On this episode of Expedition X,
my team treks deep into the Cambodian jungle.
There is a monster living in this forest.
To track a terrifying creature.
Can you hear that?
All right.
That's now.
Come here! Oh, Phil! Phil, Phil, Phil!
Holy!
My name is Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've experienced strange things that defy logic
and made me question everything.
Oh, my God!
Now, I've put together a team to investigate the stranger side
of the unknown.
Let's go!
Phil Torres is a scientist who hunts for rational explanations.
Jessica Chobot's paranormal research has made her a true believer.
There is a monster living in this forest.
Phil! Phil! Phil!
I just saw something run across.
Together, we're searching for answers.
What is that?
To the world's most extraordinary mysteries.
This is Expedition X.
Phil and Jess, the case that we're tackling today is one
that I'm super intrigued by.
And one of the reasons I'm so intrigued by it is
because I've actually had my own first and experience.
About 10 years ago, my team and I discovered and cast
a series of enormous, mysterious footprints in the Himalayas
while investigating reports of the Yeti.
That one is a beauty. Look at that!
-That one is clear as day. -What do you think that is?
It's a big animal.
This looks like a clear, almost like a human footprint.
So, you actually found real Yeti footprints.
Well, that's the question. They're real.
They're footprints. The question is.
"What are they from?"
And ever since this happened, I have been obsessed by the idea
that there could be unknown, uncatalogued primates
out in the world.
This is something that really spans the globe.
Every culture, every continent makes reference
to this kind of Big Foot-like creature
and with that many sightings, and that many stories,
I just don't think it's something you can easily write off.
Yes, you're absolutely right.
Here in the States, we think of this as Big Foot.
It's the Yeti in the Himalayas.
But, there are so many variants of this story.
In Australia, they call it the Yowie.
In China it's called the Yeren.
In Central Asia it's called the Almas.
And in fact,
nearly every culture does have one of these mystery primate story,
and lots and lots of people, claim to see them.
So, Phil, you're our resident biologist here. What do you think?
Is something like this a possibility?
I will admit that there's a possibility.
It may be small but when you look at some of the evidence,
it's hard to explain away.
Yes, it's a story that spans the globe
but I think it's important to look at it regionally.
And certain areas have more of a biological plausibility
that something like this could exist.
And in terms of a region
where there's been a lot of interesting eyewitness reports,
today, we're gonna turn to South-East Asia.
There is something really unusual going on in Cambodia right now.
Check this out.
Locals call it the Tek Tek or the Monapray
and it has earned itself a unique, and fearsome reputation.
Though Cambodia is home to more than 800 species of mammals,
birds and reptiles,
large apes are not known to inhabit the region.
And yet, for centuries, locals have told stories
about a terrifying ape-like creature they say
inhabits the most remote areas of Cambodia's
500 million acres of jungles.
Dutch traders in Cambodia wrote about them in the 1700s.
During the Vietnam conflict in the '60s and '70s,
US servicemen and North Vietnamese forces
near the Cambodian border filed official after-action reports
of encounters with fearsome,
ape-like creatures during firefights.
Soldiers called them Rock Apes,
because the beasts reportedly responded
to rifle and machine-gun fire by throwing rocks.
More recently,
terrified villagers in western Cambodia describe encounters
with a Big Foot-like creature,
more than seven feet tall, aggressive, ferocious,
foul-smelling and at times, extremely dangerous.
Now, as humans encroach further into this jungle habitat,
sightings are increasing.
Wildlife researchers, park rangers, hunters and hikers,
have all described the Tek Tek as something more than legend.
They insist it's a flesh and blood creature.
So, there we go. You look intrigued.
Yeah, I'm very intrigued. I mean, the Tek Tek seems to be credible
and if we can prove its existence, then that means
we could possibly prove the existence of other mystery primates.
And Phil, what do you think?
You know, I love a good jungle mystery.
-Yes. -And the way I see it,
we are in a golden age of discovery or re-discovery.
Because, we have all this new technology
to put to use in the field that wasn't even available
-two or three years ago. -Right.
