Meet the Killers Among Us (Full Episode) | Hunter vs. Hunted | Nat Geo Animals

NARRATOR: A serial killer stalks the homes and farms of Tanzania. (man speaking native language) AMIR (translated): I saw a dress that my mother had on the night before. It was torn and had blood all over it. (growl) NARRATOR: In Florida, a pardon turns a predator into a mega-killer. MAN: I gave the tightest grip I possibly could, realizing that something was gonna give. NARRATOR: And children are the victims of a South African kidnapper. WOMAN: My biggest fear was just that he would bite her in the neck and kill her. NARRATOR: When we venture into the world of wild animals, we know danger lurks, but when animals come killing in our homes and communities, terror reigns. Southern Tanzania, on the banks of the Rufiji River. On an August afternoon, 13-year-old Amir Legaza returns from school. After dinner, he and his mother Pili go to bed. At dawn, he awakes to find the hut empty, the door unlocked, and his mother missing. Something is wrong. AMIR: I was wondering where my mother was, so I decided to walk around our house. I saw blood stains. My heart started pounding, but I did not lose hope. Then I saw a dress that my mother had on the night before. NARRATOR: Amir follows the trail of bloody clothing and makes a horrifying discovery. AMIR: Then I saw the skull. Everything had been taken from the skull, even the eyes. NARRATOR: Wild animals do kill a few people in Tanzania each year. So although Pili Legaza's cause of death is tragic, it isn't completely unheard of. Then, two-months later, an 18-year-old boy disappears. (growling) The next day, locals find his skull. Just three days later, another teenage boy goes missing. At dawn, villagers find his mangled corpse. With this death it becomes clear this is more than the occasional random attack villagers have grown used to. Surrounded by Africa's largest game reserve, the Selous, people here know all too well the risks of living near some of the world's most proficient predators. By day, in the river, there are hippos and crocs. And villagers keep watch over their crops for elephants and wild pigs. In the night, carnivores prowl. Now three people are dead. What kind of animal is stalking humans, and why? Half a world away on the seemingly serene Sanibel Island, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, a string of shocking attacks has also begun. The first victim is 81-year-old Robert Steele. (dog yips) (splash) OPERATOR: 911, what is your emergency? NARRATOR: Police respond quickly. But it's too late. Robert Steele's right leg has been twisted off at the knee. He's bled to death. Steele has lived on the island for years. Every day, he's walked his dog down this path next to his home. Yet, this morning, in a flash, his life is taken. How could this have happened? The answer is floating in the water just yards away. An 11-foot alligator with Robert Steele's leg still in its mouth. Since this is the first fatal alligator attack on the island, although Steele is mourned, it's written off as a freak accident. Sanibel prides itself on being a gator-friendly community. More than half of the island is set aside as conservation land and a wildlife refuge, home to birds, small mammals, and reptiles. No fences separate human habitat from gator terrain. Residents here resist barriers to nature, and they love their alligators. Tourists flock to Sanibel to enjoy the beaches and gawk at the gators. After the first fatal attack, all is quiet for the next three years. Then, an alligator attacks 74-year-old Jane Keefer. JANE KEEFER: I had been working here up along this bank here, and all of a sudden from nowhere, 'cause I didn't even know he was there, this thing comes, zoom! right in the back of me. NARRATOR: Much as a crocodile attacks its prey. JANE: And then I was underwater. NARRATOR: Then, the gator abruptly releases Jane, but he isn't finished. JANE: As I turned around to see where he was, he turned around and came back like an arrow straight at me. He knew exactly what he wanted to do. NARRATOR: Fortunately, Jane's husband Bill hears her cries for help and comes running. JANE: Luckily, just in the nick of time, Bill caught my wrist and starts hauling me out. NARRATOR: A local trapper... (gunshot) ...shoots the alligator. But elsewhere on the island, another gator is about to strike. In a remote part of Northern Province, South Africa, it's an ordinary June morning. Young mother Lettie Tukana's world is about to be turned upside down. LETTIE TUKANA (translated): It was around 11 o'clock when the incident took place. I had woken early in the morning. I was busy washing dishes when I heard the baby in the bedroom screaming. (baby crying) I thought the baby was screaming because it was hungry and wanted to be fed again. NARRATOR: Neo is Lettie's three-month-old baby girl. As Lettie turns the corner towards the bedroom, she discovers the real reason for her child's cries. Neo