- [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)