-"Menghayati!"

has been made possible by The Safina Center -- making the case for Life on Earth... and Avalon Nature Preserve -- connecting communities to nature since 2002... the Peter H. Warny Conservation Fund -- celebrating the life of Peter H. Warny through supporting this program and conservation projects worldwide.

Additional support comes from Utalii Peer to Peer Tourism -- providing personalized tour experiences to tourists worldwide...

The Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments... and Centre Valbio -- saving wildlife and habitats through research, community, and conservation... EFG-Renascence Productions -- a unique next-generation studio that broadens our minds by connecting us through films.

-"Menghayati!"

[ Jet engines rumble ] -Are you ready to follow your dreams, have fun, meet amazing animals... [ Animals chattering ] ...amazing people and help our planet?

If that sounds like something you want to do, then we're right here in Costa Rica!

Let's go!

-♪ It's time to step outside ♪ It's time to follow your dreams ♪ ♪ It's time to step into nature and see things you never seen ♪ ♪ A quest to love our planet ♪ Like snakes, it's time to uncurl ♪ ♪ The bees and frogs are in danger ♪ ♪ Let's go around the world -♪ Let's go -Traveling to Costa Rica is a gift that's full of wonderful surprises of animals... [ Animals chattering ] ...culture... rainforests... national parks... and a fantastic biodiversity.

For the next six episodes, you'll meet amazing animals, the people who love them, and have a chance to guess the featured Secret Creature.

So if you're ready, let's go!

-"Menghayati!"

♪♪ -Welcome to "Menghayati!

", where you get to discover creatures and cultures from around the world.

And remember -- the word "menghayati" means to have a deep, loving connection to all living things.

In today's episode, we're right here in Tarcoles, Costa Rica, to meet a creature that lives [Echoing] ...under this bridge!

And this creature is really, really awesome.

However, before we get a chance to meet it, we're gonna learn a bit more about Tarcoles, Costa Rica, and how you get here.

So if you're ready, let's go!

When we first arrived to Costa Rica, we landed in San José, which is the capital city of Costa Rica.

We walked around a little, saw some sights, and even helped rescue a pigeon.

♪♪ Then my guide, James Brown, picked me up, and our adventure to Tarcoles began.

Tarcoles is located in the Central Pacific coast of Costa Rica in the province of Puntarenas and the canton of Garabito.

A canton is a section of land.

This section of land includes Tarcoles and Jacó.

There are many species of animals that live there, including scarlet macaws, poison dart frogs, howler monkeys, spiny tailed iguanas, and hundreds more species.

When visiting there, many people go to Carara National Park, which actually means "river of lizards" in the indigenous language of the Huetar people.

Many people visit there to go to the bridge that literally has tons of crocodiles underneath it.

This bridge may be the most visited bridge in Costa Rica.

If you ever visit there, you can stay at some cool lodges and learn the most famous phrase in Costa Rica.

-Pura vida.

-Pura vida.

-Pura vida.

-Pura vida.

Costa Rica, my friends.

-Pura vida.

[ Laughs ] So, guys, now that we learned about Tarcoles, now it's almost time to meet our Secret Creature.

-"Menghayati!"

♪♪ [ Caws echoing ] Alright, everybody, now it's time for our choices of animals.

Is it, "A," the American crocodile... "B," the marine toad... "C," the poison dart frog... or, "D," the spectacled caiman?

Big thanks to our guides and friends in Tarcoles who made it possible for us to see so many animals.

[ Animals chattering ] And now we're gonna get a chance to see some out in the wild.

The American crocodile is one of the largest crocodiles in the world.

It can grow more than 18 feet and weigh more than 2,000 pounds, which is a ton.

These crocodiles live along rivers, so if you're in an area that has crocodiles, you must be very cautious if you ever go near bodies of water like rivers, lakes, or even the ocean.

The marine toad is one of the coolest toads.

The females can grow to the size of a football, and the males can make a really cool sound to attract a mate.

