Free Republic

A new university-backed project aims to investigate cryptic species such as the yeti whose existence is unproven, through genetic testing. Researchers from Oxford University and the Lausanne Museum of Zoology are asking anyone with a collection of cryptozoological material to submit descriptions of it. The researchers will then ask for hair and other samples for genetic identification. "I'm challenging and inviting the cryptozoologists to come up with the evidence instead of complaining that science is rejecting what they have to say," said geneticist Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford. While Sykes doesn't expect to find solid evidence of a...

A comparison of museum specimens has found that thylacines on mainland Australia were smaller than those that persisted into modern times in Tasmania, and significantly smaller than dingoes. The last known Tasmanian thylacine died in 1936. Measurements of the head size and thickness of limb bones of the semi-fossilised remains of thylacines and dingoes from caves in Western Australia have revealed that, on average, dingoes were larger than thylacines. “In particular, dingoes were almost twice as large as female thylacines, which were not much bigger than a fox,” says ecologist Dr Mike Letnic, an ARC Future Fellow in the UNSW...

We’ve been talking a lot about invasive species in Texas as of late, paying special attention to the issue of feral hogs, which are growing in number and cause widespread damage (but taste delicious). Texas has responded by making it very, very easy to kill feral hogs. You can hunt them with a handgun. You can hunt them whenever, regardless of the season. And you can even hunt them from the skies (an undertaking known as “pork chopping”), if that’s your thing. But what about that most legendary of invasive species, Bigfoot? Yes, someone actually asked Texas Parks and Wildlife...

A man named John Lloyd wrote to the Texas Parks and Wildlife about killing Bigfoot, and got a response, which said in part: 'An exotic animal is an animal that is non-indigenous to Texas. Unless the exotic is an endangered species then exotics may be hunted on private property with landowner consent. A hunting license is required. This does not include the dangerous wild animals that have been held in captivity and released for the purpose of hunting, which is commonly referred to as a “canned hunt”.'

It’s officially legal to kill Bigfoot in Texas Cryptid conservationists, be on the alert; it's officially open season on Sasquatch. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, if you can find Bigfoot in the state of Texas, you can kill it. Cryptomundo reader John Lloyd Scharf sent a letter to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department about whether it would be legal to kill Bigfoot, and apparently department Chief of Staff L. David Sinclair replied that killing an indigenous cryptid would be legal since it isn't listed as a game animal: The statute that you cite (Section 61.021) refers...

World’s deadliest golf course boasts land mines and man-bear-pigs Along the DMZ, golf is not a sport for the faint of heart. The golf course at Camp Bonifas, just south of the Korean demilitarized zone, boasts just one hole, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in hazards. Live land mines line the course, and bizarre animals stumble out from the woods. Formerly Camp Kitty Hawk, United Nations Command post Camp Bonifas was renamed in 1986 to honor Captain Arthur G. Bonifas, who had been axe murdered in 1976 during a conflict with North Korea...

Residents in northern Namibia, on the southwest coast of Africa, have reported being terrorized by a bizarre dog-pig hybrid creature. The animal is said to be mostly white and unlike anything the villagers have ever seen, with a doglike head and the broad, round, nearly hairless back and shoulders of a giant pig. The beast was spotted chasing and attacking dogs, goats and other domestic animals in this arid region not far from the Kalahari desert. As often happens when rumors of monsters spread in rural areas around the world, some locals have taken extra safety precautions, such as traveling...

Multiple sightings, video footage show bird survives in vast forested areas Click here to view a video news release. BRINKLEY, Ark. - Long believed to be extinct, a magnificent bird - the ivory-billed woodpecker - has been rediscovered in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. More than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team today announced that at least one male ivory-bill still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest. Published in the journal Science on its Science Express Web site (April 28, 2005), the findings include multiple sightings...

What do Bigfoot, Sasquash and miniature chameleons have in common? Until recently, nearly anyone would tell you they didn’t exist. That has changed, at least for the dwarf chameleon. Brookesia micra, the world’s tiniest reptile has been discovered on the island of Nosy Hara, northern Madagascar. This tiny creature reaches less than one- inch in length at maturity. Researches discovered these miniature chameleons sleeping in bushes four inches above the ground level. "They mostly live in the leaf litter in the day ... But at night they climb up and then you can spot them." Says lead investigator Frank Glaw....

If You Spot Bigfoot, Should You Shoot Him? In the new Animal Planet reality TV show optimistically titled "Finding Bigfoot," a team of experts examines video of an alleged Sasquatch spotted in the Canadian Rockies. The video, shot by a man named Todd Standing, shows something large and dark, standing atop a wooded ridge and then ducking back behind a bush. It could pretty much be anything, and when the experts concluded that the subject was probably not a Bigfoot, Standing expressed his frustration: "No video is ever going to be evidence, ever. It's never going to be good enough…"...