is in the arms of a wild chacma baboon. (Lettie screaming) Why is this happening? (screaming) What does the baboon want with her child? There is no record of a chacma baboon hunting and killing a human as food. Hundreds of miles away in Cape Point, South Africa, there may be a clue. Baboons there go after another human baby. (screech) NARRATOR: In a remote village in southern Tanzania, a wild animal is hunting humans. The first attack is at the end of August, and just two months later, six people are dead. There are several creatures capable of this crime. African wild dogs hunting in packs. Hyenas, also pack hunters, with bone-crushing jaws. And leopards, silent stalkers who usually work alone. Which animal did this, and why? The tracks leading away from the crime scenes point rangers to the most likely suspect: the six-foot-long, 500-pound African lion. Little more than a week after the last attack, over just three days, lions kill three more people. Rangers arrive with orders to shoot to kill, fearing a man-eater, but it won't be easy to find. Lions are masters of stealth. They sneak up, silent and unseen, until the final explosive attack. By late November, the death toll has risen to nine. The rangers can't locate the killer. But the bloodshed has only just begun. On Sanibel Island, Florida, it seems alligators are also stalking humans. There's a third attack just a few months after the second. This time, the victim is landscaper Janie Melsek. (screams) A pool maintenance worker is first at the scene. ROGER DEBORD: There was no one else there. I had to get help. JANIE: Don't let me go! ROGER: The worst thing I did that day was I actually had to leave her to go to Jack's house to use the phone. JACK DAVID: I'm in the house, and the doorbell rings. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! Like some crazy person out there pushing my doorbell. He says, "Call 911, call 911!" And he's whiter than a sheet. OPERATOR: Ambulance and fire, this is Gabriella, what is the address of your emergency? (siren) NARRATOR: As the call goes out across Sanibel of another alligator attack, Officer George Krivas races to the scene. Krivas had also responded to the attack on Robert Steele three years earlier. GEORGE KRIVAS: When I first pulled up to the scene, I took the big step out and grabbed her arm and pulled, and she came about a foot or so forward, and that was it. Then it was, she just, like I was pulling on a cement wall, and she wasn't moving. NARRATOR: The rescuers don't realize she's still in the alligator's mouth. MAN: Hold on. GEORGE: After a minute or so, two minutes, the tension holding her arm just kept getting greater and greater. It was actually to the point where she was slipping out of my hands. And that's when I gave the tightest grip I possibly could, realizing that something was gonna, something was gonna give. NARRATOR: In Cape Point, South Africa, hundreds of miles from the remote village where a baboon has snatched a three-month-old infant in her home, another baboon targets a child. Young mother Christine Coetzee and her daughter are returning from a short hike. CHRISTINE COETZEE: We walked up to the car, and I was putting my baby into her car seat. The next moment, I looked up and I saw a male baboon sitting next to her on the car seat. He was definitely bigger than I am, and he had huge fangs about this size. And that's what you see, you just see fangs, teeth. And my biggest fear was just that he would, yeah, basically bite her in the neck and kill her. He then must have noticed the small backpack lying on the seat next to him. And he took the backpack and ran across the road. He literally unpacked everything and noticed that there was no food in it and then discarded the backpack. I thought this was the end of the story. NARRATOR: But then, Christine sees the baboon returning to her car, and quickly closes the door to protect her child, leaving herself outside with the baboon. CHRISTINE: I didn't know whether to look at him or to not look at him. I didn't know whether I should back away. And the next moment the baboon ran up to me and bit into my lower arm. As I whipped around, he sort of fell off, and as soon as I got him off, I just ran for my door and got into the car as quickly as possible. NARRATOR: Christine escapes to safety. But why did this animal attack? Baboons are the world's largest monkeys, and chacmas are the biggest of all. Adult males can weigh almost 100 pounds. But baboons are generally foragers, not hunters. They're opportunistic, taking a meal whenever and however it comes. Here at Cape Point, many visitors disregard the posted warnings and feed them, making them bolder and quick to associate people with a free lunch. Could this somehow explain the kidnapping of a three-month-old baby hundreds of miles away? NARRATOR: With ten people dead in just a few months from lion attacks in Tanzania, Ranger Haji Mkunguru finds the remains of another victim. The body