Original subtitles

Our search for the lost city of manatees began at dawn.

And the thick fog lifting off the water

was the perfect backdrop as we ventured further into the realm

of these mysterious creatures.

Manatee have been tied to ocean folklore for centuries,

and are rumored to have been the source of many sea

monster and mermaid sites.

As I paddled forward, I could hear strange breaths and tail

slaps just out of sight.

The light breaking through the mist danced across the water

and played tricks on my eyes.

And even I admit, my imagination created

images of giant creatures lurking below.

All right.

The sun is rising.

The fog is subsiding.

On this trip, we're going somewhere new.

We're going right to the source of the spring water.

And with any luck, the manatees will accept us

and come in for their close up.

As with any aquatic adventure, the moment

you plunge beneath the surface is

the instant you realize you are now entering

a completely different world.

As my eyes adjusted, I began to slowly swim forward.

I noticed a shadowy figure approaching from the left.

My curiosity propelled me.

But just when I thought I was getting closer,

it vanished like a ghost.

Then I remembered, to swim with manatee,

you must be brave, be still, and wait patiently.

So I froze and scanned for movement.

Then, they appeared.

Seeing the first manatee of the day was thrilling.

With all the news of their disappearance,

I was nervous we might have come all this way

without being welcomed back.

If nothing else, manatee are highly intelligent.

And just like their closest living relative, the elephant,

it's said they never forget.

One by one, they started to swim closer

and eventually began to encircle me

while slowly pushing our group beyond the murky channel.

And since park rangers had officially opened the spring

for swimming, we carefully proceeded down

a narrow and rocky passage, careful to keep our distance

from any passing manatee.

There was a swift current we all swam against,

but I was sure this is where they must have come from.

The murky water eventually gave way to a crystal-clear expanse,

and it became obvious I had found a manatee paradise.

The freshwater springs of Florida

are a manatees favorite sanctuary for a reason.

The springs stay a warm 72 degrees

year round, and serve as an oasis during winter months,

as manatee lacked the body fat of other marine mammals,

making them susceptible to cold snaps.

I know it's hard to believe, but trust me,

they get chilled easily.

Although manatees can grow up to 10-foot

long and weigh 1,200 pounds, they are

a fragile indicator species.

They do not tolerate pollution or changing climate well at all.

In just the last two years, it is

sadly reported that we have lost 25% of all Florida manatee.

As I swam further into the manatee spring,

they began to approach in great numbers.

One by one, they would appear and then swim off again,

almost to test and see if we were

there for the right reasons.

When you're in the water with them,

there are ground rules, including respecting

restricted areas, no feeding, and the biggest

of all, which is no grabbing or chasing a manatee.

You should always watch from a respectful distance.

If they want to approach you, trust me, they will.

Manatees are naturally curious and very gentle.

But they are also enormous and not nearly

as slow as they might seem.

If they're around you, it's because they choose to be.

If they want to leave, they can in the blink of an eye.

Manatees are very social creatures.

And when they want to make contact,

it's abundantly clear they're choosing you.

Almost like a friendly golden retriever,

they will nudge you and extend their flipper to connect

with their new human friend.

This typically lasts for only a moment or two,

then they're off again.

However, what you're about to see

is the most amazing manatee encounter

I have ever experienced.

Manatee have a unique language and can speak to each other.

So it's easy to hear when they get excited.

I don't know what this one was saying to the rest,

but whatever it was certainly had them more curious.

So much so, I was essentially swarmed.

Seeing this many manatee in one place

was a rare and amazing sight.

There must have been over 100 of them.

Their eyes would follow mine and their connection to me

was clear.

Every time one would leave, another would approach

looking for the same attention.

And it was easy to get lost in the awe

of their playful behavior.

After about 30 minutes, I had truly

lost count of how many manatee had approached the camera.

And compared to my previous experiences,

I knew that this one was special and, sadly,

perhaps the last time I would ever

see so many in a single place.

I could have stayed in the spring forever.

But as light started to fade, it was time to make

our way back to the kayaks.

And for some of us, it was easier than others.

We kayak through what seemed like a desert

where seagrass once thrived, only

to witness manatees struggling to feed

on what little grass remained.

Manatees need to eat up to 150 pounds of vegetation each day.

And without thriving seagrass, we

witness mothers and calves heading

back out to the frigid sea to find more food.

And that should not be happening this time of year.

The loss of seagrass is a big factor to why

so many manatee are dying.

But there are also more established

threats, including pollution and changing weather patterns.

Each year, many manatee are struck by boats

and, unfortunately, a lot of them do not survive.

It is truly heartbreaking to see pieces

missing from their tails and large scars

covering their entire bodies.

