Pop Culture

Men in Cryptozoology: Daniel Perez

Daniel Perez holds a 14.5-inch cast of an alleged Bigfoot track from Bluff Creek in Northern California. May 31, 2008, is Daniel Perez’s 45th birthday. For over two decades, Perez has held a deep interest in Bigfoot, traveling far and wide, moderating conferences, and putting himself right in the middle of debates and personality conflicts. Daniel Perez is a people person. He is as well known for seeking in-depth personal information about the pursuers of hairy unknown hominodis as he is for gathering long-forgotten facts about Bigfoot. Perez is known to many as the “Jerry Springer” of Bigfootry for the [...]

Zoorama’s Host Dies

Bob Dale, San Diego TV legend and host of the famed animal program, “Zoorama,” died at 83, on Monday, May 26, 2008. He had been in declining health for some time, but his daughter, Linda, said he kept his wonderful spirit and wit right up to the end. People who grew up in southern California in the 1950s and 1960s, may remember Dale’s stylist bowtie and good humor. “Few people connect with an audience the way Bob did,” NBC 7/39 Vice President of News Greg Dawson said Wednesday. “As a television personality, he did it all. For those of us [...]

Mega Hog or Mega Hoax?

The new season of “MonsterQuest” airs on Wednesday night, May 28, 2008, with their lead-off program, “Mega Hog.” (Check your local listings.) Here is the program overview: “Do wild hogs in the United States grow to monstrous sizes? Many think so. In Georgia an 1100 pound hog was shot and killed, and in Texas beasts almost as large have been reported. But are these creatures raised and fattened up in a pen, or are they wild hogs, naturally more aggressive, that have somehow reached gigantic proportions? A MonsterQuest examination meets victims of vicious wild boar attacks, looks at the existing [...]

China’s Oldest Panda Dies

Giant pandas are one of the “classic animals of discovery” in cryptozoology. Taotao, at 36, China’s oldest captive panda and the enduring favorite of millions of visitors to Shandong Province’s Jinan Zoo, died Wednesday, May 22, 2008, following a battle against old age and illness, China News Service reported. Only a few weeks ago, it will be recalled, Tokyo’s popular giant panda, Ling-Ling, died of old age at the age of 22 years and seven months. Taotao died from brain thrombus disease and cerebral hemorrhaging at 36, far beyond the normal life expectancy of 25 years for a panda in [...]

Save The Porcula

Porcula salvania (“Pigmy Hog of the Saul Forests”), as shown in a hand-drawn lithograph by Joseph Smit for the Proceedings of the Zoological Society. Good-looking, sexy animals get all the media attention, and the unique may be ignored due to human favoritism generally going to the attractive animals. Who cries for the plight of the poor pigs? The pygmy hog (Porcula salvania) formerly was spread across India, Nepal, and Bhutan and now only is found in the wild in Assam. Today, the world population, not in captivity, totals a mere 150 or fewer. The species is more than a mere [...]