Category Archives: CRYPTIDS

SKINWALKERS

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The Werewolf.

David Calvert.

 

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“Never stray from the path, never eat a windfall apple, and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle.” – Company of Wolves.
There are diverse tales concerning werewolf folklore. They span cultural boundaries and can be found in ancient Greek writings up to the present day. In European folklore it is a widespread concept which developed during the medieval period.
In the late 16th century one Peter Stubbe, a Rhenish farmer, was accused of being a “serial killer and “cannibal”. He was also known as the “Werewolf of Bedburg” His trial in 1589 was one of the most lurid and famous trials in history. With the threat of torture hanging over him,  he confessed to murdering  and cannibalising  fourteen children, one of which was his son and  two pregnant women.
Vile though his crimes undoubtedly were, this hardly makes him a lycanthrope with the ability to change himself into a wolfman. So where did the notion come from? Unsurprisingly, it came from his own mouth. After being stretched on a rack, and before any further torture began, he admitted to having practiced black magic. He claimed the Devil had given him a magical belt or girdle which enabled him to transform himself into a wolf. On removing it he would change back into a human being. This, however, didn’t save him from the executioner, as he may have hoped it would.
His execution took place on October 31st, 1589,  and is recorded as being one of the most brutal on record. Having been lashed to a wheel he had flesh torn from him with red-hot pincers. Then his limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axe to prevent him from returning from the grave. He was then beheaded and burned on a pyre.

Lukas_Mayer_1589_Hinrichtung_Peter_Stump-1

According to Montague Summers in his 1928’s acclaimed work ‘The Werewolf’, the origin of the creature goes back a few thousand years. The ancient Greeks may have adopted their concept of lycanthropy from the Phoenician cult, which originated in 1200 BC, and put a different spin on it.

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Norway and Iceland

The Werewolf legend is an historical mystery of international proportions, spanning time, locations and cultural  folklore. The Norse and Icelandic mythology are an example of cross cultural mythologising; the Aiser religion of the Norse having left elements of their belief system in the Icelandic culture during the time of their colonisation.
The Volsunga Saga  is the story of father and son, Sigmund and Sinfjotli.  
‘While wandering in the woods, Sigmund and Sinfjotli come upon a hut where they find two spellbound wolf pelts. If put on, either pelt will turn a man into a wolf and will possess the power, cunningness, and valour of wolves. But the pelt can only be taken off every tenth day. Having put on the pelts, Sigmund and Sinfjotli turn into wolves and begin wandering about the forest together. Before they split up, they agreed to howl to each other if either of them encounters seven men to fight at a time. Sinfjotli, the son, breaches the agreement and kills 11 men at one time. Angered, Sigmund fatally injures his son. But then a raven, the messenger of Odin, brings a healing leaf to place on Sinfjotli’s wound. After Sinfjotli is healed from his wound, he and his father take off the enchanted wolf pelts as the tenth day arrived. They burned the pelts to ashes, and freed themselves from the curse of lycanthropy’.
Similar tales of Werewolfism can also be found in north and south America. In Mexico it is known a “Nahual” or “Nagaul”. The north American mythology is mainly borrowed from tales of the European ‘New World’ settlers. In actuality, the contemporary werewolf myth we see today was created by the Americans.

Skinwalkers

Yenaldlooshi

Yee naaldlooshii, translated: “with it, he goes on all fours”, is the Navajo name for a witch who use their powers of transmogrification to travel in animal form. it is a kind of subset of the werewolf legends in that it can take the form of a wolf, among other things. An individual is said to gain the power on initiation into the Witchery Way, the Navajo equivalent of a Black Mass.
Though, purportedly , some attempts have been made to shoot or kill one, they are usually unsuccessful, due to them being fast and agile.  Sometimes a skinwalker will be hunted down, only to lead to the house of someone known to the tracker. It is said that if a Navajo was to know the person behind the skinwalker they had to pronounce the full name, and about three days later that person would either get sick or die for whatever crime they had committed.
Unlike it’s European counterpart, the Werewolf, the skinwalkers are said to be distinguishable in  their human form because their eyes glow like an animals. Another thing that sets them apart from the Werewolf legend is their ability to change form consciously. They appear unaffected by the lunar cycles.

