Australia and New Zealand Deadly 60 on a Mission

My name's Steve Backshall.

Whoa!

And this is Deadly 60 On A Mission.

My crew and I are travelling

the planet in search of its deadliest creatures.

It's not just animals that are deadly to me. Woaw!

But animals that are deadly in their own world.

Only the most lethal will make my list.

And you're coming with me...

every step of the way.

This time we're down under and begin in Australia...

perhaps the deadly capital of the world.

So buckle up for a white knuckle ride of venom...

bite...

and bulk.

This is absolute madness.

We're laden with deadly record breakers.

And first up is the saltwater crocodile.

The biggest reptile on earth with the most powerful recorded bite.

But I'm not going to take the scientist's word on that.

I'm going to test it myself.

Inside here, hidden underneath all those aquatic plants is

a 4.7 metre long crocodile

and we've got a perfect opportunity to

actually test out its bite using one of these.

This loop of rubber is filled with pressurised jelly and records

the bite force of anything we can convince to chew on it.

The facility we're at now is owned by this guy, Adam Britton,

he's a zoologist who specialises in crocodiles

and the animal that's inside here is used as part of his research to

find out as much about the biology of this magnificent creature as possible.

OK. Let's head inside carefully, quietly, slowly.

The last thing we want to do is to spook him too early.

You ready for this?

We've used this gauge before on Deadly.

My feeble bite force registers 120lb per square inch.

A nibble from a spotted hyena scored 400.

And Komodo dragons topped 600.

But the saltwater croc should eclipse us all.

The challenge is in getting the gauge into the croc's mouth.

Woaw!

OK.

Well that was a tiny little bite and it registered 1,200lb per square inch.

And that was nothing. Let go of it almost instantly.

So, we need to try again.

The thing is to leave him for about five or 10 seconds

and then do the same as you did before.

OK.

Woaw!

OK?

I just got absolutely smashed.

Good Lord, the power of the animal is phenomenal.

I think I'm going to need a new bite test gauge.

So we only got 1,200lb per square inch but salties have registered

3,700, the highest recorded bite force of any animal.

But there's much more to the tale of the crocodile than just bite.

We've done some pretty out there things on Deadly 60

over the years but today could be the most extreme.

This time of year, female saltwater crocodiles have laid their eggs

into nests and they're fiercely guarding them.

The people we're working with today have to get into those nests

to monitor the populations of crocodiles.

The problem is, the ones we're going to are in a swamp.

You can't walk there, can't drive there, you can't even take a boat.

In fact, the only way to get into them is in a helicopter.

Not inside the helicopter, but slung underneath it on a line.

We'll be lowered to within metres of the nest.

-I'll leave you with this one. That's yours.

-OK.

To protect us we have a crate and a pole.

Hopefully if the croc has them to chew on it won't chew on me.

Good luck, mate!

Can't quite believe he's dropping out of sight onto the nest of one

of the most dangerous animals in the whole world.

He's got some guts or he's totally insane. One of the two.

OK, they're coming back for me.

The cane grass is too dense and swampy to approach on foot.

Believe it not, this is the safest way.

Female crocs stay near or even on top of their nest to protect them.

We are now flying in on a sling, heading into the nest.

This is absolute madness!

It's down there in that really dense cane grass.

I'm now coming down, trying to find some where to land.

There's a croc on the nest. Right on top of it.

She's mere metres away and will probably charge

and could be on top of us in seconds.

Very few animals in the world scare me

but an angry salty is easily capable of killing all three of us.

We need to move with extreme caution.

This is where it's going to get dangerous here, Steve.

She's just here sitting on her nest.

OK, now as soon as we start advancing on her, making noise,

she's going to come towards us.

So we've just got to make sure that we've got a getaway.

This is seriously nerve-wracking stuff.

The undergrowth here is incredibly dense.

Stay there, girl. Stay there. You're all right.

We're just having a look.

Here she comes. Get back.

OK. You see how fast they move?

She's in this wallow now.

She's completely disappeared in that water.

-You'd never know she was there.

-Yeah.

There she is.

Every time she takes a lunge she's using up that energy.

OK.

So saltwater crocodiles are so-called cold blooded

that means that they need the sun's warmth to get enough energy

to start being mobile and as it's quite early in the morning

she's not going to have a tremendous store of energy.

A couple of swipes at us and she's going to run out of gas

and it'll be much, much safer for us to be here.

So we just need her to show us where she is

because when she's down there in that she could be anywhere

and this is obviously quite a dangerous time.

