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Fortean Times #208: Monster Hunters

Fortean Times, Number 208, published in London, UK, goes on sale, from 10 March 2006. Here’s a notice of what it contains this time around: Cryptozoology 2006 From Orang-Pendek to Ninki-Nanka, the Yowie to the Lake Maggiore mystery, we bring you a 22 page special on the latest findings from the monster hunters. Karl Shuker rounds up a year in cryptozoology In search of the Orang-Pendek in the Sumatran forests with Richard Freeman Gambian belief in the Ninki-Nanka The Yowie of Australia’s Blue Mountains Italy’s Lake Maggiore monster David Attenborough’s 1975 crypto-classic kids series Fabulous Animals

Cryptids, Kha-Nyou, and the Lazarus Effect

We’ve met this critter before. The Laotian Rock Rat (Laonastes aenigmamus) was #10 on the Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2005. The discovery of Laonastes aenigmamus, which literally means "a stone-dwelling puzzle-mouse," occurred when an alert member of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society spotted the rodent on sale for cooking meat at a Laotian food market. Of course, the local people were already familiar with the animal. They call it kha-nyou. But now, comes news from Science that the kha-nyou are not merely a new animal but one that represents an ancient family, the extinct Distomydae, a family of rodents [...]

Bili Ape Discoverer Rebuilds Life

There have been a series of recent developments to our earlier story about Shelly Williams, the world-renowned primatologist credited with gathering convincing evidence of a new species of great ape, the Bili Ape. She was shot in the back on November 7, 2005 and paralyzed from the waist down, when a stray bullet from a drug-deal gone bad changed her life forever. She was merely an innocent bystander, doing errands at a strip mall in suburban Atlanta. On March 1, the suspects were identified and warrants issued. Smyrna, Georgia police issued the arrest notices for two men, Kendall Markell Bolden, [...]

Yeti Crab

I happen to have been away for almost three days, and what do you know, new animal discoveries keep being announced at a rapid rate. I’ve been traveling in California, filing postings early, and dealing with some interesting future projects. Nevertheless, I saw all the news of a new critter that has been called the "Yeti Crab" or a "Bigfoot Lobster." Courtesy © Ifremer / A. Fifis Press Release; click on image for larger view. One of the fastest ways to read about this one is to look to cryptozoology-friendly David Pescovitz at Boing Boing and his insights: Scientists just [...]

Mystery Cast Quiz Answer

The mystery cast maker is allegedly the so-called Bili or Bondo Ape from the Congo area of Africa. This cast is from the incredible work of Karl Ammann.

Save Barnum’s Pygmy Elephant

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this elephant has been sold into a private (not a cryptozoological) collection. I will leave the following here, for historical reasons. Would you like to help save a national treasure within the cryptozoological and zoological community? Could we get a group of people together to preserve this item? It has come to my attention that P. T. Barnum’s Pygmy Elephant is for sale. Here’s the description from the seller: This Elephant is in beautiful condition and dates from the mid 1800′s. The mounted specimen stands approximately 5’3" tall, it’s approximately 7′ in length and approximately 3′ wide. The [...]