- 5 months ago
Documentary, River Monsters S04E03 Invisible Executioner
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00My name is Jeremy Wade. I'm a biologist, an extreme angler.
00:14I've battled with the most dangerous freshwater fish on Earth.
00:19From rays wielding 10-inch barbs to assassins that strip flesh from bone.
00:27But for me, the most frightening monsters are the ones that lurk unseen, then drag unsuspecting victims down to their deaths.
00:36I've heard of one river in southern Africa where the death toll is devastatingly high.
00:42The Zambezi. Tales abound of unexplained deaths.
00:48From fishermen being dragged under, to babies being snatched from their mothers.
00:55Locals say a monster is lurking here, but what kind of beast could it really be?
01:00He must have been 14-15 feet long.
01:04There's only one way to find out.
01:07Fish off!
01:08By taking on a river I've never fished before.
01:11To hunt down and uncover the Zambezi's invisible executioner.
01:16The Congo and Zambezi rivers both originate from the same country in Africa. Zambia.
01:29Now, if the Congo can support possibly the fiercest river monster I've caught.
01:46Ah, those teeth!
01:50Like every reason to suspect, the Zambezi could hold a river monster of its own.
01:56This is new territory for me.
01:58And gathering intelligence from this sparsely populated region isn't easy.
02:04The Zambezi claims countless victims on its 1600-mile journey to the Indian Ocean.
02:14Most of the fatalities are blamed on crocodiles.
02:19And hippos.
02:22Or accidental drownings in waterfalls and rapids.
02:29But along one stretch of the river, where it forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe,
02:33there have been deaths that can't be explained away.
02:37One recent story concerns an experienced fisherman who disappeared in this gorge.
02:43Some say he was swept away by the current.
02:46Others, that he was pulled in by a giant fish.
02:50From experience I have no doubt that this river could harbour such a fish.
02:55But proving it will be another matter.
02:59Travelling down the Zambezi is going to be dangerous.
03:04In places towering gorges squeeze the river into mile after mile of boat-crushing rapids.
03:11I'm not taking them on lightly.
03:14But this is the only way to find out what's in the water.
03:18Somewhere down there is something that has pulled fishermen under the water to their deaths.
03:22And now that I'm seeing this river myself for the first time, I'm starting to have very, very mixed feelings about going to have a closer look.
03:34The thundering rapids of the Batoka Gorge have claimed many lives.
03:39Yet grinding poverty means many fishermen have no choice but to try their luck here.
03:47Two years ago, two Zimbabwean brothers were fishing in the gorge, when one unexpectedly disappeared.
03:53Was it an accident or was something more sinister at work?
04:02Before I can even start my investigation, I first have to contend with the rapids.
04:07The rapids aren't the only dangers fishermen face in the gorge.
04:35Spray makes the banks treacherous, and rocks can hurtle down the cliffs without warning.
04:43But the only way to find out what creatures call this place home is to literally test the water.
04:54This is horrendously deep. It's only just touched the bottom.
04:56The lime is just sinking, sinking, sinking, sinking for, I don't know, it felt like about half a minute.
05:01It's very, very deep here.
05:05So deep, a monster fish could easily hide out without being detected.
05:12This has to be some of the most dramatic scenery I've ever fished in.
05:15And as an angler, of course, what you're always aware of is the fact that that continues under the surface.
05:20But the thing really here is that this is completely unfamiliar to me.
05:26And the only way I'm going to learn about this river is by just getting a bait in a variety of different places
05:30and just gradually building up a picture of what the geography is like under the water
05:35and also what the fish life is like under the water.
05:40If you believe the deeper the water, the bigger the fish, then I'm in line for something pretty huge.
05:46Well, so much for the idea that in the deep water, the very deep water, you're always going to find very big fish.
06:08This has come out of maybe 70, 80, 90 feet of water.
06:15Perhaps this is the exception that proves the rule. Brown squeaker.
06:19It's a small catfish that makes sounds by moving its spiny fins.
06:26It can give you a nasty stab, but it's no manhunter.
06:31If a fish is responsible for unexplained drownings here,
06:34then it would have to be both strong enough to survive the rapids and big enough to pull in a man.
06:40Yet somehow it has remained hidden from sight.
06:43To this day, a fisherman called Jeconia is still unsure how his brother disappeared.
06:55Two years ago, they set out in opposite directions to fish the gorge,
06:59planning to meet up later at their camp.
07:04Only Jeconia returned.
07:08When you came back to the camp, your brother didn't come?
07:11So I found the shoes and his trousers.
07:20So shoes and trousers and that was all?
07:22Yeah.
07:26Oh, you found the line?
07:28And the line was...
07:29OK.
07:30So I take mine and throw it.
07:35That line.
07:36Right.
07:37Take it out.
07:39So that is the thing they showed me.
07:42This guy, the Jeconia's foot.
07:45Did you get the hook back?
07:47And I take the line out.
07:48No hook.
07:50The absence of a hook makes me suspicious.
07:53Hooks don't just fall off.
07:56Perhaps something ripped it off the line.
07:59Further downstream, a croc would be the prime candidate.
08:03But they avoid rapids.
08:05So I asked Jeconia if there are any big fish in the river.
08:08How big do they grow?
08:10And he says there are.
08:12So this...
08:13Some of it is like me.
08:14Same size as you?
08:15Yeah.
08:16Yeah.
08:17Big like this.
08:18That's the body?
08:19Yeah.
08:20OK.
08:21And how long?
08:22A big one?
08:23How long to bring...
08:24To bring it?
08:25It's almost one hour, 30 minutes.
08:27One hour, 30 minutes?
08:28Yeah.
08:30Human beings are out of their element in water.
08:32From my own experiments, I've shown that even a fish a third of my weight could drag me under.
08:40The beast Jeconia is describing easily outstrips that.
08:46Many languages are spoken in these former British territories, but Jeconia can't give me the fish's English name.
08:53Yeah.
08:54So this big fish, what does it look like?
08:57It looks like a snake.
08:58My first real clue, a snake-like fish that grows to the size of a man.
09:07But where is it hiding?
09:11I've tried a deep pool, but Jeconia thinks the turbulent margins on the edge of the white water hold bigger predators.
09:19This is where anything overpowered by the rapids is thrown out, dazed and confused.
09:26Delivered right to the jaws of any waiting predator.
09:31There are no second chances for me with these waters either.
09:35I need to get my strategy right first time.
09:38If I fall in the river, which I don't want to do, but it is a possibility, at least we've got an eddy here, we've got a slack.
09:45I can come into slack water and there's a beach over there.
09:49There's some possible places to land fish here.
09:52Might be a bit of a scramble, but it's doable.
09:55At least I've thought about it.
09:56The last thing you want is to have a fish on, you get it in close, and then what do I do?
10:00How do I land it?
10:01And you end up doing something potentially dangerous.
10:09It makes me wonder what kind of fish survives conditions as tough as these.
10:14Is this the home of Jeconia's snake-like giant?
10:30Fish on.
10:31It's a strong fish.
10:33Whatever this is, it's not giving in without a fright.
10:37Oh, I think it's off.
10:38Oh, no, no, no.
10:50The Zambezi charges through the heart of southern Africa.
10:53Every year, people fall victim to its untamed waters.
11:00Some of these tragedies are the work of the usual suspects.
11:04Crocs, hippos, and bone-crushing rapids.
11:08But I think a sinister fish might also be at work here.
11:13And if it can survive these relentlessly churning waters, then it has to be a seriously powerful beast.
11:24Fish on.
11:26It's a strong fish, this.
11:28I'm not just fighting the fish, but the power of the rapids, too.
11:32Oh, I think it's off.
11:33Oh, no, no, no, no.
11:38I've got to get it into calmer water, or I might lose it.
11:41Oh, no, no, no, no.
11:49Ah.
11:51Tigerfish.
11:52I'm too, the strong fish, powerful predator.
11:56Barely fragile out of the water.
11:58I want to get it back soon.
12:01Interlocking dagger-like teeth make short work of prey.
12:03prey and a powerful muscular body propels it like lightning an even more horrific cousin rules
12:10africa's other monster river the congo the goliath tigerfish is the big daddy of them all this
12:17creature stands accused of slicing children virtually in half the zambezi's tigerfish has
12:27the razor-sharp weaponry of a killer but does it fit jacconia's description of an invisible
12:34executioner capable of killing his brother grows quite big but uh not as big as the animal i've
12:42been hearing about and also it's not really serpentine but it just goes to show that you
12:47do get fish living in some really crazy water it's a good sign but i don't think i'm any nearer at the
12:54moment the fish that i'm after
13:06i fished the rapids for another day but no more bites i need to rethink my strategy
13:13i need to understand exactly how the victim came face to face with his killer
13:18jacconia has a nephew who his brother taught to fish i'm hoping he can shed some more light on the
13:26mystery my ankles he went fishing
13:34put the the line to his leg and in the sleep so he put the line around his around his foot so
13:39so that he could go to sleep or rest and that would let him know when there was a fish on yeah
13:43catch the big fish i think they he just put it in on the water something very big came along and
13:55actually pulled him into the water yeah in the water
14:13he found the boat after five days if i find a feather down so he drowned yeah he drowned
14:25melvin is convinced the killer was a fish for the same reason that roused my suspicions the missing
14:32hook from the hand line and does anybody have any idea what kind of fish this could have been i think
14:38yeah maybe someone fish the salmon fish the salmon fish looks like python snake so it looks a bit like
14:46a snake yeah like python snake it's not a name i recognize but it's the second time the potential
14:52killer has been described as a snake-like fish the obvious candidate would be an eel but i don't know
15:00any african eels strong enough to pull in a grown man this sounds like something else
15:05then my attention is drawn to the serpentine talisman around melvin's neck what is that exactly
15:13it's um yummy yummy it is the zambese liver god right yeah the god of the zambese and and
15:21what exactly is nyami-yami what kind of creature you seem like a fish fish and snake i build this
15:29when you go there on the river and just look after me and do do other fishermen also wear this
15:35yeah some of the fishermen yeah and do you think if i'm going on the river would it be a good idea
15:40if i had one yes wearing the amulet is a symbol of respect rather than a guarantee of safety
15:49according to legend the half snake half fish god exacts his vengeance whenever he feels fit
15:55and he's blamed for many drownings locals believe the god rules the entire length of the zambese
16:02and anyone taken to the river is wise to appease him
16:08but whether this amulet will protect me i have no way of knowing
16:15so clearly the river is very dangerous and there are cases of fishermen being pulled under the water
16:20by big fish
16:24the name is not something i recognize but it's described as something that's a bit snake-like
16:28and curiously this is also the description given to nyami-nyami
16:33i wonder if this means that there is a link or is it just a coincidence
16:38locals believe the river god has his lair 250 miles down river in a flooded gorge called cariba
16:52another place where fishermen disappeared
16:54it's time to follow the zambezi's relentless course downstream
17:02this stretch of the zambezi has undergone a massive transformation
17:0850 years ago the river was dammed at cariba to generate electricity for a booming mining industry
17:15it was an unprecedented feat of engineering on a scale never before seen in this forgotten corner of africa
17:25but unimaginable freak floods threatened to destroy the dam before it was finished
17:32the locals attributed these catastrophic events to the river god nyami-nyami
17:37angered by the attempt to tame the zambese
17:40but in the end the dam prevailed at the time it created the largest man-made lake in the world
17:51now stocked with huge numbers of small commercial fish perhaps this vast deep lake has provided
17:57sanctuary to an ancient snake-like predator
18:02a predator so terrifying it inspired belief in a river monster god
18:10the reason i've come here is because this is where nyami-nyami is said to live
18:16the only thing is after the construction of the dam
18:19the monster or the fish which gave rise to the legend could be living under 400 feet of water so
18:25it looks like i might have my work cut out
18:30whether or not the dam upset nyami-nyami there's no question it upset the natural forces in the region
18:36erratic winds rise and fall over the lake without warning
18:42i'm within a few miles of my destination but the weather is getting worse
18:51the winds up and there's quite a few waves on the water
