Original subtitles

In the world of Pokémon, the tagline

is you "Gotta catch 'em all."

Today we're in Australia, and we're going to put Mario up

to the ultimate Pokémon challenge--

to see if he can catch a frilled dragon in real life.

This iconic reptile is the inspiration

for the Pokémon character known as the Heliolisk.

So while Mario is trying to catch the real-life version,

I'm going to be opening up several packs

to see whether or not I can pull the card

before he can catch the lizard.

OK.

I found a nice picnic table.

Seems like the right spot to set up and start

my opening of Pokémon cards.

Got my backpack full of goodies right here.

I'm going to be setting up multiple cameras today.

There it is.

The elite trainer box of Crown Zenith Pokémon cards.

That Heliolisk might be in there somewhere.

I've got two boxes, so I like my chances.

I also have my little tiny frill dragon that I

brought with me for good luck.

I actually also have walkie-talkie.

Let's check in with Mario.

Check, check.

Coyote to Mario.

Just making sure the walkies work.

I read you.

How's it going?

Well, I found a nice picnic table.

I'm set up in the shade.

I got my boxes of Crown Zenith ready to go.

And I'm about to start popping some packs.

See any lizards yet?

Well, we're struggling a bit right now.

Not seeing much.

But we're going to continue searching.

OK.

Well, good luck out there.

I'm going to start opening some packs.

See ya.

OK, bye.

Struggling already.

I think I've got this thing in the can.

The tactic to search for frill lizards

is kind of straightforward.

Good binoculars.

You're going to look at all the trees

and try to find them vertically hanging

and sticking their heads out.

It's very distinct.

Once we do find a frill lizard, Lockie and I

are going to have to coordinate so

that I could catch the lizard without it

actually seeing me coming.

That's the tough part.

I'm pretty confident that I'm going to catch a frill lizard.

Whether I'm going to catch it before Coyote finds the Pokémon

card, I'm not sure about that.

But I know if we see a lizard and it

is within my range of catching, I'm going to catch it.

Oh, oh, oh.

Come here.

I think I've got something really cool.

Take these. Yep.

All right.

See this tree right in front of us here?

Yep.

Look to the right of it, you see the thin tree.

Yes.

- The sapling. - OK, yep.

Hang on a minute.

If it is what I think it is, this is going

to be really, really cool.

Is that a baby frilly?

It's a baby frilly.

OK.

So, we never had any stipulations

about what size frilly we were going to catch, right?

I didn't hear anything about size and the rules.

Oh, my god.

Usually, the hatchlings stick to these saplings

because the larger frillies don't use them as much.

But that's a frilly. - OK.

Here we go. Let's do it.

All right.

Let's go, let's go.

You'll see where the first branch starts to branch

off on the left-hand side.

He is just below that on the backhand side.

He got him.

He got him.

Look at that.

That's a baby frilly.

Is it a frilly?

It's a frilly.

Oh, my gosh, he's tiny.

Oh, wow.

Look at that.

- Wow. - OK.

This counts, right?

That's a frilly.

That's a frilly.

All I heard in the rules is, if you catch a frilly first,

you win.

Hey, Coyote, come in.

Go for Coyote.

Quick question for you.

Is there a baby form of the Helio--

what's it called?

The Heliolips?

Is there like a baby form of that?

A baby Heliolisk?

Helioptile.

Let's just say that I think I got a Helio-reptile.

You have a baby frilled dragon?

That's 10-4.

Oh.

Helioptile.

Dude, that is awesome.

So for context, I have not even opened up a pack of cards yet

and you've already technically found a frilled dragon.

But if I pull the Helioptile card,

I think it kind of cancels out you

catching a baby frilled dragon.

OK.

Well, I guess search continues for both of us.

Game on.

How about that?

He has already caught a baby frilled dragon.

Right after he tells me he's struggling, radios back

and he's got a baby one.

Honestly, this is super cute and kind of unique, right?

I mean--

Very unique.

I've caught a lot of adults, but I've

never caught one that young. Yeah.

And you can generally tell how young they are just

because they don't have the vibrant colors of an adult.

Camouflage is the number one tactic for these guys.

And you can also see he's relying on that now rather

than putting the frill out.

Yes.

If it's an adult, he'd be, you know, getting

pretty defensive by now.

But this guy, he's just happy to stay as still as possible

and hope that you're just going to let him

go when you're done with him. Look at that.

He thinks my finger is a little branch.

I personally think this is super unique

just because most people will never encounter a hatchling.

And there's really no need to mess around with him

because he's just hanging out.

But that is as adorable as it gets for a reptile.

Next step is to release this hatchling

and search for an adult. - Yup.

Let's do it.

OK.

I think I'm ready to open up some packs here.

I'm excited.

All right, let's see.

This one seems like a good place to start.

