Rare Spiny Forest Lobster Discovered in the Amazon Rainforest

All right, guys. On today's adventure, we are traveling deep into the Amazon rainforest, searching for all kinds of amazing creatures that call this habitat home. We're looking for things that fly, crawl, are asleep, or could be awake. You never know what you're going to find when you're in the world's most biodiverse region. So, let's get to it. The Amazon is home to hundreds of rare animals that can only be seen at night. And as the moon rose above the jungle canopy, it was only a matter of time before we spotted our first creature. Look at the size of this beetle. Ah, they're so sharp. So, what you're looking at there, ah, she's squeezing my thumb. What you're look Ah, what you're looking at there is

a female horned beetle. You'll notice she is very large but has no horn because only the males of this species have a horn. But she is still very big and very strong and sharp and she's just rip gripping onto my thumb right now. I don't know if you can get in there tight enough, Mario, but you see those spines. There's these sharp spines that she is literally digging into my skin like I'm the bark of a tree. Oh wow. Okay, she let go of my thumb. But every single footstep is like a little thorn pricking through my skin. Now, on tonight's adventure, I'm hopeful that we will find even more bizarre creatures. There are so many unusual species that call this forest home, and a lot of them are even

unknown to science. So many undocumented creatures live out here, and with any luck, we'll find some on tonight's adventure. So, let's put the sworn beetle back on the log and continue on down the path to see what we could find next. Okay, here we go. Back you go. Back, back, back. As night falls here in the Amazon rainforest, the jungle truly comes to life and you start to hear movement all around you and creatures emerge that you would never normally see. We might encounter something we've never heard of before. But if we're lucky enough, we might spot one of the Amazon's most bizarre creatures, the spiny land lobster. All right, let's get searching.

Got something pretty interesting to show you here. See this leaf that's folded up? That is actually the home of a pink toad tarantula. And I'm going to try to coax it out so we can get a closer look. stick. There we go. All right, let's pull it out here to the center. Let's have a closer look. We'll put it right back at its home. That is a jumpy pink toad tarantula. Pretty darn cool. Unlike most tarantulas that live on the ground or subterranean, this is an aoreal species. So, it is an expert climber. And the fact that they build their nest using a leaf is super unique. And look at those chunky

pedipels. They're almost like another set of legs. You don't you'd almost guess that this uh has 10 legs. Put the spider right back where we found it. Right back to its home. All right, little buddy. Thanks for hanging. See you later. Oh, wow. Look at this horn beetle. That's cool. Now, the reason I know it's a horn beetle are because those long antenna and they're very rigid, almost like horns, and they use those as sensory organs. So, they're able to not only sense vibrations, but they can also feel the air change. And they do bite. So, I'm kind of I don't know. I'm a little nervous about putting this on my hand. They can easily snap twigs and cut through leaves and would have no

problem slicing through my hand. So, I'm a little nervous about this. But look at how unique that beetle is. Super cool. Those Oh, and there it goes. Let's keep walking. You never know what you're going to find. Sometimes you just get a sense of what you're looking at, if it's a good spot or maybe not a good spot. So, it's like a lot of hurry up and slowing down. I spotted something incredible. You see what I see? What we have here is a dead leaf mantis. This is one of the best mimics of mantis in the rainforest.

Let me see if I can get it to crawl onto my finger. Oh, hello. Don't worry about me. I'm your friend. Oh, hello. Look at how cute that is. Mantis are some of the most unforgiving and relentless predators in all of the insect kingdom. They will literally eat anything that moves that they can overpower, including each other. It is true that often times while breeding, the female mantis will consume the male after culation. We're going to put this little mantis back where we found it and keep searching for something even more unusual. See you later. So, we do have to keep our eyes peeled for venomous snakes.

This rainforest is home to the bushmaster, the largest species of viper on the planet. They are unfortunately for us very rare. So the likelihood of us seeing one pretty slim. It would be like hitting the lottery. Oh, snake. Whoa, we got a boa. We got a treeboa. Look at that. So this is a treeboa. non-venenomous species, but absolutely beautiful and an aoreal species, one that you would only find up off the ground in trees like this. It is a constrictor. You can see how it's coiled around this branch. That is how it would take down prey. It would strike, grapple on, constrict, and suffocate its prey to swallow it whole in one piece. Whoa.

