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River.Monsters.S04E02.Pack.of.Teeth
Transcript
00:00In Southern Africa, there are rumours of a deadly fish.
00:08It lurks unseen in the eerie waters of the Okavango Delta.
00:12There are large animals under the water making these really shake.
00:15A killer with shark-like teeth.
00:20There are stories of it hunting in packs.
00:23They are killing machines.
00:25Feeding in frenzies on schooling fish.
00:27This is just incredible.
00:29And even on drowning humans.
00:31It's the most brutal thing you'll ever witness.
00:33It sounds like the work of giant South American piranhas.
00:37But there's nothing like that here in Africa.
00:41Or is there?
00:45My name is Jeremy Wade.
00:47And my mission is to enter this mysterious world.
00:50To track down and catch this murderous river monster.
00:59I recently heard a story about a small ferry that overturned on a river in Southern Africa.
01:17The boat was old and overloaded with cargo and passengers.
01:35the boat was old and the boat was old.
01:37When it started taking in water, the children panicked.
01:41And the boat flipped.
01:45Apparently there were no survivors.
01:47And rumours circulated that the victims didn't just drown.
01:51They were attacked.
01:53When the bodies were recovered, they were found to be partially eaten.
02:01People at the time said that the victims had been eaten by fish.
02:07Official accounts, however, said it couldn't have been fish.
02:11Larger predators must have been responsible.
02:14Crocodiles and other killers live here in abundance.
02:19But the locals are convinced that the size and number of bite marks
02:23couldn't have been the work of these usual suspects.
02:29So could those original accounts have been correct?
02:32Could there be a pack hunting fish similar to a piranha living in Southern Africa?
02:38It sounds hard to believe, but I've heard equally fantastical stories in the past that have turned out to be true.
02:48Like a man swallowed whole by a giant fish.
02:52A bus crash where passengers were devoured by piranhas.
02:56And fishermen having their genitals mutilated by an underwater hunter.
03:02So even though I've caught my share of monsters in Africa,
03:05I've never come across a piranha-style killer.
03:09But I have learnt that fishermen's tails shouldn't be ignored.
03:15So I'm off to investigate a river system that's said to be the home of this killer.
03:21To see if I can figure out what it is, and then catch it.
03:27But I've never been in this region before, so I'm not sure what to expect.
03:32I'm in the Okobango Delta in Southern Africa, where I'm hoping to come face to face with the river monster that mutilated the people on that ferry.
03:41This place is known as the Jewel of the Kalahari.
03:52It's a miraculous oasis of life in the midst of one of the world's harshest deserts.
03:56Each year, the rains in Angola flow down through Namibia, eventually flooding nearly 6,000 square miles of land with over 380 billion cubic feet of water, creating the Okobango Delta.
04:11Over a period of months, it slowly recedes.
04:18But the water that remains attracts life from miles around.
04:22It's also the focus of human activity.
04:26And where humans and animals are forced together, conflict is inevitable.
04:40Out on the water for the first time, it's unfamiliar territory to me.
04:45A claustrophobic labyrinth of channels.
04:47I could easily lose my way around here.
04:56I begin my investigation by trying to connect with the locals to find out what they know about the river's dangerous occupants.
05:04I stop to chat with a group of reed collectors, and they mention a familiar selection of suspects.
05:09So it's the crocodiles and the hippopotamuses in the water.
05:13Yeah, they're dangerous.
05:14Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:16And this is really, you know, it's the same story you get in lots of other parts of Africa.
05:20The water is dangerous, and the thing you just hear over and over again, it's crocodiles, hippopotamuses.
05:29As these two killers are so brutal and visible, people just assume they are the culprits in every unexplained death on the water.
05:36But I think it's possible there is a pack-hunting killer fish down there, responsible for some of these brutal deaths, including the ferry victims.
05:49I hook up with some fishermen to see what they're catching.
05:54It's very clear.
05:56This is a very rich water.
05:57Lots of these things in here, tilapia.
05:59This is the staple food source for sub-Saharian Africa in terms of fish.
06:03And there are lots of them.
