Edmonton *Mulder's Official Thread*

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The Sumatran rhinoceros (above) is a special animal. In many ways, it retains several characteristics that link it to the megafauna of the Pleistocene. The Sumatran rhino thus is a living fossil*, related to the wooly rhinoceros (directly below) of the Ice Ages. That the Sumatran variety are still around is remarkable.
[image=http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/COELODON.JPG]
The Bernama news service account of September 6th and other dispatches through the Associated Press of September 8th and 9th detail the findings:

Environmentalists in Sabah are buzzing with excitement. Years of patience was finally rewarded when they got a see a Sumatran rhino in its natural habitat on video. The video clip of the male Sumatran rhino was captured last week by a local ranger hired by Save Our Sumatran Rhino (SOS Rhino), a non-government organisation (NGO), during a daytime routine patrol in a forest reserve in the state (area details withheld to prevent poaching).

?This sighting and rare photos and video documenting the Sumatran rhino in its natural habitat is indeed very exciting. We have been tracking these animals here in Sabah for almost ten years now, and although we have seen tracks and signs of these rhinos, this is the first actual sighting of the endangered animal,? said Dr M.S Thayapara, the Program Officer for SOS Rhino Borneo.

According to him, the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the smallest of the five species of rhinos left in the world, and the only rhino species found in Malaysia and the most endangered of all five species.

Only about 50 Sumatran rhinos are left in Sabah.

According to the Associated Press:

Sabah is the last preserve of the Borneo Sumatran rhino, a subspecies of the Sumatran rhino, a bristly, snub-nosed, smaller version of the African variety. The subspecies has already become extinct in other parts of Borneo because of poaching. Borneo island is divided between Malaysia?s Sabah and Sarawak states, Indonesia?s Kalimantan province and the oil-rich sultanate of Borneo. Fewer than 300 rhinos of the second subspecies, the western Sumatran rhino, are believed to be living on Indonesia?s Sumatra island and mainland Malaysia. Hopes for the Borneo subspecies were boosted after Malaysian government wildlife officials and World Wildlife Fund experts found evidence of at least 13 of them in May last year. Rhino protection units have since launched patrols to deter poaching.

Thanks to Cryptomundo correspondent Matt Knapp for the tip to this developing story.

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*living fossil

?The Sumatran rhino, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, is a very special animal. Probably fewer than four hundred existed the evening I met Emi, and the number has continued to drop. The Sumatran is also special because it is a living fossil. The genus to which it belongs originated at least thirty million years ago.? - E. O. Wilson, 2002.

Edward Osborne Wilson (b. June 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama USA) is a distinguished biologist (entomology), researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity) and theorist (consilience, biophilia), a naturalist (conservationism), and a prominent man of letters. Wilson is known for his remarkably prolific career as a scientist, his advocacy for environmentalism, and his scientific humanist ideas concerned with religious, moral, and ethical matters. He is currently the Pellegrino Research Professor in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

 

Is There Still A Sea Serpent Of Bolinas?

Sep. 4 - KGO - In almost every corner of the world, wherever there is a large body of water, people, ancient and modern, have reported seeing. Well, something they can't explain; Loch Ness, Lake Champlain, Lake Oconogon, the Congo Basin, creatures not in zoology textbooks. So, why not a sea serpent on the coast of northern California, say, in Bolinas?

An odd little gathering of artists on a quiet beach in West Marin, odd in the way things can occasionally be, in Bolinas. It was a celebration of the artistic muse, that indefinable something that drives artists to do what they do.

A longtime Bolinas resident organized the event on the 30th anniversary of the rather peculiar inspiration he found in a large wave.

Tom D'onofrio, artist: "It was a big glassy wave and right in the wall of that wave was a dark object big like 40, 50 feet long. And I looked at him and he looked at me and my eyes must of been like that I mean it was like nothing I've ever seen.

Tom D'onofrio, former Methodist minister turned one of this countries most famous master woodcarvers has never had a doubt. Desperate for some artistic catalyst, he rode his horse to a nearby beach where he and a friend saw something that still inspires, maybe even obsesses Tom.

