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Documentary, River Monsters S03E02 Flesh Ripper

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Animals
Transcript
00:00My name's Jeremy Wade. For 25 years, I've chased dangerous fish up some of the wildest
00:14rivers on the planet, tracking down the facts that lie behind legends. I'm fascinated by
00:23the real-life monsters that sometimes eat us, and which feed our nightmares. But as a biologist,
00:33I want to know the truth. Now I'm back on the hunt, lured by the riddle of an eight-foot
00:44flesh-eater that's said to devour humans. If I'm right, this alleged killer is born deep
00:53in the ocean, yet transforms itself into a freshwater predator. The fish I'm after has a grip
01:05like a vice, and it stands accused of terrifying attacks.
01:12Imagine a landmass cut off from the rest of the world for 80 million years.
01:19A wilderness of impenetrable forests and lakes almost twice as deep as Loch Ness.
01:26A wilderness of impenetrable forests and lakes almost twice as deep as Loch Ness.
01:34Now suppose that in the cold, dark waters of this lost world lurks a predator big enough to kill
01:41a man. This was virtually the last place on earth to be found in the cold, dark waters of
01:47this lost world.
01:49There was one animal they revered above all others.
02:02I've always thought of New Zealand as a totally safe place to get in the water, but just recently,
02:17two separate reports have caught my eye and made me think again.
02:23One incident concerns a young man, Clint Haynes, who is out on a remote lake in New Zealand's
02:32South Island.
02:37According to this newspaper report, Haynes had gone out to recover a friend's boat propeller
02:43from the bottom of the lake. He knew the lake well, or at least he thought he did.
02:48At about a hundred feet down, something massive suddenly swam towards him.
03:05And within seconds, there were more of them, he says up to about 80 pounds in size.
03:13In the pitch black, one of these creatures sank its jaws into one of Clint's fins and started
03:18to drag him down. Panicking, he dropped his flashlight and swam for his life.
03:31Clint's wife Bev remembers how this aggressive pack actually pursued him to the surface where
03:35Clint was screaming to get out.
03:37He'd come up so fast from deep water that he collapsed with the bends.
03:46Haynes survived the attack, but was plagued by nightmares.
03:54For Ian Sutherland, another diver working in northern New Zealand, a similar encounter proved to be more violent.
04:00The creature in this case was already a local legend. Its head was reportedly a foot across.
04:16Without warning, it rammed Ian in the chest with enough force to crack one of his ribs.
04:20By all accounts, the animals that grabbed and thumped these two divers were super-sized eels.
04:35Now I've heard about monstrous sea-dwelling eels. Some like this European conga can grow to ten feet long.
04:41And the giant moray is a seriously large animal, certainly big enough to attack humans.
04:49One well-known account here of a diver getting his thumb ripped off and eaten.
04:54But the idea that a freshwater eel could ever be huge or dangerous comes as a real surprise.
05:02New Zealand, in fact, has three kinds of freshwater eel.
05:05The speckled eel grows to around six feet long, but it's off my suspect list because it doesn't live in the lake where Haynes was attacked.
05:17At little more than four feet long, the shortfin eel is simply too small to fit the bill.
05:23The most likely perpetrator is the longfin, an eel that's unique to New Zealand and which is known to grow to at least six feet.
05:31Modern records have this snake-like fish growing to around 55 pounds.
05:38But there are older anecdotal reports of much larger specimens.
05:43In the 19th century, the naturalist Thomas Potts mentions a 90-pounder landed from a place called Stoneyhurst.
05:51And there's even a story of a 130-pound eel taken from a deep lake in New Zealand's South Island.
05:57Such an eel, if it ever existed, must have looked like an underwater python.
06:04These accounts are certainly intriguing.
06:07But buried in the archives of London's Maritime Museum is an even more tantalising description
06:13of a creature that's not only a monster, but also a man-eater.
06:17Some 240 years ago, British explorer James Cook painstakingly mapped the coastline of New Zealand.
06:32As he did so, he gathered information from the Maori inhabitants about native wildlife.
06:36And in one of his many journals, he alludes very specifically to a man-eating monster.
06:43Following a conversation with a local chief, Cook writes, and I quote,
06:48We had another piece of information importing that there are here snakes and lizards of an enormous size,
06:56eight feet long and equal to a man's body in circumference.
