Original subtitles

Over the years, Brave Wilderness

has shown you some pretty strange

oddities of the animal world.

We've seen tiny anteaters, worms that bite, worms

that aren't even worms at all.

How about those giant salamanders?

And we've even shown you frogs with transparent skin.

But the one I'm going to show you

today is both bizarre in appearance

and has one of the weirdest traits I've ever heard of.

Or should I say smelled of?

Get your popcorn ready.

This one is unbelievable.

What's going on, everybody?

I'm Mark Vins, and welcome back for another adventure here

at the Wildlife HQ in Sunshine Coast, Australia.

And we're here again today with Sue.

And Sue, I see you have some bananas that we're going to use

to feature our next guest.

Yes.

This is his favorite food, but most people have probably never

heard of his species before.

OK.

And what is his species?

So they're known as a binturong,

or their common name is a bearcat.

But they're not a bear, and they're not a cat.

OK cool.

I like the name bearcat--

that's already piqued my interest right there.

I'm going to use a GoPro to try to see

how close I can actually get.

You feel good about this? - Yes let's go.

OK let's go find a bearcat.

To encounter a bearcat in the wild

is extremely rare as they have become vulnerable

and even endangered in much of their natural range

in Southeast Asia.

This is unfortunately due to poaching and habitat loss.

Looks like Sari has caught wind of the bananas.

Yeah.

It's looking pretty good here.

He's having a big stretch.

Are bearcats traditionally

a nocturnal species?

Mostly nocturnal.

So not strictly, but mostly.

OK.

This bearcat reminds me of a wolverine.

And the wolverine we've worked with in Alaska

was not nearly this calm, so I'm hoping

that Sari stays in this demeanor for the entirety

of this episode.

He's actually a gentle giant.

OK.

Good.

They definitely look a little bit intimidating, I will say.

Look at those claws.

Check out that big tail.

His tail is actually fully prehensile,

and he can suspend his whole weight

by the very tip of his tail.

Wow, look at this.

Hey, Sari.

Hi.

Look at that.

Yum.

Yum.

Oh yeah.

How's that?

That's just how-- ooh.

Ugh.

That's how I eat a banana.

You are slobbering all over me.

But thank you for coming down to hang out.

You are very interesting.

Oh look at that claw.

Look it-- He wants another bite.

Oh my goodness.

So I'm able to get a good look at these claws,

and they are razor sharp--

no doubt for climbing trees.

But the pads are almost like a bear.

I could definitely see why they get the name bearcat.

Not only are they absolutely covered in this fluffy mane,

but also their claws and pads are just like a black bear.

Look at you.

Hi.

How's it going?

And you can see the cat comes from the whiskers.

So to clear things up, let's talk about this name bearcat.

While possessing bear-like feet and cat-like whiskers,

a binturong is not related to a bear or a cat.

In fact, it's family, the Viverridae,

contains many other unusual small to medium sized

mammals like the civet.

But this omnivorous bearcat is the largest,

and although it looks an awful lot

like a wolverine, or a badger, it's not

closely related to them either.

Now how old will a bearcat live?

Up to about 25 years.

OK.

And how old is Sari, if you don't mind me asking.

Is that rude? Rude?

Sorry, Sari.

I'm sure he doesn't mind.

He's about 11 years old.

OK.

So the coloration-- Whoa whoa whoa.

Easy.

We got a little bit more left.

Oh my gosh.

So the the coloration in the fur--

that has nothing to do with age.

It doesn't, no.

And they can vary in color depending

on what region they're found.

So they can be really gray right through to the black.

Very cool.

Now while the hair does keep the bearcat warm,

it also doubles as a natural raincoat,

keeping this arboreal species dry up in the treetops.

All right.

We've got one last little piece Sari.

This is going to be it.

This is the outro, you ready?

Well I hope you guys enjoyed hanging out with this bearcat

as much as I did today.

Thank you, Sue, so much.

If you guys are ever in the Sunshine Coast of Australia,

say hello to our friend the bearcat, Sari.

You won't be disappointed.

I'm Mark Vins.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

All right. See ya, Sari.

Pages quiet. Real quick.

Hey, guys.

We're about to leave, and then I saw this.

That's not rain.

And it smells just like popcorn.

Oh my gosh.

It's like all around us.

I cannot believe that.

If you told me, hey, somebody's got a fresh bag of popcorn

ready, I would believe you right now.

