South Africa and Namibia Deadly 60 on a Mission

My name is Steve Backshall.

And this is Deadly 60 On A Mission.

My team and I are travelling the world

in search of the planet's deadliest animals.

I want to find out what makes them so deadly

and that means getting close to them in the wild.

Only the most lethal will make my list

and in this series we're going to show you

my most extreme animal encounters.

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

This time on Deadly 60, we're in South Africa.

It's a place that's legendary for its wildlife.

Yes, the southern tip of the African continent

is one of my favourite places to look for deadly animals.

Some are deadly in their own world and some are deadly in ours...

Oh, they hurt!

..and I'll be doing whatever it takes

to bring you some extraordinary creatures!

I'll even be hopping over the border into Namibia

to find Africa's most iconic predator.

I've a feeling this is going to be a real adventure.

So, to get my mission under way,

I've come down to the coast to find an animal

which strikes fear in the hearts of swimmers across the world.

This part of South Africa's Indian Ocean coast

is legendary for one kind of animal, sharks.

There are more different species, and in greater numbers here,

than just about anywhere else in the world.

Only thing is, to get to the sharks, we've got to get out past that.

One thing we always have on our side when trying to film sharks

is their incredible sense of smell,

particularly when they're sensing blood.

We're going to drop that drum of fish down to the bottom of the sea

and, hopefully, all the sharks round here

are going to sense the blood molecules in the water

and come to find out if there's anything worth feeding on.

The sharks I'm looking for are blacktips.

They normally work together in large groups, so, if I find one,

I'm likely to find the whole gang.

Shark!

Five, six.

Woah, look at this fin!

Suddenly, there are blacktip sharks everywhere.

Look at the size of those!

This is fantastic. We've been here with bait in the water

for no more than about four minutes

and already we are absolutely surrounded with sharks.

Watch your feet, Steve.

This is amazing! Woah!

They're very, very quick, really dynamic hunters.

I'm dying to get into the water

and see up close what makes them such efficient and lethal predators.

Blacktips are not normally a danger to humans

but their attitude totally changes when they go into feeding mode.

So I'm going have to keep my wits about me.

Two, three, go!

The blood from our bait box

has already attracted around 30 hungry sharks.

Woah-ho-ho-ho!

Amazing!

As well as blood,

these sharks are also attracted to electrical impulses

and that includes the camera and my sound system.

I'm trying to cover it up as best I can

but things are starting to get a bit hairy.

Whoa! Dear, that was too close.

When they snatch like that in front of your face, it's really scary.

What makes these sharks so deadly?

The blacktip's body shape is like a blueprint for an underwater hunter.

If you look at the way the body's designed - whoa, thanks a lot! -

they're like a torpedo. Sharp nose, slender, sleek lines,

so perfect for cutting through the water at speed.

Their skin is covered with denticles,

little tooth-like structures which reduce drag when travelling at speed

and make them incredibly efficient swimmers.

They work together as a team

to manoeuvre thousands of fish into a bait ball.

Then dart into the frame,

picking off lone fish that get separated from the shoal.

The sharks snatch at the fish with rows of razor sharp teeth...

..devouring whole shoals in a matter of minutes.

Each individual shark is impressive but together they're unstoppable.

Our air is running low and we've pushed our luck for long enough.

Oh-ho! Look at this!

That scything dorsal fin of a shark

is something that frightens people in the world more than anything.

There's no way I could go home

without putting these animals on the Deadly 60.

They're awesome! Look at that!

These sharks have earned a place on my Deadly 60.

We're off to the perfect start with a lethal underwater predator

but back on dry land, it's time to head for the hills.

Driving inland, I'm hoping to add

one of the world's most spectacular airborne predators

to my list of deadly African animals.

Soaring high above me is the black eagle.

Look at this. He's folding his wings, stooping,

coming crashing in to land! Wow!

-That was extraordinary.

-Keep your face away.

This is Rourke. He was rescued as a very young chick,

and he's been living for the last five years in good human company.

He is an utterly magnificent predator,

and if you want to see why, you don't have to look any further

than those talons.

Each one is like a long, curved kitchen knife of a weapon.

If I wasn't wearing this thick leather glove,

he could punch that talon

right through my hand and out the other side.

