Original subtitles

Over the years, I have had the chance

to work with many adorable baby animals, but none of them

were built like a tank.

Today, I'm visiting the Zululand Conservation

Trust's rhino orphanage.

And for the past year, they have been

tending to the needs of a little orphan rhino named Leko.

Leko arrived at the orphanage several days after being born.

Malnourished and grossly underweight,

he was extracted from the wild because his mother had

an infected abscess on her udder, which made it impossible

for him to properly feed.

The milk distributed from a cow to her calf is crucial.

It contains a fluid known as colostrum, which has rich levels

of antibodies necessary to promote growth

and health in newborn mammals.

So in the wild, without it, Leko would have certainly died.

Oh, it smells good.

This is not baby rhino milk powder.

It is horse.

Millions of years ago, rhinos and horses

shared a common ancestor.

And today, they are both classified under the order

Perissodactyla.

That goes on top.

And now, it's time to feed Leko.

Yeah.

That is some serious chugging power right there.

Now, at any point do I want to give

Leko a little bit of a break, or is it just-- uh-oh.

Dorothy.

That's Dorothy, Leko's friend.

I know, I didn't make any milk for you.

I'm sorry.

Almost there.

Almost there.

And that's it.

You drank it all.

Coyote's special blend consumed in just a matter of seconds.

And now we go to pellets. Yes.

Hand feeding? Yes.

So do I just kind of put it flat like I was feeding a horse?

Oh.

Yeah, just those big, squishy lips.

Yeah. - OK.

All right.

Here we go.

We're going hand into a rhino lip.

There we go.

Let me get my hand all the way up in here.

OK.

Oh, their lips are so squishy and very slobbery.

I'll be sure to use my hand sanitizer after this, OK?

Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.

Ugh.

That is a handful of baby rhino slime.

At the orphanage, Leko was placed under the constant care

of Simoné, where he was fed milk every two

hours, while plasma drip helped strengthen his immune system.

Eventually, this skinny little rhino

began to show signs of improvement,

as his weight increased and he gained

noticeable strength to add to his

very rambunctious personality.

He's been in my care at the at the facility

since he was day one.

Wow.

One-day-old. yeah.

So, we have a very strong bond.

That's really special for me.

I didn't actually realize how a rhino could

bond with a human so closely.

And yeah, it's incredible.

White rhinos are quite gregarious.

So once he was healthy enough, Leko

was provided a companion, an athletic,

all-attitude, "take no funny business from anyone"

goat named Dorothy.

They were besties at first sight.

And since that day, they have been inseparable.

After a nutritious breakfast, it was time for some exercise.

And you never know what's going to happen when you enter

the paddock of an 800-pound baby who has

no concept of his own strength.

This is part of daily enrichment right here,

being out in the exercise boma.

He's got little tail wag going.

Careful, careful.

Don't let him put his head up in the air.

I see you, buddy.

I see you.

How many months old is Leko?

10 months old.

At even 10 months, you can see he is an absolute powerhouse.

Solid muscle.

Watch out for that horn.

Little treats.

He is rather intimidating even at this size.

All he needs to do is swing his head

once in the wrong direction.

If he catches your knee, leg broken.

So he just doesn't know his own strength at this size.

He's a very, very powerful animal,

so we got to be extra careful.

Uh-oh.

Mario's stuck in the corner, or is it electric fence?

I didn't know if it was electric or not.

I was freaking out.

The outside horn in.

The outside horn in.

Got cornered by a rhino, you know, just every morning

routine, you know?

Come on, Leko.

Let's see.

I'm going to come right here.

Yeah.

Good morning.

It's on the whole thing here.

I'll get some out.

There we go.

So cute.

Watch your hand.

Watch your camera.

Here.

Oh, boy, do you feel just like an old baseball mitt.

I know.

Chin scratch?

OK.

Yeah, chin scratch. That's it.

That's good.

You can see all the hoof marks on him from Dorothy.

I didn't know what those scrapes were initially

until I saw her jump up on him.

That it's so funny.

What's up, goaty?

Ooh.

Oh, look at that. Oh.

The Zululand Rhino Orphanage

takes in young animals whose parents have either

become victims of poaching or, like in Leko's case,

were unable to properly care for them.

Leko will not be the last animal to thrive under the supervision

of this orphanage.

And like those before him, he will eventually be released back

into the wild to carry on the future of rhinos

as another survivor success story.

150 million years ago, a torpedo-shaped armor-covered

predatory fish swam virtually unchallenged

in the presence of dinosaurs.

Fast forward to the present day and relatives of this beast

still swim, nearly unchanged in design,

reigning as freshwater megafauna.

Gar are masters of evolution.

