- I'm Coyote Peterson
and that right there, that's poison frog. Oh boy. (adventurous world music) Living inside each
and every one of us is a call to adventure. Follow that call to Costa Rica,
and will likely lead you on a trail to the Osa Peninsula, where you are certain
to make discoveries that will never be forgotten. (suspenseful music)
(humming) (gasps) Is there
something on my face? Central America is one
of the most biologically diverse locations on the planet. If you know where to look,
there's a chance you will encounter it's most
elusive amphibian species, a tiny, yet toxic creature
that's always lived at the top of my animal wish list. However, finding one would
not be simple, and this adventure would require the
team and I to journey deep into the heart of
the Rainforest. One thing that you don't
realize, until you're in the Costa Rican Rainforest
is just how sweltering it really is. We've scaled down the side
of this ravine and made it to a creek bed, the perfect
place to search for amphibians. What I'm after are poison frogs. Let's head up this way
and see what we can find. Getting into poison
frog territory is
only half the battle. The Rainforest poses many
challenges, but none more paralyzing for a camera team
than a massive rain storm. (rain splattering) Well, I guess this is why
they call it the Rainforest. It's really raining now. For nearly two hours, we were
forced to keep the cameras in protective bags while our
bodies soaked up the deluge of torrential rain. While rain is bad for cameras,
it's absolutely perfect for bringing amphibians
out of their hiding spots. (joyfully shouts) (high-pitched croaking) You hear something? - [Videographer] Yeah. - We got one right in here. I see him. Come over slow. Yes, right there! He's right there on
the edge of that leave. Do you see him? - [Videographer] Hold on. - Red and teal, that's it. Let me see if I can just get
him to hop up onto my hand. There we go, got him. Awesome, all right, now
that we finally got one, let's get him out into the
better light and get him up close to the cameras. Woo, how cool is this? Okay, I'll take
off my pack here. Finally, we have
found, a poison frog. Get ready, this is the
granulated variety. Oh, oh, come here little
guy, I'm gonna try to just get him to balance on my
hand there for a second, so you can see him, look
how adorable that little amphibian is. I'm gonna get him under
better control so we can keep him here for this scene. Come here little guy. Gently hold onto his back leg. - [Videographer] That is
an awesome photograph. - That is a cool
frog right there. I'm pretty safe right now,
I'm sure y'all watching just thinking to
yourselves, "Oh boy, Coyote, "here you go again, handling
another dangerous animal." Trust me, I'm in no danger
as long as I don't lick or eat this little tiny frog. This has to be the most
brightly colored frog I think I've ever come across. Being from Ohio, I'm used
to catching green frogs and bullfrogs, they're
brown and green. You look at this
environment, the Rainforest, you think to yourself, "How does this frog
possibly camouflage itself?" Well it doesn't, it's actually
doing exactly the opposite. This bright coloration is
called aposematic coloration. It's actually a defense against
predators because it warns them, "If you eat me,
I'm extremely toxic." Now this specific species,
the green legged poison frog is not quite as
toxic as some others. There are some species in
South America that are so potent, I could die
within a matter of hours. Now because this is an
amphibian, it absorbed a lot of its moisture through its
skin, so I'm constantly putting water on my hand
from this creek and dribbling it onto the frog to keep his
skin wet and my fingers wet. My fingers are also capable
of extracting some of the moisture from his frogs body. The most important things
is to make sure I'm handling it gently and keeping
this amphibian moist. Now one interesting feature
about poisonous frogs that separates them from
may other frog species is that they do not have webbing
in between their toes. Can you see there, almost
looks like the little toes of a gecko. I don't know if we'll be able
to see with the micro-shot but they do have little
sticky pads right on the tips of their fingers which
allow them to easily climb through the environment,
on leaves, up and down logs and allows them to hunt through
the forest for their food. What they're primarily feeding
on is little ants, mites and other invertebrates that
have high-concentrations of alkaloids. These alkaloids, once they're
ingested into the frogs system, allow them to
produce the toxins that make them poisonous. That's a pretty cool feature. Basically, the food that
he's taking in is turning him to this super
power toxic amphibian. Male poison frogs are
incredibly territorial and our wildlife biologist,
Mario, managed to find himself in the right place at the right
time to film an epic battle. (epic cinematic music) This was a true clash of
tiny giants as the frogs went head-to-head with
spin moves and body swings. This defensive behavior is
rarely seen and only a few have ever captured it on camera. The rivalry was intense, it
only lasted for a brief moment as the challenger
was pinned belly-up and finally driven off. With victory claimed, the
king of this territory sat and croaked loudly
upon his leafy throne. Now, I never recommend that
you go out and actually pick up one of these poison frogs. Now this species is not
potent enough to kill a human, but if you had a cut on your
finger, some of that toxin gets into your system, it
will give you a nauseous stomach and you'll probably
have to lay down for a couple hours. What a cool experience,
getting to handle a beautiful, yet toxic amphibian, here in
the Costa Rican Rainforest. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave! Stay wild, we'll see you
on the next adventure. Every time we film an
episode of Breaking Trail, we're faced with
unique challenges. Between the unforgiving terrain,
an onslaught of inclement weather, this episode
specifically was one of the most difficult we have ever produced. Seems crazy that such a
small creature like the poison frog would
pose such a challenge. But in the end, this was
one adventurous episode that was totally
worth the effort. The poison frog wasn't the
only creature that came out after the rain, check out this
crazy looking whip scorpion that somehow ended
up on my face. And don't forget, subscribe
to join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail. (coyote howling)
(birds chirping)
