Original subtitles

What's going on, Coyote Pack?

Today we're on location at the Colorado

Wolf and Wildlife Center.

This past week we had the chance to work with some frisky foxes,

I got to close with a coyote, and we even

got into an enclosure to feed wolves.

But today we're working with an animal of a different type.

Ponies.

That's right.

But not just any ponies--

Miniature ponies.

We've been tasked with grooming, walking, and--

Feeding.

Which means that anything is possible.

Are you ready?

Go Pro's on.

Let's go find those ponies.

Mario, how much time did you spend working with ponies?

Well, not much but the question

is are they ponies or miniature horses?

Well, I think technically all ponies are horses,

but not all horses are ponies.

And these are miniature ponies, so they're my mini ponies.

Have you ever heard of My Little Ponies?

Yeah.

But that was a cartoon that I did

not watch when I was younger.

I actually watched "My Little Ponies" all the time

because my sister loved it so.

Really?

Yeah, I have a feeling she's going

to really enjoy this video.

There they are, the ultimate reveal.

There are the ponies.

Which one's which?

I don't know.

One's named Cassie.

One is named Dixie.

Are you Dixie or Cassie?

Which one's which?

No, no, it's Dixie and Cassie, not Pixie.

Is that what you said? Dixie.

Dixie.

Yeah, Dixie.

OK, well, the first thing we need to do

is just obviously enter the enclosure with the ponies.

All right, ponies, were coming in.

Good morning.

How are you?

Earlier, when we're working at the center,

every time we enter an enclosure,

you have to be really careful because we're

working with wolves and dangerous animals.

Anything we have to worry about with these guys?

Ooh, is that a bite?

No, that's a kiss.

That's a pony kiss right there.

OK, so the first thing we should probably do

is groom the ponies, right?

Sure.

I feel like by grooming the ponies,

we'll get them to warm up to us and--

They will.

From there, we'll figure out if we

can actually walk the ponies.

OK, that sounds about right.

Can you ride a pony?

I don't think you can ride a pony, so how about this?

You go ahead and groom first.

OK.

I will film you grooming the pony.

Give me your camera.

All right, there you go.

So is this part of their daily routine?

It is now.

Ooh, is this-- is this a ponytail?

I think you'd have to braid it for it

to be a ponytail.

Actually that's the ponytail right there.

How's that?

All right, Mari.

Doing a pretty good job grooming that pony.

The mystery's still out.

Are they miniature horses, or are they ponies

because I always thought a pony was

like a baby horse or something.

No, a baby horse would be called a foal,

and then a juvenile horse is a colt.

And these would just be straight up miniature ponies.

OK.

All right.

Here, how about our hand over the cameras to you, and I

will groom the other pony?

All right.

Let's do it.

All right, pony.

Good morning. How are you?

Oh.

That pony-- pony doesn't like you, Coyote.

I was-- I was going to do your hairdo.

I was--

He's gone.

My pony has run away in the other direction all the way

to the other side of the enclosure.

Which means I guess I'd better just follow the pony.

Oh, pony.

Is there any way to call in a pony?

I think so.

I think this is Cassie.

Cassie.

Come here, Cassie.

You know what pones really like?

What?

Carrots.

You know what I've got?

A pocket full of carrots.

Cassie.

Breakfast.

Come here, Cassie.

Why are you--

have such a high pitch voice right now?

The ponies like it when you talk in high pitch.

This is what I was told earlier today.

They apparently like loud shrill noises,

so I'm going to do my best to speak pony.

Cassie.

Here, sweetie.

I've got some carrots.

Kind of sound like your mom.

I do?

Let's see if we can get closer.

Pony, you're standing in your own poop.

Look what I've got, carrots.

Come here, pony.

Look.

Come here, pony.

Good pony.

My mini pony, my mini pony.

I do remember the theme song.

What?

Look.

The pony's going to make me go right into the poop pile.

Maybe toss-- toss a carrot.

Oh, the pony found the carrot.

Sometimes it takes a little bit of patience

to be a pony whisperer.

Look.

