Austin Stevens: Snakemaster
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Austin Stevens: Snakemaster also known as Austin Stevens: Most Dangerous and Austin Stevens Adventures (five version) in some countries is a regular airing nature series hosted by Austin Stevens that is broadcasted on Animal Planet and five.
[edit] Story
Austin Stevens is a South-African wildlife photographer who is on assignement to find and photograph snakes. During each episode, he searches extensively for a certain snake, and also encounters other snakes along the way. Each episode ends with him finding his snake and photographing.
[edit] List of episodes
As of now, there are 15 episodes(one sometimes considered a different show), and one two-hour special. The episodes are renamed in the five version, Austin Stevens Adventures.
Episode 1: In Search of The Man-Eating Python
Austin Stevens goes to Borneo to find the Reticulated Python. On his way he encounters a Sea Krait, Soft Shelled Turtle, which bites off part of his boot, a Mangrove Snake, a Cave Racer and a few more animals. He finds traces of snake skin and looks near a stream and finds a pattern of a snake that he pulls out. He thought it was a small one but then finds that the snake is about 22 feet long. He was about to get a picture when his camera flash broke and the snake lunged at him. He tries to pick up the snake and gets constricted in the waist. He does get the snake to let go though and gets a few photos without the flash. He was about to leave when the snake suddenly lunged at his arm (this part was removed from the actual episode but was aired in the 2-hour special "Most Striking Moments"). Fortunately the snake lets go because its jaw was locked on Stevens's pants and by feeling the tension, managed to let go.
Episode 2: In Search of The Giant Lizard
Austin Stevens is now in Australia to find the Perentie Lizard. In this episode he doesn't encounter many snakes but encounters many lizards such as the Frill-necked Lizard, and a Pregnant Thorny Devil. After having no luck he tries to get a kangaroo carcass from the road to lure perenties out of their burrows. While he is sleeping, the perentie(s) eat the carcass. He still tries to continue the search. After 37 days, he finds a perentie sprinting, he jumps off his motorbike to catch it and after getting thrashed by the tail, gets some photographs.
Episode 3: In Search of Monster Rattlers
Austin Stevens is in the Florida Panhandle in search of the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake and finds many other reptiles such as the Copperhead, Alligator Snapping Turtle, Cottonmouth, and a few others. His boat breaks down and he goes to a harbour to repair it and says that fishermen have seen rattlers on the small islands off the coast. He jumps off his boat to catch a giant rattlesnake in the water. He tells people how the snake had lost most of its rattle. He gets a few pictures of the snake. He then tries to show people the fangs of the snake by "milking" the venom.
Episode 4: In Search of The Ultimate Pit Viper
Austin Stevens is in the forests of Costa Rica to look for a large Terciopelo or Lancehead viper. On his way he finds a Cribo, a Eyelash Viper, a Jumping viper, a Mussurana and a few others. He rescues a sea snake from being stuck on land. He also found a vine snake, but they had to cut the footage due to time constraints. After hearing Capuchin Monkeys call over something he finds a giant viper and takes photos of it.
Episode 5: In Search of Rattlers of the West
Austin Stevens is in the deserts of the southwestern United States to search for the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. This time he is looking for groups of these snakes gathered in caves. The problem is that he's claustrophobic. He finds a Black-Tailed rattlesnake, a Kingsnake, a Gila Monster and others. When he found the Gila Monster, he fed the lizard an egg and tickles the lizard commenting "he's not a monster, he's the cutest thing I've ever seen!" He goes into a cave and sees at least 20 western diamondback rattlers and goes out of the cave. But then he goes back into the cave to get some pictures, although in some interviews he claimed to have had a camera already inside. Later on, he tries to see if the legend about giant western diamondbacks in the tall cliffs are true, but he loses his camera while climbing up a cliff (the camera is replaced with the exact same model and lens for most subsequent episodes). He finally finds a 7-foot rattlesnake, which he first thought was a male, but later finds out that it was a female. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to photograph the snake.
Episode 6: The Valley of the Snakes
Stevens is in Australia once again to look for the Amethystine python, the largest snake in Australia. He goes to the "Valley of the Snakes" to look for the snake. He finds many snakes in his journey such as a coastal Taipan in a burning crop, a Water Python, a King Brown Snake and a few other snakes. A storm is forcasted and he must act fast in order to get the snake. He goes to the valley where he finds lots of snakes, but they get scared by the storm. Fortunately, he finds one in a tree and takes a few shots of it.
Episode 7: In Search of The Giant Anaconda
This episode tells of Steven's search for the Green Anaconda, which he is looking for in the Amazon Rainforest. He takes the river boat El Arca down the Amazon River and finds many species of snakes including a Boa Constrictor, Amazon tree boa, Tiger Rat Snake, Fer-de-lance, and a few more. He then finds a baby anaconda. Unsatisfied, he goes down the smaller Rio Ampiyacu River to look for any bigger snakes. He still doesn't find it, so he goes into the even smaller Yaguasyacu river. When he was walking near the river he saw a giant snake and then jumps for it. He was then fighting against the snake and struggling to not drown. Time-slicing effects start to be used in the film, giving the viewers a 3D view of the action. Then, he brings the snake on land and takes several pictures of it.
