I Survived 24 Hours In The World's Deadliest Jungle

I'm here in the jungles of Costa Rica, one of the most biodiverse hotspots on the entire planet and I'm looking for the America's deadliest predator. But I only have 24 hours before my flight and these jungles are crawling with poisonous frogs and deadly snakes that can kill with a single bite. So if I want to find the predator I'm after, I have to start here, along the banks of the river where immediately I'm face to face with one of the America's most fearsome predators. So look at this. This is a mangrove ecosystem and it's low tide. So we're looking for tracks specifically for crocodiles, one of the America's largest predators. This is a saltwater environment and what I'm looking for are slides. You can see there's one right there where a belly slide and some crawl marks are on either side and it's who slid in from that that we're hoping to see and hoping we can find here in this environment before we head off into the jungle. Moments after finding the croc slide, there it is, the predator behind it. Oh look there, right there, right there, right there, see him? Look, look, look. Pull the boat in, pull the boat in. Look at this big guy right here up in the mangroves is an American crocodile. So this is the closest thing we have to a saltwater crocodile. It's these guys that hang out in these brackish estuaries like this where salt and freshwater mix in this murky, muddy water. And what's crazy is I'm only seeing one crocodile here, but I guarantee you there are dozens around. This is the one that's showing itself to us. Crocodiles aren't just apex predators, they're vital players in Costa Rica's ecosystem. They control populations of fish, birds, and even mammals, keeping everything in balance. And while this may be a top predator, one of the largest predators on the entire continent, it's by no means the deadliest. So we're on a search on this adventure to find the America's deadliest predator. And if you thought that was crazy, I'm going to be searching for more and more dangerous wildlife. Come here, come here, come here, come here, look. Costa Rica is a tiny country only comprising 0.1% of the world's landmass. But in that 0.1% is 5% of global biodiversity and we're heading into that jungle right now. Hidden beneath the rainforest canopy is a creature no bigger than a coin, but it's toxin is powerful enough to kill with a single touch. So look here, you want to see something really beautiful under this leaf right here. There he is. See him? Look at that little beauty. So this is a green and black poison dart frog. Poison dart frogs may be tiny, but some of them carry enough toxin to kill a dozen people. I'm definitely not touching this little guy, but that same deadly poison has actually been used as a powerful tool for survival. So indigenous people would catch these and rub their arrows on that and then shoot sloths and monkeys and the toxin from that would kill them and have them drop out of the trees. So there's 170 different species of these beautiful little frogs. So the toxin comes from their diet and what they eat is what bioaccumulates in their system to make them toxic. Now the reason they have these super bright colors is aposematism. It's a warning sign to predators to say, if you eat me, you're going to die. And while this may be a super deadly animal, unless ingested, it's not the most deadly. So we're going to continue on our way, let him go on the jungle and try and find the America's deadliest predator. With the hours quickly passing by, I still haven't found the deadly predator I'm looking for. I need to keep pushing on and that's when I spot something moving in the canopy. This is a two-toed sloth up in the canopy. This is so cool. This is the closest I've ever actually been to a wild sloth. Moving at .15 miles per hour, this guy is hanging out. Now these guys move so slowly that algae will actually grow on their backs. This is his little home right here. You can see he's just hanging out in this little hole. Now what's crazy is these guys spend the majority of their life sleeping and hanging upside down just like this guy was right here when I climbed up to check him out. As you can see, it's two o'clock and it's time to slow down. In sloth life, that means it's time for a nap. So there we go. Look at that. That's a nap brought to you by Formax. This clearly isn't the deadly animal that I'm looking for. So I say goodbye. This is awesome. All right, so hiked all day and as you saw, it was dumping rain. So this water is pushing down like crazy, but it's not what we're here for. We are here for America's deadliest predator. So this is awesome. Sun is starting to set. We're going to start our night hike soon and see if we can find some stuff tonight. And right as the sun starts setting, I quickly see something that could potentially be our target animal. Look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look at this right here on the trail right at sunset is a boa constrictor. Oh, how cool is this? So this is not the biggest one. That is awesome. I love constrictors like this and they're the largest snake in Costa Rica. This one is obviously just a juvenile. I mean, he's probably five or six years old. They get a lot bigger than this. Typically they have this pretty chill demeanor. See if he bites me. Don't bite me. Yeah, they have this pretty chill demeanor unless they're going after prey and prey for them is a mouse, a