Original subtitles

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Worldwide, 36 billion cameras

are watching us,

on our street,

at work, and in our homes.

They capture things that seem impossible.

Science says this shouldn't happen.

[man] Do you see that?

[narrator] Experts carry out forensic analysis

of these unusual events.

Wow, what a blast.

[woman shrieks]

This doesn't make sense.

There has to be some sort of explanation.

What else is going on here?

[narrator] Coming up... On a rush hour highway,

a bizarre backseat blast.

Oh, my God.

[narrator] Can Matt Kutcher discover how it happened?

Let's get this car out to the yard

and get ready to blow the crap out of it.

[narrator] A river monster rises.

What is this giant creature?

And are there more of them out there?

[narrator] And in the remote Southern Pacific,

has a man filmed a secret test

of a doomsday weapon?

If nitrogen atoms could be made to explode,

it would vaporize the atmosphere.

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Bizarre phenomenon.

Oh, my God. [gasps]

[narrator] Mysteries caught on camera.

What's the truth behind this...

strange evidence?

[suspense music playing]

[narrator] Moscow, Russia.

April 21st, 2014.

6:15 pm.

A dash cam films as cars drive along

one of the city's main freeways.

It looks like a normal Russian beautiful summer day,

driving along, moderate traffic.

[narrator] But then...

Oh, my God.

All of a sudden, boom.

There's this explosion.

[narrator] This is no ordinary explosion.

The mysterious blast has no flames,

but still blows out the car's back seat

and windows, sending the spare tire

and debris flying 30 feet into the air.

Man, this explosion comes out of nowhere.

One minute, these guys were driving along

and then, bam!

Car parts go everywhere. It's anarchy.

[narrator] The car's driver and passenger escape

but their car is destroyed.

That's terrifying. We have to find out what that is.

[narrator] Russia's capital city of Moscow

where this footage was shot,

is regularly rocked by explosive assassinations.

The Russian Mafia is estimated to be worth

over eight billion.

And there's 300, 000 operatives

across the globe including in the United States,

and that's larger than some standing armies.

So, this really is a global threat.

[narrator] And the main tool of their trade

is horrific violence.

Car bombs were used with a surprising frequency

when rival factions within the Russian Mafia

were attempting to take out the leadership

of another faction.

[narrator] In Russia as the Cold War ends,

the mafia war heats up.

In 1994, Sergei Timofeev,

karate expert and kingpin

of a Moscow-based criminal gang

is killed by a car bomb in broad daylight.

He was blown to pieces in a Moscow street

with no consideration for the safety of other people

just in order to settle a score.

[narrator] Less than 10 years later,

two car bombs explode on a main road

in the Republic of Dagestan in Southern Russia,

killing four people and injuring 44 others.

That gives you a real idea of the bloodthirstiness

of these criminals.

[narrator] The mafia's tentacles are said

to reach deep into the Russian State.

And the threat of violence goes right up

to Premier Vladimir Putin.

In 2016, Putin's chauffeur is killed in a car crash.

Some believe it's a targeted assassination

and a direct threat to the President himself.

It's quite something to say that President Putin

doesn't even feel safe in his own country.

But he spent millions on a fleet of bulletproof cars

just to make sure that he's not targeted

for assassination.

So could we be looking at a similar attack now?

[narrator] But when Engr. Brian Wolshon

examines the footage, he suspects a car bomb

cannot be to blame.

In a typical car bomb, what we would expect to see

is just a total annihilation and destruction

of the vehicle.

But in this footage, we see something different.

The explosion is very localized.

It's small. It's to the rear of the vehicle.

I don't think this is a car bomb.

I think we're looking at something else.

[glitch sounds]

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] Former NYPD analyst Conor McCourt

considers that the features of the car

could be significant.

It's different than the other cars.

It's smaller.

It's boxy, has blacked-out windows.

It rides very low.

Is this a custom-built car?

[narrator] Wolshon recognizes the make of the vehicle.

So given the shape of the car, the size of the car,

this to me looks like it's a modified Lada.

[narrator] The Lada was supposed to be

a communist supercar,

produced from 1970 by the Russian State,

in an attempt to prove it could rival General Motors

or Ford in the United States.

They were notorious for poor quality

and for safety problems.

