- You've got a mouthful of curved, serrated teeth.
Very unusual among the lizards,
I mean they're much more like shark's teeth.
- My initial reaction was that I was going to be attacked,
but then when it didn't attack me,
that's when I thought maybe let me follow the lion.
- It was about between 15 and 20 feet long.
On the ferry boat I did see a head,
and it was swimming like a snake does,
holding her head like this.
- How did a spirit lion
save the life of a soldier, and what's lurking
beneath some of Canada's lakes?
Animal X discovers the weird world of animal mystery.
First we investigate the legend of
the frightening Komodo dragon.
- It's the next best thing to a living dinosaur.
A species that has survived for some 10 million years.
An enormous predatory lizard that can eat a whole deer,
and even kill a man with one bite.
The Komodo dragon.
- They say the dragons can smell a carcass,
rotting carcass from 15 kilometers away.
You've got a mouthful of curved, serrated teeth.
Very unusual among the lizards,
I mean they're much more like shark's teeth.
- Animal X traveled to the dragon's homeland,
Komodo island in Indonesia, to unravel the mystery
and myth behind the world's biggest reptile.
We discovered a desolate place, more reminiscent
of the Arizona desert, than a tropical jungle.
Dangerous seas surround Komodo island,
almost as if protecting it from outsiders.
The islands were formed by tectonic plates,
which collide beneath tempestuous waters,
fraught with rips, whirlpools, and extreme tidal changes.
Komodo was also home to active volcanoes,
and other bizarre creatures like giant spiders,
that spend their days basking in the sun.
We took a much traveled route to find the Komodo dragon
in its natural habitat, and soon there were signs
that we were on the right path.
Before us, the distinctive trails
left by the Komodo's tail in the sand.
Then the remnants of a recent feast, the antlers of a deer.
And finally the dragon's dung,
made up of nothing more than hair and bone.
Suddenly we realized we had company.
Not surprisingly nothing preys on this animal,
except its own kind.
The Komodo is a cannibal, and will eat
another lizard after it has died.
Its saliva alone is enough to kill,
as it contains a deadly bacteria
for which there is no known cure.
Such a terrifying creature should provoke
some fearsome folklore amongst local villagers,
and that's exactly what it's done.
- There are many variations on the story, as to how
both the people and the dragons came to be in Komodo.
And they believe that there's some kind of
psychic link between them and the dragons.
They believe that once long ago,
there was a woman that gave birth
to a human child and a dragon.
And she was very embarrassed about this,
and the dragon went away, the dragon was upset too,
and went away and lived in exile up in the mountains.
She lived in exile already anyway,
being ashamed about having delivered a dragon.
But that the dragon would come back and visit her,
being one of her offspring, and never do her any harm.
- Mysteriously the end of that tale
has held true, so far no Komodo villagers are known
to have been attacked by the dragons.
But on the neighboring islands, it's a different story.
In 1987 a 12-year-old boy was killed by a dragon
on the nearby island of Rinca.
The Komodo is known to often rise up on its hind legs
before attacking, its long thick tail delivering
well aimed blows, acting as a potent weapon.
Since the lizard's discovery some 80 years ago,
there have been six reported cases
of the Komodo killing people.
An opportunist, the animal hunts after dark.
- They're supposed to, the sun goes down,
the dragons go to sleep, that's what you usually see.
But in fact they're really quite active hunters,
until nine or ten o'clock at night.
It was in 1976 that this fascinating yet foreboding island
was to lure the dragon's most celebrated victim.
Baron Rudolf von Reding Biberegg from Switzerland
had come to Komodo as part of one of
the first shiploads of European tourists.
The story goes that the Baron had been
out trekking with his party, but became tired
and told the group he wanted to rest.
He suggested they go ahead of him,
and that he would catch up later.
According to witnesses, the Baron was in view
of the others at all time, until suddenly he vanished.
Few dispute the theory that he was taken
by a Komodo dragon, becoming the first
westerner in history to meet such a fate.
Despite the extensive search that followed,
no mortal remains were ever found,
just some of the Baron's personal belongings
including his camera and a bloody shoe.
Today the Komodo dragon is considered a precious commodity.
It's on the world's endangered species list.
There are only a few thousand left in Indonesia.
While this natural born killer may have been
around for millions of years, the mystery
surrounding it has never diminished.
A freak of nature, whose survival still baffles scientists,
the Komodo dragon is a living legend,
which may yet survive its human neighbors.
- Coming face to face with a Komodo dragon
may be a terrifying experience, but throughout history
not all encounters with wild animals
have had a tragic ending, especially when it's said
to have been sent by a higher power to protect us.
Like South Africa's mysterious Spirit Lion.
- The African lion.
It's a creature of legendary power and majesty.
But could it be a link between the spirit world and our own?
In Africa, many people believe it is.
The trail begins in the ancient stone ruins
of the Monomotapa culture.
It was here that historians unearthed early traces
of the Mhondoro, or lion cult first recorded
almost five centuries ago, it could be much older.
