Original subtitles

Deep within the Ozark Mountains,

a vicious creature lurks beneath the earth.

Everybody's seen something that they can't explain.

It surfaces to slaughter livestock

and terrorize local residents.

It definitely looks more reptilian and not a mammal.

With a long, sharp tail...

and huge clawed feet.

I emptied that rifle, still didn't seem to faze it.

Hold on, hold on, I hear something. - Stop, stop.

Tormenting the region since the 1800s...

the monster is believed to den

in the underbelly of the Ozarks.

Something has definitely been here before.

And sightings of the creature known as gowrow...

Oh, my God, is that what I think it is?

...continue to be on the rise.

Right there, right there, he's going in the hole.

Ssh! Guys, guys, guys, guys.

In mid-20th century,

scientist Ivan Sanderson set out to separate

fact from fiction.

He investigated hundreds of frightening encounters

with unexplained creatures around the world.

My next guest tonight is one of the world's leading naturalists,

accumulating material for some 30 years.

As the founder of cryptozoology,

he built the most extensive archive

of unclassified creatures on Earth.

There seem to be a lot of these creatures

in our continent, in South America and Africa,

and all of Asia.

But following his death in the 1970s,

that archive disappeared...

until now.

Armed with modern tech and Sanderson's lost research...

We need to take this and compare it

to what's in the archives.

...a team of experts will reinvestigate

his unexplained cases

using up-to-the-minute research

and predator expertise.

I've never seen wildlife do this.

There's nothing like that that should be doing that here.

Holy.

Can Sanderson's files

lead to an incredible new insight...

...and take another creature from myth...

Did you see that?

...to reality?

Sanderson spent a not insignificant amount of time

towards the end of his life looking into the Ozarks.

More specifically, the caves in that region.

"A long, spiny back creature,

approximately 10 to 12 feet long,

in a deep section of the river

near several sunken car bodies"?

He'd been knocking on the door of a major discovery

of a reptile, a large one,

all the way up until his death in '73.

The last entry in his report here

inside the binder was updated in 1972.

There are a number of unexplored regions of our, uh, universe.

In the summer of 1969, I began correspondence

with, uh, Lawrence High of Kansas City, Missouri.

He wrote to me that in the seemingly endless caverns of the Ozarks,

there have been numerous recent sightings

of a mysterious reptilian creature.

And now, considering it is not too far north, uh, climatically

and there are still enormous areas

of North and South America

that have not been professionally collected,

might it be possible that there is an indigenous,

large, semi-aquatic lizard in this area?

Sanderson was on the team who discovered

the bioluminescent salamander.

And they actually named the cave

in the area after him.

And I remember him talking a lot about

the possibility of other known undiscovered species

living in the cave systems.

So, I got a guy I think you might wanna talk to.

His name is Lee.

He's seeing some sort of large reptilian creature,

he doesn't know what it is, on his property.

And he believes

it might be the creature they call the gowrow.

Reports of the gowrow date back to 1880

and describe a 20-foot long, cave-dwelling ophidian

with pointed spines on its back

and a knife-like tail.

Accounts went dormant at the turn of the century,

but there's been a recent uptick in the Ozarks.

The first time the term "gowrow" appeared...

describing this reptilian creature

was 1897 in this article.

On top of that original gowrow,

we also had the one, if you remember, of 1935

with Mr. Muff, who shot at the gowrow.

This one charged at him,

and he unloaded all of his barrels

into this thing, and it still came at him.

If I'm not mistaken, it's not far from where Lee actually lives

and is having these encounters.

One of the things that has endeared me to Ivan Sanderson's research

is his refusal to accept that we know everything.

We have a century's worth of sightings of the gowrow,

and we have Sanderson's belief that hidden animal species

could be dwelling in the caves of the Ozarks.

For me, this is an amazing opportunity

to continue Sanderson's work.

So, we're heading to the Ozarks.

Brittany and I are going to meet up with Troy and Justin,

and speak with the eyewitnesses.

We're hoping to determine once and for all

what the gowrow might be.

These creatures, while descendants

of their terrestrial relatives,

have evolved to withstand

and perhaps even thrive in the depths of caverns.

They lose primary organs,

such as eyes, and mature to blindness.

Surviving in the thick of any number of uncharted cave systems

with subterranean shelter and evolution,

anything is possible.

Sanderson actually was super into caves,

and this area has hundreds of miles of uncharted caves.

