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  • 5 months ago
River.Monsters.S06E02.Jungle.Terminator
Transcript
00:00My name is Jeremy Wade, freshwater detective, explorer and angler.
00:08I've been fishing the world for decades, but it's the Amazon that keeps calling me back.
00:16Now I'm returning to South America on the mission of a lifetime.
00:22To spend an entire year going further, deeper and more remote than I've ever been before.
00:30In the search of the river monsters of the Amazon.
00:36I've uncovered reports of three mysterious deaths in the northern part of the Amazon.
00:42In each case, the lifeless body was recovered with strange injuries.
00:49Locals are pointing the finger of suspicion at something living in the water.
00:55But on the lawless frontier between Colombia and Brazil, is it really a fish that's responsible?
01:03I'm on a mission to find the truth behind the mystery.
01:07On a river system that forces me to question everything I know.
01:12I've based my career on investigating extraordinary claims from all over the world.
01:22Pack hunter massacres, underwater flesh rippers, even tales of men swallowed whole.
01:32But nowhere seems to hold as much intrigue and mystery as right here in the Amazon.
01:33Three bodies in three Amazon countries, three unexplained deaths.
01:34One deadly signature, one deadly signature.
01:35One's death and one's death.
01:37One's death tying in the name of the Amazon.
01:42I've always had the most in sight of the Amazon.
01:48But nowhere seems to hold as much intrigue and mystery as right here in the Amazon.
01:55Three bodies in three Amazon countries, three unexplained deaths.
02:01One deadly signature.
02:03But what was responsible?
02:07The three attacks occurred in the region of the Amazon, where Brazil, Peru and Colombia meet.
02:14Leaving my boat at the Brazilian port of Tabatinga, I'm on the trail of my first case.
02:23A bizarre death at a rural school just ten miles away.
02:29Originally a Portuguese settlement and military outpost, Tabatinga now lays dubious claim to being the main entry point for Colombian cocaine into Brazil.
02:40I'm on my way to meet an eyewitness to this incident that I've heard about.
02:45This is someone who apparently retrieved the teacher's body from the water.
02:48But to meet him, I've got to cross the border into Leticia in Colombia.
02:55There's a heavy military presence.
03:02And my claim that I'm crossing the border in search of a fish raises some eyebrows.
03:08I'm allowed to pass and continue to the school where the incident occurred, where a man named Walter is waiting for me.
03:25Walter was just a boy when it happened.
03:28The man who died was his teacher.
03:30And Walter leads me down to the riverbank where the body was recovered.
03:34There were 20-odd lads playing football in front of the school.
03:50And at the end of the game, to cool off, they came down here with the teacher.
03:54It's been years since it happened.
04:02But as Walter talks, it's almost as if it were yesterday.
04:07The time of year that it happened was high water, so the water was actually up around here.
04:12Walter and his friends swam for a while before venturing into the forest, leaving their teacher in the water.
04:38They didn't see what happened next.
04:50And they found his body right here.
05:01Mancha negra.
05:02He said the first thing that they noticed was this dark mark on his chest.
05:17Was that almost like a bruise, like something hit him?
05:20No.
05:21No.
05:26He said it's more like a burn, almost from friction, possibly, but a burn rather than a bruise.
05:32Now, to me, that sounds like an electric eel.
05:54I've come across those before.
05:55I know that they can kill people, but there's one detail here that doesn't really stack up.
06:02The strange dark mark on the teacher's chest.
06:06I've never heard of an electric eel causing such wounds.
06:10Could the trauma actually have been the result of foul play, or perhaps some other kind of creature?
06:18But what lives in the water that can burn you?
06:21With the help of a local boatman, I head out onto the water.
06:26Could whatever's responsible be one of the dozens of new species discovered each year in the teeming waters of the Amazon?
06:39Within minutes, there's activity.
06:45Right, there was a tug, and that's now missing its tail.
06:49Oh, that was a piranha. It's taken that off.
06:54Piranhas are an all-too-familiar problem when fishing the Amazon, but I have a solution.
07:01I switch to a tough plastic lure.
07:04Hopefully, I'll have more luck with this.
07:06Almost immediately, my change in tactics is rewarded.
07:26Very aggressive piranha there.
07:29It's taken this very noisy, large lure on the surface.