Despite the fact that these vehicles

were involved in numerous breakdowns and crashes,

they were nevertheless very popular

because they were cheap

and they were very easy to modify.

[narrator] These simple cars modern day fans

are so called modders,

amateurs who tinker with vehicles

to improve their looks and performance.

And so this whole craft market has emerged of people

buying cheap Ladas, refurbishing them,

restoring them, modifying them,

and turning them into dune buggies,

and sports cars, and making them flashy.

[narrator] Craig Gottlieb believes the owner of the car

may have added a dangerous performance

boosting gas to the tank of this modified Lada.

Nitrous oxide is something that used to inject

into the gas system of a vehicle

and makes the cars go really, really fast.

So it's very explosive. And it's the kind of stuff

you see in Fast and the Furious movies and so on.

[narrator] In the United States,

nitrous oxide is outlawed on public highways.

That doesn't stop illegal street racers

from sometimes using it.

There's a very high potential that installing

a canister of highly compressed gas

right inside your engine could cause an explosion

similar to what we're seeing in this footage.

[techno music playing]

[narrator] Matt Kutcher has over 20 years' experience

as a top Hollywood explosives expert.

[Matt] Go!

Wow. Right?

I mean, now that's an explosion.

But you don't see any ignition source, right?

There's no flames, only smoke.

I think it's a pressure vessel.

Some kind of bottle exploded and created that.

You've heard the old saying,

"There's no smoke without fire."

But that's not always true when it comes

to the world of explosives.

We know these gas bottles,

the nitrous bottle can be pressurized up

to 3,000 PSI,

3,000 pounds per square inch.

That's a massive amount of potential energy

that's absolutely ready to blow at any moment.

If the bottle was to fail or rupture,

you could get a powerful explosion without the flame.

[narrator] Kutcher wants to know if nitrous oxide

caused this bizarre flame-free explosion.

So we're gonna take a pressure vessel,

mount it inside the car

and grab a tire and a bunch of other debris

and stuff it in there and see if we can make that video happen.

Let's get this car out into the yard

and get ready to blow the crap out of it.

I wanna make that video.

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Coming up, can Matt Kutcher recreate

the backseat blast?

[Matt] Three, two, one!

[narrator] And filmed near a world-famous tech hub,

is this a secret robot designed

to enter the human body?

This is not the kind of thing that would climb

onto your face and wanna crawl down your throat.

[Matt] Push it already.

[narrator] Explosives expert, Matt Kutcher,

wants to know if a mysterious car explosion in Moscow

was caused by a ruptured nitrous oxide pressure vessel

that was fitted into the engine.

He rigs the trunk of a car with a pressure vessel,

a tire, and debris to try and match

the blast in the clip.

All right, guys, so we got the system all replicated

to make this pressure vessel blow, right?

Tickety-boo. Let's get outta here.

All right, guys. Let's get ready to go hot.

And in three, two, one, blow it!

Yeah!

Now that's an explosion, man.

Come check that out. Yep.

So I guess seeing a tank blew up inside of the car,

there's no flame, but there sure is

one hell of an explosion.

Yeah?

You could really see how much force is contained

inside of a bottle, isn't it?

And look at the damage it did.

It just goes to show you, you don't need a big fireball

to get one big boom.

[narrator] The driver and passenger in the clip

may have been able to walk away after the blast.

But not everyone is so lucky.

On Christmas Day 2019 in Florida,

a man's car explodes after he loses control

of his vehicle and hits a tree.

He and his girlfriend die instantly.

Officials believe the man was speeding at the time

and that his modified car was fitted

with a nitrous oxide canister.

When you modify a car like that,

you have visions of how awesome you're gonna be.

And your visions of awesome don't include sitting

in traffic and your car suddenly blows up.

One thing's for certain, the warranty on that car

has definitely been voided.

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Now Hsinchu, Taiwan.

August 2017.

A woman on a city street comes across what looks

like a tangle of wires. But then...

What?

What is that?

[narrator] The thin black cable

appears to be moving on its own.

[Rachel] Where does this thing start

and where does it end?

And more importantly, why is it wiggling around?

[narrator] The terrifying twisted object

moves with a robotic jerkiness.

I can't get my head around what this thing is.

Where did it even come from?

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Engr. Rachel De Barros

finds a cutting edge tech laboratory

near to where the video was shot.

