The goverment of Ukraine intends to introduce a threatened species, the European bison or wisent (Bison bonasus), into the exclusion zone around the stricken Chernobyl nuclear reactor. The plan is to create a nature reserve where the bison can thrive in the absence of humans. The minister in charge of Chernobyl, Volodomir Shandra, says there are clean areas within the 30-kilometre radius where the pilot scheme could work. The wisent is the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe, a relic of the Pleistocene megafauna of Eurasia. A forest dwelling species, wisent were first scientifically described by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758. [...]
Martian Yeti?
In honor of ice being discovered on Mars, Henry Stokes has posted about the closest Martian equivalent to the Yeti he could find over at “I Love The Yeti.” And there are even replicas. For more, see Henry’s posting here.
Sasquatch Statue Stolen
A theft at a convenience store in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, has an entire town on edge, but the bad guy didn’t get away with money. Nicole Hosack, owner of Niki’s Quick Six store in Spring Church, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, says someone made off with the store’s mascot of sorts – a three foot tall wooden Sasquatch. “They walked over to [the] Sasquatch while my employee was paying attention to wrapping up food. And they put [their] coat over it and walked out the door,” Hosack said. The statue was a Christmas present for the owner’s husband and it became a [...]
LEGO Bigfoot and Yeti
Joel Johnson (the Boing Boing correspondent who toured and filmed my museum) has alerted me to the mention and actual work of Mike Stimpson, involving LEGO photography and various classic photographs that Stimpson has recreated. One of the greatest new images that Stimpson uploaded this week is an amazing Lego recreation of that famed frame from the Patterson-Gimlin footage. You know which one I’m talking about. It is “Frame 352″ from the film, showing the apparent female Bigfoot, today nicknamed “Patty.” Stimpson’s intriguing recreation… …was based on this: Of course, who could have ever known? Discovering Stimpson’s Lego recreation of [...]
What Did A Dodo Look Like?
Besides my recent Cryptomundo postings on the dodo and the moa-nalo, I have written other past entries here, which have reviewed the following often cryptic flightless bird species: elephant bird, more dodo, terror birds, more terror birds, moa, more moa, and takahē. In line with a question during an earlier discussion about how might have the dodo really appeared, the famed artist and Hollywood special effects man Bill Munn, well-known for his reconstruction of Gigantopithecus (below), contacted me. Munns wrote: “I have done scientific reconstructions of the Dodo (of how they may have looked) with all coloration based on actual [...]
Moa-Nalo Superducks
Artist’s conception of the moa-nalo examples, Thambetochen chauliodous, and Ptaiochen pau. Image by Stanton F. Fink. Since the dodo was visited here yesterday, our island-hopping journey might as well continue with a view of the Hawaiian flightless birds, the moa-nalo. Moa-nalo are a group of extinct aberrant, goose-like ducks that formerly lived on the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific. They were the major herbivores on most of these islands for the last 3 million years or so, until they became extinct after human settlement. (Yes, the storyline sounds familiar.) The moa-nalo (the name literally means “lost fowl”; an “s” is [...]
New Dodos
The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, and went extinct several centuries ago, we are told. But there remains some controversy surrounding the extinction date of the dodo. In Nature 426, 245 (20 November 2003), David L. Roberts and Andrew R. Solow write in their paper, “Flightless birds: When did the dodo become extinct?” that “the extinction of the Dodo is commonly dated to the last confirmed sighting in 1662, reported by shipwrecked mariner Volkert Evertsz” (Evertszoon). Other sources, however, suggest the date is 1681. Roberts & Solow point out that [...]
Seljord Serpent Filmed: Blobdracontology?
Selma, the so-called “Sea Serpent” that lives in Lake Seljord (Seljordsvatnet) obviously would have to be a Lake Monster, akin to the Loch Ness Monster. The location is near the inland town of Seljord, a municipality in the county of Telemark, Norway. The town’s coat-of-arms was created in 1989, and shows the “sea serpent Selma.” According to most who have seen the supposed watery cryptid, Selma resembles a giant eel. The first eyewitness accounts date back to the 18th century. This is video of the “Seljord Serpent” or Selma, which was taken at Lake Seljord, Norway, by Adam Davies and [...]
Monster Quest II
It is Tuesday, May 27, 2008, and the History Channel, on behalf of “Monster Quest II,” is here in Portland, Maine, with a film producer and crew today to digitally film interviews with me about cryptozoology, in the context of a five hour tour of the International Cryptozoology Museum. Their snippets of the interviews, b-roll, and various background commentary on artifacts at the ICM will be used as web-linked support for Season Two of “Monster Quest,” which premieres tomorrow, Wednesday, May 28, 2008. Here are two trailers about the new season. Enjoy: MonsterQuest : Mutant Canines Airs on Wednesday May [...]
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 [...]
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