07:33It's a perfect opportunity for an experiment.
07:38Right.
07:40I'm just going to see if we can demonstrate how sharp those teeth are.
07:43This is 300-pound breaking strain Kevlar, the same material used to make bulletproof vests.
07:50Just get some in here.
07:54Eight?
07:55That's impressive.
07:56It's teeth slice effortlessly through the Kevlar, but what about woven steel?
08:03Huh.
08:04It's a sobering reminder of the flesh-slicing potential of these prolific predators.
08:11On those rare occasions when piranhas do attack, it's death by a thousand cuts.
08:18Walter described his teacher's wounds in quite some detail, and there was no mention of bite marks, blood, or injury dealt by human hand.
08:33This is just flesh and bone.
08:36It just goes to show what an arms race it is under the water here.
08:39Could that arms race have produced a fish capable of inflicting these mysterious injuries?
08:48I've heard about a second unusual death, this one more recent.
08:54Tomorrow, I'll track down the witness.
09:00Daybreak, I leave Colombia and take a boat into Peruvian territory.
09:05To the island of Santa Rosa, where last year, another attack occurred, bearing the same deadly signature.
09:17The victim was this man's younger brother.
09:21Jack leads me to the rear of the family home.
09:26This is where they found the body.
09:31It was a normal day, just like any other.
09:35His brother was told by his father to go and check a fishing net that was set some way away.
09:42It was high water, and he left the house by canoe.
09:50It was the last time anyone saw him alive.
09:53And then some time later, the rest of the family just realized it's been a while.
10:03He should be back by now.
10:05Where are you?
10:07The family became worried.
10:11Christian!
10:12Jack suddenly noticed that the canoe was floating empty.
10:25As he pulled his brother's body from the water, he made a shocking discovery.
10:31He bore an unusual black mark across his chest.
10:39Marka negra.
10:40Yeah, exactly.
10:41So what did the hospital actually say?
10:43It's temblom.
10:45Temblom?
10:47Jack also seems to be describing an electric eel.
10:57People here are very clear that these black burn marks are the work of the temblom.
11:03But I'm finding it hard to believe that the electric eel's brief shocks could cause such terrible wounds.
11:10What creature lurks in water that can scorch human flesh?
11:25I'm in the northwest corner of the Amazon, investigating three mysterious deaths in three separate countries.
11:34So far, I've spoken with witnesses to attacks in Colombia and Peru.
11:40Both described finding the victim's body lifeless in the water, with a strange black mark across the torso.
11:48Was that almost like a bruise, like something hit him?
11:51No.
11:54The witnesses blame a fish they call the temblom.
11:59Not only is this a new name to me, but I've never heard of a fish capable of burning human skin.
12:06Did you actually see anything in the water yourself?
12:09But neither witness actually caught sight of the creature responsible.
12:18Still without a solid lead, I do what I know best, and get out onto the water, which has now receded from around the houses.
12:28What monsters could be hiding here?
12:32Things are strangely quiet in this oppressive heat.
12:36All I'm managing to attract are butterflies, lured in by the salt in my sweat.
12:43Plenty of activity above the water at the moment.
12:45I just wish the same was true, underneath the water.
12:56Could whatever's on my line, shed light on the stories I've been hearing?
13:02What was I saying?
13:05That's quite surprising.
13:10What's that?
13:11What's that?
13:12It's called a silver beam.
13:23I'm actually holding it quite firmly because on this fin here, there's a very, very sharp spine.
13:30And it's actually got backward-facing barbs coming down it as well.
13:35So if it wriggles and sticks that in you, it's actually pretty painful.
13:39This is a fish that can stab you, it can draw blood, but no way can this cause the wounds that I've been hearing about, those burn marks.
14:02It's a good sign, though.
14:03Something's starting to move.
14:04There's no shortage of Amazon fish that can inflict injury, from piranhas with their razor-sharp teeth, and catfish with their wicked spines, to venomous stingrays, and monsters with mouths big enough to swallow you whole.
14:22But the wounds being described are baffling.
14:27Nothing I've ever seen could cause those.
14:31With no witnesses to either actual attack, and having caught no potential suspects, I leave Peru and slip back into Portuguese-speaking Brazil, the third country in this trio of tragic deaths.
