Arabian Adventure 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.

Oh!

The ones that make your spine tingle...

SHE WHIMPERS

..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?

SEAL BARKS

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.

Asalam-wa-leikum, Nightmare watchers.

I've travelled to some pretty heinous habitats in my search

for nature's nasties,

but nightmare places don't come much harsher than this...

the Arabian Desert.

But fear not!

In my quest to find wildlife that makes your knees wobble,

we have an expert guide -

Camilla the camel!

CAMILLA GRUNTS

Arabia is over 70% desert,

but rising from the sands

there are also some of the shiniest cities in the world.

Temperatures can reach up to 55 degrees

and the sand surface can soar to nearly 70.

That's hot enough to kill most animals. So...

Anything living here is going to have to fight...

Yes! Bam!

..be super cunning...

Watch out! SHE SCREAMS

..and downright nightmarish,

just to say alive.

Oh!

It looks like we've got quite an adventure ahead of us.

What could possibly go wrong?

'Me and Camilla...'

Oh, it rattles your bones. Ooh!

'..my trusty...'

She doesn't want to go up a hill!

'..professional...'

Is it doing a wee right now?

Oh, honestly!

'..and desert-savvy guide...'

Phoah, it stinks, as well. Can you smell it?

Phew! Thanks for that.

'..are off in search of my first contender.'

There is one nightmare out here

that it's very hard to get away from.

With its ever-shifting sands, scorching heat,

and lack of water...

My first nightmare of nature...

is the desert itself.

The animals of the desert have evolved loads of clever ways

of coping. There's the hairy feet of the jerboa -

extra grip for walking.

The sandfish lizard that can swim away from the sand's

scorching surface - very cunning.

And then there's carrying all your energy supplies

in a special hump, just like Camilla.

But there is one animal that is without question

the ultimate desert survivor.

An animal that overcomes every one

of this environment's nightmares.

To find out the lengths one animal has to go to to live here,

I'm meeting up with Greg, who runs

the Desert Conservation Reserve.

Well, I will just as soon as I get off this camel, anyway.

Thanks, mate. CAMILLA GROANS

Thank you, Camilla. Thank you. Stay there.

We're off to check on the reserve's resident oryx herd.

This is a bit more comfy than riding on a camel.

There are loads of them!

Hey, look at their horns!

Wow.

These oryx are part of a breeding programme

and need a bit of food each day

to supplement the meagre pickings in the desert.

Just a warning when you do get out, you know?

-They're still wild animals...

-Mh-hmm.

..so you just need to be careful, you know?

OK.

Please keep your horns away from my bottom.

THEY LAUGH

There are a lot of really sharp-looking horns

everywhere I'm looking. It's a little bit unnerving.

-OK, then, let's leave them to it.

-Yeah? OK.

We'll move back towards the pick-up.

I imagine those horns could do some serious damage.

Yes. In actual fact, when the males fight for dominance,

particularly the dominance of the whole herd,

they can literally kill each other.

-It's happening here, right behind us.

-Right behind us, yeah.

Fighting for dominance means that the fittest and strongest male

will go on to mate with the females.

Living in a place as harsh as the Arabian Desert,

it's essential that the best genes

get passed on to the next generation.

But it's not just those horns making me sweat.

The dazzling sun and searing heat

make it pretty uncomfortable

for us humans.

So, how do these animals survive in the heat of the desert?

Well, the most obvious one that you can see straight away

is their colour.

You know, so the white colour actually helps them in the heat,

-especially in the summertime.

-Just reflecting.

Reflecting some of the light.

And is their facial colouration anything to do with

dealing with the sunshine?

That helps in really bright light conditions

to stop reflection coming into the eye,

so they can actually see better, so...

-Like an in-built pair of sunglasses for them.

-Yeah, pretty much.

Do they ever get sunburned?

No, not at all, cos they've actually got a dark skin

underneath the white coat.

Although their coat's white, their skin is dark.

Oh, so it is like they're wearing sun cream, as well.

-Pretty much, pretty much.

-Sunglasses and sun cream.

Well protected.

These animals may be able to overcome the nightmares

of the desert, but they've still got a bit of work to do

on their table manners.

Oh! Ooh!

