Coyote Peterson

Last updated
Coyote Peterson
Coyote Peterson (2020) (cropped).png
Peterson in 2020
Personal information
Born
Nathaniel Peterson

September 1, 1981 (1981-09) (age 43)
Newbury Center, Ohio, U.S.
Education Ohio State University (BA)
Occupation(s)YouTube personality, wildlife educator, producer, author
Website bravewilderness.com
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2014–present
Subscribers21.1 million
Total views5.04 billion
YouTube Silver Play Button 2.svg100,000 subscribers2015
YouTube Gold Play Button 2.svg1,000,000 subscribers2016
YouTube Diamond Play Button.svg10,000,000 subscribers2018
Last updated: January 15, 2024

Nathaniel "Coyote" Peterson (born September 1, 1981) is an American YouTuber, wildlife educator, and host of Animal Planet's series Coyote Peterson: Brave the Wild. He is best known for his YouTube channel Brave Wilderness, which focuses on documenting and educating about animals. Peterson has also become known for videos in which he allows himself to be stung or bitten by various animals, many of them venomous, such as the bullet ant and the executioner wasp. [1] [2]

Contents

He hosts several others of his YouTube channel series including Breaking Trail, Beyond the Tide, Dragon Tails, Base Camp, Brave Wilderness, On Location and Coyote's Backyard. These series span many tropical and temperate locations, including much of the United States, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, the Bahamas, and Costa Rica.

His team includes cameramen Mark Vins and Mario Aldecoa, trained wildlife experts who occasionally present episodes themselves.

Background

Nathaniel Peterson was born on September 1, 1981. [3] He grew up in rural Newbury, Ohio, about 20 miles east of Cleveland. [4] At a very young age, Coyote took an interest in animals, which was inspired by his mother. [5] He loved exploring the outdoors and catching different animals. He is of German and Hungarian descent. [6] In his youth he spent a lot of time in and around the Tohono Oʼodham Nation learning from their culture, which he got a tattoo to symbolise in 2024 [7]

As he grew older, he attended Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin High School, a college-prep school. He then studied film at Ohio State University, from which he graduated in 2004. [8] Though a self-described animal expert, he is not formally educated in any biological science and does not have any animal training and as such has warned viewers not to imitate his methods of handling. [9] Peterson has a daughter, Olivia, who is often featured in his videos. [4]

YouTube career

Peterson began posting videos on his YouTube channel, Brave Wilderness, in 2014. On the channel, he hosts several series including: Breaking Trail, which won a 2015 Emmy Award for youth/teen programs, Dragon Tails, Coyote's Backyard, Beyond the Tide, and On Location. [4] [10] Peterson made his first "bug attack" video unintentionally in 2016. His most popular videos are ones where he intentionally lets venomous insects sting him, working his way up the "Schmidt sting pain index" created by entomologist Justin Schmidt. Early videos featured harvester ants before moving on to fire ants, the velvet ant, the tarantula hawk, and then the bullet ant, which has the most painful sting on the sting pain index. He was later stung by a warrior wasp, an Asian giant hornet, and the executioner wasp. In the executioner wasp video, he declares its sting worse than that of the bullet ant, stating "the executioner is king." [11] [12]

He started his dangerous experiments because of the enthusiastic response of his audience. [5] In 2019, Peterson's channel set Guinness World Records for the most-subscribed YouTube channel dedicated to animals and for the most-viewed animal channel. [13] In 2020, Peterson said that he was probably done making "sting and bite" videos. [5] Peterson was featured on Conan , along with Jeff Goldblum, where he brought many animals. [14] In May 2021, Peterson and his teammate Mark Vins participated in a video call with president Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci to promote COVID-19 vaccinations. [15]

On July 7, 2022, Peterson released a Facebook post in which he claimed to have excavated a large primate skull in British Columbia and smuggled it into the United States, further claiming to have initially hidden the discovery due to concerns of government intervention. The post went viral, garnering the attention of multiple scientists who dismissed the finding as a likely replica gorilla skull. Darren Naish, a vertebrate paleontologist, stated, "I'm told that Coyote Peterson does this sort of thing fairly often as clickbait, and that this is a stunt done to promote an upcoming video. Maybe this is meant to be taken as harmless fun. But in an age where anti-scientific feelings and conspiracy culture are a serious problem it - again - really isn't a good look. I think this stunt has backfired". [16] In the follow-up video posted by Peterson, it was revealed that the situation was staged as a hypothetical example of what not to do in response to such a discovery. [17]

In 2022, his Youtube show Coyote Peterson's Wild Field Trip was nominated for Outstanding Host at the Children's and Family Emmy Awards. [18]

Animal Planet series

On November 16, 2018 it was announced that the Brave Wilderness crew would be creating a TV program on Animal Planet titled Coyote Peterson: Brave the Wild. [19] A contract-signing episode was posted on their YouTube channel. [20] The television special Coyote Peterson: Return to the Wilderness debuted on February 3, 2019. [21] The series Coyote Peterson: Brave the Wild premiered on Animal Planet on February 9, 2020.

