(dramatic music)
- [Coyote] I see a Snapping Turtle.
(dramatic music)
(birds chirping)
(splashing)
- [Mark] Got em?
(yells)
Yeah!
(cheering)
- Got one!
(upbeat music)
- [Coyote] On this episode of Coyote's Backyard,
we will be heading out to explore a place
that I consider to be my childhood backyard.
The Holden Arboretum
Established in 1931, this wild place spans
36 hundred acres in Northeastern Ohio and is home to
wide variety of plants and animals.
When I was a kid, I spent my summer searching
this location for frogs, snakes and turtles.
Today I will be taking a trip down memory lane
as I lead members of the coyote pack around
the grounds to search for wild life.
So, if I put up these ears so I can signal you guys like
this, means I've seen something everybody should see.
- [Kid] How about this?
Alright, I guess that works, do you wanna do that?
I like how it looks--
- [Mark] Looks like a Coyote.
- [Mario] Yeah, I like that.
- That's so smart, what's your name?
- [Kid] Rigsby.
- Rigsby!
Rigsby decided that this is going to be the Coyote symbol.
I like it, here give me like a Coyote, boop!
Okay, so this will be the Coyote symbol today,
which means, be quiet, something's been seen
and let's be quiet and every body's
so quiet so we are catching animals.
Sound good?
- Yeah!
- Let's sneak up, guys got your map?
- Yeah.
- [Mario] Coyote, what are we doing?
- [Girl] I don't want to hold my map anymore.
- Alright, so right now we are sneaking up
on the Lotus Pond, which is our first spot where
we're gonna actually start looking for animals.
Every body's excited, now, there are snapping turtles,
snakes and frogs that live here,
it's just a matter of, can we catch one.
(adventurous music)
(whispering)
I see a big Bullfrog right there.
Stay back here, we're going to try to get that frog.
- [Kids] Yeah.
- [Kid] Got him!
- He's a little guy--
Oh!
I slipped in the water.
Okay, let's bring him back here into the shade a little bit.
The good news, is we caught our first animal.
But he's just a little tiny frog, right,
we wanna see a really big Bullfrog don't we?
- [Kid] That's the bad news.
- What, that it's a little tiny one?
Well, all frogs are pretty much created equal
and he is pretty cute, isn't he?
- [Kids] Yeah.
- So, do you guys know what kind of frog this is?
- [Kid] Bullfrog!
- A Bullfrog!
That's right, and that's a good looking one.
It's nice to see these little tiny frogs like this,
cause it means the Eco System is incredibly healthy and
the tadpoles are turning into frogs.
Now, a frog this size, he's got lot of predators out there.
You guys know what would eat a frog like this?
- [Kids] Snapping turtles.
- Snapping turtles, not a Coyote right?
- [Girl] How about a snake?
- A snake could eat a frog like this, yeah,
and he's probably thinking to himself right now,
uh oh, look at all these Coyote Pack members.
You wouldn't eat this frog would ya?
- No.
- You wanna pet him?
Just real gently on the back right there?
- No.
- [Kid] I wanna pet him.
- [Kid 2] I do!
(upbeat music)
- [Girl] I wanna pet him.
- There you go.
Now, frogs are totally safe to catch and pet.
Aright, well, hopefully we'll catch
a bigger one but this is a good start.
So far, we are one for one.
Watch how he swims off.
You guys ready?
- [Kid] Yeah!
- One, two, three, bye buddy!
Boop!
- [Girl] Hey, there he is!
- [Coyote] Did he swim down and hide in the leaves?
- [Kids] Yeah!
- Alright, well, we caught a frog!
- Should we go back--
- Let's call it a day!
- [Mark] Well, this is the part where
some body should give you a high five.
- Oh yeah, who want's a high five!
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
High fives all around!
High fives, high fives!
Alright, let's go find something a little crazy.
(adventurous music)
(leaves rustling)
- [Kid] He got something!
(cheering)
- [Kid] It's a turtle!
- Sometimes you send up in the
right place at the right time.
That's a pretty good sized
Midland Painting Turtle right there.
At this time a day the turtles are just basking up on top
of these weed beds absorbing light and I see
the back of the carapace here, all of that
space is kinda like a solar panel, right.
They're relying on the sun to heat them up,
so they can go out and hunt.
This turtle does have some algae on it's shell,
often time you don't see Painted Turtles
with algae on their shells because
they spend so much time basking in the sun.
The sun kills the algae and then their
shell is usually very smooth.
But you for some reason, because you probably live in this
real mucky area, have gotten a lot of algae on you.
What do you guys wanna name this one?
