The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Sharing his message
Coyote Peterson visits Holden Arboretum as part of its Mission Botanica events
Nature expert Nathaniel “Coyote” Peterson returned to Holden Arboretum as part of its Mission Botanica summer events to educate guests and spread the message of nature preservation.
Peterson is the host of the YouTube channel Brave Wilderness, a popular educative nature program with over 4 billion views.
Peterson teaches the importance of respecting and admiring nature safely while educating viewers about what animals and their environment are truly like.
Born and raised in Newbury, Peterson’s love of nature began at Holden Arboretum around the age of 5 when his mother took him. His fascination with frogs and what remains his favorite animal, common snapping turtles, inspired him to seek out a career in teaching people about the animals he loves.
“We have a really rich history with Coyote Peterson, he has always been a really great partner and advocate for the Holden Arboretum,” said Jessica Schneider, marketing manager of the Holden Arboretum. “With him we encouraged kids to make a pledge to become a steward of nature and conservation.”
Peterson has maintained a relationship with Holden Arboretum and visited on a recent weekend in an attempt to spread the messages of conservation and education.
“We can all do our own unique individual parts when it comes to preserving the environment,” Peterson said. “The overall message with Holden Arboretum is certainly to get outside and educate yourself about your surroundings first and foremost. If you can’t come out to nature and appreciate the things that are here in your own back yard, it’s tough to want to conserve things on a much larger global scale.”
Peterson believes that it is important for people to immerse themselves in nature in safe and manageable ways such as manicured trails, national parks and places like Holden Arboretum in order to truly understand why it is important to take care of nature.
This sentiment is echoed in the video content of his exploits in Brave Wilderness, where he shows his viewers the beauty and strength of nature while being clear that it is not to be trifled with.
“In any episode we film we find ourselves in extreme situations as compared to what most people’s day-to-day life would be,” Peterson said. “But we spend a very long time understanding the behaviors of animals and even more details about the biome that animal is living within.”
His video segments entitled The Bite Zone or The Sting Zone are an example of this, where he allows powerful animals like an alligator to bite him or dangerous insects such as a tarantula-hawk to sting him, in order to showcase the power and beauty of nature and to illustrate to viewers that nature should be admired and preserved but in a safe way.
“Any time we can take a species like a cobra,” Peterson said, discussing a video he did on the defensive venom spitting of a Mozambique spitting cobra. “Any time we can take a species like a cobra and work that into an educational throughline that gets them to admire an animal while understanding they are just trying to live in their own little world.”
Peterson says that almost all instances of snake bites or animal attack come from human interference or being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“You have to understand nature to really appreciate it,” he said. “What we do at Brave Wilderness, the goal, is really to show people the cooler aspects and misunderstood things of the natural world while making it clear not to go interact with them because you can disrupt their natural environment and possibly get hurt.”
Peterson said that during filming he and his crew worry more about running into the wrong humans like poachers than they do any animal.
Peterson’s most recent effort, the Save the Horns program, is seeking donations to help preserve a breeding group of rhinoceros in the Kariega Game Reserve in Africa. With fewer than 5,000 in the wild, Kariega Game Reserve needs help to preserve this group.
“If we can educate people with creatures like rhinos or even an apex predator like a jaguar, there is this opportunity to celebrate a species instead of poaching them. Save the Horns aims to save these amazing animals.”