Round Up of Top Bigfoot, Cryptozoology, New Species, and Other News Lists of 2013

by Loren Coleman

The Year 2013 turned out to have a bumper crop of stories on Sasquatch, cryptids, cryptozoologists, Bigfooters, new species, and even coelacanths. My tradition of penning year-end lists of such news stories began at the turn of the century.

“The Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2000” was first published in The Anomalist, long before blogging became my avenue of social media communication to share all. Now, it seems, many end of the year lists are popping up, and several people have their view of what happened in the last 12 months. That’s good. Summaries like these preserve histories that get lost in individual stories.

Here are the links to my lists for the year, and some links and overviews of a few others for 2013.

Enjoy the quest awaiting you in 2014, and don’t forget to share your adventures.

Here is my list of the lists of 2013:

Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2013

Roy Mackal

The Death of the Mokele-Mbembe Seekers

Top Cryptozoology Deaths of 2013

Monsters of Massachusetts: Mysterious Creatures in the Bay State (2013)

Top Ten Cryptozoology Books of 2013

Cryptozoologist of the Year 2013: Dr. Bryan Sykes

Top Ten Coelacanth Stories of 2013

 Now on to a compilation of others’ lists:

“Matilda”

Miss Squatcher’s “Top 10 Bigfoot Stories of 2013,” included: #10 – Mission BC, Canada Video; #9 – Sasquatch Ontario; #8 – Kill vs No Kill Debate; #7 – Dead Bigfoot; #6 – Bart Cutino’s Sierras Thermal Footage; #5 – “I think I saw a skunk ape – please help” Video; #4 – Washington Thermal Footage; #3 – Matilda the Sleeping Bigfoot; #2 – Melba Ketchum’s DNA Study; and #1 – Brown’s Thermal Footage (Florida).

Mission, B.C. “Sasquatch”

Lee Speigel’s HuffPost article, “2013: A Big Year For Bigfoot,” captured this in his top picks: Two Alleged Bigfoot Faces – January; Bigfoot Videos From British Columbia #1 – July; Bigfoot Videos From British Columbia #2 – July; Sleeping Bigfoot – October; Two Bigfoot In Pennsylvania #1 – October; Two Bigfoot In Pennsylvania #2 – October; and HuffPost Hunts For Bigfoot In New Jersey – October.

As far as news of new species, there was an incredibly high number of those news lists this year. Here are a few for future reference:

Little black or Kobomani tapir (Tapirus kabomani) was ethnoknown for over 100 years, a true cryptid discovered.

Smithsonian’s ”A Recap of Our Five Favorite New Species of 2013.”

Lavasoa Dwarf Lemur (Cheirogaleus lavasoensis), a new lemur species from Madagascar.

Sci-News’s “Top 20 New Species Discovered in 2013.”

The olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) was the first carnivorous mammal species discovered in the Americas since 1978.

IBT’s “13 of the Coolest New Species Discovered in 2013.”

On the Indonesian island of Lombok, an owl with a unique call, the Rinjani scops owl (Otus jolandae) was confirmed in 2013.

LiveScience’s “13 Amazing Species Discovered in 2013.”

Scientist’s “New Species Abound.” They called Kobomani tapir (Tapirus kabomani), from Brazil, the “big one.” But the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) find and the recognition of the (pictured) Cambodian tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk), discovered in the country’s capital city of Phnom Penh, were right up there on their list.

 

What does 2014 have in store for us?