- Let's talk about the elephant in the room.
The question that we've been seeing a lot of, which is,
what happened to The Brave Wilderness Channel?
♪ Fire ♪
♪ A fire on the mountain ♪
(upbeat music)
- Here we go.
What's going on coyote pack, and welcome back to base camp.
Welcome us to base camp.
- Right.
- We have been gone for a long time.
- Right.
We're back in the United States
after our extensive Australia and New Zealand production.
- And when you say extensive, Mario,
tell the coyote pack how many days
have we been out of the United States?
- It's been 50 days.
For sure.
Australia was kind of the larger part of the trip,
and we were there for, I believe, 38 days?
- Uh-- - Right?
- Yes, 38 days, yes. - Several weeks.
- Over a month.
- And then we went down to New Zealand for a week or so.
And now we're back.
- It was the most intense trip we have ever been on,
with the highest stakes possible,
producing for a new series
that's going to be on Animal Planet,
while also balancing YouTube,
and getting more YouTube content at the same time.
So we're gonna talk about a lot of things today guys.
Got some great announcements.
I know a lot of you have questions.
We've been reading the comments in the comment section,
so we're definitely going to address a lot
of what's been brought up, but first,
let's share with everybody
how the Australia and New Zealand trip went.
Mario, what was your favorite moment from this trip?
- Man, that is so hard,
so difficult to answer,
because we hit the ground running.
Right?
As soon as we landed in Australia,
we're on the sunshine coast,
and we started to do the tide pooling segments.
Right? - Well wait.
Before the tide pooling segment though,
the first animal we caught.
We have these down days, right?
- Oh, okay. - So when you fly that far
you have acclimation days.
So, we're forced to take 2 or 3 days to acclimate,
because you're completely flipped, as far as your time.
You're awake when you're supposed to be sleeping.
You're sleeping when you're supposed to be awake.
You don't eat right.
You're bathroom schedule is all over the place.
But the first animal that we caught
was actually the Water Dragon
by the swimming pool of the hotel we were staying at.
- [Mario] That's right, yeah.
I remember that.
- [Coyote] We caught six Water Dragons
in three days, I think?
- [Mario] Right.
- [Coyote] And then what was funny is
we needed to catch one later on.
- [Mario] Yeah, and we thought they were going to be
really common in other areas.
(Mario Chuckles)
- [Coyote] They were not.
When you're staying at a hotel you're like oh my gosh,
there are Water Dragons all around the swimming pool,
that's when we start conceptualizing this episode called
Urban Dragons for
Animal Planet. - Yeah.
- And I don't want to give away too much.
It ended up working out in the long run,
but finding a Water Dragon
after the point where we were at that first hotel
was a lot more difficult than we thought.
- Yeah, right, so,
as I said, we hit the ground running
and I forgot about that,
yeah, The Urban Wildlife,
but then we started to produce segments.
- [Coyote] Yeah.
- [Mario] And the first task was tide pools
'cause we we're right on the coast.
So when you ask me what's my favorite moment,
it's so difficult.
I could have a favorite moment
from each location, potentially.
- So, that's a good thing
to know. - Yeah.
- The locations we run through.
We were on the sunshine coast.
We were in Melaney.
We were in Darwin, Katherine, Barclay, Alice Springs,
Sydney area, just outside of Sydney.
What am I missing?
- New Zealand, right?
- Yeah.
It was a lot.
We have from spot, to spot, to spot,
spending on average between five days and
a week in each spot.
Airplanes from place to place.
We drove all throughout the outback.
- [Mario] Yep.
And that's what?
Thousands of kilometers?
- Thousands of kilometers.
Right into the heart of Perentie Territory.
- Yeah.
- Now, I believe the last time
that you and I did base camp together
we talked about the Australia trip
and the big species that we wanted to go after,
which was Australia's largest monitor,
the Perentie.
- That's right, yeah.
I kind of actually remember that base camp
as if it was the other day.
- Yeah, we had the rubber lizard
and we were like, wow,
they could be this big,
they get bigger than this.
How crazy would it be to catch that species,
when we've worked with the Sand Monitor,
the Lace Monitor, and the Nile Monitor,
but the Perentie was the dream.
- So, for those of you that don't follow us on Instagram,
Do you want to let them know
if you were successful or not?
- [Coyote] We did finally manage to catch a perentie
and it was the most difficult,
most arduous search,
and challenge we have ever undertaken
to find, catch, successfully present a lizard,
or an animal for that matter.
- [Mario] That's right.