is only partially consumed. For the ranger, this grisly discovery could be a break in the case. He hides in the tall grass, knowing lions often return to reclaim unfinished meals. He doesn't have long to wait. Has he finally killed the man-eater of Rufiji? The dead lion is a mature female, and she's pregnant with four cubs. For investigators, the stakes have suddenly gone up. Cubs learn to hunt by imitating their mothers. By age two, they know what's prey and how to catch it. If a lioness is a man-eater, she could teach them the art of killing humans, and the practice can persist for generations. Is anyone safe? Where will they strike next? police and neighbors struggle to wrest landscaper Janie Melsek from the jaws of a massive male alligator. The gator has lived in this pond for more than ten years, and now he's holding beneath the surface. Underwater is where alligators and their cousins, the crocodiles, have all the advantage. Once they seize their target, they drag it into the water and begin what's known as the death roll. It's intended to disorient and ultimately drown the victim. But this gator has a different style. JIM ANHOLT: The alligator wasn't doing the roll you would think they would do. He just had a hold of her and he was down in the mud, locked in. JANIE: Help me. GEORGE: Hold on! GEORGE: Eventually, it just got to the point where you just know what that sound when bone or ligament start cracking, and you could hear her almost like ready to break. I held on with everything I had, and that point came, and it was a slight jolt, and she broke free. The alligator emerged and it was probably about 10 or 15 feet away from us. You could see the pink inside of the alligator's mouth. The only thing I could think of is we've just removed the meal from this alligator and it was coming back for it. (gunshots) NARRATOR: Police open fire, killing it. (helicopter) Melsek is medevac'd to a local hospital, still fully conscious and fighting for her life. Will she survive? And who will be next? In Northern Province, Superintendent Louis Jacobs of the South African police service investigates why a baboon has stolen a human baby in broad daylight from an isolated farm. Chadden Hunter is an Australian primatologist, an expert on baboons. LOUIS JACOBS: We've got a lot of baboons in this area, a lot. CHADDEN HUNTER: So, locals out here would think of these baboons as pests, as vermin. LOUIS: Definitely. They regard them that way. And whenever they actually see them, they definitely would scare them away. CHADDEN: Yeah. We are nowhere near tourists, are we? LOUIS: There's not really any encounters between man and baboon in this area. NARRATOR: So what motivated the baboon to venture into human territory and steal a child? A clue may lie in a disturbing practice observed in baboon society. (squealing) High-ranking female baboons have been known to kidnap the infants of lower-ranking mothers within the troop, for two reasons... To ensure their dominance and keep more resources for their own offspring. Or to replace their own baby who's died. Could this be a case of mistaken identity? Did a female baboon somehow perceive human baby Neo as one of her own kind? STEVE SHELTON: In a normal brain, I would say it's very unlikely that that could happen. GREG ERICKSON: Can I hold that apart for you? STEVE: I think I've got it. Professor Greg Erickson and Dr. Steve Shelton, a neuroscientist from the National Primate Research Center, examine the brain of an adult chacma baboon. STEVE: One of the things that makes primates different from other types of brains is the proportion of the brain that's called the prefrontal cortex, and it's an area that helps us understand the difference between individuals within our species and between species. The critical thing is that baboons live in troops of over a hundred, so they have to recognize over a hundred different faces within that troop. (screeching) A misjudgment in that area could be a life-and-death situation. NARRATOR: So it's unlikely Neo's kidnapper mistook her for a baboon. But there could be another, darker explanation. It's possible the baboon who stole Neo was a male, and male baboons are capable of terrible violence toward their young. Is one of them now holding Lettie Tukana's tiny daughter? NARRATOR: When a park ranger kills a lioness, perhaps the matriarch of a man-eating pride, farmers return to the fields, hoping they're finally safe. They seem to be... for eight days. Then, a 70-year-old woman becomes victim number eleven. (distant screaming) Over the coming weeks and months, the death toll continues to rise. Have rangers killed the wrong lion? Or is this the work of another member of the same pride? Finally, there's a break in the case. Eyewitnesses report that the most recent killings have all been done by just one lion with a distinctive wound on its neck. How many more will die before they can stop On Sanibel Island, as landscaper Janie Melsek is