That sort of fed his belief that, you know,

there are creatures out there.

The Ozark Highlands

is a 47,000-mile mountain range

that stretches over Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma,

with numerous rivers, lakes and countless unexplored caves.

The sweeping peaks and low valleys

are the habitats to bobcats, coyotes, large rafters,

and consistent sightings of panthers.

With many of the caves uncharted,

locals believe that other undiscovered predators

may be lurking in the darkness.

Through all the collective accounts,

they are seeing very similar creature.

And Lee has had the most amount of accounts on his property.

The description of this creature is just fascinating

because the body structure is extremely unique,

a reptilian-type species with large tusks,

on all fours, with a super long tail,

and notably, spikes that ran down its back and on its tail.

So then, essentially, we're looking for Bowser.

Hold on.

All right, guys, so we're here.

- Hi, Lee. - Hello.

How are ya?

Thank you for meeting with us.

My name is Lee Evans.

I've been here pretty much all my life off and on.

I did a lot of hunting when I was a younger man.

Well, I've spent enough time outdoors

that I know what kind of animals I'm gonna see when I'm outside.

I know that you've had multiple encounters on your property.

Would you mind kind of walking us through

what those encounters look like?

No, I don't mind at all.

There's so many of 'em,

I don't even know where to start.

My kids and grandkids were over,

and the grandkids had gone down to the pond, and...

...they come running back up after about 15 minutes,

and they were hollering, "Poppy, Poppy!"

I went down there.

And there was something in the pond

that was just rolling and boiling the water.

Definitely looks more reptilian and not a mammal.

And you could see the definition of the muscles. - Yeah.

Um, so I went in the house,

I got my rifle, I come outside,

and I pumped 19 shots into whatever that was.

Didn't faze it.

I didn't even see blood.

And then, you know you hit it?

Oh, definitely hit it. Uh, I'm a veteran.

I'm... I'm trained to hit the target.

Arkansas is also known for caves.

Yes.

Do you know of any in this area?

There are a few.

There's not really any...

real close by my property that I know of. - Okay.

Can I ask you where exactly this happened?

What I'm gonna do is I'll have them sit with you,

and then I'll have me and Troy walk around the property,

if... if that's okay with you?

Yeah. There's a pond right over here.

All right.

So, the culprits in that waterway

that we would be looking at,

thinking about it being something that he would see

would be an alligator snapping turtle,

a large alligator, and...

I can't think of anything else

that would be big in that water.

Alligators is not indigenous to this part of Arkansas.

While alligators are prevalent

over 80 miles from Lee's farm in southern Arkansas,

they are incapable of migrating long distances on land.

With short legs and a torso that drags along the ground,

they can only travel about a mile per day,

and depend on waterways to help them move swiftly.

There are miles of land

between here and the nearest water source.

It would be very unlikely

for an alligator to migrate up here.

But if a reptile like Lee is describing

is on this property, it's gonna be in that pond.

All right, so I guess what we'll do is we'll case the property,

look for any evidence of anything large

moving through, any predator.

What we're looking for down here

is any type of behavior

from something large, a large predator in the area.

Rather it be whatever he thought he saw-- - A slide.

A slide, a den, a hole.

There's a lot of animals

in the water that will kinda, you know, use the shoreline

or dead trees or trees that are living,

and they'll dig up underneath that.

And if we're looking at something like an alligator snapping turtle,

they can hold their breath a long, long time.

Alligator snapping turtles

are the largest known freshwater turtles

in the Western Hemisphere.

With spiked ridges along its thick shell

and an elongated tail,

the testudino can weigh over 300 pounds.

Their powerful jaws exert a bite force of 1,000 pounds per square inch,

snapping through logs or human arm with ease.

So, you're getting in the water.

I'm getting in the water?

I'm not getting in the water.

I gotta get in the water? - Yes, sir.

I'm dipping biscuits?

- Always. You always do. - I'm making it now.

You always do. Let's just do it.

I've tracked and captured all different kinds of animals.

All right, we're talking about alligators, crocodiles,

a lot of invasive species.

I tend to remain extremely calm

no matter what the situation is,

and that, I think, has saved my life on countless occasions.

As far as all these different witness accounts

and the uptick in the witness accounts,

I just wanna know what the hell people are saying.

Let me bury my feet.

Lee mentioned that he shot what he thought

was the gowrow in the pond.

