Wild Times: Wildlife Education - TWT #90 - Brian Barczyk Talks Reptiles, Titanoboa & Animalcon!

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

Forrest Galante & The Wild Times crew are joined by world animal lover, conservationist and YouTuber Brian Barczyk as the guys discuss everything from Brian's reptarium to Titanoboa to Animalcon! Visit Brian's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrianBarczyk Patreon @ https://patreon.com/wildtimespod All the links @ https://thewildtimespodcast.com/links

I'm feeling it today, guys. I am feeling it. It's the Wild Times. Episode, who cares? Probably 100 at this point. I'm going to start saying numbers. It's 90. It's like 150. It's like 150. It's like to remind us of how many weeks we've been at this shit. I love it. I love it. I wouldn't trade it for a lot of things, except money and fame and fortune and a better podcast. But other than those things, I wouldn't trade it for anything. This is the Wild Times podcast, the greatest show on the air. Recently, actually just yesterday, we overtook Joe Rogan based on his problems with Spotify, which is great.

It made us the number one podcast in the world on our Patreon and nowhere else. But I am your host, the broologist, Forrest Galante, joining me, as always, the very lovely RETEP, the Brofessor himself. Oh, I got a real intro today. Yes. Thank you. How are you, sir? I look, it's funny because this light, I'm very pale, and the lighting that I have makes me look like powder. You guys see in the movie, Powder?

Oh, yeah, I thought of the theater. Very emotional. Very emotional movie. I just don't have his superpowers. But, yeah, I'm doing great, fellas. Happy to see you. It's big, exciting things happening with the pod on the back end, and it's really, really getting my nipples hard. Love you.

I like pig butts. And I cannot lie. Oh, I didn't see that part. Camerman Neil who wore slippers to the jungle got me the shirt. I miss Neil. We should have Neil on the pod. He won't have much to say because he's been outside once and it was with us. He's like me.

All right. And the other host, the guy who thinks that he's in the Midwest in the world's worst snowstorm that's currently happening, but he's actually in Los Angeles where it's 74 degrees. Mr. Patrick DeLucah, the producer. It's like 52. in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. A little nippy? Yeah, I can't bring myself to pay for, you know,

heating the house all day. Oh, I'm with you. This is my heater for those that aren't on the thing. I have a tiny, affordable space heater because I will not turn the heat on in the house, and if my wife touches the thermostat, we're going to have to have a sit-down conversation about it. That's it. Yeah, it's over.

Unacceptable behavior. Yeah, man. It's going to be a good point. Yeah, we have a very special guest joining us today, and I'm not going to say who it is yet, because for those brosners that are tagging along, let's be honest. Most of our audience are into the wildlife space. They're into specifically, I would say, reptiles. And our guest today is arguably the biggest figure in sort of the reptile media space in the world, which is pretty exciting. He did say figure.

Well, can I, yeah, is figure? What's figure? Is that like a candy bar? A figure. Figure. Figure. Figure. Is he from out of space?

He's from out of space. I mean, look, yes. Not only is he a big, he's big in the space, but he owns a giant reptile zoo. Right. I, you know, for everyone who, like when we had Mason on who works at a zoo, that was fun for me. He just works there. You couldn't stop asking him questions. I thought that podcast was going to go on for seven hours.

I'm like, Patrick, just. He's told you what the monkey enclosure is like. There's nothing cooler than the behind the scenes of a zoo, man. It's really cool. I want to know more about it. When I, growing up, sort of in between the gap of becoming a biologist and like coming to the realization that I wasn't going to run back to Africa at age 17 and become a safari guide, I figured my natural path was going to be working at a zoo.

That's kind of what I thought. Like ages like 19 to 20. 20-ish, 22-ish, I was like, I'm going to work at a zoo. That's what I'll do with my life. And I've never had that opportunity. I've been to many zoos. You know, I've been behind the scenes in a couple. But I really know nothing about what the day-to-day the zoo is like. So I obviously thought I wanted to be a zookeeper. Obviously, I'm not, when you're a kid, you're not picturing that most of your day is shoveling up feces. Correct. Yeah, you don't realize that part.

No, it's like, yeah, I'm just cuddling with tigers and pandas. I was filming something a couple years ago. There's an amazing museum in Philadelphia that's an oddities museum. That's cool. It's just all the weirdest shit in the world. It's incredible. I'm pulling up the names because I can't remember it. It's called the Mooter Museum.

It's in Philly. It's amazing, by the way. It's just like a taxidermied human who had a tumor that's the size of a watermelon. It's crazy shit. It's cool shit. Yeah, like medieval torture devices and all this weird stuff. But because we were filming there, we got to do behind the seeds and go into the bowels of the museum and see where all the shit's being done. It was amazing.

It was so, I just, I like wouldn't shut the fuck up. They were like, dude, we're supposed to be filming. Shut up. Stop talking to the museum guy. I love that about you, though, Pat. That's what makes you an interesting character. You like to, you're excited for things in life that normally bore the shit out of other people. So speaking of things that people would find boring,

I got the most text messages I've ever got from Patrick the past three days while he was at, what was it, the mineral and fossil show in Phoenix, Arizona? I probably budgeted all that. Where were you? Tell us about it. I was at the Tucson Rock and Mineral Show. I went, because, like, I have a rock collection. You know, when I worked on ice cold gold, they're, you know, one of the guys are geologists and I just started, like, picking up cool rocks.

Then I've, like, gotten more into it. And I like them, and we have these shelves and whatever. So we just went to look at buy some cool specimens for the shelves. Well, you know, like you got the elephant bird egg in Madagascar at the fossil market. Yep. I didn't realize the scale of this thing. And I'm not talking about that it takes up a lot of space. I watched a negotiation and sale of a full pleasaur.

How much? The price I didn't catch. But I'll tell you that there were two T-Rex skulls that had already been sold. There are several fully intact Mosasors, which I think they're more common. What's a Mosasaur? I don't know what that is. Mosasaurus. It's pretty big.

It's a sea creature. Oh, the thing from Jurassic World, where they holding the Great White Shark up, and it looks like a minnow, and then this thing comes up. I thought that was a Pleasiosaur. That is a Mosasaurus. That's a Mosesaurus. Very cool. Pleasiosaur has the long neck. Got it.

Mosasaur is almost more like crocodilian looking. Oh, man. There was a, sorry, you said they sold a skull of one of these? Yes, I won't very, very much. Several fully intact specimens. Get out of here. Not intact. You know, they've been wired together, but full specimens.

You know, you see like a parade of, like, guys in, like, Saudi Arabian dudes, like a full parade of them with bodyguards, like going into it. Because there's, like, 75 venues. So some of them are like people just trading stuff that's like $5 million and up. There's a dinosaur venue. It's crazy, dude. That's wild. That is cool, though.

I'm going to say this. Just looking at the pictures on Google of Mosasaurus, a lot of people are like, I wish Megalodon was still around. I'd bring back Megalodon. Hands down, zero question, Mosesaurus is my new favorite dinosaur. That's really cool. I didn't think that this was a real thing, like from Jurassic World. I thought that was just a nonsense CGI thing. this is my favorite new dinosaur for sure.

So just so you know, so for Jurassic World, they scaled, they made the Mosasaurus like six times bigger than it really is. It must be. That's nonsense. It's like in the poster, I don't know if you've seen the poster they used with it in, the kid's like standing by an aquarium wall, and the great white shark looks like a guppy. It's right.

It's the next pickover, Peter. Yeah, no, just go, yeah, look at that. That's nonsense. Yeah, no, Mosasaurus was. like 20 feet long. That's a literal battle royale creation. That's not a real thing that existed. It is a hybrid between a crocodile and a shark, my two favorite animals, and I want it to be around now. Not to mention like the two, the two animals that all they do is hunt, the two like the two most efficient predators in the world, their whole life is just like

killing. But I'll tell you what's interesting, because I was, I was with Josh Feldman, friend of the show, and his dad, who's a big gem guy owns a big gem shop. in Arizona. And it's funny, there's like a market for stuff and things get hot and then they get cold, right? Interesting. So like right now, everything T-Rex is off the hook. So like anything T-Rex related is super hot right now. Megalodon is super hot.

