In this episode, Steve goes in search of the wildest predators and takes a closer look at what makes them weird.
He goes diving in Dorset to look for some of the sea’s weirdest deadly fish - seahorses. They may be small, but seahorses are incredibly successful hunters, using a devastating super-suction method which hoovers up its prey so fast it’s almost impossible to film. Using the latest CGI technology, we blow this tiny predator up more than a thousand times to get inside its head and discover what makes it so deadly.
One of our favourite deadly predators is the tiger. They are well known for their sharp claws and long canine teeth, but the weird thing about tigers is their colour - how does a bright-orange cat hide from its prey when hunting? To a deer, tigers actually look green, so they are perfectly camouflaged in the forest. Back in the den, Steve puts this deer vision to the test to see just how hard it is to spot a green tiger on the prowl.
Other deadly predators found in the wild across most of the world are spiders. If spiders included humans in their diet, they could consume the entire population of the earth in less than a year. However, most spiders are harmless to us, especially in the UK, where Steve encounters one of the rarest in Britain. The ladybird spider not only mimics the colours of a ladybird beetle, it also decorates its web with the body parts of its victims. The key to the spider’s success is its silk, which Steve puts to the test against steel back at the junkyard. Could this natural wonder material really be stronger than one of the world’s strongest man-made materials?
And finally, how do geckos manage to get to hard-to-reach places and hunt upside down in the wild? They can climb up the slickest surfaces and even run along ceilings, and it’s all down to a combination of their hairy toes and friction. Steve goes head-to-head with a climbing champion to see what a difference friction can make when put to good use, and we set up an experiment using some heavy metal machinery to see just how powerful this force can be. Show less