NARRATOR: On this episode of "Destination Truth,"
Josh dares to travel
to the Chernobyl Power Plant in the Ukraine,
home to the worst nuclear accident
in the history of the world.
The town is an abandoned wasteland
of crumbling buildings and deadly radiation.
Guys, the dosimeter is ringing. We need to get out of here now.
But many claim the spirits of those
who died during the accident still reside here.
Oh, my God.
I just saw a figure move in this window.
Next, Josh crosses continents
and traverses the deserts of Egypt,
where farmers claim a terrifying creature
is attacking their children.
RAMY: He says if the Sal'awa was hungry,
she would have definitely eaten that boy.
NARRATOR: Can Josh discover the identity of the beast
that has this village in a panic?
It sounded like a growling noise coming right out of there.
[ Screams ] Oh, my God.
Jael?
JAEL: Josh!
Hold on!
I'm Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've seen some unexplainable things,
and I've done some things I can't quite explain.
Aah!
Now I've pulled together a team
armed with the latest technology
in the search for answers to the world's strangest mysteries.
I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me,
but I know what I'm looking for —
the truth.
There are few places where one can experience
the eerie isolation of being the only living soul
in an abandoned urban metropolis.
The former Soviet Union is hiding such a location,
courtesy of the power plant known as Chernobyl.
The infamous meltdown here reduced the bustling,
adjacent city of Pripyat
into the centerpiece of a 36-mile radioactive
black hole right in the middle of Europe.
The Soviets evacuated more than 300,000 people
on an April night in 1986.
Hundreds of first responders died from radiation poisoning,
and tens of thousands of people
have since developed fatal cancer.
Nearly 25 years later, the city of Pripyat remains deserted.
Population — zero.
Recently, though, mysterious human figures —
some resembling those who died in the accident —
have begun to surface with increasing frequency.
No group has ever stayed here from dusk 'til dawn,
and after securing tentative permission
from the Ukrainian government to travel to the city,
my team and I would try to set up
the world's first overnight paranormal investigation
of the ruins of Chernobyl.
This expedition would require special gear
if we were going to make it home alive.
We packed fallout radiation suits
to protect us against deadly exposure.
We were headed directly into the heart
of the planet's deadliest nuclear accident.
♪♪
My research indicated
that we should expect intense scrutiny
from those guarding the contaminated zone.
As Americans with professional cameras and equipment,
we were likely going to be stopped, scanned,
and searched at military checkpoints
en route to the abandoned city.
A disaster of a different scale awaited us at baggage claim.
Ukrainian Airways' baggage handlers appear
to still be fighting the Cold War
against our luggage... and winning.
GATES: It's like a pack of wild gorillas
working in baggage handling.
Don't mind. I'll just get this stuff.
After piecing our gear back together,
we headed outside to find our ride.
Look at that.
It's like the Soviet Mystery Machine.
[ Laughing ] What is this thing?
This thing is awesome.
Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne, and I continued our journey
in the predawn darkness.
In the early-morning hours, we passed through Kiev
on the way to the restricted area,
where the military had apparently retired their arsenal
right in the city center.
There is no part of me that doesn't believe
that that thing is still fully active
and pointed directly at your house.
These people appear to be amassing an army.
Gabe, why is there a giant statue of you in Kiev?
Well, I've been here before, and they knew my greatness.
It's unbelievable.
Gabe, that is a huge statue of you.
Nice work.
We headed north from Kiev
toward what the government calls
the Zone of Exclusion.
In the center lies Pripyat,
the abandoned city that suffered the direct fallout
and remains nearly as radioactive
as the power plant itself.
If we were to reach this restricted city,
we would have to pass through
three concentric security perimeters
of increasing restriction and radioactivity.
Traveling into the zone is usually strictly prohibited
due to the dangers within.
Add to that the fact that guards at these remote posts
are operating on their own authority,
and we faced being denied at any of the checkpoints
or even being deported from the area altogether.
Okay, I need everyone's passport.
Okay. There you go.
After a tense stop at the first checkpoint,
we were allowed to pass, but assigned a soldier
to escort us to the city of Pripyat
and loan us some potentially lifesaving technology.
Anything above 0.3 indicates
that some sort of accident has happened.
So 10.0. 10.0, yeah.
Okay.
