- It's a baby salamander.
I mean, it looks big to you and me
as compared to salamanders, but this is tiny
when we're talking Japanese Giant Salamanders.
♪ Fire ♪
♪ A fire on the mountain ♪
What's going on Coyote Pack?
And, welcome to Base Camp,
a special Japanese Giant Salamander edition.
- That's right.
Hopefully this week you've seen some of our segments
that we released on the Japanese Giant Salamander.
And today, we're gonna discuss a little bit
of the behind the scenes aspects of filming in Japan.
- This was one of the most difficult episodes,
well, you know, I guess difficult's the right way to put it
because it took so long to produce this trip.
Getting to Japan is one of the most grand adventures
we've ever been on.
- [Mario] It was a challenge, first of all,
we don't speak the language, right?
- [Coyote] No, it made it tough.
- So yeah, we had to have a excellent guide with us,
Richard, and he helped us navigate through the country.
- Right, absolutely.
And, I know a lot of you wanted to see me
stung by the Japanese Giant Hornet,
which we managed to get that episode.
But, the real reason we went to Japan
was for the Giant Salamanders.
And, it's all about seasonality, right.
We had to be in country at exactly the right time,
when the salamanders are active, if we hoped to find them.
- Right so, we had to plan it based on
when the animals are active,
and how we're not gonna interfere
with their life histories, like breeding,
and hatching, and so on.
And, of course, we also picked the time
when it was typhoon season.
- Yeah, a lot of rain.
But, that also meant higher water levels
so the salamanders were more active at that point.
Now, we got to work with Okada Sensei, who was amazing.
And, I know upon first meeting him,
it's like, he speaks a little bit of English,
not a lot, he understands more than he can speak.
But, you have that language barrier,
when it comes down to, okay, this is what
we would like to do in the field.
And, him trying to explain to us,
all right, well it might take this much time.
It could be several days before
we actually find a salamander.
- Right.
- And, production for the episodes
took us almost a week.
- Right, and you know, back to Dr. Okada,
I mean, he is the rockstar
of salamander biology and research.
He has dedicated 20 years of his life
studying the Japanese Giant Salamander.
I mean, he is actually the reason why
these animals still exist in Japan.
So, it's quite the honor to work with him.
- Well, a big threat that these salamanders face,
you may be asking yourselves, so what sort of predators
does a salamander like that have?
And, certainly there are smaller mammals
that would feast on the younger ones,
the juvenile sub-adults.
But, it really is the encroachment of humans
that is destroying the environment for these animals.
With the building of dams and barrier walls.
I know in the first episode, we really made that point
at the end to say it's the addition of concrete
to the environment that is preventing salamanders
from traveling from breeding spot to breeding spot.
- Right, yeah.
Habitat destruction, degradation, that is
the biggest threat to these animals.
They require healthy ecosystems.
Their water needs to be clean.
Essentially, these animals,
breathe through their skin, right?
- Right.
So, I have the little one here,
which we gave away in the Tokyo scavenger hunt.
And, this is what would be considered a sub-adult.
And, we did find some smaller ones like this
in the field, we'll get into that in a second.
But, you know, you can see, and we showed in the episode,
these flaps of skin on the side of their bodies.
Just like Hellbenders, they absorb a lot
of their environment through their skin.
- Right. - As you guys know,
most amphibians do.
But, salamanders specifically are great indicator species
for how healthy an environment is.
- [Mario] Exactly.
- Of course, it was probably unique for you guys
to see an episode where I wasn't actually
allowed to catch and handle the salamanders myself.
But again, there are very strict laws and regulations
that only licensed researchers are allowed
to make physical contact with the salamanders in the wild.
Now, of course, the episode that came out
about the Hanzaki Research Institute,
where The Great Osanturo lives,
the largest Japanese Giant Salamander on record in Japan.
Which I was able to get hands on with.
- [Mario] Right.
- [Coyote] And, what an incredible experience for all of us
to just interact with that creature.
- I mean, it was massive.
It weighed what, 14 kilograms,
which is roughly 30 pounds.
That's like the size of a small dog, right?
- That's like a lot of the snapping turtles I catch,
are like 30 pounds.
- Yeah.
Yeah, so it was quite amazing to see
such a large amphibian.
Their structure is amazing.
So well adapted to their stream
and water environment, right.