So, there have been new monkeys discovered in Tanzania
and The Congo.
There was a new species of orang-utan identified in Indonesia,
-not far from Cambodia. -Right.
So, there are mysteries out there yet to be discovered.
I'm not saying it's a Tek Tek
but there could be something there in the jungles of Cambodia
we might be able to find.
Which brings us back to these stories of US servicemen.
Who claimed to see some sort of ape-like creature during fire fights
in Vietnam and Cambodia during the war.
Now, I'd only ever read about these accounts until now.
I actually was able to track down one of these men.
He's a Green Beret who served in Cambodia,
not far from where these recent Tek Tek sightings were reported.
And he's agreed to go on record for the very first time.
Take a look at what he and his men claimed to see.
My name is Robert Gale.
I entered the army in the late '60s.
I trained with the, to be a special forces soldier.
Ultimately, I was awarded and earned the Green Beret
and that's how I ended up
with part of the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam,
and in Cambodia.
We were under direct orders.
It was a classified mission, and the weirdest encounter I ever had
was on late one afternoon. It was very dark.
We encountered an attack.
I'll never forget, the point man stops,
he saw something and he pointed up
and I told the people around me, "Look up! Look up!"
And we looked up and he saw something climbing in the tree,
saw it scampering up, ape-like, human form,
something that I've never seen before.
Our point man, he got pelted with a rock.
And then, we all started getting pelted with rocks.
When I first became alert to what was happening in the trees
and I saw the, the movement, it was black,
no clothes, I could see it was clumped with dirt and mud.
I could see the eyes,
which, when you're looking at it in the trees,
it tends to scare you.
There, there was kind of a foul odour.
You know, the hair's kind a...
Bushy and, and matted and...
It was just strange and very unnerving.
What do you think?
I mean, everything that he mentions in regards
to the throwing of the rocks, the bad odour,
is all consistent with other reports
that I have heard and read about regarding Tek Tek.
And Phil, what do you make of it?
You know, I certainly believe they saw something
and even were attacked by something
but I'm just not convinced of what it was.
And to answer that question,
I'd like to send the two of you on a mission,
deep into the jungles of north-western Cambodia.
-All right. -All right. It's.
-You ready for this? -Yeah.
This is the area where this Green Beret and his men served.
It's also the area where the most recent Tek Tek sightings
have been reported. It's also an area
where an ancient ruined city, called Mahendraparvata,
was recently re-discovered.
It's a fascinating place,
but the villagers who live there, remember,
they believe that this mystery primate
is not only real, they believe it's dangerous.
There have been reports of recent attacks.
So, your mission is simple,
find out what these people are actually encountering.
-All right! -Sound good?
-Yeah. -Yeah, let's do this!
Phil and Jessica head to Siem Reap,
200 miles north of the capital of Phnom Penh.
This is a land of temples and tumbled stone,
a gateway to the glories of the past
and the achievements of the Angkor Empire.
It is also the region of the country with the largest concentration
of Tek Tek sightings.
Their first stop is Siem Reap's night market,
where they check out Cambodia's selection of snacks.
-Banana pancakes. -I like banana.
-Those look tasty. -Oh, scorpions on a stick!
Including some that are considerably more exotic than chicken skewers
or corn dogs.
But, where else are you gonna get the chance to eat fried tarantulas,
scorpions, snakes or frogs?
Look at this. This one has fangs still.
-Yeah, she took out though. -Yeah.
So, yeah, the heat will denature the, the venom in there.
At just 90 calories a serving,
tarantulas, by weight, are 60 percent protein.
What's not to like about that?
You know, when you bite into that butt it's gonna explode too.
Oh, I'm not eating the butt.
Oh, you gotta eat the butt. Same time? Oh, my God!
One, two, three.
Do you want a bite of tarantula?
-I'll have a bite of scorpion. -No. No.
Okay. That one just tastes like fried anything.
That scorpion actually tasted like, I guess, scorpion.
Yeah. Oh! Oh, I know.