Add to these talons the black eagle's binocular vision,

and a scimitar like beak, and you have a formidable predator.

Key to a black eagle's success as a hunter

is its skill in the air,

and eagles are known for their phenomenal ability

to soar for hours as they search for prey.

So, if I'm going to put black eagles on the Deadly 60,

I need to get a sense of just how good they are in the air,

and that means getting up into their world.

And there he is - look! There he is, right there!

Just flying under my feet!

Just incredible.

OK, now the real trick to this paragliding lark

is the same thing the eagles will be looking for,

and that's thermals. A thermal is a rising current of warm air

which would especially come up off a dark ploughed field,

a big area of road. Just that warm air is enough

to get you actually heading for the heavens

and that's the weapon the black eagle uses to get high.

We're sharing the skies with a true master,

and Rourke is giving us a proper flying lesson.

Using every single air current, Rourke was soon way above us.

Where's Rourke? Where's he gone?

With a two-metre wingspan,

black eagles could cover hundreds of miles a day

scouring the mountains for their prey.

When black eagles hunt, quite often they'll fly right up into the sun

so their prey won't be able to see them coming, and then stoop down with the sun behind them.

And, when he's up there, there's no way I can see him.

A small mammal doesn't stand a chance.

But this isn't the only trick up their sleeves.

The black eagle has the unique ability to hunt in pairs.

They spy their quarry from up to a mile high,

and then use deception and trickery to outwit it.

While one hunter acts as a decoy, distracting the prey,

its mate uses every bit of cover it can

to sneak round the cliff edge and stoop in for the kill.

No other bird of prey works with its mate in this way.

Rourke's incredible skill in the air makes flying look effortless,

but we are having rather less success,

and the flying lesson is about to come to an abrupt end.

Aaaagh!

Oh!

-Are you OK?

-Yes.

-That's what you call a crash landing.

-Yes.

I'm guessing that his landing was a little bit more graceful than ours,

and there's no way we're leaving here

without putting the black eagle on the Deadly 60.

The black eagle's razor-sharp beak and talons rip its prey to shreds.

Its flying ability is awe-inspiring,

and it's a cunning, cooperative hunter.

Black eagles are positively deadly.

Now my mission to find southern Africa's deadliest animals

is taking me and the crew back on the road.

We've had a tip-off about a large group of killers

living in a remote beauty spot.

With rumours that they've killed someone in the last week,

we've really got to have our wits about us,

and apparently there are literally thousands of them.

Most of the creatures we go looking for on the Deadly 60 are predators.

They're deadly when they're hunting other animals to eat.

But there are creatures that become dangerous

when trying to defend themselves,

and these next animals definitely fall into that category.

There's about 80,000 of them at the bottom of that cliff face.

When they attack, they attack in hundreds or even thousands.

They have a venom that's fierce and easily capable of killing a human.

They're African honey bees, sometimes known as killer bees.

These insects are some of the most feared in the world,

working together to fend off

any would-be attacker with up to 1,000 stings.

My aim is to see them up close and get a sense of their deadly power.

I'm going to go a lot slower than I normally would

abseiling down here.

Fast, sharp actions are much more likely to annoy the bees.

That's good, Steve.

As if 80,000 potential killers wasn't enough to deal with,

I had a 50-metre void beneath me.

Hanging off a cliff in a beekeeper suit.

This is madness.

OK, so the hive's right in front of me.

I'm going to move as carefully and slowly as I can now.

I really don't want to harm them in any way, and obviously as well,

if I annoy them, there's more chance that I'll get stung.

BEES BUZZ

For me, African honeybees are one of the wonders of nature.

The fact that all these tiny insects,

each one with brains no bigger than a full stop, can all act together

to go out, collect honey, build an amazing hive like this -

it's just extraordinary.

They all work together, almost like one giant super-organism.

This cooperation is what makes bees such a threat.

When a bee stings, it continuously pumps venom

into the skin, causing inflammation, potentially anaphylactic shock

and even death.

Each sting also releases an attack pheromone into the air,

effectively calling others to join in the attack.

And killer bees send four times more attackers than European bees,

which only adds to their deadly reputation.