So like, you know, a Megalodon, like a big specimen, a big tooth this big is going for like five grand. Three years ago, it would have gone for 500 bucks. No way. Wow. Yeah, it's just like anything else. It's like trading like golf. old or silver or something where it goes up and down based on what's what's cool. The other thing I'd say for us is that, because I was just looking for like cool,

like awesome crystals and rocks and shit like that. Sure. There is a huge, I would say like a third of the Rock and Gem show is stuff from Madagascar. No way. I'm not surprised, though, to be honest. I mean, and just to tell a story of Patrick's expense real quick, I think we've told this story on the podcast before. at the beginning, not end of our first shoot in Madagascar together,

we went to this like, this like flea market. What was it called? Do you remember? I think it was called a fossil, a fossil market. Fossil market in Antanavarivo. And everybody bought one thing. I bought, I bought an elephant bird egg, which was awesome, except Patrick, who brought one of those small-sized roly suitcases of rocks

that we then had to haul all around the country for, like, like 12 days and then had to put on try and get through security and put on a plane and tell tell your story of the airport i know we've told it on the pod before but it might have been 90 episodes ago i was like oh if i wrap each of these rocks in an article of clothing they'll never see it in the x-ray they immediately saw it open the bag and just kind of looked at me and i went oh those are just gifts because it was right around christmas time yeah i said those are just gifts uh because it was like mid-december and he said, gifts, gifts for us?

And I said, absolutely. And then me and three very large men went and stood in a shower stall. That's right. Nose to nose. Sorry, dude. I watched him go into this little curtain room with three guys and I was like, oh, this isn't going to go well. No.

And I just gave him 10 bucks each. And they were like massaging my shoulders on the way out there. I think they were like going to be happy with two bucks each. Right. And I just was like, here's, I had a. 20 to 10, I was like, can you share this and you take this? And they were like, yeah, it was great. Got everything out, got some great specimens, smuggled them out illegally. Love it. All right. Well, speaking of great specimens, let's do a drum roll, please. Let's get somebody very special on the pod.

Yeah. Good timing. Good timing. There comes. Boom, there he is. Brian Barcheck, the Snake Bites TV. So, Brian, we just teased our audience and we're like, we've got someone. very special coming. We're not going to say his name. He's the, he's got a zoo. He's like the biggest guy in the snake world on YouTube. Wouldn't say your name. So we've been teasing you. We've been talking you up. And here you are on the wild. I hope I don't disappoint. It's a lot of pressure you put on me here, you know. So no, I appreciate it. It's great to see you guys. It's good to see you, man. Thanks for joining us on the wild time. So obviously you and I have known each other a long time. Patrick, Brian, was the executive producer of Extincter Alive. He

created the show. And so, yeah, him and I have known each other a really long time. And Retep, as you see the name in the quarter, which is just Peter spelled backwards. He's not a small Indian boy. He is our producer of the show and also our co-host. And he's your every man. He's never left the greater Los Angeles area. He only eats Taco Bell. I'll ask all the stupid questions He does. Neither of those things are true, but he does ask a lot of stupid questions. Oh, God, I love being on this podcast. It's my favorite thing. But welcome, man.

We're excited to have you. I know Patrick has about 10 million questions about your zoo ready to go. But before we dig into that, you want to intro yourself? Tell us about who you are and your life and everything else, fun. Yeah, I mean, obviously, my name is Brian Barcheck. I've been just kind of, you know, a reptile guy, really an animal guy more than anything. with a special affinity towards reptiles my whole life. I mean, that's all I've ever wanted to do.

You know, I was two years old, saw a ball python. Literally, I was two. I mean, I'm not kidding you. Two years old, my mom tells me that. And I remember it like it was yesterday. I saw a ball python at a zoo. And I was hooked. It was it.

It was the end. That was all I ever wanted to do. And growing up, I love dinosaurs, obviously. So, you know, I love dinosaurs and animals were my thing. And it's all I did my whole life, you know, through. school, you know, everyone thought I was a freak because all I did was want to play with animals. I, you know, during when I was younger, I just was in the woods constantly catching snakes. You know, we just have garter snakes up here in Michigan. But yeah, so, so that

turned into one thing after another. And as you know, as a wildlife biologist, it's a weird world, right? Like, as far as you don't start in one path, you go this way, then you go that way, then you go this way, and then, and then all, but ultimately the zoo was what I wanted, right? I mean, everyone, I want to either work at a zoo or run my own zoo. And that's the dream. And finally that dream kind of came. It was a long road, but that dream finally came true. Open up the Reptarium.

And it's been, you know, listen, when I started to work on opening up the Reptarium, everyone told me I was an idiot for opening up in Michigan. They're like, do it in L.A., do it in Florida, do it in Texas, New York. And listen, I didn't know maybe I was in, was an idiot for doing it. I didn't know idea. But I was like, no, this is where I'm from. Even though I've spent a ton of time out in SoCal and a ton of time in Florida and all over the world, for that matter, this is where my home is. This is where my family is. And we did it. And the one thing that I guess I didn't even realize is that the advantage of doing it here was

there's no competition. There's nothing else like it. You know, in California, you guys got all kinds of cool stuff. Florida, there's a million wildlife things. Texas, there's a million wildlife things. And so Michigan just worked out really well. And from the day we opened up, it just was a huge hit, you know, and it blew me away. I mean, blew me away. It's like we sell tickets in advance. Wow. And we're sold out every single, every time we're open. You know, that's amazing. That's incredible. How does, okay, so let's say I'm like, oh, I want to be a TV producer because I'm bored living in upstate New York. All right, I'll get in the car, move to L.A. and just hang out around then, just trying to figure that out.

How do, opening a zoo is not, like, how do you go from not having a zoo to having a fully operational zoo packed full of amazing animals? Well, you know, the good news was I had been, you know, keeping animals a lot of crazy stuff. So a lot of the animals, not all, but probably about 70% of the animals that we, you know, filled the zoo up with, you know, I already had, you know, so that helped me a lot. And that was, I mean, you know, I tell people all the time, like, to do it well takes a lot of money, right? Yeah, that's the thing, you know. You know, you can open up, and I didn't want it, I never wanted to do it halfway. You know, I wanted the enclosures to feel, I not only wanted the enclosures to feel naturalistic, but I wanted the environment. I always say, like, I wanted to mix reptile zoo meets rainforest cafe, you know?

Yeah. So when you walk through the door, you're in an exhibit. by the way. Reptile zoo. So I moved to America when I was 14, and I don't mean to kill your story. But my favorite place to go when I was 14 years old was a rainforest cafe because it was like an experience while you were eating your french fries, right? And so to have like snakes crawling out of that while you're eating your french fries and around your neck, it's like the coolest idea ever. Yeah. And that's what it was about. You know, and listen, really the idea was to build a place that I wanted to go to when I was a kid, period.

And that's what we're doing now. We're actually in the process right now. We're in the past approval process in the pre-construction phase of a $4 million expansion. Wow. And we're adding an aquarium to the zoo as well. And it's scary as heck. I'm not going to lie. It stresses me out every minute of every day that I'm going to spend all my money.

But I don't care about the money. To me, the money means nothing. It's building a dream. And so, again, I love fish, and I still love fish. So I want to build the next iteration of what I wanted to do when I was a kid. And actually, ironically enough, one of the expansion parts is what we're calling it the Utica dig site because we're in Utica, Michigan, right outside of Detroit. And it's going to be a place where you can, like, dig for fossils. Cool.

That's awesome. And stuff like that, you know, and because I'm building all these things that I wanted to do as a kid and still at my age, still want to do. You know, and so how do you do it? Number one, you've got to be a little crazy. You've got to work a lot. You've got to put a lot on the line. You've got to have enough money to be stupid about spending and then just hope for the best, you know? That's so exciting, man.

That's so cool. I mean, you are living the dream. I remember telling Patrick when we first started shooting the show. I mean, he said to me, he was like, you know, if this show is a huge success and you can do this for 10 years and make a bunch of money, what would you do next? I said to Patrick, I'd start a little zoo in aquarium, you know, like an endangered species zoo in aquarium that did, you know, good animal outreach and did a bunch of conservation work for reintroduction. And I'm nowhere near that goal. I mean, you are living the dream of all of us wildlife nerd guys. I mean, that's so cool.

No, I, sorry, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, so I was just going to ask, like, obviously, like, you have this huge zoo happening, and you also have this huge online presence. Again, I'm the last. layman, so bear with me. To me, like, looking at somebody who has as big of a following as you, I'm, like, so curious because you're so passionate about this, this other endeavor that you have, and you've somehow made it all work together to, like, also, you know, build this thing that take, that some people just can never do. Like, how did you, how did, how did these things come together?