I would say in my career as a wildlife biologist,
even before working with you guys,
I don't think I've ever put so much effort
into searching for a species,
and it came down to the last day.
- It did.
We had seven days to find this animal.
We got it on the last day
and I can personally not wait to start writing the script;
the voice-over script for the episode for Animal Planet.
- Yeah.
- We've seen the footage.
It's incredible.
We cannot wait for you guys to see it.
Long story short, without giving away too much,
is we put in so much incredible effort on this trip.
Longest trip we've ever done.
I can't tell you guys how many episodes we got,
but it was a lot,
between Animal Planet and You Tube.
- Right.
- We've never produced that much content
in that amount of time.
And then of course the level of pressure
on top of all of it,
to produce a higher caliber of content
and the new cameras we were working with.
New locations, new challenges.
It was all encompassing.
- Right, and all those aspects,
what that means is time, right?
It takes time to get to the other side of the world, right?
It takes time to acclimate.
It takes time to get used to the new gear that we have.
And all that kinda gives us, at least we feel,
a little bit of pressure, right?
- Right.
- 'cause we want to give you guys
the best content possible
and the rewards is us being here right now.
The reward is the species list that I have there
of what we found and what we filmed.
- You and I specifically, and Mark included,
we did not take a single break
in the entire course of the trip.
So our break days, scheduled in break days,
we would end up going out to search for more animals,
to get You Tube content or to film B-Rollin.
- [Mario] Right.
- [Coyote] We got some pretty cool You Tube content
on this trip.
- [Mario] We did.
Can we give anything else away?
- Okay, how about we talk about this
because I don't know if you guys follow us on social media.
If you follow us at @BRAVEWILDERNESS
or @COYOTEPETERSON, @REALMARKVINS,
or @MARIO_ALDECOA on Instagram and Facebook,
I'm sure a lot of people saw pictures of me,
having transformed into Smeagol and Gollum.
Well, we shot an episode in New Zealand.
We produced an awesome project for
The How to Train Your Dragon Film Franchise.
Baccala Worms,
that comes out in just a couple of weeks
but we also have the opportunity
- Whoa, hang on a second.
How to Train Your Dragon?
- Yeah, How to Train Your Dragon.
You know, dragons, Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless.
- So, we're allowed to tell them that.
- Yeah, of course.
- The episode comes out in like two weeks.
- Okay, did you guys hear that?
This is gonna be an awesome segment
and you guys want new content.
Well, this is probably like the ultimate.
- Oh, it's amazing.
- So yeah, sorry to interrupt, but,
- No.
- It felt like that's some big news
- How to Train Your Dragon is a huge thing for us.
I mean, we're sort of the digital spokespeople
for the How to Train Your Dragon Film Franchise.
- Yeah.
- Which means, now we get to do work with Jurassic.
- Yep.
- And with dragons.
It's the best of both worlds, right?
- Awesome.
- Back to Lord of the Rings,
which is another one of my favorite film franchises,
we had an opportunity to visit Hobbiton.
Hobbiton is the shire set that was used in both,
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies.
They shut down the location for us for four hours,
and we got to go out and make sort of like a fun video.
Obviously if we are visiting a location,
it's like, well, we could take this really seriously,
or we could make it fun and comedic
in our own sort of fictitious world, right?
- Yeah, I think Mark and I took it in a fun manner,
but you went the next level man.
You went kind of weird.
- What a lot of people probably don't realize
is that I love Smeagol; I love Gollum.
A split personality between Smeagol and Gollum
and whenever in your life are you going to have
the opportunity to play both of those roles
- That's right.
- Behind the scenes we collectively said
okay, you're really good at the voice.
And you guys are probably saying, you're good at the voice.
How good at the voice?
(Impersonating Smeagol) Well precious,
we're pretty good at the voice,
but you have to just wait and see
until we actually release the video. (Ends impersonation)
So, I'm pretty good at doing Smeagol.
- You are.
We said: maybe we should transform you
between being Coyote Peterson,
into Smeagol, and into Gollum.
- [Mario] Right.
- [Coyote] I made the full transformation,
shaved my body, and painted myself gray
- [Mario] Yeah.
- [Coyote] to become this character.
- [Mario] You did and it was fantastic.
- [Coyote] Yeah.
- [Mario] You did a great job.
He's kind of like a method actor.
- It was method acting at it's finest.
- Because, here's the thing
that was just getting creepy and weird,
is as soon as we got to New Zealand,
he started getting into character.
We went to dinner and he started talking like him,
and he started doing all these weird things,
and I mean, you did a great job,
but we'll let the audience determine.
