- (laughs) What are you doing? - He says hi.
Oh, you have eye jewelry. He says, "Oh, you have
a foreign object. Let me remove that."
- Ah-ha-ha!
♪ (upbeat intro) ♪
- (FBE) As a video game enthusiast, I am sure you know that a lot
of the most popular video game characters
are actually based on animals. - Yes, a lot of them are.
- (FBE) Of course, some of these characters look nothing
like their in-real-life counterparts. - Okay. Yeah, I'm just picturing
giant CGI terrifying Sonic in my head.
- (FBE) Do you think you would recognize some of these
video game animals if you saw them in real life?
- Depending on the video game and the animal, maybe.
- (FBE) Well today, we're gonna show you some real living animals,
and you'll have to guess what video game or game series
they're from and which character they inspired.
- Cool! That's awesome. I'm so excited.
- Real animals? Wait, can I pet them?
- (FBE) Yup! - Awesome.
- Wait! This is the greatest day of my life! I wasn't prepared for this.
- (FBE) We're taking you to a place called Animal Tracks.
This is a wildlife conservation and rescue center.
Aside from giving happy homes to exotic animals that cannot return
to the wild, Animal Tracks specializes in up close
and personal educational experiences. - Oh, how fun!
That's such a good place, where they just have sanctuaries.
They're like, "Here's animals." And then also learn about them
and get to see them. - I like education and up close
and personal with animals and video games!
Guys, what an episode. - (FBE) Are you ready to go?
- Yes, let's go! Are we leaving now?
Okay, let's [bleep] go.
♪ (upbeat music) ♪
- (FBE) Do you recognize this monkey from any video games?
- Oh, hello. Ah! Definitely Super Monkey Ball.
Maybe Diddy Kong. - They're monkeys,
so immediately Super Monkey Ball comes to mind.
- The only video game monkey that comes to mind is Donkey Kong.
- Totally reminds of Diddy Kong. - I mean, all I can really think
is Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong. - I'm thinking Mankey from Pokemon.
- This is Animal Tracks. And one of the things we do here
is educate people on primates. These monkeys live here
at Animal Tracks year-round and do education.
And right now, you have Maci on you. - Aww. Hi, Maci.
- (FBE) So, Maci is eight. Marley is 10.
And they were raised as brother and sister in someone's home.
But you'll notice they're not in their home anymore,
'cause monkeys don't make good pets. She can live 40 years in captivity.
- Wow! - Terrible house pet.
They have the ability to bite your fingers off, chase the dogs,
use your crown molding, poo paint the walls.
He is the only boy monkey here at Animal Tracks,
and so, you're one of his dudes now. - Wah, bros!
- These two are different kinds. Marley is actually--
we think he's part of a brown and weeper cross.
And we think Maci is a Brazilian cross. And because they're crosses,
they couldn't live in a zoo. And I love zoos.
Zoos are why we know how to take care of these animals.
But these guys are bound to sanctuaries.
A big thing I want people to know is that just because
the monkeys are nice to one person, they're not nice to everybody.
- Right. - So, I'm mama, but if a stranger
tried to hug you like your mother hugs you...
- That's weird. - Yeah. And they're like
a four-year-old on crack with sharp teeth.
Come on, May. Come on down.
Come on, my love. - Good girl.
- I want you to sit right there on the table.
You get to feel her prehensile tail.
So, they're tree-dwellers, arboreal. And so, that tail works
like a fifth hand. - Oh, you have eye jewelry.
He says, "Oh, you have a foreign object.
Let me remove that." - Ah-ha-ha!
This is why you don't get piercings, kids.
Specifically for monkeys. - And Eric, we know you
don't have bugs, but he's taking care of you,
'cause you are one of his dudes. He wants to make sure you look good
when you go out. He's gonna make sure
you don't have any lice. - That's the nicest thing
anyone has ever done for me! - (FBE) Do you guys recognize
these little guys? - These are hedgehogs.
- Sonic and the Black Knight. - Yeah, I'm gonna have to say Sonic.
Just classic hedgehog character.
- A little blue fella. (laughs) - Sonic!
- Sonic the Hedgehog, which this looks nothing like Sonic.
Okay. - Does that look like Sonic?
- Yes! - A lot more.
- He's a ball. He's just a little ball of happiness.