Just a few miles away is Hsinchu Science Park.

[narrator] The park specializes in making parts

for the robotics industry.

It makes me wonder whether this is some sort of

manmade machine.

What if it's a tiny robot?

[narrator] Science historian, Ashanti Davis,

believes the object and the clip could be a robot

designed around an organic body shape.

Biomimicry is all about designing robots

that are modeled after nature.

You could have something that looks like a fish

or even a bug, but it's still a machine.

[narrator] In 2000, NASA revealed

that they are developing a snake bot,

a snake-like research probe

that will be able to dig into extraterrestrial soil

and slither into cracks in the rocks.

Maybe if this is a robot,

it's wriggling like a worm bot,

in the same way that snake bots have been

designed to wriggle like snakes.

Worms have been found in every region

explored by scientists.

This even includes deserts,

tundras, and the deep ocean.

If you were to build a robot that can survive

all conditions, a worm would be a good choice.

[narrator] But a worm robot may not be native

to Taiwan at all, but to the country

just a hundred miles away

across the Formosa Strait.

Taiwan has a very powerful neighbor

that wants to keep an eye on what they're doing.

[narrator] China has made no secret of its desire

to take control of Taiwan,

and tensions have never been higher.

[Rachel] China and Taiwan are bitter enemies.

China believes that Taiwan is part of its territory,

whereas Taiwan thinks it should be independent.

[narrator] China leads the world

in surveillance technology.

They like to spy on everything

to detect any sign of dissidence.

[narrator] Cybernetics engineer, Ian Pearson,

believes that China

may develop hyper-human-looking,

state-controlled robots

to send out into society and spy on the public.

[Rachel] You could end up with super intelligent

robot design.

Rubbing elbows with everyday people,

constantly listening and monitoring

what everyone's doing.

[narrator] But a robot shaped like this thin

and spindly object could have

an even more sinister purpose.

A robotic worm designed to enter a person

and take control of them like a mechanical parasite.

Imagine a device that's created to interface

with the spinal column,

and override signals from the brain.

You end up with a sort of slave person

who could be remotely controlled.

They'd be the ultimate unwitting robo-fusion spy.

Technology like this

gives a whole new disturbing meaning to being bugged.

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Coming up.

Is this wiry entity responsible

for a weird spade of deaths in a nearby housing project?

These mind-controlling worms

could be taking over human bodies in Taiwan.

[narrator] And, is this evidence that the Chinese

are testing a missile that can zigzag

past America's defenses?

It was fiery red, white, and it looked hot.

[narrator] In Hsinchu, Taiwan,

a woman films a bizarre mass of knotted wires

which seemed to be moving on their own.

Maybe this is something organic, but what is it?

[narrator] Entomologist Kevin Kasky studies the clip

and notices weird unusual features that point

to this being one

of nature's most disgusting predators.

It's long, it's thin, it's wriggling around.

The way that it's all wound together,

this looks very reminiscent of the Gordian worm.

[narrator] When these wiry parasites are still babies,

they invade their host in the most gruesome way.

The larvae of these worms once they're swallowed

by something like a cricket or a praying mantis,

they'll actually penetrate out of the gut,

into the body cavity,

and that's where they'll slowly grow

over the course of several months.

When they are fully grown,

they can be up to a foot in length,

and take over the host body.

Zombie insect.

It takes control of the mind of the insect.

And then the worm forces the cricket

or the praying mantis to go towards water,

because the worm needs water to reproduce.

And then once they've done that,

they send the bug on a kamikaze mission,

diving to their deaths.

The worm escapes from the host body

by boring through its exoskeleton and swims away

to find another host to lay eggs in.

Just the thought of that makes the hair on the back

of your neck stand up, doesn't it?

[narrator] This creature looks bigger

than a normal Gordian worm.

This looks like the kind of thing that would climb

onto your face and wanna crawl down your throat.

[narrator] Taiwan is already a paradise for parasites.

Over 50 different species here

are able to infect humans.

Science journalist Liberty Vittert

watches the footage and is reminded of a grim

and mysterious series of events nearby.

A few miles from the Shaanxi region,

there lies and abandoned seaside resort.

And during construction from 1978 to 1980,

there was a rash of unexplained suicides

by construction workers.

[narrator] The project is eventually abandoned

and the authorities never solved the mystery

behind the spate of bizarre suicides.