medevac'd to the hospital, investigators wonder why she was attacked. One reason could be Sanibel's alligator protection policy. Under Florida law, aggressive alligators over four-feet-long must be captured and destroyed. But on Sanibel, they're simply captured and released. As a result, gators are becoming giants, 12 feet long and bigger. They're also getting bolder around humans like Janie Melsek. The only eyewitness to the actual attack recalls how aggressive her alligator was. ROGER: She was a good 15 feet away from it. She was picking up something beside the garbage can, some trimmings that she's cut down, when the alligator came out and grabbed her by the waist and dragged her through the bushes and back into the water. NARRATOR: Most of an alligator's momentum comes from the thrust of its powerful tail. They can launch themselves surprising distances in just seconds. As Melsek is on the way to the hospital, she gives medics her daughter's phone number. JOY WILLIAMS: I was at work by myself, and I received a phone call on my cell phone. And it is that call that you fear your whole life getting. She told me immediately that my mother had been in an accident, and I said, "A car accident?" And she said, "No, she was in an accident on Sanibel involving an alligator." And when I heard the word alligator, my shock went to panic. NARRATOR: Medics on board the helicopter treat Janie's extensive wounds. Her arm is badly mangled and she's lost huge amounts of flesh from her lower body. What chance does she have to survive? (monitor beeping) In South Africa, investigators determine that the baboon who snatched a three-month-old baby was a large male, and that has serious implications for the child's safety. Male baboons grow to twice the size of females. (grunting) And their jaws hold two-and-a-half-inch canines that they use to intimidate and fight other baboons to gain control of a troop. The male baboon facing Lettie Tukana may view her as a lower-ranking female, so he has no reason to fear her, and he has no reason to release her child. Lettie's screams alert her neighbor who comes running. Now the baboon feels cornered, holding the human baby hostage. CHADDEN: So this baboon is really seeing the tide turn against him. He's got the baby clutched, but there's a neighbor coming in throwing stones. I mean, that's his last defense is that infant. And you see this with adult male baboons in the wild, when they get into a fight, clutching an infant against their chest. I mean, that's something that you try and do to stop people attacking you. NARRATOR: Physically threatened by an alpha male, a lower-ranking male abducts a baboon infant as a defensive strategy. He uses the baby as collateral. (screeching, grunting) If he doesn't back down, the infant is in real danger of being injured or killed. Neo's fate may now rest not just in the hands of the baboon, but in the actions of her mother and the neighbor. STEVE: It's alone, it's very vulnerable, and it's in the human environment. All of those things are quite stressful. It's like being in a war zone. It's a critical moment, yes. NARRATOR: The standoff is at a breaking point, but in an instant, everything changes. NARRATOR: In Southern Tanzania, near the Rufiji River, a man-eating lion has killed a staggering 42 people in just one year. But it's about to get worse. Fatuma Magaila visits her mother and father in a neighboring village. Fatuma is in mourning. 15 months ago, she witnessed a lion kill her husband. Before sundown, she eats dinner with her parents, sharing news of the lion's latest attacks. FATUMA MAGAILA (translated): After supper, we talked for a while, then we went to sleep. We were in a deep sleep. Then I heard my mother screaming. Investigators Dennis Ikanda and Harunnah Lyimo return to examine the site of the recent attack. DENNIS IKANDA: It's very strong. HARUNNAH LYIMO: DENNIS: Yes. NARRATOR: Like many of their neighbors, Fatuma's parents had reinforced their walls for additional protection from lions. But claw marks show it wasn't enough. DENNIS: Using its hind legs, it pushed its way up and then placed its right hind leg here, and then he managed to pull itself and actually stand at this particular point. NARRATOR: The man-eater climbed over nine feet up the wall and broke through the roof. Fatuma and her parents were sleeping on the upper level. The lion knew they were there. DENNIS: When the lion got here, it sensed, through breathing, or even perhaps snoring, that people were actually sleeping on the top level floor and not actually on the ground. FATUMA: My father was attacked when he tried to rescue my mother. When the lion saw that my father was fighting, it grabbed him by the throat and killed him, then left him there and took my mother. NARRATOR: Even as Fatuma watched in horror, she knew she had to stay still and silent because she had witnessed the same lion kill her husband. Within days, the lion strikes again. Two elderly women