- Oh man this is intense.
You don't realize how scary it's gonna be
to actually go underground until
you're about to go in underground.
Alright, we set?
- [Crew] Yeah, I think we're ready here.
- Alright.
One, two...
Here we go.
Oh man there are spiders everywhere in here.
Dude they are like all over the place.
(tribal drumming)
There is a really good reason as to why
West Virginia is nicknamed the mountain state.
It is literally blanketed by the Appalachian Range.
And from an aerial perspective, the site
is absolutely breathtaking.
Today the Crew and I are following
some precise GPS coordinates near Lewisburg.
With the initial goal of locating a protected
conservation site, it is home to one very rare animal.
We can't reveal the exact location,
but let's just say this will be an adventure
unlike anything we have embarked upon before.
Wow, that's pretty steep.
I could see why you may stumble upon a cave
on a mountainside like that.
- Well, we're gonna have to hike in there.
- Yeah, alright well let's get set up with the gear
and head off trail.
Working under special permission granted by the
West Virginia Department of Natural Resources,
we will be spelunking into the darkness
to search for one of the state's rarest amphibians,
the cave salamander.
However, in order to find one of these illusive creatures,
first we had to find the cave.
Alright, this is where we leave civilization behind.
I have one foot on gravel road, one foot in the forest.
It's adventure time.
It's kind of tough to keep your bearings in here
because all of these trees have so many branches.
When you just stare through it,
I don't know if you can catch it on camera,
but it's very disorienting to just stare in one direction.
Green and all these streaks of brown
coming out in all directions.
Now I'm actually listening for water.
Once we start to hear water we'll know that we'll
be getting close to the creek that runs out of this cave.
So say we just keep moving over along this ridge line
and keep your ears peeled.
Oh!
- [Crew] Little slippy, huh?
- A little slippery, yeah this is uh....ah!
Ah, stinging nettle. Wow.
Man this is a tough off trail, that's for sure.
This is really treacherous, I just put
my arm in stinging nettle.
And we're watching out for rattlesnakes.
Getting to this cave is not going to be easy.
Alright Mario, come on up.
Got it.
Oh here's a game trail.
- [Crew] Oh yeah?
What do you see?
- Look at that.
Deer, fox, coyote, maybe even bears,
probably use this trail so right place
right time for something like that.
Alright, let's follow it.
Oh wait here, this looks good.
Check this out.
- [Crew] Oh here we go.
- Ah, now we're getting into more rocky terrain.
- [Crew] Here we go, this looks like
it's actually a dry creek bed.
- Let me listen for a second.
I hear water, shh.
Can you hear that?
It's faint but it's all the way down there.
And you can see there's all these large
rocks, definitely looks like the kind of area
where you'd find a cave.
Alright, let's make our way down this.
Just watch your footing,
I think we're getting close guys.
- [Crew] Alright.
- Yes, this is the mouth of the cave, come over here.
Wow, yep I would definitely say this is a cave.
- [Crew] Looks like a cave.
- But this is not the cave that we want.
The cave we want is through there.
I shine my light in there, can you see back there at all?
- [Crew] Oh yeah, so we gotta get under that.
- We're gonna have to army crawl through that.
I think what's gonna be best is to put the cameras
in dry bags, leave any gear outside that we don't
need to take in, and literally submerge ourselves into this.
You wanna find cave salamanders, you have to go into a cave.
You guys up for this?
- [Crew] Let's do it.
- Alright so for safety precautions
we're gonna actually leave Mario
on the outside of the cave.
Until we got to this moment
we didn't really think about the fact that wow,
this is really dangerous guys.
Never ever ever go into a cave by yourself.
Make sure you're always with another person
and make sure you leave somebody on the outside.
In the event that some rocks were to fall down
and we got trapped in there, Mario is gonna
be the one that goes for help.
- It's crumbly guys.
- Yeah.
- Stuff's seriously falling down.
Alright, got everything I need in here.
- Alright, Mario?
- Good luck guys.
- [Coyote] Tell my family I love them if we don't return.
Oh man this is intense.
You don't realize how scary it's gonna be
to actually go underground until
you're about to go in underground.
Alright, are we set?
- [Crew] Yeah, I think we're ready here.
- Alright. One, two...
Here we go.
Oh that's cold, oh boy.
- [Crew] Whoa, that's crazy up there.
- [Coyote] It opens up a little bit in here, quite a bit.
Whoa, I got a big salamander right here.
- [Crew] Yeah?
- [Coyote] That's a spring salamander.
Wow, look at that guy.
- [Crew] Oh nice.
- [Coyote] I'm not gonna disturb him,
that's not exactly what we're looking for.
Alright, we gotta go, oh man there
are spiders everywhere in here.
Just be careful where you place your hands
so that you don't actually get one on you.
Got it.
This is absolutely crazy.
Alright, you guys come up through there.