This might have been caused by a parasitic infection

that afflicted some of those workers.

Since the construction teams

were living and working on site,

the worms could have been ingested

or even burrowed into their ears at night.

These mind-controlling worms

could be taking over human bodies in Taiwan,

leading them to a watery demise.

We think we have full control over our minds and bodies,

but that's just what the parasites inside you

want you to believe.

[narrator] The message to anyone

who comes into contact

with a creature like this is clear.

When you see a weird, sinister, pulsating,

black mound on the ground, leave it alone.

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Now,

Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand.

July 31st, 2017.

It's early evening.

Musician Chris Johnson notices something unusual

in the sky.

These two extremely white things appeared

and at the head of these tails

appeared to be a horseshoe shape.

It was fiery red, white, and it looked hot.

[narrator] As the fiery trail begins to change shape,

it looks as though it's coming to life.

Whoa.

What we saw just amazed us.

We were like, "Whoa, what the heck?"

And parts of the twist and the turn.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, we're not in Kansas anymore.

[Martin] It's nothing like a contrail

from a passing jetliner.

It looks to be something entirely different

and something that defies explanation.

[Chris] The longer we looked,

it appeared to change direction.

We just stood around in awe, watching, filming it.

And there's nothing else in the sky

except for that, nothing.

What starts out as a hazy golden line

turns into a giant fiery monster.

So what's going on with this fireball in the sky?

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Engr. Nick Householder

takes a closer look at the fire-like streak

in the sky and is reminded

of the Pacific's history of secret

and dangerous nuclear tests.

Between 1946 and 1962,

over a hundred nuclear explosions took place here.

The biggest was the 15 megaton Castle Bravo bomb

at Bikini Atoll in 1954.

A nearby fisherman was killed

as the blast was twice as big

as the scientists planned.

Some tests of early American hydrogen bombs

actually miscalculated the yield of the bonds

resulting in explosions larger than anticipated.

[narrator] Scientists working on the Manhattan Project,

America's nuclear testing program,

feared the sky itself would catch fire

just like the footage captured here.

[Nick] Our atmosphere's made up of mostly nitrogen.

If nitrogen atoms could be made to explode,

it would vaporize the atmosphere.

[narrator] America's nuclear tests in the Pacific

officially ended over 50 years ago.

New tests with today's

much more powerful atomic explosives

could have started secretly

in this remote part of the world.

Could this be a thermonuclear chain reaction

propagating through the sky?

[narrator] But authorities in New Zealand

have no record of any tests at this time,

suggesting this bizarre explosion

is the work of someone or something else.

Does this bode a war in our future

the likes of which we've never seen?

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Coming up...

contrails point

to a revolutionary zigzagging missile.

This technology is very sobering.

Move over atomic bombs, are we entering a new Cold War?

[narrator] And in Texas, birds seem to have

an uncanny sixth sense of impending disaster.

How did the birds know it was coming

and fly away so quickly?

[narrator] In a remote area of New Zealand,

a man films an eerie fireball

with a glowing trail in the sky

above the Pacific Ocean.

Military historian Martin Morgan

examines the clip and believes this could be

a terrifying new weapon.

If a normal missile moved to the area,

it would leave a straight trail of exhaust,

that will be very identifiable,

it would stand out in a prominent way.

This however, appears to be something

that followed an erratic course.

One possibility is that we're looking at

the exhaust trail left by a hypersonic weapon.

[narrator] Hypersonic weapons are said to be able

to travel at an Earth-shattering

6,000 miles per hour,

more than seven times faster than the speed of sound.

They can hit targets as far as a thousand miles away

in under 12 minutes.

And these missiles are intelligent.

They have the potential to react to threats

and outmaneuver them.

That's how the weapon will survive

anti-missile missile systems on the ground.

Is this the exhaust plume of a top-secret hypersonic

missile system streaking through the sky?

[narrator] China is currently winning

the hypersonic arms race.

The Chinese Government released videos

which appear to show tests

using one of their most advanced weapons.

The DF-17, a hypersonic missile

that is believed to reach speeds

of over 7,000 miles an hour.

America is protected by a shield of anti-missile

defenses designed to take out enemy projectiles.

But hypersonic missiles would simply dodge any defenses.

This technology is very sobering.