They are also toxic, and if another animal tries to eat them, they have special glands called parotid glands that secrete poison that's strong enough to kill even a crocodile.

Poison dart frogs are found throughout Costa Rica and come in many different colors.

The ones you see here are known as the green and black dart frogs, or scientifically known as Dendrobates auratus.

They eat lots of ants, which amplify the poisons in their bodies, and the ones in Tarcoles on the Pacific coast have a reverse pattern than the ones living on the Caribbean coast.

The spectacled caiman be found throughout Costa Rica and all throughout Central and South America.

These caiman can pack a powerful bite and pound for pound can be more aggressive than a crocodile or an alligator.

♪♪ And on a caring note, they have also been observed caring for each other's young.

-Mama!

Mama!

Mama!

Mama!

Mama!

Mama!

Mama!

-Which animal do you think it is?

♪♪ [ Rattling ] And the secret creature is the American crocodile!

They are true giants and have been around for millions of years, since the time of the dinosaurs.

Did you know they can weigh over 2,000 pounds and grow more than 18 feet long?

They can also run on land to catch prey with the help of their thick, powerful tail.

That tail also helps them swim through rivers even when the waters are rough.

Their powerful jaws allow them to hold onto prey as large as buffalo without any problems.

They can use their muscular bodies to spin around, to rip off pieces of flesh from large prey when they need to eat.

If you look at their bodies and their head, it's equipped with ears that can close and eyes that are equipped with a special reflective substance so they can see at nighttime, called the tapetum lucidum.

Their back has rows of hard scales called scutes to help them warm their bodies when they bask in the sun.

These crocodiles are some of the most fascinating creatures on our planet, and that's why we chose it as our Secret Creature.

Now it's time to meet some wild crocodiles on the Tarcoles River.

♪♪ One day, I went on my first solo bus adventure across the country of Costa Rica.

♪♪ Suddenly I woke up and looked out the window, and there were a pile of crocodiles.

"Stop the bus," I told the driver.

So I ran out of the bus, I ran up the bridge, and got my first look at the American crocodile.

♪♪ ♪♪ The Tarcoles River is the most popular destination in Costa Rica to see wild crocodiles.

There were so many.

We were all amazed.

♪♪ In just a few moments, we're gonna meet our guides and friends from the community of Tarcoles that took us out on the river to meet some wild crocodiles.

-And now it's time for Creature Craft!

♪♪ -Ooh, that's pretty cool!

-Greyson?

-Yeah?

-Greyson, where are you?

-I'm over here.

-What are you doing?

-I'm learning about crocodiles.

-Ooh!

Crocodiles?

With Erik?

Isn't it so cool how you can see them in their natural habitat?

Whoa.

[ Gasps ] Hey.

I have a good project for a crocodile.

Should we share it with everybody?

-Yeah.

-Alright.

We have a minute.

Let's go.

Alright, Grey, so, what we're gonna need is the PDF that we downloaded from the site.

We're gonna need some greens and maybe a little bit of yellow, some glue, and a pair of scissors.

So the first thing we want to do is cut out our pieces.

♪♪ -Green.

-There we go.

Let's use a few different colors.

Maybe a little bit of yellow.

How about it?

Let's color him in green!

♪♪ ♪♪ Alright, Grey.

Good job.

Now we're going to cut on the lines that have dots on them.

So I'm just gonna go here.

One, two.

So, this way, he'll have legs.

So, isn't it amazing how we're gonna take something that's two-dimensional -- it has length and width -- and we're gonna make it into something three-dimensional?

So it's gonna have length, width, and height.

Ooh!

Okay.

We're free.

Now we're going to fold on all of the dotted lines so his feet will fold up.

Right?

And we're gonna fold him on the dotted lines on his back.

♪♪ Ooh!

He's looking good!

What do you think?

He's starting to get three-dimensional!

Okay.

So, here we're gonna line up the two patterns that match.

And we're gonna take our glue.