Unfortunately, while I'm hanging on a rope,

I can't control my movements as well as I'd like to.

OK, so I just slightly knocked the hive there,

and in a second, we've got an awful lot more activity.

The noise also has intensified massively.

It's actually quite intimidating being this close to it.

It's a really heavy, droning buzz.

Listen to that.

The bees are trying as hard as they can to find a way in.

They tend to target the head, and without this suit,

I'd already have received hundreds of stings.

The thing that makes African bees more dangerous than honey bees

and gives them a reputation of killer bees

is not because they're any bigger or their venom is stronger,

it's just because they're so much more aggressive.

They'll sting in much greater numbers,

and they'll chase away an attacker for as much as a mile

away from their hive.

And, well, a couple of hundred stings could easily kill a person.

I've just got to stay calm. Mustn't thrash around,

that's the absolute worst thing to do.

OK, they're now trying to sting me through the suit

really heavily around my head.

Despite my fascination for these insect wonders,

I'm now starting to feel a bit intimidated.

Oh, ow! Oh!

One's stung me through the veil, right on the chin!

Oh, you forget how much they hurt!

I think it's time to head down.

When they go on the attack

all together, it doesn't really matter how fast you can run,

you're in big trouble.

And that's why African bees are going on the Deadly 60.

They attack in large numbers

of hundreds or even thousands of individuals.

Each sting attracts more attackers,

and their venom can cause anaphylactic shock and death.

African killer bees definitely deserve a place on my Deadly 60.

So, South Africa has lived up to expectations,

with an impressive collection of animals.

But my mission to bring you the most deadly animals

this part of the world can offer is not over yet.

I'm crossing over the border into Namibia.

I'll be scouring its stunning deserts

for an iconic snake, and the bush

for probably the most famous predator in the whole of Africa.

But first, that snake.

A vast sea of sand dunes runs the length of Namibia,

and the snake I'm looking for has a unique way of roaming them.

Down here, that is just perfect.

I've got him, I've got him. Yes!

I can see his head, just down there.

And you probably can't even see him, but if I take my snake hook...

..and you follow a line directly down from the end of that...

..Can you see him?

It's a sidewinder, or Peringuey's adder.

It's a viper, and it does have a venom that can do me harm,

but because it's small,

it shouldn't be able to bite through these thick leather gloves.

Oh! Look at that!

What an utterly beautiful little snake.

Now, I know he's only tiny,

but this is the master of the dunes.

Wow! He's striking there and hissing, and he might well...

He's trying to bite into the leather of my glove.

Thankfully, it's too tough for him to get his fangs into.

Just alongside these chunks of grass, you get a lot

of very soft sand accumulating. This is where lizards like to dive,

and it's also where this wonderful snake hides

and lies in wait for them.

The sidewinder is a highly camouflaged predator.

Even its eyeballs are camouflaged, positioned on the top of its head,

so they poke above the sand, while the rest of the body lies hidden.

Conserving energy, it can lie motionless in this barren landscape

for hours, even days, until the occasional prey comes along.

To increase its chances of a meal,

it uses its tail to lure its prey close enough

to strike with a venomous bite.

Wow! He's got an attitude for a little snake, hasn't he? Whoa!

Very fast strike as well. I'm going to keep my fingers away from him,

because although he's only little,

the venom is sufficiently nasty

that it would certainly give me a very bad day.

But thing that makes this snake so special

is what left that track over there.

Sidewinding - its method of moving quickly

across burning hot shifting sands. We're hopefully about to see

one of the most remarkable ways of getting around

in the animal kingdom.

Look at that!

This is such an efficient way of moving across sand.

He just throws one coil of the body forward, anchors it,

then throws the next one forward.

And he's moving across very soft sand here.

That is brilliant.

Using this method, he can go up the steepest dunes,

and look at the track he's leaving behind.

Hopefully when he gets to some soft sand, he'll bury himself.

Here he goes.

Just gently worming the body in...

easing himself down into the sand,

and those camouflage colours are going to come into play.

Sidewinder, on the Deadly 60.

Brilliantly camouflaged,

the sidewinding, sand-surfing viper is almost impossible to see.

With a scintillating strike, and a cocktail of deadly venom,

the sidewinder really rules the dunes.

