[narrator] Previously on Expedition Bigfoot...
Check that out. I've never found a footprint before.
That's big.
We are back here in Northern California
because I believe Bigfoot is using this area
as a breeding ground.
Audio seems to be the key
in understanding Sasquatch language.
The Holy Grail of Bigfoot sounds.
[whispering] I can hear something moving down there.
[animal sounds]
That sounded like a gorilla.
I've never heard anything like that before.
That was wild.
[Bryce] So I've set up a suite of electronic surveillance equipment.
And this tent blocks all this EMF frequency,
making us invisible.
[gasps] Holy [bleep]!
What was that?
I heard it go off this way.
-[rustling in trees] -[bleep]!
[whispering] I don't know what that was.
Or how that happened.
I feel like something just threw something at me.
But there's nothing here.
I can't see [bleep]. I don't see anything.
Let me just go over to this corner
and see if I can look around.
I feel like something is trying to communicate with me.
I don't [bleep] know.
Whatever it was... [panting]
I saw it go by two of our cameras,
so I know we got it.
The bad news is now it knows I'm in that tent
and I feel totally exposed.
I want to get the [bleep] out of here.
Let's get that footage,
take it back to command center,
and see just what the hell was moving through here.
Did you sleep? Did you sleep at all?
Yeah. I didn't sleep hardly at all.
[narrator] While sheltering from a storm,
survivalist Russell Acord recorded sounds
of a large animal below his position,
as well as a possible set of Bigfoot vocalizations.
There's something on this rockslide,
moving just down below us.
I heard something.
I brought out the parabolic mic
and I listened,
and it sounded like a couple of grunts.
Like an adult and a juvenile.
[animal sounds]
Holy [bleep]!
[animal sounds]
That sounded like a gorilla.
[grunts] All right.
Right now, my objective is to get this audio to Bryce
because there is something on this audio. I know it.
But also I need to get down to the bottom of this rockslide
and see if I can figure out
what was moving across those rocks last night.
[narrator] As Russell makes his way down the rockslide,
seven miles away at base camp,
primatologist Dr. Mireya Mayor
along with bioacoustic expert
and Bigfoot researcher Tobe Johnson
are analyzing audio recorded the night before.
I thought I maybe heard what sounded like a Canadian goose.
[Mireya] I mean, there were reports of Canadian geese here,
but those reports say no longer.
But... it's strange.
So I downloaded an actual Canadian goose call.
So now I have a spectrogram that visually shows
the audio frequencies of the recordings.
And we have an auditory match,
but we don't really have a visual match here.
And so I'm just going to play you the sounds as I found it.
[animal sounds]
-[chittering] -What was that?
And so what we're looking at right here...
-Mmm-hmm? -...that's the little Canadian goose that I recorded.
But check this out.
-This is a Canadian goose. -[goose sample plays]
-See that vertical delineation? -Yeah.
You know, almost looks like towers in Malaysia or something like that.
And we have this horizontal banding for these sounds.
So you can see here,
it's a totally different signature.
[goose sample plays]
Is there any explanation for why it would sound like something,
but not match visually?
Well, mimicking.
If something's using a sound that it heard,
but has vocal flexibility...
um, they can reproduce the sound,
but it's not necessarily going to look like it.
There are so many animals in nature
-that do mimic sounds, right? -Mmm-hmm.
And there's no question when I listen to it
that you have a sound match.
But then when you visually demonstrate the sound
and that they don't match at all,
it's strange.
Having tech that can discern what the human ear can't
and possibly even detect a mimic is incredible.
But it also makes me think,
what other subtle clues might we be missing out here?
Bryce and I were in this area just a few days ago...
-Mmm-hmm. -...and we actually found a footprint.
[narrator] Based on Tobe's theory that Sasquatch
has the ability to mimic the sounds of other animals,
Mireya and Tobe are leaving the boundary
of the audio surveillance array
that they deployed the day before
and are heading to the area near the footprint
she and Bryce discovered.
Now that the weather is cooperating,
I can break out my audio cassette recorder
and shut the microphone.
