Cryptozoology

The Cryptozoology Season

Is there a new public attack on the Bigfoot and Sasquatch research work of Grover Krantz to be launched soon in London? Or, actually, less melodramatically, what will be said? Cryptozoology Season at the Grant Museum: The Grant Museum is located at the University College London – Gower Street – London – WC1E 6BT – United Kingdom +44 (0)20 7679 2000. The Grant Museum is taking advantage of the popularity of “cryptozoology” by putting on a variety of lectures in what they call “The Cryptozoology Season.” I especially hope some learned cryptozoologists, hominologists, and colleagues get to hear the one [...]

Cryptic Cats Link Hostile Governments

It appears that elusive felines are behind a new bridge being built between two hostile governments. The governments, you ask? That would be Iran and the USA. Iran is believed to host the only 60 – 100 Asiatic cheetahs left in the wild. Some eke out a living in a forbidding terrain of jagged peaks, deep gorges and bone-dry plains in the Kuh-e Bafgh protected area in Yazd province in central Iran. The sleek and spotted cats once roamed between the Arabian peninsula and India, but their number in Iran is estimated to have fallen by roughly half in the [...]

Rash of Zoo Deaths

Petal. Animals usually live longer in zoos, of course, than they do in the wild. Needless to say, zoos regularly experience animal deaths. During the last month, however, there has been a bit of a cluster of older animals dying, some of them notable enough to get media attention. Have the deaths been routine or mysterious? Here’s a roundup: Woodland Park Zoo’s zebras. Amy, 32, zebra. The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle has reported that a 32-year-old female zebra named Amy died on June 17, 2008. Zoo officials said zebras may live about 20 to 30 years in the wild. [...]

Ice Age Terror Birds?

Yes, another flightless fossil bird blog entry… Darren Naish has published a new analysis on terror birds, entitling this one, “Raven, the claw-handed bird, last of the phorusrhacids.” I won’t even try to summarize the amazing things he has written about in his intellectually stimulating posting. Instead, I’ll share three of his remarkable images to encourage you to go look over there and read, firsthand, his answers to the questions: “Was Titanis really alive in the Late Pleistocene?” and “Did Titanis really manage to hang on this late?”

New Chinese Bird Species Discovered

The Chinese news source Xinhua is announcing on Thursday, June 19, 2008, the confirmed discovery of a new species of bird, the Nonggang babbler or Stachyris nonggangensis. It has a white crescent-shaped patch behind the ear and some grayish-brown spots on the white throat. Apart from that, it’s dark brown all over. It prefers to walk, flying only when frightened. It often feeds on worms and insects in the gaps between rocks. Meet the new species of bird discovered by Chinese ornithologists on a small patch of limestone rainforest on the Sino-Vietnamese border. No ornithologist had sighted the myna-sized bird [...]