They have survived beyond the dinosaurs and everything that

came after, until their existence ran up

against an inescapable fate--

humans.

I'm about to rock the boat, and this episode

is about to make some waves.

On this wild fish chase, I will be working alongside the Gar

Guys, Hayden, Max, and Florian.

Hayden is a graduate student from Texas

A&M, who is researching alligator

gar for his master's project.

While Max and Florian, two wild Dutchmen and experienced gar

wranglers from the Netherlands, are working in tandem

with Hayden's research as part of their graduation internship

and the completion of their master's degree.

These guys love fish more than you can possibly comprehend.

So for me and Mario, it's an honor

to document their process and share

in their fight for the conservation of this species.

So right now, what we're doing is

using a scanner, the Humminbird system,

to determine if there are fish in this area.

And we are seeing little marks show up on the scanner that

definitely look as if they could be very large

fish, which is a good sign.

Max, do you like this spot?

We definitely like the spot.

It has some slack water, and that's basically

what we need to catch these fish,

because they really like to be out of the current.

And we can actually efficiently set our nets.

Otherwise, the current would take them

and the fish won't swim in or they would just bounce off.

So this seems to be a really good spot to catch them.

OK.

So, this sounds like this may be a spot for us

to cast the next gillnet.

Let's see if this is the lucky location to catch a monster gar.

This simple-looking yet high-tech device

reveals many of the water's secrets,

including hidden obstacles like trees, water depth

and, if we are lucky, the distinct body

signatures of fish.

Rod and reel is a very sporty way to fish for gar,

but setting a hook in their bony mouths can be nearly impossible,

and places an incredible amount of stress on the fish.

So to lessen the impact, we will fish with gillnets,

200 feet wide by 10 feet tall.

We carefully stretch these super-sized nets

across the river, one upstream and another downstream.

Bright yellow buoys help to keep the net afloat

while also working as a signal to the team.

If a fish swims into and becomes entangled in the net,

these bright indicators will bob up and down, alerting

that a fish has been caught.

OK.

We officially have the first two nets set in the water.

The next part of looking for gar is called waiting.

We're going to spend about an hour just watching the nets,

hoping that eventually the buoys go beneath the surface.

Now, if one goes all the way down,

Florian and Max said that that pretty much means

you've got a monster fish.

So we're going to keep our fingers crossed.

We like the spots where the nets are set.

Now we sit and wait and see what happens.

The term "river monster" is an all too familiar description

of a seemingly malicious animal that

lurks beneath the surface of our planet's

flowing freshwater systems.

In fairness, it's also the title of my all-time

favorite television series.

However, it's important to redefine what the gar truly is.

Because the term "monster" carries with it an unfairly

assigned notorious reputation.

Worldwide, there are seven species

of these toothy fish, three of which

we may encounter in this area.

The spotted gar, which is beautifully

speckled in an uncoordinated array of spots.

The longnose gar named for its definitively slender

and noticeably elongated snout.

And the alligator gar, which hails

as the largest and seemingly most menacing of the gar gang.

Yes, they are big, fast, armor-scaled,

and equipped with rows of needle-like teeth,

but don't let their appearance snap your initial assumptions

into false accusations.

Gar do not attack humans.

And honestly, the only well-documented bites

derive from anglers that are accidentally bitten while trying

to remove fishing hooks.

Yet it was uneducated fearmongering dating back

nearly 100 years that put the alligator

gar on a hit list of North America's dangerous animals.

Sadly, populations have been extirpated in many areas

of their natural range.

And if things couldn't get worse,

now these fish face a new threat--

bow hunting.

But before we kick the door open on that sensitive topic,

first, we better check the nets.

OK.

Right now, we're motoring up river

on our way to check one of the nets that's been

sitting for about 40 minutes.

What?

We got some movement in the buoy.

There may be a fish up in this net.

OK.

We might have something.

All right, let's do it.

Right now we're just keep an eyes on those buoys.

If there's a fish in there, we don't want to startle it

because, while they may get tangled up in the nets,

it's also rather easy for them to get

out unless we get the net actually curled around the fish.

So, fingers crossed.

We really like the way that we have this set originally.

Oh, got a fish, fish.

Oh, for real?

Oh, no, no.

That's cool.

Oh, nice.

Wow!

Yes! - All right, that's a good fish.

Look at that!

Oh, wow!

Is that good?

Yep.

Yes, please.

OK.

So right now, what Max is doing is gently getting

the net out of the gar's teeth.

Very dangerous little procedure here.

You got to use what are called net hooks.

This is something he does not lose a finger in the process.

Pretty one.

Take all the time.

This is my first encounter

ever with a longnose gar.

Never seen one of these before.

It's beautiful.

Look how bluish in coloration it is.

It's a decent size longnose, too.