I know, Phil, because I ate half of it.
We pass by more bugs.
"Please feed our hungry fish your dead skin."
Then, Jess and I get in Phnom Penh style pedicure.
Get ready for the best meal you've ever had!
It tickles so bad!
I'm gonna get through it. Ride it out! Ride it out!
Ride it out! We got this! You got this!
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
It could be worse. Could be piranhas.
I have a sneaking suspicion,
if I left my feet in here all night, I would have no feet.
-It, it would just go. -They would be gone.
-(BREATHES DEEPLY) -I kinda dig it.
The next morning.
The investigation begins at Angkor Wat.
-Wow! Here we are! -Oh! This is so cool!
This 400-acre site was initially constructed as a Hindu temple
in the 12th century.
And according to the carved records on the wall,
it took more than 300,000 workers over 35 years to build it.
Today, the ruins are an evocative reminder of the powerful kingdom
that once rose from the jungles of South-East Asia.
So, we're meeting Nick up here. All right.
I've connected my team with my friend,
author and journalist Nick Ray,
who's an expert on Cambodian culture and history.
-Hi! -So good to meet you.
-Nick. Good to meet you. Hi. -Nice to see you.
Nick notes that the residents of this region have long shared space
with their primate brethren.
From the pig-tailed macaques that now overrun Angkor Wat,
to ancient Hindu imagery that adorns the temple walls.
The details preserved in these walls, this is amazing.
Well, as you see, you know,
it's showing all these epic characters
from Hinduism, including "Hanuman, the Monkey".
Often referred to as "The Monkey God"
Hanuman is a warrior deity prominently featured
in an epic Hindu poem about Cambodia's origins
called the Reamker
and appears all over the walls of Angkor Wat.
He may also have served as folkloric inspiration
for the creatures seen in the jungles today.
They may actually resemble what a Tek Tek looks like.
What type of written records, or evidence,
is there about the Tek Tek?
Mainly, it comes from these early European explorer accounts.
So, it described from local tribes the horror of this jungle creature.
In the 17th century,
a French explorer named Henri Beau de Saint
was the first to write about the Tek Tek.
When he visited western Cambodia,
local tribesmen spoke of a giant ape-like beast,
fiercer than anything else in the jungle,
a kind of monster that would attack villagers.
As time went on, similar stories of giant ape attacks
started popping up all over the jungles of South-East Asia.
What's been the most recent sighting?
Not so far from here, the Holy Mountain of Phnom Kulen,
the birthplace of the Khmer Empire, there's some people up there,
they also have the same stories
where the Tek Tek would attack people.
-Wow! -Interesting!
How do people see the Tek Tek now?
Do they see it as a protector or as something to fear?
They see it as dangerous,
definitely something you wanna avoid
and you can see palpable fear on locals when they talk about it.
They believe and they're scared.
-Somebody got in a fight! -It's been scrapping.
-Yeah. -Though, sometimes aggressive,
these monkeys are usually no threat to humans.
Though, if you imagine them scaled up to 10 times their size,
they'd be terrifying.
It's one thing to talk about these little guys here,
but what people are talking about with this Tek Tek,
it reminds me, actually, of the Gigantopithecus.
This was a factual thing that there was an ape-like creature
roaming around this area as recently as 100,000 years.
Which, in evolutionary terms, that's, that's pretty recent.
It's certainly plausible that a species could continue to exist here
that just hasn't been seen.
There's precedent for the discovery of species
that were believed to be mere legend.
Norse mythology immortalised the fearsome kraken,
a tentacled monster rumoured to attack ships.
It was most likely inspired
by sightings of the illusive giant squid,
which wasn't seen by cameras until a Japanese team captured footage
from a deep sea mission in 2004.
With much of Cambodia's jungles still largely unpopulated,
is it possible that this region
could be hiding a giant primate like the Tek Tek?
We, actually, have a map of recent sightings.
-Oh, fantastic! Let's take a look. -Yeah.
-This is a working theory right now. -Yeah.
Up in this area of Virachey National Park,
that's where a lot of the older sightings were from.
