- [Narrator] Let's face it. Swamps are pretty ominous. Even without any history of
unsavory incidents or cryptids, these damp, gloomy places just seem to inspire dread in
anyone who looks upon them. But as you'll soon see, sometimes there's more to be afraid of than merely the murky waters threatening to swallow
all who dare enter them or the glowing eyes that
appear to follow you from between every tree. From eerie dolls with mysterious secrets to legendary creatures of
the swamps of South Carolina, here are some terrifying
things found in swamps. (upbeat music) Chucky's Sisters. In October 2014, when
Chief Deputy Joe Sedinger caught a brief glimpse of what looked like a couple of porcelain dolls while passing the highway-side swamplands of Bear Creek Swamp, Alabama, he paid little mind. It was only when, a couple of days later, he began receiving calls
from freaked-out locals complaining about those very same dolls that Joe realized he probably should have paid them more attention. So, what made these dolls so unsettling? Well, when Joe and his fellow
officers took a closer look, they recovered not just a couple, but a whopping 21 dolls from the water, all eerily skewered atop bamboo stakes. The majority of the dolls
were made of porcelain and many had their faces covered in what looked like white spray paint. Even though Joe thought it
was probably just a prank, he couldn't help being
creeped out by his find, especially since Bear Creek Swamp had something of a reputation regarding the bizarre and sinister. Locals often reported hearing loud booms coming from the swamp's depths. And as a rite of passage, generations of teenagers
have entered it at night looking for creatures and angry spirits locals
refer to as haints said to roam the misty area. In the end, however, no one ever came forward
to collect their dolls. And Joe filed the incident
under one of the region's weirdest, creepiest unsolved mysteries. But Alabama isn't the only place with a creepy doll
problem in its swamplands. Another town with a doll-related mystery is the tiny Australian
settlement of Lucinda where its 406 locals
have long been terrified of a certain haunted
doll perched on a swing next to the nearby swamp. Many of the residents believe the doll to be a harbinger of bad luck, and that even saying a quick hello to it would be enough to ensure
failed fishing trips and dangerous motor troubles for boats headed out to the sea nearby. As for how the doll got
there to begin with, no one is really sure, and most people are too wary to go digging into the situation. That said, some folks claim
the doll was placed there by an elderly local couple who simply wanted to add a splash of color to the surrounding swamp. A nice idea, sure, but for anyone encountering a doll perched on a swing in the
middle of a creepy swamp, I have a feeling the only color
being added to their lives would be a splash of
brown in their underpants. Everglade Discovery. In October, 2020, snake hunters Ryan
Ausburn and Kevin Pavlidis got ready for a hard day's work of tracking and capturing Burmese pythons around Florida's Everglades wetlands. The species, which became
established in Florida as a result of escaped and released pets, has no natural predators in the area and has in recent years
skyrocketed in population, decimating indigenous
plant and animal species. Ryan and Kevin knew that
if they managed to catch even a single one, they could reel in up to $150 as a reward. Easy money if you've got
the stones for the job. Ryan and Kevin were hunting
along the L-28 Tieback, a canal about 35 miles west of Miami, when just before midnight, they spotted an incredibly
long female snake slinking through the swampy waters. Kevin, who had never seen a snake as big, couldn't stop his hands from shaking as they waded in after it. Careful not to spook the
snake by splashing too much, Ryan secured its tail while Kevin tried to get
its head under control. The snake immediately started to writhe, and it took the pair's full strength to keep the python from breaking free and potentially wrapping
itself around one of them. Finally, once they managed to pull the slippery beast out of the canal, Ryan and Kevin took a moment
to bask in its mammoth size. When they had it weighed, the snake came in at
a whopping 104 pounds. And with measurements of
18 feet and nine inches, it snatched the world record for being the longest Burmese
python ever caught in Florida. As impressive and horrifying as that is, the record-breaking python
is actually only one of 5,000 Burmese pythons
removed from the Everglades between 2017 and 2020. So, next time you find
yourself splashing around in the swamps and marshes of Florida, if you feel something
large, mean, and scaly brush your feet, it might not be a gator. The Whistler. When he was eight years old, Reddit user Bingbong1234 loved to take late-night walks with his mom and their family dog. The streets were pretty
quiet most of the time, what with their neighborhood being located on the suburban fringes
of Lansing, Michigan and bordering a gloomy swamp. On one particular evening
