Animal Planet's 'Deadly 60' premiering from 13th Nov'10

Media News

New Delhi, November 11, 2010

Animal Planet, India's only channel dedicated to wildlife brings some of the most celebrated wildlife experts from around the world who have dedicated their lives to animals. In its Masters of the Jungle time band which airs every night, from Monday to Sunday, at 9 PM on Animal Planet brings world renowned experts to share their knowledge and experiences with the viewers.

Introducing Steve Backshall, new wildlife expert, Animal Planet travels with him across six continents for six months to find his "hit list" of the 60 most lethal animals on Earth. In this premiere series DEADLY 60, Steve proves that when it comes to the battle for survival, size is of no importance. On a mission to find the creatures others spend a lifetime avoiding, Backshall encounters animals that pack a mighty punch in their own environments.

The 20-part series DEADLY 60 will air every Friday at 9 pm starting November 13 on Animal Planet's Masters of the Jungle time band.

Is it size, speed, aggression or the efficiency with which it kills its prey? Does an animal have to be a predator to be among the world's most deadly creatures? From the infamous to the unexpected, this deadly global adventure Steve Backshall searches oceans, savannahs, deserts, mountains, islands and jungles to seek out 60 of the most fascinating - and deadly - creatures in the world.

Travelling across India, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Europe, United Kingdom, South America and North America, Backshall encounters a host of animals whose unique appearances and masterful hunting skills make them awesome beasts of prey.

From tiger sharks to giant centipedes, funnel web spiders to the golden poison frog; Steve Backshall's latest adventure is a race against time to find the most DEADLY 60 creatures.

Take the hippopotamus - this friendly looking animal kills more humans than anything else in South Africa. Despite its stocky shape and short legs, the hippopotamus can easily outrun a human - it's been clocked at 48 k.p.h.

What about the cuttlefish? Despite the name, cuttlefish belong to the mollusc group, and are among the most intelligent invertebrate species. Possessing three hearts and blue-green coloured blood, they can change colour in a fast-flashing pattern, acting as a deadly weapon of camouflage sneaking up on their prey.

Pushing four tonnes of pressure through every square centimeter of tooth, the great white shark proves to be worthy of a place on Backshall's DEADLY 60 list, and a remarkable glimpse of fish eagles grappling their prey underwater illustrates their predatory prowess.

From smaller predators such as red back spiders and giant venomous centepedes, to larger specimens, including salt water crocodiles and great white sharks; Steve's journey proves that when it comes to the battle for survival, size is of no importance.

From all corners of the globe, Backshall's unique list of creatures have one thing in common...they're all deadly! Animal Planet's DEADLY 60 proves that - animal or human - no one is safe.

Episode Synopses

Programme 1: South Africa

In South Africa, Steve Backshall sets off, with his crew in tow, in search of all the animals that most Africans spend as much time as possible avoiding. This high-adrenalin series very nearly gets off to the worst possible start due to an unplanned run-in with an angry hippo which causes utter chaos and comes within a whisker of attacking Steve.

Shaken but undaunted, Steve next wants to know which local snake is the deadliest: the black mamba, the rock python or the rhinkal? Viewers may at this stage think that Steve has a death wish as he and local snake man Donald Strydom jump into a snake pit full of some of the contenders. Then it's a night under the stars camping in the bush on the hunt for giant spiders and a scorpion that can spray its venom in your face!

Programme 2: South Africa

When a Nile Crocodile attacks a local six-year-old girl in her own swimming pool, Steve makes it his mission to investigate whether these ancient reptiles truly deserve their deadly reputation. In true Steve style, there is a lot of climbing and a certain amount of falling involved as he pits himself against the soaring Fish Eagle in a power dive competition to catch a fish. Will Steve be able to mimic the eagle's masterful skills? Finally, he's hot on the trail of Africa's most elusive large predator, the Hunting Dog. Searching the bush by foot, by jeep and by air for this rare creature gives him the opportunity to see just how good the hunting dogs are.

