(suspenseful music) - Got her; that might be your
most epic catch of all time. (suspenseful music) - [Voiceover] For anyone
that dreams of adventure, there's arguably no
greater place on our planet than the Australian Outback. This vastly remote
stretch of wilderness is the perfect
place to encounter some of the county's most
recognizable animal species, and if you are a
fanatic of reptiles, this is your dream come true. On this expedition, we are traveling
nearly 300 miles from the sprawling
city of Brisbin, and out toward the sparsely
populated town of Meandarra. From there, we'll venture
further into the bush, with the hopes of tracking down one of its largest
reptilian inhabitants, the monitor lizard. (suspenseful music) These ancient looking
reptiles are rather common. However, their elusive nature, coupled with perfectly
designed camoflauge, can make them incredibly
difficult to find. To aid in this epic quest, we have teamed up with
two of the country's top reptilian enthusiasts. Lockie Gilgan and Max Jackson, who own and operate Australian
Wildlife Encounters, know these wild stretches
of remote territory better than anyone,
and their expertise when it comes to locating
monitor lizards is unprecedent. Working under their
special permits, we have one collective
goal in mind: do whatever it takes to
track down and safely catch one of these
phantom-like lizards. (car whooshes) - So Max, when it comes
to searching for monitors, what is the telltale sign
that we're in the right area? I mean, what are we
looking for right now? - [Voiceover] The monitor
lizard is an iconic reptile, that has long been on
my wishlist of animals to feature on the Brave
Wilderness channel, and this would be the
first time in my life where that wish stood a
chance of coming true. - When I spring out of the
car to catch a monitor, I'm gonna need both hands, so we're gonna try to get
the initial catch shot from my shoulder instead
of a handheld camera. I just know that if I'm
fumbling around with a GoPro, I stand a better chance
of actually being bitten. Now I'm gonna tell you what
you don't want to happen when working with a monitor, for those razor sharp teeth
to slice into your arm. It will send you
to the hospital, and you will be
getting stitches. So we're going to the shoulder
cam on this one, guys. - All right, man, you ready? - Let's do it. - Monitor time. (suspenseful music) - Monitor right there. - Turn the car around; yep,
right back there by that edge. This is it, guys; okay. Definitely a monitor right up
on the edge of the road here. - There's one on the
side of the road. (suspenseful music) - No way. - He dove into here. - He's gone. - Man, what happened, Coyote? - Well, we saw a small monitor, another one about that big;
I mean, lightning quick. We drove past it, it
actually stayed on the road, and as we got close, put
its head up, and whoosh, just like that, got
down into a burrow. Not a chance of
catching that one. - Sprinted after that one. - [Voiceover] Did
I forget to mention that monitor lizards
are incredibly speedy? In fact, for their size, these lizards are one of the
fastest reptiles in Australia. And after witnessing the
speed of our first target, I soon began to realize that
catching a monitor lizard was going to be a
lot more difficult than I previously imagined. Late afternoon was creeping in, as sharp beams of sunlight cut through the trees
with a blinding effect. I could feel the window of
lizard catching opportunity beginning to close, yet my hold on hope
remained strong. - Oh yeah, right
there, right there. Slow down, slow down. (suspenseful music) - Right, hold still. - Everybody go, move
slow, move slow. (suspenseful music) - Okay guys, we've got a monitor just in front of
the vehicle here. We're gonna approach slow. Right now, he's just
holding his ground. (suspenseful music) - [Voiceover] In a flash, the
lizard sprang into action! Keeping up with a monitor lizard as it speeds through
tangles of branches and briar patches is
virtually impossible, and it was only a matter of time before one of two
things happened. Either the reptile
would dive into a burrow and disappear out of reach, or it would retreat
high up into a tree, which is exactly
what this one did. - See it? - Yeah, I saw that. - I see it, it's right
here up the tree. Up the tree, right up the tree. - Right here. - [Voiceover] As I
peered up the trunk of the towering tree before me, only one thought came to
my mind: catch that lizard. So as I have done before,
without a second of hesitation, I began to scramble up the tree. - Careful. - He might make a jump. - You see the end of that branch that your left hand's on? He's at the end of that branch. - Man, I got him, but he is locked on the end
of this branch. - Got him; nice catch! (panting) - Yeah! - Got you. - That might be your most
epic catch of all time. - Now the question's how
I'm gonna get back down. Hold on, I'm gonna
put it in my pocket! Just kidding; hi buddy. All right guys, I've
caught the monitor. Now it's just a matter
of getting back down out of this tree,
with it in my hands. This is a bit of a precarious
scenario right here. - Careful. (panting) (suspenseful music) - A bit of a scrape on
my man berries there. Not a problem, I
have got the lizard. - Okay. (suspenseful music) - No, I got it. (grunting) - Go slow, go slow. (grunting) - Whoo, yeah! And that is how you climb