But this here, this big mound is the actual nest and from her behaviour

I would say almost certainly there are eggs inside that.

OK, now the tail's disappeared. There she goes here. There she goes.

-OK so she's gone off into the undergrowth.

-She's here.

And you can hear her...

-heading off that way. She's gone at least six/seven metres away.

-Yeah.

And for her to come close to here, we'd hear it.

So this is time for us to get stuck into the nest very quickly, OK?

Oh, she's still moving.

OK, Matt - do your thing. I'll keep my eyes open.

'By opening up the nest, we can see how many eggs there are,

'check if they look healthy,

'see if the site looks vulnerable to flooding and log the position.

'This is all going to help build up data about how

'crocs are doing in the area.'

This is a saltwater crocodile egg.

Inside there is a very, very small, but perfect miniature crocodile.

Now, there's something really remarkable about this animal.

Like many reptiles, the temperature that the nest is kept at

determines what sex the baby comes out as.

It's a very odd way of doing things, but that's evolution for you!

This has been a thoroughly successful mission.

Now all we have to do is close the nest up, leave it

exactly as we found it and get out of here before she comes back.

If you can hear me, you can crank up and start plucking these boys out.

Getting pretty hot in here, mate.

'Carefully examining the nest won't damage the eggs in anyway.

'The female will return as soon as we're gone to continue

'to protect her brood.

'Though pretty terrifying, that proves that crocs have just

'as much maternal instinct as any animals we may consider more cuddly.

'My respect for salties has gone through the roof.'

I can honestly say I can't quite believe we just did that.

Being that close to a female saltwater crocodile

on the nest is one of the great experiences of my life.

'An unforgettable encounter with our first record-breaking deadly.'

'Our next superlative creature is found in the remote centre

'of Queensland.

'Another record-breaker and one I've wanted to see in the wild

'since I was a little boy.

'But they live so far away from people and are so rarely seen,

'that our chances are as remote as the location.'

The snake we're here looking to find is an incredibly difficult

animal to look for.

They're very elusive, not massively common

and really only out in the open for a couple of hours a day,

but they are well worth us searching for

and it is the most venomous snake on earth, full stop.

I mean, I've filmed some incredible snakes over the years -

king cobras, black mambas, boomslangs, bushmasters...

But none of them come even close to this remarkable toxic terror.

'It's the inland taipan, also known as the fierce snake.

'Drop for drop, no snake can beat the toxicity of its venom.

'Theoretically, it could kill the whole team with one fangful.'

So to try and find one,

we've got absolutely everything we can possibly have on our side -

two local guides, Kevin and Craig, who are absolute snake whisperers.

If these guys can't find an inland taipan, then no-one can.

All we've got to do now is put in the hours,

keep our eyes on the road.

'Shortly after dawn, the snakes come out onto the tarmac to bask,

'warming their bodies and charging themselves with energy

'before retreating from the sun's most potent rays.

'It gives us a scary short window of opportunity.'

There's a brown right here on the left!

'But the road is a real reptile hotspot.' It IS a speckled brown!

Look at that!

Australia is full of highly venomous snakes

and perhaps the most feared are the brown snakes.

They have extremely toxic venom and they are often quite fiery.

I know this is quite a small snake, but it certainly has

the ability - the toxic venom - to do me damage.

So I'm just going to keep my distance...

So on any other morning of snake searching,

I would be definitely putting this snake on the Deadly 60 list,

but the snake I'm really looking for is so toxic,

it makes this look like nothing.

So I think I'm going to say it's an awesome snake,

but for now, the speckled brown is just the start of what

I'm hoping it's going to be a classic morning's snake hunting.

'A fierce snake's venom is at least double the toxicity of any

'brown snake.

'But the sun is already cooking and our hopes are slipping away.'

-The ground is far from hot.

-Yes, we've still got a bit of time.

-Yep.

Stop, stop!

Well, I don't actually believe what I'm seeing.

We have at the side of the road the fierce snake,

sometimes known as an inland taipan...

..drawing itself up into a classic threat position...

Head drawn back into an S shape...

..just making out like it's ready to strike.

You can come a bit closer, Graham.

It's OK, it's fixed on me at the moment, not on you.

Can you see its tongue, flickering out on the air?

Sensing me and sensing whether I'm any threat to it.

But it hasn't yet made any attempt at a strike.

But what is fierce about this snake is its venom.

This has the most toxic venom of any snake on earth

and there's a very good reason for that.

It's not for attacking human beings.

This is a snake that has never, to our knowledge, killed a human being.

