Cayman Castaway Naomi's Nightmares of Nature

Welcome to my Nightmares of Nature.

I'm Naomi Wilkinson 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...

There it is! There it is!

..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.

Land!

I've made it!

I've escaped.

No more nightmares!

I've reached...

paradise.

Oh, the Cayman Islands. White sand, crystal waters,

palm trees.

What could possibly be a nightmare about this... Ow!

Spoke too soon.

Yes, there is trouble to be found in paradise.

Nightmares of the night...

What?

..dragons of the day...

SHE SQUEALS

..and ferocious fish in the shallows.

SHE SHRIEKS

It seems the Cayman Islands aren't the Caribbean wonderland

I'd hoped for after all.

My first contender means I'm straight back out to sea.

This nightmare of nature is a relative of the shark.

300 million years ago, they split,

and these creatures formed a group all of their own.

Their bodies changed, they evolved weaponry, venom, and...

..the ability to disappear.

It's time to venture into the domain of the stingray.

The clue to their nightmare credentials is in their name.

A long, venomous sting on the end of their tail makes

a painful wound in any would-be attacker.

Their flattened body shape and camouflage colour means they

can hide on the sea bed.

Disappearing beneath the sand, as they lie in wait for their prey.

These islands are one of the world's best places to take

a dip with these stealthy stingers.

Which is exactly what I'm about to do with marine conservationist

Guy as my Guy-d.

We're heading about two miles out to sea to a submerged sand bar,

where apparently these rays like to hang out.

'Uh-oh. Here they are.'

Guy, we're going to get into the water with

a venomous relative of the shark.

Have they got shark-like mouths?

They do have teeth. They do bite.

And in fact, the bite actually hurts more than the sting.

'Oh, great news.'

So one of the key things is not to

leave your fingers dangling in the water.

OK.

'But it's still their stinger I'm most afraid of.

'With good reason.'

Most of the accidents that happen here are people accidentally

bumping into the sting. Now, when we're on the rays, of course...

Hang on. We may get stung?

-Well, no. Absolutely not. We're not going to get stung at all.

-OK.

The thing is, sudden movements will cause that to happen.

The key thing is to keep your feet on the sand,

shuffle your feet along...

Keep my fingers in.

-..no sudden movements.

-OK. No sudden movements.

'Pep talk over, it's time to dive in.'

SHE SQUEALS

It's touching my leg!

Oh, no!

SHE SQUEALS

Oh! Oh, hello! Hi, hi...

SHE LAUGHS

Sorry, I'm not nervous at all, Guy.

Look! Look at Guy.

This is the one I call Pepper.

Hi, Pepper.

Well, Guy might be fine with them and they might be fine with me,

but I can't get that stinger out of my mind.

So what would it feel like if one of these stung you?

Well, it hurts a lot.

It's a puncture wound, and of course there is venom on the barb itself.

Could it kill a human?

Theoretically. It would depend on where you're speared, so to speak.

'But injuries here are extremely rare because their sting is not

'meant for us.'

The spine is for protection against their predators such as

sharks and of course it's got to be a fairly effective form of defence.

Yeah.

'Even so, they are still dauntingly big.'

All the big ones are females and they become mature at

about 80cm across, so nearly a metre and they're very slow-growing,

long-lived animals like all sharks.

-This animal here is at least 50 years old, we reckon.

-50 years old!

Yeah.

Stingrays are hunters.

They use sensors on their bellies to seek out buried shellfish.

Sharp teeth crunch the shells to get at the meat inside.

These ones, though, get fed daily by humans.

Which explains why they're quite so friendly.

Especially when Guy brandishes his tasty tuna bites.

Don't they look fabulous, like they're flying?

They're just like magic carpets.

They're got this beautiful ripple of their wings.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

'I think I'm starting to like them.

'Good job, cos it's my turn with the tuna.

'Except they don't seem to want mine.'

LAUGHTER

No-one wanted it!

Do you want it? I'll try again.

Success!

And the stingrays seem to be having fun too.

Argh!

Argh! I felt its mouth!

These stingrays really do like hanging out with people and

here it does seem they don't pose us any threat,

but with their venomous stingers and whip-like tails...

..they certainly have the credentials to rate as my

worst nightmare.

After a long day of nightmare hunting,

the crew have very kindly offered to treat me to dinner.

Aw, you're not so bad after all!

Look at this, a lovely restaurant, sea view... Ho-ho-ho!

I cannot wait to see what's on the menu. Thanks.

Eugh! Fish bits?

What?

Well, this is hardly the time, is it?

No, I'm not going to read that.

I am out for a...

No, do you know what? I'm still not reading it. Hm!

Thank you very...

I give up.

You are having dinner with a very special nightmare guest.