The Internet is a dangerous place. It's full of resources, both good and bad; full of citations linking one to another, sometimes helpfully, sometimes not. Today we're going to point the skeptical eye at ten of the worst web sites in terms of quality of science information that they promote. To make this list, they not only need to have bad information, they also need to be popular enough to warrant our attention. Many of these sites promote some particular ideology, but I want to be clear that that's not why they're here. Sites that make this list are only...

The full edited title: The Yeti, a severed finger spirited from Nepal, and a famous film star. DNA tests will finally solve a truly bizarre mystery Set high in a remote Himalayan mountain range stands the Pangboche Buddhist monastery. During heavy snowstorms, it can be found only by travellers who listen for the monks’ ceremonial horns. The walls are lined with traditional Nepalese paintings depicting the treacherous tracks to the monastery. And among them are pictures of the legendary ape-like creature we refer to as the Yeti.

Bigfoot researcher and biologist John Bindernagel claims his research group has found evidence that the Yeti (a Russian "cousin" of the American Bigfoot) not only exists, but builds nests and shelters by twisting tree branches together. "We didn't feel like the trees we saw in Siberia had been done by a man or another mammal.... Twisted trees like this have also been observed in North America and they could fit with the theory that Bigfoot makes nests. The nests we have looked at are built around trees twisted together into an arch shape," Bindernagel told the British tabloid The Sun....

Amateur researchers in the United States continue to eagerly search for the mysterious creature known as Bigfoot, staking out California's redwood forests at night in their hunt for the elusive beast. Despite many claimed sightings, the existence of Sasquatch has never been proven. Yet that hasn't stopped the obsessed from pursuing his giant footprints.

A mummified elongated skull found in Peru could finally prove the existence of aliens. The strangely shaped head - almost as big as its 50cm (20in) body - has baffled anthropologists. It was one of two sets of remains found in the city of Andahuaylillas in the southern province of Quispicanchi.

A possible sighting of Canada’s version of the Loch Ness monster at a lake in British Columbia has stirred up the legend of the sea creature long-rumored to reside there. A man visiting British Colombia’s Lake Okanagan claims he filmed video of what could only be the elusive monster, known to locals as Ogopogo. The 30-second video shows two long ripples in the water in a seemingly deserted area of the lake. “It was not going with the waves,” Richard Huls, who captured the scene on camera during a visit to a local winery, told the Vancouver Sun. “It was...

FEVERISHLY DIALING THE PEOPLE AT ANIMAL PLANET - As recently as five years ago, the Chupacabra was in danger of becoming a myth. Only three were thought to remain in the wild, and an effort to house one at the San Diego Wild Animal Park ended with the horrific and seemingly improbable death of Gus the white African rhino. But today, it looks like there may be hope for the legendary goat-sucker. "What really inspired us was the great job the California Wolf Center did with reintroducing the Mexican Gray Wolf into the wild," explains Chelsea Randlett, the San Diego-born...

In this world of Photoshop and online scams, it pays to have a hearty dose of skepticism at reports of something strange — including an albino fetal shark with one eye smack in the middle of its nose like a Cyclops. But the Cyclops shark, sliced from the belly of a pregnant mama dusky shark caught by a commercial fisherman in the Gulf of California earlier this summer, is by all reports the real thing. Shark researchers have examined the preserved creature and found that its single eye is made of functional optical tissue, they said last week. It's unlikely,...

A string of livestock mass-killings by an unidentified creature has struck fear into Russian farmers. A number of towns from Chelyabinsk in central Russian to the Moscow region have suffered, with the death toll from the latest attack reaching 30. Farmer Vasily Velikodnev found the butchered sheep in their fold on a September morning in Kolomna region, some 100 km south of Moscow. He was immediately struck by the manner of the killings. According to the farmer, the tendons in the sheep’s back were ripped, in order “to cut their arteries and suck out their blood” – a trademark of...

There are new claims of bigfoot encounters -- in Siberia and rural Michigan -- that will likely add to the debate over whether the creatures really exist, although neither holds the smoking gun of a photograph, tissue sample or other scientific evidence. A group of Russians claim a living "snowman" roams the cold Shoria Mountain area of southern Siberia. Meanwhile a woman in Newaygo County, Mich., told Discovery News that she has been interacting with and actually feeding a large family of close to 10 Bigfoot-like creatures who live in the woods near her home for the past two years....

