- Right now it is breakfast time.
Oh, no, there's nothing to eat in my ear.
And what we're gonna do this morning
is go out and search for Mr. Bean's favorite breakfast.
Can you guys guess what this tamandua eats?
If not, stick around,
because we're about to show ya.
Mr. Bean, you ready to go find our breakfast?
I think he's ready.
Come on, let's go.
(upbeat jungle music)
They say that breakfast is
the most important meal of the day,
and for the the animals at Kids Saving the Rainforest,
that is the absolute truth.
This wildlife sanctuary is a temporary home
to many animal species,
from sloths and monkeys
to parrots and fawns.
And on this sunny morning,
I will be taking one of the resident tamanduas
out on a stroll
to see if we can find something delicious to eat.
This is a real easy morning for him.
Normally, he would be crawling around out here on the ground
and searching in the trees.
But this morning he has a bit of a chariot,
a Coyote chariot.
Let me put you up on top of my hat.
There you go, that's a good spot for you to hang out.
All right, now.
Let's head down the trail
and see if we can find some breakfast.
Let's see, do you eat leaves?
Pick one of these.
This looks delicious, actually.
Look at the color of that.
How about that?
Does that look like something you might wanna eat?
No?
No leaves, that's right.
Tamanduas do not eat leaves.
That looks delicious.
You wanna try that?
Oh, sniffin' it.
Sniffin' it, nope, that's my nose.
Oh, no, you know what?
You know what, can I eat it?
I'll eat it.
- [Man] Yeah, you show him how it's done.
- Can you hear that?
His tummy is rumbling.
I think we better get him
towards exactly what it is that he does love to eat,
which are termites and ants.
And you know what I see right over here,
on the corner of this tree, out of the corner of my eye?
A termite mound.
Come on, let's check this out.
Look at this.
Mr. Bean, what is that?
Looks like a giant mound of chocolate.
You think there's anything in there
that you might wanna eat?
We put him up in the tree, and sure enough,
now he is searching for the termites on his own,
which is exactly what we want to see with this animal
that's being rehabilitated.
- [Man] Whoa, look at that tongue.
- Whoa, my gosh, that tongue is long!
Now, don't you go too high.
Careful up there.
I might have to climb up the tree with him.
Let's go back this way.
Come here.
Oh, look at that prehensile tail in action right there.
You see that?
He can curl his tail around a tree branch
and stay completely in one spot and hold up his body.
All right, let's go this way.
There you go, go down that way towards the termite mound.
These mammals are actually pretty picky
when it comes to the type of insects they will consume.
I guess we picked the wrong termite nest,
because Mr. Bean had no interest
in having these tiny bugs for breakfast.
So it was on to the next spot.
Okay, so we cut a piece of this dead tree off
that actually has a different kind of termite in it,
and Mr. Bean is having a feast!
Look at that!
There you go.
Oh, okay.
Are there any ants in there?
And watch how he uses those massive front claws
to break apart these pieces of wood.
Now, the wood is decomposing,
but he will peel off the bark and dig in there,
exposing the termites,
and then use that long, sticky tongue to lap them up.
Now, once they break open a termite nest,
then the termites spill out everywhere,
and they can use that tongue to go
lap, lap, lap, lap, lap, lap, lap, lap,
and lap them all up.
- [Man] Wait, what was that sound again?
- Lap, lap, lap, lap, lap, lap, lap.
I can't do that.
Look how long my tongue is.
Pretty long.
I can actually touch my nose with my tongue.
Check this out.
You see that?
Most people can't do that.
- [Man] Whoa, you can actually do that.
- I can, I can pick my nose with my tongue.
Really, watch. Watch.
- [Man] What?
- I have a very long tongue.
Not quite as long as the tongue of a tamandua, though.
This creature, when fully grown,
the tongue can be as long as 16 inches.
That is over a foot.
Can you imagine having a foot-long tongue?
That would be pretty wild.
Where are you going?
I thought we were going to eat these termites.
Come here, little buddy.
Come here.
Now, he does have termites crawling all over his fur,
and look at this.
Check out the coat of this creature.
Go ahead, reach your hand out there,
and tell me what Mr. Bean feels like.
- [Man] Whoa.
- Really coarse, right?
- [Man] Really course, like Brillo.
- He is, he's like a Brillo pad.
Now, this really dense fur protects him
against termites and ants, both the bite and the sting.
The ants can crawl all over him,
and he will not be injured.
I wonder if he could go up against a bullet ant?
You know, I went up against a bullet ant.
That'd be a pretty big meal for you.
- [Man] Oh, wow.
- Oh, there's the tongue, look at the tongue!
Oh, he stuck his tongue all the way out!
That was crazy!
I saw that!
Can you do that again?
Stick your tongue out again.
- [Man] That looked like more than six inches.
- Yeah, that was,
that was a lot longer than I thought it was gonna be.
That was probably about seven inches.
- [Man] How big will Mr. Bean grow to?
- [Coyote] Oh, they can be about 35 pounds in weight.
- [Man] Whoa, really?
- And, yeah, you know, a lot of the length in the body
is the tail.
This tail will end up being
about 2 1/2 to three feet in length,
and then, of course, this big, massive body,
and they turn very goldish in coloration.
You can see that he's actually starting
to get some dark fur here,
and that is called being vested.
That's what they say.
It's like a vest that is growing on the back of the animal.
So all this white fur will turn gold,
and this fur that's dark right now will become black.
Is that it?
Are you all done?
- [Man] Breakfast is over.
- I think Mr. Bean has had his fill of termites and ants.
But how much fun was this?
Spending our morning having breakfast with a baby tamandua.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave. (inspirational music)
Stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
Wait a minute. (music stops abruptly)
What's that?
You think I should try some termites?
I don't know, guys.
Should I try the termites?
- [Man] I don't know.
I heard they're pretty good, actually.
- I am pretty hungry.
Okay, I'll try it.
Mr. Bean, you've convinced me.
Let's go see if I can eat some termites.
(suspenseful music)
See, you go first.
There we go.
Oh, yeah, all right.
I see, I saw.
All right, Mr. Bean, I'm going for it.
Are you ready?
- [Man] You're really gonna do this?
- Mr. Bean, you're not even watching.
Okay, here I go, ready?
One,
two,
uh.
(Coyote grunts)
- [Man] Keep going.
You need to get a mouthful.
(Coyote grunts)
- Ugh!
- [Man] Oh, let me see, let me see, let me see.
Oh, you really did it!
- Mr. Bean!
- [Man] Hold on, hold still.
They're all over your beard.
- Mr. Bean, I did it!
I did it!
- [Man] What's it taste like?
- Ugh.
Like crunchy, mmm.
Rotten
walnuts.
Oh.
- [Man] Oh, my gosh, he actually did it.
Oh! (laughter)
- Oh, I think I need to wash my mouth out.
This is gross.
If you thought Mr. Bean was an adorable anteater,
make sure to go back and watch my morning of exercise
with Baroo, the smallest tamandua we have ever seen.
Like all baby animals,
Baroo here is extremely curious.
And don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join me and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail.