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0:00:07 > 0:00:09For this collection, Sir David Attenborough
0:00:09 > 0:00:13has chosen documentaries from the start of his career.
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0:00:16 > 0:00:18are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55DIDGERIDOO MUSIC AND ABORIGINAL CHANTING
0:01:07 > 0:01:11Australia is full of fascinating, unique animals.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15I suppose the kangaroo is the most famous of them
0:01:15 > 0:01:19but there are many other creatures - insects, birds, reptiles - which are
0:01:19 > 0:01:23also unique to Australia and which occur nowhere else in the world.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27This country, the Northern Territory, has more than its fair share of them.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30We have been here now for over three months
0:01:30 > 0:01:33and we have managed to see quite a number of them.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38As always, the most productive place to search for animals
0:01:38 > 0:01:40is around water.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44Few creatures can live without it and up here there are great swamps
0:01:44 > 0:01:46that attract an enormous variety of birds.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53In the trees that fringe the lagoons, perch splendidly coloured bee-eaters
0:01:53 > 0:01:56which come here to catch the insects
0:01:56 > 0:01:59hovering above the surface of the tepid water.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06On the shore, one of the scavengers of the territory -
0:02:06 > 0:02:09a kite that has found some carrion
0:02:09 > 0:02:12and is having some difficulty in dealing with it.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28And, of course, there are ducks of all sorts.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32These handsome creatures are radjah shelduck
0:02:32 > 0:02:36or, as they are called out here, Burdekin ducks.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42Egrets and herons of many different kinds also throng the lagoons.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44These are pied herons.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57There are several sorts of ibis here too. This is the white ibis.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02And this, the glossy ibis,
0:03:02 > 0:03:07probing in the mud with their long, curved beaks in search of insects.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12And the biggest of all the birds on the lakes - the brolga,
0:03:12 > 0:03:14the Australian crane.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Four feet tall with a seven-foot wingspan.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33Many of these birds, like this great white heron,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35have come here to feed on fish
0:03:35 > 0:03:38and there are lots of fish in these billabongs
0:03:38 > 0:03:39including the big barramundi,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42which is the finest tasting fish in the whole territory.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49But this, I was fairly certain, was not a fish.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53There was no dorsal fin on its back and it was swimming
0:03:53 > 0:03:57close to the surface and in a most un-fishlike way.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00What was it?
0:04:03 > 0:04:05I went round to the part of the shore
0:04:05 > 0:04:07for which it was heading to find out.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11And this is what it was - a goanna, a very large lizard.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21To be honest, goannas are not particularly dangerous.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23They don't have a poisonous bite, but all the same,
0:04:23 > 0:04:25they have been known to go for people when cornered
0:04:25 > 0:04:28and as they have extremely powerful claws
0:04:28 > 0:04:31and quite formidable teeth, I thought it best to take no risks
0:04:31 > 0:04:35and keep a stick handy to fend him off if he did go for me.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39One of their methods of attack is to slash their tail, like that.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44And that.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47And I dare say that that could be quite a painful blow
0:04:47 > 0:04:49if you got it across the shins.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59I expect this one was down by the lake looking for frogs
0:04:59 > 0:05:02or birds' eggs or maybe carrion.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05He can have few, if any, natural enemies
0:05:05 > 0:05:08and he certainly didn't seem in the least afraid of me.
0:05:15 > 0:05:21But eventually I became too persistent and then he was off.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28He went to seek safety back in the lagoon from which he had come.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40His long, pink, forked tongue, like that of a snake,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42is not, of course, poisonous.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46It's simply a way of smelling, of tasting the air, as it were.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50The name goanna is simply a corruption of the word iguana
0:05:50 > 0:05:54which, strictly speaking, is a South American type of lizard.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57But these lizards are quite different.
