Science in the Quest for Monsters?

Doug Hajicek is the creator of the History Channel program, 'Monster Quest' and though some of the things they search for might seem far-fetched, the technology and science they use is not.

"We also apply science in attracting the animals," Doug Hajicek explains.

He show off a fish cam developed for the Loch Ness Monster. "It was to mimic possible prey for the Loch Ness Monster."

The monsters Hajicek's chasing aren't necessarily all mythical creatures.

"Well, to me a monster is anything that's out of place, maybe it's overgrown, maybe it's totally unknown to science," says Hajicek. "We just filmed the first freshwater shark for instance in a river. In an area where a guy's got his fishing dock and swimming platform and there's a 22 foot shark swimming below his dock. To me that's an amazing monster."

Another of those 'real-life' monsters is the rarely seen giant squid.

"Things like giant squid, there's no doubt they're extremely intelligent. So when they hear a camera system come in a submarine they're gone. That's why no one's gotten footage," he explains. "We just simply attached the camera system to another squid which I felt it would be attracted to as food or just being it wouldn't be afraid of it. Within an hour and a half we had the first pictures of a giant squid."

Hajicek follows a similar approach and philosophy to each creature he's trying to find.

"If you're going to go after monsters or out of place animals, or unknown animals you definitely have to come up with something new."

By Sven Sundgaard, KARE 11 Weather Read Sven's Blog

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