You didn't mean to do that, did you?

OK, just put this last batch for...

Hold on, what's in here?

Oh, no, look.

"Can you master the dessert like the oryx?"

Can I master...? I AM the master of dessert. I like them all.

Black Forest gateau, treacle pudding, profiteroles,

lemon meringue pudding. I mean, they just eat these plants and things.

-This is hardly going to be nightmarish, is it?

-No, no, Naomi...

-What's the matter?

-It says "desert", not "dessert." "Desert."

Oh.

Master the desert.

Awkward.

But never one to say no to a challenge...

Apparently oryx can travel over 100 miles to find food. Huh!

I can do that! Woo-hoo!

Er... Right.

Despite my confidence,

I'm going nowhere fast.

Come on!

Oh, yeah. I'm really getting some speed on now!

Watch out!

SHE SCREAMS

Arrgh!

I think I need to try something else.

And I'm borrowing a trick from the masters themselves.

SHE LAUGHS

Oryx have special splayed hooves,

which helps them travel across the loose sand.

Just need to get some grip here.

Help!

SHE CRIES

And oryx hardly ever need to drink.

They simply reabsorb any water that they've already taken on board.

Oryx can in fact go for over a month without drinking!

Unlike humans -

we really need to drink.

Well, oryx have certainly mastered the shifting sands,

the scorching temperatures, the lack of water, but, sadly, I haven't.

And that is why the desert itself could stand a very good chance

of burning off the competition and taking that nightmare hot spot.

For this next part of my nightmare-searching,

I've swapped four hooves for four wheels.

Sorry, Camilla.

I need to cover some distance.

It's a long way.

Oh, Camilla. CAMILLA GROANS

I'm going to have some serious making up to do after this.

My next critter is more intriguing than nightmarish.

They call it the dinosaur of the desert.

This dinosaur is in fact the spiny-tailed lizard.

They live in burrows which they dig in the sand, gravel...

and even rock.

Like all reptiles, they're cold-blooded.

Now, that means they need the warmth of the sun to heat them up.

And, brilliantly, their skin changes from black,

which absorbs the sun's rays, to white, which reflects them.

And then they're ready for a hard day of eating greens.

Nothing nightmarish so far.

But I'm meeting Damien, who works at Al Ain Zoo,

and he's promised to show me otherwise.

All right, there, Damien.

-Hello, Naomi, how are you?

-Ooh, you've got one to show me. Hello!

-I do, I do.

-Whoa!

His face is like a brontosaurus or something, isn't it?

DAMIEN LAUGHS So, if he isn't dangerous,

why does he have these super-long claws?

They build burrows in the gravel,

and you've seen what the gravel looks like around here.

-Yeah, it's solid.

-Yeah.

It's full of little stones, it's compact like cement.

And what are their burrows like?

From the top, you'll just see a crescent-shaped opening.

But they're actually spiral

and they're a very wide, shallow spiral all the way down.

-Chances are, the burrow could be up to four metres in length.

-Wow!

So you're a little digging machine.

And it's these nice, protective, cool burrows

that shelter the nightmare of the spiny-tailed lizard.

So, do they live in their burrows all by themselves?

In any spiny-tailed lizard's burrow,

you'll find a whole community of other little animals.

And these squatters in the lizard's burrow

have some very nightmarish traits.

Using some other inhabitants of the zoo,

Damien has set up a challenge

to introduce me to these horrendous housemates.

OK, let's play...

-Here we go, Naomi.

-OK, there it is.

I've got a camera on the end of a nice, long stick

with a microphone there so we can hear and see on the monitor

what is in burrow number one.

Burrow number one.

Burrow number one.

A nice view, spacious entrance.

Here we go.

Ooh, what have we got?

-Can you see anything?

-Oh, I can see a snake.

Is it a dangerous snake?

Ah, it's a diadem snake.

-Diadem?

-Yes, diadem snake.

And how do they hunt?

You've watched anacondas and pythons on television hunting before, yes?

-Constrictor?

-They're constrictors,

so they use their body strength to kill their food.

Adults are quite big, up to about five feet long.

-And they would eat baby spiny-tailed lizards.

-Really?

So, housemate number one in burrow number one.

