We know that the relationship between human and beast can be a shaky one.
We don't always get along or respect one-another, but when man and nature are in tune, the results
can be uplifting.
In these three tales, we chronicle the heroics of wild animals.
When presented the opportunity, Mother Nature can sometimes prove merciful.
Or did we spin these webs of lies for your entertainment?
Stick around and see if you can pick out which of these stories are fact.. or fiction.
The line that divides the factual from the unreal has long since blurred, the tales we
once thought fantastical now implanted as truth.
To decipher verity from the imagined, you must break from the ordinary and consider
a universe where the outlandish prevails.
Can you expand your mind to see beyond our perceived reality?
Can you decide what's fact or fiction?
Our first story is that of an unlikely friendship.
A beast known for its ferocity and man, a pairing that often ends with either on the
ground, lifeless and cold.
As Dale Howell's experiences prove, however, there is something to be said about judging
a book by its cover.
"I wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't happened to me," Dale runs his fingers through
his hair, recalling that strange day in the woods.
"I'm not much of an outdoorsman, but that weekend I had decided to enjoy a little solo
camping trip.
Life wasn't treating me too well and I just needed to… well, I needed to get away, you
know?"
"I read all the online guides, even purchased things I'd never use again if I wound up
hating it.
Two days of planning and a day of packing later and I was off!
Now, I didn't go to some incredibly remote region.
It was just outside of North Pole Resorts by Ausable River, so I expected there to be
more people.
It was quiet, though, like there'd been a memo I wasn't aware of about not camping
in that region.
Still, against my better judgment, I stayed."
Dale laughs as he fingers the brim of his hat, a worn cap sporting an unrecognizable
company logo.
"Staying was almost a huge mistake.
Maybe four, five hours into my grand camping trip, this black bear comes creeping from
a patch of foliage.
The river's nearby, close enough to where I can hear it, so I suspect he's gonna meander
his way to his food supply.
But he doesn't.
He stops and stares right at me as if I've offended him some way."
"Then, without any warning or another sound, he starts at me.
Not fast at all, just a menacing walk right towards my campsite.
All the things I read said not to panic, but I ain't perfect.
So I panicked.
When he got to a point that I felt was too close, I turned tail and ran.
I didn't know if he was behind me, I assumed he was, but I kept going.
I could picture him chowin' down on me and I was mad at myself for not having a better
plan.
But it didn't matter.
In a split second, I was face first in the waters of Ausable.
As panicked as I was running from my predator, I was even worse in the flowing waters of
the river.
Had I calmed down for a moment, I'd probably had no problem righting myself.
Needless to say, I'm not alive today because of my bravery and wilderness expertise."
"As I thrashed in the water, confused and assuming I was a goner, I felt something nudging
me.
It was gentle at first, then more forceful.
The pushing continued 'till I was clear of the water and laying on the cold ground.
That's when I heard it – that huffing and puffing I was so scared of before.
I kept my eyes closed as the bear seemed to hover over me, rubbing its snout against me.
It lingered for a moment, sniffing me up and down before going about its business in the
river."
"I don't know why and I certainly don't want to question it, but I thoroughly believe
that bear saved my life and knew it was doing so.
Of course, nobody believed me, but I pay them no mind.
It's my own little adventure and brush with Mother Nature."
A helping hand from Mother Nature, or a bold-faced lie?
Dale's run-in with a black bear sounds like the start of a Disney movie, but then again,
we do know that bears aren't the fearsome beasts often portrayed in movies.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments and don't forget to vote using the on-screen
poll.
Before we reveal whether Dale's story was true or not, we have another potentially phony
tail for you.
Bentley the Chimp and Monica Fowler were close, more-so than anyone would expect from a primate
and its owner.
But Monica wasn't much of a social person, spending the bulk of her evenings with Bentley,
enjoying the chimp's boisterous personality.
