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On this episode of Destination Truth, Josh travels to the rainforests of Brazil,

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trailing recent sightings of a giant sloth monster.

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We're definitely not alone.

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Josh, what's going on?

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Josh, you copy us?

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Whoa!

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Next, the crew travels to Africa in search of a flying dinosaur

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that has reportedly been harassing the locals from overhead.

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He's a very dangerous person.

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Holy s***!

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What is that?

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Yeah!

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S***!

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Right there! Right there!

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Does Josh uncover a beast in the overgrown jungle?

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Or is this just an overgrown tail?

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Just something big, just whipped right over on top of us.

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I'm Josh Gates.

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In my travels, I've seen some unexplainable things

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which have raised strange questions.

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Now I've pulled together a team armed with the latest technology

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in the search for answers.

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I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me,

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but I know what I'm looking for.

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The truth.

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When you think of Brazil, you probably think of stunning people,

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beautiful beaches and endless parties.

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Well, here's something you can add to the list.

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A big, hairy monster.

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Only this guy isn't at an all-night rave in Rio.

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No, the Mopinguari, as he's known in Brazil,

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is said to live deep in the Amazon jungle,

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where according to hundreds, if not thousands of eyewitness reports,

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he ferociously defends his territory

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and sends shivers down the spines of locals

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at the mere mention of his name.

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In fact, the Mopinguari is so notorious

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that the New York Times ran a piece on the elusive creature last year.

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It doesn't get any bigger than a full-page spread in a newspaper of record,

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so I decided to see for myself

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what exactly was scaring the bejesus out of the good people of the Amazon.

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We packed up our investigation gear and some extra suntan lotion

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and headed to Brazil in search of the truth behind the Mopinguari.

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My journey began with a flight that took us from Los Angeles to São Paulo,

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the capital of Brazil.

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Tales of the Mopinguari are pervasive.

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People throughout the Amazon report run-ins with the creature.

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It is said to be a six-foot-tall, sloth-like animal

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with a reddish fur that can stand on two legs.

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Some descriptions add that he has a mouth in the center of his belly

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and a single eye in the middle of his head.

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What everyone agrees on, though, is that he stinks to high hell,

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emitting a strong pungent odor when he's in the vicinity.

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Kind of like my crew by the end of our trip.

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The New York Times article quoted a respected scientist named Dr. David Orin,

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the former director of research at the prominent Galdi Institute in Brazil

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and a firm believer in the creature.

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He lives in São Paulo and was my first stop before continuing into the Amazon jungle.

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His extensive research could help me sort out facts from fiction

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and give me a better idea of where to begin my search.

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The stories come from far-flung, very remote parts of the Amazon,

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and people essentially describe exactly the same creature.

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They are describing a creature that's approximately six feet tall

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when it is standing bipedally.

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It's very, very hairy.

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It has huge claws and four huge teeth.

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That description is very real-world.

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It sounds like that's a description of maybe a plausible creature.

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Dr. Orin went on to tell me that he does in fact think

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that there is a mysterious creature lurking around in the Amazon

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that fits the Mopunguari description.

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He believes it is a giant ground sloth.

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The only problem is that the rest of the scientific community

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will tell you the giant sloth when extinct about 10,000 years ago.

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If it is a remnant of giant ground sloths, what do we think it might feed on?

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It will twist very strong palm trees to the ground

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to get to the heart of palm and to the berries.

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This is one of the things that intimidates people

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because if you see one of these bakaba palm trees twisted to the ground

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and then it's heart of palm eaten,

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you have a notion of the strength that would be necessary to actually have done that.

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And that's an animal you don't necessarily want to come face to face with.

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So as a scientist though, you think that there is a real possibility

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that either living now or living more recently than 10,000 years ago,

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there may be a population of giant ground sloths out there

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that that is a possibility.

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That's definitely a possibility.

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Dr. Orin is a respected scientist

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and I was impressed with his confidence in the tales of the Mopunguari.

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Whether what's out there is a giant ground sloth who survived extinction,

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a Cyclops monster is described by the indigenous people

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and a more pure legend, he believed it was well worth investigating.

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And so did I.

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Since nearly all Mopunguari sightings have taken place in the Amazon,

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I knew I had to get to the heart of the country to continue my search.

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We boarded a plane bound for Rio Branco,

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a city in the interior of Brazil known for its vast frontier of Amazon forests

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and hot girls.

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My next stop was to the Federal University to meet with Jonas Souza,

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Professor of Paleontology and Amateur Mopunguari impersonator.

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With his extensive knowledge of the animals in the Amazon,

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I wanted to know if he shared Dr. Orin's theory that the giant ground sloth

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might still be roaming the Earth.

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My interpreter Beto translated.

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Is there any possibility that there is a real world animal

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that people are seeing, like a giant ground sloth?

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If not, what is happening?

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How do people today look like?

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We need to have better discussions.

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In the Amazon there's a lot of legends.

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Mopunguari is one of the legends of this group.

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But there's no scientific proof of the existence of Mopunguari.

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Where does this legend persist most seriously?

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There's a lot of Indian tribes that believe in that.

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People in general use the myth of Mopunguari

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to justify some fears that they have in the forest.

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Imagine that one of the big problems in the forest is to find a jaguar.

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If you find a jaguar and get home saying that,

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oh, I was scared because I saw a jaguar, he has a problem.

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But if he says, I wasn't scared because I saw him up in Guari,

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he doesn't have a problem.

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People don't respect you if you're scared of a jaguar?

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Probably not.

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I think it's a decent excuse.

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If I come home and I say I saw a jaguar,

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I don't think anybody should be giving me f*** for that.

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It was time to talk to eyewitnesses.

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The only problem is that people who see the Mopunguari

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are almost as hard to find as the creature itself.

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The majority of eyewitnesses are either Indigenous Indians

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living in remote tribes or rubber tree workers

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who toil deep in the forests.

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We would need to fly even further into the Amazon

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to the area where many of the sightings had occurred.

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On the way to the airport, we stopped in a local park

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where I'd heard about a Mopunguari statue.

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This I had to see.

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Don't let anyone tell you the Amazon doesn't have

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the coolest trash cans on the planet because they do.

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So these are the guys I don't want to run into in the jungle.

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Today we'll rip my face off.

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This is a statue of the Mopunguari that they erected here.

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As you can see, it is extremely plausible looking.

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Cyclops, one eye.

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A lot of descriptions have it as kind of reddish brown fur,

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big claws, and sort of a mouth on its stomach.

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This guy's a little goofy looking.

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So there he is, the Mopunguari. I found him.

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Episode over.

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The statue may have looked cartoonish to me,

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but it was actually a reminder of how serious

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locals take this legendary creature.

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As we strolled the park, we met dozens of people

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who told us that the Mopunguari is very real and very dangerous.

