- Once they get into a feeding frenzy,
they don't stop at people,
they'll eat part of the boat as well.
- We add a vein to the great dogs of legend,
the hero of a true story.
- Absolutely frightening to see this thing.
It just rose up out of the water
it was like a greyish color,
but it was absolutely frightening.
- How did a family dog cheat death
after a snake attack?
And what lives beneath South Africa's Howick Falls?
Animal X explores the bizarre world of animal mystery.
First to Indonesia, home to huge man-eating crocodiles
that defy the laws of nature.
- Enter the lost world,
a land where giant prehistoric beasts prey
on innocent villages, stalking them,
as they go about their daily tasks.
This is Irian Jaya in Southeast Asia
where killer crocodiles over nine meters long
have been blamed for the deaths
of more than 50 men, women, and children.
- Big crocodiles lie around
to come swallow a human being whole.
I've seen photographs of crocodiles
that have been opened up with people
laying whole in their stomach.
Now I've also seen pictures of stomachs of crocodiles
of that size with two out-board motors in there as well.
So once they get into a feeding frenzy,
they don't stop at people,
but they'll eat part of the boat as well.
- Animal X mounted an expedition
into the land that time forgot
to investigate the incredible reports
of ferocious crocodiles.
Our trek took us deep into the inhospitible Asmat Jungle
in Southern Irian Jaya
where we discovered a rich and superstitious culture
revolving around spirits, myths, and legends.
Here, headhunting and cannibalism have been
part of tribal life for centuries.
Elaborate rituals lead up to the slaying,
beheading, and eating of members of opposing villages
in what are considered local vengeance killings.
The Asmats believe everything has a spirit
from trees to rocks to animals.
These dark and mysterious parts are also home
to flying bats and the world's largest lizard,
the komodo dragon, who saliva alone is enough to kill.
But by far the most feared of them all is the killer croc,
and as a powerful animal, the locals believe
it has a very powerful, spiritual force.
- And they would explain the fact that
somebody got eaten by a crocodile
because it's the will of the gods.
A person done something wrong, so it's good and right
that they get eaten by a crocodile.
- This is all that remains
of one killer croc reported to have eaten up to 20 people.
These huge holes once held teeth 20 centimeters long.
The story goes, not even a high powered rifle
could kill the animal.
The croc's skull is proudly displayed
in a museum in the Asmat.
The curator tells how by chance,
a child fired an arrow straight into its eye.
The crocodile in tremendous pain fled up onto the land.
Local villagers eventually killed it with arrows and spears
believing that by taking its life,
they inherited a powerful, spiritual force.
Those who've seen Irian Jaya's killer crocs in action
say they move like lightening.
Witnesses describe how the animals
have even chased people in their canoes
biting through the small boats or flipping them over.
No one knows exactly why they're so ferocious.
Some believe it's just a case of the croc being hungry,
and looking for the easiest source of food.
The word Asmat means tree or wood,
and many here are carvers who produce
some of the primitive world's most awesome
and powerful sculptures.
Animal X spoke to them about their experiences
with killer crocs.
This man tells how four people, including his sister-in-law,
were taken from a nearby village.
He said the crocs were so big and
the attacks happened so fast, no one had a chance
to defend themselves or escape.
It was back in 1961 that this land
of artists and headhunters made front page news
with the disappearance of the son
of the fabulously wealthy New York Governor,
Nelson Rockefeller.
Michael Rockefeller vanished while on a personal mission
to collect Asmat wood carvings.
On a fateful day in November, he and a dutch companion,
found themselves floating away from shore in a sinking boat.
His colleague chose to stay on board,
but Rockefeller was confident he could make it back.
His friend watched as
the 23 year old swam off into the distance.
Eventually he lost sight of Rockefeller,
and the New Yorker was never seen again.
The Dutchman was finally rescued,
but he could shed no light on what happened to Rockefeller.
Theories vary, some believe he was taken by head hunters,
but others blame Irian Jaya's prehistoric killer,
the killer croc, who may have taken Rockefellers body
deep below the surface.
- The way the crocodile feeds basically,
is to bite, and then if it's a large prey,
if it's a human being for example, or a buffalo,
it'll drag the animal into the water.
If its not feeding immediately,
it will take the animal down and lodge it
down in the mangrove roots and leave it there
until it starts to decompose
which makes it easier to pull apart.
But I mean, either way, the crocodile will bite,
and then use its body and its tail to start spinning,
so it wrenches, it rips off the food by spinning underwater.
Living along one of
the world's biggest mangrove swamps
means there's little chance of escaping the crocs.
Today, the Asmats rarely hunt them.
They believe to do so would upset
the balance of the animal spirit world.
So for now these giant predators are free
to lurk around the waters of Irian Jaya
stalking villagers and killing at will.
- Killers in the animal kingdom
come in all shapes and sizes.
In Australia's bushy terrain, it is easy to miss those
that are long and thin and slither along the ground.
But here's a story of a perceptive canine
who sensed their danger, moved in to save a life,
although he almost lost his.
- Would you depend on this dog
to save a child's life?
Well the silky terrier probably
wouldn't be your first choice.
