Original subtitles

Right now, we're trying to be as quiet as we possibly can.

I don't want to startle them off the edge.

I just want to get close.

♪

Let's move in a little bit closer.

♪

Man: Behind you, behind you.

Aah!

My name is coyote peterson, and I've traveled the world

Seeking out the most fascinating animals on our planet.

Look at that.

No matter the location,

My mission has always been the same --

To get up close and uncover the secrets of the creatures

That we often misunderstand or, even worse, fear.

Every animal has a story, and I brave the wild to tell it.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

On this adventure,

We are traveling deep into the brazilian pantanal

In search of a predator that is armed with a mouth

Full of razor-sharp teeth, the yacare caiman.

Fear, misunderstanding, and over-hunting

Led to the decimation of this species,

Yet it's made an incredible comeback.

My goal is to find out if this is an animal

We should be afraid of as I do the unthinkable

And enter into their underwater world to swim alongside them.

Will they consider me a friend or foe...

Or food?

♪

♪

When talking about south america,

It's usually the amazon that gets all the attention,

Yet it's the brazilian pantanal

That boasts the highest concentration of wildlife.

This expansive wetland covers more than 70,000 square miles,

And all you need to do is listen to the all-encompassing sounds

To recognize its incredible biodiversity.

[ chirps ]

During the wet season,

Nearly 80 percent of this environment is covered by water,

But during the dry season,

Water recedes and transforms the landscape

Into a labyrinth of jungle pockets

That are broken apart by the remaining rivers and streams.

Okay, it's early morning.

Sun is just beginning to crest over the horizon.

This is the perfect time for us to head towards bahia negra.

This is known as the black bay.

Because the water is at its lowest point, you have

The highest concentration of animals in this area,

Which gives us the best chance of seeing them,

But it also adds a level of danger.

Now, if I get into the water with the caiman,

You have to keep in mind there are jaguars hunting

Along these edge lines.

You make yourself look like a caiman,

That potentially puts me in the position of prey.

Peterson: Joining today's expedition is renowned

Wildlife cinematographer cristian dimitrius.

He has traveled the world getting daringly close

To some of our planet's most dangerous animals.

But it's his intimate knowledge of the yacare caiman

That will be crucial to the success of my mission.

[ boat engine revving ]

♪

Okay, so we might have a stretch of dry land up here.

I think this will be a good spot for us

To get out and do some exploration on foot.

♪

[ grunts ]

During the rainy season, this environment

Is completely covered in water,

And all the animals that live in this environment,

Especially aquatic ones like caiman, would call this home.

And, like, this -- I would consider it a mudflat,

A dehydrated plain.

Let's head up this way and look for a game trail.

What is that?

A skull!

Look at this!

♪

Wow.

Look at that.

That's a caiman skull,

Or I should say mummified caiman skull.

Wow, it is, like, glued shut.

All the skin is just completely dried up on the skull.

How cool is that? Look at those teeth.

Now, of course, we are looking for caiman that are still alive,

But finding a skull is certainly a good sign

That these reptiles are in the area,

And I would guess that this caiman was likely killed

By a larger predator.

The only thing that's gonna take down a caiman

Would be a jaguar, which I would consider

The apex mammalian predator in this environment.

That's pretty cool to find one muddy, mummified caiman skull.

Definitely tells us that there are jaguar hunting in this area.

I'm gonna place this back down here.

Let's head in to the underbrush.

♪

Peterson: When fully grown,

Caiman can reach 9 feet in length

And can weigh close to 150 pounds,

Defining them as a predator that ranks near

The top of the food chain,

Yet during the earlier stages of life,

They're susceptible to a multitude of dangers.

Hatchlings often fall victim to birds of prey.

Subadults can be taken down by anacondas.

But it's the jaguar who rules this river ecosystem

And is notorious for feasting upon adult caiman.

Stalking the embankments,

They wait for the perfect moment to leap...

And seize their prey.

Sinking a massive pair of canine teeth

Into the back of their victim's skull,

They break the neck

And then drag their prize up and out of the river.

So while swimming with caiman

Will certainly be its own level of danger,

There's an even higher level coming from the predator

That hunts along the shoreline.

♪

I've got a caiman up here on the embankment,

Just up here sunning.

Okay.

This will allow me to determine how close can I get to a caiman.

Am I gonna have to approach from the water,

Or can I approach on land?

