Cryptozoology & Strange Nature – Page 15

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Steve Busti — 5 Comments

LONG LOST THUNDERBIRD PHOTO FINALLY FOUND?

For years, people have been searching for the fabled “lost Thunderbird photo” in vain… a mysterious photograph showing what appeared to be a gigantic bird or flying reptile nailed to the side of a barn.

The really strange thing is, hundreds of people can recall seeing the image either in a book, magazine, or a newspaper… but nobody has ever been able to produce the photograph. It’s almost as if it never really existed (If you’re not familiar with the subject of the Thunderbird photo, you can read up on the story here; it’s a fascinating mystery that continues to drive people bonkers)!

But perhaps the mystery is one step closer to being solved. This morning Loren Coleman of Cryptomundo.com brought this photo to the world’s attention:

So what is the origin of this photograph of some kind of giant flying reptile (not a “Thunderbird”) with humans?

The appearances are here and here, but they give no info on the actual source.

Source: http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/tbird-pic/

Actually, this is just the latest entry in the running for the “lost Thunderbird photo.” There have been other Thunderbird photos that have cropped up on the internet in the past, all of which have been proven as a hoax. Here are a few of them.

So the question is, where did this new photo originate? Is it from some forgotten book? Another hoax? Or… could this actually be the long lost Thunderbird photo so many people recall having seen?

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Guest Blogger

SIBERIAN LIVESTOCK DRAINED OF BLOOD BY VAMPIRE?

Between this current and past reports, there has got to be a vampire-like creature we’re missing out there somewhere.

The Moscow News writes:

A blood-sucking creature is preying upon goats near Novosibirsk. As rational explanations run thin on the ground, the specter of the so-called chupacabra raises its demon head.

Horrified farmers and smallholders are confronted by the drained corpses of their livestock in the morning, bloodless and bearing puncture marks to the neck but otherwise largely in tact.

But local cops are reluctant to record apparent vampire attacks, as they await official recertification, leaving the locals up in arms.

PLANET OF THE APES IS A REAL POSSIBILITY!

I already feel like this life we’re in is a giant movie anyways, this is just further proof we need to stop everything, chill out and relax.

Dailymail.co.uk writes:

It sounds like something from a Hollywood science fiction film: a race that is half human, half ape.

But leading scientists are today demanding tough new rules to prevent the nightmare scenario becoming a reality.

In a hard-hitting report, they warn that research is close to pushing ‘ethical boundaries’ and that extreme attempts to give laboratory animals human attributes must be banned.

Professor Martin Bobrow, a medical geneticist at Cambridge University and co-author of the report, said society needed to set rules before scientists began experiments that the public would find unacceptable.

He added: ‘We are trying to get this out in the open before anything has happened.’

MALNOURISHED MONKEY MISTAKEN FOR ALIEN!

What would you do if this thing was stealing your fruit?

Dailymail.co.uk writes:

This ape made a monkey of Chinese villagers who feared it was a visitor from another world.

Locals panicked when Mao Xiping, a housewife from the village of Gezhai, in Henan province, central China, found the scraggy simian stealing cucumbers from her flat.

She thought it was a harmless rabbit, until she noticed it had an ‘alien face’ and her neighbours agreed it was like nothing they had ever seen before.

MAN CLAIMS ‘NESSIE’ PHOTOGRAPHED AFTER 45 YEAR HUNT

MOTW-072311-Nessie_1 — Is it you, Nessy? A possible hump and part of a tail, or perhaps a spike on the creature's back, can be seen breaking the surface of the water near Fort Augustus, Scotland

It seems like after a rash of recent Bigfoot sightings and videos, now we are seeing a deluge of sea monster stories, photos and videos. Here’s the latest story from a man who claims to have spent his life searching for Nessie, and he now believes he has finally caught her on film.

At first glance it looks like another dark ripple on the water.

But study the photograph more closely and a dark hump and tail can be seen poking through the water’s surface, or so a life-long hunter of the Loch Ness monster hunter claims.

William Jobes, 62, believes that he may have at last captured the elusive creature on camera after 45 years of trying.