07:00They sometimes seize and devour men.
07:02According to Cook, the chief actually drew a picture of one of these creatures to show what he meant.
07:10But the obvious conclusion that this beast must be a python or possibly some kind of huge lizard simply can't be right.
07:18What makes this account so intriguing and also so problematic is that there are no snakes or any large reptiles in New Zealand.
07:26And there never have been.
07:30As I head for New Zealand, my prime suspect for Captain Cook's devourer of men is not a snake, but a fish that looks like a snake.
07:42It's a theory that seems more plausible when you consider Maori folklore.
07:56Maori legends are full of tales about predatory beasts called tanifa.
08:03Now, these potentially very dangerous creatures are quite slippery customers,
08:08and sometimes they take the form of a giant eel.
08:13I'm starting my search for a giant longfin at a place called Mangafitakau, near Waitomo, on New Zealand's North Island.
08:20Supposedly, there are eels that have lived in this cave for at least 30 years and have never seen daylight.
08:35More disconcertingly, the Maori name for this underworld means bad place to cross the river.
08:41Eels are at the heart of Maori culture.
08:54Legend has it that they all sprang from a single huge ancestor.
08:59The story goes that there was a drought up in heaven,
09:04and a giant eel was sent down to earth to try and find water for the gods.
09:08But, while it was here, it tried to seduce the wife of Maui, who was the most powerful of the Maori gods.
09:16And, enraged, Maui fought with a giant eel and hacked it in two.
09:22And the severed head gave rise to all the seawater eels,
09:26and the tail, so the story goes, gave rise to all the freshwater eels.
09:29Even with a flashlight and a headlamp, I'm straining to see more than a few feet.
09:38I've no idea what might be lurking here, but to tempt something out of the shadows,
09:43I decide to dip a piece of meat into the water.
09:45Straight away, an eel emerges.
09:59This one isn't huge, but it is surprisingly bold.
10:09Despite living in pitch black, it has absolutely no fear of the light, or of me.
10:16It's on a single-minded search for flesh.
10:27Yet this carnivorous instinct doesn't, on its own, make the longfin a killer.
10:32I want to find out if they can get big enough and aggressive enough to be seriously dangerous to people.
10:40Could they ever be, in the words of Cook, devourers of men?
10:44To get a proper look at what makes the longfin eel New Zealand's top freshwater predator,
11:06I first have to catch one.
11:07When it comes to bait, anything goes.
11:16Fresh roadkill could be worth a try.
11:24Eels tend to be more active at night, relying on smell rather than sight to find food.
11:32I use a concoction of guts and offal to draw them in.
11:35Eels have a phenomenal ability to sense blood.
11:45My two rods are each equipped with an electronic alarm, primed to go off if something makes a grab for the bait.
11:56I don't have to wait long.
11:58If there's flesh on offer, it seems these animals are into it like starved piranhas.
12:05I don't have to wait longfin eel.
12:06With some fresh roadkill on the end of my line, I've hooked my first longfin eel.
12:09Even with a small one, I have to take special care.
12:11Because these fish have poisonous blood.
12:12The serum contains a neurotoxin that can kill dogs.
12:13And just a splash into my eye or a cut as I try to unhook it could land me in serious trouble.
12:14The serum contains a neurotoxin that can kill dogs.
12:15And just a splash into my eye or a cut as I try to unhook it could land me in serious trouble.
12:17It doesn't feel like a normal fish at all.
12:20It doesn't feel like a normal fish at all.
12:21Very, very smooth skin.
12:22They do actually have scales, but they're imbelled.
12:23They're imbelled.
12:24They're imbelled.
12:25They're imbelled.
12:26They're imbelled.
12:27They're imbelled.
12:28They're imbelled.
12:29They're imbelled.
12:30They're imbelled.
12:31They're imbelled.
12:32And they're imbelled.
12:33They're imbelled.
12:34So, they're imbelled.
12:35And they're imbelled.
12:36So, you can see that if you feel sixth, they're imbelled.
12:37And the smell is a small blood.
12:38The serum contains a neurotoxin that can kill dogs.
12:41And just a splash into my eye or a cut as I try to unhook it could land me in serious trouble.
12:44It doesn't feel like a normal fish at all.
12:47Very, very smooth skin.
