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Documentary, River Monsters S06E06 Body Snatcher
#RiverMonsters #Documentary
#RiverMonsters #Documentary
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AnimalsTranscript
00:01My name is Jeremy Wade, monster hunter and fishing detective.
00:06I'm going to have to go for a swim.
00:09I'm in South America, spending an entire year going further and deeper than I've ever been before,
00:19in search of freshwater killers.
00:25And from a forgotten forest north of the Amazon, 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, the 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.
01:06Over the years, I've learned that behind stories of fantastical beasts, there's often a real flesh and blood creature.
01:14When I hear about people disappearing from the same small remote area of jungle, 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.
01:30A killer freshwater siren may sound far-fetched, but there's no smoke without fire.
01:39And I'm hooked.
01:41Around the world, legends tell of ships wrecked and sailors drowned, lured by the irresistible beauty of mermaids.
02:06Half fish, half human, mermaids have been reported for thousands of years from every ocean on the planet.
02:18Most sightings are believed to be cases of mistaken identity.
02:21Dolphins or manatees misidentified as mermaids by men who had spent too long on the high seas.
02:29Those tales are largely confined to history, but the water merma is different.
02:35This lethal body snatcher is said to live in fresh water and is terrorizing remote villages right now.
02:43The stories are coming from a remote river in the deep interior of South America's least explored country, Guyana.
02:56The river is hidden beyond towering mountains and a vast, sprawling savannah.
03:07To get any further, I've got to hit the road.
03:10I'm not expecting to catch the water merma on a rod on line, but I want to know what is pulling people into the river.
03:25For six hours, I follow the dusty track that cuts through the desolate landscape to the banks of the river.
03:36But when I reach the water, the mission ahead becomes far more daunting.
03:42This is a mesmerizing labyrinth of winding channels.
03:51More than 4,000 miles of waterways snaking through the largest unbroken rainforest on earth.
04:01In fact, the word Guyana means land of many waters.
04:05I hire a boatman with a small dugout.
04:10But where do I start to look for a legend?
04:14These Guyanese waterways have to be some of the most unexplored anywhere in the world.
04:20And if there's anywhere that's going to surprise me with what lives underneath the surface, then this place could be it.
04:27If I'm going to identify the creature responsible for the disappearances I've heard about, I'll need to track down witnesses.
04:46Deep in the inhospitable interior, the jungle is broken only very occasionally, by tiny pockets of habitation.
04:57So I'm relieved when I spot signs of life.
05:11Indigenous people have been fishing and farming here for centuries.
05:18But it's not often an outsider turns up unannounced, asking uncomfortable questions about deaths and disappearances.
05:25I have to proceed with caution.
05:35I do have one thing on my side.
05:37In 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.
05:50The brother gone on bed and then disappeared.
05:51The little girl just gone, never come back.
06:04The accounts are disturbing, but none of the villagers I meet can give me tangible details to work with.
06:10Until I find a man called Lawrence, who tells me about a chilling incident that happened close by.
06:20Oh, yes. A man and his two children, they were crossing a creek.
06:25But the daddy went before his children, right? Instead of sending his children in front.
06:42Suddenly, something was pulling them.
06:46It covered them with water.
06:48They're gone.
06:49I've never seen again.
06:50No, I've never seen again.
06:51He's gone.
06:52The distraught family summoned a shaman to identify the culprit.
07:05He had no doubt that this was the ruthless work of the water mama.
07:09I'm told that the children disappeared from a place not far from the village.
07:21So that's where I'm starting my search for their killer.
07:26Yeah, that's looking good.
07:28What I'm looking for is said to be able to take out a human being.
07:32So I'm going to need pretty serious gear.
07:35But this fits the bill.
07:36This is basically a variation on what I've used to catch some of the biggest fish I've ever caught.
07:43The light is fading, but that could work in my favor.
07:47Many predators become more active under cover of darkness.
07:51I don't have to wait long.
08:03Something big has taken my bait.
08:06And it's not going to come in without a fight.
