Na Pali means “The Cliffs” in Hawaiian. The secluded green valleys of the Na Pali Coast are said once to have been home to an ancient race of little humans called Menehune (seen above in the Hawaiian Medical Association’s publication logo). The Menehune are the tiny people of the Hawaiian Islands, who are perhaps related to the Flores Hobbits, Homo floresiensis. In more recent years, the Na Pali location has become familiar to movie goers worldwide. The beautiful scenery has served as the backdrop for such movies as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and the remake of King [...]
Pink Bird Wonders Sighted
An archival painting of the Pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus). The legs are stunning. They are bright pink, almost bubble-gum pink. It’s very exciting….They are beautiful geese. Most people had never seen these geese before….What we are looking at is whether the pink-footed geese, with their westward shift [in Greenland] are now migrating with some of the white-fronted geese. It could be theorized that all of these geese have arrived together. It’s an interesting ornithological puzzle.Rachel Farrell, Rhode Island’s leading bird expert, while observing the pair of pinked-foot geese at Hammersmith Farm in Newport. The pink-footed goose, a bird that is [...]
New Cayman Croc Sightings
As was detailed here, an eight-foot long crocodile was captured near Old Man Bay in the Grand Cayman on Saturday, December 30, 2006. This despite the fact that crocodiles, according to the media and authorities, were suppose to be extinct in the Cayman Islands for 200 years. Now comes reports of new crocodile sightings from the Caymans: According to one eyewitness, Cayman Brac seems to have an unwelcome visitor. Earlier this week, Albertha Bodden was on the shore in the Stake Bay area picking whelks, when she spotted, what she believes was a crocodile in the shallow waters near the [...]
A Life Explored In Words
I sometimes neglect the fact that few people know really what I have written, in total. Today, for example, a young man emailed me with this message: “How many books have you done Loren? I have only come across two.” Well, I can forget myself, often, for many reasons. It happens. Ha ha. Memory and lists of things-to-do aside, one reason is that there are many ways to count the unfolding of my life that occurs via my modest library of written works. You can look at “how many” in terms of various editions, revisions, and reprints. Or you can [...]
Mystery Moa Photo
A Moa? Please note the darker front part of the body is in shadow and the rear portion – with apparent feathers visible – is to the right, in sunlight. Is the above a photograph of a living Moa? I interviewed the credible eyewitness and photographer, a former member of the British Army’s elite Special Air Service (SAS). Here’s the backstory. In 1958, cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans entitled a chapter of his On the Track of Unknown Animals, “The Moa, a Fossil That May Still Thrive.” Moas, both medium-sized and giant forms, have been reported periodically in New Zealand since their [...]
Extinct SE Asia Vulture Found
The only known colony in Southeast Asia of slender-billed vultures (Gyps tenuirostrishas) – shown above – have been discovered in Cambodia, along with other endangered bird species. The vulture colony was discovered in January 2007, in the rainforests east of the Mekong River in Cambodia’s Stung Treng Province, according to Michael Casey’s Associated Press Bangkok-based dispatch for February 7, 2007. The slender-billed vultures were believed extinct throughout Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Cambodia, and only having been found in northern India recently. Some call it the world’s rarest vulture. We discovered the nests on top of a hill where two [...]
Once In A Blue Moa
Did a young girl from a pioneering Fiordland family have the last human encounter with a moa? It has gone down in history as one of the most puzzling rare-bird sightings and it happened in the remote south-west corner of New Zealand. What was the big blue bird that pioneer Alice McKenzie saw at Martins Bay, 30km north of Milford Sound, in 1880? Experts are still debating nearly 130 years later. Did a species of moa, such as the little bush moa, survive human predation and live on in the Fiordland wilderness 400 years after they were thought to be [...]
1st Complete Thylacoleo Found
Thylacoleo carnifex The January 25, 2007, issue of Nature announced the first analysis of a treasure trove of fossils unearthed in southern Australian underground caves in the Nullarbor plains. Hundreds of fossils were extremely well preserved, from the the middle Pleistocene (200,000 and 800,000 years ago). They constitute a veritable Rosetta stone for ice age Australia. We discovered 69 species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including a remarkable eight new species of kangaroo, the most common of which sported unusually large brow ridges. – Palaeontogist Gavin Prideaux Western Australia Museum Bert Robert, on left, Mike Morwood, right. The most impressive [...]
Extinct Parrot Found
This is a story about finding hidden treasures right before your eyes, in this case (pun intended), the beautiful Paradise Parrot of Australia. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The University of Aberdeen Zoology Museum (UK) has taken care of a case of mounted Australian birds, one of which is the spectacular but sadly extinct Paradise Parrot (Psephotus pulcherrimus). Nature-lover Michael Middleton, from the [Aberdeen] city centre, donated the exotic birds after the case that held them developed woodworm. It prompted him to scan the internet for more information on the assortment of stuffed birds, totalling three parrots, a pardalote, a kookaburra, a wild budgie [...]
Great Auk
Chad Arment’s Coachwhip Publications has announced the release of The Great Auk, or Garefowl. Below is Arment’s overview of the contents. Grieve’s classic text on the Great Auk provides a wealth of information on early knowledge of this extinct bird: records of specimens (birds and eggs), lists of former breeding-grounds, and stories from sailors and explorers who had first-hand sightings of the auks before they disappeared. Discussion ranges from archaeology to etymology: where the garefowl got its name. (And, are they the true “penguins”?) First published in 1885, this scarce reprint brings back to light the detailed scholarship of one [...]
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