Look.

It's carrots.

What a good pony.

There we go.

Coyote made contact, gaining the trust--

I'm feeding the pony.

There we go.

OK.

Good pony.

OK, well, we got the feeding part down,

but I don't think this pony's going to let me groom it.

No, but slowly but surely, I think you're gaining its trust.

There you go.

Oh, nice little pet.

There you go.

OK, maybe if I do this and give the pony a carrot and then

I do the grooming.

Let's see.

Oh, good girl.

Here we go.

Oh, no.

I don't think we're going to be putting any braids

into this pony's mane.

Got it.

All right, I'm going to go--

maybe I'll go groom the other pony.

Let's see what happens. Yeah.

I'm going to give this one another carrot real quick.

OK

Here you go.

So I couldn't groom Cassie, but I'm

going to come over here and groom Dixie

because Dixie seems to enjoy grooming

much more than Cassie does.

OK, now I have fed a pony and groomed a pony.

Next task is to walk a pony.

Come on, pony.

All right, off you go.

Come on.

Giddy up.

I don't think this pony is very interested in going for a walk.

Come on, pony.

Lure her with some carrot.

Oh, with the carrot.

Good idea.

Pony.

Yeah, she's definitely much more interested in eating

that grass, isn't she?

Taking care of ponies is much more difficult than I

thought it was going to be.

I thought we were going to go for a walk.

I thought we were going for a walk.

Let's get some exercise.

What do you say? What do you think?

You want to just run around in the enclosure?

We can go this way.

Let's go.

There we go.

Go, go, go, go, go.

All right, you got the pony getting exercise to about

the edge of the snow line.

You don't like to walk in the snow?

No snow.

All right, well, I guess that's about as far as we'll go then.

Does that count as exercise for the pony?

Not-- not really.

No.

This isn't exactly going according to plan is it?

All right, I'm going to unhook you.

I'm going to count that as your exercise for the day though,

OK.

You made it all of about 15 steps.

Here we go.

Here's a carrot for--

All your efforts.

Effort.

I thought this is going to be easy--

grooming, feeding, and walking ponies.

It's actually probably the most difficult

thing we've done all week.

Well, I'd say you're a little bit more of an expert

on ponies since you watched a lot of my ponytails

or My Little Ponies.

Yeah.

Yeah, my-- that's a cartoon, but this is my mini ponies.

Well, that's how you get them to exercise.

There you go.

Woo!

Mario has figured out how to best exercise the ponies.

All it takes is a bag of carrots.

You just have to run with it, and the ponies follow you.

Run back over this way.

Running with ponies

is hard work, especially at this elevation.

Here comes Cassie picking up

the lead from behind.

You can do it, girl.

You got it.

Ponies, not exactly as fast as horses.

Yeah, you made it.

Good job but unfortunately I don't have any carrots.

There goes Mario and Dixie.

Woo!

You're not quite as fast as Dixie are you?

Yeah, you're a pretty pony.

Well, today we were tasked with taking care of the ponies.

We groomed the ponies, we fed the ponies,

and Mario even figured out how to exercise the ponies.

All you need to do is run with a bag full of carrots.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

I'm Mario Aldecoa.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next location.

Carrots.

Carrots.

Come on, carrots.

Get your carrots.

Woo!

Yee-haw.

Here we go.

Nice black and white coat, too.

What a pretty pony.

My mini pony.

My mini pony, my mini pony.

I know you love it when I brush your hair.

This is the strangest on vacation episode

we've ever filmed.

I'm just going to lie down here actually.

Just get some sun.

This is one really happy pony.

Don't get stepped on.

That was close.

Hi, pony.

If you happen to find yourself in Divide, Colorado,

and are looking for an up close encounter with some

of our planet's beautiful predators,

make sure to swing by the Colorado

Wolf and Wildlife Center.

Or if you happen to find yourself and Divide, Colorado,

and are looking for an up close encounter with some

of our planet's grumpiest mini ponies,

they will be there waiting for you.

And make sure to bring a bag of mini carrots as an offering

because nothing goes better with mini ponies than mini carrots.