Watch out, lizards, living with him might be the last thing you ever do.

Here we go.

Burrow number two.

Burrow number two.

Burrow number two.

Right, let's have a look in here.

Oh, I can see something moving straight away.

A little frog or something. Is it a frog?

It's a cousin of the frog.

This is a Dhofar toad.

What do they eat?

Anything small enough to swallow, really, as long as it moves around.

Even small scorpions are a potential meal.

Wow, they can eat a scorpion?

-They're really not fussy.

-And how do they catch that?

They use their tongue as a sort of projectile missile.

They kind of catch up with their tongue afterwards

-and engulf the animal.

-Weird!

So, their tongue goes out, catches it

-and then they catch up on their tongue.

-Exactly, yeah.

That's crazy.

So, housemate number two in burrow number two.

The scorpion-eating, missile-firing misfit in the desert.

OK, Naomi, last one here.

Burrow number three.

Burrow number three.

-Burrow number...

-All right, we get the picture, it is the third burrow.

We're all right.

Let's have a look.

RUSTLING I can hear something already.

-It's another snake, is it?

-It is.

Look at her writhing around.

Can you hear that through Rich's mic?

It's really super, super, super large.

The name of the snake is a saw-scaled viper.

She's a beauty. She's not hissing,

she's actually rubbing scales against each other on her body.

That's why she's forming

that sort of horseshoe shape.

I'll just try and see if I can...

Oh, my goodness, please don't...

She uses venom to kill her food.

And is she highly venomous?

Now's not the right time to tell you,

but this is the most venomous land snake in eastern Arabia.

Ooh!

That's got to be a good shot!

Maybe that's enough for the camera.

So, this snake would live alongside the lizard.

You can't believe it, but they would. They do.

Would this snake hurt the spiny-tailed lizard?

They seem to understand each other.

Spiny-tails are too big for her to eat,

so the spiny-tail's got no reason to fear her.

It'd be making this sound all the time, though, wouldn't it?

A really irritating housemate.

So, housemate number three in burrow number three.

If you like venom, this is the snake for you.

This viper could hold the title

of the most dangerous snake in the world.

Spiny-tailed lizards are in fact the only animal to make burrows

of this size in the desert and not have a taste for meat.

For nightmare housemates all across Arabia,

they are the best landlords in the world...

..if a bit clumsy.

This dinosaur of the desert spends its days

eating plants and sunbathing.

It's more of a gentle giant than a nightmare contender.

But its lethal lodgers,

they're enough to give anyone serious sleepless nights.

So, for providing them with a home, that's why the spiny-tailed lizard

could dig its way to my deepest nightmare.

Desert skies.

Wide, open spaces.

And back in the good books with Camilla the camel.

It's time to settle down to read up on my next nightmare contender.

All right, then, are you going to sit down here?

Down you go, down you go.

See how my camel-whispering skills are coming in handy.

Down you go, that's it.

Well done, Camilla.

Right, you just wait there for me. See you in a bit.

OK, camel spider.

Not too keen on spiders, but camel spider,

I'm guessing it's called that because it's furry.

Mind you, if it's as friendly as her...

Oh, it's yellow.

The same size as a human?

SHE WHIMPERS

It eats camel stomachs.

Don't worry, Camilla, I'll protect you.

Chases humans whilst screaming?

SHE WHIMPERS

It hunts its prey in the desert at night.

Rarely has a creature sounded so nightmarish.

But is this menacing reputation deserved?

Peter is a desert animal specialist.

He should be able to tell me what's fact and what's fiction

when it comes to the camel spider.

-Oh, no!

-Do you want hold this for me?

Ahh! Pete, is that alive?

-No, this is not alive.

-It's not?

-No.

-It's still...really creepy.

-Creepy, isn't it?

Have I got to hold it?

-Do you want to hold it?

-Not really.

-Just hold your hand there.

Oh, look how hairy it is!

-There we go.

-If this suddenly started moving, I would freak out.

Don't worry, it's not going to move. It's been preserved for a while now.

-Wow.

-These spiders, they run very quickly,

especially at night, so to catch them and to study them,

it's very difficult while they're still alive.

So, with this rare chance to get a really good look at one,

it's time to get down to business.

Right, there are a lot of myths written about the camel spider.

