Strange/Rare Fauna Reports

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Created: 20 February 2006

9th February 2000


The Editor ATTENTION: Joanne
The Gayndah Gazette
Gayndah Qld

Dear Sir/Madam,

On reading with great interest an article headed "Bear could put Gayndah on tourist map" in the Gympie Times today, memories of events some years ago came to mind. Perhaps I may be able to assist with the stories of the bear grabbing headlines around the country.

The bear incident remains quite clear in my mind because on hearing of a big circus truck accident, I drove up to the accident site on the Binjour Plateau to have a curious look and to take photographs - didn't have a car at that time so "borrowed" my fathers - got a real dressing down when arriving home afterwards. At the time, I was a budding photographer and 8mm moviemaker. I still have a movie showing earthquake damage to the new range highway not long after it was built - that is another story. To the best of my knowledge, this is the correct sequence of events concerning the story of the bears.

In February/March of 1959, there had been heavy to flood rains in the Burnett region. Bullen's Circus was moving from Mundubbera to Gayndah via the old winding Binjour Range dirt road. If my memory serves me right, a large trailer carrying lions and bears and a smaller truck carrying monkeys slid off the road and went over the side into the jungle below. In those days, the sides of the range were covered in large expanses of near impenetrable jungle vine forest.

Two escaped lions were quickly recovered. Most of the monkeys were also. Some did escape and were seen and heard for about six months later then they seemingly disappeared - probably dying of starvation or eating poisonous forest foods and berries. Two female and one male small black (Himalayan?) bears escaped into the forest and were not recovered because of the cyclonic rains. Not much was said about their escape in the media at the time for fear of panicking local farmers or township residents even though the bears were harmless. It was thought they would eventually die without their special diet. There were many exaggerated sightings "of giant bear-like creatures" in the range region during the years that followed. It became quite a joke. The bears just got bigger and bigger. They were even supposed to have mated up with local Yowies and "Bear Yowies" (bare yowies - get the joke) had been created. The stories just got wilder and wilder.

Some travelers reported "huge" bears standing in the middle of range roads lunging and snarling at passing cars. There was even a case where a small car had been tipped over by the "Bear Yowie" with the occupant still inside unharmed. Farm dogs cowered under houses. Campers were chased away from their food supplies and their tents being torn apart. There was even one story of a teenage girl being carried off but she escaped with scratches on her arms and back. There was even a cartoon drawing circulated (I still have a copy somewhere hopefully) of a man standing in the bush relieving himself with a giant bear with a painful look on his face tapping him on the shoulder and saying "Can I join you? I like the way you humans stand up and do it".

The stories were endless and quite hilarious. So much so, "jokers" erected huge signs featuring wild menacing bears on their hind legs at both ends of the range road stating "Danger - Wild Bears Cross Here". It got to a stage that whenever I travelled to Mundubbera and Binjour, I would keep out a sharp eye in case one of the "giant bears" would jump out in front of the car. Never happened I'm afraid.

The circus salvaged whatever it could from the trucks in the rain and continued to Gayndah to the large field area opposite the State School cricket/football fields (a youth hostel was later built on the same grounds). The circus people erected their big top and other facilities in the hope of staging a performance. But there was even heavier rain and the whole circus field became an impassable bog. Vehicles became bogged down everywhere. It was a real mess.

During the night, their largest elephant slipped in the mud and couldn't get up. Cruelly but necessarily after all other efforts had failed, they applied electrical charges to get it to rise up. It finally got up only to suffer a terrible fate. The water-soaked mud caused the elephant's all four feet to slip outwards. It fell onto its belly snapping all four legs. I can still hear the terrible sound of that poor animal's suffering. It was quickly shot. A dozer (from the council I think) was brought in to haul the carcass away because the animal was too heavy for a crane. It wasn't a pretty sight as it was dragged along the bitumen out of town.

