Strange/Rare Fauna Reports
Strange/Rare Fauna Reports
- Details
Coyote, cougar, bear or dogs, What is mutilating Bethany animals?
Terri Miles, Editor
November 02, 2005
Amity (CT) Observer
BETHANY - Rolling Greens Road is a quiet, established street off Bethmour Road
where children still ride bicycles and play basketball with their neighborhood
friends.
Woods surround the modest homes and the street is relatively quiet and peaceful
- until recently. Residents are on edge after vicious animal mutilations have
them questioning what they can do to keep their livestock, pets and families
safe.
Margaret Battone never replaced her two cats or 10 chickens that were
slaughtered by an unknown predator earlier this year. The animals were killed,
but not eaten, which seemed to eliminate hungry wild animals as the culprits.
Instead, Battone said, the animals seemed to have been killed for "fun" and
their corpses left in her yard.
Something also killed her neighbor's llama foal last spring.
"Around here, we've learned not to let our pets out at night," Battone said.
"I'm a dog breeder, and it's frightening, because you can hear the coyotes in
the woods at night and I've seen them during the day. We've learned to live with
them."
When Battone heard her neighbor's llamas screaming at 11 a.m. one day two weeks
ago, she went over to investigate. What she found was gruesome.
Two adult llamas, which weighed about 800 pounds each, were savagely mutilated,
torn inside out, she said. Three other llamas also were mauled, but not killed.
One of these survivors died last Wednesday.
"I went to the District Animal Control office for some advice," Battone said,
"but there was nothing they could do because it was probably a wild animal that
did it.
"There's a [predator] in our neighborhood that's sick or angry," she said. "We
know better than to go out to our barns at night."
Battone said the DAC officer told her that her neighbors shouldn't be afraid for
their animals because horses kick and can fight off a coyote, and coyotes are
naturally afraid of dogs.
"Llamas are big, and they can fight and kick, but they don't have hard hooves
like horses," Battone said. "Coyotes will bite their legs till they fall down
and then they go for the throat and vital organs."
Might be a bear ...
Battone said the DAC officer told her to call the Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP). Her neighbor, Dan Iead, called the DEP and a couple of days
later, an official came to the llama farm. According to Battone, the official
looked at the surviving animals' injuries and said a black bear could have
attacked the llamas. He reportedly said the claw marks and mayhem were not
consistent with a coyote attack.
The officer looked for tracks, but all he found was canine prints. "Everyone
around here has dogs, so we can't even prove if they are coyote tracks," Battone
said. "We don't know what it is."
The DEP officer reportedly said the same animal might have killed the llama foal
last spring and now it will return to the site of that killing for more food.
"He said black bear are not all about berries and twigs [as some people think];
they like meat," Battone said.
The DEP officer said he would send a biologist to continue the investigation.
"Whatever it is seems to be doing it for fun," Battone said. "It's not killing
them and eating them because it's hungry - it's murdering them. "I was thinking
about getting a mare, but now, I don't think so - it wouldn't be fair to put it
out there to [be killed].
"What freaks me out is that [the latest attack] was in the middle of the day. I
don't even put my dogs out in the pen during the day anymore," she said.
What does one do?
The thought of having a bear in the neighborhood frightened Bethmour Road
resident Jeanne Eichelsdoerfer.
"We should know what to do," she said. "Some people suggest that we make a lot
of noise to scare them away or [put] bright lights outside. But animal experts
should be telling us what to do."
Eichelsdoerfer said everyone in her neighborhood has a dog and they have taken
precautions with the pets because of the coyotes. But this is a bigger problem
and people in the Rolling Greens neighborhood are afraid.
"We don't expect the [wild] animals to be killed," Battone said, "but we ought
to know how to protect ourselves and our animals."
In the past year, two black bear sightings have been reported in this region,
one in Orange and one in Hamden.
General information about black bears can be found on the Internet, although
some of it can be conflicting as to size and characteristics.
Although one site offers tips for human encounters with black bears, the state
DEP website is the only one with brief information on protecting livestock from
them.
It states: "Livestock can be protected with electric fencing or by moving them
into a secure building at night."
It offers no tips on protecting livestock during the day, which is when the
recent Bethany attacks occurred.
A pack of dogs?
Iead said DEP officers have been on the case since his llamas were killed. After
nearly daily visits to his property, he said, their theories have run the gamut
from a bear, to possibly a cougar attack, but there is one problem - the tracks.
"There were no bear tracks and no cat tracks - only canine tracks," Iead said.
"They don't know what it is, but now they think it might be dogs. They are still
investigating."
Iead said he is afraid for his animals after watching his friendly llama herd
dwindle down to two.
