(TV Show) Giganto: The Real King Kong

Giganto: The Real King Kong

Giganto: The Real King Kong is a television documentary produced by Doug Hajicek of White Wolf Entertainment. The program aired on the History Channel in December 2005, shortly after the release of Peter Jackson's film version of King Kong, and profiles the real-life King Kong, Gigantopithecus blacki, an allegedly extinct species of giant ape that lived in Asia thousands of years ago.

The special profiled scientists such as Dr. Russell Ciochon, an anthropologist and author who is convinced that Giganto died out many thousands of years ago and does not carry on today as modern mystery apes such as bigfoot and yeti. Dr. Jack Rink is shown examining tooth samples of Giganto to determine if DNA could be extracted from them and to estimate their ages and what the giant ape ate. Dr. Esteban Sarmiento is also profiled; he shares his opinion on Giganto as well as his expertise on modern primates. Proponents of the theory that Giganto lives on as bigfoot are also interviewed, including Dr. Jeff Meldrum, author Chris Murphy, National Forest Service archaeologist Kathy Strain, and Rick Noll, and two witnesses who swear that they saw a giant apelike animal. The special is sometimes repeated on the History Channel, and it is available in DVD format from the online store.