- No one has ever documented the vicious sting
of the panda ant until today.
Whew.
Ah, it's biting me.
Ah, ant's stinging me.
Deep in the mountains of Chile,
there is an insect so rare and so elusive
that its sting is completely undocumented by science,
and that sting belongs to the panda ant,
and today we're going to try to make history
by being the first to find this panda ant,
capture it on video, then of course,
I will take on the sting of the panda an in a world's first.
This is gonna be like looking for a fuzzy needle
in a giant wilderness haystack.
It's time to get searching.
Now this won't be your average hike.
Only a few panda ants have been found in the wild
so we're going to have to search
this entire mountain range
to even have a chance at finding it.
Okay, this looks promising.
This open area has a lot of sandy, loose material,
which is perfect for the panda ant
because it likes to make burrows
and it also allows us to cover a lot of ground fast.
Covering ground, that is the name of the game
when you're looking for very, very small creatures.
The more ground your eyes can scan, the more likely it is
you'll find what you're looking for.
We're hearing water down below
and the desert water is life.
Let's try our luck in a different environment.
Found the water.
Ah, it looks so good.
If you were ever stuck out here in the desert,
this water would be absolutely lifesaving
and perfectly fine to drink running this fast.
A little bouldering.
Just seeing water is a boost of energy.
Ah! I feel so good.
It's good that we're seeing these flowers.
Panda ants feed on a diet predominantly of nectar,
so these flowers, good indication we have a food source.
There's definitely more life down by this river.
Finally feels like we're starting to close in
on the panda ant.
Seeing these smaller wasps,
that makes me feel really positive.
Think the trail's heating up.
I'm starting to see yellow jackets.
Good sign for us right now.
This is the insect watering hole.
So look at that one.
See that one is chasing the others off.
It's got like a panda-like abdomen.
You seeing this?
(camera shutter clicking)
The male panda ants have wings.
Let's keep moving.
Have to be getting close.
Oh, whoa, look at all these.
Just got to this trail and there are all these burrows.
I can't say whether or not these are definitively
panda ant burrows, but they're the right size
and right shape and in the right place.
Finally, feels like we're starting
to close in on the panda ant.
Panda ant right there.
(dramatic music)
Ha ha ho!
Woo!
We got one!
Holy.
We were literally just about to give up.
It's not a big one, but that is a panda ant, baby.
Let's go, yes!
Ha!
Got one.
But our luck wouldn't end there.
As we prepped our presentation and captured
the first-ever video of this fuzzy little panda,
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That's great, now back to the panda ant.
Got another one.
Hold on, hold on.
Get in there, get in there, go.
They're so fast.
So fast, this one's kind of small.
Don't wanna get stung.
Uh-uh, not yet, anyway.
(dramatic music)
Yes, two panda ants!
Holy cow.
And this one really looks like a panda.
Wow.
Not one, but two panda ants.
This is such a rare opportunity
to film this world-famous creature.
There is almost no footage of this species.
In fact, this is likely the first 4K footage
the world has seen of the panda ant,
the world's smallest panda.
(inspiring orchestral music)
The first thing I noticed about these creatures
were their size.
They are teeny tiny.
Look at the little capsules
that we had to bring with us for this presentation.
But not only are they small, they are fast.
I cannot believe we actually were able
to get them into the containers.
It's not likely that we're gonna be able
to get very much B-roll of them walking around.
All it would take is a small little hole
or crack in the ground and they are poof, gone.
They got their name the panda ant
because of that black and white fuzzy exoskeleton,
which of course I keep calling them ant,
but they're not an ant at all.
They are a species of wasp
and the wingless ones are actually females.
The males of this species have wings
but the females do not possess wings,
but what they do possess is the largest stinger
to body size ratio of any insect in the world.
They're related to the cow killer
found in the Southern United States,
another species famous for its massive stinger
and painful sting.
Both have fuzzy exoskeletons
and are classified as velvet ants.
However, unlike the cow killer,
the effects of the panda ant venom are completely unknown.