And at the same time, I can record with...
the Hi-Tech, which is this digital recorder here,
and see if there's a difference
in the type of audio that we capture.
The reason being is, I believe there could be audio anomalies
that can happen in the recording process
when trying to capture Bigfoot sounds,
especially on digital devices.
So you're going to be recording on one,
-listening on the other-- -Yeah, so--
So I'm going to be listening to the old system here,
monitoring it as best I can.
We should pick them up on both audio sources.
So if we get it on one source, that's strange.
Interesting.
Tobe believes that you can capture different anomalies
depending on whether you use digital or analog recorders.
So we are going to use both a digital recorder
and a cassette tape recorder.
That way, no matter what happens,
we should be able to get it on one of the recorders.
Because that begins to tell a different story of what's happening,
as far as how they communicate.
[Mireya] Beyond audio anomalies,
what excites me about the audio investigation
is possibly furthering our understanding
about communication in the animal world.
In fact, new research suggests
that elephants use specific calls, like names,
to identify one another
in the same way that humans use names.
So that howl that Bryce and I heard the other night
could have been some kind of communication.
[animal howling]
It sounded like a howl.
[Mireya] But one howl is not enough.
If we have more audio, then we can begin to study it
in terms of verbal communication and language.
I also brought trail cams,
so if we find different spots...
What's that?
-Yeah, that's a bone, isn't it? -Yeah.
[Tobe] I think we have a kill site of some kind here, so--
Yeah. I mean, it looks like a-- like a tailbone.
Mm-hmm. So maybe we have a predator coming through here.
Maybe we're on a game trail leading to an interesting site.
-I love finding these because... -Mmm-hmm.
...sort of, ironically, it's a sign of life, right?
Like, something is out here predating on stuff,
and that means to me like there's animal activity here.
But it wasn't here when we were here.
So that's interesting.
Although, it looks pretty weathered.
It could be an omen, though.
-In what way? -I mean, if we're dealing with something here
that knows that we're coming out here
and you've already trekked this spot before,
footprints within the vicinity, nests,
maybe it's just a little bit of a calling card
for us to find this.
Can we bring that with us?
-Yeah, yeah. We'll keep. -Yeah.
So I'll bag it as we get closer
to where you wanna set up.
[narrator] Just outside of the target zone,
Bryce is back at the command center,
ready to analyze the footage he captured just 12 hours ago.
I want to take a look at the footage from last night's EMF tent investigation.
Because I was definitely not alone,
and I just want to start to piece together
everything that was taking place out there.
And so now with this ability to actually slow things down,
look at all this footage,
maybe I can start to really piece together
just what was actually taking place last night.
Right there.
That's it.
That's exactly what I saw last night.
This is what I think is like the head right here, peeking out.
See how hot that is?
Then here comes a shoulder and maybe a body.
I mean, look, there's no way to be 100% certain
that this isn't a bear or something,
but bears don't stalk with intent like this behind a tree.
I mean, this thing is observing me.
And then it just sort of moves back behind this tree
as if it knows how to avoid my camera array.
It just disappears.
But I know I saw something on another camera.
Oh!
I know I saw something on another camera.
Oh!
Right there.
Holy crap.
What the hell is that?
I mean, watch just how fast this thing goes by.
It's just like a blur of fur.
That thing came through in a fraction of a second.
It felt like it was more than one of these creatures surrounding me.
This could be a male and its son,
a female and daughter, male female.
I have so many questions
as to how they could have possibly detected me.
Did my smell give me away?
Maybe they were observing me as I was setting up.
What made these things come out of the woods
and harass me?
We were interacting.
So whatever was taking place, to me,
feels like a communication of sorts.
Even if it was combative,
like divers in those shark cages.
When the sharks are engaging with these divers,
they're curious about what's entering their environment,
and they want to show a strength of power.
And perhaps this is exactly what that was.
[Russell] Watch your step coming down here, bud.
This is really slick, okay?
[narrator] Back in the northeast target area,
Russell makes his way along the rockslide,
searching for evidence of the movement
and possible vocalizations he heard last night.
