- 7 months ago
River.Monsters.S06E06.Body.Snatcher
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:01My name is Jeremy Wade, monster hunter and fishing detective.
00:07I'm going to have to go for a swim.
00:10I'm in South America, spending an entire year going further...
00:15...and deeper...
00:17...than I've ever been before...
00:20...in search of freshwater killers.
00:25And from a forgotten forest north of the Amazon...
00:28...I've heard chilling reports.
00:32People are vanishing, their bodies never found.
00:39The disappearances are said to be the work of the same deadly culprit.
00:44The Water Mama.
00:46He's a spirit.
00:49Locals describe her as a deadly freshwater mermaid.
00:53Long hair and white people's skin.
00:56Who lures victims from the surface and drags them down into the depths.
01:02When they're gone, they'll never come back.
01:05Over the years I've learned that behind stories of fantastical beasts...
01:11...there's often a real flesh and blood creature.
01:14When I hear about people disappearing from the same small remote area of jungle...
01:21...you have my full attention.
01:23My hunt for the truth will send me deep into the most unexplored and deadly corner of South America.
01:29A killer freshwater siren may sound far-fetched.
01:36But there's no smoke without fire.
01:39And I'm hooked.
01:40I'm hooked.
01:54Around the world, legends tell of ships wrecked...
01:59...and sailors drowned.
02:00Lured by the irresistible beauty of mermaids.
02:05Half fish, half human.
02:10Mermaids have been reported for thousands of years...
02:13...from every ocean on the planet.
02:15Most sightings are believed to be cases of mistaken identity.
02:21Dolphins or manatees misidentified as mermaids...
02:25...by men who had spent too long on the high seas.
02:29Those tales are largely confined to history.
02:33But the Water Mama is different.
02:35This lethal body snatcher is said to live in fresh water...
02:39...and is terrorizing remote villages right now.
02:48The stories are coming from a remote river...
02:51...in the deep interior of South America's least explored country...
02:55...Guyana.
02:58The river is hidden beyond towering mountains...
03:01...and a vast, sprawling savannah.
03:03To get any further, I've got to hit the road.
03:18I'm not expecting to catch the Water Mama on a rod on line...
03:22...but I want to know what is pulling people into the river.
03:27For six hours, I follow the dusty track...
03:30...that cuts through the desolate landscape to the banks of the river.
03:37But when I reach the water, the mission ahead becomes far more daunting.
03:46This is a mesmerizing labyrinth of winding channels.
03:51More than 4,000 miles of waterways...
03:54...snaking through the largest unbroken rainforest on Earth.
03:57In fact, the word Guyana means land of many waters.
04:04I hire a boatman with a small dugout.
04:09But where do I start to look for a legend?
04:13These Guyanese waterways have to be...
04:16...some of the most unexplored anywhere in the world.
04:18And if there's anywhere that's going to surprise me...
04:22...with what lives underneath the surface...
04:25...then this place could be it.
04:31If I'm going to identify the creature responsible for the disappearances I've heard about...
04:36...I'll need to track down witnesses.
04:38Deep in the inhospitable interior, the jungle is broken only very occasionally...
04:52...by tiny pockets of habitation.
04:54So I'm relieved when I spot signs of life.
05:00Indigenous people have been fishing and farming here for centuries.
05:14But it's not often an outsider turns up unannounced...
05:21...asking uncomfortable questions about deaths and disappearances.
05:26I have to proceed with caution.
05:28I do have one thing on my side.
05:36In this former British colony, most of the population speak English.
05:44And I quickly confirm the scale of the disappearances.
05:48He just disappeared and nobody knows what happened.
05:52The brother gone on bed and then disappeared.
05:58The little girl just gone.
06:01Never come back.
06:04The accounts are disturbing.
06:06But none of the villagers I meet can give me tangible details to work with.
06:13Until I find a man called Lawrence...
06:17...who tells me about a chilling incident that happened close by.
06:21Oh, yes.
06:23A man and his two children, they were crossing a creek.
06:28But the daddy went before his children, right?
06:31Instead of sending his children in front.
06:33Suddenly, something was pulling them.
06:35It covered them with water.
06:37They're gone.
06:38They're gone.
06:39Never seen again.
06:40No, never seen again.
06:41He's gone.
06:42The distraught family summoned a shaman to identify the culprit.
06:43He had no doubt that this was the ruthless work of the water mama.