Lycanthropy and the Human Condition.

lycanthropy and the human mind
‘Clinical lycanthropy is defined as a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is a non-human animal. Its name is connected to the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which humans are said to physically shapeshift into wolves. It is purported to be a rare disorder.’
This clinical condition is linked with the altered states of mind that accompany psychosis. The reality-bending events typically involve delusion and hallucinations in which the individual experiences the transformation in his/her  mind, affecting their behaviour. But just how common are they? Dr. Jan Dirk Blom, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, mined the archives of psychiatry to find out.
Blom found that since 1850, there have been 56 original case descriptions of people who believed they were metamorphosing into an animal. Among them, 13 reports met the criteria for clinical lycanthropy, the medical term for having delusions of being able to turn into a wolf. The adjective ‘clinical’ is used to emphasize that the condition doesn’t mean actual lycanthropy, or the ability to metamorphose physically into a wolf, Blom said.
The remaining cases were variants of the condition, with patients having delusional convictions about being a dog, a boa snake, a frog or a bee, according to the study published in the March issue of the journal History of Psychiatry. [10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]
“I had expected to find more cases, because in textbooks the condition is mentioned quite often in passing,” Blom said. 
But such a low number of clinical lycanthropy cases reported in over 150 years suggests the condition may be even rarer than previously thought, Blom said. Doctors “should take heed not to cry wolf too often.”
There is still much that is unknown about the human psyche and its capabilities. Is it conceivable that it has the ability to literally transform a human into an animal? Of the little that we do know, I would say not. There is no tangible evidence to support such an hypothesis.

© David Calvert 2016

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THUNDERBIRDS

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The thunderbird’s name is said to originate from the belief that the beating of its enormous wings causes thunder and stirs the wind. The Lakota name for the thunderbird is Wakį́nyąn, from wakhąn, meaning “sacred”, and kįyą, meaning “winged”. The Kwakwaka’wakw have many names for the thunderbird, and the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) called it Kw-Uhnx-Wa. The Ojibwa word for a thunderbird that is closely associated with thunder is animikii, while large thunderous birds are known as binesi.
The thunderbirds or Rocs, as they are sometimes referred to, are legendary creatures in certain North American native peoples history and culture. They are frequently depicted in their oral histories and songs and are considered a supernatural bird of power and strength. The Thunderbird symbol is one of the most dominant icons in indigenous American Indian culture.

thunderbird-clkr

Though the thunderbird’s origins are largely unknown, reports of these elusive creatures go back centuries, and some researchers believe that they may be descendants of the extinct Pterosaurs which first appeared in the late Triassic period some 228 to 66 million years ago until the end of the Cretaceous period.

 

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PteranodonThunderbird Sightings.

19th Century

  • In April 1890, two cowboys in Arizona allegedly shot and killed a giant bird-like creature with an enormous wingspan. It was described as having smooth skin, featherless wings similar to a bat and an alligator-like face. The  description bore similarities to that of a prehistoric pterodactyl—an animal whose existence was known at the time. On dragging the creature back to town, they nailed the carcass across the entire length of a barn, where it was photographed with wings outstretched.
According to crypto zoologist Mark Hall, the Tombstone Epitaph printed a story about the capture of a large, unusual winged creature on April 26, 1890. Beyond this solitary story, however, no one has discovered any historic corroboration that this event ever occurred; it is usually considered an urban legend. Utterly fictional tall tales were not an uncommon feature in newspapers during this era. To date, no one has ever produced a copy of the alleged photograph.

Early 20th Century

  • On April 10, 1948, three individuals in Overland, Illinois spotted what they at first thought was a passing plane. However, when it began flapping its wings they realised that the ‘plane’ was nothing of the sort. Shortly after this encounter, a man and his son saw what they described as being an enormous bird creature over Alton, Illinois. They estimated the creature to be at an altitude of at least 500 ft. They described the shadow it cast on the ground as being the same size of a small passenger plane.