06:05They're nice fish, but nice-looking fish, but also very tasty.
06:09But I think I can bet that it's not any people that are going to be enjoying these.
06:12There's going to be other fish in here as well, with teeth feeding on these.
06:15This water is bound to have predators in.
06:17I ask around if there's anything that fits the description of a toothy pack hunter.
06:30And one of the stories I hear is of a young man who was attacked while wearing a crucifix around his neck.
06:36A predator in the water spotted the moving, shining object.
06:46And went for it.
06:49Apparently the man's chest was sliced open.
06:52The locals believe it was the jaws of a predatory fish that inflicted the damage.
07:01I'm told there's an English-speaking fisherman named Clifford who may have more information,
07:06as he too was bitten by a fish in these waters.
07:09The fish wriggled.
07:12I tried to grab the fish, but I hit it in the teeth with my hand and it closed up.
07:17And is this the mark here?
07:20Yes.
07:21Wow.
07:23I had 14 stitches.
07:25My thumb is no longer functioning.
07:28So what is the name of this fish that bit you?
07:31Nguesh.
07:33Nguesh.
07:35And this is the thing with fish names.
07:37And the reason we have scientific names is that everybody knows what everybody's talking about.
07:40This is not a name I've heard before.
07:43It's clearly a predator. It's toothy.
07:45I'm actually quite used to seeing piranha bites on fishermen in the Amazon.
07:50And you're normally talking there something small, something maybe at the most an inch across.
07:55This is, we're talking two and a half, three inches across.
08:01And it's got a sort of, almost a sort of a triangular profile.
08:06But to inflict a wound like that, it's got to have very, very sharp teeth.
08:10And this was a couple of years ago and it's just left a permanent scar.
08:12Can you describe the fish that did this? What does it look like? What's the mouth like? What is the body like?
08:19It's a long fish with sharp teeth and with stripes. The teeth, they are closed.
08:29They interlock.
08:31Oh, there are a lot of them in the water here. Is it something you see very much?
08:35During the month of January, February, the water is clear. You see schools of them. Lots of them.
08:45So the pictures that's emerging is not a solitary hunter. This is something that lives in packs.
08:50Cliff had described the way the teeth work, they interlock. That's quite piranha-like.
08:54The fact that they're in packs, that's also quite piranha-like. But this is the wrong continent.
09:00And to my knowledge, there's nothing piranha-like in Africa.
09:03But this actually sounds something very similar, but possibly something even more dramatic.
09:09Because the fish are bigger. The individuals can inflict more vicious wounds.
09:13If this m'gwesh is a toothy piranha-style pack killer, then it could be the monster at the heart of that very incident.
09:24I need to figure out what it is. And to do that, I need to catch one.
09:29I'm after a predator, a meat-eater. So I've got a piece of steak here, quite bloody.
09:42The kind of thing that piranhas would tear to shreds.
09:46So quite a big hook. And because what I'm after, it's probably got teeth.
09:52I'm not using just line next to the hook, because that would just be sliced through.
09:55This is wire. This is like 80, 90-pound breaking-strain wire.
10:05Within seconds of my bait hitting the water, it's getting some interest.
10:25Could I already have hooked the river monster of the Okavango?
10:40Fish on!
10:41I'm deep in the watery maze of Africa's Okavango Delta, trying to unmask the identity of an aggressive fish the locals call the ingwesh.
11:00This is a strong fish.
11:02A meat-eater has taken my bait, and it's putting up a fight.
11:06Glimpse of that, glimpse of that. I think it's some kind of catfish. Wow.
11:09It's clamping down, it's clamping down.
11:17It's a sharp-toothed catfish, and it's got some powerful jaws.
11:22That's the hook out, which is nice.
11:24So this is a very voracious meat-eating predator. There are teeth in there. They drew blood on my hands, but they are... they're small teeth.
11:39These could certainly make short work of a human corpse, but the look of that corpse, it would be very different from a body that's been bitten.
11:51So this is actually not what I'm after. And that's quite a thought. There's something else down here, which is even more fearsome than this.
11:58I head back to the village. I need some more local knowledge if I'm going to get to the bottom of this mystery.
