A MonsterQuest Look at Unidentified Flying Creatures

Around the world, cameras have been capturing images of a missile like object or creature that appears out of nowhere and disappears in a fraction of a second. Researchers call these creatures Rods and they are described as one to six feet long, with cylindrical bodies, multiple sets of wings or a thin membrane of wings along the whole body, and able to move so fast that they are undetectable to the naked eye. MonsterQuest takes up the search for Rods in the episode entitled “Unidentified Flying Creatures”.

History

On 20 October 2002, photojournalist Brandon Mowry was shooting video footage at an airport in Albany, NY. Mowry did not notice anything strange while shooting the footage but that changed when he reviewed it. On his film, he observed what looked like a winged missile. The object appeared on the film for only a few frames and looked to be very close to an outbound airplane. The object appeared to be very large and fast moving. Mowry was unsure what to make of the film so he showed it to journalist Dan Bazile.

Bazile states that he was unable to determine what the object was so he contacted the airport to inform them of the film. When airport officials were unable to identify the object, they contacted the FBI. Agents from the FBI confiscated the film from the television station. When contacted by MonsterQuest, the FBI said the case is still open and they will not comment on any findings.

There have been similar photos that show these rod objects. In 2003, a rod appears in a Baghdad photo taken after an explosion. Another video from a Swedish military exercise shows a rod near a tank. Many photos of rods seem to occur near military operations. This has led Bazile to believe that rods may be connected to some secret military experiment.

There have been some early rod sightings that occurred without the use of cameras. One thousand year old stone carvings from Argentina appear to show rod images. An 1891 Crawfordville, Indiana newspaper article contains a possible rod sighting. The report states that two men were working outside when they reported seeing what they described as a headless monster about 20 feet long and eight feet wide. The creature had no head or tail and swam through the air with fin like attachments. The newspaper dubbed the creature the “headless monster”. Modern accounts of rods are from film and not observed with the naked eye.

In May of 1999, a broadcast camera from a news helicopter recorded images of rods in Oklahoma City. The helicopter was recording images of an extremely strong F5 tornado that devastated the area. Meteorologist Gary England said that this tornado had some of the strongest winds ever recorded and the object would not have been a known living creature. The cylindrical object in the video appears to be coming out of a cloud and is gone in a few frames.

In November of 1996, extreme cameraman Mark Lichtle was filming base jumping at the Cave of the Swallows in Mexico. The jumpers were jumping from the rim, falling for 4 to 5 seconds, opening their parachutes and landing at the bottom. While filming this extreme sport he did not notice anything.

When his film footage aired on television, Lichtle received a call from Rod researcher Jose Escamilla. Escamilla had noticed numerous rods showing in the cave jumping footage. Lichtle was amazed when he reviewed the film again and could see the rods passing through the 30 frames per second film in five frames. While many skeptics have claimed that rods are merely birds or insects, this film clearly shows birds and insects flying around that appear quite different from the rods.

Perhaps the best rod film comes from a 2005 film that was taken at a cave entrance in China. The film shows a man walking into the cave as a rod flies past his right shoulder and into the cave. In the film the rod changes direction several times. The man and cave surroundings give several good size and distance reference points. The rod appears to be approximately 18 inches long.

Rod researcher Jose Escamilla has collected over 2,000 rod images from around the world. Some images are very old with one from 1910. According to Escamilla, some of the images seem to show the rods phasing in and out of the film. This has led some people to believe that rods are creatures or objects from another dimension.

The Investigation

The MonsterQuest team looked into many of the possible explanations for rods and came to a pretty startling conclusion.


Could the rods be extra dimensional creatures or objects?

Carl Sagan had said that if a fourth dimensional creature existed, it could appear and dematerialize at will in our three dimensional world. Brown University Professor Thomas Bancoff says that it is theoretically possible for beings to cross between dimensions. Any visitor from another dimension would be hard to recognize.



Could the rods be birds?

Review of the rod footage by birder Martha Yuill led her to believe that if rods were birds then it would have to be a hummingbird. Hummingbirds beat their wings at 70 beats per second and footage of them tends to be blurred. The problem that Yuill sees with this theory is that Hummingbirds are only native to the Americas and would not be found in China. This would not explain the cave footage from 2005. She believes that the rods would have to be insects.


Could the rods be insects?

Dr. Robin Wootton from the University Of Exeter School Of Biosciences reviewed rod footage to see if it showed insects. Wootton did not think the rods looked like any known insect but he believed that the pictures of rods look similar to what the early ancestors of winged insects would have looked like. Around 360 million years ago these proto insects glided using movable winglets to stabilize their fall. These early insects have long been extinct and Wootton does not believe that they could exist in the modern world as they were not very developed. Wootton believed that the rods looked and acted more like projectiles than insects.


How did non-modern humans see rods with the naked eye?

Older accounts of rods have witnesses that see them with the naked eye but this does not seem to occur any more. MonsterQuest contacted Professor of Biological Anthropology Dr. Robert Corruccini for a possible explanation. Corruccini believes that the human senses have diminished in the modern era. Eye muscles are not exercised in the same way as they were previously. The reading of print and watching of television may have led to this diminished capacity.

Corruccini states that people in the non-modernized portions of the world have much better eyesight than their western counterparts. Humans that do not read or utilize television have a normal vision of 20-15 as opposed to the normal 20-20 in western society. Non modern humans may have had even had better vision than that. Peripheral vision would also have been better with these humans.

Can a Rod actually fly?

MonsterQuest enlisted the aid of Iowa State University Aerospace Department Professor Dr. Hui Hu to look at the aerodynamic properties of rods. According to Dr. Hu, any object can fly if it enough force is used. It is more a matter of if the lift and drag factors make the object/creature a sensible design.

To check the feasibility of rod flight, Dr. Hu’s team designs two rod models. One model is constructed with the cylindrical body and flexible wings; the other model has the cylindrical body and rigid wings. Both models are tested in a wind tunnel for flight characteristics. The flexible wing design model proves to be extremely unstable and unable to provide constant lift. The rigid wing design remains stable but provides very little lift in proportion to the drag. Neither design proves to be a very good aerodynamic model. They would both require a lot of power to propel through the air.

A possible problem with this experiment is brought up by Dr. Tom Shih of Iowa State University. If the creature or object shown in the film is actually from another dimension, we may not be seeing the complete object in our dimension. We would probably be testing only a portion of the object in the wind tunnel so the test would not be valid.

Is the camera lying?

