(ominous music)
- That is a massive fishing spider.
And just for scale,
I'm gonna put my hand relatively close to it
in hopes that it doesn't leap towards my hand
and inflict a bite.
And that's actually the-
Oo!
(film projector whirring)
(energetic music)
(fire crackling)
Several years ago we released an episode
titled "Bizarre Creatures of Texas",
where we found and featured a colorful mix of species,
including a brilliantly blue ribbon snake,
a feisty little musk turtle,
and a truly alien looking fish known as a spotted gar.
Wow, this fish certainly is prehistoric looking.
We have returned to the scene of this wildly successful
adventure with a new curiosity.
Can we discover an equally compelling list
of stranger things a second time around?
This prehistoric looking cypress swamp
is cloaked with shallow, dark waters,
making it the perfect nursery for prey species
to develop and predators in training to hone in
on their ability to hunt.
But under the light of day,
the hunting fields seem to be eerily quiet.
The reason for this is that the mid-summer months
in East Texas can reach sweltering temperatures.
So the best time to witness creatures
displaying predatory behavior is at night.
(water sloshing)
What's going on guys?
It's a sweltering night here in East Texas,
which means the conditions are absolutely perfect
for nocturnal creatures to be on the hunt.
If you guys are ready,
let's get the adventure started and see what we can find.
(water sloshing) (ominous music)
There's a lot of glowing eyeballs out there.
It's really tough to tell what they are.
(ominous music)
(water sloshing)
There is no way to catch that frog.
That is a classic Texas bullfrog right there.
It is nestled down up against the edge of the water
surrounded by thorn plants.
You wanna talk about a good home security system,
this frog's got it figured out and they're smart too.
That's how this frog has managed to survive,
to grow to such an epic proportion.
And a frog of that size doesn't have many predators.
In fact, that is one of the predators in this environment.
Look at that, that's pretty cool.
You see that anole is just gently sleeping.
Oh, he's awake now.
Got him!
Hey buddy, how are you?
I know, I know, I'm sorry.
You're very grumpy that we woke you up.
Whoa, this is crazy.
This lizard has a mutation in its tail.
Look at that.
It's growing an extra piece to its tail.
I bet you at some point in time,
the tip of its tail was injured, maybe by a predator,
and it broke off there.
And then the tail continued to grow.
A two-tailed green anole.
How cool is that?
All right buddy,
we're gonna place you right back up on your leaf,
let you keep sleepin'.
We're gonna try to find something a little bit bigger
and a little more challenging to catch.
(ominous music) (crickets chirping)
- [Trent] Got a water snake!
(underbrush crackling)
Saw it. Nice!
Look at that.
Absolutely love this species.
I'm at a slightly awkward angle here
inside a patch of thorns,
and where there's one snake, there could be others,
and there could be others that are venomous.
So I think we wanna move up here
into a slightly more controlled situation
and take a better look at the banded water snake.
Ha ha!
Fantastic, good spotting, Trent!
Now when it comes to water snakes,
my first intuition is that, okay,
prepare because you're likely going to be struck at,
and water snakes have a tendency to be rather bitey.
Despite the fact that they're non-venomous
you don't necessarily need to worry about that bite,
but this snake is about as calm as it gets.
Now, the thing that makes the banded water snake so unique
is that beautiful banding that runs down the length
of its body.
And it looks as if the snake may have just recently
shed its skin because it is velvety smooth to the touch.
Absolutely beautiful.
Now this snake, unfortunately,
is oftentimes misidentified for the venomous water moccasin
or a copperhead.
Obviously the banding makes it look very much
like its venomous counterparts,
but this is a snake you have no reason to fear whatsoever.
Such a super cool snake.
Now, one thing that I love about this snake
is look at the underbelly.
Look at that design.
How beautiful.
Now, as compared to the Lake Erie water snake,
or the Northern water snake,
two species that I'm very familiar with,
these are much more vibrant.
And the decoration in their patterning is something
that you never forget if you are somebody
that truly appreciates snakes.
All right, I'm gonna place this guy right back down
into the underbrush so we can continue hunting.
We're gonna see if we can find something
a little more dangerous.
(ominous music)
I'm gonna approach this one very slowly.
That is a massive fishing spider.
And just for scale I'm gonna put my hand
relatively close to it in hopes that it doesn't
leap towards my hand and inflict a bite.
That's actually the-
Oh!
That made me jump.
That's actually a female.
The male's a little bit further down.
The females are much larger than the males.
And that may very well be the largest fishing spider
I have ever seen.
She probably lives back up underneath this piece of bark.
Let me see if I can gently coax her back out
into the middle of the tree here just a bit.
There we go, look at that.
Now, even at this size,
this spider is so lightweight that it is capable
of running across the surface of water.
Really try to think about that.
A spider that is that big that is capable
of running on water.
If you had arachnophobia because of normal spiders,
the fishing spider definitely is capable
of giving some people nightmares.
But the good news is that the venom that this spider
possesses is only powerful enough to kill small fish,
maybe some tadpoles, maybe a baby frog at the biggest.
So not necessarily an arachnid you should be terrified of.
I'll tell you what though,
being this close definitely gives me the heebie-jeebies.
All right, let's keep moving.
(energetic music)
Look at this.
Some very interesting species of little freshwater crayfish.
Very cool looking.
Look at all the red spots on its front claws.
I have a feeling that based on the skinniness
of those pinchers,
it doesn't have the most powerful pinch,
but let's go ahead and experiment with that
and find out for ourselves and see here.
Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, okay!
Very pointy, but not a ton of pressure.
Ah, that one on the bottom there is actually pretty painful.