-Yeah. -Several years ago.
And now, in this area just north of where we are now,
there's been a bunch of recent sightings and that fascinates us.
-That's where we wanna go. -Yeah. That's the hot spot.
Well, that's, yeah, you're looking around there, Phnom Kulen
and the location of the Lost City of Mahendraparvata.
Right.
You know, Josh went to Mahendraparvata
and was telling us about it and at the time,
he was one of the first people to go there.
And it's really remarkable how a place
that big has been there the whole time.
It's the perfect example of how legend and oral history
-actually turned out to be true. -Yeah.
Yeah. Absolutely.
With all the new archaeological findings there,
it seems there's a lot more human activity
happening in that area which could flush out wildlife.
Certainly, human encroachment
and that's certainly gonna have an impact on all the wildlife,
including any possible Tek Tek.
Yeah. Just more eyes to see the things.
Absolutely.
Nick offers to connect Phil and Jess with a prominent wildlife biologist
working at a research station high on the mountain.
That is, if they can reach him.
And keeping that in mind, it's pretty tough to get to.
The terrain is incredibly remote. It's really deep jungle.
This is the wet season.
There's only kind of one small road up there.
Well, that is not going to be a deterrent for us,
because we actually have a plan.
We're hopping a ride to an outpost on the edge of civilisation
where the real dangers of the Cambodian jungle await.
Deadly insects, venomous snakes
and hopefully, the strange creature that's terrifying locals.
Now, they're flying out of the city
bound for the Holy Mountain of Phnom Kulen to meet a biologist
and hike to the once lost city of Mahendraparvata,
the epicentre of the recent sightings.
Yeah.
This is the wettest time of year
when the area we're flying over gets 75 percent of its rainfall.
With storms dumping water two out of every three days,
many of the local rivers overflow.
That means, much of the forest area where we will be trekking
could be hit by deadly floods.
The team lands at a remote jungle outpost,
which is as close to the lost city as they can get by air.
The sun drops and the team heads into the village
to meet their contact, wildlife researcher, Greg McCann.
Greg is the Project Director for Habitat ID,
a group whose mission
is to protect the planet's endangered wildlife areas.
He has agreed to take Phil and Jessica
to the outskirts of Mahendraparvata,
where an alleged ape-like beast
has reportedly attacked several villagers
in three separate incidents.
What's interesting about this area
is that there are so many indigenous groups.
Yes, that's right.
And they all speak different languages
and I think this is the most language diverse area
-in the world. -Probably.
And they probably all have a word for something like a Tek Tek.
Yes, that's right. My take on it is, this is actually the real thing.
Not to mention,
both the North Vietnamese army and the American GIs claim
to have seen and fired on this thing.
I believe the people who say they've seen it
because their descriptions are consistent
over a large geographical area.
And these, these descriptions go back centuries.
-Take a look at this. -Oh, yeah!
Are you familiar? There's the old ones over here.
Yeah, but look at that!
There's so many sightings happening in, in and around that place.
Some of these line up with what I have.
This is, actually, what they're calling the most dangerous place
that not a lot of the local people want to go up there.
There are caves up here.
This is, you know, harder to get to. It's more remote.
It's like a hot spot of activity.
The area on the map is only eight miles away.
But Greg says, with the rough terrain,
it will take us an entire day to get there.
Tomorrow morning, we're taking it on.
-Perfect! -Let's do it!
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
You guys have handled machetes before.
-Yeah. -Oh, yeah.
Well, let's do this.
In the morning, we pack up our thermal and infrared cameras,
plus some audio recording equipment
and head out with Greg and his local colleague, Dhoyak,
in search of the Tek Tek.
I punch in the GPS coordinates for the eastern ruins
of Mahendraparvata.
That's where the Tek Tek has been spotted multiple times
and Greg has put his camera traps
hoping to capture definitive proof of the creature's existence.
-All right, watch your step here! -All right.
Guys, check this out. Look at this scorpion.
He looks ticked.
This thing is ready to strike! Look at that!
