- I'm going to free-handle a bullet ant.
- Oh, risky.
Now you're conquering the bullet ant.
- Well I do feel pretty confident at this point
that I've already taken a sting,
it was a pretty bad sting.
But, I'm pretty comfortable just free-handling
one of these ants.
- Mark, are you ready?
- Are you gonna do it? - Is it possible?
- Yeah. - Ooh, ooh, ooh.
- (Laughing) Be careful.
(pounding jungle music with drums)
Well guys, it is officially the end of 2016.
I cannot believe it, I'm still alive,
gone through many crazy episodes this past year.
What I wanna do is to actually bring the guys
who are normally behind the camera
in front of the cameras with me.
So Mark, Mario, come on down here and join me.
- [Mark] Woo, all right! - Yeah.
Ah! - Mario, we're on screen.
(laughter and claps)
- These guys, what a year, dude.
- Yeah. - My buddies right here.
We could not bring you guys all this content
without these two guys behind the camera.
Now it's been a wild year.
It has been the year of the bullet ant.
- [Mark] Yeah it has been actually.
- And actually, I've got one right here
in this little container.
- (Laughing) You brought one?
- Yeah I did, and you know what?
- Uh oh! - What are you doing?
- I'm going to free-handle a bullet ant.
- Oh, risky.
Now you're conquering the bullet ant.
- Look at that, well I do feel pretty confident
at this point, that I've already taken a sting.
It was a pretty bad sting.
But, I'm pretty comfortable just free-handling
one of these ants. - Mark, are you ready?
- Is that possible? - You gonna do it?
You ready? - Yeah, oh, oh, ooh.
- Be careful. (suspenseful drumbeats)
- [Mark] I need a little help.
- There you go. - [Mario] There you go, Mark.
- [Coyote] Look at that, there's the director
of Brave Wilderness Shows free-handling a bullet ant.
A little nerve-wracking, huh?
- A little bit. - What's that feel like?
- [Mark] I try not to think about it right now.
- [Coyote] Now what we need you to do.
- [Mark] I'm trying to stay as still as possible.
- Is take a sting and then present.
- (laughing) Okay, I don't want to take your job,
that's your job.
- [Coyote] Yeah, we already cut, let's do that again, Mark.
- (Laughing) No, no.
- [Coyote] All right, let me get the ant
back onto my hand, okay there we go.
- Woo! (laughing)
- Bullet ant back in the container.
Okay, let's back it up.
So the beginning of the year started
with the harvester ants. - That's right.
- [Coyote] Then there were the fire ants.
- [Mark] That was bad, that was a lot worse
than we anticipated.
- [Coyote] Yeah, the fire ants were really, really bad.
Then it went to the alligator bite.
- [Mark] Um, hm. - That one was pretty gnarly.
- [Mark] Yeah. - Then it was.
- [Mark] Leeches? - The leeches,
we did the leeches.
There was the crab pinch.
Then there was the velvet ant sting.
- [Mark] And the tarantula hawk sting.
- And the tarantula hawk sting,
that was a rough one for me.
And then we finally made it here to Costa Rica
where we faced the bullet ant challenge,
and that was crazy.
The ant's stinger actually got lodged in my arm.
I actually still have. - You can still see it, yeah.
- A scar right there. - Right there.
- Man, that was wild.
And we're at the end of our Costa Rica trip right now
and you may notice my voice is pretty hoarse.
- [Mark] Yeah, we've been filming
for the last 12 days straight.
- 12 straight days of power presenting
in front of the camera.
What are we coming away with, 15 episodes?
- 15 pieces, yeah.
- 15 pieces of content in 12 days.
So looking back on the whole year, Mario,
which episode or location do you think was your favorite?
- Oh well, Alaska was such a different environment for me.
The animals are different, the climate was different,
everything about it.
So I think that stands out for me, Alaska, yeah.
- Well definitely, I mean, I think the craziest thing
that happened to us in Alaska was that bear encounter,
where we ran into that sow and her cubs
on the side of river.