Mr Jobes was walking along the Abbey footpath in Fort Augustus with his wife Joan in May this year when he spotted what appeared to be a head bobbing above the water 200 to 300 yards from the shore.

Misty morning: Loch Ness monster hunter William Jobes, 62, is certain that the black mark 200 - 300 yards from the shore is the body of the elusive creature

‘I had a wonderful shock,’ Mr Jobes said.’I have actually been coming up to Inverness for the past 45 years and I have never seen anything like this before.’

Quickly grasping his camera, Mr Jobes from Irvine in Ayrshire, managed to take a single picture before the ‘head’ disappeared under the surface.

However, to his delight a dark, hump-like shape broke the waves and he was able to take more photographs of the apparent sighting on May 24 at just after 11.10am.

Mr Jobes is convinced it was not a seal or piece of wood.

‘To be honest I know the difference between a piece of wood or a particular animal,’ he said.

‘I immediately did think it was a seal but it’s head was like a sheep.’

However, veteran Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, remains sceptical, although he admits the hump photograph cannot be immediately explained and is worth further investigation.

‘The river comes out there and something large could have come down the river and flowed out there,’ he suggested.

Mr Jobes’ is the second potential sighting of nessie so far this summer.

Last month Foyers shop and cafe owner Jan Hargreaves and her husband Simon believe they caught a glimpse of the creature.

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Guest Blogger

BRITISH COUPLE FINDS ‘SEA MONSTER’ CARCASS ON SHORE

Now, I would NOT want to find this thing alive in the ocean, it’s scary enough being dead and looking like this! Any guesses to what it could be? Read on for some theories.

Cryptomundo.com writes:

A couple were left shocked when they discovered the rotting body of a sea monster while walking along a beach.

Margaret and Nick Flippence made the incredible find as they exercised their dogs at Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.

Mr Flippence, 59, who lives nearby, said: ‘We were stunned. I thought, “oh my God what is it?”

‘It’s like nothing we have ever seen, it almost looks pre-historic,’ he told the Sun.

Curled up by the foot of sand dunes was the 30ft-long body of the unidentified animal with head, tail and teeth all discernible.

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Steve Busti — 1 Comment

CADBOROSAURUS FOOTAGE SET TO BE REVEALED TONIGHT!

If you’ve been following us for a while, you may remember the following story we posted from August 15th of last year:

… Loren Coleman, world-renowned cryptozoologist and resident blogger at cryptomundo.com, reported on this incredible breaking news: supposedly up to 15 of the mysterious sea serpent-like cryptids known as Cadborosaurus have been filmed, and the footage will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel… (you can read his post here and the link to the original story here).

Loren was understandably wary in his blog, raising the possibility that it may in fact be otters.

But today, fellow cryptozoologist John Kirk has posted there that he himself was able to view the footage and makes the following claim:

“…I must say I was stunned because it looked like a living breathing version of the famed Naden Harbour carcass obtained in 1937… I can fairly confidently say that readers will find this footage fascinating…”

I’m excited but cautious regarding this news from our friends at cryptomundo.com. I guess just like everyone else we’ll just have to wait with baited breath!

Well that long-awaited show, officially titled “Alaskan Monster Hunt: Hillstranded” finally airs tonight on Discovery Channel (10pm EST/9pm CST). I’m surprised there hasn’t been more fanfare prior to the airing of the show, considering how important this footage is actually supposed to be. In any case, I’ve set my DVR and am anxiously awaiting seeing the footage.

Illustration: Jason Walton

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Guest Blogger

TWO-HEADED BEARDED DRAGON CELEBRATES IT’S…ERR, THEIR FIRST BIRTHDAY!

What do you get the two-headed, six-legged bearded dragon who has everything?

Well, everything it needs, anyway.

For Todd Ray, who actually owns such a creature — a reptile he calls “Pancho and Lefty” — the answer was found in a lookalike pinata.

Yep, you read that correctly: A giant pinata that looks like his beloved pet two-headed, six-legged bearded dragon.

Pancho and Lefty turned 1 back in May, but Ray, who runs the Venice Beach Freakshow in Los Angeles, is celebrating the big day on June 11 with a big shindig fit for, well, a two-headed, six-legged bearded dragon.