Go onto the jetty and let the feast commence.

Well, I'm guessing I'm going to need this.

No...

I wonder what dark demons are lurking in that water.

I'm presuming my mystery dinner guest is going to be in the

sea, so let's see if I can tempt it out with a little bit of fish head.

At least I don't have to eat what's in this bucket.

Dinner time.

'The guests are circling.'

Look how hungry they all are.

Good luck.

Come on, little fishy.

SHE SHRIEKS

'These are tarpon.'

One, two, three, great.

'They're been swimming in our oceans since the time of the dinosaurs.'

Don't half make you jump.

Tarpon are some of the speediest fish in the sea.

Famous for their lightning-fast strike...

..and their enormous mouths

that suck in water and everything in it,

including their unsuspecting victim,

who they swallow whole.

Hopefully, that won't happen to me.

You can go as low as you like.

You can go as low as you like! Yeah, right.

Wargh!

You jumped out of your skin then, Rich.

This is funny.

And really scary all at once.

Tarpon can grow to be two and a half metres, so believe it or not,

these monsters are just little tiddlers.

They're just swimming around,

looking all cool and chilled out and all of a sudden, it's like, "Rargh!"

Argh! It touched my finger! It touched my finger!

At least I'm keeping the diners entertained.

They're having a whale of a time.

You've got to do that again.

At my expense.

That was hysterical.

I need a... A cold shower is what I need.

You lot don't know me very well if you think this is my idea of

a good night out.

In fact, I think it's time that the crew got

a taste of their own medicine.

Rich, you look like you want to have a go, don't you?

I've got my best outfit for dinner, Naoms.

Ooh, are you a bit scared, Rich? Are you a bit scared?

-Give me the gloves, then.

-All right. OK. Give me the boom.

-Not scared of a fish.

-Job swap.

-OK, good luck. You all right with this?

-Ready to hear you scream.

-OK, stand by.

-What do I do with this?

-What do I do with this?

Just dangle it over and mind your fingers.

Ooh, that's bad.

Little bit lower, Rich. Just a little bit lower.

Oh! Oh!

Ooh!

LAUGHTER

You might have broken the microphone levels there,

because you squealed like a little baby.

They were quite scary actually.

Yeah. Not so easy being the presenter, is it?

Please don't eat my hand.

Argh!

Well, I have to say,

after this slightly unusual dinner date with their mahoosive

mouths, lightning-fast strike and ferocious attitude, this prehistoric

monster of the deep, the tarpon, could well be my worst nightmare.

I'm going to bed.

Now I know what's lurking offshore, I'm relieved to say my next

contender keeps its clawed toes firmly on the ground.

In the centre of this tropical island, there live dragons.

Their skin is blue, their eyes are red, they live nowhere else

on the planet, and I'm off to meet a hundred of them.

This fearsome beast is the blue iguana.

But is this cobalt critter really a ferocious, fire-breathing fiend?

Or more of a scaly pussy cat?

I've come to the National Trust breeding facility to help

Alberto feed some of his dragons.

Hi. I've brought you some lovely greens.

Salad. A little bit more.

A little bit more.

It is Tuesday.

-It looks like they like the vegetables.

-They like veg.

Sometimes if they need a protein or something, they would eat some

slugs or caterpillars or a bug or something, just for the taste of it.

-Fruit as well?

-And they love mangos. They go crazy for mangos.

-Do they?

-Yeah.

Vegetarians?

Hardly the fire-breathing monster I was expecting.

This guy here, believe me,

be careful.

My brother came here and he put his hand inside here and this guy

jumped and took... All this finger hanging like this off.

-Is your brother OK?

-Now he's OK, yeah.

-So they can jump really high?

-They jump high. They can run very fast.

-They can climb trees. They can swim.

-Whoa!

These turquoise terrors have super-strong bites

so they can defend their patch against other iguanas.

As far as I'm concerned, that is a nightmare of nature right there.

Alberto thinks he can change my mind, though,

by introducing me to his favourite iguana.

OK, I tell you something.

-I'm going to give you this little piece of banana, OK?

-OK.

-Here.

-Will they bite?

-Yeah, they will bite...

-They will bite but they're not going to bite us.

-This is his place.

I love Alberto. He's brilliant.

'Meet Stanley.'

Stanley, there's your banana.

-Skin and all? Eugh!

-Yeah, skin, everything, yeah. It's like candy.

They love that.

-Is his head changing colour?

-Yeah.

-It's gone more blue.

Yeah, they feel good, they feel nice, you know?

So he becomes more blue if he's excited and happy?

Yeah, they are in a better mood, you know?

When they eat something sweet or something, like children.

Sunbathing also helps their mood.

They need a body temperature like a human.