at around 11:00 p.m. as Bingbong and his mom were walking along the edge of the swamp, an eerie noise echoed
through the air, whistling. (eerie whistling) At first, the Redditor
thought it was a bird, but something about it made it sound distinctively human-like. But who could be lurking in
the dark depths of the swamp alone at this time of night? The whistle's pitch
continued to rise and fall, and as it did, Bingbong's
mom grew visibly concerned. She grabbed the Redditor's hand and made them return home immediately without ever explaining why. And at eight years old, Bingbong didn't really think about asking. Two years passed, and with the incident lost
to the back of his mind, the Redditor decided to take
his dog out again one night, only this time by himself. He finished the walk without much trouble, but just as he passed one particular spot at the swamp's edge, he heard it again. The whistle. (eerie whistling) As soon as it reached his ears, a chill traveled down his spine. Bingbong immediately returned home and made sure never to pass
that spot in the dark again. For more than a decade, he actually succeeded in
avoiding the whistler's clutches until one foggy night
when he was 24 years old. Having recently moved from
Michigan to South Dakota, Bingbong and his girlfriend decided to spend Independence Day camping along the bank
of the Missouri River, where they could relax
and watch the fireworks. For the festivities, the police had cleared
the river of any boats, so the Redditor, being a videographer, decided to seize the opportunity and film the calm, empty waters for a bit. Only it appeared not all the boats had obeyed the no-boating order. Somewhere on the shadowy lake, the Redditor heard the
unmistakable sound of a paddle methodically dipping in
and out of the water. He squinted into the growing darkness and could just make out a figure steering a canoe about 65 feet offshore. Brushing it off, Bingbong
continued to film the lake, until suddenly he heard
something that left him frozen, riddled with goosebumps. A slow whistling. (eerie whistling) The exact same whistle he had
heard all those years ago. Unable to make out the
whistler's face in the dark, Bingbong tried to be rational
about the whole thing. It couldn't possibly be
the same whistler, right? Well, what happened next
only convinced him more. As the whistler lined up
with Bingbong on the lake, they stopped paddling, turned to face him, and let out their
signature sound once more. (eerie whistling) Moments passed, and the
whistler didn't move a muscle. Only when the Redditor stood up and shouted straight at
them asking who they were did they turn and paddle out of sight. It was too dark for Bingbong to capture much of the
actual person in the canoe, but he did manage to film their whistle before they entirely disappeared. Take a listen. (eerie whistling) (fireworks booming) (eerie whistling) - [Bingbong1234] You whistling? Is it you? - [Narrator] Pretty creepy, right? Was it all just a coincidence, or had the whistler, whoever
or whatever they were, followed the Redditor all
the way from Michigan? To this day, Bingbong absolutely hates
going out into the dark, afraid he might encounter
the whistler again. With whistling demonic entities being a recurring theme
as harbingers of death in several folkloric
legends around the world, his fear is certainly understandable. But what do you think? Should we all be keeping an
ear out for the whistler, or is Bingbong paranoid, or worse, lying for internet points? Let me know in the comments. Bishopville Lizard Man. At 2:00 a.m. on June 29th, 1988, 17-year-old Christopher Davis was driving home from work in
Bishopville, South Carolina when he blew a tire along
the edge of Scape Ore Swamp. Christopher got out of
the car to change the tire when he heard what sounded
like someone running, getting louder and louder. Then suddenly, from the
darkness, it emerged. A seven-foot-tall humanoid creature with blazing red eyes, green, scaly skin, and long, black claws. Christopher jumped into
his car for safety, but the lizard-like creature attacked it, ripping off the mirror
and gouging the roof. Unable to get inside, the creature grew tired and scampered off, leaving Christopher
alive to tell the tale. This was the account the 17-year-old immediately gave to the Lee
County Sheriff's Department, who didn't exactly take
him all that seriously. That was, until the
lizard man struck again. Over the course of the summer, more cars, most of them
vacant, thankfully, were attacked in the
vicinity of Scrape Ore Swamp. Police arrived time and again to find fenders ripped off, antennas bent, and deep scratches along
the bodies of the cars. Pretty soon, more people reported seeing an enormous, scaly man
lurking in the swampland, and the media absolutely
lapped these stories up. The local radio station, WCOS, even offered a $1 million reward to anyone able to capture
the creature alive. However, as winter arrived, sightings of the lizard
man came to a stop. Its summertime reign of
terror was seemingly over. Though the legendary figure