No doubt about it, the sidewinder is deadly.

So that's the snake added to my Deadly 60.

But I couldn't come to Africa

without putting its ultimate predator, the lion, on my list.

Here in Namibia at the Erindi Game Reserve,

there's a team of researchers who study local lions,

and if I'm to have any chance

of getting up close to this ultimate top predator,

I need all the help I can get.

And it's not long before a tip-off leads us

right to the heart of the action.

I have a feeling it's hunting time.

Looks like they've spotted something.

There's a couple of warthog off to our left.

And...our lions have spotted them.

This is the perfect time for things to start happening.

The warthog are getting closer. They don't realise what they're doing.

This one here's moving forward with purpose.

It's going to happen...right now.

One down, over the back there. No, it's got away! He got away.

The warthog just scattered in different directions.

And one has just met its end in a thicket just over there.

That would have to be one of the quickest,

most completely perfect hunts I think I've ever seen.

And that's certainly not enough to fill them all up.

One of these animals can eat almost half my bodyweight...

..in one go. Dead in a matter of seconds,

eaten in a matter of minutes.

That is what makes lions so deadly.

But for the lion to go on my list,

I really have to get a closer look

at the weapons it has at its disposal,

and I might just be in luck.

A vet team are here, hoping to put a radio collar

on one of the young males in the research programme.

If I'm really lucky, I might just get hands on

with one of the fiercest predators in the world.

We're using infrared lights to find the male,

because it doesn't disrupt their natural behaviour.

Got some very bright eyeshine over there.

Ah, look, look, look!

And there are more ghostly shapes out in the darkness.

There's three more lions just off to the left of us.

Just going to get closer to see whether one of them is our male.

One just there, look. That is very close. That's a lioness.

Who's that? He looks like he means business.

'But with all our attention focused in front,

'we haven't noticed a lioness

'that's crept round the back of the truck.'

She's eyeing us up, she's right behind us.

-How close is she?

-Ten metres. Eight metres.

She is way too interested for comfort.

'And she's not alone.'

This is really freaky.

It's almost like those two were stalking us.

With an uncomfortable white light on them,

the lionesses slink back into the shadows.

So we've got to get on with the job in hand, and fast.

-Here we go, gents.

-OK. Go.

-Sit still.

The tranquilliser was a direct hit.

It'll take a few minutes for it to work.

The male has just fallen asleep,

so moving in close to him

is going to be very dangerous indeed.

We haven't got long before he wakes up again,

and with the other lions stalking the shadows, we have to work fast.

OK, everyone, very, very quiet.

This is the first time in my life that I've ever touched a lion.

I can feel its breathing and feel its heart beating.

You can see he's still kind of yawning.

He's still a little bit awake.

But I've just got to show you

the size of those incredible feet.

They almost seem to belong

to a completely different animal. And look.

That...is a phenomenal weapon.

I'm so nervous doing this, even though he's asleep.

Look at those eyes.

The lion's eyesight is said to be six times more powerful than ours,

and definitely at night, it is far keener,

which is what allows them to be so good at hunting at night.

I'm still quite nervous,

because the other two lions are quite nearby,

but the last thing I want to show you...

..is those teeth.

That is one of the most extraordinary sets of canines

that you'll see anywhere

in the animal kingdom.

It's time to let the vet team fit the radio collar,

allowing them to keep track of this awesome animal

as he leaves his current pride.

So the antidote's in.

It'll probably be an hour or so before he starts to rouse,

but we're going to leave him now to wake up in his own good time.

But before we go, I think the last thing we have to do

is put lions on the Deadly 60.

What an awe-inspiring creature.

Lions are lethal team players.

They use their night vision to hunt in almost total darkness

and use their incredible teeth and claws to bring down their prey.

The lion simply has to go on the Deadly 60.

Getting hands-on with a lion

has been the perfect ending to a marvellous mission.

The sublime southern section of Africa

has lived up to all my expectations,

from the pack hunting black-tipped sharks

to the awesome flying abilities of the black eagle,

the lethal aggression of the killer bees,

and the feisty sidewinder among Namibia's sand dunes.

'Join me next time for some more of the Deadly 60.' Whoa!

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