Original subtitles

Magical creatures have fascinated us,

ever since we first walked the Earth.

Whether created entirely from the imagination

or inspired by the animals around us,

mythical beasts captured our attention for thousands of years.

But why in this modern age of science and technology,

are we still so captivated by these fantastic beasts?

And what are the truths that lie behind the myths, the magic,

and the legends?

Join me on a journey of exhilarating exploration

and daring discovery,

as we uncover the secrets behind some of our best-loved mythical creatures...

Oh, my heavens.

Wow.

...revealing the real-life beasts

behind some of the greatest legends in history.

You look at some of nature's extraordinary creations

and you think, "Well, CGI will never match this."

And finding out why the world of magical animals

is more popular today than ever before.

These are the extraordinary stories of the world's most fantastic beasts.

This is one of the greatest treasure troves of the natural world.

London's Natural History Museum is a cornucopia

of unique and fascinating collections from across the globe.

It's also a place

where the worlds of science and fiction have been known to overlap.

I'll be exploring the Museum's labyrinth of corridors and cabinets,

and uncovering the stories that continue to fascinate millions of people today.

From the legendary creatures of ancient mythology,

to the magical animals of Harry Potter and the Wizarding World.

Stories like these.

The Mythical beasts and magical creatures within these pages,

appear to be pure fantasy,

but things aren't always quite that simple.

We begin our story

with arguably the best-known mythological animal on the planet,

the dragon.

One of the most ancient and universal of our mythological creatures,

the dragon has enthralled the human race

for thousands of years.

But where did the idea for this creature first take flight?

Was there a spark of truth behind the dragon myth?

Chinese New Year

is often celebrated around the world with a traditional dragon dance.

In the dance,

the dragon represents wisdom, power and wealth

and it's believed that performing the dance

scares off evil spirits and brings good luck.

But why the dragon?

What is it about this creature that so excites and mesmerizes us?

Many cultures around the world have a dragon myth,

although they often vary in appearance.

European dragons are usually seen as terrifying,

fire-breathing beasts with wings and horns.

Whereas Asian dragons are depicted as wise, benevolent creatures,

with a more serpent-like appearance.

But if you take a closer look at the dragon,

you can see that many of its features are borrowed from real animals,

animals that have a fearsome reputation.

A dragon's large, powerful talons are like those of an eagle.

Its sharp teeth and strong limbs are like a lion's.

And its scales and hissing tongue are similar to a snake's.

One recent scientific theory suggests that the dragon is,

is simply a combination of those three animals.

The animals that our early ancestors were most afraid of.

An interesting idea indeed, what lies behind this theory?

I visited San Diego Zoo in California,

to meet a little creature that could help to explain.

Oh, now.

Who have we here?

So this is our vervet family.

This chap here with the blue bottom, he's looking rather alarmed.

So that is our dominant male in the family.

There's some new enrichment in their enclosure

that they haven't seen before,

so he's letting everyone know there's something new.

When you say enrichment, do you mean that earthen pot?

Correct.

- They've never seen it before? - Never seen it before.

It has meal worms in there,

it has peanuts, so they have to reach their hand in.

Right.

But because it's something new in their environment,

he's started making that alert call

and I don't know if you noticed, they all started to jump into the trees.

They did, didn't they? And they were all responding to his,

"Hey there's something new here."

There is something new, we don't know what it is,

everyone go to your post.

Vervet monkeys can be found across most of Africa,

and usually live in large groups known as troops.

Studies have revealed that they communicate

in a highly sophisticated way,

using different alarm calls for specific predators,

to warn their troop of approaching danger.

Is it a very particular kind of warning

that they know means something on the ground

rather than something on a tree?

They do. They have three different calls.

So they have one for something that's on the ground, like a snake.

Oh, right.

They have a different call for something's in the air

like a bird of prey.

And then they have another call for big cats.

Those are the three things that are most likely to threaten them?

Correct.

So that was a snake call, was it?

'Cause they were all looking down.

It was. They're all up on their tiptoes,

they're all looking down at it.

- Of course. - It's exactly what they do for a snake

and you know I was cleaning, um, their bedrooms one time,

and they started to do the same call for the water hose.

- Really? - Yeah.