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Now that we had our first look at the Mopunguari,

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we continued on to our flight.

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We arrived at the airport where we flew from Rio Branco to Porto Velo,

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a pioneer town where many of the Mopunguari stories originate,

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and where we were told we could find our eyewitnesses.

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Our first stop was to talk with a rubber tree worker

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who had worked in these rainforests for years

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and knew several people who had encounters with the Mopunguari.

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The man had some interesting advice for me.

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Unfortunately, he didn't know who he was talking to.

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Is there something you're not supposed to do

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when you go into the jungle?

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When I heard a loud scream, a unknown scream,

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he got scared.

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But that scream...

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Try not to make any noise.

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It won't know that...

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So if I make a lot of noise, though, it will come out?

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It will come out.

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That's like my specialty. That's what I'm best at,

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is making a lot of noise in the jungle.

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I've built a show on that.

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The man pointed us in the direction of a distant village

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where we found a forest storage.

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After hours on nearly non-existent roads,

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we finally arrived in the village

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where we found a less-than-warm welcome mat.

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This looks like a very welcoming house.

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Just, you know, decorating for the holidays.

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It's nice to be festive.

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Luckily, the natives were friendlier than their front porches,

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and we found several people who claimed

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to have recently come face-to-face with the Mopunguari.

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I wanted to kill a pig.

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I went to the forest to hunt a pig,

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and then suddenly when I was sitting down,

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what I could see was some kind of prey

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that was big, five, six meters from me.

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And then I shot him.

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When I shot, he started running after me.

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He jumped and didn't catch me, and he started running off.

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Another villager had a similar run-in with the creature.

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He went to hunt in the first animal that he saw,

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and he thought it was, well, maybe it's an ant, either.

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He has the same claws and stuff,

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but then suddenly the animal stands up,

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and he thought the animal was like that big.

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When he saw the creature and it stood up

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and it was this enormous creature, did he run?

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I started running, and he started running after me.

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It chased him?

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Yeah.

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He thought he would die.

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I threw myself under a big trunk,

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and he grabbed the trunk and started...

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Clawing at it.

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...crawling at it.

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I escaped, and, yeah.

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How far away from here was this?

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Where was it?

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It was around three hours from here.

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Break-up bug spray?

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Tell you something about the Amazon, people.

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Very buggy.

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With the reports that the Mapanguari was still in the area,

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the locals set to work on drawing us a map

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to the hunting grounds where the sightings took place.

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And since I didn't bring a boat with me,

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the locals were nice enough to sell me one of theirs

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for the bargain price of an iPod, a pack of gum,

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and one of our assistants.

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As we headed to the hunting grounds where the creature had been seen,

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we became acutely aware of how isolated we were from civilization.

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Not only were we hailed on the trail of the Mapanguari,

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but also it seemed in the midst of our personal production of Apocalypse Now.

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The most important thing tonight is safety.

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Hundreds of people a year die on the Amazon from snake bites.

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There's no end of spiders out here that are poisonous.

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There are crocodiles.

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We're not that far from the riverbank.

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There are jaguars.

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So everyone really needs to be on their toes tonight

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when we're going around, both on the investigations and here at Base Camp.

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And all the people we've talked to about this creature

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are universal in telling us that it is aggressive.

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There's no fear tonight.

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We're going to scare this thing off.

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Our presence here, our lights, our cameras,

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according to our eyewitnesses are going to attract this thing.

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So first order of business is to get Base Camp set up.

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We need to try to cover as much ground visually as we can with the infrareds.

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So probably just cartil directions off the Base Camp.

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Pondch, we might want to use some of the wireless mics

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and just place them in various points where we know this thing has been spotted

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and see if we pick anything up on the microphones.

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Absolutely.

251
00:10:58,300 --> 00:10:59,300
Perfect.

252
00:10:59,300 --> 00:11:00,300
Let's get set up, guys.

253
00:11:00,300 --> 00:11:25,300
For me, the problem with Mapanguari is that it's like right at the crossroads between

254
00:11:25,300 --> 00:11:29,300
something that sounds reasonable in terms of cryptozoological animal

255
00:11:29,300 --> 00:11:32,300
and totally mythological.

256
00:11:32,300 --> 00:11:35,300
Certainly I think the idea of something that's super aggressive that comes after people

257
00:11:35,300 --> 00:11:40,300
and yet no one's ever really found it is a little troubling, right?

258
00:11:40,300 --> 00:11:44,300
I mean, I get that so much of the Amazon still hasn't been cataloged scientifically,

259
00:11:44,300 --> 00:11:48,300
but as to whether or not something that large could be living here,

260
00:11:48,300 --> 00:11:51,300
I don't know, on the fence.

261
00:11:56,300 --> 00:11:58,300
Hold on. You guys will see that.

262
00:12:00,300 --> 00:12:03,300
Bradford Josh.

263
00:12:03,300 --> 00:12:04,300
This is Josh.

264
00:12:04,300 --> 00:12:09,300
We heard some, like, some trees breaking or some heavy, heavy limbs breaking out.

265
00:12:09,300 --> 00:12:12,300
Are you guys anywhere near Base Camp right now?

266
00:12:15,300 --> 00:12:17,300
I thought I saw something.

267
00:12:18,300 --> 00:12:20,300
You hear that? Right there?

268
00:12:29,300 --> 00:12:32,300
Josh, just heard it again. You guys close?

269
00:12:32,300 --> 00:12:35,300
Let's go back fast and check in on them to make sure they're okay.

270
00:12:35,300 --> 00:12:37,300
Josh, come in.

271
00:12:37,300 --> 00:12:40,300
Yeah, we're headed back to you guys right now, Brad. We're on our way.

272
00:12:40,300 --> 00:12:44,300
Yeah, you guys should get over here or whatever's bumping around out there.

273
00:12:44,300 --> 00:12:48,300
Not too far from Base Camp.

274
00:12:48,300 --> 00:12:50,300
I'm going to go back to the other side.

275
00:12:50,300 --> 00:12:55,300
Not too far from Base Camp.

276
00:12:59,300 --> 00:13:01,300
Brad, are you guys okay? Did you see it?

277
00:13:01,300 --> 00:13:05,300
We never actually saw it. Whatever it was, I think it's gone because we're not hearing it anymore.

278
00:13:05,300 --> 00:13:06,300
So tell me what happened.

279
00:13:06,300 --> 00:13:13,300
We probably heard, you know, a series of three, four heavy, heavy limb breaks, you know,

280
00:13:13,300 --> 00:13:17,300
not like a small, like, twig, but like a crack.

281
00:13:18,300 --> 00:13:23,300
Okay, so let's move quick. I want to try to find what Brad and Araceli saw before it gets too far.

282
00:13:24,300 --> 00:13:27,300
You hear that? That was big.

283
00:13:27,300 --> 00:13:30,300
That sounded like a big tree cracking.

