JAWS! Swimming with Gators!
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00 Behind me we've got a bunch of alligators,
00:01 what looks like a giant swimming pool,
00:03 and the crew and I are going to get in
00:05 and see if we can get some up close underwater shots.
00:08 Get ready guys, the Brave crew and I
00:10 are going swimming with gators.
00:13 (dramatic music)
00:16 (dramatic music)
00:19 (dramatic music)
00:30 (dramatic music)
00:33 The endless expanse of swampy sawgrass fields
00:41 stretch on for miles,
00:43 making the South Florida Everglades
00:45 one of the most unique habitats on our planet.
00:47 If you choose to set out on foot,
00:51 it is likely that in very little time at all,
00:54 you will become lost in this maze of chaos
00:57 that is home to one of the most feared reptilian predators,
01:00 the American alligator.
01:02 These prehistoric looking creatures
01:05 have been on our planet since the days
01:07 when dinosaurs ruled the earth,
01:09 yet they managed to survive beyond the mass extinction
01:12 of their ancient relatives.
01:14 I have worked with alligators in the past,
01:18 from catching a 10 foot 300 pound specimen
01:21 with my bare hands,
01:22 to intentionally placing my arm inside of one's mouth.
01:26 It's safe to say that I've had my close encounters.
01:30 However, one style of encounter is yet to be had.
01:34 I'm going to submerge into a pool filled with alligators
01:37 and swim alongside them.
01:40 Today we are working at the Everglades Outpost,
01:47 a wildlife sanctuary that is home
01:49 to a number of intimidating alligators.
01:52 In order to capture this episode on camera,
01:55 we will be working under the guidance
01:57 and expertise of Chris Gillette.
01:59 For well over a decade, Chris has been working
02:02 with animals of all shapes and sizes,
02:05 yet he specializes in crocodilians.
02:08 He also happens to be close friends
02:11 with Brave Wilderness wildlife biologist, Mario Aldecoa.
02:15 And together, they have spent years
02:16 working to educate the public
02:18 about these oftentimes misunderstood reptiles.
02:22 Okay, now for me, and of course for you Mark,
02:24 this is the first time we will ever swim with alligators,
02:27 but Mario and Chris have an incredible amount of experience.
02:30 They've been swimming with alligators
02:31 and crocodiles for several years.
02:33 Now, Mario and Chris go way back together.
02:36 They've been working together since, what?
02:38 Pretty much childhood, right?
02:39 - Yep. - Best buddies.
02:40 - Yep. - Best buddies in reptiles.
02:42 And you guys are just surveying the pond,
02:44 or swimming pool, I guess as you would call it,
02:46 at the moment, and what do we know?
02:48 Is it safe to get in the water?
02:50 - Safe enough. - Safe enough,
02:53 says Chris, who swims with alligators all the time.
02:55 Now, I'm gonna admit, guys, I'm a little nervous.
02:57 Being on land and catching an alligator,
02:59 I feel like I'm in control,
03:00 but actually getting into their realm
03:02 beneath the surface is definitely new.
03:04 So I'm gonna trade in the cowboy hat today
03:06 for a dive mask and some flippers.
03:09 We're gonna see if we can get some epic up-close shots.
03:11 I am always the first to admit
03:14 when filming an episode makes me nervous.
03:17 And in my mind, all I could see were flashes
03:20 of the alligator feeding frenzy
03:21 that we also recently captured on camera.
03:24 So I'm sure that you can understand
03:25 why I felt that swimming in a pool of them
03:28 was borderline crazy.
03:29 Yet, despite my hesitation,
03:32 I fully trust Chris and Mario.
03:34 So we geared up in our wetsuits,
03:36 powered on our GoPros,
03:38 and prepared to enter into the realm of gators.
03:41 All right, here we go.
03:49 (dramatic music)
03:52 How you guys doing?
04:03 - Good.
04:04 - Good so far, right?
04:05 - Yes.
04:06 So now the play is to get
04:08 some more of the alligators into the water, right?
04:10 - That's right.
04:12 So once the alligator is dispersed throughout the pond,
04:15 you now have to be aware of where you're stepping.
04:17 You might be focused on an alligator
04:18 that's in front of you,
04:20 but accidentally back into an alligator
04:22 that's right next to you.
04:23 Just be aware of your surrounding,
04:25 slow, calm movements.
04:27 - Yeah, you don't wanna be looking at casks
04:28 around the surface and accidentally put your foot
04:30 in the mouth of one on the bottom.
04:32 - You guys ready?
04:33 Let's do it.
04:34 Let's get the gators in the water.
04:36 The American alligator is widely considered
04:38 to be the most dangerous non-venomous reptile
04:42 in the United States.
04:44 And while attacks do occasionally happen on humans,
04:47 they are rarely fatal
04:48 and are often a result of mistaken identity.
04:51 Their primary and preferred prey includes fish,
04:55 other reptiles, amphibians, birds, and small mammals.
05:00 So this is Casper.
05:02 He is very nice, very calm.
05:04 But like we were saying before,
05:06 even a little bit of a splash can get him
05:09 to pop up and bite.
05:12 And then if I'm nice and calm and gentle,
05:16 I'll just get my leg a little bit,
05:18 but I can still hold him up, hang out with him.
05:22 And he's looking for food right now.
05:24 That's not defensively trying to bite.
05:26 He's hoping to bump into something edible.
05:29 You see, if I hold him up, he's actually nice, calm, relaxed.
05:32 But again, if you make a splash,
05:36 he goes right for the splash.
05:38 That's why it's so important.
05:39 See, we got this one's attention too.
05:42 You gotta be nice and calm in here.
05:44 - So now am I able to touch him?
05:46 So what would happen if I come in?
05:47 - Yeah, yeah, you can totally touch him.
05:49 You just don't wanna be splashing.
05:51 And when you look at the side of the face,
05:53 those little black dots, the antagonist sensory organs,
05:56 that's what's super sensitive to movement, to sensation.
06:01 So if you touch those little black dots.
06:03 - Watch it, Coyote.
06:06 - You got that big snout swinging around at you.
06:08 Yeah, he said, all right.
06:09 You made contact, back off a little bit.
06:12 Wow, so cool being able to just touch an alligator
06:15 in a calm setting like this.
06:17 You can just see how laid back this creature's demeanor is.
06:20 Now, obviously in the wild,
06:22 nobody would ever want to get into like a pond or a lake
06:25 with an alligator and get this close.
06:26 - I've known Casper here for over 10 years.
06:30 Him and I have worked personally together.
06:32 So I understand his behavior really well,
06:34 but he's still a wild animal.
06:35 That time spent does not mean he's tame.
06:37 He's not my friend.
06:39 And I mean, as you can see,
06:40 if I accidentally swing my arm the wrong way,
06:43 he's gonna try to bite me.
06:45 Just like any other wild alligator would.
06:47 - Let me get some cool shots right under his mouth like that.
06:52 That's cool.
06:54 Now, Chris, do you think if you do that slapping motion,
06:55 we can get him to sort of bite towards the camera?
06:57 - Oh, absolutely.
06:58 - All right, let's see if we can get that
06:59 to happen right now. - You ready?
07:00 - Yep.
07:01 (water splashing)
07:04 Alligators rely on their ability
07:07 to feel vibrations in the water
07:09 and also their keen sense of hearing
07:12 to detect that a possible food source is nearby.
07:14 So as we move through the water,
07:18 it was important to glide quietly
07:20 so as to not mimic their typical prey.
07:23 In clear water, alligators can see rather well,
07:28 allowing them to distinguish that we were humans
07:30 and not prey.
07:32 So as a result, their behavior was rather skittish.
07:40 - All right, so we're gonna try something
07:42 pretty interesting here.
07:43 Chris, you said you can actually call in
07:45 one of these alligators, right?
07:46 - Yeah, so I've done some name training with them
07:48 and having them associate their name with getting fed.
07:51 And so there's a smaller one.
07:53 You met Casper, he's the big guy.