rat, a bird. So this guy's obviously hunting along the forest floor here, right as the sun is going down looking for something to eat. One thing that's super cool is take a look at the pits. You can see them there. So that gives them that infrared heat sensing. And then this big muscular body allows them to wrap up prey and asphyxiate them. So really beautiful. We'll just let him keep going on his way. That's so cool. Come on, buddy. While he does that, the sun is starting to set. So guys, time for headlamps. As he continues to hunt, which is what he's doing right now, we'll get our headlamps on and walk down this trail here because it is starting to get pretty dark and the scary reptiles are starting to come out in force, which is just what we want. So throw this on the head, get all set, and just don't step on them as we keep going, guys. This is awesome. We're in for a good start. That's a good sign for the beginning of the night. That's for sure. As the sun sets, the jungle enters a new phase as nocturnal predators begin to stir. The species I'm tracking is most active at night, using darkness as cover to hunt with precision. If I'm going to find it, this is the time. I only have seven hours left, so I'm heading deeper into the jungle to look for America's deadliest predator. Right here. Look, there's a little spectacle caiman. I might be able to jump him. Tommy, Tommy, bring me the mooser. Let me see if I can make this work. This is so cool. This is one of Central America's biggest predators right here. Let's see if we can get our hands on him, shall we? There we go. Hey, bud. Gotcha. Look at you. What a beautiful little caiman you are, huh? Look at this. This guy is a beautiful little spectacle caiman. Oh, boy. He almost got me there. Didn't let him wear out at all. All right. I see him. I'm going to go get him. It's going to be a real... Whoa. Look right next to him. There's a giant Central American snapping turtle. This place is alive with stuff. Holy crap. I don't even know what to go for first. See if I can get my hands on this caiman without losing a hand. There he goes. Oh, there goes the caiman. But I got this guy. So that was insane. Went for a caiman, which we may still be able to recover. Had him in my hand, but then didn't let him wear out like you're supposed to do. He escaped, and then he led me directly to this guy. Look at this. A giant Central American snapping turtle right here. Look at this guy right here. How cool is this? Look at that beak on him. How awesome is this? So look at this guy right here. Big, beautiful Central American snapping turtle. The caiman led me directly to him. Another really impressive predator. These guys are absolutely awesome. Very closely related to the ones that we have in North America, of course. And the jungle just comes alive at night. Look how beautiful this big guy is. I've also just noticed that there's a snake overhead. So I'm going to let this guy go right there and see. Oh man, he's getting up there. How quickly we can get up to that vine snake. Give me my hook. Look right there. Come here, bud. Huh. How's that? This is a Mexican parrot snake. These guys are exhibiting one of my favorite defense mechanisms, which is where they hold their mouth open like that to tell you that they're going to bite. They have a pretty bad attitude in general. I've never caught one that hasn't been bitey, and he will definitely strike here in a minute. Hooked him down out of the tree, caught him on his way down, and there we go. Three incredible reptiles in the span of about three minutes. I mean, that is absolutely wild. All right. You go back on your way here, pal. Up into your tree. Go on. Wow. What a crazy diversity in five minutes. I mean, literally caiman to snapping turtle. There's another snake right there. This is insane. This is nuts. Literally let caiman to snapping turtle to green parrot snake to, I think, cat eyed snake, and I'm in toadies, I think. Let's have a look here. Look at this guy right here. Hey, buddy. You want to grab him so I can jump down? There we go. Oh, hey, buddy. Look at you. Holy crap. We've had quite the night, and you can see why these guys are called cat eyed snakes. They have this beautiful cat-like pattern on their eye there, but look at that. Such a pretty little snake. Two snakes in the tree, the turtle, the caiman. I feel like wherever I put this guy down, I'm going to find something else just based on how it's been going, but all that said, we haven't found what we've come looking for. We're looking for the America's deadliest predator, so we'll let this guy go. Keep going. Keep looking. If we have to be out here all night, we will be. Send this guy back on his way, hang out with the other snakes. That is about as good as it gets in the jungle, but I'm not leaving here without another shot at that caiman. After searching for what feels like hours, I finally spot him tucked into a small pond, but because of all the plants, the noose won't work, and with only four hours left, that means there's only one option left. I'm going to have to do it the old-fashioned way, which is way more dangerous. One, two, three. Got him. Boom. There he is. Okay. So there we go. Look at this guy here, all tangled up. No biting, buddy, no biting. So look at this, one of the coolest crocodilians, not just in Costa Rica, but in the entire world. This is the spectacle caiman, and the reason that I know undeniably that this is a spectacle caiman is