14:48There, I meet up with a fisherman named João, who dragged his lifeless friend from the water.
14:57Now, this is something that is consistent with those other two stories I heard.
15:07There were dark marks on the body, looking just like burn marks.
15:11Can you tell me what happened to me exactly what happened to you?
15:17First of all, it was on September 5th, the 5th of September.
15:24João and his friend made their way through the forest, to a lake they'd fished many times before.
15:32They'd already caught a lot of fish, but they decided to just fish a little bit more.
15:48It was a decision that would prove fatal.
15:52João is holding the net while his friend is actually paying it out.
15:59His body shook violently, as he disappeared below the water.
16:19Crucially though, João is the first of my witnesses to actually see the creature responsible.
16:25João says what he actually saw was something coming out of the water and wrapping around his friend's head.
16:33Scaring the creature off with his spear.
16:39João recovered the body of his friend.
16:41Now that is exactly the same as what in Colombia and Peru they call the temblan and what we know in English as the electric eel.
17:06It seems incredible, but I can't now dismiss these claims.
17:13João is a fisherman, and he says he saw with his own eyes an electric eel attacking his friend.
17:22I know from my previous investigations that they can not only kill humans, but large animals too.
17:28Their powerful shocks cause paralysis that can lead to drowning.
17:35They even have the power to induce a fatal heart attack.
17:41But an animal with the power to burn flesh seems impossible to me.
17:46Sensing my skepticism, João tells me of another case he's heard about and gives me directions to the medic who examine the victim's body.
17:57I waste no time and head straight to her clinic.
18:01Could she have the answers I need to explain the telltale marks scorched into the victim's skin?
18:07Dr. Desi reviews her old case notes.
18:20The body of an indigenous fisherman was brought to her clinic.
18:27On his chest and back were three stripes.
18:31She said it's almost as if a thick electric cable had been wound around the body.
18:40For an eel to wrap around a person three times, it would have to be significantly longer than any electric eel I've seen.
18:52Soon after birth, the eels develop electric organs running the length of the body, leaving little room for muscle.
19:00They can't wrap or coil around things like a snake can.
19:04Could the marks, in fact, be bruising?
19:10She says absolutely no doubt about it.
19:16This was a burn. It wasn't a bruise.
19:19On close inspection, it was almost as if it had been fried or toasted.
19:24I don't doubt that the wounds were burns.
19:27But everything I've learned about the eel's deadly weapon suggests brief, intense shocks, rather than the sustained power to fry flesh.
19:38Dr. Desi then shows me something I've never seen before, footage of an electric eel shocking and killing a caiman.
19:50I think what's going on here is this guy's actually, he's caught the electric eel on a line, that's the bait.
19:56Caiman looking very interested here, almost sort of hypnotized by it.
20:01Hey.
20:03And, right, the caiman's grabbed it by the neck.
20:06Instant effect, thrashing around, just like somebody grabbing an electric cable.
20:11This creature is completely overpowered.
20:19It's a terrifying sight.
20:21And if this eel's deadly shocks are capable of penetrating the thick reptilian armor of a caiman for such a long time,
20:29I'm left wondering whether the waters of the Amazon could be harboring an electric eel,
20:36unlike anything I've seen before.
20:38What does the Spanish word for electric eel, temblan, mean in English?
20:48Find out after this.
20:51The Spanish word temblan comes from the word meaning tremble or shake because it makes its victims convulse.
20:58I'm in Brazil, investigating three mysterious deaths.
21:10Each victim suffered strange burns to the torso.
21:15So far, I've doubted witnesses' claims that the electric eel could be responsible.
21:19But having just seen extraordinary footage of a caiman being shocked continuously for almost a minute,
21:31is it possible, as I've drastically underestimated what the electric eel is capable of?
21:37It's incredible, isn't it?
21:41For some stories, for example, the indigenous tupi...
21:44Dr. Desi says, if I really want to understand the electric eel, there's an indigenous tribe called the Matisse that I should visit.
21:53Instead of avoiding these creatures, they catch them to eat.
21:58Now, normally, these people, you know, they live very remote from here, not easy to talk to.
22:04But there's a guy, apparently called Bushi.
22:07He's from the Matisse tribe, and he lives, at the moment, he's in a town called Atalaya, which is only about 10 miles from here.