made brief reappearances throughout the passing decades, with occasional sightings and a smattering of vehicle
attacks being reported, always within the vicinity
of Bishopville's swamplands. Visitors to Scape Ore Swamp are encouraged to remain
vigilant even today, just in case the Bishopville lizard man decides to show its face. So, if you're ever in the area, you better keep an eye out. Whether the lizard man is real or just a prank-loving
teenager in a costume or even some kind of deformed alligator, encountering it unprepared
definitely doesn't seem like fun. Before we wade into the murky waters of our next terrifying swamp discovery, why not take a moment to
give this video a thumbs up? And don't forget to subscribe to Be Amazed so you don't miss any
of my latest uploads. Now, I hope you've got your rain boots on, because things are about to get muddy. Frozen In Time. In Spring 2012, the tourists of Sene, a nature reserve in France, were horrified when two
incredibly creepy figures appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the swampy marshlands one day. The creatures were
pale, thin, and slender, and appeared to be frozen in time. And just as quickly as they appeared, the creatures vanished again. That was, until in July 2016, they returned, only this
time with six more friends. So, where did the statuesque
creatures come from and what were they doing
in the wetlands of France? Well, as real as the creatures seemed, they were in fact designed and handmade by French sculptor and
artist Sophie Prestigiacomo to reflect humankind's oftentimes complicated
relationship with nature. Each of the figures are
modeled on iron structures with mud and algae, which, after being left to dry, takes on a skin-like appearance. Over time, as the figures
slowly started to decompose, this replicated skin changed
both color and texture, allowing the figures
to eventually blend in with the organic landscape. Even though there's certainly an unsettling, cryptid-like appearance to the design of Sophie's swamp creatures, their shifting nature does
give them a certain beauty. That is, if you find loose flaps of swamp-water-addled skin attractive. Swamp Sirens. Shortly after joining the military, Reddit user HKFukIT got deployed on a
two-to-four-week field exercise in the swamps of the
Southern United States. On his sixth night in the swamp, the Redditor and his
squad were just dozing off when a spine-chilling sound echoed from somewhere in the woods. It sounded like a mix
between a roar and a scream like no animal any of them
had ever heard before. They all darted upright, and as they did, the entire surrounding swamp went quiet. The frogs stopped croaking. The crickets stopped chirping. The only sound that
remained was the screaming, which continued to grow louder. Moments passed before suddenly, strange lights started to
appear in the distance. The Redditor had enough. Thinking it was just
someone playing a joke, he and two other soldiers
headed toward the lights while the rest stayed behind at camp. But the farther HK walked, he realized the lights
weren't getting any closer and the ground was starting
to get too boggy to navigate. In a way, he felt like they
were being put in a trance, lured toward the lights like sailors being ensnared by sirens. This unsettled HK so much that he stopped the other
soldiers in their tracks, and the three of them
immediately turned back. Only, less than 20 feet away, the ear-splitting roar once again echoed out from the darkness in the waterlogged area of the swamp they'd just been retreating from. The soldiers turned and watched in fear as the distant lights
traveled higher and higher, like someone scaling a
tree at lightning pace. But just like that, the lights and the roar both vanished, and the usual background noise slowly returned to the swamp. With no rational explanation
as to what had happened, all the soldiers could do
was try to go back to sleep. Except HK couldn't put the
incident out of his mind. When he checked a map of the
area on a later occasion, he noticed that the lights had been in a part of the swamp that, after the heavy rains they
had experienced at the time, would have been inaccessible to humans. So, what was it that
roamed the dark that night? If paranormal explanations
float your swamp boat, one explanation might
be some will-o'-wisps, ghost lights from both
English and European folklore that are allegedly seen
by travelers at night, especially over bogs and swamps. Will-o'-wisps are known
to be impossible to catch. And in European folklore, they supposedly lure
travelers to their demise. Even though this legend lines up with both why the Redditor
couldn't reach the lights and why he felt entranced by them, there's also a more scientific explanation that's just as intriguing. In modern science, it's generally accepted that
the will-o'-wisp phenomenon people occasionally report seeing is caused by the oxidation of phosphine, diphosphane, and methane, compounds that are all
produced by decomposing plants, which happen to be in
abundance in swampy bogs. Since phosphine and diphosphane mixtures can spontaneously ignite