- [Kid] I know--
- [Coyote] What?
- [Mario] Picasso!
Cause he's a Painted.
- Oh, okay.
You guy's wanna go with Picasso?
- [Kids] Yeah!
- Every once in a while you gotta
give one to Mario, otherwise he'll cry.
(laughing)
- [Mark] That's the only one Mario.
- [Coyote] Alright, you guys ready to let Picasso go?
- [Kid] Yeah!
- Alright, Mark you got your shots?
- [Mark] I did.
- Alright, I'm gonna just put Picasso out here in the weeds.
- [Kid] I wanna get that snapping Turtle.
(adventurous music)
- I see a snapping turtle.
- No you don't.
Certainly do.
- [Mark] Okay.
- It's 100 percent a snapping turtle, far side of the pond.
Okay, you guys can't see it from here,
it's by those green plants.
Man.
- [Mark] Catchable?
- Yeah, definitely is, it's faced,
it's faced in the wrong dire--
I mean, there's no way to make a
play on it when it's up like this.
We're gonna ignore it for the moment but
we are gonna go around this side.
The good thing about where it's positioned is,
we're not gonna disturb it on that side.
And there's no people walking over there, so,
right here by these rocks there are a lot of water snakes,
so, that's gonna be our immediate target.
Now, good news is, I see a snapping turtle,
there's potential for snapping turtles
all throughout this pond.
There's about four of them that live in here.
The good news is, that we see one, right?
- You do not see a snapping turtle.
- I do see a snapping turtle.
100 percent see a snapping turtle.
What I'm gonna do, is have you guys wait right here.
Mario's gonna go with me and I'm gonna sneak up right by
these rocks here and see if I can get us a water snake.
- Hey, look, there's a Hawk!
- That's a Turkey Vulture.
(adventurous music)
(groans)
(hissing)
- [Mario] Alright, every body stay back.
(yelling)
- [Coyote] Oh, he's biting me!
(dramatic music)
- [Kid] Oh, gee, yes he did!
- [Coyote] Now, everybody this is dangerous.
- [Mario] Get back.
- So, we're not gonna pet this one, it's very feisty.
As you can see I'm already bleeding.
That is a Northern Water Snake.
You don't normally wanna jump on rocks to catch snakes but
today we definitely need to see the animals, right?
That didn't take me long did it?
Now, let me you guys a little something about water snakes.
They bite, right?
Now, notice the pattern of this snake.
The pattern is very distinct, you see that?
See that speckled patterning?
That kinda looks like a Water Moccasin, kinda looks like
a Copperhead, people often times misidentify the
Northern Water Snake for one of those venomous species.
However, this is non-venomous but they do bite.
Now, why am I bleeding as much as I am?
It's not because they have big teeth,
it's because they have an anticoagulant in their saliva.
Has anyone ever heard that term?
Anticoagulant, basically, it causes you to bleed a lot
and the blood doesn't clot, right.
So, it doesn't kinda stop bleeding.
This is just gonna keep dripping, see that Mark?
- [Mark] Eh.
- Yeah, and you know what else he's doing?
(sniffing)
(gagging)
No, no biting.
No biting.
He's also Musky.
(gasps)
Oh, he's trying to get you there.
Oh, close to the camera, alright,
you guys ready to put this snake back?
Oh! He's trying to get my nose.
You guys ready to get this snake back out in the wild?
- [Kids] Yeah!
- Yeah, he is bitey!
Alright, here we go, I'm gonna let
him go right back where he came from.
(adventurous music)
Alright, I'm gonna set him down.
Bye buddy!
- [Mark] Alright, so, Coyote, what are we doing?
- Alright, let's scan over this edge for snapping turtles.
It's dark and shady right here so,
it's really tough to see into the water.
These geese are moving out, which is good, means it won't
scare the snapping turtle once we get over there.
If the geese are acting natural it means that the
environment is natural and hopefully we can land a dragon.
If we hang out here in the shade.
- Where is he?
- Okay, the snapping turtles off this edge here.
I think he went deeper but I'm gonna sneak up
on this edge just to see if I see something.
I'm gonna move all along the edge of this
so you guys stay here with Mark.
Okay, or Mark, you're coming with me.
- [Mark] I'm coming with you.
- Okay, Mark's coming with me, everybody stay right here.
(adventurous music)
(dramatic music)
Snapper right there.
- [Mark] Yup.
(dramatic music)
(splashing)
- [Mark] Got em?
(yelling)
Yeah!
(cheering)
- Got one!
Oh, that's old Noseless right there.
(raspberries)
Man, he almost slipped outta my hands.
He is so slimy!
(groans)
Whoo!