284
00:13:33,300 --> 00:13:35,300
What way did it come from?

285
00:13:35,300 --> 00:13:37,300
Right over there.

286
00:13:37,300 --> 00:13:49,300
Josh, do Base come in over?

287
00:13:49,300 --> 00:13:51,300
Yeah, go ahead, Josh.

288
00:13:51,300 --> 00:13:53,300
Something moving around out here.

289
00:13:53,300 --> 00:13:55,300
Some big noise is not too far away from us.

290
00:13:55,300 --> 00:13:58,300
So keep an eye on those cameras. We're definitely hearing something out here.

291
00:13:58,300 --> 00:14:00,300
Alright, copy that.

292
00:14:01,300 --> 00:14:04,300
Thermal Stark, whatever it was.

293
00:14:08,300 --> 00:14:14,300
Brad, for Josh, would you start something?

294
00:14:14,300 --> 00:14:19,300
Massive tree cracking again. Stand by over here to see if we're here to catch.

295
00:14:19,300 --> 00:14:25,300
Each camera is maybe 19 yards from us and they're seeing...

296
00:14:25,300 --> 00:14:27,300
There it goes again.

297
00:14:30,300 --> 00:14:35,300
Alright, Josh, we're definitely hearing something cracking back there. Nothing on the camera, so...

298
00:14:38,300 --> 00:14:40,300
What is that?

299
00:14:41,300 --> 00:14:43,300
Big noise there.

300
00:14:44,300 --> 00:14:46,300
Is she going in for a while?

301
00:14:49,300 --> 00:14:51,300
Where's that mag right?

302
00:14:53,300 --> 00:14:55,300
Sorry.

303
00:14:55,300 --> 00:14:56,300
What?

304
00:14:56,300 --> 00:14:59,300
Something falling out of this tree up in here.

305
00:15:02,300 --> 00:15:04,300
I think I see something.

306
00:15:08,300 --> 00:15:10,300
I see that big tree right there.

307
00:15:10,300 --> 00:15:13,300
I think I saw something that moved right back there there.

308
00:15:13,300 --> 00:15:15,300
Let's try to get a little closer.

309
00:15:18,300 --> 00:15:20,300
I'll see anything now.

310
00:15:38,300 --> 00:15:40,300
What is that?

311
00:15:40,300 --> 00:15:41,300
What?

312
00:15:42,300 --> 00:15:44,300
Josh, you guys copy us?

313
00:15:46,300 --> 00:15:48,300
Yeah, I copy you.

314
00:15:55,300 --> 00:15:58,300
Okay, that noise is getting a little closer, guys.

315
00:15:58,300 --> 00:16:03,300
That heavy, heavy, heavy branch is smacking now.

316
00:16:03,300 --> 00:16:08,300
We heard something else out here, too. Not sure what it is. Just keep a close eye on those cameras.

317
00:16:08,300 --> 00:16:13,300
We're going to swing back around you guys eventually. We're just going a little bit further first.

318
00:16:13,300 --> 00:16:19,300
What moves around in this jungle that's got that kind of size that can move those kinds of limbs around?

319
00:16:19,300 --> 00:16:23,300
Banging them. Either limbs banging together or snapping.

320
00:16:23,300 --> 00:16:26,300
Well, it's not us because we're hearing it, too.

321
00:16:28,300 --> 00:16:30,300
What is that?

322
00:16:30,300 --> 00:16:32,300
Did you hear that?

323
00:16:33,300 --> 00:16:35,300
What is that?

324
00:16:36,300 --> 00:16:38,300
What is that?

325
00:16:38,300 --> 00:16:41,300
Josh, we just heard a crazy animal sound.

326
00:16:45,300 --> 00:16:47,300
Josh, what's going on?

327
00:16:47,300 --> 00:16:49,300
Josh, you copy us?

328
00:16:55,300 --> 00:16:57,300
What is that?

329
00:16:57,300 --> 00:16:59,300
Did you hear that?

330
00:17:00,300 --> 00:17:02,300
What is that?

331
00:17:03,300 --> 00:17:05,300
What is that?

332
00:17:05,300 --> 00:17:08,300
Josh, we just heard a crazy animal sound.

333
00:17:11,300 --> 00:17:13,300
Josh, what's going on?

334
00:17:14,300 --> 00:17:16,300
Josh, you copy us?

335
00:17:16,300 --> 00:17:19,300
We're trying to check it out. I'll let you know if we hear anything or if we see anything.

336
00:17:19,300 --> 00:17:21,300
We don't know what that was.

337
00:17:21,300 --> 00:17:25,300
It was definitely an animal of some sort. I have never heard anything like that before.

338
00:17:25,300 --> 00:17:27,300
Be careful out there, you guys.

339
00:17:33,300 --> 00:17:36,300
We don't want too far or something's out there and it's very close.

340
00:17:41,300 --> 00:17:43,300
Hey, Josh.

341
00:17:43,300 --> 00:17:45,300
Yeah, what's up, Kase?

342
00:17:45,300 --> 00:17:47,300
Hey, can you see my light over here?

343
00:17:47,300 --> 00:17:49,300
Yeah, I got you. What's going on?

344
00:17:49,300 --> 00:17:52,300
They are down, home front, all over the place back here.

345
00:17:56,300 --> 00:17:58,300
What do you got?

346
00:17:58,300 --> 00:18:00,300
Look at this one.

347
00:18:00,300 --> 00:18:02,300
Split open.

348
00:18:03,300 --> 00:18:07,300
There's no documented animal in this area picking up the upper trees like this.

349
00:18:12,300 --> 00:18:14,300
You hear that?

350
00:18:17,300 --> 00:18:19,300
Something went around.

351
00:18:33,300 --> 00:18:36,300
Right there behind you over there. Something definitely moving around over there.

352
00:18:41,300 --> 00:18:43,300
Come in, base camp?

353
00:18:43,300 --> 00:18:45,300
Yeah, go ahead, Josh.

354
00:18:45,300 --> 00:18:49,300
We're in this area where it looks like something big came through here.

355
00:18:49,300 --> 00:18:51,300
A lot of palm trees are trashed out.

356
00:18:51,300 --> 00:18:54,300
Looks like they've been ripped open.

357
00:18:56,300 --> 00:18:59,300
Just like something big ripped through here.

358
00:19:00,300 --> 00:19:04,300
You guys checking for any kind of tracks on the ground?

359
00:19:06,300 --> 00:19:08,300
It's almost impossible to see tracks out here.

360
00:19:08,300 --> 00:19:11,300
I mean, it's just the way that the ground is so sponged out.

361
00:19:16,300 --> 00:19:19,300
Stand by, Brad. We got something moving around right near us.

362
00:19:23,300 --> 00:19:25,300
Keep that machete up.

