Narrator: Previously on "expedition bigfoot"...
You hear that?
I can't tell where that sound is coming from.
It could be from any direction.
We build systems that locate the source of sound.
If he talks back to you,
You'll be able to go right to that location.
Here we go.
Russell: Smooth hair right here.
Hey, bryce, I picked up two really good hair samples.
Bryce: There's an access road.
If you could get it there, I'd be able to grab it.
My fastest way down is gonna be off this cliff.
[ thunder crashes ]
Racing against the storm right now.
So, the doctors still haven't diagnosed ryan's headache.
We have a man out, and I need to replace him.
♪♪
- Did you hear that? - Reaching the sensors.
Man: This is something so powerful,
It could just rip you apart like a piece of paper.
Narrator: Bigfoot, sasquatch.
In the past 50 years,
There have been more than 10,000 reported sightings
Of this elusive creature
In the continental united states.
From the ozarks to the mojave desert,
From the new jersey pine barrens
To the pacific northwest, every year,
Hundreds of eyewitnesses log their encounters,
But where or when this legendary cryptid
Will be seen next has been a mystery until now.
For the first time in history,
A team of investigators is using an advanced data algorithm
To analyze five decades of bigfoot sightings to pinpoint
When and where to encounter this elusive beast.
With the results, they now know the time and place to search,
And the greatest bigfoot hunt ever is on.
[ howling ]
♪♪
World-renowned primatologist dr. Mireya mayor
Is tracking a mysterious animal sound
That responded to her call.
A team of audio engineers
Using an advanced sound-localization prototype
Built for the department of defense
Gave her the precise coordinates where the sound originated.
Oh, there it is.
It looks like it's just up through here.
♪♪
Oh, man.
That's where it is.
Narrator: The coordinates provided by the audio team
As the source of the sound
Point to the top of a steep incline.
[ sighs ]
♪♪
[ mireya sighs ]
**** ****
♪♪
****
♪♪
Just impossible.
This is incredibly steep, and it's getting really dark.
Shh.
It literally just went dead silent.
♪♪
See if we can see anything.
♪♪
But I don't see anything but trees.
♪♪
Narrator: Since the incline is blocked by fallen trees,
Mireya looks for another way around.
♪♪
Mireya: Never before have I felt like something is watching me.
♪♪
I've spent many years in jungles and deep in forests
In africa, south america, madagascar, over the world.
And for the first time ever, there were...
It feels different in this forest.
Like -- like I'm not alone.
It feels as if this forest has eyes.
♪♪
Narrator: The sun rises
Over the dense mountain forests of central oregon.
The team's data algorithm shows they have just two weeks left
To find proof of the world's most elusive beast.
Russell: Trees are getting shorter.
These little junipers are pretty small,
Offer just a little bit of cover.
Narrator: 61/2 miles from base camp,
Near the center of the target zone,
Is former army sergeant and survivalist russell acord.
After solo rappelling down a 450-foot cliff,
He's arrived at the team's drop-off point.
There it is.
Russell is delivering
The team's first pieces of physical evidence --
Two unidentified hair samples he found on top of the mountain.
We're gonna take it.
He discovered a second sample in a bird's nest.
Russell, an expert outdoorsman, did not recognize either hair.
Russell: This is definitely not deer, not bear,
And certainly not elk hair.
I don't know what this is, but it's a good little find.
Narrator: Investigator bryce johnson
Will pick up the samples and have them analyzed
To determine if the hair is from bigfoot.
Russell: Even though I'm excited about these samples,
When you find evidence, you always want
Something to stack on top of it.
More discovery, so I'm headed back in.
But first, I'm gonna map out exactly where I'm going.
Okay.
A predator, bigfoot needs water,
And so does every other animal out there.
So that will also give him a great place to hunt.
There we go.
Narrator: Russell's new strategy
Is to focus on three water sources.
His first target is 41/2 miles to the northwest.
