A Tiger in Hong Kong; The

Congo Peacock; The

Horseman of Lincolnshire;
BHM phenomena in Scotland

Issue Nine £1.75

 This issue of •Animala 4: Men' was put together by the
CONTE NTS
following animals and men.
p 3. Editorial
Jonathan Downes: Editor P 4 . Newsfile
J an Williams: News file Edi tor p. 13. 'Big foot' in Scotland?
Alison Downes: Administratrix supreme p 16. Ccyptocetology P art 3
Mark North: Artist p 24. The Horse- man of Lincolnshire
Graham Inglis/Dave Penna: Wea-e�RoadGew p 25. The Congo Peacoc k
p 29. Now thats what I call Crypto
<C<QlOO�lUJJL'l.&O
l" O"'T'� p 30. Bert the Capybara
p 32. A Tiger in Hong Kong .
Dr Beznard Heuvdmans p 36. Odd Ornithology
(Honoraey Consulting Editor) p 37. Obituary- Martin 'Mort' Brown.
Dr Karl P .N.Shukc:r p 38HELP
(Cryptozoological Consultant) p 3 8 . Big foo t Reports
p 3 8. Green Kitten Update
C.H.Keding p 39. Letters
(Zoological Consultant)
p 41 Loch Ness Society
Tony 'Doe' Sbids p 41. Future Plans for the CFZ
(Surrealcbcmist in Residence) p 42 . Boo k Reviews
p 43. Periodical Reviews
REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES p.44 Cartoon
ltJJ[
Scotland: Tom Anderson Contributors to this issue:
Suney: Nck Smith Dr B ern ard Heuv el m ans� Ri c h ar d
West Midlands: Dr Karl Shuker Mui rhe a d; Mar k Fraser; D arren Nai sh;
Wtltshire: Richard Mui.rhcad Tom Anderson; Neil Nixon; Chris �oiscr;
Kcm: Neil Arnold
SusBCx: Sally Parsons
B i ll Green; Eric Sorenson; S tep h e n S hipp;
Hamp shire: Darren Naish 'G a vi n'; Francois de S arre; M artin
I...an=ashire: Stuart Lcad.better M anne tje .
Norfolk: Justin Boote
Leicestershire: Alaistair Curzon
Cumbria: Brian Goodwin SUB S CRIPTIONS
Home Counties: Pbilip Kiberd
For a Four Issue S ubscription
S. Wales/Salop: Ion Matthias
mooN
£7.00 UK
Switzerlatxl: Sunila Sen-Gupta £8.00 EEC
Spain: Albcrto Lopez Acha £10.00 US,CANADA, OZ, NZ
Genna.ny: Wolfgang Schmidt
& Henmnn Reichenbach (Surface Mail)
France: Fr.ux:ois de Sarre £12.00 US,CANADA, OZ, NZ (Air
Denmark: Lars Thomas Mai 1)
Sweden: Eric Sorcnson
Ere: The Wl.Zard of the western vvorld. £14.00 Rest of World
� JBUJm<QlN (Air Mail)
Mexico: Dr R.A.Lara Palmcros
Canada: Ben Roesch 9 ANJrMAIL� � Ml8N9 11
New ZA::aland: Steve Matthewman

TilECENTRE FORFORTEAN
DISC LAIMER ZOOLOGY,
The Views published in articles and lettezs in
this magazme are not necesarily those of th e 15 HO L NE C OURT,
publisher or editorial team, who although they E XWICK, E XE TE R.
have taken all lengths not to print anything E X4 2 N A
defamatory or which infringes anyone's
copyright take no responsibility for any such
statement which is inadveztantly included. 01392 424811
 THE G R EAT DAYS OF
ZOOLOGYARE NOTDONE
Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to another issue of 'Animals & After all, at the risk of app,earing_ pretentious, we
Men '.This issue will be available in time for are all in the business ofttying_to mcrease the sum
UNCONVENTION 1996 and will in effect mark total of human knowledge. SaOiy we have also had
jUl �elpful r�sp�mse from some of the major
our third anni versary. So far we have mat)aged to lDStltutions. Whilst the smaller zoos and museums
meet most of our objectives. but there is far more we have talked to have been interested in our work.
to achieve. and have helped us a lot, and whilst all the Scottish
Museums, have been equally helpful, several major
With the one notable exc�tion; the sad death of
English Museums and Zoos have been unhelpful,
our cartoonist Mort. in February. this is a very
auspicious vear. We have several interesting rude and hostile towards us and our ain;ls. Maybe
Ql.afles Fort was the 'arch-enemy' of sctence alter
proJec ts in the pipeline, and those of you who
bought this years yearbook will be P.leased to know all? I don't think so.
that we have already collected over half the articles
Finally we are pl� to oo 'on line' with an
for the 1997 volume� and I am typing this in the Intemd web Site Witfiin tire next 12 months.
first week of March. However if any reader is able to let us have some
space on the web so we can start earlier we would
Issue ten will be available some time in July. and be extremely grateful.
both the 1997 Yearboo k and Issue 11 will be ,
published in October. We are currentlY negotiating 1 Keep on the track ...
with a Manchester based publishin� .tUm about my 1
Owlman book., 'The Owima n ana Others' which , Jonathan D
will either be available in July or October.r-1-------,
depending on whether they publish It or we. do. M
new booK. 'The Smaller Mystery Camivores ofthei
South- West'. with a forward 6y Karl Shuker. isj
now available through the editonal address.
I
It is peculiar that whereas practically withou�

�
exception we have. received no!hing but help..:\
encouragement and good wishes from the folk h�
the fortean world. in the world of natural histo
the story has been very different We have som

l
v� good friends and colleagues within the worl
of orthodox zoology. and within the worlds o
exoti� pet keeping, but have be<;n 'snubbe�.' .bYi '
practlcally all the natural history soctetles
anddiscussion groups we illlve approached.

�
Indeed in a 'mail out' of this magazine to fortY!
seven Natural History Societies, we received twO/
answers. One from tlie ex-secretary of one societ '
to say that the organisation in question had close
down. and the other. a rude note. saying that 'w
shouldn't expect ' his members t:O be interested i
'a subject like ours'. '

This is sad, because in a world where the pursuit o �

zoological truth is increasingly the domain of th�
enthusiastic amateur, people working on th�
'fringe' of the natural sciences should workj
together. not against each other. After all. at thel
Compiled and Edited by a�
(that Wl&a DREADFUL..iala=about theLada)
and her Merry Band of
corresJX>ndents.

NJJEW §JPJECCIIJE§
IT'S LIFE JIM,
( BUf NOTAS WE KNOW IT).
Explorations in Romania have .TC?veale:d an �en
environment, an ecosystem survtvmg wtthout light
or oxygen. The Movile Cave system near
Mangalia, west of the Black Sea, was first The species include �w�. roun�worms,
discovered ten years ago by building �orlcet:S pseudo-scorpions, s:pt.�� Imtes, pill-b�s,
•
.

centipedes , bee tles, pnnuttve _lllllects and bactena.

.

Scientists from the Speleological Instltute m

All are blind and pale yellow m colour.
Bucharest carried out a P..feliminary .survey. but
research was halted whilst Romaman dictator
The caves are believed to have been isolated for
Nicolai Ceausescu was in power. Biologist Serban
five million years, and the. creatures scuttle. for
Sarbu of the University of Cincinnatl has �ow
cover when they detect a change in oxygen levels.
been able to return to the cave and conttnue
explorations. Forty-seven P!"t?Viously unknow n Dr. Sarbu says: "In the absence of sunli�ht, the
species have so far been found m the cave �ystem, microbes at tile bottom of the J.Ood cham have
living in an atmosphere of Hydrogen Sulphide that turned to using hydrogen sulphide to live. Their
would poison most life on earth. enerqy comes not from tbe sun but from chemicals
' -
seepmg ti:om the rocks".
. '�
The Movile Cave is a freshwater environment, but
similar life forms have been found in deep sea
vents, w h ere hydrogen s ulp�de see'l?s up fro m
magmatic hot spnngs. (Datly Mad 15.2.96;
Express 15.2.96).

Editorial Comment: •Stuck inside of Movile with the

Memphis Blues again!•

COUN1Y BOUNDARIES.

A Leeds U ni versi ty team led. _by Dr. Jo�

Altring�am has d.iscov� that Pip�strelle Bats m
Yorkshire and those m Lancashire form two
distinct species. The possibility was first suggested
three years ago by nr. Gareth Jones of _Bristol
University, who found the bats were squeaking at
ROMANIA different frequencies.
 I

�:!fe:S�rue: :'U::�:J��:�=� !h:i; �·

Dioli said in a recent interview.
The majority of Lancashire Pipistrelles squeak at
I Unknown to the scientific community, the PQSSible
own kind, so bats of the two CO\Dlties never mate. new species has apparently been present in· the

6.3.96) 1
Yorkshire bats have darker faces and longer, more . remote northeastern Cambodian provinces of
pointed snouts, whilst Lancashire bats are leaner
Rattankiri and Mondulkiri for cenn.uies.
and better at flying. (Daily Mail 1
Villagers have called the. extremely shy, rarely­
seen mammal "Ktbing Voar" or "Kbting Sipu"
EDITOR'S NOTE: The t axonomy of the according to Dioli and Cambodians wlio have
British Pipistrelles seems to be in a
heard of it The word Ktbing has no Englis h

I
" "
state of flux at the moment. See T o m
Anderson's letter 'N orth of the Border'
translation but refers to a homed animal about the
·

in this issue's letters page!

size of a rhinoceros or hippopotamus.

I
"Voar" means "vine" indicating that the animal is
CAMBODIAN CURIOSITIES herbivorous but "sipob" means "eats s.o.dc.es".
Folklore has it that the Khting eats snakes which
struggle and bite its horns, giving them rings. The
Researchers in Cambodia and Vietnam believe snake legend also explains why so few Khting
they have found evidence of a previously unknown horns, though prized for alleged medicinal value,
cow-like mammal which, if confirmed, would be have been found in good condition, as local
the second discovecy of a new bovine species this villagers believe the horils to be covered with
decade in Indochina. venom a.od bwn them before ha.odli.og them.

Horns, previously believed to belong to an Dioli believes the Khting-Voar may exist in larger
immature female kouprey or "jungle cow" are now numbers in Cambodia:
thought to have come from another species of
mammal entirely, according to articles in scientific "Since \ietnam bas 72 million people, there is a
jownals. mucb greater chance ror an arumal to survive in
CambOdia".
Comparison of horns discovered over the past two
years with similar horns folDld in the 1920s and Because of their isolation from much of the world
classified as those. of a young female kouprey has community since 1975, Vietnam, Cambodia and
shown that the horns are from a full-grown animal, Laos have become treasure troves for wildlife
according to an article in the latest edition of the researchers as the countries have opened up. A
quaterly publication Mammalia, the magazine of large but unknown number of rare, en�ered and
the French Museum of Natural Histocy. possibly undiscovered species of �tes,
reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals mcluding
big cats live in lndochina.
In addition, the horns are ringed and turn in on
themselves and up at their tips, something "To ansMT- 'bow many'?' correctly you bave to
kouprey's horns do not do, according to the say "unknown" because no one bas dOne azzy kind
article's author, zoologist Maurizio Dioli. Dioli is of complete inventory", Dioli said. (MRIJBSM
not the only researc her to make these observations: News .1\g'e.ocy via Cbristopbe Bealieu)

Two german zoologists, Wolfgang Peter and LOOKING FOR A GOOD TIME
Alfred Feiler, came to the same conclusion last
year after finding similar horns near the BIG BOY?
Cambodian border in the southern Vietnamese It is a monster by any scientific definition, it has
province of Dak Lak and wildlife experts at the survived undetected for 80 million years and it
British Museum of Natural Histocy have seconded rules the roos t in its habitat, the murky depths of
the theory. the Pacific ocean of Australia's east coast

"'bis means, tbere is anotber large-bodied animal It is a sludge-dwelling scavenging giant sea louse,
unknown to tbe scientific community present ·in rather like the common-or-garden woodlouse or
\ietnam and Cambodia",
 slater. but many times larger and �ubbed "Bfg NEW SPECIES OF PHILIPPINE
Boy" by the scien:t1Sts �ho recently Qisc9vered tt 1
Th� nave also giVen tt the more sctenttfic name 1 CLOUD RAT
of Batb)'IlOmUS.
A mammal species previously unknown to
"Big Boy", which grows to 30 cm. is liJc.ely �0 b e

ferocious to those slnaller creatures that i.nhabtt thescience. a nocturnal, s�wrrel-likc. rodent has been
d� a kilometre down. claimed crustacean expert discovered in the Philippines. Named the Panay
Jim l..oWI}' of the Australian Museum. Cloudrunner. t' J• it is the fourth
"� beanevi).
/Craterom�

=
known species of cloud rat, � little knov.:� f�ly
I
"We don't .know yet wbetber tbey are predatprs, of tree living ro�nts endemtc to. the Phihppmes.
but� know.tbey are sea · rs al!-d rorac1o� 1 Two of the spectes, are, accor<f:ing to the: New
eaters wbo v..ill try to eat an) alive or dead , 1 York Times, known only from smgle spectmens,
he said. "One oft:Iiem even btt my
.
nd". 1 but the first species to be �scover� the B�hy
. . ., ..
Tailed Cloud Rat, know� smce 1895 IS relab.vely
J
·
Two other similar, but smaller species, \o\lde Boy common in the mountamous areas of northern
and "MOno Brow" that also survive by feeding on ! Luzon. (New York Times 20 .2 .96) .
dead creatures that fall to the bottom have also ;
been discovered.