12:08Can you just tell me how much?
12:09People tell me the ungwesh is difficult and dangerous to catch. But once again, it's the large, visible predators they talk about most.
12:19And when you see injuries like these, you can understand why.
12:22Can you tell me what it was that happened to you?
12:32So these are injuries caused by crocodiles. Both mother and daughter were in the water collecting water lily bars.
12:44A crocodile under the water, unseen, grabbed the daughter's left hand.
12:49The daughter, obviously cries out. Mother comes to help and actually attacked the crocodile with the sickle.
13:08The crocodile let go of the daughter and then went after the mother.
13:14The crocodile actually had the mother's arm.
13:25It was feeding on this and then the mother was able to, with her remaining arm, gather her daughter and take her where they were safe.
13:36I have to say that hearing how dangerous crocodiles are is one thing, but actually seeing the evidence really underlines for me just how potentially dangerous these waters are.
13:49But the villagers believe there is a man here who can help protect them. The witch doctor.
14:00He doesn't look as I expected, but I'm told he's a very powerful healer with an extensive knowledge of the fish in these waters, as some of them have dark powers that affect his medicine.
14:10He's listed four fish.
14:11He's listed four fish. Something called the Mpakipitu, Mpakipitu, Myeru, Tuni, which I think is also known as the barbel or the catfish.
14:23And then here again is this fish called the Nguesh.
14:26So do different fish have different powers?
14:36So the Nguesh is the most powerful fish. If he has eaten the Nguesh, he says the illness will multiply, it will become much stronger than it was in the first place.
14:47And for this reason, he doesn't eat Nguesh, he doesn't even touch it, he doesn't even allow it inside his compound.
14:54I know you don't touch them, but is there any fishermen in the village, anybody here who could show me one?
15:06OK, so he says his daughter, not in here, but if I go outside, his daughter has got something that she can show me.
15:14His daughter brings me what she calls the Nguesh, but it's not quite what I was hoping for.
15:27So these are the teeth of the Nguesh.
15:34I'll tell you what struck me first of all, it wasn't so much this, it was his reaction.
15:37He visibly backed away. I mean, it's not just talk.
15:43These are definitely, you know, powerful in his belief.
15:47Didn't want to be anywhere near them.
15:50They look almost shark-like, these teeth.
15:53They've sort of crumbled a little bit, but I can tell that they are very, very sharp.
15:57But I'm still no nearer visualising what the entire creature is like.
16:03It's a tangible clue, though.
16:06And that evening, as I watch the villagers prepare for a blessing ceremony, I feel I'm getting closer to revealing its identity.
16:15But when the witch doctor reappears, unrecognisable in his ceremonial attire, I realise I'm a long way from understanding this place.
16:26He seems to exist on the cusp of another world.
16:31And within minutes, he's worked the women into a frenzy.
16:38Talk about a transformation, you know, a serious man I was talking to, and then just suddenly this dancing ball of energy, incredible.
16:47The witch doctor's transformation is not the only surprise of the evening.
16:55The ladies bring out their baskets, which they use for fishing in the shallows.
16:59But they also ask me to bring out my fishing rod.
17:02Do I sit here?
17:04OK.
17:06Suddenly, I'm at the centre of their ritual.
17:07The women are actually getting their fishing baskets blessed.
17:17And I've sort of been snuck into their number, maybe to give me a little bit of protection, good fortune, to be in my west to find out about this fish, the ungueche.
17:27They seem to feel that if I'm going after the ungueche, that I'm going to need all the help I can get.
17:46Then, as quickly as it started, the ceremony ends.
17:49The next morning, I go with the women basket fishing.
18:00I find it's often by integrating yourself within the community that the best information comes out.
18:07While I'm doing this, looking for fish, concentrating on what's in the basket.
18:12I'm very aware that around me you've got water lilies, and this is exactly what the mother and daughter were collecting when they were attacked by the crocodile.
18:20Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:25I have two fish, two fish.
18:35That's a river monster.
18:39The ladies scare the fish out of the weeds, but instead of escaping into open water, there are baskets waiting for them.