12:48They do actually have scales, but they're imbelled under a layer of skin.
12:53Not very big eyes.
12:54They don't really use their eyes to hunt.
12:56But they do use smell.
12:59and you can see what looks like a pair of horns on the front of the head there in fact these
13:06structures are tubes that funnel water into enlarged nasal chambers the eel's sense of smell
13:13is even more sensitive than that of a great white shark having zeroed in
13:19an eel grabs its prey with powerful jaws that bristle with hundreds of teeth
13:24well you can see why people consider these to be very similar to snakes even though they are
13:32technically fish there are plenty of eels here but nothing over three feet long leaving legends
13:44aside I wonder if science can shed any light on the question of size just how big in theory could
13:52this animal grove inside the skull of a dead eel may seem like a strange place to look for an answer
14:04but dr. Don jellyman is the world authority in these animals and he knows exactly what he's after
14:11so this is the the brain the spinal cord and this little otolith sits in a small
14:15sack just on the back here and it's part of the balancing system
14:19so that's what we're after Jeremy that little bone there holds the key to a lot of the life
14:24history of the eel knows age its growth rate once magnified this tiny ear bone reveals the growth
14:32history of the fish so is that the same sort of principle as counting the rings on a tree something
14:38like that it is yeah it's exactly the same a two to three foot eel can be 30 years old
14:45but amazingly this is just a youngster what's the oldest they might be do you think any any
14:52conjecture the oldest that i've aged is 105 years old and from that lake the average age at which the
14:58females migrated was 93 years it's extraordinary isn't it one thing i've been thinking about is this
15:05mention in captain cook's journals about he was told about something that was snake-like and eight
15:11feet long would one of these be capable of growing to eight feet do you think in ideal conditions
15:17yes it's quite quite likely in the wild that they would have grown to a very very large size like
15:21that well so i wouldn't dismiss that so that could be a reliable report and at that length how much is
15:26they're going to weigh roughly they're well over 100 pounds at that stage right yeah yeah gosh
15:32is this a big fish yeah it's a seriously big okay so that captain cook report it could have been one
15:37of these it could well have been it might be of interest just to have a look inside it um so we'll just
15:44do a run up through here
15:49so oh there is something in here that's the stomach is it that's the stomach there
15:53full isn't it let's take a peek i'm rather interested to know what this has got in it
15:58with toxic blood oozing out of the eel's body i'm careful to wash my hands
16:04um so
16:09aha is that another real it's another real yes it's well digested yeah yeah so they can be quite
16:16cannibalistic they're just well adapted to taking those opportunities as they arise if there's tucker there
16:21bear into it here
16:27my photo fit of captain cook's monster is starting to take shape it's a fish with real nerve
16:37guided by the nose of a bloodhound and armed with hundreds of close-packed teeth
16:43it can live for more than a century and potentially at least grow to eight feet long
16:53it also happens to have toxic blood and a taste for its own kind
17:00but is it truly dangerous to find out i've booked myself onto a popular radio chat show
17:06radio cell phones 96.4 fm i'm matt wutherford talking with well-known angler jeremy wade
17:12who's really interested in hearing your stories about long thin eels so give us a call on 2188964
17:20i'm looking for evidence of aggression and the lines are soon buzzing
17:24and the eel came and latched onto the deer carcass and we had a wrestling match for that
17:29trying to measure her she latched onto my finger when i looked down i was quite a surprise
17:34yeah quite a large black eel it would have to have been you know two meters and as round as a man's
17:40thigh into my finger and being stripped back to the bone there are some monsters there's no question of that
17:45i was prepared for tales of ducklings swallowed whole but it seems that some eels strike at much
17:54larger prey yeah i took my dog sam down to the river and we were playing with a ball i was throwing
18:01it and he was bringing it back to me and i threw it this one time and i heard him going for it
18:09i could hear something going on but i couldn't see him
18:11he just disappeared into the water
18:22i'm still taking note when a man calls in to tell me about some sheep that were eaten alive
18:30what was happening the sheep were falling into the river and turning around and trying to get back
18:34out again but before they could get out these eels were attacking them from behind and going in the back
18:39passing through the sheep
18:45until they were pulling the intestines out and going right inside the animal and getting right up to the