I'm gonna try to get on land right here

And sneak up behind the reptile.

♪

♪

♪

That was the jaguar tactic right there,

Stay real low and sneak up.

I got about 15 feet from the caiman.

It definitely was on to me, which means catching

One of these reptiles is gonna be difficult.

All right. Let's keep moving.

Good attempt, though. First caiman of the day.

♪

♪

Ooh, there's a very little one further back.

Look, he's almost up on land. That's gettable.

Man: Yeah, paddle towards it.

♪

See, he's all the way back there.

It's gonna have to be a jump-on-him type thing, okay?

[ beep ]

♪

Go for the little guy.

♪

♪

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

♪

Man: Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

♪

Peterson: Got him!

Yes! There we go.

Look at that little guy.

Wow. There it is.

That is a little juvenile caiman right there.

Okay, I'm gonna bring it up onto the boat.

Let me get some of this mud off of him.

There you go, buddy.

Wow.

Absolutely beautiful.

Look at the coloration.

Judging by the size of this caiman,

I would guess it's probably around a year of age.

The reason I wanted to get hands-on

With one of these reptiles

Is so that we can look at some of its distinct features.

At first glance, you may say to yourself,

"is that an american alligator?"

The caiman, while closely related to the alligator,

Is quite different.

Caiman are certainly the lesser-known

Crocodilian species.

With the yacare caiman, the thing that is most distinct,

If I turn it like this, you can see that those eyes

Are set incredibly high up on the skull.

It almost looks as if this caiman is wearing glasses.

With that shorter, blunter snout,

It does resemble an alligator,

While crocodiles have longer, thinner snouts,

But with the caiman,

You have this very distinct jagged design to the teeth.

When they're smaller like this, it's not as noticeable,

But as they age and grow into adult stage,

The front two teeth on the lower mandible

End up poking up through the upper snout.

Now, if you look at those forelimbs,

The front feet are not webbed.

They're primarily used for gripping on to

The basin of a water structure,

But it's actually the hind limbs

That really help them move through the environment,

But all of the propulsion of this animal

Comes from the musculature that's in the tail.

This is an animal that is designed to thrive

In this pantanal ecosystem.

All right, little guy.

Thanks for hanging out with us for a few minutes.

Let's place it back down into the water.

I think it's time to swim with the caiman.

♪

This is it -- bahia negra, the black bay.

Look at this open expanse of water.

This is gonna be perfect for swimming with caiman.

Peterson: We motored toward a clearing on the shoreline.

It looks like this is the perfect place

To establish a base camp and change into our wet suits

While cristian sets up his camera

And its underwater housing.

-Geared up? -Yeah.

So, let me present worst-case scenario.

If I am bitten by a caiman,

If I find myself in the jaws of one of these reptiles,

What do I do in that instance?

Don't fight back. Just try to get away.

He won't grab you and take you down

Because you're not a natural prey,

So just kind of take your feet or hand out

And swim out, swim away.

Okay, so the danger is present,

But if we approach slowly, give these animals some space,

We should be able to have a very up-close encounter.

You guys ready?

-Yeah. Ready. -Yeah.

Here we go. Let's enter the realm of the caiman.

As we head out into the black bay,

We immediately see caiman stacked up

Along the embankments,

So having an encounter certainly won't be a problem.

Unfortunately, most of the water in the main source is murky,

So we turn into a cove that looks clear

When all of a sudden, we notice the presence

Of another aquatic predator.

Okay, so we found a great spot to get into the water.

It's crystal clear, but we're also seeing a ton of fish.

I have a feeling that some of these fish are piranha.

All I need is a bamboo pole

And a little bit of chicken meat

To cast into the water to see if we can catch one.

Let's go fishing and see if we can catch a piranha.

Here we go.

♪

Something's already attacking the chicken meat.

♪

Got one.

♪

Oh, yeah! That's a piranha right there.

There it is. That is a piranha.

Look at those teeth -- razor-sharp.

Look at that mouth.

You may be thinking to yourself, "okay, you're gonna

Get into the water with a swarm of piranha.

Is there the chance

You're going to be eaten alive by these fish?"

They're primarily feasting on animals

That are already dead, so I feel no fear, necessarily,

Getting into this water with piranha swimming around.

But if you were to take a bite from those teeth,

It would open you up pretty good.

Let's peel that lip back a tiny bit, and there they are.

