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River.Monsters.S01E02 Killer Catfish
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CreativityTranscript
00:00In the deep south, a monster is accused of a series of violent attacks.
00:07A creature as deadly as a shark and as big as a gator is blamed.
00:15Wherever we have alligator gar, there are myths of monsters.
00:21The state authorities said it should be electrocuted.
00:25Now, I'm on a mission to get face to face with this river monster.
00:30You better be strapped in.
00:32To find out if this animal really is guilty of the crimes it's blamed for.
00:55I'm Jeremy Wade, a fisherman and a biologist with a passion for fresh water giants.
01:08I've travelled the globe, putting my life on the line to find truly monster-sized fish.
01:15It's become something of an obsession for me to get into really remote parts of the world
01:20and to find the animals that nobody else can.
01:24But the creatures I hunt and find are not just monsters in size, but in attitude too.
01:31And now I'm on the trail of one that has a reputation for attacking humans.
01:37I've heard some alarming stories of this creature over many years, but I've never seen one in the flesh.
01:42It's the alligator gar, a truly prehistoric monster.
01:48There are five species of gar that inhabit the United States.
01:52All gar are ancient fish.
01:54They've existed on Earth for over a hundred million years.
01:57Their survival is in part because of their unique defence system.
02:02Scales made from a super hard enamel called ganoin.
02:06This armour plating has seen them survive predatory dinosaurs.
02:13The alligator gar, however, is in a class apart.
02:18Named for the profile of its snout, it's the largest of all gar, reaching some ten feet in length and weighing over 365 pounds.
02:28It has a further defining characteristic, a double row of dagger pointed teeth along the length of the upper jaw.
02:38But these attributes have not been enough to defend it against a more modern threat, man.
02:46Before 1930, their range extended beyond American borders.
02:51But the impact of people means that now they're not found above the boot heel of Missouri and Tennessee.
03:00Alligator gar stand accused of savage attacks on humans.
03:05I've trawled the archives, and all the attacks I've come across are concentrated in the deep south.
03:13They certainly have the teeth for it.
03:16But I've been unable to find any hard evidence that these fish are the culprits.
03:21If I'm going to find an alligator gar guilty of these crimes, I'm definitely looking for a very big fish.
03:31The experts I've spoken to suggest Texas is the place where the bigger specimens are still to be found.
03:38I'm heading directly to the Trinity River, a 710-mile-long waterway.
03:48Here, people have caught gator gar longer than I am tall.
03:52It's bigger when you get close, isn't it?
03:54To help me, I'm recruiting Baba Bedri.
03:57He's a specialist in finding alligator gar that weigh over 100 pounds.
04:01Sometimes for food, but normally for bow fishermen, after trophies.
04:12But I'm not planning to catch a fish for a trophy.
04:15I want to find out if this creature has committed the crimes it's accused of.
04:20Baba is taking me straight to a section of the Trinity that he believes holds the best hope of finding large gar.
04:30What we're doing now is we're just drifting with the current and we've just come to a bend in the river that doubles round.
04:46Baba's just said, this is the hole, this is a known haunt.
04:50And I can imagine the current has actually dug out a bit of a hole in the bottom here.
04:58And apparently they are very aware, more aware than a lot of fish, of sort of knocking and noises in the boat.
05:05So we're literally just drifting with the current and just looking to see if we can see them come up and breach.
05:14Gar have a swim bladder that works like a lung, an adaptation that helps them survive in oxygen-poor backwaters and creeks.
05:23However, this brings them up to the surface to breathe.
05:27It's a chink in their armour, giving away their presence.
05:31Oh, yes.
05:34So they're just coming up and gulping air and going down.
05:37Yeah, that fish there is mad.
05:39He knows we're here.
05:40Yeah, exactly.
05:42When he splashes hard like that, I guess it's assumed to spook us off.
05:47Yeah, I've come across exactly the same thing in the Amazon.
05:49There's a fish there that comes up and gulps air.
05:51And if they do it gently, they don't know you're there.
05:54If they're like that, you think, oh, that's a good fish, but it's actually getting up and going down as quickly as it can.
05:59So it's the same behaviour.