18:52to the liver and that before it actually ceased to live
18:55then to top it all the story of a man who went skinny dipping
19:00this rather large eel come up and um grabbed them in a very peculiar sort of a place
19:05yeah right i think i'll get your dress there possibly yeah yes and um it ended up putting in the hospital
19:11so this chap who was hospitalized hang on but this delicately did he was he missing anything
19:19when he got out of hospital or was he just i think he was all right when he got out of hospital but he
19:23might have been cross-eyed for a while sorry okay my respect for for these long fins is is growing by the
19:29minute so i'll definitely take care when i'm out there trying to get my own hands-on experience mate
19:34beware just be careful eel wrestling is not a good sport for tourists okay thanks for the morning
19:41thank you thank the bungee jumping
19:46going on the radio has really helped me to tap into local knowledge and very quickly get an accurate sense
19:51of what this predator is capable of but since coming here i've also tracked down an old newspaper
19:57report that describes a terrifying assault on a young girl this appears to be a very clear example
20:03of an eel deliberately trying to kill a human
20:11in 1971 eight-year-old carol davis wandered into a stream on her father's property
20:17for several days previously large eels had been attacking mr davis's ducks
20:25then for reasons that aren't clear one of them decided to have a go at carol
20:47the idea that an eel could drag a girl into deep water is entirely possible this is a fish that can
21:04actually swim backwards with real power
21:12carol's horror story has really concentrated my mind
21:16not only was she attacked in shallow water her ordeal also happened in broad daylight
21:24it makes me wonder what would happen to me under similar conditions
21:29it's not just dark underground caves where you find eels lurking
21:36i'm in a wildlife park where i know there are half a dozen big long fins
21:40i'm not yet ready to try this out in the wild where if things went wrong i'd be miles from any help
21:50nonetheless there's no such thing as a tame eel
21:53and i've already heard enough to put me on edge
22:04a splash of longfin blood on your eyes or lips can cause inflammation for several days
22:10but how much would it take to kill you the answer right after this
22:15just three teaspoons of longfin blood has enough toxin to kill a person
22:28i'm in new zealand on the trail of an alleged man eater described two and a half centuries ago by captain cook
22:39was he just spun a yarn by a local chief or could there be giant eels here capable of preying on humans
22:55before heading into the wilderness and doing this for real i'm testing the water in a wildlife park where there are half a dozen hefty eels
23:04their mouths are lined with hundreds of backward pointing teeth
23:08and the ones in here are certainly big enough to grab an ankle
23:12or a hand
23:25i'm treading into the roots here the trouble is they're going to be lurking right in there i don't
23:48want to get my toes nipped after a couple of nervy encounters i decide to push my luck i've actually
23:53got one right here
24:08there we go
24:14short and dramatic it's my first real contact with one of these big longfin eels
24:20clearly well-fed eels like these just aren't aggressive
24:27but i'm not fooling myself they'll be so placid in the wild
24:32in new zealand's south island i leave the beaten track and push into the mountains
24:45some of the biggest eels mentioned in historical records were caught from deep lakes in the interior
24:54and this is where i'm focusing my search for a monster
25:01on lake manapuri in what feels like the middle of nowhere i first join evan brunton
25:06a man who tracks and catches eels for a living
25:12there are parts of this lake that plunge to more than a quarter of a mile deep
25:16room enough for a monster to hide in even today
25:21so we've actually got over 1500 feet in the middle i mean that's that's way deeper than than loch ness
25:261500 feet's nothing for an eel yeah the other night we were tracking eels two o'clock in the morning
25:32and one eel was traveling right on the surface and the other eel was traveling at 150 meters which is 600
25:40feet an eel could quite happily live at the bottom of this lake and do you think there are still big ones
25:46the rounds yes there is a few big ones from time to time just seem to turn up out of the blue
25:55evan calculates that some of the eels in this lake are over 80 years old when you think about it
26:02some of these eels were 20 years old at the outbreak of the second world war have you heard any
26:09stories of aggressive or dangerous eels in your time oh yes a couple of people went missing in the
26:16hidden lakes of tiana supposedly taken by monstrous eels you've only got to see the strength in them
26:24when they bite it'd be very very hard for some people to actually get up again especially if
26:29there's more than one of them people can fall over and knock themselves out can't they
