On this episode of Destination Truth,
Josh travels to the remote island of Papua New Guinea
to search for a pterodactyl-type bird.
Where is that cave? That is the most important thing to me.
What does he find in the hunt for the creature's nest?
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
They're Everywhere in here!
Then, Josh explores Chile
in pursuit of a blood-sucking monster the locals believe is killing their farm animals.
Chickens, dead, everywhere.
But is livestock all it's after?
The little one bit him right there on the leg.
The other one, there, in his neck.
Will Josh come face-to-face with the creature?
Let's move it, guys. Follow that noise.
I'm Josh Gates.
My travels have taken me to the most exotic and mysterious places on Earth.
I've seen some unexplainable things which have raised some strange questions.
Now, I've pulled together a crack team
armed with the latest technology to search for answers.
I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me,
but I know what I'm looking for.
The truth.
Reports of a pterodactyl-type bird
brought my attention to Papua New Guinea.
The locals call this flying dinosaur the Ropen,
and the papers have reported sightings all over the country.
They describe it as an extremely dangerous, large, featherless bird,
with a wingspan that can reach up to 15 feet.
Some experts believe the Ropen is a pterosaur
that survived the Cretaceous period by hiding deep in the caves
scattered throughout Papua New Guinea.
As a nocturnal creature, the Ropen's defining characteristic
is the glow it reportedly emits from its stomach and tail.
Many witnesses have claimed to see this glow at night,
and recently, a US explorer caught two lights on camera
that he thought belonged to the legendary animal.
As you might have guessed,
I wanted to see this Lost World creature for myself.
So, Lindsay, Marc, Neil, Eric, Hank and I packed up the equipment
and headed to the airport.
With no direct flights to our eyewitness in Lae,
we stopped in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.
Welcome to Papua New Guinea. Let's grab our bags and hit the road.
Hello. Apinun.
Upon arrival, I went to a local bazaar where I met Steve,
who would be my guide throughout the country, provide security,
and assist in the translation of the local language.
How do I say, um, "binoculars" in pidgin?
Okay, for you to say "binoculars" in traditional pidgin
would be "glas bilong kapten."
"Glasses belong on captain"?
That's right, "Glasses that belong to the captain of the ship."
Pidgin is wacky. Yeah, absolutely.
Most of the Ropen sightings had not occurred in the local markets,
so against our better judgment, my crew and I
boarded what might have been the oldest plane in the South Pacific.
You the pilot?
Yes. First flight?
Sorry? This your first flight?
Yes. Ever?
Ever.
We had to leave Port Moresby immediately
because no planes are allowed in the air after nightfall.
From Port Moresby, we traveled to the city of Lae,
where we met with a local pastor named Jacob,
who claimed to have seen this massive bird.
I've heard that you've seen the Ropen.
I saw the lights of it back at Wau, so...
In Wau? In Wau I saw one.
And what does the light look like?
Uh, it looks like... It looks real bright.
Is it like a round light? Yeah, bright too.
It's a bright, round light?
The whole bird just glows or the stomach glows...
Just only the stomach and the lights on both wings.
So, you believe in this Ropen?
Yeah. You're a man of God?
Yeah. And you believe in a dinosaur?
I believe... No, I believe that what God created is still alive, here, today.
Is still alive, here, today? Yeah. Yeah.
But do you believe that it is left over from an older time?
Um, some of them are already dead, but some are still alive.
Some are still alive? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jacob told us that many recent Ropen sightings
have occurred on a small peninsula called Salamaua,
33 kilometers south of Lae.
Salamaua has a place in history as being a critical base
for the Japanese during World War II.
And many believe that the Ropen nests in the caves and bunkers
they dug into the mountains.
Due to its isolation, we had to travel to Salamaua by boat.
Yeah, this whole peninsula's covered with Japanese battling stuff.
There's gun turrets and things like that, that are all hidden up in there.
If I was a giant Ropen, that's where I would live.
Exactly.
Big, dense forest, big peninsula, caves, tunnels...