It's also a reminder that we need to do a better job to look

out for these animals if we are to share

their habitats for recreation.

They are so special.

And aside from our furry canine companions,

the manatee are perhaps human's best friend, at least

when we're in the water.

Woo!

OK, Christina, you're walking

through the jungles of Costa Rica

on your way to take the bullet ant challenge.

How do you feel?

I feel nervous.

If I get stung by a bullet ant, man, that's 24 hours of pain.

[grunts] Oh, my gosh!

And every hour increasing in pain.

Yup.

I'm just not looking forward to that part.

So, yeah, I would say I'm nervous

and my heart's racing right now.

I feel like it's worthwhile to note

that we have picked up a new part

of the "Brave Wilderness" team.

And currently, we're on our way out to search for bullet ants

as Christina's about to face the ultimate challenge--

go up against this notorious insect

and find out whether or not she can

interact without being stung.

And who you might see pop into the shop from time to time

is Roufus, this complete stray dog that came out of the jungle

and has been following us now for over a day.

What did you find?

I just found an egg.

It really looks like an Easter egg with its color,

but it's a real egg.

And, dude, check that out.

There's still membrane on it.

So this thing like just hatched.

It's crazy.

It looks like a giant Robin's egg.

It's beautiful.

This color is insane.

Turn the egg this way.

Look at the areas where the beak likely was poking through.

Yeah.

On that side and on that side.

That's really cool.

That's really cool.

I wonder what bird this was.

All right.

So Christina's about to take on the first step

of the bullet ant challenge.

What do you think, Mario?

Catching a bullet ant.

Is she going to be able to pull it off?

The infamous bullet ant.

You know, Christina, I think she's got what it takes.

This is her initiation.

She really wants to prove she wants

to be a "Brave Wilderness" host, she's got

to deal with the bullet ant.

And they're ready to go.

And here's our buddy.

Roufus, don't get stomped.

Get out of the shot, buddy.

There they are, down in the crux of that tree.

This is it.

What I have here is the famous red capsule

that I've used on almost every sting episode on

the "Brave Wilderness" channel.

These are the forceps where I hold the insect to my forearm

to induce a sting.

I'm going to hand them both over to you.

Oh, no.

They're good luck.

Trust me.

Now, the first part of this challenge

is to catch a bullet ant, the biggest one you possibly can.

The nest is right over here underneath the root

of this tree.

So let's approach and I'll coach you from there.

Oh, boy.

Wish me luck, guys.

All right.

So why don't you kind of crouch down right here?

This is where the ants are.

Keep your eyes peeled because--

Yup.

Don't you worry, I am.

- there could be ants everywhere.

And before you actually get in there

and start thinking about catching an ant,

do you have any questions surrounding your approach here?

Yeah, do I just grab it with the pincers here?

You could, but that's going to make the ant

very angry from the get-go.

OK.

Ants get agitated with carbon dioxide.

So what you want to do is get as close to the hole as you can

with your face and talk to the ants.

Summon Bala.

Breathe into their home.

Did you brush your teeth this morning?

Of course I did.

Well, if you didn't, they'd be even more angry.

Look at these pearly whites.

Get down there, talk to the ants,

let's see how many we can get to come out of the hole.

OK.

Well, this will be a first for me talking to ants.

Mm-hmm.

I've talked to mosquitoes.

Just improv with them.

Hi there, bullet ants.

I'm your friend, Christina "Wild Woman" Wilson here.

And I was hoping just the biggest one of you

would come out and hang out for a little bit today.

Would that be cool?

So, [laughs] I'm going to be very breathy,

very breathy with my talk here.

There you go.

Hi, bullet ants!

I was hoping a few of you could come out and hang out, have

a little chat with your good friend,

wild woman-- oh, my gosh, it's working.

Hi!

How are you?

You got this.

It's a beautiful day here

in the Costa Rican rainforest, my beautiful little friends.

Oh, my gosh.

I see three of them.

Just start blowing air into their hole.

And if you take the forceps and sort of rattle them around

at the top of the hole, just hit them back and forth

on the tree root there.

It might prompt them to come out.

Oh, hi, Roufus.

Roufus, out of the scene.

Put them all the way down in there and jiggle them around.

Oh, my gosh.

Ugh!

Hi. - No.

Roufus. - Hi, Roufus.

Roufus. Come on, over here.

There you go.

Now you got some coming out.

OK.

I'm on dog duty.

Ugh!

Oh!

No, no, no, no.

Ah!

OK, OK, OK.

OK, get in there.

Get it-- no, no! Whoa!

Whoa!

All right, you guys.

My first bullet ant.

But before I do anything, I'm going to put

this wild woman hair back.

