Original subtitles

Oh!

Ah! Ooh!

Yes!

Yes!

Ah! In the water.

You all right?

Ah!

What a grab.

Oh, roll! Roll, roll!

Roll! I'm rolling.

Ooh, ooh.

Wait, wait.

: Over the past two years,

we have produced more than 250 episodes on the Brave

Wilderness channel.

And on each adventure, we do our best to get animals

up close with the cameras.

However, there are many animals that have eluded me

over the years, including the largest frog species in Costa

Rica, the smoky jungle frog.

Ah!

That's what happened last time.

Every time, the smoky jungle frog ousts me!

: While visiting the Caribbean

Coast, we spend time exploring the dense

rainforests of the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Preserve.

This location was a prime habitat

for these giant amphibians.

Long night battling rainstorms.

And finally, it looks like we have a jungle

frog that is not by its hole.

But it is right next to a pond.

If you can hear all the frogs croaking,

this guy can literally leap off the embankment

and into the water.

COYOTE PETERSON My biggest

challenge will be getting close enough to actually catch one.

These frogs are very in tune with their environment,

and always have an escape route nearby that allows them

to quickly avoid predators.

Oh!

Oh.

Hold on.

Sheesh!

All right, I'm out of here.

Coming out.

Ah!

Yeah.

Well-- [sighs] catching smoky jungle frogs

is about the hardest thing I've faced in quite some time

here in Costa Rica.

But do not fear.

I will catch one.

Ah, this is the way.

: We continued searching

into the night, and traveled deeper into the jungle, where

we came upon a swampy lagoon.

We do have another smoky jungle

frog up here on the embankment.

It is definitely can be way more difficult to catch

than even the last one.

Let's move up slow with the lights.

Let me see if I can give you a shot on him, Mark.

He is-- look at the eyes shine up

there underneath that branch. You see it?

Where?

Up underneath.

If I go-- see the skinny log across the thick log?

Look straight up from that on the embankment.

You see dark right there?

No.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There he is.

He's right behind a leaf.

See it?

Oh!

Yeah! Ooh.

Yes!

Yes!

Ah! In the water.

You all right? - Ah!

Oh, hold on.

Oh!

Oof.

Unbelievably strong.

Unbelievably slippery.

All right, I'm coming back. Hold on.

All right, I'm just coming back.

Holding him with two hands.

Yes!

Nice grab.

That is a smoky jungle frog right there.

OK.

OK, let's--

We need to get out of this pond

and into a controlled situation.

Oh, what a slimy beast!

Wow!

OK, let's get this guy out of the pond and up onto the trail.

I'd give you a high-five, except my hand

is covered in frog mucus.

I appreciate that. - Yes!

All right. - Wow, what a catch!

Nice grab, man.

Finally!

Yes!

Not sure we could have gotten that one any better.

What a grab.

Oh, roll, roll, roll!

Roll! I'm rolling.

There it is, the famous sound that they make.

Wow!

That is the alarm sound that we all--

I hear you.

They are famous for making that loud croaking--

- alarm sound.

You hear that?

Now, if you were a predator, you came

in here and you grabbed a hold of this frog and it did that--

- that, it would be startling.

And you would likely drop the frog and it would escape.

I-- I hear you, yes.

Wow, the vocal chords on that frog are incredible.

Now, a secondary defense is you see all this mucus that is

coming off of the frog's body?

That is slightly toxic, and it is actually burning really

bad on my fingers right now.

I have a couple of cuts.

You can see, it looks like foam.

Now, that mucus not only keeps the frog moist,

but it also deters any potential predators.

I know.

I hear you, little buddy.

Now, I'm not hurting the frog in any way whatsoever.

You see, it's puffing up his body.

He's like a balloon right now.

Yes, I know, but you have-- have you not figured out

that you've already been captured?

Yeah?

I don't know what that was, but oh!

I'm so excited we caught this frog.

Now, they are incredibly strong.

These back legs are solid muscle.

Now, Mark, look at this frog's toes.

What is it missing?

Webbing?

That's right, because this

is a terrestrial species.

Now, they're oftentimes living in burrows,

and that is what these frogs have

been escaping into all night, or up underneath root cavities.

But this one was right on the edge of a pond, likely hunting,

because they are ambush predators.