Late 20th Century

  • 3473447-thunderbird-the_monster_hunter's_survival_guide#2In the late twentieth century there was a spike in Thunderbird sightings. Among the most controversial of them was the Lawndale, July 25, 1977 encounter. It took place around 9 pm. As three boys were playing in a residential back yard, they were approached by two large birds who began chasing them. Two of the boys managed to evade them but the third, ten-year-old Marlon Lowe, was captured by one of them when it clamped its talons onto his shoulders and lifted him two feet into the air. The terrified youngster fought against his winged assailant, which finally released him.
  • In 2002, an Alaskan pilot flying from the village of Manakotak to the village of Togiak, with several passengers aboard, reported an encounter with a large, raptor-like bird with a wingspan almost equal to his airplane. In an article published in the Anchorage Daily News the pilot was quoted as saying  that the bird looked  like something out of Jurassic Park. The article further stated that other people who lived in the region had also witnessed a similar creature on several occasions around the same time.
The above pilot’s description of the ‘bird’ is notable in that he likens it to ‘something out of Jurassic Park’, suggesting the creature was not feathered. This would appear to rule out the possibility of it being a Condor, Eagle, or any other known large raptor bird. The Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.
The Andean condor (Vulture gryphus) which inhabits the Andean mountains.

Andean condor

The California condor (Gypnogyps californianus) currently restricted to the western coastal mountains of the United States and Mexico and the northern desert mountains of Arizona.

California condor

Could there be  large, surviving, species of  avians – throwbacks to earlier epochs – who have the capabilities to carry off  animals and children? Certainly, such a creature would have a wingspan way in excess of the largest birds know today in order to do so. Herein lies a paradox. If such a species does exist how have they managed, thus far, to avoid detection for so long?
What little photographic evidence there is of these Thunderbirds is dubious, as are videos purporting to show them in flight. The problem with many images is the lack of perspective. The size of the bird is impossible to calculate when seen against a featureless aerial background, as the above image demonstrates.   To calculate it’s true size would require an image showing known objects within the same field of view as the bird,  such as buildings or other objects with measurable dimensions (see image below).

Thunderbird

For the sake of argument, let’s assume we know the man in the forefront  of this image to be 6 ft tall, then this would make this bird’s wingspan to be approximately 25 ft. and it’s length from beak to tail approximately 10ft.

Many civilisations use culturally relevant stories to instil in their people the  notion and importance of fellowship and respect  for the power of nature. Moreover, the native American Thunderbird serves as an allegorical figure, illustrating deeper truths concerning the struggles of life and the changes within it. It reminds its people that change is inevitable. It is seen as an agent of change that helps determine behaviour within the dynamics of both family and community.
As stated earlier in this article, the origins of the Thunderbird are largely a mystery. Some researchers are of the opinion that the legend is based on the sightings of real birds, some even positing the argument that early sightings could have been of descendants of the pterodactyl dinosaur species.  In so doing, the thunderbird has been transformed from being a mythical  spiritual creature into a potential cryptid. Our Westernised ethnocentric biases have reduced it to little more than a zoological curiosity.

© David Calvert 2016

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Spring-Heeled Jack

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The first claimed sighting of Spring-heeled Jack was in 1837, during the Victorian era. Later sightings were reported all over Great Britain and were especially prevalent in suburban London, the Midlands and Scotland. This urban legend later became the topic of several works of fiction, due in no small way to his ability to leap great distances and his bizarre appearance. The questions as to his  nature and identity has spawned many theories.
Though Jack’s legend began in London the last reported sighting of him is said to have taken place in Liverpool in 1904.

October 1837 Encounter:

Mary Stevens, a servant who worked at Lavender HIll, was walking to work from her parents’ home in Battersea when a strange figure leapt from a dark alley on her way through Clapham Common. Gripping her tightly, he began ripping at her clothes and touching her flesh with cold clammy hands. When she screamed in terror her attacker fled the scene. On hearing the commotion, several residents appeared on the scene and launched an immediate search for her attacker. Despite their quick response, they could find neither hide nor hair of him.
The following day he reappeared, this time leaping in front of a passing carriage, causing the coachman to lose control and crash. The coachman was severely injured in the incident. The incident was witnessed by several people who claimed Jack escaped by leaping over a 9 ft (2.7 m) wall. As he made his get-away, the witnesses heard a high-pitched, ringing laughter coming from him.
Bit by bit, the news of the sinister character spread, and soon the press and the public gave him the name “Spring-heeled Jack”.
later sightings of Jack were reported all over Britain, including the Midlands and Scotland. His hunting ground was expanding. He was described by people who claimed to have seen him as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy, clawed hands, and eyes that “resembled red balls of fire”. Other aspects to this seemingly supernatural entity are as follows:
  • He had eyes that “resembled red balls of fire”.
  • Beneath a black cloak, he wore a helmet and a tight-fitting white garment like an oilskin.
  • That he possessed a “Devil-like” aspect. 
  • That he was tall and thin, with the appearance of a gentleman. 
  • That he could breathe out blue and white flames and that he wore sharp metallic claws at his fingertips. 
  • That he was able to speak comprehensible English (according to at least two witnesses).

