There’s one thing that all these articles and TV programs like Monster Quest have in comon: the animal they’re looking for is never found. It doesn’t matter what it is, the giant squid, the giant octopus, the giant rat, the giant bear, Bigfoot, it doesn’t matter what; it doesn’t matter how far they tramp through the woods, or how many remote cameras they set up, or what they send out for DNA analysis, they never find anything.
It is in the search, that wisdom is found, Young Skywalker ...
If they ever find them ... They’ll be boring specimens quickly forgotten ... and there goes the fun ...
Except that, in the case of the giant octopus and giant squid, they did find them. There are even videos of the giant squid.
However, the giant squid and giant octopus are real. There is even a type of squid larger than the giant squid called the colossal squid. They do exist, and those are their actual names.
There are also several species of giant rodents, ranging from African cane rats that are larger than small dogs, to the Capybara in south america.
Giant bears ....well, you just need to go to Kodiak Island and you will meet some large bears. Talking about large animals, the area called the Ruwenzori mountain range (between Uganda and Rwanda), also known as the mountains of the moon, does have larger than normal animals (not sci-fi large ....but still larger. To put it in human perspective, the difference between an average height college student and an above average height college student who plays for the school's basketball team).
However, shows like Monster Quest do not go after such animals, which are real. They tend to go after things like bigfoot/yeti, lake and sea serpents, thunder birds, and all sorts of arcana that is just insane.
However, giant squids and the like are real.
I know some of the shows are disappointing but I also like how they disprove some of the myths too. All in all I like the entertainment of it. Hearing people talk about their close encounters is like listening to a ghost story.