There's the teeth.

Razor-sharp.

That is a serious arsenal for such a small creature.

A feasting school of piranha is one of the most

Impressive things you can see out here in the pantanal.

All right, let's get it back into the water.

See you later, bud.

♪

So, right now we're motoring very slowly back into this cove.

This looks like it could be the best spot

To encounter the largest quantity of caiman.

Wow, this water is crystal clear.

This is perfect.

Big fish in here.

The caiman are definitely eating well

With all these fish swimming around.

♪

Okay, so we've got about eight caiman stacked up

Right on this embankment.

We're gonna get into the water here.

[ exhales ]

Heart is racing right now.

This is it. Here we go.

♪

[ hisses ]

[ hisses ]

[ exhales ]

Heart is racing right now.

This is it. Here we go.

♪

♪

♪

♪

[ whispering ] okay, we are just a few yards away

From two very big caiman.

Now, you'll notice the one further up on the embankment

Has its mouth open.

This time of day,

They're thermoregulating their body temperature.

With the mouth open, it actually helps the caiman

To cool its body temperature,

So it's able to control just how warm it's getting.

Now, all the scutes across the top of the back work like

Little solar panels,

And they are just loving the sunlight right now.

They feel completely calm with us in the environment like this.

They haven't even flinched.

They know that we're here, but they feel completely calm.

Right now, we're trying to be as quiet as we possibly can.

I don't want to startle them off the edge.

I just want to get close.

♪

Let's move in a little bit closer.

♪

[ hisses ]

My heart is racing right now.

Okay, here he goes, down and into the water.

Look at this.

Look at the way that the eyes, the nostrils, and the ears stay

Just above the surface, perfectly camouflaged.

Now, what's unique about the eyes of the caiman,

And all crocodilians, for that matter,

Is that they have three eyelids --

One that closes down,

One that closes up, and then one underneath them

That's called the nictitating membrane.

That works like a goggle when the animal is underwater.

It keeps debris and any bacteria out of their eyes

When they're laying down on the basin of a body of water,

Waiting in ambush for their prey to get close.

Okay, what I'm gonna do is gently coax

The caiman down into the water.

Let's get it out in the open

So we can see just how large the body is beneath the surface.

♪

[ hisses ]

♪

Peterson: I follow the reptile as it slinks through the muck

And down into the water.

With a graceful ease, it glides out into the open,

Allowing me to get dangerously close to its open jaws.

My movements are slow and calculated.

The last thing I want to do is mimic a struggling prey item,

Yet the subtle disturbance I've made in the environment

Draws the attention from several other caiman.

This is not looking good.

Man: Behind you, behind you.

♪

Man: Behind you, behind you. Coyote, behind you.

♪

Peterson: Nothing puts you on edge

Like being in the water alongside predators

Armed with razor-sharp teeth and an appetite for eating

Almost anything that comes across their jaws,

Yet here I am, completely surrounded.

I must do everything I can to keep my cool, move slow,

And no matter what, don't panic.

I hold my ground, bracing for an attack,

But instead...

Nothing.

♪

♪

♪

These animals clearly do not see me as prey,

And if they thought I was a predator,

They would be long gone, so that means

They must be accepting me as one of their own.

This is truly a close encounter of the reptilian kind,

And as I gently interact with these beautiful animals,

I am able to prove

That not all crocodilians are bloodthirsty predators.

♪

Wow, what an incredible experience.

To be honest, at first, I was a bit skeptical

That having an up-close encounter

With a wild caiman...

Aah!

...Would be possible, and then when you least expect it,

As one grabs on to the side of your leg,

But this is what it took,

Getting submersed into the environment

To get up close with these animals.

I'm coyote peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

[ exhales sharply ] look out. Here he comes again.

In the end, I did take a bite,

But it was not out of hunger or aggression.

This caiman was simply curious and was testing out the stranger

Who entered into its realm.

No blood was shed, but it was a welcome reminder

That getting close to wild animals

Always comes with an incredible amount of risk.

Worldwide, crocodilians are feared

For their predatory nature, and while several species

Are considered dangerous or even deadly,

When it comes to the yacare caiman,

I was able to prove that not all crocodilians are the same.

An unwarranted fear of this species

Led to over-hunting and near-extinction,

Yet with continued protection and understanding,

Their populations flourish and are certain to thrive

For generations to come.

♪