0:05:57 > 0:05:58They are a kind of monitor lizard
0:05:58 > 0:06:01related to the water monitor of Asia
0:06:01 > 0:06:03and the big Komodo dragon of Indonesia
0:06:03 > 0:06:06which is the largest lizard in the world.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10From the tip of his tail to his head this goanna was about four feet long
0:06:10 > 0:06:15but there are goannas that grow to be six feet or more in length.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Goannas, in fact, are the largest lizards in Australia
0:06:19 > 0:06:21but there are lots of little ones too.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24One of the most grotesque of them all is this little creature -
0:06:24 > 0:06:26the thorny devil.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29It's only about four inches long.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32We found a pair of them in the Central Desert,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35skittering about in the grass of the dunes.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38These creatures seem to be able to live on next to no water
0:06:38 > 0:06:41and get all the moisture they need from dew.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46At the back of their necks they have a curious growth which is
0:06:46 > 0:06:51a sort of satchel of fat which can be absorbed during a bad season.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Though they look ferocious and terrifying,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58particularly in close-ups like this, they are, in reality, quite harmless.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Their mouths are too small to give you a bite
0:07:01 > 0:07:04and their only defence is this astonishing armoury of spines
0:07:04 > 0:07:08which must make them, I imagine, a pretty unpleasant mouthful
0:07:08 > 0:07:10for anything like a hawk or a snake
0:07:10 > 0:07:13which might try to make a meal of them.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17They eat only ants and indeed not any old ants
0:07:17 > 0:07:20but ants of a particular kind and size.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Their mouths are too small to allow them to tackle anything
0:07:23 > 0:07:25but quite tiny ants.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27But though the ants they eat are minute,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30they consume enormous quantities of them,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32as many as 1,500 in a single meal,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36which must, I imagine, be a fairly long, drawn-out affair.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39But there are plenty of ants everywhere in Australia.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43In fact, there are lots of insects of all sorts, and wherever you go,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46you see spectacular monuments to insect activity.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53This is a termite hill.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55Termites are sometimes called white ants
0:07:55 > 0:07:57though it is not a particularly good name for them
0:07:57 > 0:07:59because although they may look like ants
0:07:59 > 0:08:01they are, in fact, not closely related at all.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05And termites or white ants are one of the plagues of the tropics.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08There are many different species,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11but most of them are extremely destructive.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14They will chew their way through pretty well anything -
0:08:14 > 0:08:18through boots, through whole libraries of books, through wood,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21through the foundations of houses until they collapse.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24They have even been known to eat entire billiard balls.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26In fact, there is a good Australian expression -
0:08:26 > 0:08:28to be white anted by somebody.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33That means that somebody has removed your foundations surreptitiously
0:08:33 > 0:08:36and eaten them away until you collapse.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38This particular sort of termite
0:08:38 > 0:08:41is a very unusual and indeed a puzzling one.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43It occurs nowhere else in the world
0:08:43 > 0:08:46but in this part of northern Australia.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48This is a magnetic termite hill.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52From this angle, it looks a large, flat object,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55but if you go and look over there,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57you get a completely different point of view.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00You can see that it is extremely thin,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04but, in fact, it's a sort of gigantic knife blade.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09Now, this is pretty odd in itself because most termite hills are round.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14But it is even odder because all the termite hills like this kind
0:09:14 > 0:09:16point directly north and south
0:09:16 > 0:09:19with the accuracy of a magnetic compass,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23from which they get their name magnetic termite hills.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Termites build nests because they are very particular
0:09:26 > 0:09:31about the sort of climate, the sort of conditions, under which they live.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34They don't like it too moist, they don't like it too dry.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39They can't bear the light of the sun, and inside their nests,
0:09:39 > 0:09:43in the darkness, they can create their own climate, as it were.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49But as to why this particular species should build it
0:09:49 > 0:09:52pointing exactly north and south has long been a problem.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55At first it was suggested that it was because there is
0:09:55 > 0:09:57a prevailing wind here which comes from the north
0:09:57 > 0:09:59and which can be very strong
0:09:59 > 0:10:01and, if they were building them the other way,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04well, then the wind might blow over the termite hill.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07This way it presents the least resistance to the wind
0:10:07 > 0:10:10and so is least likely to be blown over.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12But that theory is no longer accepted.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16The accepted belief now is that the termites build it this way
0:10:16 > 0:10:20because they are inclined to get too hot in these hills
0:10:20 > 0:10:21and that in the morning, as now,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24when the sun is shining on the eastern side,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28well, the termites go into the shade on the other side of the hill
0:10:28 > 0:10:31and then when the sun goes round in the evening
0:10:31 > 0:10:33they will migrate to this part of the nest.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35Well, we can at least see
0:10:35 > 0:10:39if they are behaving this way by chopping a hole in the side.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09Well, there are one or two termites there, but that you would expect
0:11:09 > 0:11:12because these are one particular sort of caste of termite
0:11:12 > 0:11:14that lives in this hill.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18These are the soldier termites and you would expect them to come
0:11:18 > 0:11:21when you attack their home with an axe because these are the ones
0:11:21 > 0:11:26that come to repel boarders - these are the soldier caste.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28What we haven't seen here
0:11:28 > 0:11:32are the smaller, soft-bodied, white worker termites
0:11:32 > 0:11:35which are the ones that you would expect to seek the shade.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37Let's see if we can find them on this other side.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Well, here are some soldiers
0:11:51 > 0:11:54and very many more than there were on the other side.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57And here are the white ones.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Here are the little, soft-bodied, white caste of termite
0:12:01 > 0:12:04that are the ones you would expect to seek the shade.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08And there's a soldier trying to drag one of these soft, helpless creatures
0:12:08 > 0:12:12back into the shade away from the light which they so detest.
