- 5 months ago
Steve Leonard's Hunt For The Loch Ness Monster
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00At the beginning of the 21st century, there are few places left on Earth to hide.
00:13The planet is continuously mapped and tracked.
00:16But despite this never-ending probing, the mystery of a monster hiding in a Scottish lock remains unsolved.
00:30This is Loch Ness.
00:40Home of the legendary Loch Ness monster.
00:50People have been searching for the mysterious creature for years.
00:54No one's found it, but it has been seen.
01:05It's a big animal, six feet in diameter, God knows what length it was.
01:10Just a big black, sort of grey ham.
01:15In the middle of the Loch, there's this huge apparition, came out of the Loch, flipped over, a big rounding.
01:25I truly believe that there are creatures in this war.
01:33And some people haven't just seen it, they've even taken pictures of it.
01:37So what actually lurks in the dark depths of Britain's largest body of water?
01:44Well, I'm about to find out.
01:47We're going to use the most up-to-date technology around, to unravel the mystery of Loch Ness, and prove once and for all, if there's a prehistoric creature in here.
02:00And if there is, what does it look like? And how does it live?
02:16and if there is what does it look like and how does it live
02:46if you were looking for a perfect location to set a monster mystery
02:53you couldn't do much better than Loch Ness
02:56long, deep and dark
03:06there's more than enough room in here for a mythical creature to hide in
03:10over the last hundred years thousands of people have come looking for the monster
03:18but no one's found it
03:21so what kind of creature is the elusive Nessie?
03:31well, no hard evidence has ever been uncovered
03:34no bones have been found
03:36no carcass washed up on the shores of Loch Ness
03:39nothing
03:40but there's no doubt about it
03:43she has been seen
03:44and you don't have to drive very far to find her
03:53there are plastic models of Nessie all over this bit of the highlands
03:59you can't even fill up without being confronted with the monster
04:02and Nessie is very good for business
04:06half a million tourists trample through here every year
04:11and most of them succumb to the monster's idiosyncratic charms
04:14unfortunately, standing by the lock side hoping Nessie will pop up won't get me very far
04:32the only way to find the monster in such a huge body of water is with sonar
04:37so we've lined up one of the most experienced sonar teams in the world
04:45and they're confident that their tracking system is the best around
04:49we've got the top of the range sonar equipment in the world here
04:58it's a 200 kilohertz system
04:59and we're covering say 400 meters of the seabed in one go
05:03and building up an image of that
05:05if Nessie is there we're going to find it with this equipment
05:08this technology is going to allow us to survey the lock
05:19to a label that's never been achieved before
05:23they've got the equipment
05:26but can they find the ever-elusive Nessie?
05:29I suppose at the moment we're feeling slightly nervous about going out
05:35and also quite excited
05:37it's a big job to do
05:38but we're quite confident that we're all geared up and ready to go
05:42this expedition is bristling with the latest technology
05:54and it's all been coordinated from space
05:57linking up satellites with sonar in the hunt for Nessie
06:08will ensure that every bit of the lock will be covered
06:10down to their merest centimetre
06:13what makes this expedition unique
06:21is linking the satellites to multi-beam sonar
06:24as this boat steams along
06:26it sends out 300 separate sound beams
06:29using the old sonar technology
06:34that would have meant sending out 300 boats
06:37but just to be on the safe side
06:39we're running them in tandem
06:41and that means we'll have 600 sonar beams
06:43being fired into the lock at the same time
06:46so we won't miss anything
06:48and if we do find something
06:52we have a roving underwater camera on hand to check it out
06:56in the depths of the lock
07:02the water is very murky
07:04so without sonar the chances of finding anything
07:07would be almost non-existent
07:09Loch Ness is very big
07:11and Nessie is notoriously shy
07:14but if she's out there
07:15we have the technology to find her
07:17and what depth are we sitting on at the moment
07:20we're at the moment
07:21we're at about 66 metres
07:22however, according to local legend
07:27no matter how good our sonar team is
07:30Nessie won't be found
07:31many witnesses believe
07:38she could easily escape the sonar
07:40by hiding in underwater caves
07:43there are undoubtedly caves
07:45going in off the shores of Loch Ness
07:47underwater
07:48I think there's a good possibility
07:49that any creature is looking for some form of shelter
07:52a home of some description
07:53so a cave is as good as anything else
07:55well, could there be caves in the walls of Loch Ness?
