Dark Outdoors

Sometimes the strangest thing you encounter in the woods isn't an animal.

Over the years, Dark Outdoors® host Chester Moore has collected some truly bizarre stories from hunters, anglers and other people who spend serious time in wild places. In this episode, he digs into some of the strangest—encounters involving people who seemingly shouldn't have been where they were, doing things that made absolutely no sense.

It starts w...

Some wildlife crimes are difficult to comprehend.

Years ago, Chester Moore traveled to a location where someone had illegally killed a buffalo, removed its head with a chainsaw and abandoned the rest of the animal to rot. What he encountered there opened a window into a side of the outdoors most people never see.

In this episode of Dark Outdoors, Chester explores some of the most disturbin...

Deep along the Brazos River, something attacked a calf in the darkness.

The people who witnessed the event couldn't see exactly what was happening—but they could hear it.

They heard the struggle. They heard multiple animals involved. And, most disturbingly, they described hearing bones being broken and the calf seemingly being pulled apart with astonishing speed.

In this episode of D...

ne night in the Texas darkness, Chester Moore found himself looking through the sights of a rifle at an animal he had every opportunity to shoot.

He didn't pull the trigger.

What Chester believes stood in front of him that night was a red wolf—an animal officially declared extinct in the wild across its historic Texas range decades ago.

In this episode of Dark Outdoors®, Chester tell...

What exactly is a feral human?

The phrase conjures images of people living beyond civilization—hidden deep in forests, mountains and other wild places. But the reality behind the idea may be stranger, and far more complicated, than the legends.

In this special episode of Dark Outdoors®, Chester Moore explores the concept of feral humans and expands the definition beyond the usual stories of mysterious wild people lurking beyo...

In 1997, Chester Moore and his wife Lisa were driving to Pasadena, Texas, to visit a friend when they came upon a scene they would never forget.

Police and investigators had converged on an area near a retention pond. Chester and Lisa didn't know exactly what had happened, but they would soon learn they had driven upon the scene where, that very day, the body of 12-year-old Laura Smither h...

For Chester Moore, the question isn't simply an internet legend. It is connected to a mystery that has fascinated him since childhood.

In this episode of Dark Outdoors, Chester digs into his archives and revisits an investigation into reports of giant rattlesnakes, including an extraordinary account involving a rattlesnake said to have measured approximately 11 feet long. It's a mys...

Lightning can turn a fishing trip, hike, hunt or day on the water into a life-threatening situation in seconds. And some of the most dangerous storms can arrive with frightening speed.

In this episode of Dark Outdoors, Chester Moore reaches into his archives for an interview recorded several years ago with legendary meteorologist Greg Bostwick that has never before aired on Dark Outdoors.

Bostwick discusses the dangers of lightning...

Could black jaguars still roam Texas? Reports of black panthers, mysterious big cats and possible jaguar sightings have circulated throughout Texas for generations, but some eyewitness accounts are much harder to dismiss than others.

In this episode of Dark Outdoors®, Chester Moore talks with his friend David Cleaver, a dedicated outdoorsman and hiker, about an extraordinary black j...

Before heading into the Missouri Ozarks for a story, Chester Moore received a strange warning from someone who had given him credible information about secretive organizations before:

Watch out for the Bald Knobbers.

The only Bald Knobgbers Chester knew were the famously silly country music and comedy entertainers from Branson. But behind that name is a much darker history.

In the 1880s, t...

The New World screwworm is one of the most disturbing parasites in North America. Unlike ordinary maggots that typically consume dead tissue, screwworm larvae infest wounds and feed on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals.

The parasite was eradicated from the United States decades ago, but in 2026 it returned to the U.S. mainland, creating ser...

For decades, people along the Texas coast reported seeing strange, wolf-like animals roaming the beaches and marshes of Galveston Island. Most dismissed the sightings as coyotes.

They were only partially right.

In this episode of Dark Outdoors, Chester Moore investigates one of the most remarkable wildlife mysteries in America and explores how it unexpectedly intersects with one of the big...

Did advanced technology play a role in Nancy Guthrie's disappearance, or are investigators and online sleuths reading too much into the available evidence? In Part 2, Chester Moore and Daniel from the Drunk Turkey Show take a deeper dive into one of the most debated aspects of the case.

The discussion explores digital evidence, cell phone technology, surveillance capabilities, location tra...

Nancy Guthrie vanished in the remote Arizona desert, leaving behind a mystery that has captivated investigators, true crime followers, and independent researchers alike. In this first installment, Chester Moore is joined by Daniel from the Drunk Turkey Show for an in-depth look at the disappearance that sparked countless questions and theories.

Together they examine who Nancy Guthrie was, ...

In Part 2 of this powerful Dark Outdoors interview, Chester Moore continues his conversation with registered nurse Chris Carroll, whose life was forever changed after swimming toward a woman who had been attacked by a tiger shark in the Caribbean.

After recounting the rescue attempt in Part 1, Chris reflects on what happened next—and how the experience reshaped his understandi...

A woman is screaming in the water. People on shore don't know what to do. Then one man makes a decision few ever would—he swims toward the danger.

In this gripping first installment of a two-part Dark Outdoors interview, Chester Moore talks with registered nurse Chris Carroll, who found himself in the middle of a fatal tiger shark attack while vacationing in the Caribbean. What began...

Could the largest shark that ever lived still be swimming our oceans?

Scientists say the megalodon disappeared approximately 3.6 million years ago. Yet for more than a century, experienced fishermen, sailors, explorers, and divers have reported seeing sharks so enormous they defied explanation.

In this episode of Dark Outdoors, Chester Moore investigates the enduring legend of the megalodo...

Flash floods are among the deadliest hazards in the outdoors—and they can develop in minutes, often with little warning.

In this episode of Dark Outdoors, Chester Moore welcomes Dr. Tracy Fanara of Inspector Planet to discuss the devastating Texas Hill Country floods and, more importantly, the life-saving lessons every outdoorsman, hiker, camper, angler, and traveler should know.

Dra...

Most people assume the greatest dangers in the outdoors come from bears, sharks, snakes, or other wild animals.

After spending decades exploring remote forests, marshes, islands, and backcountry across America, I've learned something different.

Sometimes the most unsettling encounters don't involve wildlife at all.

In this deeply personal episode of Dark Outdoors, I share five true stories...