0:12:13 > 0:12:14So, it's true.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18The little white ones really are on this side, on the west,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21in the shade, in the coolness.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24But whether that is the complete explanation
0:12:24 > 0:12:28for this extraordinarily-shaped hill always pointing north,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32I'm not so sure because, after all, there's shade on a termite hill,
0:12:32 > 0:12:34even if it is a circular one.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38For me, the puzzle of these orientated termite hills
0:12:38 > 0:12:43still remains. And in case you're worried about the termites
0:12:43 > 0:12:47and the hole I've made in their nest, well, they'll be all right.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50In 24 hours, they'll have sealed off all these galleries
0:12:50 > 0:12:53and, once again, the colony will be in darkness.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02You can't walk in this sort of bush for long without seeing a kangaroo.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04But it's not easy to get a good view of them
0:13:04 > 0:13:07for they are very shy, nervous creatures.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19Actually, there are many similar-looking creatures,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23all of which most of us would call simply kangaroos.
0:13:23 > 0:13:24But, to the expert,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27there are several very different sorts with different names,
0:13:27 > 0:13:33like wallaby, wallaroo, euro as well as kangaroo.
0:13:33 > 0:13:34These, in fact, are wallabies.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40It gets extremely hot up here
0:13:40 > 0:13:42and water away from the lagoons is scarce.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48One of the ways the kangaroos keep themselves cool
0:13:48 > 0:13:51is to lick their forearms just as this one is doing.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55It's the equivalent of mopping your brow with a wet sponge.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01But they must drink sometimes
0:14:01 > 0:14:04and down in the south, in the desert,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06kangaroos will dig holes in the sand
0:14:06 > 0:14:11so that water can soak through and accumulate in a puddle.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13When they are at rest, they use their tail as a third leg,
0:14:13 > 0:14:17sitting back on it like a race-goer on a shooting stick.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21But when they run, they hold it out stiffly behind them
0:14:21 > 0:14:23and use it as an excellent balancing device.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29Kangaroos, of course, are marsupials,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32that is to say creatures that carry their young in a pouch.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36But there are many other marsupials in Australia besides the kangaroo.
0:14:36 > 0:14:42Pouched rats and pouched mice, pouched cats and pouched anteaters.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46And on our walks through the bush, I kept a sharp lookout for them.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Well, that up there is a pretty unusual sight.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16That's a possum.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19Actually "possum" is not a very good word for it because the word
0:15:19 > 0:15:22is used for all sorts of very different sorts of animals.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25A possum originally is an American Indian word
0:15:25 > 0:15:30and was used by the settlers in North America for a rat-like creature
0:15:30 > 0:15:33which, in fact, was also a marsupial.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37When people came here, they applied this word "possum"
0:15:37 > 0:15:42to this rather enchanting little creature sitting up there,
0:15:42 > 0:15:46which is very different indeed from the possum of North America.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51The local and native people here call it a wick
0:15:51 > 0:15:53and maybe that would be a better word.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58This particular possum is found all over Australia,
0:15:58 > 0:16:03not only up here in the top end, but way down south too,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06and it is almost entirely vegetarian.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10It spends its time chewing the leaves and the fruit
0:16:10 > 0:16:14and also will look for honey and sometimes birds' eggs
0:16:14 > 0:16:16which it finds in these trees.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20It's an unusual sight, because it's really a nocturnal animal,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24that is to say it spends most of the day sleeping in a hole
0:16:24 > 0:16:28so you don't often see them sitting around like that one up there.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31And perhaps it's fortunate that no-one else is seeing them
0:16:31 > 0:16:34because the people around here eat this creature.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38They regard it as a very tasty delicacy.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44He's not moving very much precisely because he is a nocturnal animal.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47During the day, he finds it a bit hot and he'll probably stay there
0:16:47 > 0:16:50for the rest of the day and then when the night-time comes, well,
0:16:50 > 0:16:54he'll probably go down and start snuffling around for food.
