Airplane Sized Bird - Beast Legends - Bird Monster

In this episode of Beast Legends, the team digs up an ancient mystery in the southwestern United States. There's a bad stuff happening in this room. They're searching for evidence of a creature that descends like a nightmare from the sky. You almost feel it. A Navajo legend that forces the team to face death in the darkness. Hopefully, this works. And endure the dangers of flight. Beware the monster bird. Let's get out of here. Stories of terrifying monsters are told the world over. Some are myths. But others are believed to be real. Now a team of investigators will track down clues and find evidence for the beast behind the legend. The quest to build the creature to life unleashed on the modern world. Francis is in New Mexico, home of the monster bird. He is here to find clues about what this monstrous man-eating bird may look like. Scott is investigating the vicious behavior of birds of prey. The rest of the team are in the beast lab, searching for the source of the legend. This isn't just a fairy tale for the Navajo people. Monster bird was real and is real. All right, guys, check this out. On the lands of the Navajo Nation, on a mountain called Shiprock, a giant monster bird reigns. With two hungry mouths to feed, it soars above the desert, hunting for human prey, snatching victims with razor-sharp claws, dropping them to their death. Say nahale, one who smashes on rocks. It is the monster bird. This story has inspired the team to imagine what this beast might be and to bring it to virtual life. This is gonna be a cool one to build but challenging. It's gonna be very challenging because biologically, it throws up quite a few problems. A, this bird is huge, it's monstrous. It would have to be. It would have to be, you know, to be able to pick a human up, be able to carry it into the air, dropping it. Yeah. You know, and to be fair, there hasn't been anything, you know, around in human history that has been able to do that. So we're really starting from scratch here. Right. I think what we should do now is get more information directly from the Navajo people about the story. Yeah, if we know the sort of bird we're looking at, then we can start to work out just how big it's gonna be. Well, let's send Francis to Shiprock. Perfect. In order to build our 3D monster bird, we need more information about what the beast looks like. So we've sent Francis on a mission to the home of the monster bird. And we've rented him a horse, which unfortunately doesn't come with a manual. This way, buddy. Let's go. Come on. Go. Come on, dude. Let's go. All right. Come on, buddy. Whoa. Now that my horse and I have finally come to an understanding, I'm headed in the right direction. Whoa. The guy I'm going to meet is a Navajo archaeologist and the son of a medicine man. Hey, Francis. He has details of a story about how monster bird attacks, and he's agreed to tell me. Glad you came down. I feel honored that you guys are letting me in on the story, you know, because I know you don't usually just put it out there like that. Well, in the Western world, it'd be considered like it's a myth. Yeah. But for us, it's an actual event as part of our history. Shiprock has been a sacred place for the Navajo for over 500 years. And in fact, they don't like anyone climbing it for fear of stirring up ghosts of the dead. The atmosphere around here is creeping me out. It's really cool how you see just nothing for miles here, you know? I mean, imagine a monster bird perched up there. And we're riding on our two little horses. I see us from like miles away. We're easy picking then. Oh, yeah. Taff's going to give me the details of a story that is recorded as a real event in Navajo history. The attack on a warrior named Monster Slayer right here several hundred years ago. Well, the story is about 45 miles in back of this peak. There's a place called Red Mesa. As he was walking back towards this shiprock here, the monster bird spotted him. As the bird flew to pick him up, he just laid to his side and actually moved his arm to the side too. And it just scratched him. And the thing he said was, meaning the monster missed me. Right. And the bird came down and with his claws picked him up. And it was like he just dropped him towards the peak. In the legends, did they describe the monster bird looks like? When something is coming at you, you don't have time to look at the details of what that thing that's going to kill you really looks like. In the history, the way it was described, it was large enough to pick up a person. So it had claws enough to pick you up. So it was a cross almost between an eagle and a condor. Wow. This is probably what you would see. As it's coming towards you. Right. Okay, we've got a few leads. We need to look at condors and eagles. And this beast is definitely big enough to carry away a grown man. Now we just have to fill in the details. I feel like I have more artistic liberty that I could take with this thing because there wasn't really that much of a description. I can totally get that because actually, at the end of the day, what it looks like to them is less important than what it actually does in some