363
00:19:30,300 --> 00:19:33,300
Brad, this is Josh for sure. We got something moving around out here.

364
00:19:33,300 --> 00:19:35,300
We're definitely not alone.

365
00:19:43,300 --> 00:19:45,300
It sounds like we're being circled.

366
00:19:45,300 --> 00:19:47,300
Whatever it is, I think it knows we're here.

367
00:19:49,300 --> 00:19:52,300
You using the thermal? Are you picking up anything on that thing?

368
00:19:52,300 --> 00:19:54,300
I got nothing on the thermal yet.

369
00:19:54,300 --> 00:19:58,300
It's so hard to image on this thing though beyond about 10, 15 feet fully.

370
00:19:58,300 --> 00:20:00,300
It just gets too thick.

371
00:20:16,300 --> 00:20:18,300
Whatever it was, I think it's gone now.

372
00:20:18,300 --> 00:20:20,300
Why don't we head over to Brad and check it out and see if it went over there?

373
00:20:20,300 --> 00:20:24,300
But, eyes and ears open because there's definitely something rustling around out here.

374
00:20:28,300 --> 00:20:31,300
Hey, we had an antel out there near us for sure.

375
00:20:31,300 --> 00:20:33,300
It's just so dense out there.

376
00:20:33,300 --> 00:20:36,300
It's almost impossible to see anything with it with the thermal.

377
00:20:36,300 --> 00:20:41,300
We also definitely saw this area where it looked like something had just horned through there.

378
00:20:41,300 --> 00:20:44,300
All these palms had been ripped open.

379
00:20:44,300 --> 00:20:46,300
Something was definitely feeding off them.

380
00:20:46,300 --> 00:20:47,300
Right.

381
00:20:47,300 --> 00:20:50,300
But that's about it. No visual encounter.

382
00:20:50,300 --> 00:20:53,300
We're just going to go through the area and see if we can get it out.

383
00:20:53,300 --> 00:20:58,300
So, you know, automatically there's a sense of, I mean, danger or there's something big out here that I can't see.

384
00:20:58,300 --> 00:21:00,300
I think that's a lot of what's propelling the story along.

385
00:21:00,300 --> 00:21:06,300
It's just this environment. This is a, you know, this is a really, really scary environment.

386
00:21:06,300 --> 00:21:10,300
Our search for the Mopanguari was an exhausting and exhilarating experience.

387
00:21:10,300 --> 00:21:12,300
Though we didn't turn up any video evidence to analyze,

388
00:21:12,300 --> 00:21:15,300
I wanted to have an expert listen to the sound of the animal going through the area.

389
00:21:15,300 --> 00:21:17,300
I think that's a good thing.

390
00:21:17,300 --> 00:21:22,300
We caught the next flight back to LA where I sat down with Mike D, the former curator of the LA Zoo.

391
00:21:22,300 --> 00:21:26,300
I hoped he could decipher what spooked my team in the Amazon.

392
00:21:26,300 --> 00:21:30,300
Before we get into playing you this audio recording, let's just talk about a little bit, you know,

393
00:21:30,300 --> 00:21:34,300
what are some real world candidates for what we might have heard?

394
00:21:34,300 --> 00:21:37,300
One of the things would potentially be a taper.

395
00:21:37,300 --> 00:21:39,300
I think that's a good thing.

396
00:21:39,300 --> 00:21:41,300
I think that's a good thing.

397
00:21:41,300 --> 00:21:44,300
We're going to have real world candidates for what we might have heard.

398
00:21:44,300 --> 00:21:52,300
One of the things would potentially be a taper because they're the largest land mammal that is still living in South America that we know of.

399
00:21:52,300 --> 00:21:57,300
And would a taper be able to actually take down, you know, a full-size palm tree?

400
00:21:57,300 --> 00:22:00,300
I think that would be a little difficult for it to do.

401
00:22:00,300 --> 00:22:06,300
Let me play for you this sound that Brad and Araceli heard at base camp and see if you can make anything of it.

402
00:22:06,300 --> 00:22:10,300
What is that?

403
00:22:10,300 --> 00:22:13,300
Did you hear that?

404
00:22:13,300 --> 00:22:15,300
What is that?

405
00:22:15,300 --> 00:22:21,300
I mean it has some bass to it but it doesn't quite sound like a bird, doesn't quite sound like a mammal.

406
00:22:21,300 --> 00:22:23,300
I don't quite know what to make.

407
00:22:23,300 --> 00:22:28,300
You can share hair, the insects that are making that high pitched sound.

408
00:22:28,300 --> 00:22:32,300
But that's kind of a whoo, whoo.

409
00:22:32,300 --> 00:22:37,300
Right. When you hear that noise though it's not immediately characteristic of an animal that you kind of know.

410
00:22:37,300 --> 00:22:46,300
But there are people who believe that, you know, a giant ground sloth may have escaped extinction somehow and is living in the, you know, remote parts of the Amazon.

411
00:22:46,300 --> 00:22:49,300
Do you think that that's a plausible theory?

412
00:22:49,300 --> 00:22:53,300
Yes, I really do because we don't know what's out there.

413
00:22:53,300 --> 00:22:57,300
Almost daily someone describes a new species.

414
00:22:57,300 --> 00:23:03,300
There are competing theories as to the truth behind the Mop and Guari but perhaps the most interesting is the idea of ancestral memory.

415
00:23:03,300 --> 00:23:15,300
Since humans and giant sloths did coexist together thousands of years ago, it is possible that the stories of these massive creatures may have been passed down from one generation to another and fueled on by people getting into heebie-jeebies in the jungle.

416
00:23:15,300 --> 00:23:22,300
The Amazon is after all a place of shadow, full of elusive animals that are hard to see and buzzing with an endless stream of mysterious noises.

417
00:23:22,300 --> 00:23:29,300
My team and I certainly got close to something out there and the destroyed palm trees we discovered were undoubtedly the work of something hungry on the prowl.

418
00:23:29,300 --> 00:23:35,300
We found ourselves unable to say for sure what we experienced but felt lucky to have made it out of the jungles in one piece.

419
00:23:35,300 --> 00:23:45,300
As for the Mop and Guari, he seems to exist at the nexus of folklore and memory and with dense rainforest covering nearly 60% of this massive country, he might also just be real.

420
00:23:45,300 --> 00:23:51,300
From creatures on the ground to creatures in the sky, I turned my attention to another case on the other side of the world.

421
00:23:51,300 --> 00:24:00,300
If you've ever seen Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, then you can imagine what it must be like for some villagers in southern Africa who say they're literally being hunted by a flying dinosaur.

422
00:24:00,300 --> 00:24:05,300
The locals call the suspect the Kongamado, which translates as Breaker of Votes.

423
00:24:05,300 --> 00:24:10,300
This big bird has been sporadically reported in Zambia, Angola and the Congo for hundreds of years.

