- And those pinchers could put quite the hurt on ya
if you got your finger in there
and I'm sure now you're thinking to yourself,
is Coyote gonna let this crayfish pinch him.
Why not?
Let's see how powerful is it,
that's probably the right thing to do right?
(Tim laughs)
- Uh, do I really wanna do this?
I know everybody right now is watching saying,
"Yes, Coyote let's see how bad that pinch is."
All right here we go, ready?
One.
(Intense music builds)
Two.
(Intense music suddenly hurts)
(animals roars)
(high-paced intense music)
(animal roars)
West Virginia is without question one
of my favorite places to explore.
The landscape is beautiful no matter
what direction you turn.
And its collection of wildlife is unbelievably diverse.
Some of its creatures even appear
as if they are out of this world.
Several years ago we set off
into the wild along herpetologist Tim Brust
to seek out a living alien known as the hellbender.
- We got em!
(all cheering and whooping)
- Oh man Tim, that was amazing.
The counts in the net.
- Helling is the largest salamander species
in the New World.
This giant amphibian was incredibly difficult to catch.
Yet the reward was well worth it,
as that video helped bring attention
to the conservation work Tim and his colleagues are doing
to protect West Virginia's river ecosystems.
On this adventure, we are returning once again,
to this wild and wonderful state.
(typing on keyboard)
(pencil scratches surface)
Our mission is to track down
and find yet another earthbound alien.
Closely related to the hellbender,
it's fair to say that the mysterious being we now seek,
is just as elusive and even more difficult to catch.
Shrouded in mystery and lore,
like its larger cousins, these salamanders are seldom seen,
which leads to a long list of questions.
We hope to answer several.
We won't be able to answer them all.
But the real question I know we all want the answer to,
is whether or not the mudpuppy is capable of barking.
Now, our goal today is to head upstream
to look for a good spot with mudpuppies.
The best spots will be flat slate-like rocks.
They love to hide up underneath flat rocks or in crevices,
so, we'll search for some environmental indicators,
and with any look, ultimately get our hands, on a mudpuppy.
- All right, can you hook me up?
- There you go.
- Okay you good? - Good.
- All right, well let's head to the creek.
The mud puppy is considered a bio-indicator,
or species whose health status within the environment,
especially in water, can tell scientists
about the effects different pollutants are having
on the ecosystem.
Yikes.
Seems complicated.
But it's really not.
Think of it like this.
If the water is polluted, mudpuppies can't survive.
So if mud puppies are present,
you know it's a healthy ecosystem.
Wow, this is really what you guys can't feel is,
all of this sand and silt.
I see what you're talking about Tim,
so this is not good mudpuppy spot right here because
of how silty this is.
- They'll come out and forage in this,
but as far as where they're hiding during the day, no.
- Okay.
(water splashes)
(playful music)
- I'm trying to get B-roll
of you walking through here actually.
- (Coyote) Oh really I thought you were filming Tim
and I'm filming you.
(cameraman laughs)
- (Coyote) All right I'll keep going, ready?
- Go for it.
(water splashes)
(playful music)
- Like other large aquatic salamanders,
the species we're searching for loves flowing water
and flat rocks to den beneath.
These underwater cave-like structures keep them concealed
during the light of day,
and provide protection from predators.
Our best chances of finding one will come as a result
of gently lifting as many rocks as we can.
How about this one?
(playful music)
(tense high-paced music)
Nothing.
Now, the style of flipping here,
is to flip the rocks very very slowly.
The slower you lift them up, the less silt you will disturb,
and you just let the current grab the silt
and take it with it.
All right let's work our way up around this bend,
and flip some rocks.
(gentle water splashes)
Okay so we got a really good rock right here.
Tim I'm gonna hand you the net.
It's a good open space.
If there's a mudpuppy, and it goes that direction,
I know you're gonna make the scoop.
All right here we go.
(music intensifies)
Nothing.
Wow that looks so perfect.
What you can't see on camera, there's this little cavern.
