[William Shatner]
The deep waters of the Pacific Ocean
just off the eastern coast of the land down under
are world famous for deep sea fishing.
Here, fishermen regularly catch a variety of marine life,
including marlin, swordfish,
and even sharks.
But in March of 2019,
an unusual incident took place
when a local fisherman hooked a 550-pound mako shark
on his line.
As he hauled it into his boat, the only thing left...
was a severed head.
The rest of the massive shark's body
had apparently been devoured
by an even larger and unidentified
ocean predator.
Pictures went viral of this mako shark
just absolutely decimated from the head down.
There was so much mystery surrounding this
because looking at this picture of this mako,
this thing looks humongous.
It seriously did cause some speculation
as to what kind of mega predator could have caused
a bite this big on such a huge shark.
[Shatner]
that it literally ripped a shark to shreds?
An extraordinary theory emerged.
Is it possible
that this violent encounter
was the work of a real life sea monster?
It may sound like an outlandish notion,
but the surprising truth is
that this is not the first inexplicable attack
that has been recorded off the coast of Australia.
In fact, scientists have been actively searching
for an elusive and monstrous predator
in these waters since 2003.
In 2003, I was involved with Australia's
premier scientific organization, the CSIRO.
They had started a satellite tagging program
to better understand the movement patterns
of great white sharks.
We tagged four or five great white sharks,
and one of them in particular, shark Alpha,
was around nine, ten feet in length.
No small animal by any stretch of the imagination.
About two months later,
the tag showed this shark had been
chased down the continental shelf edge,
down to a depth of around 2,000 feet,
where it appeared to have been devoured by something.
And that something had an internal temperature
of around 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
And that temperature, regardless of where the tag went then,
the depth, that temperature stayed relatively constant.
It was a bubble of temperature
showing it was inside the stomach of something.
What that could be, we don't know.
But the proportions it would have to have
to eat a great white is colossal.
It would have to be massive.
You're really starting to stray into the realm
of the unbelievable.
So that leaves the kind of uncomfortable notion
of what is it?
[Shatner]
a giant sea monster lurking in the deep
that can swallow a great white shark whole.
Nevertheless, some scientists claim that even more evidence
of a fearsome sea creature
lies in the strange behavior
of marine life off the coast of Australia.
In 2023, a number of pilot whales beached themselves
on the shores of Western Australia.
These whales were huddled in an unusual way.
People got some of these whales back out to the water,
but they came right back in and beached themselves again.
One of the theories is that this pod of whales
was escaping something, was running away from something.
Now, if it was a great white coming towards a pod of whales,
there's power in numbers.
They wouldn't beach themselves over that.
So it couldn't have been just a regular great white shark.
There's no way.
But if it was something about 65 feet long...
maybe.
[Dave]
that is literally frightening them to shore?
Is it possible that there is something out here
that we literally haven't seen before?
And that's the question.
[Shatner]
happening in the waters off Australia,
it naturally begs the question, are they all connected?
Is there a giant sea monster
that can bite a mako shark in half?
Swallow a great white whole?
And send a horde of whales fleeing for their lives?
The truth is that for the moment,
scientists are at a loss for answers.
And for many, the possibility
that there are monstrous undiscovered creatures
in the unexplored depths of the ocean
should not be dismissed.
When you take into consideration that we literally
don't know very much about the ocean--
we only have mapped something like 20% of it
and we've only seen something like 1 or 2% of it--
there could be things hiding out here
that we've never seen before.
SHATNER: In the cold, unforgiving forests of eastern Siberia,
a local hunter named Vladimir Markov discovers
the bloody carcass of a wild boar
lying half-eaten in the snow.
He instantly realizes he's in great danger,
because he has just stumbled upon a fresh kill
made by one of Russia's most dangerous predators.
The Siberian tiger.
McCANN: At the point where Vladimir Markov realized
that he was coming upon a tiger's kill, he knew that
the tiger will still be there, because it'll still feed
upon that kill until there's nothing left to feed on.
So if he doesn't shoot that tiger first,
the tiger will kill him.
So it was a case for him of "kill or be killed."
SHATNER: As the tiger approached Markov to defend its kill,
-he fired his rifle. -(gunshot)
But only wounded the angry cat.