Tom D'onofrio: "It was thick and it was wide and it had lots of body to it but it wasn't a whale - that's what I first thought but it wasn't a whale because it was kind of doing like this. And it disappeared and I said what in the world is that?"

Since that spiritual moment, as he calls it, the rolling, undulating form he saw in that surf appears in most everything he does. Now, Tom's insistent serpent appears on the bow of a boat decorated just for this celebration.

Tom D'onofrio: "I was in the presence of something I couldn't cope with, so I went back got on my horse, went back to the studio filled with this energy, this came to me to get this piece finished. I am going to loose this energy man, and I am going to finish this piece and I carved for 4 days I never came out except to eat."

Tom and his serpent have received a lot of attention over the years; the cover of national geographic, numerous magazine articles and two years ago in a documentary on the national geographic channel.

23 years ago, on this very channel, I did a short news story on Tom. I've changed. Tom's changed, but the story hasn't.

Tom D'onofrio: "Just undulating like this riding in the waves it would disappear and reappear."

Of course, National Geographic did a fine job explaining Tom's creature in a scientific, far from spiritual way. Tom still politely insists he saw what he saw, and that conviction has driven his art ever since, and who are we to deny another human beings eyes or the work his experience inspired.

Tom D'onofrio: "It's affected everything I've done since then."

Of course, we rational people dismiss all of this despite Tom D'onofrio's good humor. We figure a certain illicit substance most have been involved. But, admit it, deep down we'd all like to think he really did see something that day, 30 years ago.

 

New Mystery Animal Photograph
[image=http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/060912101907.JPG]
Is this photograph the ?Mystery Animal? seen for decades in West Virginia?s Potomac Highlands?

This picture was taken by an automatic digital camera set on private property in a 3000 acre wilderness in which no human inhabitants live. It was caught on film on August 8, 2006 at 0700 Hours.

Since the original owners do not want to become embroiled in the heated Eastern Mountain Lion mystery debate, the Eastern Puma Research Network will be fielding all responses for this photograph. The EPRN can be reached via email at epuma [at] beaconnet [dot] net.

Photograph courtesy of the initial West Virginia photographer/owner of the digital camera, via John Lutz of EPRN.

To gain permission to show the ?Mystery Animal? photograph (top), the above italicized statement was required to be published with it.

Obviously, your thoughts via comments may still be registered below, regarding what kind of cryptid, animal, feline, canid, or beast the object in the photograph might be. Various comparative photographs of felines, for analytical reasons only, are posted below. I am not suggesting any firm ?answer? for this ?Mystery Animal? photograph.

[image=http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/floridapantherusfw.jpg]

The Florida Panther (above), the southernmost verified subspecies of mountain lion or cougar, is found in the USA. The coat of the Florida Panther frequently appears to have dusty gray tones.

[image=http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/MountainLion.jpg]

The mountain lion shown (above) demonstrates an extension of the body and legs, somewhat similiar to that found in the Mystery Animal photograph.

[image=http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/caracal.jpg]

The above is a photograph of a caracal, also called a Persian lynx or an African lynx (Caracal caracal, sometimes Felis caracal), a felid obviously not naturally found in North America. The position of the caracal?s body mirrors what can be seen in that of the Mystery Animal, and this is the reason I have placed it here.

Here is the photo enhanced:

[image=http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/mysteryanimal1.jpg]
[image=http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/mysteryanimal2.jpg]

 

Is This an Ogopogo Skull?
[image=http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals/uploads/penticton/.DIR288/Ogopogo_2_060910.jpg]
The Western News has reported that Warren Linklater believes that he photographed the skull of a creature that may be related to the Lake Monster known as Ogopogo. Linklater snapped the photo in a museum located in the tiny fishing village of Tecohitla, during a trip around the Gulf of Mexico in 1970. "It had a head of a thing that they didn't know what it was," said Linklater. Linklater claimed that he was told that the two-meter high skull had been cut off a 12-meter long body with a chain saw. The body was then allowed to drift out to sea... which is all too typical in cases such as this.

 

Okay, you know I read these solely for fun but I have to admit, I wouldn't take anything someone found while diving aroud on the "Happy Bus" in 1970 seriously. I have a mental image of the big school bus from the Stargate Episode "1969".
Definately a strange looking scull though.

 

"Bloop"
In 1997, an unusual sound was picked up by U.S. Navy spy sensors located deep in the Pacific Ocean. These sensors, actually a series of underwater microphones, or "hydrophones" known as SOSUS, or "Sound Surveillance System", are actually remnants of Cold War technology that is still used today to track the movements of nuclear submarines underwater. They are located at a level in the ocean that is particularly conducive to the transmission of sound waves, called the "deep sound channel", wherein temperature and pressure conditions are such that sound waves are "channeled" for thousands of miles with very little signal loss compared to other sea levels or even open air transmission. Most of these sounds can be traced to boats, whalesong, volcanic activity, earthquakes, and so forth, but some have yet to be determined. One of these is the mysterious sound known only as "Bloop".

Researchers have nicknamed the strange unidentified sound picked up by undersea microphones "Bloop." While it bears the varying frequency hallmark of marine animals, it is far more powerful than the calls made by any creature known on Earth, Britain's New Scientist reported on Thursday. It is too big for a whale and one theory is that it is a deep sea monster. The frequency of the sound meant it had to be much louder than any recognised animal noise, including that produced by the largest whales. Scientists from the U.S.'s NOAA have been baffled by the "Bloop" sound, [but] agree that the sound is most likely to be biological in origin.9

This sound may be the sound of something very large, very powerful, and very old awakening ? bigger than anything currently known to man, or at least not for a very long time. Could it be Leviathan awakening from his ages long sleep? Is Jormungand making ready for war? Surely the creature making these noises could not span the entire globe as does the Midgard Serpent of Norse lore, but something very big is definitely waiting to be discovered in the abyssal plains of the Pacific. Stay tuned to Mysterious World as the search continues.

To listen to "Bloop", click here:

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/sounds/bloop.wav

 

45-ft Sea Creature
While fishing in the Sabine River where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico our motor quit. The tide was going out so we had to wait until it changed directions. We dropped anchor and fished the rest of the night. We heard this noise that sounded like a large fish hitting the top of the water. Come daylight we saw the source of the noise. I can only describe this creature as a 45-ft eel. In this picture the creature is belly up and playing unaware of us. We stopped wishing for a turn of the tide, got our one paddle out and fought the tide. A passerby going out stopped and towed us back to the boat ramp where we kissed the ground. Even though we were not afraid of the creature, we realized our place on the food chain had changed and a primal fear griped us to fight the tide to get out of there.

--Jesse

Update: Coast listener Mr. B. writes, "I was on the Sabine River near Houston, Texas in the Summer of 1989 and also saw two 40-ft dark 'eel-like' fish swimming fast up-river. One was on the East bank, one was swimming parallel on the West bank. I thought they might be Alligator Gars."


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Here is a article about some strange happenings close to the Mexican border. It is one of the most interesting articles I have ever read.

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/currents/Content?oid=47018

 

[image=http://www.tcnj.edu/~serabia2/Pictures/Dinosaurs/Tyrannosaurus%20Rex/T-Rex-VS-Spinosaurus-Small.gif]

Here's why I find the Rex vs Spino scene in JP3 absurd. Take a look at the photo above. Notice that there is no way the Spinosaur's jaws can open wide enough to bite down on the Rex's neck. And even if it did--compare the weak neck muscles of the Spino with that of the Rex. There is no way the Spino could exert enough bite force to break the Tyrannosaur's built neck. Had the Spinosaur killed the Tyrannosaur by slashing it with its claws, there would have been much less disbelief.

 

Silver City Ghost
This is the Idaho Standard School in Silver City, Idaho (now a ghost town). The picture was taken at night with a digital camera with flash on September 30, 2006. Just below the "1892" on the balcony area, there appears to be a figure of a person. Everyone that has seen it (I have it on my desktop at work) says they are convinced it's a ghost.

