Merry Cryptid Christmas

 I wish you all a happy peaceful Christmas and all the very best for 2023. Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog. 

Its been a rough couple of years for us all I survived major surgery and sepsis ,losing  a part of  my foot in the process,and am still recovering.On top of covid,lockdown and unrest in the world we have all struggled  and its not over yet. Whoever you are,where ever in the world you are ,I wish you good things for the future.  Merry Christmas xx

Cryptids at Christmas

Christmas Monsters!

Christmas is also for Monsters!

 Not all Christmas creatures are benign like Santa Claus. Krampus looks like a demonic goat who walks on its hind legs like a human. He punishes naughty children, beating them with birch branches and carries a basket on his back so he can carry off a child to eat later.The 5th of December is Krampusnacht ,men in homemade Krampus costumes run around Alpine villages causing havoc. These 'Krampus Runs' continue today. The Karakoncolos looks like a cross between the Devil and a Sasquatch. In Turkey, the legend says he would stand at street corners on winter nights setting riddles for passers-by. If the traveller gave an answer that included the word ‘black’ they were free to go on their way. If not, he would strike them dead .Sometimes the Karakoncolos would just put them in a trance and leave them to roam free. In Serbia, the story says the Karakoncolos jumps on the victim’s back and uses them as a ride. The exhausted person was only released at dawn. Jólakötturinn is the Icelandic Yule Cat or Christmas Cat. Jólakötturinn, who first appeared in the 19th century, a huge, ferocious beast with razor-like whiskers, blazing eyes and terrible claws who consumed any child who did not receive new clothes on Christmas Day.It is tied into an Icelandic tradition in which those who finish their work on time received new clothes for Christmas, while those who were lazy did not . Jólakötturinn could tell who the lazy children were because they did not have at least one new item of clothing for Christmas and these children would be eaten by the Yule Cat. Then there is the macabre skeleton mare of Welsh tradition,Mary Lwyd, which rises from the dead and wanders the streets with her undead attendants, to remind the living of their existence. Mary Lwyd wants to to get into your house. To keep the zombie horse out, you must engage in a battle of rhymes . Usually singing the rhymes to which the zombie horse replies.On New Year’s Eve, the undead mare is represented by a puppeteer parading a horse skull on a pole draped in white cloth around the towns and villages. Next there is a creature from Scandinavian folklore who looks like a gnome and lives among the dead inside burial mounds called the Tomten.He can act as a caretaker of the household, that is if you keep on his good side. The Tomten has quite the temper and is known for biting people who upset him. The bites are poisonous and deadly. People leave a gift of food out on Christmas Eve for the Tomten. One of Iceland’s creatures associated with Christmas is Gryla a giant troll who is bad tempered with an insatiable hunger for children. Each Christmas, Gryla comes down from her mountain dwelling to hunt for naughty children. She catches them in a sack and takes them back to her cave where she boils them alive for her favourite stew.

 A Cryptozoology Christmas Carol To be sung to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas: 

 On the first day of christmas I received in the post an owlman in a large tree

 On the second day of christmas I received in the post two thunderbirds 

 On the third day of christmas I received in the post three almas

 On the fourth day of christmas I received in the post four ozark howlers

 On the fifth day of christmas I received in the post five gold ogopogos

 On the sixth day of christmas I received in the post six bunyips laying

 On the seventh day of christmas I received in the post seven Nessies swimming

 On the eigth day of christmas I received in the post eight chupacabras sucking

 On the ninth day of christmas I received in the post nine yetis dancing

 On the tenth day of christmas I received in the post ten spring heeled jacks leaping 

 On the eleventh day of christmas I received in the post eleven black dogs howling 

 On the twelfth day of christmas I received in the post twelve bigfoots drumming And an owlman in a large treeeeeee. 

(First posted 2009)

Lake Chelan Creature

 

Lake Chelan Dragon

 

Lake Chelan is in  northwestern, U.S. A. The narrow lake goes through a glacier-carved valley . It is fed by the Stehekin River.Its length is 55 miles (88 metres) and is  estimated to be 1,486 feet deep.

It is said to be home to a monster.The monster was supposedly brought there in September 1812 by a Captain Chelan’s on his ship,as an egg.The egg was came from Captain Chelan’s childhood home in Fort Augustus  Scotland.The egg was said to be offspring from the Loch Ness Monster.

The Lake Chelan monster  is believed to be a dragon that  can fly..Local indigenous people in  the area have a long history of stories of encounters with the Dragon. Accounts claim that on December 2nd 1892, three men on the shore  were attacked by a Creature from the lake. It apparently grabbed one of the men and flew off with him.

The Daily Picayune of New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 4, 1892, published this account , “An Amphibious Monster.”

A most extraordinary story comes from Boise City, Idaho, which is said to be well authenticated.It says that while three travelers were at the upper end of Lake Chelan recently one of them went into the water to bathe. He was seized by the foot by a marine [sic] monster and was being pulled into deep water, when his screams attracted the attention of his companions, who came to his rescue. They pulled him ashore, the monster hanging to his foot.It had legs and body like an alligator and the head and eyes of a serpent. Between its fore and hind legs were large ribbed wings.The men tried hard to tear the monster from the foot of their companion, and finally tried fire, which had the effect of causing the animal to rise suddenly into the air, taking its victim along, and finally landing in the lake, where both disappeared from sight.

