Original subtitles

The most feared animal in all of Australia

is without question the saltwater crocodile.

Yet fear often comes as a result of that

which we don't understand.

Since 2008, Crocosaurus Cove has been on a mission

to educate the public by easing the bad reputation

these prehistoric reptiles carry.

It seems extreme, but sometimes the best way to face your fears

is to get face to face with them.

And while they proudly display a large collection

of Australian reptiles, they are famous for their main

attraction, the Cage of Death.

All right, so the guys are getting ready to be

the first ones into the tube.

It's, uh-- it's a little different.

Haven't done this before.

I'm going to actually be filming from outside behind

the glass to get shots of them underwater,

then I will get inside of the tube and get my own shot

at getting some epic b-roll.

What is this called again?

Cage of Death.

Oh, Mario, we're about to get

in the Cage of Death. Nice.

You're already in actually.

All right, here we go.

It's going to be a tight squeeze, huh?

It's not too--

that's not bad actually.

Oh, we're being lowered.

Oh, we're getting lifted up.

We're actually not lowering.

Wasn't expecting that.

I hope this is sturdy.

I see a croc.

All right, we're officially being lowered into the water.

Here goes nothing in the Cage of Death.

Come on in.

This is a little--

a little intimidating I will say.

Yeah.

All that's separating us and the croc is the Cage of Death.

The Cage of Death

is an impenetrable plexiglass tube.

At nearly three inches thick, it gives those who are brave

enough the chance to enter the water for an unforgettable 360

degree view of the crocodiles.

The saltwater crocodile dominates its environment

packing one of the most powerful bite forces on the planet.

Yet it's their stealth and speed that make them so dangerous.

Oh, man.

Did you feel that?

Just totally thumped the death cage.

That's a powerful animal.

You can tell right there.

That was crazy.

In their natural environment,

they are often concealed in murky brackish waters.

So seeing them in this fashion, crystal clear water,

is pretty unheard of, and it's an experience you can't have

anywhere else in the world.

He's still behind you, Mario.

Oh, man.

Oh, man.

That was a good one.

A little scary.

OK, guys.

We're gonna raise you up.

All right, cool.

Thanks.

That was super cool.

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Man, Coyote's gonna love this.

All right, we're going to walk up

and see how the guys' dive was.

Tough to get shots from underneath

there, but, man, I bet they got some good stuff on that GoPro.

I'd be that again.

Would you come back to this?

Yeah, that was neat.

Yeah.

You got right up close to these prehistoric predators.

I mean, they're huge.

You really don't know how big they

are until you're, like, right in your face and your grill.

Yeah. Big teeth.

And then you can feel the--

- boom.

Like, I can't even come close to the pounding they--

Oh, man, this is at least three inches thick.

Yeah.

How do you guys-- what do you reckon?

Was it good? It was awesome.

Awesome. Loved it.

I'll just get yous out.

We're going to pop that ladder straight through the middle.

OK. OK.

Line it up.

Hey.

How was it?

It's cool, man.

That's a big crocodile.

Well, we survived the Cage of Death, and now it's your turn.

How were your shots?

That's the real question.

Believe it or not, once you go underwater, it's clear.

Yeah, there's definitely spots where there

aren't as many teeth marks.

Yeah.

You got to try to find those spots,

but there's a really cool, like, reflection that happens.

Like, when you're underwater, it almost

looks like there's two crocs. Yeah.

It's pretty neat. Yeah.

All right, guys,

I'm about to get in the water with a massive saltwater

crocodile.

This is going to be epic.

All right, so Mario and I survived the Cage of Death.

Now we have bigger cameras, and it's Coyote's turn.

You ready, dude?

Going into the Cage of Death.

Now in most instances, I would probably

tried to get into this water without a cage,

but that would turn into the bite

episode that would be the last bite episode

we ever did on the channel.

So it's actually a little nerve wracking once you start

getting into the cage itself.

OK.

I'm inside the cage.

Now what's happening right now is they're slowly lowering me

into the water, and you can see the huge saltwater

crocodile right there.

Getting into the water with one in the wild,

absolutely impossible so this is the best way to do it.

Crocosaurus Cove, one of the coolest

experiences you can have with any animal,

let alone one of the most dominant reptilian predators

the world, arguably the most dangerous non-venomous reptile

that exists on our planet.

I guess this is the moment where they just like

you hang above the crocodile.

I am literally hovering just over it.

All right, we're going down.

Here we go.

The crocs who call the cove home were removed from the wild

because they were considered nuisance animals.

That means they were in an area where they

could interact with humans.

As an alternative to these crocodiles being destroyed,

they were brought here where they

now serve as educational ambassadors for their species.

All right, we're out of time.

Say goodbye to Blooming Kate.

Bye.

All right, well there you have it, underwater b-roll shots

of the saltwater crocodile.

That was awesome.

I'm here to, like, basically gecko myself to the bottom

of this thing the entire time because the saltwater

keeps you slightly buoyant.

I think I got some pretty sweet shots, though.

Between myself, Mark, and Mario, this

was the only way to get the best saltwater crocodile shots.