- [Coyote] Well, it's that flat body structure,
and, you know, those little hands with those nuptial pads
that can really just grip them in place,
even with the strong flowing current.
- The family of salamanders, the genus
that this group belongs to, thrives in cold water.
And, that's actually why they live so long.
So, everything is slow when you live in a cold environment,
your metabolism, how you move.
You basically grab a prey item,
that prey item will last you a long time as a meal.
And, as we know, the Giant Salamanders
can live a long time, right.
- Um hm.
Well, The Great Osanturo is over a hundred years of age.
- That's pretty amazing. - Which is crazy to think
that a salamander of that size
is over a hundred years old, dwarfs us when it comes to age.
- [Mario] Yeah.
- [Coyote] And, may outlive us, nobody really knows.
- [Mario] Yeah.
- And it's, like I said, the largest one
that is currently in captivity in Japan.
Now, the smaller salamanders, something that is
this size or smaller, is considered incredibly important
to the science that Okada Sensei is doing.
And, Mario, why don't you explain
why the juveniles are so important.
- Right, so juveniles in a population are really important
because they're an indicator that number one,
the population is growing, right, they're reproducing.
That's good.
And, especially for the salamanders,
another reason why it's a good indicator,
is because they have these life stages, or life cycles.
They start off as eggs, then they turn into larvae,
then they metamorphosize into sub-adults,
and then into the adults themselves.
So, the larvae stage is really sensitive
to the environment, right.
The little larvae have actually gill slits,
and the water needs to be really clean, and really healthy.
So, if you find these juveniles,
it means that the larvae have survived,
and that the ecosystem is probably healthy.
- [Coyote] Right, so when you have the bigger salamanders,
the ones that are between 50, 60, 70, 80, 90,
a hundred years of age, they've adapted.
And, while they are susceptible to pollution,
they've at least allowed their bodies to become--
- [Mario] Exactly.
- You know, in tune with the environment.
So, introduction to pollution sometimes
they can sustain a bit longer than the young ones.
- Yes.
- Like we said, young ones with the gill slits,
and breathing through their bodies,
become very much impacted by the addition
of something like a pollutant.
The small one that you found,
which was, I mean it was tiny,
it was the smallest salamander we found on the trip.
- Yeah so, I think the highlight of my
Japan trip was the fact that we found
during actually one of our B-roll days, right.
So, we often go out into the environment
and gather B-roll.
And, we were out during the day.
And, it's not likely to find them during the day
because they're primarily nocturnal.
But, underneath a rock, Dr. Okada found
a little salamander.
A little Giant Salamander.
- Teeny, tiny giant, pretty much.
- Right.
And, so we had to gather biometrics.
And, I was helping him do that
while you guys were getting B-roll.
And, we determined that it was roughly
around five years old, and it was not a marked individual.
So, it was new to his study.
So, after biometrics we actually put
a PIT tag in it, kinda like
what we do with the crocodiles, right.
So, it's got an identification number.
And, in his notes, he actually named it Mario, after me.
So, essentially I have a salamander right now, in Japan,
that's swimming around, doing its thing.
And, hopefully, it might actually outlive me.
It can live up to a hundred years.
- [Coyote] If it's lucky, it will definitely outlive you.
- [Mario] Yeah.
- [Coyote] Even though you will stay incredibly healthy,
just like hopefully the salamander will,
it's definitely going to live longer than you are.
- See ya later Mario.
You also had an experience like that as well, right?
- I did, yeah.
Well, what's cool is that, you know,
after we filmed the main scene.
And, actually in total we caught six salamanders
on the entire trip.
- [Mario] Yes.
- But, you really only saw
the one largest one we caught in the field.
Once the cameras had wrapped,
and we were breaking everything down,
I'm just looking around on the side of the river
and I shine my flashlight right into the water,
and here's a salamander about this size,
just scurrying along the rocks.
I call out to Okada Sensei, I'm like, small salamander.
- Yeah.
- I didn't wanna say, 'cause it was like,
if you say Giant Salamander, you just think big one.
But, it was a small Giant Salamander.
You know, with the rules and regulations,
I was not allowed to actually catch it myself.
- Right.
- So, Okada Sensei comes running down,
scoops it up with the net,
and then we filmed an entire scene.
It didn't make it into the actual episode.
So, if you guys wanna see it,
should we show a deleted scene?
- Absolutely, yeah.