Programme 3: South Africa

Trying to find Great White sharks on an inflatable boat in a storm is probably not everyone's idea of fun, but then Steve Backshall isnt just anyone. However, the rough weather of the Southern Cape plays havoc with his plans, confining him and his team to shore. Instead, a trip inland to an animal sanctuary provides Steve with a selection of fearsome species to add to his list. The Guinness Book Of Records describes the Ratel (or Honey Badger) as the world's most fearless animal, and Steve discovers that the creature richly deserves its title when he takes Buster hunting and is terrorised by a small animal that has been known to drive lions off their prey. A beautiful caracal also stakes her claim to be on the list by demonstrating razor-sharp credentials on the softer parts of Steve's anatomy. Like all big cats, she has superb night vision and can run short distances at speed. But the caracal's special move is its leap - it can jump up to three metres, catching birds taking flight. Bandaged but undeterred, Steve resumes his quest to come face to face with the ocean's most terrifying shark. The rough weather takes its toll on some of the crew, but the hardship proves worthwhile when they experience an incredibly close encounter with some two-tonne killing machines.

Programme 4: Australia

Steve Backshall and his crew head for the Australian continent as he continues his mission to find the world's 60 most deadly creatures. Perth is home to one of Australia's deadliest snakes, the Tiger Snake and a surprise is in store as these snakes live right alongside the visitors to the city's local park. With their unique way of catching their supper, pelicans also prove to be worthy of a place on Steve's Deadly 60 list, and a magical dive with Bottlenose Dolphins illustrates what incredible predators they are.

Programme 5: Australia

Dragons, aliens, stinging trees and vampires are some of the unusual flora and fauna featuring in the latest edition of the adventure-filled natural history series. Steve Backshall is in Australia, home to some of the deadliest creatures on Earth. After a visit to the cane fields to find an alien species of toad that has become a real nuisance, Steve rushes to a vet to seek out the creature which, each year, hospitalises a host of animals and children. He has to use a magnifying camera, though, to see the venomous blood-sucking paralysis tic, which is the size of a pin head. Steve finds his second candidate, the venomous, tail-smacking monitor lizard, on the forest floor.

This impressive 4x4 of the lizard world is at home on all terrains and can hold its breath for an hour. Last, but by no means least, Steve is on the hunt for an eight-legged predator - a deadly spider known as the red back in Australia but referred to as the black widow in the United States. These clever creatures' three-dimensional webs are perfect death traps. Knowing that red backs hospitalize 600 people a year does not deter Steve from bravely handling one to prove that they only bite when cornered.

Programme 6: Australia

Steve Backshall takes his quest to track down the 60 most lethal animals on Earth to the chilly seas of South Australia. First up is the nippy yellow-fin tuna, which can reach speeds of 70 kilometres per hour and can accelerate faster than a sports car. Setting out to discover just what makes this fish such a perfect speed machine and formidable predator, Steve hangs from a speed boat to discover the secrets of hydrodynamics. But he also discovers exactly why yellow-fin tuna don't wear swimming trunks. Next, Steve travels up the coast to seek out the highly secretive duck-billed platypus. Extremely rare, and with highly venomous spines, this extraordinary creature is such a good hunter it can do it with its eyes shut. But Steve will need to have his eyes wide open to actually find one. Finally, after a close encounter with a poisonous trap-door spider and some aggressive jack jumper ants, Steve dives to the bottom of the ocean for a face-to-face encounter with the chameleons of the sea - giant cuttlefish. Swimming with thousands of these masters of disguise, Steve discovers just how these devious predators deploy a host of tactics to sneak up on their predators.

Programme 6: Australia

Steve Backshall embarks on some nocturnal adventures in the northern territories of Australia to seek out things that go bump in the night, and also to capture a TV first, in this episode. He begins his nighttime encounters on a riverside excursion with a group of rangers to trap a large salt-water crocodile, which is the largest of all the crocodilian species. Nicknamed Mr Stinky, this crocodile's injuries have prevented him from hunting properly - leading him to seek scraps from the river-bank and get rather too close to the local fishermen. The team catches their culprit, but it is only when they get him back to shore that Steve is able to see the full magnitude of this huge prehistoric predator and the risk this mighty animal posed to the public. Next up is a spine-chilling ghost hunt down an abandoned gold mine. In what is thought to be a television first, Steve and his team head deep into the bowels of the mine to capture the elusive ghost bat on film in the wild. Filming in the dark, surrounded by cockroaches and other creepy crawlies, the crew catch sight of the pale, spectre-like creatures. These incredible, white bats have translucent wings and huge fangs and are capable of causing harm to a wide range of prey, making them a prime candidate for Steve's Deadly 60 list.

