Queensland-based
yowie researcher
00:01
Dean Harrison and his team
00:03
are testing out
infrared cameras
00:04
at Springbrook National Park.
00:06
They picked this spot
because they believe
00:09
they've seen traces of
yowie activity among the brush.
00:11
And that night, they capture
this mysterious footage.
00:14
The thermal imagery seems
to show a solitary figure
00:18
hiding behind, or even hugging,
a large tree trunk.
00:21
[Harrison] This is doing
what yowies do.
00:25
They hug a tree,
00:27
pretend they're part of it
because of a human in the area.
00:29
They just blend. So it seems
he's putting his head in.
00:31
[Harris] Minutes later,
the image changes.
00:35
Now it looks like
there's a couple.
00:37
[Harrison] Two giant creatures
emerge from the foliage,
00:39
and one is bending down
to pick up something.
00:42
[Harris] As it bends over,
you can also make out
00:44
what looks like
one of the creatures' heads.
00:46
It looks cone-shaped.
00:49
The figures are large,
00:50
with wide shoulders
and ape-like proportions.
00:52
Field researcher
Cliff Barackman,
00:55
who has been to Australia
to study the yowie,
00:56
says the footage
aligns with descriptions
00:59
from indigenous peoples
going back centuries.
01:01
[Barackman] All the Aborigines
down there have drawings
01:04
on the walls of caves
depicting these things.
01:07
They're prevalent in their
storytelling traditions as well.
01:09
But then the settlers came
in the late 1700s,
01:13
and they, too,
started running into yowies.
01:16
Which is another
very strong indicator
01:20
that they're a real,
biological animal.
01:22
Now, Bigfoot-like creatures are
part of folklore the world over.
01:25
Nepal had the yeti,
Mongolia has the alma.
01:29
One theory is that
they all descended
01:32
from a single Asian ancestor,
01:34
some of whom
made it to Australia
01:36
while others crossed
the Bering Land Bridge,
01:38
came to North America,
and evolved into Bigfoot.
01:40
If this video is real,
it could help prove that theory.
01:43
But that's a big if.
01:47
There's some sort of subject,
creature, person, if you will.
01:53
It's something that's
emitting a heat signature.
01:57
And as we go through
different FLIR filter rays,
02:00
this object's movement
is consistent.
02:04
There's something happening
in here that's moving around.
02:06
[Harris] Look at the footage
with this filter.
02:09
Now the head comes
into better view.
02:12
It appears to have
a pronounced sagittal crest,
02:13
a ridge of bone
along the top of the cranium.
02:16
It's similar to what's seen
02:19
in the skulls of the early
hominid Australopithecus,
02:20
which some believe
to be the common ancestor
02:23
of Bigfoot, yowie,
and other similar creatures.
02:25
But Primeau is cautious.
02:28
Although we have not found
any evidence to support
02:30
that the recording
was fabricated,
02:32
we have no idea
what is being depicted here.
02:34
Next, our zoologist,
Roxy Furman,
02:38
analyzes the anatomy
of the figures.
02:40
What we can see clearly
at one point
02:43
is that there are
two animals pictured.
02:45
It also looks like
it's a bipedal animal,
02:47
which means
it walks on two legs.
02:51
[Harris] That might
have you thinking primate.
02:52
But here's a key fact:
02:55
there are no known primates
native to Australia.
02:56
In fact,
the only bipedal animals
03:00
are the cassowary
and the kangaroo,
03:02
which look nothing like this.
03:04
So how do we explain
the heat signatures
03:06
and those head shapes?
03:09
Furman thinks
she may have the answer:
03:11
People wearing headlamps.
03:13
That would explain why the
head's a slightly strange shape.
03:15
[Harris] That means the people
were misidentified
03:19
or participants
in an elaborate hoax,
03:21
maybe Australia's version
of The Patterson-Gimlin Film,
03:24
if that was a hoax, too.
03:27
But anthropologist Kathy Strain
says that in this case,
03:29
size does matter.
03:32
The research team went
back to the spot in daylight
03:33
and measured the tree,
03:36
matching the thermal footage
as best they could
03:37
to get a sense
of the size of the figures
03:39
in the infrared video.
03:41
[Strain] Whatever it is
is more than eight feet tall.
03:43
The possibility of them being
human is highly unlikely.
03:47
I came to the conclusion
that what this video shows
03:51
are two real yowie.
03:55
I think it is one of the most
significant films taken
03:57
in at least 50 years.
04:00
So yes, there's a possibility
that this is a hoax.
04:07
But based on
Professor Strain's estimate
04:10
of the creature's height,
04:13
we're going to say
these are possible yowies.
04:14
It's 2011 in a small
village in Russia.
04:16
A local farmer reports
that his home is shaken
04:19
by a large explosion nearby.
04:22
While looking for the source,
the farmer stumbles upon this--
04:24
some remains that look nothing
like the usual local wildlife.
04:28
Take a good look.
04:32
The creature has a strange
head and an even stranger torso
04:34
and limbs.
04:37
And the state its in
is even more puzzling.
04:38
It appears petrified.
04:41
The way this finding is
displayed in the video
04:42
is also quite intriguing.
04:45
What's very interesting
to me is that they're drying
04:46
some corn at the same time.
04:49
And I wouldn't think you'd
want to put something
04:51
alien next to a food resource.
04:54
TONY HARRIS: According to the
source who gave us this video,
04:56
the cause of the
explosion was never found.
04:59
But residents of
the town were more
05:02
frightened by what
this creature could
05:03
portend for their village.
05:05
Journalist Erin McCarthy
says local legends
05:07
could explain why.
05:10
In Slavic folklore,
there's Baba Yaga,
05:11
a witch who lives in the
woods, in a shack that has
05:13
chicken legs and chicken feet.
05:16
She also steals
and eats children.
05:19
TONY HARRIS: Baba
Yaga has become
05:22
the equivalent to the boogeyman
for kids in this region.
05:23
Some locals may have
believed, this creature
05:26
was her handiwork,
but McCarthy says
05:28
there could be another slightly
less creepy explanation.
05:30
Permafrost is
melting in Russia.
05:33
And with that melting, all
kinds of extinct creatures
05:35
are popping up like
mammoths and rhinos.
05:38
So potentially, this
creature is something
05:41
that's extinct that we
just don't know about yet.
05:44
Now, there are some conditions
on Earth that could instantly
05:48
mummify a living creature,
like the super alkaline waters
05:51
of Lake Natron in Tanzania.
05:55
But there's no evidence
something like that
05:57
currently exists in Russia.
05:59
So before we determine
if this video shows
06:01
an undiscovered dinosaur or
even a child-eating witch,
06:03
our experts will dig deeper.
06:08
First, video
forensic analyst Mick
06:14
West examines
whether the specimen
06:16
could be some kind of hoax.
06:18
I think the only way you
could have done that is
06:19
to have modeled it from life.
06:23
And that means that you
actually had the real thing
06:24
to start off with.
06:26
So I think the
simplest explanation
06:27
here is that what we're
seeing is what we're getting.
06:28
This is, in fact, a dead
animal that has been
06:31
partially or fully mummified.
06:34
TONY HARRIS: If this
is indeed some kind
06:36
of animal, what kind of animal?
06:38
Just in terms
of the morphology,
06:40
something about its face
looks quite birdlike to me.
06:42
It looks like it could
have part of the beak that
06:45
had formed off or
not been preserved
06:47
in this mummification process.
06:50
But it's got a really
big eye socket.
06:53
Birds tend to have
quite small eyes.
06:55
So for me, that would
kind of rule out a bird.
06:57
TONY HARRIS: That
Xes out it being
07:00
one of Baba Yaga's chickens.
07:01
Biologist Floyd Hayes
is thinking mammal.
07:03
FLOYD HAYES: OK, right
here, it looks like there
07:06
may be some teeth in the jaws.
07:08
To me, the skull looks
much more like a mammal.
07:10
It does look like
there may be a wing.
07:13
It could potentially
be a fruit bat.
07:15
There are some large species of
fruit bats called flying foxes.
07:19
TONY HARRIS: Furman sees
some merit in the bat theory.
07:23
They also do have
that similar large nose
07:26
that we can see in this fossil.
07:30
In terms of their skeleton, they
do have a long neck as well.
07:32
And going right to the end of
what looks like it could have
07:35
been wings, they have what
looks like it was a claw
07:38
or a hand of some sort.
07:41
TONY HARRIS: So it kind of
looks like a large fruit bat.
07:42
But here's the problem.
07:45
They don't live
up in Russia though.
07:46
They're more characteristic
of the tropical islands
07:48
in the Western Pacific
Ocean and Indian Ocean and
07:50
in Southeastern Asia.
07:53
TONY HARRIS: Floyd
says, until this family
07:55
comes forward with the specimen,
we can't be certain what it is.
07:57
The process of
mummification could
08:00
take a long period of time.
08:02
It's possible that this
is an extinct species
08:04
of animal that formerly
lived in Russia,
08:06
that is no longer there today.
08:09
So I know we're going
out on a limb here.
08:15
But for now, we're
going to say this is
08:18
an unidentified extinct animal.
08:21
Of course, it would take
proper scientific examination
08:23
to know for sure.
08:26
But with the Arctic
warming two times faster
08:27
than the global
average, we may see
08:29
more strange creatures thawing
out from the permafrost soon.
08:31
And we'll do our best
to identify them.
08:36
On a Friday evening
in 2008,
08:39
geology professor
Heinrich Frank
08:41
is homebound on the freeway
08:43
past the town of
Novo Hamburgo, Brazil.
08:45
Something catches his eye
at a construction site
08:48
on the side of the road.
08:51
Take a look.
08:52
The first tunnel I found
was very, very small.
08:54
And when I entered,
I see immediately
08:57
the claw marks on the walls.
09:01
(Host) Look closer.
09:03
Dr. Frank focuses on this,
09:04
grooves dug into
the tunnel walls
09:06
and slashes in the surface.
09:08
What could have
made these marks?
09:11
Dr. Frank's research
dates the caves
09:13
to be about 12,000 years old.
09:15
And there's reason to think
09:18
they aren't just natural
formations.
09:19
Taken a close look at them from
a scientific point of view,
09:21
they don't appear to be
natural caves
09:24
based on the types of rocks
that they're being cut in.
09:26
Some of these rocks
are much harder.
09:28
The easy rocks can be
broke by water.
09:29
They also have a really weird
shape,
09:32
that they're more horizontal
than they are vertical.
09:34
Which tells me that something
carved these tunnels out.
09:36
When you consider
all the megafauna,
09:40
you have only two animals
09:43
with the necessary claws
to build tunnels.
09:45
The armadillos
and the sloths.
09:48
(Host) We're talking now about
the Pleistocene era
09:50
which ended 11,700 years ago.
09:53
It was the age of megafauna,
09:56
gargantuan mammals
like mastodons,
09:58
and in this case perhaps
the famous giant sloth.
10:00
Could Frank have discovered
some sort of ancient burrow?
10:03
Or could such an animal,
believed to be extinct,
10:07
still be living there today?
10:09
(Frank) When you go inside
the tunnels,
10:10
sometimes you feel like the
animal
10:13
is on the next corner.
10:15
(Host) The fossil records show
that Megalonyx sloths
10:18
were the size of present day
bull elephants.
10:21
But throw in there massive claws
on each forearm
10:24
used for defense, they roamed
the Western Hemisphere
10:26
when humans first arrived.
10:29
One can only imagine how
terrifying it must have been
10:31
to try to hunt these giant
ground sloths.
10:34
In fact, there has been evidence
found of these
10:37
giant ground sloths,
the Mylodons,
10:40
that were actually trapped in a
cave in Argentina
10:42
and corralled and kept
as a food source
10:46
by primitive humans.
10:48
Giant sloths and humans
together?
10:51
If it sounds like something
out of a horror film
10:54
instead of history,
10:56
a recent find will
change your mind.
10:58
At White Sands in
New Mexico,
11:00
archeologists uncovered the
prints of a giant sloth
11:01
being followed by humans.
11:05
They were stalking it.
11:06
So could these giants
still be around?
11:08
Did they dig
the Brazilian tunnels?
11:10
And if not them,
then what did?
11:13
(Anderson) If you take a look at
the tops of the ceilings
11:19
in one of these caverns,
11:22
you'll see that they're--
look like claw marks.
11:24
(Host) So geologist Bob Anderson
thinks
11:26
some sort of burrowing creature
made these caves.
11:28
And what if these animals
still exist?
11:30
Archeologist Ed Barnhart
says not so fast.
11:33
Well, some people have
suggested
11:36
that these giant caves
are actually
11:38
the holes and burrows.
11:41
Well, that's an interesting
idea,
11:44
but show me the artifacts.
11:46
(Host) So far there's
no proof.
11:48
No one has captured
a giant sloth,
11:50
found a carcass or taken
a single picture of one.
11:52
So I can take giant sloth
right off the list.
11:54
(Host) And Barnhart even
questions if giant sloths
11:57
ever dug these tunnels
at all.
12:00
(Barnhart) Look down
in this section here.
12:02
There's one, one, one.
12:04
There's one coming
across here.
12:06
There is no reason to believe
that these are claw marks,
12:08
because they would be repeatedly
sections of three.
12:12
(Host) Barnhart makes
a good point.
12:16
But if a giant three-toed sloth
had uneven claws,
12:18
it might leave one, two
or three marks
12:21
depending on how hard
it was digging.
12:23
Still, Barnhart thinks it's
more likely
12:25
the marks were created by
an extinct worm-like creature
12:27
called a trilobite.
12:30
Some were predators.
12:31
The biggest weighed
as much as 10 pounds,
12:33
and they were known to burrow
into walls.
12:34
These are much more like
worm casts
12:37
that were into the wall.
12:40
Trilobites make more sense
to me
12:42
because those are individual
hot-dog-shaped things
12:44
that attach themselves to the
wall and dig in.
12:47
(Host) But hang on.
As you can see,
12:50
there are distinct differences
between these
12:53
confirmed trilobite tracks
12:54
and what we see in Dr. Frank's
tunnels?
12:56
Is this case really closed?
12:58
Okay. It's true that no giant
sloth fossils
13:04
have been found in Dr. Frank's
tunnels.
13:07
But the marks don't look exactly
like trilobite tracks either.
13:09
So we can't come down on one
side or the other.
13:13
We're calling this
an unexplained phenomenon
13:16
until we get further
proof.
13:18
[host] Tartu, Estonia.
13:21
October 2021.
13:22
Johan Hui Bapju receives
a disturbing phone call
13:24
from his mother
regarding her chicken coop.
13:27
He offers to take a look,
13:29
but nothing could prepare him
13:30
for what he found.
13:32
-[dramatic music]
-[unintelligible]
13:33
Oh, boy.
13:37
Their tail is really tangled.
13:38
[host] That's an understatement.
13:41
Let's take another look.
13:42
What looks
like a heap of black rats
13:44
is actually
a heap of black rats
13:47
with their tails
hopelessly entangled together.
13:48
There are 13 rats
in this bundle
13:52
bound together for life.
13:54
[McCarthy]
One of them, unfortunately,
13:56
looks like it has...
13:58
passed on to the next world.
13:59
And maybe that's for the best.
14:01
I wouldn't wanna be tied to...
14:03
a bunch of my brothers
and sisters either.
14:06
[host] Would you believe
that this isn't the first time
14:08
a knot of rats like this
has been discovered?
14:11
It's even got a name.
14:13
The Rat King.
14:15
The term Rat King is
14:17
thought to originate
14:19
from German.
14:20
It's a number of rats
14:21
whose tails have become
14:23
entangled so that they are
14:24
basically
like a rodent super organism.
14:26
An older wiser rat
14:29
would sit atop
a pile of younger rats
14:31
and they would serve
all of his needs.
14:35
Unfortunately for Rat Kings,
14:38
they are considered to be
14:40
bad omens.
14:41
It's thought
that they warn of the plague.
14:42
They're also associated with
witchcraft.
14:45
[host] Because of this,
in old Strasbourg
14:49
were Rat Kings were found,
14:51
they were usually
drowned in a well
14:52
or dumped in boiling water
14:54
before being brought
to the local school teacher
14:55
to study them.
14:57
Because of their
supernatural associations
14:58
and the rarity
of their occurrences,
15:00
there's debate
as to whether or not Rat Kings
15:02
are cruel man-made hoaxes.
15:05
[McCarthy]
There is a long history
15:07
of fabricating creatures
for profit.
15:09
Think about P. T. Barnum's
Fiji Mermaid,
15:12
George Hull's Cardiff Giant.
15:15
Back in the day,
15:18
people would take lizards
and glue bat wings on them
15:19
and say, "Here, buy a dragon."
15:22
Or they'd stick a narwhal horn
on a horse and say,
15:24
"This is a unicorn."
15:27
So, a hoax is definitely
15:28
not outside
the realm of possibility.
15:30
Knots are complicated.
15:34
There's
a whole area of mathematics
15:36
called Knot Theory
15:38
dedicated to studying
these things in the abstract.
15:39
And the knots of the Rat King
tails are complex too.
15:43
Scientist have attempted
to recreate them
15:46
and they quickly discovered it
was a lot harder than expected.
15:48
The knots they made looked
too neat and intentional.
15:51
And those rats were dead.
15:55
Let's turn to our experts
to see what they think
15:57
about this whole thing.
15:59
[suspenseful music]
16:01
[host] First, we turned
to biologist Floyd Hayes
16:04
to find out, is this real?
16:06
And, if so, how the heck does
something like this happen?
16:08
One possibility
is that it was faked
16:10
and somebody actually
stuck the tails together.
16:13
But it could also be
a natural phenomenon
16:17
and I think that's
most likely in this case.
16:19
It's been suggested that
perhaps they are stuck together
16:21
from birth,
but that seems very unlikely
16:24
because these
are fairly well grown
16:26
and they would likely
starve to death
16:28
if they were stuck together
for a few weeks.
16:30
[host] So, if they weren't
destined at birth
16:33
to become parts of a Rat King,
16:35
how do they form?
16:36
[Hayes] So a Rat King occurs
16:38
when the tails
are stuck together.
16:39
This usually happens
in black rats, which have
16:40
unusually long tails
16:42
compared
to other species of rats.
16:44
And it happens
mostly in cold countries
16:46
during the winter months.
16:49
And it is believed
that their tails
16:50
are frozen together overnight
16:52
when they're huddling together
for warmth
16:53
by water or urine
16:56
or sperm or food.
16:58
[host]
However, in a bizarre twist,
17:00
when we do some research
of our own, we find
17:02
that temperatures
in this area of Estonia
17:04
only had a low
of 36 degrees Fahrenheit
17:06
the night
before this Rat King was found.
17:08
Not cold enough to freeze.
17:11
And what's more, rats,
contrary to their reputation,
17:13
groom themselves
nearly as much as cats.
17:15
The idea that they
could get stuck together
17:18
with dirt and grime
seems unlikely.
17:19
So, we turn to wildlife
biologist Stephanie Schuttler.
17:22
She says the Rat King legend
carries a grain of truth.
17:24
Rats can be carriers of diseases
17:28
and parasites,
17:30
so, the fact that people
thought Rat Kings
17:32
were bad omens
17:35
or carriers
or signals of plague,
17:36
it's not
that unreasonable of a leap.
17:39
[host]
It might just be coincidence,
17:42
but the COVID-19 epidemic
was still ravaging Europe
17:44
when this video was shot.
17:47
And Schuttler says
17:48
there's another question
gnawing at her.
17:49
Why do these rats lie down
and accept their fates?
17:51
Why don't they fight back?
17:54
[Schuttler] When animals are
17:55
stuck or trying to escape
from something,
17:57
they can do things like...
18:00
chew their own appendage off.
18:02
Like, this has happened
18:04
in leg traps
18:05
with animals
like coyotes or wolves.
18:07
Why aren't these rats
18:09
chewing their own tails off
to get away?
18:11
Our verdict?
18:17
It seems
like Rat Kings form naturally,
18:18
but what we don't know
is the why of it all.
18:21
Why aren't there more Rat Kings?
18:24
And why don't these rats
make more of an effort
18:26
to escape?
18:28
It remains
an unexplained mystery.
18:29
Eisenhower State
Park, Texas 2015.
18:33
One morning after some
record-setting rain,
18:37
a few rangers are checking
the park's back roads
18:39
when they discover this.
18:42
KEN GERHARD: It's pretty gross
and weird and disgusting.
18:44
SHOW HOST: At first
glance, it almost looks
18:48
like patties of ground beef,
oddly arranged straight
18:49
down the middle of the road.