And how did you figure out, oh, like, this is huge? Yeah, you know, it's all like a symbiosis, right? I don't do really anything that doesn't evolve around animals. And so like every piece of the puzzle fits together, right? They're all clogs in a bigger wheel, right? Like the social following helps the zoo. The zoo helps the social following. That helps the next project. It helps my product lines.

It helps my merchandising. It helps. Everything kind of works together, you know. And so I don't really go outside of my comfort zone. I know it's, you know, it's weird because I, I'm all over the place. I have all kinds of things happening. Well, I said one time I went out of my comfort zone with a product.

It was a drinking game. Now you have our attention. Right. The weird thing is, is that I don't drink. So that's even weird. I actually designed, manufactured, patented, and started to put out a drinking game. And ironically enough, it was just as the pandemic. hit.

So really bad timing for a drinking game. But so it was obviously, I think I put about $100,000 into this drinking game. And I have like 10,000 of these things that we call the tipster, by the way. And so that was a bad move, maybe. But I still think there's still opportunity after the pandemic to maybe agree with. The fact that you're on this podcast right now, our fan base, they love to drink. Oh, they're going to buy it. Yeah.

If you want to get rid of those 10,000, drop a plug for it right now. It's a guarantee, by the way. That is a guarantee. We have nothing but alcoholic animal listeners. That is our niche. It is a small niche, but we are there. That's awesome. Well, it's good stuff.

Yeah, it's pretty fun. But regardless of the drinking game, I stay within my, my, so even the drinking game was interesting because I can't. So let me tell you what it is real quick, because you guys are, everyone's going to be like, what the hell is this thing? Yeah, that sounds fun. I see a picture on World Star, I believe it is, or a video, I'm sorry, of a World Star of a guy doing this with like three or four solo cups,

and they're water falling, this solo cups, water falling into this solar cup, water falling into this solar cup, into his mouth, right? Impressive. So I think there's got to be a product that you have a handle where solo cups, and you can stack as many solo cups out. You can do 12 solo cups, and now you can actually do it, and that's why it's called the tipster, right? Tip, tip, tip, tip, tip, tip.

Got it. And even though I'm not packed. passionate about drinking and I'm not passionate about, you know, trying to convince other people to binge drink. I don't know if you want to. But it was still a passion of mine to develop something because I had never developed something outside the animal world. And I thought, you know, what better way to do it than to do this?

And so I was passionate about it. But really, animals is all I've ever cared about and wanted to do. And so my long-winded is that it all works together. Yeah. I don't know that any of it works without the other, right? And that's why we just keep on adding little more clogs to the wheel that help it all churned, right? Yeah, yeah. So, Brian, this is a tough one for our audio only, so maybe you can describe it a little bit.

But I remember following you on social media, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm going to say six, seven years ago when you got your first tattoo, now you have the jungle book sleeves. And I hope that's not insulting, but you guys that aren't seeing this. I mean, it's like the dopest animal murals down both of his arms. And I remember literally on social being like, nice, dude, when you got your first, what was it, a Python tattoo, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And now you're just like, you're full, got these super cool animal scenes.

Show us, show them off a little. So, yeah, so I'll explain as well. So this, so first off, my tattooer is a guy named Bob Tyrell. He's a world famous tattoo guy, probably top two or three in the world when it comes to wildlife. or not wildlife, but black and gray portraits. Like I said, he's an absolute legend, and I'm really fortunate to have him. And so my right arm here that I just showed you is Africa. It goes all the way up my sleeve, onto my thing, and onto my chest.

And I have a leopard actually on my chest. Oh, nice. Oh, sick. I didn't know that one. Yeah, yeah. So I have the big five and a whole bunch of other stuff. And then this arm is started is Australia. So, you know, got a saltwater crock here, Cassowary.

I got a lace monitor, you know, so a Prenti, got a whole bunch of stuff. So got a Kolka right here, right? So this will be Australia. And we kind of stopped the process because, again, the pandemic hit. And I didn't really feel comfortable having a guy breathing on me for 12 hours while he was tattooing. And but I'm ready to get started now. I'm ready to get back to it, finish out the sleeve. And then like you said, I'm going to kind of go, you know, I think you may learn through this podcast.

I'm a little obsessive. So I'll, I'm the guy that you had no tattoos and then sleeved up, you know? Right, right, right. Zero to 60. But, you know, I'll probably do like Asia on my back and then just kind of, and on my legs I did start on my legs, I started my animals at my zoo. So I'll probably do that. And I'll just kind of be covered in cool animal portraits that.

But, but, so my arms and my chest will be done by Bob Tyrell. The rest of my body, I'm tattoo. collecting from other famous tattooers. Oh, that's cool. So, yeah, so, you know, guys, I mean, you know, Paul Ackard and, I mean, the list goes on. I mean, you know, obviously, you know, Paul Booth, you know, all these guys. And thankfully, because Bob is friends with all these famous tattooers, guys that you can't get in with, I can get in with them because he's, he's my connection.

So, yeah, one day I'll be, like, neck to toe tattoos. That's kind of cool. Well, sorry, that kind of took us off track, but I just remember, I mean, for the years that we've friends, I've been watching your tattoo evolution. And I literally remember your first tattoo. And I was like, oh, that's cool. And now you're just like, boom, man. It's crazy.

But anyway, I got a question I'm dying to ask. Do it. I got it. All right. So let's say someone comes, they're standing outside your reptarium. And they're like, I hate animals. There's nothing cool about animals. And you had to show them one thing in your zoo to get them to be like, holy shit. I love animals now. What's the coolest thing you would show a kid or someone like that? So it's a great question, you know, and I think, you know, I would probably,

so I only have two mammals at my place, although we're adding, obviously, you know, fish with the aquarium, and we are adding small cloud river otters with this next expansion, too, so we'll have three sets. But I think I would stick reptile because that's what, you know, I really love, as a matter of fact, at my place, the thing I love the most is every weekend we do get people that come in that are like maybe their kids really passionate and loves reptiles but they hate them and they'll walk through the door and tell me like i do not like reptiles don't get me right and i always say two things i always say i'm going to do this at your pace so i'm not going to throw anything on you

i'm not going to make you hold anything but i'm going to probably bet 90% by time you leave this place you're going to hold a snake and they'll be like nope ain't going to happen 99% of time it happens because i always call it the jones effects so with that being said i would probably stick with reptile and I probably even maybe stick snake, to be honest with you. And there's two snakes in particular that usually break people in my place. Can we guess? Can we guess? Go for it. Okay. Peter, you don't even know what a snake is, but you go first.

Tai Pan. I don't think you'll be doing that. Okay, give one more guess. He said two snakes. Can you name another snake? I think it's going to be one of the rainbow snakes. Okay. Interesting.

I'm going with the age-old, classic. Michigan Garter Snake. Oh, there you go, because he heard about it 30 minutes ago. I caught him. I'm from the Midwest, too. We had them, too. I'm going to say you go with a Burmese Python, big standard berm

and something beautiful and a milk snake. I'm going to say those are you two. So I love all of your none of your answers are wrong. They're all great. Except Typan. That was a pretty stupid. answer. Nobody's holding typhans.

Which, by the way, Taipans are coastal tippans in particular, most mental snakes I've ever dealt with in my entire life. Dude, I got a story about that. Yeah, for sure. But please continue. But no, there's two snakes in my zoo that are actually, one is actually a no-eyed.

It was born without eyes, albino ball python. So, and the thing about it is the fact that because she doesn't have eyes, people feel a little bit better about it. Oh, interesting. Interesting.

So people are like, oh, she's not looking at me, so she can't bite me, so I feel more comfortable, right? Two is actually, and I'm telling these two snakes are always the two snakes people hold out of all my stuff. And there's one that's a reticulated python that's about 12 foot that's black and white. Beautiful black and white. I am surprised about that. I am very surprised. They are shitheads. I'm sorry, but retics are typically in the large python family.

They're shitheads. Like anacondas are nicer, berms are nicer. The only large python that's maybe worse than retics from my experience, and I'd love to hear your opinion on this, Brian, is African rock pythons. They're the only ones, I think, are shittier than retic. But, yeah, no, please continue. Now, I agree with you. And listen, you know, retics are typically that way.