Steve Backshall meets one of the planet's ultimate killers, the saltwater crocodile, as the Deadly 60 team lands in Australia's Northern Territories. A rogue croc is terrorising local fisherman, so Steve decides to lend the Park Rangers a hand in catching and relocating this prehistoric monster. Next, Steve heads deep into an abandoned mine on a ghost hunt. He is on the search for Ghost bats, awesome creatures with huge fangs that drop onto their prey out of the night sky. Scary stuff, and a first for the Deadly 60 team as these bats have never been filmed in the wild before.

Programme 8: India

The latest leg of Steve Backshall's natural history odyssey takes him to Asia and, hot on his hit list of the Deadly 60, are examples of a lethal snake, a mammal and an insect.

It is estimated that between 20,000 to 50,000 people die in India each year from snake bites and the king cobra and saw-scaled viper are among the main culprits. Neither animal kills humans in order to eat them but are simply defending their territory in a heavily populated country. Steve has to decide which lethal critter should go on his list.

Although the next candidate may look cute, it certainly is not cuddly. Sloth bears' powerful jaws and huge claws, coupled with a highly unpredictable nature make them mean killing machines that kill more people in India than tigers. Steve and his cameraman pluck up the courage to enter the enclosure with some rescued bears at a sanctuary.

Finally, Steve is on the trail of a lethal insect that has had a martial art form named after it. He joins a class for some praying mantis kung fu to see why the lightning-fast insects have such deadly fighting skills. There are more than 800 different species of mantis, each one a master of camouflage, and Steve has to look really hard to seek out some of the multitude of varieties from the insect world's equivalent to the Great White shark.

Programme 9: India

Steve Backshall continues his odyssey in India, this time on the hunt for two large and endangered predators to add to his Deadly 60 list. It is thought that there are only 200 breeding pairs of gharials left in the wild. These ancient reptiles have been on the planet since the time of dinosaurs. They are one of the largest reptiles and the fastest breed of crocodile in the water. Steve gets to hold a baby gharial and finds out why they are so successful at fishing. Next up is a hunt for the largest of the big cats, the Bengal tiger, which can grow to over three metres in length. Driving in the jeep it is not long before the crew has an extremely close encounter when they get in the way of some of the parks' larger residents. After a very long wait, and after hunting high and low, Steve and his crew are finally rewarded, especially Johnny the cameraman, who gets to see exactly why the Bengal tiger is no pussy-cat.

Programme 10: Borneo

Steve Backshall heads to Borneo, where he descends into deep depths to discover millions of bats and a mass of creepy crawlies to add to his Deadly 60 list. The Gomantong caves are one of the world's largest cave systems. They support a large range of wildlife that live high up in the cave's ceiling and deep down on the cave floor.

First on Steve's list is the wrinkle-lipped bat. It is estimated that around two million of these insect-eating machines are housed in the caves. These winged mammals can eat their own body weight in insects every night and Steve bravely demonstrates the clever design of the bats' talons by seeing how long he can hold onto a wire, dangled 30m up in the air. As well as the bats, the caves also house hordes of swifts. Together, the birds and bats have created a gigantic pile of guano. This towering heap of animal faeces is home to a seething mass of cockroaches, but it is not these hardy critters that Steve is after but the Scutaraga centipede which feeds on them. This venomous long-legged insect is a creepy crawly that manages to spook even Steve. Next, it is a welcome return to the jungle for Steve and his crew as they go in search of the world's longest snake, the reticulated python.

Programme 11: Borneo

Steve Backshall plunges into a piscatorial paradise in the Pacific Ocean around Borneo, hunting for three underwater creatures on his Deadly 60 list. Steve and his team delve deep for the mantis shrimp and capture a TV first; the Deadly 60 team is believed to be the first to have captured these amazing ambush predators on film in the wild. Just like its insect namesake, the mantis shrimp uses its claws to impale its prey with lethal accuracy. Steve also encounters an abundance of scorpions, crocodiles, frogs, bats and lions - all breeds of fish with similar qualities to their namesakes. He also witnesses the lion fish's accurate ability to snap its prey; with its speed and venomous spines it becomes an obvious contender for the Deadly 60 list. Finally, Steve and his team are covered by a deep, dark, cloud underwater and find themselves immersed within a dazzling vortex display of chevron barracuda. These sleek, streamlined fish are superfast, hunt as a pack and have razor-sharp teeth.

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Nupur Bhardwaj

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