06:02The rivers here have murky water.
06:05With visibility limited, Gar use a band of highly sensitive vibration receptors along their body called the lateral line.
06:13This enables them to locate prey and predators.
06:18To avoid detection, we decide to abandon the boat and fish from the shore.
06:24I'm still experimenting with baits, and I'm going to start off using a treble hook.
06:29Standard issue for big predatory fish.
06:32Although the water's muddy, I've seen several come and break the surface, so I know they're here.
06:39I know they're a fish of 100 pounds plus, you know, within 25-yard radius of my bait.
06:47You know, that's quite a feeling.
06:53It's one of those moments in fishing where things can go from being very quiet, like they are at the moment,
06:59to, you know, suddenly you can have an animal over 100 pounds on the end of your line trying to pull you in the water.
07:07But if there is a monster Gator Gar in these Texan waters, it's not giving itself up easily.
07:22If I'm to find one that fits the crimes it's accused of, it has to be at least as big as me.
07:36A real river monster.
07:42At Lake Livingstone on the Trinity River in Texas, I seek out legendary fisherman Bobby Fly
07:47for some clues on how to find a giant specimen.
07:52He caught one, seven feet long, that put him in the Hall of Fame.
07:56And he believes there are still big gar around on the Trinity.
08:01You ain't got to move your boat 100 yards one way or the other to catch good gar fish right there.
08:08Now I have seen one 14 foot long down there.
08:12Gar fish.
08:13Oh, really?
08:14Mm-hmm.
08:15And I was tied up on top of a willy tree with a 14 foot flat bottom.
08:18And this bad boy come right up beside me and just surfaced right there.
08:22And I seen the front of my boat and the back of my boat and I seen fish all the way.
08:27So I immediately pulled up the slack, undone my rope and went on to the house.
08:32I didn't hang around.
08:33But this sighting was in 1987 and his record catch was landed in 1991.
08:45Other anglers have pulled out large specimens, but no fish over eight and a half feet in length has been caught in the last decade.
08:52The big question is, are there still any gar left large enough to commit the attacks they're accused of?
09:01And if so, how will I catch one?
09:04That's interesting.
09:05It's a big, fierce...
09:06Bobby Fly caught his giant using a bait of a carp-like fish called a buffalo.
09:11And how did you prepare the buffalo to...?
09:13Okay, you take the buffalo and you want a nice one about, oh, five, ten pounds.
09:19Then you take a mallet and beat him up.
09:22Like a hammer?
09:23A mallet.
09:24A little baseball bat is what we use.
09:27And you just whoop on him real good.
09:30And then you take your claws, your fingernails, and you just get his tail and you just strip the thins off.
09:38And then you cut him up in little bitty squares, like a quarter inch square.
09:42Okay.
09:43And the blood, the reason why you beat on the fish with a mallet is to get that blood all into the meat.
09:49Mm-hmm.
09:50See?
09:51Because that's what they're smelling when out there.
09:52Yeah.
09:53They want that blood.
09:54Just put it on that hook and throw it out there.
09:56That's all very interesting.
09:57All I've got to do now is go out and try and get something similar size.
10:01Something close to that will make me happy, I think.
10:03Well, you will.
10:04You will.
10:05There's some big ones out there.
10:06Yeah.
10:07You go down there from where I told you to go, you'll be all right.
10:12Bobby Fly's optimism about the size of these fish is ringing in my ears.
10:17But I'm still unsure whether this fish is as aggressive as its reputation suggests.
10:22I've heard many stories of these fish attacking humans, but one particular incident sticks
10:27in my mind.
10:28A really gruesome report from the neighboring state, Louisiana.
10:33It's not fair.
10:34You always win.
10:35Elizabeth, only a few feet away from her brother,
10:36she's trying to catch me.
10:40On a warm, humid spring day, a nine-year-old schoolgirl, Elizabeth Granger, and her 13-year-old
10:45brother, George, are playing on the shoreline of the lake.
10:50It's not fair.
10:51You always win.
10:52Elizabeth, only a few feet away from her brother, dangles her feet in the water.
11:05You always win.
11:06You always do.
11:07Suddenly, something grabs hold of her leg.
11:30Dr. Robert B. Payne has worked as a physician for almost 40 years.
11:37But he has never seen wounds like this.
11:42What have we here?
11:45My goodness.
11:50The press report George's claim that what attacked his sister was seven feet long.
11:59And that he believed it to be a garfish.
12:04In his medical report, Dr. Payne describes the wounds as being like coarse needles inserted in a board.
12:20A wave of paranoia soon follows.
12:23And the alligator gar is held accountable for many similar attacks.
12:35Although this was a well-documented event, the identity of the attacker rested entirely on the testimony of a 13-year-old boy.
12:44But was an alligator gar really the culprit?
12:49Or, with its threatening prehistoric appearance, was it just an obvious scapegoat?
12:54I turn to Mark Spitzer, an expert on the gar.
12:59You've got a sort of an inch thick or so.
13:02Yeah.
13:03Is that the official gar history as far as you've...
13:07Well, this is my gar history.
13:09I've been intensely researching gar for the last few years.
13:12And, you know, all over the country, wherever we have alligator gar, there are myths of monsters.
13:21These fish were the fishes of nightmares.
13:23And so, I mean, one rumor that was created was that these fish eat twice their weight in a day.
13:30And stuff like that, you know.
13:32And that they attack human beings.
13:34So, I mean, were there lots of stories of that kind of nature?
13:39There was an article that appeared in the New Orleans newspaper called
13:43Alligator gar more dangerous than so-called man-eater shark.
13:47And here's a copy of the article.
13:50It was written by an anonymous journalist who basically said,
13:54If you should emerge from swimming or taking a bath and you find out that you have a limb missing,
14:00do not blame the shark.
14:02It is probably the alligator gar that did it.
14:07Where does the fact end and the imagination and sort of fantasy start?
14:14The gar can certainly grow to a large size.
14:18And it has a ferocious armory of teeth.
14:21But does this prove an inclination to attack humans?
14:25Is it a natural-born killer?
14:30I need to find hard evidence.
14:34Using the advice of fishing legend Bobby Fly, I'm going for a bait of buffalo fish.
14:40This, I hope, will let me get my hands on the alleged culprit.
14:45But I'm learning on the job.
14:47My best hope is to try and get into the mind of the gar.
14:51I've only been here a very short time.
14:55And because so few people fish for these fish, you know, it's a big, ugly, stupid-looking fish.
15:01So let's use fairly basic tackle.
15:03And, you know, normally it's a thick bit of wire, some heavy line and a big treble hook.
15:07I think they're actually quite sensitive.
15:10You know, you can still be sensitive even if you've got a sort of a bony mouth.
15:13And I think thick wire, they actually, they could feel that when they're chomping on it.
15:18And I think a treble hook as well.
15:19You know, there's a nice, soft, succulent bit of fish and there's something else in there.
15:23Now what's that?
15:24And I think they could spit it out.
15:26So I'm using a single hook.
15:28And the thing about that, it can just fold down nicely.
15:30It's not sticking out like, you know, three points on it.
15:37Both Mark and I cast lines into the river.
15:39But it's the bait on the single hook that gets picked up.
15:43Something's got it.
15:44It's moving.
15:45It's moving.
15:46It's moving right to left.
15:47Is it?
15:48Yeah, it is.
15:51I need to let the line run very freely
15:53to avoid the fish realising the bait's attached to anything.
15:56It's a bit of a battle of nerves, this.
15:58Something's taken off.
15:59It's on the end.
16:00It's stopped.
16:02It's off again.
16:03It's off again.
16:04Yeah, running.
16:05That's good.
16:07Good sign.
16:09Right, it's going to be very soon.
16:20Oh, I think it's off.
16:21Oh, no, no, no.
16:22No, no, no, no, no.
16:23It's coming toward us.
16:27That's a small one.
16:28Is it a turtle or a small fish?
16:29It's coming in very easily.
16:30Oh, it's a little guy.
16:31Is it a needle nose?
16:33Look at that greedy thing.
16:35That greedy thing.
16:37This gator gar has eyes bigger than its stomach.
