GRAY – Evin Beaulieu is ready to be the next Crocodile Hunter.

Even if he has to do some howling first.

On a ridge overlooking the Maine Wildlife Park’s coyote yard, the 11-year-old has spent the morning taping his nature segment for YESToday, a half-hour Fox 23 news show for kids. Coyotes can smell their prey before they see it, he tells the camera. Coyotes have big ears and good hearing.

“Superior hearing. I mean, way good,” he said, grinning as two coyotes trotted anxiously in their yard behind him.

It’s a situation that might prove unpleasant for some adults: a camera crew trained on every move with a pair of wild animals at your back. But for Evin, the charming young host of “The Animal Kid,” it’s all in a day’s work.

“They go, ‘Howooo!'” Evin tells the camera, throwing his head back in a howl. “And their coyote buddies know where they are.”

In the background, one coyote turns around.

Evin’s mother, Lisa Beaulieu, said after the shoot, “If we lived in another part of the world, he’d probably be wresting crocodiles already.”

Evin is one of the youngest members of Fox 23’s bi-weekly YESToday TV news show. Created for kids by kids, most participants are at least 13 when they start.

The show’s adult producers were impressed with Evin’s expressiveness and his obvious passion for all things wild.

“Someday, I’d really like to focus on the king cobra. It’s 18 feet long. It’s a cobra. It’s poisonous,” Evin said with glee after the coyote shoot last week. “It’s awesome.”

Producers agreed to make “The Animal Kid” a regular feature. It gave the Litchfield home-schooler a way to combine his two loves: nature and teaching about nature.

Evin’s first segment – a look at Maine deer – aired a week and a half ago. He has since received more than a dozen e-mails from young fans.

Evin shot his second episode, the one on coyotes, last week.

On a cool, cloudy Wednesday morning, he worked for almost two hours to get enough footage for the eight- to 10-minute coyote segment. With a cue-card outline to remind him what he wanted to talk about, Evin flawlessly described coyotes, talked about their relationship to the ecosystem and interviewed a game warden.

He also dealt with take after take as the crew struggled to stop the glare from his glasses and until his 16-year-old cameraman and editor, Cory Colson of Lewiston, could catch Evin’s howl just right.

Evin called the shoots fun and exciting. But also a little nerve-wracking.

“I’m going on TV and if I don’t do a very good job, all kinds of people will see it,” he said.

Badge of honor

A spirited boy with a daring streak, Evin’s biggest disappointment was shooting on a ridge overlooking the coyotes’ yard, not in the pen with them.

“That would have been great,” he said, but it didn’t dampen his enthusiasm. Immediately after the taping he was already talking about new episodes at a local alpaca farm, a monkey owner and a home with a boa constrictor.

Evin’s plans for the future include a shot at hosting his own segment on cable TV’s Animal Planet, with his cameraman and fellow home-schooler, Corey Colson.

“The next step is to go a little higher on TV. To do a little more, to teach a little more,” Evin said.

Already a snake enthusiast, he hopes to study reptiles when he grows up. And then there’s the Crocodile Hunter, an off-the-wall Australian television host known for his dangerous, if educational, pursuits of snakes and crocodiles.

Evin would like his job.

“If I lost a hand, that would be awesome,” Evin said. “That would be a badge of honor.”

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