A wilderness and ecology guide believes Bigfoots by the dozen could be roaming the wilderness of southern Alberta and parts of British Columbia. Todd Standing says he has photographic proof that such creatures exist after snapping a photo of something in the Banff area with human-like features on its hairy face.

Action is needed now to prevent nightmarish "Planet Of The Apes" science ever turning from fiction to fact, according to a group of eminent experts. Their report calls for a new rules to supervise sensitive research that involves humanising animals. One area of concern is "Category Three" experiments which may raise "very strong ethical concerns" and should be banned. An example given is the creation of primates with distinctly human characteristics, such as speech. Exactly the same scenario is portrayed in the new movie Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, in which scientists searching for an Alzheimer's cure create...

It sounds like something from a Hollywood science fiction film: a race that is half human, half ape. But leading scientists are today demanding tough new rules to prevent the nightmare scenario becoming a reality. In a hard-hitting report, they warn that research is close to pushing ‘ethical boundaries’ and that extreme attempts to give laboratory animals human attributes must be banned. While talking chimpanzees and gun-toting gorillas are currently confined to movies, the academics say the dangers of disturbing animal-human experiments are real. He added: ‘We are trying to get this out in the open before anything has happened.’...

Photos he snapped behind his house in Lake Jackson, Texas ended up on the front page of his local newspaper with this headline: “Chupacabra reportedly spotted in Lake Jackson.” The photos show a gray, hairless dog slinking away through tall, green grass. But Crabtree, a retired wildlife biologist, says he was only joking when he sent the photos to The Facts. He thinks what he saw was a coyote with a bad case of mange. “It was a spoof or practical joke,” Crabtree told the paper in a follow-up article Tuesday. “I really didn’t believe it.” Too bad for Crabtree,...

Mystery mammal discovered in Borneo’s forests 00:01 06 December 2005 NewScientist.com news service Shaoni Bhattacharya The new beast, with its dark red fur and long tail, could be a new species of marten or civet, or belong to a new group entirely (Image: Stephan Wulffraat, WWF) Experts are mystified by the new creature, with some saying it looks like a civet, and others say that it resembles a lemur (Image: Wahyu Gumelar/Stephan Wulffraat, WWF)The mammal, which is slightly larger than a domestic cat, has dark red fur and a long, bushy tail. It was snapped twice at night by a...

A creature dubbed the 'oriental yeti' is being examined by scientists after emerging from ancient woodlands in remote central China. The hairless beast was trapped by hunters in Sichuan province after locals reported spotting what they thought was a bear. Hunter Lu Chin explained: "It looks a bit like a bear but it doesn't have any fur and it has a tail like a kangaroo." "It also does not sound like a bear - it has a voice more like a cat and it is calling all the time - perhaps it is looking for the rest of its kind...

Benjamin Radford, author of several books on monsters and paranormal phenomena, managing editor of the journal The Skeptical Inquirer and LiveScience columnist, has released what he says to be definitive proof that El Chupacabra is not real; it's not even a hoax, he said, but rather a leftover memory of a science-fiction film.

WINDERMERE, England - A British man said he used his cellphone to snap a picture of what he said is "Bownessie," a legendary creature in England's Lake Windermere. Tom Pickles, 24, said he snapped the picture of the creature, known as the English counterpart to Scotland's Loch Ness monster, Feb. 11 while on a kayaking exercise with his company, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday. Pickles said the creature was the size of three cars and was visible for about 20 seconds. "Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal -- it's not like any animal I've...

You could call it the surprise du jour: A popular food on Vietnamese menus has turned out to be a lizard previously unknown to science, scientists say. What's more, the newfound Leiolepis ngovantrii is no run-of-the-mill reptile—the all-female species reproduces via cloning, without the need for male lizards. Single-gender lizards aren't that much of an oddity: About one percent of lizards can reproduce by parthenogenesis, meaning the females spontaneously ovulate and clone themselves to produce offspring with the same genetic blueprint. (Related: "Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas—By Komodo Dragon.") "The Vietnamese have been eating these for time on end," said...

Chupacabra Mystery Solved By Jennifer Viegas Halloween stories about the ghostly "chupacabra" circulate every year, but now scientists have solved the mystery surrounding this legendary animal. Instead of being vicious, fanged creatures that supposedly drink the blood of livestock, chupacabras turn out to be wild dogs inflicted with a deadly form of mange, according to University of Michigan biologist Barry OConnor. (Scientists believe legendary chupacabras monsters are actually coyotes with severe cases of mange, like the animal pictured here. Credit: Dan Pence) The myth about chupacabras, also known as goatsuckers, started after reports of livestock attacks in Puerto Rico and...

