Original subtitles

[Terry] This is a vast wilderness.

[Forrest] Yeah.

[Terry] A lot of folks have lived in hills for a long time,

and there were a lot of things roaming around

-when they first got here... -Mmm-hmm.

That sometimes were unexplained.

[Forrest] There's a mystery in the wilds of Missouri

that dates back to the settlers.

[Terry] One accounting was that Daniel Boone

shot an Ozark howler.

-And you believe that? -I believe that.

[Forrest] The Ozark howler, a mysterious beast

that has defied capture and inspired legends.

[Terry] It's described as tail of a cat,

body of a dog, long-legged, nine feet when it stood on its hind legs

and very threatening.

[Forrest] And its namesake, a unique and unforgettable howl.

[Terry] Some say it's a combination of a wolf howl...

and an elk bugle.

Toward the end, it sounds like a woman screaming.

[unexplained howl]

[Forrest] My wife, Jess, and I have come to the Ozarks

to figure out, once and for all,

what these deadly mountain predators could be.

[Terry] You need to talk to a man named Andy,

and he works down at the 4J Campground.

-[Forrest] Okay. -[Terry] And he's encountered this beast

He's got some stories you'd really like to hear,

but I can't tell you enough times be very careful out there.

Because in every culture, in every tale,

every folklore, there's some amount of truth.

[Forrest] I'm Forrest Galante.

As a wildlife biologist,

tracking and rediscovering animals on the verge of extinction...

Oh, my God!

[Forrest] I've noticed a pattern of mysterious sightings

and human-wildlife conflicts...

Look, there's an elephant, there's an elephant right there.

[Forrest] Which often turned deadly.

Now my team and I are scouring the globe

to shed light on the myths and misconceptions

surrounding our planet's most...

mysterious creatures.

So this is Missouri. It is beautiful.

I was not expecting such a lush green

sort of tropical environment.

Yeah. It really looks like a jungle.

There's a ton of caves here, too.

[Forrest] It is the cave state, and if there is anywhere

where an unknown creature could hide,

it's in a state that's basically hollow under the Earth.

[Forrest] Jess and I had both heard the stories,

but the Ozark howler

always seemed about as believable as the Abominable Snowman.

[Terry] I'm not real superstitious,

but I believe in a lot of things.

[Forrest] A retired Missouri game warden named Terry

changed all of that when he reached out to us.

-I don't know what they saw. -Sure.

[Forrest] He spoke of a long history of sightings and unexplained events,

and while he never spotted one himself,

he put us in contact with a man

who claims to have had three encounters with an Ozark howler.

Hey, Forrest, how are you?

[Forrest] Yeah, good to meet you, man.

-Likewise. -Pleasure. This is my wife, Jessica.

Come to a great place. Hi, Jessica.

We heard that you've had some interesting experiences out in the woods here.

[Andy] I'm not superstitious at all. I'm a firm science believer.

I've spent a lot of time in the hills.

-Okay. -[Andy] But I've had three encounters

I can't explain.

Three of them?

I don't know what it was.

First encounter happened when I was out hunting,

and I was standing on a riverbank most of the afternoon.

Uh-huh.

And as I was getting up to leave, I heard something

crashing in the brush behind me, made a bunch of noise.

No big deal, I thought, "Well, there was a deer looking at me."

-Sure. -[Andy] And...

then I heard this sound.

I heard something howl.

[Forrest] Only canines howl.

That family includes jackals, foxes, wolves, dogs and coyotes.

Tell me about this howl.

Was it, was it like a guttural howl?

Like, really deep? What was that howl--

It was a real throaty howl,

but at a high pitch, a high pitch. And it wasn't anything small.

This wasn't a small predator. This was something large.

-I'm armed. -[Forrest] Yeah.

But I'm a bit scared,

and I wound up getting into the clearing, which felt good.

Except there was this smell left over.

-Hmm. -[Andy] And I never smelled it before in my life.

It was real musky, real just bad smell.

[Forrest] Musky smells are common in the animal kingdom.

Everything from beavers to sperm whales

produce these odors from special glands.

But every species odor is unique,

and they're often released in times of stress.

So you think there's some weight to this Ozark howler thing?

I certainly can't explain it.

-[Andy] It's changed how I operate in the outdoors. -Wow.

-You want to see the place? I'll take you out there. -[Forrest] Yeah.

We'd love to see it.

It's a good ride from here.