Move over atomic bombs, are we entering a new Cold War?

[narrator] In 2018, pictures of strange

white plumes of light over Beijing

and Mongolia appear

on the internet.

Some believe they are evidence

of the Chinese hypersonic missile program.

China is known to be testing its hypersonic weapon systems

even saying on its social media accounts

that they're making their own UFOs.

[narrator] And Chinese tests in the remote South Pacific

would fit a strategic pattern.

Over the past 20 years, China has been developing

its relationship with Pacific islands

north of New Zealand,

in a quest to become a military superpower.

The Chinese have managed to convince, for example,

the Island of Bougainville to side with them.

The island nation, you know, Kiribati,

is cooperating more and more with the Chinese,

and it's believed that Vanuatu,

which is very close to the area that we're talking about,

is also cooperating with the Chinese to the extent

that the Chinese have effectively established

a secret military naval base there.

[narrator] New Zealand is still a key Western ally

in this Pacific region.

But it's increasingly vulnerable

as China's influence spreads.

Its remote location makes it an easy target.

[narrator] China has not revealed

if it's testing hypersonic missiles

near the New Zealand coast.

But nervous locals like Chris Johnson,

watch the skies over the ocean for answers.

To this day, we watch it over and over and over

and it's still a mystery,

and it's exciting because it's still a mystery.

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Now, Houston, Texas.

January 2015.

It's early evening,

a man films a huge flock of birds.

So we're seeing a lot of birds in this gorgeous sunset.

The birds are sitting on this power line

and flying in beautiful formation.

[narrator] Suddenly some of the birds take flight

is though sensing some imminent peril, then...

[explosion]

Wow!

That is quite incredible.

[narrator] Moments after the birds take flight,

the power line explodes.

[Kevin] One minute, the skies are calm and beautiful.

And the next, it's a massive cluster of birds,

smoke, and mayhem.

How did the birds know it was coming

and fly away so quickly?

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Animals have long been believed

to possess an uncanny ability

to detect things invisible to humans,

perhaps even able to predict future events.

A study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute

found that farm animals will actually start behaving

very strangely just before earthquakes.

It follows from anecdotal evidence,

that household pets become agitated

before natural disasters such as earthquakes,

volcanoes, floods, or tsunamis.

[narrator] Entomologist Kevin Kasky finds claims

that these animals powers of premonitions

border on the supernatural.

Cambridge researcher Rupert Sheldrake investigates

the effect of ESP on cats,

dogs, and even some intelligent birds.

Artist Aimee Morgana

has an African grey parrot called N'kisi.

N'kisi has an extensive vocabulary ranging up

from 700 words to 7,000 sentences.

Sheldrake tests N'kisi for telepathy,

and he finds that there's a statistically

significant result.

In one case, Aimee goes to call

a friend of hers named Rob.

But N'kisi he said, "Hi Rob,"

before she even dialed the number.

Sheldrake is convinced that animals operate

with psychic senses.

[narrator] These birds seem to have

some mysterious forewarning

that the power line is about to explode,

and fly off before it blows.

[explosions]

So you have to think about it, these animals can sense danger

before we ever see it coming, what else can they do?

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Coming up... Engr. David Wallace pits EMP

against ESP to see what's giving

these birds a nudge.

[David] All right.

So we are energized at 20,000 volts.

Let's apply ground.

[narrator] And a man films a weird creature

swimming in China's biggest river.

Ugh. This, like, just gave me

the creepiest, crawliest...

I don't even know what it is

but, uh, worst nightmare.

[narrator] In Houston, Texas,

a man films a flock of birds flying away

from a power line moments before it suddenly explodes.

[explosion]

[narrator] Apparently showing an uncanny sixth sense.

Biologist Jade Lovell wonders if the birds

in the clip may have detected

some kind of early warning signal in the power line

using a heightened perception of reality.

So there's many species that has an additional sense

to what we know as humans.

Either they're able to detect electrical signals

or they're able to hear noises at pitches that we can't.

[narrator] All living things experience reality

is a hallucination created in the brain

from information that comes in through the senses.

In humans, sight is generally the most dominant

of the senses.

But other animal's brains

have radically different skillsets.

Some animals have been detecting electromagnetism

for millions of years thanks to their biology.

Many aquatic species have special cells

that can detect electrical impulses.