16:40But at three feet long, it's a chance for me to test
16:43whether these fish have an aggressive character.
16:47Right.
16:48They grow at 18 inches their first year, so it's probably, you know, between a year and two.
16:54That tongue's interesting, isn't it?
16:56Yeah.
16:58Here's those two rows of teeth on the top.
17:01These teeth are three-eighths of an inch long, a quarter of the length of those of a fully grown gator gar.
17:08Oh, my God, you got bit, huh?
17:09I was just in there trying to get the hook out.
17:10Score one for the fish.
17:11Yeah.
17:12That's a very young alligator gar with a big appetite.
17:13I'm just going to lob him back in the water.
17:14Whoops.
17:15Back in the water.
17:16My idea that the gar is just a misunderstood, big, ugly, stupid fish has caught me out.
17:21Maybe it does deserve its reputation after all.
17:22This fish has actually still got a lot of energy left.
17:23I brought it in on very heavy gear, so it's actually got a lot of energy left.
17:26Normally they'd be pretty tied out.
17:27I think I'm just going to slide him over the side well ahead of our next fishing spot.
17:36So here we go.
17:37Back you go.
17:38Even a fish this small has managed to drift away from the back.
17:41It's got a lot of energy left.
17:43We've got all the head down to the back of this.
17:44And most of it's got a lot of very heavy gear, but it's just actually got a lot of energy left.
17:48I think they're just going to slide him over the side, well ahead of our next fishing spot.
17:51So here we go.
17:52Back you go.
17:53Even a fish this small has managed to draw blood.
17:56Good battle score.
17:57It did, didn't it? But you can see the cut on it.
18:00This is a setback to my theory that the gator gar may have been unfairly blamed for these violent attacks.
18:07The consequences, if this fish was scaled up to a monstrous 8 to 10 feet, are beginning to hit home.
18:15When you think about a gar that size with teeth to match and a body like a torpedo,
18:20it really is a terrifying prospect.
18:23You've just got a living weapon of destruction.
18:29That was just a gentle brush with its teeth.
18:32OK, it wasn't particularly deep, but they certainly drew blood.
18:36Whoops. Back in the water.
18:39Yet this alligator gar is only 3 feet long.
18:43George Granger reported that what bit his sister was 7 feet long.
18:47And other reports state that these fish can reach double that length.
18:53Now I have seen one 14 foot long down there.
18:57It's reputation for vicious attacks on humans is beginning to appear justified.
19:05It's no wonder that people took fright when you consider a beast of those dimensions with a couple of hundred razor sharp teeth.
19:12But I still don't have hard proof.
19:15But I still don't have hard proof.
19:17I believe the jury is still out.
19:18In past times, for many of those living in the deep south, this was a fish guilty as charged.
19:26One that should be eradicated from all rivers and lakes.
19:29So they took it really seriously then, the whole business of let's clear these things out of the water.
19:36They're an abomination.
19:37They're not fit to sort of share the planet with us.
19:39They obviously look guilty.
19:41Therefore, they must be responsible for these occasional incidents where someone gets their leg bitten or whatever.
19:48But where's the evidence?
19:50It's basically, they look scary.
19:53And so that added to people just wanting to run them out of town.
19:57And so they were run out of town.
20:00I mean, I heard of, you know, just sort of heaps of them.
20:02Oh, yeah.
20:03Bulldozer piles.
20:05Lots of people shooting them.
20:07Just a very despised, hated fish.
20:12In 1933, the Texas Game Fish Commission began a campaign of extermination.
20:20They built an electric gar destroyer rigged with a 200-volt electric net to kill the fish.
20:29Over the next three decades, millions of gar were destroyed in an effort to be rid of them forever.
20:35Perhaps the prejudice that the alligator gar has always suffered explains the extreme fishing methods used to catch them today.
20:50Unless they get the protection they need to reach full size, giant alligator gar may well be wiped out.
21:07Now, in Texas, for the first time, the Parks and Wildlife authorities are trying to work out what the cost has been to the gar population.
21:24On the lower trinity, we're en route to set what are called jug lines, baited hooks attached to floats.