"We have fOund DDre than 200 species of marine

,
NEW RAT IN HONG KONG
.

invertebrates, DDre than 12q of wbicb are Experts have discovered what they think may be a
·

unknov..n and Batb)'IlOmus was ;ust one of them", new species of rat described as 'quite cute' by
Lov.zy told AFP. "Some of the .otbers �e �tally Mi chaet L au
a senior rese.archer. The te.am
unknov..n and others �e previOusly undescnbed. stumbled on the distinctive, small, white pawed
rodent with a distinctive white underbefly on
More than 100 new species of ostracods, pea-sized several outlying islands in February 1996. Fifteen
slJrimp-lik.e creatures, bave also been
spectmens were caught m · traps bat'ted wt·th peanut
·

discovered. "Big boy" is a real giant", Lowry

added. "Tbex seem to rule tbe Whole situation butter.
dov..n th e re. Not even the fis b get into the depths
wbere we i:Jund these creatures". (AFP News I
, Although it is nQt yet sure whether this is a new
species. a new sub species. or merely a new record
Agency via Cbristopbe Bealieu) 1 from Hong Kong, it is not the first time that peanut
1 butter has helped add to our knowledge of the
I biodiversity of the. te.rritory. In 1990. the first Hong
NEW TARSIER?
; �ong .speci men of the �avan Mo��se. (H�pes�J?s
·
Javarucus) was caught m a trap stmtlarly batted. m
. .
In January 1996, a JOmt Amertc
.
. anllndonestan
I Mai Po marshes.
scientifi c expedition announced the discovery of I 'IBECENTREFORFORTEAN
what appears to be a new species of Tarsier, one of I
ZOOLOGY HONG KONG PROJECT

I
the world's tiniest primates, on an island off the.
Sulawesi Archipelago. According to Myron Shekelle The sharp eyed among you will have noticed several
of Washington University the animal is a little larger references to Hong Kon g scattered across this issue
than the Spectral Tarsier, with greyer, lighter fur and of Animals & Men.
a �olden-brown streak on its back. It also has whitish
hairs around � mouth and a � er nose. It has been Ho� - Kong is ecolmrically so important, and has
. been the site for e so many peculiar animal
that It �y be a hybnd betw� a Spectral
j
theo�sed
discoveries over the last few years, that in the
T��er: and T.syncbta a related spectes from the · opinion
of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, it is .as
Phillipmes. important as Vu Quang, and far more easily

I
. accessible.
The am·mat has been named T.sangu-elJSls,
. but we
must await the results of DNA testing to find W
e are stai1ing a new project to map , in great
whether it is indeed a new species. (BSIML News depth, the fortean zoology of Hong Kong, both
Agen cy via Cbristopbe Bealieu) throughout history, now and into the future. Next
year it reverts to Chinese rule, and whilst it seems BURBOT
that some of the scare stories in the British Press
may not be justified, it is bound to be a significant
change, and these changes will reflect thems elves No-one. knows why the Burbot vanished from
within the infrastructure of the environment. British rivers. In the sixteenth century the fish
were � common that they were mcd as pig food,
We realise that because of the nab.lre of our but they became increasingly rare d� this
discipline, some less liberal scientists tend to century and the last burbot was recorded m the
ignore wo, and even be actively obstructive. We �ver Cam in 1970. One hundred and fifty burbot
would merely say, that as forteans we are in the rmported from Moravia are being kept at
busin ess of gathering data, and not necessarily in Nottingham University, but scientists want to
the business of drawing conclusions from it know why the fish became extinct before releasing
Which ever way you look. at our activities. we are them into rivers. Dr. Jim Reader. a lecturer in life
compiling a data resource which is availabie to all. science. is studying various theories including
Tha� unfortunately, is something that one cannot over-fishing, disease. changes in habitat, and a rise
say abo ut all the organisations involved in the in water temperab.lres due to industrial pollution ·

study of the more established branches of the (Daily Mail 8.3.96).

nab.lral sciences. Unlike them we receive no state
funding. but unlike them it is in our remit to assist
anyone who approaches us with their research. and
ILAJm���
notjust those of whom we approve.
M(Q)JN�m��
We have already made some excellent contacts in
Hong Kong, most notably with the editors of the
journal Porcupine! which is J?Ublished by the
Department of Ecology and B10diversity at the.
U�versity 9f Ho� Ko��, and we hope that the
fruits of this proJect wul be many, varied and
fulfilling!

IffiA�� wlrillEM TlliTIBY

JElEJL(Q)JM(Gt
BEAVERS

Scottish Nab.lral Heritage is conducting a study to

investigate the viability of reintroducing beavers to
northern Scotland The U.K.Government is
required to inv es tigate the possible reintroduction
of species such as the beaver, the lynx and the
wolf under the EU Habitats Directive. A team
from SNH will visit a site in Brittany where a SOUTH AFRICAN NESSIE
beaver reintroduction is proving successful and
will then evaluate suitable sites in Scotland. Bob Teeney, Publicity Spokesman for Howick, in
(Aberdeen Press & Journal 152.96) Kwa-Zulu-Natal province, South Africa, claims
that he will soon reveal shocking evidence of a
local water monster. Mr Teeney says he first
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tom Anderson, our
spotted the 20 metre long creab.lre in October 1995
Scottish representative has written a four part at a waterfall near the tOwn. "We -will rmveil
paper 'Nhich is scheduled either four evidence proving_ the existence of the Ho'Nick
A&M10/11 or, more probably for the 1997 M:Jnster that will shock people . . it v.-111 prove
.

beyond a doubt these things exist". (Southampton

Yearboo k (due out in October 1996). Daily Echo 21.1.96).
 In New Guinea they �e looking tor a monster
TEGGIE TALES called Migo, and they had pictures of a large
animal there. In the Congo. m Atti ca, rhey bave
fOotage from the air of somethi� very
In the wake of the revelations surrounding the large moving through the wa t:er .
Sllp�ed photographs and/or film taken of
�
'Te� e ' the monster of Lake Bala in North Wales, ,.
Unfortunately neither of these stories can be
a welsh newspaper published a dubious referenced as my clipping, which includC3 A nice
photograph of what someone. at least, claims is the 1 colour picture of a Japanese film crew getting into
elusive lake monster. We doubt it! 1 a mini submarine. had no details of were or when

I
it appeared.

On a related topic, our Japanese correspondent Mr

Takabayashi has sent us a couple of video tapes
taken on earlier expeditions to the Congo. We are
having them translated i nto PAL format and will
report on them further next issue.

(On a similar subject: There is a rumour that

the Debbie Martyr expedition to Sumatra has
managed to photograph, or even film the
elusive Orang Pendek. We cannot confirm
this, and have not seen any film or
photographs!)

G.S inN.Z

A Giant Squid (Architeutbis dux) was caught by

marine scientists aboard a research ship, 600 miles
east of New Zealand. The female squid. 26 feet
long. and nearly a ton in weight, was found 1400
MOKELE MBEMBE ON FILM? feet underwater. near the Chatham Islands. The

There are rumours flying about the wonderful

world of cryptozoologr that a Japanese film crew
have succeeded in filnung the legendary 'dinosaur'
! squid did not survive long aboard ship. and was
stored in a walk-in freezer until it could be
transported to Wellington. (Aberdeen Press �nd
of the Congo. The descriptions do not, however Journal 1.2.96; Daily Mail 2.2.96: .Aberdeen
appear to tally with those usually accepted for
Mokele Mbembe, but until we SEE a copy of the
film we will not comment further. I
I
Evening Express 31.1.96).

We have been told, but it has not been confirmed,

that the film was taken by the same team who
filmed the Lake Dak.ataua creature a couple of
years ago, and who were responsible for the Lake
Bala fiasco reported in A&M8. I Six male sperm whales stranded at Cruden Bay,
near Peterllead. Grampian died despite rescue
The Welsh newspaper story which published the efforts. The whales were each around 30 feet long
photo purporting to be 'Teggie' (above) included and weighed 20 tons. Vet Laurence Brain of
the followmg paragraphs: Grampian Wildlife Rehabilitation Trust said one of
the whales appeared badly damaged. "It's possible
'The Japanese prograrmne, called 'The Presenter' that it was ill and came in too close. The rest ofthe
bas already made three similar progralillix; s. In pod would have foUo'i-Ved, becoming beached as
North America they searched tor the IIDnst:er the tide turned".
Ch.atq> on Lake Cbatq>lain, but didn't get
anything on film.
samples of skin and stomach contents were taken
by marine Biologist Bob Reid, Stranding Officer
NEWSFILE EXTRA
for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. WHALE STRANDINGS IN
Tests on these will reveal pollutant levels and SCOTLAND.
where the whales had been travelling. According
to the press rewports, although not according to by Tom Anderson.
our man on the spot, Tooth size showed the
On Sunday January 28th, six sperm whales
whales were all young males, about 20-25 years
beached tliemselves at Cruden Bay, north of
old, and initial results of genetic testing suggested Aberdeen.
that they were from different family lines.
(Aberdeen Press & Journal 29.1.96, 30.1.96, The four males and two females were around ten
31.1 .96; Aberdeen Evening Express 1.2.96, 2.2 .96, metres long and weighed �wards of 20 tonnes
3.2.96). each. One was badly mjured, and the thinking was
that rough seas took it to the coast followed oy the
(See NEWSFILE EXTRA report pod. and a combination of white water and loyalty
by Tom Anderson .. opposite) was· their undojng. Coastguards were in attendance
ovemi_ght to deter souvenir hunters (lower jaw?
Two weeks earlier, Mr Reid canied out a post­ flukes"!), from unwelcome intrusion. Marine
mortem on a Blue Shark, which was washed up on Biologists took samples to determine cause of
East Beach in the Moray Firth. Blue Sharks are death and the local JX?pulace was assured that
rare in British waters. An increasing number of under a Scots law or tlie 17th Century, whales,
tropical twtles have also recently been found off classed as a royal fish, were the responsibility of
the coast of Scotland. (Aberdeen Press & Journal the Receiver of Wreck and the Department of
Transport is liable for their removal and disposal.
11.1.96) As they migrate northwards off the west coast this
Eleven dolphin carcasses were washed ashore in
strand.lru! is quite rare the last major incident being
the Gerrans Bay area. near Portscatho. Cornwall, eleven S"'perms off Ormey; in December 1994.
in the second week of January. Dr Nick Treganza
of Cornwall Wildlife Trust said, "These are Monday I anuary 29th: Scottish Natural Heritage
is concerned interment would damage valuable
healthy animals that are dying. We do not think dune structures. B.P. is worried as they have two
pollutiOn is the problem. It has probably been pipelines in the vicinity.
caused by trawlers Jisbing in mid-Channe l".
(Daily Maill0.1.96). Tuesday I anuary 30th: Environmental Health
authorities turn down £4000 from an animal feed
The decomposing bodies of more than 100 company on health grounds. Tracked diggers are to
dolphins were found on a three-mile stretch of tow the whales to 15' deep, 30' long pits above the
beach in Mauretania, no rth west A fric a.
-
high water mark for burial.
Ne wspapers blamed dragnets from trawlers fishing Wednesday I anuary 31st Burial suspended
for sli.arks , but government scientists say a virus following collapse of the first pit following
may be the cause. (Daily Mail 10.1.96) interment and covering with quick-lime when
water undermined it Even worse, nine holes of the
Two seals normally restricted to arctic and sub­ adjacent golf-course had to be closed due to the
arctic waters arrived in Britain last Autumn. A prevailing odour. Stories emer. ging from the
Harp Seal was found in marshes at Holy Isl and, villa g ers relate strans e noises emanating from the
Northumbria, in September. The six-foot male was beach on the night of the stranding.
transported to the RSPCA Wildlife Rescue Unit in Thursday February 1st: Excavators again
NorfOlk. In October, a Hooded Seal was thwarted as pits fill with water. Thinking now
discovered at Treyarnon Cove, near Padstow, re-vised and alte.matives of burning, towing out to
Cornwall. The exhausted animal was taken to the see �d dumping and selling to feed companies re­
Cornish Seal Sanctuary at Gweek. (feletext considered.
15.9.95; Daily Mail18.10.95). Friday February 2nd: Local farmer offers land
A Moonfish or Opah was washed up at Water for mass grave. All official bodies breathe sigh of
Sound, South Ronaldsay, Orkney, m October relief as rumours
1995. The rarely-seen fish may reach five feet in of expose b>' Esther Rantzen rife in the area. All
l ength, but this specimen was about half that size. deceased, (mclu� the first one buried and
In July a thirteen foot lo� Ocean Sunfish was exhumed) deposited" in clay soil, which prevents
reported off the Isle of Wtg ht (Aberdeen Press leaka�e, doused in quicklime and covered m 15' of
and1ourna111.10.95; The Sun22.7.95) . topsoil. Sorted.

CONTINUED OVER
 11... NEWSFILE �t:i\.·r.H:i!\
Read.im! this over I detect a levity which was
not intended. The p icture content makes this
1 unforgiveable. Even by local press standards they
! conv ey a sense of awe and a loss of dignity which
EASY MISTAKE TO MAKE
'
i is almost embarrassiru!.
-
I
�
Poisonous Stea toda noblis spiders w hi ch forced The fin� h�liation of be � drafaged by �chine

I
the closure of Bembridge Pnmary School on the to the hme ptt was more man
Isle of Wight (See A&M7), have been unmasked.
was willing to
witness. The contractor being an acquaintance,

I
The spiders are a non-poisonous English relative access was not a problem. I never used my camera.
Steatoda grossa. common in coastal areas of the Nor do I exult m road-kills. I'm not queasy by
South West Accordino to spider expert Ian nature; when I was a teenager I had to pull a
Burgess of Cambri�e University, "The only pitchfork out of someone's abdomen as no-one else
difference between tlie me spiders is in the would, most were throwing up around me.
genitalia so
it is obviously difficult to spot".
(Southampton Dail y Echo 8 .2.96) . I think it's the size that does it. You feel in the
I. presence of a superior being, which, I happen to
RACCOON ON THE RUN think. they are, in the things that are important ...
I
Police in Hampshire appealed for sightings of
strange animals, after a raccoon escaped from
Hansard Pet Centre at Awbridge, near Romsey on
11th February. The two-foot long male raccoon
was spotted in Wellow and Awbridge. BEWARE OF THE BANANAS
(Southampton Daily Echo 12.2.96, 16.2 .96).
('Cos you know they're gotma get you ... yeah�' Eh? Ed)
EDITOR'S NOTE: Several people, including
Simon Baker of MAFF suggested that the A four inch long centipede found in a box of
North American Raccoon and the European bananas at Chard. Somerset was identified by Jon
F1ynn of Ca.nni ngton College. Cricket St Thomas,
Wild Boar IM:)Uid become the next tiM:) exotic
as a Scolopendra. The Scolopendra has venomous
species to become acclaimatised in Britain. fangs at both ends. Its bite can cause a human limb
Whereas his predictions about the wild boar to swel l to twice its size, and in extreme cases can
seem to have been 'spot on' (see forthcoming even kill. (Daily Mail 8.3.96) .
'special' in A&M), the raccoon has singularly
failed to become established. They are now EDITOR'S NOTE: We wll provide a year's
found in several European countries, but free subscription to the first person VoJho
there is no real evidence to suggest that they telephones us (or comes up to us at 'The
'1.111 follow suit in Britain. they were not Unconvention' with the source of my cryptic
included in the first Dangerous Wild Animals comment under the above sub-heading. By
Act in 1976, and, together with the Coati, the way, no-one got the answer to my last silly
were only included on an amendment a few quiz, but in answer to the four people VoJho
years later. Zoologist Chris Moiser has wote asking the answer, the line 'Baal in
suggested to us that, they will not become 1 silence dines on Vulture Soup' comes from
established because, there simply were not the title song of a musical play, called Baal,
that many of them being kept They were w-itten sometime previous to WW2 by
never 'high status' exotic pets, like Pumas German Playwrite Berthold Brecht. If anyone
and Ocelots, and they were always relatively can get me a copy of the 1981 video or record
cheap. His suggestion for the next animal featuring David Bowie, I wll be eternally
grateful!
species to become established in Britain? The
Chipmunk!
 FROG FEVER SPREADS
Following the killer Bullfrog scare, concern is now
being expressed over French Frogs said to be
invading the south of England and eating their
British cousins. Jim Foster of the conservation
charity Herpetofauna described the situation as
'very worrymg. They seem to be adapting to our
habitat and spreading'. As with American
Bullfrogs, the invasion is being blamed on
bre.eders who imported Marsh Frogs, Edible Frogs
and Pool Frogs into Britain for sale. at garden
centres and pet shops.