Feels like a pin prick.
You don't wanna let go?
Or are you just going to hold on like that?
Okay, I'm gonna very slowly-
There we go.
Well, it's got a noticeable pinch,
but not anything that's gonna cause any damage.
But to the small little prey items
that this crayfish is feasting after,
running into those pinchers is definitely
what would be considered a very, very bad night.
I'm gonna place to little crustacean right back down
into its hunting pool,
and we're gonna see what else we can find.
(energetic music) (water sloshing)
Whoa, hold on.
Careful, you're like in it.
You're up against it.
I am less than one foot from having walked
straight into this massive orb weaver's web.
Wow, the golden nature to this web may be
the most elaborate that I have ever seen of its type.
And the female at the center of this
amazing artistic orchestration is about as big as they get
here in Texas.
Wow!
Now as a human,
if I had taken another step forward looking down at my feet,
this would have completely encapsulated my entire head
and that spider would have been right almost on my face.
Now the good thing about this spider species
is they very seldom bite.
And even if you are bitten,
the venom is very nontoxic if you are a human.
But a spider of that size on your body,
oh, it will make your skin crawl
like there is no tomorrow!
And there are multiple males hanging out in this web
all hoping that they get the chance to breed
with this true queen of the Texas night.
Wow!
And any flying insect that ends up in this golden structure
is doomed, without question.
Oh look at this.
She caught something.
A little damsel fly.
Oh buddy, it's over for you.
I'm sorry.
Oh, here she goes!
A small meal, but a meal nonetheless.
Look at that!
I mean she-
Actually, she's just not wasting any time.
She's just consuming that damsel fly straight away.
(ominous music)
Wow!
Look at the way that her little tiny hooks
on the front of her leg just allow her to easily move
across that webbing.
Wow!
I'm gonna just go ahead and duck underneath the clearance
of this and come on this side.
(water sloshing) Woo, buddy!
That is one magical web right there.
Watch yourselves coming through here.
There's a big golden strand coming right across
in front of you.
That is impressive.
(water sloshing) (ominous music)
There's a pretty good size fish swimming around out here.
That might be a large mouth bass.
(energetic music)
(water splashing)
I got him!
I broke the net, but I got him.
(energetic music) (water sloshing)
How 'bout that?
I just caught a large mouth bass.
Broke the net in the process, but got the bass.
We got to look at it really quickly
because the fish like this cannot stay out of water
for too much time.
Wow!
That is beautiful large mouth bass.
A large mouth bass gets its name
because of this very large mouth.
They're capable of essentially just engulfing their prey
with one big gulp.
They suck the water and the prey into their mouth,
and at night like this,
these fish will come into the shallows
and feast upon other small fish.
Wow!
Now this is what you would consider,
I would say a medium size large mouth.
They get quite a bit bigger than that.
But it's not every day that you manage to net up a fish
of this design.
They are incredibly fast, predatory,
and definitely out in full force under the cover of night
to try and get their prey.
You guys said you wanted more fish
on the Brave Wilderness Channel,
and we are delivering this year.
All right, I gotta get this guy right back off
and into the water.
(energetic music)
(water splashing)
Caught 'im!
Yah!
We got a catfish!
This is crazy.
This is totally the night of the fish.
So that, I believe, is a juvenile flathead catfish.
And the way you can tell the difference
between these catfish species is actually the tail fin.
The blue catfish and the channel catfish
have a V-shaped tail.
And the flathead cat has a more square
or sort of rounded tail fin.
So, whoa, gotta be careful handling it.
I believe,
And it's kinda tough to tell when they're juveniles,
I believe this then is a flathead catfish.
Now, they do have rather prominent spines
on their pectoral and dorsal fin.
So I do have to be careful that I'm not barbed
in the process of holding this fish.
But up front there, the thing that makes catfish so cool,
are those whiskers, or barbels,
as they're more scientifically known.
Those are used to detect the environment,
picking up chemicals.
They are able to investigate the environment
as they move throughout it.
Helps them detect predators and also search for their prey.
And they have rather poor eyesight,
so in a shallow pool of water like this,
they will rely on camouflage to stay hidden from predators.
But, in its own right,
this catfish is a young predator in the making.
Now, the reason these smaller catfish
are in a more secluded body of water like this
is you can actually consider it a bit of a nursery
where the smaller fish learn how to hunt,
and can stay away from the larger predators like alligators.
I gotta be honest, I am never disappointed
any time we can manage to get a fish up close
for the cameras.
Last time I was hands-on with a catfish,
it was over 50 pounds.
But even seeing one of this size always gets me excited,
because catfish are one of the coolest fish species
here in the United States.
Well, I would definitely say it was a rather successful
adventure out here tonight into the swamps of Texas.
We came across a variety of species
including the large mouth bass
and a little juvenile flathead catfish.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see ya on the next adventure.
All right little catfish, back off into the nursery you go.
Nocturnal adventures always seem to result
in an exciting series of animal encounters.
Cooler temperatures, plus the cover of darkness
and consistent activity from prey species
always seems to be a good equation
for finding strange predators in the swamps of East Texas.
If you head out on a scavenger hunt
in search of some stranger things,
always bring a flashlight and only interact with animals
that you can properly identify as being non-venomous.
Hey, Coyote Pack,
if you thought these creatures were strange,
make sure to go back and watch our first collection
of Texas oddities and write in the comments section below
to tell us which animal you think warrants the title
of Ultimate Stranger Thing.
And don't forget,
subscribe or join memberships
so you can follow along in the next adventure
as a leader of the pack.
(energetic music)
(animals groaning and howling)