I mean, talk about a real moment
that you could never plan to capture on camera
that we got little bits and pieces of
and managed to put out that episode, The Bear Scare.
- Yeah I'll never forget that.
I remember hearing you, that this is like,
"Bear, bear."
And I'm like, "Am I getting attacked by a bear?"
(laughing)
"Wait, is he getting attacked by a bear?"
- All right, so Mark what was your favorite location
or moment from this past year?
- For me personally, it's actually unreleased video.
You guys are gonna be seeing it soon, the green
and black poison frog has been my favorite animal
since I was nine years old.
If Ms. Honeycutt's out there, I actually did a project
in Science class on that frog.
So getting to actually be out here in Costa Rica
and hold one, that's been a 23 year journey
for that moment.
So, for me that was really special.
So hopefully you guys will like that episode,
it's gonna be coming soon, but that's my highlight.
- Um hm, oh so many great episodes are coming out
of this trip here to Costa Rica.
I probably have a favorite I could pick out of this trip,
but when I look back at the year, I'd have to say
that the wolverine was my favorite.
- [Mark] Um, hm, right, yeah.
- As we expressed to you guys in that episode,
it has taken us so many years to be able to get
to Alaska, I got to work with Steve Kroschel
and get up close with that amazing animal.
It's something I will never forget
and it was awesome.
I mean, you talk about our year on YouTube,
the wolverine episode premiered, trending
as the number one video the day after Thanksgiving.
Which was amazing. - Amazing.
- A 30 minute video, and that was you guys
watching the video, getting it to number one.
I mean, we trended so many times this past year
and subscribers, all of you, new members of the Coyote Pack.
- Yeah. - I mean Mark,
what was the biggest day we had?
- I think the velvet ant sting day.
- Yeah. - I remember I was
on a flight to Spain actually,
and I was watching our sub counter just go ding, ding, ding.
So, just so humbling that that many people are jumping
on board the Brave Wilderness ship and watching
all this great animal content.
- And what was it?
342,000 new subscribers in a single day?
- In a single day.
I think we got, there was a million of you
who joined in just a period of three days.
- Yeah, three days there was 1.2 million new members
of the Coyote Pack in just three days.
Now we do have some cool stuff planned
for you guys in 2017.
First of all, we will be traveling worldwide
at this point.
What's our first location?
- [Mark] We're actually going to be coming back
to Costa Rica in January on the west coast this time.
So we'll be bringing you cool stuff from there.
But what Mario and I are really excited about,
we're going to Australia.
So that's. - Oh man.
Lots and lots of reptiles.
- [Mark] Yeah, it's gonna be good.
Lots of snakes, lots of lizards.
- [Coyote] Lots of danger.
- Lots of tide pools, all kinds of cool, creepy crawlies
to get in front of the camera. - Yeah.
- We've only explored just one little part
of the world so far. - Yeah.
- [Mario] I mean the world is huge.
- [Mark] North America.
- [Mario] The animal kingdom is huge.
Like so many bizarre creatures that we haven't
even come upon yet.
- [Coyote] Um, hm. - I'm excited.
- Well I know, speaking on behalf of myself
and the entire crew, both here in the field
and in post production, we couldn't thank
the audience more, the Coyote Pack.
You guys grow more and more every single day.
It inspires us to get out here into the wild,
take the risks that we do, battling the elements
of nature to get the episodes right there
in front of the lens, and then eventually
out to you guys on YouTube.
And all I know is that if we can come near
to as close in 2017 as we did in 2016,
it's gonna be another amazing year.
You guys ready?
- [Mario] Yeah. - Let's do it.
- Let's do it. - All right.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you guys next year.
- Woo! - Woo, bullet ants!
If you enjoyed our end of the year video,
make sure to go back and watch my favorite episode
of 2016, Phantom of the Wilderness,
featuring the wolverine.
And don't forget, subscribe so you can join
me and the crew on our next location.
No, no, no, no, no, no, we've got meat and you,
I need you to go this way.
Go this way, okay I'll get behind the meat.
(growling, crackling)
(crashing pound, wolf howls)
(birds chirp)