- [Coyote] I got it, I got it, I got it!
Right in the bottom of the net.
Hey, Mario.
I think this is an amphiuma.
Hold on, hold on!
- [Mark] It walks?
(fast beat tribal music)
- [Coyote Voiceover] The southern tip of Florida
is blanketed by a seemingly endless expanse
of swampland known as the Everglades.
This massive, slow-moving river is a wild place
that spans over 1.5 million acres
and is home to hundreds of animal species.
During the light of day, most of these creatures
stay hidden from the sun's scorching rays,
yet, as the sun sinks beyond the western horizon,
the hidden come out to hunt under the cover of darkness.
On this sweltering evening,
the crew and I are also on the hunt.
Only, our goal isn't to eat what we catch,
but, instead, to educate you about the fascinating
creatures that call this thriving ecosystem home.
During the dry season, animals congregate
in the deeper flows of water,
and by following this consistent vein of hydration,
we happen to stumble upon one of the
most bizarre creatures in Florida.
- Well, as you guys can tell,
the sun has officially disappeared, and darkness has set in.
We're in the middle of the Everglades right now,
and I'm standing in a waterway, check this out.
- [Mark] It's a little soupy down here.
- Yeah, it is gonna get soggy.
It is gonna get muddy.
Now, this is an airboat trail,
which is perfect for airboats,
and also perfect for us to walk through,
cause it keeps us out of the saw grass.
Now, I wanna head in this direction,
and there are a number of different
creatures we can come across tonight.
I have this small net with me, and,
as you can see, the water is very murky,
and it is also filled
with gloppy mud.
It's gonna make seeing animals really difficult,
so if there's any movement, I'm gonna
try and scoop it up with the net.
And, with any luck, we're gonna get some
cool creatures up close for the cameras.
You guys ready to start the adventure?
- [Mark] Let's do it.
- All right, here we go, into the darkness.
Now, temperatures are pretty nice.
Oh!
That's just mud.
Temperatures are pretty nice tonight,
not too, too many mosquitoes.
I was afraid we were gonna get totally eaten alive out here.
So far, so good. - [Mark] That makes me happy.
Already getting bit?
- [Mario] Not too much.
- It is slow moving through this environment.
We're actually right in the middle of the dry season
here in the Everglades, but even still,
point your camera down here and you see
all these plants that we're moving through?
This is thick, constantly grabbing at your ankles.
So far, I've seen nothing.
Keep your eyes peeled, guys.
There are gonna be creatures out here.
Look at that.
A walking stick just showed up
on my shirt.
The Everglades are definitely alive with insects tonight.
Look at that guy!
Go ahead and zoom in.
Wow, how cool looking is that?
All right, buddy, let's get you back into the grass.
Oh, there you go, dropped him down there.
All right, let's keep heading through the grass here.
Wow, check this out.
This entire bush is covered in lubber grasshoppers.
Now, these are juveniles, look at this.
Go ahead and zoom in on these ones up here,
right next to a little, tiny spiderweb.
No, buddy, those are too big for you to catch.
You know what?
Let me pick one off of there real quick
and let's take a good look at it.
Come here, buddy.
Got him.
Oh, and that one jumped down there.
Come check this out.
Just gonna set it out on my hands,
see if it'll stay there for a second.
Look at the beautiful coloration on this insect.
Okay.
Look at that.
Wow!
Looks like he was painted with one of those machines,
oh!
that makes stripes down the middle of the freeway
with that yellow line down the center of its back.
There, let me get him again here.
That's a pretty cool little insect right there.
I wish it was, oh!
Oh, he's spittin' on me!
Oh! Stinks!
All right, well, we'll let him back to his business.
Now let's keep searching for bigger creatures.
Oh, guys, an eel, an eel!
- [Mark] You got something?
- [Coyote] I got it, I got it, I got it!
- [Mark] What do you got? - It's an eel!
Right in the bottom of the net.
I got it, come up here, come up here!
Oh, oh, oh, there's his head, it's coming out right there!
Move back, back, back, back!
Wow!
That is so cool!
- [Mark] All I can see is mud.
- [Coyote] Point your camera, no, no, no, look it.
There's the side of its body right there.
- [Mark] Whoa!
- Oh, it's filling like the entire bottom of the net.
Wow!
All right, let's take it back up onto this dry spot.
Here, Mario, get that,
- [Mark] Here, Mario, I'll-- - [Coyote] get that container.
Yeah, Mark, hand him that camera here.
Mark's still trying to get that shot.
Look at that.
Wow!
He's not being too, too crazy active.
Oh, look there, it's starting to move.
Look at that!
Nice!
Actually,
that's not an eel.
- [Mark] What is it, a catfish?
- No.
Dude, Mario!
- [Mario] Yeah?
- I think this is an amphiuma.
Is that how you say it?
Am...
- [Mario] Amphiuma.
- Amphiuma, amphiuma.
- [Mario] Let me see. - Dude, I don't think
this is an eel at all, look at this!
- [Mario] Oh, yeah, dude, that's totally an amphiuma.
- Is it really?
- [Mario] Yeah. - [Coyote] No way!
Okay, guys, this is not an eel.
- [Mark] What is it? - It's actually
a huge salamander.
- [Mario] Yeah, look, I got this little bucket of water.
- Okay, here, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's get in here, back up a little bit further.
- [Mario] Oh!
- [Coyote] Here, here, here, hold on, hold on.
Don't let it get out.
Keep the net over the top of it.
- [Mario] That's an amphiuma. - Holy cow!
Okay, we have caught a really good-sized, huge salamander.
This is almost like a hellbender in a sense,
but you'll oftentimes find them in muddy ditches like this.
This is crazy, okay!
Little bit of chaos there.
Wow!
All right, let's back up a little bit further.
They're extremely quick.
I definitely don't want it to get back into the water.
Let's find a dry spot up here
and get it up closer to the cameras.
- [Mario] Sweet! - Whoa!
That is so cool!
Let's just mat this down.
- [Mark] So, basically, we're all
standing on like a big sponge right now.
- Oh, yeah, we're gonna be sunk
up to our knees before we know it,
but I wanted us to have a good, flat platform
to be able to look at this amphibian.
Okay, it's gonna be really tough to handle,
just like an eel or a hellbender.
It is a very fragile amphibian.
Again, an amphibian, it's a big salamander,
it is not an eel at all, but,
oftentimes, these are mistaken for eels.
Now, it's gonna be almost impossible to hold onto,
so I'm gonna see if I can get it
to just lay flat in my hands.
Come here, buddy.
I do want to be careful, because they
can give you a pretty nasty bite.
- [Mark] All right, guy, you're gonna have
to give me the name of this one more time.
What is it called?
- It is an amphiuma.
Amphiuma.
All right, let me see if I can,
whoa, hold on!
Hold on, hold on!
Okay, just let it hang out for a second.
That's actually good.
We want it to do just that. - [Mark] It's walking!
It walks? - [Coyote] It does.
It has small, vestigial legs,
and what it'll actually try to do is burrow down.
We don't want that to happen.
Come here, buddy, let me bring you back up.
Okay, it is really, really hard to hold onto.
I wanna sort of cradle it in my arms if I can.
It's gonna be really tough for you guys to get shots.
Okay, I'm gonna have to kind of
hold it up close to my body like this.
Let's see, calm down.
Oh, it's sliming me.
You know what?
It's gonna be impossible to hold onto, just like the eel.
I'm gonna actually keep it in the bucket for a second.
Look at that!
Now, all of that mucus that's on my gloves,
Mark, I'd say put your hands out there and touch that, but
(gloves squishing)
do you hear that?
- [Mark] I'm good. - Yeah.
That is a defensive tactic right there,
makes it more slippery,
impossible for a predator to hold onto.
Actually, what I might be able to do
is place it on the underside,
oh, oh, look, he's coming up out of the thing here!
Let me see if I can actually place it
on the flat of my backpack here.
- [Mark] We have an escape artist.
- That's okay, let him out for a second,
and I'm gonna place him right here
and see if we can get him to just stay put.
