CryptoZoo News

Thanksgiving CZ Style

"America goes cryptozoology crazy" So asked Wired News, through an introspective look in Mark Baard’s article, in which he wrote the simple but true words, "It’s a hot topic at the moment." Look back to just a year ago, to the discovery of the "hobbits" of Flores Islands, as the media called them, when Henry Gee, the editor of Nature wrote in October 2004: “The discovery of Homo floresiensis makes it much more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures are founded on grains of truth. In the light of the Flores skeleton, a recent initiative to scour central [...]

Strange New Species

New Children’s CryptoZoo Book News Cryptozoology books are not as rare as they use to be, but new ones for young people are rather sparse. However, a good one that has recently appeared is Strange New Species: Astonishing Discoveries of Life on Earth, by Elin Kelsey, (from Maple Tree, 96 pages, $19.95, ages 9 to 14), with a forward by Marc van Roosmalen. As a review in the Globe and Mail on November 20th summarizes, in part, the new discoveries of animals, thusly: “Astonishing is the right word, especially when you consider just the findings of Marc van Roosmalen, a [...]

Maine’s Dog Killer cont.

Investigative reporter Mark LaFlamme continues his inquiries into Maine’s mystery beast with a new article published in the November 18, 2005, Lewiston Sun-Journal. Widespread interest and comments have been generated through LaFlamme’s initial article which was then mentioned in my earlier blog here, and that Cryptomundo comment was noted in David Pescovitz’s Boing Boing column. Today, reporter LaFlamme zeroes in on the probable best candidates for the central Maine dog killer and attacker, issuing from comments we all are now receiving. After relating that the dog "Buddy" has happily been reunited with its owners, Mark LaFlamme comments on the cryptid [...]

House Honors Triangle’s MIAs

In an unusual move, the House of Representatives has honored the 27 Navy airmen who disappeared on December 5, 1945 during a routine mission off Florida. The “Bermuda Triangle” event has been one of the most enduring mysteries of our day, issuing from the coining of the name by a cryptozoologist and a fortean. In a widely reported Associated Press story, the specific details of the event are detailed: The disappearance of Flight 19, a Navy mission that began the myth of the Bermuda Triangle, is still unexplained but not forgotten 60 years later. The 27 Navy airmen who disappeared [...]

Skeptical Monster Hunting

Dinah Voyles Pulver, the environment writer at the Daytona Beach News Journal has a good overview of the debunking of "sea monster" beachings at Tasmania, Bermuda, Nantucket and Chile. All were cetaceans, of course. She also lumps in the nearby 1896 St. Augustine beaching, as a whale too, but my emails with Roy Mackal tell me there may a surprise on the horizon about that one, in a new analysis being conducted. Could it be a giant octopus, after all? Also highlighted by Pulver is the work of cryptozoologist "Charles Paxton, a researcher with the wildlife population assessment department at [...]

Disney’s New Yeti Adventure

At Disney World in Florida, with the opening of Disney’s Expedition Everest, get ready for a ride of your life, plus some surprising educational opportunities to learn more about the Yeti or Abominable Snowmen. Several cryptozoologically-inclined people have contributed to the information behind this ride’s entryway and "museum," including me. It is located in the Animal Kingdom, and the waiting time is being filled with educational data about the Yeti. Joe Rohde, executive designer at Walt Disney Imagineering and lead designer of the park, has noted, "It’s a thrilling adventure themed to the tradition of the mysterious Yeti." Disney has [...]

Birdwatchers Events Fall 2005

In cryptozoology, we often here the refrain: "Why do birdwatchers never report Thunderbird sightings?" Well, of course, they do. But most of the pressure is to run to the sightings of rare birds seen in your neighborhood, to add to one’s list of birds seen in the observer’s life – the life list. Three such events are occurring right now in the USA. Saturday, November 12, 2005, while I was there, flocks of birdwatchers gathered at Perkin’s Cove, Ogunquit, Maine, which was being visited by a cave swallow (Petrochelidon fulva). I saw it skimming the water, only a few yards [...]