The ones that we have are unbelievably docile. And this particular one, her name is Perdita, by the way. She is just something else And you'll have someone that comes in that is terrified I mean just terrified And then all of a sudden They see Perdita and they're like Alright I'll hold her

And she's a 12 foot snake And I'm like so your first snake you're ever going to touch When you tell me you're afraid of snakes Is a 12 foot python And they're like yep And that's the snake 99% of people hold either the albino ball python With no eyes or Perdita for the first time

And I tell you what Very few people get out of my place without holding something That's just the way It is. And we, I love the feeling of getting someone from, oh, my gosh, this isn't, this isn't something to be afraid of, I love this. So it's really cool. It's crazy, Brian, because that's the same thing I've heard Peter's girlfriend say, where she was just like, there's no way I'm touching that thing. And now she's like, you know, I love it.

Why would you say that to you is my question. Don't worry about our conversations. You worry about you and making that one-eyed snake more appealing. Brought me into the combo. Oh, I can't help it. Got to defend. I love it. That's calling my blind snake, by the way.

I just want to say. Yes, no, that's very smart. That's cool, Brian. I find that really interesting that you're able to break through those barriers with such unusual animals, especially the eyeless ball python. I think that's,

that never would have occurred to me in a million years. Ball python, sure, but the fact that the eyes thing makes a difference, I find that really, really interesting. It really does. It's like people are like,

oh, she can't, see me so she's not going to bite me so I'll hold this one. It's again, it's a wild thing. She's one of my most popular animals by far and yeah, but other than that, the other one animal that is really crazy, I'm sure that you've seen them

and mess with them in the past. We have a six-banded armadillo. Yeah. That is absolutely the most, it's like a puppy dog. It chases you around. It wants to just hang out on you. They don't fall. Yeah, they don't ball up like the three bandits, so they're in their 20 pounds, so they're much

bigger than most of the armadillos and that's probably fast becoming one of the most favorite i mean people will come to our place just to spend time with and it's names brillo the armadillo and uh and people so and it's just crazy so uh but uh but yeah there's there's so many i mean obviously my albino alligator she's only about five four and a half five footish um but dog tame i mean you know i can put her in anyone's hands that walks through the door with you know obviously we take precaution but but she's she's amazing And yeah, there's Brillo right there. He's so cute.

Oh, my God. That's the cutest thing I've ever seen. So let's flip this on its head. And, Brian, you know, the last thing in the world I'm ever trying to do is villainize or demonize any animals. But I say that to say this. Nobody who does what you and I do for a living has ever escaped a really close call. So tell us, tell us a story of one of your closest calls. So weirdly enough, it wasn't a reptile.

And I'm sure you're just like I am for us that like when you're in the moment and something is happening, you don't feel it's a close call. Of course. In retrospect, you look back and go, wow, that could have really been bad. But weirdly enough, much like you, I've traveled all over the world, I've caught coastal Taipans, I've caught black mamba's, you know, king cobras. I've been, you know, to Komoto, you've done the whole thing. Yeah. And never, believe it or not, I can't ever recall one. moment with a reptile that I thought was a close call.

But I was on a shoot in Africa in a place called Jakuda, which is right by the Kruger. And we were doing a piece on rhinos. And I was with a ranger there named Rick Sessions. And he was a great guy, by the way. And we were, you know, walking and doing a little, and much like you know when you're shooting, you're shooting a piece five times, right? People don't understand that. You don't shoot it once.

You shoot it because you've got different angles. And so what the deal was is there was a group of five rhinos that were like kind of, they were number one, downwind. We know that they don't have good eyesight. They use their smell mainly. So they were downwind from us. And we would walk up on this little patch of bushes. And they were on the other side of pushes.

And we would talk about rhino conservation, right? That's what he was all about is rhino conservation. And so the fifth time we did this from the last angle, and it was going to be a drone shot. time is the rhinos came out from behind the bush like they came towards us and this is a pretty open field i mean we got probably a hundred yards of just you know some bush and straight land right and at first the rhinos are maybe 25 feet away from us and they're obviously very curious right and they're walking towards us and we're slowly walking back and and rich has been around these things

forever so he's doing a little like you know like so they're here yeah we're here but very lightly now he has a rifle on his back, right? Never touches that rifle the entire time. Never touch it. And after this situation is done, I said, would you have ever thought about shooting? He said, I'd rather have died than shoot those rhinos. So that rifle was there just for play or something.

But regardless, by time we're backing up and backing up at one point, the rhinos are now to the point where I can touch their nose if I wanted to. They're literally feet away from us. And we've got five gigantic rhinos coming up. And I had a camera guy named Russ that shoots with BBC and Nat Geo and stuff like that. He was shooting from long distance with a long lens.

And so when they finally got pretty close to us, Rich just did a little bit of a louder, like one, bam, clap. And they ran off. And when we got back, Russ and my other camera guy both said, we thought 100% we were filming you get killed. Oh, wow. Was this Russell McLaughlin, that Russ? That's right.

Exactly. I could totally, I've known Russell a while. If he, he would not, there's no, he would have been like, yep, this guy gets flattened. I'm filming it. I'm not stepping in. I'm not helping. I will stay right here behind the camera. No question.

Yep, that's exactly. He was happy to film and he thought, I used to probably think like, I'm going to get some good footage here. Totally, totally. And it wasn't that the rhinos were mean or trying to, they were just curious. But again, we were so close that if they would have ran towards us, we would have been trampled and we would have been dead for sure. So that was the only. So that was the only time that I, and the only other time that I think I've came close to death in my entire life, which, by the way, I've been working with animals for 35 years.

And I've never even been to knock on wood. I haven't been to the hospital one time ever. Oh, wow. And we shot Discovery Channel. We shot Venom hunters, which I was traveling Africa and Australia, catching the most deadly snakes on the planet. And I never came close, never been bit by a venomous snake, never been hurt, never stitches. never anything. So the rhino was looking in retrospect.

During the time, I thought it was amazing. I was like, this is awesome. They're getting closer to me. This is great. And I wasn't even thinking about the footage. I was just thinking about the experience. Experience, totally. And then the only other time I came close to getting killed was actually by a person in

Africa. But that's a whole other story we won't get into. I've been there, man. I say this all the time. I say it on the show. I say it on the podcast. That is the biggest variable and the most dangerous thing. It's always the people.

It's never the animals. A hundred percent. Yep. 100 percent. Oh, somebody's animals. Is that yours, Brian? Yes. What's he saying?

My dog. I've got a German shepherd in a Great Dane. And my wife is trying to keep them in check a little bit here. I could have done it from my office back at the shop. Oh, good, man. Hey, this is an animal podcast. If we didn't have a couple dogs barking, my guinea fowl are usually outside of my office causing a ruckus,

and I have to go on mute, like at least once a podcast to make sure that it doesn't sound. like the African Savannah in here, so no problem. Yeah, love getting... How many... Brian, how many employees do you have at the zoo? Roughly. I think we're up to...

I think we're up... Yeah, I got to say roughly, because I never really quite... I think we're up to about 17 people now that work for us. Three of them are full-time animal educators, so all they do is, you know, educational shows. And then there's keepers and... and social media people and all that other. Run me through.

I think we're at 17. Run me through the, what is the, because every kid, like when I, I went, I had three Halloweens a row because the outfit still fit me where I went as a zookeeper.

What is the, run me through the realities. Hold on, hold on, Retev, you got no jab at him being meager with the fact that for three Halloween's in a row,

his zookeeper outfit fit him? Well, I mean, it doesn't need to be said. Yeah. It goes without saying. Okay. Let me through the day-to-day they clock in.

What are they doing? Your entry-level zookeeper. Not your best guy or girl, but it's their first week on the job. What does a zookeeper do? So, yeah, we have different levels. You know, we obviously have guys that work with – So, you know, we have people that work with a little bit more sketchy stuff, you know, that have been with me for years.

You know, someone walks through the door. They're probably doing – they're probably doing – the most mundane things quite honestly like the you know cleaning poop they're cleaning glass they're maybe chopping lettuce and veggies and veggies for the herbivores

they're probably not getting I don't think many people that when we start a keeper probably for the first few months isn't doing much with the actual hands-on animal stuff you know we really have to and even then it takes you know probably a year before I would

let them touch something that I felt was was dangerous. And then we also have really strict policies about with the animals, you know, large pythons and large monitors and crocodilians that, you have to have two people at all time. You know, like there's never one person dealing with them without someone right there with them. So, but yeah, in the beginning, it's a, you know, listen, it's a glorified poop cleaning job, really, right? You know, you're just cleaning a lot of poop every day and you're feeding, you know, the feeding part's fun.

I mean, the feeding parts are fun. but the poop cleaning way outweighs anything else you're going to do as a zookeeper. That is what we were talking about earlier. Yeah, exactly. Do you have crocodile monitors? I do. And they're scared. They scare the hell out of me, Brian.

I'm not scared of a lot of wildlife. And I love monitors, by the way. Varanids are like very near the top of my list. Every country I go to, I try and catch all the verandids I can. Even though it's just like fiddling with them for the sake of fiddling with them, I just love dealing with verandids. crocodile monitors scare the hell on me. Peter, while he's telling us about him,

could you mind pulling up a picture of their jaws or their mouth so people can understand these animals? Sure. Yeah, please. And Peter, if you can find a, maybe even after you find a picture, see if you can find the picture. There's a picture out there of a skull between a commoto dragon and a crocodile monitor.

Oh, interesting. And people will see the difference of how they think a commoto dragon is so dangerous. Right. And when you see the difference of teeth with a crocodile monitor to a commoto dragon, Ridiculous. Yeah. And I agree with you.

I always say, Forrest, when people come in, I say, the most dangerous animal I have in this place is my crocodile monument. No way. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one that feels that way. I say it all that. Now ours, we just have one. It's a male, and he's pretty big.

And he's chilling out pretty good. When we got him, he was a year old captive hatch from Indonesia. And it was in the country for a year. It came in as a baby, and it was very, very aggressive. I mean, I should say defensive, very defensive, would bite. And you, you know, did not want to get bit. I mean, you get bit by a crocodile monitor. You're going to the hospital every time.

Every time. And I have, by the way, because they look a lot like, what's the spotted verandad that's in the same range as them? Blanking on it. The mangroves or which one? It might be. Veranis, is it Salvador? No, Salvadori is crocodile. Oh, yeah.

So the water monitors, yeah. The water monitors. Anyway, I've chased these. things around like Borneo and a few other places and then got right up to him be like, no, I'm too scared, I'm too scared, I'm too scared, because they're just like so gnarly. They're so fearsome. But anyway, yeah, I mean, sorry, please continue. Yeah, they're raptors.

I mean, they are literally, they're one, I think the most smart and reactive monitor lizard in the world. And they have the teeth to back it that are absolutely ridiculous. And again, some people say they're the largest monitor lizard in the world, even though comodos are certainly the heaviest body, but there's rumors of crocodile monitors with their long tail, again, not nearly as heavy-bodied as a commoto, but there's rumors of 12-foot specimens.

And we know that there's at least 10-foot specimens that have been in captivity of crocodile monitors. And we know that comodos get about 10-foot. So it's a debate whether comotos or crocodile monitors are the longest lizard in the world because of that long, long tail that the crocodile monitors have. No doubt that Komodo dragons are the largest, as far as body and stuff like that and head size and so like that.

But crock monitors are no joke. Now, thankfully, we've worked with this crock monitor for a few years now and have got it to the point where we can take it out and it won't bite us. But only me and my monitor guy, I have a guy that specializes in monitors that works with our stuff. And we target train all of our monitor lizards. And only he and myself are able to go in that enclosure. So if someone else, say that young,

keeper that Patrick was asking about week two is like, oh, I know animals. And he decides to let himself into the crock monitor's enclosure. What's going to happen? Walk us through how, what's your crock monitor's name? It's baby Cush because the guy that raised it was named Stephen Cush. Got it. Not because of the weed Cush. Sure, sure, sure. So what would baby Cush do if a foreigner came into his enclosure. You know, I think, to be honest, I think that he wouldn't, he would probably be very,

oh, here we go, some teeth, yeah, things you can see. Crazy. He would, he would, I don't think he would bite them, but he would definitely, they're very standoffish, probably whip them with his tail,

for sure, and be very huffy and puffy, because it's very untrusting animal. Like I said, we built a rapport for a long time with, with him. But it would, I would,

I don't know what I would do if a keeper did that personally. Like that would be a bigger question. It's like I don't, you know, I mean, I have to have unbelievable trust with my keepers because they care for, I mean, these animals aren't just exhibits. These animals are my pets. They're my love of my life. Every animal, I'll give an example. You talk about water monitors, which, by the way, I chase water monitors, not crocodile monitors, but water monitors outside of Jakarta once. And I expect the entire...

Can we just... Sorry, can I just interrupt you for one second? When you make that statement, the Browsoners that don't know what we're talking about, they're imagining this beautiful jungle and these water monitors in these crystal clear streams. And I know this, because I've chased them around Jakarta myself. You are in literal sewer drainage that are open air, full of, like, feces and, like, discarded bottles and plastic bags. And then here sits this gorgeous six-foot-long water monitor, and you're like, like, well, the only way I'm catching him is to get knee-deep in some yuck-yuck.

And am I not right, Brian? Is that not how you caught yours? We must have caught him in the same spot because it's my... But actually, I shouldn't say caught him because I didn't catch him. I actually chased, there was about six adults, you know, five, six footers, and I chased them around for, I'd say a good four hours. You know, I'd chase one and jump in the water. I'd go after it disappear. I would chase another one, get in the water, it would disappear.

And I never, I think one time I got a hand on a tail and then it disappeared. So they are very, very tough. But they're amazing. But we target train all ours so that they kind of take away that food drive that they have and the scare drive. And I always say the way to work a reptile the best is when you, they're not afraid of you and you're not afraid of them. You know, that's what you got to get this relationship where they have zero fear of you. that's why crock monitors are much more reactive and even our baby Cush is

it's still reactive he still doesn't like when we open the enclosure even if it's me or Bruce he still has that like kind of like what are you going to do you know and they're so smart they are I mean again you look at their pupils their pupils are

dilating like birds you know they're not like a normal reptile I mean I've never seen anything like it but uh... Do they respond to eye contact quite a bit Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Yeah, 100%. You know, it's, you know, again, we do eye contact.

As a matter of fact, it's funny because I train my alligators a certain way, which is exactly the opposite way of you should train it. And a really good crocodilian guy called me one time, you know, if you do something wrong, train an animal wrong, just make sure you always train it wrong instead of changing. Right, right, right. That's how I learned how to sing. Yeah, and play guitar. You're good at it.

That's here. But so I'll do this thing where I look at my alligators, like they have to keep eye contact on me, and that's how I keep them calm, which is the exact opposite of what most crocodilian people. And that's because I didn't know. I thought this is the way you train an alligator or crocodile. So, yeah, so I think eye contact can definitely be something

that can either go for you or go against you, depending on how much time of training you put into it. You mentioned target training. Yeah, I was wondering about that too. What exactly is that? So what we do is we take a, depending on the animal, a colored ball, actually racquetball, either blue or red, on the end of a stick, and they have to actually touch that ball before we give them food. So it does two things.

Number one, it allows us to move them wherever we want because they'll follow that ball for food, right? It's a food response. It's a response thing. And then the second thing it does is it means that no ball, no food, so they never think fingers are food. Wow. So it takes away the food drive. So people get bit by reptiles for two reasons. Feeding response, feeding response and feeding response.

Yeah. Feeding response. Or really, if the animal is afraid of you. So if you can take away the fear and you take away the feeding response, you have very little chance of getting bit. And that's what we go for. Yeah. Would you let, oh, sorry, Forrest. Go ahead, man.

No, you go first. I just want to know, would you let Forrest, if Forrest comes down, it comes up there to visit, would you let him in the enclosure with you? 100%. If Forrest comes, he could do anything he wants. That's why we're buddies, Brian. By the way, I wouldn't ask to do that because I'm so scared of these animals and I'm not particularly scared of any animal.

But Croc monitors are, they're a different animal, man. And so I was going to say two things. First of all, I want to tell a story, or first of all, I want to ask you this, Brian, do you think, and I'll give you my opinion after this, do you think crock monitors are the closest representations of, like, living dinosaurs? I always say they're living raptors. They are raptors. I mean, you know, I don't know genetically how close they are. Oh, that's what I mean.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, as far as, like, what I think, when I envision a dinosaur, when I envision a dinosaur, I think of crock monitor more than any other animal on the planet. Well, maybe Cassowaries, but that's... Cassoor, that's a good one. Casawares is a good one. I think that... Maybe paleosuccas.

No, I think crocodiles, as in, like, saltwater crocodiles, and now crocodiles feel very close to that as well. They just haven't changed in so long. Yeah. Anyway, right about that, too. You're 100% right. But I think croc monitors are... Like you said, they're like raptors.