This is the Asian forest scorpion and I swear, they are everywhere.
You flip any log, you'll find a scorpion.
This is actually a juvenile.
They get, probably, five times bigger than this.
Okay.
Good job finding the most painful thing in the forest.
You know!
Look at this! Wow!
-Big! Long! -(UNCLEAR VOICE)
-Oh, my God! -Wow!
Well, this isn't quite the stick we're looking for.
This is a walking stick and that thing is incredible!
-Yes. -Look at this!
Let's see if he'll...
Yeah, I don't think we can build a raft out of this guy, though.
-Hey, buddy. -No!
Would you do that?
All right. Shall we put him back? You gotta get it off my head though.
If Dhoyak is scared,
you know that we're having a good time in the jungle.
All right. Let's go on.
Oh, man!
God!
And we got a river!
Greg points out that if they travel by river,
they could shave half a day off their journey.
-A raft, I think, is probably our. -Yeah.
Own best option.
Dhoyak, do you think we could build a raft?
He will make us an unsinkable craft.
Oh, you want me to go grab those vines?
Yeah. It's starting to look like a little raft.
What do you think? Are we gonna float?
-Dhoyak, come on! -He's got a good sense of humour.
-Okay, ready? -Yeah.
Hey, it's floating! Nice!
All right. I'll go on the back and push.
-I'll steer, yes. -You got up front, steering?
See you down stream.
Yeah.
Rivers in the Cambodian jungle have dangers on, in and around them,
from venomous swimming snakes, like the king cobra,
to all manner of deadly parasites.
It's definitely much safer to be on the raft than in the water.
Paddle forward.
-Come on! Back up! -Right. Okay?
-We've got. -Yeah.
A big branch up ahead.
You got it?
Stay to the right up here.
All right. We've been on the river for a couple of hours now.
Making up good ground. Still got a ways to go.
But, we will get there.
-Here we go! -One, two, three!
Got it!
The team pulls ashore at the spot closest to the ruins
of the lost city.
They're now within two miles of where the Tek Tek was reported
to have attacked several villagers.
How we looking, Jess, getting close?
Yes, we're getting, we're almost just about there.
All right.
This what I think it is? Let me check. Yeah.
GPS says we're here.
Wow! This is the lost city of Mahendraparvata. Wow!
Yeah. This was the old capital.
300 years, predating Angkor Wat.
The construction of Mahendraparvata in the year 802,
marked the beginning of a powerful empire
that stretched through what is today, Cambodia, Thailand,
Laos and Vietnam.
It thrived for more than six centuries.
It wasn't until 2012 that scientists learned of its true size.
And recently, villagers working around these sprawling ruins
claimed to have spotted the elusive beast known as the Tek Tek.
The LiDAR says all of this was the size of Berlin.
We're just seeing a small, small portion.
So, almost all of it is still buried.
-Yeah. -So, yeah, this thing is huge.
LiDAR scanners emit millions of laser pulses
and can digitally strip away the jungle canopy.
In this case, to reveal a lost city stretching across 20 square miles.
But, at ground level, you'd hardly know it.
Down here, the site is overgrown and crawling with all manner of life.
-Is it not stinging? -No.
No way!
(LAUGH)
Hang on! I gotta get some.
-Oh! It tastes like... -They are good.
-They are really good. -Like a lime Doritos.
-You're such a liar! -I am not. That is...
That tastes better than tarantula and scorpion.
-It is actually pretty good. -It's good!
-Right? -They're delicious.
No wonder he was hungry.
-You're like grinning. -Oh, my God!
These are really good!
It's like getting the last crumbs out of a bag of chips.
Yeah.
After a light lunch, Phil and Jess turn their attention
to the GPS coordinates of the trap cameras
that Greg and his team have placed close by.
We're really, really close.
We should head right on over that way.
All right. Yeah. All right, then, I say we get going.
Yeah, yeah.
We move into the suspected Tek Tek habitat
within a mile of several recently reported encounters and attacks.
There are other dangers here too.
