(light suspenseful music) - This South African sun will
literally cook you alive, it has to be well over 100
degrees out here right now, there's no sign of
animals anywhere. Here's a nice, flat one. Snake, right there! Wow, look at that! It's a puff adder. Ooh, it's getting a
little agitated there. (dynamic jungle music) When you think of South Africa, your mind likely pictures
vast, rolling grasslands, classic savanna,
strewn generously with
herding hoof stock and stalking predators,
yet much to my surprise, several wilderness stretches
throughout the Eastern Cape are also blanketed with
impressive mountain ranges. Today we are exploring a
private stretch of land in the Baviaanskloof wilderness, managed by the Reserve
Protection Agency, this 25,000 acre sanctuary is the perfect place
to explore for animals and has gone virtually untouched
by man for over a century. - [Mark] Alright,
what's going on, Coyote? - Some serious off roading
here in South Africa on our way today, out
to look for reptiles under the heat of the sun, a good chance of finding
lizards and diurnal snakes. Stay tuned, we'll
see what happens. - Hang on, guys. - [Coyote] Woo! Slam, Mario. This guy's a madman,
when he's driving. Aside from the miles
of rock-strewn roads, that intricately lace this land like a network of
adventure-pumping veins, we may as well have
been the first humans to ever step foot
in this wild place. Eventually the roads
do come to an end and the only way to traverse
deeper into the unknown is to trust one's own
feet to lead the way, so we abandoned our vehicle and set off to see
what we could find. The mid-morning
sun quickly brings an incredible heat to the
surrounding environment, making it nearly
impossible to function, if you were a human. I'll tell you guys this much, this South African sun will
literally cook you alive, it has to be well over 100
degrees out here right now, there's no sign of
animals anywhere. I think our best
bet at this point is to start looking
in the shade, I tell you what, that's where
this animal wants to be. Woo! Reptiles typically thrive
under these conditions activating off of the
sun's powerful rays, yet much to our sweaty dismay, the sun was already so intense, that I knew our best chances
of encountering scaly beasts would likely happen, if I
gently flipped over flat rocks. Nothing. These safe havens provided a much needed relief
from the blistering rays and also served as
an ideal hiding spot from potential predators. Rock after rock I flipped, until
finally I flipped a winner. Here's a nice, flat one. Snake, right there! Wow, look at that! It's a puff adder. - Are you sure?
- Oh yeah, 100% and look at that
cryptic patterning, perfectly blended
into the environment, almost looks like spider
webbing across its back, wow. Now, despite the fact that
this is a very small snake, they get a lot bigger then this, it is still
incredibly dangerous. Alright, it's gonna
be hard to balance him on the end of the snake stick
and get him up into the shade, so what I'm gonna do is actually
place him inside of my hat, whoop, there we go.
- Nice. - Look at that. Alright, come on, up
here into the shade, we wanna keep him
out of the sun. Look at this little snake. If I tilt my hat down
there, you can see he's totally comfortable
inside of the basin of my hat, now, no, there's no magic trick, where I put the hat
back on top of my head and pull out a dangerous viper, but what I wanna do is here, actually this is a
perfect rock right here, check that out, nice
and light in coloration, let me see if I
can get the snake to just coil up on this rock, so we can get up it
close for the cameras, alright, here you go,
buddy, there we go. I'm hoping sometimes when
you just cover a snake up, it feels protected, so
my hat over top of it will hopefully form it into a
little, tight, compact mass. Now we'll get some
good shots of it, yes, look at that. - [Mark] You can see it puffing. - Now what I wanna do is very carefully
lift up this rock, that's a risky little
game right there, but as long as I keep my
fingers under the rock, I will be just fine,
look at that snake, beautiful in coloration, now let me use the
snake stick here, get a tight, zoomed in
shot of that snake's face and you'll notice that
while this is a viper, it is not a pit viper
and unlike rattlesnakes or the Fer-de-Lances,
that we've encountered in Central and South America, you will notice that it
has an eye and a nostril, but no heat-sensing pit. Now this is an ambush predator and this is exactly
what they will do, so they curl up in a ball with that S-shaped
curve to their neck, you can see, there's
yads puffing up its body, right now, it's saying to
me, "Coyote, I'm a big snake, "you don't wanna get