--Amie
wheredidyougo@hotmail.com

[image=http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/SilverCity112006a.jpg]
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"Ball" Stumps Scientists
Hordaland, Norway (Oct 28, 2006 10:13 EST) A mysterious gelatinous ball has puzzled and fascinated researchers after undersea photographer Rudolf Svensen spotted it while diving at the mouth of the Matre fjord in Hordaland, western Norway.

On Oct. 1 Rudolf and his brother Erling were diving when he spotted the unusual object.

"It was 50-70 centimeters (19.5-27.5 inches) in diameter and looked like a huge beach ball. It was transparent but had a kind of thick, red cord in the middle. It was a bit science-fiction," Svensen told newspaper Bergens Tidende's web site.

The Svensens contacted associate professor Torleiv Brattegard at the University of Bergen, and other experts were notified to try and solve the mystery.

Brattegard was convinced the object was organic, and possibly a species unknown to Norway.

"It might be an animal, the remains of algae, something which has been alive, or a mysterious accumulation of microorganisms," were some of Brattegard's initial theories.

On Friday Brattegard told NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) that the mystery may have been solved.

On Friday Brattegard told NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) that the mystery may have been solved.

Colleague Arne Fjellheim, who works with Stavanger Museum, tipped off Brattegard that the organism resembled a photograph from New Zealand that he had seen. A zoology professor and squid expert in New Zealand corroborated by email - the peculiar gelatinous ball was a large squid egg sack.

"The gelatinous lump contains several fertilized eggs. This is not at all a common sight, because squids are some of the most inaccessible animals known," Fjellheim told iBergen.no.

Fjellheim told Aftenposten.no that squid are found in such numbers along the Norwegian coast that they are a commercial catch, and used mostly as bait. Despite this, extremely little is known about their biology.

[image=http://www.underwatertimes.com/news2/green_ball.jpg]

 

More OOPA animals showing up:

[image=http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/123006uglyshark1.jpg]

What is this tropical shark doing so far north in December? Please click for a larger image.

The out-of-place animals (OOPA) are popping up all over the map. A manatee was recently captured off Texas. It is the third out-of-place manatee discovered since last August, far from Florida (the other two were found hundreds of miles inland in New York State and Tennessee). An eight-foot crocodile was captured on Grand Cayman Island. Are they early warning signs of something? Now comes more.

There is a buzz, this week, over in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (a town known for its high levels of symbolism as the "home" of Punxsutawney Phil, the Groundhog Day groundhog). Folks are talking about an out-of-place animal that showed up near there on Friday, December 29, 2006.

Would you believe a shark three and a half feet long? While the shark that washed up on the shores of Mahoning Creek was at first thought to be a hammerhead shark, it turned out to specifically be a bonnethead shark or shovelhead (Sphyrna tiburo).

Bonnetheads are generally about one meter long, being the smallest hammerhead shark, so this one at 42 inches in length was full-grown. Bonnetheads do range as far north as New England in the summer and are common in inshore waters of some parts of the coastal South (Georgia and the Carolinas). But during the winter, this active tropical shark is suppose to be in the waters near the Equator.

This one was first seen, according to Punxsutawney Borough Police Officer Heath Zeitler, by members of the borough Public Works crew who spotted the shark along the bank on the afternoon of December 29th, just below the Mahoning Shadow Trail near the intersection of South Gilpin and Cypress Streets.

It is a mystery as to why one was found near Punxsutawney.

Zeitler, nevertheless, ventured some guesses for the media. She said, "it might have been disposed of by some who had caught it while fishing elsewhere, or had previously kept it in a personal aquarium - a very large personal aquarium."

By the way, since they like to swim in groups of 5 to 15 other bonnetheads, where is this one?s friends? I hasten to add, only one attack on humans has ever been recorded.

Meanwhile, another out-of-place animal report seems definitely linked to an escaped pet.

The mystery kangaroo, seemingly from nowhere, dashed out in front of a car on Tuesday night, January 2, 2007, and was killed on State Rt. 66 near Hebron, Connecticut. Yes, this happened on a Route 66, highly symbolic in the States, on many levels, as the classic Rt. 66 (from Illinois to the American SW) has often been experienced as the classic roadway deco for such out-of-place-stories. Willie the Wallaby was an escapee from its Marlborough pet owner, and had hopped two miles to its fate on "America?s Highway." For stories about this news, see here and here.