I wasn't the only person who seemed to think
that the mountains might be a good nesting ground for Ropens.
And I met with a man named Fabian,
who said he'd recently seen the prehistoric bird in the hills of Salamaua.
You saw a big, winged creature?
Do you remember what the body looked like? The shape of the body?
The red light? Red light.
Okay, now, I'm gonna show you a few pictures.
Does this look like what the bird looked like that you saw?
A long tail, like this?
And show me where the lights are again?
So there's a light here and here?
And the head... The head is like this?
What Fabian told me is that he thought that the pterodactyl
might be living in the caves sprinkled around the island.
He didn't know where we could find an entrance,
but he told us that his friend, Max, could lead us to the creature's nest.
Are you sure you can identify the spot where the cave is?
'Cause we have many people and equipment, and it's difficult.
So, you know where it is?
Anytime you're going in search of a carnivorous dino-bird,
for safety's sake, you should always bring along at least one member of a reggae band.
All these graves look like they've been disturbed.
This one looks like it was ripped open.
Wow! Nice work, guys.
I think we found our cave.
Machete?
Oh, my God.
This guy, Max, he claims to know where this cave is.
He says it's just up and then we hike up in.
Max took us to the other side of the peninsula by banana boat.
He said it would be a quick hike to the Ropen's cave from there.
This is very King Kong.
I had my reservations when I saw the hike involved 80-degree inclines
and jagged rock faces, but Max said he knew this area like the back of his hand.
And although Max was the type of guy who gripped his machete by the blade,
I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
We have to move quick because if the ocean gets too rough,
we can't get picked up here.
Good. Okay.
We were about halfway up the side of the mountain
when I started to get the sneaking suspicion
that Max had absolutely no idea where we were going.
Okay, Max? Come here.
Do you know where the cave is?
The place has changed?
And it's changed how?
But trees do not get smaller, Max.
We're not in the right spot, I don't think.
You can lead me to the cave, but you don't know how?
So, we go back.
You'll tell me something?
What will you tell me?
You're gonna tell me a story about Papua New Guinea life?
History of Papua New...
Legends? I'm up to my neck in legends, Max.
That's all I got is legends.
Six Ropen-less stories later, we were back at camp talking with an expert guide,
who the villagers claimed knew the location of many of the cave entrances in the area.
Not only was he willing to guide us through the jungle,
he was even able to draw us a map of the caves
the Ropen might be hiding in.
Where is that cave? That is the most important thing to me.
Up on the ledge on the hill.
Eric, if we can find a cave that's up here... Mmm-hmm.
I would like to sleep up there.
We gathered a few locals to help haul our equipment,
and began our trek toward the Ropen's cave.
Apinun. Apinun.
This is Margaritaville?
It's Margaritaville.
Margaritaville.
Well, there goes the trek.
Let's go to Margaritaville.
No, we can't. What?
You know how hot it is in this jungle?
That would have been nice.
Our guide couldn't tell us how long it would take,
but it was clear we had a big hike ahead of us.
And as long as the trail didn't include shrinking trees, I was game.
Previously on Lost...
Many of the tunnels had been dug by the Japanese during World War II
and were interconnected, so, theoretically, if we found one of the entrances,
we might be able to access all of the caves on the island,
including any housing a flying dinosaur.
After hiking for almost two hours, we encountered our first cave.
Unfortunately, it had been completely sealed by a landslide.
So, this part of the tunnel is totally blocked?
How deep is it in there?
Deep.
If you asked most people, they might say that this was the point
where they would have turned back.
But I guess that depends on who you ask,
determined explorer or the guy carrying the car battery.
Needless to say, we carried on.
Another entrance.
If something was coming in and out of there, it would get pretty beat up.
I mean, I think we should press on and see what's up top.
These have been filled in for a long time, obviously.
We keep going? Come on. All right.
Oh, my God.
And...
Pretty steep and muddy here.
I was starting to think that we'd be more likely to get a ride back to Lae
on a Ropen than find an accessible tunnel on this island.