- Of course, a hose is a green snake. - They're, like, what is that?

So what does this all mean?

Well, it's thought that vervet alarm calls

indicate a very deep-rooted fear of these three predators.

And humans, as the primate cousins of the vervet monkey,

share the same instinctive fears of big cats,

birds of prey,

and snakes.

And perhaps that primal fear is what led people around the world,

to combine these three deadly animals

into their own unique version of the almighty dragon.

But there is another theory behind the legend of the dragon

and it's based on a group of formidable reptiles

that walked the Earth millions of years ago.

If you've ever wanted to dig up a dinosaur,

then this is the place to come.

I am surrounded by thousands of dinosaur fossils here.

I'm in the Valley Of Bones.

Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Utah, America,

has the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur fossils

ever found on the planet.

So have they dug up anything here that can help us decipher the dragon myth?

I'm meeting with two of the quarry's top experts

Mike Leschin and Casey Dooms to find out.

So in terms of recent human history, when was this place discovered?

We know that people knew about the area since,

probably at least late 1800s.

First Europeans

undoubtedly stumbled across a lot of different

finds of dinosaur fossils and all kinds of things.

Because they were visible?

Eroding out of the hills, eroding out of these formations.

So, sort of, bones poking up through the soil.

And Mike, the Europeans, the ranchers in the 18th century,

they had no reason to suppose

that the creatures that were exhibited there were extinct.

And some people still kind of get confused in their head, don't they,

about the fact that obviously we never co-existed with these creatures.

Oh, yeah, I've had people come out here and say,

"I'm here 'cause I don't believe in dinosaurs."

- Really? - And, yeah,

it's like, well, go look down there and then we'll talk.

What about the non-Europeans, the native Americans, the Ute?

The Ute tribe was the local tribe.

They knew they were the remains of a living creature.

Yeah.

And their attitude was to respect that and leave it alone.

Yeah.

Dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent on Earth.

Could they be behind the dragon story?

If you take a look at the T-Rex,

with its terrifying teeth,

sharp claws,

and enormous size,

you can see how the idea could arise.

Goodness me, what is this place?

So this is the actual Cleveland-Lloyd dinosaur quarry.

Ah. And you've enclosed it to show off these amazing...

- Yes. - ...specimens.

So over here, we've some back vertebrae from a camarasaurus.

From what animal?

Camarasaurus, so it's a herbivorous dinosaur.

One of the big long-necks.

Right next to it, we have a tail vertebrae of an allosaurus.

Oh, yeah.

The big predator, the major predator of the day.

You can really see here, Casey, can't you, how the dragon myth can rise.

Yeah, absolutely.

Especially if you're finding stuff like this.

That is a single tooth of an Allosaurus.

Oh, my goodness. I can feel its serrations...

- Serrations, yeah. - ...saw like, um...

- like a steak knife... - Yeah.

...for cutting through flesh.

It's still, after 147 million years,

you can still see them and you can still feel them.

I mean, that's a dragon's tooth, there's no question about it, it's just...

Yes.

Wow. I'll give it back to you, it's very valuable.

Look at that.

Wow.

Indigenous American mythology features dragon-like creatures

such as the Piasa Bird, with feathery wings,

elk's horns, and a long spiked tail.

And the Gaasyendietha dragon, a lake-dwelling, fire-breathing beast.

Perhaps these creations were inspired by fossils

like those discovered here in Utah?

If I was here some thousand years ago or so,

it's easy to see how, if someone dug up something like this,

it could conjure up the image of a dragon,

and terrifying it would be,

because how could I know that

this was from a species that had gone extinct millions of years ago.

As far as I was concerned,

this was one of the species that was still very much alive

and might swoop down on me at any moment.

In the world of mythical beasts,

there is another creature that's as universally recognized as the dragon.

You know there's one mythical creature

whose popularity seems to be even greater today than it's ever been,

and it's one of the few magical animals that isn't a terrifying monster.

Indeed it's famous for its peaceful, benevolent nature.

I'm talking, of course,

about the unicorn.

One more!

I'm on my way to a country

which was once so convinced that this mystical creature was real,

that they named it their national animal.

Often depicted as a beautiful, horse-like creature

with flowing mane, and long, spiraled horn,

the unicorn is a symbol of purity and innocence.