[Russell] This is some treacherous area.
It's so steep,
I'm having a difficult time getting through here.
Probably would have been easier to repel down this thing.
But whatever was moving here last night
didn't have that problem.
It moved easily through this area.
That noise could have been anywhere along this sidehill.
All that noise last night, it just stopped.
So I'm wondering if it went behind
a very large structure of rock or back into a cave
where I couldn't hear it anymore.
We've got an opening right here.
I'm going to check this out.
[grunts]
Well, that goes back about 20, 30 feet.
But, oh, look at this.
Look how shiny this thing is.
What that tells me is this gets a lot of use.
It's just smooth from continuous use.
If you look at all these other edges, they're jagged.
Like, listen to this.
It's just rough.
This, it's as smooth as marble.
Mountain lions, bears, all these other animals
that can actually get up this high
are going to use these areas
and scratch their way to the top.
This is soft tissue year after year, a lot of use.
This place has seen a lot of activity.
And I don't know if it's maybe just for hiding out
or getting out of the weather.
This would have been a perfect place to be sitting
during that storm last night.
Check this out.
A pretty good opening right here.
Let's check this out. It opens up.
I do struggle getting into these tight, confined spaces,
where you don't have room to turn around and come back out.
But then you have to.
Here's something that might have the answers you're looking for.
It keeps going.
There's got to be hair or something
that tells me what I want to know.
Yeah, this thing, it dead-ends right here.
All right, let's back out of here.
What a cool spot, though.
Whatever we heard last night,
I believe stayed in a space just like this.
I know that there's got to be more spaces like this
on this entire hillside.
I think we should keep looking.
[Mireya] Do you often get a...
for lack of a better description,
a feeling for an area?
[Tobe] No. I really have to rely on people
that have those kind of instincts about them.
But once in a while,
you get overwhelmed by a gut reaction.
-Mireya, you see what I'm seeing, right? -Mmm-hmm.
[Tobe] This is squatch-made, in my opinion.
Bundles of sticks, laying in a specific direction.
Put together.
This had been here a while.
There's no cut marks.
You know what I mean? Like, there's no equipment cut marks on that.
[Tobe] One of the things I do,
you just start looking for subtleties here
that are seemingly not connected.
On a couple of these stick structures,
we found that it was interacting at a due north.
But I'm just seeing if there's any anomalies here,
around these here,
because I'm certain that these were placed here.
This is not natural.
I don't know of an animal,
other than a primate or a person,
that has an opposable thumb to place sticks.
Did you see anything interesting
in the compass read?
No. No.
This is worth taking a photo of.
I mean, we've seen not quite like this.
Um, almost more tepee-like.
Uh, never just leaning against a tree like a bundle.
And that's what we call them. We call them leaners.
[Mireya sighs] Oh, my God.
The apex is at least 8 feet high,
and so the sheer size of this is rather impressive.
People talk about this term "geomancing."
And so geomancing is the idea that...
you can make a power spot happen
by moving the geology.
I.e., something like the Great Pyramids or Stonehenge.
[narrator] Geomancing, believed to have originated in the Middle East,
was spread through many cultures,
including Arabic, Chinese, European and others.
Its practitioners believed that a power spot
had special energies surrounding it.
Today, some Bigfoot researchers link power spots
and other areas of heightened paranormal phenomena to Bigfoot.
What if this is a form of geomancing here for a power spot?
Tobe and I do have extremely different backgrounds,
but so much of science
is based on having an open mind
and that curiosity and that sense of wonder.
[Tobe] That's exciting to see.
And working with someone who isn't coming strictly
from a scientific background is really refreshing to me
because it keeps me looking at things
from a different perspective.
But I'm willing to look at it through a skeptic's eyes.
Is there a natural option for this?
[Mireya] Yes. I do think there's a natural option for this.
I don't immediately, anyway,
see where it could have come from,
which, then, it would have had to have been brought here.
What would bring it here?
How would it be brought here?
And why would it be brought there?
To me, this is not evidence of anything.
Hunters could have possibly done that.