And no wonder.

Look at how big it is.

Wow!

You are just a beast!

Oh, it's incredible.

Now, all amphibians have toxins in their skin.

I've handled many amphibians on this trip to Costa Rica,

but nothing has actually made my hands burn yet.

And all of that foam in all the little small cuts on my fingers

is stinging really, really bad right now.

So I won't be able to hold onto the frog for too long.

But what amazing coloration.

Now, you can see how this frog looks

just like the leaf litter.

So if it was kind of down here on the ground,

just hiding underneath things amongst the leaves--

now, during the day, they will do that.

Just stay hidden on the forest floor.

And you can see that very distinct camouflage on the back

looks exactly like the cutouts in some

of these leaves and the ferns.

And if you lift the frog up, get that little--

Ooh!

Oh, he's squeezing me with those front arms.

They're-- ooh, ooh!

No, no, no! Oh, I got him.

I got him, I got him. Oh!

Man, he's slippery, isn't he?

Unbelievably slippery.

Well, all that mucus--

Man, you are a muddy mess now.

I wasn't gonna let this one get away.

This frog is definitely making us-- aw, I'm sorry, buddy.

You got mud on your face.

You got mud on your face.

It's OK. Here, hold on a second.

I've got a bottle of water.

Yeah, you got a bottle of water?

There we go. A little drink.

There we go.

There we go, just rinsing off a little bit.

I'm covered in mud, too.

This probably isn't helping, but I

want you guys to be able to see the beautiful camouflage

of this frog's face.

They are absolutely gorgeous.

It's kind of like a giant wood frog.

There we go.

It has a gold in it.

Look at you.

Yes, look at the eyes.

Amber and gold.

Beautiful.

Look at that.

OK, hold on just a second longer.

Now, I do believe this is a male,

because you can see on the fingers here,

they have these little hooks.

And that helps them to hold onto the females

during the breeding process.

And actually, during breeding season,

the male's forearms get significantly bigger.

And one of their defense postures,

and to defend their territories, because they're

very territorial, they will puff up their bodies,

push their arms out like big bodybuilders,

and then defend their territory from other impressing males.

Now, here's something that's really

interesting about the tadpoles of these frogs.

Now, they lay their nests in like a giant clump of foam.

And as the tadpoles are developing,

the ones that grow quicker end up eating the smaller ones.

So in a sense, this frog is a cannibal.

Buddy, you eat your own kind.

That's kind of crazy.

Oh, man.

What a catch!

And a second catch, diving right there into the mud.

Can you show us the legs?

Oh.

Ah, that's a risky game, but let me see what I can do here.

Yeah, I'd like to see the stripes.

Do not want to lose the frog.

Oh, whoa, whoa.

He's very slippery.

Now, the mucus that he's secreting

makes him even more slippery.

That's about as far as I can show you right there.

OK, cool. Does that help?

Yeah.

It really looks like tiger stripes.

Mm-hmm. That's really cool.

Now, this is the largest frog

species here in Costa Rica.

They do get a bit bigger than this.

But as compared to the ones we've seen tonight,

this is an absolute giant.

Look at that frog.

Wow!

What a night.

It took us hours, but we finally managed

to catch the one amphibian that has been

eluding me every time I've been in Costa

Rica, the smoky jungle frog.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure!

Oh!

He's saying goodbye.

I think he's ready to go.

We're gonna set him down right here,

and he's going to plop all the way back down into the water.

Oh!

Did you see that distance? I did, yep.

That was awesome.

What a night!

Oh, man, this is intense.

You don't realize how scary it's gonna

be to actually go underground until you're

about to go in underground.

All right, are we set?

Yeah, I think we're ready here.

All right.

1, 2-- here we go.

Oh, man there are spiders everywhere in here.

Dude, they are, like, all over the place.

: There is a really good

reason as to why West Virginia is

nicknamed the Mountain State.

It is literally blanketed by the Appalachian Range.

And from an aerial perspective, the sight

is absolutely breathtaking.

Today, the crew and I are following some precise GPS

coordinates near Lewisburg, with the initial goal of locating

a protected conservation site that is home to one

very rare animal.

We can't reveal the exact location.

But let's just say this will be an adventure unlike anything

we have embarked upon before.

Wow, that's pretty steep.