Believed to have magical powers,

the unicorn's horn was said to heal sickness and protect against poison.

In recent years, unicorns have seen a huge surge in popularity.

But this adoration is nothing new in Scotland,

where the unicorn has been revered for centuries.

So what is this obsession all about?

I've come to Stirling Castle,

to meet historian Professor Donna Heddle, to find out.

Professor Heddle.

- Oh, call me Donna. - Donna.

What a place.

Oh, my goodness.

Unicorns absolutely everywhere.

I know. It's splendid, isn't it?

And there are more all 'round the room.

This tells us the story of the hunt of the unicorn.

It's an allegorical piece.

Based on tapestries, we know that we're in the collection of James V.

I think they're called "The History of the Unicorn."

America has a Bald Eagle, and France has a Cockrel

and we have a Lion in England,

you, in Scotland don't have a real animal,

you have a mythical animal.

Why is that, do you think?

Well, I think at the time when it was chosen,

people did think it was real, they did believe in it,

but it's a kind of a thing in the 15th century,

lots of Kings were adopting animals as their personal symbols

and the unicorn became the symbol of Scotland

because it is untamable, it is undefeatable.

Oh, so that's a symbol of Scotland's sense of itself.

Absolutely.

It's brave, it's courageous, what's not to like?

- How cool is that for a national symbol? - Yes.

In the Middle Ages,

the evidence used to prove that unicorns existed,

came from another mysterious creature entirely.

A genuine

unicorn horn.

Or is it in fact

a narwhal tusk?

I think it's a narwhal tusk.

In fact it's a replica of a narwhal tusk,

'cause we wouldn't have such a thing,

obviously, they belong on the narwhal's head.

They, sort of, grow up like that.

I mean, extraordinary things on the narwhal.

And you can see why somebody enterprising,

who unfortunately caught one of those whales and sawed off his tusk

would have thought, "I can sell this as a unicorn horn."

- Because that's just what it looks like. - And it's quite beautiful.

The narwhal is an elusive toothed whale found in Arctic waters.

The spectacular tusk, usually only found on male narwhals,

is actually an overgrown spiralized tooth.

Scientists are still unsure as to what exactly the tusk is for,

but it's thought that it may be used to break through ice,

help catch fish,

or possibly to impress female narwhals.

I believe I'm right in saying that these did change hands

for quite astonishing sums of money.

Vast sums of money.

We know that Queen Elizabeth I, paid 10,000 pounds

and that, that's kept in the Tower of London, for example,

so it's a very high status object.

Who created this market?

Well, they were mainly people who were fishing in the North of Norway

or Greenland in the Arctic, Scandinavia.

They would come across the narwhals, and it was a huge trade.

And the idea was that it obviously was a symbol of your own power

and wealth, but also that it would protect you in some way?

That's right, the purity of the unicorn.

This was believed to be able to purify water, and to guard against poisons.

Also, in a rather more mundane fashion to cure boils and plague.

Then it was used by apothecaries up until the 18th Century.

It was called alicorn powder.

A mere pinch of this would have been beyond the dreams of ordinary men.

Right.

It's thought the first written reference to unicorns

dates back to over 2,000 years ago.

Over that time,

many real animals have been linked with this mythical creature.

The Arabian oryx, also known as the Arabian unicorn,

has two long slender horns,

and when viewed in profile their horns can appear as one,

making them closely resemble a unicorn.

But there's another, rather different animal

that is part of the unicorn story,

one that may have the strongest connection of all.

There they are, the little armored tanks.

The rhinoceros, the rhino, surely one of nature's most iconic creatures.

With its unmistakable thick, grey hide and its signature horn.

I call it one of nature's master pieces.

An extraordinary, unique beauty, aren't you?

Yes.

These magnificent creatures are Indian rhinoceros

and their scientific species name is

splendidly, "Rhinoceros Unicornis."

And they are, in fact, distantly related to a "real" unicorn.

Oh, come now, Stephen...

Well, millions of years ago,

a creature called Elasmotherium Sibiricum,

the Siberian Unicorn

roamed between Asia and Europe and around

for many, many millions of years.

These prehistoric rhinos

wouldn't have looked terribly different to the ones we know today.

But they were enormous.