21:34Our plan is to catch as many gator gar as possible and then monitor them with electronic tags.
21:43Dr. Dave Buckmeyer leads this project.
21:48Dave, what's the state of knowledge on the gar at the moment?
21:50Alligator gar, along with other gars and buffalo and things, have always been considered kind of rough fish, which no one really cared much about.
21:59Is that the same as trash fish?
22:00Trash fish would be another common name for it.
22:03And so there was actually even efforts to try and eradicate alligator gar and other gars from populations because they were believed to have eaten desirable fish, if you will, largemouth bass and things that we have, catfish.
22:15They have recently been listed as vulnerable by the American Fisheries Society and that's because in most states they're definitely on the decline.
22:22So we have some real reasons for concerns about the species.
22:27Shall I chuck this out?
22:28Yeah, go ahead, throw that one up there.
22:31And it unwinds itself, does it?
22:33Yeah, as the bait sinks they'll unwind.
22:37And then that lies on the bottom?
22:38Right, and that lies on the bottom and when the gar come up to feed they'll kind of comb the bottom, pick up the bait and usually run with it for 15, 20 minutes.
22:48And after we're confident they've swallowed it we'll go pick up the bait.
22:52Yeah, spinning nicely there. Oh, it looks like it's come to rest.
22:55Not much research has yet been done but it's thought few gator gar reach their maximum lifespan of 60 years.
23:03As we move on to set more lines, there's a call from the opposite bank of the river.
23:13We've actually just put out some jug lines and nets but some local guys here, they've got a trot line out, a line going across the river with hooks at intervals.
23:22And they've just pulled a small gar out on that so the first fish actually now to be, is going to be tagged and then all the measurements taken.
23:319.30, 78 is the tag number.
23:34The tag will provide the biologists with data about which areas of the Trinity River the gar are using, so they can formulate a plan to protect the species.
23:45Sounds like a visit to the dentist but actually quite appropriate because the scales of these things are very, made out of something called ganoin which is actually very similar to tooth enamel.
23:52So, hence the need for a drill just to penetrate that body armor.
23:57Engineered like medieval chain mail, the gar's suit of armor is built from thick diamond shaped scales, providing a formidable defense against attack.
24:07They're so hard that Native Americans use them for arrowheads.
24:10And the fish, I can't even feel it tensing, it's just lying here, very, very calmly, wet towel over it, over the eyes as well, quite important, it's just come out of a very muddy river, where it can't see much into the bright light.
24:26Unlike my last experience, this young gar displays no aggressive behavior.
24:31If you'll read that number, the top number.
24:33Okay, this is 44433.
24:36We're going to just let that one go.
24:37Okay.
24:38The gar is released unharmed.
24:40I guess he wanted to go.
24:42He wanted to go.
24:43The electronic tag will now send a signal to a series of receivers to monitor the fish's movements.
24:53After several hours, the scientist's own search is finally successful.
24:59Nothing on the jug lines but one caught in a net, a two-foot gar.
25:04There are no signs of any monster-sized fish.
25:08It looks like the population of these fish is in a worse state than I thought.
25:12Maybe in the old days, when these fish were literally everywhere, crude techniques would work.
25:17But now, I think I'm going to have to develop an approach that is more precise and targeted.
25:22I'm determined to get face-to-face with a giant gar and find out the truth behind its monstrous reputation.
25:30I'm heading for the aquarium in Athens, Texas, where curator Wayne Heaton keeps some gator gar.
25:41I need to know more about the business end of these fish, just what exactly their teeth are capable of.
25:47I think as far as a lot of people are concerned, this is very close to a shark, and it's in fresh water.
25:53It's in a river near you.
25:54Right.
25:55You know, sort of don't go in the water.
25:57Unfortunately with us, especially if it's something we don't know much about, we always assume the worst.
26:01And so you see a big six, seven, eight-foot gar hit the surface with these monstrous teeth.
26:07The first thing that comes to your mind is, well, I'm not getting in the water.
26:11Well, you know, these teeth, they're not like our teeth.
26:15They're not kind of blunt.
26:17You know, we kind of have a few sharp ones for tearing or whatnot.