No further information was published.

In 1945 a school bus crashed into Lake Chelan.Everyone on board was killed. Divers were sent  down to investigate and recover bodies. They said they were circled by a slithery shadow, a creature  75 feet ( 25 metres)  in length. The divers came up and refused to return under water.

So a dragon or a large aquatic creature? Sounds more like a large snake or eel. What do you think?

A Kelpie in Loch Borralan?

  

Loch Borralan Water Kelpie

Loch Borralan is a freshwater loch in the Assynt District of Sutherland.It has with wild brown trout and char for fishing and is  popular with tourists.It is about 7 metres (21 feet) deep. It is said to be the home of a kelpie.

Usually in the form of a  horse, kelpies live by lakes /lochs and  tempt passersby to ride on their backs.The rider finds themselves unable to dismount .The kelpie then dives into the water,drowning the rider which it later eats. The kelpie at Borralan is said to appear as a white steed.

The story goes that   two fishermen went missing when fishing at the side of the loch.The only things found by searchers were a brace of fish and  two fishing rods.Large hoof prints were seen in the sand .They appeared to come from the loch and disappeared back into the water.

The Assynt area is a place of strangeness:

Loch Assynt is a few miles  inland from the  west coast of the Scottish Highlands in Sutherland. In 1837 two fishermen claimed to see a strange creature ,not once but twice.Also in the same area Loch Awe is a large fresh water loch . There have been stories of a creature in the Loch going back hundreds of years. The creature is said to come ashore during winter and can be heard growling and panting.

Read rest here:

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2022/06/three-lochsone-monster.html

Stories of Kelpies are common .

Map of lochs with kelpies

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1I0Jks27q9VE94UE40FiNR2G732M&hl=en_US&ll=56.93641755164652%2C-5.048162209277626&z=6

Do Kelpies exist or are they just folk tales? What do you think?

Zombies for Halloween

 

For Halloween- Do Zombies exist?

Zombies: Do They Exist?

By Bernard Diederich;Claudia Wallis Monday, Oct. 17, 1983

Yes, says a Harvard scientist, who offers an explanation.On a brilliant day in the spring of 1980, a stranger arrived at L'Estère marketplace in Haiti's fertile Artibonite Valley. The man's gait was heavy, his eyes vacant. The peasants watched fearfully as he approached a local woman named Angelina Narcisse. She listened as he introduced himself, then screamed in horror—and recognition. The man had given the boyhood nickname of her deceased brother Clairvius Narcisse, a name that was known only to family members and had not been used since his funeral in 1962.This incident and four others in recent years have sparked the most systematic inquiry ever made into the legendary voodoo phenomenon of zombiism. According to Haitian belief, a zombie is an individual who has been "killed" and then raised from the dead by malevolent voodoo priests known as "bocors." Though most educated Haitians deny the existence of zombies, Dr. Lamarque Douyon, Canadian-trained head of the Psychiatric Center in Port-au-Prince, has been trying for 25 years to establish the truth about the phenomenon, no easy matter in a land where the line between myth and reality is faintly drawn. More recently, Douyon has been joined in his search by Harvard Botanist E. Wade Davis. Next month Davis is publishing a paper on his findings in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology. His startling conclusion: "Zombiism exists and is a societal phenomenon that can be explained logically." Douyon set the stage for Davis' study by foraying into rural Haiti, where he met with purported zombies and fearsome bocors. At least 15 individuals who had been branded zombies by terrified peasants turned out to be victims of epilepsy, mental retardation, insanity or alcoholism. The case of Clairvius Narcisse, however, gave Douyon good evidence. Medical records showed he was declared dead in 1962 at Albert Schweitzer Hospital, an American-run institution in Deschapelles. Yet more than 200 people recognized him after his reappearance.The best explanation, Douyon believed, was that Narcisse had been poisoned in such a way that his vital signs could not be detected. The psychiatrist obtained a sample of a coma-inducing toxin from a bocor. The poison is apparently used to punish individuals who have transgressed the will of their community or family. Narcisse, for example, said that he had been "killed" by his brothers for refusing to go along with their plan to sell the family land. Ti-Femme, a female zombie also under study by Douyon, had been poisoned for refusing to marry the man her family had chosen for her and for bearing another man’s child. Douyon sent a quantity of the zombie potion to the U.S., where it came to Davis' attention. An expert on tribal uses of plants, Davis flew to Haiti and began collecting his own samples. "The principal ingredients are consistent in three of four localities," he reports in his paper. Several plants containing skin irritants are used, a charred human bone is thrown in just for show, but the active ingredients are a large New World toad (Bufo marinus) and one or more species of puffer fish. The toad, Davis reports, is a "veritable chemical factory," containing hallucinogens, powerful anesthetics and chemicals that affect the heart and nervous system. The fish is more potent still, containing a deadly nerve poison called tetrodotoxin. To learn how these poisons might relate to zombiism, Davis turned to an unlikely source: Japanese medical literature. Every year a number of Japanese suffer Botanist Davis tetrodotoxin poisoning as a result of eating incorrectly prepared puffer fish, the great delicacy fugu. Davis found that entire Japanese case histories "read like accounts of zombification." Indeed, nearly every symptom reported by Narcisse and his doctors is described, from the initial difficulty breathing to the final paralysis, glassy-eyed stare and yet the retention of mental faculties. In at least two cases, Japanese victims were declared dead but recovered before they could be buried. Japanese reports confirmed what Davis was told by the bocors: the effect of the poison depends on the dosage; too much will kill "too completely," and resuscitation will be impossible. Even with the correct dose, the bocors said, a zombie must be exhumed within about eight hours or will be lost, presumably to asphyxiation. How zombies are revived from their deathlike comas remains a mystery. Both Davis and Douyon heard stories about a graveyard ritual in which the bocor pounds on the earth and awakens the victim, but neither was able to witness it. Davis did learn that upon reviving, the zombie is force-fed a paste made of sweet potato and datura, a plant known to Haitians as zombie cucumber. Datura, says Davis, is "one of the most potent hallucinogenic plants known." Thus the zombie is led away in a state of intoxication, usually to work as a slave. Narcisse, who spent several years as a slave on a sugar plantation, reports that zombies do not make very good workers. Says he: "The slightest chore required great effort." He reports that his senses were so dFor Halloween- Do Zombies exist?