[Forrest] And by ride, Andy did not mean in a truck.

We're taking the settlers' route,

trekking deep into the Ozarks on a horseback.

We got a long ways to go, so let's mount up.

[Jessica] Our mission is just to figure out a real biological,

zoological answer for what's out there.

However, that howl,

I would just love to hear it

because, man, it seems to be the one common thread that everyone has.

[Forrest] The easiest places for animals to go unnoticed

or where it's most difficult for humans to reach.

[Forrest] Already, this lush, thick brush around us

would restrict almost any vehicle from passing through.

It's amazing how limited the visibility is.

I mean, you can't see 50 feet.

[Andy] It gets worse.

Just what you're looking for, Forrest?

[Forrest] It is rough country, yeah, and steep.

[Jessica] Can you imagine being one of the first settlers out here?

There's no landmarks. There's no way to get your bearings.

[Forrest] Completely unmapped, unknown wild animals, huge caverns and caves.

It's... it is like a mythical place.

[Andy] All right.

Nervous again.

[Forrest] Horses don't like it down here, Andy.

Whoo! This is it, Forrest.

[Forrest] This is the region that you had in mind, huh?

[Andy] This is the place.

Where did you see it?

[Andy] It was right here behind us,

sitting right there on that bank.

[Forrest] Perfect.

Well, let's let the horses get some water

and make camp for the night and see what we can find.

[Andy] All right.

[Forrest] Now that Andy's brought us to the exact location,

our first step is setting up a network of traps and surveillance

to capture any trace of the howler.

[Forrest] From all the reported accounts,

the howler is a mountain lion, coyote-sized animal,

so we brought mountain lion, coyote-sized trap.

I'm just going to plant this, bait it.

If there's anything coming in, check us out, check out our campfire.

Hopefully, it'll be a howler.

[Andy] This is real, real close to the place.

I don't... really don't like being back in here by myself.

It's been a few years.

This is, this is where I came out of

when I heard that thing on the riverbank.

Now...

get the camera.

[Forrest] I'm still skeptical

Andy had an experience with an unknown creature,

but whatever he saw clearly spooked him.

[Forrest] So, Andy, you know, you told us that you heard it,

but you also mentioned that you had multiple encounters.

I did.

I was deer hunting, and one morning I was walking in early

and I was a couple of hundred yards from my stand

and I smelled that smell again,

right in front of me.

And I had a little headlight on,

pulled it down off my forehead and I'm looking,

and there it was, right...

right there in the brush.

So you could see the eyes?

-I could see the eyes. -[Forrest] Yeah.

This isn't Bigfoot.

It's not six to eight feet off the ground.

I'm no fool.

-Right. -[Andy] I'm hoping it's a bear.

-Yeah. -You know, it's something I know about.

-But... -[Andy] It didn't move,

and I'm not about to turn my back on this thing and walk back to the truck.

But...

just the smell is overpowering. It's right there.

-Yeah. -And that audio of that

howl that I had heard some years prior,

it just echoed in my head right there.

[Forrest] Two experiences and two of the howler's signature traits.

Its distinctive musk and of course, the unique howl.

-[Forrest] You didn't like it, huh? -[Andy] No

-absolutely not. -Huh.

That's pretty bad.

These two experiences already.

-[Forrest] Yeah. -[Andy] But I have another.

-Yeah. -[Andy] Believe it or not, it happened to me again.

I really don't tell many people about it,

but especially some of my close friends even.

I'm going to take you there tomorrow.

We're not going tonight. I won't do it.

[Forrest] Andy made it clear that he's done for the night.

So Jess and I are going out on our own.

[Forrest] Wow! Look at the bugs out there.

Holy [bleep].

Look at them, it's like snow.

[Jessica] It is like snow.

[Forrest] Our goal is to achieve blanket surveillance

over each encounter location.

[Forrest] And these streams in the east are incredible.

You can have like 30 species of animal in one little river system.

[Forrest] Snake, snake, snake, snake.

Right there, big, big, cottonmouth.

Here we go.

Hey, buddy. Hey, buddy.

Look at this guy. What a beauty.

[Jessica] Please don't get bitten by a venomous snake.

[Forrest] Wow, this is a big cottonmouth.

Woo-hoo-hoo! Oh, no biting.

Look at that. That is a monster.

[Forrest] The cottonmouth is the world's only semi-aquatic viper,

and an adult of this size

packs more than enough venom to kill you.