High speed camera expert Peter Schmitz sets up an experiment involving the filming of insects. He places a regular speed camera that records at 30 frames per second and a high speed camera that records at 500 frames per second to record the same area. An electronic display is set up to provide an exact time reference for both sets of film. They film an area at night with a floodlight in order to attract insects. Eventually, they capture the image of a rod on the normal speed camera when they saw nothing out of the ordinary with the naked eye. The rod captured on film looks very similar to those captured on the different films from around the world.

When the high speed camera footage is reviewed for the same time period, it clearly shows that the rod was a moth moving in front of the camera. Some type of distortion in the normal speed film caused the moth to look like a cylindrical object with multiple wings. Camera Engineer Mike Bergeron explains that any camera is capable of producing what is called artifacts. These artifacts are distorted and blurred images that are created as the camera captures multiple images of the same object on the same frame. These distorted objects would appear much differently on film than they would have in real life. When an object moves across the camera lens field at a distance that is less than the distance to the object the camera is focused on, there is a chance the camera will capture the closer object as an extremely blurred fast moving object. These artifacts do not appear all the time as it takes the proper combination of object speed, distance from the camera, light, and shutter speed to make them appear. Any type of object could cause this type of phenomenon including insects, birds, or flying debris.

Conclusion

I believe the MonsterQuest team did a great job explaining these sightings. The footage of the moth looked very much like the footage of the rods. They were also able to give sample footage of known objects making other types of rod shaped objects. I would have to say that the camera artifact argument makes much more sense than any other argument in the case of rods.

MonsterQuest Swamp Beast

Numerous eyewitnesses in the southeastern United States describe encounters with a Bigfoot like creature known as the Skunk Ape. Native American tales through modern encounters speak of this half man half ape creature that stands about 7 feet tall. The name, Skunk Ape, comes from the pungent odor like rotting eggs that eyewitnesses describe coming from the creature. In the episode entitled “Swamp Beast”, the MonsterQuest team tries to find evidence for the existence of the Skunk Ape.

The History

From the Florida Everglades through the Louisiana Bayou and on into the Big Thicket Preserve of Texas, there are 1,650,000 square miles of interconnected forest and swamps. In this mostly undisturbed wilderness, there are tales of the Skunk Ape. Joy McGirt of the Creek-Seminole Nation and Gary Hawk Perkins of the Houma Nation tell of ancient Native American tales of this creature that they say has always been there.

An 1829 newspaper story tells of an early encounter between the creature they call the “Man Mountain” and locals in the Georgia swamps. While on a hunting trip, two men discover some 19” tracks. When they hear bellowing screams in the night, they are scared from the area. Their tale of this encounter leads to the formation of a hunting party made up of people from Georgia and Florida that go out looking for the source of the tracks. After two fruitless weeks, the hunting party finally finds tracks and camps for the night. During the night, the party is attacked by 13 foot tall man-like monster. The creature manages to kill most of the hunting party before it is shot and killed. The survivors of the hunting party are so shaken up that they retreat back to civilization without taking the remains of the creature.

The creature was first referenced as the Skunk Ape in 1850. An Arkansas newspaper described the Skunk Ape as a wild man covered in hair that left behind 13 inch footprints. A 1934 Tennessee newspaper article told of a mysterious creature that was fast as lightning and jumped like a kangaroo. Many reports spoke of the strange odor that belonged to the creature.

In 1983, Dan Jackson reported having an encounter with this creature in Collier County, Florida. Jackson was hog hunting when he saw what he thought was a bear about 100 to 120 yards in front of him. He approached to about 30 yards away from the creature when he saw it get up and walk away from him on two legs. He reports that this creature had the smell of rotten eggs.

Scott Kessler, whom would later become a Skunk Ape researcher, had an encounter with Skunk Apes when he was a seven year old boy. In 1977, Kessler was camping with his family near Trout, Louisiana. He woke at around midnight and could hear something coming out of the water near his campsite. As he looked out of the tent, he saw two Skunk Apes.

Wildlife tracker Dan Jackson tried to trap a Skunk Ape in 2002. He believed that a Skunk Ape was going through a local dumpster. He left out orange juice with a sedative in it near the lid of the dumpster with the plan of sedating and capturing the creature. As he watched the trap overnight, he eventually fell asleep. He woke to a Skunk Ape rummaging at the dumpster. Jackson became scared and fired a pistol at the Skunk Ape. He missed with his shot and the Skunk Ape ran off.

In August of 2000, paramedics were called to the scene of an accident near Trout, Louisiana. While the driver of the vehicle did not want to be interviewed by MonsterQuest, one of the paramedics described the accident. The driver had stated that he had struck what he believed to be a large man wearing a fur coat. The front end of the vehicle showed significant damage. The police were concerned that there might be an injured person that had wandered off so they called in for a bloodhound team. The bloodhounds followed a scent into the thick, rugged, and swampy terrain for two hours. The police could hear something large moving ahead of them but could never catch up to it. Eventually, the search was called off.

Only 20 miles from the scene of the car accident, there were numerous other sightings in Cotton Island, Louisiana. Logging crews working the area reported seeing a Skunk Ape in 2006. They found 14 inch footprints that the creature left behind.

Perhaps the best evidence of a Skunk Ape was sent to the Sarasota City, Florida Police Department on 22 December 2000. An anonymous letter arrived with two photographs. The letter said that there may be a wild orangutan roaming the area. The photographs show what appears to be some sort of primate similar to Skunk Ape descriptions.

Robert Carr of the Archeological & Historical Conservancy believes that there has been enough sighting to believe that people are really seeing something. Carr says that the Skunk Ape sightings are similar to the Bigfoot sighting in other parts of the country. The Skunk Ape has longer reddish fur vs. the normally shorter and darker fur reported in Bigfoot sightings. The Skunk Ape is normally reported as being shorter in stature than the Bigfoot sightings.

According to Carr, southern Florida has had a long history of monkeys and primates that that have gone wild. In 2006, a picture of a lone chimpanzee was taken in Gulf Breeze, Florida. In 1992, the devastation of Hurricane Andrew led the escape of 240 monkeys from the University of Miami Primate Center.

Ron Magill of the Miami Zoo states that it is possible for an animal to remain well hidden in the swamps of the southeastern United States. These vast swamps could possibly support an ape-like creature. Humans are the only known primate to be indigenous to this area but escaped primates could adapt to this climate.

The question about the Skunk Ape is whether these sightings are some unknown creature, an escaped primate population or nothing at all. The MonsterQuest team focused its investigation on three areas. They are sending an expedition to Cotton Island to try to find evidence of a Skunk Ape. They are going to have an expert examine the Sarasota City photographs. The third investigation is to try to determine why no bodies of these Skunk Apes have never been found if they exist.

The Cotton Island Expedition

MonsterQuest sends a Skunk Ape expedition to Cotton Island, Louisiana. Wildlife biologist Dr. Greg Bambenek will be leading the expedition. Joining him will be Scott Kessler from the Texas Bigfoot Research Center. The Cotton Island area has been the location of numerous Skunk Ape sightings, strange vocalizations and wood knocking sounds.

Dr. Bambenek is a wildlife scent specialist who has been developing hunting scents for over 35 years. He has developed a pheromone chip that will hopefully attract any ape like creature. The chip is made from the vaginal bacteria of humans and apes and is a scent that Bambenek believes should be successful if there are any primates in the area.

The team sets up numerous camera traps in the area. They choose a variety of terrain including the innermost areas of the swamp that are accessible by airboat only. The pheromone chips are deployed as bait in the areas of the camera traps.

The Shreveport Fire Department also helps in the hunt for the Skunk Ape. Bloodhounds from the Search and Rescue crew are brought in to search for the Skunk Ape. Using the pheromone chips as the scent, the bloodhounds are sent looking for a live ape-like creature. Bambenek and Kessler use recorded gibbon calls as a lure for the Skunk Ape. Most primates will attempt to defend their territory from other primates, so the calls would hopefully draw in any Skunk Ape.

Unfortunately this expedition does not yield any results. The bloodhounds are unable to find the scent of any ape-like creature. After several days in the swamp, the review of the camera traps do not show any sign of a Skunk Ape.

The Sarasota City Skunk Ape Photographs

Miami Zoo orangutan expert Crystal LeMaster examined the Sarasota City photographs. LeMaster says that if the creature in the photo is a real animal, it looks more like an orangutan then anything else. She states that some primates use scent glands that exude strong odors like those described in Skunk Ape sightings but orangutans do not have these smells. LeMaster believes that the photo is a hoax because the long hair looks too long and manicured for an actual wild animal.

Skunk Ape Remains

One question that has faced Skunk Ape Researchers is the question of why have no Skunk Ape bodies ever been found. Wildlife expert Peggy Callahan has devised an experiment to determine the rate of decay for the body of a potential Skunk Ape. Along with photographer Jim Title, Callahan placed the carcass of a freshly killed deer in the wilderness. A time lapse camera filmed the carcass in order to determine how fast the body of large mammal would decay. The body decayed at a rate that astounded Callahan. By day seven, maggots had reduced the body of the deer to an unrecognizable pile of bones. Callahan states that the bones would soon be carried off by scavengers or covered by leaves. Callahan believed that in an extremely moist environment like the Everglades the rate of decomposition would be even faster.

Conclusions

The MonsterQuest team was unable to find any proof of the existence of a Skunk Ape. The Sarasota City photographs were considered to be the best evidence of a wild primate but an expert believes them to be a fraud. The possibility remains open as the body decay experiment showed that a Skunk Ape population would not necessarily leave behind bodies as evidence of their existence.

The MonsterQuest episode entitled “Swamp Beast” first aired on the History Channel on 26 December 2007.

MonsterQuest investigated similar Bigfoot stories in the episodes

Sasquatch Attack

Bigfoot

MonsterQuest's "Giant Squid Ambush"

In the MonsterQuest episode entitled “Giant Squid Ambush”, the team returns to the Sea of Cortez in search of a giant Humboldt squid. In the 2006 MonsterQuest episode, the expedition was able to capture footage of what may have been a 60 foot monster Humboldt squid. Now the new expedition is outfitted with better equipment and the desire to find more definitive proof of this sea monster. A summary of the first expedition can be found at:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1937344/a_monsterquest_look_at_giant_squid.html?cat=37

The Humboldt squid is an extremely aggressive species of squid that can be found in the Sea of Cortez. Captured specimens have been found to be up to eight feet long and 200 pounds in weight. They have sharp beaks, eight flailing arms and two long tentacles that are lined with sharp serrated suckers. Humboldt squid may be even more dangerous as they could hunt in packs.

MonsterQuest diver Scott Cassell described how he was attacked in 1996 by several Humboldt squid. While diving in the Sea of Cortez, he was attacked by a group of several 6 foot long Humboldt squids. The first squid grabbed his arm and wrenched it out of the socket. Two other squid grabbed his legs and began to drag him down to greater depths. As the squid pulled him down, his eardrums burst. After being dragged down about 70 feet, he was finally able to beat the squid off with his camera and make it safety back to his ship.

There are many stories of giant squid attacking humans. There is the story of an Indian freighter that was sunk in World War II. While the survivors of the sinking were adrift on the ocean, they report that they were attacked by a giant squid. Tentacles grabbed onto one of the men and he was pulled under the water to never be seen again.

Local fishermen in the Sea of Cortez describe their encounters with the Humboldt squid while fishing for them. Jose Raul describes how the tentacles have rows of teeth that act like small handsaws. The teeth grate on the skin and everywhere they touch starts to bleed. There are fishermen that have lost toes to the sharp beaks of the Humboldt. One local story tells of a fishermen being dragged from his boat and killed by a Humboldt.

Anatomy of a Squid Attack

The attack of a Humboldt squid is so swift that it can not be captured on normal film. The striking of the tentacles occurs within one frame of film and it can not be examined in detail. To examine squid attacks a new system was used by Dr. William Kier from the UNC Chapel Hill Department of Biology. Kier utilized the same type of high speed cameras that the military uses to film missile tests.

With this film Kier was able to break down the attack into phases. The attention phase is when the squid becomes aware of the prey. The reorientation phase is when the squid moves into the proper orientation and distance to strike at the prey. The squid needs to move within ½ of its body length in order to strike at the prey. So a giant squid could be well out of visual range and be within striking distance. The next phase is the attack phase. The tentacles strike out rapidly at the prey and draw it in towards the arms. Once controlled by the arms, the prey is bitten and consumed by the beak and mouth. The tentacle strike occurs within an amazing 15 to 30 milliseconds and the prey is brought back to the arms within one second. The whole attack from strike to bite can occur within two seconds.

Questions from the 2006 Expedition

In the 2006 expedition, the MonsterQuest team captured a 6 foot Humboldt that they attached an underwater camera to. This “Trojan squid” was then released to return to the greater depths of the ocean. At a depth of approximately 700 feet, the camera caught footage of what appears to be a giant Humboldt squid. Forensic video expert Peter Schmitz was able to use the footage to make a size estimated. Proportionate size between body parts (i.e. beak and eyes, etc…) remains constant within each species of squid. By using the visible beak and eye proportions from the film along with camera specifications and known species proportion, Schmitz estimated the creature to be 60 feet long if a Humboldt squid and 108 feet long if it is an Architeuthis squid. Either one would be much larger than known specimens.