WUHAN, China, - Some Chinese scientists say they want to embark on a thorough search of mountainous central China for the legendary creature "Yeren," or Bigfoot. It's been nearly 30 years since the last concerted attempt to prove the existence of the ape-like creature that has been the subject of hundreds of unconfirmed sightings through the decades. Wang Shancai, vice president of the Hubei Wild Man Research Association, says today's technology will give researchers a better shot at finding the reclusive creature, if it does exist, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Saturday. "Unlike expeditions three decades ago, the better...

Cynics may dismiss it as just a piece of driftwood or a trick of the light. But a photograph showing what appears to be a long-necked sea creature has got marine experts scratching their heads. The 'animal' was snapped stalking a shoal of fish just 30 yards off the British coast. The fish were apparently so terrified they beached themselves just seconds later. The creature was spotted off the Devon coast at Saltern Cove, Paignton, by locals who reported a sighting of what they thought was a turtle. But pictures taken by one of the baffled witnesses, Gill Pearce, reveal...

A large and mysterious creature is ripping apart cattle in a small village of Ecuador. Although the original article is in Spanish, Google translation tries its best to translate it to English, but fails. So I will paraphrase. The small community of “La Cuadra” (The block) has seen multiple cattle mutilated and torn apart by something powerful. The ghastly findings are out of the ordinary, even for local known predators. The residents concluded that what ever it is that has killed steer and cows, it’s powerful enough to rip them apart and leave huge, deep prints with large claws in...

A group of teens in Tecumseh make an unusual sighting. The group now wonders if they ran across the legendary chupacabra. The kids claim to have spotted the unique creature in the woods behind Tecumseh High School. A cell phone picture of the mystery animal backs up their story. "It's got long back legs and it's front legs are small. It has a long tail and doesn't have any fur," said Ryan Craighead. An internet search of "chupacabra" turns up some interesting images of reptilian sci-fi creatures. Wildlife experts say the chupacabra is an unproven folktale. "It is a mythological...

Is the legendary "goat sucker" stalking Hood County? Two strange, coyote-like creatures have been killed with in 10 miles of each other, and locals say the animals could be chupacabras. Hood County Animal Control Officer Frank Hackett killed the first creature last week. He found it in an old barn. When it growled at him, he put the animal down. "It was ugly, real ugly, I'm not going to tell no lie on that one," he said. A few days later, a rancher killed a similar creature. Jack Farr, who owns the property where the first coyote-canine-cross was spotted said...

Mystery surrounds a man wearing a horse's head who has been captured on Google's Street View in Aberdeen. The man - who has become known as "horse-boy" - can be seen in the Hardgate area of the city. The sighting has become a popular attraction on Google's service, which offers a photographic map of streets. The man is wearing dark trousers, a purple shirt - and a brown and white horse's head. Dozens of BBC news website users have e-mailed from across Europe to say they know who horse boy is. Others have sent in images of the mystery horse-head...

Bigfoot, or something like it, was reportedly spotted near a North Carolina man's backyard this week. Older reports and supposed photos of Bigfoot show that he has dark brownish hair, but this time Cleveland County resident Tim Peeler told the Charlotte Observer that this Bigfoot has blond hair. “I tried to call him,” Peeler told the WCNC News Channel 36 as he blew a device to simulate the sound of a coyote. “This thing was 10 foot tall,” he told the news station. “He had beautiful hair. He scared me.” Peeler, who was calling for coyotes on his property, located...

Conservationists are in the Dominican Republic attempting to save one of the world's most strange and ancient mammals - the Hispaniolan solenodon. While trying to track down one of these creatures, The Last Survivors team is also trying to find out exactly how this animal has been able to survive for a remarkable 76 million years.

Radioactive fish near Vt. nuke plant deemed common MONTPELIER, Vt. — When a fish taken from the Connecticut River recently tested positive for radioactive strontium-90, suspicion focused on the nearby Vermont Yankee nuclear plant as the likely source. Operators of the troubled 38-year-old nuclear plant on the banks of the river, where work is under way to clean up leaking radioactive tritium, revealed this month that it also found soil contaminated with strontium-90, an isotope linked to bone cancer and leukemia. Three days later, officials said a fish caught four miles upstream from the reactor in February had tested positive...

A bizarre creature with a long hairy body with bald skin on its head, feet and face showed up in a small Canadian town, according to media reports. It was discovered by two nurses in the town of Kitchenuhmaykoosib in Ontario, Canada, while they were out on a walk with their dog. The two took some photographs of the dead animal pulled out by their dog from a lake, then they left it alone. When locals went back to retrieve the body, it was gone. The photos taken by the nurses have now been posted on a local website and...

