Chupacabra in Kentucky???

Normally, I do not get too excited about the local news. Normally, it is just stories that will either make you angry, or depressed. Today however, had a different effect.

Thanks to a couple friends, I was tipped off to this story. Seems like a man in Kentucky has shot and killed what he believes to be a Chupacabra. Since I have not done an official write up on the "Goat Sucker", here is a quick run down.

The Chupacabra has been in popular culture since around 1995. Historically, they are normally spotted in Mexico, South and Southwestern United States, and Puerto Rico. The name Chupacabra comes from the Spanish language, meaning chupar "to suck" and cabra "goat." Basically, this animal bites its prey, leaving only a couple puncture wounds, and draining all of the blood out of the animal. Lots of sightings have been reported, but mostly they end up being coyotes with a bad case of mange.

That brings us to the new case. When I first read about this animal, the first thing that I did was look up where it was located. From where I am located, the area is only around two and a half hours away, so I started to plan my trip. After doing a little more digging, I decided that a trip would not be necessary. Lots of photos of the creature have been taken, and to me it appears that it is just a fox or small coyote with a case of mange. It does not appear to be anything out of the ordinary. Early next week, a biologist from the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife department will be examining the animal, so I am sure this will be determined to not be a Chupacabra. It is a shame, but at the same time, it is great that something like this breaks up the monotony of the nightly news, and brings creatures like this into the public eye.

Hopefully in the near future, we can find a true specimen of one of these amazing animals. Never stop searching, never stop believing.

Fox News
WLWT

Happy Holidays...

Have a safe and happy holiday this year! Look for big things from the CCzS this coming year!

Dover Demon...

Dover Massachusetts, probably not the first place you would think of when you hear the word cryptozoology. You might think of Scotland, or Walnut Creek California, or even Loveland Ohio, but Massachusetts? One of the classic cryptozoology cases comes to us from 1977, in the town of Dover.

In the spring of 1977, three teenagers were taking a joyride when the headlights of their car illuminated something in the road. At first glance, the driver thought it was a dog or a cat. Once they were a little closer, they realized that it was not anything that they had ever seen before. The creature was not very large, around three feet tall, hairless, long spindly arms and legs, and a huge, almost watermelon shape to its head. It also had no visible mouth, nose or ears, only bright orange eyes. The creature scattered away from the road to not be seen again. By these three anyway.

Around an hour later on the same night, two other teenagers were walking down the same road. They described seeing the exact same type creature, this time it crossed in front of them, ran down into a gully, climbed up the other side and watched the two teenagers from a distance. These two had no previous knowledge of the earlier incident.

The next evening, two other teenagers driving in the same area spotted the same creature. The only difference in their description was that it had glowing green eyes instead of orange from the original description. Everything else was described as all of the other accounts.

So what could all of this mean? Was this an alien? An escaped hairless monkey? A hoax from area teenagers to liven up their town? Or was this something genuine, something so real that one of the teenagers drew out a sketch of what he had seen, and wrote "I swear on a stack of bibles this is what I saw."

If you go back into history, way back in to Native American times, you normally find some similarities. The tribes of Eastern Canada, specifically the Cree, had a creature they called the Mannegishi. They described the Mannegishi as short, hairless, lanky creature with no mouth, nose or ears, and an excessively large head. The exact same description as the ones from the 1970s. For the Cree Indians, these creatures were tricksters, known for flipping over their canoes, and sending their people into the rapids. Another tribe, the Iroquois, had a similar creature called the Gahonga.

Once again, Native American legends are explaining phenomenon that we see in today's world.

Thunderbirds...

Imagine a large bird, for example, an Andean Condor. It has the largest wingspan out of any living bird on the planet, around 10.5ft at its max. That's pretty large. Now think bigger. That is where the thunderbird comes in. It was a creature that struck fear in many Native American tribes all over the world. Tribes believed that when this bird flapped its wings, it created thunder. Lightning would flash from it's eyes. They also have the knack of carrying away livestock, and sometimes even humans.

The above picture is from a rock painting near Alton, Illinois. This is a newer version of the painting, based off of much older sketches, but a cliff painting was originally here in this same location from the local Native American tribe. This was a depiction of the Piasa, the "Bird that devours man." Local legend says that this large animal lived in the caves of the area, and terrorized the local villages. This just sounds like Native American legend, but in 1977, it started to become more real.

North of Alton Il, by car around 2 hours, is the small town of Lawndale Il. One summer day in 1977 a boy was playing in his back yard when his mother noticed two large birds in the sky. One of the birds swooped down, grabbed her son, and started to fly off with him. In her frightened moment, she started to scream, which startled the bird, and it dropped her son. Many people witnessed the event, and many sightings happened in the area during the 1970s.

Sightings like this are not that uncommon throughout history. From Illinois to Alaska, down to Texas, and many other places in the world. Some people were not as lucky as the boy from Lawndale. In Canada, in 1886, the Manitoba Daily Press reported a large bird had devoured the brain of a two year old, by using it's beak to open the child's skull. In 1924, in South Africa, a child's remains were found with puncture wounds from what they estimated to be a 14cm long talon. The common theme for thunderbirds is to prey upon smaller children, and eat their internal organs. Looks like the child from Illinois lucked out. In 1890, the Tombstone Epigraph reported two cowboys shot and killed a thunderbird. This is the only recent account in history of man killing a thunderbird. The wingspan of the animal was claimed to be 160ft. The animal was pinned to a local barn for a photo op, which of course, no photos seem to remain.