I was ready to give up all hope and head back
when I stumbled onto an old graveyard.
Have these been opened?
All these graves look like they've been disturbed.
This one looks like it was ripped open.
The Ropen takes people out of graves?
Yeah.
Although it looked more like the work of grave robbers
than a giant, flying lizard to me,
I couldn't help but think if the Ropen could tear a hole in concrete,
imagine what it could do to a person.
Needless to say, I knew we were close to something big.
Well, "big" is a slight exaggeration.
Wow! Nice work, guys.
I think we found our cave.
That's the opening I have to get through?
We were about to squeeze through a tiny opening into a pitch black cave
to look for a dangerous, man-eating bird.
You can't get much stupider than that.
Machete?
Oh, my God.
Guys, that's it. Now I want you out now.
Guys? Guys?
Guys, what is going on in there?
Oh, my God.
Okay, let's go.
All right, keep your eye out for bones, droppings,
any evidence that something might be living in here.
Man, it smells.
Is that all right there?
Yeah, let's go.
Don't touch the ceiling.
We're inside. We're just dropping down into a lower chamber.
Do you see any signs of...
an outlet to another way where...
I think we're losing radio contact.
This looks like it could be a nest.
There's some timbers down here.
Piece of metal.
Bats... There's bats in here.
See some?
There's one behind me.
Bits of metal everywhere in the Japanese encampment here.
Bits of track and metal.
There's loose rocks all around.
It looks like something big came through here.
It looks like sections of this wall and this roof have caved in,
which leads me to believe that this is not the most stable cave.
Come on.
More wire.
Oh,! Bat.
Yeah.
Flyby.
Our walkie-talkies are totally cut off down here.
We should go a bit further. Neil, can you hear me? Come in.
Oh! Come on.
How long has it been?
With the walkie-talkie. Neil, come in.
Base camp, come in. Can you hear me?
Yeah, I read you, but I don't want to lose contact again.
I want you to come out now.
Copy that, but I'm not turning back now.
Josh, I am not playing around. Please come out of there now.
Hey, I think I found something.
What is it?
I think this is a piece of bone. I think this is a human bone.
You serious? Yeah.
I am serious.
Guys, that's it. Now I want you out now.
Marc, I just want to check out one last thing.
I think we're getting close to something.
. No..
Guys, what is going on in there?
God!
They're Everywhere in here!
Guys? Guys?
. Go. Go, go. Get out. Get out of there now.
We have to get in here. We have to get up there.
Come on.
Light? Light panel.
Machete?
I would very much like to get out of this hole.
We explored as deep as we could into the cave.
There definitely might be something in there. There's droppings everywhere.
Totally unstable cave. There's no reason to explore any further in there.
It's just too dangerous.
We should set up our investigation right here tonight.
We couldn't find any other entrances into the cave system,
so if there is something living in there, this is where it's gonna come back to.
And we need to set up right here.
Whoa, guys, I got something over here.
Camera two?
Yeah, camera two. Do you see that?
Hang on. Hold on, hold on, hold on. There.
What is that?
When we got back to camp, we set up our equipment.
Since the Ropen is believed to take to the skies at night,
we set up our four surveillance cameras in each cardinal direction.
I patrolled the area directly above our camp with the night-vision binoculars.
And with all eyes pointed toward the night sky,
all we could do was sit and wait.
Bats and birds, occasionally, but nothing of any size flying around yet.
I mean, all the descriptions we've had of the Ropen
say that it flies extremely fast,
so the likelihood in pitch blackness
of catching something moving extremely fast in the sky is pretty low.
But if it's as big as people say it is, then the infrared should pick it up.
Tell me what's what.
Camera one, two, three and four.
And they all go from left to right if you were to look at them
out on the bay there.
What am I seeing? What are those lights?
Those lights down there are the village.
Camera two... Oh!
Whoa! Camera two just had movement on it.
Right now. It just happened. I didn't see it. I was looking...
It just happened. It just went right across the screen.
Something moved on camera two?
Yeah, a minute ago.
Just cue it up. Play it back.