18:55the thing is lake kariba is so massive that it's changed the the climate locally
19:01you get these storms coming up we've had lightning flashing so the wise thing is to head for dry land
19:10but the headwind is too strong there's no way i'm going to make it to kariba town tonight
19:16now i just need to find any safe port in a storm
19:21all right this isn't exactly what i was wanting to do the boat is actually rocking from side to side
19:25there's also lots of rocks and you know one thing we don't want to be doing is hitting any rocks in this boat
19:37what is the largest animal the zambezi river has dragged over the victoria falls
19:42find out after this
19:46before the break i asked what is the largest animal the zambezi river has dragged over the victoria falls
19:51the answer is an adult african elephant
20:03i'm on a mission in the wild heart of southern africa to uncover a killer that's dragging fishermen to the
20:09bottom of the zambezi river
20:15but just as i'm about to arrive at another attack site nature turns against me
20:22we're now navigating at night the boat's been sort of tipping backwards and forwards
20:29it's head to the nearest safe shore or sink there is a safe landfall here we hope there is anyway
20:42i have to say it's very much of a relief to be on dry land
20:46although i'm not exactly sure where we are somewhere on the shore of lake cariba
20:49luckily a miraculous little bit of sand as opposed to some of the rocks that were out there which
20:53were worryingly close but at some point very glad and very lucky to be safely ashore
21:01the next day lake cariba is dead calm as if nothing happened
21:18but i now understand a little more about the threats facing local fishermen here
21:22well the lake's showing its normal face once again today and it makes me appreciate perhaps that if
21:30you lived here and you're in the habit of going out on the water probably in a smaller boat
21:35and you experience something like that well the idea of an angry water god doesn't seem totally far-fetched
21:47but i have to stay focused on facts if i'm to uncover the zambezi's invisible executioner
21:54i'm not interested in the commercial fish in the lake
21:57i need to tap into the knowledge of the people who used to live along the cariba gorge before it was
22:03flooded in the late 1950s they were relocated to resettlement villages some more than a hundred miles in
22:12land patrick is one of the few elders who remembers life on the river before the dam
22:21they didn't want to come here they were forced to come here some people resisted
22:25and it sounds like people even you know died as a result of resistance
22:33before living in this sort of dry area they were living beside the banks of the zambezi place called
22:40matongal there were lots of different types of fish so as well as growing food there was always the river
22:45there to provide fish from time to time are there any very big fish in the river any fish that are
22:50dangerous to people there's one fish in particular musunda apparently this is a very very strong fish
22:57if you're in the canoe you've just got to you've got to go with it you you don't pull when it is
23:01pulling if you do it right you eventually tire it out you get it to the side of the river and you
23:06spear it you get it wrong and that fish is going to flip your canoe pull you into the water
23:11and maybe nobody will ever see you again but that's not all patrick goes on to tell me something
23:20even more horrifying the fish he calls musunda has developed a taste for human flesh
23:28story stories tell of women going down to the river to do the wash and sitting their toddlers
23:39in the shallows to keep cool they don't know if it's the noise the vibrations or even the scent
23:46of the soap in the water but sometimes it draws a musunda in
24:04it's got a big head big mouth the back end like a like snake if there's a baby in the water this fish
24:11can just take it in one mouthful and possibly even a small person so this is the you know this
24:18by the sounds of it is is the big fish that's in the river here musunda
24:29well i mean no doubt now that there is a large potentially dangerous fish in this river and
24:33people have been describing it to me telling me names do those names refer to different creatures
24:39different fish or is everybody talking about the same thing
24:47back at the lake i look for musunda at the fish market
24:57but one of the fishermen does know of them
25:00that is actually the thickness of the body he tells me a story of a brutal encounter 20 years ago
25:12when a south african tourist made the mistake of taking on a musunda at the base of the kariba dam
25:27i'm traveling down the zambesi on the trail of a monster that drags its victims into the murky depths
25:40but his exact identity is shrouded in confusion and misinformation
25:44just when i'm giving up hope of ever pinning it down i get a new lead on another attack 20 years ago at the