Zoologist Clyde Roper does not believe that the creature in the video could be a giant Humboldt squid. He states that Humboldt squids do not get to be that big and just like other species there is a limit on their size. Roper also believes that it could not be an Architeuthis (giant squid) as they are not found in the Sea of Cortez. Previously found 60 foot long Architeuthis specimens have been found in New Zealand, Norway and New Foundland. In June of 2008 an Architeuthis carcass was found of the coast of Santa Cruz California just 1300 miles from the entrance to the Sea of Cortez.

Doug Hajicek, the camera expert from the 2006 expedition, agrees that the 2006 raises a lot of questions. The footage could be of an overgrown Humboldt, an Architeuthis or some unknown species. With this in mind, MonsterQuest sends a new expedition to the Sea of Cortez with improved equipment.

The New Expedition

The team plans to use the “Trojan squid” method to get the camera system down to the proper depth to film. Engineering contractor Carl Anderson has worked with the team to develop a new camera system that should provide more accurate measurements. The new system has an improved lighting system and two parallel lasers to aid in object measurement. The lasers are set at 4 ½ inches apart and will remain constant over the visible length. This will allow the team to basically use the lasers as a ruler when figuring out the size of an object.

Dale Pearson will again lead the dive team on the expedition. Joining him will be Robert Arrington who is an underwater cameraman specializing in large aquatic predators. The third team member is Michael Pearson who is a diver and paramedic.

The MonsterQuest team returns to Loreto Bay which was the site of the squid footage from the first expedition. On the first day of the expedition, the team jigs for Humboldt squid in the area and are able to find none. Local fishermen inform the team that there are a lot of Humboldt squid in the Santa Rosalia area. The team moves 110 miles north of Loreto bay to Santa Rosalia for day two of the expedition.

On the second day, the team attaches a small camera to the jig line that they are using to catch Humboldt squid. This camera captures some extreme footage of Humboldt squid aggressiveness. A small squid latches on to the jig and the crew begins to bring it up. As it is being reeled up it is quickly attacked by a larger five to six foot Humboldt. As they continue to reel in the squid, it is attacked once again by another squid and is completely ripped apart.

The dive team goes into the water when a 4 ½ foot long Humboldt is caught on the jig. The divers attach the camera system to the squid. As Pearson goes to release the squid, it turns and attacks him. Pearson gets wrapped up in the arms of the squid but is eventually able to break free. As the squid dives, the crew on the boat is able to watch the footage until it goes black. The crew reels the squid back in to find that the rapid descent of the squid has caused the camera gear to break under the pressure.

On the third day of the expedition, the team is able to retrofit the camera attachment with an older camera system. The team is able to capture a fairly large Humboldt to attach the camera system to. After a struggle, they are able to attach the camera system and the “Trojan squid” begins its rapid dive. When the squid gets down to the lower levels, the team observes no other squid on the video even though the upper levels were full of them. The team theorizes that the laser system may be scaring off the other squid. The team reels the “Trojan squid” back up, turn off the lasers and let it go again. This time the team gets video of several other squid at the lower levels.

The team completes the expedition over the next couple of days but they are unable to capture any additional footage of monster sized squid. One interesting piece of footage that they captured was the large sucker marks on one of the “Trojan squid”. The squid appeared to have been attacked at one point and was covered in one inch diameter suction marks.

The 2006 expedition footage remains the best evidence for the existence of giant Humboldt squid. The question remains of what type of squid was shown on the footage. The only thing that is for certain is that the Sea of Cortez is definitely an area where fishermen and divers must remain aware that they share the sea with dangerous squid.

A MonsterQuest Look at Stalin’s Ape Man

In the MonsterQuest episode entitled “Stalin’s Ape Man”, the team takes a look at the reports of half man, half ape creatures in the former Soviet Union. There are reports that Stalin authorized a project to create an ape-man army in the 1920s. A Russian historian claims to have the remains of a descendent from a Bigfoot type creature known as an Abanu. They look at the possibility that Bigfoot and Abanu sightings are a result of an evolutionary throwback condition known as atavism. The MonsterQuest team takes a look at what is behind these stories.

The Creation of an Ape-Man Soldier

In 2005, an open editorial appeared in the New York Times that was authored by animal psychologist Clive Wynne. This article mentioned “In 1926, a Soviet scientist named Ilya Ivanov decided to breed a humanzee: a human chimpanzee hybrid.” This article was soon followed up by a number articles in Russian newspapers about this humanzee program. A 20 December 2005 article in the Scotsmen Newspaper reported about “Stalin’s Half-man, Half-ape, Super Warriors”.

The story that was forming out of all of these articles was that Stalin had instituted a program to create a super soldier. In 1926, the Politburo had requested that the Russian Academy of Science work to build a new living war machine that was insensitive to pain and indifferent to the quality of food. These programs were to create an invincible ape-man army.

According to historian Alexis Pogorelskin, the 1920s was the golden age of Soviet science. Following World War I, the Soviets were attempting to use science to modernize many aspects of Soviet life. The Soviet army was in great need of additional forces and modernization. Stalin was very aggressive with research and did not have many moral qualms about the use of science or anything else.

The MonsterQuest team went to Russia to find out the truth behind these reports. Russian Academy of Science Historian Kirill Rossiianov has researched the Academy documents for the history of these experiments. Rossiianov found documentation that Stalin approved funding for Ilya Ivanov’s experiment to create an ape-man hybrid.

Ivanov had a record of successful hybridization experiments including the creation of an antelope-cow hybrid, a mouse-rat hybrid, guinea pig-rabbit hybrid and a zebra-donkey hybrid. Ivanov’s ape-man experiment involved the artificial insemination of female chimpanzees with human semen. With DNA research in its infancy, Ivanov had inferred that human and chimpanzee eggs and semen were very similar due to the close match of human and chimpanzee blood. In 1926, the French Pasteur Institute gave Ivanov access to their primate research facility in Conakry, Guinea.

According to modern scientists, Ivanov’s ideas were not without some merit. Some other primate species are able to interbreed and humans and chimpanzees have DNA that is almost 99% identical. Humans and Chimpanzees are believed to have evolved from the same evolutionary branch of the primate family. Other primates like orangutans and gorillas evolved along a different line of the primate family. Human and Chimpanzee ancestors are believed to have diverged about 7.5 million years ago but recent research indicates that the early ancestors may have interbred for another 2 million years. Of all primates, chimpanzees would be the most likely candidate for a hybridization program.