[Forrest] Easy there, fella. Easy.

Look at that. He's even starting to feel a little defensive.

Coming towards you guys. I got him.

Don't worry. Don't worry.

Ooh, heads up.

Easy. Easy.

That is an incredible creature, look at him.

[Forrest] Also known as the water moccasin,

the cottonmouth spends most of its life on the water.

They live off fish, amphibians and small mammals.

Killing their prey with a single bite,

injecting their venom and swallowing it whole.

Horses don't like them.

You could tell, we're not far from camp

and the horses are freaking out.

[Forrest] Not unlike the alleged howler,

cottonmouths put out a distinctive stench.

I can smell him. You smell that horrible,

musty smell? That's their musk.

[Forrest] Turns out, the horses

maybe my most valuable detectives.

They'll detect any howlers long before we do.

-[Forrest] Beautiful animal. -Gorgeous.

If it was up to Forrest, we would stay out here literally all night.

So I'm going to end tonight on a high note.

We're going to head on back to camp,

get some sleep, so we have energy in the morning

to go check out Andy's last spot.

[Forrest] Well, that was fun.

[Forrest] Before we move on,

I need to check the traps we set last night.

[Forrest] Oh, trap's triggered, guys. Trap's triggered.

It's no howler, that's for sure.

Maybe a screecher.

Got a beautiful little North American opossum here.

Hey, buddy. Oh, you had a rough night, huh?

They have short, short lifespans.

They only live for a year and a half.

But while they are alive, they're just super voracious predators.

They've got more teeth than any other mammal on the continent.

[Forrest] Those teeth allow the opossum

to chew through almost anything,

and they're not picky.

Dead animals, bugs, trash.

These little omnivores are like the sanitation crew for the forest.

Oh, man, he's strong.

Come on. There you go.

Look at that.

I think he's just absolutely adorable.

He's missing his tail. See that?

Who knows what could have done that?

That could be from a fight.

Could be from a big predator like our howler.

I mean, you have no idea, really,

but beautiful as he is, we're gonna let him go.

So go, off you go.

[Forrest] Not the predator I was hoping to capture.

[Forrest] Look at that. Look how fast they take off up into these trees.

[Forrest] So I'm breaking down the trap and we're back in the saddle.

[Forrest] We've got another long ride ahead of us

through nearly untouched country.

[Andy] Let's... let's tie up here.

-[Forrest] Tie up here? -[Andy] Yeah.

[Forrest] The odds of Andy spotting an impossibly rare

alleged animal three times are improbable,

but he's one of very few people who trek out this deep.

And the third sighting is in a spot so remote,

not even the horses can reach it.

-[Forrest] You all right? -[Jessica] Yep.

[Andy] So you asked me about my third story,

and this is where it happened.

[Jessica] Whoa.

[Forrest] Look at that mist hanging above.

-[Andy] This is it, Forrest. -[Forrest] Yeah.

So what's the story then, Andy?

[Andy] This cave I was in by myself

a long ways back

and there it was, that smell.

[Forrest] The smell, it's the one detail

that's consistent in three completely different sightings.

-From when I heard the howl... -Yep.

From when I saw the eyes in the dark,

I instantly got chills to the bone.

-And then, what? -Very same, I left.

You just got out of there?

-I got out of there. -Have you been back since?

I've not.

That's it. I was not coming back.

You just decided you weren't coming back?

-Done. -[Forrest] Understood.

Had enough experience already.

Are you willing to go in it now?

If you'll take the lead.

-I'll go. -Okay.

-All right, let's do it. -All right, let's go. Gear up, guys.

[Forrest] This is just one of the over 7,400 caves and caverns

that lie hidden beneath the surface of Missouri.

These hollowed-out cavities crisscross beneath the Ozarks in nearly every direction.

Many have never been explored,

increasing the possibilities of new and undiscovered organisms,

and according to Andy,

maybe even an Ozark howler.

[Forrest] Oh, look at this, Jess.

-[Jessica] Oh, wow. -[Forrest] Beautiful little cave salamander.

These guys are just so beautiful.

They hang out in these caves and they're out of that oppressive heat.

There's another one here, right here.

And it's just such a perfect environment for them in here.

It's a good sign that there's life in here,

even by the mouth of the cave, so.

Super cool.

Ooh, this water's freezing.

[Jessica] Definitely a bit cooler back here.

[Andy] Hey, come, look at this.