Twice the size of modern rhinos, at around three meters tall,

covered in thick, shaggy hair,

and thought to have a single, large horn.

The Siberian Unicorn is believed to have grazed

almost entirely on grass,

and despite its large size, was built to run at speed across the plains.

They survived all the way up to about 39,000 years ago,

when they became extinct.

But at that time, we were there, we, homo sapiens.

We'd developed language

and so, we were able to tell each other

about meeting these incredible creatures,

what would we have thought of them?

Perhaps that's another reason why the idea of the unicorn

entered the human imagination.

Of all the eerie legends of the ocean depths,

there is one that has enthralled us more than any other...

The Kraken.

Over 500 years ago,

sailors first told of an enormous sea monster,

said to live in the waters off Norway and Iceland,

which had long, snake-like arms covered in suckers for grabbing prey.

Some stories reported the monster as being two kilometers in length,

with tentacles as thick and long as ship's masts.

By the 18th century,

scientists truly believed that the Kraken was a living, breathing animal,

and so it was included in all the highly-respected scientific journals

of the time, including the Systema Naturae,

developed by the famous Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus.

Was there really a huge monster living in the ocean depths,

that overturned ships and devoured sailors?

This is the Natural History Museum's Tank Room,

home to thousands of the most incredible scientific specimens.

And there's one in particular that may explain our Kraken myth,

along with a little help from museum curator, Jon Ablett.

- Hello there. Jon. - Hello.

Good to meet you, thanks for showing me around your incredible...

What the heck is that?

Well, this is Archie our beautiful giant squid specimen.

This is a giant squid.

I mean, one hears about giant squids and one imagines that they are,

maybe, what people mean by sea monsters.

Is this what they are? Are these the monsters?

Well, I mean, we don't really know what people were seeing,

when we think of these kind of old-fashioned sea monsters,

but these are definitely a great candidate.

I mean, they get up to about 13 meters.

So Archie here, is about 8.6 meters, so not fully grown.

Is this a junior?

This is a junior. So the females, we think, get to about 13,

the males about 10, 11.

Oh, I can't imagine what it must be like,

seeing one of those actually in the water.

One of the most elusive creatures on the planet,

giant squid are believed to weigh up to 500 kilos

and inhabit the deepest oceans around the world.

This incredibly rare footage

was captured by scientists in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico in 2019.

Thought to be a juvenile,

and measuring over three and a half meters,

the squid is attempting to feed on a decoy bioluminescent jellyfish.

This is only the second time in history

that a giant squid has been filmed in the wild.

So that, sort of, um,

child's adventure book with a huge tentacle coming in to the deck,

and wrapping itself around an unfortunate sailor is not very likely?

Pretty unlikely.

I mean, these live at really great depths,

we're thinking, possibly down to 2,000 meters,

and it's actually very likely they can't actually breathe at the surface.

Really?

Oh, look, there's more, you've got suckers and...

There's a wonderful...

Well, this isn't actually part of a giant squid,

there is something that possibly gets even bigger.

This is actually from a colossal squid.

We think they get bigger than the giant squid,

possibly up to 18 meters.

18 meters!

Wow.

So if you have a look inside,

a closer look.

Wow! I can see the suckers so clearly.

So here you can see just the very tip

of a tentacle of a colossal squid.

And you can see, they have these traditional circular suckers

with the saw-toothed edge,

- just like you see in lots of squid. - Yeah. Yeah.

- But also these very sharp talon like... - Oh, yes, I can see that.

Goodness they are, aren't they.

Two or three in each sucker, that are these claws, these thorns.

Even the ones that don't have thorns have a certain

sort of raspy burr to them, don't they?

Yeah, they, sort of, have a serrated saw-tooth edge as well, so yeah.

I mean, absolutely terrifying, you don't want to be caught by one of these.

Even bigger than its giant cousin,

the colossal squid is the largest invertebrate on Earth.

Potentially almost as long as an early sailing ship.

These mysterious creatures live in the icy depths of Antarctic waters,

and most of what we know is based on a small number of carcasses

found by deep-sea fishing vessels.

Images like these

are almost the only evidence we have of their existence.

Did these enormous squid,

found washed ashore or caught in nets long ago,

launch the legend of the Kraken?