You might have heard of ants in your pants,

but have you heard of ants in your hair?

Yeah, you don't want to.

This is something that Coyote never has to deal with.

All right.

Ooh.

Much more streamlined here.

OK, here we go.

First bullet ant, here we go.

All right, I'm blowing into the hole here.

Also, the tapping is going to bring a whole bunch

of these ants up here.

OK, I see--

I see a couple right here.

Hi.

Oh!

OK, one is very close to my fingers.

I'm just going to put the pincers down.

Put the pincers down and I'm going to coax one in here.

OK, maybe not.

This one's the biggest one. Hi.

How are you?

You want to go in there?

There you go. Come on.

Ooh.

Oh!

There's one on the other side here.

Here we go. Here we go.

Come on.

OK, they've got their pincers out.

They think they want to bite me.

Come on, my friend. Come on.

Come on.

You want to save your buddy, don't you?

Ooh, they are coming for me.

They are coming for me.

You got it. You got it.

Come on. Come on.

OK, I got this one.

Almost got it. Almost got it.

Almost got it.

Almost got it.

All right.

Let's get away from the nest here.

Woo!

I am shaky right now.

My first bullet ant.

You are massive.

I think this was the biggest one in there.

All right.

This challenge is complete, you guys.

That's a pretty good-sized

bullet ant right there.

Christina did fantastic getting this insect out of the colony.

Part two to this challenge is going

to be free handling one of the world's

most famous stinging bugs.

Now, is she going to get stung?

Depends how she interacts with this.

What she's going to do is remove the cap, flip it upside down

and into the palm of her hand.

She'll let the ant walk around, eventually remove the cap,

and then she'll have to practice free

handling the ever so famous bullet ant.

Let's see if she's up for the challenge.

OK.

You know what to do.

It's all you.

All right.

I'm Christina Wilson, and this is my bullet ant challenge.

All right.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Oh. Here we go.

Here we go.

Oh, my gosh.

Please, please like me.

Oh, wow.

I'm being very gentle because I do not

want to get stung, because then we will find out its other name,

which is the 24-hour ant, which means that I

will be in pain for 24 hours.

That means vomiting, nausea, all kinds of things

that I don't even want to talk about right now because I

just don't want it to happen.

So Coyote showcased how bad the sting can be.

But right now, we're really

just seeing how it is naturally without being

induced to bring a sting on.

It's just so calm, incredibly light to the touch.

Just a very soft, little creature that's

just going about its business.

Not aggressive in any way.

Just using those little receptors to figure out what's

going on right here.

And this is honestly a perfect example of how animals really

are naturally, and that is calm, cool,

and collected as long as you're not threatening them,

upsetting them.

Obviously, this is one of the most

dangerous ants on the planet.

And just look how docile it is, not even attempting to bite me.

And pretty magical experience right now, got to be honest.

Your hand's shaking a little bit.

Yeah, it is a little bit.

Are you nervous?

It's nervousness, excitement.

But what a little sweetheart.

All right, Christina.

Well, I would say, at this point,

you have completed the second phase

of the bullet ant challenge.

You were not stung.

And that was the idea, do not get stung.

Handle the ant without provoking a sting.

Let's safely get it back into the capsule.

Here we go.

I'm going to hand the capsule off to you.

We're going to return it to the colony.

You got this.

Maybe it wants to hang out with me.

You've made a new friend.

There's nothing wrong with that.

I've made a new little friend.

There you go, buddy.

Beautiful little--

Cap coming in.

Beautiful little bullet ant friend.

Christina, you did it.

You took on the bullet ant challenge

and managed to not get stung, which was the entire point--

to show that these insects are not outwardly

aggressive toward humans.

And to celebrate this accomplishment,

we are officially making you a part of the "Brave Wilderness"

team by awarding you with the golden bullet ant necklace.

I actually made it myself.

Oh, I can tell.

Wow. I feel honored.

Thank you, Coyote.

You're very welcome.

I think you did an amazing job filming here in Costa Rica.

And I know that the audience can't wait to see what's next.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

I'm Christina Wilson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

That's awesome.

Yeah, you can see it, can't you?

Is it-- no!

Mario!

Mario!

It's eating your backpack.

You're watching it eat my backpack.

Hey, we're getting the scene shot.

No, I'm documenting--

Mario!

Dude, he ate your backpack.

Can you-- that's an expensive backpack.

Well, he literally just swallowed--

Roufus is eating Christina's

backpack right now, which is better than Roufus

being in the scene.

Nobody's doing anything.

The faster we wrap up the scene,

the faster you get your backpack out of Roufus's mouth.

Mario is doing nothing about it.

He literally just ate a piece.

He's hungry.

It's a wild dog.