Animal X traveled to Zimbabwe in Southern Africa,
to the Northeastern border with Mozambique.
The kingdom of Monomotapa was a complex
and sophisticated civilization.
Its origin is shrouded in the mists of time.
It's the specialty of this local historian,
and member of parliament.
- Some of the powerful ancestors, especially chiefs,
when they die their spirits come back in the form of a cub.
A little lion which grows into a big lion.
- This reincarnation theory
is one interpretation.
Another is the movement of a spirit
from a dead ancestor to a grown lion.
Traditionally, many Africans practice
a form of ancestor worship.
Spirit mediums like Peter Sibanda contact the spirits
of departed ancestors to obtain advice for the living.
Nyasha Masiwa would like to understand
his own encounter with a spirit lion.
Peter believes Nyasha met Queen Nehanda,
the legendary resistance leader and spirit medium
killed by white settlers early this century.
- When she was executed, she then said,
"When I die, my bones will arise and fight,
"and continue my cause."
So when Nyasha was in the liberation movement
and the others, we believe they were all inspired
by Mbuya Nehanda, and Queen Nehanda was the lion.
Zimbabwe's liberation forces crossed from their bases
in Mozambique, into the Northeast of the country
to conduct their guerrilla war of attrition.
The fighters were mostly young,
little more than school children before they took up
the Kalashnikov rifle to free their country.
Nyasha was one such idealist.
His war name meant "The one who finishes the job."
His clan's totem animal was the lion.
The clan totem of Queen Nehanda was also the lion.
She was the spiritual inspiration of the guerrillas.
An enemy airstrike took the guerrillas by surprise.
Outgunned and overwhelmed, there was little they could do
but scatter into the surrounding bush for cover.
Nyasha had to run for his life, his only chance
to evade the marauding jet that screamed overhead.
His memory of that moment is still vivid.
- I lost part of my section, and I was alone.
Then I didn't even know where to go, I was completely lost.
I didn't, I really couldn't figure out the directions.
- Not knowing where he was,
and without the support and firepower of his comrades,
Nyasha had landed in a very dangerous predicament.
At any moment he might blunder into the enemy
and be captured or killed, and with their presence
in the area known, it was imperative to cross back
into Mozambique, and regain his own lions.
The bush seemed alive with menace,
and that's when he spotted the lion.
Nyasha's first thought was escape,
but the lion seemed to head him off.
Wearily, Nyasha tried to circle off
in the other direction, but the lion turned him back.
- My initial reaction was that I was going to be attacked,
but then when it didn't attack me,
I then started thinking about that,
and also I think during the war,
we believed in the strength of the spirit mediums,
and I think we always involved
the name of Mbuya Nehanda, and so
that's when I thought maybe let me follow the lion.
- So instead of running,
Nyasha decided to trust the lion and go with it.
It may seem incredible to the western mind,
but to an African steeped in a tradition of ancestor worship
it was clear that the lion intended to help him.
Eventually he found his way back.
From the account of Nyasha's comrades-in-arms,
their first thought was to hide from the lion.
But the lion it seemed, was not to be feared.
To them the answer was soon obvious, the creature was
possessed by a spirit sent to watch over them.
It was just as Queen Nehanda had promised.
- People should not just think this is superstition,
because these things do happen.
But the thing that we don't understand them,
doesn't mean that they don't exist.
- So the Mhondoro cult still thrives
in Zimbabwe, and spirit lions it seems still haunt the bush.
- No one knows why such creatures
suddenly present themselves to us.
For centuries locals and visitors alike
say they've seen monsters surface in lakes in North America.
After the break, Animal X meets up with them.
- That thing was going straight at us,
quite fast because it was moving quite a bit of water.
- Welcome back to Animal X.
All over the world there are reports of lake monsters,
but none are as prevalent as those in North America.
One local authority has even legislated
to protect whatever it is that's out there.
But where could they be hiding, and what do they look like?
We went on the hunt for the creatures lurking in the depths.
- The inviting waters of North America's lakes
may look benign, but they hold the key to a mystery.
A mountain of sightings suggest that small populations
of unknown creatures inhabit as many as 90 lakes
in Canada and the United States.
There are indications that huge
prehistoric reptiles or massive serpents
are feeding and breeding below the surface.
- It looked like a brontosaurus.
That's all I could think of, with a long neck
and a small head like that.
- I said to my husband, "We almost can hear them breathe."
You know when you don't hear the wind,
or the water, you hear.
- Animal X went to the border
between Canada and the US to investigate the sightings
of strange creatures at Lake Champlain,
and nearby Lake Memphremagog.
14 years ago, Happy Marsh was sitting on her balcony
overlooking Lake Champlain when she noticed
something unusual moving in the water just offshore.
She used her binoculars to get a better look.
- They're, "Mom, Mom! Come quickly, I think
"Elsie's swimming around the boughs out there, look!"
Wow and there's another one, it looks like another one
that's coming in from that direction.
