Shocking Tales Wild & Weird

# Wormy fish-killers Convoys of caterpillars

# Super-clever brainless slime... Ugh!

# Bunny-rabbit swarms, raging storms

# And pigs that swim at dinner time

# Tornadoes of fire Starfish going haywire

# Algae balls from space! What?!

# Prairie dogs that chat Birds going splat

# And fish slapping in your face

# They're wild and weird Wild and weird

# Really, really wild and really, really weird

# They're wild and weird Wild and weird

# They're really, really wild and really, really wild and weird... #

We've got an electrifying show for you today,

as we meet a man who got a shock while tending to his pumpkins.

-A never-ending storm that...

-Never ends?

-Yeah, how did you guess?

And there's a shocking secret lurking in the swamps

of South America.

Argh-ah-ah-ah!

Tim, got to get the washing in!

The storm's coming!

-Here's the basket.

-Yeah. And?

-It's your turn.

-It's your turn.

-It's YOUR turn.

-It's YOUR turn.

-Oh!

-Yes!

I might get struck by lightning!

Well, according to the Journal Of Lightning Research...

This is an actual publication - it's a shocking read!

Yeah, it says here - the odds of getting hit by lightning are

one in well over a million.

-So you've got nothing to worry about.

-I'll put my rubber boots on.

Oh! No, I wouldn't do that. Why are you doing that?

-You're supposed to wear rubber soles, I thought.

-No.

"Rubber boots offer no protection in a lightning storm."

That's what it says. Yeah.

"An umbrella, however, increases the risk of being struck."

Huh. Who'd have thought?

Go on, you'll be fine. The odds are well and truly on your side.

Go on, trust me.

THUNDERCLAP

Ooh!

Should have mentioned, actually,

it also says that the chances of being struck

are significantly higher

if you are near or even up a tree.

Probably best that you didn't go outside.

Now he tells me(!)

Hey, it does say here though about a shocking tale from Texas in 2011.

-Oh?

-Yeah.

TV SWITCHES ON

-Thanks.

-Go on, clean yourself up a bit.

Whilst his girlfriend Daphne was working out of town,

electrician Winston Kemp spent a weekend in the garden,

tending to his prize pumpkins.

My mind was pretty much on the pumpkins.

-Cor, he really does love pumpkins, doesn't he?

-Mm-hm.

But it turned out to be

a very weird weekend for Winston.

When Daphne returned, he had something very strange to show her.

-A checked shirt?

-No.

-Oh.

It's what was under the shirt -

an impossibly intricate work of art on his arm.

When it happened, I was back home in St Angelo, visiting my family.

When I came back, I saw his arm

and I took a picture

and I posted it online and I asked,

"So, what does your boyfriend do when you go out of town?

"Well, this is what happens to mine!"

That looks like a fake tattoo. Or henna.

A lot of people thought it was a fake.

They thought it was like henna or a tattoo.

But Winston hadn't made an ill-advised trip

to the tattoo parlour.

No, what had actually happened was far weirder.

That weekend, a massive storm hit Texas.

I was trying to save my pumpkins from all the rain we were having,

so I went outside to try and divert some of the water away from them.

I heard a really loud noise and I saw a flash.

There was a lot of shock

and my arm started to burn.

Winston had been struck by lightning.

-What?! No!

-Yes.

Struck by lightning?!

-Awesome, eh?

-No! It's really dangerous!

It could kill you! It could kill him!

-Oh, goodness! It didn't kill him, did it?

-No, course it didn't.

-We filmed an interview with him.

-Oh, yeah.

So, if he didn't die, what did happen?

Well...

rather than killing him,

Winston had been left with a remarkable temporary tattoo,

a bizarre branching pattern, etched from shoulder to elbow.

Explain.

Well, it was raining heavily that night

and a layer of water was running across his skin.

When lightning struck,

thousands of volts of electricity discharged through the water,

bypassing his vital organs and, instead,

dispersing across the surface of his skin.

Heat and pressure created what's known as a Lichtenberg figure.

The pattern on his arm showed exactly where the lightning moved

as it found the path of least resistance.

-Are you still confused?

-A little.

I've got a demo set up in the lab, if you think it will help.

-Oh, yes, please.

-Yeah, all right. Just let me collect a few things.

-Oh, and it's worth noting something as well.

-Do not try this at home?

-Yeah, how did you know?

-Oh, just a wild stab in the dark.

Well, you should know, safety never takes a day off.

Oh! Back in a minute.

I'm all right.

# Danger, danger... #

To demonstrate how this happens,

let's substitute rain with a metal Faraday suit.

-Ooh, very fetching!

-Thank you.

Now, metal and water are more conductive than skin,

so if you're fully covered lightning will flow around you!

Ooh, it tickles! It's called the skin effect.

And it's why I'm able to play with...lightning-ng-ng-ng.

And it's also why Winston didn't get killed

and ended up with a nice pattern on his arm.

I'm like the Emperor out of Star Wars.

-Woo!

-Ha-ha.

That Winston is one lucky man.

Yeah, and he makes an awesome pumpkin soup too.

-Mm.

-Oh.

You know, I guess the next time he tends to his pumpkins,

he can be reassured by the old adage

that lightning never strikes twice in the same place.

-Mm. Not exactly true that, Tim.

-Really?

-Mm.

-TV SWITCHES ON

-Hands off, Warwood.

It's mine!

This is the Catatumbo region in Venezuela.

-What, there?! Looks like an idyllic, tranquil haven.

-During the day, yes.

But every evening, the atmosphere changes dramatically!

It's one of the world's most violent and frightening natural spectacles.

But don't take my word for it.

Well, whose word are we going to take?

These storms are so frequent,

they happen on such a regular basis and for such a long period of time,

they've been nicknamed Everlasting Storms.

Liz Bentley, that's who!

The storms develop about 160 days of the year,

and we can see, well, 280 strikes of lightning in just an hour.

I know.

Brilliant!

And the local fishermen actually use it

as a way of directing themselves back into shore.

This is the Eternal Lightning Storm of Catatumbo.

It's been going on for centuries and it's the stuff of legend.

So, what's going on in Catatumbo, then,

that makes all these ferocious storms everlasting?

Well, it's all down to geography.

Oh! Geography. I hate geography.

Worst subject ever!

-Well, I've got some graphics. Would that help?

-Yeah.

Being located just above the Equator,

Catatumbo's weather is pretty much the same all year round,

with a constant supply of warm, moist air

blowing in from the Caribbean Sea.

It's also supplied with a constant source of cold air

that cascades down from the snow-capped mountains

that surround the area on three sides.

But the final and vital ingredient

that creates these never-ending storms

arises because of a massive lake nearby.

Now, see the red arrows?

JETS BLAST Whoa! Bye!

-Love them.

-No, not out there.

The graphic red arrows on the screen!

Oh, right.

Well, they're massive.

During the day,

the hot, tropical sun

evaporates huge volumes of water

from the lake,

represented by the graphic red arrows.

Nice!

But every night, winds rush in

from the mountains.

They're known as a low-level jet.

Which is why these storms develop from about midnight

and then drop away at dawn time

when this low-level jet just dissipates.

So the location really pulls all the ingredients together

to make this the perfect storm-generating system.

Yeah, everlasting storms. I'll give you that.

But, you know, it's not always danger from above

that you've got to worry about.

-No?

-Oh, no, sister.

You see, lurking in some of the muddy rivers and swamps

of South America, there's a shocking secret.

TV SWITCHES ON

They are legendarily unpleasant to encounter.

They have a fearsome reputation

and it's pretty well earned.

-It's not your agent, is it?

-Quiet. Don't interrupt Ken.

The local fishermen call them "arimna",

which means to deprive of motion.

In 2013, in South America,

one unlucky fisherman discovered first-hand

whilst reeling in his line.

Argh-ah-ah-ah!

HE GASPS AND SHE LAUGHS

-is it wrong to want to watch that again?

-No!

-Not at all. Plus we've got slow-mo, look.

-Oh, good.

'Argh-ah-ah-ah!'

-Was he all right?

-Yeah, he's not dead, so don't worry, it's fine.

-So, what happened?

-Well...

Argh-ah-ah-ah!

He caught an Electrophorus electricus, otherwise known as...

-An electric eel! I did Latin at school.

-Ooh, get you!

The obvious thing about them

is they're giving off this unusual force,

what I kind of call the weapons of mass destruction.

In terms of voltage, they can give off 600 volts for a very large eel.

It's a very significant current.

Yeah, a very significant current.

-You have no idea what that means, do you?

-I do actually.

It's enough to do this.

Argh-ah-ah-ah!

# Dizzy, my head is spinning... #

Ha-ha! Every time!

-Question.

-Go on.

-How?

-Ah.

All muscle cells can generate some electricity.

Think of a heart monitor.

That spike is a wave of electric charge, generated by a muscle.

But electric eels have evolved a way of amping up their muscle cells

to create a massive charge -

a shock powerful enough to immobilise a horse.

-What?!

-I know!

Ken's fascination with electric eels

led him to make a ground-breaking discovery.

It's using electricity to reach into other animals' nervous systems

and activate the neurons in their bodies as a way of remote control.

It's just phenomenal.

Imagine that, being able to remote-control an animal nearby.

I know. I'd like to think of myself though being made of stronger stuff.

Yeah, nothing could control me. RADIO CRACKLES

Whoa! That's cool! What's that? ELECTRIC SIZZLES

Argh! Oh! Argh! Naomi, what are...? Ha-ha, OK, stop that now.

Naomi...

Ooh!

Er, while you're up, Tim, be a love, make me a cup of tea.

TV SWITCHES ON

Er, Tim, can you do that talky-commentary thing you do?

I've got no idea what's going on.

What's on the screen?

-The man that keeps falling over.

-Oh, right.

Er, well, the eel mimics the signals running through your own nerves,

so you can't even control your own body.

Argh-ah-ah-ah!

A bit like him. And me.

And if you're a fish in the Amazon,

nowhere is safe from the eel's electrical weaponry.

-KETTLE WHISTLES Do you want sugar?

-Yes, please.

Oh, this is ridiculous. Ken, take over.

Say you're hidden in the mud, for example,

what it does is it gives off two of these pulses.

And what that causes is a massive whole-body involuntary twitch.

You can't help it,

because your nervous system is remotely activated.

And the eel, in turn, is very sensitive to water movement,

so it detects that twitch and then it's game over.

# Shock, shock, horror, horror

# Shock, shock, horror... #

-Ah!

-Here you go.

Thank you. Ooh! I love this remote control!

Yeah, I think you've had enough fun for one day.

IT BEEPS AND BUZZES Oh! Naomi! Awww!

What does this button do?

-IT BEEPS

-Oh.

-Oh, just you wait!

Can you check if it's still raining for me, please?

Yeah, I think...

THUNDERCLAP

I think it's safe to say it's still raining.

I think I'll stay inside.

See you next time.

# The female of the species is more deadly than the male... #

# They're wild and weird Wild and weird

# Really, really wild and really, really weird

# They're wild and weird Wild and weird

# They're really, really wild and really, really wild and weird

# Wild and weird! #