18:45I have to say, it's very nice to get back to the basics of fishing, and you're talking about just simple materials and a bit of human cooperation and ingenuity.
18:54And there we are, there's the fish.
18:56Where do I...
18:58Oh, it nearly got away, nearly got away.
19:01In the bucket?
19:02Yes.
19:03There's actually an impressive catch.
19:04They're not big, but there are lots of them, lots of fish.
19:05But the women are saying that sometimes around here it's possible to find large concentrations of big fish, very big fish.
19:19They say that doesn't happen very often, it's hard to find, but the way that I can find that is to look for the birds.
19:26The birds, the water birds, will tell me where they are.
19:29This is what I was hoping for, a little piece of inside information, which could lead me to the killer fish that prowl these waters.
19:39So I head out, scanning the horizon for birds, and after a few hours, I find what I'm looking for.
19:46There seems to be some excitement, some of the birds seem to be quite excited behind these reeds here, so we're just going to see if we can go round into this bit of a backwater and just see what's causing that.
20:01These must be the water birds that the ladies spoke of, but I can't quite get to where they are.
20:08Very frustrating, I can't see what's going on, but there's every now and again there's a loud sort of slapping, popping sound.
20:14And I think there's something very dramatic going on under the water, but I just can't get to it.
20:22I try to force my way into the reeds to see if I can glimpse what's causing this commotion.
20:28Bubbles in the water.
20:31These reeds are shaking, some quite large animals under the water making these reeds really shake.
20:37Could this be a pack of river monsters at work?
20:44What have been unearthed in this part of Botswana that are among the oldest of their kind ever found?
20:52Find out right after this.
20:55Fishing implements have been unearthed in Botswana that date back over 20,000 years, some of the oldest ever found.
21:02I fought my way into the reeds to try and see what's causing an underwater commotion.
21:16Some of these lilies shaking and there's a few leftover birds, but there's a sense that the action has just moved on.
21:24It's very frustrating, I got to the edge of it, I saw the shaking reeds, I couldn't really see what was responsible, but there's something under the water.
21:31It just appeared like a large collection of predatory creatures in the water, but they move, they're very elusive.
21:43Very mysterious, very frustrating.
21:46I really want to get to the bottom of this.
21:49Unfortunately the reeds are too dense to follow the action.
21:52Then I realise I'm not alone.
21:56So there's people in here as well.
21:59They obviously know what's going on or certainly have a better idea than I do.
22:03But she's just disappeared in a very thin channel there between the weeds.
22:09I don't think there's any way in this I'm going to go after.
22:12But, uh...
22:15Some sort of secret things going on here that I would really like to know more about.
22:20The next day I'm privileged to join a 71-year-old village elder named Duba.
22:36He spent his life on these waters.
22:39I'm hoping he can help me unlock the secrets of this reed-filled labyrinth
22:44and find the killer fish at his heart.
22:46Duba is one of the last San River Bushmen.
22:53Some of the most ancient people on Earth.
22:57They have fished these eerie backwaters for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years,
23:03and owned the traditional fishing rights.
23:04So it's only with Duba's permission that I'm allowed to be here.
23:10And without his help, I would never find my way out.
23:14Duba, can you tell me what's different about this place? What happens here?
23:18So the significance of this place is that traditionally this is where the dead were taken.
23:30And they were buried up to their necks.
23:33The rains would come, the rains would then go away, and the body would be gone.
23:40And the people would be transformed into papyrus plants.
23:44They believe these floating spirit papyrus protect the lagoons, moving independently against the current to close the channels,
23:55and trap intruders inside the labyrinth.
23:58So if you come here without permission, what happens is that either you're going to find the way into the lagoon blocked by papyrus,
24:14you can't get in, you're physically kept out.
24:17If you insist on pushing your way through, the papyrus will close behind you, and you'll never find your way out.
24:22All that will be found eventually is just your empty canoe.
24:28Duba, I've been hearing about a fish called the ngwesh.
24:31Is this a particularly dangerous fish?
24:42The ngwesh is a fish that is very toothy.