Maybe even me. Just kidding. It's not big enough to take me down, but it's definitely big enough to give me a solid bite. We just want to show everybody how beautiful you are. Come here. There we go. Hello. How are you? As I'm talking, the carbon dioxide that I'm admitting, the snake is picking up because it's sensing that. That's what it's looking for its prey. So, it's looking for rodents and small mammals to come across. It smells that carbon dioxide, exhale, and boom, it strikes. So, I've learned the hard way when you talk around these snakes, you can often be struck at. So, I have to keep one eye to the camera and one eye on the snake at all times. You see all those little

ridges along the lip? Those are heat sensing pits. So, it can actually sense the difference in temperature of a human body, a prey item, and probably even my snake hook. But check this out. Let me show you something really cool. Look at how much it could support its own weight with just a little tiny hold there with its tail. These snakes are incredibly strong for their size, but look at how long it is. Do you realize how long the snake was when we came up on it? Extremely well camouflaged to blend into this environment. And it is an ambush predator. Like you can see, it will always retreat back to that strike position, ready to pounce. Right now, it's in a defensive pose, but this is

exactly how it would wait to ambush its prey walking by. Doesn't appear that this snake has eaten recently. I don't see any bulges or bumps to suggest that. There could be something small in there, but definitely no large items. It's not night herping if you don't find at least one snake. All right, let's put it back. And this truly is a 360 environment. Literally any direction we look could have a really cool creature to find. So, we're going to scan the floor. We're going to scan the leaves. We're going to scan up the trees. Oh, another horn beetle. Here we go. Hang on. Oh, it's got spines. Hang on. Ah,

there we go. That is another species of horn beetle. I never get tired of looking at the different varieties of horn beetle because they are so dramatically different from species to species. But I can always tell what I'm looking at because of those two antenna. Very rigid antenna. Some of them even have antenna like a stag, like a deer antler. This one is a lot bigger than the one we saw earlier tonight, but a totally different orientation to its face. The other one had a downpointing face. This one is more forward pointing. The eyes are set back almost on its forehead. Look at how buggy those eyes are. There it is. Another bizarre creature out here in the Peruvian Amazon. Looks like he's going to turn

around and bite me. All right. See you, buddy. We have come across many fascinating creatures tonight, but I was starting to lose hope that we would find that elusive spiny forest lobster. We've been searching for hours, scanning the forest floor, checking under logs, but still no luck. And at this point, we were just about ready to call it. And all of a sudden, as we were packing up to head home, this happened. Oh, forest lobster. Forest lobster. Yes. This is what I wanted to find. Oh, buddy. Is that a bizarre creature or what? Guys, this is the lesser spiny forest lobster. And this is a super rare Katy did. You can only find them out here in the Peruvian Amazon. Of course, the first

thing you notice are those spiny legs. That's how it gets its name, forest lobster. So, this is a true Katy did. Related to all of the other Katy dids, some of which we've featured on this channel before, they are typically large, green, and leaf looking. This one, of course, is very different. Spiny legs just like you would see on a crustaceian lobster, which has no relation to the species. They're only related by name. But then, of course, you have that top exoskeleton right behind the head. looks a whole lot like a lobster's carropus. Very rough and rigid. Make no mistake, it might look super cute headon, but those jaws mean business. And like I said, if it wanted to, it could slice through my skin in a millisecond. It would not be pretty, and it's not

something I want to happen. But I cannot resist getting to hold a forest lobster for the first time. Oh my gosh, it is so cool. It is terrestrial. It does have small little wings, but you could see its defensive and evasive maneuver is to hop and jump. Could probably use those small wings for a short bounce, but you see that hop that is how it is going to flee if it feels threatened. Now, what makes this unique from other Katy did is that it is actually an opportunistic predator. So those spikes all over its arms and legs actually serve a purpose for catching its prey. Because it is unable to fly very well, it will sit in weight and blend into this leaf litter.

Look at how well it blends in. When a prey item like a small invertebrate or something comes in front of it, it will pounce and it will grapple it in a bear hug with those claws and subdue its prey into submission and then crush it with those two powerful mandibles at the front of its face. I've only known this insect by photos and it was at the tip top of my list to find on this trip. I was hoping that we would come across one of these and sure enough, here it is. The spiny lobster of the Amazon. Oh man, how wild is that? What a star. I'm so glad we got to see this. Awesome. All right, guys. Well, I hope you enjoyed this night hering adventure in the Amazon rainforest as much as we did. I'm Mark Bins. Be brave.

Stay wild. We'll see you on the next one. See you.