- [Coyote] Things are
about to get dangerous. Wow! Okay, you can
already see the venom coming off the
tips of the fangs. (animal roaring) (dramatic drum music) - Established in 1948, the Australian Reptile
Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is regarded as one
of the country's premiere animal attractions. Considered a hands-on
learning facility, they are home to
a countless number of animal species,
including Tasmanian Devils, and even one incredibly
friendly Komodo Dragon. While their animal
attractions have made them a world renowned place to visit, it is actually their commitment to saving human
lives that brings the crew and I knocking
at their laboratory door. (knocking)
- [Female] Come in. - Hi.
- [Kane] Hey, how you doin'? - You must Kane.
- [Kane] That's correct. - Hi Kane, I am Coyote. I'll let you finish what playing with whatever you're
playin' with there. What is that? - Just feeding a
little Redback Spider. - Oh, love that, okay cool. We did an episode on Redbacks, but I brought you something
a little more intimidating. I'm pretty sure we have a
Sydney funnel-web spider. - Excellent, my favorite. Let me have a look. - Yeah, take a look. - [Kane] Check it out.
- [Coyote] I know there are various different species, but we caught that
one last night. - [Kane] Local to this area? - [Coyote] Yes, about
30 minutes from here. - [Kane] Excellent.
- [Coyote] Ooh, look how big it is.
- [Kane] Yep, it is a very large specimen
you've brought me. I'm very happy with that. It is a Sydney funnel-web. That's the good news. It is definitely a
Sydney funnel-web. - Is it a male? That's the big question. - It is not.
- Oh! Not a male! So, this is not the venom gold that you guys are searching for? - No, it is the males. We use their venom to
make the anti-venom. This is a female. - Okay, I was really hoping that we were gonna get to
milk a spider today. Now, do you guys milk
the females for anything? - Yeah, we do. We definitely--
- Oh, you do? - Milk the females, yeah. - Can we milk this spider? - We can definitely
milk this spider. - Great, so the venom does still have a value of some sort? - It definitely does. We send the venom
away for different research laboratories
to look into the venom. - Oh, sweet, okay. Well, we're still gonna
get to milk a spider, and that's exactly
what we wanted. Now, can I actually
milk the spider? - I will definitely let
you milk that spider. - Ah, that's cool. Okay, well why don't we do this? Do you have another spider that you can show me how to milk it? I don't know, a
different species, or something like that. I don't really trust myself tryin' to milk it
for the first time. - You know,
funnel-webs, they love to defend themselves vigorously, so if you do touch one, as you might find out, they will stand up, they will defend themselves. - [Coyote] Is this a male? - [Kane] This is
a female as well. This is a younger female. - [Coyote] Okay,
wow, a lot smaller. - [Kane] A lot smaller. - So, what's the big difference, for anybody out there watching, between the males
and the females. Cause I'm looking at
this, I'm thinking, okay, with tarantulas,
the females are always girthier and
heavier than the males. I guess that's the same
way with the funnel-webs. If I were to look at that, I would think, okay,
that's definitely male as compared to this. - Yeah, now, the large
abdomen at the back is definitely one way to tell. The abdomen size
compared to the head size is one way to tell the female, and the thicker legs. So, the smaller of the
two would be the male. - Correct me if I'm wrong, but it is the male that
has the most potent venom and the one that is
extremely dangerous. - Definitely. - But a bite from a female? This wouldn't have actually
killed me last night? - Most likely wouldn't kill you, unless you're
unhealthy or something, it's not going to do you
a whole lot of damage. But, we have to treat every bite as a potentially
life-threatening bite. - Okay, so getting into milking. How does this process work? Mark, you got an
okay shot there? - [Mark] Yep. - So, what will happen, we got a little
vacuum hose going down to a little pump down there. We don't want to have
too much suction, and suck the whole spider in, but just touching them, you can see, that's them. You can actually see
the drops of venom on the tips of the fangs. That's what we want. We want to get that venom from those fangs
into the pipette. When she stands up, you can see she's very,
very aggressive there, pushing in some venom. We just draw the pipette down the tips of the fangs. They are hollow, just
like a hypodermic syringe, and by drawing that down as
she's producing that venom, we're just sucking it up into the tip of this pipette. - [Coyote] Now, how
many of the males do you need to
milk before you get an actual vial of venom you can build an anti-venom from? - [Kane] We look at having about 250 to 400 males
in any one year, that we will have to milk every single day,
right through the year, to keep up with the
quota we need to give to the Commonwealth
Serum Laboratories. - [Coyote] In your
opinion, would you say this is the most dangerous
spider in the world? - Definitely, definitely. You really do not want to
get bitten by one of these. The good thing we
have in Australia, is the reptile park
produces the venom to make the anti-venom. Since the anti-venom
came out in 1981, we've had no deaths attributed
to a funnel-web spider bite. - [Coyote] Really?
- [Kane] So it was very good. - Okay, so the
research is working. The anti-venom is working, but how many people
would you say are bitten every year, because this is an
extremely common species that's found in suburban areas. - Definitely, we
have a lot of people and a lot of conflict with the funnel-web spiders in the area. There's about five
people every year that require a serious
amount of anti-venom. There are also bites that
do present at the hospital that don't have a
severe envenomation, and they may not
require anti-venom. It's always a last resort, the anti-venom, if you can. - Okay, now the spider
that we caught last night is a female, and fortunately, I was not bitten, but if I was, what would I have wanted
to do in that instance? - First thing you want to do
is a full compression bandage on the area you've been bitten. If that was on your hand, any bracelets, rings,
watches, jewelry, has to come off straight away. Cause it will swell.