But if we start to see these repeatedly throughout the forest,
and I'm able to collect physical evidence
that connects all of these, now we're on to something.
Well, we can focus on this area today and tonight.
[Tobe] Oh, I think it's worth it.
Okay. Yeah. Let's go.
[narrator] After receiving a recent tip,
Bryce heads 11 miles northwest outside of the target zone
to meet with a local witness
who can potentially give him information
about how Bigfoot travels through the target area.
Can you take me to a place
where you think these creatures might be?
Yeah, we can head up in that direction
and kind of take a peek if you want to.
-Yeah. Let's go. All right. -All right.
[Bryce] After reviewing the footage that I captured two nights ago
and Russell recording a possible Bigfoot sound,
I know we're in the right location.
But I need to know more about how these creatures are moving through this area.
So I've arranged to speak with a gentleman named Rich England.
He's a member of the First Nations communities,
and he's had multiple encounters with Bigfoot.
And he believes he knows how they move through this region.
So, Rich, I believe your encounter happened
just down the river a little bit.
I would love to hear your story.
It was about ten o'clock at night,
you know, latest hit ever.
We caught a bunch of fish.
One of my friends and I were having something to drink
and it was dark. The lights were off.
And just all of a sudden,
I heard this... [imitates animal sound]
-It was probably 80 yards across the river. -Hmm.
And as soon as I heard it, I had goose bumps
and I could feel the hair in the back of my neck stand up.
-And then-- -Had you ever heard anything like that before?
Never. Never heard anything like that before.
And I looked at my buddy, and he had, uh...
he had the same response as I did.
Like, what was that?
And, uh, it did it again, like four or five more times.
It went... [makes animal sounds]
And then up around the corner,
probably like 400 yards, was like an open sandbar.
I heard something up there like respond back to it.
[makes animal noises]
It did it twice.
So they were two communicating back and forth.
Yeah, it seemed like it.
It stopped me in my tracks.
I just felt small.
-I felt fear. -Hmm.
And I felt like, man, whatever that was,
there was a primal feeling it could rip me apart.
[Bryce] Now I can see why this would be
just the perfect environment for a creature like this.
[Rich] When I was a kid, uh, my nanny,
she called them "the wild people."
And the story was that they were chased off into caves
because they smelled bad and they didn't want 'em around.
I mean, all these hills
-are just flush with caves and caverns. -They are. Absolutely.
You think these creatures are using
some of those cave systems to hide out and shelter?
Oh, yeah. I would think so.
This is a prime area.
If you look up, you know, these ridges,
I mean, these things are a couple thousand feet,
so we know people are going to be coming up on those ridges.
And there's ridges everywhere.
That's when we call-- We call them ridge runners.
That's what we call Bigfoot.
[narrator] After hearing possible vocalizations near an area
a witness reported hearing a loud howl,
Russell continues to explore a cliff band,
looking for caves
and places where animals may take shelter.
[Russell panting] Oh, jeez.
Dude, check this out.
Look at this freaking cave.
Look at this thing.
It goes in, and as far as I can see,
it keeps going back around the side there.
See all these leaves and stuff that are turned up?
There's a lot of activity in here.
A lot of movement.
I want to know what's moving inside this cave.
And after what we experienced last night,
that vocalization, it sounded like a grunt.
I've never heard anything like that in the forest before
ever.
I don't know what we're gonna face in here.
It's tight.
Every step of the way,
I'm trying to keep my claustrophobia
from getting the best of me.
Oh, it opens up nice.
I can stand up in here.
If I can, a lot bigger creature than me can do it.
What I wanna look for is these tiny little spots here,
where it's jagged and edgy.
If it's close to me,
anything with hair is gonna catch on that.
Look at this opening.
I could continue going straight,
but if I go beyond this point,
is something gonna come out of there
and block off my exit?
But I know that that's part of the danger
inside of this cave.
Hey, there's more openings in here.
Some of these look like they don't go very far.
Some of them look like they go way back further.
But what I want to do is find out
if this connects to other passages
or possibly even an exit.