22:15Bushi may be my only chance of contacting this remote tribe.
22:19Bushi may be my only chance of getting the electric eel.
22:22Do they really eat electric eels?
22:25And if so, how do they avoid the deadly shocks during the catch?
22:32It's good, Jeremy.
22:33Are you five minutes to talk?
22:35Yes, I can talk.
22:37Sit there, Jeremy.
22:39I've heard you say that the Matisse does not have any fear of it.
22:43Is this right?
22:44That is the most tasty fish than for us.
22:48It's a favorite for the Matisse. It's good.
22:51That's interesting. He says, yep, we fish for it to eat it.
22:54He says it's actually our favorite fish to eat.
22:57Come away as a technique.
22:59First, you catch the furake, right?
23:02Then, you catch it with a knife, pull it with a hand.
23:06It's normal.
23:07With a hand, as well.
23:08With a hand, with a hand, as well.
23:10It's all the way.
23:12Right. This is interesting.
23:14They catch them by hand.
23:16A fish that strikes fear throughout the Amazon.
23:21A fish known to kill in seconds.
23:23The Matisse apparently catch with bare hands.
23:27That's something I need to see to believe.
23:30For me, it's a little incredible.
23:32How can I see the Matisse catching them?
23:36It's hard to enter our territory.
23:39Bushi is kind enough to consider my request,
23:42but says that his tribe lives 500 miles upriver,
23:46and that the journey cuts through the territory of aggressive, warring tribes.
23:50If that weren't enough, the rivers are getting low,
23:54making them hazardous to navigate.
23:57What he does say, though, is that if we can get there,
24:00this is the time of year.
24:01The water is low.
24:02This is when they fish for the electric eel.
24:07As we talk into the night, my excitement and apprehension grow.
24:12This must be one of my most ambitious and possibly most dangerous journeys yet.
24:19Even if Bushi can persuade the elders to allow my visit,
24:22I'll need a medical checkup immediately.
24:26The tribe was almost wiped out by disease when they were first contacted by outsiders,
24:31and they remain extremely wary.
24:34Vanessa is a nurse who's worked with numerous tribes in this part of the Amazon.
24:45She examines me thoroughly for any sign of infection.
24:48Even something as simple as a common cold could have disastrous consequences for the tribe.
24:55Yeah, that looks like a clean bill of health.
24:59No obvious signs of any infections that I might pass on,
25:04so okay for me to go and visit the Matisse.
25:09The water level is continuing to drop, exposing hazardous tree roots and rocks.
25:14There's no time to waste.
25:17I decide to leave at first light and head as far as the government base on the edge of the reserve.
25:24Where, I hope, permission will be waiting for me.
25:30Packing light is not an option.
25:33Everything for the arduous trip ahead must come with me and my camera crew.
25:37Just the barrels of fuel to get us there weigh in at well over a tonne.
25:42It's a long and tiring trip, but just a fraction of what might lie ahead.
25:48If Bushi's request for permissions has been denied,
25:52my journey and investigation are over.
25:57It's a big gamble, but with every hour I'm edging closer to the Matisse
26:02and their extraordinary knowledge of the electric eel.
26:05True to his word, Bushi has secured the permissions, but things are still far from certain.
26:17It's been a real mission just to get here, the boundary of the reserve.
26:22As we prepare to leave the safety of the base, I have no idea what to expect.
26:29Up river here, the only people there at the moment are indigenous tribes.
26:32In terms of outsiders, you're just talking occasional health workers and patrols by Funai themselves.
26:39A film crew, that's fairly unusual. This is going to be the first film crew to go to this particular village.
26:46Our passage will take us through the territories of warring tribes, never before contacted by outsiders.
26:57The danger is real and present. In the last 20 years, more than 100 agents of the Indian Protection Agency
27:04have lost their lives at the hands of indigenous tribes.
27:07We race the light to reach the safety of the village before nightfall.
27:15But our heavily loaded boats aren't travelling fast enough.
27:18Our driver is suggesting we ain't going to make it tonight.
27:26We've basically run out of daylight. The village apparently is not very far,
27:30but nobody knows exactly how far, and the thing is, it's going to be dark very soon.
27:34So rather than risking travelling at night, and particularly in hostile territories,
27:38we decided to just come in on this beach and camp, which is not an ideal situation.