I don't know about Pool Frogs (Rana lessonae),

but Marsh Frogs (Rana ridibunda) were
introduced to Romney Marsh, Kent in 1935 and
were well established by the 1950's. Edible Frogs
(Rana esculunta) were released in several areas
prior to 1960, most notably in the fens around
Stoke Ferry, Norfolk in 1837. By th e 1950's they
were naturalised in Norfolk and Suffolk, and also Hertfordshire.
in Surrey and around London, and were known as
�Dutch Nighring_a�es·. After 160 years re.siden�e,
.
Some� attacked Madelaine Dinsmore's Range
It's hardly surpns� If "they seem to be adapting Rover on '23rd January. The car was parked on her
to our habitat". (Daily Mail1 8.1 .96). front drive, on the outskirts of Brootanans Park, a
commuter village just north of Potter's Bar. "It
MORE FLAMING PETS had gone bananas" , said Mrs Dinsmore. "There
were bits of rubber all over the drive. The rubber
part of the front b�er which is vezy tough. had
,

Lothian firefighters dashed to the rescue when 14 been chewed and sbr edded. There were farge,
? erbils were. trapped in Gaby Dareau's blazing muddy pa wma rbi high up on the car and deep
oedroom at Howgate near Edinburgh. The gerbils scratches on the paintwork. so that vou could see
had stopped , breathing. but the resourceful crew the metal underneath. The bull bars bad teeth
produced oxygen masks and managed to bring marb in". The brake pipes had also been chewed
through, and there was brake fluid all over the
them all round. A heartwarming story - well it was drive.
for the gerbils....
Anne Suter, environmental health animal welfare
technician for Welwyn and Hatfield Council
videoed the damage and took plaster casts of l�e
pawprints found on the drive. She said "No do[J
lmul d bave the strength to do this. My the<>ry ts
that we a re dealing wi th a lar ge cat, possibly a
Essex. puma" . Ten monthS previously, there were reports
of a large cat seen on the local golf course,
Sheep and a goat were attacked at Chelmsford. and described as "lilre a black labrador with a three
at Abberton near Colchester, in J an�. Essex root tail". The. evidence was examine{! by Doug
Police blamed the attacks on a four foot long black Richardson, Assistant Curator of Mammals at
cat seen around Great Wigborol;lg� six miles London Zoo. His conclusion was that the damage
south of Colchester and said it 'may be a and the prints were "in all probability caused by a
m:>wttai n lion". On 3ist January, 17 six-inch wide large domestic dog".
pa\\l}>rints showing razor-sharp claws were found So, was it a craze-d Rottweiler, protesting against
at COoper's Beacli Caravan !'ark in East Mersea. bull bars? Or are those who believe mystery cats
PC Michacl Aitcheson said "This is the first are an alien life form right after all? Has an
concrete evidence that there is some sort of big cat attention-seeking superior intelligence finally
out there". (Daily Mail 22.1.96, 1 2 . .96; Srmday worked out that eatmg Home COunties Ranoe
Tunes 21. 1 .96). Rovers is a better bet than Cornish Sh�? Ta� e
me to your I,.ada. Qr perhaps not (Daily Telegraph
24.1.9"6; Daily Mail 2 5.l. !f6).
Cambridgeshire. a ltogether. and the continuing reports have varied
between a biE ca t and a big dog". (Aberdeen Press
Motorist Karl Robinson nearly collided with the and Journal 6. 1 1 . 95. 9. 1.96, 24. 1 . 96).
Fen Tiger near Willingham in F ebruary . He s ai d
"I've li� in the cotmtrv a.H mv life anaI've never Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
seen a.n)1hing li.ke this iping. it just stopped in the
road and watched me - I bad to swerve to miss it". A lynx w as shot by a R . U .C marksman near the
He described it as a tan-coloured cat. l�er than a village of Fintona on the 1 8th February. The
�yhound and with a long, thick tail, similar to a shooting followed days of reports of a 'young lion'
aog 's. in the area. The lynx, which was wearing a collar,
was believed to have. escaped from a private
Norfolk. collection. The incident has increased demand., for
legislation in the provinc e, which is not covered by
A huge black cat seen close to a railway brid�e, the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976. At
near Attleborough, waited patiently while we
present there is no requirement for a license to
v.-itness drove to the police station and retwned
v.-ith P.C Peter Walmsley from the local force. The. keep a wild animal in private premises. and as
cat was described as six feet long and the. height of shown on recent BBC Television 'Watchd� '
a man's waist. No prints were found desj>ite a pro_grammes, large. cats are still being kept m
search of the area. (Eastern Daily Press 6.3.!16). tnalCes hi ft cages in back gardens. (Daily Telegraph
16.2.96; Aberdeen Press and Journal 19 .2.96).
WaJWickshire. The night previous to the kill ing of the lynx.
A l arge sandy-coloured cat was seen in a field (which according to some reports was a caracal),

v;��r:t
close to the main Birmingham to Stratford-upon­ another mystery cat was shot a few miles away .
Avon railway lin� just south of Wooton ·
This was described as 'a wildcat ', and was
on 25th Jan�. 1 ne witness identified the apparently ' ta bby, but twice the size of a domestic
as a puma from pho�phs. and said it appeared cat'.
to be stalking sheep in ihe field.
This is parti cularly interesting be.cause, there are
not, officially any wild cats in Ireland. In Dr Karl
Grampian, Scotland.
Shuk.er's book 'Mystery Ca ts of the World', and
Tra� are beino set by two landowners in the again in the Editor's forthcoming book "The
�
nei bol!fing &' arioch and Gordon regions, north Smaller Mystery Carnivores of the Westcountry·,
of oanchory, following numerous reports of a evidenc e by Scharff and others suggesting that not
l �e. black animal in and around the Midmar and only have v.-ildcats survived in parts of Ireland
Bennachie Forests. Ric Wharton of Midmar until recently, if not the present day, but that they
Castle, near Echt, decided to try and trap the beast apPear to be F.Iybica rather than F.silvestris, is

f
after finding 4-inch wide prinu on his l and. discussed. This corpse woul d, therefore have been
Photogra bs of the prints were e.x amined by Hans a potentially invaluable piece of Cryptozoological
Kruuk, o the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, who evidence. Alison Downes contacted the R.U.C.
said: "They are certainly the prints of a large She was told that the corpses were to be stuffed for
dog ". the R.U.C Museum. We were \'romised
photographs but at the time of writing, SIX weeks
Cbristopher Burgess-Lumsden of Pitcaple Castle, after the event, it seems unlikely that they will
believes a pantlier-like predator was responsible arrive. Alison 'phoned again a few weeks later, to
for killing three of his lambs. He has set a live trap be told that the corpses were still waiting for
in an attempt to catch the "big animal, black, but autopsy. and that contrary to the previous report
with brindle marks, and a large, busby tail" which they v.-ill probably be destroyed. We have made
he saw in January. Joanna Davidson, of Braeside tentative efforts to purchase the wildcat corpse for
Equestrian Centre, has been warning riders to the CFZ, but it seems highly unlikely that we shall
avoid Dumo Forest, which borders Bennachie :mcceed.
Forest, after a similar animal was seen eating a
carcase on a woodland track. She believes that the Newsfile Correspondents.
animal could be a feral dog - a black Rottweiler
puppy was lost in the area several years ago. She Tom .Anderson,_ Neil Arnold, Pennx Ke�fb
saia "it would be benwen fi>ur and tive years old, Christopbe Beaulieu. Phil Bennett, Mr and Mrs J
and a massive beast. Its tail bad not been doclred, Love, Ia n Sherred. Hea ther ThurmJr. Raycpond
Trew, COUDi, Associated FrenchPress, Richard
so it could pass 10r a different kind of animal
Mnrhead, Herman Reicbenbacb...
 S tr an g e n e s s I n S c o t l a n d I I
by
Mark Fraser.

BHM Phenomena.

In my last letter I mentioned sightings of Bigfoot miles from the site of their first encounter.
type 'creatures' in Falkirk. I was contacted via the
telephone by a chap from Falkind in Fife who told Suddenly, from the side of the road bounded out a
me of his sighting of two of these 'creatures ' . He great muscular, hairy figure . It started to run
would not give me his name or a contact address behindthe car. At one point it caught up with them
and did not write to me as promised. He describes and started to run along side the car. It did not
the. creatures as being four foot in height, vecy seem 'out of breath' as it reached spee-ds of
agile - being able to jump from a standing position betwee.n thirty-five. and forty-five miles per hour.
to a height of ten feet or more into the branches of Derek described the man like 'creature ' as being
trees. He claims to have seen this. He also claims very strong and muscular. It had red eyes and a
that several people in the area have seen the same body covered with hair. He also said that the
things, and that the area ' from way back' was said creature seemed to be 'more curious than
to be the haunt of strange creatures. I cannot add anything'. After about five minutes the 'thing '
any more to this report unless I hear from him stopped in the middle of the road. leaving the three
again. friends. somewhat frightened to carry on with their
journey into Torphins alone.
Dundonald Hill in Ayrshire. is said to have a
similar phenomenon to that reported at Ben
McDhui. These 'big man' reports seem to be
'ghostly ' rather than a flesh and blood animal.

Derek R. who does not wish his true name

known), was out walking with two friends
(identified only as Ben and Andrew), in the woods
near their home at T orphins, about twenty miles
from Aberdeen. 1broll!!h the forest there. is a wide
track. about the width-of a three laned motorway.
As they reached the end of the trail. Ben saw a
dark figure of what he took to be. a man. run from
the trees on the right, a couple of hundred yards in
front of him. It disap�ed into the trees on the
left Ben was left w1th a feeling of foreboding.
Andrew and Derek did not see the figure, and were
busy telling Ben that he had been imagining
things, when they too were shocked rigid at seeing
a face that they described as 'human, but not
human ', pop out of the trees behind Ben's back on
the right It darted away just as quickly as it had
come when Andrew threw a large stone at it

A few weeks later. all three friends were to have

another sighting of the. creature as they were
driving along the road into Torphins, about two
According to Derek, a female friend of his, living Editor's note: At the risk of appearing
in a secluded cottage has twice seen a dark, hairy cynical, I have to point out that in my
figure standing in the forest watching her cottage, experience the father of EVERY teenege
before slinking away into the undergrowth. Derek wtness of an anomalous phenomenon claims
drew me a sketch. which has not reproduced well. that his offspring is ' unusually level headed for
so the picture on the previous page is a copy, done
their age'.
by my nine year old nephew!
I have not come across a parent yet 'htlo will
Editor's note: Whilst the possibility of pockets admit to researchers that their child is a
of relict hominoids living in Scotland is so hormone driven idiot, fixated with 'Take That',
remote as to be dirisible. it cannot be denied v.klo 'M>Uid not recognise a panther if you shot
that BHM phenomena have been seen across it and put it in front of them on a· chafing dish
the British I sles. I refer the interested reader wth an orange in its mouth ! However, there
to my article in the December 1 996 issue of is no evidence to suggest that young Master
Fortean Times, in which I discussed several Donelly is other than Vo/hat his father claims!
such cases from South-Western England. I
believe that these BHM sightings, like so Duncan and Alex Binning use the Dean Park
many other anomalous phenomena are part Country Estate pretty often for walking their dogs.
of a much wder pattern of activity, '11Al ich has Late one evening in February 1 994, the two dogs
little or nothing to do with conventional began acting nervously.
zoology. This is not to dismiss these
occurences however. They are important, The largest and oldest dog had spent all its life on
working farms, it had been used to going out late
either as a genuine paranormal phenomenon on dark. winter's nights and was not easily
or as a sociopathological one and deserve frightened. They walked on a few more more
serious study! paces and they heard the sound of snapping twigs
coming from the trees that lined the drive way on
which they were walking, heading in the direction
of the car park on the edge. of Dean Rd in
Alien Big Cats. Kilmamock.

Lee ConeUy, ( 1 5). came. running into his parents The coupk then bccame a little nervous as they
bedroom one morning saying that there was a had never seen their dogs react in suclt a manner
strange. animal in the field opposite. He live.d with before. The younger of the two dogs was by this
his parents on farm land between Daily and time walking, nervously, in between the legs of its
Kilwinning in Ayrshire, and was quite used to the owners. As they reached the car park. Duncan then
sights and sounds of the country along with its looked over his shoulder and in the darkness
animals. As his parents jumped up to look, behind him he saw two, yellow, cat-like eyes
whatever was there had gone. Lee then became a which belonged to a large, black animal, standing
little bashful, and reluctant to describe what he had much taller than the dogs, about forty feet away.
seen. especially be.cause now there was no proo f. Becoming more than a little afraid at the. presence
He. did say, howe.ver, that the animal was jet black, of the unknown creature the couple leashed the
and larger than any dog he bad ever seen. He said dogs and left the area rapidly.
it was cat like, perhaps like a panther. Lee' s father
told me. that his son is a remarkably level headed Duncan tells me that the creature was definitely
lad for his age and certainly not given to flights of cat-like. He has said that maybe it was a wildcat,
fancy. If he says he saw something unusual, then but he has never beard of one that size before. and
his father has no reservations at all about believing certainly not one that could make dogs react in
him. such obvious terror.
 For ye.ars he. and his faithful hound have walked
the estate without incident, except for the time
when his dog flatly refused to enter the grounds
each evening for about a week No amount of
coaxing would entice the yelping, quivering
animal into the estate. Then, one evening, after
sniffing the air, the animal entere.d without any
problem at all . The dog's owner is puzzled and has
no clue to the reasons for his pet's behaviour.

•••••

These stories were given to me in good

faith. I have made no judgement but have
passed them on as they were given.

Editor's Note: M ark Fraser is the editor of the

'Haunted Scotland' newsletter. He can be
contacted at

Haunted Scotland
35, South Dean Rd.,
Kilmarnock,
Ayrshire.
A few days later whilst out walking the. dogs, but Scotland.
this time in the area of the walled garden near
Assloss Cottage which is a part of the Dean Castle KA3 7 RD
Country Estate, the dogs again began acting Scotland.
strangely. Then, both Duncan and Alex heard the
sound of purring. like that of a domestic cat but
much louder.
This time. remembering what they had seen a few ALWAYS WANTED
evenings before, they left quickly, and did not
bother to look over their shoulders. Duncan also
mentions that in all the years they had been using BOOKS ON MYSTERY
the Dean Castle estates, it has only been on these
two occasions that they had experienced anything ANIMALS , FOLKLORE,
like that. The dogs. when in the grounds both NATURAL AND UN­
before and after the two incidents have been fine
and have displayed no odd behaviour at all. NATURAL ill S TORY.
CASH PAID
Another resident of the area close by the castle,
who does not wish his name to be known at all WRITE TO EDITORIAL
told me of the strange behaviour of his dog in the ADDRESS
early part of 1994. He cannot remember which
month.
I Ancient Whales, Sea Serpents and Nessies Part One:
Pros and Cons.
(Part three in our series on Cryptocetology)
B y D a rre n N a i s h .
This is the third article in a series on because their bodies were so long, zeuglodonts
Cryptocetology and, as you may have gathered may have been able to lift their forequarters out of
from the title, represents a blend of discussion on the waun; when they needed to see above the
sea 'serpents', lake 'monsters' and, of course surface < >. effectively pulling the thorax into a
whales. Novices among you may be wondering position perpendicular to the back and tail. In
what the connection is. Well, for some time now, modern whales, raising the head above water is
an explicit link has been postulated between these called spy-hopping, they accomplish it by
cryptids and the fossil whales that I introduced in 'standing' vertically in the water. (Fig lb).
article 1. <t>. the basilosaurid archaeocetes,
generally known to czyptozoologists as Zeuglodonts appeared early in the history of
'zeuglodonts' . This is because, for most of whales - toward the end of the Eocene (about 45
zoological history, zeuglodonts have been m.y.a), and were descended from an earlier
reconstructed as wriggling, serpentine beasts that family called the Protocetidae (sometimes
would fit descriptions of certain aquatic cryptids informally called 'pro-zeuglodonts' or 'pre­
rather well presuming, of course, that they had
-
zeuglodonts '). Unlike zeuglodonts, protocetids
not died out over 30 Million years ago! In this were small (up to 3.5 m) and almost certainly were
article I hope to review all of the problems - capable of movement on land, albeit rather clumsy
anatomical, philosophical, and palaeontological - movement (some people believe that even the
that beset notions of zeuglodont survival. giant zeuglodonts were still capable of terrestrial
locomotion) <2> <j> (6). Two recently discovered
Modern whales are all of pretty much the same protocetid species, Arubulocetus natans (7) and
plan: torpedo shaped with body and tail Rodhocetus kasrani <S>. both from the early Eocene
streamlined but not elongated to the extreme. The of Pakistan, were somewhat more like their wolf­
basilosaurid 'zeuglodonts', however, apparently like mesonychid' ancestors than later whales (see
'