These creatures are not just from North America, but are found in folklore from all over the world. Some of the more popular names: The Demaj of Persia, Imgig of Mesopotamia, Anka of Arabia, Rukh of Madagascar, Vekher of Russia, Simurgh and Garunda of Asia, and the Norse called it the Hraesvalg. Marco Polo had an account of Thunderbirds, the native people of Madagascar told him great stories of the Rukh, which had the ability to carry off elephants with it's wingspan of 50ft.

So whether this is a misplaced Andean Condor, a living fossil like a Terratorn or Pterodactyl, people are seeing something all over the world that resembles a large, winged creature. Since birds are the most accessible, and easiest observed animal in the world, I would imagine that one of these will be one of the first "new" discoveries in the natural world. Especially a bird with the wingspan anywhere from 50-160ft!

Mokele-Mbembe

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Africa? Lions? Hippos? Gorillas? Lots of various animal species cover the large continent, over lots of different habitats. From deserts, to coastal regions, to savannas, to the jungle, Africa seems to have it all. That said, they even still have dinosaurs...

Supposedly, in the Congo River Basin, around the waterways and lakes, there lives an animal called by the locals as Mokele-Mbembe, translated as "One who stops the flow of rivers." That's a pretty impressive name. This animal resembles a rhino or elepant sized sauropod, more commonly known as a Brachiosauros or Diplodocus. This animal has a hatred of hippopotamuses, killing them on sight, and also very leery of humans. Strictly an herbivore, it will not eat what it kills. To me, it seems that it just does not like to be bothered.

The first known sighting of sorts comes from a French missionary in the year 1776AD. The animal itself was not sighted, but the missionary did see tracks that he described that the creature "must have been monstrous: the marks of the claws were noted on the ground, and these formed a print about three feet in circumference."

Countless sightings and tales have happened since then, even various expeditions searching for the animal. One of the more famous sightings of sorts was during an expedition of the Smithsonian Institute starting in the year 1919AD. According to the authors of the "Field Guide to Lake Monsters," the trip found some interesting data. It states: "African guides found large, unexplained tracks along the bank of a river and later in a swamp the team heard mysterious roars, which had no resemblance to any known animal."

Today, it's hard to believe that an animal of such stature could go on unnoticed. But think of this, the Western Lowland Gorilla was thought to have a population of around 50,000. Then in 2006-2007, a team discovered more than 100,000 unreported gorillas living in a swamp area around one of the major Mokele-Mbembe reported areas. That is pretty interesting to think about. 100,000 gorillas living unnoticed by humans for quite some time. Possibly like a small population of sauropods, living in the dense, highly untraveled areas of the Congo River Basin. Something to think about...

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The White River Monster...

Keeping with the current theme of aquatic cryptids, lets turn our attention to a little known animal known to the locals of Arkansas as "Whitey."

The town of Newport Arkansas is mostly famous for being the place where Sam Walton got his start in the "five and dime" store business. You have probably heard of his more successful business venture, Wal-Mart. Anyway, Newport is also famous for having a lesser known cryptid known as the White River Monster.

One of the earlier accounts of "Whitey" comes from the Civil War. So the story goes, Whitey sank a Confederate munitions ship. There is also a story from the Quapaw Indian tribe that has been passed down of Whitey sinking an indian's canoe. The more recent sightings do not involve the sinking of ships, only the sightings of this mysterious creature.

The first publicized sighting was in July of 1915, when a farmer noticed the beast splashing around in the river and described it as "wide as a car and three cars long." He also stated that the animal was gray. Whitey stayed hidden for some time, up until 1937 when two fishermen noticed the animal while having a hard time fishing. They reported the animal to the nearest land owner, who saw the creature, described it as having the skin of an elephant, being five feet wide by twelve feet long, and also having a face like a catfish. The farmer thought that this animal would destroy his crops, so he then applied with the local authorities to use T.N.T. to destroy the eddy and drive out the creature. Luckily for Whitey, the authorites denied his request, but the story brought in many people from across the USA. Many people showed up with cameras, a few brought their own explosives, and one reportedly even brought a machine gun. At this point in the story, people were starting to accuse the farmer of creating a hoax, just for tourism. But this was a highpoint in Whitey sightings, with around 100 during this short period alone.

Whitey stayed hidden for some time again, but resurfacing in June of 1971, when a few fishermen noticed a fountain of water blast from the surface of the river, with Whitey showing itself, this time with a spiky back. Luckily, one of the fishermen took a photo of the elusive creature, which was sold to the local paper. Supposedly, the photo was very blurry and many people were not impressed with it, but the newspaper has since lost the original copy of the photo.

The early 1970s brought many more sightings into the fold, many describing a long gray creature the length of a boxcar. Also noted from this era in the descriptions were a strange tusk sticking out of the animals head, and the bizarre noises that came from it, like the mixture of a cow's moo with a horse's neigh.

Then, in 1973, the Arkansas State Legislature created the "White River Monster Refuge," where it is illegal to "molest, kill, trample, or harm" the White River Monster if one is discovered. I find this very interesting that the state government decided to become involved in a cryptid. It could very well be a political move to bring in tourists to a very small town, but it could be a very handy piece of legislature if people really kick up the search for this amazing animal.

One possible explanation for this unknown creature for some is that it is a male Elephant Seal. With its bizarre vocalization, it's "tusk/bone/horn" sticking out of it's face, like the male seal's extended nose, and add the grayish coloration, one might think this would fit the description. Not to mention that Elephant Seals are known to migrate great distances. But in order for this to be true, it would mean that the seal would've had to swim through the Panama Canal to reach this area, with the closest Elephant Seal colony on the western side of North America. While possible, I find this highly unlikely.

So whether this is a hoax for tourism, a wayward Elephant Seal, or a truly unique animal, this is a creature that deserves more attention. So if you are ever in Northeastern Arkansas, take a closer look at the White River, and if nothing else, buy a T-shirt saying that you looked for Whitey.