Despite all this time together, though, Monica never appreciated just how smart Bentley was
– until one quiet night at home.
Monica wasn't the type to go out with friends or join her company's annual Christmas party.
So she turned to an unconventional means of companionship – her chimpanzee named Bentley.
The two lived together for the better part of a decade before Bentley became ill and
passed away prematurely at 13-years-old.
In that time, though, Monica was blessed with a moment that she's sure to tell anyone
that ever inquires about her friendship with the young chimp.
As she describes it, it was a quiet day in Bowling Green.
Bentley was off playing in another part of her moderately sized two-bedroom home.
Monica was deep into the latest entry of the Fifty Shades series, enjoying the scandals
of Christian Grey and Anna Steele while nursing her bag of Werther's caramels.
She wasn't one to get sucked into the make-believe worlds of fictional novels, but something
about Fifty Shades sucked her in.
So when the two damaged love-birds launched into a tirade of obscenities against one another,
Monica gasped.
Unfortunately, air wasn't the only thing that entered her airway.
She remembers how the candy slid over her tongue effortlessly and lodged itself in her
airway.
She had once been trained in the Heimlich maneuver, but the sudden lack of oxygen clouded
any memories she had of the procedure with fear and panic.
She pounded on her own chest, wanting so badly to scream for help, though no one would hear
it.
She was finally realizing the horrors of a life of solitude and a lack of a husband or
son or human companion of any kind.
Her throat burned, begging for the item to be released, but she was helpless.
Monica pressed on her chest one last time before losing the strength to continue the
motions.
Her body slumped down in the chair, sliding down to the floor as her hands instinctively
grabbed at her throat.
As her panic started to turn to calm, she became unaware of her surroundings.
She hadn't realized that a force that wasn't her own fists had started to pound on her
chest.
Her mind was too busy slipping into what felt like an impossible peace as her brain wanted
to take her away from the reality of her closed airway.
The pounding continued, her head rattled with every forceful hit.
Just as she started to slip away, there was movement in her throat.
The candy slipped from its jammed position and turned sideways.
Her mind forced her to take in a big gulp of air which jostled the candy even more.
Rolling over, the candy slipped from her throat and slid out of her mouth onto the hardwood
floor.
As she coughed, her body taking in as much oxygen as it could, she felt the familiar
hands of Bentley stroking her back.
At first, Monica believed it was a stroke of luck, that the Werther's slipped out
on its own.
Then the pain in her chest started, a bruised feeling that later appeared as yellowed and
purpled skin.
Knowing she didn't hit herself that hard, Monica realized there was only one other option
– Bentley had saved her life, whether he knew it or not.
Chimpanzees are smart, but are you willing to suspend disbelief to consider a chimp that
knows the Heimlich maneuver?
Perhaps this technique is more rooted in nature than we believe?
There's really only one way to find out – but you're going to have to wait until
the reveal!
For now, before we get on to our final story, be sure to let us know if you think this story
was based on fact in the comments and vote using the on-screen poll.
Neil Fannington enjoyed the open ocean, but not to a degree where he'd love to get lost
in it.
An intermediate on the surfboard, Neil enjoyed the splash of salty water on his face and
the warm touch of the sun as he sprawled on his board, but he forgot just how relaxing
the rock of the waves could be.
And so he found himself drifting helplessly one day, facing imminent death…
"I knew I was a goner.
I had to be.
Middle of the ocean, not a soul in sight.
That's not something that has a happy ending too often, you know?"
Neil didn't look like the type that enjoyed catching the waves of the Pacific, but his
unusual tale of animal heroics begins with a beautiful Californian day.
Enjoying the mid-day sun off of the golden Californian coast, Neil was especially having
a good time as wave after wave tested his balance.
It was a busy day on the ocean for the young surfer, so when he had a moment of calm on
the glassy surface of the Pacific Ocean, he plopped down on his board and enjoyed the
warm sun against his chilled and wet body.
