Nathaniel "Coyote" Peterson (born September 1, 1981) is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

, wildlife educator, and host of

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...

's series ''Coyote Peterson: Brave the Wild''. He is best known for his YouTube channel Brave Wilderness, which focuses on documenting and educating about animals. Peterson has also become known for videos in which he allows himself to be stung by bugs and animals, such as the

bullet ant A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and ...

and the

executioner wasp ''Polistes carnifex'', commonly known as the executioner wasp, is a neotropical vespid wasp in the cosmopolitan genus ''Polistes''. It is a very large yellow and brown paper wasp with a mandible that contains teeth. It establishes small colonies ...

. He hosts several others of his YouTube channel series including ''Breaking Trail'', ''Beyond the Tide'', ''Dragon Tails'', ''Base Camp'', ''Blue Wilderness'', ''On Location'' and ''Coyote's Backyard''. These series span many tropical and temperate locations, including much of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, Australia,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, Japan, the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

, and Costa Rica. His team includes cameramen Mark Vins and Mario Aldecoa, trained wildlife experts who occasionally present episodes themselves.

Background

Nathaniel Peterson was born on September 2, 1981. He grew up in rural

Newbury, Ohio Newbury State is an unincorporated community in Geauga County, in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is a rural suburb of Cleveland. History A variant name is Newbury. A post office called Newbury has been in operation since 1823. The name Newbury is deri ...

, about 20 miles east of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. At a very young age, Coyote took an interest in animals, which was inspired by his mother. He loved exploring the outdoors and catching different animals. As he grew older, he attended

Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin High School Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin is a coeducational, Catholic college-preparatory school in Chardon, Ohio, sponsored by the Sisters of Notre Dame.. Background The school began as Notre Dame Academy, an all-girls school founded in 1878. The school mo ...

, a college-prep school. He then studied film at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where he graduated in 2004. Though a self-described animal expert, he is not formally educated in any

biological science Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

and does not have any animal training and as such has warned viewers not to imitate his methods of handling. Peterson has a daughter Olivia who is often featured in his videos.

YouTube career

Peterson began posting videos on his YouTube channel, Brave Wilderness, in 2014. On the channel, he hosts several series including: ''Breaking Trail'', which won a 2015 Emmy Award for youth/teen programs, ''Dragon Tails'', ''Coyote's Backyard'', ''Beyond the Tide'', and ''On Location''. Peterson made his first "bug attack" video unintentionally in 2016. In 2018, Peterson made a video in which he let an

Asian giant hornet The Asian giant hornet (''Vespa mandarinia'') or northern giant hornet, including the color form referred to as the Japanese giant hornet, is the world's largest hornet. It is native to temperate and tropical East Asia, South Asia, Mainland Sout ...

sting him. He started his dangerous experiments because of the enthusiastic response of his audience. In 2019, Peterson's channel set

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for the most-subscribed YouTube channel dedicated to animals and for the most-viewed animal channel. In 2020, Peterson said that he was probably done making "sting and bite" videos. Peterson was featured on '' Conan'', along with

Jeff Goldblum Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum (; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor and musician. He has starred in some of the highest-grossing films of his era, such as ''Jurassic Park'' (1993) and ''Independence Day'' (1996), as well as their sequels. ...

, where he brought many animals. In May 2021, Peterson and his teammate Mark Vins participated in a video call with president Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci to promote

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

vaccinations. Recently, Coyote has received criticism for a video where he allegedly found a mythological Bigfoot skull in the woods, with many long-time viewers considering the video ''"

clickbait Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise mis ...

"'' and being heavily disappointed in Coyote because of it; scientists have proven that the skull present in the video was a fake. His Youtube show ''Coyote Peterson's Wild Field Trip'' was nominated for Outstanding Host at the

Children's and Family Emmy Awards The Children's and Family Emmy Awards, or Children's and Family Emmys, are a part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts a ...

Animal Planet series

On November 16, 2018 it was announced that the Brave Wilderness crew would be creating a TV program on Animal Planet titled ''Coyote Peterson: Brave the Wild''. A contract-signing episode was posted on their

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel. The television special ''Coyote Peterson: Return to the Wilderness'' debuted on February 3, 2019. The series ''Coyote Peterson: Brave the Wild'' premiered on Animal Planet on February 9, 2020.

Books

*''Coyote Peterson’s Brave Adventures: Wild Animals in a Wild World!'' (2017) Mango *''Coyote Peterson: The King of Sting!'' (2018) Little, Brown Books for Young Readers *''Coyote Peterson's Brave Adventures: Epic Encounters in the Animal Kingdom'' (2019) Little, Brown Books for Young Readers *''Coyote Peterson's Wildlife Adventure: An Interactive Guide With Facts, Photos, and More!'' (2019) Little, Brown Books for Young Readers *''Coyote Peterson: The Beast of Bites'' (2020) Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Coyote 1981 births Living people American YouTubers Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni People from Geauga County, Ohio Television personalities from Ohio