I mean, they really are so other-worldly, aren't they?

Yeah. And it's hard not to be scared

at the thought of one of those tendrils coming out and grabbing you.

- It is a pretty primal nightmare. - It certainly is.

Sailors could spin wonderful yarns

about the strange sights they saw at sea.

But not all the tales they told were of the terrifying type,

some took a more appealing form.

Mermaids have featured in legends from around the world

for thousands of years.

In 1493,

the explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing to the Americas,

saw what he believed to be three mermaids,

describing them as

"not so beautiful as they are said to be,

for their faces had some masculine traits."

But some scientists now think that what he actually saw

was a creature that is still found along the coasts of North America today.

Crystal River in Florida, is home to these enigmatic animals.

There's one. Its little nose popped up to say hello.

These incredible creatures are manatees, or sea cows,

and they're the ocean's largest herbivore

or grazer, in their case on sea grass,

and despite their massive bulk,

unlike me, they are incredibly graceful swimmers.

Local manatee expert Monica Scroggin

has studied the population on this river for a number of years.

What brings the manatees to this place?

Do they find it as beautiful as everyone else does?

So actually, it's the water temperature,

but that's because they have a very small metabolism,

so they have to eat about ten percent of their body fat

every single day.

So for a thousand-pound manatee that's about a hundred pounds of food.

- My goodness. - Yes.

It is a lot of green vegetables.

Manatees can be found along the coasts and rivers of North America,

the Amazon in South America,

and Western Africa.

Though populations are on the rise in Florida,

manatee numbers are declining worldwide,

and they are considered vulnerable to extinction.

Measuring over three meters in length,

these gentle giants often travel long distances

in search of seagrass.

Manatee tails certainly look very mermaid like.

Perhaps it's the graceful way they move in the water

that has inspired these legends?

Or had the sailors who glimpsed them simply been at sea for too long?

And when you look at manatees, do you see merpeople, mermen and mermaids?

I do. I think they have the similar shape.

They have the similar tail, their flippers.

Yeah.

Do they use them almost like hands?

I mean, obviously, they're not opposable thumbs or anything.

Right, but they almost are.

You could think of their flipper like our hands,

but only with skin covering it.

Their bones look just like ours.

The manatee skeleton could also hold a clue to the mermaid myth.

Take a look at their arms and hands,

and you can see they are similar to ours.

Yet their tail bones are unmistakably fish-like.

It's easy to see how these skeletons washing up on shores long ago,

could have inspired the idea of a mysterious half human,

half sea creature.

Well, I'm not entirely sure about these theories,

so perhaps I'd better take a closer look...

Here goes.

Wow, they are amazing.

So much bigger underwater and yet still so graceful.

But they don't seem to mind my presence there,

they just gently nibble away at that sea grass.

Incredible!

It's not hard to imagine, is it, how a sailor,

far from home after a long voyage

and maybe after a little tot of rum,

looks out and sees a manatee and in his mind's eye,

there's a mermaid. A beautiful mermaid.

All right, perhaps a large tot of rum.

Meanwhile, the mermaid myth lives on.

Mythical beasts don't just lurk on land or slither through seas.

From griffins to thunderbirds,

harpies

to hippogriffs,

many magical creatures can be found on the wing,

soaring across the skies.

Oh, good Lord. Chris, hello.

Hi.

What's the name of this extraordinary creature?

This is Nikita and she's a Steller's sea eagle.

A sea eagle.

So beautiful.

And that beak, is it a specialist beak for fish?

That's a serious beak.

It's designed for cutting flesh,

but a fish pulled out of the water at minus 40

is gonna be a block of ice within a couple of moments,

so that's what that tin opener is for.

And those trousers, I love those,

shaggy, shaggy feet.

On the soles of her feet, she's got almost like Velcro,

to enable her to grab hold of slippery fish

and pull them off the surface of the water.

- Of course. - Yeah.

As you can see, Nikita, is no myth, she's all reality.

Steller's sea eagles,

they're amongst the largest eagles in the world,

and they're formidable predators.

There have been stories over the years, of course,

of eagles attacking humans,

which is why, perhaps, it isn't surprising

that stories through the ages have been passed down

of mythical winged beasts with enormous claws and beaks.