06:44The water mama.
06:45The water mama.
06:46The water mama.
06:47The water mama.
06:48The water mama.
06:49The water mama.
06:50The water mama.
06:52I'm told that the people, they were building it.
06:54The water mama and the water.
06:55It's too many people.
06:57It covered them with water.
06:58It's too many people.
06:59of god the distraught family summoned a shaman to identify the culprit he had no doubt that this was
07:07the ruthless work of the water i'm told that the children disappeared from a place not far from the
07:19village so that's where i'm starting my search for their killer yeah that's looking good what
07:28i'm looking for is said to be able to take out a human being so i'm going to need pretty serious
07:34gear but this fits the bill this is basically a variation on what i've used to catch some of the
07:41biggest fish i've ever caught the light is fading but that could work in my favor many predators
07:48become more active under cover of darkness
07:58i don't have to wait long something big has taken my bait
08:07and it's not going to come in without a fight this thing is definitely a river monster
08:14i'm in guyana in search of the river monster responsible for strange disappearances in these
08:30waters people are blaming a predatory body snatching mermaid called the water mama
08:36and casting my line into the heart of the attack zone i've hooked into something big
08:46this is an interesting size fish i've been struggling with it for what seems like an age
08:53but the fish shows little sign of tiring we're very strong lunges
08:59but finally i managed to haul it out of the gloom and into sight look at that
09:12this is what they call a banana catfish here uh after the yellowish coloration on the belly
09:18i know it more as a pirarara or a redtail catfish and this is a pretty monstrous one
09:23they actually fear this fish in parts of brazil they say it takes young children
09:29maybe this is responsible for causing disappearances in this river
09:37they don't have big biting teeth but they do have pads that feel like cloth sandpaper
09:43a fish like this could certainly drag a child to its death
09:53but that's where any similarities with the water mama end
10:02red tails are bottom dwelling fish that stay hidden beneath the surface
10:09so i'm not sure how they could have inspired the legend of a creature that's normally spotted coming up
10:15out of the water
10:21i need more information about the deadly water spirit
10:27i'm told of a more recent fatal attack that the whole community agrees is the work of the water mama
10:36the victim's widow lives in a village upstream
10:39if i can track her down perhaps she'll be able to give me some clues about the identity of her husband's attacker
10:53news of my arrival travels fast through the small community
10:59so by the time i get to the widow's house she's waiting for me
11:03and ready to talk can you tell me what happened to your husband
11:14my husband was lost as soon as he was disappeared going by going up the river
11:24he'd made this journey many times before
11:27i was waiting for him i spent one day next day nobody
11:36they found the boat now somewhere down the river
11:42inside the boat was an eerie reminder of her husband
11:47the clothes he was wearing when he left
11:50his jersey was right on the in the boat
11:59the pants was well folded and his fishing line everything was really
12:07everything except a body
12:11but the cast off clothes tell me that whatever took him didn't pull him from his boat
12:16it waited until he was in the water
12:21before it struck
12:24his grieving widow has no doubt about what did it
12:28i believe that water mama
12:37some one of them more missing care here
12:39what does the water mama look like they are people
12:50when they have like a fish they live
12:54and they have long hair
12:56and what color white people white people skin
13:10but with no actual witnesses i need to rule out any other possible explanations
13:15no sign of any fight
13:16what's the water like there is it is it rough is it deep
13:31no there's no way you could say he drowned or we got big water so the the water was very sharp
13:39i need to piece together the evidence i've heard to figure out how this man met his untimely end
13:50very puzzling indeed this particular disappearance a canoe floating down the river with nobody in it
13:56but this pile of clothes no sign of any scuffle any disturbance which seems to rule out foul play
14:03um the water there um shallow calm which seems to rule out drowning
14:11my guess is that he probably took off his clothes to get in the water just to cool off but
14:17what happened then
14:22the most notorious killers in these waters are the south american relatives
14:28of alligators and crocodiles caimans
14:33but the widow is convinced that this was not the work of a reptile
14:39caimans rarely stray far from their home territory and they regularly have to surface to breathe
14:48a search party trawled the entire area for many days
14:53if there was a caiman here large enough to kill a man somebody would have spotted it
14:58as i'm leaving i pick up an important new clue