If you guys get the chance to visit Darwin,

definitely come and check out Crocosaurus Cove.

You can enter into these enclosures in the Cage of Death

with the most dominant reptilian predator of Australia,

the saltwater crocodile.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave, stay wild.

We'll see on the next location.

The hills of West Virginia hide within their peaks

and valleys a plethora of animal species.

In fact, this wild and wonderful state

is one of the most biodiverse regions in the Eastern US.

On this adventure, I will be teaming

up with my longtime friend and field herpetologist Tim Brust.

Tim is a backwoods bloodhound when it comes to tracking

down reptiles and amphibians.

The last time we worked together,

he helped us find the elusive hellbender,

one of the nation's most cherished salamander species.

We got him!

There it is.

It is an absolute giant.

That was a hardest hellbender catch I ever had.

Wow! Oh, man.

Today we are hot on the trail of the timber

rattlesnake, hailing is one of the largest venomous

snakes in North America, these pit vipers

are masters of camouflage.

So finding one hidden amongst the rocky crevices and outcrops

will be an arduous challenge.

There's a tree down in the middle of the road

that I'm going to help Tim move.

The task required us to travel deep

into West Virginia's wilderness as we pushed our vehicle

to its safest limits.

Oh, no.

All right, we may not be going any further than this.

Literally just got done talking about how

we got past the toughest area of rocky terrain,

and we have now turned the corner--

are you kidding me.

I think we're going to be able to get past this,

but it's the next bend that looks even more difficult.

Look at that, total rock slide that came down off the mountain

and to this.

So the Jeep should be able to get over this, no problem.

It's just a matter of what is up and around the corner.

How far off are we from the coordinates?

A couple of hours at least.

OK, so we have made a decision at this point.

We were thinking about going over the mountain and up

that rock slide right there.

Way too treacherous with cameras.

So what we're going to do now is go on foot down the roadway,

and it is roughly two miles as the crow flies

to get to these spots that Tim has GPS coordinated

where snakes have been seen.

For us, it's going to be more than two miles.

It's going to be probably close to four- or five-hour hike

to get to the spot.

So it is going on 11:00 now.

With any luck, what's going to happen is we

are going to reach the snake spot when they're

doing their second basking for the day, which

will be somewhere between 4:00 and 6:00 PM.

It's going to be a commitment, but this is what it takes

to find the timber rattlesnake.

All right, well, we found potentially

the location based on Tim's phone,

and he thinks maybe 300 yards down this little kind of valley

is the spot.

We're going to scout it.

With any luck, we're going to actually see the location.

We just need to really an entry point.

The foliage is all so dense.

Whether it's trees or these scrub lands and grasses,

unless you can see exactly where to go down it,

you could just be descending into a ravine.

So scouting with a drone is definitely giving us

a bird's eye perspective of the terrain before we even embark

upon heading down into it.

Think this is it.

This is all on that slope.

What are you seeing?

Ooh!

You see that?

That is a rock right there.

Open, rocky--

Yes.

Outcrop.

Can you get lower to see the size of those rocks, though?

Yeah.

I'm just going to--

just gonna try to--

Oh, yeah, man, that's got to be it.

Look at that.

That's all rocky terrain.

I think we found it.

We found a spot, and I think Tim found a spot.

He's been yelling at us, so I don't know what that means.

I can't really hear him.

Maybe has a snake?

Maybe he's got a snake.

OK, well, let's pack up the drone.

This is great.

We have spent hours searching out rocky outcrops,

and now we possibly have two potentials,

one we saw on the drone and one that Tim

is calling us to come towards.

Tim, did you get one?

Wow.

This is it right here, perfect timber rattlesnake habitat.

Now it's just a matter of searching and finding.

What do you think, Mario?

Do you see how unique this habitat is?

It's overgrown with some vegetation,

but it also still allows for some exposed rocks

so they can come out and bath.

It's kind of the best of both worlds.

OK.

So basically we need to spend some time searching

these rocks for snakes.

It's a nice down here.

Any one of these big rocks that has almost a miniaturized

cave underneath it is exactly the kind of spot

that we want to be looking.

Now the best spots are going to be rocks exposed

to the sun, part sun, part shade,

so that when the sun comes out the snake can come in warm

itself up, and then when it gets too hot,

it can go hunker back down in the shade.

Oh, nice.

What you got?

Got a little fence lizard.

What's really cool about these guys is that they also--

Don't fall off the cliff.

Don't lose lizard.

Don't fall off the cliff.

What's cool about this fence lizard

is that they look kind of drab, and they're dorsal.

But on their ventrals, look at that.

Really beautiful.

It's a nice blue.

Awesome.

These guys are really fast moving.

I'm surprised I actually caught him.

Beautiful little specimen.

Going to put him down and watch him take off.

There he goes.

All right, let's try to catch a rattlesnake.

All right, we are in the rattlesnake spot

now, but what's a little more eerie

is that I think we are also in the den of a bear or maybe fox.

There are bones, chunks of meat, and also

some vomit, like vomited flesh.

And back within here are a bunch of small pathways,

and it's an area like this over here

where you're usually the most nervous.

