Chad Arment, noting this is not really a separate species, despite what the media is reporting, passes along this breaking news from Bhutan’s daily Kuensel Newspaper for June 11, 2008: A rare morph of the Asiatic golden cat (the ocelot morph) has been sighted in the high altitude mountains of the Jigme Singye Wangchuck national park, which nature conservationists are calling another feather in the cap of Bhutan’s conservation efforts. The ocelot morph is considered a separate species of wild cat. Two pictures of the rare ocelot morph were captured by an intensive camera trapping exercise targeted for tigers and [...]
Unicorn Deer Born
This undated photo provided by the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, Italy, Wednesday, June 11, 2008, shows a deer with a single “horn” (really an antler) in the center of its head. The one-year-old Roe Deer – nicknamed “Unicorn” – was born in captivity in the research center’s park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence, Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences, said. He is believed to have been born with a genetic flaw; his twin has two antlers. (AP Photo/Center of Natural Sciences) For more on this breaking story, see here and here. Thanks [...]
$1000 For Your Sasquatch at the Mall Trailer
Interested in another contest? Intrigued by the idea of creating a trailer to a film that doesn’t exist? Want to cannibalize the ideas in all your old favorite Bigfoot and Sasquatch films to produce a new trailer for Sasquatch at the Mall? Want to use one of my nonfiction tv doc interviews for a cameo in the fictional trailer? Bored this weekend and need a thousand bucks? If so, read on. And view onward too. Join the Brutal Massacre trailer contest on YouTube! Create a video and you could win $1,000!!! This is your chance to re-interpret one of Harry [...]
New Dodos
The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, and went extinct several centuries ago, we are told. But there remains some controversy surrounding the extinction date of the dodo. In Nature 426, 245 (20 November 2003), David L. Roberts and Andrew R. Solow write in their paper, “Flightless birds: When did the dodo become extinct?” that “the extinction of the Dodo is commonly dated to the last confirmed sighting in 1662, reported by shipwrecked mariner Volkert Evertsz” (Evertszoon). Other sources, however, suggest the date is 1681. Roberts & Solow point out that [...]
Woolly Mammoths: Two Subspecies Discovered
Andrea Thompson, a senior writer at Live Science has written an interesting article on a new subspecies discovery regarding woolly mammoths. Two genetically distinct groups of woolly mammoths once roamed northern Siberia, a new study suggests, with one group dying out long before humans showed up. The finding suggests humans were not the only reason for the beasts’ demise, as some have suggested. Scientists had long thought that woolly mammoths were one large homogeneous group, but an international group of scientists studied the mitochondrial DNA – the DNA in the genes of the mitochondria structures within cells – to paint [...]
Death Cluster
Talk of the Mothman or Mokele-Mbembe curses aside, I find myself in the midst of some times that have me reeling and beyond my understanding. My stepsister Shelley Atkins, 57, who was diagnosed with bone cancer less than two weeks ago, died around 7:30 pm, last night, June 9, 2008, in southern California. Shelley was also within my kinship tree as a cousin. (My mother’s second husband was my mother’s first cousin’s widower husband, and thus the children who were my mother’s second cousins then became her stepchildren – and by extension, my stepsiblings.) Shelley’s death follows my mother’s sudden [...]
Cryptid Long-Tailed Wildcats
The “Long-Tailed Wildcat” trapped and killed on January 16, 1922, in the Tinicum Swamp, Pennsylvania. Archival photograph, Henry W. Shoemaker, via Chad Arment. Perhaps it would be good to take a bit of a look at the reports of long-tailed spotted and striped small mystery and not-so-mysterious cats, in light of yesterday’s mention of “Long-Tailed Bobcats.” The bobcat pictured above has a short tail, but the photo shows how an allusion is created by the image of the tail merging with a back leg. Puma, young. Are there any jaguarundis (Puma yaguarondi) in the mix? Cryptozoologist Chad Arment has reminded [...]
Seeking Searle: Nessie Hunter
Frank Searle and Lieve Peten For years I searched for Frank Searle, the Loch Ness Monster hunter. Finally, I found him, but it was too late, and instead, had to write an obituary, noting “Nessie Seeker Frank Searle (1921-2005) Dies.” Recently, repeats of a documentary The Man Who Captured Nessie, directed by Andrew Tullis and released on December 29, 2005, have been broadcast on Scottish television. While trying to relocate my obituary on Frank Searle, I have discovered it has disappeared from the Internet. So here, to revisit the legacy of this man, I republish my look at Searle, who [...]
Call For Cryptozoology Papers
The Association Belge d’Etude et de Protection des Animaux Rares (ABEPAR) asbl have organized its 8th Symposium at Engreux, to be held in The Ardenne, south of Belgium, on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September 2008. The thema is “Mysterious Animals from Waters and Woods.” They have opened, for consideration, a call for papers of fifty-minute long presentations (maximum lecture + questions/answers) in English, but best in French if possible. (They will not be paying for your travel expenses, even for accepted speakers. You must find your way to Belgium. I would love to give a formal analysis of Bigfoot [...]
Davies Replies to Selma Film Critics
Adam Davies (above) in Mongolia. The following is the video of the “Seljord Serpent” or Selma, which was taken at Lake Seljord, Norway, credited to Adam Davies and Andrew Sanderson. (Please click on image directly above for a larger sized version.) Extreme Expeditions’ Adam Davies replies to the comments, questions, and criticisms: Thank you to everyone who has commented on the Seljord Serpent footage so far. To answer a few basic questions: 1/ The footage is shaky because Andy was stood up in a boat when he took it. It’s shot on a hand held camera. We had hardly any [...]
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