ways. And in fact, everybody's going to have their own interpretation on, you know, specific characteristics. Eagle condor. They're two very different birds, but they're big birds. So you can just give us a, you know, a big silhouette bird to start off with. And that will be a start. These are animals that would have been around for, you know, all of human history here. The condor and the eagles. Yeah. They're the largest flying things that the people would have seen. But it's a great place for them to live. The reason that they mention these birds is because this, if you look at this landscape, it's ideal for soaring birds. It's because you've got cliffs for them to launch off. You've got great hot plains for the, you know, thermal activity. You'll get loads of thermals during the day here. Thermals are columns of warm air that rise up from the ground that has been heated up by the sun. Soaring birds use them to hitch a ride up like an invisible elevator. This is just further proof that Shiprock is the ideal place for a giant bird. We know we need to look at eagles and condors. Let's start with a California condor, the largest bird in North America. Our goal is to get a look at a condor in flight. Yeah, so this area we're going is not even people that live around here get access to this. If you want Californian condors, this is the guy to be with. In this area, they disappeared in early 1930s. The last nesting pair in Big Sur disappeared. So this is part of the capture-release program? Yes. We're in the Fentana Wildlife Reserve. It's one of the only places where you can see a condor in flight because just 20 years ago, these birds were nearly extinct. Now, there are only 87 of them in all of California. So you had a monster bird. What is the description? There wasn't a lot of description in terms of what it looks like. Yeah, we got a... It's just big. It's big. It's what it can do, basically, as well. Exactly. We could take pieces from certain birds and, you know, particularly the condor, see what we can take from it. And the largest flying bird in North America, that's a great start. Yeah, exactly. So we're looking at sheer size at the moment. The condor is the biggest lead we have on monster bird. And how it flies will be key to forming our beast. There is no guarantee we'll see one, but something tells me from the stench of dead cow remains that we're on the right track. There's just bones everywhere, isn't there? Crunch, crunch, crunch. There's like a head right there. Yeah, someone that would stumble upon this. A hiker that accidentally stumbled upon this would think they would stumble upon a horror movie. Oh, exactly, yeah. This is kind of a good way to depict how well they clean a carcass. There's nothing left. You can see they've gone in and they've stripped from the inside out. I'm starting to think twice about getting up close and personal with this bird. Just when I'm officially freaked out, we hear this insane sound. Francis and I are in Big Sur, California, trying to get a look at a condor. But so far, all we've found is a trail of dead animals. You know, because the skin's all there, but everything's picked out from underneath. And that's the way they're designed. They find, make a hole in and then they go in and scoop everything out. Now we're talking. I can imagine the desert around Shiprock would have been littered with human carcasses just like this. Oh, yeah, here's a condor. Okay. See, here they are perched up in the trees. Whoa. Really, you almost feel it when they come over the top of you, don't you? Well, you can hear it. Just the flapping. Yeah, whistling through their feathers, yeah. Next thing you know, not just one, but three condors descend on us. You see that? Like, you see how it's sort of slightly twisting its tail? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. And in fact, the wings, the wings stay pretty rock steady. Yeah, except, like, at the end it's kind of flares up. Yeah, a little bit of finger action at the end. These wings are exquisite. Perfect design for a monster bird to soar high above the desert. Time for Francis to pull out the ink. So I think what I really like from the condor is the wings. But we want it to be more agile. But I think the size is perfect. Then we look and there's a condor mother feeding her young, regurgitated flesh. Sweet. Yeah, look at that, he's feeding them. That's pretty rare, guys. No one sees that. It seems like the perfect place. Just like the legend, we found some wicked soaring wings. Carnage left behind. And monster feeding habits. Wow, that is amazing. I was thinking disgusting, but that can work, too. No, it really is cool. All right, I really think we should start with these condor parts. You know, there's some key features you really need to put in there. I mean, they can soar for hours without even flapping their wings. And so they've got to have these long wings and broad wings that are adapted for catching those thermals. The layers on those wings, you know, they've got the primaries, they've got the secondaries. They've got all these layers which create this amazing airfoil. Good, that's looking really good. Now we're talking. The condor has given us