become victims 48 and 49. News of the lion's presence spreads like wildfire. A mob gathers, thirsty for revenge. They beat a trail along the river, trying to flush it out. Haji Mkunguru takes up an elevated position. If the lion breaks cover, he may have a chance to finally end the reign of terror. Before long, the lion appears. After an alligator attack on Sanibel Island, landscaper Janie Melsek is hospitalized with severe wounds. Trauma surgeons at Lee Memorial Hospital work on Janie for more than six hours. Fortunately, her vital signs remain good. JOY: The circumstances seemed so blessed that she made it out of that pond, that I just didn't feel like it was her time. I know my mother's spirit. Then everything changes. Janie's body is attacked by a new assailant: a blood infection. Her body has become a battleground. Doctors struggle to save her life. JOY: As the second day went on, I realized how hard her body was working to fight off the infection. I was told that her heart was working three times as hard as it normally should be. NARRATOR: Can doctors keep Janie alive? Backed into a corner, surrounded, the baboon holding three-month-old Neo Tukana isn't giving up. LOUIS: For a moment, it was a standoff between the two of them, and him trying to come forward, automatically being very aggressive and showing his fangs. And that's when eventually, this guy, they moved forward and he grabbed the child, and that's when the baboon then most probably realized that he's lost the battle. CHADDEN: The game's up. LOUIS: He took off. He just ran through this area, jumped the fence into the bushes, and that's where he disappeared. NARRATOR: Lettie Tukana runs to retrieve her child. (crying) Neo is alive, but bleeding profusely. It seems the baboon bit the infant on the head. Is it possible she'll survive? NARRATOR: Alligator attack victim Janie Melsek has severe injuries and a massive blood infection. JOY: I remember him saying that she arrested and they revived her. (machines beeping) And I was listening, as if the story was going to continue. And then... he said that she arrested again. And there was just this very long pause. And... my whole life changed. NARRATOR: Janie's death also changes Sanibel Island. The city council amends its alligator policy. Now, nuisance alligators over four feet long will be killed, bringing the island in line with the rest of Florida. Trappers are still not allowed on the wildlife refuge or conservation land. In the years since Janie was killed, there have been about a dozen fatal attacks, but Sanibel still retains the most gator-friendly laws in the state. In South Africa, the life of baby Neo hangs in the balance. (woman crying) Authorities are concerned the baboon will return, so sharpshooters arrive at the village. But he doesn't appear. Since a baboon's territory can range over 15 square miles, they fan out across the savanna. Seven days after the attack on Neo Tukana, sharpshooters finally find the renegade male. OFFICER: He's down. Let's go. NARRATOR: He's old and missing teeth, maybe the reason he was alone and hungry, and willing to take on such a dangerous risk. Sadly, little Neo Tukana doesn't survive. She's buried in a simple grave, the first and only known fatality of a chacma baboon attack. In Tanzania, park rangers have killed the Rufiji man-eater. The marks on the lion's neck leave no doubt this is the lion eyewitnesses saw at earlier killings. HAJI (translated): The lion was brought around to all the villages to show people the lion was dead. NARRATOR: One of the worst incidents of man-eating ever recorded is finally over. A total of 49 people are dead. But what could have caused this lion to kill and eat so many people? GREG: Julian, here's the Rufiji man-eater, and you can see it's a very large lion. NARRATOR: Greg Erickson and Julian Kerbis Peterhans search for anything out of the ordinary. JULIAN: ...artifact of the lion in front and the people behind. NARRATOR: The lion is about three-and-a-half years old and appears healthy, but there is something unusual about him. GREG: Look at this, the canine on the left side is perfectly erect and normal, but the right canine here is tilted forward. JULIAN: You see a little bit of discoloration, perhaps a sign of infection. We see a split in the canine. GREG: How is that going to affect an animal like this's ability to bring down prey? JULIAN: Well, from this view, I would certainly think that this might be a traumatic break that could have affected its killing behavior. NARRATOR: The damage to the lion's teeth could have forced him to adopt a different diet; something softer, something like humans. It could have turned him from an ordinary lion into the Rufiji man-eater. When people and wild animals live as neighbors, the chance of close encounters of the deadliest kind are always a danger. Sometimes the lines are blurred and the animals are the predators and humans their prey. Captioned by Side Door Media Services