Did it look big or small?
It was camera two. It was just now.
That's just... That looks like a bug. Looks small.
When things travel in front of the camera and they're very small,
they obviously look magnified.
And when things flit by very quickly very close to the lens,
they appear very large, but that looks like a little bug flying by.
God! Look!
The generator in the village is still running, so few lights, very few.
Skyline is very dark.
You can see the top of the tree line just barely.
Whoa, guys! Look at this. Look at this. Come here.
Look at that.
Like, pulsating.
What is that?
Are you sure that's in the sky?
It's not... Yeah, I can't see it anywhere else
but through the infrared in the sky.
Damn it! I lost it!
Whoa, guys, I got something over here.
You got something else?
What camera? Two.
Whoa, that is weird.
Camera two? Yeah. Camera two.
It's gone.
It's out of frame now. It was there a minute ago.
Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!
There. No, that is just totally like an orb.
Only that is not nearly as bright.
Did you see that?
Yes, I just saw it.
I saw it come right out of frame. It was great.
Hold on, hold on. Which way is camera two pointed?
It's pointed that way.
It's pointed that way?
That looks UFO-ish.
That looks like an enormous, glowing orb.
Can you see anything out there, Neil?
There's nothing out there.
There it is again. Give me the infrared binoculars.
Give me, give me, give me.
And there's a big line behind it.
I got it. I can see it. Really?
Yes. Whatever it is, it's not a plane.
Planes can't fly at night here.
See it? Yeah.
Can't see it by the naked eye.
It's like a glowing orb. I got it. I can see it.
You might see it on camera one.
We're looking at that right there. That's not a star?
Doesn't look like a star to me.
It's like a glowing orb, and it pulses.
I can't see it without the night-vision binoculars.
Could it be a satellite?
No, it's way too big to be a satellite. Satellites look like tiny stars.
It's way too far away. Yeah. A satellite wouldn't be...
What is that?
Let Lindsay get in there. Show her where it is.
Two again.
Camera two again? Again.
See if there's something on the lens.
What part of camera two?
Upper left corner.
Upper left corner...
Touch it? HANK: Yeah, just make sure there's nothing on the lens.
Upper left corner?
That's Lindsay's hand! That's my hand.
Touch the lens, Lindsay. Please, just clear the lens.
I got it. I can see it.
You still have it, Hank, or no?
No.
It might have moved off.
I don't see it.
I had it right about when Neil was picking up the binoculars.
That is quite amazing.
That... That's completely bizarre.
Glowing lights. Exactly what was described.
What is that?
"What is that?" Is right. And then it's gone.
Yeah, and it was right out there.
There's nothing in front of that camera?
I mean, how far away was that?
It's not that close to the camera...
None of us looked out there.
I didn't see anything right here.
It's not that close to the camera.
I mean, that is on the ledge.
There's nothing in front of the camera.
This is camera two. It is pointed straight out over nothing.
There's nothing in front of it.
This ridgeline drops down, here, probably almost 1000 feet,
down to the ocean and the shoreline, and there's just nothing in front of it.
It's pointing straight out, way across to the coastline and part of the village.
The generators are still on. So, whatever that was, it's not one of us.
It's not any of our equipment. We know it's not a plane.
Nothing flies at night here, so something big flew in front of this camera.
At a distance, too, 'cause all of the close-up stuff,
we know what that looks like on the cameras. Yeah. Yeah.
This was big. It was emitting a lot of heat, and it was out over there, over the ocean.
Something that large putting off that much heat, it's just a blur of light.
It's very strange.
Another few hours searching the skies for Ropens
yielded no more sightings,
so in the morning, I showed our footage to Fabian to get his opinion.
Looking at this glow, you think that this is the Ropen?
And what is the glow?
So, you have no doubt that this is the Ropen?
I wanted to take Fabian's word for it,
but I also wanted an expert to analyze the footage,
so I brought the tapes to Stutchman Forensics Lab back in the States,
where I met with leading video forensics specialists
Steve Fuller and Gregg Stutchman.