26:21These things are made to whenever they grab something, it's theirs.
26:24And so these teeth are very, very sharp.
26:27I wonder if, you know, perhaps they're a bit simple-minded and they're just sort of programmed, even if it's dead,
26:33they're still programmed to sort of, like, keep it clamped for a little while before properly swallowing it.
26:39When they grab it, they kind of want to make sure it's something that they're going to be able to swallow.
26:43So you might see them hold it for a minute to make sure that that's what they want.
26:47And once they decide to eat it, you'll start seeing them moving it in their mouth and then to the point where they'll actually swallow it.
26:53But then once it's there, even though it's a big mouth, that process seems to be quite a slow process.
27:00Right.
27:00They will do it at their leisure.
27:02They're in no hurry because once they have that in their mouth, they know it's not going nowhere.
27:06So if it's something that's got quite a bit of fight, they'll just keep that mouth closed until it wears itself out to where they can swallow it.
27:13You're not going to have something in the water to try to find the gar.
27:16You're basically going to let that gar come to you.
27:17So, and he's going to grab it.
27:20And so when he grabs it, you might not want to try to set the hook right when he grabs it because he might be still deciding whether he wants it or not.
27:27But once he gets to where he wants to swallow it and then you set the hook, you better be strapped in.
27:33With the knowledge that I need a cautious, patient approach, I hire another fishing guide, Mark Malfour, to take me to a fresh section of the Trinity River.
27:53My plan, to hold off setting the hook until I'm sure the gator gar has properly taken the bait.
27:58That was definitely a fish moving off.
28:03Mm-hmm, for sure.
28:06Not a damn thing.
28:09This is actually very, very frustrating fishing.
28:12I mean, something definitely had that in its mouth because it moved it several yards.
28:15But when I tighten down, there's nothing there.
28:17And really, you know, just talking to people who fish here, I mean, there's not much that anybody's told me that's any use.
28:22I mean, very few people fish for these.
28:23Bobby Fly caught his by accident.
28:26And the fishing that is done on rod and line, it's pretty basic.
28:29You know, it does work.
28:31It's a fairly low percentage success rate.
28:33You chuck out a lump of dead fish like this and you wait and you let it take it for a long time.
28:38And most times you tighten down, there's nothing on the end.
28:40But, you know, sometimes there is.
28:42And it hasn't really got any more sophisticated than that.
28:45But that was another half hour with nothing to show at the end of it.
28:49But focused on my target, I fish on, towards dusk.
28:55What do you reckon?
28:56Tighten down.
28:58Right.
29:00Normally, gara caught before the water begins to cool down.
29:04Well, before the sun sets.
29:07It's gone up.
29:08It's gone up again.
29:09Most guides give up fishing by mid-afternoon.
29:14Set it, set it, set it, set it.
29:16There we go.
29:21That's it.
29:23Please, Johnny.
29:24Feel something?
29:24Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:26That's a fish.
29:27Eight-footed turtle.
29:29Oh, yes!
29:32Yes!
29:35It's gone under the boat, under the boat, under the boat, under the boat.
29:38Keep the tip away.
29:39That soaked me.
29:40I'm here.
29:40Four feet above the water, I got a squashing.
29:43Yes!
29:43Finally, it seems I am going to get face-to-face with my river monster.
29:48Woo!
29:50I'm hooked into my target, a river monster with a fearsome reputation, the alligator gar.
29:56Oh, it's pulling down.
29:57It's pulling down.
29:58Look at that.
29:58Look at that rod check.
29:59Let's get him up.
30:00Let's get him up.
30:01After fishing for 12 hours straight, just as dusk turns to night, I set my eyes on the giant fish.
30:08Do you want me to see it?
30:09The most dangerous part of gar fishing is bringing the fish aboard the boat.
30:18Coming over.
30:28Oh, there we go.
30:29That's what we wanted.
30:30That's exactly what we wanted.
30:31That is exactly what we wanted.
30:32That's a prophesized fish.
30:35As the gar comes aboard, it thrashes its snout from side to side like a scythe.
30:41I haven't forgotten that three-footer that got me.
