Some remarkable (yes, I do use that word) discoveries have flooded ye ole email in-boxes at Cryptomundo lately. The incoming announcements have been arriving so fast and furiously, I thought I would do a holiday weekend overview of several, to play catch up.

First, let’s begin with the smallest. Bernard Heuvelmans once defined cryptozoology as dealing with any animal that was big enough to be have an impact on humans. Most people have correctly viewed this as meaning the cryptid must be "ethnoknown," and has to be, generally, in the range of the size of a domestic cat or larger. However, a recent story from the United Kingdom suggests that if you are casually sitting in your favorite chair and a huge beetle walks across your living room floor, you might wish to pay attention.

Late in June, in Wales, a furniture restorer found a 2.6 inches long bug, with two antennae up to 4 inches long, in his shop. It turned out to be an extremely rare Capricorn beetle, apparently extinct in the U.K. since the 1700s.

Next, we should, at least note the saga of Bruno. In late May, when Bruno first wandered across the Italian and Austrian Alps into Germany, the media, officials and locals were excited by the first wild brown bear to be seen in the region for 170 years. But then the bear killed 30 sheep, several chickens, caged rabbits, and beehived bees. Enough was enough, so we are told, and late in June, Bruno was tracked down by five elkhounds, GPS instruments, and dispatched by four Finnish hunters. Bruno, it must be revealed if you examine the stories closely, was a bear that had been introduced into the Italian Alps, some time ago. There was nothing cryptozoological, at all, about Bruno.

Much more cryptozoological is the news of the rediscovery of a quail believed to have been extinct for nearly 80 years and now seen again by a prominent ornithologist in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam. The Manipur Bush-Quail was seen earlier in June 2006, by Anwaruddin Choudhury, a wildlife specialist. The rediscovery was being hailed as good news.

"Now I hope other ‘extinct birds’ may re-appear, such as the Himalayan Quail – thought to be extinct for 125 years – and the Pink Headed Duck which also had not been seen for a long time," the Wildlife Trust of India’s conservation director, Rahul Kaul, told the BBC.

Meanwhile in other bird news, the rare Pied-billed Grebe has been discovered to be breeding in New York State’s Stewart State Forest. According to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation they are claiming this is a threatened species discovered. "We are very excited about this bird and its nest. I have been looking for breeding evidence for at least four years," said a spokesperson for the department.

On an entirely different level of significance, it was announced on June 29, that a WWF expedition into the newly created Juruena National Park deep in the Amazon forest has found several potentially new species to science, including the pictured unidenitified (as yet) new tree frog species.

Altogether, the scientists found two new frogs, new fish and bird species, one new tree species and one new primate.

According to the WWF news, experts on the expedition came across 200 species of birds, ocelots, and a pink dolphin.

"Finding a pink dolphin was a complete surprise since we didn’t imagine that this animal lived in the area," said Claudio Maretti, WWF-Brazil’s Coordinator for Protected Areas.

The Amazon river dolphin, one of the world’s three freshwater dolphins, is widely distributed throughout much of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. Its habitat, however, is threatened by river development projects, and is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Sticking to the water theme, a new species of wobbegong shark has been found off the coast of southwestern Australia. The shark has just been described as Orectolobus hutchinsi in the latest issue of the systematics journal Zootaxa. Another new shark is pictured here:

Then in June, came word that a new species of hammerhead shark has been discovered in the north-western Atlantic off the coast of South Carolina.

Finally, in the realm of the wonders of the animal world being right near home, two weeks ago here in Portland, Maine, two moose (elk in Europe) decided on the same day to come down to the city’s Back Cove (next to Baxter Blvd) and take a dip. It only goes to show one that the wilderness, sometimes, does appear to be right outside the door.

Thanks to some of the above sent in by Cryptomundo Informant Chris Rehberg.