There it is.

There it is.

Amazing!

OK.

Look at that.

That is a longnose gar.

Now, longnose gar gets its name because of that elongated snout.

If you take a good look there, that mouth is filled

full of needle-sharp teeth.

They specialize in eating fish.

And you can see that if you were a fish

and you got stuck in those jaws, it would be a very bad day.

And look at the blue iridescence in coloration.

This is an absolutely beautiful fish.

And just like the alligator gar, they are covered

in these armored scales.

Big eyes, bulbous, right on the side of the head.

They have incredible vision.

And that streamlined body basically makes

them a long, muscular missile.

Underwater, these fish have incredible speed.

Now, these fish can stay out of water for a significant amount

of time.

And right now the fish is secreting this very thick

slippery mucus from its scales.

That's helping to keep it hydrated.

We don't want to keep it out of the water for too long.

What a beautiful fish.

I just can't get over how incredible

and how prehistoric-looking these animals are.

Now, I would say this is about average size for a longnose gar.

They get quite a bit bigger than this in some instances,

but for seeing a longnose gar for the first time,

I don't think it can get much better than this.

And the river always makes you work for it.

You're not going to get the alligator

gar on the first catch.

But seeing this species is definitely something

that we hoped would happen while out here

working with the Gar Guys.

Let's see here.

All right.

There we go.

All right.

Let's keep checking the net.

This is a good spot.

Yeah.

Right there.

Wait, is that--

Oh, that's a huge-- that's a big fin, man.

Oh, boy.

I got it.

Perfect.

That's perfect.

Look at that.

Our first alligator gar.

All right.

Whoa.

Woo!

All right.

Definitely have to watch out for that snout and that skull

full of needle-sharp teeth.

All right.

So what we're doing right now is safely

getting the gar out of the net.

The calmer we can keep the fish, the less stress we put on it,

the better for its health and safety.

That is a very good size alligator gar.

Right now, we slide it down a little bit.

OK.

You can see it's just caught with its teeth.

Yup.

And that's what usually happens

with the really big fish.

They get caught only with their teeth.

Got the small tooth.

OK, fish is free.

Hold on.

Wow!

It's a big slimer, this one.

Look at my hands just covered--

Do you smell it?

- in gar slime.

Yeah, the smell--

Oh, that was a gulp.

Oh, yeah.

Very distinct smell as compared to other fish.

Eyes covered with the towel.

Yup.

So it experiences less stress.

Yep, just like alligators.

OK, I'll keep a towel over it.

OK, cool.

Let's get into the shade and collect some biometrics.

Alligator gar!

There it is.

The Gar Guys collect meaningful biometrics on any alligator

gar they catch, including the fish's head length.

22.5.

Its full body length.

146 centimeters.

Wow.

And the girth circumference.

58.

The base of its dorsal fin

is tagged with a unique identification flag.

And a micro pit tag is quickly inserted

so that if the fish is caught in the future,

they can quickly scan and ID it.

Are you guys ready for this?

Meet the alligator gar.

Look at the size of that fish.

A true river monster and one of the most ancient fish species

that still swims on this planet.

Remember, the relatives of this fish

date back 100 million years, which

means that this fish's cousins were

swimming amongst the dinosaurs.

Obviously, the head is incredibly interesting.

And when I turn it like this right toward you

and you look down on top of the snout,

they get the name alligator gar from that wide, broad snout.

It looks just like the snout of an alligator.

And one other cool aspect about the skull

is the fact that these bones are interlocking

with this fleshy cartilage that allows the skull to expand.

So if this fish catches a prey larger than it can fit

in its mouth, its skull actually stretches almost like a snake,

and then it's able to position its prey

and swallow it down whole.

And when you look down the length of this fish's body,

it is incredibly streamlined.

If we lift it up just a little bit,

like a large muscular missile.

Oh, come here, buddy.

When you get down to the tail, the dorsal fin is

way down near the caudal fin.

And that tail works like a rudder

to help propel this fish forward through its watery environment.

This fish is about as slippery as it gets in this direction.

But if you run your hand backwards,

it almost feels like sandpaper.

When you see the fish coming up to the surface like that

and biting, it's not because it's aggressive,

it's actually taking a breath of air.

Remember, this species is very unique

and that it has bimodal respiration.

It is able to breathe either at the surface

or through its gills.

And it can take 30 to 40 years for a fish

to reach just this size.

So getting protections in place to make sure

that the future of this species is preserved

is incredibly important.

And the work that the Gar Guys are doing,

and our ability to feature this fish species,

will hopefully help to get protections in place

so that these fish are on the planet for 100 million

more years.

What an incredible giant.

I've gone my entire life wanting to see

an alligator gar in the wild.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

All right, here it goes.