It was relaxing – maybe too much so.
Within minutes, Neil was drifting off into a deep sleep, all the while drifting aimlessly
and the empty open waters of the deep blue.
When Neil came to, his mind foggy from what felt like a brief nap in the summer sun, he
found himself surrounded by nothing.
The glisten of the sun sparkled on the gentle waters, but there wasn't a land mass in
sight.
"I panicked.
I mean, what else is someone supposed to do in that situation?
You don't know how long you were out for or in what direction you're facing.
I remembered my first thought was 'I'm going to die out here.'
But I didn't let the ocean take me right away.
I followed the swells for a bit, paddling along, making little progress before my arms
started to ache."
Then I saw them.
A couple of fins broke the surface a short distance away.
They didn't seem to be swimming directly towards me, but that didn't stop the scenarios
from popping up in my head.
I was being circled by sharks, I was sure of it, and that was going to be the end of
me.
I pulled my body onto the board as much as I could, but I was still dangling in the water.
I waited for the worst and thought it was coming straight for me when a fin approached."
"It was a soft nudge that pushed me along, but I didn't feel teeth.
When I finally looked at what was attached to the fin, I found out why.
They weren't sharks at all!
A school of porpoises took a great interest in this man floating in the middle of nowhere,
but what happened next was nothing short of a miracle."
As Neil describes being pushed along by the porpoises, he speaks as if he still doesn't
believe it himself.
"I thought I was going mad, that my mind had been cooked in the sun and this was the
hallucination I saw before succumbing to dehydration or something.
But my board scraped against the beach and I knew I was safe.
When I turned around to face the open ocean, my school of heroes was already gone, splashing
away in the distance as if celebrating their good deed for the day."
"You can call me crazy and you can say I'm lying, but I was saved that day by porpoises.
I wouldn't be here if not for them."
Neil's oceanic adventure certainly paints sealife in quite the new picture, but can
you believe it?
We've all heard tales of trained porpoises doing miraculous things - but could their
wild counterparts have the knowledge to push someone that far back to land?
Let us know what you think in the comment section right now and once again, vote by
using the on-screen prompt.
Now, let's get on to what you've been waiting for.. the reveal.
Are you ready to find out if you can decipher between fact or fiction?
Let's look back at tonight's three stories and find out which were born from reality
and which were fabrications of the imagination.
Overall, did any of these stories make you think differently about our animal friends?
How about the story of Dale Howell's run-in with a terrifying black bear in the wilds
of New York?
We know bears aren't murderous beasts with an unchecked thirst for human blood, but does
that mean they're gentle and intuitive enough to rescue someone from drowning?
As much as I'd love to give a reason to trust bears more, I can't at this time.
Dale's story was complete fiction composed by our writers.
But that doesn't mean we can't entrust our lives with chimpanzees.
Sure, they can be ferocious primates, but they are capable of affection.
So, did Bentley come to Monica's rescue just in time?
Sadly, no.
<pause> Oh, it's not that Monica died.
There just never was a Monica.
Or a Bentley.
But this scenario isn't entirely out there as a Golden Retriever named Toby once gave
his own, Debbie Parkhurst, his version of the Heimlich maneuver when she started choking
on an apple.
Finally, we have Neil's run-in with life-saving porpoises.
Is this another fictional wonder?
Or is it possible that this actually happened?
According to actor and funnyman Dick Van Dyke, this story is 100% true… and his own.
In his younger years, Van Dyke enjoyed surfing, at least until he found himself wading in
the depths of the Pacific.
He was able to continue his prolific career thanks to a couple of heroic porpoises that
came to his rescue and pushed him to shore.
How well did you do in tonight's video?
Did you look past the deception of our world and define the oft-blurred line that struggles
to separate lies from the truth?
Let us all know in the comment section below and should you find the urge to test your
perceptions again, be sure to subscribe and join us next time when we ask you to decide
what's fact... or fiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment