Wildlife biologist Forrest Galante has spent his life tracking and rediscovering animals ‘lost’ to extinction, from his historic rediscovery of the Fernandina Tortoise to the elusive Dracula monkey and more. Now, in an all-new series, Forrest, along with his wife and zoologist, Jessica Summerfield, travel across the globe from Mozambique to the Pacific Northwest, to investigate reports of ‘strange sightings,’ ‘legendary creatures’ and ‘mysterious encounters’ between humans and wildlife that may not only lead to conflict but may further lead to that animal extinction behind the local lore. Forrest’s goal is to end the conflict and to solve the riddles behind the local legends and mysteries before these animals truly become ‘mythological’ due to extinction. MYSTERIOUS CREATURES WITH FORREST GALANTE airs on Animal Planet beginning Sunday, October 17 @ 9PM ET/PT and streams on discovery+ the same day.
Each day, the human population continues to grow and people across the globe learn to rely on the same natural resources animals rely on. It’s often when these two worlds converge where conflict can arise and animals at the heart of the issue are deemed to be ‘mythical creatures’ or in some cases ‘monsters.’ Audiences will follow Forrest as he investigates the truth behind it all and ultimately finds answers to the local legends.
In the series premiere of MYSTERIOUS CREATURES WITH FORREST GALANTE, Forrest travels to a village near his childhood home on the Zambezi River after the daughter of a chief along with other villagers have gone missing. He teams up with his best friend Remi to discover what killer could be hiding in the murky depths. Is witchcraft at the heart of this mysterious creature?
Other stories this season include Forrest heading to a remote tribal village in Mozambique, after hearing of local stories of an enormous animal coming into the village at night destroying homes, crops, and even killing locals. When Forrest determines that the animal responsible is one of Africa’s last remaining giant bull elephants, he must quickly assemble a team to track down and safely transport an entire herd of these majestic creatures 300 rugged miles to the safety of a national park in order to protect both the villagers and the animal alike. Additionally, Forrest, along with his with Jessica, investigate the waterways in the Pacific Northwest following local lore of dragon-like monsters residing in the area; the Pantanal in Brazil, the world’s largest tropical wetlands, in search for a creature that has eluded documented science for centuries – a massive sixty-foot aquatic snake; Missouri in search for the mythical Ozark Howler after recent encounters; and to northern Peru at the base of the Andes mountains to investigate a series of strange attacks on local farmers in this region considered to be the planet’s #1 most critically endangered ‘Biodiversity Hotspot.’
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MYSTERIOUS CREATURES WITH FORREST GALANTE is produced for Animal Planet by Hot Snakes Media in association with Phantasticus Pictures. For Hot Snakes Media, Eric Evangelista, Shannon Evangelista, and Forrest Galante are executive producers. For Animal Planet, Keith Hoffman is executive producer and Sarah Russell is supervising producer.