424
00:24:10,300 --> 00:24:19,300
However, local news outlets in northern Zambia have reported a surge of recent run-ins with the Kongamado and I just had to see for myself what was going on.

425
00:24:19,300 --> 00:24:27,300
So my team and I geared up for a high-flying adventure half a world away and traveled from Los Angeles to Lusaka, Zambia.

426
00:24:27,300 --> 00:24:35,300
The Kongamado is described as a large reddish-colored creature with leathery wings spanning up to 10 feet and a nasty habit of devouring human flesh.

427
00:24:35,300 --> 00:24:44,300
Eyewitnesses have identified it through photos as looking exactly like a pterodactyl and say it has an unmistakable high-pitched cry that seems to fill the skies in all directions.

428
00:24:44,300 --> 00:24:51,300
And while there's no doubt that Africa is home to some of the world's most exotic creatures, could a flying dinosaur really be one of them?

429
00:24:51,300 --> 00:25:02,300
After touching down in the capital city of Lusaka, we went to meet with Michael Mumba, the most recent eyewitness who, according to local press, fled to the city after he and his friend came face-to-face with a flying dinosaur.

430
00:25:02,300 --> 00:25:08,300
Although his friend refused to go on camera stating fear of local ridicule, this man felt it important to heed us a warning.

431
00:25:08,300 --> 00:25:10,300
The creature attacked my friend.

432
00:25:10,300 --> 00:25:12,300
Was your friend badly injured?

433
00:25:12,300 --> 00:25:14,300
Yes, very badly injured.

434
00:25:14,300 --> 00:25:16,300
He sustained a dip.

435
00:25:16,300 --> 00:25:22,300
I think that is by the use of his claws or a tip.

436
00:25:22,300 --> 00:25:23,300
Claws, yeah?

437
00:25:23,300 --> 00:25:24,300
Yes.

438
00:25:24,300 --> 00:25:29,300
Then even here, as he tried to bite me on the face, he shooted himself.

439
00:25:29,300 --> 00:25:33,300
And how big was the bird? How big was the creature?

440
00:25:33,300 --> 00:25:43,300
It was very big. With very long wings. The wings were way like, you know, more less like a... but now it was just too big.

441
00:25:43,300 --> 00:25:49,300
Now that I knew how the Kongamato might attack, next I wanted to get a better sense of the geography of the region where it's reported to live.

442
00:25:49,300 --> 00:25:53,300
Our next eyewitness gave us a better idea of exactly what we should expect.

443
00:25:53,300 --> 00:25:55,300
It is a very dangerous creature.

444
00:25:55,300 --> 00:25:58,300
Do you believe that there are many Kongamato?

445
00:25:58,300 --> 00:25:59,300
Yes.

446
00:25:59,300 --> 00:26:00,300
Living out of the swamps?

447
00:26:00,300 --> 00:26:01,300
Yes.

448
00:26:01,300 --> 00:26:03,300
And are there other dangerous animals which live there?

449
00:26:03,300 --> 00:26:06,300
We have croc dows and pox in the snacks.

450
00:26:06,300 --> 00:26:08,300
That sounds like a trip to Disney World.

451
00:26:08,300 --> 00:26:09,300
Yeah.

452
00:26:09,300 --> 00:26:10,300
Where should I start my search?

453
00:26:10,300 --> 00:26:15,300
It comes from... most of the pox is about 700.

454
00:26:15,300 --> 00:26:23,300
He went on to tell us the travel to a village near Lake Mauero, the closest populated area to the swamps and home to other eyewitnesses we'd read about in the news.

455
00:26:23,300 --> 00:26:25,300
We're going to roll straight up north towards the swamps.

456
00:26:25,300 --> 00:26:26,300
Right.

457
00:26:26,300 --> 00:26:31,300
We're already getting into some of the smaller villages, some of the swampy areas, the jungle areas.

458
00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:38,300
And we got one car with the hood up already, which we'll only assume means we'll be on the side of the road in 10 minutes.

459
00:26:38,300 --> 00:26:40,300
Pretty much par for the corks.

460
00:26:40,300 --> 00:26:44,300
Pretty much just part of the experience here on Destination Truth.

461
00:26:44,300 --> 00:26:49,300
Even though our jeep wasn't exactly purring like a kitten, we decided to drop the hood and take our chances.

462
00:26:49,300 --> 00:26:57,300
With our course now set for the nearly 10 hour journey to the wilds of northern Zambia, I was impressed that the roads were paved for about 3 miles.

463
00:27:04,300 --> 00:27:05,300
That's so cool.

464
00:27:05,300 --> 00:27:06,300
Yeah.

465
00:27:06,300 --> 00:27:07,300
It's like Jurassic Park out here.

466
00:27:07,300 --> 00:27:12,300
You get everything from big game, snakes to all sorts of beautiful birds out here.

467
00:27:12,300 --> 00:27:20,300
As day turned to night and as the rough terrain continued mile after mile, I began to wonder what was waiting for us in the dark jungles of northern Zambia.

468
00:27:24,300 --> 00:27:26,300
I thought I saw something.

469
00:27:27,300 --> 00:27:28,300
Hold on, hold on.

470
00:27:28,300 --> 00:27:29,300
Wow!

471
00:27:29,300 --> 00:27:30,300
Hey!

472
00:27:34,300 --> 00:27:39,300
After endless hours on primitive roads, we finally began to enter the most remote regions of the country.

473
00:27:39,300 --> 00:27:45,300
We stopped at a wildlife research station and sat down with a local game warden to find out what he thought people were seeing here.

474
00:27:45,300 --> 00:27:50,300
I think what they do see, which is close to Congomato, are bats.

475
00:27:50,300 --> 00:27:51,300
Are bats?

476
00:27:51,300 --> 00:27:52,300
Yeah.

477
00:27:52,300 --> 00:27:53,300
So there's a possibility that they're mistaking bats.

478
00:27:53,300 --> 00:27:54,300
Exactly.

479
00:27:54,300 --> 00:28:01,300
And are there other animals which live in the wild in Zambia that maybe people could mistake for the Congomato?

480
00:28:01,300 --> 00:28:05,300
Yeah, definitely like Psydubill Stork, Shubill.

481
00:28:05,300 --> 00:28:07,300
What is this guy that you have?

482
00:28:07,300 --> 00:28:08,300
This is a Shubill Stork.

483
00:28:08,300 --> 00:28:09,300
This is a Shubill Stork?

484
00:28:09,300 --> 00:28:10,300
Yeah.

485
00:28:10,300 --> 00:28:21,300
The Shubill is a very rare bird that makes its home in the swamps and marshes of this area, but with an appetite that leans toward fish, not humans, and certainly lacking a high-pitched battle cry that fills the skies in all directions,

486
00:28:21,300 --> 00:28:26,300
I wondered how it could be mistaken for the flesh-eating monster locals have described seeing.