Oh, they are quick!
All right, buddy, let me see, real gentle, real gentle.
There we go, there we go.
All right, look at that.
Look at the pointy nature of its snout.
Now, these things are incredibly good at
burrowing down into the mud and the muck.
Now, oftentimes, you'll come across these in,
believe it or not, ditches.
They like to bury themselves under leaves.
They stay in shallow water,
and they're hunting for crayfish.
Wow, an amphiuma!
This is a creature that I have never seen before.
I definitely thought it was an eel.
You can easily see how you would confuse it with an eel,
but, like I said, this is, indeed, an amphibian,
a very large salamander, similar to the hellbender.
Actually, one of the largest
salamander species in the world,
they can grow to nearly 50 inches in length.
Look at that, look at the way that
it slinks along the backpack.
They have an incredible ability to sense things
in their environment because, just like a fish,
they have a lateral line that runs
down the entire length of their body.
So, right now, what he's feeling is this little groove,
and he's saying, "Okay, this is a good spot to hide.
"If I don't move, no one's gonna eat me."
Don't worry, buddy, we're not gonna try to eat you.
- [Mark] Oh, there he goes!
- Come on back down this way.
Here he comes, here he comes, right there!
Look at that.
- [Mark] So this is an amphibian, so it can,
it can be out of the water, then, I'm assuming.
- [Coyote] Yes, not for too long.
Now, different from some salamander species,
these salamanders actually have fully developed lungs
and they can stay out of the water
for a considerable amount of time.
Look at that, you can actually see it
taking breaths of air right there.
You know, I'm going get him back
into the bucket of water here.
Here we go, buddy.
Okay.
Here we go.
I'm gonna keep the gloves on,
and that's not because I'm using them to handle the animal,
honestly, it's just making it more slippery.
But they actually have teeth.
Imagine that, a salamander having a pretty powerful bite!
These have a double row of teeth on the top jaw
and a very sharp row of teeth on the lower jaw,
and they can give you quite a chomp.
- [Mark] Really, that can bite you really badly?
- Oh, yeah, and not only do they bite,
but when they bite onto things, they bite and they spin,
almost like a death roll that a crocodile would do,
and actually take a chunk out of your skin.
- [Mark] There it is.
- There he is.
Now, I've actually read that if these things
are eaten by a predator, they will give off
a death cry, sort of like a rabbit.
You know when a rabbit gets eaten by something
and you hear that screaming?
I've actually heard that these things are
capable of making a pretty high-pitched noise.
Oh, man, this is so cool looking.
Now, you may be looking at a creature like this and
saying to yourself, "What does this salamander eat?"
They actually specialize in eating crayfish,
but they will also take small fish, frogs,
and, occasionally, even little snakes.
All right, Mario, go ahead and zoom in on the eyes there.
Look at that, they're almost clouded.
Those are vestigial, which means that they hardly use them.
They can sense a little bit of light,
but it looks as if there's almost a scale
or a skin layer over the top of
them that keeps them protected.
They do not have eyelids like some amphibian species.
- [Mark] Now, are these rare or are they common?
- I mean, I would consider them rare,
but it's more that they're elusive.
I mean, they are out there,
it's just a matter of being in the exactly
the right place at exactly the right time.
And what I saw in the water was just
sort of movement through the grasses,
saw just the shape of its body and, immediately,
my instinct said, "Oh, it's an eel.
"Scoop it up with the net."
Never in a million years did I think that we
were gonna come across a creature like this.
But how cool was that, finding an amphiuma
right here in the Florida Everglades?
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave.
Stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
All right, let's get him back into the canal.
Come on, little buddy.
Through all my years exploring the wild
and getting up close with animals,
nothing has been more alien-like
in appearance than the amphiuma.
And despite being one of the
largest amphibians in the world,
they are seldom seen, and nearly impossible to catch.
So getting this aquatic oddity up close for the cameras
was truly an incredible encounter.
If you thought the amphiuma was bizarre,
make sure to go back and watch the episode
where we manage to catch its slippery cousin, the caecilian.
And don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join me and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail.