- Tonight, on "The Proof Is Out There".
Are UFOs attracted to lunar eclipses?
- This is a phenomenon that has captivated humans
going back centuries.
- [Tony] Are goblins running around Kentucky?
- This is a very creepy video and I've never seen anything
quite like this before.
- [Tony] Did the men in black make
these mysterious phone calls?
- [Tony] And did the passengers in this Jeep
attract this lightning?
- If that Jeep wasn't electric before, it is now.
(dramatic music)
- [Tony] Around the globe, are videos.
- [Wtiness] What are those things?
- [Wtiness] It's moving.
- [Tony] Photos and sounds that defy explanation.
(electrical whirring)
(dramatic music)
- [Erin] We don't know where they come from,
who made them, or how they operate.
- [Tony] What are they?
- [MJ] Some sort of bizarre mutation.
- [Marc] What's exciting is nobody really knows.
- Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof.
- I'm Tony Harris,
and as a journalist for more than 30 years,
I've followed the facts where they take me.
Now, I'm bringing that spirit of investigation
to the world's strangest sounds and images.
We'll analyze each one with top experts.
(car thudding)
- It's a credible case.
It's a credible video.
- [Tony] And pass a verdict on what it is.
- This video was clearly faked.
- The proof starts now.
(dramatic music)
Good evening and welcome to "The Proof Is Out There."
Each time there's a lunar eclipse,
reports of UFO sightings seem to spike.
Are aliens drawn to the Moon as it passes
through the Earth's shadow?
Or is it just that more people are looking towards the sky
during these astronomical events?
Take a look at these next photos, sent in
by two of our viewers and see what you think.
It's May 2022 in Carbondale, Colorado.
Local resident Richard Wampler has set up
his telephoto camera on the top of a nearby hillside
to observe a total lunar eclipse.
- So as I was looking through the viewfinder,
suddenly I saw a green light
come into the picture
and start moving fast across the screen.
- [Tony] Take a closer look.
Just after the eclipse,
Richard captured a series of five photos
showing a long, green object approaching
and then seemingly passing the Moon
in only a matter of seconds.
- Who knows what it is, but this is really quite unique
because of its elongated size.
- [Tony] Richard isn't the only one of our viewers
who's gotten photos of an anomaly during a lunar eclipse.
During the eclipse of September 2015,
Paul Garson snapped this pic of a V shape
in the skies over Los Angeles.
- As I look up, I see this cloud, then suddenly,
the cloud dispersed and emerging from the cloud
was this object, slowly gliding through the air
without a sound.
- [Tony] If that wasn't strange enough,
there's this odd, laser-like line seeming to shoot
at the craft.
- In my opinion, it was one of our Star Wars satellites
firing a laser at it.
- [Tony] As for why Richard and Paul happened to see
what they saw, one theory involves a web of lines
that crisscross the globe connecting ancient markers
like Stonehenge or the Great Pyramids.
Some argue that these ley lines connecting these monuments
contain rivers of supernatural energy
that can attract phenomenon from spirits to Sasquatch.
And as science writer Amy Teitel points out, even aliens.
- Some believe that if you live on one
of the Earth's ley lines,
there's an increase in electromagnetic energy
during an eclipse, which can be a boost for alien sightings.
- At least one purported ley line map shows
an intersection of several ley lines
west of Denver, Colorado,
close to where Richard Wampler took his photo.
The belief that eclipses hold unique power is nothing new.
Some Indigenous tribes believe that eclipses bring bad luck
and can even hurt the unborn children of pregnant women.
But do eclipses really attract UFOs?
Let's see what our experts have to say
about all these sightings.
(tense music)
Richard Hoffman of the Scientific Coalition
for UAP Studies starts with our LA photo.
Does its distinctive shape resemble known aircraft?
- There are aircraft
that we have in development, like the F-117,
that are basically V-shaped,
but the size of it would be enormous.
And I do not think that we have any aircraft
that are miles long that would be up there
and contriving this.
- [Tony] But Hoffman thinks this does have something
to do with an airplane, or even multiple planes.
- It looks like you have aircraft,
and they create what they call a canal cloud.
- [Tony] Canal clouds, also called hole-punch clouds,
can form when a plane punches through a layer
of altocumulus clouds, causing super cooled water droplets
to suddenly evaporate or form ice crystals
leaving strange shapes, sometimes mistaken for UFOs.
- And then the laser-like thing is nothing more
than a contrail at a higher altitude from another aircraft
that was heading generally in the same direction.
- [Tony] Okay, so if two cloud-busting planes
could've produced the LA photos,
what about Richard's photos
of that green streak in Colorado?
Could it be something as simple as a satellite?
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy thinks the eclipse
makes that unlikely.
- Our sky is filled with satellites,
and one thing they all have in common
is they don't tend to emit their own light.
They're reflecting sunlight right back down
to the observer.
Now, during a lunar eclipse,
the shadow of Earth is projected right towards the Moon.
So any satellite that would be in between us and the Moon
would also be in Earth's shadow.
- [Tony] So since a satellite wouldn't be visible
during an eclipse,
could this be some other passing space object
like a comet or asteroid?
Astronomer and video analyst Marc D'Antonio examines.
- In astronomy, there are extraterrestrial interlopers,
meaning comets and asteroids,
but this is moving too fast to be any kind of a comet.
Meteors are fairly quick.
However, the streaks of light would be very bright,
and there would be this flare at the end.
- [Tony] McCarthy thinks he might've cracked this case
by drawing a straight line from the photographer's location
to the Moon itself.
- There's a few things that I know specifically
about this photo: where it was taken, when it was taken,
and what the Moon was doing at that time.
I was able to figure out that the camera was pointed
almost perfectly southeast at 14 degrees above the horizon.
I looked on some tracking software to figure out
what flights were doing in that area,
and I figured out it was United Airlines flight 2649,
Chicago to LAX.
It was about 35 kilometers away from the observer
at the time.
On the right-hand wing of the plane,
we were seeing the green light on the wingtip.
- [Tony] The green light became elongated
because of the slower shutter speed required at low light,
just like these photos of headlights taken at night.
- It was shot during low light,
hence why there's a little bit of motion blur.
(tense music)
- Our verdict: both of these lunar eclipse anomalies
can be blamed on planes.
The mysterious V shape is a cloud canal created
by intersecting contrails.
The green streak is a plane with a green light on the wing.
But if you capture anything cool in the midst
of an eclipse, be sure to send it our way.
Next, we head to the great state of Kentucky,
known for its horse racing, its bourbon, and its barbecue.
But it's also becoming quite famous
for its frequent sightings of both UFOs and goblins.
As our next story shows, there's something strange happening
in the Bluegrass State.
July 5, 2022, Morehead, Kentucky,
65 miles west of Lexington.
A warm summer's day turns to night in the backyard
of Douglas Windsor McLoney III.
Doug's security cameras are on duty when they capture this.
A mysterious pale figure appears.
It's lanky, yet hunched and lurking near the back garden
of a home.
The figure moves slowly, carefully,
as it seemingly looks around while approaching
the owner's car.
Field researcher Ken Gerhard sheds some light
on this creeptastic footage.
- Now, it's worth noting that the town of Morehead, Kentucky
is certainly no stranger to close encounters.
In November 21, 2003,
a local psychologist named Virgil Davis,
along with his two teenage sons,
were driving near their home in Morehead, Kentucky
when they saw this strange glowing object in the sky.
And according to the eyewitnesses,
this thing actually descended into a nearby field.
When the two Davis boys went out to investigate,
they heard sounds of a woman screaming.
Like a woman being, in their words, ripped apart,
which prompted them to make a 911 call.
- [Tony] After that 911 call,
local law enforcement officers swarmed the area.
They found no sign of any woman or a UFO, for that matter,
but the strange events didn't end there.
- So a few weeks after this incident,
a crop circle was found about 45 miles south of Morehead.
Based on this additional information,
is it reasonable to assume
that a woman was actually abducted by aliens
and that's what these boys heard when she was screaming?
