South America Deadly on a Mission: Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall!

Whoa! Ha-ha!

'And I'm on a mission searching for...'

deadly places, deadly adventures,

and deadly animals.

Oh-whoa-whoa...

And you're coming with me every step of the way.

A-agh!

'Our Pole to Pole mission has reached South America

'for two of the most challenging wildlife encounters.

'To find a legendary predator...'

There he is, there he is.

'..that's always eluded me...'

My heart is just going "Bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam!"

'..and a maelstrom of menace

'thundering up onto Patagonian shores.'

Oh, whoa!

'We're more than 7,000 miles from our start point in the High Arctic.

'Brazil's wondrous wetland, the Pantanal.

'In the rainy season most of this is underwater.

'Right now, it's another Eden.'

'And it's home to one almost mythical predator.'

Anyone who spends any time searching for wildlife is going to have

a nemesis, an animal that no matter what they do, they just can't find.

I spent literally months searching for this animal

and never caught a glimpse,

but hopefully my luck is about to change,

because the Pantanal is the best place in the world to see the

dynamic, dramatic, iconic big cat,

the jaguar.

'The biggest cat in the Americas, cryptically camouflaged,

'and so dynamic in their predatory pounce

'that nothing is beyond them.

'This rare footage is one of the few times

'a kill has been caught on camera.

'A fully grown caiman killed with a bite to the neck.

'We've tried to spot jaguar on every series of Deadly...

'..and not even seen a footprint.

'To succeed would be an enormous triumph.

'To fail would be unthinkable.'

The river looks incredible this morning

with all the mist hanging over the water.

It looks like we're heading into some forgotten world.

'Early morning is prime time,

'as the jaguars come down to the river banks to bask in the sun

'before the heat drives them back into the forest gloom.

'It's going to take all our tracking skills and experience,

'and even then, our chances are still slim.'

It's not just that I am incredibly unlucky, jaguars genuinely are

very, very difficult to see, and there are many reasons for that.

One of those is that this is a creature of the shadows.

They're fabulously camouflaged and expert at not being seen.

But also they are rare,

and one of the reasons for that is persecution by human beings.

Thankfully now they're starting to make a comeback,

and here in the Pantanal, you have a really good chance of seeing them -

or so I've been told.

'The Pantanal is blessed with plentiful prey.

'From caiman, crocodiles that occur here in vast numbers,

'to the world's largest rodent, the capybara.'

Right now these two are especially alert because they have two

very young babies, which makes them even more vulnerable.

You can see them standing up, the ears are erect, listening out,

watching, smelling for any potential danger.

'Finding any big cat requires not only patience but field craft.

'Despite being quiet, camouflaged and light on their feet,

'these are heavy, powerful animals.

'We're on the lookout for any sign they may have passed this way.'

Oh! Oh, guys, come and have a look at this!

Come and have a look at this!

STEVE LAUGHS

I, I don't quite know how to get across the excitement that

I feel right now because I've been waiting for this

for a very, very long time.

That is a jaguar print, and not only that,

but it's a male jaguar print, and a big one at that.

Erm, I'm so excited, I can't even really control myself!

I mean, when I say that I've been looking for months

to try and find a jaguar, that is no exaggeration,

and they've been hard months,

months in the jungle, sweating, covered in bugs,

and I haven't even come close.

But all of a sudden I have my first absolute evidence of jaguar.

Yes!

'This could well be a regularly used track.

'Our camera traps will watch this and other trails

'while we extend our search to the side streams.'

So that is going to be our eyes in the forest for the next few days.

'With the final camera trap in place,

'we continue our search along the river.

'For the next few days, we spend every waking hour searching,

'but see nothing at all.'

I really am beginning to think that I'm cursed.

Maybe I'm never going to see a jaguar.

'But we're not just looking, we're also listening, and a sound

'in the scrub tells of something intriguing lurking out of sight.'

I just heard it.

GRUNTING AND SNORTING

'It's not a jaguar but another Pantanal predator,

'and I have an idea to coax them out into the open.'

There's a little trick.

because these are such inquisitive creatures,

sometimes making sounds can entice them to come out

into the open, and one of the best sounds to make is a gargle.

STEVE GARGLES

STEVE GARGLES

SNORTING

They're interested.

Then they come out into the open! It worked!

'Giant river otters.

'My gargling mimics their own curious vocalisations

'and they've come to take a closer look.

STEVE GARGLES

OTTERS SNORT

They are incredibly big animals.

They're so strong and powerful.

Their teeth are probably as long as my little finger.

It's no surprise, really, that working together,

they can take on crocodiles and big snakes.

They're just coming out of the water, popping their heads up,

almost like seals, looking back towards us.

'Patrolling the river in packs,

'these mighty mustalids are truly formidable.

'Their drive underwater comes from webbed feet and a paddle-like tail.

'They're flexible, manoeuvrable and tenacious.

'The eyesight's keen, but in murky waters the bristling, tactile

'whiskers are the key, perceiving tiny movements from their prey.

'Piranhas are a favourite food, but working together,

they'll even kill mighty anaconda and crocodiles.'

I know that this is them at their absolute most playful

and perhaps their least deadly,

but we're never going to get a better view than this,

and you have to say that this animal, with its teeth,

with its teamwork, with its ability to work the riverside

killing everything in its path, is definitely deadly.

'As dusk falls over the Pantanal,

'another warm-blooded hunter fills the skies.'

Flying alongside us now

is something I never thought I'd see in daylight hours.

They're fishing bats.

They're easily keeping pace with our boat, flying alongside us,

just dipping in and snatching fish from below the surface of the water.

Amazing!

Just amazing!

'Three long days and no jaguar.

'It seems our expedition may have to continue southwards

'without ticking off our grand prize.'

This is absolute zero hour.

If we don't find a jaguar today then I know for sure that

I am totally cursed and I am never, ever in my life going to see one.

-But everyone's feeling positive, right?

-Yeah.

-All feeling positive?

Absolutely. STEVE LAUGHS

Breakfast.

'First stop is to the camera traps.

'Over all my months of searching,

'I've never even seen one on a remote camera,

'so this in itself would be a great success.'

Time to see who's been walking these trails.

Right.

Oh, it's a curassow!

They've got a very kind of curious, punky hairstyle,

and this one's pecking around right in front of the camera.

What else have we got?

Otters!

Fantastic, look at that!

Giant river otters,

two adults wandering right through,

heading down towards the river.

What's this?

It's at night.

Oh!

Ocelot!

Ocelot, fantastic!

And it's coming right down into the shot, that is stunning!

'Ocelots are shy, secretive and solitary nocturnal cats,

'and this is my first glimpse of a wild one.'

Well, it's a great find,

but it's not the spotted cat we were after.

'But there are still a few precious hours left,

'and patience often has its reward.'

Our driver has gone into absolute overdrive

because we've had a call that a jaguar's been spotted upstream.

This could be our big chance.

My heart is just going "Bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam!"

Can we drift down in this direction?

I can see it, I can see it, yes.

This is amazing.

The biggest carnivore of this part of the world is

wandering along the bank ahead of us.

(There.)

I can't believe it - my first ever jaguar.

Graceful, elegant, impossibly rare - strolling the riverbank

in broad daylight.

This is the king of cats.

'The sun is not yet at its height

'and she lies down at the riverside just a stone's throw

'from our boat.

'It's a simply perfect moment.'

Our jaguar has stopped hunting and has sat right on the

riverbank under a tree and she's grooming.

She is using that rasping tongue to clean her fur.

The tongue is incredibly coarse - they can use it

to lick meat off the bones of their prey once they've

killed it.

And now she's licking her paws, those huge paws which are used

as the weapon for taking down its prey.