Before the huge carcass was disposed of (I didn't see the actual disposal), several members of the scout group got permission to salvage the elephant's head. This was done with chain saws. The head was relocated elsewhere onto a bull ant's nest (several people were involved plus myself and members of the Smith and Mellor Families). The skull disappeared from its ant's hill location and then reappeared at the new Scout Den where it was originally planned to display the relic. I cannot remember how it was found and returned. As far as I know, the skull is still displayed on the back wall in the main room of the scout hut. At the time, the walls of the Cub and scout sections had been converted to resemble caves and cave entrances in line with the Jungle Book stories. The elephant's head fitted in well with the concept. It was also a piece of tragic local history.

The circus by the way cancelled its performances. It rained something terrible. I think it was stranded in Gayndah for about two weeks. The townspeople rallied to help the circus people because the animals were starving (and the circus folk were nearly at the stage of begging). Farmers brought in hay bales, vegetables and other produce they could spare. Local townspeople did their best with grass clippings and home biscuits/cakes etc. Local shops, butchers, fruiterers and bakers gave what they could also. I remember it was a real community effort and no one sought the media glamour of today's events. There was no great public appeal like they do today - people just quietly went about their business offering their help to the circus folk. I don't recall if the trucks on the range were ever recovered. When the circus could leave, the performers invited the whole town to a free show to thank everyone. I remember it well for the performers gave the show of their lifetime in appreciation. Sadly, the circus I believe went into liquidation not long afterwards because of its bad spate of tragedies.

On leaving Gayndah in 1964, there were still stories popping up here and there about the "giant" Binjour Plateau bears and the "Bear Yowies". I am to understand that Himalayan bears can live to around 30 years or more. It may be just possible that some offspring singular or plural may have survived after the death of their parents and subsequently surface their heads every now and then to keep the "myth" alive.

In conclusion, there is one matter of which I must comment. I found it quite horrifying to see a reward of $10,000 being offered for its capture and $1000 being offered for its photo. The unfortunate creature or creatures if it or they still exist should be left alone to end it's days in peace instead of becoming the target for the greedy beneficiaries of a shooter's kill. To encourage such rewards and even the promotion of such within a paper is revolting when there are so many people out there today with nothing but sawdust between the ears. All they want is the money and media fame of "capturing" an innocent beast that has caused no harm to any person or stock. Let them live in peace. They won't do you any harm if you don't reciprocate.

In my way of thinking, there are better benefits for tourism by keeping alive a "myth" and developing a local industry from it rather than seeing a stuffed relic in a museum - just another reminder of man's inhuman treatment of earth's creatures. I hope my reminiscences will assist with your bear stories.


Brett J. Green
Gympie Qld 4570.

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Created: 20 December 2005

The new face of 'Monkey Island'

Morgan Island gains higher public profile

Monday, December 19, 2005
The Post and Courier
BO PETERSEN

The monkeys gaze with grandfatherly faces. Through the spidery web of live oak limbs they scamper, screech and coo, feed and fight in seemingly choreographed mayhem like gangs in a musical.

Their secret is out. Boaters pull up to Dataw Marina and ask where to find them. The dock hands just point across Morgan River.

Morgan Island, the primeval sanctuary in the remote St. Helena Sound near Beaufort, has been a free-ranging monkey breeding colony since 1979, providing monkeys for research. For years its out-of-town operators ducked public scrutiny and stirred dark rumors. When the state bought the island in 2002 the secrecy began to be stripped from "Monkey Island."

The new breeding program owner is taking a higher profile in the community. It's good business, Greg Westergaard said.

But it might well have been unavoidable given the island's new public profile. Boatload after boatload of the curious are drawn to the off-limits but irresistibly exotic and eerily native Eden and its humanlike wildlife.

The island's new owners, the people of South Carolina, might let its exotic wildlife stay awhile. Three years after the Department of Natural Resources voted not to renew the breeding company's lease, and a year after the lease ran out, more than 6,000 monkeys roam the 400-acre island. Westergaard is operating on a two-year lease.

Animal research is seeing new federal, state and commercial interest, amid heightened concerns about biological or chemical terrorist attacks and

emerging health threats such as bird flu. The lease provides revenue for a budget-strapped state that hasn't found the money to immediately do anything else with the island.

More than 50,000 "nonhuman primates" are used per year in labs in the United States because of their similarities to humans. The Humane Society of the United States estimates $575 million to $800 million per year is spent on monkey research.