Zombies: Do They Exist?

By Bernard Diederich;Claudia Wallis Monday, Oct. 17, 1983

Yes, says a Harvard scientist, who offers an explanation.On a brilliant day in the spring of 1980, a stranger arrived at L'Estère marketplace in Haiti's fertile Artibonite Valley. The man's gait was heavy, his eyes vacant. The peasants watched fearfully as he approached a local woman named Angelina Narcisse. She listened as he introduced himself, then screamed in horror—and recognition. The man had given the boyhood nickname of her deceased brother Clairvius Narcisse, a name that was known only to family members and had not been used since his funeral in 1962.This incident and four others in recent years have sparked the most systematic inquiry ever made into the legendary voodoo phenomenon of zombiism. According to Haitian belief, a zombie is an individual who has been "killed" and then raised from the dead by malevolent voodoo priests known as "bocors." Though most educated Haitians deny the existence of zombies, Dr. Lamarque Douyon, Canadian-trained head of the Psychiatric Center in Port-au-Prince, has been trying for 25 years to establish the truth about the phenomenon, no easy matter in a land where the line between myth and reality is faintly drawn. More recently, Douyon has been joined in his search by Harvard Botanist E. Wade Davis. Next month Davis is publishing a paper on his findings in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology. His startling conclusion: "Zombiism exists and is a societal phenomenon that can be explained logically." Douyon set the stage for Davis' study by foraying into rural Haiti, where he met with purported zombies and fearsome bocors. At least 15 individuals who had been branded zombies by terrified peasants turned out to be victims of epilepsy, mental retardation, insanity or alcoholism. The case of Clairvius Narcisse, however, gave Douyon good evidence. Medical records showed he was declared dead in 1962 at Albert Schweitzer Hospital, an American-run institution in Deschapelles. Yet more than 200 people recognized him after his reappearance.The best explanation, Douyon believed, was that Narcisse had been poisoned in such a way that his vital signs could not be detected. The psychiatrist obtained a sample of a coma-inducing toxin from a bocor. The poison is apparently used to punish individuals who have transgressed the will of their community or family. Narcisse, for example, said that he had been "killed" by his brothers for refusing to go along with their plan to sell the family land. Ti-Femme, a female zombie also under study by Douyon, had been poisoned for refusing to marry the man her family had chosen for her and for bearing another man’s child. Douyon sent a quantity of the zombie potion to the U.S., where it came to Davis' attention. An expert on tribal uses of plants, Davis flew to Haiti and began collecting his own samples. "The principal ingredients are consistent in three of four localities," he reports in his paper. Several plants containing skin irritants are used, a charred human bone is thrown in just for show, but the active ingredients are a large New World toad (Bufo marinus) and one or more species of puffer fish. The toad, Davis reports, is a "veritable chemical factory," containing hallucinogens, powerful anesthetics and chemicals that affect the heart and nervous system. The fish is more potent still, containing a deadly nerve poison called tetrodotoxin. To learn how these poisons might relate to zombiism, Davis turned to an unlikely source: Japanese medical literature. Every year a number of Japanese suffer Botanist Davis tetrodotoxin poisoning as a result of eating incorrectly prepared puffer fish, the great delicacy fugu. Davis found that entire Japanese case histories "read like accounts of zombification." Indeed, nearly every symptom reported by Narcisse and his doctors is described, from the initial difficulty breathing to the final paralysis, glassy-eyed stare and yet the retention of mental faculties. In at least two cases, Japanese victims were declared dead but recovered before they could be buried. Japanese reports confirmed what Davis was told by the bocors: the effect of the poison depends on the dosage; too much will kill "too completely," and resuscitation will be impossible. Even with the correct dose, the bocors said, a zombie must be exhumed within about eight hours or will be lost, presumably to asphyxiation. How zombies are revived from their deathlike comas remains a mystery. Both Davis and Douyon heard stories about a graveyard ritual in which the bocor pounds on the earth and awakens the victim, but neither was able to witness it. Davis did learn that upon reviving, the zombie is force-fed a paste made of sweet potato and datura, a plant known to Haitians as zombie cucumber. Datura, says Davis, is "one of the most potent hallucinogenic plants known." Thus the zombie is led away in a state of intoxication, usually to work as a slave. Narcisse, who spent several years as a slave on a sugar plantation, reports that zombies do not make very good workers. Says he: "The slightest chore required great effort." He reports that his senses were so distorted that the smallest stream seemed a wide and unfordable sea, as though "my eyes were turned in." Davis has sent samples of the zombie potion to laboratories in Europe and the U.S., where in one experiment it induced a trancelike state in rats. Such research in the past led to the discovery of curare, an arrow poison from the Amazon now used to paralyze muscles during surgery. Tetrodotoxin may also one day find its place in the medical armamentarium. "People who have lived in the tropics for centuries have learned things about plants and animals that we have not fathomed," says Richard Evan Schultes, head of Harvard's renowned Botanical Museum. "We must not leave any stone unturned, or their secrets will be lost."

— By Claudia Wallis. Reported by Bernard Diederich/Port-au-Prince .source:

  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952208-2,00.html

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Deadistorted that the smallest stream seemed a wide and unfordable sea, as though "my eyes were turned in." Davis has sent samples of the zombie potion to laboratories in Europe and the U.S., where in one experiment it induced a trancelike state in rats. Such research in the past led to the discovery of curare, an arrow poison from the Amazon now used to paralyze muscles during surgery. Tetrodotoxin may also one day find its place in the medical armamentarium. "People who have lived in the tropics for centuries have learned things about plants and animals that we have not fathomed," says Richard Evan Schultes, head of Harvard's renowned Botanical Museum. "We must not leave any stone unturned, or their secrets will be lost."

— By Claudia Wallis. Reported by Bernard Diederich/Port-au-Prince .source:
  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952208-2,00.html

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead

Vampire Bats for Halloween

 

Vampire Bats , legend and reality.

Vampire bats are not exactly cryptozoological but are creatures of legend and myths from all over the world ,especially Europe. Vampire bats do exist, but only in Central and South America, not in Transylvania . The three species are :the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus, or Desmodus, youngi) and the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata) . So where does the name come from?"Bat" comes from Old Norse "ledhrblaka," or "leather flapper." It became "bakka" and then "bat." "Vampire" comes from Magyar "vampir," meaning "witch" not blood sucker as such. Bats are in the single order, Chiroptera (hand-winged) and are thought to have appeared n the late Palaeocene or early Cretaceous (Altringham 1996). There is poor representation of bats in the fossil record.
The bats have a wingspan of approximately eight inches and a body about three inches long .They tend to feed on the blood of large birds, cattle, horses, and pigs. However, they don’t suck the blood of their prey but use their teeth, to make small cuts in the skin of a sleeping animal. The bats' saliva contains a chemical that keeps the blood from clotting. The bats then lap up the blood that oozes from the wound. Another chemical in their saliva numbs the animal's skin and keeps them from waking up. A vampire bat finds its prey with echolocation( like radar ), smell, and sound. They fly about one meter above the ground. Then they use special heat sensors in their noses to find veins that are close to the skin.

They live in colonies which have quite strong social bonds, grooming each other and recognizing their fellows with voice and smell. The structure is imperative to their survival, as there are many nights when a bat may not find a host to feed on. The hungry bats are fed from others through a process of regurgitation. If vampire bats do not get their share of blood on a regular basis, they rapidly deteriorate. A bat may be close to starvation within 2-3 days (Altringham 1996). . In the wild, vampire bats live to about 9 years old, but can reach 20 years in captivity. Vampire bats mate all year round. The bat may consume up to 60% of its body weight in blood and it only needs the red blood cells, it will begin excreting plasma before its meal is over. With a specialized stomach and kidneys, the vampire rapidly removes the plasma as it may take up to twenty minutes to the bat to finish its meal (Altringham 1996).

Central and South America are alive with superstitions about the vampire bat. It is said that bats are dirty germ carriers feeding on human blood or that they have supernatural powers allowing them to change shapes from man to bat. While these legends may sound strange, there is recorded evidence of human hosts. Glover Allen (1939)wrote about bats feeding on humans, “while travelling down the Amazon valley, he (Dr. William Farabee) awoke one morning to find that a vampire during the night had gouged a small piece of skin from the tip of his nose and had evidently feasted while he slept, for the wound was still bleeding slightly” . Not all tales are negative; bloodletting has traditionally held healing qualities.

Western literature has embraced the vampire bat making it popular in fiction with Dracula stories as they did not appear in early vampire myth. The European folklore of vampires did not incorporate the bat probably because they did not exist in Europe. Apart from the captive animals in zoos, vampire bats have apparently never been found outside of the Americas. See articles below about the vampire bat as disease carrier.

Vampire bats blamed for Venezuela rabies outbreak

By Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela Sunday, 10 August 2008

see : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/vampire-bats-blamed-for-venezuela-rabies-outbreak-889772.html

At least 38 Venezuelans have died as a result of a suspected outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. Laboratory tests have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, say researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and other medical experts. At least 38 Warao Indians have died since June 2007, 16 of them since the start of June this year, according to a report that the Berkeley researchers, an anthropologist and public health specialist, and indigenous leaders provided to Venezuelan officials last week. All the victims died within two to seven days after the onset of symptoms. One village, Mukuboina, lost eight of its roughly 80 inhabitants – all of them children. Health officials investigating the outbreak are now planning to distribute mosquito nets to prevent bat bites and send a medical boat to provide treatment in the remote villages on the Orinoco river delta.Outbreaks of rabies spread by vampire bats are a problem in various tropical areas of South America, including Brazil and Peru. The common vampire bat, which feeds on mammals' blood, swoops down and generally approaches its sleeping prey on the ground. The bat then makes a small incision with its teeth, and an anticoagulant in its saliva keeps the blood flowing while it drinks the blood. Symptoms of rabies include fever, tingling in the feet followed by paralysis, and an extreme fear of water.

