Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan - 2013

Dom travels from the snake-infested rice paddies of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to a crocodile filled lake in search of one of the world’s most dangerous aquatic insects – the giant water bug.

Dom journeys to Laos in search of a remote underground river that is home to a venomous, massive-fanged creature the size of a dinner plate – the Giant Huntsmen Spider – an arachnid so rare that only a few humans have ever interacted with it in the wild.

Dom braves the remote wilderness of Namibia while on the hunt for Africa's largest, deadliest scorpion - parabuthus villosus, commonly known as the black hairy thick-tailed scorpion. This beast can not only kill a human but also spray its venom up to a metre. Dom's journey to find the scorpion takes him into spectacular desert scenery. Dom’s journey takes him into spectacular desert scenery, as he hikes up rugged mountain trails and across vast sand seas. On the way he survives a violent thunderstorm and flash floods; treads in the footprints of dinosaurs; and encounters a rock monitor, a meercat dining on a scorpion, a solifuge, a whip snake, and the lethally venomous horned adder. Dom also gets to meet an amazing array of different scorpions, including, eventually, the nastiest of the lot.

Dominic starts his adventure in Venezuela, South America, searching for a cave rumoured to house Scolopendra gigantea, which is one of the world's largest centipedes. He finds himself abseiling into a toxic cave and hiking through a snake-infested jungle, encountering a false chameleon, a sloth, a deadly neotropical rattlesnake and a tarantula just to get there.

In an attempt to locate one of the most rare animals on the planet - the giant white Goliath beetle - Dom must infiltrate the black market insect trade in Cameroon. Travelling around the country, Dom gradually works his way down the network of middlemen and hunters, until he finally discovers the man who will lead him to the beetle.

Dom travels deep into the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon to face off with a four million-strong colony of flesh-eating, venom injecting army ants – a terrifying mass of insects that may be the largest ant colony ever discovered in the New World. En route through the jungle Dom also comes face to face with leaf cutter ants, an enormous rhinoceros beetle, a green parrot snake and a highly venomous Brazilian wandering spider. Once he finally tracks down a colony of army ants, he follows them on a raid, and watches spellbound as they attack and devour the creatures in their path, including a scorpion, a nest of paper wasps and a katydid. But will Dom have the courage to let the ants attack him?

Dom faces his greatest fear when he must get up close and personal with hundreds of thousands of giant Malaysian honey bees – a formidable insect that lives in hives hundreds of feet above the jungle floor.

Dom travels to Guatemala and immerses himself in the rich world of Mayan legend and lore as he seeks out one of the most endangered and venomous reptiles on the planet – the Guatemalan beaded lizard.