- I'm Coyote Peterson.
Recently, I ran into a species of ant with a bite
so powerful, it's capable of breaking through human skin.
If you don't believe me? Watch this.
One (phew)
Two, three
Ouch (grunts)
Ah.
Ah!
Yep, that might break it through the skin there.
Oh, like little razor blades.
Ah! Yeah, he's popping holes into my finger.
Ahhh! Oh, yeah, that hurts.
He's got me good right there.
Ahhhhhh! Oww! Look he's banged his head in my finger.
Argh!
Ah!
Ahhh!
Ah ah ah
Ooh!
Yikes!
Yeah, that hurt.
(panicky wilderness music)
- [Voiceover] All right, Coyote, yikes.
That leaf-cutter ant.
That was something, but what people at home might not know,
is that was actually not the first time
you were bitten by that ant, was it?
- No, no it was not.
Now when we arrived at Costa Rico,
we were told by all the locals that when you're out there
looking for creatures, whatever you do,
make sure to avoid leaf-cutter ants.
I said to myself, leaf-cutter ants?
I didn't even know you had leaf-cutter ants.
Do they bite? Sting? They said, "No, no, no, no.
They don't sting. They only bite.
The bite is so powerful, it can break through human skin."
Knowing me, first thing I think is,
"I gotta see if this is really true."
So as we're out there walking through rain forests,
we finally came across a track of leaf-cutters.
Found some workers, found some soldiers.
Mark said, "Okay, here's the ants.
Let's catch one, and let's do the scene."
So I picked up an ant. You guys ready?
- [Mark] I'm ready.
Wait, wait. Where are you gonna let him bite you?
- Right there in the crux of my hand.
Hold up my hand like this, put it right there,
and let it start chomping, and it's chomping,
and it's chomping, but it's not breaking skin.
Even with all that power and that pinch...
Ouch! That really, really hurts.
I don't think he's gonna be able to break skin.
We're thinking, okay. It's just a myth.
Leaf-cutter ants can't really cut through human skin.
Ah, there we go.
- How's that feel? - [Coyote] Wow!
Ah! Feels good to have it off of my hand.
Well, there ya go. Finally.
An ant challenge where I'm walking away mostly unscathed.
Well, as we're heading back to our base camp,
we come upon the nest.
All right, well we have found the nest.
Watch your feet.
Look at how many of these monster-sized
leaf-cutters are coming out.
They are sending out the troops right now.
What you didn't see is me wandering into the nest at first.
Me, I'm like, holy cow, these ants are everywhere.
And just for fun, I pick up another ant,
put it on my finger, and boom!
Immediately, it cuts through the skin.
Those things are monster!
Ow! Ooh, yeah. Ow! Bite me there.
Oh, geez! Ah! Ah! Ah!
That one definitely popped right through the skin.
Look at that. Holy cow.
Fortunately, you're looking at it here.
This is me holding up my finger,
and you can see all the blood running down.
Now you didn't see this in the episode
because we weren't ready to actually
shoot the scene a second time.
I didn't think he was gonna bite me that hard.
The one that we were working with through the scene didn't.
Break skin.
Ah, an angry one is definitely capable of breaking skin.
What should we do? Should we shoot that again?
- [Mark] Think we have to.
- Like right here.
- [Mark] Yeah.
Sigh.
- Hehe.
So, like a good director, Mark says, "Cut, cut, cut, cut.
Back to one. We gotta shoot this scene again."
Now at this point, I'm pretty nervous,
because I'm thinking to myself, oh, boy.
That ant just massacred my finger in one single chomp.
Now he want to actually put an ant on my finger,
and let it do its thing.
So, what you did see is Mark, Mario, and I
heading back into the nest,
and this is where all the ants were swarming out.
Mark's getting bitten. Mario's getting bitten.
And finally, I get a large, angry soldier.
Come back into the scene, sit down,
put up my finger, and place the ant right there,
and it was painful.
Now, I did last more than 60 seconds,
and I had to last more than 60 seconds
so that we could get all the shots.
Shooting these episodes is pretty tough
because there's multiple cameras going,
and we have to make sure we get the cool shots
so that you guys can enjoy the episode.
In total, I was really chomped by this leaf-cutter ant
for probably about two and a half minutes.
Now that also includes, once the video camera
stopped rolling, and we get out the still cameras
to get that cool shot, you know that's the screen grab there
on the YouTube video of me like this, "Ahhhhhhh!"
of an ant on my finger.
A lot of pain to go through just to get that single frame,
but it was totally worth it
because ultimately we proved a myth to be true.
The leaf-cutter ant is capable
of chomping through human skin.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave. Stay wild.
We'll see ya next week.
- Whoa whoa whoa. What about the million subs?
- Oh, yes!
Sorry. I get so excited about those ants.
Coyota pack, we have made it to
a million subscribers on YouTube.
How cool is that?
♪ Oh, yes
♪ Yes, yes, yes ♪
Now, on behalf of myself and the entire
B rave Wilderness team, I just want to take a moment
to thank each and every one of you
out there who's watching all our shows.
We couldn't do this without you.
It's you guys that keep us out here in the field
making these awesome adventures,
and getting ya up close with animals,
whether it's Breaking Trail, Dragon Tails,
Coyote's Backyard or a new series
that's about to come out this summer, Beyond the Tide.
Stay tuned for that.
We couldn't do it without each and every one of you.
So from the bottom of my heart,
thank you for being such an awesome member
of the Coyote Pack.
All right. That's it for me.
We'll see you guys next week.
If you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look,
make sure to go back and watch the full ant attack,
and don't forget, subscribe to join me and the crew
on this season of "Breaking Trail."
Oww! Ahh!
(loud rumble)
(coyote howling)