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NARRATOR: Africa.
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A land where Nature's deadliest weapons are forged in blood.
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Animals here must kill or die trying.
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Those with the most lethal weapons decide
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Who feeds,
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Who breeds,
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And who lives one more day.
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All weapons are the tools of survival,
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For Africa's Deadliest.
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This is the landscape that shaped man into the planet's
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deadliest hunter,
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A world of heat and drought that hides the largest and deadliest
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killers in Africa beneath its thorny veneer.
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This is South Africa's Kruger National Park,
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...an area renowned for its predators.
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Ironically one of the most dangerous creatures of all isn't
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a hunter.
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It's a deadly herbivore.
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The hippopotamus.
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Only the Nile crocodile rivals the hippo's human death toll.
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The hyper-aggressive grazers come armed with canines the
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length of a forearm, and jaws that can crush a man to death.
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Their deadly trait is a hair-trigger temper.
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Hippos will charge and attack any threat that gets too close.
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They feed on grass, but Kruger's blazing sun scorches
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their sensitive, hairless skin.
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Hippos must spend daylight hours in the water to protect
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themselves from sunstroke.
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But in the dry winter, water is a precious resource.
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Dominant male hippos guard it like gold.
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They'll share their stretch of river with harems of females
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to secure mating rights.
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But they'll fight off any male that invades their space.
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This bull wants in on the dominant male's stretch
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of river.
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They wield their massive canines like daggers to gore
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each others gums.
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The duel stops only when there's a clear winner.
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The loser backs off, sheaths his weapon and blubbers
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his submission.
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He's lucky.
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Battles like this can rage to the death,
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or leave survivors scarred for life.
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When the brutal sun retreats, the hippos finally get to feed.
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Under the cover of darkness, the 3 ton beasts leave the water,
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and head out into the grasslands to graze.
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They have little to fear.
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They're more dangerous than most of the predators that trawl
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this bush. Most, but not all.
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This troop of killers will risk everything to feast on these
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mountains of meat.
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One of Africa's most powerful terrestrial predators.
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Lions.
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A pride of 16 has this bull surrounded.
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They mob him with jaws and claws.
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The hippo can crush a skull with a bite.
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He's as likely to kill a lion as the lions are to kill him.
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The hippo wins this fight.
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Lions live with failure.
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Only three out of 10 hunts result in a kill.
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That's the cost of taking on one of the largest and
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most dangerous species in Africa.
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Daylight brings new opportunities for the most
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ambitious of predators.
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Only lions can tackle full-grown mega herbivores,
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because only lions have the size,
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power and weaponry to kill them.
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Jaws that can pierce through a car tire,
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Retractable claws that fly open like switchblades to slice
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through 2 inch hides,
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And a lightweight skeleton that supports extra muscle mass
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for super-human power,
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These weapons combine to make individual lions one of the most
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powerful predators on dry land.
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Prides up to twenty strong can match Africa's largest
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herbivores pound for pound.
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In addition every pride has a secret weapon that ups the odds
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of success:
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Males.
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At four hundred pounds male lions weigh as much as
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a motorcycle, and body-slam prey like a head-on collision.
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A male's power could have sealed the hippo's fate,
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But their help is never guaranteed.
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Despite their strength, male lions leave most of the hard
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work of hunting to the females.
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The lionesses take feeding the pride into their own hands.
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They set their sights on another deadly giant. A giraffe.
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The towering browser has an elegant gait,
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but its powerful kick can kill a lion.
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The pride must carefully corner their victim.
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Surrounded on all sides, the giraffe has too many targets.
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It can't fend all the lions off at once.
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Every kick could be a deathblow, but the lions risk it.
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They need to pull the giraffe off balance to get it down,
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but they don't have the weight.
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When all hope of a kill seems lost,
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the male lion attacks like a wrecking ball.
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The male lion's weight topples the giraffe at last.
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A kill this size is worth risking lives for.
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It will feed the pride for days.
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The clash of lethal weaponry is not exclusive to the warfare
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of land-based animals.
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These battles began in the deep seas,
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where life first learned to kill.
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The warmest waters on the planet wash Africa's eastern shore:
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The Indian Ocean.
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The creatures that survive beneath its surface have had
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3 billion years to hone their weapons.
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There's intense competition for food, especially on the reefs.
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Down here, prey can escape in three dimensions,
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so predators must perfect the element of surprise.
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To do so, one hunter has evolved to be invisible.
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It looks just like an algae-covered rock.
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The stonefish.
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This master of deception is one of the deadliest fish
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known to man.
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13 spines on its back can deliver a dose of lethal
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neurotoxin that cripples a man with excruciating pain
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in 30 minutes.
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As its name implies, the Stonefish looks just like a rock
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It's rough, scale-less skin is the color and texture of stone.
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To complete the disguise, it secretes a mucous that
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stimulates the growth of algae.
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It can go hours without moving a muscle.
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A school of Glassies is also on the hunt,
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unaware of the killer in their midst.
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Only the hollow of an eyeball betrays its disguise.
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The small fish swim only inches from its jaws,
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oblivious to the danger.
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It all happens in the blink of an eye.
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The stonefish creates a massive vacuum in its mouth,
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which sucks prey up in 15 one thousandths of a second.
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The victim doesn't see it coming.
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The disguise is dropped for only a moment,
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before the killer goes back into hiding.
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The reef is a diverse habitat.
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Every surface is a different color, shape and texture.
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There are an infinite number of holes,
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caves and overhangs for predators to hide in,
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But one animal's disguise is so remarkable;
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it can hide in plain sight.
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The Common Octopus.
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This boneless mollusk can transform its shape,
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texture and size in a flash.
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It literally disappears into the reef.
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Muscles contract pigment-holding cells in its skin,
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initiating a transformation faster than any other
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color-changing animal.
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Its extraordinary brain coordinates split-second changes
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in camouflage based on continuous scans of
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its surroundings.
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It can even assume the texture of the reef below it.
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Thousands of supersensory suckers line its eight muscular
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legs, and feed it a stream of information about the taste and
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texture of the reef.
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It uses the "Intel" to find prey, and plan its attack,
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but that's not all the suckers are good for.
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The suction cups also latch on to prey as the octopus deploys
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its deadliest tool: a toxic snapping beak.
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The beak hides at the center of it body, designed to,
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pierce through hard shells and exoskeletons.
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The octopus needs its weapons for defense too.
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This male has already lost sections of his leg
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to predators.
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But with camouflage and rippling colors,
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he makes it hard for enemies to "lock on" to him.
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If that doesn't work, a decoy will.
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A jet of ink blacks out the enemy's view just long enough
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for a getaway.
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But he's fled from one killer into the lair of another.
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This reef is the territory of another larger male octopus.
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Octopi are willing cannibals. The trespasser is fair game.
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Size decides who leaves these battles alive.
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The landlord's superior bulk seals his victory.
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He envelops his rival in a tomb of skin.
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Webbing between his legs restricts any movement as
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his vicious beak tears the victim apart.
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Because of their high-protein, boneless flesh,
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octopi are a top prey for hundreds of marine predators.
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A thousand miles to the south, lie the cold waters of
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the Atlantic Ocean
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Here, off the beaches of Cape Town is an outcrop of rock that
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octopi approach at their peril.
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Vast, swaying kelp provides rich hunting grounds for octopi,
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But the underwater forests are guarded by a deadly pack of
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predators.
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Cape fur seals.
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Changing colour won't help the octopus escape these enemies.
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The seals see in black and white,
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and their exceptional low-light vision helps them look through
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the octopus' disguise.
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They've locked on to him.
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Discovered by the seals, the octopus' only chance is to cling
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to the rocks for dear life with its powerful suckers.
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The invertebrate puts up a fight,
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but the sheer strength of the seals' tree-trunk necks
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overpower him.
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A last ink jet is his swan song,
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In seconds, there's nothing left of him.
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Once the hunt is over, the killers must surface.
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Seals weren't made to live in the ocean.