15:06the widow tells me that her husband went missing at exactly this time of year december
15:14many river creatures movements are seasonal and timing can be everything
15:18being here now in the right place at the right time improves my chances of catching the culprit
15:30i head to the scene of the crime the stretcher river where her husband's empty boat was found
15:36this is exactly the kind of place where a predator would live as a narrowing of the bank creating a
15:44push of current on either side of the push you've got turning water and a little bit of slack and it's
15:50the kind of place where anything that's floating down the river a dead animal anything at all is going to
15:57settle so if i put a bait out there's a very good chance that a lurking carnivore will find it
16:09and my first cast okay proves that my gut instinct for predator behavior is right on target
16:18which well-known explorer believed he saw mermaids the answer right after this
16:34the explorer who believed he saw three mermaids on his voyage to the americas was christopher columbus
16:40i'm in guyana exploring the legend of the water mama i'm investigating the most recent case
16:54a man who disappeared from this river without a trace
17:03that's that's something that's something is it going to stay on
17:06and at the scene of the crime something has quickly taken my bait deep bodied something in the
17:14water deep bodied it's a piranha a black piranha the largest of the piranha species
17:23and a voracious predator
17:27although they can take chunks out of flesh
17:30and even sever bone i don't believe that they would be capable of taking down a man
17:39the piranha certainly could be among the creatures that would dispose of the evidence
17:45once the deed has been done
17:48the question is what did the deed
17:53i continue fishing in search of other predators
17:56but insatiable piranhas keep stealing my bait
18:02i might have more luck after dark when these ravenous flesh eaters are less active
18:12back at the village i find a woman who believes she had a narrow escape from a water mama
18:17when she was a child
18:19when i was like probably seven eight years
18:26my father took myself and my brother he was shooting fish
18:35so he said you children stay here
18:43suddenly the water erupted in front of them
18:49this water come very high
18:53and the children ran for their lives
19:02she believes it was a leaping water mama
19:06is a spirit
19:10and it happened to many people they see things like mormons
19:14people used to like disappear
19:17they never come back where is this place
19:19it is a big leak so this isn't part of the river this is a lake
19:23this is a leak yeah
19:25this chance clue is a game changer
19:28it dramatically cuts down the suspect list
19:34if the water mama is seen in lakes as well as rivers
19:37then logically the creature i'm looking for must be found in both places too
19:45and there are very very few river monsters that fit the bill
19:48i've already dismissed caimans and piranhas
19:56the only other dangerous animal i know that crosses between the two habitats
20:00is an old adversary of mine a real amazonian heavyweight
20:08the arapaima
20:12arapaima may not have the teeth of predators like piranhas
20:15but they've got unmatched size and power
20:20as i know all too well
20:24i've been to a couple of arapaima farms in brazil
20:27and on one unforgettable occasion i was attempting to trap arapaima
20:35when one erupted from the net and slammed me in the chest
20:43this is the arapaima's mo
20:46they're normally harmless to people but if cornered by a net or on a line
20:56they can suddenly transform into giant deadly missiles
21:01hundreds of pounds of muscle and bone launches into the air
21:06and if you happen to be in its path the blow could kill you
21:09there are certainly echoes of this river monster within the stories i've heard
21:18we just see the water bubbling
21:23they have like a fish daily they have white people's skin
21:30this water come very high
21:32but in 20 years of fishing in south america the arapaima injuries i've heard of
21:42all happen to people who are actively trying to catch them
21:48so if arapaima here are attacking people seemingly unprovoked
21:53i need to find out why they've become so aggressive
22:02i've got to catch one of these elusive giants
22:07to increase my chances i seek out local fishermen
22:11eventually i find a man who says he knows a place where arapaima lurk
22:17and he's willing to take me there
22:19arapaima have a very particular habit they build underwater nests hollows in the lake bed
22:36or river bed for laying their eggs
22:41and that's what he's brought me to see
22:44so i can if i walk out here i can maybe find the nest i can see it
22:47yes but you have to be careful it'll be very dangerous
22:52this might be a risky mission
22:55but it could help me discover whether there's anything unusual about guyana's arapaima
23:03doesn't look very deep the water but there's about
23:07a foot or 18 inches of mud
23:11under that before i come to anything firm