- This would have been problematic.
- Definitely take it off. It will swell up, straight away. - Let's say I was bitten
on the tip of my finger. - Basically, what we're
gonna go with a bite, is you wanna go around the
bite site first of all. These bandages are great. They're gonna tell us the
correct tension to put it on. When they form a square, we know they're going
the right tension to restrict the flow of venom. You go around the bite site, and then what you're gonna do, because it's at the fingertip, we're gonna go the whole limb. We don't stop at the wrist. We don't stop at the elbow. We go as far up as the
bandage will allow. Now that pressure, you can
feel that's pretty tight. - Oh yeah, I feel like a mummy. - What the idea is,
is it's restricting the flow of that
venom going through your lymphatic system. We wanna restrict that flow, and hopefully the venom will neutralize itself down here, and not right through your body. Once you've got that on there, you're gonna stay still. If you've got a button up shirt, or a sling, you put that on, and you want to get to hospital as soon as possible. Calling an ambulance, or
getting someone to drive you. You don't want to try and drive a vehicle yourself
while you are bitten. - Yeah, I can
certainly feel that it is providing quite a
bit of pressure to my arm. Now, like I said, cause we
all know I was not bitten, but here's the million
dollar question, have you ever been bitten? - I've never been bitten
by any spiders, luckily. - Really?
- No, no spiders. - Wow, so you're extra careful when you're working
with the spiders? - Definitely have
to be extra careful working with those ones.
- Yeah, well, when we were filming last night,
I tell you what, I was nervous to be
around that spider. This is good to know, I mean, it sounds like this is something that everybody
should have in their first aid kit here in Australia. - Definitely in Australia. Venomous snakes around
the world differ. In different areas,
you wouldn't. In Australia, where
there are lapids, this same bandage will work on any of our venomous snakes, as well as our
funnel-web spiders. - All right, well, let's
take this off my arm. I've seen you milk a spider. I think if you guys are ready, I am ready to milk the Sydney funnel-web. Does that sound good to you? - [Kane] That sounds great. I'll put this little one away. - [Coyote] Things are
about to get dangerous. Oh boy, here we go. I'm just gonna
gently coax her out. Ooh, there she is. That is one big funnel-web
spider right there. All right, I am going
to reach over here to grab the pipette. It's comin' off of its clip. There we go. Oh wow, look at that. Wow, okay, you can
already see the venom coming off the
tips of the fangs. What Kane said is
I actually want to just kind of turn
her a little bit. - [Kane] If you touch her
back leg on this side, she'll turn and
face the pipette. - [Coyote] Goin' in
with the pipette. Okay, my hand is shaking. Gently taking that venom off the edge of the fangs. Wow, there we go. Okay, there's definitely venom, there inside the pipette. I'm gonna get her to
rear up a second time, and she will just
keep producing venom, right Kane?
- Yeah, that's correct. Even once you've got her up, ply the other legs up, a gentle blow right
towards those fangs will sometimes get her to
push some more out for you. - [Coyote] There we go. (dramatic music) - [Kane] That's it. Just draw down the fangs, yeah. - [Coyote] Ooh, just
bit the pipette. You can feel the
power in that strike. Okay, I think that's all
the venom she has to give. You know, it's not
as much as I thought was gonna come out of there. I can see why you
guys have to milk so many of these spiders
to build up a vial to create that anti-venom. - [Kane] Yeah, exactly. It's not as much
as you're gonna get from one of our venomous
snakes in Australia, but it does show you
how potent it is. It's only a little amount
that does a lot of damage. - Okay, now what do I
want to do with this? - Just pipette back
safely over here. - Okay, I'll hand that to you. - I'll take that for you. - I'm gonna just put
this little capsule back over her,
for safety's sake. - Excellent.
- There you go. Ooh, that was nerve-wracking, and you do this
every day, don't you? - Every day, love it. - Wow, well this was so cool. Thank you so much
for letting me milk-- - Not a problem at all--
- funnel-web spider. - Appreciate it.
- Now it wasn't a male. It was only a female, but that doesn't matter. The venom is still of value. Now, for everybody
out there watching, if you come across
one of these spiders, try to safely catch it, and bring it here to
Australian Reptile Park, cause this is the
only place that-- - Milks funnel-webs
for the production of anti-venom in Australia. - That's right guys, so
if you bring one here, there is the chance that
you're gonna save a life. I'm Coyote Peterson,
be brave, stay wild. We'll see you on
the next adventure. The Australian Reptile
Park is the only sanctuary of its
type in Australia, that has a spider and
snake venom milking program The good news is that
their anti-venom creation has been saving
thousands of lives for over 50 years. If you encounter a
snake or a spider while exploring in Australia, and admire the animal
from a safe distance, your odds of being
bitten are very unlikely. However, unexpected
bites do occur, and if you find yourself in
this worst case scenario, make sure to stay calm, and seek medical
treatment immediately. If you thought milking
a funnel-web spider was nerve-wracking,
make sure to go back and watch the episode
where we caught this infamous arachnid, and got it up close
for the cameras. And don't forget, subscribe so
you can join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail. And just for scale,
look at how big that spider is next to my hand. (animal noises)