And if so, could we connect it to this strange video?
- [Tony] For Gerhard, this ghostly gremlin
also reminds him of the state's most infamous cryptids,
the Kentucky goblins, which trace back to a famous incident
on the Sutton Farm near Hopkinsville in 1955.
- According to several eyewitnesses,
these strange, short-statured, silvery, humanoid creatures
appeared on the scene,
very similar to what we're seeing in this video.
The Sutton family actually blasted one of these goblins
in the face with a shotgun from point blank range
(gun firing) with literally no effect.
- [Tony] Now, the Hopkinsville goblins
were allegedly connected to a UFO sighting.
In fact, many speculate they could be members of the Grays,
the widely reported humanoid aliens made famous
by incidents like Roswell.
But others suggest Kentucky's goblins don't come
from the skies above, but from deep under the ground.
- [Ken] Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky boasts one
of the largest cave systems in the country,
and it has been speculated that these goblin-like creatures
came from deep in the Earth.
- As you can see,
the body of this creature is very humanoid.
But when it gets close to these parked vehicles right here,
take a look, it appears to be much smaller in scale
than your average person.
One could even say it is goblin-sized.
Let's see what our experts think.
(tense music)
Biologist Stephanie Manka explores
the underground goblin theory.
- Animals that have adapted to live exclusively in caves,
they don't need to produce pigmentation
to protect themselves from the sun,
so they will often be light or white colored,
which is what we see here in this video.
- [Tony] Cave dwellers like the Texas blind salamander
and the eyeless olm all share the same similar white color
Manka describes, but for Manka,
the body structure of this creature kills the idea
that it's some sort of spelunking goblin.
- If this were a cave-dwelling animal,
like a goblin, we would expect it to be on four legs
to be able to get into smaller spaces.
It doesn't really make sense to me
that a being in a cave would've evolved
to walk on two legs.
- [Tony] Anatomist Jeff Meldrum tries to determine
if this tiny driveway demon could possibly originate
from off-world.
- It looks otherworldly on the basis
of the very uniform appearance
of its coloration, its texture.
It has very spindly appendages,
very narrow arms and legs.
I don't immediately see any definition of hands or feet.
- [Tony] While the creature is undeniably strange-looking,
Meldrum doesn't think it fits the profile
of the Sutton Farm invaders or the Grays.
- I've never seen an eyewitness depiction of a Gray
describe that posture, this crouching, skulking figure.
Its head-to-body proportions aren't in line
with that stereotypical image, you know?
It's not beyond the realm in my mind of a person
in some sort of a costume.
The limb proportions don't seem to be out of the range
of possibility for a human.
I would investigate with people much more knowledgeable
about the technical aspects of that sort of a video.
- [Tony] So that's exactly what we did
by taking this video
to our forensic video analyst, Michael Primeau.
- So this video is a camera recording the playback
from another source.
Digitally, this is a completely different format
than what was originally recorded
by the surveillance system.
So is this an authentic video?
It's inconclusive.
We don't have any original properties about the video.
And whether or not it's some sort of extraterrestrial
is difficult to say because it could be something
that's staged, and in an effort to conceal that information,
the operator simply made a video of video
to try to hide the effect that that had on the camera.
(tense music)
- Our verdict: we're calling this an unidentified creature.
It certainly could be a hoax,
but without more data about the footage,
our forensic video analyst couldn't say for sure.
But I gotta say, Kentucky,
goblins, aliens, and bourbon?
We couldn't do the show without them.
y,
you can expect to see between two and seven streaks of light
go by each hour on any night of the year.
These flashes are meteorites burning up
in the Earth's atmosphere.
But there are some who believe that in reality,
these meteorites are more than they seem to be.
August 31, 2019.
It's 10:30 p.m. just outside the city of Edmonton, Canada.
Lincoln Ho is hanging out at a neighbor's house
watching TV when he sees a bright light flash
outside the window.
Lincoln later goes home
and checks his driveway security footage,
and that's when he finds this:
an orb of light screams from the top of the frame,
plummeting toward the house before vanishing.
According to journalist MJ Banias,
while this phenomenon seems to have all
of the hallmarks of a meteor strike,
one thing is missing.
- There was no reported impact.
A meteor hitting the Earth is gonna make a big boom.
There was no sound, no explosion,
and no one on the news had reported
a meteor hitting Edmonton, Alberta.
- [Tony] But what if we have a meteor
that really isn't a meteor?
Banias says one man believes it may be possible.
- A very famous Harvard physicist and astronomer
named Avi Loeb has a theory
that intelligent life is visiting Earth
and it's masquerading or using meteors
as a form of transportation.
- [Tony] In 2017, Professor Avi Loeb and others
took notice of a 1/4-mile long cigar-shaped object
that passed through the solar system.
Its glow varied 10 times more reflective
than typical asteroids, as if it was made
of highly polished metal.
It was dubbed Oumuamua, which means scout in Hawaiian.
Loeb suspected it could've been alien tech.
He also insists alien tech hasn't just approached Earth
via meteor; it actually landed here.
- He believes that there is evidence on this planet
that alien civilizations exist
and they've sent their technology here.
- [Tony] In July 2023,
Avi Loeb led a $1.5 million expedition to Papua New Guinea
to retrieve meteor fragments he believes came
from outside the solar system.
- Loeb theorizes that pieces of the debris will be found
to be tougher than iron and should raise questions.
Could it be some type of an extraterrestrial craft
and not just a meteorite?
- Upon sifting microscopic metallic balls
from the volcanic material on the ocean floor,
Loeb declared them actual evidence of alien tech.
If Avi Loeb's theory is correct,
it would be the monumental discovery of all time.
And it might not be that far-fetched.
One recent study put the odds of other life
in the universe at 50/50.
But is this object an interstellar vehicle disguised
as a meteor or something else entirely?
We asked our team of experts to investigate.
(tense music)
We begin with video effects designer
and astronomer Marc D'Antonio.
Could this bright light simply be something conventional,
seen in the skies over cities every night,
like a helicopter or a plane?
- The only time that you would see an aircraft
of any kind, a helicopter, that bright,
moving through the sky that fast as if it's in serious trouble
and about to crash.
- [Tony] No chopper crashes were reported in that area.
Instead, D'Antonio believes a clue in the video leads
to the answer.
- The sky's illuminated behind this house here,
which tells you something important.
That's saying that this is an object that's big enough
to be beyond these houses,
'cause it's illuminating the sky behind them.
And what could possibly be natural that looks like that?
Something that we call in astronomy a fireball.
- [Tony] Fireballs refer to meteors so bright
they can be seen over great distances.
The intense atmospheric friction causes gases
around the meteor to compress and superheat,
often disintegrating the meteor
and leaving little evidence on ground.
- Regular typical meteor you see in the night sky,
the quick flash, whew, those are the size
of a grain of sand.
And so this is way bigger than a grain of sand.
So you can imagine that the glow created by this
is gonna be absolutely colossal.
- [Tony] D'Antonio makes a convincing argument
and one that NASA geologist Bob Anderson agrees
seems likely, at first.
- When I first looked at this video,
it was almost a dead giveaway that it was a meteor
and it was coming down.
But it's weird to me that there was no sonic boom.
The size of this object, the brightness of this object
would've created a sonic boom somewhere in the atmosphere.
(tense music)
- Our verdict: we're going with unexplained phenomenon.
While our experts have suggested some very interesting
and plausible candidates,
there seems to be a heated debate
about what we've really got.
So without a smoking gun,
we're going to say for now,
this incident remains a mystery.
But what do you think?
Hit us up on social media and let us know.
electric vehicles these days,
but not the model you're about to see.
Prepare to be shocked.
It's June 25, 2021, just north of Waverly, Kansas.
Severe thunderstorms and flash flood warnings
have been issued for the area,
and Carl Hobi is on the hunt.
- I am a storm chaser
and I always have a dash cam on my vehicle,
so I was recording.