And with that in mind, it's time for me to get a bit closer,

so wish me luck!

Right, Stephen, so, essentially it needs to be upright.

- Oh, like that. Right. - Yeah.

And now, I'm gonna place the bird on your arm on the top

and then you've just gotta keep your arm nice and level

and just slightly away from your body. It's gonna be heavy.

So I'm now gonna give you the weight.

Oh, my heavens.

Wow.

Enormous as you are,

you'd be small compared to some of your ancestors,

both real and mythical.

One flying beast that appears in ancient tales from the Middle East

is known as the Roc.

Described as an enormous eagle,

it was said to be strong enough to carry off an elephant.

Inspiration for the Roc

is believed to have come from the eggs of a real bird,

Aepyornis,

which lived in Madagascar over 40,000 years ago.

One of the largest flightless birds ever to have existed,

at over three meters tall and weighing 500 kilos.

Also known as the Elephant Bird,

it went extinct around a thousand years ago.

But its eggs were so huge, as large as 150 chicken eggs,

that people thought they must belong to the legendary Roc.

Aren't you amazing? Well, I think it's time you had her back.

So I'll hand her over to you.

Perhaps, it's the very mysteriousness of flight itself,

that has inspired these stories of legendary flying creatures,

over the centuries.

That, and a fear of the very powerful

and very real birds themselves.

Goodness.

Fortunately, nobody's told Nikita how delicious I am,

so I think I'm safe.

Stories of fantastical beasts aren't just a thing of the past.

And there's one world-famous legend

that is alive and well here in Scotland,

The Loch Ness Monster.

The origin story of this iconic monster

can be traced back to around 1,500 years ago

when Irish missionaries and Columba

was said to have encountered a beast

in the River Ness.

Over the years, thousands of people have claimed to see Nessie

and there have been numerous attempts to find conclusive proof of its existence.

But none have been as promising, or as high-tech,

as recent efforts.

I've traveled to the banks of this legendary Loch...

- Stephen, come aboard. - Hello.

...to meet Adrian Shine

a naturalist involved in this exciting new development.

Why do you think that there's a special quality to Loch Ness?

I mean, why has it retained such mystique over the decades?

Well, it's fascinating. It is probably, arguably,

the most famous lake in the world

- and it's quite large. - Yeah.

You could put the whole human population of the world into it

- at least three times over. - Seriously?

- It is quite deep. - Good gracious. Wow.

And it's hostile.

So in that respect, it qualifies as a lost world,

and we need lost worlds

to make our mythical creatures at least credible.

- Or more credible. - Yeah, so it's big enough

for the, if there were a monster,

it could have credibly hidden for all this time.

The story of Nessie evolved over centuries,

but it was in the 1930s that things really took off.

That was when the Loch Ness monster,

that we know and love today, was born.

There's the multi-humped sea serpent

and the plesiosaur.

- The idea of a prehistoric monster... - With the long neck.

...long necked, four flippers, stumpy body.

We used to spend a lot of time

in trying to work out what was in Loch Ness

with our fish nets, towing things like that around.

Then we'd spend hours and hours and hours looking through microscopes,

identifying things, counting things.

But now there is a much more elegant way.

Listen to this delicious...

- Just a minute. - What a lovely noise.

There we are.

Using a process called Environmental DNA Sampling

or E-DNA,

scientists examined the different types of animal DNA

found in Loch Ness water.

- And there we go. - That's it.

My very own bucket of Loch Ness water.

That's right.

There are many different theories

as to the Loch Ness Monster's true identity.

One that Adrian supports

is that it could be an enormous eel.

Eels are an elusive species.

Much of their behavior and exactly how large they can grow

is still a mystery to scientists.

One of the biggest species in the world,

is the European conger eel,

which is thought to grow to over three meters long.

But some believe eels are capable of growing to a much larger size.

Known as eunuch eels,

their existence is somewhat controversial.

Usually, adult eels swim into the Atlantic Ocean to breed,

after which they die.

But eunuch eels are said to be infertile,

leading them to remain in freshwater,

and continuing to grow for many years

potentially to a huge length.

So will the DNA results confirm Adrian's suspicions?

Now presumably, it will take a few days to get this analyzed

but you've had previous samples.

