Original subtitles

There he is.

COYOTE PETERSON The darkness

of night brings with it the awakening

of many rainforest creatures.

And on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica,

one of the most iconic amphibians in Central America

is out on the hunt for its next meal.

It's 2:00 in the morning.

We have been out here for hours looking for what is supposed

to be one of the most common species of tree frog

here in Costa Rica.

We found all sorts of frog species,

just not the one they were actually

after for this episode.

And at the right time of year,

specifically during the rainy season,

these frogs descend from the tree tops

and can be found near permanent or temporary bodies

of water, where they have come to lay their eggs.

Right there.

Those are tree frogs eggs.

Look at that cluster.

How cool is that?

There are many species of frogs in the rainforest you can

happen upon and some of them, like the gliding leaf frog,

also have red eyes.

That.

Whoa.

Gotta move slowly is a gliding leaf frog.

Look at you.

Pretty good size too.

This is an arboreal species, usually

find them high up in the trees.

And they're called gliding leaf frogs because they use

the momentum of their bodies.

They jump from higher heights down to lower heights.

Look at that.

That's one cool looking frog.

All right, search for the red-eyed tree frog continues.

COYOTE PETERSON Our search

didn't take us much further when, sure enough, we finally

came upon the amphibian we had all hoped to finally

get in front of the cameras.

You're not going to believe it,

there's actually one right here on this leaf.

Where? - Look at that.

There is the red-eyed tree frog curled up in a little ball.

I'm gonna cut off my light.

Bring out that light a little bit closer.

Are you sure? 100%.

Oh my gosh!

We have been looking for hours for this frog

and sure enough, there it is completely camouflaged.

Now, you'll notice--

I'm going to tilt it a little bit.

Mark, you see the eyeball there?

See that reticulated pattern?

Now, the frog can see us through that.

You see it?

Almost looks like gold spider webbing.

But it thinks it's completely hidden.

It's got its toes tucked under, the coloration on the side

of its body tucked under.

And if you didn't know what you were looking for,

it just looks like a bump on that leaf.

All right, here we go.

You ready?

Look at that, he's just like the saying to himself,

"Oh, you guys can't see me."

Gotcha.

Be really gentle.

There it is, the red-eyed tree frog.

The most famous frog species here in Costa Rica.

Gonna wake up for us?

Look at those eyes.

Hi.

How are you?

I know that everybody out there watching

has been asking to see this frog since we made

our first trip to Costa Rica.

Now, when we were on the West Coast,

these frogs do live there but they

were all high up in the trees because it was the dry season.

Now here on the East Coast, we have a lot of rains

that have pushed through and--

Don't.

No.

Not in my mouth.

OK.

Well, in this instance, just kind of go with it.

I do have to be careful because these frogs can excrete

a toxin from their skin.

Don't want to get that in my mouth or my eyes.

Here we go.

Why don't we bring you up here on my hand?

And let's get you up close for the camera

and get some interesting facts.

How cool is this?

How excited are you?

We finally found one!

Yes!

OK.

Now, the common name for this frog is the red-eyed tree frog.

However, it's technically a red-eyed leaf frog.

And that is because it is an arboreal species, which means

that they live high up in the treetops, hence

the name leaf frogs.

They are always hanging out on leaves.

Or like this, as you can see.

They're really good at jumping and really good at climbing.

And now it's on my hat.

Is it still right there? Yeah it is.

Let me see if i can grab it off you.

See if you can just kind of get it and bring it back

down here to my hand, Mark.

You got him?

There we go.

Oh, there you go, little guy.

Now, that leaping ability is excellent when it comes

to escaping from predators.

Look at that.

Look how long those legs are.

Now how do they grip?

Those sticky pads.

And they are so incredibly sticky, I can feel

it every time he moves himself around

on my fingertip or my hand.

They secrete this mucus from the tips of their fingers,

it's almost like a temporary glue, that allows

them to move from leaf to leaf.

Or if they leap across a wide expanse,

they can just whap land on to something and they will stick.

All right, let's take a real good look at this frog's eyes

because if there is one thing that this frog is iconic for,

it is those reddish orange eyes.

They're enormous as compared to the size of this frog's head.

And that is because this is a nocturnal species.

This allows the frog to be able to see its prey when it's

out there hunting at night.

Now, this is a male.

I can tell that because the males are significantly

smaller than the females.

And what you guys cannot smell is

that right now it's actually secreting

a toxin from its skin.

Now-- this frog just does not really want to cooperate,

does it?

No.

He really wants to crawl on my face.

OK. Back on the leaf.

All right, let's see if I can do this.

This amphibian is going to be much

more comfortable if I actually keep it on a leaf like that.

Now, there is a perfect example of this animal's camouflage.

He's like, you can't see me, but we can.

