ALIENS!

If you are interested in alleged extraterrestrial species, here's a directory of them.

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FINDING BIGFOOT IN NEW JERSEY

The program Finding Bigfoot has been in Sussex County, New Jersey.

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WHITE ELEPHANT

White elephant

The term "white elephant" is frequently used, but a question that might be posed is whether such things exist.  The answer to this is both yes and no.

There are elephants which are termed white and these were an emblem of royalty in south-east Asia, in that kings sought them.  The present King of Thailand, Rama IX, has a number of them.  However, they are not actually white.  They are, in fact, of a pink or brown color.  As they are albinos, this has probably led to the term "white elephant" being applied to them. 

Pure white elephants occur in oriental mythology and religion.    The Hindu god Indra is said to ride one.  Buddha's mother is said to have dreamed of one before he was born.

The showman P.T. Barnum wished to exhibit a white elephant.  Finding they were in reality pink, he obtained a normal elephant and whitewashed it, no doubt fooling a gullible public.

ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 30...

1931: The New York Times reports: "Police at Mineola hunt ape-like animal — hairy creature, about four feet tall."

2012: Television premiere of Bigfoot on the SyFy channel.

ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 29...

1920: Future movie FX wizard Ray Harryhausen born in Los Angeles, California.

1930: Second sighting of the "Mineola Ape" on Long Island, New York.

GIANT SNAKES IN PENNSYLVANIA

Cryptids about which every herpetologist should know.


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FAIRIES AND BADGER HUNTERS

Eurasian badger

There is an Irish account of a group of hunters who went hunting badgers near Lisdoonvarna, but this was at a fairy fort.  They had brought a certain amount of drink with them, which they proceeded to imbibe.  They seem to have caught no badgers, but suddenly they noticed a throng of fairies making towards them.  They fled.  On arrival home, they were suffering from shock.  The incident, if true, is undated.

I notice with some sadness that they are contemplating culling badgers in England because farmers fear they spread bovine tuberculosis.  Is there no other way?  Is it strictly necessary?  In the county of Cornwall they did not have to resort to culling to deal with any such problems.  Why cannot they emulate Cornwall in other counties?  This does not mean I do not understand the devastating effects of this disease in a cattle herd for the farmer concerned.

Some vets have expressed reservations about the effectiveness of culling, while the Hereford Times pointed out earlier this month that the incidence of bovine TB was comparatively low at present.  Inoculation of badgers has been suggested as an alternative.

ENGLISH FAIRIES

A handy guide to the fairies of England.

Fairy on horseback

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IS THIS AN ENCOUNTER WITH BLACK-EYED KIDS

Is this an encounter with Black-Eyed Kids, mysterious children whose eyes seem to be totally black?  Over to Phantoms and Monsters.

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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 28...

1975: Rodman "Rod" Serling, creator and host of TV's classic outré anthology series The Twilight Zone, dies in Rochester, New York, two days after suffering a heart attack.

2007: Renowned science fiction author Sterling Edmund Lanier dies in Sarasota, Florida, at age 79.

THE MYSTERY OF WINNIE-THE-POOH

Pooh and Friends

What puzzled me about Pooh, the honey-eating teddy-bear who featured in the writings of the brilliant A.A. Milne, was how he came to be known as Winnie-the-Pooh.  Why Winnie?  Seems a bit effeminate for a bear, even one of very little brain.

Well, here's the answer.  There was an actual Pooh, the toy of Milne's son Christopher Robin.  This actual Pooh (photographed above) has taken up residence in the New York Public Library, along with other toys of Christopher Robin. When Christopher was young, there was a large Canadian bear in London Zoo called Winnipeg, for which Winnie was a short form.  Christopher, as a result, added this to the name of his teddy-bear.

This is the website at which Things Are Found Out.

ANGLERS BEWARE

A special piece for those who like fishing.

Flatworm

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WOMAN CLAIMS TO SEE ELVES

Iceland: a scene.

Ragnhildur Jónsdóttir, an Icelander, claims to be able to see elves.

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BIGFOOT ON FILM?

Is this a Bigfoot in Kentucky?