26:36at a secluded bay we pull over to see if anything large has turned up in evan's nets
26:50even here the chances of finding a giant eel are slim
26:56but the 16 pounder that evan hauls out is still an impressive animal so powerful
27:00you can imagine that at 30 pound could drag someone away
27:08so there's some eels up in the waikato that have been up to 100 pound
27:13and they've been caught and reliably weighed yes they have gosh
27:22evan's accounts of monstrous hundred pound eels have got me itching to fish
27:26but first there's a niggling question at the back of my mind
27:34i can well believe that a massive eel could seize someone and drag them under but with teeth designed
27:40to grip rather than cut i'm skeptical about whether it could actually dismember and devour a person
27:47if captain cook's man eater really is a huge long fin then this animal must have some other way to rip you apart
28:02to see how i'm laying on a buffet
28:06a hunter has provided me with a deer carcass and i've brought along a high-tech box of tricks
28:12underwater cameras placed around the bait will give me separate views of the tail throat and stomach
28:24if any eels show up to feed i'll be able to see how they deal with something that's too large to swallow whole
28:30the eels i've seen got very powerful bodies and a very strong grip but how one of these animals even
28:43if it was the eight foot size mentioned in captain cook's journal how that could devour a person is
28:48still not immediately obvious
28:52with my surveillance cameras switched on i retreat to a makeshift control room
28:58the stage is set
29:00all i can do now is sit and wait
29:09for nearly two hours nothing shows up
29:15then out of the blue they appear like a pack of wolves
29:20and i catch my first glimpse of how these animals could rip you to shreds
29:27i've questioned how a fish that doesn't have large cutting teeth could actually kill and eat
29:47something as big as a human
29:48but with the deer carcass under surveillance and the night closing in my doubts are about to be blown away
30:01here we go it's getting in there
30:06yep it's latching on it's actually spinning it's spinning around
30:09these eels are feeding like crocodiles whipping the victim firmly then spinning violently to twist off chunks of flesh
30:22it actually reminds me of this story that i've heard it's one of those stories that
30:37i haven't been able to pin down where it happened who to but a few people have told me this and it's
30:41somebody who was driving supposedly had a few to drink
30:50it's said that the man swerved out of control and clashed into a lake
31:11unconscious and bleeding he would have been quite literally a sitting target for marauding eels
31:24i've now seen with my own eyes how a pack of longfins could make a real mess of someone given half a chance
31:44i've also tracked down credible stories of massive eels living in new zealand's remote backwaters
31:55yet just when i'm ready to try and catch one of these slippery monsters
31:59i run into an unexpected problem in wilderness areas like this fishing for eels with hooks is now
32:05strictly forbidden i've no choice but to give up my usual methods and start from scratch
32:14eel fisherman vic thompson is my teacher i'm going to make a bob for you simply find a bit of steak
32:20like that or a bit of any red meat cut it into a slim slice and i've got a bit of mackerel fish here
32:28which adds a bit of flavor yeah you have a bit of wool just ordinary darning wool needle thread through
32:35like that to start with pull it right through and then you just wind this around like that
32:44after you've done the first layer like that you've got to put a loop on here to attach it to your line
32:51the theory is simple when the eel bites its teeth get tangled in the wool
32:57i must then drag it ashore before it shakes itself free
33:00so there you've got your loop on your bob good good bite size for an eel so i guess the
33:09you know the angler doesn't have the hook the eel actually has the hook in this situation doesn't
33:12it the eel has lots of hooks in its mouth so they hook onto the wool very low tech but very very effective
33:18by the sound of it very effective it all sounds straightforward but as i head for a deserted spot
33:25on a deep water lake i'm not so sure
33:31the method i've just learned is a traditional maori technique known as toy or bobbing
33:37one clear benefit at least is that with no hooks involved there's little danger of spilling the eel's toxic blood
33:46assuming i can catch one
33:47having cast my very first hookless bait i wait for a bite
33:56if anywhere has super-sized eel still prowling the depths it has to be a place like this
34:02on the shores of a deep lake in southern new zealand i'm hoping to land a giant longfin eel
34:22but this is the first time i've had to fish without a hook on my line and it feels like i've been disarmed
34:32it's still in the mouth it's still in its mouth look at that just came out
34:52come here
34:53there we go my first fish on a bob the technique actually works and it works for two reasons a bit