It looks like he goes down about 20, 30 feet and stops.
I don't know how much space I'm dealing with.
Am I doing the right thing?
Am I going to get inside here
and corner something that I don't want to deal with?
[narrator] While Russell is searching the cave system
for a mountain passage, 8 miles to the southwest,
Mireya and Tobe approach an area
where she and Bryce heard multiple unidentified sounds
from deep in the forest.
You see that tree there, Mireya?
Yeah.
See how it has a draw
-coming down off of it right here? -Yeah.
[Tobe] This is close enough.
'Cause we'll be able to pick up
stuff happening here that will echo down that draw.
And this will keep us dry.
[Mireya] So you want to set up here?
-Let's set it up here. -Great.
[Tobe] We're recording.
We got full battery.
[narrator] By placing both digital and analog tape recorders
in the area of potential Sasquatch vocalizations,
the team hopes to decipher possible Sasquatch-mimicking behavior
through comparative analysis of the different recordings.
I'm gonna take the thermals out,
so that while you're listening,
I can be observing and having eyes on the forest.
Great.
[Mireya] Might as well get comfortable, then.
[Russell] Okay. It ends right here.
I know I can't get past that.
[breathing heavily]
That's tight.
[exhales]
I need to check each and every tunnel if possible.
It's [bleep] tight.
It closes off on both sides,
but I was hoping to find maybe a spot
where something laid down in here and left hair.
[grunting]
Another opening.
I can crawl on my hands and knees.
I know I can crawl back out.
There's nothing on the ceiling.
No scrape marks, no hair, no nothing,
which surprises me.
There should be something more than just wet mud.
We'll get back out in this main area.
What is using these caves?
Look at this.
That's been worn down.
Something's been squeezing through here.
But all these other rough edges, nothing...
that tells me this is the path...
being used.
I've been here for quite a while.
And it keeps going down.
The walls are getting tighter and closer.
But there's no turning back at this point,
even though you can turn around and you can walk out
and you can be done with your investigation.
But that's not being thorough.
That's not getting the job done.
Wait, just let me get the hit. It's this thing.
[Russell grunting]
[bleep] damn it.
[grunting]
My comfort level is done.
I'm not about to get stuck down here
and be a part of the landscape forever.
There's light ahead.
I see light coming in from this other side.
Holy smokes.
Look at this opening.
This thing comes out all the way to the other side.
Check this out.
It's like an underground mountain highway.
If I can go from one side of this mountain to the other
without coming out into open air,
juveniles or females could be doing the same thing.
When we get settled in tonight,
I want to be at a spot
where I can actually see this opening.
If anything comes out,
I'll be able to get that thermal trace.
But I want to watch this tonight.
[Mireya] Right now, Tobe is recording
and monitoring ambient sound, which, to our ear,
won't pick up on certain frequencies
that his equipment will.
So we thought it would be best to basically go complete dark,
no lights...
so that we minimize the light pollution
that we're putting out
for the sake of not spooking off any nocturnal animals
that may be roaming this area.
And this is reminding me a lot of my research studies,
where quiet-- kind of just blend in...
in my experience, is always a really successful strategy.
[animal sound]
[Tobe] I thought I maybe just heard something.
An owl sound, maybe.
I'm hearing footfall.
[Mireya] I'm gonna turn on the thermal real quick.
Are you still hearing the footfall?
No, it was-- It was two footfall sounds.
I'm not seeing anything on the thermal.
Now I am picking up on a heat signature,
but it's lying horizontally,
which makes me think that it's just possibly a log
with residual heat.
I'll take an audio break and see what you're looking at.
Oh, yeah.
[Mireya] And there's another heat source
coming over here behind you, right there.
Those are definitely log-looking, aren't they?
While you're filming that,
I'm going to, uh, see if we can elicit some activity here.
So, I think it's probably a good idea
to play some of the sounds that I recorded in Oregon.
Maybe bring something closer to us.
[audio playing on device]
[animal sounds on recording]
Tobe, you know what's interesting?
It's no longer picking up
on what we were seeing before out there.
