How often are large unknown birds seen and quickly explained away? Quite frequently, if a quick survey of newspapers are any indication this week. In Gary Bogue’s June 9, 2006, column on animals in the Contra Costa Times of the East Bay area near San Francisco, California, he publishes an item on a new big bird sighting. I corresponded with Bogue over 30 years ago, as I mention in Mysterious America, regarding the melanistic felid (Black Panther) accounts coming his way. It is obvious Bogue has become and been serving as the local man-to-go-to with any reports of strange animals. [...]
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 [...]
Chinese What-Is-It
There is a May 30, 2006, news item that is one of those tidbits that have you scratching your head. It is running in the China Daily under the headline "Bizarre Creature Puzzles Thousands." The entire article (note: it sometimes becomes a deadlink, having mysteriously vanished 12 hours after it was first published) reads: Thousands of residents of Tianmen, Hubei Province, have flocked to see a rare turtle-like creature caught by an elderly man in a nearby reservoir. Some think that the animal, weighing in at 8.3 kilograms, looks like an alligator. It has three rows of horns on its [...]
Publisher Speeds Killer ‘Gators
There’s an interesting little note in Publishers Weekly this morning. In an item entitled “Forget Later, Alligator—Let’s Publish Now” by Lynn Andriani, we already can see the reaction to the gator attacks we discussed earlier, here and here. Cryptomundo addressed why such news is of interest, also in this link. Andriani writes: Publishers often speed up books’ publication dates if relevant news events—earthquakes, blackouts, mining accidents—take place. Now they can add alligator attacks to the list. Lyons Press, which planned on releasing Killer ’Gators and Crocs: Gruesome Encounters from Across the Globe by Michael Garlock in November, has moved the [...]
Florida Gators Kill Two More
The Associated Press is reporting on May 14, 2006, that the "bodies of two women, both apparently killed by alligators, were found Sunday less than a week after a similar death in a state that had seen just 17 confirmed fatal attacks by the animals in the previous 57 years." The cases specifically are: (1) A 23-year-old woman staying at a secluded cabin near Lake George was attacked while snorkling at a lakeside recreation area, said Marion County Fire-Rescue Captain Joe Amigliore. The lake is about 50 miles southeast of Gainesville. and (2) In Pinellas County, the death of [a [...]
Monsters & Mom’s Day
Here’s a quick roundup of stories surfacing today, Sunday, May 14, 2006, on America’s Mother’s Day. Perhaps someone will get an idea for a quick fieldtrip to Mormon country, Malaysia, or Massachusetts, out of this gathering? But stay away from Memphis! Part three of D. Robert Carter’s series on the Bear Lake Monsters and kin is in today’s Provo Daily Herald, “Fishermen find Utah Lake Monster.” Here for you are the links to the two earlier parts: “Why Bear Lake Again?” and “Meandrous Monster Migrates to Utah Lake.” On May 14, 2006, The New Straits Times published another article, “Johor [...]
Why Cryptozoology Is Interested In Alligator Sightings
Okay, I started hearing about this a couple days ago, and it now seems to be taking on cryptic or even cryptid status. Folks in Tennessee are having “Alligator Sightings Outside Memphis,” according to the Chicago Tribune: Alligators aren’t suppose to be this far north. Nevertheless, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has gotten reports of alligator sightings on McKellar Lake, a backwater of the Mississippi just south of Memphis, and at T.O. Fuller State Park, north of the city. Up to five alligators may have been seen, including one said to be close to 7 feet long that was reportedly [...]
Maine Gators
Earlier this week, Cryptomundo made mention of crocs in Maine’s fictional Lake Placid, and now there’s been an actual report of an alligator found in the state. Thank goodness the Cryptomundo blog was just a coincidence. The coastal Village Soup online news source noted that on Saturday, April 22, 2006: Maine Game Warden Neal Wykes received an emergency call from Judy Walker, an employee at Maine Audubon. “A three-foot alligator had been found in a farm pond on Maine Audubon property in Falmouth,” she told Wykes. Wykes rushed to this unusual call, possibly wondering if it was a hoax. “When [...]
More Monster Movies
According to Fangoria, coming soon in 2007 to the SciFi Channel, these movies will screen: Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon, an American World Pictures from a script by Rafael Jordan, and Lake Placid II, more about giant crocs in Maine, from Sony Pictures. Both sound enjoyable. Please, bring back more drive-ins. By the way, Lake Placid from 1999 was set in Maine, but filmed in North Carolina. We do have lakes, trees, monsters, and really not that much snow in Maine, especially from June to August. Actors actually like our state. So do writers. Hollywood, how about shooting in [...]
Andrews AFB’s Two Mystery Cats
I must say, we didn’t have to wait long for some interesting new Mystery Cat reports, did we? On Thursday, April 27, 2006, FoxNews began reporting that two “wild cats” have been spotted at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland (home to Air Force One), according to media watchdog Bufo Calvin. One of the “wild cats” was later reported to be brown, and the other one, black, according to the media. Calvin mentioned that this was “somewhat reminiscent of a search on a military base that happened in my area (the Mt. Diablo region of the San Francisco East Bay) [...]
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