Let me see if I can get him right up on the edge

of the leaf like that.

Do not jump on my face again.

Wow!

Very cool.

Now, these frogs are insectivores,

which means that they eat bugs.

And they're opportunistic so any mosquito, or moth,

or little flying creature that comes across its path

when it's sitting around a leaf is fair game.

OK, now I do know that this is a male and the way

that I'm at least guessing is because the males are

significantly smaller than the females.

But both males and females have the exact same color

patterns on their bodies.

However, for males to attract females here in the rainforest,

what they'll do is actually bounce up and down

on the leaves, shaking the leaves, informing the females

that they're there and they're available for breeding.

How cool is that?

That's an interesting little dating tactic that you have.

Well, I think he kind of wants

to go back up in the trees.

I think he does and we have hung out with this frog

for quite a while now.

And I think at this juncture, it's probably a good idea

to get it back off into the rainforest

so he can continue hunting.

But what an expedition!

Spending hours out here at night and finally coming

across the red-eyed leaf frog.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave, stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

All right, let's let this guy back into the rainforest.

The red eyed leaf

frog has long been one of my most admired amphibians.

And getting to film them in a completely natural setting

was one frog encounter that I will always remember.

If you love animals, make sure to s--

- You got one? - Yeah.

Ooh, where, where, where? Oh, there it is.

Yes! Right on the edge of that leaf!

Oh, it's crouching now.

You got a shot?

Got it!

COYOTE PETERSON Nestled

below the endless expanse of treetops,

a biologically diverse world of animals call the Costa Rican

rainforest home.

And on this adventure, I will be working

alongside an expert who has dedicated his life

to preserving this wild place.

Since 2002, Brian Kubicki has owned

and operated the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center.

Located on the Caribbean Coast, this 120 acre preserve

is home to a plethora of animals, including birds,

mammals, countless creepy crawlies, reptiles,

and his absolute favorite, amphibians.

OK, Brian.

So we have hiked out here into the rainforest

and we are standing in what's 125 acres of your reserve.

And tonight, we're heading out looking for one of the rarest

amphibians that lives here.

It's critically endangered all around the world, correct?

Yes.

According to the [inaudible],, it's critically endangered.

Is its official status.

The next status up is extinct.

Wow.

Now, Mark, when you hear critically endangered,

what do you think of?

I think it's super rare and something

we're not going to find. - Right.

Now Brian, you're pretty confident that we're

going to come across these frogs tonight.

- Yes. - OK.

And what species is it that we're looking for tonight?

The lemur leaf frog.

Ooh, cool.

Now I have never seen this frog.

And you think there's a pretty good chance we're

going to find one tonight?

Yeah.

We definitely have a nice population here.

All right. Nice.

Well, let's get our flashlights out.

Head out there into the rainforest

and see what we can find.

Let's do it.

All right.

Brian has spent countless hours

in the field, which in turn have resulted

in numerous important discoveries

and rediscoveries of amphibian species

that have not been seen in decades.

And while he loves all amphibians,

he has a particular interest in frogs.

So on this dark, rainy night, we are heading out

to search for one of the rarest species

to call this preserve its home, the lemur leaf frog.

OK.

Real quiet for a second.

Everybody quiet.

That, is that a frog call?

Yep.

That there's our little dink frog.

Dink frog?

So it's a small little frog that lives in the vegetation,

especially in the low lying vegetation in the forest.

OK.

Now, do you ever like call out to the frogs?

Make a frog call yourself and see if something

will respond like birds do?

There are certain species of frogs

that definitely will respond.

So they have a certain level of jealousy, I guess.

And they hear another frog so they want to use

their voice to overlap his.

So there are certain species that definitely

you can initiate their calling by kind

of making a similar noise.

Definitely, yeah.

Is the lemur frog one of those frogs?

- Unfortunately it's not. - No.

But we be listening to see if we hear call?

Yeah, they have a very distinct call.

Like, it's a really pretty call like a belly whistle,

but a very distinct call.

So we'll be able to hear them and go in on them for sure,

yeah. - Cool.

If we hear any, we'll stop and get real quiet

and see if we can pick it up on camera.

- Yeah, of course. - OK, let's keep moving.

All right, let's do it.

Now Brian, I don't know if I would

recognize the call of this frog if I just heard it.

But I feel like I'd be pretty good at spotting it.

What should I be looking for?

What we're going to be looking for is actually the eye shine.

OK.

So what I want you to do, Coyote, is with the--

you see how I am with my flashlight?

I've got it right in front of my eyes,

like right at the tip of my nose.

So look at that.

And you'll look for little white lights,

which are the frog's eyes as they

reflect the light back at us.

Oh. That's interesting.

I mean normally I'm walking with my flashlight

down like this and just kind of projecting it around.

But I notice, you're right.

If you put it like right up to your nose

the beam is straight in front of your eyes.

And you see reflection.

Yup. All right.

Well, lets keep moving. You let me know if you hear one.

OK. Yup.

It's starting to rain.

Watch your camera, OK?

Yeah.

If it opens up, put the camera in the bag.

This is a good spot.

Could be nothing.

Coyote, I got one here.

You got one?

You see it?

Ooh, where, where, where?

I don't see it.

your flashlight in front

of your nose like I told you. Oh!

There it is. Yes!

Right on the edge of that leaf! Yup.

Can I go down there and grab it?

Yup.

Now he's got this little trail right here.

Probably the best way to go down is

the little small trail there. OK.

All right, Mark, you wanna come with me?

Let's do it.

All right.

I'll be right behind you.

Watch your footing.

Hold on.

Check for snakes, get excited, and then you end

up stepping on a fer-de-lance.

Gonna be real gentle with this.

Oh, look at that little--

oh, oh it's crouching now.

You got a shot?

Yep.

Got it. Awesome.

Yes! All right.

All right, I'm going to bring it back up.

Let's-- this is not a good spot to do a scene.

Brian, we're going to come back up to you

and get this little frog in front of the camera.

All right, I got a real gentle hold on his back leg.

I'm going to crouch down here.

You guys ready?

This frog is so cool looking. All right.

Ready?

One, two, there he is.

Look at that face.

He looks like ET.

It's all eyes.

This might be one of the coolest

looking frogs I've ever seen.

From the backside, it just kind of

looked like a normal tree frog.

But as soon as I saw its face I was like,

no wonder this is so unique.

It's very iconic with those large, bulging eyes

and it's like all eyes, yeah.

Wow.

And the eyes are gray.

That species, when they're active,

they'll typically have that kind of darker iris coloration.

But in the daytime, when they're sleeping, if you wake them up

they have these bright silver, white eyes.

And also their skin on their back

is bright, fluorescent green.

Look at the yellow sides.

And actually with that light, I can see right

through the side of his belly.

Now, Brian, why are these frogs so rare?

I mean, what's caused them to become critically endangered?

In all honesty, we're

not 100% sure what happened.

Obviously it's felt that there's a type of fungus

and other diseases might have led to the decline

but in reality we're not 100% sure.

To me, this is tiny.

I'm trying to be gentle as I possibly can.

And the front feet are just so crazy looking.

No webbing on the front or the back toes,

but they do seem to have little tiny sticky pads.

Does that help them crawl from leaf to leaf?

Yup. Exactly.

OK.

I noticed that this frog has incredibly long slender legs.

And I see-- look it, it's like walking across my hand.

I got a gentle hold on this one leg here

but there we're actually able to see-- look at that,

it completely keeps its body up off the ground.

Why are those legs so long?

Now this frog is typically walking

on real thin, weak leaves.

Don't have a lot of structure to hold up a lot of weight.

So they have to distribute their weight on those leaves

as they're walking along like that.

Now, he's just too quick.

There he goes.

OK, I gotta bring him back over here.

So if they're up there walking across the leaves,

are they hunting?

And if so, what are they hunting for?

They'd be hunting for just

any small invertebrates they can fit in their mouth.

They're also up there obviously breeding.

A few of the males would be near their breeding sites calling

and advertising to females.

All right.

OK.

So opportunistic feeders, opportunistic breeders.

That sounds pretty accurate.

And you said that this is a male.

This is a male.

And is there a way to differentiate

between the males and females?

The females will be a little larger,

and the males have a little bit what's called a nuptial pad,

a little bit of a pad strip.

You kinda see the base of this in that little kind

of dark patch there. - OK.

That's typical in the males because they'll grab

the females by the armpits.

Right.

And also known as axillary amplexus.

OK.

But the biggest thing

is just definitely the size.

The females are quite a bit bigger,

a little bit more robust. OK.

Same color though.

Same color.

Now it was almost brown in coloration

when I caught it it's like we've gotten in front of lights

and it's changed color like a chameleon.

Yes that's what's known as metachrosis, the ability

to change colors.

This species and a lot of other frog species and even

some salamanders have the ability

to change their colors according to activity,

maybe the backgrounds they're on.

So it's actually a fairly common trait in different amphibians.

That's really cool.

So Brian, these frogs were here historically

then they disappeared and your conservation

project has brought them back in and now they're flourishing.

How excited are you about this?

I mean, what a great success. Yeah.

I mean, it has been a great success.

And it's pretty much a pioneering project so we didn't

really know what to expect.

So it's been really exciting to actually see the great success

we've had over a little over a decade

now we've been working with the species.

And now we're seeing it actually recolonise

in neighboring patches of forest we didn't see them before.

So it's been very successful.

If you had to guess, how many of these frogs

do you think are out there now?

Definitely the reserve definitely

is probably within the hundreds of individuals, yeah.

Wow.

That is so cool.

What a successful conservation effort

that you've accomplished here on the reserve.

I mean, so cool.

I mean, when we started the night

Brian said with 100% confidence that we were going to come

across one of these frogs.

I'm not going to lie, I was a little skeptical.

Critically endangered and we're definitely going to find one.

I mean, we've gone out doing episodes

of "Breaking Trail" finding-- looking for slugs

and we've had more trouble.

And sure enough, in just under an hour's time,

we managed to come across the lemur leap frog.

And this is so cool.

Well, Brian, I know for myself and The Brave Wilderness team,

this is one adventure that's definitely going

to go down in the record books.

The first time I've ever caught and held

an endangered amphibian species.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave, stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

All right, it's starting to rain.

Let's get this frog back onto its leaf.

So we've got Birch here.

He's one of the dogs that has been hanging

out with us here at the cabin.

Been playing around with him.

He's a fun dog.

Get.

A toad!

There's a toad!

Do you have it?

I got it! I got it!

Mario, go your camera!

Hold on a second,

I'm going to put him in my pocket.

Ah, [inaudible] slide all the way down this hill.

Hold on, I'm coming up.

Adding my phone in my hand Oh, yes!

Look at this.

Hold on a second.

Wait for it.

Look at that little guy.

That's a Western toad!

Look at that toad.

You may be looking at this amphibian

saying to yourself, Coyote why are

you so excited about a toad?

Which you may not know is that the Western toad

is the only species of toad found in the state of Alaska.

There are no reptiles here and there are only six species

of amphibians, three salamanders, two frogs,

and this little bumpy toad.

Now, I do know that this is a male.

And the way I can identify it as such

is look at these four feet.

You see those little pads on the bottom of the feet?

Those are called nuptial pads and they

use those to help themselves navigate

through the environment.

The females do not have those pads.

Females are larger than the males.

And let's look at this toad's back.

You see that ridge line?

All these bumps that run along the back?

On a female, those are much more pronounced

and reddish in coloration.

You are one handsome little fella, you know that?

Now, these toads are out here feeding on pretty much

anything they can come across.

Worms, bugs, slugs, you name it, this toad will eat it.

And this is a completely safe species

to capture the only thing I've got going on for me

right now that's a defense from this toad is

it's peeing all over my hands.

Little soap and water will wash that up

and I will be just fine.

You look at this toad and you think to yourself,

boy he doesn't have any claws, he doesn't have any big teeth,

how does he defend himself?

Well as we know, most toad species

do have toxins in their skin that

comes from the parotid gland.

The parotid glands on this toad are very small.

You can see them just behind the eyeball there.

And he's not doing it now, but when I first caught him

he puffed up his body to make himself look bigger

and he was going, beep, beep, beep.

And they vibrate their bodies.

And that apparently will scare off a predator.

I mean, I imagine if I came in and grabbed ahold of this toad,

it would shake its body and make those noises.

I'd be like, ooh, I'm not going to mess with that guy.

Oh. There it was.

You gonna chirp again?

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Hear that?

Yeah, you knew that that's what we were talking about,

didn't you?

Now, they are slightly toxic to the animals

here in this environment.

But there are some predators out there for this amphibian.

Ravens will eat them.

Eagles and badgers have actually been

known to consume these toads.

So Coyote, how are these toads

different from the toads back in Ohio?

Well, I'll tell you something about the toads

that live up here in Alaska.

They're extremely tough.

These animals have to deal with extremely cold temperatures

during the winter.

And what they'll do is burrow down deep in the mud

and some species of amphibians, like the wood frog,

can actually freeze, and then they thaw out in the spring.

Now, I'm not sure whether or not these toads freeze,

but I can just tell that the skin is

much more durable and rugged than some of the toad species

that I find in Ohio.

This is one tough little creature

if it can survive freezing temperatures up here in Alaska.

You also notice that the coloration of this toad

is very light, almost cream-colored.

And that distinct white stripe that runs

along the length of the back.

The toads that I found in Ohio are

usually dark brown in coloration,

sometimes even black.

Now, the skin is a little smoother

and it's also slightly sticky, that's because they

absorb a lot of their moisture from their environments.

The toads I find in Ohio are much drier than this one here.

That is one good looking toad.

Now, I was told by Mario, our wildlife biologist,

that you probably don't have a very

good chance of finding any catchable creatures here

in Alaska.

But sure enough, I found the one toad species

that can be found in the state.

How cool was that?

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave, stay wild.

We'll see you on the next location.

Come on, buddy.

Let's get you back into the forest.

He did it.

He got the only toad in Alaska.