"I had the mother llama [that was just killed] for seven years," he said. "I
can't leave them out in their pen anymore. I don't want to lose them. I bring
them out to the front yard to graze and walk them around the neighborhood when
it's light out."
The DEP investigators told Iead that coyotes most likely are not responsible for
the disembowelment of his llamas.
"Right now, they think it might be dogs. Because of the tracks and the damage,
dogs might be responsible," Iead said. "But they still don't know for sure."
Other mysterious attacks
A resident in the Litchfield Turnpike area of town told the Observer that two of
her roosters were mutilated inside their enclosed pen Monday morning.
"There are no dig marks under the base, no holes in the fence, and no opening at
the top," she said. "We don't know what it was, or how it got in or out of the
pen. This is terrifying."
A half-mile away, another resident said she lost all her roosters to some kind
of predator. She said her birds were locked away in a barn but she knows the
predator entered through a window.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1342&dept_id=433249&newsid=15502728&PAG=4\
61&rfi=9
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- Details
This is an interesting story taken from Loren Coleman's Cryptozoo News Pages:
I?ve learned, through a confidential source, that at least one unit of the US Navy SEAL (Sea, Air, Land) has had a remarkable recent encounter with unknown apes in Africa. And a video was taken. We are seeking additional confirmation and other eyewitnesses. Have any hints of this story come your way?
Due to the sensitive nature of this former US Navy SEAL?s intelligence-gathering work, at this time we cannot reveal his identity. Hopefully our posting this initial information will develop other sources and confirmations from current and former SEAL members involved, and from interested researchers with hints of the story.
What the former SEAL relates is that he was involved in covert operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1997 and 2002. According to his account, his team observed a group of thirteen "chimpanzee-like" creatures between 4.5 to 5 feet tall, uniformly gray all over their bodies, with rows of seemingly porcupine-like quills running the length of their backs.
The unidentified apes walked bipedally and were observed by the SEAL team in the act of killing another animal. When the creatures became excited or agitated, the quills or spines stood erect from their bodies.
According to this informant, the US Navy SEAL team took three minutes of video footage of these creatures, but this tape apparently has been classified, due to their mission. This SEAL member still has his mission maps and is able to pinpoint the area of the encounter with this large group of bipedal apes.
The involvement of a US Navy SEAL team would indicate that their activity employed water as a means of transportation, and/or they were working in an area involving a lake, river, or swamp.
What could these strangely-haired unknown apes be? Their description, overtly, sounds like similar hairy short upright creatures (with bizarre spiked hair) known to inhabit areas near certain bodies of water and from specific islands. Various regional names (chupacabras, kappa) hide the fact they all resemble each other in their number of digits, spiked hair, aggressiveness, and aquatic habits. But let?s just look to Africa alone, today.
Weird rumblings have been heard from the Congo for decades. In Ivan T. Sanderson?s Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life, there is mention of animal collector Charles Cordier finding the small tracks of what the locals called the kakundakari in the Congo in 1961.
I have previously written about an African hominoid that matches the Congolese reports of the Navy SEAL, those of the Madagascar natives? kalanoro, a short, three-toed, bipedal, water-dwelling, mean, scruffy-hair hominoid.
All the tribes of island of Madagascar, located off the east coast of Africa, know of the Kalanoro, according to folklorist Raymond Decary, who researched the common themes connecting the stories of the Kalanoro back in the 1950s. In 1889, a capture of a Kalanoro was reported to the Royal Geographical Society. In 1924, Chase Salmon Osborn described his sighting of two Kalanoro mating.
The Father of Cryptozoology also took an interest in them. These ?legends may be fantastic," wrote Belgium cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans in 1955, but "they are found all over Madagascar, and it would be odd if they were utterly without foundation," especially given the fact that "some areas of Madagascar are still almost unexplored, such as the Ambongo reserve and the lonely Isalo mountains, and there are still some 3 or 4 million hectares of virgin forest??
The aggressive nature of the Kalanoro comes through in a few accounts, and mirrors the behavior in the SEAL?s account. The Kalanoro are also known to abduct children, and search Madagascar?s villages for food.
How recent are the encounters with these hairy, three-toed Kalanoro with their hooked fingers and aggressive habits? Professor Joe Hobbs of the University of Missouri-Columbia?s Department of Geography, studied them, while he was with the local tribes in the Ankarana Special Reserve, Madagascar, during the late 1990s. On May 15, 2000, when Hobbs wrote his report, he talked of how the people of the village of Ambalakedi consider Andoboara Cave ?sacred because on three separate occasions, most recently just two years ago, grief-stricken parents whose children had wandered into the forest had recovered them alive here" after food was left out for the Kalanoro in exchange for their children?s return.