had enormously elongated bodies and tails fig 3.). Even so, known protocetids present
resulting in a serpentine f01m. (Fig la). Unlike somewhat different morphologies showing that
modem whales, zeuglodonts could still move their different forms were adapted to different
flippers at the elbow tl), their tiny hindlimbs still environments. Ambulocetus, for example, had four
extemally visible and mobile <3>. and, unlike the well developed limbs, distinct digits with small
majority of modern whales, they had a definite hooves, and, almost certainly, a furry �!age (lost
neck and could obviously move the head around. in later whales) and a tail lacking flukes (7). It must
Zcuglodonts certainly bad tail flukes (as shown by have lived in the same way as do sealions: a
special vertebrae at the end of the tail), but differed capable swimmer but one tied to rocky shorelines
from living whales in that the main body of each and shelving beaches. Most protocetids seem to
vertebra (the centrum) was elongate while the have been denizens of warm, epicontinental seas
processes atop centra were not (see Fig. 2). The (9), and not of tropical rivers as initially suggested
<10>· Seemingly, they first took to piscivory around
vertebrae were not, therefore, firmly 'locked'
together. This is important: it has traditionally estuaries and river mouths. and on evolving a less
been regarded as meaning that the entirety of the land-dependent lifestyle, spread from their area of
tail and most of the body would have been of origin (the modern Middle East, or thereabouts) to
extraordinary flexibility. Authors favouring this most of the Eocene world's shallow seas. <H>.
interpretation have postulated that, during Rodhocetus, however was a deepwater protocetid
swimming, several vertical 'waves' would have that spent most of its time off the shallow
passed along the hind part of the body at a time. continental shelf. Unlike Ambulocetus, it had a
The famous 19th Century American powerful, heavy tail (more like that of a modern
palaeontologist Edward Cope even suggested that, whale) that would certainly have born flukes <S>.
Figure One. la: A traditional restoration of &silosaurus isis, the best krown species of all ancient whales: a 16m long
zcuglodont named by H. Beadncll in 1904 from the late mid Eoceoc (Bartonian - 42-40 millio n years ago) of Egypt. Note the
serpentine 100rphology and the tiny bindlimbs. 1 b: 'Spy-hopping ' posture as adopted by a IOOdem cetacean, the Orca
(Orcinus orn�). 1'be long axis of the body becomes vertical in order that the head be raised above water. le: Imaginary 'spy­
mpping• posture adopted by Basilosaurus. The long axis remains h>rizontal, the entirety of the th>rax is raised out of the
water.

Rodhocetus proves that not all protocetids were famous and most studied of all archaeocetes
restricted to coastal shallows as was previously (literally, 'ancient whales '). They fall into two
assumed, and modified themselves to suit very groups that some people believe should be
different habitats. As I write, evidence continues treated as separate families and others believe
to come in of new protocetids and protocetid should be treated as subfamilies of the same
relatives (most notably the bizarre family. The zeuglodonts that we have already
remingtoncetids (12) that endorse this seen - the huge, supposedly serpentine ones - are
interpretation - these early whales were more the basiliosaurines, the group with which we are
diverse than we could ever have imagined, both mostly concerned. The other zeuglodonts are the
morphologically and ecologically).
dorudontines: not as elongate as basilosaurs, and
Despite this recent influx of pro-zeuglodont not as lruge either, reaching a maximum of 7
information, zeuglodonts remain the most metres. Looking more like modern whales than
famous and most studied of all arcbaeocetes basilosaurs, dorudonts had a proportionally larger
(literally, 'ancient whales '). They fall into two head and a shorter backbone (see fig 4). In fact,
groups that some people believe should be restored with a dorsal fin, they look little
treated as separate families and others believe different from modem dolphins, and some
should be treated as subfamilies of the same cetologists think that this group is ancestral to all
family. The zeuglodonts that we have already later whales <'> <t4>· Remember all this ' because we
seen - the huge, supposedly serpentine ones - are
shall be returning to it later.
different habitats.
Basilo saurus and the sea-serpent .
Despite this recent influx of pro-zeuglodont
information, zeuglodonts remain the most Not long after its discovery by James Harlan in
 1832, comments were made on how
Basilosaurus resembled some 'mythical sea
serpent', a comparison that you can find in even
the most modem texts. It seems that the
extraordinary appearance of this prehistoric
creature invokes some act of recognition in
people: there is imagery of sea serpents firmly
impressed in the human mind (they are 'beast
icons ', see (17>.). This is an issue that cannot be
discussed here, but it relates to zeuglodonts
because the comparisons between them and sea
serpents have been so unequivocal. It has even
been used to financial advantage: in 1 845 Dr
Albert Koch strung together bones from at least
two basilosaur skeletons to make one and then
exhibited it as a 'genuine' sea serpent skeleton.

Naming it Hydragos sillima nii, he exhibited it in

New York and then various European cities,
Figure Two: Lumbar vertebtae of Basilosaurus compared reaping profit Koch's creation was eventually
with those of a DDdem day balaenoptorid balc:en whale. exposed as a fraud but was merely re-named
In the basilosaur, the processes of the vertebrae do not Hvdracbos barlani and put back on the road (18)
contact one another and each certrum is very elongate. (19).

FJ&W"c Three::: Morpholo&ical variation IUD)n&st � protocctids, the most primitive of all whales. 3a) Ambulocetus
natans, a 3m long species from the 49 million year old Pakistani Kuldani Formation. 3b) RDdbocelus bsraci, a
dcepwater form more li.lce later whales tbm Amhulocetus ( 1 3). In life, around 3 m long. A little younger than
Ambulooetus at 46 million years old, its fossils arc from Pakistan's Lower Domanada Formation. 3a restored from Fig.
2b in 7, 3b from la in 8 (and see 13).
Figure Four: 4a) A typical dorudo.DI.ine zeuglodont, Z}gorh.i.za lDchii, from the late .Eocenc Atlantic coast of N.America. In
life, aboa 6m long. 4b) A different restoration of Zygorhiza, in which there is a tall dorsal fin. Dorsal fins oertainly existed in
a number of extinct whales, but are hypothetical in restorations. 4a after Folkcns in (15), 4b after Bakker in (16).

So, if a couple of strung together basilosaur skeletons can be taken by people to be a genuine sea­
serpent, how might they respond to seeing a live one?

Sea serpents as basilo saurids.

It is not surprising, then, that over the years a number of writers have proposed zeuglodonts as
candidates for certain types of sea serpent. Even respected cetologists speculate on the possibility of their
survival 00>· Amongst cryptozoologists Bernard Heuvelmans, obviously, has been most influential. He
has suggested that sea-serpents described as having a line of humps along the back are actually modified
zeuglodonts that swim by wriggling vertically. In theory, these animals, though lacking long necks,
would be capable of lifting the front of their body out of the water, exactly as we saw proposed for the
basilosaurids earlier on, and might be responsible for sightings of 'rearing', long bodied sea-serpents <2l>
(22). A great many other aquatic cryptids too, have been seen as 'surviving zeuglodonts : so many have, in '

fact, that they will be reviewed in the second part of this article. (23). Protocetids, too have received much
attention in the cryptozoological literature, so more about them next time (see Cb>.). But for it to be
seriously CQnsidered that sea-sQVents are descendants of any m:chaeocete, several obstacles need to be
overcome. In the rest of this article I consider the pros and cons tor and against zeuglodont survival, and
attempt to form conclusions.

Ftrst, and most obvious, is the fact that zeuglodonts disappear from the fossil record at the end of the
 f'"Lf\EOC.ENE
� �+----
UPP£R CREff\C.EOVS

90 M . 'f . f\ .
Lf\S T I C.\-1 Tli 'f OSA UR
( Plfl.T '( ?TE RY G-l U S )

lS

Figure Five: We have traced the evolution of arcbacocete whales through the early Ccnozoic. Protocctids appear in the early
Eoocnc, bccot.nc more whale-like, and give rise to giant basilosaurs and dolphin-like dorudonts by the late Eoccnc - are these
the ancestors of modem ' sca-scrpcnis'?
m.y.a). To argue that these animals have actually
swvived to the present, we must account for at
least 36 million years of missing fossils.
The ' Elu sive S outh er n er s '
T h eor y.
The Fossil P r oblem .
While i t i s known that late Eocene zeuglodonts
�s is a familiar problem in cryptozoology: an swam <?Ver what is now Antarctica, we have no
extinct form seems to best fit the description of a Antarcl!c Z�UJ;lodonts younger than that So is
Antarctica hiding zeuglodont fossils younger than
modem cryptic one. At various times during the
the late �ene age? It's usually argued that,
past, most large, extinct vertebrates have been
�ver� as ,tt is .by an �rmous ice cap, Antarctica
'theorised' back to life (see a4>,). So nee.d the same ts unytelding m fossils. This would make the
old pleas be summoned to argue for the swvival of unrecorded presence of post-Eocene zeuglodonts
supposedly long-gone zeuglodonts? We would cite there a fair possibility. But. Marine Plain in
the patchiness of the fossil record and point out Antarctica has now yielded vertebrate fossils from
both the coelecanth and the okapi. But what else the late EocmT onward, including numerous
can be said? While we are prone to rely on extinct whales . As yet, no definite post-Eocene
n�ative evidence with fossils (i.e. if a group zeuglodonts. Does this argue �ainst their
dis�ppears from the record, surely it has gone existence as fossils there? Or are we stlll relying on
extinct), we must constantly be reminded of the absence of evidence for a conclusion? We could
famous words of palaeontologist Leon Bertin: 'In certainly argue that the reason zeuglodonts drop
out of the fossil record of Antarctica was that they
palaeontology nega tive bv evidence means
could not adapt to the extreme cold (Antarctica
nothing'.
became truly glaciated in the Oligocene). But this
does not explain their extinction elsewhere. One of
The zeuglodonts we have seen were, unlike their the ten biggest mass extinctions in the history of
life, and the biggest of all in the Cenozoic era,
earliest relatives, fully marine creatures well
occurred at the close of the Eocene - this was
capable of exploring oceanic realms well away
from land. If one zeuglodont lineage evolved a probably a major factor in the evenrual extinction
of these whales. Or was it? Other whales made it
'deep ocean' lifestyle - amplifying this pelagic
through (and, furthermore, gave rise to gigantic
trend - then their chances of becoming fossils
descendants as soon as the early Oligocene. <29> ·).
would be much smaller than that of the mostly
coastal whales whose fossils we have recorded in Whales are also the only big mammals to have
some abundance. Other truly oceanic whales, most made it through the Pleistocene mass extinction
notably the true dolphins (familf Delphinidae), (about 0.01 m.y.a) without experiencing the
. decimation of taxonomic variety that other
have very poor fossil records (2j . So we could
consi�er the possibility that zeuglodonts were mammals underwent <30). This shows that whales
changing ecological roles to avoid competing with are 'durable' mammals, at least at the family level.
'modern' whales. By the mid Oligocene, modem The possibility of zeuglodont survival could
whales - both toothed and baleen - had appeared therefore be quite high. But to verify this, a post­
�d, as their fossils show, were becoming Eocene zeuglodont is needed. Are there any?
unportant in marine environments where
zeuglodonts were previously dominant (26). Also. For some time it seemed that the very youngest of
and supposedly more importantly, while known fossil zeuglodonts was Kekenodon
zeuglodonts might have been becoming rarer in the onamata, from the mid Oligocene of New Zealand
CH> . It is particularly notable in combining both the
N<?rthe� Hemisphere by latest Eocene times (the
Priabonian stage), they remained at moderate 'elusive Southern Hemisphere fauna' theory and
div�ity deep in the south, as shown by the the 'ecological niche not usually fossilised' theory
posstble presence of three or more forms in New - it is not only from New Zealand, but follows a '7
Zealand of this time. (ZT). This, in theory, reduces million year plus' hiatus in the record of fossil
the possibility of any of their fossils being found zeuglodonts. Here might be evidence that not only
because the Southern Hemisphere is less yeilding were the last zeuglodonts animals of the Southern
than the Northern. This is a separate argument Hemisphere, they were also becoming less
'available' candidates for fossilisation. Opinions
have changed much on the relationship of this In 1984 m>. Bames re-assessed the skeletal
species to other whales: early interpretations were material of Basilosaurus and, concluding that the
that it was a possible 'last archaeocete•, but others animal was NOT serpentine but, in fact, more
expressed doubts 02>· In 1989, Mitchell decided like what a giant dorudont might look like,
that Kekenodon was, after all, a late surviving submitted a brand new reconstruction. As we can
archaeocete and created a monotypic family for it see from fig.6, Bames' Basilosaurus would not
Ol>.
But by 1992, the work of Fordyce (29). changed be thought of as a 'sea serpent' if seen in the
opinions again - now it seemed that Kekenodon flesh and, if this reconstruction is accurate,then
was an early toothed mysticete. So much for we are wasting our time even considering the
Kek.enodon then. Indeed, a recent review states that survival of zeuglodonts I
·supposed (post-Eocene) archaeocetes are either
misidentified or are too incomplete to place Other, more recent analyses have also shown that
conclusively' <3-4>. Basilosaurus was not a serpentine animal. The
centra of its vertebrae were wide and bulky with
One final argument remains and, like the lack of very little space in between them - in fact they
fossil evidence, it argues against zeuglodont did not have any adaptations to allow greater
swvival. This argument begins with the very fact flexibility. The serpentiformity of Basilosaurus is
that first led zeuglodonts to be even considered as an illusion - it is caused by allometric increase in
sea-serpent candidates. This is their the length of the centra, rather than an increase in
'serpentiformity ' for, as we saw earlier, the best the number of vertebrae <36). Some modern
known membexs of this group - the giant whales, while being of similar length to
basilosaurines - have long been restored as sinuous Basilosaurus, actually have more vertebrae.
serpentine animals. In fact, ever since the skeleton Ironically, therefore, basilosaurs increased their
of Basilosaurus cetoides from Alabama was first length at the expense of flexibility, the very
reconstructed in the 1 830's, this is thought to have opposite of traditional interpretations l So they
been the case. But suppose they weren't serpentine could not 'wriggle' vertically. Technically, the
after all. If this were so then the notions of jwy is still out over whether they could have
SUIViving ze\J.glodonts would have to be dispelled. survived beyond the Eocene, let alone to within
Earlier in this article, we saw how the dorudonts recent times, but there is no fossil evidence that
were definitely not serpentine, but proportioned they did. So, do descendants of Basilosaurus still
more like modem whales (see fig. 4). If dorudonts cruise the oceans? It is up to you to make your
were really close relatives of basilosaurs, could the own decision, but, as will be seen in part two of
two really have been that different in morphology? this article, others have already made theirs. . .

Figure Six: Basilosaurus in its m:> re dorudont-like guise.