What it does have though,

is the ability to bring down

and kill a rat

within seconds.

So around here,

there are loads of burrows of rats

and those animals can be very, very fast.

So what the fierce snake needs to do

is to bite them, inject enormous

amounts of very toxic venom

and stop them moving very quickly.

'Drawing the body into an S shape prepares the snake for a strike,

'like a coiled spring with lethal potential.'

The venom is very complex,

but the main constituent part

is what's called a neurotoxin.

That is a toxin that affects

the nervous system and it's very,

very fast-acting.

'To be bitten out here,

'so far from any hospital would be simply unthinkable,

'so I think it's time to let this snake get on with hunting.'

I've been catching snakes for most

of my life and I've seen some of the

most impressive in the entire world,

but this for me is the most special.

It's an absolutely

phenomenal hunter.

Very rare, very difficult to find

and the most venomous snake

on earth. There is no doubt

that the fierce snake

has to go on the Deadly 60.

You were very lucky, man. Very lucky.

That's one of the best looking fierce snakes,

wild fierce snakes I've ever seen.

Far out.

..that will kill its prey in seconds.

And venom that...

'As any Australian will soon tell you,

'their country is THE venue for venom.

'And you don't have to go out in the bush to find it.

'Here in the heart of Sydney Harbour is a surprising deadly jewel -

'the blue-ringed octopus.

'It's tiny, but delivers a venom

'10,000 times more potent than cyanide.

'It's mostly used to paralyse crabs and fish,

'but has occasionally killed careless humans.

'We have some extra eyes to help our search - Rob

'and Nick - two octopus experts from Manly Sea Life Sanctuary.'

Great, thank you very much.

Tools of the trade.

It's not quite a machete or a snake stick, is it?

'But the net will keep distance between my fingers

'and the blue ring's lethal venom.

'If we DO find one, we'll handle it as carefully as any venomous snake.

'There are cases of people picking up blue rings only to die

'hours later, without even realising they'd been bitten.

'Imagine living in a big city with all THIS on your doorstep!

'Clockwork brittle stars, a stingray,

'and an inflatable fish with some toxins of its own.'

I just found something really cool.

It's a puffer fish.

They're really cool fish, but the most remarkable thing about them

is that these animals have a poison in their skin

and organs which is exactly the same as the venom that's

injected by the blue-ringed octopus.

So to find a puffer fish right here

while I'm looking for the blue-ringed octopus, is just crazy!

'For the majority of their lives, the blue rings are drably coloured,

'merging in with their background, practically invisible.

'It takes a keen eye to see, lurking under a shell,

'our first blue-ringed octopus.'

This is the tiny wonder that I've come halfway round the world

to find. Look at that bright, bright colour change - gorgeous!

Classic warning colours,

and they are obviously used to

intimidate animals that might want to feast on a blue-ringed octopus.

That would be a very bad idea,

because this is one of the most toxic creatures on earth.

It is such a superlative predator.

It has only one hard part of its body - that's a beak which

is like a miniature parrot's beak, and that's located in here,

right in the centre of all of those arms.

That actually has a special venom that's dribbled onto the beak and

can be injected into prey - things like crabs, worms, even small fish.

It is so potent that it's going to make them

stop moving almost instantaneously.

It's only tiny, but it has a bite that is easily

capable of killing a human being and has done in the past.

It really is one of the strongest poisons on the planet.

The flamboyant blue-ringed octopus - one of the smallest animals

we've ever had on the Deadly 60, but also one of the most venomous.

..they stalk their prey.

..used to paralyse crabs and fish,

chewing in venom which is even strong enough to kill

an adult human.

'Our quest for deadly record-breakers is taking us

'from Australia across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand.

'Here we'll be tracking a gargantuan beast with a host of nature's

'gold medals.

'But first, a bizarre tangent - seeking light in the darkness.'

We're in the Waitomo Caves on the North Island of New Zealand.

They're really stunning - raging rivers cutting through

limestone caverns full of beautiful geological features.

But we haven't come here to see that -

we've come here to find a very peculiar animal indeed.

One which feasts on the tiny flying insects that move through

these passageways.

OK, I think you're going to have to pass me the camera here, Graham.

'As we go deeper, it gets narrower and narrower.'

Oh, that is nasty!

Caves and me just don't get on.

You hang here for a sec, Graham.

'But it was all worth it,

'for the peculiar dangling prize we find in the blackness.'

Isn't that spectacular? It's like some fabulous natural chandelier.