By the way, it's like, you see a crocodile in a pond, you're like, I'm fine. right he's over there he's in a pond you're like up in a canopy with a crock monitor you're in trouble we call him tree dragons over there i know i know it's crazy and they're uh they're in papua which is a place we talk about a lot p and g in west papua because of our thylacine um interest but anyway so i want to tell you a story and i want to get your take on it so i'm buddies with the head reptile keeper at the sanabara zoo where i live right it's a beautiful facility Santa barbara is not a very big zoo not a very big place with a beautiful facility. And he has prehensile-tailed skinks.

And his statement, so a lot of people, for context, for everybody listening, say that prehentile skinks are basically not trainable. They're too stupid or they just don't respond well, whatever. Call it what you like. And I'd like to hear your take on that, Brian. Now, my buddy at the Santa Barbara Zoo, who I won't name in case he doesn't like the way I frame this story, he has a different idea, which is that they do not respond to food. based training. They respond to something else. And he says that they are incredibly clever,

contrary to what a lot of people say. And what he has figured out, and I've seen him do this in person, so I know it's real, is he gives positive reinforcement through behavioral enrichment that is direct contact with the sun. And it's absolutely amazing. So when I was with him, he's like, let me show you this thing. So he goes to their enclosure. He offers them some food, nothing. They don't budge. They're not interested. They look at him like he's a jerk and they go back to snoozing, right? Then he puts down the food, goes and grabs a little tiny harness, like a little veranded harness, and holds it up, and both of the prehensile-tailed skinks come and line up. And he literally holds it up like a little sweater, and each one puts its leg through the

loop. I swear to God, I am not joking. He buckles it on them, puts the little leash on, and puts his hand out, and they come out. He walks, we live in Santa Barbara. It's sunny every single day. He walks outside of the reptarium, which is like 10 feet, and holds it. them in the sun and they sit there like my dog does on a warm day on the driveway with his belly to the sun and it's just like expression of pure joy on their face and he does that for like five or ten minutes and then takes him back inside and they literally go back inside begrudgingly lift each leg out of the harness and go back to their spots and he's just like I've cracked a code that nobody knows about which is that you absolutely can train prehensile-tailed skinks they're just

not food motivated. They're motivated by another type of positive reinforcement. And in this case, it's going and lounging in the sun. And he's like, I need to publish a paper or like scream this to the mountaintops. And I'm like, dude, there's like four people that are interested in this. But still, it's fascinating

that he has totally, and I've seen it with my own eyes, he's cracked this code on these prehensile-tailed skinks that to me says they are so much smarter than we give them credit for because they do want something. They do want something in return for a behavioral for a display of behavior, it's just not food.

They're not motivated by diet. And as reptiles, by the way, that makes sense, right? Like, not all reptiles don't need to eat a whole lot. A lot of them, some of them do. But a lot of them don't need to eat a whole lot. So why be motivated by food if you're like, yeah, I can go three months without a meal? Like, you're offering me the same thing you offered me yesterday at noon for doing nothing. Why would I go for this?

And I don't know. I found it really, really interesting. So I want to hear your thoughts on that. I've never even owned one. I mean, I've held like three in my life. I don't know those animals well. What do you think about that? Well, I think it's amazing. I mean, I think please film that because that would be the most incredible thing I've ever seen. And I don't disagree. The one thing I always say is that with all reptiles, that they are way, way, way more intelligent than people give them credit. And we've proved that with our place, the training that we've done with the animals. I mean, people come to our place, even reptile people come. And they're blown away at the things that we do. They're like, I've never seen anything like that. in my life, you know. And I'm like, that's because we approach them more like you would approach training a porpoise or something on that lines, as opposed to like saying, these are dumb and so like that. So as far as our monkey tail skinks, they're a very interesting animal. They come

from the Solomon Islands. They live in communal groups. So they mate for life and they bond for life. and then what happens in this community group, you might have five or six pair of monkey tail skinks. And by the way, I heard the story about the guy that named him monkey tail skinks. It was a wholesaler. Do you remember? I don't know if you remember L.A. reptile way long time ago. It was a big reptile importer.

Did that have anything to do with Jay Brewer or was that independent of Jay? No, that wasn't Jay. It was, I can't remember. Chris was, I can't remember his last. name. Chris was the owner and in the 70s days they were the one of the biggest reptile wholesalers in the country and what was happening was they were bringing Solomon Island skinks or prehensile skinks and no one knew what prehensile tail meant or Solomon Island meant so he termed a monkey tail skinks yeah I've heard that name before by the way I just as a scientist

refused to say that exactly so prehensel tail skinks are what they are supposed to be called but the hobby calls a monkey tail skinks which is just the slang term that a guy in L.A. made up But anyways, so what's interesting is that they made for life. They stay in this hierarchy group. They only have one baby every other year on occasion twins. And what's interesting is that when they have that baby, the baby stays with them for about a year. And the entire group protects the baby, even if it's not their offspring. And then at about a year old, they kick them out of the group and they have to go start their own group.

So my point is they have to be intelligent, you know, right? Yeah, that's super complex behavior. Yeah. But it's so, so they're, they're, I love, love, love, love prehance out tail skinks. And they're in the ones we have are super, super dope. But, uh, but yeah, we haven't been able to target train them. So that makes sense. Maybe I need to, in the sun, we might have a problem here in Michigan.

Well, that's the problem, isn't it? But, uh, try it, man. I, I, I don't know, you know, I don't know much about those animals. I actually didn't know that that was how they raised their young. I mean, that is, that is like a social, structure that's sort of unheard of in reptiles. And isn't that amazing that they do something like that? I mean, some crocodilians are probably the closest thing to that.

Right, with nest-rooting. Exactly, you know, which is really interesting. But yeah, I find they're one of my more beloved reptiles for sure. Well, really scientifically, the smartest reptiles are the reptilians that come from the Centurion galaxy. Isn't that accurate? Oh, boy, you are a dummy. I'm a believer.

See? That's right. Peter and Patrick, I'm pretty sure. I can definitely speak for Peter. I don't know about Patrick. They're convinced, by the way, that Octopus are aliens. They came on a comet from out of space. I mean, I think there's some science behind that.

I think there's some science behind it. There is. There is. There's a substantial science behind it, and that's why these guys are completely convinced. What are your thoughts on that? You know, I don't, you know, I think, think that panspermia can certainly be something that happens, you know, and I think that

the fact that there's no other animal that has DNA that's anything like octopus on the planet makes you wonder, did it literally evolve from a completely separate entity here on this planet? Or was it placed here through panspermia or maybe alien? I don't know. I'm a believer. I think it's definitely alien for sure. Yeah. I love it.

So cool. There's one of the videos on your channel that I liked, Brian. What made you decide that you were going to take an albino alligator to PetSmart? These are the big questions. Yeah, she wanted an outfit. Halloween was calling. She wanted an outfit, and I had no choice. I mean, where else?

I was looking for the alligator costume aisle, and by the way, PetSmart doesn't have one. PetSmart. What? What? PetSmart. Get your shit together. I know, what the heck. No, it was one of those things that, again, every now and then we do something that is, you know,

that shows people that these reptiles are more than just cold-blooded, non-thinking animals. And so if you're going to take your dog to PetSmart, why can't I take my alligator PetSmart? Right. And we said, by the way, for the record, we did contact them before, asked them if their permission. They accepted our... You have how many subs on YouTube? 3.3 million? Yeah, yeah, come on by.

Come for sure. Weirdly enough, the hierarchy at PetSmart wasn't that happy about it. But the manager of the local PetSmart was fine. She comes into the rectumium. But as a matter of fact, she told me after I did that video that they didn't take grief, I wouldn't say, but they did say that we had to be more careful with approving certain things. So I can't take an alligator back, but I did take my armadillo back there at a later day. So they're great at the local PetSmart.

And I try to support, you know, local pet shops. And even though PetSmart is a corporate thing, it's also locally run. And so, but most of the things we buy, honestly, are from mom and pop shops in the area, to be honest with you. But they just don't have as many customers, so it's not as fun to take stuff to them. Right. All right, I want to play a game. Oh, you got something, Peter, before we play? I'm just going to say, like, I feel like people who are working at pet shops, regardless of which one, they're passionate about.

animals because it's not like, you know, it's not a job that you're, it's not like, oh, I'm going to work at McDonald's or the pet store, whichever one gives me a job first. So I remember going into Petco, which is the one that we have in Santa Barbara, and picking up live mice to feed my rosy boas because they've only ever taken lives. And I grabbed them, they put them in the little box that they always put them in. And I put them in the like grocery bag, right? Like just, you know, the old plastic grocery bag that they used to hand out and still do in some places. And I, like, started walking out of there, kind of swinging it, you know, not twirling it, but just sort of loosely swinging it around like you do groceries, you know.