- Sonic. - A little Sonic the Hedgehog
or Shadow. Oh my gosh. I've always wanted to see
and hold a little hedgehog. - This one is just minding
his business in Africa, in the garden.
A coyote or fox comes up and goes, "Hey,
I'm gonna eat you." Literally, I dare you to eat that.
- It's so cool. - Isn't that crazy?
Look at how share that is. Ready? Watch this. Ready?
How about now? - Whoa!
- It's a ball! - Whoa! Okay, that's more
like Sonic, when he rolls into a ball.
- They're just fluffy armadillos. - Gotta go fast.
- Now, if you get caught with a hedgehog in California,
you're in big, big trouble. - Really?
- Yup. A couple of things you should know.
They're not like a hamster. And they hibernate if they get cold.
So, three nights of cold, they will roll into a ball.
And they breathe about three times a minute,
and you assume that the animal has died.
- (gasps) - And so, people take out
their hedgehogs, and they have a little burial ceremony.
- Oh! - But, in fact, this animal
wakes up on a warm day, and it's loose in the environment,
eating everything that our skunks and foxes and raccoons eat.
- People get them, because they go to Vegas.
- Oh my word! Look at him. - It's an impulse buy.
And then you decide, you know, they're kind of stinky,
kind of gross, I really don't want it anymore.
And then what do you do with it? - Oh! Oh, hello.
- This one's very nice. This one you can pet.
- She's not upset. She was raised as a baby.
And so, she's very friendly. - This one? Not as friendly.
And you can see she's a little quilled up.
5,000 quills. - (Brandon) Whoa.
- (Stacy) So, they're just modified hairs.
- Now, are they actually fast, though? - No, not super fast.
They're kind of like little misers. They would just be in your garden
eating your bugs. They do eat a little bit
of strawberry, a little bit of blueberry.
It's in their contract. You look at this one,
you see this brownish gray. You see that right there?
- Yeah, yeah. - That's actually her spit.
- Oh! - So, there you go.
So, that's why people bathe their hedgehogs.
It's called anointing. And when she smells something delicious,
she makes this thick saliva, wipes it all over her body.
- Nice. - And then that's her cologne.
- Hey, buddy. - And she's actually biting
my hand right now. Do you see that?
That's why I'm wearing a glove. Look at her.
She's like a bulldog. - (Brandon) Look at her.
She's going in. - So yeah, I would never ever
hold that one without a glove.
It is like holding a ball of needles when they're upset.
- Oh, wow. - The color, I like it.
- (Alyson) Right? - (FBE) Do you guys recognize her
from a video game? - Yes.
- (Michelle) Star Fox.
- Obviously, Star Fox, Fox McCloud.
- Sonic Heroes. - Any of the Naruto video games,
'cause foxes are awesome. - (Alyson) So, this is Shy, you guys.
And she's a red fox, but she was bred this color
for the pet trade. In the wild, that wouldn't exist naturally.
It happens less than 10% of the time,
and they won't survive because of lack of camouflage.
Before she came to us, she was owned by a very young couple
that was big into video gaming, and they named her Temi.
- (Eric) She was somebody's pet before she was in--
- (Stacy) She was somebody's pet, yeah, in Utah.
We got her all the way from Provo, Utah.
And in Utah, depending on what city you live in,
it's illegal to own a fox. So, there was this young couple
that did all the right things. They did their research.
They built her an enclosure. And then they moved to a city
where they're not legal to own. So, they turned her in to a sanctuary.
- How old is Shy? - (Alyson) She just turned
three years old in April. She could live 15 in captivity.
So, she's just a youngster still. If you wanna try to give her
some food-- she doesn't seem to be very interested right now,
but you can give it a shot. She might.
You're okay, mama. Yeah, good girl.
- (Mikaela) I have a snack for you.
Not my nail. - (Alyson) Do you want that?
- (laughs) Similar color. - (Alyson) She won't touch your nail.
- (Mikaela) No? - Now she's gonna--
"I'm gonna go down here." - Okay. Never mind.
- (Alyson) So, let's see what she's gonna do.
- You're so pretty.
Aww. Her little nose. - (Darius) You're shy?
- (Alyson) So, perfect. That's amazing.
Isn't she pretty? - (Michelle) Beautiful.
