Original subtitles

Of all the places on our planet

that are considered biodiverse, one of the wildest to visit

is South Africa's Eastern Cape.

Throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th,

this province was heavily used for stock farming.

And as a result, settlers began exterminating

the surrounding African wildlife to protect

their families and livestock.

This overly aggressive hunting resulted in many indigenous

animals becoming greatly endangered and, in some cases,

pushed to extinction.

Over the last few decades, there has

been a radical change in attitude

toward wildlife conservation.

And private game reserves have joined

in the large scale reintroduction

of iconic species to this area.

Today, we are visiting the renowned Kariega Game Reserve.

This family-owned-and-operated establishment

is the perfect South African Safari destination.

Spanning over 10,000 hectares, Kariega's landscape

and topography is arguably the most beautiful

of all the Eastern Cape reserves and is the perfect place

to safely get up close with a menagerie

of species from the comfort of an open game drive vehicle.

What's going on, Coyote Pack?

Right now, we are on location in South Africa,

staying at the Kariega Game Reserve.

And what we're going to do today is head out

on a good old-fashioned South African safari.

To do this, we're going to gear up in this Land Cruiser,

and Jo, our field guide, is going to drive us around.

Mark's going to be behind the main camera.

Mario's going to be on the b-roll camera

getting some epic shots.

And I'm going to help identify the species

using this trusty field guide.

So if you guys are ready, let's head out there

and see what sort of animals we can find.

This is actually really nice, traversing

the environment in a vehicle.

We're used to being on foot, but to experience

a classic African Safari, you really have to drive.

We're going to be sticking to the park roads today, guys.

While I'm trying to convince Jo for us to go off-roading,

these vehicles are specifically designed to stay on the trails.

But that's OK, because she tells us that we're going

to see all kinds of animals.

Look, look, look!

What's that?

We've got our first animal right here, guys.

It's an ostrich.

It's right in the middle of the road.

That, it is.

Let's see how close we can get here, guys.

It's a very slow roll.

She's kind of looking at us like, uh.

There she goes.

Look at that speed.

Did you get that shot, Mario?

I'm getting her running away.

And there's the male.

I can see the male in the background.

Cackaw!

Cackaw!

Was that an ostrich call?

Yep.

That is a mating call, yes.

Sounds perfect.

bring them in, guys.

You ready?

Jo, did he nail the call?

Uh, close, close, yeah.

He just has to do it a few more times.

And then they'll come right over to the vehicle?

Yeah.

That's what I thought.

Yeah.

It's a galli--

galli-- gallimimus.

Actually, it's an ostrich, which is technically

a modern-day avian dinosaur.

But it's amazing how much the ostrich looks

like the famous dinosaur known as the gallimimus

that we saw in the first "Jurassic Park" movie.

You guys remember that scene when Dr. Grant, Tim, and Lex

were walking across the grasslands and all of a sudden

they came flocking toward them?

Unfortunately, the ostrich are flocking in that direction

and not towards us.

But still, we got some pretty epic b-roll shots.

Well, there we have it, guys.

The first animal of the day ends up being the ostrich.

All right, let's move on.

Oh!

Coyote, I think we have something

other than an ostrich.

Here we go.

What's that?

All right, guys, this is one of two things,

either the blue wildebeest or the black wildebeest.

Let me get out the field guide here and see if I

can identify which one it is.

And according to this, those are blue wildebeest.

You can see in the right sunlight,

they almost have a bluish tinge to their skin.

You can see that they're just munching

through some of that underbrush, enjoying this beautiful sunset.

And none of them want to actually show

their faces for the camera.

I've got a lot of butt shots.

Must be protecting their young or just

are a little camera shy.

Mario, how's your shot looking?

It's good.

I got the one that's looking at me, and then the rest of them

are showing me their butts.

Talk about an epic set of horns.

Hi, guys!

Things good?

You scared them away.

Let's check it off the list.

Why don't you pull the list out? Got it.

Here we go.

Boop! OK.

There we go.

That brings a grand total to--

Two animals.

We've only got about 31 to go.

Here we go.

All right, better fire it up and keep going.

Mario, this ride's kind of bumpy.

Yeah, everything here in South Africa is bumpy.

Every time we've been in a vehicle,

it just seems to be a bumpy road.

Coyote, I see something up ahead.

This is a big one, guys.

Keep your hands inside the vehicles.

They do have a tendency to nip.

Wow, look at that.

We have a little female impala, three of them, and three zebra.

And here's a really interesting fact

that most people probably didn't know,

because it's often being asked.

What color is a zebra?

Is it black with white stripes or is

it white with black stripes?

And in fact, the zebra's skin is black.

So the zebra is black with white stripes.

Pretty cool, huh?