- Yeah, 'cause it's not just like oh, he's Coyote,
and then he's Smeagol,
and then he's Gollum.
- [Mario] Yeah.
- [Coyote] There's a pretty cool story line
that it follows,
and some pretty magical things that happened
when we visited Hobbiton.
- It did: it was pretty amazing.
I mean, I will say the one thing I remember the most
is you bit me.
- Hey, you tried to take my precious, so.
- I'm not gonna give it away,
but you, he bit me.
= Don't touch my ring son, don't touch my ring.
Anyways, an amazing episode is coming out.
- Right.
That we had so much fun making
about Lord of the Rings and Hobbiton,
so, stay tuned for that one.
Let's use that to transition into the topic of new content
and let's talk about the elephant in the room.
The question that we've been seeing a lot of which is:
What happened to The Brave Wilderness Channel?
- Right.
- Let's just address it
'cause we do read the comments guys
and we know, trust me, we know that you know,
that we know,
that we've been uploading a lot of legacy content.
- [Mario] Yeah.
- Why are we releasing old episodes?
- Ultimately, it takes time to make great content.
Right?
- We have been uploading content
on the Brave Wilderness Channel
for almost 5 straight years.
- Wow. - At least two,
if not three times a week.
I'm not saying that as an excuse
that we're getting tired.
We certainly are not.
We are producing more content now
than we ever have before.
But like you said, it takes time.
So, when we spend 50 days in Australia
producing content,
part of it's Animal Planet,
part of it's You Tube.
But you guys gotta remember,
in all fairness, we do need down time,
so we took a couple months off around the holidays.
It's gonna take us some time
to rebuild up the repertoire of content.
When it came to Legacy Series,
what we said to ourselves internally was:
we've got thousands of subscribers,
new members of the Coyote Pack,
coming to this channel every single day.
When you've got over 500 videos,
a lot of these people haven't seen the old ones.
- [Mario] Right.
- [Coyote] They're episodes that we're incredibly proud of.
- Right. - They were hard to produce.
There were amazing catches.
You and Mark got incredible shots.
We wanna keep sharing them,
and for the people that haven't seen those episodes,
why not put them back up?
- [Mario] Right.
That's a really good point.
Some of these Legacy Series
are episodes that we were so proud of,
releasing them again,
means there's a new take-on,
a new excitement, I mean,
even from my stand-point,
seeing the footage and seeing that storyline,
gets me excited and motivated
- Right. - To continue
making more content.
- Right.
It's certainly fair for you guys to be frustrated
with seeing episodes that you've seen before.
The way that I look at it is I love all the episodes,
like, my life is about making this content
to share with you guys,
so, for the new people that have joined the channel,
it's the first time for them.
For the rest of you,
together, let's celebrate what these animal situations are,
what these encounters are,
- Right. - What these episodes are.
I guess in the end,
we looked at it as well,
we could release nothing
and just have the channel sort of be stagnant,
or put up old stuff,
and honestly guys, - Right.
- Internally at Wilderness Productions
we voted let's revisit some of this old content,
'cause we would rather you guys have something,
than nothing as we're producing the new episodes.
- Yeah, that's a great point
and another point you touched upon is
we are as busy as we have ever been,
so, there's a contrast between
seeing the comments and like
What happened to the Brave Wilderness Channel?
You guys aren't creating new stuff,
and it's like, actually we're creating so much
more stuff right now,
than we have ever done, you know, in our career, so.
- Yeah, but in all fairness,
I am just like the Coyote Pack.
I want those episodes now.
I can't tell you guys how bad I want these episodes
to get through post production,
but you have to keep in mind,
that process - Oh.
- Takes time too.
- I was about to say.
- You know, post is a lot,
so, especially for me, as a host and a producer,
I'm also writing the story, so,
I'm balancing Animal Planet
and You Tube at the same time.
You're pre-producing the next location.
Just because we spent 50 days in Australia,
doesn't mean we don't still have a lot of work
left to do still for Animal Planet
and You Tube this year.
- Right.
I mean, it's only the first quarter of the year, so,
there's good stuff coming.
Let's talk about that.
Let's talk about what's being produced for YouTube
this coming Spring,
because Spring is here,
and you guys know that when the warmth shows up,
the dragons show up.
- That's right.
Probably, I remember actually on the plane,
back to the states,
you were so excited because it's your favorite time of year.
It's Snapping Turtle season, right?
- Yes!
Snapping Turtle season is here.
We've already started producing.