- (Alyson) Yeah, good girl, Shy.
- (Carson) Hello, Shy. - (Michelle gasps) Oh my god.
- Are you a nine-tailed fox-- - (Alyson) Yes, I got your paw.
I got your paws. I know.
- (Shy yawns loudly) - (Alyson) Yeah? Really?
She's like, "Oh, gotta talk through my yawning."
Yes.
Yeah. - They're really noisy.
I know that much. - (Alyson) They are.
They live on every continent in the world except for Antarctica.
They are one of the most successful hunters in the world.
Their success rate's between 70% and 75%.
Their sense of hearing is phenomenal. She can hear prey two feet underground
or two feet under the snow. There's a handful of animals
that can see the Earth's magnetic field, and foxes are
the only ones that use it to hunt with.
- Wait. What? Magnetic field? - (Alyson) Yes,
the Earth's magnetic field. - What the heck?
- (Alyson) So, if you guys have ever seen the videos
of foxes playing in the snow, and they jump straight up
and they land headfirst in the snow, they're actually hunting.
- Hey, there. - Oh, hi, baby! Hi!
You have a big head! - (FBE) Do you guys recognize
this creature from any video games? - A wolf? Super Smash?
- Kind of like Sif from Dark Souls.
- Oh! He's so massive. - His eyes, he looks like
he's having so much fun. - He is.
- You're so warm! - Oh my goodness.
- A little chilly up here today, isn't it?
- Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah, you want my hand?
- You're so playful! - That's my whole sweater.
- This is a young man. His name is Raider.
And he's 70% wolf and 30% German Shepherd.
- Wow. - So right now, what we're doing
is he has puppy brains, 'cause he's only a year old.
And so, we're training him how to not be wolfy.
You never wanna turn your back to a predator.
Wolves are such an important part of the ecosystem.
They're a main predator. They found in Yosemite,
when they put the wolf back in there,
chased the hoof stock back up into the trees
and actually change the way the river flowed.
So, really important animal. Not important in our house.
He was meant to be someone's pet, which is a really bad idea.
It's taken 10,000 years to turn the wolf into the Chihuahua.
Get the Chihuahua. He has the third strongest jaw
in animal history. Look, he could do
a teeth-whitening commercial. Do you see how white his teeth are?
Look at those babies. Oh, he sees a bunny rabbit.
Bunny rabbit. - Hey!
- Oh, baby. - And the really important job
we feel like we have here at Animal Tracks is just
showing people how different a wolf is from your dog.
They have a third ridge on their molar for bone cracking.
You don't really need that in your Chihuahua.
- That's so intense. - Unless you're a butcher.
You don't really need bone cracking. - Oh my goodness.
- He says hi. - What are you doing? (chuckles)
- I've seen vlogs and videos
of people who own hybrid wolf dogs.
Is that okay to own? - Well, I'll tell you probably
about a half million wolf hybrids get put to sleep every year
in our pounds, because they bite. So, unlike your dog,
who's been domesticated, when you come in your house
and your dog wags his tail, the wolf gets suspicious.
The wolf doesn't like new people touching them like your dog does.
This guy knows where your jugular vein is located.
- Oh, wow. - Oh my god.
- You don't want this small pets or around small children.
We wanna respect them. - Yeah.
- Definitely. - For sure.
- I love all animals. - Beautiful.
- Well, thank you for being here today.
We do, too. - (FBE) Did you guys enjoy
your educational experience here today?
- Definitely. - I very much did.
- Oh my god. It's so cool. - Yes.
- Everything that they do, a sanctuary for these animals,
and there's so many different types here and just great people.
It was really awesome. - I wish all of these animals
could be pets. They can't be.
But they're fantastic to hang out with here.
So, that was really fun. - I mean, I'm just glad
to know that they're being taken care of.
That's the important part here. - Yeah, mm-hmm, mm-hmm,
mm-hmm, mm-hmm, 'cause we sure couldn't.
- (both) Thank you so much, Animal Tracks.
- Thanks so much for having us. - Thanks, Animal Tracks!
- Bye! - Hey, fam. React producer
Mary here. Thank you so much for watching us
meet video game animals in real life.
If you wanna see even more incredible behind the scenes content
from this shoot, head over to FBE2.
We have new shows there and livestreams every week.
So, come hang out! Bye!