Holy macro, crayfish crayfish.
There's a big crayfish holy cow we should try to catch this.
If you bring the net right to there,
we might get him.
Let's see if I can scare him backwards.
Wow this one is definitely worth looking at.
(high-paced music)
Got 'em got 'em.
Scoop up scoop up.
Wow those are some pretty big pinchers.
Look at that.
Man those pinchers could put quite the hurt on ya.
If you got your finger in there
and I'm sure now you're thinking to yourself,
is Coyote gonna let this crayfish pinch him.
Why not, let's see how powerful is it,
it's probably the right thing to do right?
(Tim laughs)
- (Tim) I think that's gonna hurt.
- I think it's gonna hurt too.
Uh, do I really wanna do this?
I know everybody right now is watching saying,
"yes Coyote, let's see how bad that pinch is."
he's probably gonna swing that other pincher around
and get me at the same time.
All right here we go, ready?
One.
Two.
Three.
Ooh.
Ah ah (sucks in breath)
Ooh its the tips that really get you the most.
Ooh there goes the second pincher.
Ahhh.
Yep.
You do not want to find yourself, ooh.
Inside the tips of those pinchers.
Now it's actually the tips that are the sharpest part,
but this is the defense mechanism of this low crustacean.
Pinch on to something if it picks me up,
and hopefully it will set me back down into the water
and not turn me into a meal,
but this crayfish is a good sign
that the environment is incredibly healthy.
There're little filters for the environment.
So where we're finding crayfish,
that means there's a good chance of finding mudpuppies.
All right I'm gonna place this guy back down into the water,
and with any luck it is going to just let go of my finger,
and swim right back under its rock.
Here we go, one two three.
Now let go.
Let go buddy.
Oh let go.
Still holding on.
There it goes.
That crayfish definitely was capable of drawing blood.
They may seem completely safe to catch but,
if you get them from the wrong end,
you're gonna pay for it.
All right, mudpuppies, let's keep searching.
(gentle water ripples)
Searching for salamanders can be physically
and mentally exhausting,
as you flip rock after rock after rock,
only to find nothing more than a plume of silt.
Or maybe another angry crayfish.
Yet you constantly fight the urge to give up
because you never know what the next twist
in the river will reveal.
(water splashes)
Wow, okay, this is pretty ideal right?
- (Tim) Yes it's pretty good.
(water ripples)
- I don't know if I'm gonna be able to lift this one,
let me just test it out.
Oh jeez that is a huge rock.
I'm not sure I'm lifting that one,
but big Tim!
You think you can lift it?
- I can give it a shot.
- Okay.
Lift it slow, and with any luck,
we'll find something under it and I will do the scooping.
Sound good? - (Tim) Yep.
Okay.
(quiet tense music)
Oh it's dark dark dark I see nothing.
(underwater breathing sounds)
Oh, oh oh oh.
(net pushes through water loudly)
I got one, mudpuppy mudpuppy.
Look at this look at this.
Yes!
Right there, check it out.
(inspirational music)
Yes!
We got a mudpuppy.
Okay watch your toes, put the rock down.
Let's go right up here, on this flat rock,
the water's completely clear.
Looks like a good spot to present, the mudpuppy.
(water splashes loudly)
Okay, let's do this.
(water sloshes around)
- (Tim) Here's the (mumbles)
- There we go.
Okay now like the hellbender,
this salamander is gonna be really hard to present,
so I'm gonna actually use my backpack as a table.
I am gonna be able to take it out
of the container periodically for us to get a good look at,
but, I wanna keep the amphibian submerged
and as stress-free as possible.
Let's do this to start.
Let me hold it up.
Wow, when it's under the water like that
you can really see those gills bloomed out to the sides.
Now, the mudpuppy appears
as if it is stuck in a perpetual state of larva form.
Most salamanders species start off as larva with gills
and stay beneath the water,
but the mudpuppy never loses those gills,
and is in an aquatic environment its entire life.
You'll never see one of these amphibians up and out
of the water, at least not if it's healthy and doing well.