You could see the humps really clearly.
- Happy Marsh has seen Elsie, or "Champ" as the
monsters are known here four times since the 60's.
On one occasion, she watched a serpent-like creature
swim by from the crowded decks of a ferry.
- It was about, between 15 and 20 feet long Elsie was,
she had humps that were about a foot, foot-and-a-half long.
You couldn't see air through them,
because they were kind of coming out of the water.
On the ferry boat I did see a head,
and it was swimming like a snake does,
holding her head like this.
- Reports of the monsters in the lake
date back to 1609.
The French explorer Samuel de Champlain,
who gave his name to the lake, describes seeing
an animal that was serpent-like,
about 20 foot long, and as thick as a barrel.
Early pioneers reported seeing strange creatures
with long necks at nearby Lake Memphremagog.
- In 1816 there were four sightings on this lake.
At the same time he said that the Indians
will not bathe in this lake, because they were scared
that the lake was inhabited by a monster.
- Since then hundreds of reports have surfaced,
but the mysterious creatures of the deep water lakes
remain elusive, rarely captured on film.
A photograph taken at Lake Champlain in 1977
is one of the few exceptions.
It shows the creature's long neck,
curved over a low-humped body.
But the authenticity of the picture is hotly contested.
Skeptics suggest that it's the fin of a whale,
but the sightings of the unexplained creatures continue.
Angela Grover and her husband watched
a dark creature in Lake Champlain this year.
- Well I saw a long neck and a head,
and what appeared to be a hump of a back.
We came back and we debated on whether or not
to tell his mother, and we did, and they
kinda laughed at us but then his mother and his aunt
wouldn't go out on the jet-ski for awhile,
because of they'd seen it.
- A billboard in Port Henry
on the shores of Lake Champlain,
lists some of the many people who claim they've seen Champ.
The authorities have given further credibility
to the tales of lake monsters,
by giving them protection at a State and local level.
- There were some people threatening
to shoot them if they ever saw them,
to try to sell them and things like that, so
the Village Board of Trustees passed a resolution then to
protect Champ along the shores of the village of Port Henry.
Researchers disagree on
exactly what the lake monsters are.
Some suggest that they're plesiosaurs,
prehistoric reptiles left over from the Jurassic era.
But the creatures of Lake Champlain
are most commonly likened to serpents.
Skeptics claim they're simply floating logs,
or figments of the imagination.
Richard Smith has left the monster spotters
on the shore, to find the truth.
He's armed for the task with underwater
video equipment, and sonar.
- You can see the bottom's starting to fall off
down below here.
This is the bottom of the lake
of this drowned valley we're passing over.
The many lakes around the world that at one time,
were arms of the sea, connected to the sea
just after the glacial epoch.
People claim that they see large unknown animals,
and it's hypothetically possible that
breeding populations of such animals
came into these waters, they exploited
the large stocks of fish as a food source,
and then when the lakes closed off
in to the fresh water lakes we have now,
populations remain.
- Richard is looking for hard evidence of this.
He's convinced that the creatures are at the top
of the food chain, fish-eaters.
And to find the fish-eaters,
he has first to attract the fish.
Then wait for the monsters to follow.
Jacques Boisvert has been in pursuit
of lake monsters for 20 years.
He's collected more than 200 reports of sightings
of unknown creatures in Lake Memphremagog,
including this photograph.
An enlarged extract shows a strange hump
coming out of the water.
Piles of testimonies, signatures,
as well as drawings of giant otters,
marine horses, and serpents add weight
to the old Indian tales of monsters in the lake.
- For instance, she saw something
similar to that, and he saw something similar to that.
- The accounts of strange humps
appearing on the surface come from witnesses
of all ages, including an 11-year-old girl.
- This one here is very interesting because
the drawing was made by a little girl.
The drawing was made about 15 minutes after it did happen.
- The owners of a store
on Lake Memphremagog are among those
who've added their names to the growing files.
- I saw something sticking out of the water,
black, round thing.
I couldn't see if there was any eyes or ears or whatever,
but that thing was going straight to us, quite fast
because it was moving quite a bit of water, you know?
So I said to Mary, let's turn around and go on,
I wanna see that you know?
She said "No way, no way."
- Lucie Deslieres was also startled by the appearance
of two strange creatures while boating.
- It looked a little bit like,
a head like a hippopotamus, but a little bit smaller.
And my husband says a little bit like a crocodile,
or alligator, but the nose very smaller.
And the color was like blue, blue, black-blue,
and the texture looked like a whale.
- Are long-necked monsters
lurking below the waters of this,
and many other lakes in North America?
Can the 100's of sightings be explained away
as giant sturgeons, or wild imagination?
No one can say for sure.
The search for an answer goes on above,
and below the surface of the water,
but for now the truth remains locked in the murky depths.
- It's said there are stranger things
in heaven and earth than we can think of.
- They say that dragons can smell
a carcass, rotting carcass from 15 kilometers away.