BENA, Minn. - Bigfoot alive and living in northern Minnesota? The co-founders of the Northern Minnesota Bigfoot Society say, "100 percent yes." They said they have received more than 75 reports of sightings, captured images, and Bigfoot footprints in just three years. They're sharing their insight while sorting fact from fiction as they take KSAX on the hunt for Bigfoot. "I'm a skeptic of Bigfoot because I've trapped this whole area and never, ever did we see any Bigfoot tracks or see Bigfoot anywhere," William Tucker of Bena said. Long time trapper William Tucker is anything but a believer, but...

The creature from the deep Mystery ... the creature was dragged from the lake By STAFF REPORTER Published: 21 May 2010 THE body of a mysterious creature with fearsome teeth, thick black fur and a rat-like tail has been dragged from a lake. The hideous beast was discovered by two horrified nurses after their dog Sam pulled it from the murky water. The gruesome animal has baffled experts and triggered speculation that it could be similar to the famous "Montauk monster", which was washed up in New York two years ago. Pictures were posted on a local website after nurses...

A mystery creature reportedly beaten to death by a group of teenagers in Panama is the subject of much speculation on the web. The beast's hairless, rubbery body and revolting features have drawn comparisons with the Montauk Monster, the still-unidentified animal photographed on a New York beach last year. According to reports in Panama, the teenagers spotted the creature crawling out of a cave while playing in the town of Cerro Azul north of Panama City. Fearing for the safety as it moved towards them, the youths claim they attacked the beast with sticks before throwing its lifeless body into...

Locals in a small Canadian town have been stumped by the appearance of a bizarre creature, which was dragged from a lake. The animal, which has a long hairy body with bald skin on its head, feet and face, has prompted wild internet speculation that it is a more evolved version of the famous 'Montauk monster'. The creature was discovered by two nurses in the town of Kitchenuhmaykoosib in Ontario, Canada, while out on a walk with their dog.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - – The appearance of a grey whale off the coast of Israel has stunned scientists, in what was thought to be the first time the giant mammal has been seen outside the Pacific in several hundred years. The whale, which was first sighted off Herzliya in central Israel on Saturday, is believed to have travelled thousands of miles from the north Pacific after losing its way in search of food. "It's an unbelievable event which has been described as one of the most important whale sightings ever," said Dr Aviad Scheinin, chairman of the Israel Marine Mammal...

Initially, the sighting seemed an opportunity rather than an anomaly, and certainly not the highly unexpected discovery it turned out to be. Last Saturday, researchers with the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center (IMMRAC) took to the water to study a whale approximately a mile and a half off Herzliya Marina, just north of Tel Aviv. The whale, which was about forty feet long, was generally behaving as a whale does: swimming along the surface, making periodic short dives of between three and five minutes duration, and occasionally showing its tail flukes as it did so. For about two...

Forget Jurassic Park. By successfully sequencing the DNA of a long-extinct species, Stephan Schuster and Webb Miller have helped push back the boundaries of molecular biology. Stephan Schuster was never all that interested in ancient DNA. As a young genomicist at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in his native Germany, his forte had always been bacteria. By deciphering and comparing the genomes -- the genetic blueprints -- of various microbial species, he sought to unlock the secrets of these ubiquitous creatures: how they evolve and interact with the organisms that play them host. Schuster’s early work had attracted...

Russian Ufologists and cryptozoology fans are excited by another UFO or possible cryptid that was photographed over the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia (see above). The event occurred on December 21 at around 7pm just days after at least a hundred witnesses sighted a mammoth pyramid UFO over the Kremlin. A photojournalist had set up a a camera for a timed shot. Nothing was seen during the shoot, however when the picture was developed the UFO or mystery creature was noticed. The question as to whether it is an alien UFO or an unknown life-form is now being debated. Some believe...

RUMOURS Scotland's fabled Loch Ness monster is dead were dismissed by Nessie fans today. Suspicions that the monster, said to have lurked in the deep waters of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, was extinct were raised as credible sightings last year waned to just one. Gary Campbell, president of the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club, told the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper that the single sighting, made just off the Clansman Hotel by Loch Ness, Scotland on June 6 2009, was judged by him to have been a credible report. "That's why were so relieved to have heard about...

There's something strange and big swimming in the canals of Madeira Beach along the Pinellas County coast. Those who have seen it say it's no fish and think it could be a sea serpent. Russ Sittlow, 78, has seen it. He calls the creature "Normandy Nessie" because he lives on Normandy Road. The retired engineer said he first saw "Nessie" in April. "His head come up out of the water, and then he rolled up in a double roll behind him and he was long he was huge," he said of that first sighting.