[monster screams]
[Phil] It sounds big, and it sounds angry.
-[monster grunts] -[Phil] Oh!
Everybody back, back, back, back.
[woman yells] Oh God!
[Josh Gates] On this episode of Expedition X...
My team heads deep into the Louisiana Bayou
on the hunt for a legendary swamp monster.
I seen the eyes. Bright red. It stood up about 7-foot tall.
Oh! It's moving.
[Jessica] Is that coming towards us?
[Phil] Look at the eyes back there.
-[shushes] -[monster growls]
[Phil] There's one eye.
-[both] Two. -[Jessica gasps]
All right, I have something very cool to show you guys today.
We got movie day. Are we getting a sub?
[Josh] No substitute teacher, you're stuck with me.
But it is movie day.
All right, this is a very intriguing old film
that was sent to me by a woman named Dana Holyfield from Louisiana.
She claims this shows-- Are you ready for it?
-Ready -A terrifying monster.
Dude, you get the weirdest fan mail.
I do, you have no idea.
But I have to say, this is very cool footage.
Phil, you ready to believe in monsters?
Play the film and then we'll see.
Okay, here we go.
-[Jessica] You installed a clapper in here? -Just watch the movie.
Wow.
[Josh] Okay, so we're out in the swamps now. Get ready.
We see there's like a hunting blind or a platform there.
Okay, here we go.
Keep an eye, center of the frame in the back.
-Look at that! Look at that! -[Jessica] Oh!
-Yeah! -You see that?
That looks like Bigfoot.
Right? We see this large, upright something walking right through the frame.
[Jessica] I mean, that legitimately looks like Bigfoot.
[Josh] That's what Dana thinks.
This has really become a family mystery for her.
This footage was shot by her grandfather
who spent his whole life trying to figure out exactly what that is.
[Josh] New Orleans has a rich history of folklore and mysticism
from voodoo to vampires...
[howling]
[Josh] ...but for the folks living on the edge of the swamp,
one legend has eclipsed all others.
The Honey Island Swamp Monster.
The first known sighting is in 1963 by Harlan Ford.
He's out hunting, and claims he runs into a 7-foot ape-like creature
with large amber-colored eyes covered in long, matted hair.
He's so terrified and awestruck by the encounter
that he spends more than a decade
relentlessly searching the swamp.
In 1974, he claims to finally find physical proof of the creature.
Harlan makes a plaster cast
of a 11.5-inch three-toed footprint.
Ford contacts the Louisiana department of Wildlife and Fisheries
who find similar tracks,
but are unable to identify any known species in the area that could make them.
He continues to search, carrying with him a Super 8 camera.
And at some point before his death in March of 1980,
he films the footage of what appears to be a monster.
But for unknown reasons, he keeps it to himself.
It isn't until 2006, when his granddaughter, Dana Holyfield,
is working on a documentary about her family's decades-long search
when Harlan's old 8mm film reels are discovered.
Okay, so what do you think? Is there a Louisiana cryptid out of the swamps?
I mean, all of this sounds pretty compelling.
So at least worth going out there and researching it.
What I would love to see is those plaster casts.
However, my instinct here tells me that this is probably a case of misidentification.
Someone sees something like a black bear in the woods out there,
and if they can't quite make out what it is,
imagination can take you to some pretty wild places.
Sure, but that old film footage, that's not a bear.
It's not, however, maybe it's all a hoax.
Maybe that's someone in a Bigfoot suit walking around.
I mean, that's the first thing you think, right?
Could this just be a man in suit?
I mean, that is a possibility, right?
But you gotta remember, Harlan never used this
to profit off of it in any way, shape or form,
so I don't understand why somebody would dress up for no reward.
[Josh] Right. That's the part of this that's very compelling.
Maybe we're dealing with some sort of southern subspecies of Bigfoot here,
a la Swampsquatch.
-Right? -That's a good name.
-[Josh] That's a good name. -It is a good name.
Or who knows? Maybe it's a werewolf.
You think there's a werewolf running around in the swamps?
Don't laugh. Because there is southern folklore around the Louisiana area
about a rougarou, and it's basically a werewolf.
A giant, hairy man-beast.
Well, whatever it is, that's what you're here to find out, all right?
I'm sending you to the bayou.
I want you to shed light on these recent eyewitness accounts.
-Okay. -Sounds good.
All right. Time to figure out what is lurking in the Honey Island Swamps.
Good luck.
[Josh] It's a three-and-a-half hour flight from New York to New Orleans,
a city swirling with centuries of multicultural influences.
And from there, it's a 40-minute drive north
to the Pearl River Wildlife Area.
[Jessica] This is looking pretty swampy.
[Josh] These 35,000 acres of untamed marshland contain Honey Island Swamp.
I've arranged a meeting for Jess and Phil with Dana
at her family's old hunting camp.
But to get there,
they'll need to adopt a more swamp-friendly form of transport.
-[Jessica] All right, you ready? -[Phil] Oh, yes.
-You know why they call it Honey Island? -Why?
Because apparently it's full of bees.
[Jessica] Awesome.
[Phil] There are no roads out here.
So the only way people find each other is by coordinates.
[Phil] GPS says we go left here.
We're meeting with Dana Holyfield,
whose grandfather captured purported video
of the Honey Island Swamp Monster back in the 1970s.
-Hello there. -[Dana] How are you?
[Jessica and Phil] Good.
[Phil] Since then, Dana's been on the frontline of the monster hunt.
So your grandfather dedicated decades of his life to tracking this thing down.
-Yes, he did. -[Phil] Why do you think he did that?
I think when he first saw this thing face-to-face and got a good look at it,
first of all, he said it scared the hell out of him.
And then finding the tracks in the same area,
he just became very interested in finding out more about it.
Why do you think he never went public with it?
Probably because when he first talked about this years ago,
he said people come out of the woodwork,
like monster hunters wanting to go in there and shoot it.
And he was afraid people were gonna kill each other by accident
trying to hunt it down.
So what did this thing look like?
My grandfather said that the thing he remembered most was the eyes.
Big amber-colored eyes just looking at him.
The body was covered in long, dingy hair.
My grandfather stood 6'4", and this thing was taller than he was.
Big broad shoulders and long arms.
And when it turned to run, it ran off on two feet.
What made you pick up your grandfather's mantle?
Did you have an experience at all?
I've had some experiences out here.
I grew up in the swamp. There's all kinds of wildlife.
Being out here all the time, you hear things.
Sometimes I'd hear this thing screaming out.
[monster screams]
It's just a noise that makes you very eerie.
Could it be, like, a bear or something like that?
[growling]
-[Dana] They do have black bear... - [Jessica] Okay.
[Dana] ...that you see out here occasionally.
[purring]
[Dana] Black panthers.
There's theories that it could have been from a circus train
that had wrecked out here in the '40s.
[horn blowing]
[crashing]
[Dana] That maybe something got off.
Have you gotten any hints as to what it's attracted to? What it could feed on?
Any clue that would help us track whatever this is down.
[Dana] It could feed on wild hogs.
[hog screaming]
[Dana] There were some wild hogs that had been killed in the area
that they found these tracks.
They had their throats ripped out,
blood was all splattered all over the place.
This was one of the originals that my grandfather made.
And then we found those a couple years back.
-[Phil] Wow. -[Jessica] Look at these.
Those are really clear-cut, good sets.
And really consistent that whatever this is,
it seems like the same species with the three main clawed toes.
And then this looks like a little dewclaw.
Do you mind if I take a 3D scan?
[Dana] Go ahead.
[Phil] I'm using a lidar scanner
to create 3D models of these plaster casts.
We'll have these digital replicas handy
as we venture further into the swamp.
Got it.
What do you think it is?
I think it's probably something that's just always been out there.
This swamp goes for miles and miles and it connects with other swamps,
so there's a lot of places for this thing to roam.
Then where do you recommend we start our investigation?
Y'all need to go meet with M.K. Davis.
He thought it was a hoax... [chuckles softly]
...until he had his own evidence out there.
-Do you have some coordinates you could give me? -[Dana] Yeah, I do.
[Jessica] We make our way to M.K. Davis,
a local investigator who actually spent years
attempting to disprove Harlan's evidence.
-[Jessica] M.K.? -[M.K. Davis] Yes?
[Jessica] Nice to see you, Dana sent us.
-Thank you, sir. -[MK] All right.
[Jessica] She said that you had some evidence of the swamp monster.
[M.K.] I do.
