered by a frog

with venom 25 times stronger than the pit viper?

Um, neither, thank you very much.

That's cheating. You have to choose!

I can't. I'm sorry.

You, assassin caterpillar and you, dear Bruno,

before you get out of your tank... Argh!

Don't leave me with my worst nightmare! Help!

I'm relieved to say that, on the face of it,

my next contender isn't half as terrifying as the previous duo.

In fact, it's a jungle jewel.

When I'm at home, I love feeding the birds and, here in Brazil,

there is one of very special backyard birdie

that I'm extremely excited to meet. To feed them, I don't need this.

I need this. Acucar.

Now, in case you don't speak fluent Portuguese - obviously, I do -

that means sugar.

You guys are really lucky you've got me.

A lot of presenters would not have known that.

So it's no wonder these feathered friends are little sweeties.

Intrigued? The smallest species are the size of your little finger,

weigh less than a penny coin and they all hum when they fly.

Hummingbirds!

What a nightmare of nature, eh?

Wow. This scene may look idyllic,

but it contains clues to what

makes these tiny terrors a nightmare.

Hummingbirds are quite simply superfast.

Watch this. Right, Steve, see this Hummingbird here?

Your challenge is to try and follow it with the camera.

Good luck.

SHE LAUGHS

Where did he go?!

Their hearts beat a thousand times a minute.

And the smallest species flaps its wings 80 times a second.

They're like really flappy parents, aren't they?

"Come on, get your shoes on! We've got to go out the door,

"you were supposed to be at Brownies 40 minutes ago!

"Hurry up, get your tea! Come on!"

Slow down, man. You're giving me a headache.

It may look funny to us,

but this frantic fluttering is the key to their nightmare potential.

Moving this fast uses a lot of energy.

Which is why these are eating sugar dissolved in water.

Which is the closest thing to what they love to eat in the wild -

nectar. That sweet liquid found inside flowers.

To stay alive at this speed, they need so much nectar,

they have to feed all the time.

In the wild, though, there often aren't enough flowers to go around,

so, to feed all the time means they have to fight off the competition.

Yes, hummingbirds fight.

They will guard their precious food by charging and body-slamming

intruders to chase them away.

And if that doesn't work, they'll use their beaks

and claws as weapons.

On rare occasions, it can be a fight to the death.

So I think it's fair to say these hovering heavyweights don't really

like one another.

What you are seeing here is a battle.

A full-on fight to the front of the lunch queue.

And that is one brawl I would not want to be in the middle of.

Which is why the hot-headed Hummingbird

could hover around the top of my worst nightmare list.

My final beast of Brazil seems to follow me around the world

everywhere I go.

Argh! They're everywhere!

Millions of people die every year because of this nightmare.

It is the most deadly animal to humans on the planet.

Yup, it's the mosquito.

Mozzies spread diseases like malaria, yellow fever,

Zika virus and dengue fever.

When they suck up the blood of someone who's ill,

they suck up the virus, too.

That infection will then be passed to the blood of everyone else

they feast on.

One place we're sure to find these crafty killers

is in this Brazilian research institute.

Controlling the mozzy microscope is Luciano.

Look...at...those.

Before we go any further,

there aren't any that are carrying unpleasant diseases in here?

-No, no, they are OK. They are born here.

-Good.

-No diseases.

-I'm pleased to hear that.

So, obviously, these ones are dead,

because we would never be able to get a close-up look at them living?

Right, right. They'd be coming to you and biting!

-And we don't want that.

-No.

This is a female mosquito,

and what you see here is the mouth part, called proboscis.

When the mosquito bites,

the whole thing goes inside your skin, like, when they bite.

-Right up to their face?

-Yeah, right.

Inside the proboscis are two tubes, like straws.

One sucks the blood, the other injects an anaesthetic,

which means we don't feel a thing.

Until it's too late.

-How long do they drink for?

-A few minutes.

-A few minutes?!

-Yeah, a few minutes.

-I could make a cup of tea in a couple of minutes.

-Yeah.

And they could just be feeding on you that whole time and you don't

-know?

-Yeah.

-Ooh!

-Yeah!

Well, I hope the males have some redeeming features.

Males are quite different, because they have this brushy antenna.

They have lots of sensors here that will sense where the female is.

But they don't bite people, so, males,

they just go for flowers and then they suck nectar.

-Only the females bite?

-Only the females bite.

-That's in all mosquitoes?

-Yes.

-So, OK, the males don't bite?

-Don't bite.

-So, apart from that,

that's the only endearing quality they have?

-Yes.

-There's nothing good about mosquitoes.

-Nothing. Is there?

-No, there is!

-You think?

-Yeah.

Luciano's mosquitoes are heroes.

They're being used as a weapon to fight a deadly disease called

dengue fever, which kills hundreds of Brazilians every year.

As eggs, each one of these mozzies

was injected with this special bacterium

which blocks the dengue virus.

Whenever they have this, they don't transmit the virus.

The virus cannot replicate, cannot grow.

So you're basically giving the egg of the mosquito a vaccine,

like I would have an injection against a disease?

-It's a bit like you're doing that to the eggs?

-It's very similar, yeah.

-Mosquitoes are vaccinated.

-That's pretty clever.

-Yeah.

But for these tiny terrors to be effective,

they need to breed out in the big, wide world,

where they can spawn a population

of squeaky-clean, disease-free offspring.

Do you want to help our team? To release mosquitoes?

Do I?!

Do I?

Luciano's sidekick, Gabriel,

has a batch of 10,000 superhero mozzies ready for release.

To breed, they first need to feed.

And dawn is when they're most active.

Lucky residents.

-So, how many have you got in there?

-I've got 50 here.

-50?

-Yeah.

-And will they fly away, or will they go straight...?

-No, they fly away.

-Definitely? You promise?

-Yeah, I promise you.

These mighty mozzies could save hundreds of lives.

And off they go.

Ooh, straight towards you, Steve, sorry!

-Bye!

-They are free now!

Anyone been bitten yet? We all all right?

The residents are happy to oblige.

A few bites from these harmless mosquitoes

is a good trade-off for not living in fear of deadly dengue.

Do it.

-Quite enjoying this now.

-Yeah.

-Never thought I'd say that.

Well, I've spent my lifetime avoiding mosquitoes at all costs.

I've had vaccines,

I've taken pills to protect me from the diseases they carry,

I've cowered under nets, I was absolutely convinced

that mosquitoes would be my worst nightmare.

But, now, to learn that scientists

are using these disease-spreading devils

and turning them into healthy healers, well,

it just flips the whole thing on its head, really.

I'm not sure it's enough to outdo all the bad done by the rest of the

buzzing bunch, but will it be enough to swat it

from the nightmare hot spot?

Our road trip has run its course. It's time to find out which Latino

leviathan will take my Brazilian beast crown.

Well, there were those fairy-tale flamingos.

I definitely do not want to be one.

But I don't think I'll ever cease to admire their fancy footwork.

The hovering Hummingbird,

they may harass each other where they're trying to eat their dinner,

but watching them was pretty magical.

Ordinarily, the mosquito would definitely take it

for all its efforts to terrorise me over the years,

but even they might have redeemed

themselves by spreading the love rather than the lurgy.

So, without a doubt, my worst Brazilian nightmare has got to be

that poisonous, prickly duo -

the assassin caterpillar and Bruno the frog.

You can't have two. You've got to pick one!

I know, I'll toss a coin. Hold on.

Heads, it's caterpillar, tails, it's the frog.

It's the caterpillar.