Well, we certainly think we know what's in Loch Ness,

and there weren't any great surprises from the DNA.

What have you found?

Bacteria, plankton, lots of fish.

No reptiles.

No reptiles.

- Sad that, wasn't it? - Slightly disappointing.

Didn't really expect them, to be quite honest,

but there we are.

But we got lots and lots of eel DNA.

But, of course, it would be the same DNA

for a ordinary eel as for a huge eunuch eel.

An ordinary eel, which comes into Loch Ness,

but likes it so much that it doesn't go back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.

- It just grows huge. - Oh, so it avoids the famous life cycle.

One of the things that's so intriguing is this latest DNA

work that you've been doing

still leaves avenues open to believing, doesn't it?

And that's the fun of it.

- Yeah. That is... - Nature surprises us all the time.

Exactly right. Exactly right.

And so the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster continues.

Our passion for all things magical, has never been stronger than it is today.

Many of the most popular books and movies of our time

are based on myths, legends and fantasy worlds,

filled with some of the most extraordinary creatures you'll ever see.

And now with cutting-edge computer technology,

we can bring them to life, like never before.

Now,

behind these doors is something just a little bit special.

I've come to The Making of Harry Potter

at the Warner Brothers Studio Tour near London,

to see how the Fantastic Beasts of the Wizarding World are brought to life,

and to discover how the natural world

has often inspired these extraordinary creations.

This is quite an honor for me.

They don't usually let Muggles in here.

But where do you start

when trying to create a Fantastic Beast for the big screen?

Surely, a description in a book can only tell you so much?

Well, I've come here to find out some of the tricks of the trade,

from visual effects supervisor, Christian Manz.

Oh, now, hang on.

I think I recognize where we are.

This is Dumbledore's office.

Yeah.

Now, Christian,

I'm sure a lot of people have heard of CGI as it's called,

do you spend your whole time just looking at a computer screen

doing mathematical things to create images?

The brilliant thing about visual effects

is it's a real marriage of the creative and the technical,

and our inspiration, particularly with animation,

is looking at creatures from all over the world,

and make the audience believe that what they're seeing is real.

Have you got some examples?

Well, in the second film, we had the Zouwu,

a elephant sized, really colorful big cat.

In the script, it said that the Zouwu could travel a thousand miles a day,

and that led us to that idea of speed.

So here, this was a design that bedded in for a while actually,

- cobra like head. - Yes.

With a reptilian body.

We got to the point of, you know, modeling it

and animating it, but we were never quite sure about it,

it didn't quite feel of our world,

and then somebody came up with this design, this concept.

- Goodness. - And we were like,

"Wow, that feels bonkers."

And also felt very akin to some of the Chinese dragon dancers.

The sort of ribbon like...

I've taken a look at those too,

and I know what you mean, and that exactly suggests it,

- that long sinuous, flowing tail. - Yes.

And then, kind of, the cat-like face,

and then the body which in the end, lizards, was a lot of our inspiration.

So from that, we'd look at wildlife.

So you've got coral, and is that a variegated tulip?

Yeah, and a fighting fish,

and also we tried it with the sea anemone.

Yes, that's so surprising, 'cause I can believe

that you might look at lizards and you might look at large cats

and things, but coral and flowers...

And yet once you point it out, you can see that.

What's so interesting, is that the most ancient stories of mythical creatures

drew their inspiration from nature.

And the most modern technological mythical creatures

that you create, also draw from nature.

And I suppose as long as the lead times

and the process of doing computer graphics is,

it's nothing compared to the millions of years...

No.

...that nature has to try out new ideas.

Yeah, I think that's one of our biggest learning experiences, really,

that mother nature's definitely better at it than we are,

but she's had practice.

She's had so much practice.

But where on Earth did all of this start?

When did we very first create or imagine these mythical creatures?

When early humans began to draw,

we depicted the world we saw around us,

the landscape, people, and animals,

like this magnificent mastodon.

But we also began to create entirely imaginary creatures too.

There are examples of these mysterious creatures painted in caves,

and on rocks, found around the world.

Some dating back as far as 44,000 years ago.

No-one really knows why these images were created,

but perhaps the most reasonable explanation

is that they were one of the earliest forms of storytelling.