487
00:28:26,300 --> 00:28:30,300
My team and I were pretty much winging at this point, and at first light we pressed onto the north.

488
00:28:33,300 --> 00:28:36,300
And by afternoon we finally arrived at the swamps.

489
00:28:36,300 --> 00:28:42,300
The swamps of northern Zambia are fed by 17 different rivers and are one of the most extensive wetlands on the planet.

490
00:28:42,300 --> 00:28:47,300
If we had a flying chance of finding a flying dinosaur here, we'd need to narrow down our search grid.

491
00:28:47,300 --> 00:28:53,300
We met a local fisherman who claimed he had a close encounter with the Kongamado and claimed to know where we might find it.

492
00:28:54,300 --> 00:28:56,300
Sorry for our fancy today.

493
00:28:56,300 --> 00:28:59,300
It was on the ground that dude was eating.

494
00:28:59,300 --> 00:29:00,300
He was eating on the ground?

495
00:29:00,300 --> 00:29:01,300
Yeah.

496
00:29:01,300 --> 00:29:02,300
Did it look like this?

497
00:29:02,300 --> 00:29:03,300
Chamonix coffee.

498
00:29:03,300 --> 00:29:04,300
Yes.

499
00:29:04,300 --> 00:29:10,300
Are you sure that what you saw was not a stork or a pelican or a heron?

500
00:29:10,300 --> 00:29:12,300
Yeah, he says it had a long cutty.

501
00:29:12,300 --> 00:29:14,300
Where does he think that this creature lives?

502
00:29:14,300 --> 00:29:18,300
He's seen it in the swamps and so on.

503
00:29:18,300 --> 00:29:21,300
And so does he think that it's a very dangerous creature?

504
00:29:21,300 --> 00:29:22,300
Charlie, but dangerous.

505
00:29:22,300 --> 00:29:27,300
He says it'll bite and it'll kill.

506
00:29:27,300 --> 00:29:28,300
Bite and kill?

507
00:29:28,300 --> 00:29:29,300
Yeah.

508
00:29:30,300 --> 00:29:36,300
We rented a banana boat so we could tour the swamps where the fisherman claimed he saw the Kongamado during the day.

509
00:29:38,300 --> 00:29:39,300
This is a stork.

510
00:29:39,300 --> 00:29:42,300
There's a number of different storks here in Zambia.

511
00:29:42,300 --> 00:29:47,300
And he may have seen these storks with these long beaks and mistaking them for something like the Kongamado.

512
00:29:52,300 --> 00:29:57,300
We continued to search throughout the afternoon and with evening approaching our quest to find the flying dinosaur

513
00:29:57,300 --> 00:30:01,300
hadn't yielded anything more than a few bug bites and a first degree sunburn.

514
00:30:01,300 --> 00:30:06,300
With night fast approaching, Brad, Araceli and I decided to walk the jungle perimeter of the swamp

515
00:30:06,300 --> 00:30:09,300
where eyewitnesses had also claimed they'd seen the creature.

516
00:30:09,300 --> 00:30:13,300
Based on eyewitness accounts in this area, this seems like our hotspot.

517
00:30:13,300 --> 00:30:15,300
Bad news is obviously we got some weather rolling in.

518
00:30:15,300 --> 00:30:17,300
I'll stay here and start getting gear set up while you guys head out.

519
00:30:17,300 --> 00:30:18,300
Great.

520
00:30:18,300 --> 00:30:19,300
All right, we'll see you guys in a few.

521
00:30:29,300 --> 00:30:31,300
Casey, we're about 300 yards in.

522
00:30:31,300 --> 00:30:33,300
We found a kind of rudimentary trail to follow.

523
00:30:33,300 --> 00:30:34,300
Really, really dark in here.

524
00:30:34,300 --> 00:30:36,300
A lot of thick canopy.

525
00:30:36,300 --> 00:30:37,300
I can hear something in here.

526
00:30:37,300 --> 00:30:39,300
I don't know what it is, but we're going to press on a little bit.

527
00:30:45,300 --> 00:30:47,300
Casey, we found a way up through the canopy.

528
00:30:47,300 --> 00:30:49,300
It's really, really dense down below.

529
00:30:49,300 --> 00:30:52,300
We found a way up on an old platform here.

530
00:30:52,300 --> 00:30:54,300
I'm picking up something enormous on the thermal.

531
00:30:54,300 --> 00:30:58,300
It's actually in the canopy and I'll tell you, there's an enormous amount of noise coming out of the canopy as well.

532
00:30:58,300 --> 00:31:02,300
I can see enormous black masses in the trees here all lumped together.

533
00:31:02,300 --> 00:31:05,300
On the thermal, it kind of reads like one large creature,

534
00:31:05,300 --> 00:31:09,300
but really, I think what we're seeing here is just enormous colonies of bats all together.

535
00:31:09,300 --> 00:31:12,300
I've got a few that are jumping up into the sky, but most of them are just,

536
00:31:12,300 --> 00:31:15,300
it looks like they're just still hanging out in the trees.

537
00:31:15,300 --> 00:31:18,300
This is back once the sun goes down, this show is going to get even bigger.

538
00:31:20,300 --> 00:31:21,300
Oh my God.

539
00:31:21,300 --> 00:31:22,300
Dude, they're going to go up.

540
00:31:22,300 --> 00:31:23,300
See how many there are?

541
00:31:23,300 --> 00:31:24,300
It's just thick.

542
00:31:24,300 --> 00:31:25,300
It's just dense black.

543
00:31:25,300 --> 00:31:27,300
All that dense black is bats.

544
00:31:30,300 --> 00:31:32,300
I think it's starting right now.

545
00:31:32,300 --> 00:31:33,300
They're going up.

546
00:31:33,300 --> 00:31:36,300
Casey is starting to look like these bats are mobilizing.

547
00:31:36,300 --> 00:31:38,300
They're really, really swarming now.

548
00:31:38,300 --> 00:31:40,300
Dude, look at it.

549
00:31:40,300 --> 00:31:42,300
Are we sure we want to stay up here?

550
00:31:44,300 --> 00:31:47,300
We're about to get swarmed by these freaking bats.

551
00:31:47,300 --> 00:31:50,300
Get your hoods up, holy cow.

552
00:31:50,300 --> 00:31:53,300
Casey, are you seeing this?

553
00:31:53,300 --> 00:31:57,300
Holy ****, it's bat sitting.

554
00:31:57,300 --> 00:31:59,300
Are we okay to be up here right now?

555
00:31:59,300 --> 00:32:01,300
I have no idea.

556
00:32:03,300 --> 00:32:05,300
I'm palace shot.

557
00:32:05,300 --> 00:32:07,300
I just attached the hands.