a tree to catch a monitor. Whoo, that's good. I've been out of the range here. - Oh man, that is amazing. - Told you guys I
was going all in to catch one of these lizards. Wow, that's a sand
monitor right there. The Goulds Sand Monitor,
quintessential goanna. Let me catch my breath, guys. - Wow. - Man, one more high
five; that is awesome. - That may be the fastest I have ever climbed a
tree without branches, and the thing that really
helped me when there, was all of the grippy bark
on the side of that tree, and the general arced angle. Man, my arms are ripped up, but it was absolutely worth
it to catch this reptile. Now this is a sand monitor, commonly known as a goanna, and it is an ancient
looking creature. I have dreamed about being able
to get one of these reptiles up close in the cameras. Now, they do get significantly
bigger than this, but you can't really top
a catch of that magnitude. Wow, I just have to take
a second to absorb in the beauty of this reptile. Look at that skin,
little tiny scales and all that
speckled patterning. Now I know in the past, I've compared some lizard
species to dinosaurs, and as we know, dinosaurs
evolved into birds, and a lot of times you guys go, but Coyote, lizards
aren't really dinsoaurs! No, they are not, but they
are so similar in design. Just look at the head
of that creature. I feel like I am looking at
a velociraptor right now. That long neck and
those intelligent eyes, and I will tell you what, these
creatures are intelligent, almost problem
solving intelligent. Now, all monitor lizard
species have a forked tongue. That forked tongue helps them
navigate their environment, and also to find and
detect their prey. And when it comes
back into their mouth, similar to a gila monster, they have what's called
a Jacobson's organ in the roof of their skull. Now as the tongue
runs over that organ, it tells them, almost
like a little computer, your food is this way,
or your food is that way, or something is getting
close in your environment that you should flee from. Typically, you won't find
sand monitors climbing trees. They're a terrestrial species,
but in an instance like that where it's evading a predator, if a tree is the
best way to escape, that's exactly where
it is going to go. Wow, look at those
front forelimbs. Can you guys see those claws? Razor sharp, almost like the
talons of a bird of prey, and they have
rappled onto my arms in several different places. I'm actually really happy that I wasn't sliced up
more than I have been. These creatures are
voracious predators. They will eat pretty
much anything. They will eat small rodents,
they will eat insects, arachnids, other lizards, eggs, and they will even
eat dead animals, so a lot of times you
will see these lizards out on the roadsides
feeding on dead carcasses, whether it be an
emu or a kangaroo, that is fair game for
a creature like this to just dig into those
guts and have a feast. And this is one healthy lizard. Let me turn it upright
like this for you, so you can see its back, and it is just holding onto me about as tight as I
am holding onto it. Look at that, locked in place, and there is so much
muscle structure in the tail and the center
of this animal's body. This is a male, a young one. They can grow substantially
longer than this. I would say it's about
three feet in length from the tip of its nose
to the tip of its tail. Look at that coloration, you
see all the yellow speckling? Along the sides of the legs, and then that yellow
tip of the tail? That's one way you
can easily distinguish this monitor as compared to
some of the other species that are out here in the bush. Excellent eyesight
under the light of day. Excellent hearing,
incredible speed, and this is an apex predator, when it comes to the reptiles that can be found
here in Australia. So cool guys, can you believe that we actually
caught a monitor? I am beside myself right now. We have been working
long and hard today, the sun is getting
low in the sky, it couldn't be the
more perfect scenario to get this reptile up
close with the cameras. Whoo, I can't believe it guys, I'd give you high
fives right now, but I need both
hands on the lizard to make sure that it doesn't
spin around and give me a bite. But this truly is
one of the reptiles we hoped to get in front of
the cameras here in Australia, and we finally did it. I'm Coyote Peterson; be brave! Stay wild; we'll see you
on the next adventure. Man, what a catch! We faced many challenges and
several frustrating defeats in our quest to bring
this reptile up close
for the cameras. Yet it was a combination
of patience, teamwork, and sheer determination
that ultimately paid off. (suspenseful music) And there he goes. Man, the sand goanna;
thank you, Australia! The sand monitor probably stands as one of the greatest animal
encounters of my career, and I consider myself fortunate to have had such
an epic conclusion to the tale of my time spent
in the land of lizards. If you thought catching
a sand monitor was epic, make sure to go back and watch another outstanding encounter, where we got the
spectacled caiman up close for the cameras. And don't forget, subscribe, so you can join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail. (suspenseful music) (wolf howl)