I wanted to know more about this instinct

to create mythical creatures,

so I asked someone who knows a thing or two about telling stories,

author of the Harry Potter books, and creator of Fantastic Beasts,

J.K. Rowling.

Why is it that we humans have to tell everything through stories

and examples,

it's our great creative power, isn't it?

I think about this a lot,

the fact that we're storytelling creatures,

because to our knowledge,

- we are the only animal that does this. - Yeah.

And obviously it was an attempt I think to,

certainly in terms of myth and folklore,

it's an attempt to explain the natural world,

things people didn't understand.

I am very interested in story, inevitably.

I'm not just interested in writing stories.

Yeah.

- I'm interested in why we write stories. - Yes.

I'm even more fascinated by the fact that discrete cultures who'd never met,

create such similar archetypes and such similar creatures.

- Yeah. - So we see the fire bird,

the phoenix as I called it,

but you see the creation of a fire bird throughout different cultures.

Yes.

And what is that telling us about what it is to be human

and what lives at the back of our minds, in our subconscious?

You often see this in magical beasts,

that very similar beasts have been imagined...

Yes.

...by, after all, peoples who are living among different...

...at real animals.

We're talking cultures across different continents.

And that fascinates me, because that's clearly telling us about ourselves.

And a perfect example is the dragon.

- There you go. - All over the world.

- All over... - In China, famously, of course.

And what else are there? Mermaids.

Mermaids, it's very interesting, isn't it?

Because where did that myth come from?

Even in Africa, these inland countries...

- Yeah. - ...of course, have great rivers...

Yeah.

...there is a form of mermaid, the Jengu.

So again this is something that has...

has been created across these different cultures.

Why were British sailors imagining fishtailed women

when people in Africa were imagining fishtailed women,

it's just extraordinary.

Do you think it's possible to invent a creature

that has no basis in nature?

- I think it'd be exceptionally difficult. - Wouldn't it?

I created a creature,

in Fantastic Beasts, the original book called a Lethifold.

Yes, a nasty piece of work.

Now that is my worst nightmare.

I really had, there, gone for something that would scare the bejesus out of me.

Yes.

Although I was taking the idea from a cloak,

when I stood back from what I'd invented,

I thought, well, you've... That's just a manta ray.

And a manta means a cloak, doesn't it?

- There you go. Exactly. - Yes.

So basically, I've invented a manta ray that doesn't need water.

And the niffler?

Well, I was going to say the niffler, exactly,

so the niffler is a bit of a favorite of mine.

It's a treasure seeker, it likes everything that glitters,

so it can locate treasure for you.

So for those who don't know, a niffler is a curious creature,

I suppose it's a cross between a magpie, in nature...

Yes.

...and a duck-billed platypus in appearance.

- And a mole. - And a mole, exactly.

But they used a platypus to get the snout-like appearance in the movie,

which I adored.

I mean, they ran these things past me and I just loved it.

It gave it such an endearing appearance, I think.

- So it's exceptionally difficult... - Yeah.

...to invent something. And often nature got there far better,

because you look at some of nature's extraordinary creations,

and you think, well, CGI will never match this.

You created your own world

that has its famous and knowable characters and creatures,

which must give you enormous satisfaction,

and you've done it by examining the real world

and the world of the imagination that our ancestors had,

all the way back through earliest myths.

I was thinking about the creatures

because we were gonna sit down and talk about this,

and I realized

that half the books fold without those creatures,

you know, they're so important.

- Hedwig the owl. - Yeah.

And then we move through the thestrals and the dragons

and they are key plot points and obviously, thematically,

they work in terms of life and death and power.

And struggle and treasure.

But I realized when I really focused on those creatures,

just how important they were,

and that shows,

we have a deep need, I think, to be connected to the animal world.

Fantastic beasts have been with us since the dawn of time,

from the first imaginary creatures sketched on cave walls,

to the state-of-the-art animals that we see on our big screens today,

they are a fundamental part of our own history.

Our endless fascination with magical animals

and our instinctive curiosity about the world around us

could even lead to the discovery of entirely new species.

If we keep our eyes

and our minds

open,

who knows what might be out there?

The world is a magical place.

Fantastic beasts show there are still so many things to discover.