So, Justin's gonna dive into that pond where it was last seen

and look for any signs of whether it's dead or alive.

If anything were to happen...

there's few people in this world that I trust to have my back.

One of them is standing right in front of me.

So, if anything goes down and I need help,

he will get his ass in the water.

I will.

Now, what I'm doing is I'm digging down

as far as I can with the mud,

so that if there's anything big,

it will be buried and hunkered down in there.

So, you really do have to be careful.

It is extremely dangerous.

There's no visibility whatsoever,

so what I have to do is use my appendages to feel what's in there.

Just grab my gray Flexfit hat 'cause I'mma go under.

Switch.

Thanks.

So, if there is a gowrow, or whatever the hell it is,

or an alligator, or anything,

this would be the dumbest way to do what I'm about to do.

Predators will leave remnants

of what they've been doing anywhere they are.

If anything's alive or dead in that pond, Justin will find it.

I can't, Troy!

Dude, I up, but...

- Troy! - Bring it here.

Why are you staring at me? Come get me.

Because I know you're good.

It's dragging me under. Oh, God!

All right, well...

That's amazing, dude.

What do we have, a little red-eared slider?

Giant predator you've all been looking for.

He's a predator.

Baby.

Oh, stop biting me, boy.

Look at that.

That, my friends, is the gowrow.

Case closed.

I mean, frankly,

we might not be dealing with the gowrow here. - What is he doing?

Don't be drinking that stuff, man.

Okay, hey, bud.

I scaled the whole thing.

I've gone back and forth.

There's no carcass in here.

Right there, right under that tree,

the farther I dig, the colder it gets.

It looks like this thing may be actually spring fed.

It's colder.

Well, that means that there's an aquifer

and there's an opening under here,

and it could go anywhere.

So, if you think of an aquifer,

it's a big underwater cave

that moves water all underneath everybody and everywhere.

Over 30% of Earth's freshwater is underground.

Aquifers are natural formations

that connect underground water systems

to the surface through natural springs.

All right, so if I get past the soot and,

can you see the small bubbles?

Okay, here we go. Watch this. Watch it. - Yeah, yeah.

That's freshwater coming up.

That's incredible!

This means that there are large cavities...

definitely filled with water on this property. - Okay.

So, my guess is that the cavity that we're standing above

is connected to other cave systems.

So, what this means is that there's water

coming from an unknown source.

We don't know what's filling the aquifer.

Whether it's a cave or a other source of water.

The creature could be using it

to travel in and out of this area.

We have to go find that source.

It could help lead us directly to this mysterious creature.

- Drew. - Hey, Charlie.

After discovering aquifers in the pond

where the mysterious creature was last seen

and no notable caves listed on maps of the area,

Charlie contacts a local hydrologist

to find a cave mouth that could connect to Lee's pond.

Drew Westerman, I'm a hydrologist

for the federal government. I get to study, uh,

how water moves both above and below ground.

I'm a caver at heart.

I've been following my dad through caves

since I was about 14.

And so I've been both studying

and exploring caves my whole life.

Here's the geological survey I've got for you.

Yeah.

So, if we follow this river,

we know that there are all kinds of springs,

caves along this area.

- Okay. - Unfortunately, we don't know

where all the caves are.

But what we do know in that area...

we need to focus on right here.

- Okay. - Right here. All right?

Along this river, we have lots of springs,

notable springs that are contributing flow

that are coming out of cave systems.

Well, the farm we were at is right here.

- And it's close. - Right?

I would be willing to bet you are sitting

on top of a large cave system

that you just haven't found yet.

Putting all the pieces together,

knowing what we know now,

there's a cave system under Lee's ponds.

According to legends,

the gowrow was a cave creature,

and Sanderson believed that these caves

could support previously undiscovered life.

So, our next steps are obviously trying to go underground.

We just have to find the entrance.

Okay. How do we get in there?

I think I can get you to the nearest access point

that may get you into a large underground cavern.

I believe we will uncover

a great number of discoveries

in the darkness of the Ozark Caverns.

In my eyewitness research, I detailed an explorer

that was scouring the Arkansas underground

when he came upon a large reptilian creature

that was nine feet long.

In fear of his life, he rappelled back up

the cave opening to escape.

Now, this is merely one account of many.

Are we going the right way? - No, here.

This way. There's a runoff. We're good here.