-It's a bed site. -[Andy] This is a bear bed...

-Oh, cool. -[Andy] Right here.

[Andy speaking]

-[Forrest] So this is millions of years old? -[Andy] Thousands.

-[Forrest] That's incredible. -[Andy] They mined out this clay to...

[Forrest] This was likely the bed of a giant short-faced bear.

The last one died over 15,000 years ago.

But it tells us larger mammals like the howler could survive here.

[Forrest] Mitch, come here.

So we're half an hour into the cave already.

You'd think, you know, that's the end of the life.

But look here,

there's tracks right here.

Scratch marks on the side of the cave.

This is showing me, it's large mammals.

In this case, raccoons come this far into the cave.

So that's an indication that this is not a one-way cave,

it's a two-way cave.

So if we just keep going,

we might be able to get to the end of it.

[Andy] It was really close to here,

like one more turn,

and that's where I smelled the smell.

[Andy] Hey, Forrest,

look at the size of these claw marks here.

-[Forrest] Oh, yeah, look at that. -[Andy] Huge.

[Forrest] Huge claw marks.

Look at the diameter of the nail on that animal.

Those are huge.

[Forrest] Both bears and big cats have claws that size,

and possibly the Ozark howler.

[Forrest] So that's about as far as you've been?

[Andy] This is it.

[Forrest] We've reached the third sighting.

Andy is feeling uneasy but willing to push on.

[Forrest] Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Jessica, come up here.

Look here,

small pieces of vertebrae and the jawbone.

Look at that.

[Jessica] There's more up here.

[Forrest] Where?

[Forrest] Oh, my goodness, this is a midden site.

[Forrest] A midden site refers to collected garbage.

You can tell a lot about a creature by what it's discarded.

[Forrest] But a deer wouldn't come in here on its own accord,

it's way too far. There's nothing to eat.

It's far too cold.

So what that means is something is actually...

dragged a kill all the way in here.

[Forrest] This is not just from one animal.

-[Jessica] Yeah. -[Forrest] This was something's den area.

Whatever brought those in here was

-fairly large. -[Forrest] Absolutely.

Let's push on just a little bit.

I'm sure that this cave goes through.

There wouldn't be all these mammal tracks in here

if it didn't go all the way through.

[Forrest] But pushing any further

means crawling through the most narrow pass yet.

We don't know exactly what Andy saw,

but whatever it is...

[Forrest] Let me get my backpack on.

[Forrest] It may be waiting for us on the other end of this cave.

[Duster] All right, Forrest, it's tight, man.

[Forrest] Okay, I'm coming.

[Jessica] Hand me the camera.

[Duster] Yeah. Can you grab the camera?

[indistinct chattering]

-[Duster] Can you get that? -[Jessica] Yeah.

[Forrest] It's super tight, but I can already feel the temperature rising.

We're getting close to an exit.

[Jessica] Do you smell that?

[Jessica] Whoo.

-Do you smell that? -Shh.

[Forrest] The odor is strong, but that's no musk.

We're walking right into the stench of death.

Look at this, guys. Guys, you can come in. It's all right.

A little dead deer.

It's a little male and he has died,

I don't know, either from falling off the cliff or disease.

I thought maybe something had made a kill,

but it is perfectly intact.

There's no gash wounds. There's no...

-[Forrest] Nothing. Look. -[Andy] Nothing's... nothing's been here.

[Forrest] Nature's cleanup crew isn't even here.

There's no big predator

that's come to eat and scavenge off of this carcass.

It's a sign of really unbalanced ecosystem.

It is, yeah. It's missing an alpha predator

or something that would pick off the weak,

the wounded and the diseased.

[Forrest] The cave didn't reveal any clues leading to a howler,

but it did reveal a significant weakness in this ecosystem,

the lack of apex predators.

I'm thinking there could be a connection.

Now that Andy's heading home,

Jess and I are going to expand our search and take to the water.

[Forrest] All right.

What we need to do is cover more ground on the water.

From little fold up bags to origami canoes.

[Forrest] While the revolutionary fold up design

was inspired by Japanese origami,

these are not made of paper.

However, these marine-grade materials

are almost as light,

making travel easy

and can be constructed in just a few minutes.

-Ready to go? -[Jessica] Yeah.

Being on the water just gives you

an entirely different perspective.

[Forrest] Large predators need to drink,

and thankfully the soft riverbed is covered in clues,

telling us exactly who's been here.