24:46It's got teeth a bit like a crocodile, very sharp.
24:48From my point of view, fishing for them, trying to find them.
24:53I've established that this place is a sacred place, a haunted place if you like.
24:58But what that also means is it's got a degree of protection.
25:01People don't normally come here.
25:03So I think while I'm here, and while I'm sort of authorised to be here,
25:06I could do a lot worse than just put a lure through the water and see if there is anything down there.
25:18In this lagoon, I'm trying a small fishing lure.
25:22If the ngwesh is a pack hunter, like the piranha, then a disturbance near the surface is what it might go for.
25:29Oh, that's a fish, fish, fish, fish, fish. Whoa!
25:31This fish took almost under the, whoops, under the rod tip.
25:38An indication of how voracious the fish are in this water.
25:42I mean, I've got about four feet of line out there.
25:44I was just about to lift it out of the water and it grabbed it.
25:47And I'm just letting it tire out a bit.
25:50I mean, the chances are it's got teeth if it went for that spoon.
25:54So I've got bare feet in here.
25:56I want it a little bit tired before I try and swing it in the boat.
25:59Aye.
26:07Beautiful little fish. Very toothy.
26:10This is actually an African pike, sort of mottled green.
26:14The colour's actually wrong, I think, for what I've been hearing about.
26:16But if I just compare the teeth with what I was given by the witch doctor.
26:22Actually, the teeth are very different, very different.
26:24So, I mean, quite a nice toothy fish to catch this.
26:26But I think we can rule this off the suspects list.
26:34So the hunt for the mutilator of the ferry victims continues.
26:39Nice looking fish, but it's not the one I'm after.
26:47I'm working my way through the food chain, but nothing yet matches the description of the Ingwesh.
26:55As we near the lagoon's exit, I spot something unusual in the water.
27:00It's an old canoe here, just upturned by the side of the canal.
27:03I've been hearing all these stories about how this is not a good place to come to if you don't have permission.
27:10And I have to admit, it is quite a spooky place.
27:13It's quite easy to dismiss those stories and then you come across a canoe with no occupant.
27:20It just adds to that general air of spookiness, you wonder what happened to the owner of this canoe.
27:30With my suspect list narrowing, I head out again into the main channel, keeping my eye out for flocks of birds.
27:37I decide to target a different part of the water column as I systematically zero in on the mystery fish locals call the Ingwesh.
27:47This is quite a weighted heavy lure, heavy head to it there.
27:52The idea of this is it goes down to the bottom, which tends to be where the larger fish might be lying.
27:59It's got a very enticing sort of wiggly action and it's just the kind of thing that's going to entice a predatory strike.
28:07Let it hit the water, let it sink down maybe eight to ten feet and then just twitch it.
28:26That was something. Twitch. Twitch.
28:30It's got these trailing sort of tendrils and it's got this rubbery body and a little rattle as well.
28:35I think if you're a predator, you see a movement, you bite first and you ask questions later.
28:48Let it sink, sink, let it sink, let it sink. Twitch. Twitch. Twitch. Twitch.
28:58Oh, I thought I felt something there. And twitch. And again.
29:05I think I've just seen what the Ingwesh is.
29:08Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:10Heeey!
29:12Wow!
29:14I think I've just seen what the Ingwesh is.
29:16Oh, yeah, yeah.
29:18Oh!
29:20Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:23Yeah!
29:25Oh, yeah!
29:28Oh, yeah, yeah!
29:30Oh, yeah!
29:31Wow, I think I've just seen what the m'gwesh is.
29:43Oh, look at that, look at that.
29:45It comes about four feet out of the water.
29:47I'm hooked into a predator
29:48in Africa's Okavango Delta.
29:50My mind's sounding like it's in pain, slicing the water.
29:54Could it be the m'gwesh?
29:56Long and silvery, horizontal stripes.
29:58The pack-hunting killer fish I've been searching for.
30:13I think this might actually be the m'gwesh.
30:14From everything I've heard,
30:15it definitely fits the description.
30:18Streamlined fish, silvery color, horizontal black stripes,
30:22and unmistakable large, sharp, interlocking teeth.