- Let's go. - Oh. Okay.

The next morning,

the team heads off to the northern side of the Ozark forest,

an area marked by Drew, the hydrologist,

as the location of hidden caves.

Honestly, guys, based off of Ivan Sanderson's work

with the cave systems in Arkansas,

if what Drew is saying is right,

we might actually stumble upon an entrance point

that would literally validate the neo dinosaur

or the theory of the gowrow for me.

But we need to find a cave

and find if there's food and water inside

said cave, if we find a cave.

In order to find a cryptid

to remain hidden for so long,

they need to live in a habitat that is hard to find.

So, if we find hidden caves in this region,

that could mean there is life coming and going, sustainable life,

which means any large predator

would be using that life to feed on

and utilize as a place and resource for it to live, thrive and survive.

We gotta go up into that manhole.

Yeah, there was a path over there I was trying to hit.

Longer and get more out.

This is it?

Uh, that's definitely a cave entrance, guys.

- Okay. - We need to mark where we've been...

- Okay. - ...so that we can find our way back out

if we get turned around.

- We have maps to start with. - Okay.

Yeah, we got glow sticks.

And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I do think we should stick with the glow sticks.

Well, I'm gonna bring those, too.

Let's do it.

We're gonna have to get some lights on,

seeing that it's getting dark. - Yeah, lights.

Lights, lights.

So, a few high-level goals for going into the caves,

one, identify any potential signs of life.

Two, water.

If we can find an entry point to the pond

that connects to this cave,

the creature could be using that,

and maybe we can track it back to its den.

Whoa, this is wild, dude.

Yo, let's keep, uh, low voices. - Yeah.

- Guys? - Yeah.

We split up, I'll take Brittany, you take Charlie.

Run it as quickly as possible.

We'll take the short, tiny one.

Whoever gets back first, just wait, all right?

Not knowing which passageway

could connect to Lee's pond, the team decides to split up.

Justin and Brittany head down the southern passageway,

while Troy and Justin head into the northern tunnel.

There's an opening here.

We need to focus on being quick here.

Realistically, this could be something's home.

So, we have a very special tool at our disposal.

It's a spherical 360 camera,

and usually, it's used in military

and law enforcement situations.

You throw it into the space that you want to investigate

before walking in...

It's big in there.

It opens up.

It's huge in there.

What is that? Is that a hole?

I don't know what that is.

...so you're immediately aware of any potential dangers.

It's instant situational awareness.

You all right?

Whoa! It's crazy in here, Charlie.

Yeah?

Holy smokes. It really opens up.

It does.

Jeez!

- You know what this is? - No.

It's urate.

Like, excrement?

Yes, urate is... is... is the way

a reptile kinda digests calcium.

Urates are white, semi-solid acid salts

that are made up of the urine and feces of most reptiles.

When dried, it leaves a chalk-like substance behind.

- Are you sure? It's massive. - This is urate.

Reptiles do it, snakes, iguanas, monitor lizards.

Even tortoises will pile up a big bunch of it sometimes.

Urate lasts a long time. It's kind of like a...

The best way to describe it is like chalk.

It makes me think that we got a big thing in here.

This is obviously from a large animal.

I mean, normally, if it was at my place,

it'd be one of my crocodiles, alligators,

or one of my large anacondas.

Um, when they defecate,

what they consume, a lot of calcium,

comes out with it,

and it comes, in layman terms, as urate.

I can't explain how this got in here,

other than a large animal must 've come in here and done this.

If not an alligator,

has to be some other kind of large reptile.

Brittany, this is so big, dude,

we're gonna get lost.

Lookit.

Do you see how smooth this is in here?

Dude, that's gotta be water.

I'm sure this is under water at some point.

Fills all the way up.

Honestly, if we find a large body of water in these cave systems,

the potential of finding a predator

or some type of animal is very high. -

Obviously, you heard that.

That sounded like it came from this direction.

- There is water right here. - What?

A big one.

There's only one way through, which is water.

I don't know what's around the corner.

I have to come through the water

and then back around the corner.

And I gotta figure out if we have a space to get through.

Hopefully we do.

You'll be able to fit through? - Oh, yeah.

All right, B, just wait here.

After it's clear, I'll have you come through.

All right.

It looks like it could be water.

I'll check and then let you know.

J, you good?

Yeah, hold on.

Can I fit?

- All right, B. - Yeah.