If these lights were a trick of the lens or even a camera malfunctioning,
they'd know for sure.
This kind of camera we're using,
you deal with extensively with this kind of equipment?
Yes, that's correct.
Any thoughts on that?
That's not consistent with any camera malfunction that we've seen
because it would be stationary. It wouldn't be traveling as we see there.
With regards to forensic recordings,
we'll see occurrences that look similar to that
that are reflections of a car driving by, you know, a headlight hitting a window.
Right. But we are in an area where there's obviously no vehicles,
and do you have any thoughts on that at all?
No, it's unlike anything that we've ever seen in the forensic arena.
Steve? I'm stumped.
The video forensics experts couldn't provide an explanation
of what we recorded,
so we went across town to meet with an expert on birds of Papua New Guinea,
zoologist Dr. Andrew Engilis.
As someone who knows Papua New Guinea, what do you think this might be?
This bird is called a Blyth's Hornbill.
You can see that they have large, projected bills.
From head to tail, is about 3'5" long,
and the wingspan is somewhere around... Probably around 5'0".
Wow.
And they have very broad wings. In fact, when they fly, they make this thundering,
almost locomotive-like sound when they fly through the forest.
The Blyth's Hornbill might be big enough to be a Ropen,
but we heard no sound that night,
nor does it explain the luminescent spheres we saw in the sky.
So, I decided to show him our footage.
There's no planes in Papua New Guinea at night of any kind.
They don't fly after dark there at all.
You're looking out over an open vista?
Mmm-hmm.
And this organism or... You got signatures like this more than once?
Mmm-hmm.
This type of luminescence, though,
you're only picking up through the camera,
you're not picking it up through your eyes, correct?
Yeah. I mean, this is something that's not producing any noise...
Right. ... and that we can't see with the naked eye,
but it's certainly being imaged by the infrared on the camera.
Right, and, you know, this would not be something like a hornbill,
because hornbills generally aren't active at night, and you would hear it.
You know, I don't have, really, any answer for this one.
Now, I've worked in these forests
and essentially lived in these forests
over the span of several years,
and I have no experience in seeing anything like that before.
So, you do have a mystery.
Great. Well, thanks so much.
We learned a lot during our Ropen investigation.
For starters, never enter a Ropen cave without bat repellant.
We also captured evidence of something that matched the eyewitness descriptions
and couldn't be explained away by scientists we interviewed.
In my opinion, it's safe to say that something strange
flies at night over Papua New Guinea.
Hopefully, the footage will spark more interest in this airborne phenomenon.
As if chasing flying dinosaurs in Papua New Guinea weren't enough,
next I came across an even more intriguing story.
Rural sections of South America apparently being plagued
by a vampire-like creature.
My attention turned to reports of livestock mutilations in Chile
that had filled newspapers daily
with sightings of a 3'0"-foot creature with coarse hair,
black, leathery skin, and glowing red eyes.
The witnesses claim it kills their livestock by draining their blood
through a single puncture wound to the neck.
That's how the creature got its name, El Chupacabra,
meaning "The Goat Sucker."
Truthfully speaking, if you grew up with a name like that,
you'd probably have a bad temper, too.
El Chupacabra is said to walk upright,
and can jump far enough that some swear it has wings.
Some even suggest that the creature is a vampiric alien,
or, even worse, a disgruntled ex-cast member of The Muppets.
And crackpot theories aside, something has been butchering livestock by the thousands.
And if mutilated animals and a vampiric monster can't get me on a plane to Chile,
I don't know what will.
Our first destination was Santiago
to meet with Alberto, a resident expert on El Chupacabra.
So, here we are in, uh, Santiago.
We're in the gondola going up to the top of San Cristobal Mountain.
The Chupacabra is a creature which has been sighted all over the Americas.
It's been sighted here, it's been sighted in Central America,
and even up to Puerto Rico... And they should trim that.
I mean, that's ridiculous. We're hitting trees in this gondola.
And we're here to talk to as many witnesses as possible,
and investigate the stories behind these sightings.
You've put a tiny, adorable hat on this llama.
With our translator Naomi at our side, we met with Alberto,
a cryptozoologist who's been investigating El Chupacabra
for the past six years.
I am completely dedicated to this investigation.
How many people have you interviewed?
Hundreds.
Hundreds? Describe it for me.
Black hair, big, red eyes, and white chest.
And how tall is the Chupacabra usually thought to be?
One or two meters.
Have you ever seen the Chupacabra?
No. No. No, I don't see him.
Would you like to?
Yes!
Very much.
Alberto told us that in nearby Buin, we could find a noted skeptic,
the director and head veterinarian of the Buin Zoo,
who claims that there is nothing extraordinary
about the recent deaths of livestock.
Well, what do you think might be responsible for some of these Chupacabra attacks?
According to the characteristics of the attacks,
he thinks it's a quique.
The zoologist told us that a quique is so aggressive that
it would need to be given anesthesia before we were even allowed to look at it.
I'll take a little first. Seriously, I'm beat.
But when the kid wearing two pairs of welding gloves came in,
I began to wonder what the hell they were about to release.
What vicious creature did they have hiding in there?
I just thought I saw something, actually.
By and large, there's nothing moving around out there.
Something just went scurrying across.
Come on, over here, over here.
We got a cave.
The zoologist told us that a quique is so aggressive that
it would need to be given anesthesia before we were even allowed to look at it.
But when the kid wearing two pairs of welding gloves came in,
I began to wonder what the hell they were about to release.
What vicious creature did they have hiding in there?
After a minute of trying to pull the creature out of its cage,
I was expecting this kid to pull out a bloody stump
instead of a ferret.
Well, arguably the meanest damn ferret I have ever seen.
He's biting a lot.
Wow.
Oh, he's a biter.
Although it was ferocious,
I wasn't convinced that this little guy was El Chupacabra.
They look very small to me.
He's very small, but very aggressive.
He thinks it's the Chupacabra.
This is the Chupacabra, you believe?
Even the zoologist had to acknowledge that it would be difficult for a creature
of this size to take down a goat, let alone a man.
My doubts were lent credence by the gigantic cartoon of this guy
featured on the zoo's sign.
So, as he showed us his kiss the mingo trick,
I decided to sneak away while I had the chance.
This, here, the animal graveyard at the Buin Zoo.
Buin Zoo, they don't so much keep them alive, but they keep 'em.
After hearing about a rash of livestock slayings
and El Chupacabra sightings in Doñihue,
we packed up and headed out.
You're like Queequeg, man. Look at you.
You're covered in these things.
Hey! I don't know.
In Doñihue, we met with a woman who told the paper
she had had over 100 of her chickens
killed by El Chupacabra in a single night.
Her father came out here after they heard the chickens crying.
He fired the rifle in the air, came over to turn the lights on.
Mmm-hmm.
We saw that those trunks there had fallen.
There were chickens, dead, everywhere.
Where was the place where the gate had been peeled back?
Right in the corner, it was opened up.
It's like a little hole about... Just like that.
Not very big.
I had a hard time buying that a 3'0"-foot creature
could fit through a hole the size of a CD.
I was starting to think that El Chupacabra came in two different sizes.
Extra large and petite.
Our next stop was David,
a bus driver who claimed to have collided with El Chupacabra
while he was driving his route.
Okay, so this the spot where it happened?
It was 4:45 in the morning.
That's when
the animal jumped over.
And, so, you hit it right here in the center of the bus?
It broke all the windows.
He fell right on his feet.
And, so, you were sitting right here, very close?
Less than a meter away.
The animal had a dog in its mouth?
He took the dog in its mouth...
turned and jumped.
David told us how he saved a hair he'd found in his wiper blades after the crash.
Do you still have the hair?
In his wallet?
I got to admit, I found it a little strange that a hair
from such an elusive creature could be hiding
between David's driver's license and credit cards,
but it is my duty to have it tested.
So, this is the hair of whatever you hit with your bus?