30:45This fish is almost seven feet long.
30:48Single hook.
30:49Single hook.
30:50Single hook.
30:50Single hook.
30:52We've done it.
30:53We've done it.
30:54Fantastic, Mark.
30:55That was really...
30:56Oh.
30:57Okay, we've got the gar funnel?
31:00Yes.
31:01All right, so this will go in here.
31:05Okay.
31:07The teeth of this scar are another half inch longer than those that scarred me earlier.
31:15Thing is 123, 123 pounds.
31:18Good, good, good, good.
31:21Yes.
31:23Finally, getting my hands on the fish and seeing it face to face,
31:26I can begin to weigh up the evidence.
31:30Actually laying hands on this prehistoric beast.
31:34This is fantastic.
31:35I mean, this is the creature that I came here to see.
31:39I mean, you hear people say, like Mark, that, you know, these things,
31:43they won't just devour a bait.
31:44They will just...
31:45They're so fiddly.
31:46They will just sit and chew it and maybe spit it out.
31:48You know, I've had fish take 100 yards of line even,
31:5215, 20 minutes, you tighten down and there's just nothing on the end.
31:57Gar don't bite pieces off their prey.
32:00They only eat what they can swallow whole.
32:03This puts humans off the menu.
32:05For all this fierce reputation, you know, they do seem to be...
32:10You know, they certainly look the part,
32:11but I'm not sure that they actually act up to the part.
32:16Oh, what a thing.
32:18What an animal.
32:20This gator gar seems too gentle-natured to cause deliberate harm.
32:24Interesting that here's the bait.
32:26It's not, you know, it hasn't taken it down.
32:28The bait is...
32:28Oh, here we go.
32:29There we go.
32:29There we go.
32:30Yeah.
32:32Yeah, don't worry.
32:33We're going back in the water in a moment.
32:34Yeah, maybe we'll throw that after as a little consolation.
32:36But that was interesting.
32:37When it just did that, the whole upper jaw sort of expanded, didn't it?
32:40You know, when it actually came up and got...
32:42You can actually see the gaps where there's actually flesh in between
32:45and the head's allowed to expand right through these two little veins,
32:48right through here and up through here.
32:50You see that separation from the jaw?
32:51See how that actually gives?
32:52There's flesh in between these areas.
32:54As well as up and through here.
32:55See that?
32:56This is solid, solid.
32:57Right here's flesh that attaches the joints so allows the head to flex and move.
33:02The skin that joins these armored plates allows the gar's jaw to expand.
33:09But not so much that it could consume a person or even a human limb.
33:14It's very tempting just to keep it out and admire it.
33:18You know, about to think, you know, what is important.
33:20Although this animal is an air breather, I think it is very much...
33:23time to get it back in.
33:25So I think one last look and back in the water.
33:28Oh!
33:28See how it's doing?
33:30Yeah.
33:31Okay, you got it?
33:32Okay.
33:33Very hard to hold.
33:34And you've got the heavier end.
33:35I've got the heavy end.
33:36I've got the heavy end, I've got the bony end.
33:40This female gator gar measures six feet, eight inches.
33:45She's longer than I am tall.
33:46Then, once again, the gar draws blood.
33:51She has a 14-inch long mouth full of some 500 teeth.
33:56That's not actually the teeth of the animal.
33:59That is the back of a scale or some scales.
34:03Slice and cross.
34:04Yeah, as the fish, my hand, with the weight of the fish on my forearm there, the fish just
34:09slid back.
34:10And sliding that way is fine.
34:12Sliding this way, the points, the rear points of these triangular scales stuck in.
34:17The Native Americans used to use them as arrowheads, and I can sort of see why now.
34:20I've got a big old scrape down my arm there from the scales.
34:23Anyway, should we get, uh...
34:25I believe I've seen enough to clear the gar's name.
34:29You've got that, yeah?
34:30It's time to return the specimen to the wild and reflect on other possible suspects.
34:37Okay.
34:38A little higher.
34:40Up to that.
34:41Okay.
34:44Got our baby.
34:45There he goes.
34:47There he goes.
34:48Excellent.