-I believe so.

-I want to know which ones are true.

So, first of all, does this eat camels?

No, it doesn't eat camels.

You're all right, Camilla.

CAMILLA GROANS

It does closely relate to the camels because in the desert

the camels tend to be the only piece of shade during the day.

-Oh, I see.

-They get entangled to the hair of the camel.

So when the camel stands up, there the camel spider goes.

They don't eat the camel, they just get stuck in the hair.

-And go for a ride.

-And go for a ride, that's all they do.

So, really, when I get on Camilla,

I should be checking her over for spiders.

That is the best thing to do.

OK, good start for the camel spider.

On to myth number two.

Right, clearly this one is not as big as a human,

but do they grow that big?

SHE WHIMPERS

-No, they hardly don't grow that big.

-Good.

So you don't have to worry that they're bigger than you

as they don't get much bigger than this.

-And are they venomous?

-They're not.

They don't have any venom glands or anything.

It's starting to sound as if camel spiders aren't nearly as bad

as I was led to believe.

Look, lovely.

One more myth to go.

Do they chase humans, screaming?

If you start running away,

he'll start running after you looking for the shade.

-That's where the myth starts, where they chase you.

-OK.

'And the screaming?'

You will scream if it starts chasing you.

Yeah.

So, myths busted.

I'm starting to feel this spider doesn't deserve

its terrifying reputation.

Until...

..Peter point something out.

From the eyes to the front to the little black bits,

that is all the mouthparts.

-There are four big mandibles in the front.

-Yeah.

And those are like serrated blades.

So what they do is they up and down,

OK, so they cut the pieces

and then they've got a forward and backward motion

-to cut pieces of the prey, OK?

-Like sawing it up.

-Sawing it up.

What would they eat with those jaws?

They go for scorpions. They can go for mice.

Mice?

They're very good climbers in the trees,

-so they go and they raid the nest of the birds as well.

-Birds too?

In the case of the camel spider,

it seems that fact can be even more gruesome than fiction.

Well, we may have busted some myths about the camel spider,

but it's still not very high on my list of loveliness.

In fact, I'd go as far as saying, with its ginormous jaws

and its creepy ways,

it could scuttle into first place on my nightmare leaderboard.

Whoa!

For my last nightmare contender,

I'm leaving the desert behind and venturing into the city.

Now, don't get the hump, but no camels allowed, I'm afraid.

You're going to have to stay here. Here you go, Mohammed.

Why the long face?

Don't worry, I'll be back. Let's go, crew.

There is a substance in Dubai that threatens the very existence

of the sparkly city.

It eats away at buildings,

it can strip the paint from cars...

..spreads disease and smells...

..horrible.

The substance I'm talking about is pigeon poo.

It could turn this modern, shiny metropolis into...

well, a bit of a nightmare.

A city like Dubai is crammed with food, water and perches -

every mod con a pigeon could wish for.

And numbers of these winged rats,

as the locals call them, are soaring.

A single pigeon can produce up to 12 kilos of poo each year.

Add all the pigeons in this city together

and they could fill a double-decker bus with their poop.

Imagine that descending from the skies!

But Dubai has a secret weapon

in the fight against this poo invasion.

I give you Mr Fisher the peregrine

and his owner David.

So, David, tell me, what has this beautiful bird got to do with

the big poo problem they've got down there?

Peregrine falcons in the wild eat pigeons.

-Ahh!

-And so, even though Mr Fisher doesn't eat pigeons,

-these pigeons don't know that.

-Brilliant. So he's a pigeon-scarer.

He's a pigeon-scarer par excellence.

-Absolutely.

-And we won't tell the pigeons he doesn't eat them.

-Keep it a secret.

-Don't tell the pigeons, that has to be a secret.

-They don't need to know that.

-They do not.

So, shall we see him in action? He looks like he's raring to go.

-He is raring to go.

-And this bird can go fast, can't he?

He can. He's capable of, in theory,

speeds of around 300 kilometres an hour.

Seeing Mr Fisher hurtling out of the sky towards them

should be enough to convince any pigeon to go elsewhere.

I just need to put another little piece of equipment on him,

which you can see here. This is his radio tracking device.