I mean, you saw it.
-Yeah. -I absolutely know it's not there.
It's just very strange.
[Tobe] I'm gonna walk down there
with my recorder around my neck.
[Mireya] There could have literally been
an animal sleeping there
that got up and walked away.
Watch your step here if you're coming.
I don't know if this is a great idea.
So now I can, of course, see Tobe
and the cameraman walking behind him.
If I had seen the animal get up and walk away,
then, you know, how it's moving
will give you a lot of information.
Unfortunately, as I was panning around
and then panned back, realized it wasn't there.
I'm gonna shut this off for a second.
I heard that coming from over there.
Is he... Hey, Tobe.
Hey, Tobe?
[narrator] At his command center just outside of the target zone,
Bryce begins to analyze the recordings Russell sent over
of what he thinks could be Bigfoot communication.
Last night, Russ thinks he captured a vocalization.
[animal sounds]
[whispering] That sounded like a gorilla.
Unfortunately,
with all that background noise from the storm,
it's hard to discern what those noises are.
So I've asked my friend Owen
to help clean up this audio file.
He's an audio recording engineer for over 20 years
and is the man in the business...
uh, for when it comes to stuff like this.
So I'm gonna actually get him on the Zoom, uh, right now.
Hey, Owen. How are you, man?
-Great. Great. -Good.
I sent you that audio file.
I know there's a lot of background noise in there.
Hopefully you're able to clean it up.
I was able to enhance quite a bit.
Let me play you what it sounded like,
uh, when you sent it to me,
and then I'll show you what I was able to do with it.
Great.
[rain pattering on recording]
[Owen] There's just so much rain and--
and wind and everything in there.
So the first thing I did
was I trained the computer on the background noise.
All I have to do is tell this Wave Arts plug-in
to learn while I'm playing.
So I go to a spot where, you know, just using my ears,
I don't hear anything that I think we're interested in,
and I press "learn" and play it.
[rain pattering on recording]
And now it knows the profile of the noise in this file.
And so I can just start reducing that.
That's incredible.
[rain pattering missing on recording]
-[Bryce exhales] Wow. -Right.
What I'm going to do is I'm gonna--
I'm going to dial back all of that rain and wind
so I can separate out all the other sounds.
So I'll play that back for you now.
Great.
[branches rustling on recording]
[Bryce] That definitely sounds like some, uh,
some branch breaking or something heavy, uh,
moving through the woods, anyway.
I think you're right.
Uh, you can hear that.
I mean, I do get the impression,
and I think Russell got it as well,
that something big is moving down below.
Were you able to sort of flush out
any other sounds from this file?
Here's probably the most interesting part of the file,
um, is right at the end here.
Here's the file as it was sent to me.
-[rain pattering] -[animal sounds]
I was able to enhance that.
-So let me play you that. -Great.
[animal sounds]
So it sounded to me like two creatures communicating.
But not sort of the natural wildlife
you would think that would be coming out of these woods.
I mean, this sounds like
some of the vocalizations from these creatures
that we've heard and analyzed in the past.
These have variations in pitch.
Yeah, there's four sounds at the end of the file.
-Mmm-hmm. -And it's like beat-beat,
then a pause, and then another beat-beat.
You know, I can sort of play it for you.
The first beat-beat actually goes up a step.
[piano tone goes up a semitone]
[animal sounds on recording]
And then the second one goes down a step.
[piano tone goes down a semitone]
[animal sounds on recording]
It almost feels like call and response.
Yeah, it does.
-I'm getting two creatures out of this. -Right.
It's an animal sound.
You know, at the very least, we could say that.
That's not a regular nature sound.
So I think if I was out in the woods,
I might be a little nervous.
Well, Owen, thanks.
I really appreciate you analyzing that audio file.
You bet, man. It was really my pleasure.
What I love about Owen's analysis
is he was able to help us see
that there was different pitches
in those call and responses,
which tells me that there was probably two creatures.
And you know what? That fits
with what we've been investigating out here.
And we're really tracking this idea
that this place is a breeding ground
and that these creatures do move in pairs
or small family groups.