And we're gonna put a little bit of glue on here so that we can fold it together.

And if we hold it -- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... -Ten.

-...ten -- it should be stuck.

♪♪ We have to make his eyes.

So his eyes are going to match from here to there.

So it's a little bit tricky.

We want to bend them in.

So he looks like this.

And then we're gonna fold them together and glue it together like this.

♪♪ -One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... -Nine, ten.

-Ten!

And then we're gonna put his eyes on where it's flat.

♪♪ -One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... -Ten.

-[ Gasps ] Ten!

[ Gasps ] Greyson!

We just took a piece of paper and we made it from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.

He's pretty cool!

What do you think?

[ Gasps ] Should we make another one?

Let's print it again and make more.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Big thanks to the Art Nanny for that amazing 3-D crocodile artwork.

And don't forget -- you can visit our site to download your own.

And now we're gonna meet a local artist from Costa Rica that loves animals.

Let's go!

Hey, everybody.

This is Jairo.

And he has a lot of cool artwork and he really loves animals.

And he's gonna share with us some really cool artwork that he just did.

So, alright, Jairo, so tell us about your artwork that you got right here.

-Well, I did a crocodile, um, design.

-Uh-huh.

-Um, uh, for a stencil.

First I wrote it, and then I cut it.

-Okay.

And then with a stencil.

That is this one.

-Okay.

-So the paint passes through the other surface.

-Right.

And then show them what you created.

-You can do this -- This was the first one.

-Yes!

[ Laughs ] -That is like a -- -See how cool that is, you guys?

Yes.

That's amazing.

So, see, guys?

You can get your inspiration from nature and do really cool artwork.

And so big thanks to Jairo for doing that.

And wait, wait, wait!

He's gonna show us one more thing that he did.

He does artwork on sheets.

Let's go see.

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ Stay tuned.

In just a few moments, we're gonna meet more friends and more crocodiles out on the Tarcoles River.

♪♪ All right, everybody, now it's time for our brief intermission.

In today's intermission, I want to remind you how important it is to always respect animals by not feeding creatures in the wild.

[ Buzzer sounding ] Right here on the Tarcoles Bridge, more than 90% of tourists that come to visit Costa Rica visit this bridge, and part of the reason why the crocodiles are here is because years ago they were fed, but now it's not allowed anymore, so it's always important to respect the animals and also enjoy them from a distance.

And now we're gonna get a chance to see more crocodiles and meet our specialists, so if you're ready... [High-pitched] Let's go!

[Normal voice] During our time at Tarcoles, we got to see even more crocodiles.

And thanks to our guide, Santiago, we got a chance to see the scarlet macaw... [ Bird cawing ] ...some amazing lizards... and go out on a night walk to see even more wildlife!

[ Animals chattering ] ♪ It's time to step outside ♪ It's time to follow your dreams ♪ ♪ It's time to step into nature and see things you never seen ♪ ♪ A quest to love our planet ♪ Like snakes, it's time to uncurl ♪ ♪ The bees and frogs are in danger ♪ ♪ Let's go around the world -♪ Let's go ♪♪ -The following morning, we went on another boat ride and got another super-duper surprise.

Where?!

Oh, shoot!

♪♪ -"Menghayati!"

In today's creature adventure, we're with Jason Vargas, the "Crocodile Man..." ♪♪ ...Captain Sergio Valverde... ♪♪ ...Santiago Adanis... Lady Gaga... Captain Hook... and our feathered mascot, Mr. Egret.

[ Indistinct conversations ] So, it's time for a creature adventure, and we're here with Jason the Crocodile Man, Lady Gaga and Captain Hook, the crocodiles.

And it's so much fun because this is our third time.

I've known Jason for, like, 18 years, and this is our 18th year that we're doing this, and it's so much fun.

And there's Jason.

There's the crocodiles.

Let's watch.

-Lady Gaga.

She's a female.

Like 12 feet long.

-Oh, my gosh.

-And the male is like 17 feet long.