- [Tony] His video shows a line of cars
slowly approaching a rainy intersection,
then out of nowhere, a bolt of lighting strikes the Jeep
right in front of Carl.
(lightning cracking)
Let's slow that down.
It appears that two massive pulses blast
straight though the vehicle,
reaching as far as the grassy shoulder.
- I just kinda froze.
I just kinda sat there
and I'm wondering if these people are, you know,
dead or not.
- [Tony] Miraculously, the car is left in one piece.
But what about the family inside?
- Some of the effects that can be caused
by a lighting strike include severe burns,
cardiac arrest, strokes,
and very often, death.
(monitor flat-lining)
Yet somehow, the passengers inside of this SUV survived
not one, but two lightning strikes.
So how is that possible?
- [Tony] And why did the lightning strike this car
twice, no less?
(lightning cracking)
Could the people themselves-
(lightning cracking) (woman screaming)
Have acted as a lightning rod?
(lightning cracking) (woman screaming)
(lightning cracking)
- Some people actually are more prone
to being struck by lightning than your average person.
One very famous example was the park ranger Roy Sullivan,
or as he came to be known, the Spark Ranger.
- [Tony] Sullivan was hit by lightning
an astounding seven times,
once while he was driving in his car
and twice was when he was trying to outrun a storm,
leading him to believe lightning was almost chasing him.
- The question to ask is,
Why him?
- Some speculate that having a high iron content
in your blood can make you more susceptible to lightning,
since metal is conductive.
Could that be the case here?
(lightning cracking)
We haven't been able to contact the people in the car hit
by lightning, so we weren't able
to hear their side of the story.
Instead, we turned to our experts
to see if people truly can be lightning rods.
(tense music)
We start by asking meteorologist Juan Hernandez
what typically happens to people who survive lightning strikes.
- Usually, when lightning strikes a person,
it results in shoes getting blown off
or jewelry getting soldered together.
Now, a less common occurrence is what we call
a Lichtenberg figure.
Oftentimes it looks like roots that have been implanted
into the skin of the person.
- [Tony] But do some individuals actually attract lightning?
(lightning cracking) (woman screaming)
Why was ranger Roy such a target?
Scientists don't believe his iron levels
would make a difference,
since the iron in blood is bonded
inside hemoglobin molecules that don't conduct electricity.
(lightning cracking)
Hernandez suggests it's a matter of vocation and location.
- He was a park ranger out in Shenandoah National Park.
And that put him outdoors quite a bit.
When you're outdoors, you're at risk
of getting struck by lightning.
Now, the park gets about 35 to 45 thunderstorms per year.
- [Tony] In addition to living in a very stormy region,
Sullivan sometimes worked in an elevated fire tower,
which is where he was officially struck
for the first time while fleeing a lightning fire
in the structure.
And as for this family in the electric vehicle,
in this case, Hernandez says the lightning was drawn
to this vehicle instead of the taller trees around it
for a simple reason: conductivity.
- Wood is not as conductive as metal.
So lightning is highly more likely
to hit a car versus a wood tree in this case.
- [Tony] As for what happened to the family,
the answer is one of those quirks of physics
we love so much on this show.
- A car is actually a safe place during a thunderstorm
because it can act like what is known as a Faraday cage,
where you can be safe from electric fields inside
of the vehicle, even if the outside
of the vehicle experiences
a dramatically high electric field,
such as from a lightning strike.
(lightning cracking)
Current travels around the exterior
of the vehicle's conductive metal
without going inside the car.
- [Tony] And Hernandez says you can see the exact moment
the current is grounded.
- [Juan] If you pay attention,
you'll notice that there's smoke that comes out
off the right rear tire.
That's the energy that gets transferred to the ground.
(tense music)
- Our verdict: this lightning strike
was a natural phenomenon, albeit a terrifying one.
And as for the family inside,
we can say they all survived with no major injuries,
thanks to the Faraday cage effect.
We just hope there aren't more Spark Rangers.
k"
cemented actor Will Smith's status
as a global superstar.
But tales of real-life men in black go back decades.