Holy smokes.

All Right.

Banana drop.

I'm out.

Never in my wildest dreams

did I ever imagine feeding a bearcat.

And who knew they like bananas so much?

But boy, the shocker of the century

had to be this animal's unique and oddly familiar scent.

While bearcats always smell subtly

like corn chips because of their musk,

their pee smells just like buttered popcorn--

not kind of like it or somewhat like it.

We're talking exactly like it.

And this is due to the chemical compound in their urine known

as 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which is the same chemical compound

created in the popcorn popping process

when sugars and amino acids interact at high temperatures.

Honestly, before today if you were to tell me

any animal's urine would smell exactly

like my favorite snack food, my answer would be, no way.

But it does.

Let's just say going to the movies will never be the same.

Huge thanks goes out to Australia's Wildlife HQ.

We love the HQ because they are a small, family owned wildlife

park run by passionate conservationists who

aid in important efforts including the Queensland Koala

Crusaders, a group in particular need at the moment

as a result from the fires.

Their support for conserving wildlife

means that by paying a visit, you

can both have the rare opportunity

to get up close with some incredible creatures

and could serve them all at the same time.

Welcome back to Base Camp, the show where we don't actually

camp, but instead we sit inside of this room

where there's a fire that kind of looks like a camp site,

and we dissect an old episode.

Right? - That was great.

Great.

I will say, the fire is warm.

It's getting pretty hot over here.

Yeah.

Maybe we should just stare at the fire for a little while.

I don't think the audience wants to do that.

So right now we're at our home away from home,

101 BK, one of our favorite restaurants here

in Columbus, Ohio, who's so graciously

hosting us for this series.

We actually dive into old episodes,

dissect them, and tell you guys what it took to make them

and how difficult it really was.

I'm honestly just here for the coffee.

- It is good coffee, right? - It's really good.

And what are you drinking?

I'm drinking water.

That's true.

Coyote doesn't drink coffee.

Can you imagine what you would be

like if you were on caffeine?

I would be bouncing off of the walls inside of this restaurant

right now.

Yeah, people ask, like, does Coyote eat a lot of candy?

Is he on a sugar high?

Like no, that's just--

That's just me.

You're full-go all the time.

It's beard power.

OK so the episode that we are looking at today is, as we say,

an oldie but goodie-- a true classic.

Do you guys have any idea which episode we're looking at?

Yeah.

We don't know-- just so you guys know--

we don't know what videos we're going

to watch before these start.

Coyote picks them.

We just show up.

Came for the coffee.

Can we guess?

No, that would take forever.

We have like over 300 videos. - Yeah that's right.

I don't think we have time for that.

So I'm just going to tell you guys.

We are headed back to Montana to revisit one of the most

adorable mammals we've ever featured on the Brave

Wilderness channel--

Bucky the black bear.

- Bucky the bear! - That's right.

Oh man.

- You guys remember Bucky. - Oh Yeah.

And maybe you remember this.

I do remember that.

I don't remember that.

You don't remember all of the audio difficulty

we had filming this episode because Bucky

had so much to say?

I don't remember it being difficult at all.

This is one of the most difficult

episodes we ever filmed.

So let's take a look at that episode,

and I think it's going to bring back

some of those memories of what it really

took to film with a baby bear.

All right. Here we go.

Roll the footage.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

That's a baby black bear.

COYOTE PETERSON See,

there's the sound right there. I hear it.

I thought we wanted that.

There it is.

We didn't want the bear noises?

No, no for editing purposes.

Oh I thought that was good.

This was a nightmare for us

to edit in post-production.

The bear making noises here and making noises there

and then not lining up with anything that was going on.

Yeah look how quickly those set up shots are.

Oh yeah.

Pause that for a second.

It's amazing to think that today we use drones.

We get these epic environmental shots that really submerge you

into the environment.

Back then we were like, hurry up and get to the animal.

It's like b-roll shot, b-roll shot, b-roll shot.

Well our videos used to be much shorter--

Right.

- back then.

The YouTube standard was more of like a 5-7 minute video.

Today it's over 10.

So it's great-- we can actually develop the story

a lot longer and a lot better.

But it is fun to watch these old videos

because they're a full go.

Boom boom boom boom boom.

The voiceovers were actually a lot

more difficult to write back then

when they had to be this short.

I like being able to write the more epic intros to the show.