What we're looking for is a predator, a big carnivore.

That's definitely a game trail coming down.

[Forrest] A game trail for sure.

Raccoon, deer, possum, skunk.

[Forrest] Unfortunately, we're not seeing any tracks we don't recognize.

[Jessica] These are the perfect...

My guess would be the raccoons actually come down to hunt for turtles.

Look at this guy right here.

This is a stinkpot,

also known as a musk turtle.

This is one of North America's smallest turtles.

See, they're very cheeky.

[Jessica] This is actually a big one.

[Forrest] Yeah, he's a monster.

And this is a big, stinky one. You smell that?

I could smell him from here, yeah.

Yeah, that's where the name musk turtle comes from,

and they put off that terrible stink

as a predator-deterrent.

[Jessica] Look at that head.

It's so prehistoric. Looks like a dinosaur.

It is a little dinosaur.

[Forrest] We've now covered a significant amount of ground with no clues.

It's not just the Ozark howler we're not finding,

we're not finding any large predators,

that's extremely unusual with so much prey available.

It's starting to feel like we're chasing our own tail.

Right now, we're heading back to camp to check our trail cams.

We need a better plan.

[Forrest] Whoa, whoa.

Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Shh.

It's all right. It's all right. It's all right.

All right. Settle down, settle down, settle down. Settle down.

-Are you okay? -[Jessica] Something's freaking them out, For.

They didn't want to go that way any further.

[Jessica] I wonder what's upwind of us.

Yeah. Okay, let's just go on foot.

[Forrest] Guys, everybody else hang back.

So we're following this game trail right here.

You can kind of see as it curves

through this open wooded area.

We got it now.

[bleep]. Back up, back up, back up, back up. Back up, back up.

Keep going back, keep moving back.

[Mitch] Okay. Okay. I'm rolling. I'm rolling.

-[indistinct chattering] -[bleep]

Stop, stop, stop.

Okay. [bleep]. [bleep].

Back up, back up, back up. Back up, back up, back up.

Keep backing up, keep backing up, keep backing up.

A big North American black bear.

Hey there. Hey there.

He knows we're here.

Back up, back up, back up.

This way, this way. Into the ravine,

into the ravine, into the ravine.

Okay. Let's go. Leave it. Leave it.

All right. Let him go. He's trying to come this way.

He's trying to come this way. Keep going. He's on us.

[Forrest] Yep.

Just stay there, stay there.

[Mitch] Oh, she's coming at me. Forrest.

[Forrest] All right. Yep. He's on us. [bleep]. He's on us. Let's bail out.

[Mitch] Forrest, he's coming at me. Forrest.

[Forrest] Just stay there, stay there, stay there.

Stay there. Stay there. There he goes.

[Forrest] Whoo!

Just took off.

[Forrest] You okay?

[Mitch speaking]

[Forrest] What happened?

Well, just walking through the woods

-and came up about a bear. -[Forrest] That was really close.

[Forrest] American black bears are more likely to attack than a brown bear.

And while their diet is mostly made up of berries and nuts,

their powerful claws and vicious teeth

are perfect for tearing off flesh.

Attacks on humans are often over territory

rather than a meal,

but some have resulted in death.

I always tell people how like,

don't be afraid of bears, they're not interested in you.

That bear was definitely interested in us.

We are not going that way.

-[Jessica] What did you see? -There's a huge black bear bull

-running around down there. -[Jessica] Wow.

He came right up on Mitch and I.

-Really? -Yeah, like... like 15 feet away at one point.

That's crazy.

[Forrest] Jess and I managed to collect

all the trail camera memory cards

just as some rain started rolling in.

[Forrest] All right. Let's take a look.

-Oh, there's the little possum. -[Jessica] Yeah.

[Forrest] It's probably the same one that we caught in the trap.

[Jessica] Oh, deer.

[Forrest] See, look at him coming right up to the camera.

[Jessica] Yeah. Definitely, thought that was an armadillo at first,

oscillated feathers tipped over like that.

-[Forrest] It's indeed a turkey. -Turkey.

I think it's fogging up in here.

[Jessica] Can I say we're steamy?

[Forrest] Oh, wow. Look at all those turkey vultures.

[Jessica] Why do you think there are so many vultures?

There's just tons of animals

in this area that are sick and weakly and dying,

and no big apex predators to take out the weak and the wounded.

And that's a problem because that's how disease spreads.

Lots of mid food chain, just no alpha predators at all.