Most evidence of their existence is just anecdotal,
but one of our viewers says he's not only spoken
to the men in black; he's got them on tape.
Take a listen.
It's February 8, 1993 in Long Island, New York.
Pharmacist Gary Sudbrink has come all the way from Texas
to visit his parents.
A call comes through on the house landline.
Gary answers it and what he hears frightens him.
- [Gary] Huh?
- [Tony] A raspy, mechanical voice speaks to Gary.
The conversation is odd,
with the person on the other end repeatedly asking-
- I was just pretty much shocked, you know?
About seven seconds into the phone call,
I decided to hit the record button
on the answering machine because it was extremely unusual.
- [Gary] How long am I going to be back from Texas?
That question doesn't make any sense.
- [Tony] Gary would receive two more calls that evening
and one the following day from the same mysterious voice.
Each time, it delivered a different unsettling message.
- [Tony] Gary says these couldn't have been wrong numbers
or random prank calls
because the voice knew personal information about him,
like the fact he was visiting from Texas.
He developed a theory that seems far out.
- I had no idea who was calling me
or what entity was calling, but it wasn't until
a lot of time passed
that I was thinking maybe men in black type thing.
- [Tony] MJ Banias is skeptical but provides some background
on the MIB.
- UFO lore says that the men in black
are this shadowy group of individuals
who direct people to not discuss any strange encounters
that they've had.
They order them to stay quiet,
and they threaten them with horrible acts of violence
or death if they do start talking about the things
that they've seen.
- [Tony] More on Gary's connection to UFOs in a bit,
but it's worth pointing out
that the men in black legend originated in 1947
when a man named Harold Dahl allegedly saw a UFO
on Maury Island, Washington.
Dahl claimed a man in a black suit visited him days later
and warned him not to discuss the sighting.
(phone dial sounding)
- Now, Gary told us he has never seen a UFO,
but his dad had years before.
And the sighting had become family legend.
Could that explain why the call came
to his parents' landline?
In the months following the mysterious phone calls,
Gary sent his recordings to news channels
and even a private investigator.
But no one could identify what or who was calling.
So can this case finally be cracked?
Our experts answer the call.
(tense music)
First, we asked military aviation expert Tim McMillan
whether Gary could really have been contacted
by the men in black.
- Nothing that I hear in the calls is suggestive
of the men in black.
My first impression is that the caller
on the other line is actually using a prerecorded message
in its replies, because there doesn't seem
to be the back and forth flow you would expect
from any kind of conversation.
- [Gary] How long am I going to be back in Texas?
- [Gary] That question doesn't make any sense.
- [Gary] Okay.
- [Tony] We took Gary's recordings
to forensic audio analyst Dr. Rob Maher
and it turns out McMillan's instinct was spot-on.
- The interesting thing about the call is,
several of the utterances are repeated four or five times
during that conversation,
and they're not just repeated word for word.
They're identical.
- [Recording] So how long are you going to be back from Texas?
So how long are you going to be back from Texas?
- It appears that the men in black remarks are prerecorded
and just played back several times.
- I took the alleged men in black voice
and played it back at a faster rate,
which restored the voice quality to what I would consider
a normal speaking voice, normal pace of utterance,
and normal pitch.
- [Recording] So how long are you going to be back from Texas?
So how long are you going to be back from Texas?
- [Tony] Sound familiar?
- The voice quality is very reminiscent of Gary's voice.
- [Recording] So how long are you going to be back from Texas?
- [Gary] How long am I going to be back from Texas?
That question doesn't make any sense.
- We can't get 100% accuracy out of that single recording,
but my subjective determination is that Gary recorded this
and played the voice back at a slower rate
to make the deceptive men in black voice.
- [Recording] So how long are you going to be back from Texas?
(tense music)
- Unfortunately, voice comparison
is not an exact science.
Without more evidence,
we can only say this is a possible hoax.
We asked Gary for comment,
and he insisted his tapes are authentic.
But what do your ears tell you?
Who do you believe?