35:02of role reversal here normally it's me providing the hook this eel has got hundreds of little hooks
35:07in its mouth in the form of teeth and that's why it catches onto that bob it sort of hooks in but the
35:12other thing is it's a predator and so it thinks that bait is getting away so it hangs on and then
35:17if i'm quick about it it's up on the bank before it actually knows what's going on
35:25okay oh it's all right i'm putting you back no need to struggle i'm actually putting you back
35:36lovely i've just caught a fish without using a hook it absolutely works
35:41spurred on by my success i push further into even wilder backwaters to places where few people ever fish
35:57the eels here are as bold and as willing to strike as any i've seen
36:03and with my bobbing skills improving fast i'm soon dragging them out at up to four feet long
36:11but i'm looking for a beast twice this size and time is running out if the animal described by
36:19captain cook really was an eel then seemingly the big ones are very rare or even perhaps a thing of the past
36:28the monster i've come in search of has eluded me but i still have some unfinished business with the
36:44longfin eel that may yet help me solve the mystery just in my short time here i've been hearing a lot
36:50about their aggression i'm in no doubt that i'm dealing with a very powerful and large animal
36:58there were those sheep dragged into the water and eaten alive and that was actually from somebody
37:02who saw that happening
37:06as for humans we have a swimmer who was swimming without clothes who had his private parts mauled
37:12and then there was the diver having his ribs actually cracked and then finally that newspaper
37:18report of a girl being dragged into the water
37:26but i have to admit there is still a grain of doubt in my mind to be totally convinced
37:31i need to see the proof for myself and there's only one way that i can do that
37:42my destination is a remote river in the heart of a primeval wilderness
37:47i want to find out if wild longfin eels large or small are willing to attack a healthy adult human
38:06i've already been in the water with these animals in a zoo this time it's going to be very different
38:17the place i've chosen is swarming with eels and because they're wild they'll be hungry
38:35the question is will they be bold enough to have a crack at me
38:47it's going to be a bit of a crack at me
39:00to draw them in i first soak my clothes with fish guts put simply i'm turning myself into human bait
39:13i feel my heart starting to pound i've done some crazy things in my time
39:17getting into a pool with piranhas going into murky water after snake heads but this has to be
39:22one one of the scariest things i've done for protection i'm wearing chain mail gloves
39:28and a thick wetsuit and i'll be sticking close to the bank
39:43one of them within minutes eels are catching the whiff of blood and moving in
39:51i've traveled halfway around the world to find out if there's such a thing as a freshwater eel that
40:09will attack and eat a man
40:15on a remote river in new zealand i've soaked myself with fish guts and i'm offering myself as live bait
40:21the question is are any eels going to bite
40:34that is just so snake-like coming out of the water with his mouth like that
40:51i'm hoping they're going for my hands but they seem to be interested in other parts of my clothing
40:56at the moment which is a bit disconcerting and even if i move if i move my legs i move my hands
41:03it's not really sending them away at all
41:09they're right they're coming right in close
41:13the thing about these fish these are not fish that people feed these are wild fish so they are hungry
41:19they're bumping my legs they're tugging at my shirt and they're coming in on my fingers as well
41:24i'm actually wearing gloves these are kevlar gloves and i wouldn't be too happy doing it without those
41:34i do want to hold my ground i mean i've come this far i don't want to get out too too quickly
41:39it's broad daylight and from their point of view i'm a big animal but they're totally unfazed
41:45get out ow i think i need kevlar underpants as well most fish would not do this at all even piranhas
41:56ow that was inside of the thigh inside of the fight what i don't want is for them to draw blood if
42:03they draw blood that could really get them going
42:05that is one aggressive fish
42:19ah look at that look at that look at that look at that look at that look at that
42:28i think it's time for me to get out get out get out
42:35i came here wondering if the monster described so long ago by captain cook was in fact a giant eel
42:48short of seeing an eight footer i can't be sure
42:53yet it's clear to me that without protective clothing these eels would have ripped into my flesh
42:58and tried to eat me alive
43:00and with this animal it isn't just about size
43:08slip and fall over in some lonely river and it's the hungry pack that could seal your fate
43:17want to know how to catch a river monster of your own i'll show you how at animalplanet.com
43:22forward slash river monsters
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