-Yo!

[ Laughing ] Yo!

She's buggin' out!

[ Laughs ] A few moments after finding Captain Hook and Lady Gaga, another crocodile watch boat pulled up, and we observed Lady Gaga's 12-foot body out of the water.

♪♪ She crawled out of the water in response to my camera, and she did this because she thought it was food.

A good thing it wasn't because it's illegal for tourists to feed wild animals in Costa Rica.

[ Buzzer sounding ] Pretty awesome.

It's really awesome.

Wow!

Oh!

I can't wait to see this video!

[ Laughs ] After observing Lady Gaga and Captain Hook, our adventure took a twist.

I asked Jason if we could confirm the size and length of Captain Hook.

Jason agreed, and things got even more exciting.

♪♪ Here, Jason and his team and I were preparing to measure Captain Hook.

Time for a special message!

Now, as you can see, Jason and Santi and I are out there measuring a crocodile.

Now, normally, this would be very dangerous, but Jason is an expert, and so is Santi, so remember -- if you ever work with any wild animals, you always must do it with an expert.

And now it's time to get back to the crocs.

Jason's been working with the crocodiles on the Tarcoles River for more than 20 years.

Because of this, they trust him and allow him to get close with thousands of tourists.

And in cases of sickness or any kinds of measurements, he can get very close without too much trouble, just like we're about to do right now.

To properly measure Captain Hook, we moved the boat to another part of the river that was flat, and, surprisingly, he followed us.

Next, we extended the tape measurer.

However, Captain Hook's tail was too far away, so Jason made a good suggestion.

♪♪ Well, it looks like 15 feet.

-Let me see it.

-You got -- You got it by his mouth?

♪♪ -[ Speaking indistinctly ] A little bit more than 4 meters.

I guess.

-No.

Not quite.

You got it right by his head?

♪♪ Whoa!

That was close!

After a few tries and for accuracy, Jason got our boat captain to help, and then the measurement began.

Alright, guys, so are we measuring the tail right now?

We about to do it?

Let's go!

Let's go, let's go, let's go!

Oh, my gosh.

Okay.

Now we can actually get it.

Okay, okay, okay.

How big do you think he is this?

This... 14.

14 and a half.

♪♪ Captain Hook is over 14 feet.

While we measured Captain Hook, we even got a chance to measure his head, which was 3 feet.

♪♪ After the measurement was complete, we thanked Captain Hook... and we were ready to go.

[ Indistinct conversations ] And then we realized the boat was stuck.

♪♪ Luckily, we were all feeling pretty strong, and we got the boat back on the water.

[ Motor revving ] We said our goodbyes to Captain Hook, and that concluded our species adventure.

Wait a minute, everybody!

♪♪ We have a Bonus Creature!

A bit earlier, before we met Captain Hook, we made an attempt to measure one of the biggest crocodiles on the Tarcoles River named Osama, who is said to be at least 18 feet long, or 6 meters.

However, we decided to save that adventure for another day.

Wow!

-"Menghayati!"

-Now it's time for a Creature Quiz!

-Erik, how do you tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?

-How do you tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?

That's a great question, Kash.

If you look here, there's a crocodile and an alligator.

If you notice, the crocodile has a pretty narrow upper jaw, or snout, and the alligator has a pretty wide upper jaw, or snout.

If you look at them together, you can see the crocodile's snout is much more narrow than the alligator's.

-Hey, Erik, how many crocodilian species are there?

-How many species of crocodilians are there?

That's a great question, Inga.

There are 14 species of true crocodiles and more than 25 species altogether, including alligators, caiman, and gharials.

♪♪ Hey, everybody, now it's time for a Crocodile Creature Quiz!

And the first question is how big was the head of the crocodile that Jason and I measured?

Was it, "A," three feet... "B," five feet... "C," two feet... or, "D," six feet?

If you guessed, "A," three feet, then you're absolutely right.

The head of that crocodile was huge.