07:54 There's a smaller one named Saw.
07:56 I'm gonna call over.
07:57 We named this one Saw
07:59 'cause the face kinda looks like a saw blade.
08:00 The teeth kinda stick out.
08:01 - That's fitting.
08:02 Okay, here we go, guys.
08:03 We're gonna actually bring an alligator right up
08:05 to the cameras.
08:06 - Saw. - When you're ready.
08:08 - Saw.
08:10 - Here she comes.
08:12 - Look at that.
08:13 - Right to us.
08:14 - Speeding straight toward us.
08:15 - That's a good girl.
08:17 - Watch out, Mario, it's coming straight for ya.
08:19 Wow, look at that, Chris.
08:28 That is cool.
08:29 So is that her expecting to be fed?
08:33 - Yes.
08:34 - And then coming into the situation,
08:35 obviously didn't feed her.
08:36 So she said, oh, nothing for me.
08:38 - Yep.
08:39 - I'm gonna move on.
08:40 She's still curious.
08:41 You can see she's still coming back into the shot,
08:44 diving beneath the surface.
08:45 Do they ever get agitated if you call them in
08:49 to eat something and there's nothing there to be had?
08:51 - I don't like to do that.
08:53 Watch your back, Mark.
08:55 You're gonna get bit.
08:56 He was coming over to give you a little nibble there.
08:59 - Hey, well, that's why you have a team, right?
09:01 - That's when the attack comes,
09:02 not from the front, but from the sides.
09:05 - Never the one you're looking at.
09:06 - Yep.
09:08 - At this point, I had certainly grown comfortable
09:10 being at a pool of gators.
09:12 And while we certainly had to stay on guard,
09:14 we all took the opportunity
09:16 to get some epic underwater shots.
09:19 The grace of a gator is truly something to admire,
09:23 as in the water, these massive reptiles
09:26 almost appear to be weightless.
09:29 With their short, stout legs
09:30 pressed close against their scaly bodies,
09:33 they propel themselves forward with strong, muscular tails.
09:37 Beneath the surface, it's easy to see
09:40 how these apex predators are capable of silently moving in
09:44 on any unsuspecting prey item.
09:47 All right, guys, well, that was pretty epic.
09:49 We spent the afternoon swimming with the American alligator,
09:51 and the good news is, none of us were eaten.
09:54 - That's right.
09:55 - It was actually pretty safe.
09:56 - Fun.
09:58 - Well, Chris, thank you so much
09:58 for leading this expedition.
10:00 Mario, amazing work as always.
10:02 Mark, you get some good shots?
10:03 - Sure did, that was amazing.
10:04 - Yeah, this episode's gonna definitely
10:06 turn into something pretty cool.
10:08 I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
10:12 We'll see you on the next adventure.
10:13 All right, guys, time to dry off.
10:15 Getting the chance to enter and fully submerge
10:23 in a body of water that was teeming with alligators
10:26 is not exactly the kind of reptilian encounter
10:28 you would ever imagine possible.
10:31 Yet under watchful eyes and with expert guidance,
10:34 this episode helped us prove that alligators
10:37 are not bloodthirsty man killers.
10:40 For generations, humans have feared these massive reptiles,
10:45 but the good news is that crocodilian experts,
10:48 like Chris and Mario, are constantly working
10:50 to educate the public about these animals
10:53 so that they are viewed with respect and understanding,
10:57 as opposed to fear.
11:00 The American alligator is truly king of the Everglades,
11:05 and unless you're working with an expert,
11:07 never approach and certainly never enter a body of water
11:11 with one of these formidable predators.
11:14 The safest encounter you can have
11:16 is to simply admire them from a safe distance.
11:19 If you thought swimming with alligators was intense,
11:23 make sure to go back and watch the episode
11:25 where we took a bucket of rotting meat
11:27 and created an alligator feeding frenzy.
11:30 And don't forget, subscribe, so you can join me and the crew
11:34 on this season of Breaking Trail.
11:36 (water splashing)
11:38 (animal roaring)
11:48 (birds chirping)