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Prologue

To the Parents…

My name is Coyote Peterson, and for as long as I can remember I have been absolutely fascinated with animals. As a child, I spent a great deal of my time exploring the woods behind the house where I grew up in the small town of Newbury, Ohio, and it was those experiences that provided me with the perfect backdrop to develop my sense of love and passion for adventure. Every day, from sunup to sundown, I was on the search for frogs, snakes, turtles and pretty much any other creature that I could observe or hopefully catch.

These early adventures of mucking around in swamps and ponds led me down an inspiring path of amazement and curiosity for the natural world. Every week my mom would take me to the public library where I could scour countless books to help me unlock the mysteries of these incredible animals I was finding, and from there, my thirst for knowledge about wildlife became insatiable. I would check one book out, read it, return it, and get another one. To me, books were fantastic and enlightening; they became my imagination’s guide to the great outdoors and everything that the world had to offer.

However, I will never forget discovering animal adventure shows on television. I couldn’t believe it… these people were doing the same thing I was doing in my own backyard, but they were traveling all over the world! Instead of catching frogs and turtles, they were catching crocodiles, anacondas, and even swimming with great white sharks!

My young mind absorbed every piece of content it could possibly find, from reruns of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom to the late great Steve Irwin’s Crocodile Hunter; if it had animals and adventure, I was glued to it. Although I loved watching and learning about all the animals, I was becoming equally fascinated with the hosts of these great TV shows. I marveled at how they could capture these amazing encounters on camera and project them directly to my television.

It was in these moments that I had the realization that this was exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be the guy who was catching the animals, talking to the camera, and educating the audience. From those early days, I told my Mom that I wanted to have my own reptile show some day. I wanted to be the one to show other people this incredible world that I had come to love and respect. She smiled and told me, “You can do anything you want… never give up on your dreams.”

So, as I moved onto high school and then college, I began studying the art of filmmaking, particularly from the writing, directing, and producing standpoint. I knew that if I ever wanted to become a host in front of the camera that I first had to understand how the shows were made from behind the camera. I watched my favorite series over and over, studying the scripts, shots, and directing style. I convinced my friends to start producing with me and we began writing our own scripts, which soon led to filming our own test pilots, which are amusingly called “sizzle reels.” For years, we developed our skill sets and honed what we felt was great animal adventure entertainment. Then, when the time was absolutely right, we launched our YouTube channel and Brave Wilderness was born.

Breaking Trail, Dragon Tails, Beyond the Tide, Coyote’s Backyard, and On Location: these shows became the backbone of the Brave Wilderness channel. As I sit here preparing to write my first book chronicling some of my bravest adventures to date, I feel incredibly fortunate to have been given the chance to live this journey.

People often ask, “How did you became an animal adventure show host?” The truth is, I did it by combining the inspiration that I gained from my predecessors, a self-taught knowledge of wildlife, and my formal education in filmmaking. Plus some incredible friends and family, a whole lot of trial and error, countless bites, bumps, bruises and the unrelenting belief that I could actually make a living pursuing my own imagination! I truly am a living embodiment of the old saying “If you can dream it, you can do it.” It is this belief in one’s self that I hope to pass on to anyone who takes an interest in my story.

To the Coyote Pack…

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again. The Brave Wilderness team and I could not do this without you; the reader, the viewer… the member of the pack. You know who you are, and believe me when I say you are an incredibly important part of this team and this journey. It’s an expedition that we are all on together, and right now I am honored and humbled to be the one who is leading the adventure. But you never know, one day it might be you who is writing a book just like this, born from the inspiration you found in our work, as we continue to bring animal education and entertainment to the world through Brave Wilderness.

Thank you for reading, you have my promise that every chapter is going to be an action-packed animal adventure!

Be Brave, Stay Wild!

Coyote