Cryptozoology for 100 Alex!

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**Easy E**

Let's open a thread about Monster Hunting!

I was recently playing around with my PC/TV projection capabailities and decided to look at pictures of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. I stumbled across thesee relatively recent sighting stories.

http://www.ghosttheory.com/2011/09/14/new-loch-ness-monster-sighting-photos

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2132574/The-Loch-Ness-Monster-Sonar-picture-shows-serpent-like-creature-mysterious-loch.html

So, let's talk about Monster Hunting in this thread. If you have an interesting story to share, feel free. I'm not much of a believer myself, but who doesn't love a good monster story?

**purplefood**

Who doesn't love random wildcats roaming the British countryside?

**Easy E**

Cool, in my old stomping grounds we had a "Phantom Panther" it was reported widely in the local papers.

Here is an excerpt from MonsterQuest:
"Many black panther sightings occurred in the daylight and some of the witnesses took photos. In 1999, David Johnson of Hugo, Minnesota reports seeing a black panther in a pasture. He took 13 pictures of the cat which he believes to be as long as a German Shepherd dog."

http://monsterquestreview.blogspot.com/2009/07/monsterquest-look-at-lions-in-suburbs.html

My area is also famous for 'Phantom Kangaroos" between 1957 to 67. Not as exciting as Phantom Panthers, but.... <shrugs>.

**AustonT**

purplefood wrote: Who doesn't love random wildcats roaming the British countryside?

Shouldn't Joey be out there in a loincloth challenging them with his bare hands?

**purplefood**

AustonT wrote:
purplefood wrote: Who doesn't love random wildcats roaming the British countryside?

Shouldn't Joey be out there in a loincloth challenging them with his bare hands?

I wish, that'd be hilarious...

**Medium of Death**

http://www.uncannyuk.com/646/pterodactyl-sightings-in-england/

Seems legit...

Anybody got anything relatively interesting or suitably weird?

Is it too much to ask for world ending entities from beyond the stars...?

Spoiler:

**AduroT**

We periodically get cougar sightings where they've wandered back into the state. Sometimes rather far before they're spotted. Course once they're seen and make the news someone goes out and shoots em. Then people complain about how our deer population is out of control.

**Kanluwen**

We have Sasquatch sightings all the time here in North Carolina.

It's kinda fun, makes me want to go out wearing an ape suit sometime in the woods.

**AduroT**

Nah, someone would just shoot you of you did that.

**Snrub**

Thats why Sasquatch/s always remember to wear wristwatches.

**Palindrome**

The village I grew up in had a mermaid http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/scotland/ross-and-cromarty/folklore/port-henderson-mermaid.html

Honestly.

There were quite a few sightings of a black panther like creature in the mid 90s as well but given that the Scottish highlands are not exactly tropical it likely froze to death very quickly.

**Witzkatz**

Palindrome wrote:The village I grew up in had a mermaid http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/scotland/ross-and-cromarty/folklore/port-henderson-mermaid.html

Honestly.

There were quite a few sightings of a black panther like creature in the mid 90s as well but given that the Scottish highlands are not exactly tropical it likely froze to death very quickly.

Nah, I wouldn't count on that. Northern Germany is also a rather mirthless, wet and cold place in winter - but still, some Greater Rheas (flightless birds from south america: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Rhea) that escaped from a local zoo survived their first winter - and now there's a growing population of them just a few kilometers from where I live.
Some animals seem to be quite adaptive when it comes to cold times.

PS: Damn, that English wikipedia main article about those birds has a mention of our population here in Northern Germany. Didn't know that 30-something herd of Nandus was that popular. They are, of course, not really suitabel for a monster thread...as long as nobody points out that they are the descendants of the Velociraptors!!

**Dreadwinter**

You know, Cryptozoology is a legit field. Finding new species is still very important to science. Now that I have said that.....

I LOVE Monsterquest. God that show is hilarious. Anybody watching that Bigfoot show or the new Mermaid one? I have not given them a look yet, but I bet they are just amazing.

**reds8n**

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/03/imaginary-monsters-us-cities/1621/#slide1

**JohnnoM**

lol, mole people are actually hobos.

**treadhead1944**

I lived in Florida for 10 years, where apparently the Florida Skunk Ape likes to hang out in the Everglades, occasionally popping out to say HI! I remember reading about how it once put on quite a "show" for some Swedish tourists...

**Gitkikka**

Whoa man, like Bigfoot is real maaaaan. It's all a conspiracy!

**Easy E**

reds8n wrote:http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/03/imaginary-monsters-us-cities/1621/#slide1

That article forgot about the Jersey Devil. To be fair, I'm not sure how remote the Pinebarrons of New Jersey are, so maybe it can't be considered an "Urban Monster".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil

Also, for some reason I thought the Dover Demon was English. I guess it was actually outside of Boston. I don;t know if I should be disappointed or excited about the fact it is an American monster.

**rockerbikie**

Easy E wrote:
reds8n wrote:http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/03/imaginary-monsters-us-cities/1621/#slide1

That article forgot about the Jersey Devil. To be fair, I'm not sure how remote the Pinebarrons of New Jersey are, so maybe it can't be considered an "Urban Monster".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil

Also, for some reason I thought the Dover Demon was English. I guess it was actually outside of Boston. I don;t know if I should be disappointed or excited about the fact it is an American monster.

The Jersey Devil creeps me out. I don't know why. I think it may be supernatural and that is not possible to be explained scientifically. Mothman is the other one which creeps me out. He was seen before a bridge disaster, before the Nuclear Meltdown in Russia and before 9/11, scary huh?

**Easy E**

I remember Mothman creeped me out when I first read about him too.

**Easy E**

Here's another "local" monster.

http://www.pepie.net/

Nessie, eat your heart out!

I have been on this lake many times, and it is prone to strange waves and choppy wake due to the way the wind comes ripping through the valley betwwen the bluffs. I remember gettting sea sick once while traversing Lake Pepin by boat. I have never been sea sick before or since.

Of course, no one had heard of Pepie until the local Board of Tourism dug out that 1871 sighting and decided to make a media campaign out of it. Its really just a bit of local color that no one takes seriously.