Glad we put that to rest.

Oh, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Coyote, it's fast.

That's why you keep your hands inside the vehicle

at all times.

Ooh, look at that!

That is a young impala in training

right there, duking it out with a larger

male, likely his daddy.

And what he's doing is learning how to butt heads.

That oftentimes happens in the herd.

They do this for a territorial display of dominance.

As you can see, the dad's now licking his son's

face, saying, good job, son.

OK, we've got the impala--

check-- and the zebra.

That makes four animals, ladies and gentlemen.

We are on a roll.

This is great.

Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted

to go on an African safari.

Oh, I see some giraffes over there!

Wow.

Look at that.

All right, Mario, go ahead and zoom in

on the giraffe there.

Look at that, guys.

Those are giraffe.

I think it's one of everyone's favorites out there watching.

That's pretty cool.

Look at that.

It's a calf milking from her mother.

Now, maybe you didn't know this, but a female giraffe

is called a cow.

A male is called a bull.

And, of course, that would mean that the juvenile

is called a calf.

That's a pretty good sized calf to be

still drinking from its mother.

Here they go.

Disappearing into the underbrush.

Wow.

And there are many giraffe out here on the reserve,

so we may see some more while we're here.

But, Mario, did you get a close shot of those ones?

Yeah, I did.

Nice.

As we traveled deeper into the park

and continued our course across the rolling grasslands,

it was apparent that our surroundings

were alive with animals.

All right, guys, we've entered the next section of the park.

I do see some impala.

We see those pretty frequently.

Ooh, looks like we have a skeleton or something up here.

Ooh.

Well, that animal doesn't

appear to be alive anymore.

You sure?

Yeah, that looks mostly bones.

Oh, right through there! Look at that.

Let's pull up a little bit.

We've got another animal that is alive.

Look at you.

What's that?

That is a-- is that a [inaudible]??

No.

I know what it is.

Mario, what is that?

It's a nyala. A nyala?

Mhm.

Coyote, it's a nyala.

And now it's gone.

Or a nyala. We got the shot.

Whichever one. Got the shot?

Got the shot.

They got the shot.

All right, that counts.

We saw a nyala.

Mario.

Yeah?

Got monkeys up here.

Oh, they're coming out to us.

They're babies.

Those are vervet monkeys right there.

Check that out.

The most common monkey species that you'll find in this area.

You've got a whole little group of them right there playing

in the setting sunlight.

This is a great shot.

Well, how about that, guys?

Now we can cross monkeys off of the list.

All right, guys.

We're rolling up on the rhino right now,

so we're going to need to be super quiet,

but this is pretty awesome.

This is something we've been waiting for all trip.

Right-- there they are, right there.

OK, guys, just off the side of the vehicle

here, we have five rhinos.

And these are white rhinos.

And they are absolutely incredible!

So huge.

These giant grazing animals out here in the grasslands.

Now, white rhinos specifically focus on eating grasses.

It's almost like a vacuum cleaner

the way they mow across the grass and just chomp,

chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp.

All day long just feasting on these grasses.

Quite intimidating, too.

From this distance, we're about 50 feet away from them,

and they are huge.

We've got a big bull, some cows, and a couple of calves.

When you see rhinos like this, you just

sit back and absorb it all in.

It's incredible to just watch them out there in the setting

sunlight grazing.

That is pretty cool.

Well, I would definitely say that this

was a successful safari.

For me personally, I would say that the white rhino

is my favorite.

How about you, Mark?

Well, since you already picked the rhino,

I will go with giraffe.

And, Mario, how about you?

I like the wildebeest.

Yeah, the, wildebeest were pretty cool,

huh?

Well, guys, if you get the chance,

come out here and visit Kariega Game Reserve.

I promise you It is an adventure you will never forget.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next location.

Over the past four years, we have embarked

upon many incredible adventures and have

certainly seen our fair share of creepy looking creatures.

Who could forget the giant black Sea slug?

Oh, my gosh, is it slimy!

There's no question about it.

That slug was an amazing creature.

And we were lucky to find it.

But you probably wouldn't say that gargantuan gastropod

was exactly cute.

And then there are the things we've run into that are

just straight up nightmares.

Remember this?

Here we go.

Ah!

That was an experience I won't soon forget,

no matter how hard I try.

And believe me, when it comes to the giant desert centipede,

boy, do I try to forget.

But not all of our adventures feature

creepy or slimy creatures.

Some of my favorite moments have actually

been with what I consider the cutest animals on our planet.

So we decided to put together the top five

cutest animals ever featured on the "Brave Wilderness" channel.

Then, as we began to construct the list,

we realized, how do you choose just five?

So instead, we decided to bring you

the top eight cutest creatures.

I hope you are all ready for a cuteness overload.

Coming in at number eight, my favorite prickly little buddy,

the Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine

appropriately named Bud.

Bud, look what Coyote has.

It's a peanut!

Ooh.

Peanut butter is good.

Come up here.

Look what I've got.

It's nice working with a porcupine of this size.

It's a little easier for me to get right up close

without him getting too scared.

And let's look at the fur.

You see that?

Real dark in coloration.

This is what you'll get with this species.

And underneath these guard hairs, a bunch of quills.

Bud, do you think it would be OK if we show everybody at home

your quills?

I'm going to take that as a yes.

All right, watch this.

OK, I'm just going to part this hair back very gently.

Take a look at that. Can you see in there?

Oh, yeah. - Oh, yeah.

You know what those are?

Those are quills.

And the bad thing about these quills

is that they have reversed barbs.

Those get into your snout or your hand,

and they dig deeper and deeper and deeper over time.

So what I'm not going to do today

is get quilled by this little porcupine.

It's amazing to watch them eat, to see

how his claws and his hands just grip that peanut.

And you would think that he would just

shove the whole thing into his mouth like a squirrel,

but he's just very intricately chipping off piece after piece.

Do you want the rest of this peanut?

Here you go.

I would have loved to have cuddled with Bud,

but probably not the best idea considering

all those needle-sharp quills.

Like the Mexican dwarf porcupine,

our number seven pick is another adorable creature that

is probably a little too scaly to snuggle with,

but we sure love this little guy.

Look at you, look at you!

Buddy!

This little guy is way too close to the road.

It's a leopard tortoise.

Either just crossed or is attempting to cross.

I see you, I see you.

I want to be very, very gentle picking him up

because I do not want him to pee,

which is a defensive mechanism of these tortoises.

There we go.

Look at you!

There you go.

Now you're coming out of your shell for us.

How cute are you!

That is so cool.

You notice when it tucks into its shell,

it has armored front legs.

You see that?

All of these legs are covered with very dense scales.

And they pull those legs in to block the face, just like that.

You see that?

Now nothing can get to it.

So it's all about tucking into your shell.

Little tortoise, you know that it's not

safe to cross the road, right?

Many tortoises are unfortunately struck by cars.

And while they are rather speedy for a species,

not faster than a car.

So what we're going to do is just safely

move this little tortoise off into the underbrush

here in the exact same direction that it was traveling.

And hopefully in the future, it will avoid crossing roadways.

That little leopard tortoise was super cute and a lot faster

on his feet than you might imagine,

but nowhere near as fast as number six

on our list of cutest creatures.

What I'm going to do right now is turn my hand into a mouse.

I'm going to actually put it down in this hole

and bury it in the grass and try to make some mouse noises,

rustle this around, and see if I can get

Lupin to come and pounce on me.

You ready? Yep.

Let's try this.

Oh!

Yeah, it worked!

Ow!

And she bit right down to the tip of my finger

only to find that it isn't actually a mouse.

Well, that was pretty cool.

All right, well apparently I can speak mouse.

Haven't quite yet learned how to speak fox.

Ah!

How cool is that?

Every single time, she thinks my finger's a mouse.

And that's such a great hunting instinct for this baby animal

to be able to learn that this is how I catch mice.

I've got the GoPro set up on a gimbal,

and let's see if we can track down the baby red fox.

If there is one animal that has really worn me out,

it is definitely the baby red fox.

This thing's got more energy than any animal

we've ever worked with.

It wasn't easy to keep up with all that cuteness.

And truth be told, that was also one of the most difficult

episodes we ever filmed.

You're so cute.

You re such a cutie!

For number five on our list of cutest creatures,

it's snuggle time.

Now, this baby river otter was recently orphaned.

And the wildlife sanctuary that we're working with right

now has taken him in and is tending to him.

Hopefully he'll be able to be released back into the wild.

But if not, he's going to have a very comfortable

life here at the sanctuary.

They are opportunistic feeders.

A little one like this would be drinking milk.

But when he gets bigger, he's going to want to be

eating fish, snakes, frogs.

Anything that can find its way into that mouth is fair game.

Oh, still thirsty?

Want some more?

There you go.

Oh, there you go.

Oh, look at that.

Scratching his belly.

Look at him scratching his belly.

I think I formed a pretty good friendship with this otter

at this point.

You having a good day?

A couple of bottles of milk, scratching your face

on the grass.

It's a tough life being an otter, you know.

You stink.

You know that?

You absolutely stink, but I still love you.

Oh, that's the spot, isn't it?

Yeah, he loves that.

That feels good, huh?

All right, well, you've had your bottle of milk.

Are you ready to go splash around in the creek?

I think he's ready.

All right, you lead the way.

That baby otter was pretty stinky, but it sure was cute.

I guess this is one of those rare times

where you can actually use the phrase "so stinking cute."

The next creatures on our cute list

aren't exactly the right size for snuggling,

but that doesn't mean they aren't adorable.

Let's dive in to the number four spot.

We've got manatees surrounding the boat right now.

Trying to be as quiet as possible.

We don't want to disturb them.

This is the moment of truth.

I am diving in with the manatees.

This is going to be awesome.

This is where the fun began.

And before I knew it, playtime was in full effect.

From barrel rolls to belly rubs, we were having a blast.

They're incredibly social animals

and rely heavily on touch and sound for communication,

especially between a cow and her calf.

A cow and a calf right down here.

Why don't you back up a little bit.

We'll go down, see if we can get a great shot.

Being around youngsters, we were witness

to several unique behaviors, including nuzzling,

nursing, and cleaning.

I even made friends with a little guy

we named Douglas, who was absolutely

smitten with our cameras.

Right now, we have the most playful little baby manatee

swimming around with us.

There's no doubt about it.

Dougie was definitely the highlight of our trip.

Swimming with manatees was truly a life-changing experience.

How could you not fall in love with those squishy faces?

Number three on our list is one of the Australian

Outback's classically cute creatures,

the one and only koala.

Hey, Banjo.

Let's see.

So I'm going to get in real close.

And he's going to just kind of put his hand up there.

I want to support his backside.

Oh, just go like that.

There we go, buddy.

Hop on down.

Oh, there we go!

Just like cradling a baby, only much softer.

A koala!

Hi, Banjo.

That's what we call the koala cuddle right there.

Wow, so dense.

Oh my gosh, the fur is incredible.

You don't really realize it until it's

actually on you, but-- Oh wow.

It's almost like a lamb. - I know, right?

Like lamb's wool.

Koala's wool.

Very, very dense.

And a lot of animals you think about having

these coarse outer guard hairs, and he's

just dense and brillowy all throughout.

Oh my gosh, you are just so cute.

I'm trying to talk rather quiet next to his ears.

Look at the ears.

Kind of reminds me of Gizmo from "Gremlins" with those big ears.

And they do have excellent hearing.

Look how they can kind of individually

move each one of those ears too.

Oh my gosh, you're so cute.

Ah, I can't handle it!

That koala was so cute!

And like the baby otter, he was a true stinker.

You might not expect the next animal

to make it on the list of cutest creatures,

but after this bounding baby settled down,

things got downright cuddly.

Oh, look at that.

His little nose is just resting on my arm.

And I think he's had enough food this morning.

He's probably getting tired.

Babies like this do sleep quite a bit he may be getting tired.

I could feel his head getting heavy on my arms.

Oh, what a cute deer.

This is really comforting to him right now.

Just a little scratch on the side of the neck.

Oof!

And you've got to watch your eyes next to those antlers,

though.

Fortunately, they're still pretty dull,

so you take a hit in the face and I'm going to be OK.

Now, Blitzen's eaten a lot of plants this morning.

Let's see if he would like some milk.

Oh, look at that.

Yeah, clearly he's into milk.

Wow, look at how fast this reindeer drinks milk!

That is crazy.

Yum, yum, yum, yum.

Oh my gosh, you are good at chugging milk.

That is one thing for sure.

I can see why Santa probably doesn't

bring you into the house.

You'd eat all of his milk and cookies, wouldn't you?

And just like that, we have run out of milk.

So everybody wanted to know why I grew a beard before Alaska.

I figured I'd fit in perfectly.

And as you can see, this reindeer loves--

Oh, burped right in my face.

This reindeer loves cuddling up against my beard.

Oh, he's going to sleep right now, I think.

With snuggles and hugs like that,

I can see why Santa loves his reindeer.

So far, our countdown of cuteness

has featured cute but prickly, sweet

but shy, gentle but giant, and all kinds of fur

covered snuggly.

But our number one cutest animal has it all, cute,

cuddly, sweet, and gentle.

Ladies and gentlemen, B-Rad, the baby sloth.

Now, B-Rad is a baby three-toed sloth.

Yeah, want to give me a high-three?

High-three.

There you go.

I love the gray and white coloration

of the fur and that very distinct raccoon

looking mask on the face.

Now, baby sloths make a really interesting noise,

and B-Rad's not making it, but they do go--

I'm talking to you.

I can speak sloth.

Yeah.

That right there is a cecropia leaf.

Let's see if B-Rad is hungry.

Oh, he's going for it.

Oh.

Oh goodness.

Do you see that?

Yeah.

I don't know what's cuter, the baby sloth itself or the baby

sloth eating a leaf.