(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)