“These are literally the rarest animals in the world,” Ray told AOL Weird News, and he should know. He has the largest collection of two-headed animals around, more than 100 specimens including 22 living creatures.

Ray has been collecting double-domed animals for the past 10 years and exhibiting them publicly for six. He considers it a calling.

Click the picture to read more.

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Steve Busti

SOUTH CAROLINA’S LIZARD MAN ON THE PROWL AGAIN

Heard of “Lizard Man” yet? If not, that may soon change. Because the new mystery creature is stalking car fenders in rural South Carolina in the dead of night. That’s a diet Bigfoot never went for in his pursuit of wild berries and always making sure he was just out of camera range. There’s nothing like eating the clunker in the front yard for pushing you up to the top of the Cryptid sighting list.

According to local channel 19 in Lee County, SC, the legendary lizard creature made a return after a 23-year hiatus, and he’s up to his old tricks.

Witnesses on a rural road in the county are saying they heard a strange noise on the morning of July 4th and went outside to investigate.

That’s when they discovered the front bumper of their car had been chewed and clawed in a way no normal creature of the woods could manage. Police veterans realized they’d heard this story before.

“This part here is how it all started in 1988,” explained former Lee County Sheriff Liston Truesdale. “We got a call to come and look at something that had mauled a car. I went out there and looked at that damaged car, and I haven’t seen anything like that before.”

Then reports of a lizard-like creature in the area started coming in. Only this terrifying animal was 7-feet tall, with red eyes and three claw-like fingers on each hand. With an appetite for chrome… just like the old days.

So the hunt is on, pushing Bigfoot off the front pages. But he hasn’t been seen in a while anyway.

Maybe Lizard man ate his car?

Source: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979583618

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Steve Busti

GIANT SQUID FOUND IN FLORIDA

MOTW-070611-Squid — A 25-foot-long giant squid is splayed out on a tarp after it was picked up by a fishing crew over the weekend.

By Nidhi Subbaraman

Florida fishermen snared a real-life sea monster over the weekend: a giant squid measuring 25 feet in length.

“It’s really, really, really rare to get giant squids because they’re so huge, and live so deep,” John Slapcinsky, a collection manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told me. For museum workers and scientists who specialize in giant squids, this specimen is quite the catch.

MOTW-070611-Squid2 — University of Florida researcher Roger Portell injects preservative into the giant squid.

The animal was bobbing in the water when the fisherman chanced upon it on Sunday. They hauled it onto their boat, put it on ice, and brought it to shore. There, they alerted the Florida Fish and Wildlife conservation commission, who called in the Florida Museum of Natural History.

“I thought we definitely need to bring it in, because no one’s going to believe us if we don’t,” Robert Benz, one of the original squid finders, said in a press release. “I didn’t want to leave it out there and just let the sharks eat it.”

Somewhere along the way, the squid died.

It’s now been relocated to the Florida Museum of Natural History, where Slapcinsky and his colleagues are preserving the massive invertebrate. “Soft bodied squids spoil easily,” Slapcinsky told me.

The squid will be put through quite the regimen over the next month, and will be injected with and bathed in a cocktail of preservatives. These will kill the bacteria in the body of the squid and firm up the soft tissue of the animal, Slapcinsky explained.

MOTW-070611-Squid3 — A tentacle coils out from the dead squid's body. Studying the creature and sequencing its DNA should help scientists determine how various breeds of deep-sea squid are related.

Because they’re so rarely observed in the wild, or found dead (they get eaten pretty quickly), there’s a lot that scientists don’t know about the behavior of the enormous animals, like how they reproduce or what they eat. Also, a debate continues about whether giant squids make up a single species, or several, and Slapcisnky hopes that DNA analysis of this new squid will have some answers.

It’s not yet clear if the squid will make it into a museum exhibit, Slapcinsky says — the museum may not have the right equipment or the space to show off the spineless specimen. But it will be available for squid researchers to visit, to take a closer look.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/29/6976926-fishermen-pick-up-dying-giant-squid