- Okay, so if you guys are ready,
let's roll the footage of us tagging
and collecting the biometrics for
a small Giant Salamander.
I was able to just corral it gently
until Dr. Okada got down there.
So, look at how small this one is.
So, this is incredibly important,
finding a salamander of this size
means that reproduction is happening.
And, it's not likely that this one even has a tag in it yet.
So, we're gonna definitely need to collect its biometrics.
We had just wrapped on the scene, I look down off the side,
and it's a baby salamander.
I mean, it looks big to you and me
as compared to salamanders, but this is tiny
when we're talking Japanese Giant Salamanders.
Now, it's actually more rare to find
a salamander this size, than it is a large one.
So, this is really exciting.
There's a good chance this salamander
does not have a tag in it yet.
Look at that little junior, that's so cool.
A little bit easier to handle a small one like this,
than it is a giant.
That looks just like a big one,
only junior size.
Look at all that speckled patterning,
perfect camouflage for this river ecosystem.
A little water in there.
The water actually helps to keep the salamander calm.
See that, it's wanting to get out of the tube.
And, as soon as you get water in there,
it just goes whoop, and calms down.
32.5 centimeters is the total length.
Here's the moment of truth, does it have a tag in it?
- No tag. - No tag.
Oh, that's great.
This is an undocumented animal.
That's so cool.
So, this is really important for your research, right?
- Yes.
- All the time that Dr. Okada spends out here
finding these salamanders, catching them
year after year, finding out if they have tags or not.
And, this is a completely new animal.
Not yet recorded.
- [Dr. Okada] You found it.
- [Coyote] Yeah, I spotted it.
- [Mark] Does that mean you get to name it?
- Yeah, do I get to name it since I spotted it?
- Yeah.
- Oh, all right. - Coyote.
- Call it coyote?
Coyote the Giant Japanese Salamander.
- [Mark] What's Coyote in Japanese?
- Coyote.
- This salamander is officially going to
be named Coyote.
All right, so you're gonna get a snout to vent.
What was it?
- [Dr. Okada] 3.8.
- [Coyote] Oh, 3.8.
- [Dr. Okada] And, head is 4.3.
- [Coyote] 4.3.
Oh, tiny as compared to the adult that we caught.
- [Mark] Look at the belly, much lighter in color.
- [Coyote] Much lighter.
- [Dr. Okada] This is male.
- [Coyote] Oh, and it's a male.
How are you able to tell that?
- [Dr. Okada] The same, swollen cloaca.
- Okay, a swollen cloaca.
We've got ourselves a juvenile male here.
- Very young male.
- So, how old would you guess that this salamander is?
- [Dr. Okada] 15?
- Okay so, what Dr. Okada said, is that he's guessing
this salamander is around 15 years of age.
- [Mark] Really, it takes 15 years
to get that big?
- 15 years to get this big.
That's pretty incredible.
All right, so this is important.
We're going to put a PIT tag into this juvenile male.
Like I said before, because it does not
have a tag in it, it needs one.
And, this will allow Dr. Okada to
continuously track this animal.
Now, this is not a tracking chip,
so we can't like come out with a, you know,
little wand and detect where the animal is.
It's an ID chip.
So, if it's caught again, he can scan it,
just like he did with the larger one.
And, that will allow us to see the health
and the growth of the animal, over time.
We're gonna insert the tag here.
And, it's just like a little pinprick.
Right there, behind the arm, perfect.
All right.
(beeping)
Got it. - There we go.
- All right, this baby giant is officially tagged.
- If I catch Junior, I email you with picture.
- [Coyote] That would be great.
That would be great.
- [Mark] So, you're gonna get some updates
on Coyote Junior. - Yes.
- [Mark] If he's captured in the future.
- This is officially my son now.
My son, the Japanese Giant Salamander.
All right, so the last thing to do
is to let Coyote back into the river,
where hopefully he will flourish and breed,
and there will be more salamanders here in Japan.
Oh, that was awesome Dr. Okada, thank you so much.
Wow, how cool was that, right guys?
- [Mark] Awesome.
- All right, let's let him back into the river.
(upbeat piano music)
How cool was that, right.
Coyote Junior. - Right.
- And, what a special moment for both of us.
And, actually, one thing that we got, is this.
See this little numbered tag down here,
you have one on the front of yours too.
- [Mario] Yup.
- [Coyote] Okada Sensei gave this to us.