I need you to come through, be real calm.

It's really, really tight.

Right on towards me.

Oh, my gosh. All right.

Wait until you see what you're about to have to deal with.

Okay.

I can't fit through with my bag.

Okay.

All right.

Oh,.

The water part's easy. -

Don't think about what's behind you.

On a search for a cave creature known as the gowrow,

Justin and Brittany have uncovered

an underground water source.

- Where's the top? - Right here.

Oh,. I don't--

Always gotta pack like we're leaving for eight weeks.

J, do you mind getting this?

All right, B, come on up.

Personally, don't wanna be laying like this

- for a long time under Earth. - Come on. Come on.

I gotta give this to you.

Lying on my hands.

Come on. I know, steady. -

- You know what? - You got your water.

Ugh.

- Ooh. - You okay?

Oh, my.

Justin and Brittany have uncovered

an underground water source.

Being able to find all that water in the cave is like a game changer.

And this water source could connect to this pond,

which means whatever he saw could live here.

It's possible it's using waterways to travel in and out of the cave.

- Oh, my God. - It's falling from the roof.

I don't know if you can see it with the light,

but there's a lot of water falling through this.

It looks like there's more caverns up there.

And two, we have a bunch of different entrances, exits.

- Look at this. - Oh, God, yes.

Look, watch.

Oh, my God, look at his little hands. - Look.

What is it?

It's a little crayfish.

And this is exactly what we were looking for.

We're looking for a water source,

we're looking for wildlife.

And we have something here.

And this is a perfect example

of adaptation to a cave system.

We turn all our lights off.

There is absolutely no light in here.

None whatsoever.

So, this little crayfish right here has no pigment,

because it doesn't need it.

So, for years and years and years,

these things have evolved

to be able to survive in cave systems like this.

So, he's looking around...

Well, he's not looking around, he's blind.

Doesn't need to see, he can't see,

it's completely dark.

The white crayfish,

also known as the Benton County cave crayfish,

is a cave dwelling species

found in just three cave systems in Arkansas.

Little is known about the creature,

as only limited observations have been made

due to the remote location of its habitat.

That means that there is sustainable life in this cave.

I'll set up the audio.

Why don't you set up the video?

All right, I'll be up here doing that.

After finding evidence of digestive calcium urate

from an unknown animal,

Troy believes this might be an active path of travel.

The team sets up recording devices in multiple passageways.

So, from what we found in this cave,

something has definitely been in here before.

something may come back.

I'm gonna rig up the audio recorder.

We're gonna lower that into the hole,

because I wanna hear if there's anything in that hole.

So, we'll come back.

We'll pull up the audio recorder,

we'll review what it captured.

It's a way of using resources that we have

that Sanderson didn't, uh, further the research.

The experiment is set. We need to get out.

We need to meet Justin and Brittany

and see what they've uncovered on their side.

God, it's cold in here.

Oh, my God, is that what I think it is?

Justin, make sure we bring some home, though.

We have the slide.

So, the slides are gonna be when very heavy animals

that will pretty much drag themselves.

Basically coming in and out of the water

on a constant basis, right?

An alligator, crocodilian,

large reptiles like that, even smaller reptiles,

water monitors and things will create what's called a slide.

Where I'm standing would be about the width of whatever this animal is.

And then, if you look,

we have what looks to be some claw marks here.

We have a couple of claw marks here, here.

If you really wanted to count 'em out,

we got one, two, three, maybe a fourth one.

The only real explanation I have for this

it looks like something could be using this area.

I don't really know what to say at this moment.

All I can say is that we did find some type of life of a reptile,

of some sort being down here.

Whether that's a gator or a gowrow at this point,

it's not worth the debate.

I'm just saying that there is some type of large reptile

or something that shouldn't be here is here.

After investigating the cave system,

the team gathers to discuss their recent findings.

J, do you really think it's reptile, man?

Honestly, based on the eyewitness accounts

and what we saw down there in the cave,

there was a big ass slide that looks like...

I mean, it's a gator slide.

Or there's still other options of, like,

other types of prehistoric dinosaurs, neodinosaurs,

a different type of reptilian that could be living down there.

We can't just assume it's one or the other.

- I can. You can't. - I can-- Okay.

So, as far as the ecosystem in a cave,

it's a lot more diverse than many people would think.

A lot of people think just bats.

Lots of animals that are adapted

to living in low light scenarios

and they survive very well.