30:27And, well, I actually recognize this as a tigerfish.
30:31This definitely looks like it's been doing a bit of hunting,
30:34that body, although elongated is quite, you know,
30:37it's very full, it's been feeding.
30:38And then those teeth, I mean, that is,
30:42yeah, that is the tooth the witch doctor showed me.
30:46I think we've got a positive ID now on this fish for sure.
30:48So I've matched the teeth from the witch doctor and identified the m'gwesh.
30:55But is it really a fish that attacks in frenzied packs, like the piranha?
31:01I've caught a tigerfish before, the goliath tigerfish of the Congo.
31:05There we go.
31:07That fish has the size to be a killer.
31:09What a fresh water monster this thing is.
31:13But it works alone.
31:15The one I'm after hunts in packs,
31:17and can potentially bring down several large targets at once.
31:23The type of tigerfish I just caught is a relative of the piranha,
31:27but it can grow to over three feet long.
31:30And its average weight is more than ten times that of a red-bellied piranha.
31:35So imagine hordes of these tearing at your flesh.
31:41A voracious pack of teeth that, if my hunch is right,
31:44could easily have disposed of the ferry victims.
31:50To find out more about this type of tigerfish,
31:53I meet up with a man who has years of experience catching them,
31:58a fishing guide named Yuri Janssen.
32:01People talk a lot about tigerfish being very aggressive.
32:05How dangerous do you think they are to people in this river?
32:08The potential is there.
32:10We're dealing with a species that is, without a doubt,
32:15the most aggressive freshwater species in Africa,
32:19and possibly worldwide.
32:21It's just such an aggressive fish.
32:24Particularly during the feeding frenzies associated with the catfish run,
32:29when tigers get together and shoal and actually feed as a unit rather than individually.
32:35This sounds like the lead I'm after,
32:38a spectacular phenomenon that occurs at one specific time of the year here in the Delta,
32:43that Yuri believes incites the tigerfish to hunt in packs.
32:48It's called the catfish or barbell run, and it occurs when thousands of catfish prey on millions of baitfish.
32:55This hunt in turn attracts packs of tigerfish to feed in a predatory frenzy.
33:01Maybe this is what was happening in the reeds.
33:04As soon as that noise starts, the tigers are there in seconds.
33:07They go into a feeding frenzy with that mouth open, and they just chomp.
33:11You see bits of fish being thrown up in the air.
33:14It's the most brutal thing you'll ever witness from a freshwater species.
33:20Tigers naturally are attracted to any activity,
33:23whether it be a struggling animal or a struggling human being.
33:27And do you have any, have you heard any specific stories that illustrate that?
33:30There is one that stands out.
33:34At one particular incident in a river in South Africa.
33:38At the height of summer, an off-duty game ranger decided to take a quick dip in the river to cool off.
33:49A risky decision, even if he thought the area was croc-free.
33:57But crocodiles are not the only predators in this water.
34:10My search for proof of the tigerfish's deadly potential
34:27has led me to the story of a horrific attack.
34:30It was brutally mauled all around the groan area.
34:37The nature of the wounds suggested it was a large tigerfish.
34:42He almost bled to death.
34:46That just shows the ferocity of the tigerfish,
34:49attracted to any kind of movement in water,
34:52and, um, attacking things that may not resemble their prey.
34:58So another example of a tigerfish attacking a human in open water.
35:02But it's still hunting alone.
35:07However, these accounts of them feeding in frenzies during the catfish run
35:11could be the proof I need that they do work in packs.
35:15The next morning, I head deeper into the delta,
35:21scanning the water for the bird activity that could be the sign of tigerfish on the prowl.
35:27But finding a run is not proving to be that easy.
35:32It's a natural phenomenon that can appear and then disappear back into the reeds,
35:36with no apparent warning.
35:41As I'm not finding anything at water level,
35:43I decide to search for the predatory fish from above.
35:57Looking down on the maze of the Okavango,
36:00I realize that I'm finally beginning to unlock its secrets.
36:04What I'm looking for is concentrations of birds,
36:08because people have told me that is where the predators are going to be.
36:14Flocks of birds typically feed on the baitfish that trigger the run.
36:18I'm counting on them to lead me to the action.
36:28Yes, I can see them. I can see the birds.
36:30That is where I've got to put my line.
36:38My hope is that like the birds,
36:40packs of tigerfish will be going after the barbell catfish run.
36:44This will prove my theory that these toothy killers do hunt together,
36:49and could be capable of mutilating a boatload of people.
36:53Well, here are the birds, but they're not actually doing anything at the moment.
36:56It's like they're waiting for something.
36:58It's like they can sense something that I can't.
37:02It's actually quite spooky.
37:03Something's going to happen.
37:04It's not happening yet.
37:15Then, seemingly out of nowhere,
37:18the catfish start arriving.
37:19An army of them schooling together
37:35to herd thousands of baitfish out of the reeds into open water,
37:39where the catfish can feed on them.
37:42This is the rare freshwater spectacle I've been hearing about,
37:48what I've spent so long searching for.
37:54But I'm not here as a spectator.
37:56There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these.
38:09This is what the barbell run is all about.
38:14Catfish, lots of them.
38:16But the catfish aren't what I'm after.
38:19I've been told that all this commotion will draw in the second wave of predators.
38:24The tigerfish.
38:26And before long, I'm witnessing a real feeding frenzy.
38:33This is just, this is just incredible.
38:35The amount of activity is just incredible.
38:38This is a real phenomenon.
38:45Right, gosh.
38:48Ah!
38:48There are fish there, just holding their open mouths out of the water,
38:53but presumably just treading water with their tails.
38:55And they're just waiting, and the baitfish are flowing in the air,
38:57so presumably they're just waiting for the fish to land in their mouths.
39:00Absolutely incredible.
39:01The water is just so full of fish, and just in your ears as well,
39:16the other sounds, it's like the water doesn't just look like it's boiling,
39:20it sounds like it.
39:22I've just never seen anything like this before.
39:24To see such a sight in fresh water, it's really incredible.
39:28I need to get a bait back in the water, into the middle of this carnage,
39:36to finally prove that tigerfish are here hunting in packs.
39:43Fish on.
39:45This is what I came here to see.
39:58Look at this.
39:59I'm after the tigerfish in the Okavango Delta,
40:03trying to prove that these fish are Africa's oversized version of the pack-hunting piranha.
40:08It looks like I'm finally in the eye of the storm.
40:11This is not carnage going on behind the reeds, or in some sort of marsh where I can't see it.
40:16This is right at the river's edge, and the predator's just hammering into the baitfish.
40:20And my lure, when it goes in there as well, is getting the same treatment.
40:24I'm hooking one tigerfish after another.
40:31This is the proof I'm after.
40:34Well, this is the fish.
40:35This is the fish.
40:36And the evidence is right behind me.
40:38It's in my ears.
40:40I mean, just the sound of the feeding frenzy is going on as I hold this fish.
40:43So this is not just a solitary hunter.
40:45There is a pack of them down there,
40:47filling the air with the sound of just frenzied predatory activity.
40:52People think piranhas are scary.
41:00Piranhas are just a few inches, you know, maybe a pound, two pounds.
41:06But fish this size operating in a pack would be a monstrous thought.
41:13The fact is, if you get a bait in the right place,
41:17just these things, one after the other, will just pile into it.
41:21And I think, without doubt, this is a very likely candidate for what put paid to those people in the ferry.
41:29So we're not just talking a solitary animal down there.
41:31We are talking a pack.
41:32We're almost talking a super organism.
41:34You know, the biomass of these in a small volume of water is quite frightening.
41:38I mean, piranhas, in comparison, look quite puny.
41:41We've got a pack of these things down here.
41:42I've heard first-hand accounts of their raw aggression.
41:47I've seen their brutal hardware.
41:49And by catching so many in quick succession, I've shown they most definitely hunt in packs.
41:54I've left in no doubt that a frenzy of these mouths could easily have disposed of the ferry victims.
42:00So I think by any definition at all, this thing is a real river monster.