25:57foot of the kariba dam okay a south african tourist took on more than he bargained for fishing in waters that
26:06was strictly out of bounds
26:11this handliner thought he could out muscle in the zunda when the line was pulled from his hands he made
26:17the mistake of securing it around his waist
26:19the
26:34man-made dams often stir up stories of super scaled river monsters
26:40deep fish-filled lakes form above the dam wall delivering a constant stream of food to the water below
26:46so what better place for a freak of nature to grow
26:55but without an eyewitness i'm skeptical until i learn of another man who had an encounter with a
27:01mazunda at exactly the same place big body underneath and on top vernon bailey has lived in zambia since the
27:091940s but when he went into the water to hunt tiger fish nothing had prepared him for what he would see
27:19kariba dam snorkeling and spear fishing below the dam wall
27:24and that was in 1969. as i was swimming up the submarine looking thing came past very close
27:32but just gave me a big eyeball and just kept moving on in dead silence he must have been 14 15 feet long
27:42and i reckon between 200 and 250 pounds that thing could swallow me without a question
27:50but what exactly was that thing
27:53what is the real identity of the mazunda
28:00can you describe what it looks like the species of of barbel it's one of the catfish but it grows
28:07exceptionally big
28:10known by a multitude of names the vundu is the largest freshwater fish in southern africa
28:16this top predator uses its extra long barbels to detect chemical traces of its prey in the water
28:24and the broad fins fringing its muscular serpentine body give it supercharged power
28:33if vernon's estimate is right his giant was at least twice the size of the accepted maximum for the
28:39species is this possible unlike land animals fish are largely exempt from the law of gravity
28:48with bodies supported by water and plentiful food below dams for example a phenomenon called
28:55indeterminate growth could supersize some fish into giants but supposing vernon's giant was a one-off
29:03would a normal size vundu have the strength to pull in a man big vundu is more than capable of being that
29:12strength coupled with a mouth big enough to swallow a baby
29:16whole
29:19it can only be the vundu
29:21every year vernon revisits the dam and claims he can still see the shapes of vundu in the water below
29:29there's now only one place for me to go
29:33this road that i'm on is the border between zambia and zimbabwe but it sits on top of this
29:43structure that causes the zambezi to back up for almost 200 miles and the difference in height
29:50between the surface here and the river surface there is about 300 feet
29:55but access down there is forbidden however the authorities have agreed to forward my request to
30:05the head office in the capital lusaka
30:09so frustrating to hear that there are potentially giant fish there but
30:13i can't get down to the water i can see the water but i can't get there um well not for now anyway
30:18it'll take days maybe weeks for a decision on whether i can fish here time i just don't have
30:28but there is one other option
30:33there's a part of the zambezi that remains virtually untouched
30:36the lower zambezi on the border with mozambique where temperatures top 120 degrees
30:47perhaps i can find my river monster there
30:53at a former slave town called luangua i try to find someone to take me to the remotest parts of the river
31:00this river this river here yeah a boatman called tophelia agrees
31:17but as we draw near to a prime fishing spot he's reluctant to get too close
31:24crocodiles have slaughtered 13 people in this village in the last year alone
31:29including a chief and his wife
31:37what's worse tophelia tells me vundu have pulled fishermen into the croc infested waters
31:43if you're on a canoe does it pull the canoe most of the wound when you're hooking always pulling down
31:49so sometimes you find maybe if your canoe has got no balance sometimes it can go down so what we do
32:04when we see those dangers we cut the line
32:13the biggest wound which i've seen the same right
32:16according to tophelia there are giants still left in this remote corner of africa
32:28but once again i'm operating in unfamiliar territory
32:43i'm in a nice fishing spot here any problem is this hippo most of them they
32:51they disappear when the boats around this one seems to be quite curious
32:55so it's quite disconcerting to think that
32:59there are other things a lot bigger than me with prior claim to this place
33:03and hippos kill more humans in africa than any other large animal
33:18yeah that is official
33:20is this at last the vundu
33:37i've traveled hundreds of miles down the zambesi in search of a killer from the deep
33:50the vundu
33:54a fish with legendary strength
33:59a diver once witnessed a giant that dwarfed him below the cariba dam
34:04i've applied for permission to fish there but while i wait for a decision