558
00:32:10,300 --> 00:32:11,300
The unusual here.

559
00:32:11,300 --> 00:32:22,300
Did you know this is a place where themтрow進.

560
00:32:22,300 --> 00:32:25,300
Yes, gentlemen, this has been I think when we look into this this is going to

561
00:32:25,300 --> 00:32:28,300
be a very strange place as keep being there right there.

562
00:32:29,300 --> 00:32:31,300
Nobody's ever been alive.

563
00:32:31,300 --> 00:32:35,300
Oh my God.

564
00:32:35,300 --> 00:32:43,300
Look out. Look at this. Just everywhere.

565
00:32:43,300 --> 00:32:47,300
Alright, it seems like these guys are up in a bout now and off to hunt.

566
00:32:47,300 --> 00:32:53,300
I mean, I think this could be a big piece of evidence for us in the sense that we know that the bat is one of the possible real-world culprits.

567
00:32:53,300 --> 00:32:54,300
Right.

568
00:32:54,300 --> 00:33:00,300
This creature, certainly having such an enormous concentration in them here in Zambia, probably means that at least some percentage of our eyewitnesses

569
00:33:00,300 --> 00:33:02,300
are misidentifying these.

570
00:33:02,300 --> 00:33:03,300
Right.

571
00:33:03,300 --> 00:33:06,300
Well, we still have a little bit of light though, which is trying to track back out of this jungle.

572
00:33:06,300 --> 00:33:07,300
It's super dense and dark down there.

573
00:33:07,300 --> 00:33:12,300
Let's make our way back out to the investigation site and see how those guys are coming along.

574
00:33:12,300 --> 00:33:18,300
The enormous swarms of bats circling our heads was a creepy experience and it had my crew on edge about investigating here at night.

575
00:33:18,300 --> 00:33:25,300
The game warden at the Wildlife Research Station theorized, among other things, that people are seeing bats, not dinosaurs, circling the skies.

576
00:33:25,300 --> 00:33:32,300
Having just witnessed enough bats to last me a lifetime, I found it difficult to accept that anyone could mistake a harmless bat for a prehistoric monster.

577
00:33:32,300 --> 00:33:34,300
My crew would have to buck up.

578
00:33:34,300 --> 00:33:36,300
This investigation was just getting started.

579
00:33:36,300 --> 00:33:45,300
With night upon us, our plan was to set up our investigation on the banks of the swamp where we were told the flying dinosaur comes out to feed on snakes, rodents, and sometimes people.

580
00:33:45,300 --> 00:33:49,300
Working among the food chain, we used a combination of equipment to maximize our search.

581
00:33:49,300 --> 00:33:54,300
First, a series of fixed infrared cameras were used to scan the swamps for any movement.

582
00:33:54,300 --> 00:34:00,300
To get a better look at the pitch black skies, we fired up our thermal imager, which would illuminate anything flying overhead.

583
00:34:00,300 --> 00:34:03,300
Alright, well listen, I'm going to take the thermal imager.

584
00:34:03,300 --> 00:34:07,300
I'm going to start scanning south of the bank a little bit.

585
00:34:07,300 --> 00:34:08,300
We'll be here.

586
00:34:08,300 --> 00:34:09,300
Alright, talk to you soon.

587
00:34:09,300 --> 00:34:10,300
Be careful.

588
00:34:10,300 --> 00:34:11,300
We'll do.

589
00:34:50,300 --> 00:34:53,300
Josh, do you have a base camp? Come in.

590
00:34:53,300 --> 00:34:54,300
Go ahead, Josh.

591
00:34:54,300 --> 00:34:57,300
I don't quite out here. It's pretty buggy.

592
00:34:57,300 --> 00:35:02,300
But, uh, no sign of anything out of the ordinary flying around.

593
00:35:02,300 --> 00:35:04,300
Yeah, probably that. Pretty quiet here too.

594
00:35:19,300 --> 00:35:20,300
What's that?

595
00:35:24,300 --> 00:35:25,300
What is that?

596
00:35:25,300 --> 00:35:27,300
It sounds like it's coming from all around me.

597
00:35:30,300 --> 00:35:33,300
I got something making a really weird noise out here.

598
00:35:34,300 --> 00:35:36,300
What kind of noise can you describe it?

599
00:35:36,300 --> 00:35:40,300
It's like a high-pitched chirping almost, but it's really loud.

600
00:35:40,300 --> 00:35:45,300
Yeah, it seems to have stopped for a moment, but we're going to press over there and see if we can hear it.

601
00:35:49,300 --> 00:36:02,300
I got a thermal hit in this tree. I can't get to it though.

602
00:36:07,300 --> 00:36:12,300
Alright guys, I'm going to employ a very scientific method over here to try to get a visual on this thing.

603
00:36:16,300 --> 00:36:17,300
Nope, still sitting there.

604
00:36:19,300 --> 00:36:21,300
Base to Josh. Come in, Josh.

605
00:36:21,300 --> 00:36:23,300
This is Josh. Come in.

606
00:36:23,300 --> 00:36:25,300
We're getting a lot of over here.

607
00:36:25,300 --> 00:36:27,300
They're flying all over us.

608
00:36:27,300 --> 00:36:28,300
What's going on over there?

609
00:36:28,300 --> 00:36:32,300
Uh, no more noises, but I'm picking up something on the thermal. Hold on.

610
00:36:36,300 --> 00:36:42,300
A couple of kind of strange hits on the thermal, but the stuff in the trees just kind of seems to come and go.

611
00:36:42,300 --> 00:36:45,300
It's probably just a bird or some small bat.

612
00:36:50,300 --> 00:37:01,300
Having traversed several miles in both directions of base camp with little or no evidence to show for my efforts, it was time for a new plan.

613
00:37:01,300 --> 00:37:05,300
I decided to take my investigation to the water on this small canoe.

614
00:37:05,300 --> 00:37:08,300
Oh, this canoe is such a piece.

615
00:37:08,300 --> 00:37:15,300
On one hand, I was hoping my lights and splashing would attract the Kongamado, turning me into a sort of human bait so I could get a first-hand encounter.

616
00:37:15,300 --> 00:37:19,300
On the other hand, I was hoping my canoe would sink to the bottom of the lake.

617
00:37:46,300 --> 00:37:48,300
You all right?

618
00:37:48,300 --> 00:37:54,300
Yeah, it's actually a little bit rough out here with all the wind on the lake, but tough to see much.

619
00:37:54,300 --> 00:38:01,300
A little bit of a sitting duck for crocs and hippos, but no sign of the Kongamado yet. Nothing really flying around out here.

620
00:38:16,300 --> 00:38:22,300
Guys, I've been out here for a couple of hours and it's not really turning anything up.

621
00:38:22,300 --> 00:38:27,300
I think I'm going to come back to shore and make another couple sweeps of the area and float with the thermal imager.