I can see why you may stumble upon a cave

on a mountainside like that.

Oh, boy.

Well we're gonna have to hike in there.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, let's get set up with the gear and head off trail.

: Working under special

permission granted by the West Virginia Department of Natural

Resources, we will be spelunking into the darkness to search

for one of the state's rarest amphibians,

the cave salamander.

However, in order to find one of these elusive creatures,

first, we had to find the cave.

All right, this is where we leave civilization behind.

I have one foot on gravel road, one foot in the forest.

It's adventure time.

It's kind of tough to keep your bearings in here,

because all of these trees have so many branches.

When you just stare through it, I

don't know if you can catch it on camera,

but it's very disorienting to just stare in one direction.

Green, and all these streaks of brown

coming out of all directions.

Now, I'm actually listening for water.

Once we start to hear water, we know

that we'll be getting close to the creek

that runs out of this cave.

So I say we just keep moving over along this ridge line.

And keep your ears peeled.

All right.

Oh!

A little slippy, huh?

Got a little slippery.

Yeah, this is a-- ah!

You all right? - Ah!

Stinging nettle.

Ooh.

Oh, wow!

Man, this is a really--

this is a tough off-trail, that's for sure.

This is really treacherous.

Just put my arm in stinging nettle.

And we're watching out for rattlesnakes.

Getting to this cave is not going to be easy.

All right, Mario.

Come on up.

Got it.

Oh, here's the game trail.

Oh, yeah?

Let's see.

Look at that.

Deer, fox, coyote, maybe even bears probably used this trail.

So right place, right time for something like that.

Here, let's follow it.

Oh, wait.

Here, this looks good.

Check this out.

Oh, here we go.

Now we're getting

into more rocky terrain.

Here we go.

This looks like it's actually a dry creek bed.

Yeah. Let me listen for a second.

I hear water.

Shh, shh, shh.

Can you hear that?

It's faint, but it's all the way down there.

And you can see, there's all these large rocks.

Definitely looks like the kind of area

where you would find a cave.

All right, let's make our way down this.

Just watch your footing. Nice.

I think we're getting close, guys.

All right.

Yes!

This is the mouth to the cave.

Come over here.

Wow!

Yep, I would definitely say this is the cave.

Looks like a cave.

But this is not the cave that we want.

The cave we want is through there.

I'll shine my light in there.

Can you see back in there at all?

Let's see.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So we've got to get up through that.

We're gonna have

to army crawl through that.

I think what's gonna be best is to put the cameras in dry bags,

leave any gear outside that we don't need to take in,

and literally submerge ourselves into this.

If you want to find cave salamanders,

you have to go into a cave.

You guys up for this?

Let's do it.

All right.

So for safety precautions, we're gonna actually have Mario

on the outside of the cave.

Until we got to this moment, we didn't really

think about the fact that, wow, this is really dangerous, guys.

Never, ever, ever go into a cave by yourself.

Make you're always with another person,

and make sure you leave somebody on the outside.

In the event that some rocks were to fall down

and we got trapped in there, Mario is gonna

be the one who goes for help.

Actually, look.

It's crumbly, guys.

Yeah.

Like stuff's seriously falling down.

All right.

Got everything I need in here. All right.

Mario?

Good luck, guys.

Tell my family I love them if we don't return.

Oh, man.

This is intense.

You don't realize how scary it's gonna

be to actually go underground until you're

about to go in underground.

All right, are we set?

Yeah, I think we're ready here.

All right.

1, 2-- here we go.

Whoa, that's cold!

Oh, boy.

Whoa.

That's crazy up there.

It opens up a little bit in here.

Yeah?

Quite a bit.

Whoa.

I got a big salamander right here.

Yeah?

That's a spring salamander.

Wow, look at that guy.

Oh, nice.

I'm not gonna disturb him.

That's not exactly what we're looking for.

All right, we've gotta go-- oh, man.

There are spiders everywhere in here.

Just be careful where you place your hands so that you

don't actually get one on you.

Got it.

This is absolutely crazy.

All right.

You guys come up through there.

I'm going to scout up ahead here and see

if this all stays pretty low.

It's pretty eerie.

There's spiders everywhere.

The rock formations are incredible.

The water is freezing cold.