ideal soaring wings, but they aren't hunters. Condors only eat dead things. Monster bird hunts and kills live humans. So time to follow our next lead, eagles and how they attack. We're going to the coast to meet a champion paraglider who was viciously attacked in midair by two eagles. Okay, Francis, we're flying today. So I'll introduce you to Pat. Patrick's going to be the tandem pilot. So you're going to be the packet on the front of his glider, and I'm going to be flying my solo wing alongside you. All right, so I'm going to be like a little kangaroo in a pouch. Exactly. Nikki's got the chops to get me up in the air. This will show me what it's like to be a bird. And her story will give us some clues about how eagles attack. Steve has agreed to spot us from the beach. When you're actually getting in the harness, you might need to wriggle your butt a bit to actually get in. Otherwise, you could be hanging by your ***, which won't be the most comfortable flight. Yeah, no, I kind of treasure my *** there. Yeah, so get them in a comfortable place. I'm ready. Let's do this. Okay. Are you leaving your glasses there? Oh, yeah, yeah. Nice and casual. So your mission really is to bar going, holy crap, holy crap a lot, is to sort of really get an idea of what it's like to be carried away by a bird. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm guessing with all these straps, it's going to feel just like if something was grabbing you, except there's no sharp claws or talons digging into me. Hopefully, yeah, you'll feel pretty secure underneath there. So, yeah. Science rules! I'm getting a pretty good sense of what it might be like to be carried away. Now it's time to turn our attention to the story of a bird attack. In Australia, in the south Wales border, and then I heard a screech behind me. Quite well, they'll just come along with you, fly on your wingtip. But this one came from way above me and behind. So what happens next? Do they swoop in and try to sort of, I don't know, claw your face out or something? One would swoop in, and as the other one attacked, the other one would come down and they'd peel off to the side and come back and have another go. But they were definitely in aggressive mode because I had five big rips along the top surface of the glide. Actually, the open part of the leading edge was completely ripped out. One of them swooped down, and I don't know if he just misjudged or whether he actually did want me for lunch, but one of them came in from above and behind again and he hit me on the back of my helmet and then got tangled in the lines in front. Whoa. Unbelievable. This is perfect behavior for our monster bird. We need it not only to soar but to have this dive-bombing ability so it can swoop down and attack its prey from out of nowhere. Okay, guys, I've just been told that the winds are getting too strong. Patrick's a little... Francis and I are in Big Sur, California, getting into the mindset of a monster bird. We've been elevating rather than descending. Copy that, copy that. But now we've just got to figure out how to get Francis and Nikki back on the ground. She's having trouble getting the eartips down to descend, I guess. Patrick is ready to go down whenever Nikki... Okay, I'll, uh, I'll keep an eye on Nikki then. I assume, Nikki, that you're not gonna communicate if you're flying, so, uh, and I'll get ready to grab your wingtip. Stop talking because the wind had really picked up. You could really see it picked up a lot. Yeah, you could feel that it had picked up a lot. Francis, this is what we need. We need a predatory... We need predatory, you know, ability. I mean, like, just the attitude from it, you know, it sounds like a badass that's... Yeah. It doesn't care how big is there. It's coming, you know? So it's maneuverable, it's got weapons, it's got much more of a sort of an attitude that we want our monster bird to have. Yeah, this is imperative behavior for our monster bird because it's a predator. I mean, it's gotta be coming out of nowhere and surprising its prey. What we need to really change these condor wings into something more predatory is we need more flexibility. All right, I think I can... I think I can change that up. That's looking really good. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm missing a joint somewhere here. Well, yeah, you need to have the, uh, elbow, which is kind of hidden, actually. That's looking better. You need to have that wrist show some flexibility. Um, you need to have it, um, assume lots of positions. Sometimes they can lock their wings straight, but other times they're flapping and bending their wings really dramatically. That's looking better. Yeah, that's looking really good. Yeah. All right, how big is this monster bird? How big am I making this beast? Well, it's gonna have to be big enough to carry a human, and that's gonna require a little bit of field work. We're gonna have to see what size prey a typical raptor can carry in flight, and then we're gonna have to do some number crunching to figure out how that scales to something human-sized prey. The monster bird was such a terrifying threat to the people of the desert because it was known to come out of