622
00:38:27,300 --> 00:38:29,300
Okay, copy.

623
00:38:46,300 --> 00:38:48,300
I thought I saw something.

624
00:38:48,300 --> 00:38:50,300
Josh, do bays come in bays?

625
00:38:50,300 --> 00:38:52,300
Yeah, go ahead, Josh.

626
00:38:52,300 --> 00:38:54,300
We're out here in kind of the dense part of the swamp.

627
00:38:54,300 --> 00:39:00,300
I thought I saw something on the thermal just buzzed by overhead, but not sure what it is.

628
00:39:00,300 --> 00:39:02,300
Copy. Do you hear anything with it?

629
00:39:02,300 --> 00:39:05,300
Nope. Just picked it up in the thermal for a split second.

630
00:39:05,300 --> 00:39:09,300
We're going to go in a bit deeper, see if we can figure it out.

631
00:39:09,300 --> 00:39:11,300
Hold on. Hold on.

632
00:39:11,300 --> 00:39:13,300
Whoa!

633
00:39:16,300 --> 00:39:18,300
I thought I saw something.

634
00:39:18,300 --> 00:39:20,300
Hold on. Hold on.

635
00:39:20,300 --> 00:39:21,300
Whoa!

636
00:39:21,300 --> 00:39:23,300
Josh to base camp, come in base camp.

637
00:39:23,300 --> 00:39:27,300
Something big buzzed over us and now we're hearing stuff on the ground right near us.

638
00:39:27,300 --> 00:39:29,300
I don't know quite what it is.

639
00:39:29,300 --> 00:39:34,300
It's not attacking, it's just something big with a big wingspan just whipped right over on top of us.

640
00:39:36,300 --> 00:39:38,300
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

641
00:39:38,300 --> 00:39:40,300
Yeah! Right there, right there!

642
00:39:40,300 --> 00:39:42,300
Guys, get over here.

643
00:39:42,300 --> 00:39:46,300
There is definitely something with a big wingspan whipping around here.

644
00:39:46,300 --> 00:39:49,300
Let's get a couple extra cameras down here to make sure we get a shot of this thing.

645
00:39:49,300 --> 00:39:51,300
Why don't we?

646
00:39:54,300 --> 00:39:58,300
I didn't get a very good look at it, but it seemed to be way too big to be a bat.

647
00:40:07,300 --> 00:40:09,300
What do you got?

648
00:40:09,300 --> 00:40:12,300
Whatever it was, it was big and it was moving fast.

649
00:40:40,300 --> 00:40:45,300
For the next two hours we searched the skies, but whatever buzzed by me never returned.

650
00:40:45,300 --> 00:40:48,300
To me it seemed too big to be a bat, but I couldn't be sure.

651
00:40:48,300 --> 00:40:52,300
We boarded our flight and headed back to our office in Los Angeles and sat down with Mike D,

652
00:40:52,300 --> 00:40:55,300
the former curator of the LA Zoo and wildlife expert.

653
00:40:55,300 --> 00:40:59,300
We hoped he could help us ID our mysterious flying friend.

654
00:40:59,300 --> 00:41:03,300
Here's a quick peek at what buzzes by us and hopefully you can ID it for us.

655
00:41:09,300 --> 00:41:11,300
Hold on, hold on.

656
00:41:11,300 --> 00:41:15,300
Josh to Base Camp, come in Base Camp, something big buzzed over us.

657
00:41:15,300 --> 00:41:19,300
One of the first things that comes to mind is it doesn't have a long beak.

658
00:41:21,300 --> 00:41:25,300
The thing that was startling about it in the moment is that it was quite large.

659
00:41:25,300 --> 00:41:29,300
It's not attacking, it's just something big wingspan just whipped right over on top of us.

660
00:41:29,300 --> 00:41:32,300
This was something that had a three or four foot wingspan on it.

661
00:41:32,300 --> 00:41:36,300
The other thing to think about is that neither Storks nor Shoebills

662
00:41:36,300 --> 00:41:39,300
normally would be flying at night time, that's not their M.O.

663
00:41:39,300 --> 00:41:42,300
And let me show you the thermal hit.

664
00:41:44,300 --> 00:41:45,300
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

665
00:41:45,300 --> 00:41:48,300
God! Right there, right there!

666
00:41:49,300 --> 00:41:51,300
So when you see that, your first impression is...

667
00:41:51,300 --> 00:41:54,300
Would be that it's probably some type of bat.

668
00:41:54,300 --> 00:41:56,300
Just the shape of the wings.

669
00:41:56,300 --> 00:41:59,300
It does sort of have that kind of classic bat shape.

670
00:41:59,300 --> 00:42:02,300
What do you kind of make of reports like this when you hear about people

671
00:42:02,300 --> 00:42:06,300
that really are cling to these beliefs that there is some sort of uncatalogged animal

672
00:42:06,300 --> 00:42:09,300
living out in their swamps? Do you think there's any possibility to those reports?

673
00:42:09,300 --> 00:42:16,300
I truly believe that they're based on something and whether it's something that was around at one time

674
00:42:16,300 --> 00:42:19,300
or has been passed down through the ages.

675
00:42:19,300 --> 00:42:26,300
For me, there's no doubt in my mind that to some extent the locals who have a strong belief in this creature

676
00:42:26,300 --> 00:42:31,300
are seeing things like this and associating it with their belief system.

677
00:42:31,300 --> 00:42:33,300
With their belief system, I would agree with that.

678
00:42:33,300 --> 00:42:38,300
Michael's belief that our encounter was with a bat confirmed what we already suspected.

679
00:42:38,300 --> 00:42:41,300
The conga motto is often described as an enormous bat-like creature

680
00:42:41,300 --> 00:42:44,300
which should exclude normal sized bats from our list of suspects.

681
00:42:44,300 --> 00:42:46,300
That is unless they group together.

682
00:42:46,300 --> 00:42:50,300
The high-pitched sound that filled the skies from the massive groupings of fruit bats we encountered

683
00:42:50,300 --> 00:42:54,300
fit the eyewitnesses' description of the sound they attributed to the conga motto.

684
00:42:54,300 --> 00:42:58,300
Add to that the rarely seen but very real shoe bill stork which has a long beak,

685
00:42:58,300 --> 00:43:03,300
the hysteria that locals are experiencing here may well be the combination of a number of elements.

686
00:43:03,300 --> 00:43:08,300
On the other hand, my team and I were still at a loss to explain the physical attacks described by the witnesses.

687
00:43:08,300 --> 00:43:11,300
I had a plane fueled and ready to leave for another adventure,

688
00:43:11,300 --> 00:43:13,300
but with so many of these swamps so inaccessible,

689
00:43:13,300 --> 00:43:18,300
there are still thousands of square miles where something could still be hiding and waiting to be discovered.