Russell: I know something's out there.
And I hope to find it.
I hope to find some answers today.
Narrator: Nine miles away at base camp...
Bryce: Hey, mireya. Hey.
I tried to get to
Where the source of the sound was coming from
Late last night, but it was just impossible.
It's just too vertical.
But I'll be looking for another way
To get up there today.
Understood. Hopefully, you can make it there without any more trouble.
I got some good news, though, for you.
I found a replacement for rpg.
This guy is a human encyclopedia of bigfoot knowledge.
Not only that, he's an expert in native american history,
So I think he's gonna be a tremendous asset to the team.
His name is ronny le blanc.
Oh, that's great news. I look forward to meeting him.
You can expect him at base camp later on tonight,
And if you need anything else, give me a call.
Thanks so much.
Mireya: Having a bigfoot expert out here is going to be great.
While I have experience
Searching for wild animals, like gorillas,
Having someone who really understands the bigfoot lore
And who has experience in tracking
This animal that we're searching for
Is gonna be incredibly important
To the success of this expedition.
Let's see if we have any more luck today.
Narrator: Determined to reach the location
Of last night's sound,
Mireya uses a topographic map of the region
To plot her new course.
I'm gonna have to go around to get to that spot.
Mireya: So, I have the coordinates.
Here.
I'm not certain what made that sound.
It's like nothing I've ever heard before.
But if it came from a reported 1,200-pound creature,
You'd think it left behind some evidence.
I have a lot of ground to cover, so I need to get going.
♪♪
I want to find out if we can connect
Our target zone to bigfoot.
Narrator: Bryce has just picked up the hair samples
From the team's drop-off point at the end of the access road.
Now I'm gonna take this to one of the few people in the world
Who can actually analyze this in real time.
That's dr. Jeffrey meldrum.
He is a professor of anthropology
At idaho state university,
And he knows exactly what to look for
When you're looking at a bigfoot sample.
Narrator: Dr. Jeffrey meldrum
Is one of the few scientists in academia
That has dedicated their careers to investigating bigfoot.
He has examined evidence from all over the world,
And frequently speaks at conferences and universities
About his research into the existence
Of the legendary and elusive creature.
As a former executive committee member
Of the american association for the advancement of science,
He is considered one of
The leading bigfoot scientists alive today.
Well, thanks for taking the time
To meet with me today, dr. Meldrum.
Oh, you bet. It's my pleasure.
I actually brought some evidence,
And I would love to get your perspective on it.
Definitely. I'd love to take a look at it.
You have to check it.
You have to put it under the microscope.
With alleged sasquatch hair,
One of the most telling features is
The lack of a cellular medulla.
Narrator: The medulla is the innermost layer of the hair.
In deer and elk, the medulla is thick.
In humans and species closely related,
Such as bigfoot, it should be largely absent.
So, let's take a look at the first one.
♪♪
Um, that, unfortunately, has a continuous medulla.
Mm-hmm.
But a bear is a possibility for that one.
Uh-huh. The second one, he actually found this hair
In a bird's nest at the top of a 6,000-foot peak.
Get down here.
♪♪
Well, it's a relatively fine hair.
What do you see?
♪♪
I don't see evidence of a medulla.
Oh, wow. No medulla, huh?
Yep.
♪♪
Narrator: Coming up...
Oh, wow.
One of the hairs matches
The gold standard for bigfoot hair.
Look at this. Man: Holy crap.
Bryce: If we find a bigfoot nest,
That could be the key to proving bigfoot is real, right?
Well, that's right.
♪♪
Well, it's a relatively fine hair.
Bryce: What do you see?
♪♪
I don't see evidence of a medulla.
Oh, wow.
No medulla, huh?
Yep.
Narrator: After having the expedition's first piece of evidence
Analyzed by renowned scientist
And bigfoot expert dr. Jeffrey meldrum...
- That's good news. - That's good news.
