- I'm Coyote Peterson, and we've all seen me
in this position before, no sock on my foot,
and the sock being used to draw in a predator.
Check this out.
(makes a repetitive animal sound)
Whoa, that right there is a baby red fox.
(makes a repetitive animal sound)
Come here.
(intense music)
Working with animals can be incredibly difficult,
especially when you were hoping to encounter
them in the wild, and have an up-close interaction,
that is captured on camera.
The crew and I have visited many locations
over the course of filming Breaking Trail.
And if you have ever wondered which location
has been the most difficult so far, I would
definitely have to say it was Alaska.
This far northern state is considered to be the last
true frontier, and trust me when I say,
the environment posts incredible challenges.
From the vast lakes, which we explored by kayak,
to the rushing glacial melt streams,
that were nearly impossible to forge,
without getting soaked by icy, cold water.
Then there were the incredibly dense forests,
built with ancient trees and thick plants,
this habitat provided the perfect
hiding places for native wildlife.
So, I climbed on top of this stump here,
searching the forest, check out this vantage point.
Wow, that is just trees as far as the eye can see.
So, what becomes the game plan when finding
animals in the wild is next to impossible?
Simple, we work with ones that have
been rescued, or raised in captivity.
Today we will be working at Steve Kroschel's
Wildlife Sanctuary, which is home to many
different mammal species, including moose,
weasels, and even a wolverine.
In my opinion, mammals are the most difficult
animals to work with, because they very rarely
want to be held, and getting them to sit still
for the cameras is next to impossible.
And while in the past I have worked with
giant grizzly bears, ferocious badgers,
and spring loaded bobcats, nothing would challenge
me and crew more than an incredibly
adorable baby red fox named Lupine.
One of the toughest things about working with a fox
is that a fox wants to move around as much as possible.
So right now, we're inside of Lupine's enclosure.
And you can see that this looks completely natural,
you can barely even tell that we are in her
enclosed environment, and here she comes, Lupine...
(makes repetitive animal noise)
She's very excited to have us in here...
Come here, come here you.
As soon as she starts to calm down,
I have a good feeling that she'll probably
come close for the cameras, but at the moment we have
to let her get acclimated to us being in here.
(makes repetitive animal noise)
There you are, are you gonna come hang out with me?
Right about now, I'm sure you are wondering,
what in the world are those noises Coyote is making?
(makes repetitive animal noise)
Well, they're fox calls that Steve taught me.
You see, Steve has the uncanny
ability to speak with animals.
Now Steve, I hear you making this little sound...
(makes animal noise)
Sounds like a turkey noise.
- Well, I'm talking mink language now.
- That's mink?
- Yeah, yeah, mink language, you might try it.
- Okay.
(making animal noises)
- Gotta go faster.
(makes animal noise)
Pretty good, pretty good.
- And he said that if I can master the
language of the fox, I would likely become one
of the skulk, which is a group of foxes.
(snapping and whistling)
There you are, hello.
You havin' a good sprint?
What do you think?
How about you and I have a conversation
about your 12 vocal calls.
I know you have 12 things to say to me.
My fox lingo was a bit off, so then we tried a fox toy.
Just a simple duck wing tied to a stick.
That is what you call fishing for a fox right there.
Woop, you almost had it.
I'm doing my best to keep her attention.
Hi, good afternoon.
Keeping a fox's attention in front of a
camera is far easier said than done.
And before we knew it, Lupine was
back to running laps around her enclosure.
Hey, Lupine, come on back here.
(making animal noises)
Next, we tried to get her up-close to the
cameras by pretending my hand was a mouse.
What I'm gonna do right now is turn my hand into a mouse.
I'm gonna actually put it down in this hole,
and bury it in the grass trying to make
some mouse noises, rustle this around,
and see if I can get Lupine to
come and pounce on me, you ready?
- [Camera Man] Yup.
- Let's try this.
(rustling noises)
(squeaking noises)
Oh, yup, it worked.
Ow, she bit right down to the tip of my finger,
only to find that it isn't actually a mouse.
Well, that was pretty cool, all right,
well, apparently I can speak mouse.
Haven't quite yet learned how to speak fox.
We had some pretty good success at first,
until she figured out that she couldn't eat my fingers.
(squeaking)
(laughter)
How cool was that?
Every single time she thinks my finger's a mouse.
That's such a great hunting instinct
for this baby animal, to be able to
learn that this is how I catch mice.
It is very, very difficult to hold
onto this baby fox because she wants
to run around in the enclosure.
So, one tactic I used with the ocelot was to take
my sock off and get its attention with that.
(making repetitive animal noises)
Lupine, here we go, got her attention.
Oh boy, look at that, oh, sock is good.
It worked wonders with the ocelot in Costa Rica,
so, I figured, why not try it with a fox?
(fun music)
Get that sock.
Now, if I was one of her litter mates,
and I found something out there in the wild,
like a hunter who left a sock behind,
this would be a great toy to play with.
This fox is incredibly playful,
and at this age, that's natural, but even adult foxes
you'll see runnin' around out in fields,
prancing, hopping, playing fun games.
Anything that she can potentially get
her claws and her teeth on is fair game.
And while tug-of-war seemed to hold her
attention at first, like any curious baby animal,
she soon lost interest and went back to
going everywhere except in front of the main camera.
Mario, you made a buddy.
(making animal noises)
- You're so cute, you're such a cutie.
- Well, she's over there, rolling around on her back
with Mario, and he's got that big, fuzzy microphone
on the front of his camera, and I think she's
attracted to the shininess of
the lens, or, the microphone cover.
It's almost impossible to keep her in one spot.
I'm gonna put my boot back on, and one of my
favorite things to do with the animals
that we work with is to actually follow
them around with a Go-Pro camera.
So I've got the Go-Pro set up on a gimbal,
and let's see if we can track down the baby red fox.
(repetitive animal noises)
(fun music)
The red fox is one of the most elusive animals in the world.
And I would say in my lifetime I've probably
only ever seen five fox in the wild.
And even when you do see them,
it's only for a brief second,
so if you do happen to encounter a fox,
consider yourself lucky.
This right here, gettin' to play with
a baby one, whoo, it's absolutely exhausting.
If there's one animal that has really
worn me out, it's definitely the baby red fox.
This thing's got more energy than
any animal we've ever worked with.
For nearly 15 minutes, we attempted to follow
Lupine around her enclosure, and for a brief moment,
she rolled over on her back for a belly rub.
(making animal noises)
Oh, there she goes, that's about
the closest we've been all day.
Pretty cool, pallin' around with a baby red fox.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave,
stay wild, we'll see ya on the next adventure.
Like I said in the beginning,
filming with mammals is incredibly difficult,
and after two hours of following this fox in circles,
the crew and I call it a wrap.
Getting to pal around with Lupine was one
of my fondest memories from Alaska.
And if there's one thing I'm confident
we can all agree on, it's that this
baby fox is about as adorable as it gets.
If you thought using a sock to play with a fox was savvy,
make sure to go back and see how well this tactic
worked when I got up-close with a wild ocelot.
And don't forget, subscribe so you can join me
and the crew on this season of Breaking Trail.
(sound of an explosion)
(wolf howl)
(birds chirping)