08:01one way to find out
08:03will be to drain the lock
08:04pull the plug, so to speak
08:09the walls of Loch Ness
08:37the walls were gouged out by glaciers
08:40from the last ice age
08:42and they're comprised of really hard rocks
08:44like this granite here
08:46and caves are only formed in soft rock
08:55like limestone
08:56which can be worn away to form holes
08:58granite is just too hardy for that
09:01from down here the sheer scale of Loch Ness would be overwhelming
09:13it's 39 kilometres long
09:16and 230 metres deep
09:18and you could fit the entire population of the world in here
09:21three times over
09:23and from the bottom
09:24you'd see that there are no caves in these hard granite walls
09:27but there's still lots of room for Nessie to hide
09:30there's more water in here
09:32than all of the lakes in England and Wales put together
09:35and there's no way you'd want to be hanging around
09:43if that lot came rushing back in
09:44so if there are no caves for Nessie to hide in
10:11then she has to be swimming somewhere in the lock
10:14and if she is
10:15this is what she'll look like on the sonar screens
10:18a big jag of interference
10:22sonar at this frequency won't see the whole creature
10:27only its air sac or lungs
10:29so it's the air inside its body
10:32that will disrupt our sonar beams
10:34when did people start taking the idea of a monster in the lock seriously
10:47well you have to go all the way back to 1933
10:51to find the answer to that question
10:53on a hot summer's morning
10:56a Mr and Mrs Spicer were taking a drive in their car
11:00they were English and in the highlands on holiday
11:02they were travelling on the south side of the lock
11:05where the road is narrower and closer to shore
11:08when the Spicers hit a long straight section
11:14they saw the most unbelievable sight
11:16out in front of them
11:21a long dark shape was moving across the road
11:24Mr Spicer thought it was about 50 yards ahead
11:28and was carrying an animal in its mouth
11:31as it lumbered across the road and into the lock
11:33Mr Spicer wrote to the local newspaper
11:42and they splashed across his letter
11:43the attention-grabbing headline
11:45Land and Water Animal
11:47is it the Loch Ness Monster?
11:50he describes the monster as having a long neck
11:53and a large body
11:54and it obviously scared him
11:56because he goes on to say
11:57I think it should be destroyed
11:59there appeared to be nothing alive
12:07that fit Mr Spicer's description
12:09until this
12:11the following year Nessie was captured on camera
12:15this is the picture that made Nessie famous
12:18it was taken by a respected London surgeon
12:21it was a sensation
12:23not surprisingly
12:26it made front page news
12:28the hunt for the monster
12:31was now on
12:32no one had ever seen anything like this before
12:36there was only one creature
12:38that seemed the perfect fit
12:40for the Spicer sighting
12:41and the surgeon's picture
12:43and that was the plesiosaur
12:45as far as anybody knew
12:47they died out with the dinosaurs
12:49however this photograph
12:51of a living relic
12:52of the Jurassic Age
12:53ignited a 1930s version
12:55of a media feeding frenzy
12:57I think we shall all have to agree
13:07that there is something in Loch Ness
13:09which has the happy appearance
13:12of being a very large creature
13:14and by the 1960s
13:18things had got very serious
13:20the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau
13:22was set up to organise
13:23a systematic search of the loch
13:25right house
13:29to the right of the white house
13:30let me move
13:31can you get it?
13:34no
13:34yes sir
13:34yes sir
13:35yes
13:36to the right
13:37you see it's still there
13:39despite the obvious enthusiasm
13:42the bureau failed to take
13:44any clear pictures of Nessie
13:45well when I arrived on the scene
13:47it was the 1970s
13:49and the cameras had actually
13:50been removed from Loch Ness
13:51after ten years of fruitless attempts
13:54to replicate the classic pictures
13:58that had been taken by photographers
13:59like the surgeon and others
14:01and the search had moved
14:04logically
14:05in the investigators minds
14:07at least
14:08underwater
14:09because
14:09no way
14:11could so many witnesses
14:12have been mistaken
14:14going underwater
14:20did have an immediate impact
14:22within hours of the news
14:25leaking out here
14:26Robert Rines was on television
14:27and radio
14:28enjoying his new reputation
14:29as a man who filmed
14:31in 1975
14:32this sensational picture
14:34was published in Nature magazine
14:35a leading natural history journal
14:37it was taken by a remote
14:40underwater camera
14:41and the impression given
14:42by the American scientist
14:43who shot it
14:44Dr Robert Rines
14:45was that it was a plesiosaur
14:47Rines was backed up
14:52by the well-respected naturalist
14:54Sir Peter Scott
14:55and they held a press conference
14:57to announce their discovery
14:58we believe that this is the head
15:00up at the top here
15:01being published in Nature
15:05carries weight in the scientific community
15:07let's have
15:08and the world's press
15:11lapped up every word
15:13we feel so strongly
15:18with regard to the reality
15:20of what we have
15:20to warn
15:22the Scottish authorities
15:24and the British authorities
15:25to look carefully
15:26into the matter
15:27of conservation
15:28and protection
15:29of the environment
15:30so that we think
15:31is the 10th wonder
15:33of the world
15:33if you will
15:34or wonders
15:35will not disappear
15:36before scientists
15:37can make the evaluations
15:39Rines' picture
15:41only confirmed
15:41what the witnesses
15:42were seeing
15:43the best thing
15:45I can think of
15:46is it looked
15:46a lot like
15:47one of these dinosaurs
15:48like a plesiosaur
15:49well I think it was an animal
15:50it wasn't a tree
15:51because I haven't seen
15:52any trees around here
15:53that are six feet in diameter
15:54but I think it's something