Books

Related Research Articles

While observers can easily confuse common wasps and bees at a distance or without close observation, there are many different characteristics of large bees and wasps that can be used to identify them.

<i>Paraponera clavata</i> Species of ant

Paraponera clavata, commonly known as the bullet ant, is a species of ant known for its extremely painful sting. It inhabits humid lowland rainforests in Central and South America.

<i>Wild Kingdom</i> American documentary television series

Wild Kingdom, also known as Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, is an American documentary television program that features wildlife and nature. It was originally produced from 1963 until 1988, and was revived in 2002. The show's second incarnation aired until 2011 on Animal Planet in the United States. A third incarnation streamed webisodes on a dedicated YouTube channel from 2013 to 2018. Starting April 4, 2021, the program will be shown in its traditional Sunday timeslot on the cable channel RFD-TV. A fourth incarnation, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, hosted by Peter Gros & Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, premiered on NBC as part of the network's Saturday morning The More You Know educational and informational programming block in October 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schmidt sting pain index</span> Pain scale for insect stings

The Schmidt sting pain index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, who was an entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona. Schmidt published a number of works on the subject and claimed to have been stung by the majority of stinging Hymenoptera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Packham</span> British naturalist

Christopher Gary Packham CBE is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children's nature series The Really Wild Show from 1986 to 1995. He has also presented the BBC nature series Springwatch, including Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, since 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nature documentary</span> Documentary genre

A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's natural habitat, but often including footage of trained and captive animals, too. Sometimes they are about wildlife or ecosystems in relationship to human beings. Such programmes are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema. The proliferation of this genre occurred almost simultaneously alongside the production of similar television series which is distributed across the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Backshall</span> British naturalist (born 1973)

Stephen James Backshall is a British naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC TV's Deadly 60.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manny Puig</span> American wildlife entertainer (born 1954)

Manny Puig is a Cuban-born American wildlife entertainer who is known for his encounters with dangerous animals such as sharks, black bears and American alligators. He has made frequent appearances on the television shows Jackass and Wildboyz and also on the Animal Planet show Gator Boys. He is also known for hosting Outdoor Channel's "Savage Wild".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin O. Schmidt</span> American entomologist (1947–2023)

Justin Orvel Schmidt was an American entomologist, co-author of Insect Defenses: Adaptive Mechanisms and Strategies of Prey and Predators, author of The Sting of the Wild, and creator of the Schmidt sting pain index. Schmidt studied honey bee nutrition, chemical communication, physiology, ecology and behavior at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona, before taking lead and devoting full-time to The Southwestern Biological Institute in 2006. As research director of the Southwest Biological Institute, he studied the chemical and behavioral defenses of ants, wasps, and arachnids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wasp</span> Group of insects

A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.

<i>Billy the Exterminator</i> American reality television series

Billy the Exterminator is an American reality television series that aired on A&E.

Jamie Seymour is an Australian toxinologist. He has been a lecturer and researcher at James Cook University since 1996 and gained Professorship in 2019. Professor Seymour started his academic career as a lecturer in the School of Tropical Biology at James Cook University. He is currently a member of the Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine. His research involves examining the biology and ecology of dangerous species found in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centipede bite</span> Medical condition

A centipede bite is an injury resulting from the action of a centipede's forcipules, stinger-like appendages that pierce the skin and inject venom into the wound. Such a wound is not strictly speaking a bite, as the forcipules are a modified first pair of legs rather than true mouthparts. Clinically, the wound is viewed as a cutaneous condition characterized by paired hemorrhagic marks that form a chevron shape caused by the paired forcipules.

Ed Wardle is a British television producer, director, camera operator, and adventurer.

