Expedition Reports

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 [...]

Reality Check: Behind The Lost World Hype

Do you know where the Foja Mountains are? Most people don’t. And are there really "hundreds of new species" discovered? Bruce Beehler of the U.S. organization Conservation International and Indonesian Institute of Sciences reportedly told the BBC: "It’s a beautiful, untouched, unpopulated forest. We found dozens, if not hundreds, of new species." The attention to the new "Lost World" in Indonesia is all over the media, as mentioned earlier here on Cryptomundo. But what’s the reality behind the headlines? Photographs of two rare but not "new" species – the long-beaked echidna and the golden-mantled tree kangeroo; Conservation International. Not to [...]

Lost Worlds in New Guinea and Madagascar

The discovery of a "Lost World" in New Guinea is the breaking story of the day. I guess you just never can tell what you’re find if you look on the upper slopes of the Foja Mountains, in the easternmost and least explored province of western New Guinea, humm? Due to a technical breakdown here last night when Cryptomundo went offline, I wasn’t able to post on this exciting development. In the meantime, I see this morning, the internet is screaming about the "hundreds of species" found. One of the best items on the findings is at Boing Boing; they [...]