And also this article from 2005: http://www.livescience.com/animals/051104_vampire_bats.html

Excerpt from article :Bites from rabid vampire bats were blamed for 23 deaths in northern Brazil over the past two months, according to local newspaper reports. Many scientists fear such encounters will become more common as the bats' forests homes are destroyed and they are lured towards cattle ranches and farms where livestock and humans make easy prey. A common one is that the bats bite the throats of their human victims. The truth is a little less glamorous."They're more likely to go for a person's big toe," French told LiveScience. "There's a good blood supply there and the bite is usually less noticeable."Also, instead of sucking the blood of their victims as is generally believed, vampire bats make a small tear in their victim's skin and lap at the blood as it oozes out. When the bats have finished their meal, they're often so engorged with blood that they're too heavy to fly. The bats have to crawl off their sleeping victims and go someplace to digest their meal before returning home. A lot of human deaths could be prevented if people take simple precautions, French said.

Ker Than, LiveScience Staff Writer posted: 04 November 2005

It seems such a shame that these animals could be made extinct by humans destroying their homes and forcing them into a position where their hunting makes them open to being eradicated. They will then be true cryptozoological legends , and I for one hope that doesn’t happen.

Altringham, John D. 1996. Bats, Biology and Behavior Oxford University Press;Vampire Bats , legend and reality.

Vampire bats are not exactly cryptozoological but are creatures of legend and myths from all over the world ,especially Europe. Vampire bats do exist, but only in Central and South America, not in Transylvania . The three species are :the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus, or Desmodus, youngi) and the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata) . So where does the name come from?"Bat" comes from Old Norse "ledhrblaka," or "leather flapper." It became "bakka" and then "bat." "Vampire" comes from Magyar "vampir," meaning "witch" not blood sucker as such. Bats are in the single order, Chiroptera (hand-winged) and are thought to have appeared n the late Palaeocene or early Cretaceous (Altringham 1996). There is poor representation of bats in the fossil record.

The bats have a wingspan of approximately eight inches and a body about three inches long .They tend to feed on the blood of large birds, cattle, horses, and pigs. However, they don’t suck the blood of their prey but use their teeth, to make small cuts in the skin of a sleeping animal. The bats' saliva contains a chemical that keeps the blood from clotting. The bats then lap up the blood that oozes from the wound. Another chemical in their saliva numbs the animal's skin and keeps them from waking up. A vampire bat finds its prey with echolocation( like radar ), smell, and sound. They fly about one meter above the ground. Then they use special heat sensors in their noses to find veins that are close to the skin.

They live in colonies which have quite strong social bonds, grooming each other and recognizing their fellows with voice and smell. The structure is imperative to their survival, as there are many nights when a bat may not find a host to feed on. The hungry bats are fed from others through a process of regurgitation. If vampire bats do not get their share of blood on a regular basis, they rapidly deteriorate. A bat may be close to starvation within 2-3 days (Altringham 1996). . In the wild, vampire bats live to about 9 years old, but can reach 20 years in captivity. Vampire bats mate all year round. The bat may consume up to 60% of its body weight in blood and it only needs the red blood cells, it will begin excreting plasma before its meal is over. With a specialized stomach and kidneys, the vampire rapidly removes the plasma as it may take up to twenty minutes to the bat to finish its meal (Altringham 1996).

Central and South America are alive with superstitions about the vampire bat. It is said that bats are dirty germ carriers feeding on human blood or that they have supernatural powers allowing them to change shapes from man to bat. While these legends may sound strange, there is recorded evidence of human hosts. Glover Allen (1939)wrote about bats feeding on humans, “while travelling down the Amazon valley, he (Dr. William Farabee) awoke one morning to find that a vampire during the night had gouged a small piece of skin from the tip of his nose and had evidently feasted while he slept, for the wound was still bleeding slightly” . Not all tales are negative; bloodletting has traditionally held healing qualities.

Western literature has embraced the vampire bat making it popular in fiction with Dracula stories as they did not appear in early vampire myth. The European folklore of vampires did not incorporate the bat probably because they did not exist in Europe. Apart from the captive animals in zoos, vampire bats have apparently never been found outside of the Americas. See articles below about the vampire bat as disease carrier.

Vampire bats blamed for Venezuela rabies outbreak

By Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela Sunday, 10 August 2008

see : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/vampire-bats-blamed-for-venezuela-rabies-outbreak-889772.html

At least 38 Venezuelans have died as a result of a suspected outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. Laboratory tests have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, say researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and other medical experts. At least 38 Warao Indians have died since June 2007, 16 of them since the start of June this year, according to a report that the Berkeley researchers, an anthropologist and public health specialist, and indigenous leaders provided to Venezuelan officials last week. All the victims died within two to seven days after the onset of symptoms. One village, Mukuboina, lost eight of its roughly 80 inhabitants – all of them children. Health officials investigating the outbreak are now planning to distribute mosquito nets to prevent bat bites and send a medical boat to provide treatment in the remote villages on the Orinoco river delta.Outbreaks of rabies spread by vampire bats are a problem in various tropical areas of South America, including Brazil and Peru. The common vampire bat, which feeds on mammals' blood, swoops down and generally approaches its sleeping prey on the ground. The bat then makes a small incision with its teeth, and an anticoagulant in its saliva keeps the blood flowing while it drinks the blood. Symptoms of rabies include fever, tingling in the feet followed by paralysis, and an extreme fear of water.