23:13i've got a stick to test the depth and i'm hoping to find any lurking creatures before they
23:23find me i've not seen any caimans in this lake but um
23:30what they say about crocodiles is it's the crocodiles you can't see they're the ones you're going to worry about
23:41that was something in the weeds gave me quite a start
23:53i may have excluded caimans from my hunt but that doesn't mean they've excluded me from theirs
24:11i'm in guyana in search of the real life river monster lurking behind the legend of the water mama
24:29and i've just stumbled into the underwater nest of my prime suspect i think i found it
24:41this nest with its steep sloping sides is a clear signature of an arapaima
24:47there's a definite dip falling off very suddenly but it's a lot larger than any i've ever seen
24:55or heard of before and i'm still in it i'm still in it and it's coming up here sort of clayey the bottom and there's a slope
25:07there's a slope there's a slope i'm coming up i'm coming up that's big that's big it's a crater
25:18the fish that created this must have been an absolute giant
25:26perhaps this nest is the explanation for the seemingly unprovoked attacks
25:31when i investigated the case of swimmers mauled by large wells catfish in germany
25:40i discovered that the fish only became aggressive when people strayed too close to their nests
25:49perhaps this is what happened here might these people have been the victims not of the water mama
25:55but of a giant mama arapaima defending its nest
26:09and back at the village i uncover a story that confirms my suspicions
26:18winston watched helplessly as a nesting arapaima attacked his friend
26:24all the time i was seen my arapaima just turning around protecting the young
26:31a friend of mine went into the water there comes a fish one big thing here and then he fell back
26:39fish knocked him over yeah he gets a good hit just below his knee he was lucky he was in a shallow
26:45place you know but if it wasn't like in three to four feet well i think he was dead
26:52you're gonna be killed by fish they are protecting their eggs they become a monster
27:00this is the first time i've ever heard of an arapaima attack like this
27:06this fish was not trying to escape a fishing net it was actively targeting a person
27:13perhaps the same thing happened to the woman's husband
27:25it seems to add up as well as in lakes arapaima sometimes nest in calm shallow sections of the river
27:33just the kind of places where the attacks i've heard about happened
27:37and the size of the nest i found suggests there are giants out there can't be that big can't be
27:48to prove my theory i have to catch an arapaima big enough to kill a man
27:55but there's a problem all over the continent arapaima were hunted so close to extinction
28:01that here in guyana fishing for them has been banned the only person who might be able to help me
28:09is the chief
28:10i'm told that in exceptional circumstances he can grant permission to fish for arapaima
28:21you must remember what i am telling you now right
28:23he's willing to allow me to fish under a very strict condition before you go wrong before you
28:33misunderstand what i'm telling you i repeat again to you that no net no bait hooks no arrow
28:43but this type of hook you will use fly yeah fly to fly fish that doesn't destroy the fish
28:53and it's easy to take out from the lip so that's the only way
28:59this is something i've never attempted before
29:03i happen to have some fly fishing gear with me
29:06but i didn't think i'd be trying to catch anything as big as an arapaima with it
29:13right what kind of fly is going to tempt an arapaima well what most people understand by fly fishing is
29:22using something that actually looks like a fly but some flies so-called actually it's not an insect
29:29they're mimicking it is a small fish so something like that pulled through the water does actually
29:34look like a very lifelike little fish but i need to make something even bigger that an arapaima might
29:41mistake for food to cast this fly i have to use a fly rod but the necessary flexibility comes at the
29:52price of power fly fishing is normally a method for small fish now you can land very big fish on light
30:01gear but in order to do that you need generally nice open water so you just let the fish swim back
30:07some floors tire itself out there you go these lakes here they are just full of fallen trees and all
30:14manner of snags letting a fish swim around it's just gonna go through all that kind of stuff the line's
30:21gonna break i just don't see how it's going to work but i have no other choice i find a fisherman
30:34willing to take me to the lakes which are cut off from the river and concealed in the forest
30:39at this time of year that's where i'll have the best chance of catching a giant arapaima are built for
30:51explosive bursts of speed over a short distance they can reach just about the same speed that i'm traveling
30:57now so if i was to hit something now that would feel about the same as being hit by an angry arapaima
31:10arapaima don't have teeth that could devour a human but if one delivered a killer blow