Forerunners To Spring-Heeled Jack.

In the early 19th century, there were reports of ghosts that stalked the streets of London and preyed on lone individuals. These human-like figures, some writers have argued, formed the foundation of the  legend to be Spring-heeled Jack. The first was the Hammersmith Ghost, which in 1803 and 1804 was reported in Hammersmith on the western fringes of London.
Another apparition, the Southampton ghost, was also reported as attacking individuals in the night. This particular entity bore many of the characteristics of Spring-heeled Jack, and was reported as jumping over houses and being over 10 ft. (3.0 m) tall.

Official Recognition.

Sir John CowanSome months after the first sightings in 1838 Sir John Cowan, the then Lord Mayor of London,  revealed at a public session held in the Mansion House that he had in his possession an anonymous complaint that he had received several days earlier, which he had held back in the hope of obtaining more information. The anonymous correspondent had signed the letter simply as “a resident of Peckham”. In it the writer had penned:
‘It appears that some individuals (of, as the writer believes, the highest ranks of life) have laid a wager with a mischievous and foolhardy companion, that he durst not take upon himself the task of visiting many of the villages near London in three different disguises — a ghost, a bear, and a devil; and moreover, that he will not enter a gentleman’s gardens for the purpose of alarming the inmates of the house. The wager has, however, been accepted, and the unmanly villain has succeeded in depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families.
At one house the man rang the bell, and on the servant coming to open door, this worse than brute stood in no less dreadful figure than a spectre clad most perfectly. The consequence was that the poor girl immediately swooned, and has never from that moment been in her senses.
The affair has now been going on for some time, and, strange to say, the papers are still silent on the subject. The writer has reason to believe that they have the whole history at their finger-ends but, through interested motives, are induced to remain silent’.
Make what you will of the foregoing tales. Are they true? To my way of thinking what they appear to represent is the birth of a legend, based on an hysterical response to the acts of pranksters. With each telling of the tale more embellishments appear in the narratives, no doubt fuelled by the Press and subsequent 19th century “penny dreadfuls”. From ghostly phantasms he morphed into a living, breathing entity with supernatural abilities. By the end of the century, he was firmly rooted in the nomenclature of frightful figures in English folklore.
SPRING HEELED JACK, FICTION BASED ON FACT
By Leanne Perry
‘Spring Heeled Jack’ is mentioned in the book: ‘Jack the Ripper, Letters From Hell’ as a FICTIONAL villain ‘featured in the Penny Dreadfuls’ of the first half of the nineteenth century’. Because of the parallels of this character to the methods used by the Whitechapel murderer of 1888, ‘Spring Heeled Jack’ is seen by the authors as being the inspiration behind the invention of the name: ‘Jack the Ripper’.
In the 1950s Jack took on a new incarnation – that of an alien marooned on Earth. It was a solution that struck a cord with a generation who were mesmerised by the burgeoning space race and flying saucer mystery.
In the spring 1961 issue of flying Saucer Review an article was published, credited to one ‘J. Vyner’, bearing the title “The Mystery of Spingheel Jack”. The author presented a somewhat eccentric and fsrsep61-smallmuddled summary of the legend which lacked a single primary reference to his source material. The various assaults that occurred during 1837-38 suggested that Jack was trying desperately to locate somewhere safe to hide, or was perhaps looking for a friendly ‘agent’ who could assist him in locating his misplaced flying saucer.
It strains all credibility to imagine that a supposedly intelligent alien looking for somewhere to hide, or friendly agent to assist him, would then go out and terrify the locals, thereby calling unnecessary attention upon himself.

 

© David Calvert 2016

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EL CHUPACABRA

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Chupacabra_1
Eyewitness sightings of this cryptid go back  as early as 1995 in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile, and even being spotted outside the Americas in countries like Russia and the Philippines, but many of the reports have been disregarded as uncorroborated or lacking evidence. Some sightings in northern Mexico and the southern United States have been verified  as canids  afflicted by mange. According to biologists and wildlife management officials, the chupacabra is an urban  myth.
The name ‘chupacabra’ translates literally as ‘goat sucker’ and comes from the animal’s reported predilection for attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, particularly goats. It also refers to a family of nocturnal Puerto Rican birds that steal milk from goats. Puerto Rican comedian and entrepreneur Silverio Pérez is credited with coining the term chupacabras soon after the first incidents were reported in the press.