Call of the Wildman is an American reality television series that aired on Animal Planet from October 30, 2011, to September 14, 2014. The show followed the exploits of Kentucky woodsman Ernie Brown Jr., nicknamed "The Turtleman". Aided by his friend, Neal James, and his dog, Lolly, Brown operated a nuisance animal removal business, catching and releasing nuisance animals. The series was primarily filmed near Brown's Lebanon, Kentucky, home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna of California</span>

The fauna of the U.S. state of California may be the most diverse in the United States. Of the lower 48 contiguous states, California has the greatest diversity in climate, terrain, and geology. The state's six life zones are the lower Sonoran (desert); upper Sonoran ; transition ; and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic zones, comprising California's highest elevations. California's diverse geography gives rise to dozens of ecosystems, each of which has its own native plants and animals. California is a huge state, the third largest in the U.S., and ranges broadly in habitats.

Animalist was one of the networks under Discovery Digital Networks based upon animal-themed video content. Launched in Fall of 2013, Animalist, along with Revision3, TestTube, and the Defranco Network make-up the web-original video arm for Discovery Communications. The channel is also famous for previously owning "Brave Wilderness" YouTube Channel hosted by Coyote Peterson that later became independent of the network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Irwin (conservationist)</span> Australian television personality and conservationist (born 2003)

Robert Clarence Irwin is an Australian conservationist, television personality, zookeeper, wildlife photographer and actor. He is the son of Steve Irwin, and is often noted by fans to share similarities with his late father. Irwin hosts Robert's Real Life Adventures, a program on his family zoo's internal television network. He co-hosted the Discovery Kids Channel television series Wild But True and co-created the book series Robert Irwin: Dinosaur Hunter. He starred on the Animal Planet series Crikey! It's the Irwins with his mother, Terri, and sister, Bindi, from 2018–2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaun (YouTuber)</span> British YouTuber

Shaun is a British YouTuber. Video essays by Shaun have covered popular culture and politics, specifically to critique neoliberalism, anti-feminism, and the alt-right.

References

  1. ↑ Reeve, Elspeth (January 11, 2017). "Click Bait - This YouTube star lets bugs and snakes bite him for clicks". VICE News. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ Heisler, Yoni (October 20, 2016). "Man lets a tarantula hawk sting him and the video is absolutely crazy". BGR. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Peterson, Coyote, 1981-". Library of Congress. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 Gabbatt, Adam (November 16, 2016). "Coyote Peterson's 'Brave Wilderness': a one-man quest to be attacked by insects". The Guardian. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Greenspan, Rachel E. "The YouTuber who let a murder hornet sting him says it caused 'searing pain.' Now he says he's done with sting videos". Insider. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  6. ↑ "STUNG by the GIANT Silk Caterpillar!". WWW.YouTube.Com. Brave Wilderness. 9 July 2024. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-S-aXLkZkE
  8. ↑ Horansky, Andrew (February 23, 2017). "Animal adventurer gains global following but stays true to northeast Ohio roots". wkyc3. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  9. ↑ Gates, Christopher (March 3, 2020) The truth about how Coyote Peterson became an animal expert - Exclusive Looper
  10. ↑ Sun, Rebecca (March 20, 2017). "Rep Sheet Roundup: CAA Signs YouTube Wildlife Expert". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  11. ↑ Harris, Margot (2020-05-05). "A YouTuber shot a video of a sting from the 'Executioner Wasp,' which he says tops the 'Murder Hornet'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2024-03-09.
  12. ↑ "Brave Wilderness". YouTube .
  13. ↑ "Coyote Peterson: getting to know the man behind YouTube's biggest wildlife channel". Guinness World Records. 2019-05-30. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  14. ↑ Team Coco (2017-01-12), Coyote Peterson Introduces Conan And Jeff Goldblum To Some Creatures - CONAN on TBS , retrieved 2017-12-07
  15. ↑ Johnson, Ted (2021-05-24). "Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci Team With YouTube Stars To Promote Vaccinations". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  16. ↑ Lanese, Nicoletta (July 8, 2022). "Scientists dismiss Coyote Peterson's 'large primate skull' discovery as fake". livescience.com. Live Science. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  17. ↑ Brave Wilderness (16 Jul 2022), Bigfoot Skull Revealed and WHAT NOT to Do! , retrieved 2023-12-12
  18. ↑ "Children's & Family Emmys: Netflix Leads Nominations for First Awards Ceremony". hollywoodreporter.com. November 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
  19. ↑ The Hollywood Reporter (2018-11-16), Animal Planet Developing Series With YouTube Star Coyote Peterson (Exclusive)
  20. ↑ YouTube (2018-11-16), WILL HE LEAVE... for Animal Planet?!
  21. ↑ "Coyote Peterson to make TV debut Sunday", The Columbus Dispatch, 2019-02-03, archived from the original on 2020-07-29, retrieved 2019-02-03
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.