It is unknown if an ape-human hybrid would make a good soldier. According to Esteban Sarmiento of the New York Natural History Museum, chimpanzees are like human in that they will organize in order to fight each other. Bill Fields of the Great Ape Trust says that chimpanzees can be very warlike and are 5 to 10 times stronger than humans. University of Florida animal psychologist Clive Wynne believes that while ape species are much stronger than humans, they would be uncontrollable.

Interbreeding with humans would also face difficulties due to the fact that chimpanzees have 24 chromosomes while humans have 23. Associate Professor of genetics Mike Seamans believes that any offspring would likely be malformed, retarded and not likely to make it much past birth if even that far. If by some chance hybridization was possible, the offspring would possibly be infertile like mules. Clive Wynne states that even if successful the results might not be what you wanted. You have just as good of a chance in getting a hybrid with the strength of a human and the intelligence of a chimpanzee as the other way around.

Ivanov’s experiment in Africa was unsuccessful. He attempted to inseminate three female chimpanzees with no success. At this point, he decided to return to the Soviet Union and take a different approach. He proposed to inseminate a human female with the semen from an orangutan named “Tarzan”. He relocated to Sukhumi, GeorgiaSoviet Union and got his first human volunteer in 1928. in the At this point the experiment came to an abrupt end prior to any attempt at human fertilization. Tarzan died and Ivanov was arrested during Stalin’s purge of Soviet scientists. Ivanov died in 1932 while still in jail.

Kirill Rossiianov’s research indicates that Ivanov was probably not trying to create a super soldier. There is no official documentation showing that the experiment was intended to create super soldiers. The grant that Ivanov received was given at the same time as many other scientific grants for general research. The amount of the grant was only $120,000 in today’s dollars so it was not a major project. Ivanov’s notes indicate that his attempts at creating the ape-man hybrid were to support Darwinism and discredit the Church.

The Russian Bigfoot

Most cryptozoologists do not attribute the numerous Bigfoot type sightings to human-ape hybrids. They believe that these creatures are the result of the evolution of a different branch of the primate family that included the Gigantopithecus species. Gigantopithecus was a species of primates that experts believe went extinct as recently as 300,000 years ago. This giant sized creature was native to Asia and could reach heights of 11 to 15 feet tall. President of Conservation International Russell Mittenmier points out that there have been 38 species of monkeys discovered since 1980 so it is not out of the realm of possibility that some Gigantopithecus descendant could still be around.

One such creature may be the Abanu or Almasty of Russian legend. The Abanu and Almasty are similar to the North American Bigfoot with some distinctions. They are reported to be between 6’ and 7’ tall, bipedal, with reddish hair. Unlike Bigfoot, the Abanu and Almasty are reported to use fire and simple tools.

Russian historian Igor Bourstev tells the story of one particular Abanu named Zana. In the 1860s she was captured by local hunters in the Abkazir region, which is between Georgia and Russia. Zana was sold to a local merchant and placed in a cage. Reportedly, she was almost 7 feet tall, very strong, covered in hair, very wild and preferred raw meat to eat. After years of captivity, she became more domesticated and was allowed to roam the village and work in a local mill. She had several children by several different men. She killed her first child by bathing it in a cold river so the village raised her other children.

Zana’s children appeared to be human and had normal intelligence. One of these children was a male named Khwit. He was reported to have been extremely strong, ill tempered and quick to fight. Zana died in 1890 and was buried in Abkazir. When Khwit died later on he was buried in the same area.

Bourstev went in search of the remains of Zana and was unable to locate them, but he did locate and obtain the remains of Khwit. In 2006, the DNA testing of a tooth belonging to Khwit showed that he was 100% human. Bourstev agreed to give the MonsterQuest team a tooth from Khwit’s remains in order to perform more extensive DNA tests.

The new round of DNA testing was conducted by University of Minnesota microbiologist Kurt Nelson. Nelson felt that the first round of testing may have been tainted by human contamination. To avoid this contamination Nelson thoroughly cleans and bleaches the tooth. A sample is then drilled from inside the tooth and two other samples are obtained by crushing the tooth. The mitochondrial DNA from the samples is to be compared to controls in order to determine if the mother of Khwit was human. Unfortunately, Nelson was not able to extract any viable DNA from the tooth sample so no results were found.

Atavism and Bigfoot

Danny Ramos Gomez is a world famous acrobat that has a condition known as hypertrichosis. This condition causes Gomez to have excessive body hair over his entire body. Many that have worked with him believe that he has strength that is far greater than a regular man. Some people have wondered that if this condition is a symptom from human-ape hybridization. MonsterQuest obtained a hair sample from Gomez and had a DNA test done on it. The test results showed him to be 100% human.

Other people have stated that they believe hypertrichosis is a form of atavism. Atavism is when an evolutionary throwback shows up in a current member of the species. An example of this is when a human is born with a tail. Some believe it is possible that Bigfoot sightings are due to humans with several atavism traits taking to a life of seclusion in the woods. Experts state that a person would be extremely unlikely to show multiple traits of atavism that would be needed to account for a Bigfoot sighting. It would be unlikely for even one to be born much less the number needed to account for sightings around the world.

Head Transplants

One possible way of creating a human-ape hybrid would be placing a human head on the body of an ape. As crazy as this sounds, it might not be as far fetched as you think. MonsterQuest interviewed neurosurgeon Dr. Robert White. Dr. White had done experiments on the possibility of transplanting the heads of paraplegic patients to the bodies of brain dead patients. His experiments involved the use of monkeys due to their genetic similarity to humans.

MonsterQuest showed some real disturbing footage of this experiment from 1970. Dr. White did successfully transplant the head of one monkey to the body of the other. While the monkey did not walk around or anything like that, it did seem to be conscious and able to control some motor functions. The monkey was able to see, taste and bite after the transplant. The experiments were abandoned due to ethical concerns but it does raise some possibilities. Dr. White points out that this procedure would probably never work on transplanting a human head to an ape body due to the huge transplant rejection issues that would arise.

A MonsterQuest Look a Giant Freshwater Fish

In the MonsterQuest episode entitled “Giant Fish”, the team takes a look at reports from around the world of giant freshwater fish. While the species of fish vary, the reports talk of abnormally large fish that will attack humans under the right conditions. Tales from the Amazon report of giant catfish that can swallow a child whole. A Canadian fisherman reports seeing a lake trout the size of his boat. MonsterQuest investigated these fishing tales to find out the truth.

Known Freshwater Killing

Our fear of giant fish lurking in the water is a primal fear that is in all of us to some degree. According to shark expert Ralph Collier, this fear was what inspired the success of the movie Jaws. What a lot of people do not realize is that real life shark attacks inspired this book and movie. Not only were the attacks real, but they occurred in a river 16 miles from the ocean. In July of 1916, three people were attacked in Matawan Creek and unfortunately two were killed including an 11 year old boy. Mattawan Creek is a tidal river that is about 40 feet wide at the point where the attacks took place. Experts believe that the attacking shark(s) were most likely a bull shark or a great white.