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NEW YORK: MYSTERY ANIMAL IDENTIFIED

An animal that has been causing cryptozoological speculation has at last been identified.

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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 27...

1931: First reported sighting of the "Mineola Ape," a simian cryptid reported prowling around Mineola, on New York's Long Island.

1966: Dark Shadows, the first supernatural soap opera, premieres on the ABC television network.

ARE THEY ALL MYTHICAL?

Over at Mystery Casebook they have an article on what they call "the world's scariest mythical monsters", but the question we must ask is, "Are they all mythical?"


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HOPE FOR THE PASSENGER PIGEON?

Passenger Pigeon

The Passenger Pigeon is usually thought to be extinct, though it is classed as a cryptid because there have been occasional reports suggesting there may still be a few about; but the TechTimes asks if it could be brought back by genetic engineering.



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IN VICTORIA - THE CLAWED CREATURE

Here's a cryptid account from the past - but not too far in the past - which occurred in Victoria, Argentina.  A woman emerged from her house one night to find a creature of humanoid type, perhaps a meter tall, showing an interest in her chickens.  The creature was colored black.  In fact, its blackness was emphasized, as though it were an intenser than usual shade of black, if you can have such a thing.  Its hands were clawed.  Its discoverer turned to call her husband.  When she turned back, the creature was gone.

This incident is supposed to have occurred in 2008.

WAS THIS MAN ON MARS?

Mars

A man calling himself Captain K, claiming to be or have been a US Marine, in an American TV interview asserts he was stationed on Mars for 17 years as part of a unit called the Earth Defense Force, which also included Russians and Chinese.  Their purpose was to guard the earth from aliens.  For this purpose, he tells us he underwnt training on the Moon, Titan and in deep space.

ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 26...

1904: Future horror/suspense film star Peter Lorre born László Löwenstein in Ružomberok, Slovakia (formerly Austria-Hungary).

MOORE RESERVOIR MYSTERY

Moore Reservoir

The Moore Resevoir of New Hampshire and Vermont is of comparatively recent construction (that means it was constructed in my lifetime).  It was brought into being by the damming of the Connecticut River in 1956.  It is now run by the TransCanada Corporation.  But it harbors a mystery.

In 1968 some anglers in a boat saw what they took to be a monster in its waters.  They saw two red spots which they identified as eyes and a complication behind, which they thought might be a body.  Later, many dead fish were found in the lake and some murmured they were victims of the monster.

There are, however, some problems with this account.  We must first ask ourselves how a monster could have arrived there.  Was it washed in from the Connecticut River?  Did it make its way overland from some other liquid domicile?  What was visibility like at the time of the sighting?  It seems to me to have been very poor.  Was it after nightfall?  One account of the sighting describes the creature as luminous.  Luminosity would not be so noticeable a feature by day, unless the face of the lake were enshrouded with mist.

While I do not for a moment call the statements of the witnesses into question, I wonder if what they saw was some kind of water craft, the "eyes" being lights.  In dark or foggy weather, the shape of a craft, particularly if it had a brace  of red lights to the fore, could easily have its outline mistaken for that of a monster.

It has also been suggested that what they saw was some kind of floating UFO or maybe the reflection of a UFO in the water.  Using one mysterious object to explain another is not, however, a form of investigation to be recommended.

Then there is the matter of the dead fish.  If the Monster killed them, why did he leave them uneaten?  Could some form of pollutant from the mysterious luminous craft, if such it was, have been the cause of their deaths?  

It may be, after all, that some monster does lurk in the reservoir.  Further investigation is to be encouraged.

MAN-BEAST OF SIBERIA

The Chuchunaa is the legendary man-beast of Siberia.  Is it a humanoid?  Does it exist?


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MONKEYS ON THE LOOSE IN VIRGINIA: ZACHARY MANN INVESTIGATES

Spider Monkey

The other day I was at work sitting in the lunch room when I happened to overhear a conversation two fellow employees were having. I know eavesdropping is wrong, but in all honesty they were talking so loudly it would be kind of hard not to hear what they were saying. Anyway, they seemed for some reason to be talking about Spider Monkeys. Spider monkeys, for those of you who don’t know, are the largest family of monkeys in the New World, native to both Central and South America. They also have more than one link to Cryptozoology.

Several people have claimed sightings of extremely large unknown kinds of Spider Monkey in the remote hills and rainforests of Central and South America and a giant species of Spider Monkey discovered in the past few decades that lived just a few thousand years ago does give some credit to the possibility that another large species of these monkies could still be out there.  The most (in) famous example of Spider Monkey meets Cryptozoology however, is the connection to De Loy’s Apes. De Loy’s Ape is a hotly debated subject in the world of Cryptozoology, some declaring it proof of a large unknown species of ape in South America, others proclaiming it to be a hoax.

Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I hear people talk about animals I tend to get really excited. After all it is one of my favorite subjects, so I asked my fellow co-workers what they were talking about. They said, they were talking about this lady in Virginia who claimed a bunch of monkeys where living in her back yard. Monkeys in Virginia? There are not supposed to be any such things here. Naturally I wanted to learn more. So after work, I searched the local news websites to see if I could find what they were talking about. I did.

Apparently in the County of the Isle of Wight, a local woman, Amanda Jones Williams and her teenage son had recently been noticing something very strange in their back yard. To their surprise the creatures looked just like large monkeys. Naturally seeing large monkeys or monkeys of any kind in Virginia is an unusual sight. After seeing the apes, her son, Terrence, looked on line to see if he could identify the animals, the ones that matched closest where South American Spider Monkeys. However, this was not the end of the story. A short time later Ms. Williams saw the monkeys again, but this time she allegedly got them on tape.

The home movie is admittedly very low quality, however it does show something rather strange. The creature in the tree, while you are unable to make it out clearly, is definitely monkey shaped. Having seen numerous spider monkeys in books and up close at zoos, I think I can safely say they do indeed look like spider monkeys. Terrence says that they were in the trees eating plums and making a huge racket. Once the monkey spotted him it jumped down and ran away from them. It was soon followed by two more monkeys, one of which that was significantly smaller than the other. Animal control has since come out and set traps, but they have caught nothing. The family has not seen the monkeys since the day they took the video, but they insist they still here their calls on a regular biases.

This isn’t the first time Virginia has had some monkey business going on. In the Appalachian Mountains there have been for decades reports of large monkey or baboon like creatures in the back woods. They are described as large, powerful, and quiet aggressive towards people, property, and livestock.  Because of this fearsome reputation these creatures have collectively earned the title of Devil Monkeys. And Virginia is not alone. All across the South we get reports of such creatures. And while they are certainly ape-like they are far from looking and behaving like the typical Sasquatch type creature.

Now the most likely explanation, is that these animals are exotic escapees from a zoo, research facility or someone’s private collection. What is was most surprising was the immediate reaction by some people online to try and dismiss the whole thing as misidentification. Misidentification of what? What else native to Virginia looks like a monkey?  I could see if the video captured the animal on the ground moving, but it is clearly up in the trees. I ask again what normal native Virginian animal looks and acts like a monkey in a tree?

This does hark back to my discussion a few months ago, about how people tend to make what they want to make out of videos and sightings. Nowhere did any one suggest that these “monkeys” seen recently were unknown creatures, yet an immediate reaction was to label them a misidentification, when the much more simple explanation is a neglectful owner’s pets are on the lose. The traps are still in place, so hopefully whatever is out there will be caught soon. And if they truly are lost monkeys, here is hoping they go to a proper facility to spend out their days as opposed to going back to small suburban home where they will likely spend much of their remaining lives in what basically amounts to a closet.

ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 25...

1973: While parked at night beside the Big Muddy River, near Murphysboro, Illinois, young lovers Randy Needham and Judy Johnson see a white-haired, seven-foot biped partially covered with mud. They flee as it approaches their car.

SLENDERMAN ORIGIN OF MYTH

How did belief in this bizarre entity originate?

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MASS EXTINCTION

The possibility of Mass Extinction of species is on the horizon.



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WONDERLAND - THE SYNDROME

Ever heard of Alice-in-Wonderland Syndrome?  Perhaps you have had it!

Alice

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ARE MOSASAURS BREEDING OFF NEW ZEALAND?