34:08i've headed to the untouched lower zambesi where i'm told vundu prowl the croc infested waters
34:17on this river i'm never alone for long
34:20yeah
34:30that is official
34:33might just look at how the teeth are how the hook is
34:38oh good next good excellent fantastic
34:41oh it seems a fearsome lineup of predators stalks this part of the river too
34:48tiger fish as well as vundu
34:51these things one minute the lion is just hanging limp and the next minute it's screaming out
34:59lovely fish it's not the one i'm it's not the fish i'm after though what i want to do is hold it in the
35:05water and let it recover but i've got to remember those crocs in here got to think of my own safety
35:11as well but i think it's about ready to go i was thinking then somewhat selfishly that if a croc
35:18comes along it's more likely to go for the fish than my arm hopefully but anyway it's gone i'm not
35:22sitting here for five or ten minutes waiting for the fish to recover it's a fish it's good to see a fish
35:27but uh the one i'm after is just more elusive even than that
35:39typically at this point i would try to fish for my target at night
35:44but here the crocs are man-eaters fishing in the dark would be suicide we should head back to camp
35:51but then i spot a gruesome opportunity seemingly too good to miss a dead hippo
36:03my angler's instinct is saying get all this in the water and get a real scent trail going
36:09but uh just the act of dragging these bits a few yards into the water that could turn
36:13me into bait because it's not just possibly vundu that will smell the scent but the crocodiles as well
36:18this carcass will be a magnet for scavengers after dark so i cast a hand line into the scent stream
36:28and leave it for the night in the hope of hooking a vundu
36:34i'll have my answer one way or another in the morning
36:48everything's gone the pelvic girdle that was up the bank
36:53the head heads just disappear something's dragged it into the water
37:00the hyena and crocodile tracks show why it would be suicide to fish these banks after dark
37:07but has anything cleaned up the bait on the hand line
37:10it should be all stuck or something yeah other places if the line's snagged fairly close to the
37:21side i might jump in and uh and free it but here would not be a good idea at all even standing
37:27actually this close to the bank is somewhat risky
37:31but something has managed to dodge the crops a sharp-toothed catfish a smaller cousin of the
37:40vundu that shares a similar body shape the whole body is muscle it's quite serpentine there's a lot of
37:47surface area to act against the water
37:51catfish use their sensitive barbels to sniff out prey in murky water
37:55and it's surprising what can attract them
37:59in the congo i used the locals favorite bait cubes of soap
38:06could this explain the stories of attacks on babies
38:09as i continue my hunt for the vundu i get surprising news from the zambian authorities
38:22i've been granted permission to fish below the dam
38:27this is the first time ever it's been officially allowed but i have only one shot one day i have to get
38:35back now
38:53finally it's my turn to confront whatever lurks in the churning depths below the kariba dam
38:59the clock is ticking and there's no access to boats
39:07i'm casting into a pool 500 feet wide and said to be 300 feet deep
39:29i've traveled 500 miles along the zambesi on the hunt for a killer
39:59catfish called the vundu that's the fish on
40:04i just want to let the other line i'm just going to wait till it comes this way
40:09its instinct is to pull down towards the bottom of this 300 foot pool
40:19i'm going to get the other line i'm going to run along the bank then
40:21that's a vundu
40:28what a fish and what a place to catch it in
40:32could be crocs here so what i'm going to do
40:36i think i'm just going to pull it just looking for a good place to land maybe up here
40:40a big one of these would be capable of taking a baby
40:47and with a mouth this wide it could suck in almost anything that passes
40:52it would be capable of pulling an unwary fisherman if that fisherman had the line wrapped around his
40:57toe or ankle
41:01now that i felt its power on the line i have no doubt the vundu could have pulled jaconia's brother into the river
41:09and drowned him
41:11but could the river monster also be
41:15a river god
41:17that is the representation of nami nami now i wonder if this is the creature
41:20that the water god the water spirit is based on both possess powerful serpentine bodies
41:30and perhaps the fangs on the traditional carvings are inspired by the extraordinary barbels that vundu
41:36used to hunt down prey
41:42my journey along the relentless sambezi has made me realize
41:47that any creature that can survive this unforgiving river for millennia has to be a force to be reckoned with
41:56whether or not this is the beast behind nami nami i mean it certainly embodies the power of this river
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