Well, you just keep looking at that thing... Okay.
all the time.
Along with the Geiger counter, I would wear a dosimeter,
which would alert me to dangerously high levels of radiation.
I can't help but notice the radiation signs around them.
14? 14.
It went way up.
[ Alarm beeping ] And that's my alarm.
That's great. Let's go have a cup of coffee somewhere else.
Yes.
To enter any building in this region,
we had to pass through a scanner to confirm
that we were clean and not personally contaminated — yet.
What kind of "Star Trek" set did this thing come off of?
We discover that the radioactive remains of Chernobyl include
a functioning cafeteria
for the remaining skeleton crew of workers.
On the list of dining destinations worldwide
that I always thought I would take a pass on,
the Chernobyl cafeteria might be at the top of that list.
A little more mystery meat.
It's not like eating microwaved food.
It's like eating in the microwave. Inside the microwave.
GATES: We were encouraged to take a special liquid antidote
as an additional precaution.
"ThyroShield, thyroid-blocking and irradiation emergency only.
Blueberry flavor."
Bottoms up.
While leaving, we met
a military patrol officer who, just the night before,
had a ghostly encounter inside the restricted zone.
When my questions turned to his paranormal encounter,
our government chaperon, Yuri, suspiciously revoked
his much-needed translation skills.
He's describing something at length. What is he saying?
Why doesn't he want to translate it?
One of our local drivers stepped in
and translated for me.
You saw it in the room?
This woman had been a fourth-grader
in Pripyat at the time of the accident, in 1986.
She told me she had periodically snuck back
to her childhood town out of curiosity.
However, recently, she had been seeing the figures
of friends and family that died during and after the accident.
She told us to focus on areas
where children used to congregate.
Pressing on, we approached the second checkpoint.
And with our paperwork in order, we were allowed to pass through.
GATES: Alright. So that's two down. We got through.
One to go.
As we headed deeper into Chernobyl,
we discovered a civilization that had been utterly abandoned.
Entire apartment developments,
town centers, canals, even freighters
were radioactively rotting,
having been frozen in time exactly as they existed
on April 26, 1986.
Hey, my life is in your hands, so keep checking that thing.
Seventeen. You're okay.
♪♪
GATES: Here we go, guys — last gate.
Everybody just stay calm, and...
hopefully, nobody gets shot in the head.
If we could pass the final checkpoint near the reactor,
we would have full clearance to the abandoned city of Pripyat,
yet a limited time to investigate since we had already
been inside the contaminated zone for several hours.
Gate going up.
Once through, we caught sight of the iconic tower
of reactor number 4.
GATES: There she is.
JAEL: Wow.
Isn't she beautiful? It's close.
Yeah, it's really close. Uh... maybe too close.
GATES: We arrived in the city that had been evacuated
nearly 25 years earlier.
Our escort left us to conduct our investigation,
and it was time to dress for the occasion.
This is, like, World War II-issue.
Oh, easy, easy!
Am I here to investigate or to take a pie out of the oven?
These very retro yet very lifesaving
radiation-protection suits
would buy us extra time within this fatally contaminated area.
Since the patrol officer we met
claimed to have had a paranormal encounter
within the decaying hospital, Jael, Gabe, and I decided
to begin our investigation there.
With less than 10 hours before we've reached radiation saturation,
we headed off immediately, leaving Sharra and Bicha
to safely position our gear at a base camp
in the former town square.
Okay, guys, I'm reading 83 on the Geiger counter —
definitely elevated levels of radiation here.
GATES: With extreme concern for our safety
inside these rotting buildings,
we carried all of our cameras, audio equipment,
and radiation detection gear on us at all times
so we could evacuate at any second if needed.
The hospital.
GATES: I hoped that whatever the officer
had seen near the hospital the night before
would still be present.
63 on the Geiger.
It's a little bit elevated here, but it looks okay.
Let's press on. JAEL: I don't know.
The hospital creeps me out.
For sure.
♪♪
Try to avoid that water that's dripping out of the ceiling.
♪♪
And my thermal imager is acting crazy.
It keeps powering down and then powering up again.
I've actually never seen it act this way.
♪♪
Wow. What is this?
Oh, my God.
Some sort of a patient register listing names
and, I assume, procedures and dates.
It's incredible that this is still here.
Everything is still here.
Everything is just laying here. Good deal.
Let's go, guys.
Let's just keep moving on.
♪♪
Guys, guys, come check out this room. Ohh!
♪♪
I don't know what to say.
The thermal imager is still malfunctioning,
coming in and out.
Oh, my God! What?
I just saw a figure move in this window. In here?
Like, a human figure move in this window. Where?
Right here. I swear to you.
I saw someone standing on the other side of this glass.
And it was just standing there, and then it moved?
Yeah, and it just moved away.
That might have been a reflection — I'm not sure.
We'll have to analyze it later.
And then it goes black again.
Thermal imager is back online.
Nice and slow on the stairs. Here we go.
The good news is that the radiation levels
are fairly low in here.
Oh, I just saw, like, a shape!
♪♪
The good news is that the radiation levels
are fairly low in here.
♪♪
I just saw, like, a shape.
What?
Turn around. Turn around.
Damn it. Turn around.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
I mean, there was a thermal hit directly behind you.
♪♪
What's going on with your meter?
Yeah, the radiation spiked right up in here.
Alright, guys, we got to get out of this room.
Geiger counter is way too hot.
We got to go. We got to go.
Come on, guys. Right now, right now.
Did you see, like, a shape on there?
I saw a shape.
Like, right around that corner, right there.
There was a distinct shape on the FLIR:
Josh, base camp, come in.
We're seeing some kind of crazy stuff up here.
I can't really explain it, except to say that
the equipment's malfunctioning.
The equipment shouldn't be acting like this, even here.
So I've seen something in the thermal imager
that I can't explain — it looks like a person.
I can't explain it, so it's picking up
some sort of heat signatures in here.
Guys, we're leaving here.
The radiation levels in here are erratic.
We are coming to you.
Okay, copy that.
♪♪
I think if we're here at base camp, we can rest,
you know, taking these masks off to communicate.
There is very low radiation here.
We've got plastic down for the dust.
The hospital was terrifying — really scary.
I mean, I saw stuff on the thermal imager
I cannot explain to you.
I saw a human figure multiple times.
It's just really strange.
We're gonna get out and do a sweep.
I'm going to take Rex with us, put him on the thermal imager.
I'm gonna continue to use the Geiger counter
to sweep ahead of the team.
And I'll use the digital recorder for an EVP session,
and we'll also bring a trap camera with us
and place it out in the city. Okay.
Alright, guys, let's go.
All these empty apartment buildings everywhere,
the scale of this place —
it's just one abandoned building after another.
The whole place is enormous.
I mean, just the scale of the devastation that's here
is just incredible.
Guys, it looks like we're in the remains
of some sort of amusement park or carnival.
This whole amusement park is like a cemetery.
I've just never seen anyplace like this.
The radiation's pretty elevated in here.
We should stay away from the rides as much as possible.
Nobody is taking a ride on the Ferris wheel tonight.
I can tell you that.
This whole place is unbelievable.
I got something very small
that's giving off heat on second floor.
Shh. Shh. Shh.
You see something? There — right there.
Second floor. I still see it.
It's not moving now. It was moving. Well, what is it?
It's a small dot of light.
Oh, it's gone. It's gone.
It could have been an animal, maybe.
Let's check it out, though.
Josh to base camp, come in.
Go for base camp.
We're gonna chase it down now.
We'll let you know what we find as soon as we get in.
Copy that.
♪♪
Moving right through these windows, right?
This is exactly where it would have been.
Let's look around. Everybody, look around.
Keep your eyes peeled for any sort of lights
or noises or movement of any kind.
Completely destroyed.
Some desks over here, papers.
♪♪
Look. There's the piano.
[ Notes play ]
Obviously in the music room.
[ High-pitched sound ]
Did you hear that? Did you hear the piano?
Go, go, go, go, go, go!
♪♪
That thing made a noise from the other room.
Maybe Mike loosened the strings or something.
I heard that thing make noise.
Like, in the very high end of the register,
I heard that thing make a few high notes.
That is not okay.
We have to search this building as thoroughly as we can.
Here we go, guys.
♪♪
Gosh, this is really creepy.
♪♪
Ohh.
This room feels a lot colder.
Crazy, crazy classroom. Look at this.
♪♪
EMF's off the charts. EMF is spiking again.
Radiation wouldn't cause this.
There's definitely some sort of weird
electromagnetic energy in here.
That's for sure.
God, it feels like it's getting colder, doesn't it?
This room is creeping me out.
Yeah.
[ High-pitched beeping ]
Aah!
♪♪
God, it feels like it's getting colder, doesn't it?
[ High-pitched beeping ]
Whoa! [Bleep] Aah!
Did you see that? What was it? What was it?
There was a huge shadow right behind you!
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
There was a huge black shadow right behind you.
[ Groans ]
It was, like, right in the desk, too.
It was just like this big, black mass right behind you.
Anything on the thermal?
Right in here — like, right in here
was this big, black shadow.
We know the EMF — [ Clank ]
What was that?
What was that? I'm not sure.
Did something just fly off one of those shelves?
Was that a bottle?
There is something in this room.
You saw something behind me.
Let's see if we can pick anything up doing an EVP.
Okay.
Session starts now.
Is there anybody in this classroom with us?
♪♪
Did you go to school here?
♪♪
What is your name?
Could you give us a sign of your presence?
Aah! What? What did I miss?
What?
Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
Come here! Come here!
Oh, my God.
What's going on? What's going on?
It pulled it? JAEL: Yes!
Something pulled my hand.
It took my hand and pulled like this, like tugging.
Aah! What? What did I miss?
Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
Did you see anything? No!
I just went running out.
That's messed up.
It is messed up. I felt it.
[ Alarm beeping ]
Guys, the dosimeter is ringing.
Our accumulated radiation is reaching the danger zone.
We need to get out of here now.
Let's go.
GATES: I wish we could have spent days investigating Pripyat,
as this dead city was apparently very much alive.
However, we had reached the upper limits
of safe radiation absorption
and had to retreat for our own health.
We collected the trap camera and the rest of our gear quickly,
eager to analyze the hours of strange and unexplained
audio and video evidence we had collected.
♪♪
We wanted expert opinions on our findings,
so we turned to the best in the business.
I was eager to hear what they thought
we encountered in the city of Pripyat.
GATES: This strange light that we see
on the second floor of this building,
what do you make of that?
I've got something very small.
It's giving off heat on second floor.
It's a small dot of light.
Oh, it's gone. It's gone.
My first impression would be
that's some sort of an animal. Mm-hmm.
A rat, a raccoon, a possum — something,
a squirrel — because it's really small,
it's compact, and it takes off.
Did you see any animals while you were there?
We did not, but we know for a fact
that there are a lot of animals
that have now, like, reclaimed this area. Of course.
So certainly, that is a possibility, yeah.
One of the things that we had heard about this place
is that there's a lot of sort of strange
electrical malfunctions.
My thermal imager is acting crazy.
It keeps powering down and then powering up again.
My battery just died on me.
Drainage is a huge factor when it comes
to investigating the paranormal.
A lot of the theories out there are that whatever is there
is draining from the equipment
to give itself the energy to do something.
For instance, you could have a whole pocketful of batteries,
but once you put that battery in a device
and that device is on,
it's now powering that device and the entities.
It's possible that it is paranormal,
but look at everything you're up against when you're there,
you know, the radioactivity and things of that nature.
And God only knows what you're encountering.
But radiation is not gonna cause battery drain.
It's not gonna affect your gear, you know?
It affects organic things more than anything.
Basically, we're on the second floor of this hospital,
and this is what looks like a human figure in the glass.
Oh, my God!
What are we looking at here? Is that a window?
It is a window, and it is possible to see
your own reflection in these windows.
But it looked different.
If you notice, the window, you're cut here,
which would tell me that whatever
you're catching appears to be more of a reflection
'cause you're not seeing any more body parts going down.
For us, we'd take that evidence and throw it out.
But this is our opinion, Josh.
We can't really say. we weren't there.
I mean, this is, for us, one of the more impressive things
we've ever caught on a paranormal investigation.
This really looks like a person.
Alright. Let's watch it.
Evan, turn around. Turn around.
Evan, turn around.
This is incredible. This is a great piece of evidence.
♪♪
This really looked like somebody leaned out from the wall.
Alright. Let's watch it.
JAEL: What? GATES: Evan, turn around.
Turn around. Turn around. Oh, my God.
Alright, so let's go frame-by-frame.
JASON: See the motion you had? Can you just — Yeah.
That's something stepping out, Josh.
Something stepping out — looks like it's wearing a coat.
It looks almost like someone's wearing clothes.
And this is a place where we have these big respirators on.
The suit gives off a very uniform heat signature.
But here, I mean, we see...
Sort of a leg or... some heat around the leg,
around the head, and down into the chest.
This is incredible. This is great.
This is a great piece of evidence. It really is.
GATES: It has been nearly a quarter century
since time stood still in the city of Pripyat.
The infamous reactor and the abandoned buildings
are a silent testament
to the dangers of nuclear ambition.
But could it be that Pripyat is less vacant than it appears?
Our dangerous and unprecedented visit here
resulted in strange evidence, backed by professional analysis,
that Chernobyl may not only be a radioactive hot spot,
but a paranormal one, as well.
We traded in our protective suits for protective sunscreen
as we turned our attention
to the blistering sands of Egypt.
With its archaeological treasures,
stunning desert landscapes, and iconic pyramids,
it is a dream destination for many people.
For me, it is a place with stories
of monstrous canine creatures
that may be spilling human blood.
Welcome to my world.
I've been following an outbreak of violent incidents
along the River Nile just west of Luxor,
near the village of Armant.
Witnesses blame these attacks on
something they call the Sal'awa —
Arabic for "scary wolf."
This is not a four-legged friend
you buy at the pet store at the mall.
Locals say this beast
is more like a demonic pit bull without a leash law.
Sugar cane field workers claim to have been mauled
by an animal much stronger and faster than an ordinary dog
in a rash of surprise attacks.
One family says they watched in horror
as their boy was maimed by the beast.
This and other attacks have provided us with a pattern
of multiple eyewitness descriptions
that allowed us to render a 3-D profile
of the creature.
Usually spotted at night, the Sal'awa is said to hide
in the dense sugar cane fields, blending in with the environment
before making a ferocious attack on its human prey.
Noted as having a bushy tail,
it possesses a compact and muscular canine body.
The Sal'awa is like a German Shepherd on steroids.
Its large ears would indicate keen hearing,
and it sports formidable claw-lined paws.
Its long hind legs suggest that it is built for speed
and jumping, and it is distinguished
as having a striped, coarse coat of fur.
Our medic, Rex, packed industrial-strength rabies shots
and extra Scooby Snacks,
and we headed for Egypt in search of man's worst friend.
Half a world away, we touch down in Egypt's capital city, Cairo.
After a 17-hour flight, my crew and I were exhausted,
but our journey had only just begun.
We procured a Jeep just before sunrise,
suitable for the 200-mile drive along the Nile,
crossing the river at the ancient city of Luxor
and on to the village of Armant,
where the recent Sal'awa attacks were reported.
But first, we'd need to navigate the congested streets of Cairo,
and we quickly found ourselves dodging everything
from camels to construction.
Sorry. Big car, small corner.
We met up with my old colleague Ramy, who would lend
his much-needed translation skills to our expedition.
My research led us to Egypt's leading animal bounty hunter,
a man who the Egyptian government
had tasked with investigating
the recent spate of Sal'awa attacks.
[ Speaking Arabic ]
RAMY: He said it's definitely a new animal,
but it was much more dangerous than he thought it was.
Going out in the sugar cane fields,
do you think this is dangerous?
Do you think if my team and I go out there
that we're in great danger?
He'll attack you. He'll attack me?
He says it's gonna rip you in pieces.
[ Speaking Arabic ]
"It's everyone's nightmare."
GATES: Mamdouh Tolbah went on to warn me that the Sal'awa
is an elusive and potentially deadly foe
and, before sending me on my way,
insisted on showing me his latest capture —
a fully fanged and extremely venomous cobra.
♪♪
He says it's time for you to kiss the cobra.
It's time for me to kiss the cobra?
"... you're crazy." That's how that expression ends.
♪♪
Okay. I kissed a cobra. I kissed a cobra.
I also just peed my pants.
He's gonna bite the cobra?
Terrible idea.
♪♪
You are officially, sir,
the craziest person I've ever met.
[ Speaking Arabic ]
He says, "I love animals, and I don't care if I die."
I know you love animals. You just put one in your mouth.
Thank you so much. This was terrific.