15:55prehistoric
15:57to me it looks
15:58as close to a plesiosaur
15:59as I can imagine
16:01it to be
16:02so it had become official
16:07the Loch Ness monster
16:09was a plesiosaur
16:11plesiosaur
16:29came in a range
16:30of shapes and sizes
16:31but they're all variations
16:34on this classic model
16:35as you can see
16:38they were huge
16:40and nearly five metres long
16:43this was a very powerful animal
16:46this is one mean looking beastie
16:55this isn't any
16:58cute tortoise trap
16:59this is
16:59if you came across this
17:01on a dark night
17:02you'd be entitled to be frightened
17:03but undoubtedly
17:05this is what it would have looked like
17:06if there is a plesiosaur hiding in Loch Ness
17:23then it would have had to have survived
17:27since the end of the age of the dinosaurs
17:29their final moment came
17:32when a big lump of space rock
17:34slammed into the earth
17:3565 million years ago
17:37the dinosaurs might have disappeared
17:44but there were some reptilian survivors
17:46they, like the plesiosaur
17:56lived in water
17:57because the plesiosaur
17:59was a marine reptile
18:00not
18:01a dinosaur
18:02one of the few big marine reptiles
18:22to make it through those dark days
18:2465 million years ago
18:25lives in the wetlands of northern Australia
18:28it's a close living relative
18:30of the Loch Ness plesiosaur
18:32the Australian saltwater crocodile
18:34the biggest, meanest marine reptile on earth
18:38and in this part of the world
18:40I don't have to look very hard to find one
18:42in my hunt for the Loch Ness monster
18:52the crocodile can help me understand
18:54how the plesiosaur behaved
18:56is it fair to compare the plesiosaur
19:13to the modern day crocodile?
19:16yeah, well if you think about
19:17what a plesiosaur is
19:19it's a large reptilian
19:21probably predominantly aquatic predator
19:23the only animal that comes
19:26anywhere near that today
19:27is the crocodile
19:28Nessie's also similar to the crocodile
19:32in a much more fundamental way
19:35for this animal
19:38it's probably like
19:39two and a half, three metre croc
19:41the brain's probably no bigger than that rock
19:45that is tiny, isn't it?
19:46which is a bit scary
19:47and I mean
19:49a plesiosaur of that size
19:51I'd imagine its brain's not much bigger either
19:53wow, so there's not much there
19:55for sort of higher thought then
19:57no, I don't think they're the sort of animals
19:59that would ponder life very much
20:01that shouldn't make it too difficult to find Nessie
20:05she's not going to be very smart
20:07but remember
20:08despite their puny brains
20:10crocodiles are masters of hiding in their environment
20:13and the crocodile can give us another insight
20:17into what the Loch Ness monster might be like
20:19you just put the two skulls together
20:22you can see that
20:23crocodiles have got a very long
20:26flattened snout
20:27the plesiosaur skull's not quite as long
20:29but it's still, you know, getting in there
20:31and the eyes are pretty much in the same position
20:35and then
20:35what's going on in the back of the jaw
20:38that's where a lot of the similarities
20:39really come into play
20:40so they would have behaved in a very similar way
20:43do you think?
20:44yeah, I think the way they fed
20:46and the way they bit things
20:48it's probably very similar
20:49if the plesiosaur is the same kind of bite as a crocodile
20:54we should be afraid
20:55very afraid
20:57so just how fearful should we be?
21:01believe it or not
21:02we can test the plesiosaurs bite
21:03by testing the crocodile's jaw power
21:06well Steve, what we know is that crocodiles have got the strongest bite force of any animal
21:16so what we need is we need something pretty tough in order to measure it
21:19now this is a very simple device
21:20what you've got here is you've got a high pressure tubing
21:23and it's full of oil
21:24and when the crocodile comes along and grabs onto this really hard
21:28then it's going to compress the oil
21:30and the hydraulic pressure is going to move this needle around
21:32and then this little red needle just here
21:34will actually stop at the highest pressure that the crocodile exerts
21:37so hopefully if this thing survives the bite
21:39we can get it back again
21:39and we can see just how hard the crocodile was able to bite
21:42the crocodile we're going to test
21:45lives in this pond
21:46his name is Bruce
21:48and he's very large
21:50four metres to be precise
21:52that's more than twice as big as me
21:54he's hungry
21:56and he wants feeding
21:58so with a bit of encouragement
22:04we should be able to get him to come lunging out the water
22:06jaws snapping
22:07I'll ram this down the back of his throat
22:09and then we'll see how powerful his bite really is
22:12simple enough
22:13take it away Daniel
22:28Banging the dustbin near his head encourages the crocodile out onto the bank
22:34step one is successful
22:36step two
22:38to get Bruce in the mood
22:40Daniel teases him with a bit of chicken
22:42step three
22:47Daniel makes sure the crocodile's eyes are closed by putting his broom handle over them
22:52if he can't see
22:53he can't lash out
22:54step four
22:56time to throw the pressure gauge into those gaping jaws
23:00well
23:01here he goes
23:02success
23:12but Bruce thinks the gauge is lunch
23:15and takes it into the pond
23:17he then tries to tear it apart
23:21with a powerful feeding roll
23:23fortunately we've tied a piece of rope to the gauge to make sure we can get it back
23:30but in the maelstrom it gets tangled up in the crocodile's body
23:34luckily crocodiles get tired pretty quickly and after a few minutes of solid tugging
23:42followed by some tender loving care we retrieve the gauge and untangle the rope
23:49that's it
23:50that's it
23:51good job
23:52good job
23:53good job
23:54good job
23:55good job
23:59is
24:00good job
24:01and now let's get this one
24:02real
24:07What about that for a reading, Adam?
24:10Steve, what have you done to my device? I trusted you.
24:14Well, he's really killed it.
24:16Actually, despite the fact we've got water in here,
24:18we've actually got quite a valid reading here.
24:20Yeah.
24:21And he's given us a bike force of 1,750 pounds per square inch.
24:25Now, this is actually pretty accurate.
24:26Okay.
24:27So that's about 800 kilos, which is a lot of pressure.
24:30That's basically the same weight as a passenger car
24:32that dropped onto this tube.
24:33Jeez.
24:37The plesiosaur would have had awesome bike power.
24:53And if there's one in Loch Ness,
24:55swimming might not be a particularly good idea.
24:58Crocodiles will eat anything, including humans.
25:02Over the last 30 years in Australia,
25:0452 people have been attacked by crocodiles.
25:07Sixteen of them have lost their lives.
25:10But nobody's ever disappeared in the dark waters of Loch Ness.
25:13And there are no reports of any other animals like dogs, sheep or cattle
25:17going missing by the loch side.
25:21That doesn't mean there can't be a plesiosaur in the loch.
25:25And the clues, like everything else in paleontology, lie in the bones.
25:29If you have a look at the plesiosaur skull, the first thing you notice, most obvious,
25:35is that these temporal foramen, where the internal adductor muscle's going, they're huge proportionately
25:43compared to the crocodile, they're probably taking up about 50% of all the jaw musculature.
25:49Whereas in the crocodile, it might be only 10.
25:54These big holes in the plesiosaur skull housed huge muscles, giving it blinding bite speed.
26:00Perfect for catching fish, not taking down animals.
26:20So what the sonar boys should be looking for is an instinctive creature with a quick and powerful bite.
26:25Halfway through our search, and there's still no sign of the monster.
26:32But our team are closing in.
26:35We've completed half the survey now.
26:37We've done the northern section, we've the southern section to do.
26:40Very happy with the sonar results.
26:42Excellent quality from both the vessels.
26:45Fortunately, we haven't found anything at the moment, but we've got the southern section to do,
26:49so we're very confident that if there is anything there, we're going to find it in the southern section.
26:55That still leaves a substantial area of the lot to be scanned.
27:01But the sonar team might be searching in vain.
27:09Marine reptiles are cold-blooded and need warmth to survive, so they usually live in hot climates.
27:15There's no way you'd describe the waters of Loch Ness as sub-tropical.
27:28So just how cold is it in there?
27:30Well, I'm going to find out.
27:32Mmm.
27:37The sea.
27:37The sea.
27:40The sea.
27:42The sea.
27:47The sea.
27:48The sea.
27:50Oh!
27:52Oh!
27:53Oh!
27:55Mais cru, territoria.
27:58Oh!
27:58Mae!
28:00My dive computer says it's nine degrees in here and if I stayed in here for longer than
28:10about an hour I'd dive hypothermia so I'm not going to.
28:22If the water's this cold there's surely no chance of any cold-blooded marine reptile
28:26surviving in Loch Ness is there?
28:32Strangely to find the answer to that question I need to travel to one of the hottest places
28:37on earth.
28:43It's here in the heart of the Australian outback that a significant collection of plesiosaur
28:48bones has been found.
28:54During the summer the temperature hovers around 45 degrees Celsius.
29:08Buried in this arid soil are clues to whether or not a plesiosaur could survive in the freezing
29:12cold waters of the loch.
29:17This place has changed a bit in the last 120 million years.
29:20It's hard to imagine but it's not always been hot, dry and dusty.
29:30During the age of the dinosaurs this desolate landscape which is rather appropriately called
29:35Moon Plain was actually an inland sea.
29:38I'm walking on what would have been the bottom.
29:45It's pretty barren out here, there's just me, the odd roo and millions of flies.
29:53I'm putting up with the flies because I'm interested in the boulders that are lying around everywhere.
30:01Strangely it's these boulders that can tell us what type of environment plesiosaurs lived
30:06in.
30:13Everything that you're standing on now will tell you what the environment was like.
30:16Every rock here, the types of rocks.
30:18For instance, this is the most obvious thing.