What's interesting though,

is that there could be other wildlife

that comes in from the surface.

And we've just seen an example of that.

In 2008,

orange crocodiles were found in caves in Gabon, Central Africa.

While they typically live in the forest,

these mysterious cave crocodiles

had an orange tint to them,

which scientists believe was caused by an alkaline mix of water and bat guano.

They were also larger in size and partially blind

due to the lack of light inside the dark caves.

Here's the deal.

What is called the "gowrow" could be a known animal

that has been impacted by environmental factors.

What if there's just something

that's been living in the caves all this time

that's never seen the light of day?

It's not supposed to see the light of day.

Because it's obviously come out, somebody shot it.

But if, if it uses the tunnels,

it uses the natural waterways that live within the tunnel--

That's a whole underground world.

The biggest thing about Ivan Sanderson that I love and I appreciate

was that he didn't stop

when he thought there might've been a dead end.

He kept pushing past that.

And because he pushed past that,

he found a luminous lizard found within caves

that had not been known or documented by science yet,

which is huge.

And I really believe that there is potentially something living

in the cave systems underground

that science has not documented yet,

and it's waiting to be discovered.

Here's the bottom line.

We all agree that we need to go back in the caves,

and get to the bottom of what's living down there.

There's, like, an endless possibility

of discovery underneath the ground.

I am going back to find the gowrow.

One of the greatest debates

has been how and why whole slews

of apparently quite competent, productive

and well-integrated life forms,

uh, such as the so-called dinosaurs

have from time to time just vanished from the fossil record.

Yet the crocodilians, tortoises, snakes and lizards

and the little tuatara of New Zealand survived.

Therefore, the question must be posed.

What if these relics have not vanished from the historical record

and live among us,

dwelling in corners of the Earth

man has left untouched?

Rarely is information at the surface.

It must be sought patiently.

In order to uncover the true science or knowledge,

one must dig deep, arrive to the core of the truth.

All right, let's go.

We are going back in

to recover all of our cameras we set last night.

We have a lot of footage to go over and review

and see if we captured anything.

So, we really need to review the evidence.

Charlie, what showed up on the cameras?

Do you have anything on visual?

Cameras were a dud.

Uh, the microphone got a weird thing.

Do that again.

- That sounds big. - Where was that at?

It looks like an opening

in the northern passage Troy and I were investigating.

So, I'm gonna maintain eyes and ears here.

Y'all go that way,

and I will let you know if something is coming your way.

Okay.

Justin, Troy and Brittany are gonna start their hunt

in the room where the recording was captured.

It's entirely possible the room butts up

against Brittany and Justin's waterfall.

It does seem that whatever's in these caves

is staying close to an area with a contained water source.

Hopefully, the animal's nearby

and the team will be able to find it.

How far do you think we got?

We're doing good.

We're gonna go around this corner here.

So, right now, we're actually in

what Troy's been calling the Devil's hole,

and basically this is where that audio sound was recorded.

So, right now we're trying to work as quickly

and as quietly as possible to figure out what that was

that made that sound.

It's a little further.

We gotta go up this way and regroup. - Okay.

Here's where I found the urate.

- Those are heavy. - We've got tracks.

See?

Tail tracks.

Right there. Right there, right there, right there.

Is there any more out there?

Yeah, and it looks like the movement goes this way.

- Oh,. - Great.

Right there, these are all drag marks. - Yep.

That's what you heard on the microphone.

We have some tail drags.

So, it's basically the end of the tail as they're walking,

and it's just dragging along as if, if he props himself up

and gets the body off the ground,

all you get is a little tail.

They out here too.

If you look right here,

we have what would be the back foot

digging out as it's going up.

So, we have footprints and we have tail drag.

And it looks like it's using this cave system

and it's getting in and out.

Right in that corner, Justin, put your light on it,

we have to go in there.

So, Justin's gonna go ahead, I'm gonna go in the middle,

Brittany will be behind me.

And then you guys are gonna have to come too, if you wanna do this.

All right.

Oh, my gosh, dude.

Hold on, hold on.

What we're doing is we're following the tracks that we've seen.

It's starting to open up.

We maybe getting closer to it, so, please, please be careful.

These are pretty fresh,

and someone's moving back and forth in there.

Troy. Troy, Troy, Troy!

Right there, right there, he's going in that hole.