08:10This thing is definitely a river monster.
08:21I'm in Guyana in search of the river monster responsible for strange disappearances in these waters.
08:31People are blaming a predatory body snatching mermaid called the water mama.
08:38And casting my line into the heart of the attack zone.
08:42I've hooked in to something big.
08:46This is an interesting sized fish.
08:49I've been struggling with it for what seems like an age.
08:54But the fish shows little sign of tiring.
08:57What a very strong lunges.
09:01But finally I managed to haul it out of the gloom.
09:05And into sight.
09:07Look at that.
09:12This is what they call a banana catfish here.
09:15After the yellowish coloration on the belly.
09:17I know it more as a pirarara or a red-tailed catfish.
09:22And this is a pretty monstrous one.
09:24They actually fear this fish in parts of Brazil.
09:26They say it takes young children.
09:28Maybe this is responsible for causing disappearances in this river.
09:33They don't have big biting teeth but they do have pads that feel like coarse sandpaper.
09:43A fish like this could certainly drag a child to its death.
09:48But that's where any similarities with the water mama end.
09:59Red-tails are bottom-dwelling fish that stay hidden beneath the surface.
10:03So I'm not sure how they could have inspired the legend of a creature that's normally spotted coming up, out of the water.
10:17I need more information about the deadly water spirit.
10:24I'm told of a more recent fatal attack that the whole community agrees is the work of the water mama.
10:32The 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.
10:48News 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 and ready to talk.
11:06Can you tell me what happened to your husband?
11:09My husband was lost as if he was disappeared by going up the river.
11:24He'd made this journey many times before.
11:30I was waiting for him. I spent one day next day.
11:34Nobody.
11:35They found the boat now.
11:39Somewhere down the river.
11:42Inside the boat was an eerie reminder of her husband.
11:47The clothes he was wearing when he left.
11:51His jersey was right on the, in the boat.
11:59The pants was well folded and his fishing line, everything was right there.
12:06Everything except a body.
12:11But the cast off clothes tell me that whatever took him didn't pull him from his boat.
12:18It waited until he was in the water before it struck.
12:24His grieving widow has no doubt about what did it.
12:28But I believe that the water mama has took him away.
12:37Some one of them are more missing here here.
12:39What does the water mama look like?
12:40They are people.
12:42And they have, like a fish till you live.
12:45And they have long hair.
12:47And what colour?
12:48White people, white people's skin.
12:49But with no actual witnesses, I need to rule out any other possible explanations.
13:02No sign of any fight?
13:03No.
13:04No.
13:05No.
13:06No.
13:07No.
13:08No.
13:09No.
13:10No.
13:11No.
13:12He gone so peacefully.
13:13The pants just nice, pulled it off.
13:14No, like blood or not, not, not a sign.
13:15What's the water like there?
13:16Is it rough?
13:17Is it deep?
13:18No.
13:19There's no way you could say he drowned or he got deep water or so the water was barely
13:42I 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.
13:53A canoe floating down the river with nobody in it but this pile of clothes.
13:58No sign of any scuffle, any disturbance, which seems to rule out foul play.
14:04The water there, shallow, calm, which seems to rule out drowning.
14:09My guess is that he probably took off his clothes to get in the water just to cool off, but what happened then?
14:21The most notorious killers in these waters are the South American relatives of 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.
15:27I 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.
15:42There's a narrowing of the bank, creating a push of current.
15:45On either side of the push, you've got turning water and a little bit of slack.
15:50And it's the kind of place where anything that's floating down the river, a dead animal, anything at all, is going to settle.
15:57So if I put a bait out, there's a very good chance that a lurking carnivore will find it.
16:09And my first cast proves that my gut instinct for predator behavior is right on target.
16:20That's something, that's something.
16:22Which well-known explorer believed he saw mermaids?
16:28The answer, right after this.
16:33The explorer who believed he saw three mermaids on his voyage to the Americas was Christopher Columbus.
16:45I'm in Guyana, exploring the legend of the water mama.