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They breathe air, just like humans.
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Seals live in limbo between land and sea.
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Their legs transformed into flippers for swimming,
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but they are awkward and clumsy outside the water.
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Seals must mate and raise their young on land.
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In breeding season up to 75,000 gather on this rock off
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Cape Town: Seal Island.
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In summer, all the females give birth together,
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so the island is flooded with hungry young seals.
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The Moms need to hunt to keep up their milk supply and their pups
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must survive many days without feeding.
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The mothers must find prey on a tight deadline.
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Females often commute up to 60 miles in search of fish.
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The kelp forests are a good place to start.
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Like the reef, the kelp provides habitats and hiding places for a
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host of marine organisms which makes them rich hunting grounds.
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Another fleet of predators has the same idea.
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A colony of African penguins claims a beach on the shores
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of South Africa's Cape coast, not far from seal island.
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They also head out to the kelp forest to fish.
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Individual penguins can swallow more than 100 fish a day.
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To the seals, they're swimming lunch boxes.
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The Cape Fur seals dive deep and hide between the kelp fronds,
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to ambush the penguins scouting for anchovy fish from above.
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The seals capitalize on the penguins' efforts.
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The seal's jaws were built to snap down with extreme force,
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but not to chew.
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It uses a different weapon to tear penguins open:
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its powerful neck.
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The seal shakes the penguin violently to rip open the body
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cavity in a process called "de-gloving".
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All the fish in the penguins belly are spilled and eaten.
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The seals aren't interested in the penguin itself.
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Its shredded carcass is left for the gulls.
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After the hunt the mother seals race back home to feed
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their pups before they die of starvation.
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But the journey is blocked by a deadly gauntlet.
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The waters around seal island are patrolled by the oldest
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super predator in the ocean.
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This is the most feared fish of all time,
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The Great White Shark.
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400 million years of evolution have forged its weapons
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to perfection:
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It has up to 300 teeth in its mouth and every time a tooth is
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lost or broken, another comes forward to replace it.
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Serrated like a steak knife, the teeth close together almost
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perfectly.
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By swinging its head, the shark can literally saw off entire
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limbs from its prey.
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These sharks specialize in killing seals.
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As the seals breathe at the surface,
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The Great White sinks into its ambush position.
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The shark's slate-gray upper body blends perfectly with
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the deep ocean floor.
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It's almost invisible from above.
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A near miss, but the attack sparks a retreat.
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This "gauntlet" is infested with sharks.
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Attacks come from all sides.
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Only a lucky few make it home to feed their young.
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With each victim, the sharks kill two seals: the mother,
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and the pup that will starve without her.
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Not all of Nature's most impressive weapons belong
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to giants.
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Back on the mainland, some of the smallest creatures bear
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the deadliest tools.
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These are the coastal forests of Mozambique.
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Endless heat and humidity spur abundant plant growth.
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The rich vegetation teems with life,
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and killers ready to take it.
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Among them is a snake with the highest human death toll
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in Africa.
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A slug-shaped, heavy body makes it slow but it has one
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of the world's fastest strikes.
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The puff adder.
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This snake's most cunning tool is disguise.
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Nestled in the dry leaf litter, it's rough,
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tawny scales render it all but invisible.
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The puff adder rarely hunts down prey.
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It goes undercover and lets prey come to it.
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Perfectly hidden, it lies in wait,
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ready to draw a deadly set of sabers.
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Fangs, three quarters of an inch long,
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inject a massive dose of venom deep into its victim's tissues.
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The venom dissolves flesh.
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One snake carries enough to kill five grown men.
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And they can catapult forward in one 27th of a second
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to deliver it.
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00:29:24,300 --> 00:29:26,870
Powerful muscles, more specialized than any other
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animal, coil like a spring for a lighting-fast strike.
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Like all snakes, the puff adder must shed its skin as
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its body grows.
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And once its new hide hardens it's time to eat.
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It's picked up the trail of a Mouse.
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The Adder "tastes" the air and ground to track its prey.
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When it's in range, it freezes, and waits.