Here we go.

Bozeman.

Look at that hawk shot.

Remember when you got that, Mario?

Oh pine marten.

There's Adam.

Grizzly bear.

Oh there he is.

He was always licking his paws.

So cute, but he was a firecracker.

Really was.

Oh itching his ear.

Oh hey, Buddy.

Bucky was a cub but not a small bear.

No, pause it for a second.

Bucky was like the size of a German shepherd, guys.

He's still considered like a black bear cub-- a baby bear.

But his claws and his teeth--

If he was just like, Mario, I don't like

the way you're looking at me.

Yeah, he was already weaned.

So he had his claws, he had his teeth.

Yes, so like a bite from Bucky is not a bite you want.

No, that's the end of the episode.

I guess we could have started bite episodes here.

But you do not want to be bitten by a black bear.

I guess this is an important spot to note.

Bucky is a bear from a wildlife sanctuary, right?

And Bucky is actually a rescue.

Somebody had him as a pet.

So had him this size, whether they took it from a den

or it was abandoned by the mother.

We don't know the exact details of that.

But it grew to the size-- it was almost a German shepherd.

Then it destroyed a couch, then it destroyed a bedroom,

and the people that had it said, OK, we can't

take care of a black bear.

Yeah and that's the problem a lot

of times you see with people keeping exotic pets

is they're cute and cuddly when they're newborns,

but they quickly grow.

And it's not something you want your living room.

Yeah.

They don't make good pets. - No.

OK let's keep going.

It's common to stumble

up on one while I'm hiking.

And while it might seem like a once-in-a-lifetime--

Aww.

COYOTE PETERSON [ON - moment

to snap a bear-selfie--

I love Bucky's coat because he was actually blowing

out his winter coat at the time, and he had this cool mohawk

right down the whole back.

And it just made him look cool.

He almost looked like a hyena.

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh pause it right there. Pause it right there.

There is a great shot--

and what you're about to see how we

would get some of those up close to the camera animal shots--

the original selfie stick.

Your original selfie stick.

No.

I invented the selfie stick as far as I'm concerned.

I used to go into the environment,

take a dead branch, and secure a camera to it.

Hold on, hold on.

And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere,

selfie sticks popped up.

So are you claiming you are the original inventor

of the selfie stick?

I am pretty sure that the original design

for the selfie stick was stolen from Breaking

Trail episodes with me putting drift

cameras on the end of a stick. - I don't know, man.

That's pretty bold.

That's pretty bold.

Maybe you were the first person to use an actual stick.

Maybe you just couldn't afford a real selfie stick?

I'm pretty sure they didn't make selfie sticks,

but maybe this is something we should

put on the Brave Wilderness store--

the original selfie stick.

Just food for thought.

I'm just saying.

All right, let's get back into the episode.

Back to Bucky.

And here comes the success

of the selfie stick shot.

Look at this.

Nose shot.

That camera was fascinating to that bear.

Actually in that instance he looked like,

get that camera away from me.

Now what is Bucky doing there?

Let's stop that right there.

He is searching for wild marshmallows.

Right. That we put there.

Yes.

To keep Bucky in the location, we

actually worked with the handlers to bury marshmallows--

upwards 50 marshmallows-- that we buried in the soil that

would actually work as a natural hunting technique for the bear.

Forging technique to help it learn

to search for things that were buried beneath the surface.

That was the only way to really keep Bucky in one area.

I mean Bucky was so curious--

running all over the place.

But I will say this--

Bucky was excellent at finding those marshmallows.

He's like a little truffle pig.

He was just like bink bink bink.

We had to actually replant the marshmallows like three

or four times for this video.

Yeah.

He was vaccuming up those marshmallows

unlike anything I'd ever seen.

We actually ran out, I believe.

But anyway.

COYOTE PETERSON [ON How adorable is he?

And you might see him out in the wild and think, OK--

There's my shadow.

Yeah you know, the shadows

were all over the place.

I think you guys are going to notice in this episode-- maybe

now that I'm pointing it out-- is that this scene was bouncing

from spot to spot to spot.

While it was a good idea to keep the bear in the area using

marshmallows, it also forced the bear

to move all over the place.

So I was constantly shifting sides.

The continuity of this episode is an absolute train wreck.

But in all fairness, I cut this episode,

and then Chris, our master editor, came in,

spit this thing up-- you can't even notice that this thing

is all over the place.

There's shadow again.

And I think that--

pause it there-- we learned a really important lesson

in videos like this in the early days.

We couldn't really control an animal like Bucky.

You can't really--

Don't control the bear.

- ask him to do certain things or stay in a certain spot.

So you really just have to adapt.

Yeah.

And that's a technique that we use

today that has really allowed us to make the videos we've made.

Back then, we were like, we've got to get the light perfect,

no shadows.

The animal's going to stay right there.

And as we found out quickly, that's not realistic.

And Bucky was one of the first mammals,

in all fairness, we ever worked with.

And you can't hold on to a bear.

It's different when you have a turtle or a snake

and you're like, OK, I'm pretty much in control of this scene

and the cameras don't have to do anything crazy.

Right.

You're not going to hold onto a baby black bear.

Yeah so filming wildlife really, in essence,

is not something that is in control, ever.

Right.

You're always reacting to the wildlife.

Yeah I think now we often are very opportunistic

and just determine what the animal

is going to accept from us.

And we kind of go with the flow instead of forcing it.

Let's flow with this video.

All right here we go. That rhymed.

Good job.

That you see puffing up.

That's his summer coat blowing out

and the winter coat getting ready to come in.

It is a really cool look.

You could see some of the cinnamon coloration in his fur

too.

Kind of like a buffalo.

COYOTE PETERSON Like brindle.

Some black bears actually have a very brown--

COYOTE PETERSON Right.

The cinnamon phase.

Yeah, and often are confused to Grizzlies.

The black bear is the smallest species

of bear here in the United States and in North America.

Trumped, of course, by the grizzly.

It was great how Bucky

was using its like natural kind of foraging behavior--

digging with its claws.

Well what's cool too is that Bucky

was not a small bear--

not a newborn-- but was still very much

a cub in the sense that he was getting used to how big he was.

He's growing so quickly and it was sort of awkward watching

him learn how to be a bear.

Was really interesting I thought,

and you don't really see a lot of videos with bears this size.

He was one curious cub.

That's for sure.

And I watch my movements in this scene.

It's funny, I would start presenting.

I'd be like, OK, I've got a line of dialogue to deliver.

I have this fact in mind.

And then I turn around and the bear's like over there.

It's like, up, got to move again.

It seems like you were

using your selfie stick as like a barrier

between Bucky and you.

COYOTE PETERSON You know,

in all fairness a little bit.

And because this is a bear that was acclimated to humans,

he was still developing into a mature bear.

And the plan was for him to be released

back into the wild, which I do believe

has happened at this point.

So you'll notice I don't ever make

physical contact with the bear.

And that was one of the strict rules that the handler said,

do not touch the bear.

We don't want it to be that acclimated.

We're trying to rehabituate it to being a wild animal.

We were all very cautious around this animal.

We were treating it like wild animal.

Yeah and you know black bears-- that's a good point--

black bears, in particular, are known

to be habituated to humans and human environments.

And that's what actually makes them particularly dangerous.

Right.

Often in bear country around dumpsters or trash corrals,

you get nuisance bears.

And that's what you don't want to happen.

So we certainly didn't want Bucky to think that, if I want

food, I have to find a human.

I sure hope that Bucky isn't jumping into dumpsters

now looking for marshmallows.

Popping up be like, guys got some treats for me?

Last thing you want to do is go through all

your trash worrying about black bear pop out of the dumpster.

No way.

But I still have to respect the fact--

he's got some pretty big paws.

And on those paws--

COYOTE PETERSON There you go.

I mentioned the claws and the teeth at this point.

That's fitting.

Blunt force as powerful as a German shepherd?

Yeah that's not something that I'm ready to mess with.

COYOTE PETERSON Boy,

look at the shadow on my face.

We're still figuring out the time of day

to shoot with my hat because it cast that Zorro-type shadow

across my face, which is honestly

really difficult to work with for you

guys as camera operators.

We developed the character in the hat

before we had actually filmed anything,

and we found out very quickly that that hat

was a shadow problem.

COYOTE PETERSON The cowboy hat

does come off, guys, when I'm not

actually filming this stuff.

It's not glued to my head.

Look at him digging for marshmallows.

Where are they Bucky?

Oh get it buddy.

And this behavior that Bucky's showing--

this is a form of enrichment.

So the trainers would actually take him out

to allow him to forage, getting him ready to potentially

be released into the wild.

