Original subtitles

[growl]

NARRATOR: A brutal way of life

where every day is a test to survive...

and staying on top means being the fastest...

- biggest... - [growling]

smartest...

or the most powerful.

[roaring]

These are the best equipped.

These are...

♪

- In sub- - Saharan Africa,

snakes strike a million people every year.

[hiss]

20,000 fatally.

♪

[hiss]

Their venom attacks nervous systems,

liquefies tissue, and causes massive internal bleeding.

♪

[hiss]

And this striking lady, mean and muscular,

needs no venom at all.

A South African rock python.

She glides across the savanna like the angel of death.

She can go for months without food,

but today she feels like having a bite.

♪

A chemical trail smells like opportunity.

Big opportunity.

Both forks of her tongue point in one direction:

impala lambs.

She's the only snake here with the chops to tackle one.

♪

As long as a car and at nearly 200 pounds,

she's one of Africa's heaviest snakes.

[hissing]

Her powerful jaws house

90-odd razor-sharp, backwardly curving teeth.

The impalas hang together, making an ambush difficult.

The python bides her time and times her strike.

♪

She accelerates at 30 times the force of gravity,

three times more than a fighter pilot can handle before passing out.

♪

[impala barks]

Her prize, an adult female, nearly half her weight.

♪

Her vise-like muscles squeeze the life out

before she opens her cavernous maw and begins to swallow.

Incredibly flexible tendons,

muscles and ligaments in her jaw

help it go down whole.

It'll take hours.

As night closes in, so does competition.

She may be the largest snake around...

[hyena whoops]

but she's no match for spotted hyenas.

[whoop]

One of the most tenacious and powerful predators in Africa.

Caught with her mouth full, she can't flee or fight.

♪

[yelp]

♪

[hissing]

She may look imposing, but she's not a fighter.

[yipping]

The hyenas find their way in.

And her meal is gone,

leaving the python to reset her coiled trap.

As day breaks, she reveals another superpower.

All snakes swim, but the rock python can stay under

for several minutes.

Undetected as she hunts.

[hiss]

Her coils cut off the duck's blood supply

with heart-stopping force.

♪

Curved, hacksaw teeth hook into her meal

as she walks her jaws up and over it.

In about two weeks,

enzymes will turn it into a protein soup,

except for the feathers, which she regurgitates.

♪

The dry season in Africa.

Greens fade to brown,

an ambush hunter's favorite color.

Big cats aren't the only ones

pulling off the disappearing act.

The puff adder.

He does nothing in a hurry.

Except strike.

From zero to deadly in a quarter of a second,

arguably the fastest striking snake in the world.

♪

A snake's wispy tongue is useless for drinking.

And he can't tip his head back to swallow.

New research suggests tiny folds in his skin

draw water to his mouth like a sponge.

His powerful muscles then squeeze the water

down to his stomach.

Like every snake,

the puff adder's an excellent swimmer.

♪

This big guy has outgrown his skin

and needs a safe place to shed.

He's at his most vulnerable.

He uses a log to rip his old skin,

then peels himself like a banana.

♪

In his shiny, new flexible skin, he's ready to hunt.

Snakes don't have visible ears.

His jawbones transfer the faintest ground vibrations

to his inner ears.

His forked tongue smells in stereo,

detecting where his next meal is coming from.

In ambush position, he just has to wait.

Perfectly still.

Perfectly lethal.

♪

Prey can't see him or even smell him.

He has no scent.

♪

♪

Timing is everything.

When a puff adder strikes, he seldom strikes out.

♪

A dose of cytotoxic venom liquefies tissue,

slowly turning his dinner into a smoothie from the inside.

♪

He stows his half-inch-plus fangs against the roof of his mouth

as he swallows his meal whole.

♪

But he's not the nastiest snake on the savanna.

This gal is.

A snouted cobra.

One of the largest cobras in Africa eats other snakes,

and her favorite meal is puff adder.

♪

The snouted cobra plays a killer game of hide-and-seek...

prying under logs and other hiding spots...

like the adder's cozy crevice.

♪

Lying still won't help him this time,

but his lack of scent will.

The cobra's flickering tongue can't detect him.

It's a close call.

The adder flees with an un-adder-like burst of speed.

♪

Besides her search-and-destroy strategy,

the snouted cobra has another trick up her scaly sleeve.

By rearing up 18 inches

and spreading the ribs along her neck, she strikes fear.

It's mostly for show, and to look for food.

She'd rather flee than fight.

But for sheer terror, none can touch this prince of darkness.

The black mamba.

Armed with one of nature's fastest-acting venoms,

he can kill a man in 20 minutes.

His size, speed, and unpredictability

make him one of the deadliest

and most feared snakes in the world.

He even has a coffin-shaped head.

At over 14 feet long,

he is easily the largest venomous snake in Africa.

And if you think fleeing will save you, think carefully.

At 12 miles per hour, he's Africa's fastest snake.

Finding out firsthand

why this steel gray snake is called a black mamba

may be the last thing you do.

The inside of his mouth, black as a crypt,

warns any who get too close.

♪

[grumbling]

His neurotoxic venom can kill 40 men with a single bite.

It paralyzes the nervous system,

leaving victims gasping for air

as their lungs and heart shut down.

[trumpets]

Even elephants tread lightly.

[grumbling]

[roars]

And this matriarch takes no chances with her calves.

By raising his front third off the ground,

he can reach chest height,

and deliver multiple rapid-fire strikes.

More strikes means more venom.

[trumpeting]

[bellows]

Like all snakes, he'll usually use venom

as a last line of defense.

But that doesn't mean he won't use it.

♪

A rat caught in his way doesn't stay there for long.

♪

[squeak]

One bite, and it's dead in seconds.

Humans don't fare much better.

Without immediate treatment,

100% of black mamba bites kill their human victims.

♪

While the mere sight of the mamba strikes terror,

this next snake won't give you that opportunity...

♪

because most of the time, you'll never see it coming.

♪

The Gaboon viper--

pretty if you notice her,

pretty deadly if you don't.

♪

Her thumb-long fangs are world record size.

They inject a venom that's heart-stoppingly terrifying--

literally.

The Gaboon viper.

It's cytotoxic to destroy tissue,

neurotoxic to paralyze the nerves,

and if that's not enough, it's also hemotoxic,

causing internal bleeding.

A deadly trifecta delivered in double the dose of a mamba.

♪

The neurotoxins specifically attack the heart

while the other toxins liquefy the victim's guts.

It's the most painful bite of any venomous snake.

♪

[hissing, squeaking]

The snake follows the trail of her prey until it succumbs.

Thankfully, they rarely bite humans.

They prefer small mammals and a quiet life.

♪

The same can't be said

for one of her notoriously dangerous neighbors.

The Mozambique spitting cobra has an extra arrow

in his toxic quiver...

which he deploys with deadly accuracy.

♪

[hiss]

Unlike most snakes, his venom canals point forward

and at right angles to his fangs.

He can suddenly blast a blinding stream of venom

into his enemy's eyes, from more than six feet.

The cytotoxic venom, unusual for African cobras,

dissolves skin and muscle tissue

with excruciating effectiveness.

And even though this shy snake attacks only when crossed,

he gets crossed pretty frequently,

because Mozambique spitting cobras

like to hang out where people dwell.

In some areas, they bite 94% of their victims inside houses,

80% in their sleep.

♪

Only one creature dares to face off against the spitting cobra.

[squeaking]

♪

[squeaking]

They may be fluffy on the outside,

but where snakes are concerned,

banded mongooses are about as cuddly as a bear trap.

They're agile, have razor-sharp teeth, thick coats,

and a resistance to snake venom.

♪

They surround the cobra as they close in for the kill.

But the Mozambique spitting cobra isn't finished.

The mongooses circle closer.

The cobra deploys his chemical weapon.

[hiss]

Fast-footed mongooses can dodge a strike,

but an eyeful of toxic and painful venom

sends them packing.

♪

As cobras go, the Mozambique spitting cobra is a runt

at three feet long.

In the emerald green forests of East Africa

slithers its cousin, a giant.

♪

A forest cobra-- at nearly 10 feet long,

the largest of all African cobras.

She's a streamlined assassin,

shimmying through the trees, the water, or on the ground,

executing most of her missions at night or on overcast days.

♪

She's smart as snakes go.

And with her hollow fangs filled with neurotoxic venom,

the resident rodents don't stand a chance.

♪

Mostly, she enjoys seclusion, away from human activity.

She's one of many snakes that lurk unnoticed

in these forests.

♪

The shy, mainly arboreal boomslang

hunts mostly in the tall tree canopy.

The boomslang has the most potent venom

of any snake in Africa.

One drop, almost too small to see, can kill a person.

♪

With superior vision,

she searches for her prey's subtlest movement.

The boomslang dons superb camouflage,

nearly as effective as its relative, the vine snake.

There's no antivenom for this serpent.

Masquerading as flaking bark

and moving like a swaying branch,

the vine snake hardly ever needs to touch the ground.

♪

These sharp-eyed, tree-dwelling snakes

hunt equally elusive prey.

♪

The boomslang tracks that master of disguise,

the chameleon.

The vine snake trains his binocular vision on a skink.

♪

Both these snakes wield

blood cell-busting hemotoxic venom.

The victim bleeds to death from the inside.

Their prey can try to hide, but these snake eyes don't miss.

♪

Even with super-powered camouflage and eyes on the back of his head,

the chameleon can't rest easy.

♪

His disappearing act hasn't fooled the boomslang,

which he can't outrun.

♪

The slo-mo chameleon takes a leap of faith.

♪

The vine snake takes a more calculated approach

to nab a fast-moving skink.

He mimics a branch and slowly moves in.

♪

He must chew down on his prey

so the small fangs at the back his mouth can deliver the venom.

Fortunately, they seldom tangle with humans.

These tree-dwelling snakes live or die by their sharp vision.

While on the savannas of Central and West Africa

slinks a serpent with a sixth sense,

the royal python.

Legend has it, this elegant snake,

only around four feet long,

once coiled around the wrists and necks

of the bravest African kings as living jewelry.

Also known as the ball python,

she may be the smallest python in Africa,

but she's not to be messed with.

Almost finished molting, she's getting hungry.

She smells rodent...

until the trail dies at the water's edge.

♪

But that and her relatively poor vision won't slow her down.

♪

Adult royal pythons mainly eat warm-blooded animals.

A series of pits below her nostrils track her prey

like a stealthy heat-seeking missile.

♪

♪

There's nothing like a warm meal.

♪

In the sand sea of Namibia's western quarter,

surviving the 115-degree ground temperatures

takes a different skillset.

♪

The Peringuey's adder whiplashes across the dunes.

♪

With no cover for miles around,

his hunting attempt will take an unexpected twist.

Practically invisible, infinitely patient,

the Peringuey's adder waits.

A shovel-snouted lizard scurries into range.

♪

And to get cool, unwittingly burrows

directly under the adder where the snake can't get him.

The snake will have to wait for other less-buried treasure.

As night falls,

a Palmato gecko patrols the dunes for tasty grubs.

Target acquired...

for the adder.

His tail is a built-in lure, enticing bait on a deadly hook.

♪

As the sun begins to climb,

Welwitschia plants become oases for a bustling community.

Out here, every square inch of shade

could mean the difference between life and death.

♪

Being small has its advantages.

♪

A horned adder could also mean

the difference between life and death.

Only 10 inches long, but her cytotoxic venom packs a punch.

♪

The moment the sun loses its sting, she resumes her mission.

Horned adders vary in color depending on where they live.

♪

Along with her stealth,

the adder's invisibility cloak works like magic.

♪

This coral snake's colors scream, "Keep away!"

♪

And as she moves, her pattern confuses predators' vision.

This cobra relative usually emerges after dark.

But today she's on the trail

of something worth getting up early for.

She relies mostly on her sense of smell to track her prey.

Like most snakes, her vision's tuned to pick out movement.

♪

If prey can freeze, it stands a fighting chance.

♪

But that takes nerves of steel.

♪

When the gecko tries to flee,

it's back on the coral snake's radar.

Detaching its tail to distract the snake doesn't work.

♪

One neurotoxic bite, and it's game over for the gecko.

An equally deadly game of hide-and-seek plays out

in the arid Kalahari region.

♪

South Africa's Cape cobra,

the continent's most potent cobra,

pays a not-so-social call on a nest of sociable weavers.

[chirping]

Lean and hungry, she can lay waste to entire colonies of chicks.

She's equally unpleasant in the grass.

Drawn to villages to hunt rats and mice,

the Cape cobra kills more people

than any other snake in southern Africa.

She will stand her ground rather than flee.

And with venom as toxic as a mamba's, she means business.

She's mainly a daytime hunter,

but at nightfall she beats the heat.

And right now she tastes a new target.

♪

♪

She has a superb sense of smell.

♪

Minute scent particles picked up by her forked tongue

are transferred to a supersensory organ

on the roof of her mouth.

♪

[heart beating]

[heart beating faster]

♪

She rules the night.

Like snakes across Africa,

she lies in wait for her moment to kill.

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