Review: Top CZ Stories of 2006

With the holidays, some people missed these… The Top Ten Cryptozoology Stories of 2006 by Loren Coleman, Cryptozoology A to Z 1. Darlings of Cryptozoology Videotaped: Coelacanth and Giant Squid 2. Lost Worlds Revealed 3. New European Mammal and Others Discovered 4. Discoveries Debated: Ivory-billed Woodpecker and Kouprey 5. Africa Explored: Mokele-mbembe Quest, Gambia Expedition, and SEALs’ Secret Mission 6. Lake Monsters Photographed: Champ and Nahuelito 7. Canid Capered: Maine Mutant, Montana Creature, and Nebraska Cryptid 8. Cryptids Televised: Mothman, Monsters, and More 9. Thylacine Remembered: Steve Irwin’s Search, New Photo, and National Thylacine Day 10. Cryptozoology and Art Exhibited: [...]

Flatwoods-Mothman Toys As Art

Click on the above photograph for a larger image. For a good review of David Horvath’s stylized Flatwoods and Mothman figurines, please see here.

Honshu Wolf Survival?

The world’s smallest variety of wolf, the Japanese wolf, also called the Honshu Wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax), supposedly became extinct in 1905 in Nara prefecture. But did some survive beyond that date? And was there physical proof of this, in 1910 in Fukui prefecture? Sightings of the Japanese wolf persist to the present. A new debate is occurring currently in Japan that the extinction date may have been incorrect, almost immediately. Intriguingly, finding a taxidermy example of the Honshu Wolf presently is quite difficult. Only five mounted specimens are known worldwide, three in Japan, one in the Netherlands (which is [...]

Mothman, Garuda and Indonesian Air Crash

When discussing the strange episodes of interactions between humans and that winged weirdie seen in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966-1967, John A. Keel didn’t carry around in his head the psychological icon of Mothman, which, of course, didn’t exist yet. No, his concept of what was the source of the foreboding and tragedy was much more ancient. A detail often forgotten is that John A. Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies was initially to be entitled The Year of the Garuda. The title Keel wanted was his way to connect the ancient Indian legends of the Garuda, an unknown flying cryptid, [...]

Bird Extinct 139 Years Rediscovered

This old public domain painting is of Acrocephalus palustris, a species related to Acrocephalus orinus just rediscovered. A bird presumed to have been extinct for well over 100 years has been rediscovered in a pristine coastal wetland in Petchaburi, on the Gulf of Thailand. The large-billed reed warbler (Acrocephalus orinus) had not been seen since 1867, when a single bird of the species was reported in the northwest of India. – Bangkok Post, March 7, 2007. We collected two feathers from the bird for DNA tests and the result showed that it perfectly matched the DNA of the 139-year-old specimen [...]