But Fizo's courage and instinct for danger
go well beyound the normal,
and earned him Australia's highest award for animal bravery,
the Purple Cross.
Animal X traveled to Fizo's home
Tari, on the New South Wales coast
to relive his near-fatal ordeal.
One afternoon, just like this,
Fizo was hard at work looking after
his favorite 11 year old, Rachael Sky.
He too was supposed to be on holiday,
but for Fizo, duty is a 24-hour job.
Today, Fizo will need all of his courage
because somewhere in the grass,
there's an unwelcome visitor,
one of the most venomous snakes in the world,
the Eastern Brown.
The Eastern Brown snake can kill a child with one bite.
It's highly dangerous and very aggressive if cornered,
striking quickly and repeatedly.
- We were making nests in the lawn grass
where Granddad had freshly cut it
and he put it in a big pile.
I eventually saw the snake.
- Fizo immediately sensed the danger
and threw himself between Rachael and the snake.
It should have been no contest,
a small family pet against
one of Australia's most highly evolved reptiles
packing enough venom to kill a horse.
But in a furious battle, Fizo would not give up.
The snake, too, stood his ground.
It would be a fight to the death.
- It just seemed like he was trying to rip it in half.
- Fizo got in a final, fatal bite
and the snake was dead, but the snake had struck many times
injecting the little dog with deadly venom.
Fizo had won the battle, but was dying.
The venom was starting to take effect
flooding his little body with paralyzing speed.
- Venom acts in different ways
on different parts of the body.
The commonest is usually neurotoxic venom
which attacks the transmission of nerve impulses
which often leads to respiratory or cardiac failure.
But there are other types of venom as well
which attacks muscle for example.
- Fizo was rushed to the vet's
15 minutes away.
Every second brought him closer to a fatal coma.
- The scene was confusion,
the whole family there, children were crying.
Fizo was absolutely collapsed,
He comes in really critical.
He was having trouble breathing.
- Incredibly, Fizo was battling the poison,
a much tougher opponent than the snake.
But he had an ally.
Australia is one of the world's best producers
of snake bite anti-venom.
At the Australian Reptile Park in Sydney,
captive snakes are regularly milked of their poison.
This forms the basis for an antidote.
- Fortunately in this case, we had an identification
of the snake, who Fizo brought in with him,
had been killed, it was a brown snake,
and we commenced really quickly,
the brown snake anti-venom,
after a necessary pre-treatment
to prevent against allergic reaction.
And another supportive treatment
which is usually rapid intravenous fluids
to keep the circulation going.
- Fizo spent the night on life support
and the next three days in intensive care.
It was touch and go, but they don't come much tougher
than this little fighter, and amazingly, he survived.
As Fizo recovered, news of his bravery reached RSPCA,
and six months later, at a special ceremony
in State Parliament house, Fizo met Premier Bob Carr,
and was presented with the Purple Cross.
- We add a name to the great dogs of legend,
the hero of a true story.
- Today Fizo does just
what he likes doing most, lazing around,
but beneath this doggy calm exterior,
beats the heart of a lion.
- Just as there are mysteries
involving real life animals, there are tales
of beasts built up around myth and legend.
After the break, Animal X investigates
South Africa's Inkanyamba.
- Next thing, this thing broke water
and I just couldn't believe my eyes.
It actually made the water ripple in a circle.
So great, this is a beautiful animal.
- Welcome back to Animal X.
In Scotland, they have the lochness monster.
In South Africa it's the Inkanyamba,
a legendary creature said to live
somewhere beneath the Howick Falls.
It's an apt setting for an otherworldly beast
as there's more to this place than meets the eye.
- South Africa's eerie Howick Falls
are the most photographed waterfalls in the country,
but they also have a more grisly reputation
for death and evil.
Countless people have hurled themselves
down the massive drop to their death.
The allure of the falls for the desperate
and lonely is notorious.
But even more mysterious are the reports
of a strange monster that lurks in the murky pool below.
A creature known as Inkanyamba.
- It was huge in size, must have been
about seven and half meters long.
- The one eyes, they were beautiful big red eyes
in the moonlight.
- Animal X traveled
to the South African province of Kwazulu Natal
in search of the Inkanyamba, the Howick Falls monster.
Two years ago, Bob Teeney and his friend Richard
got more than they bargained for
when they visited Howick Falls.
The pair trod the familiar path to the bottom of the falls,
a track that local tribes people are too frightened to take,
for fear of encountering the giant snake monster.
It was here that things took a turn for the extraordinary.
First, they noticed bubbles rising
to the surface of the water,
then slowly, the huge head and neck
of a strange creature began to emerge.
- Absolutely frightening when to see this thing.
It just rose right up out of the water,
it was like a greyish color,
but it was absolutely frightening.
- Bob Teeney managed
to take a photograph of the monster
before he and his colleague fled for their lives.
Bob Teeney displays the photograph
in his restaurant in Howick as indisputed proof
that a monster lurks at the falls.
The image shows the long neck of an animal
not unlike a prehistoric plesiosaur.
- We actually have the monster out of the water.
