BEAST HUNTER: Swamp Monster of the Congo

National Geographic Channel - Original Air Date: 3/11/11

Pat Spain, a great-nephew of Charles Fort, goes to the Congo to look for the legendary, dinosaur-like mokele mbembe.  He talks to witnesses, one of whom claims to have seen the monster a mere 3 months ago.  (The witness dismisses Pat's natural animal explanations.)  Trudging into the jungle, Pat sets numerous camera and video traps.  As in the Amazon, Pat spends much time gaining the trust of the locals to aid in his search.  But he doesn't find a dinosaur, he does, however, see elephants -- and even gets one on his camera traps.  He speculates that elephants in the river may have helped give rise to the mokele mbembe legend.  Of course, in the end, he doesn't rule out the beast's existence.

After 3 shows, I do appreciate this program's low-key approach to investigation.  It's usually very sober, and seldom has those annoying "cliffhanger" commercial breaks.  Because of this, however, it is a bit of a snooze.  Certainly, actually finding a beast would make it much more exciting.