And, he wrote in Japanese scripting there,
be brave, stay wild, from Okada Sensei to Coyote.
You've got one too.
- Right.
- And, this little tag here is the official number
of Coyote Junior and Mario Junior.
- Right, yeah.
This is definitely a highlight and a treasure
that I brought back from Japan.
It shows the date that we captured
and tagged the animal.
So, you know, this is very special to us
because, once again, these animals are gonna be out there.
They're out there right now, thriving.
Think about it, right.
That's pretty neat.
- Well, and, like we said, there's a good chance
that these salamanders, if they stay healthy,
and manage to avoid, you know, human encroachment,
they will potentially outlive us.
- Wow.
- But, what's so amazing, and certainly for Okada Sensei,
is that on that trip, when you think about
the areas that he does research, he's been researching
these areas for over 20 years.
And, on this trip we magically find two new specimens,
that had never been tagged before.
Which was a pretty cool moment for us.
- Yeah, definitely special.
I think Dr. Okada was very happy with us.
You know, when we come and work with these researchers
or groups, sometimes they're nervous because they don't
want a camera crew like messing up what they're doing,
and encroaching on the research.
But, we always come in in a very respectful manner,
and you know we help out with the research.
- A lot of times when you come in as a production company,
and you're like, hey we wanna film an episode on this.
People might look and be like, oh, I don't know.
Cameras and lights, and are you guys gonna know
what you're doing, are you gonna tell the story
that we want to tell as an organization.
- Right.
- So, I think we did a great job making sure
to really stick to the storyline of not turning
these things into monsters.
- Nope.
- 'Cause there is a lot of myth and lore,
throughout time, that they were these river dragons.
But, it's not something to be afraid of.
They're the most sentient, docile creatures
you'll every encounter.
And, they rely on us as humans
to protect their environments.
And, of course, with what Okada Sensei is doing
to promote that conservation,
so that they can continue to thrive.
- Right.
And, probably one of the coolest aspects of this
is that, the viewers can actually go out
and do exactly what we did, right.
- Right.
This is not exclusive to film teams or research teams.
Now, that does not mean you can go out
and look for Giant Salamanders on your own.
- Right.
- But, the group that we worked with,
if you search bushidojapan.com,
you'll get connected with our amazing guide, Richard.
Who actually leads ecotourism into these environments
with the Hansaki Institute, so that people
can see these salamanders in the wild.
So, you can go out and watch Okada Sensei
do his thing, collecting data.
- [Mario] Right.
And, you will contribute to the conservation,
because through ecotourism the money that is made
goes into funding Japanese Salamander conservation.
- Which actually, I just had a crazy idea.
I don't know if we'd be able to do this
at some point, but, you know how we did
the Golden Adventure Ticket for the Brave Adventures,
the first book.
- [Mario] Right.
- We should do something maybe where we
take some members of the Coyote Pack
back to Japan for some ecotourism.
- Oh wow.
- Oh, it's got my gears grinding.
Okay, got a couple ideas.
We'll have to put a pause on that
and see if it happens.
- Yeah.
- But, it would be pretty cool to take
some of the audience members out there, into Japan.
It's a unique environment.
- [Mario] Yeah.
- [Coyote] It's not an easy thing to get through.
But, once you're there, just the history
of that place is ah, it's magical.
- [Mario] That would be quite the adventure.
- It would be pretty cool.
All right guys, well make sure you go back
and watch the two Japanese Giant Salamander episodes,
if you have not seen them at this point.
Write in the comment section below,
and tell us what you love about the Giant Salamander.
And let us know, would you like to go
on an ecotourism trip with myself, Mark, and Mario,
to look for Giant Salamanders?
Sounds pretty cool right.
- Yeah, I think so.
- I'm Coyote Peterson.
- I'm Mario Aldecoa.
- Be brave.
- Stay wild.
- We'll see ya on the next Base Camp Adventure.
- All right. - All right.
Conservation efforts for the Giant Salamander
are imperative for its survival.
And, if you would like to help,
make sure to visit bushidojapan.com
to ensure that there is a future for these majestic animals.
If you missed our thrilling adventure
into the mysterious world of Giant Salamanders,
make sure to go back and watch, as we got
the slippery amphibian up close for the cameras.
And, don't forget, subscribe,
and click the notification bell,
so you can join me and the crew
on our next wild adventure.
(roaring)