It's called electroreception,

fish use it to detect other animals.

Anytime another animal moves,

it creates a little electrical impulse

that detects and allows them to move accordingly.

[narrator] The animal thought to have

the strongest electroreception abilities

of all creatures on Earth is the shark.

The Great White Shark,

the apex predator of the ocean,

is able to detect electrical charges

of up to one millionth of a volt.

It's possible that this ability

is not just limited to fish,

but birds as well could detect electrical fields.

Take the homing pigeon.

It has an incredible sense of direction,

even the ability to find its way home

from over hundreds of miles.

[narrator] In 1931, a bird made what is believed

to be the longest ever flight taken by a homing pigeon

from Arras, France to Saigon, Vietnam.

When released, the pigeon shot straight up like an arrow

over 7,260 miles

to its home in only 24 days.

Pigeons can use the sun as a compass,

and landmarks as a map.

They even use the Earth's magnetic field.

So, was it possible that these birds detected

the electrical surge before it happened?

[narrator] Electrical Engineer David Wallace

wants to find out if the birds may have sensed

an electric signal running through the power line

before the explosion

forewarning them of the event.

[explosion]

Also out of the blue, it was like they all

of a sudden scatter and they disperse,

and it's right before we see this big explosion

on the power line.

[explosion]

So would you think that maybe there is some type

of signal running down this cable

that these birds can detect?

[narrator] Wallace has set up a power line

through which he will run 20,000 volts of electricity.

He'll then generate an electrical power surge

in the line using a ground stick

to see if it creates an electromagnetic field

that a flock of birds could react to

like they do in the footage.

[explosion]

All right. So we are energized at 20,000 volts.

Let's apply ground.

[narrator] After Wallace creates the surge,

he checks his oscilloscope.

Okay. Now this is perfect.

[narrator] This shows him the sudden increase

in electric fault current that was produced

when he touched the power line with the ground stick.

If you look on my screen here,

you get a wonderful representation

of voltage, which is your blue lines,

everything's going 20,000 volts.

And then right up in here where I get ready to start

making the contact, you start getting these purple

pulses coming down.

And you get big spikes.

So right here is where I'm making my contact.

See this big pulse of the purple going?

That's an indication

that we're starting to draw current.

So the electromagnetic field is going to start

getting greater at this point.

So therefore, this would be the area that a bird

could possibly sense, "Hey, something's fixing to happen,"

and give them a moment's notice to fly away

before disaster hits.

[narrator] A bird that can sense

the electromagnetic field getting stronger

would be able to take action and fly away

before the lethal power surge hit.

A 2018 study by the Lund University in Sweden,

found that birds might sense electromagnetism

through a protein called cryptochrome

inside their eyes.

Scientists found the sense seems to get stronger

when there is more blue light passing into their retinas.

This footage was taken towards twilight,

if it had been any darker,

they may not have been so lucky.

And as the old saying goes, "The early bird gets worms,"

well, maybe if these smart birds can sense this field,

they get away alive.

If these birds did know that this explosion

was going to happen before it did,

I mean, it makes you think

that we really should be paying a little bit more

attention to what nature is trying to tell us.

[explosions]

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Now, the Yangtze River, China.

September 2019,

a man on a ferry is shocked

as he films a massive and mysterious object

moving in the river.

Oh. [gasps]

That's freaky.

[narrator] It appears to be moving against the current

and not with it, which suggests this could be

a living thing.

This is a very interesting clip.

It looks to be a creature,

something swimming through the water.

[narrator] The creature is far bigger

than anything seen before in these waters.

Ugh! This, like, just gave me the creepiest,

crawliest...

I don't even know what it is,

but worst nightmare.

What is this giant creature?

And are there more of them out there.

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Coming up... A nearby engineering

mega monster may have unleashed a toxic terror.

Is there something that's in this river

that is transforming normal-sized creatures

into giants?

[narrator] Along the banks of the Yangtze River, China,

a man films what looks like a massive marine creature.

That's very disturbing.

[narrator] The mighty Yangtze River

is the third longest in the world.

It stretches almost 4,000 miles

from a glacier in the Tanggula Mountains in Tibet

to the East China Sea.

It's nearly twice as long as the Yukon.

But nothing like this

has ever been seen in its waters.