Now at first when I had it in the net,
for a second I thought, well,
is it a mudpuppy or is it a baby hellbender?
You can see when it's out of the water its gills
are pressed up against the side of its head.
That very flat blunt-shaped head,
which of course like the hellbender
allows them to navigate through the environment,
wedging up underneath flat rocks.
Now, also like the hellbender
they have these little noptural pads on their toes.
They have four toes on the back, four toes on the front,
and they just slowly crawl along the basin
of this stream or the river.
Now we are gonna collect some biometric data
from this creature.
There I go, bring it up again for you one more time.
That is just amazing.
What a bizarre amphibian.
Now I can hold it up out of the water for a few seconds
without causing it any harm but I do want
to continuously dip it down into the water
so that it stays hydrated.
Now I imagine like the hellbender
they're probably also capable of absorbing some oxygen
through their skin, and also like the hellbender,
you can see their very rudder-like tail of this amphibian.
Look at that.
Obviously allows them to propel themselves forward
within the water.
Okay, let's bring the mudpuppy up again, very gently.
Come here little guy, there we go.
Now, during the day, they will hide beneath rocks,
obviously to stay hidden from predators.
This is primarily a nocturnal species.
They'll come out at night and begin to hunt.
Now it may look adorable and cute,
but believe it or not this is a ferocious predator.
They'll feast upon any sort
of small crayfish or invertebrate
that they come across whether it's a worm, tadpoles,
little fish, all make fair game for the mudpuppy.
Finding a mudpuppy is incredibly exciting,
but it's important to put as little stress
on the animal as possible,
so I need to help Tim collect the biometrics
as quickly as we can.
First we need to measure the length,
which consists of recording snout to vent,
and then the total length of snout to tail tip.
Next we need to get the salamander's weight.
Last, and most important, is a DNA sample.
Taken as a small sliver of skin from the tail,
it will contain an incredible amount of genetic information.
This will help Tim and his research partners
determine the health of this environment,
and it may even define this specific animal
as a completely new species of mudpuppy.
Okay, so at this point
we've collected the mudpuppy's biometrics,
the important signs that Tim needed
to collect for his research.
But now it's time to answer the question
that you've all been waiting for.
Why is the mudpuppy called a mudpuppy?
(playful music)
Well, to be honest with ya, I have no idea.
It is rumored that these amphibians
will make a barking sound when they're captured.
It will sound something like this.
Arp! Arp! Arp!
Like a puppy.
But when we caught this salamander,
it made absolutely no sound at all.
Trust me, if it had, we would have featured it.
I guess in my opinion they're simply called mudpuppies
because they are as cute as a puppy.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave.
Stay wild.
We'll see ya on the next adventure.
All right, it is time to get mudpuppy back into the creek.
(playful music)
(water sloshes)
Searching for a cryptic alien-looking creature
like the mudpuppy proved to be a difficult process.
This was partially because they're designed
to blend in with their surroundings,
but more so, it's the fact that this species
is no where near as plentiful as it once was.
Salamanders probably hail
as one of nature's most accurate bio-indicators,
yet this mighty responsibility carries with it
the very real tragedy that populations are being decimated
due to human encroachment and environmental destruction.
The watershed ecosystem is incredibly fragile,
and even the slightest level of toxicity,
an improperly disposed quart of oil,
the spreading of fertilizer,
or even litter from the window of a car
can cause irreparable damage.
Helping to spread this knowledge
can make a world of difference
for the future of these amphibians,
and as conservation specialists like Tim Brust,
who are putting in the effort to protect these pockets
of untampered wilderness
and the animals that call them home.
(gentle music)
This wild and wonderful state has so many cool animals.
I can't wait to see what we'll find next.
And in the meantime, make sure to go back
and watch our encounter
with West Virgina's largest salamander, the hellbender.
And don't forget, subscribe and click the notification bell
so you can join me and the crew on our next big adventure.
(animal roars)
(far away animal cry)
(birds sing)