Folklore

Africa’s Art Deco Dino: Njago Gunda

Syracuse Herald, May 15, 1921 In 1920, the Smithsonian Institution sent a 32-person expedition to Africa, which found unexplained tracks along the riverbank and heard mysterious “roars.” See the “Dinosauria” chapter of my field guide for more details. One hundred years ago, people would grab their weekend newspapers and hurry to find the Sunday supplements. There they might discover new adventures of explorers in deepest darkest Africa, follow the treks of famed safari leaders, and learn of new animals being found in the jungles. Take a moment today, reach back to that feeling, understand the world is not fully explored, [...]

India’s Cow-Eating Trees

Depiction of a native being consumed by a Ya-te-veo (“I can see you”) carnivorous tree of Central America, from Land and Sea by J.W. Buel, 1887. Source: Wikipedia. (The image appears to be from a woodcut, naturally.) In Roy Mackal’s book, Searching for Hidden Animals (NY: Doubleday, 1980), his last chapter is entitled “The Monstrous Plants.” It was not about cryptozoology, needless to say, but about cryptobotany, being a short treatise on the Victorian accounts of man-eating plants. As Mackal points out, many zoologists and botanists have been fascinated by plants that eat meat since the days when Charles Darwin [...]

The Dover Demon Lives

Move over Ortiz, Manny and Beckett! Share the media airwaves Boston Red Sox! I will be on television around 4:15 p.m. on Boston’s “NewsDay Live,” this Friday, October 12th, on the New England Cable Network, speaking about Mysterious America and specifically, the Dover Demon. A figurine of the Dover Demon is displayed at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. The strange creature was spotted in Dover, Massachusetts, in 1977. The Dover Demon sculpture is by artist Steve Goodrich of New York State. (Photograph: Amber Waterman/Sun Journal.) This weekend (see poster below), I will also be speaking about the Dover [...]