Leopards, tarantulas
and even deadly pit vipers inhabit this region.
An even greater danger are the millions of land mines
left over from the Cambodian Civil War.
In other words, we watch every step.
What?
Oh, look at this, guys! Look at this!
Who have we got here?
That looks like a bear claw mark, but it's a little bit thin.
This could totally be the Tek Tek.
Yeah and it's very possible we've got photos on the camera trap.
Because if we've got a claw mark here,
the camera trap's not far away.
-Right. Let's go check that out. -Oh, wow! Amazing!
Yeah, we've got the camera right here.
Let's do it. There's nothing I like more than this.
-It should be in. Here we go. -Yeah.
What have you got?
Yeah, the clouded leopard.
Whoa! Wow!
It's actually the smallest of the big cats.
-These things are so bizarre! Wow! -What else?
-All right. -Oh, *bleep* that!
We got a big leg.
Well, that looks like another leg of some sort.
I can't tell what that is.
It could be the backside of a bear. I'm not sure.
That's too big for a bear. Look how thick those legs are.
-That is a thick leg. -Yeah, it's really thick.
And I don't think... Wait! What's there down to the bottom?
-It doesn't look like. -Is that, is that a knee?
-It looks like a kill. -It doesn't look like
a black bear, either.
Greg's camera traps have captured images of bears in this region,
and they are known to leave claw marks on trees.
But this image could be of something different.
We immediately scour the area for signs of prints, or scat,
before returning the camera to active duty.
And it is armed.
-Armed and ready. -It is ready.
We continue our trek towards the epicentre of the sightings map
and I finally see another creature I've been hunting for, leeches.
Oh, look at this thing! Hey, aren't those perfect?
Leeches! I've been looking for these. I've been looking for these.
I've been looking for this forever
because, inside of these, whatever they drink the blood of,
-there's the DNA in there. -Exactly.
So, if we collect a bunch of these, we can analyse the DNA
and figure out what animals are living out here.
I mean, there's been so much rainfall
that I'm seeing puddles everywhere.
I bet if we check these puddles we'll get more leeches.
Yeah, there's some more right there.
-Wow! They are everywhere! -They're so gross!
This is what I call scientific gold right here.
All right, let's get this guy in.
So, what you're saying is, whatever animal
-Yeah. -A la a Tek Tek.
-Yeah. And like-- -the blood would be in there.
Let's imagine a Tek Tek is, hypothetically, out here
and it's intelligent.
I don't care how intelligent you are,
you're still gonna leeches on you.
Potential Tek Tek proof in a little jug of slimy leeches.
Leeches preserve DNA evidence
of whatever they've fed on for about six months.
I'll send the samples to a lab
and we'll know what kinds of mammals are inhabiting this area.
Hey, we've got a break in the canopy.
-Do you wanna use your thermal? -Oh, yeah.
Thermal drone?
Dhoyak goes ahead and makes sure the rest of the path is clear,
while Jessica, Greg and I deploy a high tech search tool.
Yeah, this thing's pretty amazing,
because we can pick up the heat signature of, basically,
any animal running around here. So, obviously, from the canopy,
we'll see monkeys, things like that, I that are going around.
But, it can penetrate pretty deep into the forest.
-Like Tek Teks? -We'll see. Hey!
I send up the thermal drone.
Where LiDAR can pick up the data in both the canopy
and the jungle floor,
a thermal drone can scan for anything living or moving below.
And as some Tek Tek witnesses have spotted it
high in the canopy,
we keep our digital eyes peeled for anything large
moving through the trees.
I mean, there's a lot of jungle,
but I'm not seeing anything up there.
I'm gonna keep going a little further.
-Oh, well! At least we tried. -Yeah.
Do you want to land it and then we'll go grab Dhoyak?
-Yeah. -Okay.
Right, coming down!
What is that?
-Oh, that's a person. -That is a person, yeah.
It's probably a poacher,
and I would say there's a good chance he's armed.
Poachers are one of the biggest dangers in the jungles of Cambodia.