- Wer,
but just like the depths of the sea
and the outer reaches of space,
much of what's going on in the heads
of our furry and feathered friends is a mystery.
Don't believe me?
Check out this wild and wooly footage.
(mysterious music)
November 2022, the city of Baotou in Inner Mongolia, China.
Here, farming livestock is commonplace.
Ms. Miao is one of those farmers, and today,
she sees something she can't explain.
(sheep bleating)
Dozens of sheep from pen number 13 line up in formation,
and as if in a trance, walk in a circle.
And here's the weird part.
They didn't stop for 12 days.
That's right, 12 days.
Journalist Erin McCarthy says the internet is filled
with theories about what could be making
these sheep behave this way.
- Many have commented on the fact that sheep
are sacrificial animals in many cultures and religions.
Which has led some to ponder if these animals
are actually part of some kind of bizarre ritual.
- [Tony] A variety of folklore suggests
that sheep can predict things like the weather.
In fact, some people in Iceland believe
that a sheep urinating more frequently is a sign
of rain to come, and recent research suggests
that sheep, along with other farm animals,
can predict earthquakes approximately 20 hours
before they happen.
Could these sheep be collectively
predicting something we don't yet understand?
McCarthy lays out another more toxic theory.
- The farm is located in Baotou,
which is actually the largest processing center
for rare earth elements in China.
Studies have shown that the soil and the groundwater
in Baotou are highly polluted.
Could this sheep circle be the consequence
of the processing that occurs in plants in the area?
- Previously on this show,
we've covered something similar out of the UK.
Our last investigation concluded
that that bizarre sheep circling
had a very simple explanation.
Their food had been placed in circles.
Let's see if our experts are able to explain this case.
(tense music)
Biologist Floyd Hayes examines the possibility
that this odd behavior could be the result
of toxic pollution.
- There are a variety of ways
in which pollution can affect sheep.
It can cause mutations, birth defects, cancer,
and it could also cause neurological defects.
In this case, we're seeing a behavior issue
that could potentially be caused
by a neurological impairment.
- [Tony] However, based on the appearance
of the sheep in this video,
Hayes is not convinced that pollution is to blame.
- Diseases caused by environmental pollutants
usually result in a serious illness.
These animals look to be healthy and vigorous.
They don't look particularly skinny.
They don't look like they're losing their hair.
They're not limping.
So I think they're healthy sheep.
- [Tony] Wildlife biologist Stephanie Manka considers
whether this could be the result of a bacterial infection.
- One potential explanation is listeriosis,
which is a disease that can occur in sheep.
It's a neurological disease.
So it affects their ability to walk straight.
- [Tony] The listeria bacteria that causes listeriosis
frequently develops in decaying animals.
So an animal far is a perfect breeding ground.
- Listeriosis can cause animals
to walk in a circle,
but usually, it's more of an individual spinning.
And if the listeriosis continued without treatment,
the individuals would die within 24 to 48 hours.
And given these sheep have been walking collectively
for 12 days, it's unlikely to be listeriosis.
- [Tony] So if it's not listeriosis,
do we have any idea what's going on here?
- Perhaps the pen is too small
or there's enough individuals in there
to trigger flocking behavior,
and these sheep are simply following along
with whichever individual started it.
And there's really no reason for the circle to stop,
as long as there's sheep still participating in it.
As long as some are moving, others will be triggered
by their natural behavior to join in.
- [Tony] Maybe, but we're still left wondering.
If there were more than a dozen sheep pens,
why did this only happen in pen number 13?
(tense music)
I was convinced we'd be able to explain this,
but guess what? We can't.
We're calling this a UOP,
an unexplained ovine phenomenon.
We've ruled out feeding patterns, known diseases,
and pollution, so maybe there's something supernatural afoot
with Mongolian sheep.
Think about that the next time you put on a sweater.
- Accordin
scientists still can't predict when earthquakes will happen.
And in our next story from the UK,
it was hard to tell one had happened even after the fact.
Check out this crazy scene.
It's February 2022 in the village of Lyneham
in Wiltshire, England.
