Category: Cryptozoology & Strange Nature

The ironically named “Lone Star Tick” (because God knows, we love our red meat in Texas), scientifically named Amblyomma americanum, has a bite that can make its victim deathly allergic to red meats…for life. Don’t laugh….as a Texan I can tell you we need to declare war on these pests RIGHT NOW.

Like most ticks, this bug, local to the southeastern United States and the eastern half of Texas, carries any number of nasty diseases with it, but it’s this substance it carries called alpha-gal, a carbohydrate found in non-primate mammals. We digest this carbohydrate all the time with no problem with digestion, but when it enters the bloodstream via the tick, our body freaks the heck out. Antibodies are created to protect against it and they stay in the system. So what happens is, the next time you ingest meat from a mammal…wham, pow…extreme allergic reaction. And to make it worse, in some cases, the reaction gets worse in each case where the person infected is exposed to alpha-gals.

The allergic reactions that have been recorded vary greatly, but have been found to in some cases be dangerous, even fatal. From an article published in Science Daily: “The allergy can cause hives and swelling, as well as broader symptoms of anaphylaxis including vomiting, diarrhea, trouble breathing, and a drop in blood pressure. Persons with the allergy can go into a delayed anaphylactic shock four-six hours after eating red meat.” Doctors advise that if you are infected, carry an EPI pen just in case. But that’s about all they know what to do because this condition, according to what we known about food-based allergies, shouldn’t even exist in the first place. Most allergies are protein based and alpha-gal is a sugar, making it the ONLY sugar-based allergy known.

The real fear for me? That some crazy folks from PETA will make a tick bomb or something and let it loose on the streets of Austin. I mean, you can still eat fish or chicken, but I do like a tasty burger. I wonder what vegetarian terrorist tastes like?

Hey, even Cryptids need a place to take their kids. Apparently in Vicksburg, Missisppi it’s a rusty old abandoned playground. Maybe it’s because it sits so close to some dense woods, but David Childers, an investigator for the Delta Paranormal Project, encountered something distinctly Bigfoot-ish running off into the woods:

“I don’t know what it was, about 6 feet tall. And it just bolted off through the woods. It was definitely a shaggy coat to it, like a grayish-brown color. When it made the noise that spooked me, I looked over, and it looked like it stood up and just bolted off.”

Almost a year later, another man, Peyton Lassiter, found a nine inch by six inch print that human-like ridges:

There are only two species that have that. Number one, humans and primates. Bears don’t have fingerprint-like impressions on the skin of the foot, so that kind of changes the game a little bit. I have no knowledge of what made it, and I didn’t see what made it, but it’s very intriguing.

Turns out, Vicksburg has had a few sightings of Ape-men in the distant past, so it’s not completely odd to have a Bigfoot sighting here. Check out the video for more:

I had to be careful with the tags on this post, as I didn’t want to get the wrong kind of traffic with ‘big black c%&k’. But regardless, the Ayam Cemani Chicken of Indonesia is a rare bird indeed and is black in pretty much in every way. Black feathers, legs. toenails, tongue, meat, bones and organs; even their blood, while not exactly black, is a much darker tone than normal.

The chicken gets its strange coloring from a genetic trait called fibromelanosis, a rare mutation believed to have its origins in Asia. But despite the high price point (2500 smackers) you know some folks still will shell out the cash to eat ’em.

You can ever order your own pair for breeding now in America, assuming you don’t mind waiting awhile and laying down a hefty deposit. But I mean, come on. There’s a reason they’re called the “Lamborghini of poultry”.

What’s grosser than a dead rat? How about 32 dead rats who were trapped by their own entangled tails and the dried filth they live in? I mean, yuck. This particular preserved specimen, of what are called “Rat Kings”, is on display in a museum in Alterburg Germany, and it dates back to 1828. Sadly, it’s not the only example of this now-rare find.

Once more common when the Black Rat controlled the alleys and sewers of Europe, the dominance of the Brown Rat has reduced the amount of finds. I’m not sure if it’s because of shorter tails, less filth, or smarter rats, but all three reasons make me recoil inside in a way best described as “infinite horror”.

Fiction writers have long been fascinated by these disgusting and bizarre rat combinations and have incorporated them into their works. The rat kings have popped up all over the place including being in Terry Prachett books, Alan Moore comics, the last book in The Spiderwick Chronicles, Lars Von Trier’s movie Epidemic, and even in a novelization spin-off of the popular British show “Luther”.

Unsurprisingly, finds of Rat Kings were historically viewed as a bad omen, and I’d imagine even now one would have to at the very least conclude that their bad luck involves a crucial vermin infestation. Very few have actually been found; the number is estimated at being between 35-50 total, but if you’re visiting German museums in Hamburg, Gottingen, Stuttgart or Hamelin, or if you find yourself being touristy in Tartu Estonia, you can catch a glimpse of one of these rare finds. Lucky you.