Jim Jung, 54, an Illinois panther researcher and Fortean author passed away on March 15, 2007. He had for years gathered the disputed information that convinced him that black panthers and eastern cougars lived in his home state. As long as his website remains active, his cougar data on the web can be found here and here. Jung had just published his special look at the strange phenomena of southern Illinois, in the area north of Cairo called Egypt. He was also known, for the last decade, for his annual Southern Illinois almanac, The Waterman & Hill Traveller’s Companion. Scott [...]
New Clouded Leopard
Talk about exciting! The World Wildlife Fund and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have annouced the discovery of the new animal pictured above, a clouded leopard found by a WWF member inside the Borneo rainforest, East of Malaysia. The clouded leopard of Borneo, discovered to be an entirely new species, is the latest in a growing list of animals and plants unique to the Southeast Asian country’s rainforest and underscores the need to preserve the area, conservationists said Thursday, March 15, 2007. (AP Photo/WWF, Alain Compost, HO) For fifty years the Clouded Leopard was regarded as a monotypic [...]
The Outer Edge
Just to answer a question about my first two books, The Unidentified and Creatures of the Outer Edge, with Jerome Clark, yes, they have been republished. And yes, they reflect our youthful theories, long thrown overboard. But the reports, sightings, and some connections still ring true, decades later. First appearing in 1975 and 1978, these two paperbacks were published in 2006, as a special double edition with a new introduction. The Unidentified and Creatures of the Outer Edge: The Early Works of Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman is a combined quality paperbound book from Anomalist Books. The Unidentified has intriguing, [...]
Cryptomundo’s Ultimate CZ FAQs
(Click on image to see full size version, enhanced by shockbeton) Fans, friends, and readers of Cryptomundo, I have an idea that it might be good to have a permanent “Cryptomundo’s Frequently Asked Questions” location attached to the Cryptomundo site. Perhaps it would be via a long blog of answers, or series of blogs. Maybe it would be a hyperlinked sidebar dedicated location. I see this as a gift in return to all those who have done so much to keep my blogging alive here. Let me see if this will work. The details will be ironed out. But the [...]
Tragedy in Bluffton
Sometimes the news does touch deeply, merging worlds of sorrow, cryptozoology, and baseball. My thoughts go out to the parents, the players, and the many people in Bluffton – a wonderful little village that hosted me, cryptozoologically, and was kind to me 30 years ago this spring. My heart truly is with Bluffton. Times are hard. To the baseball families, the survivors, and the hurt bodies and souls from that town in Ohio, how can we really understand what they are going through? I empathize with how close baseball families can get. I’ve always worked with my sons and coaches, [...]
Pussy or Puma?
Images of an Australian mystery puma or a domestic housecat? The following photographs were found to have been taken three years ago, and forgotten about, as far as being developed, until recently. They are “Copyright (c) R. McPherson 2007,” used with permission. The person taking them claims: “The photos show a large black cat as [big as?] a puma! about 35kg +, 70cm high, tail alone would be 70cm long and about 70mm diameter, body with out tail would be about 90/100cm long ; has the right colored eyes etc; They were taken in outback of Casterton forest towards Penola [...]
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 [...]
Hillbilly Cougars
Eric Drummond Smith, over at Hillbilly Savants, has done a great and fair job of rounding up several recent blogs and sites about the possible survival of eastern cougars. Hillbilly Cryptozoology: Cougars Some folks seem to think cougars are “back” in Appalachia, either having gradually migrated from the American West or down the chain from Canada or having survived in tiny insular populations in isolated hollows or on mountaintops. As for me, well, heck, I hope they’re back, but I’m not entirely convinced yet. Yet being the operative word. That said, a whole lot of people are damned and determined [...]
Berkshire Beast Blarney?
A copy (above) of an allegedly actual mountain lion (puma, cougar) track sold commercially by Acorn Products. As you may recall, in the recent posting entitled “Eastern Cougar Catfights”, I discussed the on-going battles between the older pro-eastern felid group, Eastern Puma Research Network (EPRN), and the newer more debunking Eastern Cougar Foundation (ECF). ECF member and mushroom expert Joseph Lankalis has “demanded” that I publish his contribution below, before it goes up on the eastern cougar page. To demonstrate how personal this feud has become, sure, I’ll post this. Lankalis’ argument may have some merit but the way he [...]
Eastern Cougar Mysteries
On display at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology: The verified casts (one shown above, the other below) of credible eastern cougar tracks found in Massachusetts in 1990. Naturalist Helen McGinnis’ of the Eastern Cougar Foundation, during January 2007, has raised some questions about the above during their “Project Hoax.” A Mystery Melanistic Felid captured on film in Florida turned out to be a black bobcat. Helen McGinnis, in the late 1970s, gathered evidence and privately published her findings in papers widely distributed to cryptozoologically-minded associates saying she thought upwards of 40% of the mystery cats in that state were melanistic. [...]
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