Welcome to The Wildlife Brothers channel! We are Harrison and Evan Black, passionate zoologists and conservationists, and it is our ambition to educate and inspire people to conserve our world's wildlife! It has always been our dream to get people excited about wildlife, from the local animals in your backyard to the endangered species in dire need of our help.
By bringing our passion, knowledge, and skills onto a global platform we hope to introduce you to the wildlife we love, and start a conversation that will help make a difference in protecting the natural world. The time to act is now, so join us as we explore our world's ecosystems and encounter the incredible species that call them home! We're glad to have you with us, so let's get going!
I have a Southern Black Racer that is trying to make a home of my lanai, effectively expelling us from it. So far I clogged the hole in the frame that it uses to get in, but I'm not counting on that holding. Short of a shotgun or paying a bunch of money for a pest control company to remove it and drop it far away, how do I get it to leave and never come back?
Locating and blocking off any entrance holes is definitely the right first step, though I will warn that ultimately, there is no proven way to definitively prevent a snake from choosing a certain place as their living area. The best method is to make your lanai as undesirable a reptile habitat as possible, which you can do in a couple ways. Racers need cover objects for shelter, so removing or adjusting any furniture that could be used as a hiding spot could make it less likely for them to feel comfortable enough to live there. Also, racers are lizard and small mammal hunters primarily, so making sure you don’t have things that would attract those species (like live plants that harbor insects or seeds/food items that would attract rodents) is a good way to limit the abundance of racer prey. Other than that, your best bet is to have someone come out to safely relocate the snake away from the area. Thanks for watching!
Wow, this turned out so well! It is always a special treat to find herps that are able to persist in such disturbed areas. Those shots of the narrowmouth are incredible, definitely one of the S-tier toads of the Southeast. Great work!
Thank you so much Ben! That really means a lot coming from you, I always wonder what experienced herpers are able to enjoy about our stuff. The narrowmouths were surprisingly cooperative, I really want to try to film them eating now. We need a group Louisiana trip soon, herping is so much fun down there.
Red eared sliders can even survive in the north of England. There were three living for years near me. Some foolish people clearly just getting rid of pets. They will most probably not survive and thankfully I doubt they could breed in our cooler climes if they do.
Their adaptability is pretty incredible, there’s a reason they’ve become the most invasive turtle on earth. The fact that you can see them in the north of England is impressive though, a good testament to how hardy they can be.
I wish when I’d visited Texas several years back I’d gone looking in those ditches. I’m sure I’d have had as much fun. Just didn’t know what I know now ❤glad you shared it ❤
I’m sure Texas has some incredible urban wildlife, that’s definitely something we’d love to explore one day. We’re really glad you enjoyed the video, your support means more than you know!
Yes they are! Española island is entirely uninhabited and under the jurisdiction of Galápagos national park, which provides it and all of the wildlife that lives there strict protections from human activities. Unfortunately though, the albatrosses regularly venture outside of the national park boundaries to hunt, and that’s where they get into some trouble. They are also listed as an endangered species, but preventing them from falling victim to fishing practices is a current conservation challenge. Thank you for watching!
Again, this is a valid point. Our friend Emilio has many years of experience working with wildlife (including softshell turtles specifically), and his only intention with interacting with the turtle in that way was to demonstrate the length of its neck without having to physically touch the animal’s head. However, I assure you that we were all extremely careful to monitor this turtle’s behavior and temperament to ensure that the animal and ourselves remained free of any physical harm.
i understand you all love animals. But, look at it this way. If aliens came here. scooped us up...held us in their arms...and presenting us with a tv announcer voice.. I dont think you would appreciate that would you? You can easily spread information and awareness without....catching a poor animal. This makes it seem like something anyone can do..and that will cause harm to animals..and humans. I am not trying to say yall are horrible people...but really think this through...softshell turtles are so sensitive.. if people think they can scoop one up...just think about it
This is a fair point. It is an unfortunate reality of the type of work that we do as zoologists and educators that we cause a certain amount of inherent stress and fear in a number of the animals that we work with. However, it would be essentially impossible to produce the kind of educational content that we do without some level of interaction with certain species, because in many cases collecting sufficient footage to fully capture an animal’s biology cannot be accomplished with in-situ behavior alone. As we demonstrate in this video, with training, practice, and experience catching softshell turtles without harming them is absolutely possible. We have spent many years training to work with animals in a way that minimizes stress and protects them from physical harm, but you do have a point that the average person isn’t likely to share that experience. In that respect, it is generally best not to directly interact with wildlife without specific purpose and practice, a message we express more prominently in our modern content. For that reason, when we discuss wildlife interactions these days we are more careful to suggest to our audience that they pursue less invasive activities like observation or photography. We appreciate you watching.