And that doesn't hurt him at all?

No, it doesn't hurt him at all, he's just wearing a rucksack.

-And he's so keen.

-Look at him, he can't wait.

He really can't wait, he's raring to go and see these pigeons.

Don't blink or you might miss this. Hello!

A little stretch of the wings.

-A little poo.

-Exactly.

-Just...

-Lighten the load a little bit. And he's off.

Be afraid, pigeons. Be very afraid.

The way he's flying now, as you can see him,

with his wings set like that, that is scary to the pigeons.

-That's the perfect falcon silhouette.

-Right.

But they also can sense, with that style of flying,

that he doesn't really mean business.

What we have to do is make the pigeons think

that Mr Fisher is hunting.

I'm going to swing this around,

and it's Mr Fisher's favourite thing to chase.

When we show him this food, his attitude changes.

That really freaks everybody out.

We'll see if we can grab his attention again.

-I don't know where he's gone.

-I don't know where he's gone.

-I think he's disappeared behind the building.

-Mr Fisher!

No, he's front left, look.

-Where should I stand?

-There's perfect.

If you're there, you'll get a haircut from the falcon.

Here we go. Let's give him a spin. Come on, Fish!

HE WHISTLES

Here he comes, here he comes. Quick haircut.

-And another. Nobody move.

-Straight round.

You can hear his wings as he flies by. Whooo!

Now we've got his attention, you see, we're getting this nice

sort of sprint work which upsets the pigeons so much.

-Getting a bit lower.

-HE WHISTLES

Whoo!

-Did you see that?

-Yeah, we'll do another one.

-It's like a fighter pilot.

-Good lad.

Mr Fisher is actually only in our shot for a fraction of a second.

Well deserving of the title fastest animal on the planet.

It's amazing, when he came in,

he sort of just twisted that way and then that way and then upside down.

We call it the corkscrew.

-A little genius.

-He's a very clever little soul, there's no doubt.

How often do you need to fly him to keep the pigeons away?

-We fly the falcons here five days a week.

-So it's a full-time job?

It's very much a full-time job, yeah.

And do you think just a few falcons are enough

to have a big impact on this shower of poo?

-It absolutely is.

-Yes!

-Thanks.

-Well held!

-Hey, Mr Fisher.

-Is he all out of puff?

-He's out of puff.

He's huffing and puffing. What's he doing with his wings here?

It's called mantling. What he's trying to do is hide the food

from the whole world.

It's mine and you can't have it.

And in the falconry world, we consider it very bad manners,

actually. But we're going to forgive Mr Fisher today.

-He's worked hard.

-He's worked hard

and we've got so many new faces today.

And Mr Fisher's got some friends here as well, hasn't he?

He has, yeah. We've got a few falcons here today.

-Any chance I could have a go?

-There certainly is.

Giving it a go.

Give us your best scare-a-pigeon face.

Urghhh!

It's not going to... SQUEAKING

Is that your scare-a-pigeon sound?

You need to work on that.

Raring to go?

Ooh! Good luck, Joe.

Whoo-hoo!

Hee-hee!

By the time this lot have shown what they can do,

the pigeons will be left quaking in their little shoes.

You do not want to be sitting there.

Look who's behind you.

And as the last pigeons leave the area

with their tails tucked between their legs,

it's time for David and his falcons to pack up for the night.

These falcons have certainly got their work cut out,

keeping this city shiny.

Ughhh!

And this toxic, stinky, corrosive pigeon poo

could well soar into the heady heights as my worst nightmare.

Ughhh!

Joe, you'd better get straight back up there, mate.

-WHISTLING

-Hold on.

-Stand him still.

Act like a good camel.

Well, after all that nightmare hunting,

this Arabian adventure has reached its end.

So I've just got to choose which horror is going to top my list.

While that camel spider really did make my skin crawl...

..and all that pigeon poo left a lot to be desired...

..this time, my nightmare top spot goes to the spiny-tailed lizard

and his horrendous housemates.

And you agree, don't you?

She does.

BRAYING

Pardon?

-What's that?

-That's one of our extras run away.

"I'm hungry and he won't let me have any.

"And I really like that green stuff."

"No, no, no, no."

It's only you, you're the only one moaning.