After Bamcs 1984 (35).
 References and Notes.
I . NAISH, D. W. 'Crypocetology - Introd ucing a new branch ofC�oZDOlo� (A&M #7)
2. ANON, 1992. 'BSBilo BSurus (Zcllf{Jodon}, an anoestra] wbale. m IIARRISO N, R & B�YDEN, M.M. '\\b!l� Dolphins
and PorpQises'. Blitz &lit.ions (Endetby, Leicestershire}.. p. l 7.
3. GINGERICH P.D., SMfiH, B.H. and SIMONS, E.L 1990. 'Hindlinils of Eoct:ne Bssilosaurus: evidence of feet in
"Mlales'. Science 249; 1 54-7.
4. COPE. E.D.,.:.o q_
uo!cd in HEUVELMANS, B, 'In the Wd:c of the Sea Sctpcnts' ( 1 968}. Rupcrt Hart-Davis (London).
5. FOR.I)YCr., R.E. 1980 '\\bile Evol&bon and Oligoccnc southern ocean c:nvtro.nmr::ts t '. Palacogeog., Palaeoclim.,
Palaeocoo L 3 1: 3 19-336.
6. WATSON, L 1988. 'W.lesoft.bc \\brld'. Hutchimon (London).
7. 1liEWISSEN, J.G.M., HUSSAIN, S.T. and ARIF, M. 1 994. 'Fossil cvidcocc for the origin of aquatic locoDDtion in
arc.ba oocclc M1sles'. Scicnce 263: 2 10-12.
8. GINGERICH, P.D., RAZA, S.M., ARIF, M., ANWAR, M., aul ZHOU, X. 1994. 'NewM1ale from the Eo� ofPal:istan
and the o.!ig_in ofcc:tacean �·. Nature 368: 844-7.
9. GINGERICH, P.D., WELLS , N.A., RUSSELL, D.E. aul IBRAHIM SHAH, S.M. 1983 'Origin of Ml31es in cpicontinental
remnant seas: newevidcnce ii-om t.bc early Eoccne ofPa kista n '. Science 220: 403�.
10. KELLOGt.A.R. 1936. 'A review ofthe ArchaC'JOCdi'. Camc�ie lnst. Washington Pub!. 482: 1-366.
1 1 . Their fossus are known from mid Eooenc roclcs in west Afnca and Texas, as well as tlxlse of southern Asia.
12. J.Head �s. comm. 1995.
13. As fosSils of this type go, Rodhooetus is surprisingly complete. However1 forelimbs remain unknown and, of the bind
limbs, only a femur is known. Thus what you see in this restoration is spc:culative. Also. whether such an animal would have
a fwiy pelt as illustrated is debatable. Given that Rodh>cetus was not far removed from terrestrial, certainly fwiy ancesto rs, I
decided on a furry pelt being a fair possibility. This implies that the animal was !till in the hlbit of �urm.ng to land, unlike
the zcudodotts. which, like the extant whales I restore as lacking integ_uemcnt.
14. FORDYCE, R.E. 1992. 'Evolution'. In iiARRJ SON, R & BRYDEN, M.M. '\\bll� Dolphins and Porpoises ' Blitz
Editions (Enderby, Leicestershire), p. 14-23.
15. M!\,Y; Jjed) 1990. ''IJ:Je �cc book ofDolpbins '. Random Ccntury (London).
16. B� R. 1988. ''IJ:Je DirDsa ur Herc:sies '. (P�uin (Lomon).
17. CONSIDINE, B. and NAISH, D.W. In preparallo n, 'Mon!itas: A craM-cultural comparitJOn' (working title) to be
published in Strange Magazine.
1 8. MICHELL, J. and RICKARD, RJ.M. 1982. 'Living llbndas '. Thames and Hudson (London).
19. SUJPER. E.J. 1962. '\\hila�'. Hutchinson (London).
20. BONNER, N. 1 989. '\\biles of the \\brld '. Blandford (London). '(Archa�es) twuld tit l.eiY a.ell tbe us1.12l
descri]1ion of sea scrpems or la£ DDnsters, so perhaps tbe indefatigable scarcb:rs ofLxb Ness Mll }et provide us \vilh a n
arc.bacocetc' - p.23
21. :r�J�W�\ g.J. 1978 '&a � Sailors and �tics'. Routledge & Kegan Paul (Lomon).
22. nr. u vr.uv1ANS, B. 1986. 'Anmtated Cbocklist of appa.renlfy unlcnOwn animals with which cryptozoology is
concemed'. Cryptazoology 5: 1-26.
23. NAISH, D.W. 'Aocicm \\bal� Sea Serpents and Nessies part 2•. Unpublished. Scheduled for.A&M # 1 0.
24. SHUKER, K.P.N., 'In Search of Prehistoric Survivors - do giam 'extinct' creatures still exist?' (Unpublished at time of
writinl!.). Blandford (London) 1995
25. BARNES, LG. 1 984. 'Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises: Origin and Evolution of the Cetacca '. In BROADHEAD, T. W.
(ed.) 'Mammals DOtes for a short course organised by P.D.Gingerich and C.E.Badgely (Uni. of Tennessee Dept. of Geol.
Sciences in Geology). pp 139-54.
26. Interestingly, mwever, Fotdycc (in 5) writes: 'arcbaeooc::tcs apparently persisted in � south� Pacific,
M1ere theyco�stcd �ith potcr1ial co.apetitors, tbe odontocctes'. At the time, however, Fordyce considered Kekenodon and
others to be archleocetes.
Tl. FORDYCE, R.E. 1985. 'Late Eocme a rchacocetc tM1sle (Arcba eoccti: Dorudo.r1inae) ii-om W..ibo, Sol1h Canterbury,
New Zealand'. New Zea1a.nd Journal of Geology and Geophysics 28: 3 5 1 -7.
28. SE...BY, J. 1990. 'Aotarctica: 1J:Je changing Ice Cap'.
Geology Today 6 (3):83.
29. FORDYCE, R.E. 1992. 'Cetaccan Ewlwon and Eoccne/Oligoccac Enviromrr.ms ', in PR011IERO, D. and
BERGGREN, W. (eds) 'Eooc:oe and Oligoccne Climltic and Biotic Ewlution', :A:icccrall..Jri.&:ai (Princeton, NJ), pp. 368-3 8 1 .
30. MARTIN, P.S & KLFlN, R.G. 1989. 'Quaternary Extinctions - A Prehistoric Rerolution '. Uni of Arizona Press
(Tucson).
3 1 . The New Zealand Strata to which Kekemdon belongs is believed by some to be of Lower Miocene age (about 22 my.a).
If, therefore, Kckenodon is an archleocete (see (32), ) it is the first post Oligocene one of which we know.32. In (25), Bamcs
questioned the affinities of supposed archaeocetes: 'Even tlxlugh it has been considered such, Kekenodon . ... is not a proven
archleocete ... and Platyosphys is known only by vertebrae of Oligooene age from Russia • - p. 1 46 .
33. MITCHEU..., E.D. 1989. 'A new cetaccan from � Late Eocene La Mesela Formation, ScynxJUr Island, Antarctic
Peninsula'. Can. Jour. Flsh. Aquat, Sci. 46: 22 19-35.
34. FORDYCE, R.E. am BARNES, LG. 1994. ''IJ:Je e\Olutiomry bi.Mory of �hllcs and dolphins '. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet.
Sci. 22:41 9-55.
35. BARNES, LG. 1984. 'Scarcb ibr t.bciirsl M!ale: ret.racir:lg the ancealryofcetace��ns'. Oceans 17 (2): 20-34.
36. J.Head pers. comm. 1995.
 Th e H or se- M a n of L incoln sh ir e :
A hitherto unrec orded Zooform Phenomenon.
by Alison Downes.

Dr. Karl P.N. Shuker recently appeared on the li1re it around this area, but I M>uld be interested if
Good Morning show, (ITV Weekday mornings), anybod.r �ws anything about it, or any legends
and was one of the featured panellists for a about similar crea tures".
viewers 'phone in' on the subject of mystery ="'"""""'="="'""'=-""',_...,...----____,
animals. Well over a thousand people telephoned
in. Most of the eyewitness accounts were of 'big
cats ' or lake monsters, but a few were far more
unusual. One was from a lady who claimed that
her husband had undergone a very unusual
experience.

I contacted the gentl eman to get the true facts of

the case. This is the gist of what he told me.

"'t was very late one night, a rew couple of years

ago. I used to M>rk on an oil rig pla tiiJrm m the
North Sea and I was coming borne on leave. I'm
not naturally given to tligbts offancy so I'm fairly
sure ofwbat I saw.

I was driving down the back road fTom Grea t

l'anmuth to Lincoln. It was very dark and quite
rural in that area - lots of fields and trees around.
As I drove down the road I noticed a shape in the
fields at the right band side. I thought it was . . . .
probably a horse or a deer as it seemed to be the I looked mto the sttuation, and found that this bears�
right size and shape. But, �s I got closer it nnvedan unc anny resemblance to The Horse-man ot
nearer towards the road and I got the shock ofmy Co_un!)' Louth', as d�cribed in 'Mystery Animals of
lire - it bad the body and legs of a horse but a Britam and Ireland by Graham McEwan. (Hale,
man 's face! London 1986). This apparition was seen near
Drogheda, County Louth, Eire in 1966, and
It was very scary and f.!UPleasant. I didn 't bang app�d as �A huge..borse with a man 's Jilce and
around, but put tey LOOt down bard on the homble bulgmg eyes .
accelerator and 'got the bell ' out of there! I bad
the sensation that it was IOllo'Ning me down the The Lincolnshire witness, Mr K., whose identity we
road. I did:n 't look back - I was terriii«l have decided to keep confidential for the moment,
had never heard of the irish story, and apart from a
mten I got home I told nu' wire and friends about mild interest in �hos� (whi�h, of course, many
it, but most people just laughed at me and said I people have),has littl� mterest m �e p_aranot:mal. He
was mad, or imagining things. � JOU can appears .to be a re.liable and obJ_ective wttness. I
imagine, I did:n 't want to be a la ughing stock so I found � a credible and sepstble person who
seemed slightly embarrassed by tt all .
kept quite about it aller that, but I am convinced
about wbat I sa w. I know it seems impossible, but . .
for thi_s reason, I constder tp.e story . to . be; an
I DID see it and it wasn ' t just a horse or a deer.
mterestmg one, and would certainly not dismtss tl If
anyone has any similar reports, please feel free to
I've never heard of anyone else seeing anything contact us at the Editorial Address.
 Th e M y s t e ry o f t h e Z e b ra - S t r i p e d feath er .
by
Dr B e r n a r d H e u v e l m a n s
In 1901 it was finally realised that the presumed The world of birds is indeed infinitely diversified.
zebra, czill cd okapi by the pygmia of the great Moreover, the feathers worn by this limitless
equatorial forest of Africa, was in reality a sort of variety of birds are even more diversified, for
ancestral 2iraffe with a short neck. At that point. there can sometimes be even very different types
several expeditions were organised with the aim of feather on one and the same bird. But, let us be.
of capturing one of these swvivors from the past reassured: Chapin, in his efforts to identify the
The one arranged by the American Museum of original owner of the famous black-striped
Natural History was led by Herbert Lang, who in feather, was not going to be obli�ed to review the
turn was assisted by a very promising young feathers of the some 8500 spectes of birds then
known. In fact the feathers had certain
ornithologist, James P. Chapin. characteristics whlch in any event were going to
limit the scope of the research needed. To begin
Despite its assiduous and contin1.1.4tg with, the mysterious zebra-striped feather bore a
peregrinations through the Belgian Congo, the resemblance to the secondary remiges - i.e., the
present day Zaire, the expedition carried on from feathers that make up the second row on the wing
1909 to 19 15, and in spite of the support of more - of certain coucals, birds which are related to the
than 38,000 natives, the Yankee team did not cuckoos but which are much larger than the
succeed in bringing back alive even the slightest latter. Because of the robustness and cwvature of
shadow of an okapi. The young one which it had the stem, it also resembled the feather of a
succeeded in capturing had perished after a few gallinacean, but it was still of too considerable a
days, owing to an insuffi cient supply of size to have come from a guinea-fowl or a
condensed milk. However, this expedition did francolin and, besides, its colouration was
bring back a piece of evidence which was going entirelY. different Chapin long considered the
to lead to another striking zoological discovery, possibility of some domestic hybrid between
this time in the world of birds. gyinea-fowl and chicken, but his research in this
ilirection lead to nothing. Could it be that this
feather came from a still unknown �ecies of
In 19 13, on the occasion of a festival in the African Gallinacean? This idea seemed to him to
village of Av akubi, in the forest of the Ituri, the �e so .non:sensical that he ended up dropping his
habitat of the okapi, Chapin was much interested mvesugab.on.
in the costumes of the dancers, and in particular
their head-dresses of feathers, as these, in general
were decorated with a variety of feathers
collected from the local birds. From one of these
pieces of headgear the zoologist collected a
feather which did not appear familiar to him. It
was reddish, with regular black, zebra-like
stripes. and in 1915 he brought it back to the
United States in a bundle of a variety of different
feathers.