Trivia for the Day: When is the last time that there has been no recorded snowfall in New York City and Philadelphia, this late in the winter? Never.

Are all of these out-of-place animals the canaries in the coal mine?

Thanks to ?fallofrain? for a clarification, shame on me, of which I needed to be reminded, despite my Illinois background.

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/oopa-shark-roo/

 

Jarrett have you heard of the guy who did the documentary on the colony of sasquatch living in alberta? we doing a story on it on our 6 o'clock news tonight

 

Nope, I haven't heard of this, only no of Albert Ostman being kidnapped and spending a couple days with a colony of them. Thanks for the heads up Liann!

 

I watched the story, pretty cool. I hope he does get NBC and the Anthropologist (sp?) to go with him.

 

[image=http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/nc_lights012507a.jpg]
Last night (Wednesday, Jan 24) just after 8:30, I was in the backyard smoking a cig and saw a light coming in toward Kings Mountain from the south-southeast. It was pretty much on the same flight path as some of the air traffic that comes out of Charlotte Douglas, and I didn't think much of it at first, but as it got closer I could plainly see that the thing didn't have any flashing lights, just a blue-green glare.

I went into the house and got my camera and came back out in the front yard to shoot it as it passed over my house. Even though I know I had the thing centered in the frame, it came out off-center, but that's the problem with telephoto. Even so, you can tell that it isn't a plane or helicopter, it was too slow to be a meteor, and was too quiet. I got one shot on the thing and my camera battery suddenly exhausted. The thing continued northward at a steady pace until it passed behind trees and I lost it.

Today (Thursday, Jan 25), I was surprised to learn that there had been sightings of blue-green lights in the sky all the way from Charlotte, NC to Greenville/Spartanburg, SC -- and even a report from Kentucky -- and variously described as a meteor, space debris, or a slow-moving ball of light that changed directions, depending on who was telling the story. The Charlotte Observer newspaper featured the story on their website and requested any reports and photos from their readers, so I submitted my photo and brief report this afternoon.

 

Calling hoax on that one. If it were taken with a telephoto lense from his back yard, the house could not be in focus. From that angle you shouldn't even see the house.

 

Hmm, good call Terry!

Did you watch New Roswell: Invasion at Rumbleshed (sp?) and New Roswell: Kecksburg Exposed yesterday? Both were fantastic, as Sci-Fi gets right in there, even with Government offcials.

The Kecksburg one was the best, as they was so MANY people that saw the goings on that night in 1965. One guy saw 75 to 100 soliders entering some woods, and minutes later he heard to screams he could not explain. Some people were told to leave the area by MIB and soliders, also people saw men with "Moon Suites" on. The radio announcer in Kecksburg had a meetong with MIB and even US soliders who warned him not to air his progam on the incident. He did a week later, and then when in Calfiornia a week or two later he was mysteriously killed in a hit and run. I have to record Kecksburg Exposed next time it is on.

 

Bump.

Just to keep this thread from being locked, I need to add more!

 

Jarrett did you hear about that guy from edmonton who did that documentary that he's lobbying the government to have sasquatch declared a species in order to protect them?

his interview was very interesting to hear

 

Yeah, I know who you are talking about. I haven't heard about him for a while, glad to hear his is making progress. I have not heard his interview, do you know where I might find it?

 

we ran it on the news yesterday

 

Check out this new species of fish that was captured in the Congo:
[image=http://ebaumsworld.com/2007/04/congo1.jpg]
[image=http://ebaumsworld.com/2007/04/congo2.jpg]
[image=http://ebaumsworld.com/2007/04/congo3.jpg]

 

eek, look at those teeth

they deput that sasquatch documentary at the library tonight, i think we're having the guy who made it on our morning show either saturday morning or monday morning

 

There is a rather new show on the radio in St.Paul called the "X-Zone". Rob McConnel investigates the realm of Aliens, hauntings, Cryptozoology, you name it. It is on from 10:30 PM to 2 AM, and is pretty interesting for the little bit I have been able to listen to. 1310 does not come in well at night.