Injured, the tiger retreated back into the forest.
But that's not the end of the story.
Because two days later, the local authorities were informed
that Markov had been attacked and killed
at his home by a vicious tiger.
When investigators arrived at Markov's log cabin,
they found a disturbing scene.
(man speaking Russian)
It's pretty remarkable seeing the images.
There was obviously quite a lot of blood.
The clothes are tattered everywhere.
Often, when tigers kill people, it's not necessarily for food.
But in Markov's case, the tiger ate everything
it possibly could of him.
It wanted to leave no trace of the man.
The strangest part of the Vladimir Markov story
is the fact that the tiger actively destroyed
everything around that lodge that had Vladimir's scent on it.
Just destroyed it in seemingly a fit of anger.
SHATNER: But even more unsettling than the gruesome killing itself
was the fact that investigators later determined
that Markov was eaten by the same tiger
he had shot with his rifle.
McCANN: The tiger tracked Vladimir back to his hunting lodge,
a distance of 11 kilometers.
And then it waited.
That is what is remarkable.
It waited, we think,
around 48 hours for him to return to that lodge.
And then when Vladimir returned,
it killed him.
SHATNER: The story of Vladimir Markov's death at the hands
of a deadly tiger is frightening,
but it's also mysterious.
Because while animals will naturally defend themselves
when attacked, this tiger tracked Markov down
over an unusually long distance.
But why?
Big predators will kill smaller predators
with which they compete, and there's a long history
of human competition with predators.
So it's possible the tiger was viewing this
as competition, and I want to get rid of a competitor
because this is a threat to my livelihood.
So don't steal food from tigers,
is the lesson that stands out from Markov's story.
SHATNER: Did the tiger kill Markov because it viewed him
as a threat to its survival? Perhaps.
But there are those who believe that it was motivated
not by self-preservation
but rather by a desire to exact revenge.
MAXEY: You can't look at this story of Vladimir
and not think that this is a story of vengeance.
The tiger stalked Vladimir's cabin.
It waited for Vladimir to return home for the attack.
Everything here points to premeditation.
You look at other instances, you see attacks
with tigers who will seek vengeance
on people they don't like.
These animals can feel these emotions.
BLUMSTEIN: All animals have neurochemical responses
which are remarkably similar across all sorts of species.
They feel emotions or feelings that influence behavior
exactly the same as we do.
McCANN: You do not mess with a tiger.
If you do that, it's gonna come after you.
Markov will have known that when he shot that tiger
and it didn't die, he knew that his time was up.
This tiger had the ability to hold a grudge
with a single individual
for over 48 hours and then take its revenge.
We have taken dominion over nature in many ways
because of our technological developments,
but we are still a part of nature,
and we are still occasionally on the menu
of bigger and stronger animals, such as tigers.
Ui
Here on 512 acres of rugged land lies a remote cattle ranch.
But according to the local legends, this desert landscape
is also home to a creature of unspeakable evil,
a creature known as The Skinwalker.
A Skinwalker is a shapeshifter.
It can become many things a fox, a coyote, a wolf.
There are these recorded stories of bipedal creatures
that are walking around with wolf like heads.
The locals on the reservation, they won't talk about it
because even mentioning the name of The Skinwalker
invites these things in.
Skinwalkers shapeshifting werewolves
who dwell not in remote forests of Eastern Europe,
but in the remote desert regions of North America.
Skinwalker Ranch, 1994. Experience Ranch hands.
Terry and Glen Sherman purchased the ranch
and the surrounding area.
Almost immediately, they find themselves face to face
with something they would later describe as pure evil.
One day, Terry had gone out to check on his cattle
and noticed this extremely large what appeared to be a wolf
walking around his property.
It grabbed one of the calves by the snout
and began to tear at it.
So he pulls out his 357 magnum and shoots point blank.
And the wolf doesn't react. It doesn't appear fazed at all.
So he grabs his deer hunting rifle
and shoots the wolf to knock it down.
A piece of fur and flesh flies off of the wolf.
But again, completely unfazed. And at this point,
the wolf is kind of trotting off into the distance casually.
Leveling his rifle,
Terry cautiously followed the wolf's trail.
Only to discover it had disappeared.