So what exactly is a mini bull?

That's a great question.

Honestly, I didn't even know it was a thing

until I visited Tim's farm.

Miniature Texas longhorns are descendants of standard size

longhorns that have been selectively

bred to reduce their size.

According to the International Miniature Cattle

Breeders Society of Registry--

woo-- mini cattle should not exceed the height of 42 inches

at the hip bone.

Tim's herd falls within this range therefore making

them mini bulls and cows.

Good morning, Tim.

Morning, Coyote.

I got your special delivery.

Perfect.

Alfalfa cubes.

Good to see you. - Good to see you, too.

Thanks for coming out.

Yeah, thanks for having us not to Brutko Farms.

So, all right, guys this morning,

we're going to get to feed a miniature longhorn bull.

I'm a little nervous, Tim.

I didn't wear anything red just to make

sure that I'm not charged. Do I look OK?

You look perfect, but you actually don't

need to worry about the red.

Cows are actually color blind, and they

go based off your movements.

OK--

So as long as you don't move fast, you should be all right.

OK, well, let's go meet the cows.

Yeah, come on in.

All right, it's just safe to walk right in here?

Yeah, this is Wonky.

She's friendly.

Oh, hi, Wonky.

Its Wonky a bull or cow?

She's a cow.

Oh, there they are out there.

All right, Tim-ala, you lead the way.

All right.

Let's go meet Clancy.

So Clancy is your miniature longhorn, correct?

Correct.

He is 16 years old.

We actually just started our mini longhorn herd.

We have a few more cows we have to pick up,

but the owner asked us to please take care of him.

He's his friend.

And so we're his retirement home.

OK.

These are miniature longhorns, and the definition

of a miniature--

Uh oh.

Stampede.

Stampede.

Now how do we get Clancy to come close?

Take out an alfalfa cube and dangle it in front of his face,

he'll come.

Clancy.

Oh, there we go.

He look right at us.

We got alfalfa cubes, buddy.

All right, we'll try to go for feeding Wonky first.

What do you think?

Alfalfa cubes.

Wow.

Oh, there we go.

First contact.

Whoa.

The tongues of cows are extremely scratchy.

Unlike horses, they don't have teeth on the top

of their skulls in the front.

Just on the bottom.

So when they go to graze on grass, what they actually needs

to do is wrap their tongue all the way around the grass,

rip it off, and then push it back to their molars.

They grind it up and swallow it down as this huge ball of grass

that then goes into their first digestive column,

which is known as the rumen.

Then you've probably heard of cows eating their cud.

They regurgitate up that grass and continue

to chew it, regurgitate it, chew it, regurgitate it--

oh my gosh, here comes Clancy.

Wow, he's a big boy.

Hi, buddy.

How are you?

Watch out for those horns.

Now are they in tune with the fact

that their horns stick out considerably beyond the sides

of their skulls?

Absolutely.

Gotta definitely watch out for 'em.

That's for sure.

OK, you're getting a little closer with those horns, buddy.

He knows where the tip of his horns are for sure.

I've seen them maneuver through things that you thought

there's not a chance that they're gonna

be able to move through it.

Little tilt of the head and they fit right through.

Head scratch.

I don't think he necessarily likes his head scratched.

You can see just how solid the skull is, though.

Absolutely-- - Oh.

- Ooh. - He got you.

- Yeah. - He got you.

All right those horns are pretty--

are definitely pretty strong.

All right, no petting your head, Clancy.

I get it.

You just want alfalfa cubes.

We can be cool with that.

Now why does Wonky have a curved horn?

Her owner said that she got in a fight

with one of her fellow herd mates,

and the horn basically twisted.

So these keratin horns basically sit on a bone

that stick-- comes out to about here I'd say,

and I guess if they hit them hard enough, they can twist.

So, Tim, tell us a little bit more about Brutko Farms.

This is considered a mini farm, correct?

Yep.

We are a new farm located just outside of Ashland, Kentucky,

and our goal is to be an environmentally

responsible and self-sustaining farm.

So the concept of mini farms

seems to be really popular right now.

Why is it that people are beginning

to start these mini farms as compared to the massive farms

that we knew of the past?

Well, they're affordable to the average person,

and now people are more aware of where the food's coming

from so they want to start to grow their own food

or try to buy locally.

It's become sort of a craze, and these mini longhorns or mini

cows in general really fit the bill

for an easy, self-sustaining farm

that you can create your own meat,

your own milk, whatever you'd like to do with your cattle.

Careful there, man.

Gotta watch out for those horns.

You can't take your eyes off him for a second.

Well, it certainly was cool getting to hang out here

with these mini cows today, specifically Clancy,

the mini Texas longhorn.

And that brings us to the end of our bucket of alfalfa.

Well, Tim, I would shake your hand

and say thank you for bringing us out to Brutko Farms

today to meet these beautiful animals,

but my hand is completely covered in bull slobber.

So I'll just give you a fist bump.

OK, good? Yep.

Come here. Check this out.

All day, it has been raining, and we thought

we would not get it episode.

But lo and behold, a break in the clouds

and wait until you see what I found.

Hopefully it's still there.

Oh, there he is I can see him from here.

Oh, he's so big.

Look at this.

Look, look, look.

Yes.

Do you know what that is?

Looks like a giant snail.

It is.

It is the giant African land snail,

and I have never been more happy to see a snail in my life

than I am right now because we have

been dealing with rain all day.

We didn't think we'd get an episode.

Sure enough, there's a break in the weather.

I come out, I'm looking around, Mario and I were actually

filming termites coming up out of their nest,

they got flooded out, I turn around, and what do I see?

This giant beauty.

Oh, boy.

I think we may not have that long.

Yeah, we've got just a few minutes to film this episode.

But what I want to do is gently pick

this snail up and see if we can take

a close look at its anatomy.

You ready?

I'm going to try to do this really

gently so that I don't scare it.

You sure you're fast enough?

Yeah, right?

One speedy little--

Oh, wow. - Mollusk.

It didn't go into its shell.

No that's because I was incredibly gentle with it.

Does not feel scared right now.

And look at that creature.

Honestly, this is the biggest snail I have ever handled.

Now similar to slugs, they have a very interesting design

to their body.

Now separate from slugs, obviously they're

carrying their house on their back, which you

can see that shell right there.

Such a cool looking shell.

Go ahead and zoom in on that.

Look at that unique design, almost

like the stripes of a tiger.

And it's got that conical shape.

It looks like it's kind of nudged off at the end.

Sometimes they are pointy at the end.

Ooh and he is just latched on to me right now.

Now most of the time you think of snails

as being a creature that as soon as it's disturbed,

it will suck its body into its shell to stay protected.

And, of course, if I was trying to eat the snail,

that's what it would do.

But in this instance, because I picked it up gently

and placed it on my hand, it feels completely comfortable.

Let's look at the face of this animal.

It's got those very distinct eye stalks.

And as we know, these creatures do not have good eyesight,

but what they can do is sense light in the environment.

Now just underneath the front of those two little stalks,

it has a scratchy radula.

Ooh, and I can feel it on my finger right there.

And what they do is they move that across the environment.

These are like little environmental vacuum cleaners,

moving about cleaning up all of the dead debris.

Whether it's decomposing plants or even animal matter,

it's fair game for these snails.

Man, we've been seeing their shells,

but this is the first one we've actually seen.

Well, what's interesting is that when it rains,

it's pretty much the only time you're going to see

a creature like this come out.

Right now, it is overcast, and it is very wet.

Look at this soil.

This is mud that we are dealing with,

which is the perfect time--

ugh, covered in it and now-- for an animal

like this to come out and move about.

If you were to put your hand upside down,

would it stick?

Good question.

Let's find out.

Yep.

Look at that, completely glued to my hand right there.

Wow.

And he actually has some weight to it.

It probably weighs about a half a pound.

Really? - Yeah.

Oh, man.

It's a lot heavier than you would think.