It was a three-foot head.

It looked like a T-rex.

It was crazy.

And, not only that, the body of the crocodile was much, much bigger.

And that brings us to our next question.

Question number two.

How big was the biggest crocodile that Jason and I saw that day on the Tarcoles River?

Was it, "A," 16 feet... "B," 17 feet... "C," 18 feet... or, "D," 20 feet long?

If you guessed, "C," 18 feet, you're absolutely right.

That crocodile named Osama was literally 18 feet long.

Although there are bigger crocodiles than that on the river, that was the biggest one that Jason said he'd ever seen there and the biggest one that we got a chance to see that day on the Tarcoles River.

Question number three.

What type of crocodile did we see on the Tarcoles River with Jason?

Is it, "A," the American crocodile... "B," the estuarine crocodile... "C," the dwarf crocodile... or, "D," the prehistoric crocodile?

If you guessed, "A," the American crocodile, then you're absolutely right.

The American crocodile is one of the biggest crocodiles in the world, and they can get bigger than 18 feet -- just like the one that we saw on the Tarcoles River with Jason.

Alright, everybody, now it's time for our final question.

And the question is... why were all those crocodiles underneath the bridge?

Is it, "A," because they like to hang out with each other... "B," because people used to feed them... "C," because they're gonna go lay eggs... or, "D," because they like to bask in the sun?

If you guessed "B" and "D," then you're absolutely right.

The crocodiles are there because people used to feed them, and so they're used to that, and so they always come there for food because they're really smart.

And they also do like to bask in the sun because there's, like, a little island there, and they come out and bask in the sun so they can warm their bodies up.

Because remember -- reptiles are cold-blooded.

And that's all for our questions today.

And now it's time to meet the specialist!

So let's go!

-"Menghayati!"

And now it's time to meet the specialist!

Today's specialist is Santi Adanis and Jason Vargas, who we met earlier during the crocodile tour.

-I've worked with crocs a long time in Tarcoles River.

Especially now I'm working with bird watchings.

I took a lot of people to do the boat tour and take the boat to Carara National Park.

-Santi's work as a local guide makes it possible for him to take people out on tours and educate them about the crocodiles and the amazing wildlife of Costa Rica.

Jason's been working with crocodiles for more than 20 years, and because of his work, many people have a better understanding of how amazing these creatures are and how important they are to the local environment of Tarcoles.

-Everything been good.

Yeah.

More crocodiles right now.

-Yes.

-Yeah.

More -- More -- People take care of more of them, you know?

-Uh-huh.

-Just follow your dreams.

Okay?

Whatever you want to do, do it.

-Jason, Santi, and the community members of Tarcoles have one last thing to say.

-Pura vida!

-Pura vida!

-Pura vida.

-Bye for now!

-Bye!

Take care!

Pura vida!

-Pura vida.

-"Menghayati!"

-Thank you all for joining us today on Rio Tarcoles with Jason the Crocodile Man and all our fun friends.

And remember to always follow your dreams and do what you love.

And we'll see you next time.

Bye for now!

♪ It's time to step outside ♪ It's time to follow your dreams ♪ ♪ It's time to step into nature and see things you never seen ♪ ♪ A quest to love our planet ♪ Like snakes, it's time to uncurl ♪ ♪ The bees and frogs are in danger ♪ ♪ Let's go around the world -♪ Let's go -Alright, guys, let's go!

-"Menghayati!"

has been made possible by The Safina Center -- making the case for Life on Earth... and Avalon Nature Preserve -- connecting communities to nature since 2002... the Peter H. Warny Conservation Fund -- celebrating the life of Peter H. Warny through supporting this program and conservation projects worldwide.

Additional support comes from Utalii Peer to Peer Tourism -- providing personalized tour experiences to tourists worldwide...

The Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments... and Centre Valbio -- saving wildlife and habitats through research, community, and conservation... EFG-Renascence Productions -- a unique next-generation studio that broadens our minds by connecting us through films.