Entertainment

Animal catchers go wild on ‘Call of the Wildman’

Crazy critters causing Christmas chaos?

Call Team Turtle!

They’re not teenage, mutant or ninja, but they definitely have turtle power.

Ernie “Turtleman” Brown, Jr., his right-hand man and banjo player Neal James, Jake, Squirrel and Lolly the dog make up the team that catch the bothersome beasts on Animal Planet’s “Call of the Wildman.”

Sunday’s special Holler-days episode deals with a couple of different animals, one of which got too close for comfort with Neal.

“You’ll see something happen to me that was really unusual,” Neal said. “I really thought I was in bad shape.”

It goes without saying that without Neal, Ernie’s animal catching wouldn’t happen the way it does.

“After [Ernie] found out I had long-distance phone service it made it easier for him to get these animal calls because he didn’t have a phone,” Neal said.

More important than being Ernie’s answering machine, Neal plays banjo to entertain people while Ernie catches their uninvited guests which is not always a quick process.

“I’m always calculating on how many seconds it takes an animal to strike you. Like every time I’m jumping back that’s a strike and I’m calculating how much closer I can get. That’s how come it takes so long to catch a critter on my show,” Ernie said.

Ernie started catching turtles for fun at the age of seven and has since turned animal catching into an art form.

“I can tell you that my buddy Ernie Brown is not a biologist, he’s not any [kind of] official on wild life, but I’ll put him up against anybody on planet Earth at catching an animal. That he can do very well. And catch it without hurting the animal. He’s a natural,” Neal said.

Ernie’s turtle-catching videos made him a YouTube sensation with more than 4.5-million views.

On a recent trip to New York City, the Kentucky native was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from his fans.

While touring Times Square he and Neal were only too happy to stop every few feet to shake hands or take a picture. They were even invited back stage after a performance of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

As it turns out, Ernie may have something in common with the famous web slinger.

“In 2006 I saw a falling star and wished that one day I’d be on Animal Planet,” Ernie said.

The falling star made a hole in the ground and would have hit his truck if he hadn’t stopped to watch the star fall.

As a result of handling the fallen space debris, Ernie’s hands were able to register on a geiger counter.

And even though he doesn’t have the ability to spin webs he has netted many adoring fans.

“I get a hundred pound bag [of fan mail] a day,” Ernie said.

And he refuses to have anyone answer the mail for him. Ernie goes through each letter and replies personally to every one. With his busy schedule it may take a while for that reply to come but he assures his fans it will come.

Ernie and Neal also get hundreds of requests for personal appearances and try to do as many as they can, schedule permitting.

“Carl Edwards told me ‘Now you’re going to be happy but you’re going to be sad in another way. For every one little kid that’s sick that you can visit or for every elderly person or veteran, there are hundreds of thousands that you can’t see. And he’s right and I go to work and say I could take 15 minutes to go do that and I can’t,” Neal said.

“I can’t afford to come up here but if they thought it would make a difference for me to sign an autograph I would come up here to help the situation in New Jersey. I’d love to do that,” Neal said referring to helping raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Earlier this year in their home state, Ernie and Neal raised $350,000 in just three days to help survivors of tornadoes in Johnson County.

“[Ernie] gives 110 percent of himself to the show just to make up for the fact he can’t get to each individual that wants him to come. We’re so sorry about that. We love everybody,” Neal said.

Ernie added that all he wants to do is give a little joy to his fans.

“That’s why I’m doing my show the best I can. I’m giving you all my talent everything I got in me, all you’ve got to do is be happy,” Ernie said.

Call of the Wildman’s Christmas special airs Sunday night a 9 p.m.