(playful music)
- Yes, look at that!
That is a monkey-tail lizard.
Holy cow!
I just caught it moving out of the side of my eye.
- [Voiceover] Whoa, look at its tail!
- Holy mackerel, that is awesome!
I have never caught one of these before.
(theme music)
Well folks, Breaking Trail is officially international.
And our first location abroad
is the beautiful country of Costa Rica.
We found and filmed many amazing animals.
But to kick off the adventures,
let's start with something unexpected.
- [Voiceover] Whoa, look at his tail!
Holy mackerel, that is awesome!
I have never caught one of these before!
- [Voiceover] Here let's move into the light.
Kinda dark.
- He's getting a little aggravated.
- [Voiceover] Right here is good.
- Where right here?
- [Voiceover] Yup! - Okay, is that enough light?
- [Voiceover] Yeah, Yeah, great.
Wow, look at that tail!
- You know who this reminds me of?
- [Voiceover] Oh yeah.
- The Cuban Knight Anole.
We all remember what happened in that episode.
I took a chomp.
And he's not too keen on biting.
Oh, no, yes, he is.
Hopefully I don't get bit by this guy.
Now, this is the monkey-tail lizard.
And they are called the monkey-tail lizard
because look at the tail on this guy.
- [Voiceover] Really could fit it in the sink.
- That thing is probably almost two-thirds
the length of this lizard's body.
And it's actually prehensile.
And they use this tail when up in the tree canopy
to help themselves balance on tree limbs.
You can see that right there.
He's got his tail wrapped around my thumb.
And that's what they'll do,
they will use their tail to actually hang from branches.
Watch this, I can hold him by his tail,
he won't drop his tail.
They can hold up the weight of their body
just like that, use their legs to hold onto tree bark,
and lay and wait for prey to come by.
Now, this is an ambush predator.
And look at that, look at that,
it's almost like an upside-down yoga pose.
And they will lay and wait for their prey.
Now, this is an arboreal species.
Meaning they live up in the tree canopy.
And they're feeding on pretty much anything
they can come across,
but mainly small bugs and arachnids.
Hey there buddy, how are you?
Getting ready for your nap, huh?
These are actually diurnal lizards
who are probably catching him just as he is headed
up into the trees for the night.
And it appears that this is a male.
Check this out, watch, let's look at this dewlap.
May I?
Thank you sir.
(playful music)
Just a little dewlap.
Not much color on that.
As you can see,
they are completely matte green all the way around.
This is such a cool lizard.
Now they do get quite a bit bigger than this,
and the females actually grow larger than the males.
- [Voiceover] It's like a whip.
- And this is a male, yeah,
and they can use that tail as defense
to whip it at a potential predator.
But, as an arboreal species,
they don't come in contact with predators
all that often, unless of course it is a bird.
These will be taken by hawks, or eagles.
But, they are voracious predators themselves,
eating any small invertebrate that they can find
up there in the tree canopy,
but occasionally, they will come down to the ground
when big rains move through.
And earlier today, we had a massive storm push its way
through the rainforest here,
and I imagine that is what pushed this guy down
to the level where I am able to capture him.
Look at the head of that lizard.
It resembles the Cuban Knight Anole,
and also kinda looks like a chameleon.
However, this species is in the Anole family.
But, they really kinda look like iguanas.
And you'll notice, unlike the Cuban Knight Anole,
he does not have a ridge of spines
that runs down the length of his body.
Look at those eyeballs.
Let's take a good look at those.
Very similar to the eyeballs of a chameleon,
but what's interesting
is that they can move independently of one another.
Meaning that they can lay in wait for their prey
and just look around with one single eye.
And I can't do it very good,
but let's see if we can get him to.
Over here, over here.
Can't tell, is his eye moving at all?
- [Voiceover] Yeah it is.
- Look at that.
Well, how cool is that?
Getting to monkey around with the monkey-tail lizard.
I'm Coyote Peterson,
be brave.
Stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
There he goes.
(playful music)
If you thought this lizard was cool,
make sure to go back and check out the time
I was chomped by the Cuban Knight Anole.
And don't forget,
subscribe to join me and the crew on this season
of Breaking Trail.
Look at you.
You are all tail buddy.
Look at that.
And now he's up on my hat.
They have incredible balance.
Oh boy, I am looking right at his butt.
Hopefully he doesn't poop in my face.
(nature sounds)