COYOTE PETERSON Right.

It could be worms that are buried down there,

grubs, digging for roots and tubers, and stuff like that.

So this is totally natural bear behavior.

Yeah.

And you know, that's a good point.

Whenever we work with a captive animal that's

planned for release back into the wild,

we always try to make sure what we're filming

is part of its natural routine.

We don't want to have the animal do something special or out

of the ordinary just for us.

Right that's a good point to make.

Like we didn't come into the scenario and say, hey,

can we bury marshmallows to get this bear

to stay in the location?

This was part of Bucky's everyday routine.

We just got to be part of it.

You'll notice how much the light has changed at this point.

I mean this episode is only about 5 and 1/2 minutes

in length, but I think it took us around an hour and a half

to film this.

look how dark it was getting.

And unfortunately, that's one way that people often

interact or encounter these bears--

is right in their backyard.

Make sure you-- Oh Bucky.

He still makes me smile.

Yeah.

I wonder how big he is today.

I mean, he's probably a couple hundred pounds at this point.

This is three and a half years ago that we filmed this.

Look at that tongue.

There he is.

Oh buddy.

He is very cute.

I could see why people would want to get close to baby bears

to take pictures.

This probably a good point to mention.

Guys, it is super imperative that you never try

to take a selfie with a bear.

I don't care what the species is.

Especially a baby bear.

Especially a baby bear.

Have you guys seen "The Revenent"?

That's a very real scenario that could happen where a mother

bear will attack a human aggressively, sometimes

fatally, to make sure that her cubs are safe.

And all species of bears will defend their young.

Yeah.

Bears, in particular, have that instinct

to protect their young--

more so than most mammals.

So definitely steer clear of cubs in the wild.

Yeah.

Admire bears from a very safe distance.

COYOTE PETERSON Getting

this close to a black bear cub.

Have you guys ever seen a black bear while out

there hiking in the wild?

Tell me about it in the comments section below.

That's a little clunky right there, Coyote.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave, and stay wild.

Look at that shadow in your face.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

COYOTE PETERSON I wouldn't

say that outro was as good as the Rainbow Trout episode.

I was kind of back and forth with what worked

and what didn't work.

And then it just wraps up.

Still when I watch these old episodes

that I'm expecting some sort of voiceover outro with more epic

b-roll shots and some sort of poignant-moment take-away

from what it is.

It's like, end of the episode, here's my disclaimer.

Well now YouTube has in-screens.

Times have changed dramatically since these days.

That was a really cool video.

Bucky was definitely a lot of fun to hang out with,

and wherever he is now hopefully doing well.

I imagine he's probably out there eating berries,

and actually I guess at this point he's

probably hibernating right now.

Yeah, that was a good practice for us--

learning how to work with mammals.

We've worked with several mammals since, and as you said,

now we're approaching the filming in a different manner.

Definitely just kind of allowing the animal to do its thing.

There's no question about it.

Filming with mammals is the most difficult objective we have,

whether working with a wildlife sanctuary,

or we're trying to get up close to mammals in the wild.

It is a challenge each and every time.

Yeah.

Often the cuter ones are more of the challenge, right?

- Yeah. - Right.

And certainly if you can't hold it.

If you can hold something--

I guess even still, even if you can hold it,

it's like, I'm going to climb up here and all there.

And then none of the continuity makes sense.

It's a whole world of trouble in post-production.

Wild animals are not pets.

They don't like to be held.

Yeah.

Nothing ever likes to be held. Well cool.

I feel that was a pretty good episode-- taking a look back

at Bucky, the baby black bear.

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this adventure.

Write in the comments section below.

Tell us what episodes you want to see next.

We have a couple of other good classics cued up, but--

Classics.

It makes me feel old when you call them classics.

Well I mean, when you're looking back 300-some videos,

you're saying this is the first 20 videos that we've made.

They're kind of classics at this point.

Got a lot more gray in my beard, that's for sure.

This is true.

And I just have a bigger beard at this point.

Kind of look like a baby black bear.

All right, guys. Are you ready for the outro?

- Let's do it. - You know how to do it.

I'm Coyote Petersen.

I'm Mark Vins.

I'm Mario Aldecoa.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next base camp adventure.

Did pretty good.

That might have been the best one we've done yet.

I think getting better.

That good for you guys?

Yeah. - Cut.

All right.