And also this article from 2005: http://www.livescience.com/animals/051104_vampire_bats.html

Excerpt from article :Bites from rabid vampire bats were blamed for 23 deaths in northern Brazil over the past two months, according to local newspaper reports. Many scientists fear such encounters will become more common as the bats' forests homes are destroyed and they are lured towards cattle ranches and farms where livestock and humans make easy prey. A common one is that the bats bite the throats of their human victims. The truth is a little less glamorous."They're more likely to go for a person's big toe," French told LiveScience. "There's a good blood supply there and the bite is usually less noticeable."Also, instead of sucking the blood of their victims as is generally believed, vampire bats make a small tear in their victim's skin and lap at the blood as it oozes out. When the bats have finished their meal, they're often so engorged with blood that they're too heavy to fly. The bats have to crawl off their sleeping victims and go someplace to digest their meal before returning home. A lot of human deaths could be prevented if people take simple precautions, French said.

Ker Than, LiveScience Staff Writer posted: 04 November 2005

It seems such a shame that these animals could be made extinct by humans destroying their homes and forcing them into a position where their hunting makes them open to being eradicated. They will then be true cryptozoological legends , and I for one hope that doesn’t happen.

Altringham, John D. 1996. Bats, Biology and Behavior Oxford University Press;

University of Leeds, New York.

Allen, Glover Morrill. 1939. Bats Dover Publications; Harvard University, New York.

University of Leeds, New York.

Allen, Glover Morrill. 1939. Bats Dover Publications; Harvard University, New York.

The Bigfoot of Kent?

 

The Kentish Beast.

The Beast of Tunbridge Wells is a  bigfoot type creature  reported to have been seen in Kent.

An elderly couple  claimed to have seen it in 1942.They were sitting on a bench when they became aware of a shuffling noise behind them.When they turned around they saw a tall, ape-like creature with red eyes moving slowly towards them. They both fled . It was reported to the police as they thought   that a gorilla had escaped from a zoo. Local people  laughed  on hearing of it ,thinking it a joke and they were not believed.

In 1991, five members of the Territorial Army claimed to have chased  off the beast with stones and shouting  on Blue Bell Hill, outside Maidstone.In Chatham a young girl with her partner saw the apeman appear then run off into the bushes.

In 2012 over six months a number of sightings of the mysterious beast were again reported.

It was first spotted by a walker in the woods beside the town's common.The man   ran off after the beast roared at him.

A girl named Charlotte was driving home from the University of Kent, when "she saw a creature with long arms and knees which came up under its chin as it walked".

The locals are split into those who believe and those who think it is a man in a fancy dress ,a joker.

This article appeared in November 2012:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236709/The-Beast-Tunbridge-Wells-Terrified-walker-claims-8ft-tall-creature-demonic-red-eyes-long-arms-roared-historic-towns-woods.html

It could be simply a person living wild in the woods.In these days of unemployment etc. there are many homeless people. However the original sighting of one being 70 years ago ,it would be unlikely to be the same person. There has been a lot of discussion over the years of the possibility of a British Bigfoot but it seems unlikely as we don’t have the large areas of wilderness or jungle that other places have. I live in an area of Scotland known years ago as a hideout for outlaws etc as it is wild and remote but in these modern times of drones,mobile phones and people walking the hills for pleasure ,it would be hard for anything not to be spotted.So a British bigfoot seems unlikely as we have no unexplored areas.What do you think wildman, joker or Bigfoot?

The Royal Family and Lake Monsters

 

Royal Cryptozoologists.

 

As most people will know we have ben mourning the death of  Queen Elizabeth in the UK. It came to my mind about some articles I read over the years about the royal family and cryptozoology so I went in search of the same.

 

Queen Elizabeth was interested in Nessie as letters from the 1960s revealed.She  encouraged an investigation by Sir Peter Scott into the Loch  which is about 70 miles from the royal Scottish Balmoral estate.

Sir Peter, the son of Antarctic explorer Captain Scott, wrote to the Queen's assistant private secretary Martin Charteris revealing his proposals to track down Nessie in May 1960. 

According to the Independent, Mr Charteris replied to say the Queen was 'very interested'.

He wrote: 'Her Majesty has seen your letter and was very interested in its contents, and I hope that you will keep us in touch with the progress of your investigation.'

Sir Peter,a co-founder of the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau also wanted to name Nessie after Elizabeth.  Martin Charteris, replied  that there would have to be “absolutely irrefutable evidence” that the Loch Ness Monster was real before it could be renamed after the then queen. In the letter, he wrote: “It would be most regrettable to connect Her Majesty in any way with something which ultimately turned out to be a hoax.“Even if the animal does prove to exist I am not at all sure that it will be generally very appropriate to name it after Her Majesty since it has for so many years been known as 'The Monster'."The private secretary also wrote  that it would be a “great day in the zoological world if it can be proved that a hitherto unknown animal exists.”