The south is a ton of fun to explore, the diversity there is totally mind-blowing. Zach was an exceptional guide and host, he’s an absolute pleasure to work with. Thank you so much for your support as always!
Truthfully it just comes down to many years of study and practice, both through in field experience and online learning resources. Thank you so much for watching!
I didn’t feel any tingling in my hands after this interaction, but it’s entirely possible that you were feeling the effects of the toxin they secrete when they feel threatened. Thank you very much for watching!
They come into my home!! They poop on things..the cat will not catch them! They have eaten the many little green lizards I used to have everywhere. I now do not like the nasty pooping skinks.
Skinks are certainly not a convenient species to have in your house, given their speed it’s not surprising that your cat can’t catch them. They are a native species so generally they’re good to have around, hopefully they aren’t too much of a nuisance in your house though. Thanks for watching!
Thank you very much, we’re glad you enjoy the videos! Dispelling myths and reducing fear surrounding wildlife is a huge goal of ours for our content, so it’s great to hear that we’re able to do that for you. We greatly appreciate you watching!
Thank you so much, we are blown away by your generosity! It truly means more to us than you could know. Thank you for watching, we’re glad you enjoyed!
The tongue flicking behavior is definitely weird, but all they’re really doing there is trying to figure out what’s going on around them by tasting scent particles in the air. Super interesting stuff!
That’s totally understandable, snakes can sometimes be difficult animals to love. Thankfully in most cases they are quite gentle and timid animals, and believe it or not they’re often more scared of us than we are of them. Thanks for watching!
Skinks can be delicate, but with the proper handling techniques that we’ve been practicing for many years, they can be handled for short periods without injury. This guy was released unharmed and, though scared, was totally fine after this encounter.
Anoles are quite small and therefore can be stress prone, but careful interactions with practice and experience can mitigate that and keep them from harm, other than being a bit scared in the moment. I assure you that all animals featured in this video and on our channel are released into the wild unharmed, though these days we do focus more heavily on filming animal behavior in their environment. Thank you for watching.
I am so glad you posted this video! I’ve been looking to see what kind of ant it was in my little tiny garden that I grew, and finally found this. I thought it was a big fire ant but apparently I was mistaken! Thank you for the information and keep up the good work.☺️
Oh wow! I hope getting it out wasn’t too difficult, they can be quite a handful to work with. Getting it into a pond is the right idea. Thank you so much for watching!
Glad I found your video. I killed 2 of these today and thought I had an infestation of some rare insect. Wish I found this before. But very good video… very educational and now I know to let them continue on their way next time. Y’all earned a new subscriber 💪
I’m really glad this video was helpful! Velvet ants can be sort of intimidating, but they’re quite relaxed when they’re around us, in our experience. Thank you so much for watching, and for your support!
That’s our dream! I think with time we can reach real success, Brave Wilderness paved the way for a lot of us but there’s much more to be done with wildlife content on RU-vid. Thanks for watching!
I always loved seeing the big Herons as a kid on our family beach vacations in South Carolina. I still feel a little of that excitement as an adult today when I get to see an Egret or Heron, thanks for the vid!
We’re the same way, even after growing up seeing herons and egrets for our entire lives, I still get excited to see them in the wild! They’re such active birds, really fun to observe. Thanks for watching!
I wish the video went a bit more into why the Black Racer is so fast. Their propulsion has something to do with scales that grab the surface of what they are traveling on. What I don't understand is the mechanism that moves the snake forward. That straight line movement of the racer is a super efficient engineering feat. The best comparison I can think of in the man made world is the tracked vehicle. Is there a better one?
This is a great question, and something I’d love to get into in a future video, if we get the footage for it. The way they move, as I understand it, is by sequentially contracting the muscles on one side of their body and pushing off the ground, which is why they often move in an undulating or “S-shaped” pattern. I know Zefrank did a video about snake locomotion pretty recently, I’ve been meaning to check that one out. Thanks for watching!
RU-vid growth isn’t always easy, but amassing a huge following isn’t the reason we do this. Besides, if a video of ours was going to be reaching thousands of new people, I would hope it isn’t this one.
Really glad you enjoyed! The fact that they use venom to digest their food is relatively new to me too, but it changed the way I thought about them when I learned that. Thanks for watching!