nowhere and slash people's bodies with its terribly sharp talons and then have the extraordinary power to lift itself and its human prey high onto the cliffs. Scott and Francis are at the Beamer Memorial Conservation Area in Canada to meet a bird trainer who's going to help us figure out how big our monster bird needs to be to lift a man. Good to see you. We need to work out how much weight a bird of prey can lift relative to its own body weight. And we go with... What do we got, sir? 250. Perfect. Yes, this is the same 1,100-gram bird. So we're a little less than a quarter of its body weight. Test number one. Can monster bird lift one quarter of its weight? Would you just lift her up? No, just one, two, three. One, two, three. All right. No throwing at all. Let's up the ante a little bit. I think we should go up to 500. Yeah. So we're talking 500 grams now, which is about a little less than half its body weight. To carry half its body weight would be a challenge for any living creature, let alone one that flies. Now get far enough away so we can really... Absolutely. I'll be shocked if monster bird could carry three-quarters of its own weight. Here goes. Okay, she couldn't control the flight, but she was lifting the weight. Oh! You did it. That is awesome. But I think we were near its limit there. Yeah, we're getting very close to the limit. If we want our monster bird to run and launch and power off at will, that was midway. And it showed that it could incline and increase its altitude with the big weight on it. Check this out. With weight, no running start. Exactly. Very little wind. Okay, so we figured out that our monster bird can carry three-quarters of its own body weight. But what kind of talons would be ideal for snatching up a human? Now, the amazing part with horned owls is that their feet are unbelievably powerful. Okay? Their crushing strength is, I would say, physically almost twice as much as a hawk is. So I wonder, Scott, what if we gave it, like, owl-like claws in terms of the way their appendages are? Well, I think the zygodactyl feet are very cool, because that really conveys power and the ability to grip from both sides. Well, because rather than, like, three like this, you know, and then most of the weight is over here, so now you have two and two here. So that's a balanced gripping power. Oh, yeah. No, I think that would be really cool. Amazing. Yeah, that's great. Nice. Yeah, okay. That works totally. Yeah. That's very good. Yeah. The big thing is that we still have to... The problem of it is picking up a human. Now, if it's going to pick up somebody your size or it's going to be picking up somebody, sort of, my size, that's going to make a big, big difference. That power-to-weight ratio is going to be huge. So if this animal's evolved in this region and it was taking down humans, we need to find out, you know, what was the average height of a human, how big are these people? Well, the lucky thing is, we've got a really, really great record of human occupation in the southwest, and there's a really extraordinary site quite close to Shiprock. It's called Chaco Canyon. Lots and lots of ancient remains, and it's pretty well-known archaeologically, so that could give us some information about the size of the people. That's great, because if we get the prey-to-predator size right, then that's it. We'll be able to work out exactly how big our bird needs to be. Let's go after the prey. Okay, so I know I was just here, but it seems I have to come back. Catherine is taking me to a thousand-year-old archaeological site not far from Shiprock. Our plan is to figure out an approximate size of the people that the monster bird would have lifted and killed. Do you know what, like, the Navajo people's theory is for, like, the afterlife? Fundamentally, just stay around. Your spirits hang around. Yeah, it's almost like you become a part of the earth, right? Exactly, you become a part of the landscape. Yeah. Is there, like, dead bodies under those tombs? Oh, for sure, yeah, there's burials there. Oh, man, that is creepy. I don't think that's good. We're in Chaco County, New Mexico, trying to make our way to the site of an ancient ruin. Did you check the keys out or no? We're hoping to figure out the height and weight of monster birds' prey. This is kind of the moment where, like, I wish Steve was here, because he knows cars. But our truck has just died. Our only hope now is to hitch a lift. Oh, good. Hi. I was just driving and I just hear this noise and then smoke and... Smoke? A lot of smoke and... Trying to get to Chaco. Drop us off there? Sure. Good thing Catherine is here to charm us a ride. We're headed to a place called Chaco Canyon, the ancient ruins of a haunted city in the middle of the desert. So where we're heading is, you see that thing over there that looks like a great big lump? That is the ancient world right in front of our eyes, so let's go check some of that out. There's actually quite a lot that we need to see. I hope we manage it before we lose the light. Don't want to be stuck out here with all the ghosts. What ghosts? There were a lot of people that lived here and then at the end of it they all just kind of disappeared. So