31:17there's no shortage of ravenous flesh eaters here to ensure no trace would be found
31:22it's time to start checking out lakes
31:42we go into stealth mode silently scanning the surface for the telltale signs of arapaima
31:53like the mermaids of mythology arapaima have an unfish-like need to come to the surface to breathe air
32:04i study every ripple trying to figure out what's causing each one
32:09oh that is a fish that is a fish a splash like that is what i'm looking for
32:22but my first cast confirms that this is going to be even harder than i thought
32:27the time frame that you're talking about with arapaima you're talking seconds the fish will rise it's going
32:32in a certain direction and you almost need to continue that trajectory in your head throw the
32:38fly out start to retrieve and the idea is is the fly intercepts the path of the fish
32:44the chief gave me strict instructions i'm not permitted to use heavy gear or bait on this fish
32:52but the more time i spend trying the more unlikely it seems that this technique will work
33:10well normally i wouldn't hesitate too much about fishing into the night but it's not an option here
33:15fly fishing of course it's all about seeing where the fish are at night you can't
33:19do that and you can't be flashing lights around or anything so basically time for me to get some
33:25sleep and out here again tomorrow as the days go by i fish from dawn to dusk
33:49get him yeah yeah it's on it's on it's on it's on
34:19my search for a real river monster behind the body snatching spirit called the water mama
34:29has brought me to a hidden lake i believe a giant arapaima could be responsible for some of the
34:36disappearances and i finally got a bite
34:49not only is this my first arapaima on a fly but from the weight on the line it also feels like the
34:55the biggest one i've ever hooked
35:02all right
35:05i've never tried to bring in a fish this size
35:07the fish is on such delicate gear and just as i think it's tiring
35:13the beast is gone
35:23the hook can't have been that well in
35:34as the fish jumped and shook its head it released the pressure on the line for a fraction of a
35:40second and the hook didn't hold so i saw an arapaima half out of the water very very briefly
35:48and then it was gone so next time i've just got to do the same again but keep it on and get it in
36:03after all the commotion no other fish are going to be hanging around
36:07i'm told there's one more place we can try but it's a lot farther from the river and buried in exceptionally dense jungle
36:37so
36:51It's starting to rain.
37:09I'm hoping it's the cue the fish have been waiting for.
37:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:21It's the fish?
37:39But can I keep it on my line?
37:43It's going to jump.
37:46Coming up again.
37:48Whoa.
37:49Is this a fish?
37:58On a remote lake in Guyana, I've just hooked a supersized arapaima on a fly.
38:06This is a large fish.
38:08But I'm feeling massively undergunned.
38:10It's coming.
38:11All I have to pull in this giant is a thin rod and a wobbly canoe.
38:18That's the fish there.
38:22I'm trying to stop the fish coming to the surface.
38:26If it jumps, it could spit out the hook.
38:29But it seems the fish is calling the shots.
38:41Heavy fish, heavy fish, heavy fish.
38:45A rod in a painful curve, painful curve.
38:48As the fish comes closer, the danger becomes very real.
39:00If it jumps in our direction, the results could be deadly.
39:05Coming up, it's coming up, it's coming up.
39:07It's going to jump, it's going to jump, it's going to jump, it's going to jump.
39:09This is a lot bigger than any arapaima I've caught before.
39:21I need to get it into the shallows.
39:26In a bit more, please.
39:27This fish weighs at least 250 pounds.
39:47Keep holding.
39:48There's a line.
39:57Look at this.
40:03Arapaima on a fly.
40:04This thing.
40:07It's actually, I was going to say, it's built like a missile.
40:10This is a tired fish, believe it or not.
40:11Two of us can hardly restrain it.
40:15It is just, doesn't it look like a missile?
40:18Long, streamlined body.
40:20I think about three times the size of the one that hit me.
40:23Sent me flying, left me in pain for over a month.
40:26If this thing came flying at you, hit you in the right place,
40:30shall we say the wrong place, you wouldn't know about it.
40:32Just a final flashing, fleeting moment and then lights out for good.
40:40I think that's a strong fish.
40:43This is the biggest fish of my South American fishing career.
40:49A river monster as deadly as any beast of folklore.
40:52And if you caught a glimpse of something this size, colour and shape appearing on the edge
41:00of your vision, your mind could fill in the gaps.
41:06Here in Guyana, where legends of mermaids pervade local beliefs, you might think that you've seen
41:13the water mama.
41:14But one thing's for sure.
41:18There are arapaima here so massive, they could easily deliver a fatal blow.
41:25And if that happened, the river's scavengers would quickly clear away every last shred of evidence.
41:33Except perhaps, a tidy pile of clothes.
41:38But one thing's for sure is fully