upon contact with oxygen, only small quantities are needed to ignite the much more abundant methane to create bright,
temporary floating fires, or will-o'-wisps. Now, even though that
could explain the lights, what about the terrible sound? My best guess, it was
most likely just a cougar. Here's a clip of what
their roar sounds like. (cougar screaming) Seems to fit the bill, doesn't it? But even though there may
be a rational explanation for what this Redditor encountered, I admit, I'd be pretty darn terrified, too if I heard that sound and saw those sights out in the middle of a pitch-black swamp. Two is a Crowd. In July 2020, Peter Joyce,
an experienced kayaker, was having the time of his life floating down a section of
North Carolina's Waccamaw River he'd never experienced before when all of a sudden, his dream adventure turned into nothing short of a nightmare. As he was paddling downriver, taking in the surrounding
swamp and its wildlife, Peter heard what he
initially thought was a fish jumping to his left. Well, let's just say it
definitely wasn't a fish. Check it out. (water splashing) (heavy breathing) That thing that charged him and knocked him out of his kayak? An alligator. Throughout the incident, Peter said his mind was entirely blank. He couldn't do anything as
the alligator dove at him, nor when it struck the side of his kayak. Luckily, he did manage to grab
onto a branch for support, and somehow successfully
got back into the kayak before becoming lunch. But even though Peter came
away from the incident without a scratch, it did leave a rather
deep mark in his mind. Throughout his years of river kayaking, Peter had seen many an alligator splash and make a ruckus in the water, but he never had one
continuously charge at him. It's likely this particular
alligator only became aggressive since it was mating season, as is typical in the North Carolina region from June to early July. And even though Peter never
did get to fully explore that section of the river
before he was attacked, he fully intends to go back. Only next time, he'll probably
try to pick a time of year when he's not as likely
to rile up the locals. Muddy Handed. In the 1990s, Reddit user
AnnyOakley and her husband were staying with her in-laws
on an 11-acre wooded swamp while the pair were
waiting for their own place to be move-in ready. Since her husband didn't drive, Anny had to regularly take him to and from his midnight shift at a nearby late night restaurant. But even though she usually
loved going outside after dark, there was just something
about her in-laws' property which gave the Redditor the creeps. One night when her husband was at work, Anny accidentally locked
herself out of the house, and with her in-laws away for the night, decided to just sleep in her car. However, sometime around 3:00 a.m., the Redditor woke up to find
her heart inexplicably racing and her hair standing on end. It was like she had woken
up from a nightmare, except she couldn't remember having one. Anny was just coming to grips with reality when she heard something outside, a dragging noise across the gravel and a faint tapping on the car's exterior. The Redditor looked
frantically out the window, but she couldn't see anything in the dark. Was it an animal lurking around outside, or something much more sinister? Anny tried to scare the
unwanted visitor off by turning on the car's headlights, but the shuffling movements
outside simply wouldn't stop. This continued until just before sunrise when Anny finally left
to pick up her partner from the restaurant. But just because night was over, it didn't mean her problems
were something of the past. As soon as Anny reached the restaurant, she hurried inside, feeling
thoroughly unnerved. Only when she returned to
her car with her husband, she found it splattered
with muddy hand prints, some still with patches of water plants like duckweed stuck on them. The moment her husband saw it,
he turned white as a sheet. Apparently it wasn't the first time something like that had happened. As a child, he'd been camping outside
with his siblings one night when something shuffled into
the area around their tents and left muddy duckweed-riddled handprints all over everything. Anny's husband thought the coincidence was too big to ignore and insisted they stayed at the restaurant until it was brighter outside. Since that day, Anny has never gone outside after dark while staying at her in-laws', and she's not the only one. Years later, Anny's five-year-old daughter began refusing sleepovers at grandma's because she was too afraid of the monster she had seen in the swamp one night. So, either the Redditor's in-laws have a long running
pranking streak going on, or there's some muddy-handed creature, natural or otherwise, running amok. Either way, I'm not sure I'd
like to spend a night there to give whatever it is the
National Geographic treatment, would you? Have you ever made any chilling
discoveries in a swamp? Let me know in the comments below, and as always, thanks for watching. (upbeat music)
