Sir David Attenborough was in pain after a cactus spine pierced through his protective glove.
Sir David Attenborough was in pain
The 95-year-old naturalist was filming his latest BBC series ‘The Green Planet’ when he investigated a cholla cactus and - despite wearing protective gear - he found himself caught by the plant, and he admitted the experience was "not pleasant at all".
In a clip from the BBC One series, he said: "I wouldn't dream of putting my hand anywhere near it without proper protection. Brush against it, and this can happen - ow!
"This can happen, even with this glove on. One of them has just gone through, I can feel it. It's quite painful! This is not pleasant at all. It won't come off."
Opening up on the plant after shooting on location, he explained that the "dense spines" are like "spicules of glass".
He said; "It has these very dense spines in rosettes, so they point in all directions. And if you just brush against it, the spines are like spicules of glass.
“I mean they are that sharp and they go into you and you really have trouble getting them out! So that is a really dangerous plant. The cholla is an active aggressor."
“The Green Planet’ - which has been in production for more than four years and filmed in more than 27 countries – uses new filmmaking technology to get a close-up look into the hidden world of plants.
The TV veteran enjoyed filming in locations ranging from Croatia and northern Europe to Costa Rica and the United States.
Executive producer Michael Gunton previously said: “One of the joys of going on location is thinking up horrible things to get David to do. Because it was so dangerous, we got a Kevlar under-glove, and then on top of that, a welding glove.
"That protection is about as good as you could possibly get. So David bravely put his hand inside this cholla cactus, as requested. And half-way through it, these spikes still managed to get through those two bits of protection."
Tagged in Sir David Attenborough