...Bryce has just learned that he and the team
May have made an important discovery --
An actual bigfoot hair.
Bryce: So, we just found out
That one of the hairs that we found
Matches what dr. Meldrum considers to be
The gold standard for bigfoot hair.
So, this one, we'd want to look at more closely.
Definitely, I would want to do a more thorough dna analysis
Of the entire shaft of the hair.
But sasquatch hair presents a challenge
Because, lacking that medulla,
Here all you have, basically, is a shaft
With precious little dna to be recovered.
Right.
Narrator: Due to the minute amounts of dna
Contained in possible sasquatch hair,
The team's sample must be sent to a special lab
To undergo a complex testing process,
The results of which could take weeks.
Bryce: Right now, it's a waiting game until the results come back.
But that doesn't mean we're slowing down the investigation.
Before I head back to base,
I want to get as much intel as I possibly can,
To see if we can push this investigation even further,
With one of the world's pre-eminent scientists on all things bigfoot.
And that brings me back to our expedition.
What are the types of things that we should be looking for,
I mean, you know, with a guy
Who's been in the field and been in the lab?
Dr. Meldrum: Well, there really is no silver bullet,
But there are places to find nests.
Nest building is a great ape behavior.
All the living great apes build nests of some sort,
And the large male gorillas do build them on the ground.
Some very intriguing examples from the olympic peninsula
That I just can't imagine they were made by anything else.
Narrator: In 2017, a group of over two dozen nests
Were found on the olympic peninsula,
Less than 250 miles from the team's target zone.
Approximately 7 feet wide and 10 feet long,
These nests contain giant, ring-like beds
Made from intertwined branches
With thick layers of soft pine needles
That function like a mattress.
These structures are among the most mysterious pieces
Of bigfoot evidence ever discovered.
That leads into this whole-new tool at our disposal,
Which is environmental dna.
Environmental dna is the genetic information
An organism naturally expels
As it interacts with its environment,
Including mucus, skin particles, hair,
And other bodily material.
Analyzing this trace evidence is a revolutionary, new technique
Which allows researchers to sequence the dna of a species
Long after its departure from the site.
The tool is there.
The trick is to select a location for taking samples
That are more likely to contain dna
From this very rare species.
And what better place than a nest? Yeah.
So I think nests will hold great potential in that regard.
Agreed.
♪♪
Gonna keep going.
Back in the team's target zone,
Russell continues trekking northwest
En route to the first of three water sources
Where he hopes to find bigfoot activity.
Look for those dark little nooks and crannies
That look a little bit odd.
♪♪
Look at this.
Hey, man, are you seeing this?
Man: Holy crap.
Know where this came from.
It's like it's in plain view.
Like it's intentionally put there.
And it seems odd -- really odd.
♪♪
Plenty of space.
I could fit inside there. Easily.
So, if we find a bigfoot nest
And take environmental dna samples from it,
I mean, that could be the key
To proving bigfoot is real, right?
Well, that's right.
More than anything,
That would be worth looking for.
♪♪
Look!
Something's been laying in here bedded down.
♪♪
But the point I would make, though, too,
Is that these examples are very rare.
Mm-hmm.
♪♪
This is actually a -- a downfall.
It's all one.
Yeah, it all moves as one -- one unit.
You can see where it came off the tree above us.
This is obviously a natural occurrence.
Being out in the open like this,
It wouldn't make sense for this to be a bigfoot nest.
Bigfoot would want something much more secluded.
He'd have a decent line of sight
And be protected from the elements.
Man, I really got excited there for a minute.
♪♪
So, this is it. This is the spot.
Narrator: Dr. Mireya mayor finally reaches
The exact location determined by the audio team
As the point of origin for the mysterious sound.
Mireya: I never thought that, just days into the expedition,
I would have heard something that could be bigfoot.
But I just hope that all of this leads
To some sort of definitive, scientific proof
And a discovery.