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The oblivious mouse wanders straight into the strike zone.
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The assault takes a quarter of a second,
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faster than the blink of an eye.
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The force of the impact is so great,
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that the mouse dies almost instantly.
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The toxin begins to dissolve it before it's even swallowed.
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The snake uses its dagger-like fangs to "walk" the victim down
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its throat.
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In Africa lethal weapons are wielded by animals of all sizes.
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From a reptile as small as a ruler,
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to a juggernaut, twice the size of a man!
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When you're the largest terrestrial animal on the planet
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size is your weapon.
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The African Elephant weighs as much as a school bus
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and charges almost as fast.
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The mere sight of an elephant is enough to send smaller animals
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packing.
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Even Africa's top predator gives way to this giant.
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An elephant is armed with more than just bulk.
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Iconic tusks weighing more than 90 pounds each,
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are tools for feeding
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... or weapons for fighting.
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Animals know it's dangerous to hang around a creature with
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the strength to push down a tree and the power to punch
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right through one!
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This stubborn rhino is literally "pushing his luck".
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The juvenile elephant bull does not want company.
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At two tons, the rhino packs a punch,
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but it can't risk being gored.
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Size wins out in the end.
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When combatants are equally matched,
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the results can be deadly.
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African Elephant bulls fight each other for the right to mate
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And aggression levels are further heightened if the bull
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is in Musth.
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During a musth period an elephant is flooded
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with testosterone.
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Temporal glands swell and a strong smelling fluid,
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as sticky as tar, runs down their temples.
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Their swollen glands cause severe pain and send the
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volatile bulls into a state of rage.
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A bull is far more likely to charge when he's in musth.
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Intoxicated by hormones, the elephants' size and tusks are
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weapons of destruction.
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24,000 pounds meet in a head-on collision.
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Today the loser walks away unscathed.
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Many are not so lucky.
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Blunt force and venom aren't the only ways to kill in
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the African bush.
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This high-speed elastic weapon makes this otherwise awkward
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lizard a formidable insect predator.
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The projectile is a suction cup and a shell-crushing set of jaws
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finishes the job.
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Its feet are shaped to grip thin branches,
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and its colour changing skin allows it to mimic the foliage.
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But one member of this bizarre reptile's family has forsaken
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the canopy.
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It thrives in one of the harshest environments in
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the world.
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The Namib Desert.
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Formed roughly 55 million years ago,
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this wilderness is littered with granite boulders and
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scorching sands.
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Yet against all odds, the Namaqua chameleon has evolved
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to survive in this merciless landscape.
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Its colour-changing skin doubles as
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a temperature control system.
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00:37:30,166 --> 00:37:33,496
In the freezing winter mornings, it becomes darker to absorb
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sunlight, but in the blazing heat of the day,
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it goes ash white to reflect it.
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00:37:44,333 --> 00:37:48,533
Or in this case, it does both!
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This desert dweller has no problem with overheating.
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00:37:58,633 --> 00:38:00,733
The Tok Tokkie beetle is a favourite meal for
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the chameleon.
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Specially adapted
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to gallop over sand, the beetle generates its own cooling wind.
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00:38:12,066 --> 00:38:14,666
Despite the chameleon's specially modified toes that
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00:38:14,700 --> 00:38:18,300
spread wide for extra traction, it can't keep up
375
00:38:18,333 --> 00:38:20,903
on the soft sand.
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00:38:43,533 --> 00:38:46,073
Thwarted by this quick-moving Tok Tokkie,
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00:38:46,100 --> 00:38:49,370
the Chameleon changes tactics.
378
00:38:51,667 --> 00:38:54,197
It heads to what little vegetation there is,
379
00:38:54,233 --> 00:38:58,303
and waits for prey to come to it.
380
00:39:08,834 --> 00:39:10,774
Matching its colour to its surroundings,
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the chameleon can afford to be patient.
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Many Tok Tokkies pass this way.
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00:39:22,967 --> 00:39:25,667
No direction is safe.
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00:39:25,700 --> 00:39:29,930
The chameleon really does have eyes in the back of its head.
385
00:39:45,533 --> 00:39:50,733
A short chase and the deadly tongue seals the beetle's fate.
386
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,730
The high-speed organ can pull far larger prey into
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00:40:03,767 --> 00:40:05,827
the chameleon's mighty jaws.
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00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:13,200
Snakes, lizards and poisonous scorpions can fall prey to
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00:40:13,233 --> 00:40:16,503
the Namaqua Chameleon.
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00:40:16,533 --> 00:40:21,203
In Africa's Namib desert hunters can't be picky.
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Even their own kind is fair game.
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In the vast, empty expanse prey is scarce.
393
00:40:42,667 --> 00:40:45,127
There's no love lost between Namaqua chameleons and
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00:40:45,166 --> 00:40:47,166
their young.
395
00:40:50,934 --> 00:40:55,774
An infant is as good a protein source as any.
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00:40:59,500 --> 00:41:03,030
It acts on instinct to survive.
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00:41:27,533 --> 00:41:31,803
Under cover of night, a killer emerges armed with a weapon that
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00:41:31,834 --> 00:41:36,834
can take down a victim more than 6000 times its weight.
399
00:41:39,100 --> 00:41:44,170
The Black thick-tailed Scorpion can kill a full-grown man.
400
00:41:46,166 --> 00:41:49,466
It hides out under soil and rocks in the heat of the day,
401
00:41:49,500 --> 00:41:54,400
and creeps out after dark to trawl the desert for victims.
402
00:41:57,967 --> 00:42:03,897
Most scorpions are "sit-and-wait predators", but not this one.
403
00:42:03,934 --> 00:42:07,934
It makes its own luck by tracking down its prey.
404
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:14,130
Scorpions have an extraordinary set of senses.
405
00:42:16,934 --> 00:42:21,974
8 eyes differentiate little more than light and dark.
406
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:26,530
This animal perceives the world through touch.
407
00:42:28,166 --> 00:42:31,796
Special antennae-like structures called pectines hang underneath
408
00:42:31,834 --> 00:42:35,474
the scorpion's abdomen and constantly feel the ground for
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00:42:35,500 --> 00:42:38,170
traces of prey.
410
00:42:42,367 --> 00:42:44,227
It can lock onto the trail left by a
411
00:42:44,266 --> 00:42:48,926
cockroach in pitch darkness, and hunt it down.
412
00:42:54,900 --> 00:42:58,430
Once it's in range, fine super-sensory hairs detect
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00:42:58,467 --> 00:43:02,567
even the faintest vibrations in the air.
414
00:43:03,900 --> 00:43:08,430
They can literally feel their prey's movements.
415
00:43:14,533 --> 00:43:19,903
Now its most potent weapon comes into play:
416
00:43:19,934 --> 00:43:23,474
a lethal stinger, packed with two sacks of neurotoxic venom so
417
00:43:23,500 --> 00:43:28,500
deadly, it causes human paralysis, convulsions,
418
00:43:31,300 --> 00:43:33,400
and death.
419
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:46,330
The cockroach can't hide.
420
00:43:46,367 --> 00:43:49,567
The Scorpion doesn't need to see it to find it.
421
00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:52,300
There is no escape.
422
00:44:21,367 --> 00:44:24,367
The hunter snatches the victim in its pincers for just long
423
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,530
enough to drive its stinger home between a joint in
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00:44:27,567 --> 00:44:30,797
the cockroach's armor.
425
00:44:34,467 --> 00:44:38,797
The venom starts to liquefy the insect inside its exoskeleton,
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00:44:38,834 --> 00:44:45,074
as the scorpion finds a safe place to drink its meal.
427
00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:52,700
Survival on the African continent is uncertain.
428
00:44:52,734 --> 00:44:55,834
Lethal weapons are wielded by fearsome predators and
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00:44:55,867 --> 00:44:58,527
prey alike.
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00:45:01,533 --> 00:45:07,473
Animals walk a precarious path, here, among Africa's Deadliest.
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00:45:07,523 --> 00:45:12,073
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