In the days and weeks that followed,
the Shermans began to wonder
if what they encountered was a normal wolf.
Or something more.
In the case of the bulletproof, Wolf,
what's interesting is that wolves are not native
to the state of Utah for,
I think, the past 100 years or so.
The werewolf of legend.
Is described as looking very much like a regular wolf,
except much larger.
And oftentimes it is said to be sort of bloodthirsty
and cunning.
We have lots of interesting legends around the world.
For example, in Russia,
they're known as the Wawkalak or the Bodark.
In France, you have the Loup-Garou.
In Scotland, the Wolver, and in South America, the Lobizon.
And even in countries where you don't traditionally have wolves,
you have similar legends.
For example, in India, there are weretigers.
And in Africa, wereleopards and werehyenas.
And even in Mexico, werejaguars,
we have to acknowledge
that the notion of a shapeshifter like a werewolf,
something that combines the elements of human and animal
together into one single body
from a scientific perspective is quite troubling.
But the fact that these legends are so widespread
is quite intriguing.
An enormous, bloodthirsty,
cunning wolf that also happens to be bulletproof.
Is it possible that the Sherman's encountered
one of the werewolves
that may have been haunting Skinwalker Ranch for centuries?
And if so, what physical evidence
is there to support such a fantastic notion?
There has been numerous reports of cattle mutilations
that occur not only on Skinwalker Ranch,
but the entire Uintah Basin.
Many of the accounts of animal mutilations
from Skinwalker Ranch describe animal carcasses
that have almost been surgically dissected.
Certain large cats can make very clean, precise wounds,
things like mountain lions.
But it is notable that you have so many accounts
of weird livestock mutilations from Skinwalker Ranch.
This is very hard to explain in terms of the natural world.
(purring)
SHATNER: Today, cats are thought of more
as pampered pets than as primal hunters.
Unlike dogs, they resist training,
and behave more as if they are not your pet,
but that you are theirs.
Nevertheless, the bond between cats and humans has proven
to be stronger and more astounding
-than previously thought. -(mews)
Especially when examining their eerie ability
to track down their human owners
across hundreds of miles.
LOYD AUERBACH: There was this case in 1949.
The cat's name was "Clementine Jones."
The family moved from Western New York to Denver.
They couldn't take the cat with them.
They left the cat with some friends,
and they got a call a while later
that the cat had disappeared.
Four months later,
this cat showed up at their door.
It was their cat.
That's a 1,600-mile commute for that cat.
SHATNER: 1,600 miles in four months?
It seems nothing short of miraculous.
And yet, there have long been stories
of cats traversing vast distances,
and we don't know how they do it.
PACHEL: When I think of a story
where a cat has traveled an incredible distance,
in order to go from point A to point B,
lots of questions come to mind for me as a scientist.
Is there a scent trail, essentially,
that they're following that allows them
to navigate that space?
And do they have that ability
to create that mental map?
FISHER: We know cats potentially
have other types of navigational capacities, too,
that we don't even know about
that sort of hearken back to their ancient ancestors who
maybe need to roam great distances
in order to hunt, for example,
and home their way back to their den.
DEBRA HORWITZ: Some people posit
that cats are somehow attuned into the electromagnetic
field of the Earth that birds use for navigation.
(birds singing)
SHELDRAKE: There are all sorts of theories.
The magnetism one's the most popular,
but that can't explain it.
If you were given a compass
and taken to a place you'd never been before,
the compass would tell you where north was,
but it wouldn't tell you where home was.
So, homing animals, including this cat,
require more than a magnetical compass sense.
AUERBACH: We think the animal is using their ESP
to trail where the family actually went to.
That's called "psi-trailing."
"Psi" is the catchall term we use for any psychic experience.
Psi-trailing typically happens where there's an animal
that has a real close connection with the family,
and it's possible
that the animal saw the path in front of her
and followed that path.
PACHEL: There's a lot of unknowns around cats.
Is there a psychic connection that exists
between cats and their owners,
and there's a-a magnetism that's there that's drawing
that cat in?
It's entirely possible.
SHATNER: Until cats can talk to us themselves,
we may never know exactly what lies behind their eyes.
Perhaps it's time to rethink our place
in the natural order of things