Yes.
And would it be okay if I examined the hair?
Yes. No problem.
Terrific. Lindsay, bag it.
David's hair might be just what we need to break this case wide open,
but first, we had one more witness to interview.
So, we took his small bus to a town called Puemo to meet with Juan.
Juan survived what he claimed was an attack from El Chupacabra,
and he had the scars to prove it.
So, he was, like, coming off a bridge,
and that's when he saw the two animals.
The little one bit him right there on the leg.
The other one, there, in his neck.
So, with its talons, it scratched at him?
These your scars from where you were attacked?
Big scars in here and here.
On his arms here, he's got big scars here,
a nasty one right there, too.
Juan pointed us to the mountainous area just above the town of Puemo,
where he believed the two creatures that attacked him had escaped to.
So, our course was set.
A midnight stakeout of the mysterious creatures' feeding grounds.
But before climbing the mountain, we stopped in town for supplies.
This is the very small town of Puemo,
located at the base of the mountain
where we're going to be doing our night investigation for El Chupacabra.
The real mystery here, though, is how a town this small
can have this many foosball tables.
There are 1000 foosball tables in this town.
Ridiculous! They love foosball here.
After having my yearly dose of foosball and Elvis impersonations fulfilled,
we climbed the mountain and made camp.
So, let's divide and conquer here.
Okay.
You guys set up the cameras.
Sure. Deploy those.
We'll have one camera pointed on this side of the hills.
We'll have another one pointed at this slope up here.
Sure.
Have one point down here,
getting as much of this area as possible.
Okay. Okay.
One on the chickens.
We have two, beautiful, irresistible chickens.
What Chupacabra could resist these two fine specimens?
Hopefully, you guys will make it through the night.
When searching for the Chupacabra up here,
one of the things we're really focused on finding is some place where it could live.
Burrowing, small holes, caves, things like that.
Using our cameras and our night-vision equipment,
we're scanning the hillside, trying to see if we can pick up
these bright red eyes.
I'm starting the recordings on four cameras.
Camera one is up.
Camera two is up. Camera three is up
and camera four is up.
All right. So, Lindsay, keep an eye on these four cameras.
Sure.
In a few minutes, we'll go lights out.
Marc and I will start investigating the area.
Take the night-vision scope with us, take the thermal sensor
and see what we see.
People have been saying that El Chupacabra's been coming from this area.
Watch out, there's a big drop here.
Let's get the thermal imager.
The thermal imager should allow me to peer through the bushes
and pick up any heat signatures.
I just thought I saw something, actually.
But, no, it's... There's various rocks on the hills
that are still retaining some heat from the day,
but by and large, there is nothing moving around up there.
Something just went scurrying across.
It went down the hill.
Come on, over here, over here.
We got a cave. There's a cave.
Come here, come here, come here.
Guys, we found a cave.
And I think something just ran inside.
It's a big cave.
Was that you?
No, it sounded like it came from behind us.
There it was again. Let's move it, guys. Follow that noise.
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
Something just went scurrying across.
It went down the hill.
Come on, over here, over here.
We got a cave and I think something just ran inside.
It's a big cave.
Um, right now, I'm looking for any signs of life.
Droppings, footprints, bone fragments.
The tunnel seems to be widening out a bit.
Guys, it looks like the cave forks in two different directions.
Don't get lost in there.
Well, let's take a walk and see what we got here.
No signs yet that anything's living in here.
No bones, no droppings of any kind.
Juan told me that the creature that attacked him had a foul,
almost sweaty odor to it, but so far all I'm smelling here is like mildew.
There are signs that part of the ceiling has given away here and here.
I see some collapsed rocks on the floor.
Definitely want to be very careful in here. Try not to touch the walls.
Don't pull at anything. Don't loosen up any of these rocks.
This section ends right here.
It's a dead end. It possibly continues higher up.
And let's double back and check the other one.
No footprints that I can make out.
It just goes on and on.
Was that you?
No, it sounded like it came from behind us.