- We got him, we got him. - Guys.

Kill all those lights right there. - Kill the lights.

Oh,.

They have something. I gotta go.

We got an alligator.

What are you doing?

- You get stuck in a cave? - It's okay, bubba.

Well, then, we need to get him out.

- All right, we can't-- - It's gonna be a hell of a chore.

Well, this alligator definitely shouldn't be living down here.

It must've used underground cave systems and waterways to migrate here.

So, now we're gonna be able to take this animal

and put it in a more suitable environment.

Oh, he's pissed.

Everybody just give me some space, okay?

A little bit.

Give them room, give them room.

Oh,, oh,.

He's a little angry.

It's all right.

Let him walk, let him walk. - Okay, he's pissed.

Well, then, we need to get him out.

What a up place to be with an alligator.

Oh,, oh,.

We don't like to interfere

with any animals in any habitat.

But because he's out of place,

this gator will be killed and will die here.

Easy, buddy.

He's a little angry.

We'll go easy. Let him off, let him off.

Let him walk this way. This is perfect.

He'll come to us. Here we go.

Come on, bubba.

I'm going for it.

He got him, he got him.

He's got it.

All right. Justin's got him secured.

You good? You good? You're good?

Watch your fingers on that one.

I got you. I got you.

Easy there, tiger.

- You ready? - Yes, I am.

You got him?

All right, so what we're gonna do is tape the jaws off,

so it's safe for everybody.

He didn't wanna be captured.

- You're pretty. - He is.

He's been hiding in the dark for a while.

Look how dark he is.

You can see here where he's been traveling through the cave.

So, what happens is it's real dark,

they try to navigate themselves around.

That really, really porous, tough skin,

but you can see where he's cut himself a couple times,

and that's just, like, 'cause he's trying to see in the dark.

I think he just got stuck down here.

So, this is what Lee has seen.

Well, this one's here. There could be more.

Blue crest on the spikes.

Yes, and then, if you feel this too,

- it's really tough skin. - Hi, buddy.

So, a .22 from 100 yards away ain't gonna do much of nothing.

What are the next steps?

Like, who do we call? What do we do?

We're gonna call somebody,

but we gotta get him out of the cave, is the next step.

- All right, ready? - Yep.

He's gonna thrash.

We're gonna work this animal out of this area.

What we're gonna do, get a hold of someone

that takes care of the wildlife,

and we're gonna bring that animal to him.

What do you got there?

What's it look like, my guy?

She's saying hi to you already.

I'm just glad we got him out of danger.

He would've died in the cave

or if he got out, somebody might've shot him.

I would call today 100% success.

I think we can reasonably explain away

what Lee was experiencing and what people are seeing recently...

- Mmm-hmm. - ...is a known animal.

- The gator. - Right.

But it's worth considering that the historical account

of the gowrow is still wide open.

Right, because we have hundreds... - Yes.

...if not thousands of miles of cave. - Yep.

We have unknown species being discovered every year. - Yep.

And the gowrow, to me,

could be an undiscovered species.

But for me personally, though, after being in those caves

and learning how uncharted it was,

and the fact that we actually did find something inside the cave,

and I'm not even talking about the alligator.

- Right. - The crawfish.

Literally found a way that takes it all the way back

to what Darwin was talking about about evolution.

I still think that those gowrows could still be out there.

We can't take that off the table yet.

This just solved one part of the mystery.

The alligator isn't the only thing that we found.

Justin and I discovered an underground water source

that connected to ponds above the ground.

And that means that there could be numerous waterways

for unknown creatures like the potential gowrow to traverse through.

For the recent accounts,

we are able to explain a known species.

But for the historical accounts... - That I agree.

...we still have to leave two wide open.

The gowrow could very well be the species

we just haven't discovered yet.

Something that's evolved over hundreds of years,

thousands of years or even a Lazarus species.

I still think that those gowrows could still be out there.

We still had some areas in that cave

that we didn't get a chance to get into.

I would like to get back out there,

but we can make a reasonable conclusion

that something is happening there.

The skeptics will only believe

when hard facts are presented to them.

But for us, the few who push the boundaries of discovery,

we stop only when faced with an answer.

We believers are willing to uncover species previously unknown,

regardless of how outlandish,

the more skeptical scientists think them to be.

But when in spite of our differences,

the skeptics and the believers combine forces,

we can provide paths

for findings greater than ever before.