Counting down the top 10 living dead of the animal kingdom - Part2

That's number four in the countdown . It can be found high in the mountains of New Zealand .

 In summer it finds shelter under broken slabs of rock,  venturing out at night to feed . It's a flightless cricket called a weta .

 It may be a vegetarian, but it's one tough insect  with an armor plated body and massive jaws,  and like all insects, it's cold blooded .

 So when the temperature drops,  the weta can't generate heat to keep warm .

 Even though it hides deep in crevices in the rock,  up here it can get very cold indeed .

 But this doesn't worry the weta . It's such a cool customer that it simply freezes solid . Its heart stops beating, and all brain function ceases .

 It can survive temperatures down to minus 10 degrees,  even when 82% of the water in its body is frozen .

 The weta is the largest insect in the world  that can survive being frozen . It's number four in the countdown  because it can spend several months as a popsicle . Strangely enough, all kinds of objects  can benefit from a stint in the deep freeze . This is no ordinary freezer .

 It uses liquid nitrogen to chill  It's part of a treatment developed  by a company called TechSpec  to freeze things like razor blades,  golf clubs,  and even pantyhose .

 but defrosting a living animal is another .

 Yet, when the weather warms up,  after weeks of suspended animation  the weta simply comes back to life .

 Scientists are still unsure exactly how  the weta manages to stop ice crystals  rupturing the cells in its body . So it will be some time before we can cheat death  by jumping in the deep freeze .

Our last two contenders turned into the living dead  as a way to survive cold winters .

 Some animals do the same thing in the desert,  even if it means being buried alive for seven years .

 Could it be that our next contenders  hold the answer to long distance space travel?  In some parts of the world, drought can be devastating,  especially if you're a small fish in a little pond .

 As the water level drops,  most fish are left gasping for breath,  their gills unable to extract oxygen from the air .

But our next contender has come up  with a way of coping with drought . It's a fish that virtually dies for up to four years . This is a lungfish .

 It gets its name because, unlike other fish,  it can take in oxygen directly from the air .

 So when it runs out of water,  the lungfish digs down into the mud .

 It coats itself in mucus which dries into a leathery cocoon,  where it can wait out the drought .

 Unfortunately, there's another use for dried river mud .

 The lungfish doesn't worry about being built into a brick .

 It's shut down so many systems that it's virtually dead .

Even after four years of drought, a little rain is enough to soften the bricks and to awaken the lungfish so that it can dig itself out of its muddy coffin .

The lungfish is an extraordinary survivor, but there's another desert dweller that can last even longer without water 

About 340 million years ago  ancient amphibians crawled onto the land,  and today frogs are still amateurs  at the business of living out of water .

 Their skin must be kept moist because they breathe  through the entire surface of their bodies .

 Frogs can even drink through their skin,  absorbing moisture from damp soil .

 So how could any frog survive in a desert?  Beneath a dry lake bed in central Australia,  there's a frog that's been buried alive for seven years .

 The burrowing frog sits as if dead,  wrapped in a waterproof cocoon of old skin cells .

 It's lowered its metabolism by 90%,  yet over all this time it doesn't lose  muscle mass or strength, unlike humans .

But in the meantime, the frog is already  a lifesaver for the Aborigines .

 They know that all it takes is a gentle squeeze  to access the emergency supply of drinking water  stored inside the frog's bladder .

 The burrowing frog may be an extraordinary survivor,  but it still can't compete with the animal   

  That's number one in the countdown . We've seen the nine contenders . They've found ways to come back from the grave .

 Only one animal is a more extreme  example of the living dead . If we were like the animal at number one in the countdown  we really would be Mr. Invincible .

 We'd be able to survive temperatures  lower than minus 230 degrees Celsius,  and as high as 150 degrees . We could withstand 1,000 times  more radiation than any mortal . But most incredible of all,  we'd be able to survive without any water  for 120 years .

 So what is this animal with superhuman powers?  Meet the water bear . Normally this tiny animal waddles around  on its four pairs of plump little legs,  sucking the juices out of moss .

 It doesn't look very tough, but it can survive  the harshest conditions because  it basically curls up and dies .

 Let's say that things start getting  too dry for a water bear .

 Somehow it can lose 99% of the water in its body,  retract all its legs, and become practically indestructible .

 That's how it can survive such extremes of cold,  heat,  radiation,  and even in a vacuum, like that found in space .

 After all, a water bear can come back to life after being more or less dead for more than a century, and that's why, when it comes to the sleeping beauties of the natural world the water bear really is the most extreme .