[Jessica] We know there's bears here,

but bears aren't really like...

-It's not a predator. -[Jessica] Yeah.

I mean, this opossum is just going to chow town

and it is, like, completely oblivious to his surroundings.

It's like he's never even seen a predator before in his life.

What that's telling me is this habitat

is missing its apex creature, its top predator

that should scare away all of these other creatures.

And that predator is likely what people

are used to seeing scarcely

and considering to be the Ozark howler.

[Forrest] We spotted a home or what looks like a home

on the other side of the valley.

I would love to ask a year-round local about the howler, and at this point,

I'm going for broke.

[Forrest] It doesn't look like anyone's here.

Hello.

[Sutt speaking]

[bleep].

[Forrest] We're just walking through this area, just saw the cabin--

want to say hello. Guys, turn the cameras off.

Turn them off.

I know it sounds ridiculous, we're making a TV show.

[Sutt speaking]

[Forrest] Yes, sir.

[Sutt speaking]

[Forrest] All right, thank you.

Jessica, come.

It just seems so sketchy.

-I'm Forrest. -I'm Sutt Tudersal.

-Sutt? -Yeah.

-Nice to meet you. -Glad to meet you.

Thanks for not shooting me.

Well, thanks for not calling the cops.

[Forrest] Yeah. You got it.

Yeah, no, no cops here. I promise. I promise.

-This is my wife, Jessica. -Hello.

I'm not really sure about having the cameras in here,

you know, with all the distilling stuff and everything.

-Oh, I... you're making moonshine? -[Sutt] Yeah.

-I gotcha. -That's kind of a family business from way back.

-Uh-huh. -And we don't like people catching us.

Okay.

[Forrest] Sutt is not just off the grid.

He's a moonshiner straight out of the Ozark history books.

Moonshining has deep roots in these mountains

and reach peak production during prohibition.

But making moonshine for sale without a license remains illegal to this day.

[Sutt] As long as you don't give away my position, I'm good.

-Secret's safe with us. -Secret's safe with us.

Let's talk. You might as well sample a little bit of the product here.

This is cran-apple.

-Cranberry, apple moonshine? -[Sutt] Right.

Ooh, smells strong.

-You make this right here? -Yes, sir.

-[Sutt] It'll sneak up on you. -Yeah.

Oh, wow. Yeah, that's like candy.

This is just regular apple pie.

Ooh, this one smells stronger.

Just the cinnamon, I think.

Try this one here. This is lemonade.

Lemonade.

[Forrest] Yeah! I'm sorry.

I wasn't expecting that. Yeah.

Here, guys. Try this. Taste this.

It's delicious.

Just try. You'll be fine. Yeah, we've been--

-[Jessica] He's working. -He's fine.

-[Jessica] He's on the clock. -He's fine. Just try it. It's delicious.

Yeah. Like, five days we've been living in a tent down by the river.

It's his first time. I'm sorry.

He's...he's not familiar with how bottle's work.

[Sutt speaking]

Are you ever out here and you hear things you can't explain...

-Oh, yeah. -That are, like, kind of give you the creeps?

Yeah, there's stuff makes noises that just, you know,

large noises that I don't know what they are.

You know, this is a TV show, but I'm a biologist.

-Okay. -And what I'm trying to investigate,

Jess and I, is to try and figure out if there's any sort of truth

behind this Ozark howler thing.

Oh, there's truth behind it.

There really is an Ozark howler, but we used to kind of

build on it a little bit to keep people away.

-What do you mean? -Well, when people come poking around

and wasn't supposed to be here, you could go out in the woods,

make the noise, squall a little bit and howl,

and they'd go back town and tell everybody else

-and then nobody would come out. -[Forrest] No kidding.

So you'd hide in the woods and make noise to scare people away?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

A lot of [bleep], lot of moonshiners used to do that.

My grandpa, he used to go out there and he'd squall and howl

'cause he just enjoyed scaring people off.

So he would just howl with his voice or use--

Oh, he had growlers he made.

I got a couple of the old ones here. Yeah.

-No way. -Oh, this is great.

This is a growler.

-Oh, wow. -Oh.

You guys getting this?

That's amazing.

That's literally, like, making that hair on my arms stand up.

It's just a bucket and a piece of string.

[Stutt] Yeah. He also used to howl along with that.

He started out like a cat squall and end up with a wolf howl.

