- Hold this, hold this,
hold this, hold this. I cautiously slipped from
the boat and into the water. My heart was racing as I found myself directly in
the reptile's escape route. This was unbelievably dangerous and if it charged, an attack
was likely inevitable. I took a deep breath
and with a steady hand, I slowly fed the pole
in between the reeds. For many years,
people have asked, if I could catch any
animal, what would it be? And my answer was
always the same, a Spectacled Caiman. Got it, got it! Nobody move! I am lassoed together
with a Spectacled Caiman. (intense jungle music) Our journey began
in a small village along the Sierpe River. We were about to embark upon
the adventure of a lifetime, and one that I personally
have been dreaming about for many years. Alright, four guys, two crew, out into the darkness
to find caiman. This is gonna be epic. Led by a team of local experts, we headed out with
the mission of finding and safely catching, one of
the most iconic crocodilians in the world. So right now we are just
scanning the embankments for signs of caiman. What we're looking
for are any slides where they came up during
the day and were basking. Normally these creatures
are pretty territorial, especially the males. So if we can find some slides, that means there's a good chance we'll find these
animals at night. This is so cool. Under the fading
glow of daylight, we traveled several
miles up river, leading into a remote
area that our guide said would be ideal for
locating caiman. I was excited. Hopefully we were going
to have several chances at catching one of these
reptilian predators. A common practice used by many
crocodilian research teams, is to catch these
reptiles with pole snares. It's a method I have
been taught in the past, and am now getting a
chance to test myself. Using a bamboo pole,
rope, duct tape, and a simple wire snare, we carefully constructed
the catching device. This is completely
safe for the animal and in no way will
cause it any harm. - We got a caiman. - [Coyote] Perfect. - [Cameraman] Alright
Coyote, so now we wait. - Now we wait. We wait for the sun to go down. I am pretty excited. I have been to Costa Rica, this is now my fourth time here and this is the first
opportunity that we have had to actually go after caiman. This is my favorite
crocodilian species and even catching a
small one tonight, I would be ecstatic about that, but hopefully we can find
one that's close to six feet. Now at a maximum, they grow
to about eight feet in length. Odds of finding one
of those, we'll see, I'm feeling pretty lucky. So we're gonna head down this
main channel of the river, look for some off-shoots,
head up in there and hopefully manage to
catch one of these guys. Caiman are primarily nocturnal. So as the last glimmer of
light faded into darkness, the stage was set. Our spotlights
methodically drifted along the muddy river banks. We were in search of eye shine, which is the reflection of
light in a crocodilian's eyes. And it wasn't long before we
had a target in our sights. Well, there's an American
crocodile right there. Not what we're looking
for, but we've seen a bunch of crocs now. Look at this, he's gonna
head toward the water. There it goes,
it's a little guy. Man if we could just find
a caiman of that size, that'd be perfect. To come across an
American Crocodile is certainly amazing, however, it was simply
the wrong reptile. So we headed deeper
into the night. Time and time again we saw
eye shine in the distance, yet as soon as we drew
near, like a phantom, the animal had disappeared. Then finally, one of our
guides spotted eye shine deep in the reeds. This could be our chance. I held my breath as we slowly
drifted in toward the shore and sure enough,
it was a caiman. Hold this, hold this,
hold this, hold this. - [Man] Just a second. - [Cameraman] Mario,
go get your camera. - [Coyote] Got it, got it! - [Man] Nice!
- [Coyote] I got the back of its body. Hold on a second,
it's really slippery. - [Man] That is a big caiman.