I'd shake your hand, but there's a venomous cobra in it.
GATES: Feeling lucky to be alive and my bloodstream venom-free
after my cobra make-out session,
my crew and I made our way out of Cairo
and began the epic journey south to the village of Armant,
where the recent attacks had taken place.
Once outside the city, the commute became
a little more... dynamic.
Navigating 100-foot sand dunes in a landscape
that sees less than half an inch of rainfall a year is tough,
but at least the traffic is light.
Anybody seen a paved road around here?
Finally navigating our way to human habitation,
we turned a refueling stop into a World Cup scrimmage
against Egypt's junior league.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
GATES: Come on, Gabe. Show me some moves.
Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!
Gabe, you ruined our game.
Not wanting to create an international incident,
we employed a little "MacGyver" ingenuity
to fish the ball out of the ravine.
We got it! We got it!
We finally arrived in Armant,
a cinematic desert outpost on the banks of the Nile,
and passed through the town's market
to meet with eyewitnesses.
I can juggle these.
Where did you learn how to juggle watermelons?
Circus.
Where else?
That one.
[ Indistinct talking ]
Hup! Hup! Hup!
Ho!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Watermelon juggling is a very dangerous sport.
♪♪
Aah!
GATES: You're a local.
There's your cane.
As my cameraman, Evan,
gave new meaning to the term "cultural immersion,"
we found that the Sal'awa attacks
had struck a deep nerve in this community.
The villagers told me that the most recent victim,
a 7-year-old boy,
was attacked east of town, near the fields.
We drove out from the village to meet his mother.
She is convinced that if she had not fought off the animal,
her son would be dead.
[ Speaking Arabic ]
The kid was playing in the field just right here,
and then the Sal'awa came up
and attacked him right in his belly.
[ Speaking Arabic ]
And she says if the Sal'awa was hungry,
she would have definitely eaten that boy.
Are you certain that what you saw and what attacked your boy
was not a dog, was not a wolf?
[ Speaking Arabic ]
It wasn't a dog. It wasn't a wolf.
It was definitely a Sal'awa.
She bought a very nasty dog to keep the Sal'awa away.
Can I see the nasty dog that you bought to protect your family?
[ Snarls, barks ]
No, that's a pretty good guard dog. That'll do it.
GATES: She went on to tell me that hunters
had chased the Sal'awa further east
into the sugar cane fields behind her house
before they lost it in the high brush.
We set out for the fields immediately,
talking with workers along the road
who knew this area better than anyone.
[ Speaking Arabic ]
Over there? Mm.
Sal'awa can eat children.
GATES: With darkness encroaching,
we prepared to hunt this creature
during its preferred stalking time — the dead of night.
We set up base camp on the edge of the sugar cane fields
and deployed our four infrared cameras
on the perimeter of the field in 300-yard increments.
We also placed four digital trap cameras baited with raw meat
deep inside the fields
and then marked each position with a GPS locator beacon
so we could find them later.
If anything moved in front of these cameras
or went after the bait,
they'd begin firing photos immediately.
The thing that's kind of disquieting about tonight
is that we know that there's a real animal at work here.
People have been attacked.
We have documented cases of people being hurt.
We have enough eyewitness sightings that we know
there is some sort of wild animal here.
While Rex headed off to place our final trap camera,
Jael and I set out on a sweep with the thermal imager.
So, one of the main places people see the Sal'awa is
in these tall sugar cane fields,
so that should really be where we start things off tonight.
This is where it's gonna get hairy.
♪♪
Nothing on the thermal.
♪♪
Jael, how you doing?
This is insane.
Whoa. I got animal scat right here.
I don't know what that's from.
It's not from a donkey or a cow, though.
Well, we're gonna bag it and tag it and keep moving.
♪♪
Rex to base camp, we have one of the trap cams set.
Copy that. Thanks.
♪♪
JAEL: Have you got anything yet?
It's pretty hard to image in here just 'cause it's so dense.
♪♪
I have some animal prints over here.
You do? Yep.
Wow.
What do they look like? Canine.
Do they look like paws?
Yeah. Right there. See?
Oh, yeah. It's a really good one.
Oh, that's a great one.
Josh to base camp. Come in, base camp.
We have some great animal prints out here
we just found in fresh mud.
Copy that. Do they appear to be canine?
They do appear to be canine.
I can't tell if they're wolf prints,
dog prints, or Sal'awa prints,
but we should cast them
and bag them and tag them. Copy that.
So, Jael, I'm gonna do a casting on these prints.
While I'm doing that, why don't you look around this area,
see if you can see any other prints
or any other physical evidence of whatever left these.
Okay. Alright, I'll be right here.
This is gonna take a little bit.
♪♪
What is that?
[ Jael screams ]
Oh, my God!
Jael?
Oh, my God!
♪♪
What is that?
SHARRA: We just heard something right behind us at base camp.
[ Jael screams ]
Oh, my God!
Jael?
Josh! Oh, my God!
Right here! Right through here!
Come here! Come here! Through here! Through here!
Oh, my God. Right through here.
[ Panting ] Are you okay?
I just heard growling, and I freaked out.
Go for base camp. Are you guys okay?
We heard yelling.
GATES: Yeah, it's fine — Jael heard some growling
in the sugar cane.
I don't know what it is, but there's a lot of noises
coming out of these sugar cane.
Yeah, we're hearing stuff in here, as well.
So we're gonna cast these prints,
and we're gonna try to move as a group
and get through here and see if we can actually get sight
of whatever's moving around.
♪♪
Casts are in. Let's let them dry up.
We'll mark the spot on GPS, come back for it later. Great.
Yeah, let's keep moving, guys.
♪♪
[ Thump ] [ Gasps ]
No, that wasn't me. I told you — something's back here.
♪♪
GATES: Something just moved right back here.
Something big, because it was loud.
I mean, it was, like, walking 10 feet from us.
It was big, too.
Sharra, Sharra, Sharra, Sharra, Sharra, Sharra, quick.
I just saw something here. I just saw something.
Something grabbed the food. I don't know what it was, though.
What did it look like? I couldn't tell what it was.
Base camp for Josh. Base camp for Josh.
GATES: Go for Josh.
I just saw something grab the bait and run off.
I couldn't tell what it was, but it's something near you guys.
Is the camera in my area?
Yeah, yeah — right next to you guys.
I can't tell how close you guys are to it,
but there's something out there.
How big was it? Copy that. We're gonna go out there right now.
I'm gonna head over to the camera. We'll start from there.
Copy that. Be careful out there.
♪♪
See them?
Hey, Bicha, I'm out here about to set this trap cam,
and I see some eyes kind of out in the field.
and just maybe wait for five minutes,
see if it comes towards it.
[ Whining ]
That was not a regular dog.
REX: Guys, there's something out here.
There's something out here.
I'm standing very still right now
because I'm not sure which direction to go,
and I just want to sort of wait for you guys, but...
[ Howling ]
Um... I don't really want to wait
'cause now it sounds like it's closer.
Copy that. I'm picking up the howling, too, at base camp,
so it's definitely close.
It sounds like whatever it is is coming around behind us.
[ Howling continues ]
Holy crap. That's definitely closer.
BICHA: You guys, go out there, man. Chase it out there. Chase it.
♪♪
Copy that.
♪♪
GATES: So, guys, here's the plan — we're gonna go after
whatever Sharra and Gabe heard and whatever Bicha saw
on the very edge of that infrared camera.
Whatever it is, it's down in this big sugar cane field.
GATES: With something lurking around
the largest sugar cane field near our base camp,
I called all hands on deck for a group sweep of the area.
We divided our efforts and pushed into the field
on a parallel course in an effort to flush
whatever was living there out into the open.
♪♪
Stand by. Stand by.
Josh for Evan, I heard something on my left
over towards your position.
Great. I'm trying to get through these woods...
I am hearing some really loud rustling to my right, right now.
GATES: It's too thick. I can't get it on the FLIR.
What was that? Let's keep moving.
I just heard something right in there.
What was it?
I just heard a — I just —
That moved right there, those bushes.
Whatever it is is moving off in this direction.
Let's go. Let's go.
Come on.
♪♪
Yeah. I think it was a growl.
Oh!
Come here. Come here.
Come here. Evan.
[ Growling ]
Whoa! Whoa, whoa!
Back up. Back up. Back up, Evan. Back up.
♪♪
Evan, it sounds like a growling noise
coming right out of there.
[ Growling ]
Whoa! Whoa, whoa!
Back up. Back up. Back up, Evan. Back up.
Evan, back up. Back up!
You guys, what is that?
There's an animal in here. Just stay cool.
I just know that I heard a growl behind me right now.
Copy that. It's close to where we are, as well.
We think it's in between your position and our position.
Evan and I are gonna take different lines towards you.
Just hang where you are.
We're gonna be at your position soon.
Rex, call in. Where are you at?
I'm further in.
♪♪
Jael, what's up?
I heard growling. It's really loud.
I heard something over here, as well.
Evan went off on his own line this way.
Rex is somewhere up here.
Let's see if we can move it over to where Rex is.
Okay? I'll go this way,
and we'll try to flush it towards Rex.
Movement behind me.
Copy that, Rex. We're coming towards your position.
[ Bark ] We're all coming at you from different lines.
Ooh. I hear it again.
Whatever this is, I think we've all encircled it.
We're all hearing the exact same thing,
and it's all coming from right in front of us.
We've basically pinned this thing down.
♪♪
Josh to Rex, Jael, and Evan, my team has pushed
all the way through the sugar cane,
and we've come out on the other side.
For Jael, I'm gonna try to catch up with you as soon as I can.
I'll swing around to pick you up.
Copy that.
Rex for Josh, I've finally made my way out.
GATES: Hey! Evan!
You heard whatever that was in there, right? Of course.
Okay. She's out. You're out. I'm out.
Josh for base camp, come in.
Basically, the whole team is accounted for.
We're a little worse for the wear, though.
We came out through the other side of the sugar cane.
All of us heard something, but we're all in one piece,
and we're headed back.
BICHA: Copy that.
Hey.
Hey, guys.
So, the great news is...
we had all the backpack cameras,
everything rolling for an hour,
and we heard a lot of stuff.
JAEL: It was wild.
We heard distinct growls. We heard barks.
We heard all sorts of noises
that we definitely have clean audio of.
We know we do have something visual
on at least a few of the infrared cameras.
We have footprints that we've cast,
and we have all the trap cameras,
which we haven't gone through yet.
I feel like all the puzzle pieces are on the table here.
GATES: As daylight broke over Egypt, we were headed home
to put the pieces of our investigation together.
We started by taking our footprint casts
to Dr. Jim Dines from the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History
for analysis.
My first impression, looking at this,
is it's typical canid pattern.
We've got the big pad, center pad here
surrounded with the four toes.
Definitely canine footprint.
Our footprint evidence indicated that something canine
was with us in the sugar cane fields,
but what, exactly, we couldn't be sure.
Back at our offices,
we scoured hours of footage frame-by-frame
and played our audio and video highlights
for Mike Dee, former curator of the Los Angeles Zoo.
Let me first play for you a few noises that we heard
during our investigation.
[ Whining ]
That noise has more of a canine sound to it.
And then this one is really clear.
[ Louder whining ]
Well, since you are close to a village,
it, conceivably, could be a donkey, a horse.
[ Whining ] Ohh!
And then this is a really pronounced growling noise
that we heard deep in these sugar cane fields.
[ Growling ]
[ Chuckles ]
That's pretty amazing.
I mean, it sounds doglike, but it sounds like
a big, big, big dog.
Hearing that noise, what's your first impression of that noise?
Could be a wolf, could be a dog.
[ Growling ]
Mike, this is really what I wanted to show you.
We went back through our infrared footage,
and we found an animal.
That looks like a fox.
That's got every fox-like behavior
and a really long nose.
The legs look longer in the back than on the front.
And the bushy tail.
GATES: Side by side, the similarities between
our rendered Sal'awa model and this Egyptian fox were striking.
The pointed ears, bushy tail, and long hind legs
were a dead-on match.
That's really neat.
It looked as though we had closed in
on the Sal'awa's true identity.
The animal is probably an aggregate
of the countless growling feral dogs in the area
which have been known to attack humans from time to time.
It sounds like a growling noise coming right out of there.
[ Growling ]
And to this elusive and distinct-looking fox,
panic is a powerful agent of imagination.
Whoa, whoa!
Back up. Back up. Back up, Evan. Back up.
And run-ins with these real-world animals
may well have created nothing short of a monster
in the minds of locals —
a monster that we are happy to report
has likely been identified.