16:50I'm investigating the most recent case.
16:54A man who disappeared from this river without a trace.
17:03That's something, that's something. Is it going to stay on?
17:07And at the scene of the crime, something has quickly taken my bait.
17:12Deep bodied, something in the water deep bodied.
17:16It's a piranha.
17:17A black piranha, the largest of the piranha species, and a voracious predator.
17:27Although they can take chunks out of flesh, and even sever bone,
17:35I don't believe that they would be capable of taking down a man.
17:39But piranha certainly could be among the creatures that would dispose of the evidence, once the deed has been done.
17:48The question is, what did the deed?
17:51I continue fishing in search of other predators, but insatiable piranhas keep stealing my bait.
18:02I might have more luck after dark, when these ravenous flesh eaters are less active.
18:07Back at the village, I find a woman who believes she had a narrow escape from a water mama, when she was a child.
18:19And when I was like, probably seven, eight years, my father took myself and my brother.
18:30He was shooting fish.
18:31So he said, you children, stay here.
18:43Suddenly, the water erupted in front of them.
18:49This water come very high.
18:51And the children ran for their lives.
19:02She believes it was a leaping water mama.
19:06It's a spirit.
19:10And it happened to many people.
19:12They see things like mormons.
19:14People used to, like, disappear.
19:17They never come back.
19:19Where is this place?
19:20It's a big lake.
19:21So this isn't part of the river, this is a lake?
19:23This is a lake, 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,
19:38then logically the creature I'm looking for must be found in both places too.
19:44And there are very, very few river monsters that fit the bill.
19:51I've already dismissed caimans and piranhas.
19:55The only other dangerous animal I know that crosses between the two habitats is an old adversary of mine.
20:04A real Amazonian heavyweight.
20:06The arapaima, the arapaima, the arapaima may not have the teeth of predators like piranhas, but they've got unmatched size and power, as I know all too well.
20:22I've been to a couple of arapaima farms in Brazil, and on one unforgettable occasion, I was attempting to trap arapaima.
20:33When one erupted from the net and slammed me in the chest.
20:43This is the arapaima's M.O.
20:46They're normally harmless to people, but if cornered by a net, or on a line, they can suddenly transform into giant, deadly missiles.
21:02Hundreds of pounds of muscle and bone launches into the air, and if you happen to be in its path, the blow could kill you.
21:10There are certainly echoes of this river monster within the stories I've heard.
21:17Because of the water bubbling, they have like a fish daily, they have white people's skin.
21:30This water comes very high.
21:32But in 20 years of fishing in South America, the arapaima injuries I've heard of, all happened to people who were actively trying to catch them.
21:47So if arapaima here are attacking people, seemingly unprovoked, I 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.
22:28Arapaima have a very particular habit.
22:30But they build underwater nests.
22:34Hollows in the lake bed or river bed for laying their eggs.
22:41And that's what he's brought me to see.
22:44So if I walk out here, I can maybe find the nest, I can see it?
22:47Yes, but you have to be careful. It's very dangerous.
22:52This might be a risky mission.
22:53But it could help me discover whether there's anything unusual about Guyana's arapaima.
23:03It doesn't look very deep, the water, but there's about a foot or 18 inches of mud under 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 find me.
23:24I've not seen any caimans in this lake, but what they say about crocodiles is it's the crocodiles you can't see, but the ones you've got to worry about.
23:35Oh, that was something in the weeds.
23:47It 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.
24:01I'm in Guyana, in search of the real-life river monster lurking behind the legend of the water monk.
24:29And I've just stumbled into the underwater nest of my prime suspect.
24:37I think I found it.
24:41This nest, with its steep sloping sides, is a clear signature of an arapaima.
24:49There's a definite dip falling off very suddenly.
24:53But it's a lot larger than any I've ever seen or heard of before.
24:57And I'm still in it.
24:59I'm still in it.
25:01And it's coming up here.
25:05It's sort of clay-y, the bottom.
25:07And there's a slope.