Will there be a Heliolisk inside this pack?

How crazy would it be if first pack, first card was Heliolisk?

First card, Exeggcute.

Not Heliolisk.

Whatever this guy is.

"Cherry-ab."

Ooh! Yungoos.

That's cool.

It's like a mongoose.

Ooh!

I got the Poké Ball.

All right, that's pretty good.

I would say that will help me catch 'em all.

A Scyther.

Looks like some sort of a dragon mixed with a praying mantis.

Ooh, look at this one.

Palkia.

And it's kind of golden hologram.

I wonder if that is special.

VSTAR power star portal, 280 HP.

Not sure what that means, but some of you

Pokémon fans might be excited about that.

Lost vacuum.

Ooh.

Looks like a dustbuster.

Eelektrik.

That's like an electric eel.

Got the ultra ball there.

All right.

On to the next pack, here we go.

OK.

We've spotted a frilled lizard.

Now the hard part is to actually sneak up on it and catch it.

Lockie, come in.

Yeah, I got you.

I'm just actually starting to see some movement from him now.

He's starting to do a little bit of a head bob, so possibility

that he actually sees another dragon nearby.

Is it the tree that's directly in front of me?

That's correct, yep.

The one closest to you.

No.

The tree was very slippery.

The lizard was onto us and it started

to get higher and higher up.

So, I thought I was going to be able

to do some crazy parkour thing and just jump up the tree.

But as soon as I touched the tree, it was super slippery

and I couldn't get enough grip to go higher up.

So, there was a 5% chance that I would have grabbed that branch,

overhanging branch, hauled myself up, gripped the tree

and grabbed the lizard.

Maybe a 1% chance.

That's like closer to 1.

Yeah.

Worth a try.

All right.

We got a Shinx.

Oh, Wooloo.

Oh!

Hot diggity dog.

Ladies and gentlemen, look what we have here.

There it is, the Helioptile.

Coyote to Mario.

Come in, Mario.

Go for Mario.

You're not going to believe what I just pulled.

I've got the baby Heliolisk.

Awesome!

So, I guess we're kind of tied, right?

I got a baby frilly and you got that Helioptile.

Yes.

Your baby dragon, while I'm sure it was awesome,

I just canceled out with this little baby.

OK.

The next potential catch or card might win the challenge.

Well, may the best lizard champion win.

I got more packs and you don't have that dragon yet.

So I'm getting back to it.

This is officially going in a sleeve.

I am really excited about this.

I was honestly getting a little nervous

because if Mario only catches the baby dragon

and I did not get a Heliolisk, he would have won.

But now, we've officially got a tie.

All right, going at the top tier of my cards

that I have opened so far.

And we're moving on.

The sun's not even completely out.

Oh, it's got to be high 80s like into maybe 90 degrees

Fahrenheit.

You're going to need to run for it.

Where's he at?

You're not going to be able to see him now.

So you see this tree straight through here?

Yes.

Light-colored, light brown.

Yes.

He's on that back fork.

He's probably as high as you can reach.

I'd say just jump as high as you can

reach and reach around to the back

and, hopefully, you get a tail. - All right.

Here we go.

Go.

Got him.

I got him.

We got one.

We got a big one.

He was a runner.

OK.

This is significantly bigger than the little one.

And you could see, there he goes.

There's only one way to show you this unique display.

That's to actually get one in hand.

I mean, this is like straight out of science fiction.

It's ridiculous.

It's like this lizard goes from being super slim to really big,

and that's intimidating.

If you are a predator and like you

don't know that this lizard does that, you're going to catch it.

It's going to hood up, furl out, and you're probably

going to leave it alone.

Not only do they hood up, but they gape with their mouths

open.

And then when they hit the ground, they go bipedal.

They actually run on two feet.

And when I was chasing this one, it got up on its two feet,

climbed the tree, nearest point of safety, and I barely got him.

Barely got him.

Oh, Mario.

I got another one. - You got another one?

I got another one.

He's even bigger than that one.

On the back of this tree, his head's just poking around.

- Oh, my gosh. - I'll hold that.

Give me that one. - OK.

There you go.

This whole time, he's right there.

That's a big one.

He's definitely bigger than this one.

That's a big boy.

You can see how wide his head is.

Two frillies, better than one.

All right, let's go.

I've lost sight of him.

You're going to have to go for a blind grab.

That's a big one.

Oh, my gosh!

That's as big as it gets.

It's enormous.

Look at the size difference.

Holy smokes.

That's a dinosaur.

I've got a female here and yours is a big male.

And you can see how much more defensive he is as well--

Dude!

- comparatively to her.

She's not too worried anymore at all.

She's kind of relaxed.

She's got her frill back in.

But look at him.

Dude, this guy is massive!

Look at that frill.

I mean, that is spectacular.

He's really impressive.