Reputed Sightings.

  • In mid-August 2006, Michelle O’Donnell of Turner, Maine, described an “evil looking” rodent-like animal with fangs that had been found dead alongside a road. The animal was apparently struck by a car, and was unidentifiable. Photographs were taken and witness reports seem to be in relative agreement that the creature was canine in appearance, but in widely published photos seemed unlike any dog or wolf in the area. Photos from other angles seem to show a chow or Akita mixed-breed dog. It was reported that “the carcass was picked clean by vultures before experts could examine it”. For years, residents of Maine have reported a mysterious creature and a string of dog maulings.
  • In September 2009, CNN aired a report showing closeup video footage of an unidentified dead animal. The same CNN report stated that locals have begun speculating the possibility that this might be a chupacabra. A Blanco, Texas, taxidermist reported that he received the body from a former student whose cousin had discovered the animal in his barn, where it had succumbed to poison left out for rodents. The taxidermist expressed his belief that this is a genetically mutated coyote.
  • On December 18, 2010, in Nelson County, Kentucky, Mark Cothren shot and killed an animal that he could not recognize and feared.  Many pictures of the Chupacabra were taken and the story was well documented by various news organizations. Cothren described the creature as having large ears, whiskers, a long tail, and about the size of a house cat. Cothren says he spoke with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and handed over the preserved animal for further analysis.
The above list is by no means exhaustive. There are countless other eye-witness cases.

Appearance.

The most common description of the chupacabra is that of a reptile-like creature, said to have leathery or scaly greenish-grey skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back. It is said to be approximately 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 m) high, and stands and hops in a fashion similar to that of a kangaroo..
Another less common description of the chupacabra is of a strange breed of wild dog. This form is mostly hairless and has a pronounced spinal ridge, unusually pronounced eye sockets, fangs, and claws. Unlike conventional predators, the chupacabra is said to drain all of the animal’s blood (and sometimes organs) usually through three holes in the shape of an upside-down triangle or through one or two holes.
Several theories about the nature of chupacabras have been put forward and are as widespread as the reports of their attacks. Some believe them to be vampires, and others extra-terrestrial  life forms. Others are of the opinion that they are the creatures of a failed scientific experiment
Varginha UFO incident.
In 1996 an alleged sighting and capture of an extra-terrestrial entity by the military was broadcast on the Brazilian TV show Fantástico. The report gathered momentum and coverage of it became worldwide, even appearing as an article by the Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Matt Moffett. The Varginha incident was considered to be the most famous case in Brazilian ufology. Over the prevailing years, however, it has been declared a hoax.
images (3)According to media reports at the time, the creature was first sighted by three females ranging from 14 to 21 years old: sisters Liliane and Valquíria Fátima Silva, and their friend Kátia Andrade Xavier. They alleged to have seen the creature on  the afternoon of January 20, 1996. Their description of the creature was that of  biped, approximately 1.6 metres (5 ft), in  height, with a large head and very thin body, with V-shaped feet, brown skin, and large red eyes. They assumed it was either injured or sick because it seemed to be wobbly or unsteady on its feet. It was alleged to have been captured later by the Brazilian army, with help form the local police, and was later autopsied at a major hospital in Varginha. It was determined to be a creature unknown to science.
Names of individuals and institutions were given to support the encounter. However, a decade and a half later, it was revealed that the entire incident was nothing more than an hysterical childish hoax involving the sighting of a deformed human, known locally as “Little Luis”  who would often haunch up in corners and  was often filthy and wet (see below right image).  It was later  learnt that the Varginha police originally believed that this was who the three girls had witnessed.
The first image in the picture is an arist’s depiction based off the girls’ testimonies. Many images (4)will have noted that the depiction bears no resemblance whatsoever to a canid. The family Canidae is divided into two tribes: the Canini (dogs, wolves, jackals, and some South American “foxes”) and the Vulpini (true foxes). Given that all ‘Chupacabra’ are described as being canid- like begs the question as to how it was given the same designation.
The alleged ET autopsy doctor, a Brazilian policeman and one of the original girl witnesses,weighed in on what really happened at Varginha.
Aurimas Svitojus, a European researcher, emailed Dr. Fortunato Badan Palhares, the alleged ET autopsy doctor concerning his involvement in the case. Below is his edited response:

badan-157

“Unfortunately, all of the information about the Varginha ET involving my name, are the fruits of fantasy authors and do not deserve any respect from me because they are liars.
In some discussions I’ve had with “UFOlogists” who claim to have studied this case, nothing, absolutely nothing they brought materialized that was credible. They are conjectures, inferences, perhaps even hallucinations.
I never discuss this issue with students, but when asked in lectures I have always said that: I DID NOT AND NEVER WAS CALLED TO DO ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING WITH THIS MATTER…..”
 © David Calvert 2016

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The Yeti/Abominable Snowman.

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HIMALAYAS

Himalayan Mountains

The Yeti, or Abominable Snowman is an ape-like cryptid taller than an average human that is said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet.  The names Yeti and Meh-Teh are alexander_athens2commonly used by the people indigenous to the region, and are part of their history and mythology. Stories of the Yeti first emerged as a facet of Western popular culture in the 19th century. However, it is believed that the search to find the Yeti can be traced back to the time of Alexander the Great, who in 326 BC set out to conquer the Indus Valley. Having heard stories of the creature he demanded to see one for himself, but local people told him they were unable to present one because the creatures could not survive at that low an altitude.
Despite many expeditions having been attempted to prove the Yeti’s existence, there is still no concrete evidence to prove it. Sir Edmund Hillary himself searched  for the Yeti. The famed Everest pioneer’s expedition (which had other scientific goals) did document a phenomenon that appears to account for “Yeti tracks.” In shaded snow Hillary’s team found impressions resembling fox tracks. The tracks led to a sunny area where melting had elongated the tracks into large human-like footprints. Likewise, the melting of tracks of a snow leopard, bear, or wolf could create huge “footprints.” Over time, human footprints in the area have been seen to grow to nearly 21 inches (53 centimetres).

Alleged Yeti Encounters.

yeti_by_wallace

1832:

During an exploration of the upper regions of Nepal, B.H. Hodgson reported that his Sherpa guides witness a towering non-human cover in dark hair from head to foot. The creature allegedly fled the scene on seeing them.

1904:

A British soldier, William Hugh Knight, claimed he had encountered a Yeti near Gangtok, Sikkim. In 1921, he described the Yeti to The Times newspaper:
‘He was a little under six-feet high. almost stark naked in that bitter cold – it was the month of November. He was a kind of pale yellow all over, about the colour of a Chinaman, a shock of matted hair on his head, little hair on his face, highly splayed feet,  and large, formidable hands. His muscular development in his arms, thighs, legs, back and chest were terrific. He had in his hands what seemed to be some form of primitive bow. He did not see me, but stood there, and watched for some five or  six minutes. So far as I could make out, he was watching some man or beast far down the hillside. At the end of some five minutes he started off on a run down the hill, and I was impressed with the tremendous speed at which he travelled.’
ve minutes he started off on a run down thehill, and I was impressed with the tremendous speed at which he travelled(1921: 54)
ve minutes he started off on a run down thehill, and I was impressed with the tremendous speed at which he travelled

1925:

N.A. Tombazi a Greek photographer while on an expedition to the Himalayas allegedly sighted a humanoid-like creature near Zemu Glacier. The fact that the creature was unclothed in such extremely hostile conditions  made a significant impression on him. Over the period of a minute, and  at a distance of only 200 to 300 yards, he quietly watched the bi-pedal creature as it walked upright  before stopping and uprooting some dwarf rhododendron bushes. Later he was to state “Unquestionably, the figure in outline was exactly like a human being.”

1970:

British mountaineer Don Whillans claimed to have witnessed a creature when scaling Annapurna. He said that while searching for a campsite he heard some odd cries which his guide attributed to a Yeti’s call. That night, he saw a dark shape moving near his camp.

2012:

The MailOnline Article.

