Review: Man V. Monster: Brazilian Bigfoot

Richard with a two-toed sloth.
Image credit National Geographic.

Man V. Monster was (is?) an interesting series. Aired on National Geographic and presented by English filmmaker Richard Terry, there have been two series' so far. Most of the episodes end with Richard deeming the cryptid he's searching for to be a regular animal mistaken as something else, and the episodes themselves sometimes focus more on the trecherous terrain than the cryptid. Not necessarily a bad thing. "Brazilian Bigfoot", the Mapinguary episode, is something of an exception.

No episode of the series is available for purchase, physically or digitally, so this review is constructed from memory. Some information may be incorrect or in the wrong chronological order.

Richard starts out trekking through the Amazon. This is one thing this series had which many others do not: it showed off the environmental dangers of the hostile locations theses animals live in. At one point, Richard is forced to crawl across a slippery log over a crevice filled with rapids in order to reach his destination before nightfall, and the Amazon River itself proves to be an obstacle at one point.

After speaking with some eyewitnesses, Richard determines that the Mapinguary must be a large ape, hence the episodes title. In the forest, he has an encounter with a constricting snake, and a small troop of howler monkeys. He notes that the whooping scream made by these monkeys could explain some vocal encounters, whilst the monkeys themselves are far too small to actually be the Mapinguary.

At dusk, Richard sets out on horseback with a local zoologist. They eventually see something large moving in the bushes, and the camera captures glimpses of a patch of wiry hair amongst the leaves. I grew rather excited at this point - although I knew they wouldn't find anything (I was watching a repeat, and a discovery would be all over the news), a mere patch of hair from an unidentified animal would probably not be as widely circulated. When the zoologist darts it (I know it's her job, but is it really necessary to dart, interfere with and tag every animal on Earth?), though, it turns out to be a giant anteater. It isn't noted, but when it runs off it appears to have a baby on its back. The anteater encounter reminds Richard of the extinct ground sloth, and he moves away from the ape theory.

Richard crossing a ravine on a fallen tree.
Image credit National Geographic.

Finally, night falls, and Richard stays up a tree with a night vision camera. He captures an image of something large down below, but he can't get a good view of it. Come morning, he finds a two-toed sloth (which tries to attack him).

At this point in an episode, Richard usually says that this final animal is truth behind the cryptid. This time, it's different, as he notes that a regular sloth is just far too small. He ends fairly sceptically, doubting whether a breeding population of ground sloths could remain hidden in the Amazon - but he then notes that, if anywhere could support such a population, it's the Amazon.