Now, before any body gets any closer.
I'm gonna set it down for a second.
(cheering)
Hey we got one right!
(clapping)
Let's not get bitten by it!
Especially me.
Now, this is Noseless.
I don't know if you can see it from
there but he doesn't have a nose.
Something happened to him early on in life,
probably fighting with another turtle.
But as you can see they are very, very snappy, right.
So, you see where Mark is?
You guys can get to about where Mark is,
don't any body get any closer because
the turtles head is facing that direction.
Okay, right there, good, good, good.
Perfect.
- [Kid] He doesn't have a nose.
- Awesome guys.
Now, we can pet the snapping turtle, at the very end
I will turn it backwards and one at a time
we can come and pet it's tail, okay?
Now, Noseless one of the most consistent
common Snapping Turtles that I have
caught here at The Holden Arboretum.
Always seems to be hunting around the edges of Heath Pond
and I still this you're incredibly handsome even though
you don't have a nose because it makes you very,
very unique looking and makes you very easy to identify.
Now, at-- Can we for like two seconds, can we be calm?
Every body's here, they want to see you.
You know we go through this once a year.
(laughing)
Once a year.
See, he's smiling for you guys but
he would really like to bite me.
So, this is a common Snapping Turtle,
of about average size, right.
For me to catch a turtle this size,
I'm really excited about it, right?
But, what would be even more exciting
is a super enormous turtle.
But this looks pretty big to you guys, right?
- [Kids] Yeah.
- That's a pretty big turtle.
Now, can we think of any predators
for snapping turtle of this size?
What would eat a turtle of this size?
What do you think?
- Maybe an Alligator?
- [Kid] Oh, come on.
- Maybe, but there are no Alligators
or Snapping Turtles around here.
The honest answer is only humans.
Do you guys know that people make Turtle Soup sometimes?
- [Kids] Yeah.
- Awe, no Turtle Soup for you.
No soup for you buddy don't worry about it.
You're totally good.
A turtle this size really doesn't have any predators.
Now, when they're smaller, baby common snapping turtles
are just a little bit bigger than that,
so, a turtle of that size could be eaten by a bird or a
larger turtle or a snake or even like a Large Mouth Bass.
You guys know what Bass are, right?
- [Kids] Yeah!
- Alright, Mark, can you kinda see his tail from there?
- [Mark] Yup.
- Alright, look how I turn him like that.
You guys see that dragon looking tail?
- [Kids] Yeah!
- I have to keep a good eye on the front end.
One thing that I love about these turtle's tails,
is I'm gonna kinda, really delicately--
Okay.
No nose, Noseless, hey buddy, I'm gonna let go
with that hand, don't you try to spin and bite me.
We're gonna look at your tail.
Check out those ridges.
These are ostracoderms which are pieces of bone covered
in skin, scale and at this point,
some really gnarly looking algae.
Look at that, looks just like the tail of a dragon.
Let's look at the plastron the snapping turtle,
ready, we're bringing him up.
Take a good look at that guys, okay, there we go.
Okay, there we go.
Alright, you see that?
Now, the plastron of the common snapping turtle
is much smaller than other turtle species and
that's why they have evolved to have this very gnarled skin,
sharp claws and that powerful bite.
Whoo!
Alright, hold on one second guys,
let's a little wrap up here and every body can pet
Noseless's tail, how's that sound?
Well, I would definitely say that was one epic adventure!
We caught all sorts of creatures and in the end landed one
enormous common snapping turtle.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave!
- Stay wild!
- We'll see you on the next adventure!
You guys ready to let this turtle go?
- Yeah!
(cheering)
- All right!
Say 'thanks Noseless!'
- [All] Thanks Noseless!
(slow music)
- [Kid] Bye bye Noseless.
- [Kid 2] Bye Noseless!
(splashing)
- Whoo!
- [Mark] Nice!
- Alright!
The Holden Arboretum is the location that is truly near and
dear to my heart and I visit every chance that I get.
(adventurous music)
Their continued preservation of the natural world has
defined them as one of the top locations in
The United States to enjoy both plants and native animals.
For me, being given the opportunity to lead members of the
Coyote Pack around The Holden Arboretum was like
being a kid again and I hope moving into the future that
these young adventurous and animal enthusiasts will help
carry on my love and excitement for this very special place.
If you thought this episode of Coyote's Backyard was packed
full of exciting animals, make sure to go back and
check out the time we made a tide pool aquarium.
And don't forget, subscribe, so you can join me and
the crew on our next big adventure.
Get him in there!
Yes!
- Yeah buddy!
- We have caught an Octopus!
(howl)