‘Holy mackerel…burning pain’: Wildlife expert Coyote Peterson live-streams being bitten by a deadly giant centipede (as an ER doctor keeps a close eye on him)

The giant Asian centipede is an animal ‘best admired from a safe distance’.

So says wildlife expert Coyote Peterson. And he should know that, because he let one of the highly venomous creatures bite him in the name of science – and raise money for the rhino charity Save The Horns.

Coyote, the face of the famous wildlife adventure channel Brave Wilderness, knows a thing or two about pain scales, having previously been stung by 500 fire ants, a ‘killer wasp’ and ball ants, to name a few.

After the bite from the Asian centipede, he concludes that it is one of the most extreme things he has ever done.

Coyote’s tormentor is a mysterious and potentially deadly Thai giant cherry centipede, which bites him during Dr. Jordan Wagner’s watchful eye – also known as YouTube’s Doctor ER – during a live streamed event recorded for posterity and now available to watch on YouTube.

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Coyote explains in the video that he is conducting the experiment to see how his body reacts to the bite using biometric tracking – he is connected to a heart monitor – to find out if it is his most painful experience to date, to ‘show readers what a doctor would do to treat this type of bite’, and fourthly to raise awareness and financial support for Save The Horns.

The warm-up act for the bite event is a venomous Peruvian giant white-legged centipede, which Coyote ‘frees’ and lets it crawl around his hand and arm.

He persuades Dr. Jordan to allow it to crawl along his arm, assuring the medical expert that there is ‘only about a one in five or two in four chance of the animal biting him’.

Then the Thai giant cherry centipede is brought out, and Dr. Jordan explains how centipede venom works.

He says: ‘Cilliped venom contains a neurotoxin and a cardio/myotoxin. The neurotoxin disrupts the ion channels that lead to your nerves, so you can experience excruciating pain, paralysis, numbness…that’s the neurotoxin at work.

‘On top of that, you have this cardio-myo-type toxin that will increase your heart rate, which can cause cardiac arrhythmias, which means your heart starts to have high beats – abnormal beats that come from the wrong areas of the heart. And that’s when we might have to shock someone out of an abnormal rhythm.’

Coyote says, ‘I’ve been told that this bite will put me in the most painful situation I’ve ever been in.

‘Top three most painful are sticking my hand in a box of 200 yellow jacket wasps, the bite of a giant desert centipede and the gympie gympie blade.

“So this may (be) the new peak level of pain.”

However, Coyote stresses that it is ‘very unlikely that centipede venom will kill you unless your body has a negative allergic reaction’.

Once Coyote has the centipede under control and held between his fingers, he extends a forearm for the bite experience, with Doctor Jordan warning that ‘we don’t want direct grafting into your vein’.

He advises Coyote to make sure the centipede bites him above or below the main vein – and points to a ‘target spot’.

The centipede bites – and Dr. Jordan says ‘breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe’.

“Tell me what you feel,” he says.

Coyote replies, ‘Scorching pain. Oh, my goodness. The pain is bad and I feel incredible numbness in my arm right now. Holy mackerel.

‘I’m super dizzy. My arm twitches. It’s convulsive’.

Doctor Jordan explains what to do if you are ever bitten by a highly venomous creature.

He says, ‘You want to clean the wound, get to an area of ​​safety, get to the hospital, and then what I could do as an emergency physician in terms of treatment for you is (I could give you) anti-inflammatories, strong pain medication, IV fluids, and you would go on a heart monitor (which they have in the studio) to monitor the blood pressure, your heart rate.’

Signs of anaphylaxis would be a lump in the throat and a swollen tongue. Doctors would also watch for diarrhea and vomiting.

Coyote at this point reveals that it is ‘definitely getting worse’ and Doctor Jordan observes that his pupils are dilated – part of a ‘flight or flight response’.

In addition, Coyote’s calf muscles begin to ‘lock up’.

Coyote reveals that even after Dr. Jordan had taken an anti-inflammatory shot, he was still suffering.

He says: ‘For almost 30 hours I struggled with a state of discomfort that included waves of intense pain, a sleepless night and a renewed sense of respect for the power of centipede venom.’

For more from Coyote visit www.youtube.com/@BraveWilderness. For more from Doctor ER visit www.youtube.com/@DoctorER, twitter.com/DoctorER and www.instagram.com/doktor.

To donate to Save The Horn’s visit www.savethehorns.com.