If the US Navy SEAL report is correct, there may be something quite similar to the Kalanoro living in the Congo area too.
And if the Congo SEAL encounter was so very extraordinary, others may have talked about, it in passing. Since this "unknown hominoid" piece of the mission does not involve national security, but may extend cryptozoological knowledge, it is time to learn more, release the video footage, and analyze what was seen.
- Details
Dec 13 2005 02:21 PM CST
CBC News
Scientists from Harvard University have discovered the secret of the narwhal's long tusk- and say it's something unique in the animal world.
Researchers working in Canadian Arctic with the sea mammal say the tusk is actually a sensory probe delivering information to the animal in ways that are unique to the animal world.
The narwhal's tusk, a 1.5-metre long tooth that emerges from the left side of the upper jaw, has long fascinated and baffled humans. It's spiral nature had people selling it as a unicorn's horn for princely sums in medieval Europe.
It's function a mystery, it has been suggested that it was a weapon, a mating display, or a spear for fishing.
It turns out, the truth is stranger than fiction.
Scientists studying the animal in Canada's Arctic have found that more than 10 million tiny nerve connections tunnel their way from the tusk's core to its outer surface.
It makes the tusk have an extremely sensitive surface, capable of detecting changes in water temperature, pressure, and particle gradients, scientists say. It also allows the whales to detect water particles characteristic of the fish that constitute their diet.
The tusk also has tactile abilities. When Narwhals display 'tusking' behaviour, or rub tusks, they're likely experiencing a unique sensation, say scientists.
The researchers say there is no other animal with a comparable ability in nature, and certainly no comparable tooth with that kind of functional adaptation.
"Now that we know the sensory capabilities of the tusk, we can design new experiments to describe some of the unique and unexplained behaviours of this elusive and extraordinary whale," said Martin Nweeia of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
The research into the nature and function of the narwhal's tooth may also lead dental researchers to develop better materials for tooth restoration in humans, says Nweeia.
The research was partly funded by the federal department of fisheries and oceans.
http://www.cbc.ca/north/story/narwhal-tooth-13122005.html
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January 29 2000
Dreamtime Rainbow Serpent Possibly Real
[Original headline: Fossil find linked to Dreamtime serpent]
The rainbow serpent which features prominently in Aboriginal Dreamtime legend, may not have been a mythological creature after all. New evidence provided by the archeological remains of a species of a primitive Australian snake suggest it could be the basis for what has long been regarded as folklore. Known as the Wonambi Naracoortensis, the creature ranged in length from three to five metres and was the width of a large dinner plate. It was big enough to swallow extremely large creatures. The rainbow serpent, which appears in Aboriginal rock art going back 40,000 years, is said to command the powers of creation and destruction and plays a key role in the Aboriginal Dreamtime. The latest claims are based on fossil records from Naracoorte in South Australia which first revealed the giant snake. It is believed to have survived until 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, about the time humans first arrived in Australia. The overlap would have allowed the early ancestors of Australia's indigenous people to make a pictorial record of the snake. Dr John Scanlon of the University of New South Wales, who helped piece together the evidence, admitted the snake "might have been the basis for the . . . rainbow serpent in Aboriginal Dreaming legends". But the director of the Australian Museum, Mike Archer, suggested the relationship between the remains and the rainbow serpent was a "bit tenuous".
- Details
January 29 2000
Dreamtime Rainbow Serpent Possibly Real
[Original headline: Fossil find linked to Dreamtime serpent]
The rainbow serpent which features prominently in Aboriginal Dreamtime legend, may not have been a mythological creature after all. New evidence provided by the archeological remains of a species of a primitive Australian snake suggest it could be the basis for what has long been regarded as folklore. Known as the Wonambi Naracoortensis, the creature ranged in length from three to five metres and was the width of a large dinner plate. It was big enough to swallow extremely large creatures. The rainbow serpent, which appears in Aboriginal rock art going back 40,000 years, is said to command the powers of creation and destruction and plays a key role in the Aboriginal Dreamtime. The latest claims are based on fossil records from Naracoorte in South Australia which first revealed the giant snake. It is believed to have survived until 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, about the time humans first arrived in Australia. The overlap would have allowed the early ancestors of Australia's indigenous people to make a pictorial record of the snake. Dr John Scanlon of the University of New South Wales, who helped piece together the evidence, admitted the snake "might have been the basis for the . . . rainbow serpent in Aboriginal Dreaming legends". But the director of the Australian Museum, Mike Archer, suggested the relationship between the remains and the rainbow serpent was a "bit tenuous".