And it's so cool, a mollusk like this out here in the desert

terrain of South Africa.

And again the only time you're going

to see a creature like this is either at night

or after a large rainstorm has moved through.

Obviously, this creature is taking advantage

of all the moisture in the ground

and all of the wet plant life that it can chomp up on.

I'm so excited my hand is shaking right now.

I'm telling you guys, I've never been

more excited to find a mollusk.

This thing is crazy big.

But believe it or not, they can get bigger than this.

Their shells can grow up to 7 inches in length.

Whoa.

Man, that's, like, twice the size of that one.

Right?

Talk about being a giant snail.

So, Mario, it's not uncommon to have larger animals in Africa.

Why is everything so big?

Yeah, he said big animal, so I was thinking, like, elephant.

But I guess it's the environment.

There's probably a lot of food and a lot of nutrients

that these animals could get in order to get big.

Yeah. - Yeah.

Cool.

Now look at it skin.

So bumpy, almost looks like it would be rough and rugged

like the skin of a rhino, but it's actually

very slimy and sticky, Mark.

Why don't you go ahead, put your finger in there,

tell the audience what it feels like.

Oh, wow, it's not rough at all.

No, slimy, isn't it?

It's not even bumpy.

It's, like, gooey.

Like a booger.

Like a big gushy booger.

Coyote, is it's shell growing,

or is it going to find a new shell?

No, that's a great question.

The shell is actually growing with the snail,

and it is attached on the inside.

So unlike a hermit crab per se, this creature cannot not leave

its shell and find a new one.

Ooh, is it leaving

a slime trail on your hand.

No.

Actually that's a good question, Mario.

What it is leaving is technically

called a snail trail, just a layer of goo on my hand.

And that he helps them to mark their territory,

and it allows other snails to sense when potential mates have

gone through their environment.

I think this stripe down the back of it is so cool.

It actually, like, looks a lot like its shell as well.

Yeah, right there.

Yeah.

Now I imagine that this helps to blend it

into the environment.

I mean, camouflage wise this creature is

going to want to stay hidden.

You're maybe saying to yourself so tidy that thing looks gross,

like a big slimy bugger.

What would possibly be eating this?

Birds, reptiles if they could get into the shell,

obviously something like, you know,

a hyena if it were to come across something

like this may think-- Baboons.

Ooh, baboons.

I'm sure baboons would love to eat these.

Anything that would be able to get to the soft insides

of this creature's body would turn it into a meal,

but fortunately they are capable of sucking their bodies in

and oftentimes can stay protected from predators.

Now let's take a look at the underside of the snail.

I'm gonna peel it off of my hand very slowly here.

Ooh, that's sticky.

Look at that foot.

That foot is what's used for locomotion,

and they just very slowly move throughout the environment.

And as you can tell these snails move very, very slowly.

It's such a cool primordial creature.

Now similar to slugs, most snails

also have an external lung called a pneumostome.

And I can see that on this one, but it's very hard to identify.

It's right there.

Mark, see if you can zoom in on that.

I'm sure you're watching this episode

and you're thinking to yourselves, wow,

this certainly is a cool looking snail.

But unfortunately these creatures

are invasive in many areas, and they

are detrimental to agricultural crops.

They reproduce very easily, and once you

have thousands of these out there,

they can quickly wipe out an entire crop.

So, Coyote, could you eat the snail?

Oh, actually that's a great question because some people

do eat these snails.

However, you have to cook them.

If you eat one of these snails raw,

they sometimes can carry a nematode inside of their gut

that can actually cause meningitis.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

This snail specifically can make you really, really sick

if you ate it raw.

So if you're out there in a survival situation,

this is not something you want to pick

up and just chomp down on.

They have to be cooked.

So you definitely want to wash your hands

if you handle one, too.

Yeah, considering the fact that I'm

covered in snail trail, a little soap and water will get

all that stickiness right off.

Well, I'll tell you what, on a day filled with rain when we

didn't think an episode was going to be possible,

we have a break in the weather and managed to find

the giant African snail.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.