Three separate ‘sightings’ of yetis have been made in Siberia in recent weeks, say fishermen and an official in Russia.
All were in the remote Kemerovo region, where around 30 ‘abominable snowmen’ live, according to the country’s leading researcher on the creatures.
In one previously undisclosed case last month near Myski village, fishermen in a boat on a river initially mistook distant figures first for bears and then people, said the Siberian Times
‘We shouted to them – do you need help?,’ said fisherman Vitaly Vershinin.
‘They just rushed away, all in fur, walking on two legs, making their way through the bushes and with two other limbs, straight up the hill.’
He said: “What did we think? It could not be bears, as the bear walks on all-fours, and they ran on two…. so then they were gone.
On a second sighting on the bank of the Mras-Su River several days later, an unnamed fisherman was quoted saying: ‘We saw some tall animals looking like people.
He added: ‘Our binoculars were broken and did not let us see them sharply. We waved at the animals but they did not respond, then quickly ran back into the forest, walking on two legs.
 ‘We realised that they were not in dark clothes but covered by dark fur. They did walk like people’.
Biologists used DNA analysis to examine claims that hair samples attributed to yetis appeared to belong to a scientifically undiscovered species of bear.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2997216/Mystery-yeti-deepens-DNA-analysis-reveals-Abominable-Snowman-hair-does-NOT-belong-unknown-species-bear.html#ixzz3zE9nynIG 

© David Calvert 2016

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THE MOTHMAN

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 mothman
 The “Mothman” is categorised as a ‘cryptid’, an animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the Loch Ness Monster.

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The first newspaper report of this flying cryptid appeared in the Point Pleasant Register dated November 16, 1966, and has since become a cause célèbre and part of regional folklore. Mothman was later introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker in 1970 and was later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claiming that there were  supernatural events related to the sightings, and a connection to the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere,was based on Keel’s book.

Mothman Sightings Prior to the Silver Bridge Disaster.

  • On November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes “glowed red” when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a “large flying man with ten-foot wings, following their car while they were driving in an area outside of town known as ‘the TNT area’, the site of a former World War II munitions plant.
  • Two volunteer firemen sighted a “large bird with red eyes”. Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a “shitepoke”.
  • Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed “like bicycle reflectors”, and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature. 
    sandhill crane
    [Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the sandhill crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven-foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish colouring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.]
  •  In the immediate aftermath of the bridge collapse and the death of 46 people on December 15, 1967, there were no sighting reports concerning the Mothman, giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were somehow connected.
Folklorist_Jan_Harold_BrunvandAn Analysis by Jan Harold Brunvand, an American folklorist, researcher, writer, public speaker, and professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah,  noted that Mothman had been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman’s “home”. Brunvand notes that recountings of the 1966-67 Mothman reports usually stated that at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more “afraid to report their sightings” but observed that written sources for such stories consisted of children’s books or sensationalised or undocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers.

Post-Mothman Sightings.

Certain aspects of the Mothman mystery spilled over into subsequent decades, suggesting that similar creatures were witnessed at other major disasters at the time, or shortly thereafter. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster is one case in point.

chernobyl disaster

Fortean scholar Loren Coleman touched on the folkloric aspect of such stories of winged creatures.

“John Keel and I openly discussed with the media, and did our best to straighten out the record regarding the mythos that became the Chernobyl “Mothman” accounts.

The Chernobyl story, the Galveston Hurricane-Mothman tie-in, and other examples given in the 2002 movie were pure fiction. As you note, right after the movie was released, various websites posted the Chernobyl/Mothman sightings as factual. But there is not one thread of evidence that any winged weirdies were witnessed before the Chernobyl accident. It is a bit of movie fiction that has, unfortunately, moved into pseudo-factoid cryptozoology.”

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Ever since the tragic Silver Bridge collapse, Mothman sightings have been reported all over the world. More recent Mothman sightings include:
  • September 11, 2001: New York City. A large, winged creature was reportedly seen flying from the World Trade Center Towers on the day of the infamous terrorist attack.
  • 2001: The creature was also reported in Sedalia, Missouri, in Camden, Maine and in Mawnan, Cornwall, England.
  • 2002: The creature was reported in San Diego, California.
  • 2003: Mothman was reportedly seen in Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico.
  • 2004: It was reported in Valles de la Salle, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Ziebach County, South Dakota; Newport, Tennessee and in Martinez, California.
  • 2005: A large, man-shaped bird creature was reported in Cache, Comanche County, Oklahoma; Washington County, Pennsylvania and in San Marcos, California.
  • 2006: There were a large number of Mothman sightings in Mexico, Canada, England, Poland, Argentina, Brazil, Russia and all across the United States.