25:09There's a slope.
25:10And I'm coming up.
25:11I'm coming up.
25:13That's big.
25:14That's big.
25:15It's a crater.
25:16The fish that created this must have been an absolute giant.
25:26Perhaps this nest is the explanation for the seemingly unprovoked attacks.
25:32When I investigated the case of swimmers mauled by large wells catfish in Germany, I discovered
25:40that the fish only became aggressive when people strayed too close to their nests.
25:49Perhaps this is what happened here.
25:52Might these people have been the victims not of the water mama, but of a giant mama arapaima
25:59defending its nest.
26:08And back at the village, I uncover a story that confirms my suspicions.
26:18Winston watched helplessly as a nesting arapaima attacked his friend.
26:23All the time I was seen by arapaima, just thorning around, protecting the young.
26:31A friend of mine went into the water.
26:34There comes a fish.
26:35One big thing here, and then he fell back.
26:39The fish knocked him over?
26:40Yeah.
26:41He got a good hit.
26:42Just below his knee.
26:44He was lucky.
26:45He was in a shallow place, you know.
26:46But if it was in, like, three to four feet, well, I think he would have been dead.
26:52He would have been dead.
26:54He would have been killed by fish.
26:56They are protecting their eggs.
26:58They 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.
27:09It was actively targeting a person.
27:17Perhaps the same thing happened to the woman's husband.
27:24It seems to add up.
27:27As 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.
27:39And the size of the nest I found suggests there are giants out there.
27:45It can't be that big.
27:46It can't be.
27:47To prove my theory, I have to catch an arapaima big enough to kill a man.
27:54But there's a problem.
27:57All over the continent, arapaima were hunted so close to extinction that here in Guyana,
28:02fishing for them has been banned.
28:04The only person who might be able to help me is the chief.
28:14I'm told that in exceptional circumstances, he can grant permission to fish for arapaima.
28:20You must remember what I am telling you now, right?
28:23He's willing to allow me to fish under a very strict condition.
28:29Before you go wrong, before you misunderstand what I'm telling you,
28:35I repeat again to you that no net, no bait hooks, no arrow,
28:43but this type of hook you will use.
28:48Fly?
28:48Yeah, fly.
28:49Fly fish.
28:51That doesn't destroy the fish.
28:53It's easy to take out from the lip.
28:56So that's the only way.
28:57This 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?
29:19Well, what most people understand by fly fishing is using something that actually looks like a fly,
29:25but some flies, so-called, actually, it's not an insect they're mimicking, it is a small fish,
29:31so something like that pulled through the water does actually look like a very lifelike little fish.
29:37But I need to make something even bigger that an arapaima might mistake for food.
29:45To cast this fly, I have to use a fly rod.
29:49But the necessary flexibility comes at the price of power.
29:54Fly fishing is normally a method for small fish.
29:57Now, you can land very big fish on light gear,
30:01but in order to do that, you need generally nice open water,
30:05so you can just let the fish swim back to some of the water, tire itself out, there you go.
30:10These lakes here, they are just full of fallen trees and all manner of snags.
30:15Letting a fish swim around is just going to go through all that kind of stuff.
30:21The line's going to break.
30:23I just don't see how it's going to work.
30:25But I have no other choice.
30:33I find a fisherman willing 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.
30:49Arapaima are built for explosive bursts of speed.
30:53Over a short distance, they can reach just about the same speed that I'm travelling now.
30:58So 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,
31:13but if one delivered a killer blow,
31:16there's no shortage of ravenous flesh-eaters here to ensure no trace would be found.
31:22It's time to start checking out lakes.
31:41We go into stealth mode,
31:44silently scanning the surface for the tell-tale signs of arapaima.
31:52Like the mermaids of mythology,
31:55arapaima have an unfish-like need to come to the surface to breathe air.
32:04I study every ripple,
32:06trying to figure out what's causing each one.
32:13Oh, that is a fish, that is a fish.
32:15A splash like that is what I'm looking for.
32:20Ah!