18:52
But look closer.
18:53
Is that one wiggling?
18:55
KEN GERHARD: They look to be
giant masses of earthworms
18:57
or annelids, segmented worms.
19:01
I've honestly never
heard of any type
19:03
of behavior like this before.
19:06
SHOW HOST: So what
are these worms doing?
19:08
And why?
19:10
Since we couldn't ask them,
Gerhard got to theorizing.
19:11
One interesting
possibility is that we're
19:15
looking at a spontaneous
attempt at evolution.
19:16
These worms are attempting
to build a superorganism.
19:19
SHOW HOST: And
these worms wouldn't
19:25
be the first to try it.
19:26
KEN GERHARD: One example would
be something called a tunicate.
19:27
This is a very primitive
type of vertebrate
19:31
that will actually join together
and form a massive chain
19:34
tens of feet long.
19:38
And there is an advantage to
this in terms of locomotion
19:39
through the water.
19:43
SHOW HOST: Social insects
can do something similar,
19:44
creating a group of
synergetic organisms
19:46
known as a superorganism.
19:49
KEN GERHARD: In times
of heavy flooding,
19:51
you'll often see
these complete islands
19:53
of ants that join together.
19:55
It's kind of a survival
mode where these animals
19:57
are able to collaborate
in order to survive
20:00
an extreme situation.
20:03
SHOW HOST: And who
could forget bees,
20:05
one of the better
known superorganisms
20:07
and the source of inspiration
for the term "hive mind."
20:09
Perhaps these worms are
exhibiting just that.
20:12
I think this is a great
example of a very primitive
20:15
life form, a worm,
demonstrating that perhaps it
20:18
has a level of conscious
collective intelligence
20:21
that is greatly underestimated.
20:25
Some scientists are
starting to believe
20:28
that the complex brains
that you and I have
20:30
could have evolved from
the very first worms.
20:33
So does that make worms
smart or humans dumb?
20:35
We'll let you make the call.
20:39
As for these worm
balls, we'll rely
20:40
on the brains of our experts.
20:43
Wow.
20:48
SHOW HOST: First, Dr.
Floyd Hayes considers
20:49
the superorganism theory.
20:51
FLOYD HAYES: Worms
could detect each other
20:52
through olfactory cues.
20:54
And they are attracted to
larger groups of worms.
20:55
So they like to socialize
for some reason.
20:58
SHOW HOST: While the worms
do socialize to some degree,
21:02
Hayes notes that true
superorganisms are eusocial.
21:04
They have designated
individuals that reproduce,
21:07
and others that don't.
21:11
And they have a
very complex society.
21:12
These worms are not examples
of eusocial animals,
21:14
so I would not classify
them as a superorganism.
21:18
SHOW HOST: OK, if superorganism
isn't the right word, what is?
21:21
It's hard to understand
why exactly they're gathered
21:24
together in the road there.
21:27
It may be drying
up a little bit.
21:28
And one potential benefit
of grouping together
21:30
would be that they
could stay more humid
21:32
for a longer period of time.
21:34
SHOW HOST: Dr. Hayes brings
up an important point.
21:36
Worms need moisture to live.
21:38
The mucus on a worm's skin
actually acts as a medium
21:40
for oxygen absorption, meaning
that in order to breathe,
21:43
the worm cannot dry out.
21:46
That's what makes the strange
alignment of these worm balls
21:48
the biggest mystery of all.
21:51
STEPHANIE SCHUTTLER:
It's really strange
21:52
that the worms seem to
congregate in the center
21:53
of the road, almost perfectly.
21:58
It is probably the
driest part of the road.
22:00
Roads are designed to
mound in the center
22:02
so that water can
go off the road.
22:06
SHOW HOST: It's not adding up.
22:09
If worms need moisture to live,
why gather at the driest place
22:10
available?
22:13
So, folks, we're stumped.
22:19
While it's not unnatural for
animals to herd together,
22:21
this peculiar behavior
is leading us to call
22:24
this an unexplained phenomenon.
22:27
In the end, Darwin concluded
that despite their small size,
22:29
worms are just as
capable of shaping
22:33
the landscape as any person.
22:35
相关歌曲