[Phil] So you've been looking into this for decades?
I put a lot into it at first, but I didn't find it.
And then I came across this track.
And there it is. This big three-toed track,
the same kind of track that Harlan Ford casted all those years ago.
I looked at it and I said, "This can't be."
It can't be. You know, 'cause no one set me up. No one knew I was coming.
So you went from complete skeptic on this to now a complete believer?
[M.K.] Well, I don't have any choice.
Why are you even doing this if you're not dedicated to the facts and the truth?
What other kind of evidence have you gotten?
-I've got a thermal video. -[Jessica] Really?
-[Phil] You have a thermal video of this thing? -I do. I have a thermal video.
-Can we see it? -Sure. Let me go get it.
-Awesome. All right. -Whoa.
[Jessica] All right.
-[Jessica] Okay. -[Phil] That's a pretty big heat signature.
-[M.K.] Right there would be his head. -[Jessica] Uh-huh.
-[M.K.] And then the rear is down. -[Jessica] Oh, I can see it.
It's actually behind some vegetation.
-It's hiding-- -[Phil] About how far away?
I don't know for sure,
but it was across a body of water, it was a pretty good way aways.
So it's kind of like squatting down, looking at you guys.
[M.K.] Right. We stayed there for 30 minutes.
It just stood there and watched.
So this is your most recent evidence?
It is the most recent.
Can we get the GPS coordinates to that?
-You most certainly can. I'll get them for you. -[Jessica] Perfect.
[M.K.] Remember, now.
If you can see what it does to pigs and hogs...
-[Jessica] Yeah. -[M.K.] It don't eat 'em, it just kills them.
-Be careful. -[Jessica] We will.
[growling]
-[Phil] Make our way in? -[Jess] Yeah.
[Phil] It's going to be a 2-mile hike on foot
to the location where M.K. had his encounter.
Remote wetlands like these are home to many dangerous animals.
So as we trek in, Jess and I are on high alert
for any large predators in the area.
-I think based on everything we've heard... -Uh-huh.
...what people are seeing and they describe as the Honey Island Monster,
it climbs, it swims, stands upright, rips apart boar's throats.
That will be easy to find.
Look for dead boars.
For dead boars. Also, let's look for live boars
'cause they can be 300 pounds around here.
I don't wanna find live boars.
-I don't either, but keep your eyes out. -All right.
That's it over there?
-According to his-- whoa! GPS coordinates... -Uh-huh.
...we are right about there.
This is probably our best bet to set up camera traps.
I got the water nearby so that we can pick up on anything
that's coming down to the water's edge.
[Phil] This creature has eluded search parties for decades,
so first up, we're going to set a perimeter of eight game cameras
spaced 10 yards apart surrounding the coordinates of the sighting.
Anything moving into or out of this area, we'll catch it on film.
Okay. On to the next.
[camera clicks onto mount]
All right. Here, this looks like a good spot.
Oh, [bleep]. Look at this.
Oh!
Phil, you copy?
Yeah, what's up, Jess?
I just found some prints right by the water's edge.
I mean, I think this thing just ran by.
[Phil] Heading your way.
-Jess? -[Jessica] Right here.
I just found some prints. Look, look.
-Look at that. -[Phil] Nice!
[Jessica] So there's these right here,
then over here there's more like a three-toed track.
[Phil] That is really interesting.
It does look like three.
[Jessica] This is the first ones I found.
[Phil] And they do look fresh.
-[Jessica] Do you have your lidar? -[Phil] I have my lidar.
[Jessica] You wanna scan 'em?
[Phil] We should absolutely scan 'em.
It's clear from these tracks that whatever made them is big and went inland.
It must have just passed through here,
close to where M.K. had his most recent sighting.
If whatever made this track was walking inland,
why don't we go in there and try to draw it out?
Our plan is to use a game caller to mimic animal sounds
that will hopefully lure whatever this is into the open.
[Jessica exclaims] Look how big that thing is!
Jess, we've seen bigger than this.
[Jessica screaming] Oh, God! It's moving! Oh, God!
-[laughs] -[chuckles nervously] Jesus, I hate spiders.
All right. Your spider screaming is gonna scare anything around here.
Or it's gonna draw it in.
Well, maybe that too.
It's gonna be like, "Wounded woman, let's go rip her throat out."
That is possible.
Then I don't have to worry about spiders anymore.
-[chuckles] 'Cause you'll be dead? -Yeah.
[Phil] Looks like over here to the right might have a clearing.
[Jessica grunts]
[Phil exhales] What do you think? Base camp?
[Jessica] Yeah, let's set up the blinds here.
Yeah.
[Phil] We begin setting up hunting blinds to help camouflage our location.
Surrounding us is our perimeter of game cameras
which are tethered to my phone.
So if anything goes off, I'll receive an alert.
All right, so how about this?
Why don't you take the game caller and go put it
by one of the cameras just a little bit further away.
I can then watch with the night vision goggles.
-Okay. Make sure we have good line of sight from here? -Uh-huh.
That way, when we set that thing off,
at least whatever comes out of the woods,
we'll have a running start to potentially get away if we need to.
Yeah.
Jess, how's this right here?
[Jessica] That's actually perfect.
Like, I have a straight line of sight to you.
Do you wanna do a test on the game caller
to make sure it has range all the way out here?
All right. You ready?
[Phil] Let her rip.
[yowling playing on game caller]
[Phil speaking on radio]
[laughing] Yes, I did.
[Phil] Absolutely terrifying.
All right. We got good range out here.
I'm gonna turn the volume up all the way, head back.
Copy.
-Here's my question. -Yeah.
How do you know what a bobcat in heat sounds like?
Who doesn't know what a bobcat in heat sounds like?
-Jess, come on. -I don't, it's so weird.
[Phil] I think we got ourselves a monster trap.
-Okay, ready? -[Jessica] Yeah, what are you choosing?
Deer.
[deer sounds playing on game caller]
Yeah, that's what deer sound like.
[deer sounds playing on game caller]
Okay, you getting anything out there?
Nothing yet. Let me check behind us. I just--
A little nervous.
[deer sounds playing on game caller]
[Phil] All right, you ready for some howling?
Yeah.
[howling playing on game caller]
It is eerie how much this sounds like coyotes.
[howling playing on game caller]
-[Phil exhales] My heart is racing-- -[Jessica exclaims]
Oh, my gosh.
I just thought that that might have been a face.
[Phil] We got a hit, we got a hit.
Whoa, whoa.
[growling]
[Phil] Look at the eyes back there.
That's one eye.
[Jessica and Phil] Two.
[Phil] What is happening over here?
-[grunting] -[Phil] Oh.
[Jessica] Is that a pig?
[Phil] That's a big mama.
She looks mad.
[grunting]
You know the bad thing about there being baby boars out there?
Extra aggressive mama pigs?
I have the bear spray.
Oh. Would a bear spray work on a boar?
-I mean, I guess pepper spray is pepper spray. -Oh, yeah.
No one wants it in their eyes.
Okay, I'm gonna try something else.
[distant growling]
[Phil] That was a growl.
I just heard a growl, I didn't press a button.
It's that direction, actually.
[distant growl]
[Jessica] I did hear that.
[Phil] Got another hit.
This is the same camera.
It's just a lot of dust in the air.
[footsteps receding]
Sounds like footsteps.
[boar squealing]
[Jessica] That sounds like somebody's getting killed.
Those guys look terrified.
I mean, is something hunting them right now?
Those boars are 200 pounds each.
So if they're running from something...
-[footsteps approaching] -[Jessica] Something's sneaking up behind us.
[loud grunt]
[Phil] Oh!
All right. Everybody back, back.
[Phil exhales] My heart is racing.
Whatever we just heard, it is howling over there.
-I mean, we gotta go over there. -[Phil] Yeah.
Get the bear spray.
I got the spray.
[Jessica] Yeah, I'm not feeling too terribly safe right now.
[boar squealing distantly]
[chirping]
[Phil] It's just a bird.
[chirps]
All right, let's keep moving.
-Keep moving. -[Jessica] Yeah. Go.
Here's the camera right here.
Hopefully with evidence of what was back here.
Those boars were running from something.
[Jessica] Yeah, they were definitely pissed off.
Something's definitely in here, I just don't know what it is.
[Phil] I got a hair.
[Jessica] You got a hair?
Let me see.
[Phil] It looks like a hair follicle to me.
-[Jessica] Let me see. -Check this out.
[Jessica] Oh, yeah.
At first I thought it was part of the plant,
but you could see at the end there where it narrows?
[Jessica] Yeah. Oh, that does look like a follicle.
I would say 90 percent chance this is gonna be from those boars out here.
[Jessica] Yeah.
But there's that 10 percent chance it's something else.
[Jessica] I'm willing to roll the dice on that.
[Phil] Whatever was chasing the hogs
seems to have disappeared as quickly as it arrived.
There's a chance we got something.
But we recovered a hair which could shine a light on its true identity.
While we send the sample off to the lab,
we leave our game cameras running all night
in case there is more activity in the area.
We missed a call from Josh
while we were out in the swamp,
so we're connecting to see what he's got for us.
Let's give Josh a call.
[both] Hey, Josh.
How are my two swamp rats doing?
-Damp. -Sweaty.
[chuckles] Sounds about right.
Okay, so what's the update? How's it going?
Good. We had a really good night.
We got some interesting responses off of the game caller.
And we also saw a large animal track that we did a 3D scan of.
Could be something. I'm not saying monster--
I'm saying monster.
[Phil] But you know, we got the renderings
so we can compare it to the other casts that exist.
[Josh] So on the off chance that it's not a monster,
any other ideas on what it might be?
Dana said that there's a theory that there was a circus train derailment
that happened in the early 20th century,
where a bunch of primates were released.
Which sounds farfetched,
but it's not totally unprecedented.
For example, there's a troop of vervet monkeys
that live in Florida now that escaped from a roadside zoo back in the 1940s.
All right, well, definitely something worth looking into then.
Yes. I do want to follow through with this possible primate theory,
so I set up a meeting with Margaret Buehler.
She's a professor over at Tulane,
and she specializes in the study of primates.
Maybe she could tell us if it's man, monkey, or other.
That sounds great and I'll keep doing some digging on this end,
see if there's anything else I can dig up on an animal escape.
You know Jess, one thing that you said that really stuck with me
is this idea that maybe the Honey Island Swamp Monster
could be related to the rougarou legend, this Cajun werewolf story.
I've done a little research and there are some intriguing similarities here.
Both of these stories come from the same area
and they have similar descriptions, right?
Both tall, both hairy, and apparently, both very stinky.
Huh, I wonder if they're related to Phil then, 'cause he's a stinky boy.
-It's not that bad, is it? -Yeah, you are.
I do think it's worth looking into
whether there could be a connection between these legends.
I've been reading up on the rougarou,
and I found a recent account from an eyewitness
who claims to have had a terrifying encounter with this creature.
His name is Roy Verrett,
and Jess, I've arranged for you to meet him at a museum in the city.
So go and talk to him, see if you can learn more about his encounter
and more about the legend while Phil goes and talks to the professor at Tulane.
Perfect. Got it. Will do.
All right. Good luck.
And hey, Phil, don't forget to shower.
-Right. On it. -Ew.
-Bye, Josh. -See you.
[Jessica] I'm meeting Roy at a paranormal museum in New Orleans
to see if his report of the rougarou has any ties
to our search for the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
Oh, and a small sidenote,
the museum is reportedly haunted.
-Hey, Roy. -Hi, Jessica, how you doing?
-Hi, nice to meet you. -Hi.
[Jessica] So Josh told me
you have quite the story to share.
Oh, yes.
-You wanna check it out? -Yeah, absolutely.
[Roy] Here it is.
The different images of what people think they've seen.
Honey Island Swamp Monster.
This is a werewolf-type thing. Rougarou.
[Jessica] So then what's your theory?
Do you think that the Honey Island Swamp Monster and the rougarou are related
or do you think that they're two separate beasts?
[Roy] I believe it's the same thing.
I believe it's an actual animal.
Just undiscovered.
It's actually a physical being that's walking around out there,
it's just we don't know what that is.
Yes.
So, then, tell me. What was your experience?
The whole area where we stayed, everybody lives off the land.
Trapping, hunting, and all that stuff.
Behind the house, it's just open marsh for miles.
I was hunting rabbits.
And there was this loud roar-growl.
[monster growling]
[Roy] It'd be a mix between a bear and a lion.
[monster growling]
[Roy] I'd never heard anything like this before.
[Jessica] Mm-hmm.
[Roy] As I was coming around the corner,
I seen the eyes, shining.
It was a bright red.