This is unlike any environment I have ever been in before.

And I'll tell you, what it is extremely nerve-wracking

to be underground like this.

You can see the ceiling is just above my head there.

It's pretty noisy with all the rushing water.

But this is pretty cool.

I'm just really trying to be methodical with my searching,

looking at every single one of these little cracks

and crevices.

Great spot for these salamanders.

Wow.

This cavern is pretty open.

I can actually stand in here.

There's a cave salamander, right there.

Where? - Look, look, look.

Right here, climbing up the side of those rocks.

Shine with your flashlight.

Right here.

Oh, yeah!

Check that out.

That is a cave salamander.

Do you see it?

That's what we're looking for, right?

That's the one.

Now, they are fast.

As soon as it realizes that we're real close, it may bolt.

So I'm just gonna go ahead and catch it.

OK.

I'm gonna kind of

cup my hand over it gently and scoop

it into the palm of my hand.

You ready?

Got him.

OK, cool.

OK, let's head down to flatter ground so we can film it.

OK, perfect.

Yes!

Got a cave salamander.

This is one of the rarest salamanders

you can possibly come across.

Here we go.

Ready?

There it is.

Whoa!

That is a cave salamander right there.

Now, I have to be incredibly gentle

with this little amphibian.

This is unbelievably beautiful.

Look at that orange coloration with those black speckles.

But look at it just slowly walking along there.

Now I'm gonna try and see if I can

get to walk from hand to hand.

Now, the reason that these little creatures are so rare

is they are very susceptible to pollution,

and it's what's considered an indicator species.

Gives us a good idea of what the pollution is

like in a certain environment.

And given the fact that this creature is

living in this cave, it's a good chance

this water is very healthy.

Now, this is a lungless species of salamander,

which means that it actually breathes through its skin.

Isn't that cool?

This salamander does not even have lungs.

You'll notice those little buggy eyes

up front, very indicative of many amphibian species.

You may be wondering to yourself, well,

we're in a cave.

It's completely pitch dark without these lights.

Is this a blind salamander species?

No.

In fact, they can see, and they can see actually rather well

in very low light like this.

Or I guess, it's completely no light.

And they use their eyesight to help them hunt for prey.

They're eating small invertebrates like baby

spiders, mites, worms.

Anything that's small and crawling around in this cave

is fair game.

I'm pretty impressed with how this salamander is just staying

on the tips of my fingers.

Look at that.

Let me see if I can kind of turn it up like that

so you can see its back.

Check that out.

Now, normally, these salamanders have incredibly long tails.

The tail is actually longer than the length of the body.

But in this instance, this salamander

is missing the tip of its tail.

Can you see that? Yeah.

Now, it will grow its tail back.

That's called caudal autonomy, something that lizards

are also capable of doing.

But keep in mind, this is an amphibian and not a reptile,

like a lizard.

And how rare are these salamanders?

Really pretty rare.

In most places, they're considered endangered.

And we do have special permits to be in this cave

and to be getting the cameras up close

and even handling this amphibian.

And as you can see, I'm not actually

trying to hold onto it.

I'm just letting it rest on top of my hand.

This is a fragile ecosystem in here.

Oh, incredibly fragile.

We actually had to decontaminate our boots

and our clothes with a spray before we came into the cave

to make sure we didn't bring in any contaminants

from the outside forest area.

As you've noticed, I haven't really

been touching the walls at all.

We've been very careful where we've been stepping.

And of course, we want to just handle

this amphibian as gently as possible and for as little time

as possible.

This little guy is so cool.

Well, I would definitely say that that was one epic

adventure, traversing through the forest

to ultimately find this cave, and then coming across one

incredibly rare amphibian.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

See you later, little salamander.

: Throughout parts of its range,

the cave salamander is considered

an endangered species.

They're susceptible nature to environmental pollutants

has unfortunately pushed them closer

to the brink of extinction.

However, it's remote, protected, and healthy ecosystems

like this one that have allowed these fragile amphibians

to carry on an incredible fight for survival.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have seen one of these animals

in the wild, and I hope that its conservation efforts continue.

Maybe one day, you will see one too.

That is, if you are willing to go deep into a cave

to find one.

Woo!

Ah!

That is some cold water right there, but we made it.

Oh, it is good to see daylight.