- We have.
- We've got three episodes in the can so far,
We literally got off the airplane,
and two days later - Yes.
- we're out in the swamps,
catching our first Snapping Turtle.
- Here's the dedication of Coyote Peterson and the team.
It's we have jet lag, right?
If you don't know what jet lag is,
it's basically once you travel to a destination
and the time differences and so on,
it kinda messes with your body,
and you feel exhausted.
- You're like a zombie.
- Yeah, even though it might be like 2 p.m. during the day.
So, we're completely jet lagged,
but Coyote's like we have to go out.
I have a feeling that turtles are going to be moving.
- It's sunny out.
It's Spring.
The turtles are definitely moving.
- Yeah.
- So, we've been battling between
rain, cold, sun, and warmth.
- Yeah.
- You know, in just a matter of about a week and a half,
we've got three pieces of contact
in the can already.
- That's right.
- We're hunting for turtles guys.
We're trying to still find
that world record Snapping Turtle.
So, Dragon Tales is hot and under way.
- Yep.
- A number of new breaking trailer episodes
we're producing.
I actually put a teaser on Instagram yesterday,
about ticks.
It is tick season and I know that everybody's
like, oh, I know what Coyote's done with bites and stings,
I mean,
yeah,
but,
there's still some other ones that we want to do
that are not, like, crazy bites,
but, we still wanna educate you guys about this stuff,
so we're gonna do an
Eaten Alive By Ticks episode.
- Yeah, I mean, that's more like a science experiment.
- Exactly. - Right?
- Well, you're gonna get ticks, right?
Just for clarification,
no I'm not gonna be bitten by a deer tick.
A lot of people are asking that,
and that's how you can get Lyme Disease.
- Yep.
- I am going to attempt to be bitten
by an American Dog Tick,
also known as the Wood Tick,
to show you guys
- Right. - How to properly remove
a tick if it gets on you or your dog, so,
that's an episode that's in the works.
I'm sure everyone's running the comment section right now,
being like, oh my gosh,
Coyote's gonna get eaten alive by ticks?
Well, yeah, for science.
We've got a number of other things in the works.
You've got a new series that you're developing.
- That series is in the works
and I love reptiles,
I love photography,
so, likely it's gonna be a combination of the two.
Right now I've got a permit that we sent in and hopefully
you'll get a Timber Rattle Snake segment too.
- That would be pretty sweet.
I know Mark has three Blue Wilderness trips planned already.
As in, pre-production has started on those, so,
bottom line is guys there is a ton of new content coming.
- Yes.
- We're gonna have some big announcements very soon
about the Animal Planet series,
the official title,
and the official release date,
within the next,
I would probably say month,
we'll be able to review that.
Stay tuned to the You Tube channel guys.
Stick with us.
New content is coming.
- Did you mention Beyond Dinosaurs?
- No, and I also didn't mention Jurassic World Explorer,
season 2.
There is so much.
- Let me just.
- My new book is coming out,
my new Brave Adventures book.
Of course, the new Brave Wilderness Adventure Kit,
also just launched.
This is the second addition,
Reptiles and Amphibians, so,
when we say that we've got a lot of stuff going on,
that we are super busy,
it's an understatement.
But guys, thank you honestly
from the bottom of our hearts for sticking with us.
- Right.
- We know that you guys are hungry for new content.
We're making it.
It's going to be here soon, so,
thank you for being such loyal members
of The Coyote Pack
and we are constantly reading the comments,
we are constantly listening, and trust me,
we are doing everything we can
to bring you guys animals and adventure.
- Yeah, you guys continue to motivate us
and inspire us to do what we're doing,
and that's what pushes us through
a 50 day long production.
That's what pushes us to get back and to continue,
and get more footage, and more segments for you guys, so,
thank you for that motivation and inspiration.
- We could not do it without The Coyote Pack
and speaking of timing,
fifteen minutes from now, we have a call time,
as we are about to film
another episode of Dragon Tales today.
I gotta change out these clothes,
get into my swamp clothes,
and with any luck,
maybe today we'll find that world record turtle,
what do you think?
- I like turtles.
- I think he's ready.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
- I'm Mario Aldecoa.
- Be brave.
- Stay wild.
- We'll see ya on the next Base Camp Adventure.
All right, it is turtle time.
Dragon season is just around the corner
and if you are excited
for more snapping turtle encounters,
make sure to go back and watch this episode
from our turtle adventures last year.
And don't forget, subscribe,
and click the notification bell,
so you can join me and the crew
on our next Wild Adventure.