any closer than this." They're very fast striking,
all they need to do is lash out that head,
inject venom with those fangs and you're gonna be
in a world of trouble, if you're filled with
that cytotoxic venom. Now once the prey has
succumbed to that venom and then they die, the
snake will slowly move in and it will have a meal. Ooh, it's getting a
little agitated there, you see that, here, let
me lower the rock down, take the snake
away from my face, this is why they are
called puff adders. Now the puff adder is
responsible for more bites, than any other snake
species here in South Africa and that's because
they are oftentimes found in close
proximity to humans, you'll often find them
in a residential area. Now, as you can see, these
snakes don't have rattles, so they have no
ability to warn you, if you're close to them
in the environment, so oftentimes people are bitten just walking through
the underbrush, if this snake is
curled up in a ball and it strikes out at your foot, you're wearing flip
flops or sandals, woo, you're gonna be
in a world of hurt, but this is not a reptile
that you need to be afraid of, they're so perfectly
camouflaged in the environment, oftentimes you walk right by it and never even notice
that it is there and next to the Cape cobra, I would say that
this is arguably the most dangerous snake
species here in South Africa. Let me just lower it
down here a little bit and notice how cryptic
its patterning is, I tried to point this out right when we flipped over
that rock and found it, but here on this
lighter colored rock, you can see how distinct
its patterning is. Now they do have a very strong
keeled scaled patterning, that runs the length
of their body, look at that, black and cream, which helps them hide between
the light and the shadows when they're out there
just before sunset and just before sunrise
hunting for their prey and notice how girthy the
body of this snake is, oftentimes you think of snakes as being nothing more
than necks and tails and this one seems
to be all body with just one
itty-bitty, tiny tail at the end there, super cute and this is a small one, I mean, this is maybe only
a couple of weeks old. - [Mark] How big do they get? - They can be about three and
a half to four feet in length, - Really, wow.
- enormous in girth, I mean, this is a very,
very large bodied snake. - [Mark] Like how big around? - Gently set you down there, easily this big around. - Really?
- Yeah. - Wow.
- A handful, so they're probably
more wide-bodied than any snake we have
ever worked with before. Like I said, even
though this is a small, little neonate of a puff adder, it's still a really cool snake to be getting in
front of the cameras and no, guys, I'm not gonna
actually hold this snake by its head and show you its
fangs, it's far too dangerous and this snake is very small, we wanna put as little stress
on the animal as possible. But see if you can
just zoom in there and get some really cool,
tight shots of its face. - [Mark] I can definitely
see it lacks pits. - Hm-mm.
- Golden eyes. - Beautiful, the eyes
blend right into the skin. Well, I'd say that was a
pretty successful expedition, flipping over rocks all morning and we finally come across
one of the most toxic snakes here in South Africa,
the puff adder. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild. We'll see you on
the next adventure. Alright, let's let this
guy back under his rock. When it comes to dangerous
snakes in South Africa, the puff adder is second
only to the Cape cobra, when it comes to being
potentially deadly. Their cryptic nature
and ambush tactics make them particularly
dangerous, 'cause they're
likely to be hidden and staying completely still, so a word of advice
to the adventurous, if you are hiking in
the Eastern Cape region, make sure to always
wear proper hiking boots and be cognizant of
each and every step, because the last
thing you want to do is find yourself at the
end of a puff adder strike. Hey Coyote Pack, I have
some exciting news, I am proud to announce
that the crew and I are headed back on tour
with Brave Wilderness Live. Our next shows take
place in the Midwest and kick off in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
and Chicago, Illinois, from there, we will
visit Royal Oak, Michigan and finally we
return home to Ohio for two highly anticipated shows in both Cleveland and Columbus. Tickets can be purchased at
the Brave Wilderness website and these shows are
certain to sell out, so make sure that you
reserve your seats today and don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join me and the crew on our next big adventure. (cheering children) - [Mario] Yeah! I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave. - [Audience] Stay wild! (light jungle music)
