Review: Man V. Monster: Amazon River Beast

Richard holding the green anaconda.
Image credit National Geographic.

In the fifth episode of Man V. Monster, Richard Terry travels to the Amazon Rainforest in search of a creature responsible for a series of violent attacks. This is the second episode dealing with the Amazon: the first covered giant spiders, and the already-reviewed Mapinguary episode was the third and final. Like with that review, this is constructed entirely from memory.

Identifying the... Amazonian Death Worm

An illustration of a caecillan Minhocão.
Image credit user Kryptid of Wikipedia.

One of the most well known of all cryptids, ranking among the likes of Nessie and Bigfoot, is the Mongolian death worm. However, the death worm is often misinterpreted amongst non-cryptozoologists as a giant, supremely aggressive and dangerous animal, akin to the wyrms of heraldry.

In actuality, the death worm is usually described as a fairly small, fat burrowing creature, which only attacks when disturbed, fighting back with acid and electric shocks.

Video: Holy Shit!

In the above video, a very large Anaconda startles some people on a boat, in what I must assume to be the Amazon. The brave guy on the boat decides, for some reason, to grab it by its tail, showing part of it to the camera. The snake then swims off, looking very much like a sea serpent.

Although it appears to be strangely large and thick, it seems that the part we can see is only large because the snake is currently digesting something, perhaps a tapir or peccary. But if other eyewitness accounts are to be believed, there certainly are bigger fish out there.

The Forés Specimen

Forés' photograph of the specimen.
Image credit Virtual Institute of Cryptozoology.

Angel Morant Forés is a Spanish cryptozoologist who is perhaps best known for his work in Amazonian Ecuador, reporting on feline cryptids like water and rainbow jaguars. But his biggest discovery - and from his point of view, biggest mistake - is a photograph of taxidermy specimen of an aquatic animal found in a Macas shop.

Amazon Expeditions Since 2010 Discover at Least 441 New Species

Caqueta titi monkey or Callicebus caquetensis, a 'purring' monkey.
Image credit The Guardian.

At least 441 new species of animal have been discovered in the Colombian areas of the Amazon Rainforest from 2010 to 2013. These discoveries include include a herbivorous piranha relative and a monkey that purrs like a cat.