-Can you do it? -Oh, not as good as he did, but--

[Forrest] Oh, come on, give it a whirl.

[howling]

It's fantastic. We should... Do you have your phone on you?

-Oh, I do. -Can we record that?

I want to play that for Andy and see if that's what he heard,

but you said you haven't done it lately.

No, not lately.

Okay.

There you go.

[howling]

Before we started howling and looking at the tools

and the growling bucket and all of that,

you said something interesting.

You said it's real.

Right.

I know because my granddaddy shot one.

[Forrest] Oh, wow.

[Jessica] Look at that view.

Whoa.

[Forrest] That is quite a valley.

Guys, grab your climbing stuff.

[Jessica] All right, I'm ready.

[Forrest] You ready to start going backwards?

-[Jessica] Yes. -[Forrest] You sure?

Let's do this.

[Forrest] Jess, you just never let go of that rope. Okay, love?

[Jessica] We're gonna do this together?

[Forrest] On three, you ready?

-[Jessica] Okay. One, two, three. -[Forrest] Two, three.

[howling]

[Forrest] You said something interesting.

You said it's real.

Right.

I know because my granddaddy shot one.

-No, he didn't. -Yeah, he did.

-What do you mean? -I've got the fur.

-You've got the fur? -Correct.

-Here? -Actual pelt?

-Right here. -No way.

And the skull.

-May I please see it? -Yes, go ahead.

-[Forrest] It's a canine. -[Jessica] Definitely a canine.

[Forrest] Yeah.

That's the pelt from a howler?

[Sutt] That's it.

You're kidding me?

That's what my grandpa, that's what he took off of it.

He killed a howler, this is it?

-Yeah. -Wow. How old is this, Sutt?

Oh, gosh,

that was in mid-'20s. So that'd have to be...

Yeah, 100 years old.

He's kept it rolled up in the trunk for all this time.

[Forrest] We literally stumbled upon a moonshiner,

and an hour later,

Jess and I are holding bone and tissue samples

of a 90-year-old creature that was believed to be a howler.

Sorry, this is, this is...

We have been going dead end after dead end here

and you're showing me something, and I know what I'm looking at here.

My opinion, and I think Jessica's too,

is that this isn't a howler, so to speak,

but it is a creature.

-It does howl. -I believe this could be from

an extinct species from the area,

the North American red wolf.

[Forrest] American red wolves

once ran wild across the southeastern US and as far west as Texas.

They look almost like a gray wolf crossed with a coyote,

but with a distinctive reddish coat.

Unfortunately, aggressive hunting and habitat destruction

over the past hundred years have virtually eliminated them in the wild.

[Jessica] You've obviously had this pelt for a long time,

but would you mind if we took just a little tiny bit of it and...

-Yeah. -Get some DNA?

Just a sample to test it.

[Jessica] I'm just going to tweeze a little bit

and I'm just going to cut a tiny bit off of it.

[Forrest] Jessica is a fantastic zoologist,

so we'll... we'll really be able to take a close look at this

and understand what we're looking at here.

There we go.

Well, cheers to you, Sutt. Thank you very much for having us.

This is, this is hilarious.

Guys, have some manners here, for God's sake. Come on now.

You get the strong ones.

Cheers, guys.

[Forrest] Running into Sutt was an incredible stroke of luck

and more than worthy of celebration.

[Sutt speaking]

[Forrest] There are fewer than 20 red wolves remaining in the wild,

none of which are known to live in the Ozarks.

Something that rare could easily be mistaken for a mystery animal.

We've arranged to meet some red wolves up close

here at the Endangered Wolf Center.

This is one of our American red wolf habitats.

-[Forrest] Oh, they're so pretty. -[Jessica] Wow.

[Regina] You guys now are looking

at the most endangered wolf in the entire world.

[Forrest] This is the first facility in the world

to successfully breed red wolves.

It's like emotion-provoking to stand here and see these animals.

[Forrest] As beautiful as your enclosures are, they shouldn't be in them.

They should be running around Missouri.

You know, we went through this beautiful country,

this habitat that looks so pristine and wild,

but it's missing something so important, an apex predator.

It's just terrible on the ecosystem.

Yep. And that's why we're working so hard

to bring back this national treasure.

[Forrest] Jess and I are lucky enough to be out here

at feeding time, and we're taking cover in a blind.

[Jessica] There's this really common misconception that

if you have wolves, then there's going to be no more deer.