27:46To have come so far, and to be so close, is incredibly frustrating.
27:51We prepare a simple camp, and I try to get some sleep.
27:54Yeah, this is no good. I can't. I can't actually sleep.
28:05Every noise and rustle in the rainforest reminds me just how remote we are.
28:11I don't even know if I was properly asleep or just dozing, but there was something.
28:17Our only deterrent against hostile tribes and wild predators is a small campfire.
28:24Sort of crashing sound, or crashing or splashing.
28:29So far, I've travelled for two days to see the Matisse and the electric eels,
28:33into a territory that few people would attempt to enter.
28:37I could have sworn I heard something.
28:39Right now, all I want to see is the daylight.
28:43After a sleepless night, I pushed deeper into the Brazilian Amazon,
28:59investigating a series of mysterious deaths, where the bodies were found with bizarre burn marks.
29:06Witnesses are blaming the electric eel.
29:09And in a bid to get closer to the truth, I've travelled for days to meet a secretive tribe,
29:17who have such an intimate knowledge of these fish, that they allegedly catch them with their bare hands.
29:23Finally, I'm nearing the village. Members of the tribe have gathered on the banks to greet me.
29:38I was going to say there was something of a welcoming committee here on the riverbank.
29:42That's what it looked like in the distance, but on arrival, there's certainly quite a subdued mood about things.
29:47There's tension as I approach the village chief.
29:56As Bushi introduces me, something is clearly wrong.
30:01I may not speak the language, but it's very clear that the chief is deeply distressed.
30:21Someone from the village has been taken ill and isn't expected to survive the night.
30:39He's actually quite apologetic. He said, look, normally we would greet you with some happiness,
30:45some celebration. It's his mother, actually, who is very ill at the moment. And he's saying that she
30:52could die literally at any time. So he has no time to devote to us. He is literally waiting for his mother to die.
31:15The tribe gathers in the community longhouse for a vigil.
31:24This is no place for an outsider.
31:36Bushi introduces me to Ivan, who agrees to take me up river with a family traveling to another village.
31:43Bushi, who agrees to take me up river with a village.
31:45All thoughts of the electric eel slip to the back of my mind as I prepare my gear.
31:56Ivan has agreed to fish with me, and I know this is some kind of test.
32:05With a simple stick for a rod, an old piece of line and a small hook, he casts out.
32:13And immediately has a fish on the end.
32:19Ah, that's not bad.
32:30Could I, too, have something on my first cast?
32:37That's a good slash fish.
32:37I'm in Brazil, living with the secretive Matisse tribe, fishing deeper into the rainforest than I've ever been before.
33:00Lured here by stories that they catch electric eels with their bare hands.
33:07It's a fish that witnesses claim can not only kill in seconds, but also burn human flesh.
33:14That's a good size fish.
33:19I'm hoping to earn the trust and respect of the tribe.
33:23And the best way to do that is to supply a meal.
33:26I've got that familiar trembling of the knees when you've got a good size fish on.
33:32I'm just going to loosen off the drag here.
33:35About to see it in a second, about to see it in a second.
33:38No, we're not.
33:39The thing about fish living in muddy water, you get them near the surface.
33:45And as soon as they're in the light, they detect the light and they kick and they go.
33:50There it is, there it is.
34:02That was first cast.
34:03The bait had been out a couple of minutes.
34:06And for a fish of this size to take that in that short a time is a real indication of what happens to these rivers
34:11when it is just low pressure subsistence fishing.
34:16This is very meaty.
34:17There's not very much in the way of bones here.
34:23Okay.
34:24Interesting.
34:25They don't really like these.
34:26They only eat these if they have to.
34:29This red-tailed catfish is a good catch.
34:32But it appears I'll need to try again if I'm to make a proper impression.
34:39So I'm going to leave the clicker on.
34:42Free spool.
34:45That's something.
34:47That's under a branch by the feel of it.
35:08It's a red-tailed.
35:09It's another red-tailed.
35:12So just gentle, gentle, gentle.
35:17The first time I came to the Amazon, I was several weeks fishing a river in a more populated area.
35:22I never saw anything the size of this.
35:25Nice size fish.
35:26It's a big fish.
35:27It's a big fish.
35:28It's a big fish.
