Deadly 60 - Series Two - Baja California, Mexico

Steve Backshall and his long-suffering crew return for a brand-new series of deadly encounters with animals hoping to earn a place on his hallowed Deadly 60 list. Steve travels to the deadliest desert on the planet, the Baja peninsula in Mexico, where he goes searching for a gruesome savage killer in the form of a tarantula hawk wasp. This predator lays an egg in its tarantula prey, which hatches into a maggot, which then eats the spider from the inside - while it's still alive! It is the biggest wasp in the world and has a paralysing sting which makes even Steve nervous - that doesn't stop him handling it though. The desert of Baja, Mexico is serpent central and Steve has the time of his life catching snakes. These include a cape water snake, and a coachwhip snake that catches Steve unaware and lands a cheeky bite on his hand. He then embarks on a regular rattlesnake round-up, clocking up encounters with the venomous red diamond and Baja rattlesnakes before an encounter with a speckled rattlesnake tops off the best snake-hunting day Steve has ever had in his life. Steve also takes to water in the Sea of Cortez in search of a monster of the deep seas. Known locally as the Red Devil, legend talks of its ability to snatch fishermen from their boats before tearing them to shreds - it is the Humboldt Squid. Snatching fishermen is probably a little far-fetched, but Steve takes no chances and wears chain mail to protect him from the squid's razor-sharp beak and its 16 thousand sucker cup teeth. Incidental finds which don't make it onto his list are a mole lizard which looks like one of the oddest creatures on the planet and a torchlit walk in the local vicinity which reveals he and his crew are literally surround by scorpions.