Episode 8: In Search of The King Cobra
This episode tells of the King Cobra, which Stevens goes to India to look for. On his way he finds a Indian Python, which he calls an "Indian Tiger Python", a Russell's Viper, an Indian Cobra, and many others. Just when he was about to give up he sees a large cobra in the distance and then gets closer to find it to be 14 feet long [1]. He then says that he wants to touch the back of the snake's head, which he does often with cobras. He says he can often let the cobra concentrate on one hand while touching the back of the snake's head. He does touch the snake's head, but he hadn't fooled the snake, because it knew exactly what he was going to do. It actually saw his hand coming down and lowered its head. But fortunately, Stevens manages to touch its head. He repeated this several times with the same snake as shown in a picture from his book The Last Snakeman. There is some questioning which event came first because in Most Striking Moments he seems to show the head-touching after taking pictures.
Although the photographs used during the episodes were actually video footage stills, Steven's actual photo of the snake has been used in the Guinness World Records of 2008.
Episode 9: Seven Deadly Strikes (sometimes considered a different show)
In this episode Stevens goes from one end of Africa to the other in search of 7 different snakes. He rates each snake out of ten in three categories, Speed, Venom, and Strike. The snakes are:
7. Peringuey's adder, got a minor (possibly dry) bite
6. Rinkhals Spitting cobra, which spits at him with venom.
5. Puff adder, "milks venom" and gives it water with a sprayer. He then gets photographs of it drinking the water (ones in the show are stills).
4. Snouted Cobra - He first finds a baby cobra, but says that he wants to look for a bigger one. He later finds a large 8-foot cobra and the snake suddenly strikes and bites him on the finger.
3. Boomslang - which he claims is the most venomous snake in the world
2. Gaboon viper
1. Black Mamba,it's regarded as the fastest snake in the world.
Episode 10: In Search of The Silent Fate
This is an episode when Stevens finds a giant Bushmaster in the Amazon. He finds many snakes including a Fer-de-lance, a baby False Lancehead, and several Frogs. Along the way a tree falls on much of his equipment. He then finds a baby Tapir that remained strangely tame and no mother tapir was in sight. He then finds a tribe of native people and the let him stay. They are the people who own the tapir, which is their pet. They then let him try out eating a grub. Later, with a bunch of native hunters with him, he finds a giant Bushmaster. He then takes pictures which were not shown until the credits.
Episode 11: In Search of Desert Giants
Stevens is in his own country, Namibia, to look for Desert Elephants. He does find a few snakes and a Monitor lizard with a broken limb who he names "Rocky". With the help of an airplane pilot named Graham, finds a herd of elephants with calves.
Episode 12: The Snake That Killed Cleopatra
In this episode he looks for the mystery snake said to kill Cleopatra. He found a mystery papyrus he takes to the American University in Cairo in Cairo, Egypt where it is examined by Dr. Salima Ikram. It is revealed it is a guide to help treat snakebites and the species found in Egypt such as the Egyptian Cobra, Horned Viper, Sand Snake, Red Spitting cobra, Puff Adder and a few others. He finds all snakes found in the papyrus except for the Red Spitting cobra (he finds a Nubian Spitting cobra instead) . After studying the venom effects he finds that the Egyptian Cobra is the most likely candidate. He goes to find it and finds two of them he takes pictures which were never shown.
Episode 13: In Search of The Komodo Dragon
Stevens is looking for Komodo Dragons on the island of Komodo. What he specifically wants to look for are males fighting for a mate. He hade upgraded his camera from a Canon EOS 50e (Elan IIe) to an EOS Digital Rebel XT. He finds many "Dragons" as he calls them, and a few other animals. Then he finds two males fighting and takes pictures of it.
Episode 14: In Search of The Flying Snake
Stevens is looking for a Golden Tree Snake, a snake that is known to glide from tree to tree. He goes to the forests of Cambodia and Vietnam and encounters many snakes such as the Malayan pit viper, the Asian pipe snake, the Tentacled Snake, and others. He finally finds a Golden Tree Snake, which glides just in front of him and gets one or two pictures of it in "flight".
Episode 15: In Search of The Black Mamba
This episode Aired on Animal Planet Tuesday, March 27, 2007.
2-Hour Special: Most Striking Moments
This is a two hour special that shows some of his most striking moments. A part from episode one not shown is seen in this episode, when he is bitten on the arm by the giant Reticulated Python. Rare pictures of him being younger are also seen.
It should be noted that although In Search of the Giant Anaconda, In Search of the King Cobra, and Seven Deadly Strikes are listed as episodes 7, 8, 9, respectively, they aired earlier than the other episodes, Seven Deadly Strikes being in 2002 and the other two in 2003. Because of this, all of these episodes, especially Seven Deadly Strikes are sometimes considered different shows.