And with that, it's time to take a closer look
at their defense mechanisms.
They don't just look like pandas for our amusement.
They've developed this coloration
to ward off predators to say, "Hey, I pack a punch.
I have a lot of defenses and you will regret it."
Now let's talk about another defense mechanism.
Let's bring the microphone in there real close.
You hear that?
(pant ant squeaking)
That's called stridulation,
which is a high frequency warning pitch
that these insects are able to emit.
And we're not just boosting the sound,
this insect's actually noisy, I can hear it.
Look at that.
Swinging the abdomen already.
Might get to see an appearance of that,
oh, that stinger's coming out!
Compared to body size, that is a super long stinger.
It will have no problem popping a stinger through my skin.
Now remember when I said earlier
this is probably the first 4K footage of a panda ant.
Let me also tell you,
this is about to be the first-ever documented sting
of this species.
No one has taken the sting of the panda ant.
Going into the sting zone with the panda ant
is truly the great unknown.
I have no idea what kind of reaction I'm going to have,
so we brought a couple of emergency remedies.
Of course, our satellite phone.
If I go into any kind of anaphylactic shock,
we will use this for emergency distress calls.
In addition to that, I always bring a first aid trauma kit,
and in this trauma kit I always have a EpiPen.
That's pretty much our only remedies
if this sting gets really bad.
For the first time ever,
it's time to go flesh-to-stinger with the panda ant.
That stinger is flying.
That is a very big stinger.
I would say the stinger is the entire length
of the lower abdomen.
All right, it is time.
I'm Mark Vins and I'm about to enter the sting zone
with the panda ant.
Here we go to the great unknown of the world of stings.
One, whew,
two,
three.
(dramatic music)
(heartbeat thumping)
Ah, yep, stinger's in.
Stinger's in.
Oh, I dropped her.
Where'd she go?
- [Director] I don't see her.
- Definitely stung me.
- [Director] Maybe under the log?
- Yep, let me see.
They're so fast.
They blend in perfectly.
She can't have gotten far.
Look around.
- [Director] I'm gonna look over here.
- All right, yeah, yeah, keep looking, keep looking.
Oh no! Oh!
Well,
unfortunately, I dropped the ant.
She definitely gave me a sting
before hightailing it outta here.
We've got two distinct sting marks.
I would say it's probably similar to that of a hornet,
but luckily for us, we have one more ant.
In fact, this is the one that looks most like a panda,
so it's time to see if the world's smallest panda
packs a potent punch.
Gotta get a good grip.
I know it looks easy, but it is so hard
to get a good grip on these tiny little panda ants.
There we go.
Okay, stinger's going.
One, whew,
two,
three.
Ah, ooh, yeah, okay.
Definitely took a really good sting and a bite.
See this panda's jaws locked into me?
I think this panda ant's bite is worse than its sting.
Definitely getting little micro stings
This tiny panda ant just might not be big enough
to deliver a full punch.
Okay, well, you can see here I got two really good stings
from the ant that got away.
And then I probably have, I don't know,
like a dozen little micro stings.
I left it there for a while,
but there was one or two really good ones.
Oh my God, there it is.
Got it.
We just found the first panda ant.
Wow, I cannot believe it.
What am I supposed to do with you?
You ran away and now you're back.
Should we try to get like another wallop?
All right, well, gonna go for another sting.
I don't know if I got a full one
that first time around.
On three one,
two,
three.
Ah, yep, got me.
Ah, biting me
and stinging me.
Got a good one there.
Okay, yeah, all right.
Really not a remarkable sting,
even though we're getting a lot of redness
and little micro swelling around those sting sites,
this might've been the world's cutest sting.
The sting of the tiny panda ant is no match for its growl.
All right, let's let this little panda back into the wild.
While the paint was manageable right after the sting,
the secondary reaction roared back the next day
where I had redness, swelling, and a relentless itch.
So while the panda ant might be cute,
the sting of this tiny insect should definitely be avoided.
(dramatic music)