- I'm Coyote Peterson, this is my friend, David.
- It just rained here in South Florida
and all the creatures are out.
So we're gonna go looking for 'em.
(hiss)
- He's not fond of you, Coyote.
- No he's not.
(adventurous music)
On this backyard adventure,
I'm heading out into the wilds of South Florida
with animal enthusiast and photographer,
David Humpflett.
Before this adventure, I did not know David,
he was just like you,
one of the Coyote Pack.
And he sent us this awesome video.
- My name's David Humphlett,
I'm 16 years old and I love animals.
I always have, and I always will.
Coyote Peterson has inspired me
to really push that part of me,
the part that loves animals.
I'd love to meet him in person
and have an adventure with him.
Thanks so much.
- [Coyote] We knew that we would be on location
in Florida filming so he was selected to be
a part of Coyote's Backyard.
And what an adventure we were about to have.
Just before we began filming,
a rainstorm moved in
and despite causing a slight delay in production,
this was actually great.
I find that the absolute best time to come across
any type of creature is right after a rainstorm.
And as David and I began exploring a private fruit grove,
we were coming across all kinds of animals.
We found Crab Spiders,
Cane Toads,
Cuban Tree Frogs
and even geckos,
who were all out on the move hunting
under the darkness of night.
- [David] That was a possum.
- [Coyote] Wild cat.
- [David] That was not a cat.
- [Coyote] It was a possum?
- [David] Absolutely.
- [Coyote] The on and off rainfall made
filming this episode incredibly difficult
as we were forced to use mostly waterproof cameras,
hence the gritty feel to everything that you're witnessing.
- [David] And while this moisture is bad for our cameras,
this is probably good for creatures, right?
- Oh yeah.
This is the absolute best time to come out and look.
The first truly exciting discovery was made by
our wildlife biologist
and it came in the form of one very common invasive lizard,
the Cuban Knight Anole.
- Ready?
- [David] Yep.
- Got him!
Ahhh!
Alright, well, typical for me.
I got the lizard and the lizard also has me.
Look at that.
So cool.
Can I have my finger back please?
Ahhh.
Yeah, you know, whenever I catch lizards,
oh, there we go,
they usually tend to catch me as well.
Yeah, if you're a little bug
running around out here in the dark,
that is your worst nightmare.
Getting David up close with the Cuban Knight Anole
was a great start to the adventure.
And as we headed deeper into the darkness
of the shadowy fruit grove,
the night was alive with animals.
Even one curious Screech Owl,
who sat and watched us watching him for nearly 10 minutes.
David was spotting lizards left and right,
but I wasn't finding anything.
So how many Anoles have you caught in your lifetime?
- Oh, too many to count.
- [Coyote] Too many to count?
- Lots of browns, lots of greens.
One Knight Anole, but...
- [Coyote] Nice!
Well, let him back on the tree,
let's see what else we can find.
And once again, it was our wildlife biologist, Mario,
who called out from the distance with what was about to be
the creature of the night.
Where are you?
- [Mario] Over here!
- [Coyote] Alright, this way guys.
- [Mario] I can't see with the light.
Turn off the light a minute.
- [Coyote] Kill the light.
- [Mario] There he is.
Oh, here he is.
- [David] Holy cow, look at that!
- [Coyote] Yes!
- [David] Wow!
- [Coyote] That...
- [Mario] Gorgeous animal!
- [Coyote] is a chameleon.
And what I'm gonna do is climb up into the tree
because it's slippery,
I don't want you to slip out of the tree.
If I slip out of the tree, it'll be okay.
I'm gonna gently capture the chameleon
and hand it down to you.
- [David] Okay.
- Got a good handle?
- I do.
- Fantastic!
Alright, I'm coming down.
Ready, one, two, three, coming down.
Yes!
Have you ever held a chameleon before?
- Never.
This is exciting.
- Have you ever even seen a chameleon before?
- Never.
- Me neither, I have never seen one out in the wild
and of course this is an invasive species
here in South Florida.
Now this is a Veiled Chameleon.
The way we can easily identify that (hiss)
Oh, okay, I won't touch the crest on your head.
It clearly does not like that.
And look at all of those little teeth in there.
Well if you're an insect, or any other little creature
running around out here in this rainstorm,
you come across those set of teeth
and you are in some serious trouble.
(hiss)
- He's not fond of you, Coyote.
- No, he's not.
Now you see the way that he's expanding his body?
He's giving us a defense pose right now,
he's basically saying, "You see all these teeth?
"You see how big I am?
"You'd better back off or you're going to take a bite."
Now, you will notice that the coloration of this chameleon
has gone from very light green, when he was up in the leaves
to now a dark green with light green stripes.
And chameleons will quickly change their color
when they feel stressed, which obviously he does.
He belongs up in the leaves, but at the moment
he's turning my arm into a tree branch.
Alright, back on my hand there, buddy.
Now, David, what do you notice
about the eyes of this lizard?
- [David] That they're both independently moving.
- [Coyote] That's right.
- [David] Each eye rotates in it's own socket,
going different directions.
A very cross-eyed animal.
- [Coyote] And do you know why that is?
- [David] Can't say I do.
- That's so that it can help them hunt
without actually moving their bodies.
So if he's up in the trees hunting for insects,
he can basically stay completely still,
their bodies will actually sway in the wind like a leaf
and they can just rotate those eyes about 180 degrees
until a bug gets close
and then, of course, we know how
chameleons catch their food, right?
- Super long tongue.
- That's right, a sticky tongue about 2/3 of the length
of the body shoots out of that mouth
and then they get their meal.
Well, the rains are starting to come back down,
so I think that's gonna end tonight's adventure.
But it couldn't have gotten any better
than to find a Veiled Chameleon.
David, this was awesome!
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
Because the Veiled Chameleon is such an aggressive invader,
we could not release it back into the wild.
This particular lizard was given to a research group
where it will live a happy life
as an educational ambassador.
Despite the difficulties we've faced filming this episode,
it was an absolute blast getting David
out into the wilds of Florida for an adventure.
His passion for animals and photography
is exactly what we are hoping to inspire, and find,
in the next generation of explorers.
If you thought that this was one wild backyard,
make sure to write in or send us a video
about the animals that are near your house
because there's a good chance it might be you
out there with me and the crew
on the next episode of Coyote's Backyard.