Carin Bondar finds the man who shot the video,

claims it was filmed in Hubei Province,

which is famous for another monster,

a manmade monolith.

Upstream from here is the Three Gorges Dam,

which is the largest hydroelectric plant

on the planet.

[narrator] Construction on the dam begins in 1994

and takes almost 20 years to finish.

One of the most beautiful places in China

is turned into an industrial city.

Once complete, it's over 7,600 feet long

and uses 35.5 million cubic yards

of concrete to build.

The stats behind this are gargantuan.

It can handle 22 million gallons of water per second

and has an output of 22,500 megawatts.

[narrator] The Chinese Government spent over

$28 billion constructing the dam.

But the cost for locals is far greater.

1.3 million people

are displaced from areas around the dam

to places where work is scarce.

There's threats of landslides and flooding.

And now, there seems to be a monster.

[narrator] Kevin Kasky suspects the creature

in the clip may have something to do

with the disruption the dam has brought to the area.

Displaced people from the Three Gorges area

have had to find alternative ways of making a living.

Some people have found that snake farming

for meat and medicines has become more profitable

than normal agriculture.

This creature could have escaped from a snake farm.

[narrator] Snake farms are big business in China.

Some people believe that eating snake meat

or other parts of a snake can have health benefits.

Parts have been used for many, many years

in ancient Chinese medicines.

And it's believed to boost the immune system

or even cure cancer.

In some populations,

cobra blood is actually used

as an aphrodisiac

where men will mix it with alcohol

as a means by which to score a little more action

with the ladies.

[glitch sounds]

[narrator] Image analyst Ben Radford

examines the surrounding features in the clip

to try and gauge the creature's size.

One of the things that we can tell from this

is that whatever it is, it's big.

Based on the size of the man standing in the foreground,

it's probably 20 to 30 ft.

[narrator] There is no native snake in the area

that grows to this length.

[Kevin] Is this an oversized anomaly?

Is there something that's in this river

that is transforming normal-sized creatures

into giants?

[narrator] Over 23 billion tons of toxic waste

is in the river as a result

of the construction of the dam.

Reports of creatures of abnormal shapes

and sizes start to emerge.

One guy caught a bright gold catfish,

had a bright white belly, it weighed over five pounds

and was over a foot long.

Another couple of fishermen caught a bizarre pointy fish,

and it could be described only

as vicious and carnivorous.

[narrator] Physician Siobhan Deshaur

wonders if chemical mutagens in the river

could have supersized the creature

native to this region.

Gigantism is a condition usually caused by a tumor

that grows in the pituitary gland.

This tumor releases higher levels of growth hormone,

and that's the hormone that is one of the predictors

of how big a creature is going to grow.

If a tumor is producing increased levels

of growth hormone, you can find creatures

that are much larger than they should be.

Many fish and reptiles continue to grow

as long as they live.

So the longer their life,

the bigger they get.

Imagine that growth being turbocharged

by a mutated pituitary gland.

There are many supersized creatures

living in the Yangtze River.

And it's possible that their size may be related

to chemical contamination of the river.

One of these creatures

is the Chinese giant salamander,

which is an amphibian that lives

in the dark mountain streams of the Yangtze River.

[Liberty] These giant Chinese salamanders

are known to be very popular in local markets.

Report show that in 1983,

a giant 10-foot salamander

was recorded in a local market

not from this area.

[narrator] Salamanders are carnivorous creatures,

feeding on fish, worms, reptiles,

and small mammals.

If this clip is evidence that one has grown

to gigantic proportions,

larger mammals maybe on the menu.

Something so large and strong,

propelling itself through the water

so close to humans, makes me wonder,

"Is this river safe?"

[narrator] Chinese authorities claim

the mysterious object is shot further away

from the dam than originally claimed.

The say it's just a large black mesh bag

that fell into the water.

It's life-like movement

caused by the powerful currents,

which can flow it over 70,000 cubic feet per second.

If there have been more secrets spills

of chemical mutagens in the river

causing marine creatures to grow to massive sizes,

the danger may not be limited to animals.

Millions of people in China rely on the Yangtze River

for drinking water and to wash their clothes.

It's very possible they're being exposed

to dangerous chemicals.

Whatever this creature is,

people living in this area may be in danger

because whatever is affecting it in the water,

may also be affecting them.