The zebra-striped feather posed a problem which

was to prove even more difficult to resolve than
that of the similarly zebra striped hide of the
impossible 'forest ass' first reported by Stanley.
One could even be lead to think that, in this darlc
and mysterious region, all mysteries had a zebra­
like aspect
A quarter of a century later, an unexpected stroke concluded that the two birds which vagt,�ely
of good luck was gomg to reveal to him how ill resembled peacocks even tho�h not having thetr
founded was his diSbelief. In July 1936, he went !JUlglli ficent tail-feathers or brilliant colours, must
to the Museum of the Bel�an Congo, in have been Indian p_eacocks imported into the
Tervuren, not far from Brussels. in order to work Congo for ornamental reasons.
on the second volume of his book 'Birds of the
Belgian Coneo •. His friend, Dr. Henri What were they really? They could have been
Scoouteden (lg81-1972)_, . at that time director of hybrids of �cocks and otlier domestic birds
this museum had given nim compl� freedom to smce it was known that such cross-breeding had
study all of the collections wllich had been been acheived. Chapin did not think so however.
accumulated there on the fauna of this immense as the offSJ)!ing so obtaine-d did not at au
�elgian colo�y and which were of an resemble the foWl in question. This being said, if
J
mcomparable ncnness. theY. really were of an unknown s�ies, how the
devil to verify it, as he had no idea where to
As it turned out, on one day early in the month of begin looking for them.
A�t. a torrential summer rain meant that
Chi� was obliged to enter the museum through A first valuable clue came to Chapin in
a service door at the side. in order not to l>c circumstances no less unusual thail the
soaked to the skin. And thire, passing through a circumstances surrounding the discovery of the
hallway that was being usea for t emporary feather of Akabuki.
storage, our ornithologist srumbled �n a whole
series of stuffed fowl which were about to be Several days after the unexpe.cted encounter with
burned in a stove, either because they were the two stuffed birds destined for the bonfire, on
completely moth-eaten or because they were of 12 August, the ornithologist had been invited to
no scientific interest whatever. Among them, lunch m Brussels by one of his old friends,
perched on a packi.ru!: case, Cha_pin came across a Monsieur de Mathelin de Papigny. an engiQeer in
pair of birds wli.ich caug,h.t his attention the Kilo gold mines whom he had met in the
tmmediately, as there was n�lllil!g at all african Congo in 191 1 . In the course of the meal - as was
about them. One had blackish plumage with an the custpm - they �poke !lbout g_as tronomY., .and
iridescent sheen of violet and green, ana the other the engmeer mentioned m p_assmg a delicious
- no doubt the female. of the same species - was bird which he had tasted at a dinner m 1930 at his
of a dull er� more or less reddish colour overall. gold mine in Angumu. The bird had been shot by
And, the big reddish feathers of its wings were a native hunter in the dense forest nearby.
marked witli black zebra stripes! Monsieur de Mathelin had never succeeded m
learni� the identity of this feathered game, but
This brought abruptly back to Chapin's mind a he did not doubt at all that Cha� the great
memory wlrich had long lain buried: yes, indeed, �ecialist on Avian fauna of the Congo, could
these feathers were very much liKe the one, finally shed some light on the matter.
whose owner he had so long sought .... A glance
at the label attached to one claw reveale<l this When his host began to describe the bird, the
brief note: 'Pam cristatus, young imported'. American ornithologist nearly choked and, by his
own admission, was thereafter totally unaware of
This was clearly an error. The male had powerful · whatever it was that he continue-d to chew on
spurs and thus had to be an adult Moreover, mechanically for the rest of the meal. For, the
Pa \u cristatus is the scientific name of the descri�tion of the animal corresponded exactly to
ordi� blue P._e4coc.k. a native of India. and with the m81e of the couple of specimens which he had
which the biro in question could not - really be srumbled across in the storage hallway of the
confused, even though it did bear a slight fainil_y museum of the Bel�an Congo! But it did differ
resemblance. But. a peacock in the Congo? No in one minor detail: Monsieur de Mathelin
such thing had ever been seen. claimed that his bird had a 'white ba�er brush'
on the top of its head, in front of the little black
Imported? Imported from where? Without further crest tha was quite visible on the naturalised
adO Chapin rushed to Dr. Schoutedc?n, to put the bird. However this latter bird had, at this P.Oint on
question to him. He was told that tlie two its head, only a few short. white silky h&rsJ and
specimens in question came from a collection of Chapin felt that his luncheon p�er mignt be
at least sixty naturalised birds, which had been ex�gerating the importance of this ornament just
!15sembled l>y . the Copagnie du . Kas;U, an a bit _
�t tra<Png compan>_: op_cra� m the
southwest of the Congo, an<l wlii ch ha<l made a However that may have been, the account of the
gift of this collection to the Tevuren museum in e�ineer seemed to indicate that this mysterious
19 13. As the lot included some representatives of bir<l lived in the region of Angumu,from which a
a few barnyard spe.cies, the person charged with specimen could very well have. managed to reach
identifying the specimens had doubtless the village of Avalfubi, located scarcely 160 km
to the north.
i This description �ared first, in Eng_Ush, in the
1!Y way of checking, and for a comparison, Revue de zoologie et de botanique alricaines in
Chapin bad sent to the museum in New Yoijc, one November 1936. It was then translated at once
of the secondary remiges of the swffed female into French and published in the Bulle tin de
bird, so that it could be compared with the feather Cercle zoologique conglaise, which was widely
that he had collected from the head-dress of a circulated among Belgtan colonists interested in
Coru!olese dancer. these two feathers proved to natural history. The article was then reJ'!"Oduced
be almost identical! In short the feather from in a very condensed form in a Brussels daily
Avakubi, the game bird of �u, and the newspa�r. In this form in amounted effectively
naturalised birds from the Compagnie du Kasai to a Notice of Missi� Person', and tt
appeared to belong to one and the same s�ies, subsequently produced the desired result
Wtiic h apparently frequented the northeast and the
centre of the B�lgi_an Congo. The pieces of the Uttle by little. a whole series of people began to
puzzle were begmnmg to come together. write � to r� that they had seen or even shot
birds of this sort in the Co�o: some in the region
On the basis of the smffed s�imens. James of the Lower Uele, i.e., quite in the northern part
P.GhaP!n then undertook to describe the new bird of the state, and another. the Reverend Thomas
under the name of Atfopa \U congensis, in other H. Wilson. at Inkongo, in the Kasai. in the very
words 'the African �cock of tlie Co�o·. The heart of the country. All of this, of course, was

I
anatomical examination, and in particUlar the rather V&g1le, and perhaps even a little
discovery of the little bonx mbercule on the wing, embroidered and, in any case, quite unverifiable
which characterised the family of tlie over the immediate future.
Phasianidae, disclosed clearly that the unknown
creature was indeed a relative of the peacocks Fmally, a 1>9lice officer of the Congo,
and the pheasants, and definitely was not some M.R.Geldof, claimed to have naturalised the
other Afiic an guinea-fowl. Co�olese peacock which he had shot in 1930 at
a distance of 180 km to the south of Stanleyville
This description appeared first, in En.g_li_sh, in the (today Kisangani), and had g_iven it to his sister,
Revue de zoologie et de botanique alricames in who lived at Eecloo, in Belgium. This time a
November 1936. It was then translated at once verification was �sible. Dr. Schouteden
into French and published in the Bulletin de immediately sent his taxidermist, Rene
Cercle zoologique congla�e. wh!ch was widely Opdenbosch, to call on this lady and ID
ascertain that she did in fact have in her Tevuren which had been dreadfully 'moth eaten'.
possession a good specimen of the Congolese
peacock. Fmally, on the 25th May, Chapin - already sure
of not returning empty rumded - left Brussels in a
Here, in any event was a point which established trimotor aeroplane of Sabena, which was to take
that the range of distribution of the bird was him, in four and a half days, to the aerodrome of
fairly extenstve. Th� of cmu-se, more had to be Stanl�lle. Waiti� for him there was a letter
learned. and, in particular, a specimen had to be from Dr. Dyleff, who informed him that four duly
collected in the field. But in those days, one did prepared �P,ecimC?DS �f the Congolese peacock
not travel as easily, nor as raJ'idly, as is the case were awatfi� him m �umu,_ as well as a
today. Moreover, Chapin, being attached to a 'stretched' skin PrOVided oy a Russian friend.
scientific institution, had a major project to Moreover, � V etetjnary in Stanleyv�e itself, Dr,
co�lete, little time to devote to other matters, Fls, was qwte anxtous to show Chapm two other
and, furthermore, no fortune at all to throw about specimens which, for their part, had been
Nevertheless, the game was worth the candle. i
conserve4 "_y means of in ections of formol: they
Thus, a well defined plan began to take form in had been killed the prec� month by_ Monsieur
his mind. Phillipe de Braconier near tlie Ayena River, some
hundied km to the east of Stanleyyille. In short,
First of all, he had to train several natives to the news of the 'discovefY.' of the Congolese
�pare in the field the skins of any �ens peacock had spread like wildfire among 811 of
Which could be obtained. Chagin had also been those who were already familiar with it, and who
assured by Monsieur de .Mathelin that. at in some cases had known about it for quite a long
Angumu, he would receive all nece5sary time.
asststance from Dr. Pierre PYleff, the physician
of the mini02 company. The best woUld be to Chapin went first to Atu!umu, where he made the
have assigned to hiin. as his assistant a acql!ai ntance of Dr. Dyfeff as well as of the new
Congolese taxidermist bv the name of Musoba, black taxi dermist Nkotiba, who had been trained
whom the American oinithologist had trained in the meantime by the veteran Musoba. A whole
himself in 192!>4 and whom at that time was company of tracKers, hunters and trappers �d
working in the rubert national park. been assembled. Twelve days of frenetic
search!ng, however, did not enable Chapin to see
On top of this, Chapin had
_ beenwarmly a single Copgolese peacock. Thus, he took the
co�afulated for his unexpected success bY. the deciston to follow Di. Dyleff, on the 13th of July,
autliorities of the Museum of New York, from to AyeD.a;, to the Braconiers, where an excellent
which he had obtained a special leave of two hunter of the region, Anya_si, was placed; at h!s
months . And th� from several American disposal. Three da _ys later, m company Wtth this
benefactors livi!Jg in Euro�, he was able to latter, the scientific �odfather of the Congolese
P!QCUre the fundS necessary for this undertaking. p�cock finally had me . opportumty to see one of
Then, Professor Victor van Straelen, curator of his godchildren, a male. He at first had a glimp�e
the national parks of the Belgian Congo, proved of it in a thicket, whereup<_>n Anyassi had fired bis
to be more than pleased to send the taxidermist arm at it, but had missed. The magnificent bird
Musoba to �u. Thus, all was ready for the rose in a single bound. fl�pping its w4tgs
decisive stroke. majestically. linmediately afterward, another
peacock also flew up nearby.
On 23rd May 1937, a vezy encouraging r�rt
reached ChaP4t. Dr. Dyleff had shot a first It was only on the 1 8th that Anyassi succeeded in
specimen of Afropavo, a female, which Musoba killing a first specimen under the very eyes of
liad then prepared with his habitrial skill. On 17th Chap� who collected it while it was still
June the ornithologist had an even Efeater quivering, and was then able to dissect it with all
SUI'p!ise: The Reverend Wilson had o6tained of the care and skill to be expected. Moreover, it
another individual, this time a male, which he had was to be the only one that he was ever to see
naturalised and which he �rote was bei!Jg shot He. himself, never succeeded in shooting
despatched to Chapin. Again, he had shot the one, as he always trembled so with emotion.
specimen in the regton of Inkongo, which earlier
liad appeared to be so unlikely_, gtven its distance Once back in Aneumu, Cha� found there a new
from A.ngumu: 750 kilometres ! specimen that haa been obtained during his brief
absence and which had been _prepared by
On the photo which the missionary had attached Nkotiba. When he finally left Amca on 27th
to his letter, it could be seen that the male of the A�t, the specimens of Co�olese peacocks
Congolese peacock did indeed have on the top of which had been collected for him here and there
its head a true 'bad2er-brush' of fine white bilirs
. numbered about ten. He had scarcely left when
Monsieur de Mathelin de Papi�y had in no way Dr. Dyleff obtained yet another one, bril)ging the
exaggerated: rather it was the specimen of total number of spectmens known, includiilg the
types, to fourteen.

Thus, it emerged little by little that the Congolese NOW THAT'S WHAT
I CALL CRYPTO
peacock, one isolated feather of whicli had
excited so much interest for some 25 years, but
which in spite of it all had succeeded in
prese� its incognito until 1936, did indeed �L
have a bmitcd range. Nevertheless, this r�e NEIL NlXON
was as extensive as the whole of Great Britain; a Rare. elusive, the stuff of legend. Once
tenitory in the form of a pear, with the stem at encountered. forever wndered. No, not the water
Lusambo. in the Kasai. and the base on the Undi horse of New France. We're talking music here.
river, which flows intO the ptjncipal arm of the Specifically. the tracks that make up the le�n�
Congo River, a little downstream from album. 'Now that's wbat I call Crwto '.This
Stanleyville. Moreover. the bird appeared to be
·

edition brings you....

rather common and had alwa:>-.:s been well known
to the native �les. The Bakumu of the region ''Bo Meets the Monster"
of Angumu, called it ittmdu, and the Wabali of
Ayena J?gQwe, in imitation, it would seem, of one Starting with a pick on string !Nitar grind that
of its cries. Even certain colonists knew it, that is, would l>e rmpresstve from any orthe current crop
at least those who risked venturing into the forest. of ace indie llaircuts this baste blues soon settles
dov.n into the classic skeletal beat until the great
Moreov e�I subsequent research was going to man himself starts to intone another improBably
uncover m e identlty of the one, who in the last adventw-e .
cen�, had assembled for the Compagnie du Waking up to find the �le People Eater sitt�
Kasai the collection of birds among which _
in his Old apple tree Diddley takes lo the slcy in his
figured the type specimens of Afropavo own plane and on the way to see his 'Baby'
c�ensis. This turned out to be the Botanist and notices 'NI tbose fuqnY, peopl� ti-om at).orher
Entomologist from Luxembomg Edouard Luj a, land'. Havmg got to his baQy· s · house Dtddley
whose name is carried today by many species of has to leave agam righ� aw ay . Jt
doe:5n "t make a lot
plants and insects. His Congolese collection had of sense but it does gtve his baby · the chance to
even been exhibited in 1910 by the Compagnie break down and �eg ·� DiddlfY, Bo_ f!iddle;:
du Kasai at the Brussels Exposition where, it don't leave me zn tbis bouse . AdvlSlng tlie
must be said, not a single visitor had noticed in it
a couple of birds whicli were entirely unknown to
science. It is true that when a dis� auished This is musical ramb
�
hysterical chick to 'lock all tbe windows ana bolt
all the doors '. Diddle
a
bles in classic fashion.
with � burst of scrat_chy
Bel�an ornithologist, Alphonse Dubois (1 839- riff� and a ro:ugh ed short solo. betore
? 19 10) had been chamed mth identifying the headiii2 for the skies an arrivin2 back home at
pi_eces of the collection "before it was given to the which ]Joint he discovers that the Purple People
Museum of Tevuren, this expert was so Eater lias 'bad ' his 'baby' and 2one. Scratch
riff/rapid fade.
�

convinced that peacockS could not exist in Africa

that he took tliis couple for a pair of common Y{��� tal9J!g cheaP.Q gfoduc������ u,i}jt�i
peacocks which had come frOm elsewhere -
which is almost unthinkable, and so he had too�itkWWi� ��cf6p��ra �ea ih aa story
catalogued them as such. 'Pa vo cristatus, )'Uung, that has more events than �ogic. Y�p, its 196!,the
imported'. teen market and the mustcai e�wvalent of mose
tacky films 'The Giant Gila Mons ter '. 'Plan 9
Yet once agai,n, conventional knowledge had well ti-om Outer Sf?ace'. etc. If y_o_u ' re the pickv !YPe
and truly blinded a specialist, ana a great who can't unoerstrind how Diddley ' s 6aby· from
discov� had been set back by several decades, h� own place to his faster than Diddle_y ' s P.lfllle
!!lVe thiS one a wide berth. If you're Up tor a btt or
and, if the badly labelled birds had been
destroyed. as was about to be done. we would tack with attitude from a_ guy whose riff history
perhaps be unaware, even today that a species of makes �Z.Top look like Mozart then buy up �e
whQle Dtddley catalogue npw! ! ! On the way YQ\th l · ll
peacock is strutting proudly about in lhe darK tmd this obscure gem nestled three quarters ot e
forests in the heart of Zaire! way through 'Cbess Masters Volume 2 ' . From the
crypto pomt of view . this i� Z:!J1 iqteresting
The Editor would like to thank Dr. diversion. For starters 1ts an 1ns1ght mto late
fifties/early sixties values and monster archetypes.
Heuvelmans for this article which is The �Ie Peo"Rle Eater js. w � ell. whate �er you
want , lier or tt to t>e. g ...om . an
previously unpublished, in French or escqp crrcus geek tp some IZarre b10Jogtca!
offsfioot that woUld gxve Mulder and . Scully an
English,, and is therefOre an adventw-e to rememoer,SQort on genwne crypto
substance maybe, but t)lis ts a <: ryplp adventure to
exclusive fur 'Animals & Men '. match any otlier comnurted to vmyl !
 The Life and Times of B ert Palmer 1 989- 1 995
by C h r i s M o i s e r .
(Photographs by the author).