basically we're going to a ghost town and everything's going to work. That's right. Chaco Canyon was a thriving community for several centuries around a thousand years ago. It's long been seen as a mysterious site. People have often wondered, why was it abandoned? That's awesome. That is one of the best preserved thousand year old sites you're ever going to find. And 600 rooms. Huge. In the 1800s, settlers and archaeologists found it deserted with all the doorways carefully bricked up. The site had been ritually closed down. Everyone had deliberately left, never to return. Catherine's decided to start her exploration of the ruins with a piece of disturbing history. She takes me into a tiny dark space that archaeologists mocked up to look like it did a thousand years ago. It's kind of eerie. It was such a troubled place. Was it like a lot of internal conflict within the tribe? Absolutely, yeah, horrendous. You get dismembered bodies, you get people who were clearly ritually killed, sacrificed, all of those different things. It is said that long ago to appease the monster bird, children were sacrificed. But the monster wasn't satisfied and snatched up adults as well. All the folklore, all the stories, all the religious stories afterwards, they all allude to it being a troubled place and to the idea that nobody was at rest here. And the whole fact that they sealed up so many of the doors and they kind of ritually closed the whole place before they left, it just says, like, there's bad stuff here and we want it to stay inside. It gives you the shivers. Bad stuff happened in this room. Let's close it off and forget it's there. Yeah, it's from a bad time. Yeah, it's from a time of monsters. Exactly. Very creepy. Let's get out into the sunlight. Now we need to figure out how big the ancient peoples who lived here were. I have an idea. Let's measure the doorways. That's 3'6". Anyway, I'm not sure that we can extrapolate the size of the people from the size of the doors. Maybe we could have done it from the ceilings, but the ceilings are all gone. We still have the ceiling beams here, which is kind of handy. Those are the features that show us where the ceilings were. It's about 5'8". Well, I mean, like, if this is the height of the ceiling and everyone is generally my height and shorter, so then we're dealing with a weight of anywhere from 75 to about 135. That's, like, if they're fit, not... Yeah, and actually the weight thing is a really interesting thing as well because the other thing I can tell you from the skeletal analyses that have been done is that nutrition wasn't great. And we need to get it exactly right because if you're talking, like, pro-lift ratio... Yeah. There's nothing like seeing something in person. It's been informative, but imprecise. A better measure can be taken from ancient human bones found in the area. Archaeological studies of these bones have shown that a reasonable estimate for a warrior's size during this time would be about 1.6 metres and 55 kilograms. That's on the small side, so that's the minimum that the monster bird would have to lift. So based on a prey weight of 55 kilograms and our calculation that a bird of prey can lift up to three-quarters of its body weight, monster bird can now be scaled up to weigh 72 kilograms and have a wingspan of 10 metres. If you stick with that sort of shape for now and just make the wingspan tip-to-tip 35 feet, so that's pretty huge. It's bigger than any other bird that has ever flown. I'm not sure that would get off the ground. So we can't just take a smaller bird and just kind of make them bigger? No, it doesn't work like that. Big birds flap slowly because they physically can't move their wings fast enough. So this thing is not going to be able to get into the air by just pumping its wings, so we're going to run into massive issues. I have a plan, but it's a radical one. Based on our latest set of calculations, our monster bird is so big and heavy that I'm pretty sure it couldn't lift itself, let alone a 55 kilogram person. I think it's time to look elsewhere, probably hit a brick wall when it just comes to bird anatomy. You know, birds only got to a specific size for a reason and that's the biomechanics of feathers, muscle and bone can only get you so far. So what do you propose? I think that probably the best thing to do is look at other large flying creatures and the largest creatures ever to take in the air that we know of, pterosaurs, you know, so they were bigger, they had bigger wingspans, they were over 30 feet, so that's in the right sort of ballpark and they were definitely heavier. Okay. So I think that would be a great avenue and maybe we borrow a bit of their biology. Okay. It is going to radically change our anatomy, Mike, so you've got to have these accessory digits as well. This is where you're going to have your little talons out that are going to be used for walking and they're also going to have, you know, reasonable sort of strength at grabbing as well. Yes, that's it. That's it. Looking more like a dinosaur. The question now is whether the monster bird with its new pterosaur ballings would have the power to lift off and carry a grown man. I've sent