In recent years, the country has emerged as a key region
for the multibillion-dollar illegal wildlife trade.
One 250lb elephant tusk can fetch more than $250 million
on the black market.
With so much at stake,
poachers have been known to protect their illegal livelihoods
with deadly force.
These guys don't really like to be seen in the forest.
They don't like to be approached.
Let me handle it. I'll talk to them.
How was that?
I told him why we're here. That we're looking for the Tek Tek
and I used the Cambodian word the monapray.
Without a moment's hesitation,
he said that he saw the Tek Tek down by the river's edge.
Oh, my god!
He says, he's actually seen it or something very much like that.
Down by the river over there, Kind of where we're headed.
Right, we gotta get down there.
Looks like we're about to hit another section of the river.
With the sun going down,
we find the area where the poacher claimed
to have a sighting,
about half way between the edge of the ruins Mahendraparvata
and the nearby river.
That Tek Tek sightings tend to occur near a river makes sense.
Most large predators, whether a bear
or even a theoretical seven foot ape man,
hunt near freshwater.
That's where their prey are at their most vulnerable,
when they're stopping to drink.
This habitat is absolutely perfect for the Tek Tek.
We have the river. We have a stream of freshwater.
We have fruiting trees. And we have an eye witness.
So, I think we need to set a perimeter of the trail cameras,
-just to see what's around here. -Okay.
While Greg and Dhoyak are setting up camp a safe distance away,
Jessica and I look to position cameras
in the likeliest places to capture wildlife activity.
What are we looking for? Like, what kind of do you think.
So, you see this right here.
You see how it almost looks like a trail.
This is a game trail.
Do you think a Tek Tek would use a game trail, as well, then?
Every big mammal, basically.
They're kinda like us, like if there is a trail, they'll take it.
-Yeah. It makes it easier. -And, I think, yeah, absolutely.
Well, I feel exceptionally safe standing in this game trail now.
(LAUGH)
Got everything?
Oh, like this.
Armed. This guy's set.
Got it?
All right, let's move onto the next one.
All right. Arm camera.
We are good to go.
We trek away from the trail cameras,
make a rough camp, and settle in around a fire.
That's where Greg shares the story of his own encounter
with the Tek Tek.
I was in the park with three Cambodian rangers.
We're all camped out in our hammocks,
listening to the jungle music, like we're hearing now.
Like, "Hang-yang-yang-yang- yang-yang-yang!"
I was enjoying it, and suddenly hear, "Hang-yang-yoooo!"
It stopped. I'm like, that's weird! It went completely silent.
It was completely silent.
And then, this absolutely awful smell drifted in.
It lasted about one minute
and then, suddenly the smell lifted
and all the insects came back.
I asked like, "What was that?" Everyone refused to discuss it.
The next morning, they wanted out. They said, "That was the Tek Tek."
And it's also what they say in North America about Big Foot,
they say it has a terrible smell.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
I mean, that's next level fear to not even wanna talk about it.
Not even like say its name until you're back at the base camp.
All right, we've got rain coming.
There is no warning.
That lightning is close!
We're right by a river
and you can already tell, the water level is rising.
We have streams forming at our feet. We gotta get outta here.
Holy! Wow! Look at this water!
Oh, whoa! That came up quick!
Look at that!
This water's rising fast. I'm seeing rocks up here.
Let's see if we can find...
Some cover.
While Greg and Dhoyak move our camp away from the flooding river,
we head back towards the game trail and our trail cameras.
Well, I wanna get to some high land.
I also wanna get out from the trees, since, you know, lightning strikes.
This is bad.
You do not wanna be in the rainforest
in the middle of a rain storm.
(GRONING SOUND AT A DISTANCE)
Can you hear that?
What the *bleep* is that?
Do you recognise that sound?
-I think it was over here. -This way?
Yeah.
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
Jess, we got a cave.
Wow! Are you kidding me?
That's crazy!
Okay.
Wow! That's a big spider.
All right. Let's go back over this way.
Okay.
(GRONING SOUND AT A DISTANCE)
Yeah.
