Forensic Science

Orang Pendek in Maine

Delivered today, for inclusion in the Bates College exhibition, "Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale," the Adam Davies-Andrew Sanderson-obtained Orang Pendek original cast, from September 2001. During their next expedition, they were recorded on the National Geographic Channel’s documentary, Is It Real?: Ape-Man, Episode 14, Season 2, which first aired Monday, February 27, 2006. Please click on the image for a larger version of the photograph. The description of the program asked: Does the Orang Pendek — a.k.a. the "Little Man of Sumatra" — really exist? Those who insist they have seen it describe a three-foot-tall ape-like creature that walks [...]

Okapis Rediscovered!

Thought extinct for 47 years in the Congo’s Virunga National Park, the okapis have been rediscovered! Okapis are important in the history of romantic natural history. The animal was used to symbolize the International Society of Cryptozoology (1982-1995), and was the centerpiece of the organization’s logo. The okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is a beautiful animal, a true “living fossil”. I have observed them in St. Louis, Chicago, San Diego, and every zoo I can find that has any. Last weekend, I was able to observe for several minutes over the space of three hours, the 21-year-old male, born in the San [...]

In Search of African Dragons

Jon Downes has announced that his Center for Fortean Zoology will attempt to track down recent accounts of “dragons” or monitor lizards in West Africa. In early July 2006, a six-person team from the North Devon-based UK group is travelling to Gambia to investigate these folktales. They may find the trail a little cold. Back on June 12, 1983, 15-year-old amateur naturalist Owen Burnham discovered the fresh carcass of a strange beast on the remote Bungalow Beach in Gambia. The stranded dead cryptid was around 15 feet long and looked like a cross between a crocodile and a dolphin. Owen [...]

Bizarre Baffin Skull

The "what-are-theys" are happening faster than I can post them all before my trip to Texas this week to speak at the Bigfoot exhibit at UT. Now comes this Baffin Island mystery. Here’s another one for May 30th. Canadian Canoe reporter John Thompson, through a dispatch from Iqaluit writes: A mysterious skull discovered on the edge of the Arctic Circle has sparked interest in what creatures roamed Baffin Island in the distant past, and what life a warming climate may support in the future. Andrew Dialla, a resident of Pangnirtung, Nunavut, says he found the skull protruding from the frozen [...]