So hearing this,
I know there's something out there with Russell.
[Mireya] I see his light.
[narrator] Mireya and Tobe reconnect
to continue investigating an area
after seeing a heat signature that suddenly disappeared.
-[Tobe] Hey, Mireya. -Hey. Anything?
[Tobe] I'm not seeing any thermal signature,
but maybe that's a boot tread
from somebody that came down here.
And then it rained.
But it almost looked like it had like a... mid-turn.
So it went right in here, maybe,
some flexing of some toes.
But it's too old to say.
It's just so degraded and washed out.
-Yeah. -Have you been down here before to check this area?
-No. -Okay.
I'm just gonna take some preliminary measurements of it.
[Mireya] Look at this.
That's a really big-looking footprint.
[Russell] I became obsessed with the whole Bigfoot thing
the very first time I watched
the Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967.
And my first actual research was in Montana.
I was in high school
and I took cameras and flashlights
and some casting material,
and I went out and did actual legitimate research.
I thought it through. I mapped out a plan.
I canvassed an area.
I looked for footprints, hair, everything.
It was just like what you see today.
But very much more amateurish.
I was looking for something that would change the world.
[narrator] After tracking a heat signature
that suddenly disappeared,
Mireya and Tobe discover a large footprint
along the riverbank.
[Mireya] Look at this.
Did you find something?
Check this out.
That's a really big-looking footprint.
Oh, yeah. And this looks like
a push forward to here that suddenly stopped.
That's what caught my eye,
was this shape, kind of the depth...
and then that,
-which almost looked like toes digging in, right? -Yeah, it does.
[Tobe] Almost gripping.
It certainly looks a lot fresher
than what was going on up here.
[Mireya] To me, it looks like a foot.
I see depth.
I see the shape and definition of a foot.
The vegetation has been disturbed
in the same direction as the foot is pointing.
And what really caught my eye was where the toes seemed
to make a really defined impression.
You can see the curvature of each individual toe.
Just looking at this thing,
I mean, if I actually do a side by side comparison...
this thing is at least twice the size of my foot.
I know that you're having a hard time seeing it on the IR,
so I'm gonna go ahead and take out my phone and film it
so that we have it documented.
At no point would I think that this was a bear
or a bear double-step.
I wish that there was an accompanying print
because then you get a lot more information
about stride length
and whether an animal is walking bipedally
or if we had four, if they're a quadruped.
I mean, there's so much that we can tell off footprints.
But one isolated print
doesn't give me enough information to really infer
what would have placed it there.
If it had not been for how big this is,
I would have thought it was a human foot.
I'm scanning the print,
and I'll make sure to get this to Bryce for analysis.
[whispering] You can tell that all the trails
are clearing out out in front of us.
You got that great big huge open span is getting lighter.
[narrator] After traveling through the mountain cave system,
Russell is going to observe the ridgeline
near the cave entrances and rockslide,
where he captured the possible vocalizations.
This will do it right here.
Let's get set up.
I wanna run thermals and parabolic at the same time.
I want to see it. I want to hear it.
I know there's something out here tonight.
I picked this vantage point
because I have a really great view of the area.
Plus, I'm back far enough that I can remain undetected
from whatever made that vocalization last night.
[rain pattering]
That rain is not helping.
So far, I'm not seeing anything on that hillside.
[animal sounds]
I'm picking up some strange audio. It's weird.
[animal sounds continue]
It sounds like there's just something
breathing down there.
-[heavy breathing] -Way down in the valley.
[animal sounds continue]
If it's within the range of the parabolic to hear it...
it should be in range for the thermal to see it.
There's something out here.
It's just a matter of catching it on this thermal.
Interesting.
This lighter area right here,
that's warmer than all the background.
It could be something bent down in the bushes.
That's the lightest spot on the whole hillside.
Whoa, look at that.
What the [bleep] is that?
You're seeing that, right?
[bleep]. Holy crap.
That thing is bipedal.
That looked like two.
That looked like something walking down the hill.
Like, two-feet walking.
That's just crazy.