0:16:54 > 0:16:55So, he won't do much.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59He's rather sleepy and I think we'll probably just leave him up there.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42That magnificent flock of birds is a flock of galahs -
0:17:42 > 0:17:45rose-breasted cockatoos.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Beautiful creatures with pink undersides and grey backs.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Australia is a marvellous country for birds of the parrot family -
0:17:55 > 0:17:58parrots and parakeets and cockatoos - and there are many
0:17:58 > 0:18:02that are more gaudy than that but not many that are more beautiful.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07The galah itself, actually, is very common
0:18:07 > 0:18:09and indeed it is something of a pest.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12It's extremely noisy and it eats the crops
0:18:12 > 0:18:16and so there is an expression here - people often call a man a galah.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20That means he is noisy and talkative and not much good for anything.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Although they are so common, the galahs aren't shot for food
0:18:26 > 0:18:28because they are extremely tough.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31In fact, they say that the only way to cook a galah
0:18:31 > 0:18:33is to put it in a billy with a steel axe head
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and then you boil it until the axe head is soft enough
0:18:36 > 0:18:39to stick a fork into and then your galah is eatable.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42But what marvellous birds they are.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40HARSH BIRD CALL
0:19:40 > 0:19:42Hear that?
0:19:46 > 0:19:52That's the call of a kingfisher-like bird called the kookaburra.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Down in the south, the kookaburra has a hysterical laugh for a call
0:19:56 > 0:19:58but up here, well, it's rather different.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02Like they say, the country up here is so harsh
0:20:02 > 0:20:05that everything bites except the butterflies,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and even the laughing jackass, the kookaburra,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09hasn't got anything to laugh at.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Although animals are, in fact, abundant here,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20you can often walk for hours and even days
0:20:20 > 0:20:22without seeing anything very interesting.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27The fault is usually your own - you move too clumsily and noisily
0:20:27 > 0:20:29or your eyes are not sharp enough.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Sometimes you can look for one particular thing
0:20:32 > 0:20:35that's really quite common and it may take you weeks to find it.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37It certainly took us a long time
0:20:37 > 0:20:39before we eventually discovered this.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42This strange construction is the work of one of the most
0:20:42 > 0:20:47extraordinary birds in the world - the bowerbird. And this is his bower.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50In front lies a huge collection of white objects.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53Most of them are snail shells bleached by the sun,
0:20:53 > 0:20:58but there are also little bits of white bone, a few quartz pebbles,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01one or two chips of glass - goodness knows where he got those from -
0:21:01 > 0:21:03all of them white.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07And at the back, two parallel walls of twigs forming an avenue.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Bowerbirds are relatives of the birds of paradise,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17which occur north of here in the big island of New Guinea.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21But whereas the male bird of paradise has magnificent, spectacular plumes
0:21:21 > 0:21:23with which to display in front of his mate,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26the bowerbird is a relatively drab little creature.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28A brownish creature about the size of a thrush
0:21:28 > 0:21:31with a little bit of pink at the back of its neck.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34So he can't display with plumes but what he displays with
0:21:34 > 0:21:38is this treasury of articles which he collects at his bower.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42This isn't a nest, it's simply a place where he displays.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Different species of bowerbirds have different tastes in what is
0:21:45 > 0:21:49most desirable and attractive for the jewels, if you like,
0:21:49 > 0:21:55to decorate his display ground, and this one prefers white objects.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Now, if you want to attract a bowerbird, and I...