You can see the lake from here.
The ridge.
What a vantage point.
The first thing I want to do is I want to look for prints
Or breakage in some kind of foliage --
Just anything at all, a hair clump.
Something that might give us a clue
As to what made that sound up here.
♪♪
One of the problems up here is that it's so rocky
That there are very limited places
Where you'd catch some sort of a footprint.
I don't see anything.
♪♪
Whatever was here had way too much time to keep moving
And is probably long gone by now.
It's just so frustrating that I had the exact location
Of where this sound came from
And I still couldn't get up here in time.
There's another way down.
There are only two paths down this peak --
The one that I just came up on,
And this one here on the north face.
It's logical that whatever was up here went down that way.
So I'm gonna track it.
♪♪
Okay. Let's do this.
Narrator: Coming up...
Hey.
What the hell have we just found?
Russell: Going towards the water source.
Narrator: Ex-army sergeant and survivalist russell acord
Is on his way to the first of three water sources
Where he believes he's likely
To find evidence of bigfoot activity.
Russell: You pay attention to everything.
You pay attention to the ground,
The sounds around you, the light...
How the wind moves.
'cause you never know out here.
If it's out here, I want to find it.
♪♪
Oh, wow.
Here we go. You see that?
Could be a tree structure.
Narrator: Tree structures are identified as groupings of trees
Or large branches that have intentionally been laid out
In a variety of formations.
In September 2018, a mass cluster was discovered
In a forest in colorado.
Over 100 structures,
Some shaped like tipis and some arranged on the ground,
Were found over a 10-square-mile area.
Unlike nests, which provide shelter,
Researchers believe bigfoot tree structures
Could be a form of communication.
Let's take a look at this.
Here, at this base,
The root of this tree is not there.
So, I have three small trees laid out here
In a formation of an "a."
Same with this one.
If they had grown here and tipped over,
We'd be able to see the root system where they'd fallen from.
There's no hole where they came up from the ground.
They were literally positioned in this formation.
♪♪
Wow. That's interesting.
Know I'm in the right spot.
The forces out of this area, it's special.
What I found right here is tremendous evidence.
These trees were placed here for a reason.
It's a signal, and I don't know if it's leading me to something
Or trying to draw me away from something.
But I can't just dismiss it.
It's worth looking into.
Narrator: Russell changes course
And begins a search pattern
Circling the mysterious structure
That could be a marker left behind by bigfoot.
♪♪
With russell and mireya following new leads
In the target zone,
Bryce continues to extract all the information he can
From world-renowned scientist and bigfoot expert
Dr. Jeffrey meldrum.
Bryce: While I'm here, I want to pick the brain
Of one of the world's pre-eminent experts
In all things bigfoot.
He has information that can help us right now.
Bryce: I mean, you've been doing this for, what, 40 years now?
What keeps you going?
The motivation of my research is simply,
Is there a biological species behind the legend of sasquatch?
My research focuses on the evolution of human bipedalism,
And so what more fascinating question could there be
Than the potential existence of another bipedal hominoid
Or a relic hominid of some kind?
Do you think bigfoot could possibly be a relict hominid?
Absolutely.
Narrator: The theory of relic hominids centers around the idea
That there have been many iterations of human-like species
That evolved alongside us and spread across the globe,
Some adapting to the changing world
While others went extinct,
Leaving open the possibility
Of an intelligent human-like species
That walks upright and is alive today.
Have so much evidence that points to these relic species.
And this has been a remarkable paradigm shift in anthropology.
It seems that, almost on an annual basis,
New species are discovered.
A case in point was the discovery of homo floresiensis.
In 2003, 600 miles east of bali,
Archaeologist michael morwood
Discovered a new species of hominid,
Nicknamed the "hobbit" due to its tiny stature,
Standing 3 foot, 7 inches high.
Remarkably, the discovery made fact of what was once lore,
Validating a centuries-old native indonesian legend
That told of encounters with little, hairy, human-like apes.
So, the fact that an unrecognized bipedal hominoid,
Aka sasquatch,
Figures so prominently in the folklore or lore
Of native american traditional stories
Has given much greater context
To the possible existence of this creature,
This very man-like creature.
We still need to find that conclusive evidence,
But that's what you're about
When you're out there in the field,
Is finding that physical evidence.
♪♪
Night walks are something that I often do in the rainforest
When I'm searching for nocturnal primates.
Narrator: The sun has fully set over the target zone.
Eight miles from base camp,
Mireya continues to trek down the north face of a mountainside
Toward the lowlands,
Where she believes bigfoot may be hiding.
Mireya: The fact that we're not relying so much on our vision,
All of the other senses are on hyper alert.
You start to hear things.
That's your first clue that something is out there.
Just keeping really alert is really important.
♪♪
One thing that's clear --
The further we move into this forest,
The more ominous it gets
And creepier this all starts to feel.
♪♪
What?
What the **** is this?
♪♪
What the hell have we just found?
♪♪
What the **** is this?
Narrator: 61/2 miles from base camp...
****
Like at this.
...Dr. Mireya mayor discovers a dilapidated structure.
It is how they'd build these cabins
150, 170 years ago.
So bizarre to have a structure like this so way out here.
♪♪
Mireya: When you get to a structure that is that old,
You could almost feel a presence,
And it was very creepy.
And, honestly, not a lot creeps me out.
That was really **** creepy.
Narrator: At nearly midnight, with no sign of bigfoot,
Mireya begins the long trek back to base camp.
Mireya: By the time I get to base camp,
Our new teammate should be here.
♪♪
Hello?
Hey, mireya.
- Hi. - Ronny.
Oh, hey, nice to meet you.
Welcome to base camp.
Thank you.
My name's ronny le blanc.
I'm a bigfoot investigator from massachusetts.
I spoke with bryce. He told me about the situation.
As soon as I learned about the scale of this expedition
And that it's all based on data science,
I was sold, and I was on the next plane out here.
Narrator: Ronny le blanc is a veteran bigfoot hunter.
An expert outdoorsman and tracker,
He has amassed a wealth of bigfoot knowledge
And experience.
Having discovered overwhelming evidence
In his own investigations,
Including footprints and possible nests,
He's developed systems and methods
That he believes can actually coax bigfoot out from hiding.
Ronny: Bigfoot knows that we're here.
So we need to let him know that we're not here to harm them,
But we want to communicate, we want to start conversation.
Being a part of this, I'm super excited.
To catch you up a little bit,
Just came across... Okay.
...A very old, creepy structure out there,
Kind of in the middle of nowhere.
All the way over here. Okay.
It looked like some sort of 150-year-old log cabin.
Narrator: The snake war was one of the deadliest
In early american history.
The series of bloody battles fought in the 1860s
Between invading colonial settlers
And the native americans that inhabited
Central and eastern oregon
Left nearly 2,000 people dead on both sides
And the area littered with abandoned settlements.
A lot of encounters, bigfoot encounters,
Have occurred in areas of spiritual significance,
Like cemeteries
Or areas that have seen a large amount of death.
I really believe that the history of this land
Is gonna be a factor in this expedition.
I'd love to take you out investigating tomorrow.
I would love to. It's why I'm here. Okay.
Mireya: Tomorrow morning, I want to take ronny
Back to the location where I found the cabin,
And what I'm hoping is
Is that, in the daylight and with two sets of eyes,
We might be able to spot something
That I might have missed.
I'm really glad you're here.
I will see you in the morning.
Alright. Get some rest. Alright. Thank you.
Ronny: We have all the elements
To make this a very successful expedition,
But there's a lot to be done,
And I don't think I'll be sleeping much tonight.
♪♪
[ tent unzips ]
Pretty quiet night.
Don't know if I'm disappointed or happy.
Narrator: After abandoning his plan
To locate the first of three water sources,
Russell searches the area
Surrounding the possible bigfoot tree structure
For any other indication of the legendary creature.
Russell: My next step is to follow the terrain
And start looking around the area
For any more unusual markings.
There's a reason why these trees are placed here,
And I'm gonna find out why.
♪♪
It's really too thick to get into.
This is just a creepy spot.
♪♪
Follow me.
♪♪
What is that?
Look at this thing.
♪♪
Now, that is interesting.
That is some strange stuff.
Does that smell gamey to you?
It's not just a downed tree.
The top of this thing has branches
Almost like they were placed here.
There was no way it could have naturally fallen there.
It wasn't all the branches fell in the same direction.
They were literally placed in separate directions
To actually provide cover.
This looks like a structure to hide under.
I could literally lay inside there.
I feel like I've walked right into the living room
And the kettle is still hot.
It was just here.
It can't be that far away.
♪♪
Narrator: While investigating a heavily wooded area
Near a possible tree structure...
...Russell has found
What he believes could be a bigfoot nest.
Russell: That's frickin' significant.
Have you guys ever seen anything like that?
So, we've got something here.
Holy crap.
That is insane.
It's an entire dead hawk laying on the ground.
And it hasn't been pulled apart,
It hasn't been eaten by anything.
The nest is a first for me.
A dead hawk next to a nest it's definitely a first for me.
I'd like to have mireya have a look at it.
She's got a lot of primate experience.
This is her lane.
[ walkie-talkie beeps ] narrator: Russell alerts
Ronny and mireya about the nest.
Russell: All the branches were placed,
And on the ground was enough needles
To make it a very, very comfortable bed.
Narrator: But mireya has her doubts.
Mireya: It's pretty unlikely russell has found a nest.
The fact is, is we're in a forest.
There are other animals that live here,
And there are other animals that also make nests.
That's why I want to go and check this out
And just start ruling out and collecting evidence
That might lead us to what actually built that nest.
Ronny: I've been researching nests
That are related to sasquatch for over a decade,
And I should be able to determine
If we have something big.
So I'm excited to see what this thing looks like.
Alright, let's go.
Narrator: Mireya and ronny start the six-mile journey
To the possible bigfoot nest,
Hoping to arrive before nightfall.
Let's go see what's up ahead of us here.
Russell refocuses his search
On the area surrounding the potential nest site
In hopes that whatever made it is still close by.
Russell: If this is a bigfoot nest,
This means we've found its home.
It can't be that far away.
I've been looking for that face-to-face encounter.
That's what I'm here for.
I know something's out there. I feel it.
♪♪
Bryce: I was not expecting to find a bigfoot nest.
This could change the entire course of the investigation.
Narrator: After receiving news of the team's discovery,
Bryce makes one more stop
Before heading back to the command center.
I want to learn everything I can about these bigfoot nests
And just confirm what it is that we have on our hands.
So I'm on my way to speak with someone
Who's actually seen a bigfoot nest.
His name is mel skahan.
Narrator: Mel skahan has worked in forest management
For over 25 years,
And is a respected member of the native america yakama tribe
That has inhabited the pacific northwest
For thousands of years.
Mel: My great-grandfather would tell us the legends
Of tah tah kle'ah,
Which is also a yakama word for sasquatch.
Oh, really? Yeah.
Before the migration of the settlers to the west,
We all lived together -- the bigfoot, the yakama.
Bigfoot plays a significant role
In the traditions of the yakama people.
Represented in their art and stories,
The ape-like man is considered sacred.
So, I understand that you've discovered a bigfoot nest.
Three of us were working in the woods,
Measuring trees for the forest service,
And we came across what looked like a giant bird's nest.
This nest had a bunch of branches
That were woven together,
So whatever did it had hands, thumbs.
That's incredible.
I started looking through this nest.
That's when I started finding the hairs.
The hairs on this one was brown.
Mm-hmm.
And, at the time,
I didn't know the extent of what I had collected
And how far what I did that day was going to take me.
Back in the target zone,
Russell continues searching the area around the nest
For evidence.
Hey!
♪♪
Russell: There's something really heavy
Moving across that soil out there.
I can sense it, I can hear it, and I can feel it.
It's like where you feel an elk coming towards you
Before you see it.
It's that the impact of heavy hooves hitting the ground.
An elk weighs over 700 pounds.
This is definitely bigger than an elk.
♪♪
[ rumble ]
Narrator: While investigating
The area surrounding a possible bigfoot nest...
...Russell senses the impact of what he believes
Is a massive animal walking nearby.
♪♪
Russell: My heart was racing.
It was right there in front of me.
That adrenaline started coming in.
I thought, "holy cow.
This is that moment I have waited for my whole life,
That class 'a' sighting."
And when it disappeared, it shocked me.
It -- it's just -- I can't explain it.
We'll keep going.
Narrator: Russell treks due north
In the direction of the sound.
Bryce: So, you actually took some samples
Of hairs from this nest?
Yes.
Bryce johnson is meeting with mel skahan,
A forester who discovered a nest
Not far from the team's hot zone.
After I collected the samples, it took almost three weeks,
And...Then negative things started to happen.
I would shake really violently,
And I was, like, freaking out.
I had no idea what was going on.
When I went back to tell my co-workers about it,
Then I started finding the similarities.
We were having the same type of experiences.
You know, I hear these stories
About these creatures being able to instill
This incredible sense of fear or dread in someone.
I just put everything in a backpack,
And then I just went out to the site
Where I'd collected the hairs,
And I left everything there.
When I went back to my truck,
I didn't -- I...
I didn't believe what was happening.
Under the windshield wipers, I found hawk feathers.
And ever since then,
It's just been settled between us.
That's incredible.
♪♪
Mireya: I think it's over this way.
Ronny and mireya are now just a few meters away
From what could be a nest built by bigfoot.
♪♪
What the hell?
****
♪♪
This is very interesting.
This is not what I was expecting at all.
I'm noticing all these broken branches.
They're all either twisted or dent.
Mm-hmm.
Definitely not a natural kind of tree break.
Something actually did something to it.
Like, very deliberately placed one over the other
To create whatever this is.
♪♪
I'm confident that this is a sasquatch nest.
Mireya: I know what our nests look like
That would be created by wildlife here.
I've found hundreds of gorilla nests,
And this looks nothing like that.
That looks nothing like a bear's nest.
This is much more elaborate.
In a sense, I want to say, it's much more human-like.
But I don't know what that is.
I don't know what could have made it
Or what would have used it.
I am shocked right now.
I'm -- I'm truly at a loss.
Whatever it is, this is significant.
Ideally, we'd want to be able to collect
Anything that could provide some dna.
Narrator: The team collects environmental dna
To be processed using a revolutionary new method
For identifying every living thing
That has come into contact with a specific sample of soil.
I'm gonna lift this side of the bedding,
And I'll just take some soil from there.
♪♪
Narrator: Next time on "expedition bigfoot"...
I don't even hear any birds.
It's just dead quiet up here.
Mireya: This little sample could hold all the answers.
The key to the bigfoot mystery
Has been staring at us in the face from the very beginning.
- From the ridge. - Oh, my word.
This could change the entire course of the investigation.
Russell: He is curious.
Hey, ronny, hang on just a sec.
- What's that? - ****
Looks like a print to me.
Bryce: Oh, man, this is wild.
Man: I just want to encourage you to be safe.
[ exhales sharply ]
Man: It's a wild animal.
This is something I haven't heard before.
[ howling ]
It's 700, 800 pounds.
Russell: What is that?
This thing's massive inside.
Man: There's a good chance...
...That it around there somewhere.