It's a staggeringly beautiful animal.

Months of searching and building up to this moment -

yet still it doesn't disappoint.

We turn and head for home - utterly elated.

But then, there's a call from a boat further downstream -

another jaguar has come down to the riverside.

Oh, my goodness, it's right on the bank!

Out in the open - and this is a big animal.

It's a male, it's a male jag. That is absolutely stunning!

This is, pretty much, every wildlife watcher's dream.

To sit with a wild jaguar just metres away on a bank,

and it, clearly, doesn't care at all that we're here.

Looking at this animal, he is really powerfully built.

He's kind of like a heavyweight boxer - some of these jaguars,

the males, have been known to be almost double my body weight.

For its size, pound for pound, it's possibly the most powerful

animal on earth.

And with all of that heaviness comes an immense amount of force.

'The broad head is loaded with muscles needed to drive a bite

'that usually pierces the skull of their prey.

'Even the rock-solid bony brain case of a crocodile.'

It is often the way with wildlife - after all these years of searching,

two in a morning.

It's kind of like all my dreams coming true at once.

I guess the jaguar isn't my nemesis any more.

Iconic, beautiful and deadly.

It's difficult to know how we can match the wonder of the Pantanal

but there's another wild destination that may well be its equal.

Continuing south we reach the bottom of the South American continent

- Patagonia.

Spanning Chile and Argentina this is another place

that has more than its fair share of wild wonders.

BELLOWING

The eastern coast plays host to a bold exhibition of predatory

audacity that occurs nowhere else on earth.

We've come to Patagonia in search of a remarkable animal -

that could lay claim to being the greatest predator on the planet.

If that seems like a big call, well, they can get to be nearly

ten metres in length, hunt in coordinated packs

and, apart from us human beings, are the only animal

on earth that could kill a fully-grown great white shark.

It is the orca, or killer whale.

Top of the table for intelligence, invention, communication

and cooperation, orca have no equal in the world's waters.

Around the globe they've shown they can improvise.

Stunning fish with their tail flukes.

Washing seals off ice floes using their bow waves.

And here, on the Peninsula Valdes they use deepwater channels

to launch surprise attacks on frolicking sea lions.

It is a strategy so daring it seems, at least, reckless,

perhaps, even foolhardy.

We're going to set up camp at one of those deepwater hunting spots -

known as the "attack channel".

For four days we'll take up a low profile - silent, motionless,

watching the surf for the shadow of a killer.

This is very much going to be waiting game.

The orca need the tides to be just right to launch an attack.

If the tide's going out they risk stranding themselves

up on the sands.

We'll wait from early morning till last light,

scanning the horizon, always alert.

SEA LION BRAYS

You can see that the sea lions on land are really cumbersome

in the way that they move - they're not very fast and even when

they're right down there in the surf zone, at the edge of the waves,

they're very, very vulnerable.

These are prime pickings for our orca.

Everyone's on tenterhooks - just the idea that any second

that black shape could break the surface.

Yes! I've got one, I've got one. I can see one, I can see an orca -

coming in this direction.

I don't believe it - they're heading our way.

Wow.

For time of day it could not be better.

The tide is exactly right. The depth of the water in the channel

in front of us is perfect.

There are several young sea lion pups right up at the water's edge.

Everything is in place.

The orca take up formation at the mouth of the attack channel.

Look, look at that! Right in the shallows.

This is all about precision timing now.

If the sea lions are too close to the shore

and the orca charge in - they risk beaching themselves

up on the sand.

And that could be the end for them.

They have to decide whether they risk taking a meal

or risk their own lives.

There are several young pups crossing over through

the attack channel.

And the orca are in wait.

'Then... they launch.'

Oh, that was so close!

And the killer whale's almost beached itself

completely up on the sands.

That was a very lucky escape.

Life and death here is just balanced on a knife edge.

The sea lions need the water,

they need to head out there to learn how to swim, learn how to hunt.

And the orca have to feed in order to feed themselves

and their calves.

That was perilously close.

Their window of opportunity fades as the tide falls

and the orca head off into the distance.

So, we decide to explore the dunes behind the beach

and find a curious Patagonian excavator

snuffling around in the bushes.

Oh, wow!

Just under that bush.

It's a hairy armadillo.

You can see where the name comes from. Great long hairs

bristling off its armoured body. That armour is

composed of keratin,

the same material that our fingernails are made of.

But it forms a really tough coating that protects the body.

And you see how much this animal is driven by its sense of smell.

As it's moving along it's snuffling away, drawing in smells

from the world around it, just trying to find if there's

anything good here to eat.

It's really strange to see one out in the middle

of the day like this and so bold as well.

Normally, armadillos are nocturnal and quiet shy animals.

This one here, clearly, is very used to people

and has no problem with being out in the middle of the day.

'But then our tiny tank trundles off.'

COMEDY MUSIC

See once they get moving - they can really motor.

Kind of like a little clockwork toy. You just wind them up

and off they go.

Incredible.

Next morning, we're back on our blustery beach at dawn.

After just a few hours waiting the dark shapes reappear.

Lurking ominously beyond the breakers.

They... yes, yes, I see them, I see them!

Ah, yes, amazing. Amazing.

Look, they're right in, close to shore.

Very, very close to shore.

It looks as if they might make their first attack

about 300 or 400 metres further down the beach from us.

There are lots and lots of sea lion pups in close to the edge

and I've seen one dorsal fin disappearing underwater.

Got one, got one.

No, no, no, no, no.

He's moved back.

Success?

'The time and tides are, clearly, perfect

'and the action is just beginning.'

All of a sudden, we have a high drama.

There's a sea lion, it looks like it's been dragged out to sea,

it's probably about 50 metres off from the shore

and it's leaping and jumping to try and get away

from the orca.

But its chances are very, very slim. There are at least four animals

around it now.

Coming up to the surface just leaping and bobbing and weaving to

try and evade its larger, less manoeuvrable captors.

But they just won't let it get back to shore.

You can see all of the orca coursing around it with their dorsal fins

breaking the surface.

It looks like the largest female is slapping it with its

tail flukes.

Just trying to knock the sea lion unconscious.

Oh...!

This is why orca are one of the deadliest predators on the planet.

They're so ruthless. They just will not give up.

Oh, whoa!

The orca just caught it with its tail - threw it completely

out of the water.

That must surely be it now?

'The orca are not done.

'They slip below the surface and move to stage two.'

They're heading straight for our beach and the attack channel.

The stage is set.

This could not be more perfect for them.

OK, everyone switched on?

If this happens it's going to happen really quickly.

It's the most extraordinary experience -

watching this epic life-and-death battle play itself out

in front of us.

Kind of puts the hairs up on the back of your neck.

'The orca turn off all their communication.

'Going into silent, stealth mode.'

Oh, so close!

So close!

The orca beached itself right up on the sands.

But it was going for an adult sea lion and it just managed to escape.

'The surge of force and power as these animals drive themselves

'towards the beach is simply awe- inspiring.'

As the young sea lion pubs scamper up the beach

having escaped with their lives by a matter of millimetres,

I have to say,

that that was worth travelling halfway round the world for.

And, despite the fact that this time the orca came up

empty handed and didn't manage to find a meal -

there is surely nobody on the planet who can doubt

that the killer whale is deadly.

And those are some seriously lucky sea lions.

SEA LIONS BRAY

We've spanned another continent

and our patience paid off...

It's a jaguar - over there.

..with two of the finest and most challenging animal encounters

on earth.

But our expedition is reaching its climax.

Oh! Oh, oh!

Fantastic!

Leaving this continent behind...

BIRDS SQUAWK

..and heading out into the Southern Ocean.

To some of the wildest islands on earth.

BIRDS SCREECH