You don't want to just stumble upon something that

is hiding in the underbrush.

OK, I'm going to head back over where Tim and Mario were,

and we're going to keep looking for rattlesnakes.

But I don't think it gets much more

dangerous than this, rattlesnakes

and a potential bear den.

Nothing.

OK, we are on the side of a mountain

in the middle of nowhere West Virginia right now.

We have descended I'd say close to 800, maybe 1,000 feet,

and it's impossible to tell on the GoPro.

But if you look out through there

you can see the open expanse of wilderness.

It is beautiful, but the terrain is extremely difficult.

When you look up back behind me, you

can see all this rocky terrain that we have come down through.

We've gotten to the point now where

we've been out here for so many hours,

we're thinking we need to turn back because if we don't, we

may not get to the vehicle which then has to drive all

the way down the mountain back to civilization

before the sun sets.

There's always the chance of finding a snake on the way

back up, but at this point, we may have reached

the juncture of failure.

No rattlesnakes on our rattlesnake expedition, which

is discouraging, but it still has

been a really fun time out here exploring the backcountry

of West Virginia.

It's not often that a target species manages to elude us,

yet after many hours of searching,

we still hadn't seen a single rattlesnake.

Then on our way back to the Jeep,

we came upon a slithering surprise that we didn't expect.

Tim just called out that he found a copperhead.

No rattlesnakes yet but this is a great opportunity.

Did he go under?

Yeah, I think I can lift it, though.

OK.

Here he is.

Grab him quick.

All right, bag, bag, bag.

All right.

We got a copperhead.

Definitely cannot work with or present the snake on the side

of this hill, though, so let's take it

up here and get a closer look.

This is better.

Now we can actually stand.

OK, let's find a good open flat spot here right behind you

with this rock.

I'm going to just gently fold the edges down and let it

slither out a bit on its own.

There we go.

Everybody just be on high alert.

Snake is coming out.

There he is.

OK.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Copperheads do have a tendency to be rather spastic.

Very quick snake.

Yeah, let me just kind of balance

it up on the snake around this.

Ooh, struck at your camera there.

Look at that defensive pose.

That is strike mode at its finest right there.

These are very fast striking snakes.

It's definitely species you always

want to be cognizant of when you're in the environment.

They are so perfectly camouflaged.

Now to really get a better look at the snake,

there's a method that we can use to actually handle

it called tubing where the front of the snake

will go inside of a plastic tube and that

will allow me to handle the snake without the risk of being

bitten.

Copperhead seem rather calm right now, which is great.

It's exactly what we want.

Look at that.

Now it's really important that I keep

one hand on the snake and the tube at the exact same time.

What we don't want to happen is for the copperhead

to wiggle out backwards and inflict a bite.

That is so cool.

What a beautiful reptile.

Now while the copperhead is a pit viper,

it is not a rattlesnake.

However, like rattlesnakes, they will sometimes

wiggle just the tip of their tail against leaf litter,

alerting any potential predator or even a human

that, hey, if I've been spotted, I'm here in the environment

and you don't want to get any closer.

Now people oftentimes confuse non-venomous snake species

with copperheads or water moccasins,

and you can see that very distinct banding that runs

down the length of the body.

It looks just like the banding on a younger northern water

snake, and even the underside, the underbelly,

that slight checkered patterning and the design

on the dorsal scale pattern almost

looks like a fox snake, another completely harmless species.

So this snake does have a rather negative reputation,

but as long as you don't try to interact

with the snake in the environment, all it wants to do

is stay completely hidden from humans.

Now when it comes to venom toxicity,

this is a dangerous snake.

It is not a reptile you would ever want to be bitten by.

But when it comes to the venomous snakes

in the United States, this is on the lower end of potency,

right.

So a water moccasin which is a much larger snake

is going to have a higher venom yield when it bites you,

especially when it comes to rattlesnakes.

An eastern diamondback, a timber rattlesnake,

a western diamondback, bigger snake

means a larger venom yield.

You can see the size of the snake's head

is rather small, which means it has smaller venom glands

but keep in mind it's all about how your body reacts to venom.

Just recently somebody in Alabama

was bitten by a copperhead, and they

died from anaphylactic shock.

A bite from a snake like a copperhead

could mean the end of your life.

Well, we didn't manage to find our target,

the timber rattlesnake, but that's OK.

We still came across one of West Virginia's most iconic pit

vipers, the copperhead.

And getting it up close, testing out

this method of tubing totally made the adventure worthwhile.

Now before we release it right back where we found it,

what I actually want to do is place it in the leaf litter

to show you just how camouflaged this snake truly is.

Most people do their best to avoid interactions

with snakes, a smart state of mind,

especially if the species is venomous.

Suffice it to say, snakes think exactly the same

and do their absolute best to avoid humans.

If you find yourself exploring in an area that is known

to inhabit venomous snakes, your safest plan of action

is to wear sturdy hiking boots, stick to well-worn trails,

and most importantly pay attention

to where you were walking, and you should be completely safe.

OK, we're going to let the copperheads slither right

back out of the snake bag.

Perfect.

Look at that.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave, stay wild.

We'll see on the next adventure.