34:49Wow.
34:51Oh, Gary.
34:52Has the clue been there all along?
34:55In the very name the alligator gar shares with another predator.
35:00If you put legs on that, it would just be an alligator.
35:02It would get up and walk.
35:05Is the real culprit the animal it could so easily be mistaken for?
35:12The American alligator.
35:14After years of one-sided testimony, it's time for the jury to review the verdict on the guilt of the gator gar.
35:28There must be a more logical culprit for the many incidents that have been blamed on the gar.
35:36In the same rivers and lakes that they inhabit, there are also many American alligators.
35:45Not only do they share the same habitats, they have similar teeth.
35:56Their size and the profile of their snouts could easily be confused one for the other.
36:02I've come to this alligator park in southern Texas to get a look at some of the other characters that share the water with the alligator gar.
36:10Because I've got a sneaking feeling that actually the alligator gar is taking the rap for somebody else.
36:14And it could be these characters here.
36:17What I really want to do is get a fairly close look at the equipment of the alligator.
36:21And what would be really good would be to actually see them in action as well.
36:25But I think that part of it is probably best left to Gary.
36:29Gary Sawridge is a key witness for the gar's defence.
36:33Absolutely.
36:34He understands the crucial difference between the behaviour of a fish and an alligator.
36:41You can imagine an animal like this would have no problem taking a full-grown man.
36:47They're sneaky.
36:48They're tremendously patient.
36:49But these animals right here, there's no telling how many deaths they're really responsible for every year.
36:55This is the apex hunter in the United States of America right here.
37:00Let's say it's a hot summer day.
37:02You decide you're going to dip your feet in the water a little bit.
37:04You're dangling down and wow, they're coming up and hitting.
37:08When the alligator's hunting this prey, they'll shoot up out of the water and they'll grab whatever limb it can get.
37:13And on the way down, it'll do a death roll.
37:14And if you were to resist that, it's whatever limb it gets, whether it be hand, finger or toes, it's coming off.
37:22The alligator gar doesn't have near the pressure.
37:24The American alligator can bite down with 3,000 pounds per square inch.
37:27And I'm sure many, many times folks may think that it's an alligator gar on a bad bite.
37:33But you can rest assured it's not.
37:35It's normally the American alligator.
37:38Gar have neither the power nor the attitude for premeditated violent attacks on humans.
37:44Alligator gar don't choose, so they only eat stuff big enough that they can swallow whole.
37:48Depending on the size of the gar, depends on what size that food item that they'll eat.
37:53But a good 6 to 8 foot gar could very easily take out a 12 to 14 inch fish.
38:01I'm left in little doubt that many of the attacks attributed to gator gar are far more likely to be the work of the American alligator.
38:09I've heard all these myths about the alligator gar, you know, ripping people's legs off, chopping alligators in half, generally terrorising the neighbourhood.
38:20But what's interesting is, since having come here and spoken to people who actually know about this fish and having spent some time myself on the river,
38:28I've got this idea that it's actually just got a bad PR agent.
38:32I think it's a bit of a pussycat.
38:34It just so happens that here is a tank with some very big alligator gar in, and this is actually my chance to test my theory for myself.
38:49I've been at the sharp end of a 3 foot gator gar's teeth.
38:53I've felt the muscle power held in the serpentine body of a 6 foot 8 inch monster.
39:04I think it's 1.23, 1.23 pounds.
39:09But now, I've got to walk the talk.
39:14I've got to venture into the gar's own underwater world.
39:34None of the gar show any intent to harm me.
39:40In my view, it's the alligator gar itself that has been the victim.
39:46It's amazing to get this close.
39:48This fish really is a miracle of evolution, a true survivor.
39:53But if anyone is going to see the real giants, this fish needs to be allowed to grow without persecution.
40:01Maybe then we'll get to see those 14 footers again.
40:04Oh, that was, that, that was, that was an experience.
40:16Oh, I have to say, the size, the size and the aspect of those fish, though, when I first saw them, was really quite intimidating.
40:23But I think this is a very, very misunderstood animal.
40:26And I think it really is time that we just try to understand this fish a little bit better.
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