- I'm Coyote Peterson, this
is Aidan and this is Dylan. And today, we're making
a tide pool aquarium. You got him? Get
him in there! Yes! - Yes, all right! (vigorous percussion
and western music) - [Coyote] On this episode
of Coyote's Backyard, we're headed to the coast,
where we will be navigating the slippery rocks with
the goal of capturing as many tide pool
animals as we can. The coastline of California
is lined with public beaches and if you arrive at
low tide, you can leave the sand behind to explore
amidst the rocks and shallows. Today I'm venturing out
with Aidan and Dylan. - Yeah! - Who've been searching
out and admiring marine animals for most
of their young lives. Typically they compete
against one another to see who can catch the
coolest creature first. I think it's safe to
say that nothing beats a friendly competition
between two brothers. However, today we are going
to mix things up a little and we will be working
together as a team to find and safely capture
their favorite creatures. Okay, so the first thing
that we need to do is fill up the aquarium with water. Aidan, I'm going to give
you that responsibility. So, head on out
there into the ocean and fill it up with water. We'll wait here. (slap) Now, we need to have water
inside of our aquarium so that the animals that
we catch and put in there are in their natural habitat. Watch your footing. It's slippery out here. You guys have those good
water shoes on, right? - [Aidan & Dylan] Yeah, yup. - It helps you
stick to the rocks? All right, let's see,
let's check this out. With water in the aquarium,
we are now officially ready to start looking for creatures. Are you guys ready. - Yeah! - I think these guys are
ready to catch some creatures. All right, everybody
spread out and let's see what we can find. And just like that, we
were off and searching. Aidan and Dylan have
a very precise method. First you look into the
shallow pools of water to see if anything is
visible to the naked eye. And if not, then you begin
gently flipping over rocks. And it didn't take
more than a few minutes before Dylan called out
the first find of the day. - Mark, I found some sea stars! - Oh yeah? What you got, Bud? Oh yes, look at that! - [Mark] Look at those. - That's awesome! Great job, Dylan. All right, pick one up and
hold it up for the camera. Oh, those are bright-colored
too, little orange ones. And some people
call 'em star fish, but we've actually
learned that they're technically called sea stars. That's pretty awesome. Why don't you grab that other
one from down there, too. - [Mark] Yeah, we
wanna get that one. - [Coyote] Set it in my hand. - [Mark] Oh, that
one's really bright. - That one's really
bright orange, let's see, put it in my hand there. Now, do you guys find
these sea stars a lot? - [Aidan] Yeah.
- Yeah. - [Coyote] Is this
a very common animal here in the tide pools? - Yeah.
- Yeah, about that. - You think it's the
most exciting animal? - Eh. - What would be more
exciting than a sea star? - Octopus.
- Octopus. - Octopus, well let's
put these in the aquarium and continue on
looking for octopus. Dylan you do the
honors, there you go. - [Dylan] Awk. - [Coyote] Boom,
into the container. All right guys, well so
far, we have two sea stars. On to the next thing. A few more steps down the beach, and Aidan stumbled upon one
of the most bizarre animals you can come cross at low tide. - Whoa Aidan, do you
know what that is? - A sea slug? - It is, that is
a black sea hare, a giant sea slug. You want me to put
this on your head? - Yeah. - Yeah? Let's see it,
let's see if he'll. Look at that, uh. Have you ever had a slug
on your head before? It's like a new
kind of hair gel. - Not until now, yeah. - It's gonna be great
hair gel for ya. - Yup. - All right, I don't think
that he is going to fit inside of our
aquarium, but that is a pretty cool creature
to come across. It's slimy, isn't it. - Yeah. - Oh wow, that is one
sticky, slimy slug. All right, I think we
need to find something a little bit smaller
(exclamation of disgust) for our aquarium. Up next was a
creature that looked as if it was from
another planet. - Hey Coyote, I
got a brittle star. - Ooh, let's see, Dylan come
here and check this out. Now do these things bite? - [Aidan] No.
- Oh, that's good. All right here,
put it in my hands. Let's see if we can
get it to walk around. Nice catch, wow that is
pretty bizarre-looking, isn't it? Now, these are related to
sea stars, aren't they? - Yup. - Wow, ooh, that
feels kind of crazy. All it's little tentacles
grabbing onto me. Well, I think this is a
great thing for our aquarium. Dylan, will you do me a favor
and open up the top here? All right, gonna put this
brittle star down in here with his sea star
cousins, there we go. All right, I got the aquarium,
let's keep searching. The real secret to tide
pool exploration is taking your time at every
single pocket of water. And if you look real hard,
there's a good chance something can be found. I found two crabs, right
here in this little puddle. And these are green
striped shore crabs. I'm gonna have Dylan come
in and I'm gonna challenge him to catch 'em. Hey Dylan.
- What? - [Coyote] I found
some crabs, buddy. - [Dylan] Yay! - [Coyote] Come on in
here and guess what? You're gonna be the
one that catches 'em. - [Dylan] Okay. - All right, I got one right
there, whoa look at that, he's flaring his
little pincers up. Be careful! Ooh, you're brave. Nice, hold that
up for the camera. - [Mark] Take a look at that. - (laughs) Ooh. - I got him, I got
him, I got him. Oop, he's holdin' on, get him. Got him? Nice catch! All right, I'll
get the aquarium. That is one brave
kid right there. Reaching down into the
water to pick up a crab. Put him in, oh yes. Okay, the aquarium's
looking pretty good so far. We've got a brittle star,
we've got some sea stars. We've got two
striped shore crabs and some great decorations. - You know what this
aquarium could really use? - What's that? - An octopus. - Oh, (laughing) I
agree with you Aidan. I think this aquarium
needs an octopus. Should we keep searching? - Yeah. - All right, let's go. The boys ran ahead
with excitement, as they were determined
to find an octopus, which can oftentimes
be like finding a needle in a haystack. Camouflage is crucial
to the existence of most animals. And whether it's
being used to keep a predator concealed
while stalking in the shadows, or a
prey species hidden from the predators
attack, the creatures who specifically inhabit
the shoreline boast some of the greatest hiding
abilities in the world. Oh gosh, look at
this, there's a goby, right there up
against that rock. Look, look, look, look, look. - [Mark] Oh, he blends
in like perfectly. - [Coyote] You see it?
That is perfect camouflage. I'm gonna try to slowly
cup my hands around it and see if we can get
it out of the water. Real slow, but I
think I got him. Yes, got it! - [Aidan] Oh nice! - [Coyote] That
is a little goby. Awesome Mark, can you see that? - [Mark] Yeah. - Sweet, all right. Can one of you open
up the aquarium here? - [Dylan] I've got it. - All right, get
it for me buddy. The aquarium is
open and goby is in. We got it? - [Mark] Nice!
- Nice! Dude, this is excellent. (slaps) Now we have a fish. There's only one thing left
to add to this aquarium. You know what that is, right? - Octopus. - All right, who's
gonna catch the octopus? - [Aidan] I will! - You're gonna catch it? - [Aidan] Yeah, I'm gonna. - I'm pretty sure that
I'm gonna catch it. - I'll go look. - You're gonna get it first? - Yeah. - All right, the race
for the octopus is on. The race didn't
last much longer, as no more than a few
yards from the goby, I spotted an octopus. All right, this is exciting. I'm almost positive
that there's an octopus under this rock. Just out of the
corner of my eye, I saw a tentacle tuck
back under there. I brought in the boys
and what I'm going to do is slowly
lift up the rock. Now when I do this,
I need you guys to gently scoop up the octopus, so we can get it
for the aquarium. Are you ready?
- Yup. - This is what you
guys are good at. So, I'm gonna lift the rock,
you guys get the octopus. Mark, you good?
- Go for it. - [Coyote] All
right, here we go. - [Mark] You guys
ready for this? - [Aidan] Yup. - [Mark] They're fast. - [Coyote] (Groaning) Fingers
crossed, come on octopus. Real slow, real slow. - [Mark] There he is! - [Aidan] Oh, yup. - [Coyote] Oh yes, yes,
get it, get it, get it. Oh, it's on the
bottom of the rock. Scoop it up, scoop it up. Wow! Get it, get
it, get it, get it. Oh, he's gonna try to
get back under the rock. You got him? You got him? Here, let's lift
it up, lift it up. - [Mark] He's stuck to the rock? - He's stuck to the
rock, look at that! Okay, let's just look
at him like that. Holy cow, there it is. That is a two spot octopus. All right, Aidan put
your hand in here. Let me see if I can
get it to just slink onto your hand. Oh, look at those
sticky tentacles. And, octopus in the hand! Excellent, all right. - [Mark] You got him. - [Coyote] I got
the aquarium, yeah! Open, lid open, lid open. Dylan, get the lid. Get him in there, yes! - Yeah, baby. - Woo! We have caught an octopus, that is a two spot octopus and I am pretty sure
that that caps off the best creature
we can possibly find here in the tide pools. All right, let's go
up here onto the rocks and take a look at
all of our catches. Now this is my favorite part. This is almost like Halloween. It's like we went out,
got all of the candy, and now we've got
to sort through it and see what we've got. Okay, I'm gonna take the
top of the aquarium off. First let's go for this crab, 'cause it's right
on the edge here. Don't pinch me, don't pinch me. Ah, yup he's pinching me. Ouch, ah wow, ow! He's got me good. Ah, look at that. Well, he's holding on to me, while I'm holding onto him. Now that is a striped shore crab and that thing is
beautiful, look at that green and black striping. You see, he's blowing
bubbles at me. (hissing) Ooh, boy he
almost popped a hole in my finger. All right, let's see if
I can get him to balance from hand to hand. Wow, so you guys catch
these crabs all the time and you don't get
pinched by 'em? - [Aidan] Not really, no. - [Coyote] Of course, it's
me that comes out here and get's pinched,
every single time. All right, let's see what
else we've got in here. All right Dylan, what do you
want me to take out next? - [Dylan] The brittle star! - [Coyote] The brittle
star, let's find it. I think it's hiding under here. Oh, there it is. I'll try to get it here. Got it, okay. Wow, look at that. - [Mark] Now, I always
thought that that was just a sea star,
what's the difference? - A brittle star is
very ambidextrous, you can see that its
arms allow it to crawl much more quickly
over any surface, while a sea star pretty much
stays planted in one spot. Look at that, it
almost looks like a mix between an sea
star and a spider. Now Aidan, what do you think
this creature looks like? - It looks kind
of like an alien. - It does look like
an alien, doesn't it? And I think that
all the creatures of the tide pools
look like they're from another planet. All right, let's put this
one back into the aquarium and take something else out. Ready? You wanna put him in? - [Dylan] Yup.
- There you go. Set him in there gently. Okay, what shall
we take out next? Do you think we can get
the goby out of there? - [Mark] Now, what is a goby? - [Coyote] A goby is a
little, bottom-feeding fish and it's probably
gonna be fairly hard to get in and out of here. There we go, I got it. There we go.
- Nice. - Only keep him out of
the water for a second, look at that. - [Dylan] He's got buggy eyes. - He sure does have buggy eyes. Have you guys ever
caught a goby before? - [Aidan] Yeah.
- Yeah, lots. - Okay, is this a big
goby or a small goby? - Compared to the
ones we find, a big. - It's a big one?
- Yeah. - Cool. Well, I'd say that
is a perfect creature to have in our aquarium then. And it sure was fast, wasn't it? - [Aidan] Yeah.
- Yeah. - All right, let's get the
goby back into the water. There you go little fish. Okay, and last, but not
least, it is octopus time. All right, let me
see if I can get it up off the corner here. Whoa, squirt me with water. Wow, the two spot octopus,
look at those eyes, looking right back at us. And it is saying, whoa,
let me back into the water. And they're so slimy. Go ahead, put your
fingers in here. And you guys handle these
things all the time, right? - [Aidan] Yeah. - Ooh, it's amazing how
fast that they can slither from one hand to the next. Whoop, it's trying
to get away from us. Bring it back up here. Now, have you guys ever
been inked by an octopus? - Yes.
- Yeah. - You have? Is that gross? - A lot, a lot. - He's, yeah, he's been. - You get inked a lot? - Many times. - I have yet to be
inked by an octopus, and I don't think
that I want to be. Well, this is pretty awesome. And I think at this
point we need to get all these creatures,
back into the ocean. What do you think? - [Aidan Yup.
- Yeah. - Sounds good to me. Well, I would consider
this a complete success. We came across so many
creatures today, guys, sea stars, brittle stars, crabs, and even a two spot octopus. Aidan, Dylan, thank
you guys so much for having me, right out
here into your backyard, exploring the tide
pools of California. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave! - Stay wild! - We'll see ya on
the next adventure. Searching for and admiring
tide pool creatures is a great way to enjoy nature. However, some sea
creatures are venomous. And if you were going
to attempt handling one, always remember
that it's important to properly identify a species before picking it up. - Yeah. (clap) - Yeah buddy. (clap) - Awesome, we did it, all right! Well, let's get
back on the shore. If you thought this Coyote's
Backyard was exciting, tell us about all the
cool things that live behind your house. Because you never know, the Brave Wilderness
crew and I might show up to film an episode with you. And don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join us on our next big adventure. (crashing roar, howling) (birds chirping)