'These silken threads are actually the work of an unlikely master -

'the larvae of the fungus gnat.'

If you look at them really closely, along the length of them,

you can make out tiny little blobs of mucus.

It's very sticky and these work like fishing lines, just hanging

out in the air, trying desperately to catch a hold of flying insects.

And you can see here where it's worked. Right there...

..is an adult winged mayfly.

And it's just hanging suspended, caught in that silk.

The vibrations that it set off will alert the fungus gnat larvae

and it will reel in that line and then munch down the insect.

This is a truly exquisite display,

but there's one perhaps even more beautiful, certainly more

bizarre thing that these fungus gnats can do to attract prey.

'In order to see it, we're going to need total darkness,

'so switch to our infrared camera.'

OK, so hopefully now under infrared light,

you can see the true beauty of these creatures.

It looks like the stars at night

on a particularly clear evening.

But that's actually created by chemicals inside the body

of the fungus gnat larvae

and those are mixed together with oxygen to create a light which

is almost without heat, but which is incredible in its intensity.

'This bright light is a neon attractant

'and no insect can resist it.

'There can be literally hundreds on one cave wall

'and the hungrier they are, the brighter they glow.

'Luring insects to their death, they're a real deadly beauty.'

So the fungus gnat larvae - they may be incredibly beautiful, but at the

same time, they are fabulous experts at catching flying insects on the

wing and for that reason, I reckon they've got to go on the Deadly 60.

It lurks in the darkness...

'Now, back to the wild record-breakers

'and a search for a genuine animalympian!'

If we find one, it will be the biggest animal that we've

ever had on the Deadly 60 - 18 metres, 50 tonnes is not unusual.

It's the animal with a larger brain than any other animal on earth,

the largest toothed animal on earth, it is an absolute monster.

'This is the sperm whale,

'named for the waxy substance called spermaceti

'that fills their massive head.

'They're classically found in deep seas, but an oceanic trench

'within reach of shore makes

'Kaikoura the prime place to see them.'

But that doesn't mean that they're easy to find.

I mean, this is an awful lot of sea.

'But we'll focus our search using sound.

'Sperm whales are one of the loudest creatures on earth, using clicking

'sounds to echolocate for squid

'in the darkness of the oceans' depths.'

Now, we've got here a hydrophone,

which can pick up those clicking sounds underwater,

so we're listening in now to try and hear where our sperm whale is.

CLICKING

'We zone in on the clicks to try

'and work out where they're coming from.'

CLICKING

That way.

'Sperm whales are the world champions at free diving.

'They can go to several kilometres

'and stay down two hours before surfacing to breathe.

'But they're air-breathing mammals, so will eventually have to come up.'

OK, we've been tracking our whale using the hydrophone

and getting some really loud clicks coming from this area that

we're over right now, but it's gone silent and usually,

a few minutes before they surface, that's exactly what happens -

they stop clicking because they're not hunting any more. So...

We're just waiting. Any second now, it could break the surface.

Very, very exciting.

Come on, big fella.

There he is, over there! Just over there! Do you see him?

Have you got him?

He's about... 200 metres in front of us.

'It's essential to keep our distance in the main boat,

'but we have special permission to approach closer in the kayak -

'too small to bother a 50-tonne leviathan.'

OK, I'm going to approach very cautiously - the last

thing I want to do is spook him.

After all, he's at the surface to recuperate.

This is his rest time in between hunts.

'He'll spend eight to ten minutes at the surface after a dive,

'taking in as much air as he can, oxygenating his blood, then

'storing the oxygen in his muscles before he heads back to the deep.

'I need to keep clear of those mighty tale flukes.

'One swipe could swat me and my kayak like a mosquito,

'but up close, able to smell his breath and see

'the sheen on his skin is one of the most humbling moments imaginable.'

You can see when you're up close

the massive S-shaped blowhole on the head

which it's using to drive out all of the spent air from its lungs.

Wow!

The tail flukes are absolutely gigantic.

They are almost as broad across as my kayak

and up they go!

Totally dwarfing me!

That was magnificent!

Today has been a day of giants and I have to say, it's been one

of the most special I've ever spent out on the seas,

but sperm whales - that massive animal that is hunting

in the dark beneath me now - just had to go on the Deadly 60.

Look at that glassy patch of water where he was.

That's all that remains of that mighty animal...

Oh! And a little fur seal in the middle of it!

'The Antipodes have shown me a bounty of animal champions -

'truly Deadly central!

'Join me next time for more Deadly 60 On A Mission.'

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd