Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Africa.

A land where Nature's deadliest weapons are forged in blood.

Animals here must kill or die trying.

Those with the most lethal weapons decide

Who feeds,

Who breeds,

And who lives one more day.

All weapons are the tools of survival,

For Africa's Deadliest.

This is the landscape that shaped man into the planet's

deadliest hunter,

A world of heat and drought that hides the largest and deadliest

killers in Africa beneath its thorny veneer.

This is South Africa's Kruger National Park,

...an area renowned for its predators.

Ironically one of the most dangerous creatures of all isn't

a hunter.

It's a deadly herbivore.

The hippopotamus.

Only the Nile crocodile rivals the hippo's human death toll.

The hyper-aggressive grazers come armed with canines the

length of a forearm, and jaws that can crush a man to death.

Their deadly trait is a hair-trigger temper.

Hippos will charge and attack any threat that gets too close.

They feed on grass, but Kruger's blazing sun scorches

their sensitive, hairless skin.

Hippos must spend daylight hours in the water to protect

themselves from sunstroke.

But in the dry winter, water is a precious resource.

Dominant male hippos guard it like gold.

They'll share their stretch of river with harems of females

to secure mating rights.

But they'll fight off any male that invades their space.

This bull wants in on the dominant male's stretch

of river.

They wield their massive canines like daggers to gore

each others gums.

The duel stops only when there's a clear winner.

The loser backs off, sheaths his weapon and blubbers

his submission.

He's lucky.

Battles like this can rage to the death,

or leave survivors scarred for life.

When the brutal sun retreats, the hippos finally get to feed.

Under the cover of darkness, the 3 ton beasts leave the water,

and head out into the grasslands to graze.

They have little to fear.

They're more dangerous than most of the predators that trawl

this bush. Most, but not all.

This troop of killers will risk everything to feast on these

mountains of meat.

One of Africa's most powerful terrestrial predators.

Lions.

A pride of 16 has this bull surrounded.

They mob him with jaws and claws.

The hippo can crush a skull with a bite.

He's as likely to kill a lion as the lions are to kill him.

The hippo wins this fight.

Lions live with failure.

Only three out of 10 hunts result in a kill.

That's the cost of taking on one of the largest and

most dangerous species in Africa.

Daylight brings new opportunities for the most

ambitious of predators.

Only lions can tackle full-grown mega herbivores,

because only lions have the size,

power and weaponry to kill them.

Jaws that can pierce through a car tire,

Retractable claws that fly open like switchblades to slice

through 2 inch hides,

And a lightweight skeleton that supports extra muscle mass

for super-human power,

These weapons combine to make individual lions one of the most

powerful predators on dry land.

Prides up to twenty strong can match Africa's largest

herbivores pound for pound.

In addition every pride has a secret weapon that ups the odds

of success:

Males.

At four hundred pounds male lions weigh as much as

a motorcycle, and body-slam prey like a head-on collision.

A male's power could have sealed the hippo's fate,

But their help is never guaranteed.

Despite their strength, male lions leave most of the hard

work of hunting to the females.

The lionesses take feeding the pride into their own hands.

They set their sights on another deadly giant. A giraffe.

The towering browser has an elegant gait,

but its powerful kick can kill a lion.

The pride must carefully corner their victim.

Surrounded on all sides, the giraffe has too many targets.

It can't fend all the lions off at once.

Every kick could be a deathblow, but the lions risk it.

They need to pull the giraffe off balance to get it down,

but they don't have the weight.

When all hope of a kill seems lost,

the male lion attacks like a wrecking ball.

The male lion's weight topples the giraffe at last.

A kill this size is worth risking lives for.

It will feed the pride for days.

The clash of lethal weaponry is not exclusive to the warfare

of land-based animals.

These battles began in the deep seas,

where life first learned to kill.

The warmest waters on the planet wash Africa's eastern shore:

The Indian Ocean.

The creatures that survive beneath its surface have had

3 billion years to hone their weapons.

There's intense competition for food, especially on the reefs.

Down here, prey can escape in three dimensions,

so predators must perfect the element of surprise.

To do so, one hunter has evolved to be invisible.

It looks just like an algae-covered rock.

The stonefish.

This master of deception is one of the deadliest fish

known to man.

13 spines on its back can deliver a dose of lethal

neurotoxin that cripples a man with excruciating pain

in 30 minutes.

As its name implies, the Stonefish looks just like a rock

It's rough, scale-less skin is the color and texture of stone.

To complete the disguise, it secretes a mucous that

stimulates the growth of algae.

It can go hours without moving a muscle.

A school of Glassies is also on the hunt,

unaware of the killer in their midst.

Only the hollow of an eyeball betrays its disguise.

The small fish swim only inches from its jaws,

oblivious to the danger.

It all happens in the blink of an eye.

The stonefish creates a massive vacuum in its mouth,

which sucks prey up in 15 one thousandths of a second.

The victim doesn't see it coming.

The disguise is dropped for only a moment,

before the killer goes back into hiding.

The reef is a diverse habitat.

Every surface is a different color, shape and texture.

There are an infinite number of holes,

caves and overhangs for predators to hide in,

But one animal's disguise is so remarkable;

it can hide in plain sight.

The Common Octopus.

This boneless mollusk can transform its shape,

texture and size in a flash.

It literally disappears into the reef.

Muscles contract pigment-holding cells in its skin,

initiating a transformation faster than any other

color-changing animal.

Its extraordinary brain coordinates split-second changes

in camouflage based on continuous scans of

its surroundings.

It can even assume the texture of the reef below it.

Thousands of supersensory suckers line its eight muscular

legs, and feed it a stream of information about the taste and

texture of the reef.

It uses the "Intel" to find prey, and plan its attack,

but that's not all the suckers are good for.

The suction cups also latch on to prey as the octopus deploys

its deadliest tool: a toxic snapping beak.

The beak hides at the center of it body, designed to,

pierce through hard shells and exoskeletons.

The octopus needs its weapons for defense too.

This male has already lost sections of his leg

to predators.

But with camouflage and rippling colors,

he makes it hard for enemies to "lock on" to him.

If that doesn't work, a decoy will.

A jet of ink blacks out the enemy's view just long enough

for a getaway.

But he's fled from one killer into the lair of another.

This reef is the territory of another larger male octopus.

Octopi are willing cannibals. The trespasser is fair game.

Size decides who leaves these battles alive.

The landlord's superior bulk seals his victory.

He envelops his rival in a tomb of skin.

Webbing between his legs restricts any movement as

his vicious beak tears the victim apart.

Because of their high-protein, boneless flesh,

octopi are a top prey for hundreds of marine predators.

A thousand miles to the south, lie the cold waters of

the Atlantic Ocean

Here, off the beaches of Cape Town is an outcrop of rock that

octopi approach at their peril.

Vast, swaying kelp provides rich hunting grounds for octopi,

But the underwater forests are guarded by a deadly pack of

predators.

Cape fur seals.

Changing colour won't help the octopus escape these enemies.

The seals see in black and white,

and their exceptional low-light vision helps them look through

the octopus' disguise.

They've locked on to him.

Discovered by the seals, the octopus' only chance is to cling

to the rocks for dear life with its powerful suckers.

The invertebrate puts up a fight,

but the sheer strength of the seals' tree-trunk necks

overpower him.

A last ink jet is his swan song,

In seconds, there's nothing left of him.

Once the hunt is over, the killers must surface.

Seals weren't made to live in the ocean.

They breathe air, just like humans.

Seals live in limbo between land and sea.

Their legs transformed into flippers for swimming,

but they are awkward and clumsy outside the water.

Seals must mate and raise their young on land.

In breeding season up to 75,000 gather on this rock off

Cape Town: Seal Island.

In summer, all the females give birth together,

so the island is flooded with hungry young seals.

The Moms need to hunt to keep up their milk supply and their pups

must survive many days without feeding.

The mothers must find prey on a tight deadline.

Females often commute up to 60 miles in search of fish.

The kelp forests are a good place to start.

Like the reef, the kelp provides habitats and hiding places for a

host of marine organisms which makes them rich hunting grounds.

Another fleet of predators has the same idea.

A colony of African penguins claims a beach on the shores

of South Africa's Cape coast, not far from seal island.

They also head out to the kelp forest to fish.

Individual penguins can swallow more than 100 fish a day.

To the seals, they're swimming lunch boxes.

The Cape Fur seals dive deep and hide between the kelp fronds,

to ambush the penguins scouting for anchovy fish from above.

The seals capitalize on the penguins' efforts.

The seal's jaws were built to snap down with extreme force,

but not to chew.

It uses a different weapon to tear penguins open:

its powerful neck.

The seal shakes the penguin violently to rip open the body

cavity in a process called "de-gloving".

All the fish in the penguins belly are spilled and eaten.

The seals aren't interested in the penguin itself.

Its shredded carcass is left for the gulls.

After the hunt the mother seals race back home to feed

their pups before they die of starvation.

But the journey is blocked by a deadly gauntlet.

The waters around seal island are patrolled by the oldest

super predator in the ocean.

This is the most feared fish of all time,

The Great White Shark.

400 million years of evolution have forged its weapons

to perfection:

It has up to 300 teeth in its mouth and every time a tooth is

lost or broken, another comes forward to replace it.

Serrated like a steak knife, the teeth close together almost

perfectly.

By swinging its head, the shark can literally saw off entire

limbs from its prey.

These sharks specialize in killing seals.

As the seals breathe at the surface,

The Great White sinks into its ambush position.

The shark's slate-gray upper body blends perfectly with

the deep ocean floor.

It's almost invisible from above.

A near miss, but the attack sparks a retreat.

This "gauntlet" is infested with sharks.

Attacks come from all sides.

Only a lucky few make it home to feed their young.

With each victim, the sharks kill two seals: the mother,

and the pup that will starve without her.

Not all of Nature's most impressive weapons belong

to giants.

Back on the mainland, some of the smallest creatures bear

the deadliest tools.

These are the coastal forests of Mozambique.

Endless heat and humidity spur abundant plant growth.

The rich vegetation teems with life,

and killers ready to take it.

Among them is a snake with the highest human death toll

in Africa.

A slug-shaped, heavy body makes it slow but it has one

of the world's fastest strikes.

The puff adder.

This snake's most cunning tool is disguise.

Nestled in the dry leaf litter, it's rough,

tawny scales render it all but invisible.

The puff adder rarely hunts down prey.

It goes undercover and lets prey come to it.

Perfectly hidden, it lies in wait,

ready to draw a deadly set of sabers.

Fangs, three quarters of an inch long,

inject a massive dose of venom deep into its victim's tissues.

The venom dissolves flesh.

One snake carries enough to kill five grown men.

And they can catapult forward in one 27th of a second

to deliver it.

Powerful muscles, more specialized than any other

animal, coil like a spring for a lighting-fast strike.

Like all snakes, the puff adder must shed its skin as

its body grows.

And once its new hide hardens it's time to eat.

It's picked up the trail of a Mouse.

The Adder "tastes" the air and ground to track its prey.

When it's in range, it freezes, and waits.

The oblivious mouse wanders straight into the strike zone.

The assault takes a quarter of a second,

faster than the blink of an eye.

The force of the impact is so great,

that the mouse dies almost instantly.

The toxin begins to dissolve it before it's even swallowed.

The snake uses its dagger-like fangs to "walk" the victim down

its throat.

In Africa lethal weapons are wielded by animals of all sizes.

From a reptile as small as a ruler,

to a juggernaut, twice the size of a man!

When you're the largest terrestrial animal on the planet

size is your weapon.

The African Elephant weighs as much as a school bus

and charges almost as fast.

The mere sight of an elephant is enough to send smaller animals

packing.

Even Africa's top predator gives way to this giant.

An elephant is armed with more than just bulk.

Iconic tusks weighing more than 90 pounds each,

are tools for feeding

... or weapons for fighting.

Animals know it's dangerous to hang around a creature with

the strength to push down a tree and the power to punch

right through one!

This stubborn rhino is literally "pushing his luck".

The juvenile elephant bull does not want company.

At two tons, the rhino packs a punch,

but it can't risk being gored.

Size wins out in the end.

When combatants are equally matched,

the results can be deadly.

African Elephant bulls fight each other for the right to mate

And aggression levels are further heightened if the bull

is in Musth.

During a musth period an elephant is flooded

with testosterone.

Temporal glands swell and a strong smelling fluid,

as sticky as tar, runs down their temples.

Their swollen glands cause severe pain and send the

volatile bulls into a state of rage.

A bull is far more likely to charge when he's in musth.

Intoxicated by hormones, the elephants' size and tusks are

weapons of destruction.

24,000 pounds meet in a head-on collision.

Today the loser walks away unscathed.

Many are not so lucky.

Blunt force and venom aren't the only ways to kill in

the African bush.

This high-speed elastic weapon makes this otherwise awkward

lizard a formidable insect predator.

The projectile is a suction cup and a shell-crushing set of jaws

finishes the job.

Its feet are shaped to grip thin branches,

and its colour changing skin allows it to mimic the foliage.

But one member of this bizarre reptile's family has forsaken

the canopy.

It thrives in one of the harshest environments in

the world.

The Namib Desert.

Formed roughly 55 million years ago,

this wilderness is littered with granite boulders and

scorching sands.

Yet against all odds, the Namaqua chameleon has evolved

to survive in this merciless landscape.

Its colour-changing skin doubles as

a temperature control system.

In the freezing winter mornings, it becomes darker to absorb

sunlight, but in the blazing heat of the day,

it goes ash white to reflect it.

Or in this case, it does both!

This desert dweller has no problem with overheating.

The Tok Tokkie beetle is a favourite meal for

the chameleon.

Specially adapted

to gallop over sand, the beetle generates its own cooling wind.

Despite the chameleon's specially modified toes that

spread wide for extra traction, it can't keep up

on the soft sand.

Thwarted by this quick-moving Tok Tokkie,

the Chameleon changes tactics.

It heads to what little vegetation there is,

and waits for prey to come to it.

Matching its colour to its surroundings,

the chameleon can afford to be patient.

Many Tok Tokkies pass this way.

No direction is safe.

The chameleon really does have eyes in the back of its head.

A short chase and the deadly tongue seals the beetle's fate.

The high-speed organ can pull far larger prey into

the chameleon's mighty jaws.

Snakes, lizards and poisonous scorpions can fall prey to

the Namaqua Chameleon.

In Africa's Namib desert hunters can't be picky.

Even their own kind is fair game.

In the vast, empty expanse prey is scarce.

There's no love lost between Namaqua chameleons and

their young.

An infant is as good a protein source as any.

It acts on instinct to survive.

Under cover of night, a killer emerges armed with a weapon that

can take down a victim more than 6000 times its weight.

The Black thick-tailed Scorpion can kill a full-grown man.

It hides out under soil and rocks in the heat of the day,

and creeps out after dark to trawl the desert for victims.

Most scorpions are "sit-and-wait predators", but not this one.

It makes its own luck by tracking down its prey.

Scorpions have an extraordinary set of senses.

8 eyes differentiate little more than light and dark.

This animal perceives the world through touch.

Special antennae-like structures called pectines hang underneath

the scorpion's abdomen and constantly feel the ground for

traces of prey.

It can lock onto the trail left by a

cockroach in pitch darkness, and hunt it down.

Once it's in range, fine super-sensory hairs detect

even the faintest vibrations in the air.

They can literally feel their prey's movements.

Now its most potent weapon comes into play:

a lethal stinger, packed with two sacks of neurotoxic venom so

deadly, it causes human paralysis, convulsions,

and death.

The cockroach can't hide.

The Scorpion doesn't need to see it to find it.

There is no escape.

The hunter snatches the victim in its pincers for just long

enough to drive its stinger home between a joint in

the cockroach's armor.

The venom starts to liquefy the insect inside its exoskeleton,

as the scorpion finds a safe place to drink its meal.

Survival on the African continent is uncertain.

Lethal weapons are wielded by fearsome predators and

prey alike.

Animals walk a precarious path, here, among Africa's Deadliest.

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