0:21:59 > 0:22:00SCREECHING
0:22:00 > 0:22:03There he is now. SCREECHING
0:22:03 > 0:22:04So he's around here.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07If I want to bring him down here,
0:22:07 > 0:22:12I've got in my hand some red seeds that I've got from a tree just nearby
0:22:12 > 0:22:16and he can't abide these, so if I put these in his bower,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20I hope that he'll come down and whip them out as soon as I put them there.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Let's see.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43And here he is.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13And there go four of the red seeds which he hates so much.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16Only the cock birds make these bowers.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21Occasionally the hen bird will come here too, mostly she just watches.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23But when she feels the moment is right,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26she will mate with the male here within the bower.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30But the place must be kept spick and span by the cock bird
0:23:30 > 0:23:32ready for that occasion.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Later on, the birds will make a nest which may be some distance away.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40It's built afresh each year. But the bower is kept from season to season.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42If you live in this country,
0:23:42 > 0:23:44it can be useful to know where the bowers are.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48Because if you drop something bright and shiny, like a coin,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51you can be pretty sure that within a day or so
0:23:51 > 0:23:53the local bowerbird will have collected it
0:23:53 > 0:23:55and added it to his treasure.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59There's even a story that an old bushwhacker lost his glass eye
0:23:59 > 0:24:03while out riding and he found it a couple of days later
0:24:03 > 0:24:06staring up at him from the middle of a bower.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09No other bird shows such a passion for building and decorating
0:24:09 > 0:24:13as does the bowerbird. It's one of Australia's marvels.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Week after week, we wandered through this bush,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21for there was one last creature which I'd not yet seen
0:24:21 > 0:24:25and one which I was determined to find before we left Australia.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Everywhere we went, we passed these huge termite hills
0:24:29 > 0:24:32which can stand as high as 20 or 30 feet.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36It's astonishing to think that these gigantic towers
0:24:36 > 0:24:40are just the work of tiny insects less than half an inch long.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44How long it takes them to build these vast nests
0:24:44 > 0:24:47no-one knows for certain, but it must be many years.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56But termite hills were not what I was looking for.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58I was searching for a reptile.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02A reptile which is not particularly rare, but yet,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05search as we might, we couldn't find it.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09It seemed as though our luck was out. Day after day passed fruitlessly
0:25:09 > 0:25:13and then, at long last, our luck changed.
0:25:22 > 0:25:27And there is the lizard I wanted to see more than any other.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31It's the most spectacular of the entire lizard tribe
0:25:31 > 0:25:35in this part of the world. It's the frilled lizard.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42It may not look very spectacular now
0:25:42 > 0:25:46because it's got a big frill of skin around its neck
0:25:46 > 0:25:50which is folded up, but just as I get closer, it will get alarmed
0:25:50 > 0:25:55and will display, I think, and show this big fan, trying to terrify me.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09The easiest way to catch him would be to throw a cloth over him
0:26:09 > 0:26:14but since I haven't got a cloth I'll just have to use my shirt.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Got him.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41Well, this wonderful frill around his neck,
0:26:41 > 0:26:44like an Elizabethan ruff,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47is in fact just thin skin covered in scales
0:26:47 > 0:26:51which under his chin are a lovely red colour.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55It is strengthened by bones, little thin bones,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58which come from beneath his jaw down here
0:26:58 > 0:27:02and with those he can spread it out.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06In fact, the arrangement is such that he can only spread it out fully
0:27:06 > 0:27:09by opening his lower jaw
0:27:09 > 0:27:12so that the total effect of suddenly baring your jaws
0:27:12 > 0:27:16and spreading out your frill, your fan, your ruff,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19is really altogether quite terrifying.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23He uses it to scare off intruders, just like me,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26but also the two male frilled lizards use it
0:27:26 > 0:27:31when they are battling in competition for a female.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35But although he may look so ferocious, he is not particularly so.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40He doesn't have a poisonous bite. He lives mostly, in fact,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44on flies and small insects and he makes quite a good pet.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48In captivity, he lives on eggs and raw meat.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52He is, I think, one of the most spectacular
0:27:52 > 0:27:54of all the lizards in the world
0:27:54 > 0:27:56but we still haven't seen perhaps
0:27:56 > 0:28:00one of the most extraordinary of his habits.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04And that is, when I let him go, he will run away, no doubt,
0:28:04 > 0:28:08and, if he does, I think that he will probably rear up on his hind legs
0:28:08 > 0:28:14and run on his two back legs rather like a miniature dinosaur.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Anyway, I'm going to let him go now
0:28:17 > 0:28:19and I only hope he shows us how to do it.
0:28:30 > 0:28:31Go on.
0:28:35 > 0:28:36Shoo! Go on.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39Shoo!
0:28:41 > 0:28:42Shoo!
0:28:52 > 0:28:55Surely he must be one of the oddest of all lizards.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58I was glad that, at last, we had found him,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01for without seeing him, our trip through the Northern Territory
0:29:01 > 0:29:04wouldn't have been complete, for me at least.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07DIDGERIDOO PLAYS
0:29:10 > 0:29:13PERCUSSIVE STICKS JOIN IN
0:29:17 > 0:29:20ABORIGINAL CHANTING