And it stood up. It stood up about 7-foot tall.
[growling]
[Roy] I didn't know whether to crawl out of my skin.
There was no way I was taking a chance taking a shot at that.
All it was gonna do is piss it off.
And at this point, I realize, "Okay, I don't know what this is."
I'm not sticking around to find out.
Interesting. Maybe when people stumble upon it,
it gets startled and it kind of stands its ground
because of its territory or something like that.
It's a good possibility.
So you're 100 percent a believer.
-I'm a 100 percent believer, yes. -[Jessica] Yeah?
Ain't no doubt.
No doubt in your mind that this is not a hoax,
you've ran into some unexplained creature.
Unexplained creature that was huge.
Had to be... even with the sound.
If you didn't put your eyes on it,
you knew that that animal was huge.
I mean, I'm getting goosebumps talking about it.
[Jessica] Roy's account of the rougarou sounds like it could be one and the same
as the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
Both are huge, hairy swamp-dwelling creatures.
Are they tied to the same old legends
or do they have roots stemming from an actual unidentified cryptid monster?
Given his description of its unique roar,
I want to see about replicating the sound he described.
If it's a real creature, maybe we can use that to lure it out of hiding.
Do you remember where you had these sightings?
Would you be able to give me the coordinates?
-Sure. -Fantastic.
[Phil] I want to delve further into the taxonomy
of what could be the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
So I'm heading to Tulane University
to meet with Professor Margaret Buehler.
She has extensive field experience studying primates
and offered to take a look at some of the evidence we've collected.
Hey, Margaret.
-Hello. -[Phil] Hey.
-Good to see you. -Good to see you, too.
[Phil] Thanks for taking the time to meet.
You bet.
So, as you know, we are here looking at the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
We've talked to some people that think they have evidence of it,
and I really want to get your take on it
considering how much experience you have in the field
-looking at primates in the wild. -Sure.
[Phil] Okay. So these are original casts that people have made
-that they say are from the swamp monster. -Oh. Whoa.
I'm noticing here, kind of the deepest part of this footprint
is along both edges.
Um, it does not seem to have an arch,
which is something you'll see in things that are more adapted for bipedal movement.
-So it does look like this has claws. - [Phil] Mm-hmm.
Which is not a standard trait for a primate.
My instincts would lean toward this being something more quadrupedal.
It could be an alligator.
They do have four digits on their back feet and five on the front.
I think we just need more samples to know for sure.
So the majority of these traits that you're seeing in this,
A, do not tell you that it's bipedal.
They do not. Does not seem to be.
And B, it's not quite indicating primate.
Yes. I'd say it's very unlikely to see
if a primate were to make this kind of impression.
[Phil] So, let me show you footage from people who claimed
that they have seen this thing.
This was taken back in '70s,
so the footage is a little grainy,
but at one point, you see something that is undeniably a little strange.
[Margaret] So, right here, we can definitely see bipedal motion.
Looks like their upper limbs swinging back and forth.
But the most likely bipedal primate that it would be,
would be a human.
-Yeah. -[Margaret] Like you and I.
Any other thing it could possibly be?
Because one of the theories that is out here
is some people say in the early 1900s,
there was a train crash and some circus animals escaped.
Do you think it is possible that something could be surviving out here
in the Louisiana swamps?
I think primates, if released, could absolutely live in the swamps in Louisiana.
Okay.
It's kind of subtropical here, it doesn't get too cold,
there's plenty of water, plenty of food, they can absolutely survive.
[Phil] After speaking with Margaret,
it's clear that we're dealing with some conflicting information
between the prints, video, and witness accounts.
So I want to download with Jess.
So, yeah, I met up with Roy. His description matches almost perfectly
with what Dana and M.K. told us.
7-feet tall, covered in fur,
all of it just seems to match up.
Well, what about this lead on it possibly being the rougarou?
I think the rougarou is based in lore.
I think that what we're actually dealing with
is just sightings of the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
Okay.
I think there's something out there.
[Jessica] We're heading to the location where Roy had his run-in.
From his account, it sounds like he may have caught the creature off-guard,
so I wanna travel by stealth and see if it's still in the area.
Sorry to keep harping on this.
Did you set up the water transport for us again?
Yes, I set up the water transport again.
[Phil] Is it as fun as last time?
It is exactly what we need it to be
considering what we're trying to do.
-So... -Okay, now I'm worried.
You should be.
Hope you haven't been skipping arm day.
Huh.
[Jessica] That's right. A rowboat.
This is it.
Well, we're not gonna be covering a lot of ground in this thing tonight.
So that's true, but hear me out.
This is the same type of boat that Roy was using
when he ended up sneaking up on the monster,
so I kind of just wanna replicate that.
Okay, so, slow but stealthy.
-I got a thermal drone... -Yeah.
...um, so we can at least survey a big area from here.
Okay, I brought out the game callers
and I got the FLIR, so that anything that you see above,
I can see from maybe the shoreline.
-Sounds good. -Sweet.
-Okay. -[Jessica] All right.
Let me get in here.
-[Phil] Watch your step in there. -[Jessica] Jesus, Phillip!
[clears throat]
[Jessica] Come on!
You know I'm in trouble when she uses my full name, Phillip.
[Jessica] God.
[Phil] Let's launch.
[Phil] You know, maybe with two people paddling, like one on each side,
this would get somewhere.
[Jessica] We need someone to work the flashlight.
[Phil sighs]
[Phil] As the sun sets, we're making our way down the Pearl River
scouring the shoreline where Roy had his sighting,
looking for any pops of color on the thermal cam.
-Got the FLIR? -[Phil] Yeah.
[groans]
All right, we're recording.
[Phil] How's the visibility on that?
[Jessica] Visibility's pretty good, actually.
I mean, I'm catching all the trees,
-everything's showing up cold, though. -Oh, yeah.
[Jessica] See what I'm talking about?
If there is a mammal out there, it would light up.
[Jessica] It would absolutely light up.
Don't forget, we gotta be looking close to the ground
'cause it hunkers down, or up in the trees, or if it stands up.
-So we gotta be looking everywhere. -[Jessica] Pretty much.
[Jessica] Roy said that the swamp monster sounds like
a mix between a bear and a lion.
So I created a file which blends those two growls,
and I'm going to play it through the game caller.
If there are any monsters in the area,
and they hear a call that resembles one of their own,
maybe it'll come investigate.
-You ready? -I'm ready.
-Give it a rip. -[Jessica] Okay.
Here we go.
[growl playing on game caller]
That is a sound I would not wanna hear
if I were alone in these swamps.
[Jessica] Mm-mm.
[growl playing on game caller]
-[Jessica] Oh! Look at that. Did you see that? -[Phil] Oh yeah. What's...
-[Phil] What is it? -[Jessica] I don't know. Right over there.
[clicks tongue] Shoot, I think we lost it.
[Phil] I feel like now's the perfect time to fly the thermal drone.
So we can get a birds-eye view of what's happening around here.
Maybe something got close but we're not able to pick it up on shore,
maybe it's just into the woods here.
-All right, Jess, I'm up. -[Jessica] Okay.
-[Phil] That's the river right here. -[Jess] Okay.
So the river's a little bit warmer,
so we're looking for hot spots in this area.
[Jessica] So what's the green, just trees?
Yeah, that's trees.
[Jessica] Can you fly over that area that I got that hit?
Heading in right now.
[Jessica] I'll see if I can pick it up again.
Hang on, Jess. Whoa, whoa.
-What'd you get? -[Phil] What is that?
-[Jessica] Oh, right there! -You see that?
-[Jessica] Yeah. -[Phil] Whoa, it's moving.
[Jessica] Oh, yeah. Wait, here's the river...
Is that coming towards us?
[Phil] Oh, my God.
Stories of the rougarou date all the way back to medieval France,
where it was called the loup-garou, French for werewolf.
Settlers brought the story to Louisiana where it blended with local lore
to create a terrifying monster.
A red-eyed 7-foot tall wolf with a distinctly awful smell.
Now, there's huge variation on how you actually become a rougarou.
Some say Catholics who skip Lent for seven years will turn into one.
Others say direct eye-contact with a rougarou will cause you to transform into one.
But perhaps the most interesting superstition of all
is how you're supposed to protect yourself from it.
Just lay exactly 13 objects in front of your home,
and the creature will never enter.
Why? Because legend says the beast can't count above 12.
Yep. You can literally do a number on the rougarou.
-[Jessica] Look how close it is. -[Phil] What is it?
It's a pretty big heat signature.
But look at the shape.
[Jessica] That looks how a person would run from the top-down.
[Phil] It's 3:00 a.m., there's no way a person would be out here other than us.
Now it looks like it down on all fours.
It's right under this tree.
Where is it? Okay, yeah.
-I think... -[Jessica] Over there?
[Phil] Yeah.
It's about 50 meters in, Jess.
-You see the big tree in the back? -[Jessica] Yeah.
I mean, I'm not picking up anything from here,
so I think we should dock and go in there.
Okay. Jess, you watch the shoreline, I'm gonna bring this back.
[Jessica] Okay.
All right. Got it, landed. Done.
[Phil] Gotta be ready for anything up ahead.
[Jessica] Okay.
Let's go.
[Phil] Watch your step here.
[Jessica] Yeah, I see it.
-[Phil] Oh, God. It smells terrible. -[Jessica] It smells so bad.
-This way? -[Phil] Yeah, I think it's this way.
[Jessica] Slow down.
[Phil] Wow.
Okay, so, the last known location I had.
I was flying up ahead, and it was right under here.
-[Phil] Hold it. Jess-- -[Jessica exclaims]
Oh, look at those!
-[Phil] We got bones. -[Jessica] Oh, this is a spine!
-[Phil] Vertebrae, scapula. -[Jessica] What do you think that is?
Could the creature have eaten that?
[Phil] They do look old.
I don't think there's any way we're gonna be able to catch up with that thing.
[exhales] We had it. [bleep]
We saw it on the thermal. It was right back there.
And we know it was here just minutes ago.
But it's moving quick.
I've got a few hits on the FLIR,
you've got excellent drone footage.
We've got that hair we can get analyzed.
And the camera traps are still up.
So I say we gather all that stuff together and get it analyzed,
try to figure out what this is.
Because to me, it all says there is something
that people are definitely seeing out in the swamp
that is the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
To me, the evidence doesn't stack up to tell me
that there's anything more extraordinary than the known nature that is here.
But it also doesn't say that something extraordinary couldn't be out here.
We won't know until it's analyzed is all I'm saying.
That's true. Oh, you know what else is true, Jess?
-[Jessica] What? -You're rowing back.
[Josh] My team dove into the Louisiana Bayou
intent on solving the mystery of the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
[Phil] Let's get out there.
[Josh] Now, as we analyze the evidence,
we're hoping to separate fact from fiction in this decades old mystery.
Look, look.
[Phil] Oh, look at those.
[Josh] First, given the size and spread of its claw marks,
Jess' animal prints are likely from an alligator, not a 7-foot monster.
And our trail cams captured mostly wandering raccoons,
along with some behemoth wild hogs.
[grunting]
[Josh] Whatever spooked those hogs might have been a formidable predator.
But a black bear or coyote seemed like the most realistic possibilities.
Sounds like somebody's getting killed.
[Josh] But neither walk on two feet for long periods,
and Harlan's film clearly depicts a bipedal creature.
After running a DNA analysis of the hair Phil recovered from the swamp...
[Phil] I got a hair.
[Josh] The results came back 100 percent Sus scrofa,
or for those who don't speak Latin, wild hog.
We know that large primates could survive in these sprawling swamps.
[Margaret] It's kind of subtropical here.
Plenty of water, plenty of food.
[Josh] But after scouring area archives,
we didn't find any circus train derailments near Honey Island from the 1940s.
Though plenty of other exotic pets could very well have escaped in recent years.
[Jessica] Oh! Look at that. Did you see that?
[Josh] Could the figure we caught lurking in the underbrush
be the Honey Island Swamp Monster?
-There it is. Yeah! -Oh!
-It's moving. It's moving. -[Jessica] Oh, yeah.
[Josh] Even with this substantial footage,
a lack of any physical evidence muddies the waters,
making it impossible to determine whether this is a known animal
or perhaps something more monstrous.
And the fact that he never released or even discussed with his family
this first-hand evidence depicting the very animal
he spent a decade searching for is inconceivable.
It suggests that he may have had a reason to not show it at all.
Until more evidence comes to light,
there's no way to prove that the many wild sightings
are anything more than the stuff of Louisiana legends.
For more information on Expedition X,
head to discovery.com/ExpeditionX.