30:21That obviously doesn't match the surrounding sediment.
30:23What is this?
30:24It's basically a large rounded rock from a river originally but of course it doesn't match
30:30the surrounding soft sediment which is the ooze at the bottom of the sea.
30:33How did it get here?
30:35Well, basically we think it got here by ice.
30:38So what you're looking at is ice forming along the edges of rivers along the coast, freezing
30:44around these things, breaking off, drifting out the sea, melting and bang.
30:48Oh and dropping them here.
30:51So that would have taken a lot of ice.
30:53So you're talking about some serious, you know, amount of ice.
30:56Yes, so that's by the own being the biggest of them.
30:58These things get up to about three metres across so it's fairly serious ice at some points.
31:02Fantastic.
31:05120 million years ago, this blistering hot place was an unbelievable 30 degrees colder
31:14with huge chunks of river ice floating all around it.
31:18What's that got to do with the Loch Ness monster?
31:21Well, this place is a veritable gold mine for digging up plesiosaur fossils.
31:27And that means plesiosaurs were swimming in water that was as cold, if not colder, than
31:32Loch Ness.
31:35What would bring a large marine reptile into cold waters like this then?
31:39Well, I think the most obvious thing would be food.
31:42These sediments are so rich in fossil plankton that it's basically like a soup.
31:47And if you've got a huge basis for a food chain, essentially this is why the animals are here.
31:52Most of the plesiosaur fossils found around here were juveniles, which means that this marine reptile, the model for the Loch Ness monster, was actually thriving in a very cold sea.
32:10The large number of juveniles found around here suggests that this was a plesiosaur breeding ground or nursery.
32:25The fact that plesiosaur raised their young here is a clear indication that they had no problem surviving in these freezing waters.
32:33Loch Ness is cold, so the plesiosaur would be more than comfortable there.
32:38And it's the plesiosaur's ability to survive the cold that holds an important clue in how Nessie may have escaped her pursuers.
32:45This is another large marine reptile.
32:53It's a leather-backed turtle, another survivor of the dinosaur age and a modern relative of the plesiosaur.
33:00And this one is swimming in the cold seas around Britain.
33:03We think of them as tropical, but they come to Britain every summer hunting for their favourite food, jellyfish.
33:12The leather-back generates heat by moving, unlike other marine reptiles which lie in the sun or live in warm seas.
33:22So, if there is a plesiosaur in the cold waters of Loch Ness, it's going to be very active and much more difficult to track down.
33:33You can imagine the bear of a boat, and you can see the white water coming off the side, so it was shifting quite fast.
33:39This thing when it came out and it went skimming across the water, oh, it was ever so fast.
33:49There was this thing twisting and turning at high speed, looking like a jet ski with a great big wake coming out behind it.
33:58It was certainly moving out into the loch.
34:00As I say, I didn't want to hang about for too long because there's only one thing it could have been.
34:10At first glance, this creature doesn't look that speedy.
34:13It flies gracefully under water, flapping its large flippers.
34:17The plesiosaur's flippers might look large, but they're not, relative to the size of its body.
34:27In fact, they're quite short and broad.
34:32And that's a vital clue in working out how manoeuvrable it was.
34:38Its short, broad flippers mean that it will be a swift and agile swimmer.
34:42The plesiosaurs weren't just fast, they had phenomenal control over depth and speed.
35:04Their flippers all moved independently, like a kind of underwater four-wheel drive.
35:09So there were fabulous dynamic swimmers.
35:16And that would make them difficult to catch.
35:27Up until now, our sonar survey has drawn a blank.
35:30But with 600 beams pulsating through these murky waters, Nessie can run, but there's nowhere for her to hide.
35:39If we just cut up here, and then we should get a final line.
35:47Of course, what they're looking for on their screens isn't the outline of a creature, but the air in its lungs.
35:53It's fairly clean data, but...
36:01No anomalies, as we say in the trade.
36:02No anomalies, no monsters, as we say in our trade.
36:05Yeah.
36:06It's a nice non-committal word, anomaly, isn't it?
36:08Mm-hmm.
36:09It's starting to get some things here.
36:12Oh.
36:12Hang on.
36:14Something's scattering the beams there.
36:16Could that be anything in the water, or is it...?
36:19I don't think it's on the bottom, otherwise we'd see a distinct object.
36:22Where is it, then?
36:23It's about 600 metres off the Coast Guard Station at the moment.
36:29The remote underwater camera is immediately scrambled.
36:32It's coming down to about seven metres down.
36:46A monster hunt is on.
36:47Yeah, it's on right now.
36:49It's the range there, about 15.
36:54There could be something.
37:02I secretly planted this buoy late one evening,
37:16before the sonar survey started.
37:19The reason they thought it was Nessie
37:21is because the air in the buoy disrupted their sonar beams.
37:29It's cruel, I know, but it has to be done.
37:31As far as they were concerned,
37:33it could have been the air in the creature's lungs.
37:38We're going to test your equipment.
37:40And?
37:40What do you think?
37:41And look, yeah, it works.
37:42You've got to say it works, isn't it?
37:44It works.
37:45So we know that the equipment definitely does work,
37:48but we still haven't found Nessie,
37:50and our sonar search is nearly over.
38:00It should be easy for our sonar team to find a monster in the loch,
38:07because there should be more than one.
38:11Every living thing needs to reproduce to survive.
38:13But there must be, there must be more than one,
38:19because for the years that people have spoken about seeing the creature in the loch,
38:24if there's one, it's very, very old.
38:28And to be honest, I think there's a colony of them out there with some of the shadows
38:33that I've seen moving under the surface of the water, definitely.
38:36If they keep going this long, there must be a breeding group of them.
38:39So there must be several down there.
38:41There's more than one, I'm sure, because sightings similar
38:45have been reported within half an hour of each other in different locations.
38:50So you think there's a population of larger animals?
38:52I think there's probably two or three or maybe more, I don't know.
38:56If there is more than one monster in the loch and they're breeding,
38:59shouldn't we see females lumbering onto land to lay their eggs?
39:03Most marine reptiles do.
39:05Every year in the breeding season,
39:10turtles drag themselves ashore to lay their huge clutches of eggs.
39:19And the reason they do it is because their eggs need to hatch out of the water,
39:23otherwise the air-breathing babies could drown.
39:30But no eggs have ever been found around Loch Ness.
39:33And no one's ever seen a female monster struggling off the beach like a turtle.
39:43If there is a plesiosaur in the loch, that's not surprising.
39:48First off, the plesiosaur just wasn't built to clamber out onto dry land.
39:55The plesiosaur was an incredibly big and heavy animal,
39:59with relatively rigid flippers, like these oars here.
40:02So once it hit land,
40:07it's like trying to row this boat up the beach.
40:09As hard as I try, I just can't do it.
40:27If a plesiosaur was on the beach, it was going nowhere.
40:31A beach plesiosaur would unfortunately be a dead plesiosaur.
40:41It would have the same life-threatening problems that a stranded whale has.
40:46Because even though the plesiosaur breathed air, that wouldn't save it.
40:50Quite simply, it would suffocate under its own body weight.
41:02And like the whale, once it hit the beach,
41:04its chances of survival wouldn't be good.
41:27Not only that, it's now thought that it's unlikely that it would give birth on land.
41:31Many palaeontologists now believe you'd never see a plesiosaur on the beach,
41:37because it gave birth in the water.
41:42I'd say they probably gave birth to live young.
41:45Although the majority of reptiles that are alive today lay eggs,
41:50there are some snakes and lizards that give birth to live young.
41:55Also, we've got fossils of ichthyosaurs, which are quite similar to plesiosaurs,
42:00another type of marine reptile, fossilised in the process of giving birth to live young.
42:19I think it's just a matter of time before we find plesiosaur fossils that show the same thing.
42:30If there are plesiosaurs in here, it's a fair enough explanation of why no monsters have
42:49been spotted around the loch side.
42:51And although we haven't got any concrete proof of the existence of an ancient plesiosaur in the loch,
43:00the evidence we've gathered so far suggests that it might just be possible.
43:05It's similarity to the crocodile makes it a prodigious predator.
43:18And let's not forget the crocodile has survived for millions of years.
43:28We also know that the plesiosaur not only survived, but thrived in cold water.
43:33So on the basis of all that evidence, there's just a chance of an ancient plesiosaur living in the loch.
43:45But there's one problem any marine reptile couldn't overcome.
43:52And that's the need to breathe air.
43:54And that meant it had to come to the surface regularly, as often as every 10 to 15 minutes.
44:04All marine reptiles need to come to the surface to breathe air.
44:09Sure, some can hold their breath for a long time.
44:12The crocodile can stay under for a few hours when it's not moving much.
44:20The more energy they expend, the more often they need to come to the surface.
44:24And of course, in the cold waters of Loch Ness, the plesiosaur, like the leatherback,
44:38would need to move to generate warmth.
44:41Moving means using oxygen, and that would drive it to the surface.
44:46And there's just no way around this problem.
44:49If there was a breeding population of plesiosaurs in the loch,
44:52we should see them popping up all over the surface on a regular basis.
44:57Just like the saltwater crocodiles in rivers and lagoons of northern Australia,
45:02seeing Nessie shouldn't be out of the ordinary.
45:04You shouldn't be able to look at the water for any length of time without seeing one.
45:08Conclusive proof that there's just no monster or colony of monsters in the loch.
45:24Not surprisingly then, despite conducting the most in-depth sonar survey of the loch ever,
45:30we still came up empty.
45:31We went from shoreline to shoreline, top to bottom on this one.
45:36We have covered everything on this loch,
45:38and we saw no signs of any large living animal in the loch.
45:43We got some good clear data on the loch.
45:46Steep-sided, flat-bottomed, nothing unusual, I'm afraid.
45:50There's always the hope that you will find something.
45:53Everybody likes a mystery.
45:55I suppose everybody did look for the monster.
45:59Even people who didn't believe in the monsters, they were all up in the sonar records going,
46:03have you found anything all the time?
46:05So, yes, there was an anticipation that we would come up with a large sonar anomaly
46:11that could have been a monster, but it wasn't to be.
46:17But thousands of people have seen something.
46:20Very few of them are hoaxers and fakers.
46:22Most of them are genuine.
46:24I know I saw something, and it's not a thing you make up.
46:31I've not been deceived, definitely not.
46:33I'm certainly telling the truth, and I'm not afraid to tell anyone about it.
46:37I know what I saw until the day I die, and people that were with me are convinced.
46:42So, if they're not seeing an ancient plesiosaur, what are they seeing?
46:54Well, the secret of the Loch Ness monster is buried in one of the most successful monster movies of all time.
47:01King Kong.
47:02King Kong was released in 1933, significantly the year of the first modern sighting.
47:12What's the connection apart from a confluence of dates?
47:15Have a look at this scene.
47:18King Kong's taken a liking to Fei-Rae and is going to run off into the jungle.
47:22King Kong.
47:31They're pursued by some would-be rescuers, who encounter a bit of trouble crossing a large lake.
47:36Hang on, bro.
47:43And if we stop the film here, does this neck look familiar?
47:48That could be a model for Nessie.
47:49And in fact, it was.
48:00King Kong was a phenomenon.
48:02In a world without television, it had a massive cultural impact.
48:06Think Jurassic Park, but much bigger.
48:08So much so, that when the guy who first spotted an odd creature on the road around Loch Ness,
48:13way back in 1933, was asked to describe it,
48:17he said it looked like the long-necked dinosaur in King Kong.
48:22From that moment, Nessie became a long-necked prehistoric creature, an air-breathing plesiosaur.
48:31Of course, as we've proved, he got it wrong.
48:34There is no ancient marine reptile in the Loch.
48:38That means this classic image of Nessie.
48:40The picture that helped started off nearly 70 years ago just has to be a fake.
48:45And you know what?
48:46It was.
48:47The monster in his picture was little more than a small head on a toy submarine.
49:03Of course, we all know that camera's a renowned liar, but we can trust what we see with our eyes,
49:08can't we?
49:11Unfortunately, we can't.
49:14Bizarrely, our eyes aren't very good at seeing.
49:17We actually see with our brain.
49:24In fact, the apparently simple act of seeing is so difficult that nearly half our brain is devoted to vision.
49:31The data that we have from the eyes is really quite minimal.
49:40It's really small.
49:41And from that, we construct a complex, generally speaking, adequate, I call them hypotheses,
49:48actually guesses as to what the world of objects is out there.
49:52And of course, we don't always get it right.
49:53No hypothesis is always right in science or in the brain.
49:56So what does this show here?
50:02Well, when you look at this thing, you just see a bunch of trees and perhaps a building here.
50:07But then when you go on looking at it, suddenly,
50:09doing, you've got a soldier popping out.
50:11Oh, yes.
50:11Do you agree?
50:12Yeah.
50:13Why?
50:13Well, the trees have little wiggles on them, which are sufficient evidence for a person,
50:19like the neck, the eyes, the nose.
50:22And then your brain is creating the person from these cues,
50:25normally associated with a person.
50:27Right.
50:27And amazingly, you generate a figure which is impossibly tall.
50:30Mm-hmm.
50:31You know, I mean, how tall would he be?
50:3220, 30 feet or something.
50:34But you still see it as a person from those cues, as it were, given by little wiggles on the trees.
50:39And you generate that as a hypothesis, which is in fact wrong.
50:46So things aren't always as they appear.
50:49Well, this is actually a hollow face, like a jelly mould, and if I turn it up like that,
51:00I think you'll see it's really hollow.
51:02I can put my hand inside it there.
51:06But as soon as you can see all the features, it's so unlikely that the face is hollow.
51:11You don't see it as hollow, you see it as a proper face.
51:14So you can't believe what you see with your own eyes, because your brain makes mistakes.
51:19It guesses.
51:26And when it makes mistakes at Loch Ness, it ends up seeing monsters.
51:33When you come to Loch Ness and you see anything on the surface of Loch Ness that you do not understand,
51:38then you begin to interpret it inevitably in terms of what you think should be there.
51:44And what should be there is a Loch Ness monster.
51:49For example, this picture was taken at Loch Ness.
51:52It's not a fake.
51:54It could be the tail of the monster.
51:56But it is in fact the tail of an otter.
52:02What about this photograph?
52:04At first glance it might look like the monster's body.
52:08But it's nothing more than an exposed rock.
52:15And finally, take a look at this.
52:19Is this the head and neck of Nessie?
52:22Sorry, wrong again.
52:24It is in fact a seagull snapped flying from left to right over the surface of the water.
52:30If our brain sees anything unusual in the Loch, it has to consider the possibility it could be a monster.
52:41Well, we're going to test this theory.
52:43This is one of the little bays around the Loch where people come to admire the scenery and take boat trips.
52:49And it's a perfect spot for us.
52:51On the far side of this little harbour, behind these bushes and hidden from view, is our equipment.
53:01It's not very sophisticated, but it should be enough to do the job.
53:05And this is it. Some rope and a wooden pole.
53:11Now you can't see the wooden pole because it's under the water.
53:14But if I let this rope out...
53:18There it is.
53:19To get it to go down again, I just pull on the rope.
53:23Simple, isn't it?
53:24But there's no way anybody could mistake that for Nessie.
53:28Or is there?
53:29Do we see what's really there, or what we want to see?
53:40Loch Ness is inundated with tourists during the summer,
53:43and the people on this coach are looking forward to a relaxing day's sightseeing.
53:49Who thinks there's a Loch Ness monster?
53:51One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
53:55Oh, we're not doing bad today.
54:01We've got a surprise for them.
54:06They don't know we've rigged their coach with hidden cameras.
54:09And they're also unaware that the bus is bringing them to our spot at the side of the lot.
54:18We'll just test the equipment one last time before they get here.
54:20Yeah, that's working.
54:25Now remember, they won't be able to see us from their position on the lot side.
54:34We have people on the bus with cameras posing as tourists,
54:37so we'll be able to record their genuine reactions to what they see.
54:40Oh, and there's one there.
54:45He's the guy who'll let me know when to raise the pole
54:48by sending a signal from his hidden walkie-talkie.
54:53Right, they're here. Let's get ready.
54:5725 metres deep, 75 feet deep as you come out of this harbour.
55:01In fact, part of the pond there has actually fallen away, it's so steep.
55:05Now, think about that when you look out further, 200 metres in the middle.
55:11You saw something?
55:12Yeah.
55:13Right there.
55:14A long leg out of the water.
55:15There was definitely something up forward.
55:16There was something.
55:17Yeah, there was.
55:18I swear it.
55:19You'll only see the leg and the head.
55:21It must be alive.
55:22It comes out and goes back.
55:24This happens very often.
55:26Never.
55:27Really? Seriously?
55:28This has never happened.
55:29No.
55:30I hadn't seen a boat wake and said,
55:32oh, is there something out there?
55:34And it's turned out there used to be a boat.
55:35Well, I've never had something like this happen on the tour.
55:38No, there was definitely something up there.
55:40We gave them all a piece of paper so they could draw what they'd seen.
55:44Most of them saw exactly what was there.
55:49But some people saw what they thought should be there.
55:56Oh, we have a guest here.
56:01What have you seen?
56:03Who saw something?
56:04That's a nice one.
56:05You saw that, did you?
56:06Yeah.
56:08This looks like Nessie to me.
56:09Yeah.
56:10It looked a lot thicker on top than the bottom.
56:12And it sort of like had a head on the top, did it?
56:14I thought so.
56:15Ah.
56:16This is the outline you thought you saw?
56:19It looks tail-like or fin-like to me.
56:22It's a nice picture there.
56:23I just thought it was like the waves.
56:26From as it was moving along?
56:27As it was moving along, yes.
56:29So you thought something was moving under water and then popped up at the end?
56:33Yes.
56:33Shall we show you what it really was?
56:35Do you want to see it?
56:37Who's got a walkie-talkie?
56:38Here you go, Ashley.
56:41Okay, Adrian!
56:44There you go.
56:45What do you think it is?
56:46It's a fence post.
56:47It's a fence post.
56:50Of course.
56:50High-tech stuff.
56:51Very high-tech stuff, yeah.
56:52And now you've seen it again, do you still think it looks like this?
56:55No, no, no.
56:56I would draw it like this.
56:58Right.
56:59It's just a square-topped object.
57:01Yeah.
57:01Did you see it clearly the first time or was it just a kind of a glimpse?
57:05No, it was only a glimpse.
57:06It was only a glimpse.
57:09Unfortunately, at Loch Ness, our brains don't usually get a second chance to see what was
57:14really there. If they did, the monster myth would probably be driven to extinction.
57:20Am I the way from Texas to see the Loch Ness stick?
57:39We all want there to be a monster in the Loch, and I'm no different.
57:43I've tried everything to prove it and failed.
57:46It's entirely possible that people could be seeing large eels, big fish, or even seals in
57:53the Loch, but none of them are prehistoric creatures. None are monsters.
58:02In fact, there's hardly anything out there at all. And that's the secret of the Loch,
58:06because if there's nothing out there, people can impose their own visions on the place.
58:13If you believe there's a monster out there, you'll see one.
58:16It would be lovely to think that there was a marine reptile living here since the age of the dinosaurs.
58:23But that is pretty much a scientific impossibility, no matter how much you want to believe it.
58:38Smart sharks next Sunday at 8. Details of that coming up.
58:47Now, it's been a long time. Returning for a new series, Roger Roger is next on BBC One.
58:52Now you're ready.