But it's actually the opposite

because wolves are so good at managing the population that

deer that are suffering from, for example, wasting disease.

[Forrest] Well, we found that deer carcass,

it was gross, it was gangrenous.

There was no cleanup crew.

Look at these guys.

You could see the critically important service

that they perform to the wild world.

They're out there getting rid of the sick and the weak

and keep everything in balance.

-[Forrest] Thanks for coming in. -[Andy] Hi.

[Andy] Good morning, Forrest.

-Yeah. How are you today? -Good to see you, man. Glad you survived.

[Forrest] Now that we've seen the red wolves for ourselves,

I invited Andy to join us.

Jess and I want to see how he responds

when he gets a whiff of the red wolf's distinctive musk.

[Andy] Yeah, that's the smell.

-That smells the same? -That's the same.

No kidding?

[Andy] Real musty but not dead.

Almost skunk like.

-Are you getting that heavy, thick... -[Andy] It's heavy.

It's that canine smell, that's amazing.

So exciting, man. How cool is that?

So what I want to try to do is

I'm going to play a locator howl

from a different wolf recording

and see if we can get them to talk back.

[Forrest] This is our chance to hear what Jess and I believe

is likely the legendary call of the Ozark howler.

[Forrest] Nothing. No response.

I want to try something different,

I'm going to play the recording Jess made

of the moonshiner doing the Ozark howl.

[Sutt's howl]

That's it.

-Sounds the same? -That's that sound.

-Yeah, it is. -This is it, right here. This is it.

And you potentially had an encounter with a wild one.

-Yes. -You might be the luckiest guy in North America.

-I'd like to think so. -That is amazing.

[Andy] It's something I never had experience with, and now I could say I do.

I know what it was.

[Forrest] Well, I'm so glad we could put a button on this, man.

I mean, that is absolutely amazing.

-Thank you so much. -Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me up here. This... this fixes it.

[Forrest] Andy's confirmed our suspicions,

and Regina has a very special treat for us.

[Forrest] One, two, three.

Oh, look at them.

Look at that. How precious is this guy?

[Forrest] Jess and I are helping out on a wellness check

with some of their wolf puppies.

-Can I have him? -No.

[Forrest] Along with weight and measurements,

Regina and her team previously tagged each pup

with a microchip so they can confirm their identity.

These are critically endangered,

federally protected animals,

and so we want to make sure that that we're giving them the best leg up possible

to help make sure that they can stay as healthy as possible.

So these are the same vaccines

that typically your dog would be getting at your veterinarian's office.

All right, Forrest, he's all yours.

Open up. Open up.

Come on. There he is.

Yucky.

Wolves don't like banana.

Oh.

I mean, it's amazing to have this kind of heavy, musty smell.

It's sort of, you know, that smell of the den and the litter,

it's got that kind of thick air dog smell, if you will.

Yeah, it's very unique, and that's one of the ways that the puppies can identify

where mom is and mom can identify where the puppies is.

So smell is really really important for wolf communication.

[Jessica] Pretty amazing to be holding

a critically endangered wolf puppy right now.

[Forrest] It's just such an amazing experience

to get to work with such rare,

stunning, beautiful animals.

Really, really special.

[Forrest] Just one more test to run, and Regina's offered her lab

for Jess and I to test the hair and tissue samples from Sutt.

Now we can confirm if the fur of the Ozark howler

that his grandfather shot in the 1920s

matches up with an American red wolf.

[Jessica] Canine hairs have almost

like a living center to them, a medulla.

So it's pretty easy to tell right off the bat,

these are both canine hairs.

[Forrest] The hairs are a match, just as we suspected.

The sounds align with the howls.

The smell, according to Andy, aligns perfectly.

The hairs match very similarly.

More or less, everything is aligning

to say that the Ozark howler is a real creature.

[Forrest] The Ozarks are incredible, wild, rugged habitat,

filled with amazing, colorful characters and incredible creatures,

but one creature is missing from this ecosystem,

the apex predator, the real Ozark howler.

And while those stories may be embellished

by people like Sutt's grandfather,

we confirmed from the hair sample that we collected

that the "Ozark howler"

is actually the North American red wolf,

an amazing apex predator that's population is down to only 245 individuals.

But with the help of committed organizations

like the Endangered Wolf Center,

the long, hard work of repopulation can proceed.

And one day,

these woods may be filled with the howls

of that incredible creature again,

at home, in an intact ecosystem.