Giant Catfish

Different species of catfish are found throughout the world and some of them are giants. Catfish do not have scales and some are covered with bony plates. The whisker-like barbels of some species can deliver a poison powerful enough to hospitalize a human. Many species are indiscriminate eaters that will ingest almost anything they can swallow. The largest known species of catfish is the Mekong giant catfish which are found on the Mekong River in Cambodia. According to Dekila Chungyalpa of the World Wildlife Federation, these catfish can grow to be 9 feet long and weigh 646 pounds.

Another species of catfish has been reported to swallow small children whole. The giant red tail catfish is found in the Amazon River area of South America. The official record size of the giant red tail catfish is 54 inches long and 108 pounds, but the locals say they get much bigger. Local fishing guide Marc Cobos translated the story of a local woman. According to the woman, a giant red tail catfish knocked over a canoe that her young cousin was riding in. The boy disappeared and the villagers were not able to find him. Several days later a giant red tail catfish was found dead with the legs of the unfortunate boy sticking out of its mouth. Apparently, the giant red tail catfish had died while attempting to swallow the boy.

MonsterQuest will attempt to investigate these stories by sending a team of expert fishermen to the Amazon to investigate. Colorado sports fishermen Brian Coe and Mike Knee teamed up with local guide Marc Cobos in search of these giants. They base the expedition out of the Amazon Tours Lodge which is near the area of the reported catfish attack. Using local piranha and barracuda as bait, they attempted to catch a giant red tail catfish.

After several days of attempting to catch a giant fish, they have no luck. The largest red tail catfish that they catch is 20 pounds. According to Marc Cobos, the giant catfish are becoming less common as the area is more heavily fished. Cobos does believe that the giant red tail catfish are still out there.

The “Freshwater Barracuda”

Pike are found throughout the northern hemisphere and their aggressive nature has given them the nickname of the “freshwater barracuda”. Pike have rows of razor sharp teeth and a torpedo shaped body that can move through the water at up to 30 miles per hour. According to aquatic expert Roland Sigurdson, pike are an ambush predator that will eat their own kind and have been known to attack humans on rare occasions. The largest known pike to have been caught was over 60 inches in length and weighed 67 pounds.

An example of pike aggressiveness was experienced by Blaine Johnson. In 2004, Johnson was wading near the shore in Pine River, Minnesota. Suddenly, he was attacked from behind. He rushed out of the water to find blood streaming down his ankle and foot. The teeth marks are still visible today. Experts believe that Johnson was attacked by a pike.

MonsterQuest looked into the possibility that there could be giant pike in America. They examined the remains of what some believe to be the largest pike ever to be found. In 1998, Jack Woehler and his family found the remains of a giant fish in Chippewa Flowage, Wisconsin. There were enough of the remains to identify it as a type of pike known as a musky. The jaws of this pike were kept on display at the Treeland Resorts hotel. Frank Pratt from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources believes that the jaws may have belonged to a giant pike that was bigger than the world record holder.

MonsterQuest enlisted the aid of wildlife forensic reconstructionist Matt Yernatich to determine the size of this creature. According to Yernatich, the size of a pike is proportional to the size of its jaws. Using the jaws as a guide, he created a reconstruction of the creature. The reconstruction showed that the pike in question would have been a little bigger than the current world record. Yernatich estimates the pike would have been about six feet long and weighed around 70 pounds.

Giant Lake Trout

Lake trout are known as fighters with keen eyesight and strong jaws. They can be very big with the known world record at 59 inches long and 120 pounds. According to expert fishing guide Jim Peterson, they can get mush bigger. In July of 1987, he was guiding a fisherman on Point Lake in Canada. While trolling in 50 - 60 feet of water, Peterson said they caught on to a giant lake trout. After struggling with the fish for hours, the fish was brought in close enough that Peterson could estimate it to be as long as his 14 foot boat. Eventually, the line snapped and the fish got away.

Wildlife biologist Dick Sternberg believes that giant lake trout are a definite possibility. Sternberg believes that these giants would be found in lakes similar to Point Lake. This deep clear lake is 70 miles long and has not been over fished by humans.

To catch a giant lake trout, Sternberg believes that oversized lures should be used. He thinks that these giant fish would feed on fish in the 25 inch to 30 inch range and eat on very seldom occasions. Brad Peterson of Waterwork Fishing Accessories develops two specialized lures for Sternberg. The lures are 24 inches long and are able to be mounted with cameras.

MonsterQuest sends Sternberg to join up with Jim Peterson on a giant lake trout expedition on Point Lake. For several days, they troll the waters with numerous lures trying to capture footage of a giant lake trout. While capturing footage of trout in the 20 to 30 pound range, the giant lake trout is not found. Sternberg is not discouraged by their lack of success. He believes that the giant lake trout may be out there. They are hard to find in a lake 70 miles long and up to 300 feet deep.

Giant Alligator Gar

Alligator Gar are a fearsome looking species that is found throughout the southern United States. Their long alligator-like snouts give them their name. The official record for this species is a 7 ½ foot long, 279 pound behemoth. Tales and pictures from the early 20th century illustrate that they may have been much bigger. One famous picture shows an alligator gar that was reportedly 10 feet long. This carnivorous giant lurks in reeds and vegetation in order to ambush its prey.

The MonsterQuest team enlists fishing guide Kirk Kirkland in the quest for a giant alligator gar. Kirkland has been running a fishing guide service in Texas that specializes in alligator gar for fifteen years. He states that it is not uncommon to catch a 7 foot, 100 pound alligator gar. Kirkland is joined by videographer Jared Christie as they fish the Trinity River in Texas for alligator gar. They manage to land an alligator gar that is 79 inches long and 111 pounds. While this is a typical mature alligator gar, it was an extremely impressive fish.

Conclusion

While the MonsterQuest team was able to find extremely large freshwater fish, they did not locate any of the giant man-eating fish of legend. As the world’s freshwater lakes and rivers become more accessible to fishing, the likelihood of native species growing to giant size becomes less and less. But the stories continue to come in about giant fish that may look at humans as a possible food source.

A MonsterQuest Look at “Lions in the Suburbs”

The United States has had numerous sighting of big black cats in the wild. Black Cats from the larger cat species are referred to as black panthers. Eyewitnesses have reported seeing a large black panther that is similar to a mountain lion, about six feet long, and weighing about 250 pounds. While the western United States is the home of many mountain lions, this species does not produce black panthers. MonsterQuest takes a look at what is behind the hundreds of black panther sightings in the United States.