I don't know.
Phil! Phil! Phil!
-Phil, come here! Quick! -What have you got?
Phil and Jess search for the elusive Tek Tek
is taking place almost 100 years after another attempt
to track down a so-called "Monster".
This one in Indonesia.
That's when a wealthy American explorer,
named W Douglas Burden,
mounted an expedition and sailed to Komodo Island.
The goal, to find and capture examples of the enormous dragons
being reported there
and to bring them back to New York alive.
When Burden finally reached the island
and saw one of the creatures for the first time, he was astonished.
He described a harrowing encounter with what looked like
a 10 ft long, prehistoric beast.
He and his team captured it
but the ferocious creature bit through its cage and escaped.
They built studier enclosures
and eventually captured two specimens,
bringing them back to be exhibited at the Bronx Zoo.
Today, we still call them Komodo dragons
but, in fact, they are the world's largest lizard.
All right. Where is it?
It's there.
No.
We continue searching the cave,
scouring for any physical evidence of whatever might be living in here
or whatever made that noise.
Eventually, we hike back out into the jungle,
where we check our trail cameras.
Cameras will roll long after we leave.
We then re-link with Greg and his partner on the main trail
and find higher ground to camp.
By the light of the new day, we climb to even higher ground,
a plateau that overlooks the vast jungles that are home
to the Tek Tek sightings and last night's activity.
In the middle of that crazy rainstorm,
we ended up in a cavern
and we saw something on the FLIR. We gotta show you.
Seriously?
I mean, it's weird.
Like, it does look like it's standing upright, whatever it is.
Yes. Right.
There was something there
but I'm not quite ready to call it a Tek Tek.
I think there's enough things out there
that can walk upright like that.
-For that long? -And it was a quick view.
I mean, the, it's hard to see on the thermal camera.
It's great evidence, for sure.
But I still think it leaves a big mystery.
I mean, the only photo I have of something
that would do that is a sun bear.
Also, I've got our audio recording from last night.
Yeah. You know, this rainforest better than I do,
so whatever we heard, I'm hoping you'll be able to recognise.
-I gotta hear this. -We, definitely,
heard something weird.
(GRONING SOUND AT A DISTANCE)
Yeah.
I can't tell what that is. I don't know.
We found claw marks that we don't recognise.
Whoa! Oh, look at this guys!
-Okay. -Look at this!
Who we got here?
We've got an image on your trap camera that we can't explain.
And we had several eye witness accounts.
He said that he saw the Tek Tek down by the river's edge.
-Oh, my God! -Yeah and he says,
he's actually seen it or something very much like that.
Ape-like, human form. It was just strange and very unnerving.
To me, that all boils down to the fact
that there is a monster living in this forest.
Guaranteed, there are thousands of species out here
that we still have yet to discover.
Does that mean one of them is a Tek Tek?
I just don't know.
All of these caves, very few of them have been explored
-by scientists. -True.
So, we could easily find
fossil evidence of a hominid-like Gigantopithecus
that could've lived here at one point.
Or, actual live evidence of a Tek Tek
living in one of those caves right now.
For today, our investigators will have to agree to disagree.
But, the trail cameras will keep rolling
and it's anybody's guess what they'll capture next.
As for Phil's theory that the leeches could hold the answers
to the Tek Tek mystery, well,
the results of the DNA analysis from the leech blood are in.
It indicates that there is primate DNA present,
but scientists are unable to classify the exact species.
So, while intriguing,
it's far from conclusive proof of the Tek Tek's existence.
Jessica is convinced that the centuries of Tek Tek legends
are based on actual encounters with an ape-like hominid
and many locals in Cambodia would agree with her.
Add to that the claw marks, strange image
on the trail camera, mysterious audio, the thermal footage
and the putrid smell, and you can see why so many people believe
there could be a mysterious creature lurking in the back country.
South-East Asia is, after all,
a place of monumental discoveries.
These jungles still have secrets to tell
and it's only a matter of time
before they yield up
more incredible wonders.
Subtitle Caption by ZestCorp