Drivers trying to turn onto Route B4069 are greeted
with a sign posted by police that says road closed.
Some ignore the sign, which they soon regret.
(mysterious music)
One video taken of the scene focuses
on a huge crack in the pavement
with the camera tilting up to reveal dramatic ripples
buckling the road.
The camera then slowly pans to a spot
where the asphalt has bent up to create a huge bump.
The next shot shows parts of the pavement jutting up
at sharp angles like a skateboarding ramp,
which is how some kids use it.
Journalist Eric Grundhauser says many assume
this must be the result of some seismic disaster.
- It seems to undulate as though it was destroyed
by the passing of something large and destructive,
like earthquake activity.
- [Tony] But there's something missing
from the earthquake theory: the quaking.
- At the time, nobody reported feeling
any sort of disturbance.
- [Tony] Or perhaps, this road was a casualty
of a secretive tunneling creature: human beings.
- In nearby Corsham, there is an underground bunker complex
that has some 10 miles of roads connecting various hospitals
and other services that were all built in 1955
by the military for leaders, politicians,
generals, and the like.
But when that use never materialized,
the bunker city essentially was abandoned.
- The project to build that underground headquarters
was code named Subterfuge.
So you'll excuse us if we speculate
that there may be other hidden secrets beneath the surface.
Let's turn to our experts to see what they can dig up.
(tense music)
First, meteorologist Juan Hernandez examines
if this could be the result of an earthquake.
- England doesn't really lie on the edge
of any plate tectonic.
Usually, earthquakes happen on the edges of plate tectonics
because of all that stored energy.
There was a recorded earthquake in February of 2022.
It was a 2.8 magnitude about 100 miles away
in West Bromwich.
Now, a 2.8 magnitude earthquake is not going to cause
this much damage.
We're probably looking at a four, five, or beyond
for it to start causing damage to roads.
- [Tony] So if this wasn't caused by shaking earth,
could this be the work of giant worms?
NASA geologist Dr. Bob Anderson investigates.
- One of the ideas about the destruction of this road
is that it was created by a worm called Microchaetus rappi.
These worms average about six feet in length,
but the longest has been identified as 21 feet long.
But they only average less than an inch in diameter.
So even if that worm was digging a trough under this road,
it could not cause this kind of destruction that we see
in the video.
- [Tony] If there is no worm large enough
to produce this degree of damage,
then could the theory about secret tunnels,
like the military's Burlington Bunker in Corsham,
hold some weight?
- Here, in this region,
this mining quarry was turned over to the government
in England and made into a military base.
But I think I can rule that one out,
because the length of it shows
that it's almost a sinusoidal wave.
It's a motion type of wave on the rock.
And so you can see that if it was a roof collapse,
you'd have a hole, a depression.
- [Tony] Not only that,
but maps show that the location of the Burlington Bunker
doesn't overlap with where we see
this ripped up road in Lyneham.
So could this be a different type of natural disaster?
- The main cause in my opinion is illustrated right here
on this picture where you see the trees.
A tree will always grow towards the sun.
And if you go along in areas where the land
has been disturbed and you start seeing trees
that are growing at an angle,
that means that what you're having
is a downhill movement of material, like a landslide.
The hillside is moving very, very slowly over time
until it gets to a point where it breaks.
And that downhill movement is called mass wasting.
- [Tony] Hernandez says the weather data shows
this mass wasting, the movement of rock and soil
by the force of gravity, is the most likely cause.
- The UK is usually plagued with bad weather.
It is known for cloudy conditions.
It's known for rainfall.
When you couple significant amount of rain,
strong winds, and moist soils,
you often have landslides that usually look like this,
especially given the terrain that is very steep in this area.
(tense music)
- Our verdict?
This damage was almost certainly caused
by a landslide, though we can't say for sure
how it was triggered.
And by the way, if you ever come across one yourself,
experts say to evacuate the area immediately.
You know what they don't suggest?
Driving past all the turn back now signs.
That's our show for tonight.
Thank you so much for watching.
Stay safe on the roads.
And keep those cameras rolling.
(dramatic music)