Have mosasaurs been breeding in antipodal waters?

Mosasaur skull

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WHAT IS THIS BLOB?

Back in 2012 a drilling operation produced footage of a strange and large blob in the waters of the UK.

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FORTEAN OPERA

From Andrew May's blogspot we have an article on operatic Forteana.


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POSSIBLE BIGFOOT SIGHTING BY DRIVERS

Is this Bigfoot in Sundance, Utah?

Bigfoot

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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 24...

1969: German-American science writer Willy Ley, author of such quasi-cryptozoological classics as The Lungfish, the Dodo, & the Unicorn (1948), Dragons in Amber (1951), Salamanders and other Wonders (1955), Willy Ley's Exotic Zoology (1959), dies in Queens, New York, at age 62.

DID HOMO ERECTUS REACH AMERICA?

Austin Whittall discusses the matter.

Homo erectus

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POPULATION OF WOLVES DISCOVERED

The BBC informs us that a new population of Gray Wolves has been found in Canada.

Gray Wolf

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BIGFOOT ON CAMERA?

Craig Woolheater

Craig Woolheater (pictured above) reports on Cryptomundo regarding a possible trail camera shooting of Bigfoot.

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TWO UFO SIGHTINGS

UFO sightings over Corsica and Texas.

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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 23...

1950: Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501, carrying 58 passengers and crew, meets disaster in the so-called "Great Lakes Triangle," while en route from New York City to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The DC-4 aircraft's last radio transmission places it at an altitude of 3,500 feet over Battle Creek, Michigan, preparing to change course due to bad weather around Chicago. Later, scattered light debris and human body parts were found afloat in Lake Michigan, but searchers never find the airplane's wreckage.

MAN-BEAST REPORTED FROM SOUTH DAKOTA

(Picture courtesy Lon Strickler)

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WHERE DO BEARS COME FROM?

Bear

The Cherokee have an interesting legend on the subject.


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OUTSTANDING CRYPTOZOOLOGY BOOK

Monsters of Patagonia

I have at last obtained a copy of this book which has lived up to my expectations in every way.  I feel this is likely to be regarded as a cryptozoology classic.  Published in Argentina, it may be ordered from Amazon.com  In the UK I think it is stocked by the Natural History Bookshop in Devon.

UFO: LATIN AMERICAN REPORTS

UFO reports from Mexico and Chile.

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SANIBEL ISLAND MONSTER

Film taken of alleged monster off Sanibel Island (Florida)

[Not the same Monster]

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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 22...

1925: Theatrical premiere of The Lost World, first of many film adaptations of the famous novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Stop-motion FX genius Willis O'Brien animates the prehistoric creatures.

2008: Controversial cryptozoologist Jon-Erik Beckjord dies from prostate cancer in Lafayette, California, at age 69.

DOES MEGALANIA SURVIVE IN AUSTRALIA?

Megalania was a huge monitor lizard found in Australia in prehistoric times.  Is there any evidence that this terrifying species still exists today?

Skeleton of Megalania

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GONE FOREVER

The CFZ is always interested in the conservation of wildlife, which is why we draw readers' attention to species some of which humanity has allowed to become extinct.

Great Auks

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HUMANOID REPORTS FROM MALAYSIA

Long article by Ahmad Jamaludin.

Map of Malaysia

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BIGFOOT ENCOUNTER

Encounter narrated in Finding Bigfoot.

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BIGFOOT AND CANDY

Is this thermal imaging of Bigfoot stealing a candy bar?

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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD

On This Day in Weird, June 21...

1964: At the onset of Mississippi's "freedom summer," Ku Klux Klan members kidnap and murder civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. An informer leads FBI agents to their bodies in August. Trial of the killers is delayed until 1967, when white jurors deliver a mixed verdict. Justice for the lynch party's ringleader—Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen—is delayed until his conviction in 2005. Not Fortean or cryptozoological, but further proof of real-life human monsters among us.

HUMAN DNA IN SASQUATCH?

Do sasquatch have human DNA?

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MYSTERIOUS HANDS COME UNDER DOOR

What were these mysterious monkey-like hands.  To 
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(Picture courtesy of Lon Strickler)

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