And the guy that sold me the mice that were going to be eaten by my snakes ran over, snatched the bag out of my hand, and it was like, sir! And I was like, yes. He's like, those are live animals. And I was like, I like frozen panicked because I'm like a wildlife guy. I love animals more than anything in the whole world. And this petco employee was screaming at my like animal welfare treatment. And all I could be was be like, you're right.

I'm sorry. And I like took them very gently and took them out. And I was like, these are going to be dead in like seven minutes. But I will still be very nice to them until that time. Good. And it was so shocking when that happened. No, he was right. He was absolutely right.

And if that guy's listening right now, I'm sorry that I was twirling the mice around. But he was absolutely right. And not the mice twirling. I like the outcome of that story. Well, the middle part. The mice died. The snake's eating them? No, no.

The second middle, I don't know. One part of this story. All right, I want to play a game. I got a game. I got a game. You ready for this game? Okay. Yes.

Brian, welcome to the team. You are the newest producer of Extincter Alive. It's a fantastic show where we go around the world looking for extinct animals. But, sir, as a wildlife, as a reptile expert, we need you to come up with an episode where forest and team and yourself go and find an extinct reptile. Now here's the kicker, Mr. Barchick. If you don't find it, the show is canceled and your zoo gets shut down. What are you looking for?

Man, you know, there's only one animal that we have to look for, but I think the show is getting canceled, unfortunately. That's okay. That's right. Maybe we take that caveat out because that was a little much. Yeah, that's a bummer. While the zoo closing is okay, though. Yeah, there's a zoo close there. But, no, it's titano boa. It's got to be.

Wow, that is not where I thought you were going with that. That's cool. Titano boa. So, Brian, for those that don't know, tell us about this gargantuan snake from South America. Yeah, I mean, it's literally like a cousin or an ancestor of the boa constrictor, but can get, you know, 80 to 100 feet long, can be up to 2,500 pounds. They found fossils of these, so we know they're real. We know that they existed on the earth at some time.

And I'm obsessed with Titano boa. I have been my whole life ever, well, not my whole life ever since they came out with this thing. And you can see, I mean, they look very similar to a boa constrictor, but just an absolute, I mean, you could see these pictures the size of the people compared to the snake. I mean, what does that snake even eat? I mean, it's fucking yikes. I am glad these do not exist. Oh, my gosh. I would breed Titano boas if they,

still exist. I'm obsessed with them. But that's 100%. I would spend the next 30 years of my life in a South American jungle looking for Titanic Bois if there was any chance that there was one still alive. I love that. And I've heard stories in South America of people believing that they're still there, by the way. Also, the network would love this. They would go for this easily because it's a big, scary creature. True. Yes. So have you ever heard, Brian, the story, and I'm going to butcher all the details, but basically during World War I, there was a Dutch pilot who was a very well-decorated war hero. He had multiple medals, so on and so forth. And he was in the Congo. Have you heard this story? Do you know what I'm talking about? I don't know. Okay. And you should look this up,

and I'm sure I'm getting most of the details wrong, but I remember reading it, and I was absolutely enthralled by it. So you've got this war hero veteran, decorated war hero, right? He's the pilot. In that same plane with him while he's flying are three other soldiers, all like, you know, reputable soldiers. They have zero reason to lie or make any of this up. And as they're flying around over the Congo, they spot something down below. And it's a big coiled something or other. And the pilot, the decorated hero, that says, let's go in and take a closer look. This looks very foreign in this weird Congolese jungle. And they fly down and they report not just the decorated war hero, but all three other soldiers, that were on the plane report a 50-foot-long snake that when they took low passes over this clearing

in the jungle struck at the plane. And they all say, swear to God, that they saw the snake, they all have independent reports of it, they all say it was 50 to 70 feet long based on their best assessment. They didn't see it and leave. They took like seven or eight passes over this snake to see it because they couldn't believe their eyes and they knew no such thing existed before They left, and they left it sitting there still coiled and striking in defensive mode. And on the first pass, every single one of them reports that this thing actually struck at the plane. And it's like very well documented. It's like, there were military documents that show these people reporting this.

This colonel's outright, he's like, I have no reason to lie. You know, I'm a war hero, blah, blah, blah, blah. All three of the soldiers on the plane reported it all independently. And they all said there is a 50 foot snake right here in this jungle. We all saw it. Why is nobody believing us are listening? to us. Wow. That's crazy. Isn't that amazing?

You've been to a lot of exotic places. I certainly have been to, you know, they're out there, man. They're out there. You think so? There's, you know, you guys have found stuff that was extinct. I mean, come on. You know, I mean, you're just one team, you know? I mean, with the amount of rainforest, even though depleting here in the Congo, obviously, amazing. even the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The things that are probably never, I mean, just dense, dense in the forests or jungles, there's got to be. And I mean, remember Lulong?

Yeah, the water crocodile. Yep. Yeah, I mean, you know, that was a tragic story, by the way. That thing lived probably 150 years in the wild and then died a month in captivity, which was a shame. But, I mean, that was a gargantuan crocodile that was found in the wild. that the natives have been reporting for like 100 years that it was there, but no one could ever catch it. Right.

So I think I do believe that in deep in the forest, there is a 50-foot, well, okay, so first off, you probably know about the Teddy Roosevelt, you know, reward for a 50-foot snake. Have you ever heard of this? $50,000. Yeah, $50,000 turned out later after Teddy Roosevelt died, the reward went to $100,000. in his trust.

And I think in the 70s or 80s, they discontinued it. But so for almost 100 years, you know, several decades at least, there was a reward for anyone live or dead that could come up with a 50-foot snake. And still to this day, no one has claimed that prize. That being said, you can't tell me that it isn't out there somewhere. You know, it's out there somewhere. It's just, you know, a matter of being the right person to find at the right time, you know? I just put a picture in the chat, Peter.

So they actually took a picture. They were in a helicopter for us. That was one of the details. Gotcha. Dutch pilots. It was in 1959. They did take a picture, but it's like there's nothing for scale, right? Exactly.

Yeah. So it's, but so there is a picture of the snake. And obviously their first hand accounts are the only thing that says it was 50 feet and it struck at the helicopter. Yep. I believe them. Why would they make this up? You think four pilots and a helicopter flying over the Congo are like, You want to do a hoax today?

Totally. That's what I'm saying. And this guy, this Colonel Remy Van Leard, I just pulled up your link as well, why risk your credibility as a decorated war hero to say nonsense, right? Like, as someone who's like, yeah, I mean, why be like, nope, I'm just going to make this up? It's funny. Like, it's just, it's ridiculous. Like, they definitely saw something.

You see it right there. It's cool. Yeah, the interesting thing is in the Congo, I wouldn't think there would even be a large constrictor. I mean, African rock pythons are in, but I don't even think African rock pythons are in the Congo, if I'm not mistaken. I could be completely wrong about it. You're right. They're not. So what snake would that be? You know, that's the thing. If it was in West Africa, let's say it was in Ghana or Benin or Togo, you would say, yeah, maybe that's a 25-foot rock python that just, you know, they thought was 50 foot. But in the Congo, I don't even know what that would be.

But, Brian, and here's the game, right? Think about where all of our large semi-aquatic snakes or just large boa constrictors and pythons come from. It's in deep tropical jungles, right? In South America, we have the anacondas. In Indonesia, we have reticulated pythons. Even in the forests of Australia is where we have giant scrub pythons and things like that. So the natural place for a snake to convergently evolve in that huge way in Africa is not in the savannah lands. It's not in the sub-Sahara.

It's not in West Africa or North Africa. It's in that green belt of the Congo that is completely, not I won't say completely, but is very biologically unexplored. And to this day, remains basically too dangerous for people to go in there and do all of the science that needs to be done. And I'll tell you, I was in Mozambique earlier last year, and I was talking to guys that are, they work in the field of wildlife science. They're like animal translocation experts and things like that.

And they were showing me pictures from Mozambique, which is not nearly as dangerous. difficult of a country. And they're like, oh, look at this thing. And it's like this fluffy little reptile-looking thing. And I'm like, what is that? And they're like, oh, we don't know. Some villager took a picture of it. He was the only guy who had a flip phone. Nobody knows what it is. We went back to try find it. We gave it a couple days. Nobody found it. It's like, of course, that's how you find these things, by the way. That's how we've been successful in extinct or alive. It's not the Western scientists that know that these things exist or know where they are.