That's as impressive as they get.

I think there's only one thing left to do.

We gotta radio into Coyote.

I think so.

And tell him we won.

All right.

You do the honors.

Coyote, come in.

Coyote here.

I think you want to come over to where we're

at because we got two, dude.

Just come on over here and check it out.

We got two.

All right, all right.

I'm coming right now.

Holy cow!

All right.

It looks like Mario might have caught two frilled dragons.

They're on the far side of the park over here.

I can actually see them.

Oh, man.

I think Mario is going to win this contest,

unless I can open up those last five packs

and get a holographic Heliolisk.

Holy cow!

Oh, my gosh!

What?

Two frillies.

Oh, my goodness!

Big male.

Dude!

That is the biggest frilled dragon I have ever seen.

He's gorgeous.

I thought you guys were kidding.

All right.

Lockie, I'm going to trade.

Oh.

Get out of town.

All right.

So, I'm assuming probably female here and that's the big boy.

Wait, where did you guys get these?

Tree just down there.

The female actually was in very thin, small tree.

Jumped off.

I had to chase it down.

And this big boy was right here in this tree.

This is probably his female.

So this is probably like the dominant male in this area.

I'm borderline speechless.

So, I've opened up lots of packs of cards so far.

OK.

I don't have the Heliolisk yet,

but look at how much this animal would have influenced

that Pokémon creature.

Yes.

Even the spikes along the side

of the frill look like the frill on the Heliolisk.

When you hold the two of them side by side,

you can see quite a bit of difference between the male

and the female.

The female is so much smaller, darker in coloration.

That male's got those bright orange display colors.

And look at those front canine teeth.

Ooh.

If the camera could see my wrist right now

and all the scratches, those claws are no joke.

They need those claws to grip the trees.

That's why they could just scale up the trees so fast.

The skin.

When you describe the skin, the texture is like sandpaper.

I mean, the design on the side of this thing

is so prehistoric-looking.

It's fantastic.

It's crazy.

And the frill is very smooth,

I would say kind of like leather-ish almost,

but they are scales.

They are some rods of cartilage that actually extend it out.

I think you've got to also check out the back of the frill.

So right now, as it's frilled and looking at the camera,

I could see these two bulges of muscles.

Check that out.

Do you see that?

That's like its muscles to, I think, maybe expand the frill.

But it's quite impressive.

If this lizard were to grab hold of you, it would hurt.

Those teeth are sharp.

They're designed to just crunch up insects.

That's their primary diet.

They're insectivores.

They'll be climbing up on the trees, perched,

looking at their surroundings.

If something's on the ground, they're

going to jump down, snatch it up, go back up the tree.

I set the challenge for you

to go out and see whether or not you

could actually catch the real-life Pokémon character.

And sure enough, you did it.

A juvenile, a female, and a male.

Yeah.

You know what they say.

Gotta catch 'em all.

That's true.

Well, I'd say you definitely won this challenge.

Now, I do still have five packs of cards left.

So I could get the Heliolisk.

But in the meantime, we're going to release these lizards back

into their respective trees.

And by the way, I got a prize for you

since you won the contest.

All right, cool.

Yeah, stay tuned.

Got some good stuff coming.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

- I'm Mario Aldecoa. - Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

All right, lizards, back to the trees with you.

And that's how you catch three frilled dragons in one day.

Peace.

All right, guys.

Right now, we are in the Outback of Western

Australia looking for a creature you

truly have to see to believe.

The thorny devil is like a living sculpture.

And some rumors say it is so sharp,

it can actually draw blood when you try to catch it.

So if we're lucky enough, we're going to put

those rumors to the test.

Let's get searching.

They live exclusively on a diet of ants.

Because of that need, if you find an ant mound or an ant

line, there's a good chance there's a thorny devil

somewhere in the vicinity.

So we can then create a perimeter

and start really scanning the area.

These are masters of camouflage in this environment,

so you really need to narrow it down to a sweet spot.

So sharp.

Ah!

Going to keep an eye out for that one

as we search for this creature.

Here we go.

This is a good indication.

That's an ant track.

You can actually see a few tiny, tiny ants making

their way back to their nest.

But this is great, guys.

We've got the sandy environment.

We've found the food.

Now it's time to find the devil itself.

What I'm looking for now are either

foot tracks or the outline.

It has a very distinct contrast with the rest

of the environment, the outline of the tail

and the horns on the front.

And that's what I'm going to be scanning for along the ridges

and along the bush lines.

Luckily, the thorny devil is not very fast.

Oh.

I see one.

Got one.

We got a devil.

Ho-ho.

Yes!

Yes!

We got one!

Oh, man!

This is the coolest lizard on the planet, guys.

Oh, my gosh.

I'm so excited right now.

I cannot believe we found a thorny devil.

Look at how cool this little dragon is.

This is one of the top targets out here.

And unlike their cousins in America and Mexico,

the horned lizards, these guys are actually super spiky.

And you see it puffing up its body

and pushing those spines out.

That is one of its defense mechanisms.

And I could tell you that if you were

to grab onto this thorny devil without knowing

that it was sharp, you would get a handful of spikes.

Look at how cryptic the color patterning is.

This animal is superior at camouflage in this environment,

from the sand that's demonstrated in its arms

to the foliage and the yellow leaf litter.

This animal is perfectly designed for this habitat.

And you can see that I'm not really doing much to keep

the animal here with us.

They're very docile and slow-moving.

In fact, they use their tail as a balance to step forward.

They're almost like a chameleon and

they'll do very cautious steps.

So look at that.

Just in a matter of minutes from presenting this animal,

it's already changed its color to a much more

vibrant yellow on the back.

And that's probably because the sun is really

starting to come out today.

And like most lizards, it is ectothermic.

The more heat it absorbs in its body, the more energy

it's going to have.

And it certainly has earned its name, the thorny devil.

It is extraordinarily sharp and spiny.

And it is covered from the tip, tip

of its tail all the way to its fingers and sharp spikes.

Here, just stick your finger out there.

Tell me what that's like.

Wow.

It's like prickers.

It's literally as sharp as the thorns on a rose.

Just because it has these defense

mechanisms doesn't mean that this lizard

doesn't have any predators.

There are animals out here that would make a meal out

of a thorny devil, including species of hawks and, of course,

the predatory goannas, the giant monitors

that live in this country.

So that's where this animal will rely on its superior camouflage

to blend into its environment to not give its location away.

It also has another unique defense mechanism.

You see those two horns right at the neck?

That is a false head.

And in a defense situation, the thorny devil

will tuck in its head, offer up that false head

to any would-be predator so it has

a chance to escape if attacked.

Let's see if we can actually get it to do that.

Offering that false head up.

That is a great display.

All right, let's pick it back up.

Gosh!

Those spikes are sharp.

Ah.

Do you see him right there try to horn me?

Ah.

OK, OK, OK.

Let's calm down.

Let's calm down.

I thought we had an agreement.

We're going to do this scene and I was going to put you back.

I'm trying to show everybody how cool you are.

There we go.

If you ever want to see one in person,

you have to come here to one of its native ranges.

Right now, we are in Western Australia,

but the range extends all the way

to the center of the continent.

But it lives in this specialized desert terrain, feeding on ants

of a particular variety.

Now, when I say feeding on ants, I should say feasting on ants.

This little lizard has the ability

to eat up to 3,000 ants a day.

It will eat up to 1,000 ants in a single meal.

And because of that, it actually is said that they

are super intelligent.

They have the ability to track through their environment

to locate different colonies of ants.

And they make sure that they don't over

predate any specific colony.

They want to be able to come back to the food line

to get another meal when they need it.

These animals all have a very unique color pattern.

You see underneath there?

The patterning on the belly is like an individualized

fingerprint for these lizards.

So scientists will actually take photographs of the underside

of a thorny devil so they can study the populations

in any given area.

And this one's is super cool.

It's very reticulated, almost like tiger stripes.

Ah!

So sharp!

Ah!

Hang on, hang on.

Hang on.

Ah.

In addition to being super spiky,

it has another very unique mechanism that has developed

for life out here in the desert, and that's the ability

to drink using its feet.

Now, I've heard that if you actually pour water

out and place a thorny devil in a small puddle,

you can witness this happening.

So we are going to try to demonstrate that for you

right now.

I've got a little water here.

All right, let's see.

Look at that.

See all that moisture?

Definitely have water coming up the back.

I can see it on the neck.

It's probably hydrating its eyes.

And if we stay here long enough, it

would actually be able to siphon some of that water

into its mouth.

But that is so cool.

So those scales are adapted to be

able to suck up moisture from the ground

to keep this lizard hydrated.

It's hard to believe.

Even holding it here in my hand, seeing it move, seeing it look

at me, I'm almost in disbelief that this

is even a real living thing.

And for those of you who've been watching

to see if the thorny devil is indeed sharp enough to draw

blood, well, here you go.

I mean, it is spiky.

It's like holding the thorns of a rose.

So I'm going to do this delicately.

Ready?

Ah!

You're spining me.

Ah! Yup.

Ah!

It's wiggling around and it's so spiky.

But I think the verdict is in.

I do not think the thorny devil is sharp enough

to draw blood even though-- ah!

Ow!

He's spiky.

Definitely does not feel good when it tenses up those spines.

Ow!

From its defense mechanisms and the spines

and the false head, to even the way that it drinks,

how cool was it to come across the real dragon of the Outback?

The thorny devil.

I'm Mark Vins.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

All right, buddy, we're going to put you back.