Sadly it was not discovered before the queen died aged 96 years old.

 

In the 1980’s ,the then Prince Charles ,now King Charles ,also showed an interest in Lake creatures.

The Daily Star newspaper reported: "Prince Charles has joined the great Scottish monster hunt. He has asked to see a film made last year that is said to 'prove conclusively' that there are monsters in some Scottish lochs. “

The film was  shot by monster-hunter Sidney Wignall who said : 'By the time he's finished watching it, the Prince will no longer be in any doubt that these creatures are real and not just a figment of people's imagination.”  The footage was not taken at Loch Ness, but at Loch Morar . It was claimed that Sidney, 59, shot the seven-minute cine film from a hang glider at Loch Morar in the Western Highlands. He claims it shows Morag, a relative of the Loch Ness Monster. 'Part of the film shows two creatures leaving wakes behind them in the otherwise still water.' he said. ‘Another part shows a 1,000 yard wake similar to a torpedo’s. But the most frightening bit shows a creature - or something - lying perfectly still at the side of the loch. Whenever I get to that bit, my hair stands on end - and I’m sure it will do the same to the Prince.'

Whether the then Prince saw the film was not reported. The film appears to have been lost and could not be found today. Even the royal family wants to believe!

Tasmanian Tigers Return?

 

Tasmanian tiger: Scientists hope to revive marsupial from extinction

Researchers in Australia and the US are embarking on a multi-million dollar project to bring the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction.

The last known one, officially called a thylacine, died in the 1930s.

The team behind the bid say it can be recreated using stem cells and gene-editing technology, and the first thylacine could be reintroduced to the wild in 10 years' time.

Other experts are sceptical and suggest de-extinction is just science fiction.

The thylacine earned its nickname of Tasmanian tiger for the stripes along its back - but it was actually a marsupial, the type of Australian mammal that raises its young in a pouch.

The group of Australian and US scientists plan to take stem cells from a living marsupial species with similar DNA, and then use gene-editing technology to "bring back" the extinct species - or an extremely close approximation of it.

It would represent a remarkable achievement for the researchers attempting it, and require a number of scientific breakthroughs.

"I now believe that in 10 years' time we could have our first living baby thylacine since they were hunted to extinction close to a century ago," said Professor

Andrew Pask, who is leading the research from the University of Melbourne.

Read rest here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-62568427?fbclid=IwAR2p-0ci_TS0MV0M67llk0Q9IKmL6QCSP57d0FnvB0B0Ag7S4c2hNdDXbdQ

I wonder if it can adapt to the  polluted air.etc of the modern world? Much as I would love to see an extinct animal I wonder if it is the right thing to do.Most extinct creatures are used to air with higher oxygen content and may have trouble breathing today.

The Beast of Barrisdale

 

 Barrisdale Monster.

The Beast of Barrisdale is said to have been seen in the area around Loch Hourn in Scotland.It is classed as a lake monster by some but it can fly. The description is that it has three legs, two in front and one in back and  huge wings . It is said to have a home/nest  in the Knoydart Hills, near Ladhar Bheinn. It has a very loud roar often heard at night.

In the late 1800’s  a crofter from Barrisdale said he often  saw it flying  over the Knoydart hills. Once it chased him  but he made it home to safety. An old man by the name of Ranald MacMaster also claimed to have found the tracks of the monster in the hills .

In 1845 a wild roaring was heard  Alasdair Macdonald said  that he was there  near Arnisdale, on the north side of Loch Hourn. A few local men  had got together to push a boat out to go fishing. As they  were pushing the boat out a wild roaring was heard. The boat was dropped and they ran into the house scared.

 In 1903, two men, gamekeepers,John MacMaster and John MacGillvary, were  up on a mountain on the east end of Loch Hourn. There were  six small dogs with them. The roaring started coming across the valley. The dogs tried to get under the legs of the two gamekeepers, hiding with their hair standing on end, frightened out of their wits.

In 1866 it was seen by another gamekeeper. Described as  the size of a donkey but with a mane and a tail like a horse. The head was broad at the top like that of a wild boar but there was no snout. It was a heavy over-hanging jaw and terribly, terribly ugly.It left tracks in the snow, almost round, and about 4 inches(10 cms) in diameter, and gave the impression of a very heavy animal.Behind the impression of the paw there was the mark of a long powerful claw.

No other sightings have been recorded .What was it? Some say it was a dragon,some a wild hybrid,a cross between a boar and something else.

It however is not the only monster in the area.

Loch Hourn runs inland from the sea opposite the island of Skye. Sometimes described as the most fjord-like of the sea lochs of Scotland. It is open to the sea which is important to remember when looking at explanations for sightings in the Loch.  Hourn is Gaelic for Hell, and the Loch is so  named because of the spin drifts which capsized many sailing boats. Quite a few lives have been lost on the Loch . Around a hundred years ago Loch Hourn was busy with small boats fishing for herrings.