It's the people that live and breathe in these environments. It's the same story about the thylacine and possibly being in PNG or West Papua, it's not us. It's not the white guys sitting here on Zoom that can say yes or no, it's still there. It's the people that are out in the forest, in the jungle, in the woods, hunting every single day, that know whether or not these things are real.

It's just disseminating the fact that sometimes in those cultures, lore is very real to them. And so it's like separating lore and fact from fiction. And that's more challenging than actually saying, is this animal here or not? because if people tell you when they're there, it's just, is it there physically or is it there spiritually? And that's the thing that you have to try and figure out that's such a challenge.

Oh, I can imagine it would be. That's for sure. But I agree with you. And again, there was a herpetological team that went into North Mozambique about a dozen years ago. And it was the first kind of research team that went into North Mozambique in like 50 years. And they discovered like 15 new species of reptiles. Not surprise. Not at all. Expedition is only like a two-week expedition.

And by the way, Mozambique, there are resorts all over Mozambique. Like, they're not resorts like we think of, like, go to Cabo San Lucas. But there are, like, very cute little dive lodges up and down the entire coast of Mozambique that services tourists from South Africa and Europe. And, like, I'm guessing they weren't on this, like, you're thinking expedition, you're thinking this hardcore narwh. They're probably staying in like a little dive bungalow drinking mitis and they're herpetologists, so you know they weren't up at the crack of dawn.

They were up around 10 a.m. They're like, yeah, sun's coming up. Let's head out. And it's like, and they found 15 new species. Imagine if you're going into the middle of nowhere Congo, like, where you're really on an expedition. And, you know, people do this. I'm not saying nobody does it, but like, especially in Africa, more so than South America, more so than Asia.

By the way, 200 new species just discovered in the Macong region. Don't know if you guys saw that. Huge news, including a bunch of reptiles. Like, that's where, in my opinion, Papua New Guinea and San Francisco. Central Africa, that's where the biggest biological discoveries are to come out of. And there is, in my opinion, mega fauna, not just micro fauna to be discovered still. Well, yeah, I mean, what was it like? I mean, it was what?

It was in the 90s or whenever it was. You probably know that there was a great ape that was found in Vietnam. I know about the saula in the 90s, which is a big bovid that was found. And I think 95 was when it was officially declared. So maybe that's what I'm talking about. But that's, yeah, the local people for hundreds of years were saying there was this creature. And then all of a sudden we found them. And now they've been, you know, first they were recorded on video.

And then now they've been, you know, they know all about them. But it was like a 200-pound animal or something like that. That was just a mystery for 200 years. And it's actual reality. So I know I'm a huge belief. That's why I liked your guys' show, too, is because it was, it's what guys like me dream of. Right. You know what I mean?

I dream to do, you know, I would love nothing else to spend my life looking around. And I know you're thylacine maniac, you know. And I know one day you'll find that damn thing. I guarantee you will. I'm going to keep trying, that's for sure. I think you will, you know. I think it'll be it. I love that you feel that way.

So can I announce something to our brosters, something that all four of us know that nobody else knows? No one else knows, so let's do it. Ladies and gentlemen, brosners of all shape, sizes and colors, Brian is putting together another hair-brained incredible wildlife thing. And this is a big announcement. It is an animal con. It's going to be like the biggest convention for animal nerds from around the world. And guess what, ladies and gentlemen, the Wild Times podcast crew,

Peter Patrick and myself are going to be going to wildcon. Yes. And we encourage the brosners have been asking. saying where can we meet you guys? Where can we learn about animals with you guys from the podcast? Where can we come and see you? And we are going to be at Brian's AnimalCon. Brian, tell us about it. Yeah, so, yeah, so we're doing it the 26, 27, 28th of August in Orlando. There's going to be all, you know, basically any animal personality you can think of from, you know, from TV, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. we've just,

has this been a brain child of mine, much like the drinking game. Bad timing, you know, at the beginning of the pandemic, I was thinking about this, and it's the worst time to put on a convention, so it's been shelf.

But now that we feel like we're getting into a good spot in life, we think we're going to be behind us this summer. We decide to move forward with it. And so it is, think about the Comic-Con type of thing,

but for animal people. And so it's going to have, yeah, just tons of really great. So, be, like you said, there'll be panels with you guys on it, talking about your adventures around the world, there'll be Q&As, there'll be fan meetups, there'll be all kinds of events that can happen that are just like you said for people like me when I was 17 or 18 would have loved to go see, you know, all those animal people on TV at the time, you know what I mean, whether it was Attenborough or Steve Irwin

or whoever the case was at the time, you know, if I could have went to a place and met them and now there are hundreds of those people. They're not just a dozen of them. There's hundreds of these people. You know, from reptiles to fish to, to bugs, to, you name it. You know, I mean, any animal personality, and we're so, so pleased and blessed that you guys are going to come out there. And it's in a beautiful resort in Orlando. It's called the Kribe Royal.

We'll be launching this site. It'll be called AnimalConnUSA.com. Launching in about two to three weeks. So we're putting that together. you know, just keep an eye on any social. I'm sure you'll announce it when we do it as well. Absolutely. And then, yeah, yeah, I mean, it's been a dream of mine.

And my outcome of this, everything I do in life, whether it's my reptarium, whether it's this project, whether it's YouTube, whether it's Instagram, whatever, is about reaching people with the love of animals, period. That's all that I care about, right? And this is a way that we can get 10,000 people together that are passionate and can share and collaborate and start meeting people. And who knows what relationships are going to be built. And who knows what 10-year-old is going to walk through that door

and meet you guys and be the next extinct or alive 20 years from now. And that's why I'm doing it. And that's why I'm excited. And so far, we're super, super pumped on the commitments that we've had. We've already got with the group. And I've just really started. I mean, you guys were one of the first. people, first handful of people I asked. So I've just gotten started, but we already have over

70 commitments from influencers and creators from across the animal world to the tune of about 150 million combined outreach. Wow. And we've just gotten started. We've just gotten started. And we have some pretty major sponsors. We'll be announcing over the next couple weeks as well on the things. So the event should be a pretty big hit. And hopefully we can just continue to inspire that this generation and the next generation that if we aren't fighting for wildlife, we're screwed, you know, so that's what this is about. That's awesome, man. That's going to be fun.

We will, and for anybody listening, if you guys don't know this, depending on where you're listening, we have a Patreon, we have a YouTube, we have all the social media channels. We're going to do everything we can to push this for you, Brian. We're going to make sure that our brosners, our listeners can come there and meet us in person and come into the AnimalCon

and not just meet us, but meet everybody. All these people that we're discussing that can come and share their love of knowledge. So, Brosner, you've been asking about where to meet us, where to hang out. This is it. AnimalCon, USA, baby, Orlando, Florida. Let's go. So thank you guys, man.

It means the world to me. You guys are going to be amazing, and we're going to treat you like royalty. I can guarantee you that. Beautiful. I like the sound of that. Thank you so much, Brian, for inviting us, you know, first of all. And also, thanks for coming on the show, man. And I think the Brosters are going to love this.

Where can, in case they don't know where to find you, where do they find you? I mean, literally, if you just type Brian, snake guy, Brian, animal guy, Brian, Barcheck, Brian, you'll find me. You know, it's pretty easy to find. He's the guy. Yeah, it's just, you know, it's, I appreciate anyone following me on any level. I mean, I can't do the things that I do now without the people that follow me. And I'm so, so absolutely blessed to have friends like you guys.

now and to be in this community. So yeah, so welcome along on the journey. It's a wild one. Wild time. Wild time. Brian, thanks for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. Well, guys, it's been a good one.

I learned a shitload. That was awesome. It has, Forrest, I've never, I haven't seen you that excited in many moons, my friend. About what? I love your energy. Oh, I just like Brian. He's a cool guy. He is.

He is a great guy. Love you, Pat. Thanks, man. You guys, yeah. You guys head over to the Wild Times. Dot com forward slash info for all the links at Wild Times Pot on all the socials to follow us. And, of course, I hung up some merch. There's my Spirit Animal shirt over there now in the background.

That's still available. We never talk about it. It's there. It's always there. We never talk about it. And, of course, the Patreon at Wild Time. Times pod, patreon.com forward slash wild times pod.

Jesus. What are you drunk, mate? He's a mess. But I love you guys. Yeah. AnimalCon. AnimalCon. We're going to a convention.

I just looked at the resort. It looks nice. There's a fun pool. Ooh. Yeah. Lots of cocktails. We'll be drinking.