Two initiatives have been launched in the state - South Carolina Biotechnology Incubation Facility and the Palmetto Biotechnology Alliance - to promote life science businesses and jobs.

"I think there's an understanding of the need for this kind of work because more of these animals are being used for bioterrorism research. Anthrax and smallpox are very frightening things," said Westergaard, president of the operation that is now Alpha Genesis.

The state and Alpha Genesis are negotiating a long-term lease, Westergaard said. A state Natural Resources spokesman confirmed that the department has been approached by Westergaard and said, "No decision has been reached on leasing the island in the future."

Troops

Behind the "Federal Project/Restricted Access/No Trespassing" sign, Morgan Island gives offshore boaters glimpses of a familial, viciously wild primate society.

The island "is unique, to say the least," said Scott Cheslak, colony manager.

Rhesus monkeys roam the ground in "troops" like deer in herds. They nest in the live oak and pine, moving from tree to tree a night at a time in what is apparently an inbred precaution against predators. Young monkeys rock themselves on skinny branches like bouncy seats. When ponds on the island fill with rain, the young scramble up trees alongside, dive underwater, surface and scramble up to dive again.

Troops fight turf wars and squabble over food in screeching, biting attacks that are, as often as not, bluffs to test the other's courage. Any number of the monkeys show scars.

Dominant males are given room or else. A big blond, or golden, male leaps onto a fallen-over tree where a lone female sits with her child, abruptly screams, lunges and takes a bite out of her backside. She leaps down and the male takes her place.

A monkey has a hard life, Westergaard says with a little smile. In the wild, as many as three of four young males won't make it to adulthood.

On the island the rhesus are fed "monkey biscuits" at 17 stations spread around under the low-hanging trees. Nearby are 10 primitive, round corrals with high, slippery tin walls. Four times a year food is cut off at the stations but left in the corral. Monkeys scamper in but can't climb out.

Alpha Genesis now ships 700-800 monkeys per year for research from the island, its Yemassee and Early Branch captive breeding facilities. As many as one-third now end up in research that is anti- terrorism-related.

The company nearly doubled its annual revenue last year to $7 million and recently won the largest grant in its history, $10 million from the National Institutes of Health, to provide rhesus monkeys for research into the body's immune system to improve organ transplant techniques. The research could mean breakthroughs in treatments of diabetes, kidney and heart disease and AIDS.

Double take

Even with the new concern for terrorism, outrage is still out there about using animals, much less primates, in research that can maim, sicken and kill them. But the opposition is less often outright. The Humane Society pushes for research methods that would replace or reduce use of animals and for better methods to reduce their suffering.

Kathleen Conlee worked in the breeding program for the former owners and says that experience drove her to work for the Humane Society on animal research issues. She wants an urgent priority put on ending the research, "particularly primates," she said.

The research is increasing but the society's opinion polls haven't changed - three of every four people surveyed said they oppose the research if it involves severe pain or distress, even with the potential human benefit, she said.

The Humane Society of South Carolina hasn't received any calls or complaints about the breeding program, an official said. Outrage over monkeys isn't abundant in tiny, rural Yemassee. People smile about "the monkey farm" and occasionally gape at Capuchins, South American monkeys, from the gate at the company headquarters and one of its captive breeding facilities.

Jobs are scarce in the community, and local residents hold most of the 50 jobs with Alpha Genesis.

"I don't have a problem with them one way or another. To us, if anything, it's good. We had protesters come in a few years ago. But it wasn't much of anything to me," said Mark Steele, who own Central Hardware in town, where signs on the door read, "We Support Our Troops" and "Best Coca Cola's in South Carolina."

"I mean, the average research usually starts off with animals," resident Tracy Henderson said as she collected mail at the post office next door.

Alpha Genesis does more business in the local community. Westergaard speaks publicly about the operation and is developing school tours-from-a-distance and university-based behavioral studies using the Capuchins.

After gazing long enough at the monkeys, a visitor has to do a double take at the silhouette of a worker moving through the shade in the distance to make sure of the species.