32:21But 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,
32:29you're talking seconds.
32:30The fish will rise, it's going in a certain direction,
32:33and you almost need to continue that trajectory in your head,
32:38throw the fly out, start to retrieve,
32:40and the idea is that the fly intercepts the path of the fish.
32:44The chief gave me strict instructions.
32:47I'm not permitted to use heavy gear or bait on this fish.
32:52But the more time I spend trying,
32:59the more unlikely it seems that this technique will work.
33:10Well, normally I wouldn't hesitate too much about fishing into the night,
33:13but it's not an option here.
33:15Fly fishing, of course,
33:16it's all about seeing where the fish are at night.
33:18You can't do that,
33:20and you can't be flashing lights around or anything.
33:22So, basically time for me to get some sleep,
33:25and out here again tomorrow.
33:34As the days go by,
33:35I fish from dawn to dusk.
33:37But I've got no bites to show for it.
34:07My search for a real river monster behind the body-snatching spirit called the Watermama
34:29has brought me to a hidden lake.
34:32I believe a giant arapaima could be responsible for some of the disappearances.
34:37And I've finally got a bite.
34:49Not only is this my first arapaima on a fly,
34:53but from the weight on the line,
34:54it also feels like the biggest one I've ever hooked.
35:05I've never tried to bring in a fish this size,
35:07on such delicate gear.
35:11And just as I think it's tiring,
35:16the beast is gone.
35:17The hook can't have been that well in.
35:31The hook can't have been that well in.
35:34As the fish jumped and shook its head,
35:37it released the pressure on the line for a fraction of a second.
35:40And the hook didn't hold.
35:43So I saw an arapaima half out of the water very, very briefly.
35:50And then it was gone.
35:51So next time, I've just got to do the same again, but keep it on and get it in.
35:59After all the commotion, no other fish are going to be hanging around.
36:10I'm told there's one more place we can try,
36:12but it's a lot farther from the river,
36:14and buried in exceptionally dense jungle.
36:16This jungle set,
36:22and let's just hike to the beach.
36:26The fish are going to be there.
36:27The river has been stretched out.
36:28The river's beautiful jungle.
36:29The river's beautiful jungle.
36:30People don't want to die in the jungle.
36:32And it's just as beautiful.
36:33And it's the real jungle.
36:34The river's beautiful jungle.
36:36I don't know.
37:07It's starting to rain.
37:09I'm hoping it's the cue the fish have been waiting for.
37:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:36It's the fish?
37:39But can I keep it on my line?
37:43It's going to jump.
37:46Coming up again.
37:48Whoa!
37:49What's the fish?
37:58On a remote lake in Guyana, I've just hooked a super-sized 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.
39:04It's coming out, it's coming out, it's coming out, it's coming out, it's going to jump, it's going to jump, it's going to jump, it's going to jump.
39:16This is a lot bigger than any arapaima I've caught before.
39:22I need to get it into the shallows.
39:26In a bit more, please.
39:34This fish weighs at least 250 pounds.
39:47Keep holding.
39:48There's a line.
40:00Ah!
40:01Look at this!
40:03Arapaima on a fly.
40:04It'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'm thinking about three times the size of the one that hit me.
40:23Sent me flying, left me in pain for over a month.
40:26This thing came flying at you.
40:29Hit you in the right place, shall we say the wrong place.
40:32You 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.
40:41This is the biggest fish of my South American fishing career.
40:47A 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 of your vision,
41:01your mind could fill in the gaps.
41:03Here in Guyana, where legends of mermaids pervade local beliefs, you might think that you've seen the water mama.
41:14But one thing's for sure.
41:17There are arapaima here so massive, they could easily deliver a fatal blow.
41:24And if that happened, the river's scavengers would quickly clear away every last shred of evidence.
41:33Except perhaps a tidy pile of clothes.
41:37There are a few people in the sea.
41:40There are a few people in the sea.
41:43And if it happens, we're going to have to watch it easily.
41:44If we do not do that, we can do it anyways.
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