Thylacine: World’s Rarest Animal?

New Sightings, New Expeditions This January 2006, the most recent sighting of a Thylacine occurred. The Standard recorded probably what was the first cryptid sighting of 2006, that took place on January 2: “A Tasmanian tiger or thylacine ran across a road north of Colac about 12.50am…according to Warrion man Steven Bennett….The 24-year-old said the animal’s stripes, tail and hind legs convinced him it was not a dog, feral cat or fox.” So the Thylacine sightings continue. In a new article examining “The Thylacine Debate – Is the Tasmanian Tiger Really Extinct?” by Chani Blue, in Australia’s Epoch Times for [...]

Fortean Times #208: Monster Hunters

Fortean Times, Number 208, published in London, UK, goes on sale, from 10 March 2006. Here’s a notice of what it contains this time around: Cryptozoology 2006 From Orang-Pendek to Ninki-Nanka, the Yowie to the Lake Maggiore mystery, we bring you a 22 page special on the latest findings from the monster hunters. Karl Shuker rounds up a year in cryptozoology In search of the Orang-Pendek in the Sumatran forests with Richard Freeman Gambian belief in the Ninki-Nanka The Yowie of Australia’s Blue Mountains Italy’s Lake Maggiore monster David Attenborough’s 1975 crypto-classic kids series Fabulous Animals

Cryptids, Kha-Nyou, and the Lazarus Effect

We’ve met this critter before. The Laotian Rock Rat (Laonastes aenigmamus) was #10 on the Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2005. The discovery of Laonastes aenigmamus, which literally means "a stone-dwelling puzzle-mouse," occurred when an alert member of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society spotted the rodent on sale for cooking meat at a Laotian food market. Of course, the local people were already familiar with the animal. They call it kha-nyou. But now, comes news from Science that the kha-nyou are not merely a new animal but one that represents an ancient family, the extinct Distomydae, a family of rodents [...]