There it was again. Let's move it, guys. Follow that noise.
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Move it!
Let's go!
Wait, wait, wait. Wait, what is that? Is that hair?
What did you find?
I found two hairs.
We're gonna have to get them analyzed along with David's.
Lindsay, you there?
I'm here.
I think something ran out of the cave. We're following it now.
Did you see anything on the cameras?
Negative. Nothing's going on out here.
What was that?
Did you hear that?
Something moving around in the bushes.
I'm right at the edge of a ravine. The footing is really loose.
There's only a couple of feet before a drop off.
An animal with claws might be able to climb the loose gravel,
but I am unequipped to try it myself.
Just a minute ago, whatever it was moved extremely violently
and shook this whole bush over here.
Eric, let's get the thermal imager.
I'm not getting any large heat signatures from the hillside,
but maybe if I try and slowly climb down a few feet more...
I'm not about to let you break your neck
scaling down the side of a cliff.
Well, whatever it is, it ain't here now.
After another couple of hours searching the hillside for El Chupacabra,
we decided to end our foot patrols and go back to camp.
In terms of our investigation tonight, the criteria that we were using to investigate
the Chupacabra was really, really visual.
And we didn't catch anything unusual on our cameras.
Our chickens even survived the night.
Do I think the Chupacabra exists?
I don't know. I think that there is enough evidence
to support that there's something killing a lot of animals,
and there's something that is being repeatedly sighted by people who are living here.
They say that it is much bigger than a ferret.
As to what that is, I don't know,
but there's something out there.
When the sun finally peeked over the horizon, we knew it was time to move on.
Back in the States, we had the two hairs we found in the cave,
along with the hair David found in his windshield,
analyzed by Dr. Elizabeth Wictum at the UC Davis Forensics Lab.
What happens in this room that it's marked biohazard?
There's monkeys with Simian AIDS.
That's Simian AIDS testing in there. Yes, yes.
That's great. So, we're not gonna go in that room.
So, you got our samples? Yes.
And they're labeled "Chupacabra hairs."
What is the process of analyzing animal hair?
Well, it's pretty much the same as any tissue.
Are you an extremely hygienic person at home, too?
Do you wear gloves all the time?
I mean, is this how you open mail at home?
After getting a nearly two-hour demonstration
on the procedures involved in extracting DNA,
I was more than eager to hear the results.
This is the DNA sequence results that we got
from two of the hairs that you submitted.
Now, we submitted three hairs, so...
Two of the hairs we got results from, and those are conclusive.
And what are they?
Those are from a human.
They're from a human? 100%? Yes.
Absolutely.
And the third hair is inconclusive. Why?
An inconclusive result can be you get partial results.
In this case, we got absolutely no results from that third hair...
You got no results at all? Yeah.
The test that we use looks at all mammalian DNA,
so if there is mammalian DNA in that hair,
it should be picked up.
The results showed that the two hairs we found in the cave are 100% human,
but the analysis confirms that David's inconclusive hair
doesn't belong to any documented mammal,
which means it either belongs to El Chupacabra or one of my producers.
Each of those colored peaks represents a DNA nucleotide.
Adenine? Thynine? Thymine? Thiamine?
Yes.
Cytosine? Uh-huh.
And what's the G one? Guanine.
Guanine. See, I'm...
Very good. Three out of four.
Three out of four is not bad. I read Jurassic Park.
All of my knowledge of genetics comes from reading in ninth grade.
Well, what more do you need?
No, that's it, right? That's the whole science.
It's just boiled down into making dinosaurs.
Yep.
Do you make dinosaurs here?
No, we don't.
Well, that's a shame.
My time in Chile searching for El Chupacabra was certainly exciting.
The eyewitness accounts were compelling,
but the scientific evidence leads me to believe that much of the carnage
was probably caused by a natural predator.
Until hard evidence of a large, bloodsucker is found,
I'm gonna have to say that whatever is causing the damage
is likely closer to the quique than Dracula.
And as for me, there are many more creature sightings
to investigate out there, and I'd better get moving.