35:29Two casts, two big fish.
35:31This is clearly a very special place where normal rules don't seem to apply.
35:37On my return, I learned from Bushi that I've been granted an audience with the village shaman.
35:48It's said he wields mysterious powers, including the ability to protect the hunters from the eel's deadly shocks.
35:56Inside the Molokka, a ceremony is underway.
36:05The shaman asks me to explain what it is I hope to learn here.
36:12If somebody from outside who's not Matisse, somebody like me, were to try this kind of fishing, what might happen?
36:17That was a surprisingly forceful reply.
36:26I absolutely don't recommend you try.
36:31The shock is very strong.
36:32That could burn your arm.
36:34It could even give you a heart attack.
36:37Clearly, they believe that the electric eel can kill and burn.
36:42But the shaman insists that the Matisse can resist their deadly powers.
36:46He then begins a strange ritual.
36:50Could this be the secret of their immunity?
36:57He burns two hardwood sticks in the fire.
37:03Pressing the glowing embers into the hunter's arms and picking the blistered flesh away
37:10before rubbing a mysterious paste into the raw wounds.
37:14It's a poison that comes from the skin of a certain frog.
37:17And the body's reaction to any poison, the first reaction is to empty the stomach.
37:21As the tribesmen vomit beside me, the link between this ritual and the supposed ability of the Matisse
37:30to handle the eels is unclear to me.
37:34But there has to be some good reason for undergoing what looks like a fairly unpleasant experience.
37:41They do say that what makes a good hunter is an empty stomach.
37:44Maybe there's some kind of link there. I don't know.
37:51But as the hunters go to recover, one thing is for sure.
37:58It appears that tomorrow I shall finally see with my own eyes
38:02whether this tribe can really handle the fish that's claimed to burn human flesh.
38:16The hunters rise early and, focused on their task, leave me struggling to keep up.
38:24Overnight rain has turned dust into mud.
38:26And I worry whether the water has risen, making it impossible to find an eel, let alone catch one.
38:35We're going to the other side of the river.
38:38Not straight across, apparently we're going a little way upstream.
38:41What a little way is, I don't know exactly.
38:44I suspect a little way could even be an hour.
38:47Such concepts start to lose meaning here.
38:50We make our way a little up river, before starting our trek into the jungle.
39:03I'm no stranger to dense tropical forest, but Ivan seems to slip through the undergrowth without effort.
39:10We're heading off the path now.
39:14We reach a pool, where the hunters employ their first eel-catching technique.
39:20They think that it's a wounded animal or something, apparently, this splashing sound.
39:25It's something that just gets their curiosity.
39:29They begin to take up their positions.
39:33When the water is just confined to small puzzles, that's when they tend to just grab one with their hands.
39:40The hunt moves into its next phase.
39:42A pregnant woman doing the splashing in the water.
39:46This is more reliable in terms of calling the electric eels.
39:49It seems improbable.
39:52But suddenly, all hell breaks loose.
39:56I'm hundreds of miles up the Amazon, on the hunt for the electric eel with the Matisse tribe.
40:16It's chaos as the hunters try to bring the fish into shallow water.
40:22All right, I'm now in the water.
40:24I struggle to get close.
40:26The eel writhes to get free.
40:30Finally, Bushi, the man who brought me here.
40:37I can see it, you can see it trembling, you can see it trembling.
40:40Holds a live electric eel in his bare hands.
40:43He's just holding that, he's holding it.
40:45I've seen what these fish are capable of.
40:48I'm not too comfortable being this close.
40:50He says it is shocking.
40:52This is the fish that is responsible for killing people.
40:58And according to others, actually burning their skin.
41:00But looking at Bushi now, no sign of any burns.
41:03He's been holding this now for several minutes.
41:06I'm left with two possible conclusions.
41:11Either the Matisse have special powers.
41:14Because they have this understanding that I don't completely follow, scientists don't
41:18completely follow.
41:19Or something else is responsible for the bizarre deaths.
41:25But this time, the Amazon isn't prepared to give up all her secrets just yet.
41:32And as long as there's mystery out here, I'll keep coming back.
41:41Want to catch a river monster of your own?
41:43I'll show you how at animalplanet.com slash rivermonsters.
41:49A
41:59little
42:06bit