The History

According to biologist Emil McCain from the Borderland Jaguar Detection Project, the United States is home to between 10,000 and 30,000 mountain lions. Encounters between humans and mountain lions have increased as human development continues to encroach on traditional mountain lion territory. Young male mountain lions that are not used to their natural prey find humans that are jogging or riding bicycles to be very enticing prey.

According to Nels Rodefeld of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, 10% to 20% of all calls reporting mountain lions refer to a black panther yet they have never found one. Feline geneticist Dr. Stephen O’Brien says that black mountain lions do not exist. While it is possible for one to be created through the mutation of one or two genes. This would only occur once every 100 generations. Such odds would make it highly unlikely that one would ever be seen much less hundreds of sightings.

The Director of Big Cat Rescue, Scott Lope, says that it is possible that some of the sightings could be a leopard. Some irresponsible owners of these wild animals may release them when they can no longer take care of them. Leopards are sometimes black with the characteristic darker spots. Leopards are not native to the Americas so it is unlikely that a few escaped specimens could account for all of the sightings.

One interesting possible explanation for the sightings is that jaguars have once again taken up residence in the United States. Biologist Emil McCain and Jack Childs of the Borderland Jaguar Detection Project explain that jaguars were found in the United States up until the 1890s. Jaguars are about twice the size of mountain lions and are the third largest big cat, with only lions and tigers being larger. Unlike mountain lions they can be black with 6% of their population in the Amazon basin being black panthers. They were found in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and California until they were wiped out by farmers protecting livestock. While no black jaguars were ever found in the United States, McCain and Childs have proven that Jaguars are back. Starting in 1996, the Borderland Jaguar Detection Project has been following the possible migration of Jaguars from Mexico. They have been able to capture conclusive footage from camera traps of three distinct jaguars in Arizona. Two have been identified as male with the third unknown so they are not able to say that there is a breeding population in the United States.

Professor Walter Stephens of John Hopkins University believes that large black cat sightings could be tied to long held traditions. Black cats show up in literature as being associated with demons or the devil as far back as the thirteenth century. Cats are nocturnal creatures that roam around in the darkness and this darkness strikes humans as being black.

In the spring of 2006, Eric Atkison had several goats disappear from his farm in Choctaw, Oklahoma. He said that some of his neighbors lost dogs at the same time. At first, he thought that wild dogs or coyotes were responsible but that changed when he spotted a black panther near his house in March. Later that spring, a 250 pound llama was killed on his farm by what he believes to be the black panther. Nearby rancher, Dale Smith, has had 10 calves killed and dragged of by some animal.

Many black panther sightings occurred in the daylight and some of the witnesses took photos. In 1999, David Johnson of Hugo, Minnesota reports seeing a black panther in a pasture. He took 13 pictures of the cat which he believes to be as long as a German Shepherd dog.

Jon Lutz of the Eastern Puma Research Center has notated numerous black panther sightings throughout the eastern United States. He believes that there is definitely a population of black felines roaming around like the one Pastor George Loar of Frostburg Maryland recorded. On 14 December 1995, Pastor Loar saw a large black cat near his house. He grabbed his camcorder and was able to capture footage of the creature. Unfortunately the video is not clear enough to identify the size or species of the cat.

Another piece of video evidence was captured by Jason Bowers in Franklin, West Virginia. Bowers saw what he thought was a bear walking through a field near his house. He then realized that the creature was some sort of large feline. He took a video of the creature that may prove key in the investigation as it also had trees in the footage that provide a good size reference.

In 2006, a number of residents of Palestine, Texas saw the carcass of a large black cat near a road. Pattie Gray was driving on the road with her husband when she stopped to look at the carcass. She described it as being large with a body of about three feet long. Awhile later, Patrick Walsh heard about the carcass from other locals and wanted to see it for himself. When he arrived at the spot, the carcass appeared to have decayed but he was able to collect vertebrae and rib bones from the site.


The Plan

Dale Smith and Eric Atkison will work together to place camera traps around the areas of their farms. These camera traps are motion activated and should find predators in the area. They will leave the camera traps out for several days and then the photos will be identified

The MonsterQuest team will analyze the existing evidence of the black panther sightings. The Bowers video and the Johnson photos will be sent to wildlife experts for species identification. The Bowers video was the only one that had some objects in the picture for size reference, so it will be sent to forensic video analyst Peter Schmitz for size analysis..

The Palestine Cat remains will also be tested. The samples collected by Patrick Walsh will be sent out to New York University for testing. Results can be compared with known species.

The Results

After several days Smith and Atkison return to gather the photos. No predators are found on any of the film from the camera traps. Smith is able to find some bones from one of the missing calves under a tree. It is unknown what type of animal would have dragged the carcass so far.

David Johnson had taken 13 photos of what he believed to be a black panther. The experts however disagree with his assessment. Director of Big Cat Rescue Scott Lope and biologist Heidi Bailey agree that the creature in the photo is a large domestic cat.

The wildlife experts examine the Bowers video and come to differing conclusions. Scientific Research Director for the Cougar Network, Dr. Clay Nielson, believes that the creature in the film is a large domestic cat. Feline geneticist Dr. Stephen O’Brien disagrees. He believes that the creature is too big to be a domestic cat and is most like a released leopard, a jaguar, or a less likely mountain lion mutation.

The size estimates of the cat in the Bowers video is completed by forensic video analyst Peter Schmitz. He has the MonsterQuest team take on site size measurements of the known objects in the video. They also shoot video of Bowers in the same location using the same camera to get a comparison video. Schmitz is able to obtain the length of the cat in the film by utilizing the specifications of the camera, measurements of known object and the computer alignment of bark patterns in trees from the two videos. Schmitz says the creature’s body, not including the tail, is 25” long. This would be on the large size for a domestic cat but not out of the realm of possibility.

The remains of the Palestine cat were sent to Professor Todd Disotell of New York University for DNA testing. The testing showed that the DNA did not belong to a cat at all. According to Disotell, the DNA matched up with a domestic dog or a wolf.

The MonsterQuest team was unable to find any good evidence for black panthers in the United States. Sightings may increase as humans continue to encroach on historical cat hunting grounds. The future could be made more fascinating by the reintroduction of jaguars to the wildlife of the United States. Black panther sighting may increase in the years to come.

A MonsterQuest Look at “Mutant Canines”

In episode entitled “Mutant Canines”, the MonsterQuest team takes a look at the possibility of large mutant canines in the United States. There have been numerous reports of some unknown canine creature that may be attacking domestic dogs and livestock. Reports state that this mutant canine is not a wolf, coyote or domestic dog. Eyewitnesses report seeing a canine like beast with large hunched shoulders, a flat snout, short mangled ears, bushy tail and weighing around 120 pounds. While reports have come in from across the country, Maine and Minnesota are the center of these mutant canine sightings.

History

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, author of Mysterious America, says that tales of this creature go back centuries. Native Americans and early colonists had tales of unknown canine creatures that would hunt in the wilderness. In the 1880s, a Montana rancher claims to have shot and killed one of these creatures and had it mounted. This creature was called Shunka Warak’in which is an Amerindian name meaning “to carry off dogs”. While mounted creature later disappeared, a photo of the creature appears in the 1977 book entitled Trails to Natures Mysteries.
(Note: Since show’s airing the stuffed Shunka Warak’in was found at the Idaho Museum of Natural History
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2007/11/15/news/000monster.txt )

A recent sighting of these mutant canine creatures occurred in September of 2006 in Rollag, Minnesota. Wendell Olsen let his Jack Russell terrier out one night and it never returned. When he went out looking for his dog, he heard yelping sounds but was never able to find his dog. About a month later, he found that something had ripped out the throat of a 700 pound colt that belonged to him. A local Department of Natural Resources agent investigated the incident and said that the culprit was most likely a pack of dogs or coyotes. A few weeks after the killing of the colt, Olsen saw a wolf like creature running over a hill near his house. Wolves are not common in the area of Minnesota around Rollag.

Another sighting of the beast that occurred in Turner, Maine has more evidence. On 12 August 2006, Michelle O’Donnell saw a large canine creature crossing her yard. She described it as a large dark dog like creature that looked wild but not a wolf. The creature had large jaws, huge eyes, tasseled ears and was bigger than most dogs. The creature eventually ran away. A couple of days later, she received a call from a neighbor saying that they had found the body of the creature near her house. She took pictures of the creature and kept the carcass as proof of what she had seen. She sent copies of the photos to reporter Mark Laflamme. The photos of what was called the Turner Beast were run in the Lewiston Sun Journal. ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14383883/ )

Sightings of this creature in Maine go back to at least 1906. The Lewiston Daily Sun carried an article about a creature lurking in the fields and menacing local pickers. The dark brown creature was dubbed the Injun Devil. Like the photo of the Turner Beast, the Injun Devil was reported to have tasseled ears.

Other sightings of these creatures have occurred recently in Maine. In 2004, Leo Doyon reported seeing what he described as a unknown canine with dark or rust colored fur and reddish eyes in Auburn, Maine. Doyon said the creature’s body was built like a hyena. Leo Michaud tells how his 50 pound Doberman Pinscher was attacked by some sort of creature and had to be put down. A couple of days later, Michaud returned home to find an unknown werewolf looking creature near the steps to his house. Michaud has been a hunter for years and is familiar with local wildlife but he could not identify the creature.

Many people believe that these sightings are of wolves or feral dogs. Wolves can be found in many parts of the country and can weigh over 150 pounds. Feral or wild dogs are harder to recognize as they are often not suited for the wild. According to Peggy Callahan of the Wildlife Science center, frostbite can make them lose part of their ears and mange can totally alter their appearance. Mange is caused by a mite that feeds on the proteins on an animals skin. Mange leads to hair loss that can leave the animal with hairless patches and a bone spike for a tail. The disease makes it harder for them to obtain food and drives them into closer contact with humans. Often an animal with mange will look so strange that people familiar with healthy animals will not recognize a diseased specimen.

Another possibility is that the creatures spotted could be some sort of hybrid dog. According to veterinarian Jay Epping, a hybrid dog can result from the mixing of any two dog species including wolves. Peggy Callahan states that there is no way to define the result of mixing dogs with wolves. The temperament, behavior, and reactions to disease can vary greatly.

Some suggest that a member of the weasel family may be responsible for the sightings. Fishers can make strange sounds like a baby screaming and can be up to four feet long. Wolverines are heavier than fishers and are very aggressive. Wolverines have been known to kill Moose and fight with black bears.

Another theory that some have suggested is that the sightings are of some remnant population of dire wolves. These prehistoric wolves were similar in weight to modern wolves but had broader heads, larger teeth, thicker bodies and shorter legs. Dire wolves are believed to have gone extinct about 10,000 years ago.

The Plan

Wildlife and optics expert Craig Enervold joins up with Wendell Olsen to try to capture some photo evidence of the mutant canine creature. They find the carcass of a deer in the area that appears to have been killed by coyotes. Using the deer carcass and the carcass of a dead horse as bait, Enervold and Olsen set up several motion activated camera traps in the area. Enervold attempts to draw in predatory creatures by playing the recording of a distressed rabbit.

Local animal control officer Wendell Strout joins Mark Laflamme on the search for the Turner Beast. They set up numerous camera traps near the O’Donnell residence in hopes of capturing photo evidence of a live creature. In addition, they set out baited live game traps in the area in hopes of drawing the creature in.

The MonsterQuest team will look at the evidence from the Turner Beast that was collected by Michelle O’Donnell. The photos of the dead animal will be examined by wildlife experts. The collected samples of fur, flesh and bone will be sent to New York University for DNA analysis.

The Results

The teams returned to collect images from the camera traps and review them for evidence of unknown creatures. After seven days, the camera trap set near the Olsen residence showed no pictures of a mutant canine. The camera traps set up near the O’Donnell residence had stranger findings. The bait left out near one of the camera traps was gone but the cameral did not capture the image of what had taken the bait. The camera either malfunctioned or the animal that took the bait was too stealthy for the camera to work properly.

The photos of the Turner Beast were examined by two animal experts. Veterinarian Jay Epping examined the photos and determined that the creature looked like a dog that had been in the wild for a long time. The stunted ears were probably due to frostbite and the hair loss due to body decay or mange. Wolf expert Peggy Callahan believes that the creature in the photo is not a wolf. She believes that the creature is probably a domestic dog or possibly a wolf/dog mix. The bulging eyes of the creature in the photo were probably the result of the normal decay process.

The DNA analysis of the tissue samples from the Turner Beast were conducted by Dr. Todd Disotell of New York University. The extracted DNA sequence matched that of a domestic dong. Dr. Disotell said the creature could have been a wolf/dog mix as the DNA is almost identical. But, it was definitely not an unknown species.

The MonsterQuest team was unable to find any new evidence of mutant canines in their research. The Turner Beast evidence was considered the best evidence for a mutant dog, but research showed that the creature was most likely a domestic dog. With numerous sightings continuing in Maine and Minnesota, new evidence may show up of mutant canines.