I'm going to scout up ahead here
and see if this all stays pretty low.
It's pretty eerie, there's spiders everywhere.
The rock formations are incredible.
The water is freezing cold.
This is unlike any environment I've ever been in before.
And I'll tell you what, it is extremely nerve-wracking
to be under ground like this.
You see the ceiling is just above my head there.
It's pretty noisy with all the rushing water
but this is pretty cool.
I'm just really trying to be methodical with my searching,
looking in every single one of these little
cracks and crevices, it's a great
spot for these salamanders.
Wow, this cavern is pretty open
I can actually stand in here.
There's a cave salamander right there.
- [Crew] Where?
- Look look look, right here climbing
up the center of those rocks.
- [Crew] Shine up your flashlight.
- [Coyote] Right here, check that out.
That is a cave salamander, you see it?
- [Crew] That's what we're looking for, right?
- [Coyote] That's the one.
Now they are fast, as soon as it realizes
that we're real close it may bolt,
so I'm just gonna go ahead and catch it.
- [Crew] Okay.
- [Coyote] Gonna kinda cup my hand over gently
and scoop it into the palm of my hand.
You ready?
Got him.
- [Crew] Okay cool, let's head down
to flatter ground so we can film this.
- Okay perfect, yes.
Got a cave salamander.
This is one of the rarest salamanders
You can possibly come across.
Here we go, ready?
There it is.
- [Crew] Woah.
- That is a cave salamander right there.
Now I have to be incredibly gentle
with this little amphibian.
This is unbelievably beautiful,
look at that orange coloration with those black speckles.
But look at it just slowly walking along there.
And I'm gonna try and see if I can
get it to walk hand to hand.
Now the reason that these little creatures
are so rare is they are very susceptible to pollution.
And it's what's considered an indicator species.
It gives us a good idea of what the pollution
is like in a certain environment.
And given the fact that this creature
is living in this cave, there's a good chance
this water is very healthy.
Now this is a lungless species of salamander
which means that it actually breathes through its skin.
Isn't that cool?
This salamander does not even have lungs.
And you'll notice those little buggy eyes up front,
very indicative of many amphibian species.
You may be wondering to yourself,
well we're in a cave, it's completely pitch dark
without these lights, is this a blind salamander species?
No, in fact they can see and they can see actually
rather well in very low light like this,
or I guess it's completely no light.
And they use their eyesight to help them hunt for prey.
They're eating small invertebrates like baby spiders,
mites, worms, anything that's small and crawling
around in this cave is fair game.
I'm pretty impressed with how this salamander
is just staying on the tips of my fingers.
Look at that, lemme see if I can kind of turn
it up like that so you can see his back.
Check that out.
Now normally these salamanders have incredibly long tails.
The tail is actually longer than the length of the body.
But in this instance, this salamander is missing
the tip of its tale, can you see that?
Now it will grow it's tail back,
that's called caudal autotomy,
something that lizards are also capable of doing,
but keep in mind that this is an amphibian
and not a reptile like a lizard.
- [Crew] And how rare are these salamanders?
- Really pretty rare, in most places
they're considered endangered.
We do have special permits to be in this cave
and to be getting the cameras up close and even
handling this amphibian and as you can see,
I'm not actually trying to hold onto it.
I'm just letting it rest on the top of my hand.
- [Crew] This is a fragile ecosystem in here.
- Oh incredibly fragile.
We actually had to decontaminate our boots
and our clothes with a spray before we
came into the cave to make sure we didn't
bring in any contaminates from the outside forest area.
And as you've noticed, I haven't really been touching
the walls at all, we've been very careful
where we've been stepping.
And of course we want to just handle this amphibian
as gentle as possible and for as little time as possible.
This little guy is so cool.
Well I would definitely say that
that was one epic adventure.
Traversing through the forest to ultimately find this cave
and then coming across one incredibly rare amphibian.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave and stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
See you later little salamander.
Throughout parts of its range, the cave salamander
is considered an endangered species.
They're susceptible nature to environmental
pollutants has unfortunately pushed them closer
to the bring of extinction.
However, it's remote, protected, and healthy
ecosystems like this one that have allowed
these fragile amphibians to carry on
an incredible fight for survival.
I feel incredibly fortunate to have seen
one of these animals in the wild
and I hope that as conservation efforts continue,
maybe one day you will see one too.
That is, if you are willing to go
deep into a cave to find one.
Woo, ah that is some cold water
right there, but we made it.
Oh, it's good to see daylight.
If you thought the cave salamander was one
brightly colored amphibian, make sure to go back
and watch the episode where I finally managed
to catch a green and black poison frog.
And don't forget, subscribe so you can join
me and the crew on this season of 'Breaking Trail.'
All of this area like this, it's just a matter
of kind of treking through it
and getting lucky actually spotting one.
Alright I'm...
(howling)