We're not afraid to show it,
nor are we afraid to say to the skeptics
we are 100% sure this is a genuine photograph.
- Bob Teeney offers
the negative as proof of the photograph's authenticity,
but he believes he has further evidence
of the existence of the monster, three large eggs.
- Here we have just a normal hen's egg,
and this is one of the eggs which was actually
taken from down at the bottom of the falls.
- Experts have cast doubt on the assertion
that these were laid by a falls monster.
- In my opinion, I would say,
definitely a crocodile egg for sure.
- There are now crocodiles at Howick Falls.
And Bob Teeney remains convinced that
a giant prehistoric reptile lives
in the deep caverns behind the cascading waters
hauling itself out of the water to lay its eggs
or perhaps foraging for food
in the dense bushland in the dead of night.
He's not the only one.
Other local residents are convinced
they've seen the monster.
- It was midnight, full moon, beautiful moon.
And with the spotlights shining onto the falls
I saw this movement in the water
and big red eyes coming up the river,
and I wondered what the thing this thing is.
Next thing, this thing broke water
and I just couldn't believe my eyes.
It actually made the water ripple.
I thought, great this is a beautiful animal.
- Brian Fowlie has fashioned
a miniature version of the creature he saw that night.
Was it the monster that the local people call Inkanyamba?
A creature so feared that few will even venture
to the bottom of the falls for risk of encountering it.
Only witch doctors that are believed
to possess supernatural powers
are allowed to visit the home of the snake monster,
and risk the wrath of the Inkamyamba.
But first, a special ceremony must take place.
A bead from the witch doctor's headdress
is thrown into the pool to appease
the spirits of the ancestors that live in the monster.
- An Inkanyamba is a big, terrible snake
that people are frightened, scared to see
because the snake is related with the ancestors.
- The Zulu tribes people
are deeply superstitious.
The spirits of the dead take many shapes and forms.
Evil spirits are blamed for a catalog of problems,
and it is up to the traditional healers, or Sangomas,
to exercise the evil spirits
and drive out illness and bad fortune.
The spirits that lurk in the Inkanyamba
are respected as well as feared
for their relationship with the ancestors.
Anyone who visits the pool, risks being dragged
down to the depths by the Inkanyamba.
According to folklore, a white goat must be sacrificed
to the spirit of the mystical snake monster
to spare the life of anyone unfortunate enough
to see the Inkanyamba.
Cows have also been sacrificed
in the name of the snake monster.
According to local folklore,
a sighting is also guaranteed to bring rain.
The legend of the giant snake goes back thousands of years,
even before the Zulus arrived in the area two millennia ago.
Deep in the Drackensberg Range, there is evidence
of the giant snake's place in local mythology.
Cave paintings by bushman who lived here
thousands of years ago, bear witness
to battles with giant serpents,
and of sacrifices to the mystical snake.
Tales of the monster weave a mythical web
across the waterfalls of Southern Africa
flying snakes form an integral part of the folklore.
The stories have been handed down through the generations
and even across the cultures from Bushmen to Zulus.
- You see today, when you speak to Sangomas,
and other traditionalists, as probably a remnant
or survival of these earlier beliefs
which is picked up on rock paintings.
- The giant snake is more
than just a legend for some.
Two Boy Mbhense has lived in the area for 14 years.
As a youngster, he ignored the warnings of his parents
and visited the pool at the bottom of the falls.
Two Boy claims that he saw a long necked monster
rising from the water.
The creature had a head like a tortoise,
a neck that stretched five meters long,
and skin like a crocodile.
Then it disappeared back into the mist.
This is the image that is indelibly etched in his mind.
The Inkanyamba has also been blamed
for the death of several children near the waterfall.
- Lots of people, young children, died there,
but the young people come back and report to their parents
we saw a big snake taking so-and-so.
This is how this used to happen, but many children died.
At this stage, no one assumes that
because they're all scared of that place.
Local witch doctors
have long recognized the mystical nature of the area,
but the falls have also held
a powerful attraction for others, suiciders.
- Perhaps people, in a heightened emotional state,
are more sensitive and more open to this atmosphere.
Perhaps they are drawn to the falls, even lured over the lip
and perhaps this could account for the many suicides
that have occurred at the Howick Falls
since the beginning of the century and before.
- Sian Hall has done extensive research
on the mysterious Howick Falls.
She's found evidence of huge eels lurking at the bottom.
- They are said to be about two meters long
with quite a thick circumference,
and bodies that have been washed over the falls
or people that have leapt over the falls,
have surfaced a few days later
with extremities sort of removed,
and this is most possibly been done by these eels.
- Howick Falls isn't alone
in possessing an almost supernatural aura,
Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe holds its own special allure.
The great lakes of central Africa also have
a mystical power that transfixes visitors.
But is it just the hypnotic sounds of the cascading water
that draws people to the edge of Howick Falls,
or does the monster call them to jump?
While the monster of Howick Falls is deeply ingrained
in local folklore, those who claimed
to have seen the Inkanyamba say it's more than a myth.
It's a very real and terrifying creature.
- It's said
there are stranger things in heaven and earth
than we can think of.
- Big crocodile lying around to come
swallow a human being whole.