- [Coyote] It's slippery I got the back of it's body. Nobody move, I'm gonna jump it. Nobody move. Got a shot at it? - [Man] Yep. - [Coyote] Hold
tight, hold tight. - [Man] Got the rope? - [Coyote] I got the
rope, I got the rope. I am tangled up with the
caiman, you got a shot? - [Man] Yep, I got a shot. - [Coyote] Hold on. One, two, three. Got it, yes! - [Man] That is a huge caiman! - [Coyote] Holy mackerel, okay. I'm gonna need your help Mario. I need you to wrap, I need
you to wrap its snout. - [Man] Wow, what
a gorgeous caiman. - [Coyote] Alright, I'm going to get his mouth closed,
hold on, hold on, hold on. Close the eyes? Got him. Okay, there we go. Tape the snout. This is definitely a caiman
that needs its snout taped. This could take off a hand. Yes, there we go. Whoa, this is about as big as we could have
hoped for tonight. - [Man] Okay, we're
gonna put it up front. - [Cameraman] Careful,
careful, careful, careful. Don't get whacked. - [Coyote] Hold on,
we're losing it, we're losing it,
we're losing it. - [Man] Grab, grab. - [Cameraman] You alright? - [Coyote] Yep. - [Cameraman] Everybody okay? - [Coyote] Incredible
amount of power. Tangled in this underbrush, I am lassoed together with a Spectacled Caiman right now. This is unbelievably exciting. Wow, there's nothing like
getting covered in mud to catch a reptile like this. An absolute prized specimen, look at that tail. This thing is a beast. - [Man] Oh watch your face. Watch your face.
- [Cameraman] Wait, wait, wait - [Man] Smacked you? - [Coyote] Yeah, little bit. - [Cameraman] You alright? - [Coyote] He's still got
a lot of fight in him. - [Man] Okay, there you go. Watch your face, there you go. There you go. - [Coyote] Yes, there we go. Told ya, a lot of fight still. Coming up. Yes, yes! Okay, the animal is up on
the boat and under control. We need to bring it into
the center of the boat so it doesn't throw
us off of here. - [Man] So everybody back up,
back up, back up, back up. - [Coyote] (laughs) One shot at snaring
this reptile, I was moving so slow and
trying to be so quiet. Great job, guys, keeping the
lights right on its eyeballs, kept it stunned, in place. This thing is beautiful. It almost knocked out my tooth, but we have it up on the boat. It is very robust, wow. So much more powerful
than an American Crocodile of this size. Okay let's bring in some water, we're gonna actually
clean the caiman off so you guys can see it better. Go ahead, come on
in with the water. There we go, I'll get you
washed off here buddy. Get you all cleaned
up nice, oh yes. Now the name
Spectacled Caiman comes from these two ridges right
here in the center of the head. And if I point him
straight at you, it almost looks as if it is
wearing spectacles or glasses. Can you see that? - [Cameraman] Yeah,
you can see the bridge right between the
eyes, it's awesome. - [Coyote] It's beautiful. Now scientists oftentimes say, this kind of looks
like an Allosaur, both Allosaurs and Ceratosaurs
have these ridge bones, these prehistoric creatures. And an animal like this
has been on the planet since the time of the dinosaurs. Now we do have to
keep tape on the jaws 'cause a crocodilian of this
size could take off a hand, but I love them because
they almost have these fangled looking teeth. Can you see that? These front ones and
look, you even have one - [Coyote] that's sticking up
there right from the snout. [Cameraman] Two. - [Coyote] Can you see two? Oh yeah, that one's just
a little bit smaller. Now as compared to a
crocodile or an alligator, the eyelids are much more bony. Watch this, it does have
a nictitating membrane. Check this out,
I'll close it's eye. Ready, one, two, three. There it goes. You see that? - [Cameraman] I did. - Yeah that's the
nictitating membrane. Now they use that when
they're underwater to help block any residual
debris from plants or anything that they attack
from scraping their eyeball. Look at this, this
is cool, right there. You see that little spot? That's its ear flap. It has an ear right there. They have, believe it or
not, pretty good hearing and excellent eyesight,
especially at night. And lets look at
this animal's back. The osteoderms are incredible. The Spectacled Caiman
has more armor plating than an alligator
or a crocodile. And right here specifically
on the back of the neck, it is solid muscle and
solid bone right there. Wow, I am in complete
awe of this animal. And look at how robust
it is, solid muscle. Alright, I can't give
