Eyewitness Accounts

An Electrogenic Mammal?

There are three known kinds of electric – more correctly called electrogenic – animals: (1) the one species, Electrophorus electricus, of South American electric eel (really a knifefish), (2) the 19 species of African electric catfish in the genera Malapterurus and Paradoxoglanis, and (3) the 69 species of electric rays (order Torpediniformes) found around the world. The first two fish both demonstrate the ability to shock prey with electricity as an effective strategy for a piscivore (an animal that eats fish). They produce high levels of voltage, e.g. electric eel (600 volts) and the electric catfish (350 volts). Electric rays [...]

Attack Panther “Like a Woolly Mammoth”

The photograph of the “Sidney Mystery Cat” taken in Maine late in June 2007. Articles about incidents in British Columbia, Ontario, and Maine have appeared recently, detailing breaking news and updates about mountain lions, cougars, panthers, puma or whatever you wish to call these great cats (Puma concolor) of North America. Here’s a roundup of panther news, from west to east: A cougar attack has left Colton Reeb with strange memories, but little fear of the big cats that roam rural areas such as the B.C. Interior region where the 12-year-old was scratched and bitten this week. “Colton remembers seeing [...]

Almasty Eyewitness at Weird Weekend

The reported appearance of the Almasty or Almas is often combined with frequently heard folkloric advice that the best way to escape from the female of the species is by running downhill. This motif is also found among reports from Sherpas regarding the Abominable Snowmen of the Himalaya. A Ukrainian biologist who has spent years hunting for the Russian equivalent of the Yeti will be one of the speakers at this year’s Weird Weekend in Woolsery. Grigoriy Panchenko claims to have seen one of the creatures himself in a barn on a remote farm in 1991. He also claims to [...]

Real Or Not, Coleman Frog Lives On

Nine-year-old Noah Blanchard looks upon the stuffed Coleman frog. Rob Blanchard/CanWest News Service.   The Coleman Frog was so-called because of its owner, Fred Coleman. The huge specimen is being mentioned again as a tourist attraction to view, if you happen to be visiting Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Tell me, would you want this artifact in your local museum? At 19 kilograms, the Coleman frog is a monster. Supposedly nurtured to its humongous size on a diet of whey and whisky in the 1800s, the stuffed beast occupies a place of honour in Fredericton’s York-Sunbury Museum, where it is a [...]

How To Catch A Coelacanth

Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama holds up a rare coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct at the time of the dinosaurs. (Reuters) Scientists excited by Indonesian-caught coelacanth fish Two months ago Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama caught a rare coelacanth fish that has now lured an international team of scientists to investigate how he caught it. French experts equipped with sonar and GPS asked Mr Lahama to reconstruct in his dugout canoe, exactly what it was he did that enabled him to catch the coelacanth fish, an awkward-swimming species among the world’s oldest. Last May 19, Mr Lahama [...]

Sighting Reported to Police: “They laughed at me.”

There’s news of another recent Maine mountain lion sighting. Please click on the image of the Sidney, Maine, photograph, above, for a larger version. Kennebunkport [Maine] — It was May 30 and a hint of summer was in the air. Holly Cook had finished up work for the day and she and her husband were driving home along Goose Rocks Road near the Seashore Trolley Museum with the top down on their convertible when they saw something that stopped them in their tracks. “It was a big animal crossing the road,” she recalls. A deer? A coyote? they wondered. They [...]

Lawndale Thunderbird Abduction: A New Discovery

Jerry D. Coleman was the first investigator to talk to Ruth and Marlon Lowe about the Thunderbird abduction. The description he obtained from the eyewitnesses was exacting. As I’ve mentioned before, this is going to be a big year for anniversaries. From such events as the filming of the Bigfoot at Bluff Creek in 1967 to the Dover Demon sightings in 1977, decade milestones will be remembered often this year. The 30th anniversary of the Lawndale Thunderbird abduction is today, July 25th. On July 25, 1977, as 10-year-old Marlon Lowe played outside his family home along open fields near Kickapoo [...]