    The most recent Mothman sightings of 2015.data=RfCSdfNZ0LFPrHSm0ublXdzhdrDFhtmHhN1u-gM,x2RTpLO7hYLWI5igWIAdoRyhJOOYyGQ3SBRSpuvwXGFparuIy_Ss3bfvZhwos-u5-K597AM71JP9RExyi91vVBSLZqeobD4y_-_jW_Zh9C-2cHiL93FhGt3mUdfHmHOearXB6yMqE_mRNbo-xDJpqhbBSTy9OJ-cC3VO2F-st3UZsnaF

  • Fergus Waffles, a 46-year-old geography teacher at a Singapore school, said that he was walking his dog in the Istana Woodneuk area when he spotted the alleged creature.
“I was walking in the woods with my dog near an abandoned house at about 5:50 a.m.,” Waffles told Cryptozoology News. “I peered inside the window of the house and saw what appeared to be a winged humanoid hanging from a door frame. My dog saw the creature and remained completely still and silent while staring in its direction,” he added.
Waffles claims the humanoid was still with just its chest “moving up and down as if it were breathing”.
“I was very startled at first, but the creature didn’t notice me because as soon as I saw it I took cover behind a nearby bush.”
The teacher said the unknown being was about 6 feet tall with an approximated 10-foot wingspan.
“It was hard to tell because the wings were wrapped around its body, similar to a sleeping bat,” he said. “It was black and had webbed wings similar to a bat. It had a human head but slightly more round and it had hair. It was like the Mothman.”
The encounter reportedly took about 15 seconds before the man left the area. 
  • College student Mildred Wan said on Tuesday that he was scouting the location for a student film at an abandoned hospital near Changi.

Changi hospital

“I was walking out of the hospital doors having explored the surroundings,” he told Cryptozoology News. While I was inside, I had heard a noise which was similar to a large monkey rustling around the tree tops.”
Wan says what happened next was “one of the most terrifying experiences” of his life.
“As I left the building, I saw the creature. It appeared to be halfway up one of the trees with huge wings stretched out from its body, which appeared to be mostly human.”
Then, says the student, the “animal” emitted a “high-pitched shriek” so he ran away in order to get out of the area.
“I felt as if the creature was hunting me, or else was surprised to see me in its territory. It seemed to look in my direction before I ran off. When I turned around, it had completely disappeared,” he explained.
Wan described the creature as a 6-feet-tall winged humanoid covered by a black “leathery skin”. Its head was rounded and looked “vaguely humanoid” although, he explains, it had a nose and a mouth that appeared to be full of “sharp fang teeth”.
“I was unable to see its eyes properly because it only appeared for a short amount of time. I have never seen any other animal or human like it,” said Wan.
He says that even though he had a camera with him due to the work he was doing for the future film, by the time the humanoid being showed up he had already packed away his equipment.
  • A woman claims she saw a creature that looked like a “tall man with wings” at an abandoned house in Singapore.
54-year-old avid birdwatcher Alice Yimdale said she was looking for birds near Dempsey Hill when she spotted the being inside the abandoned building last Sunday.
“It was 2:30 p.m. when my husband and I went to the forest looking for birds, I do love a good bird watching session,” she told Cryptozoology News. “This is why My husband and I live in Singapore, a hub of beautiful birds. We like this place because, unlike our house, it is quiet and tranquil.”
Yimdale reports that as they came near an empty building, she heard a “loud fluttering noise”.
“I was confused, so I decided to investigate… this is when I came across the thing.”
The woman said the being looked like a tall man with an “enormous” wingspan.
“I’d say around 9 to 10 feet. My husband says it was longer,” she explains. “It had a very thin body.”
Reportedly, the creature appeared to be barely moving and could have been a male or a female.
The couple maintained they had never seen anything like it before and that the 3-minute-long sighting was a “bit scary but exciting”.
Cryptozoology News asked the birdwatchers regarding the lack of photographic evidence of the alleged incident but there was not an immediate response.
Whether it be a myth, legend, fantasy, extra-dimensional entity, hoax, or true living cryptid, I suspect we have not heard the last of the Mothman.

© David Calvert 2016

Please note that at the bottom of each blog page there is a “Comments” box and a “Like” button, should you feel inclined to use them. Thank you.