Most people will have heard of the famous sea serpent sighting in the Loch that was reported in The Zoologist . According to R T Gould in August 20 and 21 of 1872 6 people on board the cutter Leda saw the creature described as a line of black humps with a  head and neck occasionally seen above the surface on the Loch. In the 1950’s Willie MacKenzie was 9 years of age when he was sitting on a small knoll, near the sea, waiting for his father, to return from delivering the mail, by boat. The head of a creature, that could only be described as a big eel or a serpent emerged, ten feet out of the water, moving its head from side to side, about 250 yards in front of him. Willie had to be forced back in the boat to go home, and to this day, his heart still races when he crosses that part of the Loch. It was suspected that Rob Foster, a fisherman from Corran also saw the monster, around this time

Read more here : https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-loch-hourn-creature-sightings.html

Once again a place that seems to have much strangeness going back years.

Yorkshire Vampires?

 

More reports of Vampires in Yorkshire than in Transylvania

I came across this article from 2014.Being from Yorkshire myself,Whitby area I was intrigued,

A new study shows that there are more reports of paranormal activity in Yorkshire than anywhere else in the UK.

The findings were compiled by paranormal investigator Rev Lionel Fanthorpe, who says he has uncovered 11,000 reports of unexplained phenomena in Britain since 1914.

There has only been a handful of reports of any kind of paranormal activity in Transylvania over the same time period.

615 'paranormal activity' cases have been reported in Yorkshire over the last 100 years.

In the whole of Britain, 11,204 reports were filed, 206 of them referring to 'vampire encounters'.

The study was commissioned to mark the start of new vampire TV series called The Strain. It looks at 50 years of paranormal investigative records.

Read rest here:

https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2014-09-17/where-ranks-top-for-reported-paranormal-activity

As Bram Stoker set his novel Dracula in Whitby I am not really surprised.Looking up towards the ruined Abbey at dusk and seeing the seagulls flying about it looking like large bats,you can see how he got some of his ideas.Yorkshire is steeped in folklore and legend and I am not surprised people believe in the paranormal.

Monster Fish Spotted

 

A Behemoth

Japanese researchers said they have taken images of a 2.5-meter-long yokozuna slickhead, possibly the world’s largest known deep-sea bony fish.

The scientists, primarily from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), captured the fish on video more than 2 kilometers deep off Suruga Bay in Shizuoka Prefecture in October 2021.

JAMSTEC reported the yokozuna slickhead as a new species only in January last year. It is believed to be an apex predator in deep waters off Suruga Bay.

Six yokozuna slickheads have been caught, but the largest one measures 1.4 meters long.

The research team surveyed ecosystems in four sea areas, including the one off Suruga Bay, that were designated as environmental preservation zones under the Nature Conservation Law in 2020.

DNA was collected from seawater in the zones and analyzed in the study, including samples later confirmed as that of yokozuna slickhead, according to the scientists

Read rest here:

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14662408

 

 

Lake Michigan Strangeness

 

 

Lake Michigan and Monsters

Lake Michigan and the area around it are known for strangeness and  cryptid sightings.

In 1955 a swimmer , George Lawson, was apparently attacked by a shark in Lake Michigan. The story goes that  Lawson lost his leg to the “infamous Carcharhinus Springer.” There was a shark found in Lake Michigan., The attack however is not proven.. The shark caught by two fishermen in 1969  was 29 inches long .  The shark was dead, but for several days fishermen in the area were uneasy.

Read story here :

https://www.chicagotribune.com/history/ct-shark-attack-lake-michigan-20220713-fms3wv7dorbldmbf6nabkptvdy-story.html

There have also been reports of sea serpents in Lake Michigan with  sightings reported between 1867 and 1890 in the local newspapers.  Numerous sightings of  a sea serpent were seen just off the shore in Lake Michigan and further  reports from Evanston down to Hyde Park.The creature was described as bluish black with a greyish white underbelly and a  long neck.

Read more here :

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-straits-of-mackinac-sea-monsters.html

Then a film appeared on the internet:

https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/07/video-captures-sea-monster-swimming-near-pier-in-south-haven.html

Whatever it is, it appears to poke its head out of the water before slinking its way toward the pier. After stopping underneath it for a few seconds, it jumps back into the water quickly. The object appears to have a large tail and a dorsal fin and forked tail. A hoax? Possibly. So many stories about the area are bound to produce some.However there is often some truth in legends and oral history.

There are also reports of bigfoot and a  dogman .

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/11/possible-michigan-bigfoot-encounter.html

And a report of the Michigan dogman:

In 1986, a man was driving home from the army recruiting station to Ludington late at night. He  saw a reflection of his  headlights off to the left  in a darkened field. They appeared to be eyes. They were  too high to be deer.It ran across the two lane  road in three leaps. It was over 6 feet ( 2metres)tall.

There are also wild cats :According to the Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition Web site, there have been 74 sightings of cougars in Emmet County from 1990-2009.

And then there are were-cats:

In 1969 a Chicago man driving at night  down a road in Niels Michigan claimed to have seen a strange cat like creature standing on two feet on the side of the road. He slowed down to get a better look but the creature ran at his car and began attacking it, punching his windshield .It had large clawed fists which  broke  the glass so he quickly drove away.He said the cat like creature made a strange squealing sound .

Read more here :https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2020/08/were-cats-real-or-legendary.html

There are often areas where more than one type of cryptid is sighted.There are also stories of UFOs in those areas and I am sure there will be some in Michigan.Do particular areas attract cryptids or is it the area attracts those more likely to see them? .Maybe someone can answer that because I don’t know.