Although born in Paignton, Devon, Bert spent most of his life in Cornwall. He had left 'home' as the
capybara equivalent of a teenager, to be one of the main exhibits at Joy and John Palmer's Porfell
Animal Land, near Lanreath. in late 1989. Little is known of his early days at Porfell, except that he had
a spacious enclosure with a stream running through it. This domestic, but mundane life did not last
though.
The gales of January 1990 were some of the most severe to hit the South West in living memory.
Nationally thirty seven peo�le were killed and a considerable amount of damage was done to property.
Bert's back wafl, was one of the unreported casualties of this storm. Whether Bert was frightened by the
storm, or whether he just fancied exploring Cornwall we will never know, but he left home and
disappeared for three weeks. At the end of this time he was reported to be at Shill-a-mill lakes, a man­
made fishery, two miles away. 'Ibis establishment was origin8lly constructed with the angler in mind,
but serendipitously was also ideal capybara habitat
Bert spent seventeen months living here. It was an almost idyllic type of existence, no-one really
bothered him. the food was excellent, and there were lots of gooohiding P-laces. The only thiJul that was
lacking was female (capybara) company. Knowlege of Bed's presence became local knowfedge� and
many local anglers who considered themselves to be good field naturalists looked on a sighting or Bert
as a good omen. Sadly though, Bert's absence from Porfell was causing Joy and John maJor headaches.
Initi� a�pts to catch hini had proved unsuccessful, and the local authority was taking more than a
passmg mterest
Under E.n.elish law, Capybaras are listed as being ·�erous ', and the local authority are therefore
permitted fu do just about whatever they like to control or capture ones that venture abroaa unlawfully.
Bert, b<ing the gentleman rodent that he was, decided not to be dam!erous. In fact, the only th!ng that he
proved dafuzeroU.s to dwj.ng seventeen monthS of freedom was a bucl:et full of groundbait that ha(J, rather
carelessly, 0een left under a caravan overnight The owner of the groundbait had immediately forgiven
him this peccadillo.
A pqint was reached, though, where the local authority issued an ultimatum;. etther Bert was recaptured
qwckly or they would use a marksman to kill him. At this stage the meaia started to take a greater
interest and Bert became national, and then international news. Many letters of support came in,
including one from a South American country where they still eat capybara! The local authOrity, sensing
trouble, backed down a little and gave the Palmers some time to reconvene the 'capture commtttee'. B ert
carried on regardless.
One saturday . aftemoQn a group_ of us. met. at the fishenr, we had lxmowed and :;crounged nets l\lld Qthe{
pteces of eqwpment, Jrnowmg lhat this mtght be our last chance. Alter what mtght loosely be descnbed
as a hectic three hours, Bert was back in captivity. Both capybara and human honour was intact and there
were no serious injuries on either side.

Once back in captivity Bert was no lo�er a national media figure altho�h the local newspaper did do a
piece on him together with rather a nice photograph. He was-kept off show for a few montlis to try and
,

get him used to buman company again, at the same time a large enclosure was built Female company
seemed a good idea too, so Bertha was acquired from Twycross. Although an arranged marriage, tt
worked, they became inseparable companions and over the following years several babies were born.
Sadly Bertha died, in labour, earlier in 1995,. It would be almost unacceptably anthropomorphic to say
th.a� Bert never got over losing her; perhaps it is just better to say that capybaras are almost all very
SOCial rodents.

f
Bert died suddenly, but eacefully on 30th August 1 995,� leaving several swviving offspring. Bert was,
perhap:l, the epitome o a liberated (in every sense or the word), 20th century rodent He had an
mauspicious start in life, he found fame as a young �dui� and returned to normalit:r and family li fe after
stardOm. He will be sadly missed by all who knewbim. I m glad to be one of many humans in that list
 THE S TANLEY TIGER
by Jonathan Downes and Richard Muirhead.

Our cWTent project is a book with the working title.

of ' The Mystery Animals of Hong Kong '.
Numerous people have asked, one or other of us,
why we are writing this book, when it is perfectly
obvious that a territory the size. of Hong Kong
can't have any mystery animals? This could not be
further from the truth. Hong Kong, is a collection
of small islands and peninsular mainland in the
estuary of the. Pearl River in South China, and
being on the cusp between the Northern Eurasian
and Tropical Asian regions provides a unique
habitat for a bizarre mix of wildlife.
There are indeed, genuine cryptids to be
discovered, and these are discussed -more fully in
the pages of our book, but the truth of the matter is
that there are so many anomalies between the
diferent accounts of the fauna of the territory, and
so many truths. half-truths and downright lies have
been printed about it that nearly all of the wildlife
of Hong Kong is a mystery.
In this ;uticle we res�t one particular story with
some facets to i which are of interest to the
fortean zoologist It concerns the (now almost
extinct) South: China race of the Tiger, Panthera
ti.gris amoyensis, and the man who was, perhaps
one of the greatest naturalists to work in Hong
Kong: Dr. Geoffrey Herklots.
In 195 1 , Dr. Herklots published a book called 'The
Hong K9P,g Countryside '. This was the natural
history bi6le to tlle authors when they were
WO'?Jing up � Hong �ong. Large _portions of the
oook was wntten whilst he was mtemed by the
Japanese in Stanley Internment Camp between
1941 and 1945.

There is no doubt at all that tigers were regular

visitors tto Hong Kong during the first half of the
century. One particular visit, however is rather
more . problematical. Herklots seemed unsure of
what bad actually happened: <t>

"During our inrernment at Stanley a remarkable

story iilrered into the camp that there was a tiger
at large on Hong-Kong Island. La rer it was
reporred to be on Sta.nley Peninsula. The guards
got excited and it was risky walking about in the
evening tor an excited guard might fire at a Stanley Peninsula
prisoner mstaking him iiJr a tiger! Soon pug on Hong Kong Island
marb �re seen at the calq': I examined s�
myself but was by no nr.ans convinced. Then the
story was spread that the tiger had been shot and i s years roamed over an area of 3885 square
Dn.afly there came into camp a Chinese or 1 kilometres.
Japanese paper containing a photograph of the 1
dead tiger. This photograph I saw. People said I Kaplanov. who made a study of the Sikbote-Alin
that it was a menagerie ammal that had got loose; tigers and tra velled hundreds ofkilometres on skis
a lilrely story! It is strange bow loth people are to JOllov.-ing their tracks, round ten 01' twelve
believe th.at tigers do visit the Colony and individuals v.-itbin a region of30,000 kilorretres"...
occasionally sMm the harboi.IT and visit the
island". A third account of the 1942 Stanley Tiger, whils
tinitially appearing to be. valuable and exciting
We are loth to appear judgemental,. but it appears evidence in favour of the event actually casts some
from the above passage that Herklots himself was important doubts on its veracity. In 'Captive
not fully impressed with the truth of this episode. Years·, their study of Hong Kong under Japanese
There are, however several other pieces of occupation Birch and Cole (1982), describe
supportive evidence, and it seems almost certain, conditions in Stanley Internment Camp, (now

El,�
to paraphrase 'Alice' that 'someone kill ed Stanley Prison). They quote a newspaper story
something ' and that the 'somethi�' was a large from 'The Kong News '. an English language
Tiger. The exact provenance of this tiger is less gfwspaper pub ished by the occupying Japanese:
certain. 'Thagorus ' (1979) wrote<2>:

"During the war, a tiger was shot by a party of "Fierce Tiger shot in Stanley Woods!
Japanese Militiamen near Stanley in May 1942. A
Mr E. W..Bradbwy, who was once a butcher \lrltb Successful Hong Kong police hunt in early
the Dairy Farm Co.fi4)any, was brought ttom the nnrning.
Stanley Internment camp to skin the animal. the
meat from which subsequently provided a feast tor .Altbougb tor some years pas� rwoours bad
nrmbers of the Hong Kong race club. The animal circulated that there were tigers roaming the Hong
was three feet high, six feet long, 'tlf.leigbed 240lbsKong bills, it was only yesterday nnming that
and had a nineteen inch tail. The skin of the tiger sucb was shown to be fact and the feat of shooting
was stutred and mounted in the ball of Government the first tiger on tbe island was acco�lisbed by
House. ttom wflich it was subsequently transferred Nii?PODese gendarmes and Indian and Chinese
to Japan in 1944. police at the back of Stanley village. Early
yesterday morning the lowing of wild beasts was
One theory a bout its presence on the island \\!as heard by many residents in Stanley village and
that it had escaped /Tom a menagerie dw'ing the gendarmes and police and military set off fully
Japanese invasion; another and more l.i.Jrely theory al"111Cd to search the hills. The search party
was th.at it had swum over from the mainland". I consisting of Nipponese gendarmes and Indian
and Chinese policemen was headed by 11. Colonel
Although there are discrepancies between the two Hirabayasbi. The party was divided into smaller
stories we shall avoid discussing them for the groups and a net \\!as spread around the M>Ods.
moment. Let us examine the supportive evidence After going over the sround JOr some consider�ble
for the claims. There is no douot that a tiger is time, one group of searchers came across the
capable of swimming from the mainland to the tigers lair. They itntmdiately opened fire but
island of Ho� Kong, (or Lantau as well, as the despite an efforts and the use of big wire netting
1915 beast ts supposed to have done). As the beast succeeded in evading the hunters. N:Jt
Guggisberg wrote in_ 1975: (3>. discoi.ITaged by the failure of tb.e first atteliJ't. the
Nipponese police continued their search and a
" (Iigers) can easily swim JOur or live miles " bigger cordOn MIS thrown �round the 'Whole �rea.

Guggisberg also provides useful evidence to Apparently alarmed by the noise the tiger rushed
support the claims by Herldots and others that the abOut the forest for some time M1en it was again
regular visits by tigers to Hong Kong were a encountered by the police party. The police
perfectly natural piece of behaviour on the part if opened fire, and shots from an Indian policeman
an animal with a relatively large territorial range: this time found their mark, caus� the tiger to
halt The Indian 6red three shots, hitting the tiger
"The extent of a tiger's range varies considerably in the bead, left shoulder and lungs".
according to habitat and a vailability of prey.
Corbett mew a tigress wbicb kK bur and a half This is, presumably the newspaper article to which
I
Herklots refers, although, of course, Herklots almost impossible that the Japanese Security
refers to a 'Chinese or Ja�anes ', publication, Forces coUld not have been aware of the
inferring that the article mtght have been in photograph.
Chinese or Japanese writing. This article, was of
course, in English. Birch and Cole 's book also Two, seeming anomalies can be cleared up
immediately. The guards/policemen are referred to
includes a pho�aph of the dead beast, credited
as Indians and Formosans. Formosa (TAIWAN),
to '�dy May Ride', (see below right), which is
captioned: was at the time a Japanese Colony. And although
as Oliver Lindsay wrote: (7)
"The tamous Stanley Tiger wbich was shot by the
guards in 1942. This appears to be the only "The Japanese put grea t pressure on the Indians to
unofficial photograph taken by an inmate at turn traitor aiainst Britain. the vast majority
Stanlc:y". (6) remained loyal ,

The first tJ:ring that has to be ascertained is the

identity of Lady May Ride. The only 'Ride', This implies that some, including, presumably, the
referred to in the text was Colonel Ride, the leader Indian man who is seen. clutching the head of the
of the British Army Aid Group, the organisation Stanley Tiger, did not
which helped British Servicemen and other __-==
internees esca_pe.Whether or not � May',
is/was the wife of the gallant Colonel, it IS
unclear whether she is the copyright owner
or if she indeed was the photographer.

If this is the photograph from the Japanese

newspaper, referred to by Herklots, w h y
was i t taken by an internee, whoever he or
she was? Collaborating with the enemy to
the extent of becoriring an unofficial press
photographer for a n e w s p a p er full o f
propaganda, which w as published b y the
occupying w o u 1 d h a v e b e e n
constdered almost treasonable? If this isn't
the photograph, then it means that there is
/was at least one other p h o t o g r a p h
purporti.ru! to be of the S t a n 1 e y Tiger in
existencef Despite the claims t h a t this is
an 'unoffi cial ' photograph, it is obviously
posed and well composed. The stringency
of Japanese s e c u r i t y arrangements,
especially earlier on in the War, is clearly
documented over a g ai n i n th i s b o o k .
Violence, torture and e v e n e x ec uti ons
were relatively commonplace for what the
Japanese considered to be infringements
of security. If, indeed it w a s taken by an
internee and not by a J a � a n e s e Press
Photographer, then the evtdence suggests
that it was done so w i t h the conmvance,
tacit, or overt of the Japanese. Military.

The head of the creature is being supported .

- -- - ---- ---,
by a man who a p p e a r s to be an Indian, ..---. ------- -- . - -
, . . . .
presumably thepoliceman that shot it If the EditOr 5 N ote: If thiS picture IS genUine lt
man in the picture is a guard/policeman. as
seems probable, h e w a s c ertainly aware
· 1 942 an d IS th ere fore, now,
Wa S ta ken In ·

that he � a s bei ng photographed. H e is OUt Of COpyright

even smiling for the camera ! It seems
Lindsay continues: <S> , the British would no longer be in power in Hong
Kong. They, as history has proven, failed, but
"The guards were later Formosan (Taiwanese) what seems almost certain is that forty years later
and were pettily officious and quick to take when Birch and Cole were researching the incident
otrence". for their book someone, either wittingly or
unwittingly, was not telling the whole truth!
There is, however, another paradox. There may
have been three thousand inteme.es but it seems Herldots was not the only person to report rumours
almost impossible that Herldots, who was after all that the animal had in fact escaped frOm caetivity.
Hong Kong 's leading naturalist and the editor of Writing in 1978 Lindsay said firmly that it bad
Cll>
the Hong Kong Naturalist magazine., and a minor escaped trom a circus during the invasion",
celebrity in hiS own right, would not have known and had therefore only been on the loose for five
about the tiger incident from more than hearsay months. It would be mteresting to know whether
and rumours. Dr Herklots was important enough to he had any further evidence to support this
be put in cruq e of revitalising the post war fishing supposition and was not just sharing in the view,
industry for me region. in a successful attetl)pt to so scorned by Herklots, that bona fide wild tigers

�
restore food stocks as ·quickly as possible. Welsh never actually visited Hong Kong.
(1993), gives more details of this aff r and
implies that Herklots, whom he describes, < > as a One is left to speculate that the 1942 Stanley Tiger
'Btologist just released trom Stanley Internm:::nt may not be a genuine example of a rare animal
Camp ' was a person of considerable importance. visiting the Colony. If it was in fact an animal
Even if he had not been taken to view the carcass brought in from somewhere else and released so
in person, it seems certain that the photographer, that it could be killed as a potent piece of
who did see the carcass would have spoken to psychological warfare then the inctdent is
Herklots about it! something far rarer and far more interesting to the
fortean and to the student of military histozy !
We have examined enough evidence from
Herldots to suggest that he is a reliable and indeed The confusion surrounding this unfortunate be.ast
an expert witness. His mind may have been vague does not end here, however.
about minor details, but surely an event as
important to the sum total knowledge of the fauna A 1955 book by V.R.Burkhardt, describes the
of Hong Kong as this would have remained fresh interior of the temple of the Queen of Heaven at
in his mind. As forteans1 the present authors are Stanley: 02)
often accused of paranoid conspiracy theorising,
but in this case, something doesn't add up! " A �en tiger, about to spring, is a notorious
enemy of evil spirits, and it is reinfOrced by a skin
The mounted skin was taken to a place of honour of the real beast banging on tbe wall, whose
in the newly restored Government House and resistance to moths bas not been commensurate
eventually to Tokyo as a trophy of war. The with his inJiuence over the .{'?weTS of darkness.
occupying army were inordinately proud of their This was the gilt of an indiVIdual who attributed
trophy ! � the time the Hong Kong News bis escape trom demonaic possession to tbe
reported: <t > intervention of the image".