And they get the heat from out in.

-Because they're cold-blooded?

-Yeah.

So they need the sun to warm them up.

And then that way they can eat and digest the food properly, OK?

Ah...

'Banana plus sun equals good mood.

'Which means we're now safe to approach.'

Let's get close to it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hello.

-Hi, Stanley.

-You happy now?

-Aw, he likes that.

-He likes it. See how nice it is.

'Mm. All I can see are his weapons.'

Those claws! What do they use those for?

When they go on a tree or something that they can hold,

they lock the claws and they can stay there for hours.

All right, puppy? I call him puppy.

Oh, look. You're taking the skin off!

-So it's like a snake. Sheds its skin?

-They shed the skin.

-Oh, look how blue that is underneath.

-Nice, huh?

Gorgeous.

The iguana's blue skin helps it to blend with the island's blue

grey rock.

Oh, how fantastic. You're looking good with your new skin.

Can I feel him or will he bite me?

-Yeah, go ahead.

-Are you sure?

Oh, wow!

It's quite dry and bumpy, isn't it?

They're sharp.

Wow.

Well, he looks very happy.

Positively smiling.

But these iguanas haven't always been happy.

In fact, we're very lucky to have any alive at all.

It turns out these scaly scarers have been having

a nightmare of their own.

I give you the tale of the blue iguana.

No, not that kind of tail!

A long, long time ago,

the Cayman Islands were the domain of the blue iguanas.

Our island! It's all ours!

Thousands lived here. And a few other animals, of course.

But in 1670,

people arrived on the Caymans.

-By Jove, this is nice!

-Hello!

-Shall we stay?

-Yes, let's!

They set up home -

and what home is complete without pets?

Built roads so they could visit their friends.

The iguanas lost their land and were attacked by the cats and dogs.

By 2002, only around 12 wild iguanas were left.

Aw. Sad iguanas.

Something drastic needed to be done.

Captive iguanas all over the island were recalled to

a brand new breeding facility...

Ooh, it's nice here.

..where they bred.

-It's a boy!

-Aw!

He's got your eyes! Aw!

Fences were built around a wild area to keep the dogs and cats out.

Get out! Scales this side, fur over there.

Over 800 have now graduated from the breeding facility. Woo-hoo!

Yeah! Iguana party!

So the tale of the blue iguana does have a happy ending.

Hooray!

Back in the present day, Alberto wants to introduce

me to one of the new generation bred at the facility.

-Aw!

-Come here, puppy!

See.

-Aw!

-This one is going to be ready very, very soon.

There you go. Just like that.

Oh, wowsers.

So you need to watch out for dogs and cats when you're out there, OK?

Just take it easy.

Underneath this scaly exterior lurks a fascinating vegetarian,

one with no notion of fire-breathing

and a nightmare story all of its own, but this blue-skinned,

red-eyed dragon is still fiercely territorial and I wouldn't

want to bump into it in a bad mood,

so I'm not striking it off my nightmare list just yet.

As the sun sets in the Caymans, I prepare to head out in search

of my final nightmare of the night.

I've heard tell that on the darkest of dark nights,

when the moon is yet to rise, the sea itself gives off a ghostly glow.

What could this mysterious light be?

And is it really the stuff of nightmares?

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

OK, should we go and check it out, then.

Tonight is a pitch black, moonless night.

We need it to stay that way.

Our boat - how cool is that? -

is black so you can't see it, and it's electric, so you can't hear it.

-Stealth boat. Brilliant.

-Naomi, the boat's the other way.

Oh! Oh, yeah... Cor, that really works, doesn't it?

That's good.

But filming with no light is very tricky.

So we've had to bring a hi-tech camera that can see in the dark.

So let me just show you how this is working.

This is what we look like currently on our regular camera.

Whoo! I'm here, honestly.

And this is what we're looking like on our awesome special camera.

Seeing me - check.

But will it see the glow?

I asked the crew if they could come up with a little test,

you know, just to check that this camera is sensitive enough.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

Yeah, thank you, crew(!)

It's time to meet someone

who actually knows what they're talking about.

Like Tom here,

who bravely takes people out onto these eerie waters

to catch a glimpse of this mysterious illumination.

So, Tom, what does this glow look like?

I like to describe it as holding a galaxy in your hand.

When I blow on it,

I get pixie dust rolling out of my hands and dripping off my fingers.

-It sounds incredible. I want to see it.

-Alien blood.

-Alien blood?

-Yeah, yeah, and it rolls out of your arm and down.

Ooh!

-It's safe, though?

-Not too scary.

And how are we going to find it?

The best way to find it

is actually through the movement of our hands or our feet.

I'm excited to show you.

-Shall we get going?

-Yeah.

The easiest way to see it is by kayak,

except that means boarding one in the pitch-black,

can I just remind you?

-So you're telling me there are some handles here?

-Yeah.

Ooh!

SHE LAUGHS

I'm in.

-And dry.

-Your weapon is here to the right.

-Thank you.

Weapon!

-Coming to get you, lights.

-Just in case there's any crocodiles...

-Don't say that! There aren't, are there?

-No.

SHE SIGHS WITH RELIEF Tom!

I'm following you. Let's see what you've got.

SHE SQUEALS

Look at our paddles!

SHE GASPS

Wowzers!

It's incredible!

Wow!

Yeah, welcome to my office, Naomi. Welcome to my office.

So beautiful.

I can see other things sort of sparkling in the water as well.

-Yeah, you see the fish.

-Yeah.

-So the fish are glowing when they swim through it?

-Yeah.

Wow.

SHE LAUGHS

-Ooh!

-Look at us!

It looks like we've got lights, but we haven't got any with us.

Amazing.

Swing your legs in. That's it.

I've got magic feet.

Oh, it's like my toes are casting a magic spell. Peeow!

Peeow!

Peeow!

I am literally a fairy godmother.

TOM CHUCKLES

May all your wishes come true.

Snap out of wonderland, Naomi! Come on, back to reality.

I want to know what this magic potion is all about.

So it's when we agitate the water that you really get to see it.

What is it?

This is a little tiny creature that floats around.

-This is a creature?

-Yeah. Little tiny ones.

In fact, every little spark

is only about the size of a speck of dust.

A soup of millions of twinkly plankton.

Doesn't sound so ghostly.

But remember, you can see me with our special camera.

I can see absolutely nothing other than this ghoulish glow.

So, how do they create this light?

They create the light just like a glowstick.

OK, maybe the crew ARE smarter than they look.

Just a tiny bit.

The glowstick has two chemicals inside it,

and when you break it, you're making a chemical reaction.

This organism works the same way.

It's got two chemicals living inside it,

and when it's disturbed, it makes the light.

Oh.

Beautiful as it may be,

the glow is actually the plankton's way of defending itself.

It wants to survive, so what it does is,

it lights up the water 100 times its size, as a burglar alarm,

to attract a predator for their predator.

It's thought that by lighting up their surroundings,

these plucky plankton

reveal approaching attackers in their glare,

making the predator visible and vulnerable

to being attacked themselves.

This ability to produce light is called bioluminescence.

Deep, deep down,

all our oceans are full of light-emitting monsters

of all shapes and sizes.

Some use their glowing beacons to lure in their next meal.

Others eject a light show to confuse their enemies.

Tonight's plankton display is directed at us.

-We're bumping into them. They're going, "Ah, I'm scared."

-Oh!

And another one bumps into another, and another bumps into another,

and the more we stir, the more light we get.

That's quite sweet.

It's all right, little plankton, I'm not going to hurt you. Promise.

Kayaking does them no harm.

Chemicals from powerboats and sun cream, though,

can kill these delicate delights.

It's crucial to take care of this very special bay.

There's only six bays like this in the entire world.

You come in a kayak, put your hand in, and there it is.

-So we're spoiled rotten being able to see this.

-We really are.

Now I know this sparkly stuff won't hurt me,

there's one last thing I just can't resist doing,

and that's - scrubbed clean of sun cream - taking the plunge.

I would be lying if I told you I wasn't a bit nervous

about jumping into pitch-black water,

but if what my feet look like is anything to go by,

this should be pretty spectacular.

I hope this is worth it.

Ready?

SHE LAUGHS

Oh! Whee!

Bioluminescence angel.

Wow!

This is like swimming on a cloud.

This bioluminescent beauty

is not alien, it's not dangerous.

It's just biology.

Well, we got to the bottom of the ghostly glow,

and whilst trying to film this in total darkness

is a bit of a nightmare,

I think these microscopic wonders are anything but.

More like the stuff dreams are made of.

The Caymans have been packed with nightmare contenders.

A long way from the relaxing paradise I'd hoped for.

I am out of here.

Away from the stingrays.

SHE LAUGHS

SHE SQUEALS

Ahh! I felt its mouth!

Away from the horrors of the night.

Ahh!

And away from the blue iguanas.

Ohh!

But this time, I'm absolutely certain

the creature I'm going to miss the least

and be most happy to see the back of

is that horrendous hunter of the deep, the tarpon.

SHE SQUEALS

SHE GASPS

What could possibly be a nightmare about this pl...?

Ow!

I spoke too soon.

INSECTS BUZZ

Are these sandflies?

Ahh!

-MAN:

-Are you all right?

What was that? Was that sandflies?

Oh, my gosh, that was funny!