Scott and Francis to meet the perfect person to answer this question. Scott. It's great to see you. It's great to see you. How are you doing? I'm doing very well. Michael Habib is one of the world's foremost experts on pterosaur locomotion. So I heard that you're going to help us make this thing fly. The trick is to have more of the limbs in contact with the ground. So then it'll be more about the mechanics of the actual take-off. Birds have a little bit of a handicap. They can only use the hind limbs. They can only use the legs. But there is another way. If we use the wings and the legs, more power, right? Most of the power is in the chest and in the arms. More power, more push, more push, more speed. It gets off the ground. That could work. So it pushes like... launches like that? Basically, yes. It pushes off with its feet first and then the hands come off. I'll take you through the stages. It started in what, in stage one, just a stance, standing there. And it's crouching down. These joints are bending. And then it heads up like that. Then it falls. It's now lopsided. Now lopsided, so the head would actually be pointing down a bit. Now it's got to get in the air. This is time for the fun stage. This is time for the launch stage. You're going to unleash the springs. Exactly. Not only does it allow the animal to carry off a 120-pound person, you're going to get something that's bigger, faster, could be a little meaner. I'm really excited to just put it all together. It looks freaky on the ground. Yeah. But the great thing is that if you then get it to open its wings out fully, it looks just like a bird again. Amazing. Yeah, that's great. We did it. Yeah. That is great because, okay, it's looking less bird, but it's definitely monster. Now that we've figured out how big our monster bird is and how it gets off the ground, it's time to fill in the details of its beak, head, and eyes. Of all the birds we've seen, the condor seems to be the best fit to give us these details. They're menacing and prehistoric-looking, but we have to get up close this time. The only way to do this is to bait the traps at night. Okay, ready? We're using this calf that died a natural death, so while it's a bit grisly, it's very humane. I've never been around so much dead stuff. I feel like a mafioso right now, getting rid of evidence. I mean, this is gonna be really key to trapping the condor, and it's really important that tomorrow they're there and ready because there's very few of them out there, so hopefully this works. We've reached the cage, and now we have to place the dead calf inside to lure the condors in. If the bait lures a condor, a biologist will shut the cage. Just to make sure we trap one, we're gonna put out a few rodent appetizers. Okay, guys, let's sprinkle out some rats. You got the bag? Where's my bag of rats? Condors will be happy, but I'm officially grossed out, and I'm starting to hear things that go screech in the night. Oh, let's get out of here. Francis and I have returned to California for the final details of our monster bird. The cage we baited with a dead calf has done the trick. A large male has been trapped in the cage, and Joe is giving us permission to get our hands on it if he can catch it first. He's got one. We want to get that head. Head under control. Okay, there we go. Oh, yeah, he knows all about it. There it is. One, two, three. Good job. Thank you. There you go. His head looks so freaky. It's just a weird-looking head. Yeah, that's what I like about it. It's so built for digging into carcasses. Yep. His size is amazing. I don't think I've seen... To be honest, if I saw that on any other animal, I would think it was pathological. I think there was something seriously wrong with it. It kind of looks rabid, doesn't it? What's so cool about it, it almost looks like when you turn into a zombie and then your eyes are all red. You know, I kind of like the furry neck thing. What's the deal with that? It's literally like a hood. They can bring it up almost like a hood and literally retract their head into it. I've seen them in downpours. In the middle of the snow, you see icicles hanging off them. That's kind of badass. I kind of want to work it in conjunction with the neck part. Yeah, yeah. Joe was mentioning that it can retract his entire head. Imagine from far away if this was standing on top of ship rock. Like that. Now we have everything we need and I've come full circle. What started out as a silhouette in ship rock can now become a fleshed out beast. My plan is to make a fully detailed to scale graffiti version of Monster Bird. Take the head, wings, and eyes of a condor, the beak and forelimbs of a pterosaur, and the gripping claws of an owl. Instant Monster Bird. Oh yeah. This is the most rest I've had all day. Wicked. Time to watch a beast movie. Alright, here we go. Oh, but it's so good. You know, it's a monster bird as opposed to just a great big bird. The key to building this beast, figuring out how our Monster Bird can both soar and dive bomb. By giving our Monster Bird the ability to launch into the air like a pterosaur, soar with condor wings, and clutch its prey with owl talons, we've got ourselves a beast legend.