Cryptozoology

“Hunting Monsters” – A Lecture Reviewed

On the late afternoon of October 4, I drove from my Arlington, Texas home to nearby Bedford, to see good mate Lyle Blackburn give a new lecture at the local library. The title of the lecture: Hunting Monsters: On the Trail of Famous Cryptids. Lyle is the author of a number of excellent books, including Lizard Man, The Beast of Boggy Creek and Beyond Boggy Creek. Around 100 people turned up for a great presentation that lasted for approximately two hours and with time left for questions. Rather than focus on just one strange creature, Lyle – who also fronts the band Ghoultown – treated the audience to his personal research into a wealth of strange creatures, including Bigfoot, the aforementioned Lizard Man, the Chupacabra, and the Dogman.

As Lyle told the audience, it was when he was a kid that he got interested in the world of monsters. It was specifically the 1972 movie, The Legend of Boggy Creek – a low budget, but highly atmospheric saga of a Bigfoot roaming around Fouke, Arkansas – that caught Lyle’s attention and prompted him to seek out the truth for himself. I didn’t see the movie myself until I was well into my teens, but I can easily see how it would have had a deep impact on a young kid. Lyle made it clear to the audience that there are no experts in the field of Cryptozoology, primarily because we don’t have proof of the strange things that are said to lurk in the woods, forests, mountains and lakes of our world. So far, we are collectors of data. Indeed, Lyle specifically referred to Cryptozoology as a “pseudo science,” which is correct. Certainly, for the most part, Cryptozoology is not seen as a recognized science. Of course, should Lyle solve the riddle of Bigfoot (as one example) then that will likely change things very quickly!

Lyle spent time addressing the nature of Bigfoot. Is it an unknown ape? Maybe not. Lyle spoke of hunters who had a Bigfoot in their sights, but who held back from shooting the creatures for one, specific reason: they weren’t entirely sure that what they were seeing were animals. Maybe they were something else: perhaps even a relic, human species. On the matter of why we don’t have a corpse of a Bigfoot, Lyle suggested that their numbers may be very low at the best of times, something which might account for their elusiveness. He also made the good point that we rarely see dead bears in the woods. The reason? Nature has a way of taking care of things. Other animals will soon devour the remains of something dead in their midst. And that might very well apply to a deceased Bigfoot too.

Lyle then moved onto the Yeti. I found it very interesting that when Lyle asked the audience how many of them thought the man-beast of the Himalayas had white hair (or fur), quite a few raised their hands. As Lyle accurately noted, this is actually due to the influence of Hollywood and blockbuster movies – and nothing else. The Yeti is, in fact, described as being brown or black in color. I thought this angle – of Hollywood influencing views, assumptions and memories on Cryptids – was particularly intriguing. After a brief section on Nessie, Lyle tackled the matter of the Chupacabra. He gave an excellent overview on how the saga of the Chupacabra has become hugely complicated. As Lyle correctly noted, what passes for the Chupacabra in the United States today – a hairless coyote with a few very strange mutations and physical oddities – has zero to do with the original Chupacabra that surfaced in Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s.

Moving onto the weirder side of Cryptozoology, Lyle took on the Lizard Man – a strange, Creature of the Black Lagoon-type beast that surfaced in Bishopville, South Carolina in 1988. Lyle gave a great rundown of the Lizard Man saga, and how his personal investigation of the affair led to the surfacing of a wealth of fascinating material. A word to armchair-based skeptics: if you want to find the answers to the likes of Bigfoot, lake-monsters, etc., you really need to do what Lyle does. Namely, he goes out looking for them. Also on the matter of the stranger side of Cryptozoology, Lyle turned his attentions to the Dogman, a werewolf-like beast that has been the subject of a number of books by Linda Godfrey. While Lyle doesn’t go with the supernatural angle of the Dogman issue, he did speculate that at least some cases might be mistaken identity – of Bigfoot. In other words, one monster being wrongly interpreted as another.

As the lecture came to its end, Lyle demonstrated how Cryptozoology – which began strictly as the study of unknown animals – has changed over the years and decades. A perfect example is that of the Thylacine. As Lyle told the audience, there’s actually nothing mysterious or unknown about the strange-looking marsupial, which is believed to have become extinct back in the 1930s. What makes the story of the Thylacine so intriguing, said Lyle, is the fact that people claim to have seen such animals in modern times, and particularly so in Tasmania. It may still be around, although largely in stealth. Forty or fifty years ago, Cryptozoologists might not have looked at the matter of the Thylacine, but today things very different. Times – and Cryptozoology – have definitely changed. Extinct animals are now a part of Cryptozoology. Or, rather, ones that are supposed to be extinct!

In closing, I’ll say that Lyle gave an excellent overview of Cryptozoology that was perfect for both long-term monster-hunters and for those new to the field and who may be wondering what it’s all about.

SOURCE:

Mysterious Universe

Cryptozoology

It Turns Out the Yeti Is Probably Just a Rare Bear

The word “yeti” conjures up a specific image in the folklore of Nepal and Tibet — a massive, shaggy, distinctly ape-like beast that wanders the frigid and desolate Himalayan snowscape. It certainly doesn’t evoke anything that looks like it’s about to impart wisdom about stopping forest fires.

But, according to a recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the latter description may be more accurate. Scientists have tested the DNA of purported Yeti remains and confirmed that yetis do exist — they’re just bears.

Researchers analyzed DNA from nine different samples, all collected in the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau and supposedly from yetis. It was a macabre, mixed bag of parts — some hair, some bone, a bit of feces, and even some teeth. They also included fifteen other samples from various Asian bears, since a smaller study from a few years ago suggested that the yeti may be a rogue, polar-brown bear hybrid.

A femur bone from the decayed body of a purported Yeti found in a cave in Tibet. DNA testing identified it as a Tibetan brown bear bone. Image: Icon Films Ltd.

Every sample matched a known animal. No mysterious, unplaceable DNA. With the exception of the tooth, which was from a dog, all of the so-called Yeti samples were from bears. One came from an Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus), and the others came from two rare, local species — Tibetan and Himalayan brown bears.

The new, detailed DNA evidence provides a real-world, biological origin for the Yeti, suggesting that local bears may have been the inspiration for stories of the terrifying creature. And while the DNA analysis doesn’t reveal anything “abominable,” the study does provide some coveted data on an understudied and critically-endangered group of brown bears.

Himalayan brown bear from Deosai National Park, Pakistan. Image: Abdullah Khan, Snow Leopard Foundation

Brown bears (Ursus arctos) range broadly across northern Eurasia and North America, and can be broken up into many distinct subspecies, each with minor physical and genetic differences. The two subspecies that turned up in the genetic analysis are quite rare, suffering from overhunting.

By comparing the bear DNA, the scientists determined that the Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus) is a strange and old branch in the brown bear family tree, splitting off from all other brown bears about 650,000 years ago. Even though the Tibetan brown bear (Ursus arctos pruinosus) is a close neighbor, it’s far more closely related to other brown bears.

Looking at the Himalayan population, it’s easy to see how this weird and ancient brown bear offshoot could inspire the yeti’s mythology. It has a paler, sandier coat than most subspecies. Many Himalayan bears have a light mask of fur on the face that can make their faces appear shorter and more ape-like. Combine these features with the fact that the Himalayan bear is the largest animal in the mountains, and that their own extreme rarity matches the infrequency of contemporary yeti sightings, the animal seems like a solid candidate.

Genetic tools similar to those used in this debunking can easily be employed to test the remains of other purportedly undiscovered species. So, hear that, Sasquatch and Nessie? Your secret identities’ days may be numbered.

Source: roaring.earth

Cryptozoology

New sightings of Ogopogo – Canada’s Loch Ness Monster

Parafiles Network

Check out this new footage of Canada’s legendary lake monster Ogopogo.

We’ll break down the video and see other clips of this mythical beast.

Cryptozoology

Has The Mythical Creature Called ” The Patasola ” Been Filmed

This footage was posted to the channel Cat Burglar Nami but the location of the footage is unknown as yet.

The being in the footage bears a resemblance to the South American creature Called La Patasola, in folklore it’s a female monsters from the jungle, appearing to male hunters or loggers in the middle of the wilderness when they think about women.

The Patasola appears in the form of a beautiful and seductive woman, often in the likeness of a loved one, who lures a man away from his companions deep into the jungle. There, the Patasola reveals her true, hideous appearance as a one-legged creature with ferocious vampire-like lust for human flesh and blood, attacking and devouring the flesh or sucking the blood of her victims.