his little spectacles right here. So see that bridge across the nose that connects his eye spectacles? That's where the name comes from, and they have this tremendous bony head plate, but what's cool is this is likely a young male, and the reason he was in such a shallow, clear area where he didn't have to go any deeper, any further, is probably because he was getting bullied by other males. So if you look here, he's covered in scars. So those are probably fighting scars from males going, get out of my territory, you're not big enough to take over. And so this guy has been sort of extradited, ostracized to hanging out in this little pool right here, where now, sadly for him, he's been fiddled with one more time. But we're not going to hurt him, we're just taking a look at him as we're out here enjoying the jungle. He's actually, aside from the scars, really healthy, and you can tell because of the big fat at the base of the tail here. See all that fat? That means he's eating tons of these turtles and frogs and all these various things that we're finding because he's storing all that fat. So he's going to go back, heal up, they have an incredible immune system, these crocodilians. Put him in the water, we'll keep going. Such, such cool animals. I love crocodilians. There's few creatures in the world that I appreciate more than a crocodilian. And while this is a deadly predator, it's not the one we're looking for, and it's certainly not the deadliest in the Americas. So we're going to let this little guy go back in the water, keep looking for our target species. So there he goes. There's only three hours left, and I still haven't found the America's deadliest animal. I need to start heading out of the jungle. So long night of walking through the jungle, but no sign of the big predator that I thought would actually be one of the easiest things to find. Sun's going to be up in about an hour, and we'll keep going until the sun comes up. For now, we'll keep going through the jungle and keep trying. And just as the sun rises, and our final moments tick by, I spot something beside the trail. Come here, come here, come here, come here, look, look at this. Holy s***. Tommy, come in here. Holy s***. Look at the size of that fertilize. That is a monster. Listen, it's going to be really hard to get this snake out. He's in a really tough spot. Come on, buddy. That's a big snake. This is going to be really hard to do without getting bitten. I'm worried about not getting bitten and trying to get this. This is a, look at that snake. Holy s***. Look at that. That is a monster fertilize. A very, very dangerous snake. He's already in strike position. He's going to start striking at me for sure. Watch out. Okay, I got him. I got him. Look at that. Holy s***. Look at that. That is a monster fertilize. And that is the most dangerous snake in the Americas right there because of that incredible cryptic camouflage that he has. Let's see if I can pin him. Oh, come on, buddy. Whoa. Did you see how close my hand was to his head? That was super dangerous. Holy smokes. This is the biggest fertilize I've ever seen. Look at the size of that pit viper right there. That is an insane animal. Let's see if I can slow him down for a second. Okay, here we go. I got him. Look at that. Holy smokes. Look at that. Holy crap. Oh, don't like that. He's nearly getting me there. Oh, smokes. That is a huge fertilize, America's deadliest predator. Now, don't be fooled by this guy seeming to be pretty chill. If he were to reach around and get me, that's it for me. I am undeniably going to lose a limb. These guys have a highly toxic venom that if it gets you, if it bites you, say on the leg or on the arm, that skin, that flesh is going to rot away until you lose that limb or it goes gangrenous and it gets infected and you die. And the reason that these guys bite hundreds of people a year, and I mean hundreds and dozens die, is because of how you saw him standing like that. Now, imagine there was a log down on this trail and that guy was curled up on the other side of that log and one of us had stepped over and landed on him. That's it. Those fangs are through your shoe, through your sock, into your leg. You're hours, hours from hospital care and that's it. You're in huge trouble. So here he is, a magnificent creature and look how beautiful he is. This is dangerous. This is really incredible how stunning and spectacular this snake is to see, but there you go. That is it. The fertilize. Oh, I don't like that. Holy ----, that's close. Don't like that one bit. Come here, buddy. I'm going to go back to the hook. Not worth the risk to do that anymore. We did it. We saw it. You even saw the fangs came out there. And what's so cool is these guys oftentimes are primarily frog eaters. So that liquid that you see right there, that is a super stinky liquid that they excrete as a secondary defense after biting. So that's what that is right there. He's pooped it all over my leg. It's pooped it here, but he is locked on being super aggressive, super dangerous snake. And that's it, guys. We've done it. We've come. We have found the America's deadliest predator. He's in my hands right here and he's an absolute monster. So we're going to put him back in the log. Let him go on his way before something bad happens. And we did it. I hope you like this video. Comment and subscribe. Let me know. We're going to do a whole lot more. Come on, buddy. Let's get you back in the bush.