him too much space because at any second it
could explode back in power. And that's what
crocodilians are famous for, they rest up, they
build up their energy, and they make a go for it. - [Cameraman] So he's filling
up his energy right now. - He is and that's why I'm like, I can't get complacent
at any second because if he
explodes into action, he's gonna launch
right off the boat, might take me with him. We are tethered to the boat, we do still have the
noose wrapped around the lower half of his body, but we have to be extra careful. Now males tend to be
bigger than the females and I would say this one
is of about average size. But this is a little
trick that I learned from Mike and Chris. Last year working with
American Crocodiles, I'm going to sex the caiman. - [Cameraman] Now
what are you doing? - I'm feeling for the cloaca. There it is. That would be a boy
ladies and gentlemen, and one healthy boy at that. You can see how
robust this animal is, which tells me
that the ecosystem is also incredibly healthy. That means there are big
fish, there are big frogs, there are snakes. This is an
opportunistic predator. Anything that it can get
those massive jaws on, is fair game. - [Cameraman] Man you have
some mud on your face. - Do I? - [Cameraman] Oh yeah. - Oh man, this is about
the muddiest I've gotten since the Smokey
Jungle Frog I think. - [Cameraman] Yeah. This may be the muddiest
you've ever been. - It may be-- - [Cameraman] Wait
'til you see this. - Oh I committed
everything I had to catching this reptile. If it had gotten away, I would
have never forgiven myself. I know that you guys
are watching right now thinking to yourselves,
wow, I cannot believe you pulled that off. And to be honest with you, I
can't believe I did either. This is a full-grown adult. Let me just try to give you a
look at the full body there, because I've been
sitting on top of it. Do you see that? And the tail stretches
all the way down the side of the boat. This is a beast. I could not have caught
a more perfect caiman in my opinion. Look at the hind limb
here, look at that. It's like holding the
foot of a dinosaur and in a sense I really am. These reptiles have
been on the planet for well over a
hundred million years. They're an evolutionary giant. Let's get some basic biometrics, we have already
sexed the reptile, we do know that it is a male, but for my own purposes
I would love to know, just exactly how long it is. If somebody wants to just
grab my backpack there, I can get the
measuring tape out. Okay, here we go. We're gonna go from the tip
of the snout, right Mario? That's how you guys
do it with the crocs? - [Man] Watch those teeth. - [Coyote] I know, I
know, this is very risky. - [Mario] Go right
down the ridge line. - [Coyote] Okay, good. Okay, hold the
tail, hold the tail. Okay, I got the back
haunches under control. - [Cameraman] Mario, once
you get the measurement, I want you to bring it back
to the camera to show us. - [Coyote] Okay, got it? Go ahead and pull that
out from between my legs. - [Mario] Right at 59 inches. - [Cameraman] So
just about five feet. - Wow, just about five feet. This is incredible,
this is a beast. We could have searched for days and not come across
a five foot caiman. Let alone one that was
up on the embankment that we were actually
able to snare and get up close
for the cameras. I'm absolutely beside
myself right now. Covered in mud, lucky
to still have my tooth, but there you have it
ladies and gentlemen, the Spectacled Caiman. The one reptile that I
have been just so eager to catch and get in
front of the cameras for so many years now. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild. We'll see you on
the next adventure. Oh that was awesome! High fives, guys. Mighty high fives, yes, oh man! As we climbed from the boat and stepped onto the muddy bank, I could feel my time with
this beautiful creature coming to an end. I carefully peeled the
tape from its toothy snout and then quickly jumped back out of its strike zone. And now when people ask, what is the greatest animal
you have ever caught, I smile and say the
Spectacled Caiman. If you thought catching
a caiman was intense, make sure to go back
and watch the episode where we pulled an
enormous American Crocodile from a drainpipe. Yeah, he's biting the stick. - [Cameraman] Okay, as
long as it's the stick and not your hand. - [Coyote] And don't
forget, subscribe, so you can join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail.