Security has been stepped up on the island and at the inland facilities in response to heightened public awareness, and Cheslak is now a Natural Resources deputy. Westergaard said he has no major problems, but a few minor ones have cropped up. A monkey inexplicably turned up earlier this year at a Lady's Island golf course, seven miles down St. Helena Sound from its island.

The forbidding wire fence still gives the Yemassee facility the anonymous, keep-out look. Alpha Genesis doesn't have a sign out front yet, but "we're working on that," Westergaard said.

http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=59813&section=localnews

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Created: 20 February 2006

16 Jul 1999 Australia:

The original water rats are back from the dead

Original Article By Simon Benson.

Web-footed water rats, thought to be long gone from the Sydney area, have been discovered on Goat Island in Sydney Harbour in July 1999. They are the only species of amphibious mammal in Australia apart from the platypus. The once-prolific animals were hunted for their fur, and were last seen in Sydney in 1934. They are still found in parts of inland Australia. The National Parks and Wildlife Service regards the discovery as good news for Sydney Harbour, which has previously been considered too polluted to support mammals.  

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Created: 07 January 2006

The Top 10 Most Mysterious Creatures of Modern Times

There are creatures that lurk out there in the dark, that haunt the isolated forests of the world, that hide in the icy depths of the deepest lakes. They appear unexpectedly and inexplicably, then vanish just as mysteriously, usually leaving witnesses dumbfounded, frightened and, unfortunately in most cases, without a shred of evidence. Yet the eyewitness stories of these creatures persist, haunting the darkness as well as our imaginations. Here, for your consideration (and in no particular order) are the top 10 most mysterious, unexplained creatures of all time. Some are more likely to really exist than others, but we'll leave that judgment up to you.

1. Bigfoot / Sasquatch / Yeti
These hairy apemen are probably the most consistently witnessed unknown creatures in the world. Whether they are called Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti, Skunk Ape or Yowie, they have been seen in isolated woodlands and mountain areas in virtually every corner of the globe. And the descriptions - from the North American northwest to Florida to Australia - are remarkably consistent: 

• taller than an average man (seven to eight feet)
• covered with long brown or auburn hair (or white hair in the case of the Yeti)
• a strong, repugnant odor
• large feet, as evidenced by castings of footprints
• an aversion to man
• a piercing, eerie howl

The vast number of sightings, many by highly reliable witnesses, gives Bigfoot, in my estimation, the best likelihood of being a real creature as yet unknown to science. But what is it? A missing link? Some ancient relative of humans that somehow has survived in the wilderness? An unknown species of ape?

We may find out someday soon. Sightings seem to be on the increase as mankind encroaches deeper and deeper on the wilderness. And technology may aid in the search. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization recently announced its intention to place motion-triggered digital webcams in various areas of US forest where the hairy beast has been seen. This 24-hour surveillance with potentially thousands of computer-based witnesses looking on will dramatically increase the chances of obtaining credible evidence.

For the diehard skeptic, nothing less than a captured specimen will do - or at least some other tangible evidence. And one that could qualify has recently emerged: an impression of Bigfoot's butt. No kidding. Researchers in the American northwest have found what appears to be the impression in the ground of where a large hairy primate has sat. Hey, he's got to rest those big feet sometime.

2. Loch Ness Monster (and other Lake monsters)
Despite excellent expeditions with sophisticated electronic equipment, the lake monsters of the world continue to elude scientists. Yet spontaneous sightings by good witnesses, although rare, persist.

Descriptions of this creature, too, are amazingly similar:

• a large creature with a long neck
• a horse-like head
• a humped back

Most sightings report the humps protruding from the surface of the water (which skeptics dismiss as being almost anything, from schools of fish to floating logs), but occasionally a lucky witness will see the creature stretch its neck high above the water and look around a bit before submerging.

Photo and video evidence is rare. And although some of the photos are tantalizing (most notably the famous "flipper" photo taken by the Rines expedition in 1975), most such "proof" is fuzzy or inconclusive at best. 

If the creature does exist, many researchers suspect that it could be a kind of plesiosaur - an animal from the age of the dinosaurs that is thought to have become extinct more than 66 million years ago. Could a lineage of these incredible creatures possibly have survived?

Source-paranormal.com