"A party ofpress-men, invited to Stanley to see the Jules Brown and Helen Lee ( 1993) 03) also
tiger yesterday morning round it weighed about mention the Tin Hau Temple, giving the additional
240 lbs and measured three fOot higb, 73 incbes information that it was built in 1767, and is
I� with a tail of 90 incbes. According to the therefore comparatively ancient by Hong Kong
ChTnese, the appearance of a tiger is an onr.n of standards. They, too mention the tiger skin, and
the approach ofa period ofprosperity". they claim that it was the skin of an animal that
'got his at the hands of an Indian Policeman in
It seems likely that the invading Japanese were 1942', which presumably refers to the animal
determined to extract the maximum of publicity discussed above. (They also point out that whereas
from the event by exploiting local folk beliefs. the name 'Stanley' serves to commemorate a
Near the end of the war when it was obvious that nineteenth century Colonial Secretary, its Chinese
they would lose they were still fermenting Chinese name Chek Chue means lair of robbers or cheats,
Nationalist feelings, often through the use of after the pirates who used the village as a base).
cultural motifs, and sometimes by recruiting
collaborators, in an attempt to ensure that at least It would be tempting to theorise that this skin is
 ODD byAlison Downes
lhe l'elt of the Stanley Tiger, finally come to rest in
a spuih.lal environment after its theoretetical use as
a weapon of psychological warfare, but it is highly
unlikely, espectally as it seems that Bmkhardt was
only stationed in the colony between 1936 and
1939, three years before the unfortunate beast met ORNITHOWG
its ignominious end at the hands of an un-named The artist fot7:Derly knoru1 as the Nerrous Tmtcher.
Indian polic eman.
In August 1 995 , it was reported th at a new
Both the references cited above which claim that
the tiger pelt in the temple is that of the Stanley species of n i ghtjar had been d iscovered in
tiger, are therefore wrong! Ethiopia. Or Roger Stafford found the wing of a
dead, squashed bird on the road one n ight i n
A final observation is that it is interes� to note
that Chang T'ien Shib, the Master of Heaven, and 1 990, W"li lst o n an expedition to Nechisar
presumably the husband of the Queen to whom the Plain. lt has taken five years to establish 'Nhat
temple at Stanley is dedicated is said to ride a tiger kind of bird it was. Now, experts are keen to
instead of a horse as his st� as he brandishes his find a Jive specimen . Daily Telegraph 1 6. 8. 95
demon vanquishing sword· ( 4>·
This is just one b�arre incid�t .of many in om From Hong Kong comes n ews of a rare Thick
files. Om forthcormng book wtll mclude as many Billed Pigeon (Treon cumrosta) . Unfortunately
more as we can discover, and will prove not only it was found dead after hitting a fence at full
that those who scoff at the concept of 'myste.ry
speed. Coincidentally, several years earlier
animals ' in Hong Kong, are completely wrong, but
that Heuvelmans, again was right when h� claimed another specimen was found dead at al most
that 'There are lost worlds everyM!ere'. <I > exactly the same spot!

R E F E R E N C E S . The skin of the first specimen is now in th e

British Museu m. Porcupine! March 1996 # 14.
1 . HERKLOTS, G.A.K, 'The Hong Kong
Countryside' (Hong Kong, SCMP, 195 1)
People on the lookout for flocks of free flying
2. 'THAGORUS ', 'The Hong Kong Book of
Records ', (Hong Kong, SCMP 1979) parrot likes in Britain may well see the flock of
3. GUGGISBERG, C.A.W. 'mid Ca ts of the Patagonian Conures (hello Socrates!) which
�rld' (Newton Abbot,David & Olad� 1975)pl% live over Su rrey and West Sussex.
4. GUGGISBERG C.A.W. op cit p. 199
5. BmCH, A, & COLE M, 'Captive Years - The These, however, belong to bird keeper P au l
Occupa tion ofHong Kong 1941-51, (Hong Kong,
Bai ley o f Oakland Park farm, Surrey. They
Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), 1982).
6. ibid escaped one day about nine years ago by
7. UNDSAYO, 'The Lasting Honour - The Fall of chewng th rough the aviary wi re, but returned
Hong Kong 1 94 1 ' (Wndon, Hamish-Hamilton, the following n i ght to roost. Since then they
1 978) p. 1 1 77 have lived free, flying around the villages and
8. ibid countryside by day, and returning 'home' each
9. WELSH, Frank 'A History of Hong Kong'
night. This just goes to show how easily
(London, Harper Collins, 1993) p.433
10. BIRCH, A, & COLE M, op cit foriegn 'exotics' can live in our countryside.
1 1 . LINDSAY 0, 'The LAsting Honour - The Fall Cage and Aviary Birds March 9 1 996.
of Ho� Kong 1941 ' (London, H:um�h-Hamilton,
1978)L . BURKHARDT V.R., Chinese Creeds As part of our new project about rare, vagran t
and Customs Volume 2 ' (HK, SCMP 1955) p. 99 and out of place birds, VI.OU/d all readers IMlo
13. BROWN J, and LEE H, 'Honu Kong and
Macao - the cough guide ' (Rough Gwdes, London VI.OUid like to be involved send me photocopies
1993) of their county bird reports, and any
1 4. BUR.KHARDT V.R., 'Chinese Creeds and birdwatching notes from their local
Customs Volume 1 ' (HK SCMP 1 953) p. 1 79 newspapers. We �M:>uld a/so be interested in
15. HEUVELMANS Dr. B. 'On the Track of news of any rare or unuausa/ animals seen in
UnbJ.own Animals' (1958. London, Hart-Da vis).
pet shops or for sale privately. Thanks AD.
 OB ITUARY : MARTIN "MORT "
BROWN 1 969-96
I didn' t know Martin very well. He was just an left!
anonymous name on a list of subscribers until the
tragic death of our previous cartoonist He offered The question raised in my mind is this: If we care
to become our cartoonist, sent us some funny about UnknoMI Animals, should 'M) want to prove
drawi ngs that made me laugh, and didn't want their existence at all? Humanity_'s track record
paying. All the criteria were there and we gave seezm to suggest that the furure fur any unknoMI
him the job. �roven ro eXIst is black in the extreme. I don't think
Chat it "MJuld be exaggerated to s(!ggest that in tbe
case of a ClJ'P.tid wttb a limited range which is
He telephoned occasionally and we would have easily accessa ble, even relatively so. discove�
long telephone conversations about Science MJuid very soon lead to extinction{ Ifscience didn t
Fiction, rock music, magick, and, oh yes, finish them off the chances are that the rest of us.
cryptozoology. He was a lake monster buff. and either by accident or design. probably "MJuld.
furthermore one with a wicked sense of humour as
shmvn by his article in A&M 8 . What we didn't Regards,
know was that for many years he had suffered
from a depressive illness, and that in February this M:>rt, England•.
yearhe was to take his own life. His father
telephoned me to tell us the news and to say that
I had known Martin for over three years when
'Mort' had left us his entire collection of boo ks
he became a customer of Midnight Books in
and papers on cryptozoology. I was touched, but early 1993. He mainly bought material on
immensely sad. A part of my life, and moreover,
Cryptozoology, but showed an interest in most
one that I valued. bad been taken away. ID
mysteries. I found him articulate, open minded,
intelligent and of great humour in our many
A few weeks before he died he sent us this letter telephone conversations. He was someone who
for publication. We print it as a tribute to a very loved to talk on a diverse range of subjects, and
we would enjoyably work our way through a
talented man:
whole spectrum of topics in the course of a
"Regarding Grover S.Krantz's article 'On
lengthy telephone conversation.
Collecting a Cryptid' and to a lesser extent my
I remember well his first 'phone call to me
OMI article on proof. which lasted well over t\\'0 hours! Martin Was a
man of Principle too. If he felt he was being
I'm against collecting a specimen. I don't think wronged he "WOUldn't let up until justice had
that it's necessary ro say •tar nnre likely been done. Shortly before his death he had
producing a dead body", only dead will do. I finally won a five year battle with TIME-LIFE
should imagine that its very hard to dissect over some video material he was buying from
something wben it can still brea the. I also expect them. I admired him for that.
that it MJuld be unrealistic to expect the scientists
He did promise to vi:lit me last .rear but
to be satisfied witb one dead body. There MJuld be
circumstances prevented him from domg so. It
too much competition and always one more thing
tmuld have been nice to have met him to have
-
to check. The very best scenario we could expect put a face to the voice. He was one of those rare
MJuld be live capture and live study, but bow long kindred spirits one encounters now and then. I
MJuld it take ro get things right? will miss his calls greatly and it will be strange
not to speak to him again.
The late Gerald Durrell seems to ha ve lost a great
many speciroons trying to keep them alive in I do hope that wherever he is now he has one or
captivity and HE cared about animals. The two mysteries to solve - he'll be at home then!
problem with both these approaches is tbe 'Cans
in the Fridge ' problem: ·ru just have one more... " Stephen Shipp,
Midnight Books,
berore you know wbere you are there 's no beer
Sidmouth.
 mJuth with slrong, sharp teeth. and gills. Instead

IHI JE JL Q
0
of the scales wbich would be expected, it had pink
skin, resembling the colour of a healthy pig. Just
like its predecessor it stood on mu short legs
wbich ended in U shaped soles. Every other
In issue 4 of this magazine we printed an appeal
infOrmation was lreated with secrecy".. .
from Newsfile Editor Jan Williams for more
information about two mysterious cotpses washed We oo o:t 'Wish t> oonmJf.lt mti1 we mve idemified 1he
up on an Essex beach. We received this reply last DJ�t:e of tm above � 10 watdl lhis space! Any fudber
year, we think from a correspondent in Gennany infamalion v.Wd�graefdly �
or France, but it became separated from the letter,
and we cannot remember who sent it in. If you
recognise the piece below, please contact the Recent B igfoot Research
Editor! from Bill Green of the N.E.Bigfoot Centre.
* Pocetello, Iowa. A woman claimed she
"As already mentioned, in November of 1953, encountered a 7-8 foot tall brownish grey bigfoot­
nearly a hwtdred years (after the mysterious �pe creature standing in her back-yard watching
lier. This sighting toOk place three years ago this
tiJotprints had been fowtd on the Devon coast) a March.
strange creature was washed ashore on the coast
of the British Canve,.r Islands (sic). Nobody had • A friend of mine claimed that he found fifteen
inch long footprints in the snow on South
e� seen anything like it. The finder co�ed the Mountain near a reservoir in Bristol, Conneticut
80cm (3 3 inch) large creature, wbich had thick, during the winter of 1994/5.
red-brown skin and a delbrmed head with
protruding e� with seaweed and notified the
local authorities.
Green Kitten Update
by Eric Sorenson.
The local a uthorities did not know what to think of
the creature and asked the gover.ntnent in London The latest news about Miss Greeny, the Danish
green cat is both good and bad. The colour has,
tOr assistance. 100 tamous biologists arrived in accordi� to an article in the Danish newspaper,
Canvey. They examined, measured, and 'Ekstrabladet' , Feb 3rd 1996. faded almost aw�,
photographed the unidentified creature and meaning that sadly, the green was probably of a
annowtced that it was not related to or showed secondMy nature Good news for the cat, though,
any resemblance to known an.imals. because It was obviously fed up with being on
exhibition, photographcii and being �dled
It probably cam= out of the ocean. Its extremities endlessly. It can now concentrate on cat-busmess.
allowed both bowed and/or erect movements. This
The hair sample was confirmed as being _genuinely
is all that is known, since the two scientists green by the laboratory, so the risk or a clever
decided to get rid of the mystery once and Jbrever. hoax must be considered to be minimal. The
They had the creature burned and refused any
presence of copper was not mentioned. Strangely,
oilicial comment things tend to Q<Jp up togethetA with the hel]J oT tlie
Editor, ('Gee ThanKs Eiic ' Ju),: It seems �t the
Their attempt to conceal details about the creature
�en dog described by lQchard Murrhe.ad
would ha ve been m:>re successful ifit wasn't tor (A&M8) was explained as beiung Utera Verdi -
another cadaver being fOund on August 1 1 th the gre� in its mothers womb. This sounds .a VeJ'J
next year. good hypothesis !0 me, and a g<;>od expl�nation for
1he m ol oolo\r v.'ith Sl.b3eqwlt 00 growtn.AIIyWay, the
Reverend Joseph Ove.rs literally stumbled over it eat's days m a celebrio/, getting attention from the
\\-nen he went tOr a tvalk on the beach not tiJ.r from BBC, Readers Digest, Associated press, and �e
\\-ilere the first creature had been rowtd. The thing cat fanciers' home page on the Internet, where It
was lying in a little pool left li:om the last tide. The created a raging success� are over. The family, �er
priest called the police. Bobbys carried the owners, are not dissatisfied. They were bemg
creature on land (sic). �ain experts were called. accused of money-making, (.all they got were three
This time, the investigatlOn was done much more bottles of wine from a museum), and were getting
thoroughly. Again, no official classification ofthe strange letters and telephone calls. An . Americ.an
creature was done. doctor (?) claimed to have three patients wtth
green hair, a German wanted the cat for a peace
The an.imal (!) was nearly twice the size of its crusade etc...
predecessor, weighed around 25 lbs, and was in a
good condition. It had two large eyes, nostrils, a But the cat is not green anymore. Clever Cat!
L
T O
ET T
H E
TEE RS
D I T O R

'THE OWLMAN STRIKES BAC K'

Dear Jon,

Forget about the whole thing? Are you kidding?

For now I'll die. fighting. The objections to the
reality of 'owlman' recently brought up in your
letters are hard to dismiss at all convincingly but at
the same time, to my mind, they are ridiculous.
We have some very big problems here. Owlman
looks like a v ety large owl (hey, it's not called
owlman for nothing guys?). I've seen it and those
,

who object haven't Janet Bord wrote of her

suspicions that the creature, despite my
protestations was an owl. The only way to ever be witnesses) don't remind me one bit of an owl 's
sure that you have seen an image as recorded in ..;
slim feet. LOO k at my drawings for god's sake.
your mind is to see that image again, and, as I .
don't think (and hope) it likely that I will ever see 'Gavin',
the creature again, I do remain sceptical of my Somewhere.
own conscience. Owls tend not to grow to more
than four feet in height nor would sightings of AUSTRALOPITHECINES AHO Y !
them result in the construction of exactly the same
mental image, as drawn independently by
\\.itnesses includillJ myself. That for me, is the Dear Jonathan,
biggest problem. Ir I see an owl I draw an owl, not
the same quasi-bird humanoid that teenage girls .. . regarding a communication of Darren N�sh,
and Doe Shiels were drawing back in the late Southampton (A&M7), about
my arttc le
'seventies. 'Mysterious Hominoids of Affica \(A&M6),
·

John Heath-Stubbs clearly did not read my would you be very kind and publish this short
account: if he did he considers me either a liar or a reply:
pathetic observer. 'The five feet given by �e As I submitted my manuscript to Jonathan
observer is wrong ' ????? ! ! ! Excuse me, but trytng Downes, the corrigendum to 'Australopitbe.c us
to say that 'owlman cannot be five foot tall
ramidus, a new species of earlv hominid' was not
because eagle owls do not exceed two feet', is an yet published (Nature Vol. �75": 8 8, 4.M�y 1995). I
absurd apP!Oach to the data. and a poor attempt to fully agree the genenc separa1lon from
dismiss tl I have decided that to prove to myself, Australopithecus. Effectively Ardipithecus (not
if no-one else. that the animal I saw was 'Aldipithecus ' ! ), lacked some specialised features
g
considerably bi ger than an eagle owl, I need to known from the Australoptthecus lineages.
find the actual tree in whicbny si&�tiru! occurred. regarding is thin molar enamel. and the large
Photos, when obtained, will be pul>.rishoo. canines, Ardipithecus ramidus seems to have been
more closely related to Pan (chimps), as I already
John Hcath-8tubbs notes it is characteristic of
owls that two toes point forward while 'the outer emphasised in my paper in A&M6.
toe' is reversed. Actually the 'inner toe' (digit 1), Keep up your good work for Fortean Zoology,
is reversed too. This could be the case in Best wtshes,
owlman, but the large, bulky, pincer feet (again
remarked upon independently by Francois de Sarre.
 NORTH OF THE BORDER MORE IS NESS
Musings on Fortcan Zoology from our Scottish
correspondent Tom Anderson. Dear A&M,

The institute of Terrestrial Ecology has launched I wonder if it is still possible to comment on
an otter research project to discover the reasons
something written in issue five. Mr Leadbetter
behind its Scottish increase as against its southern commented on some of the things I wrote in
decline. They cite roadkill s as a possible source of reaction to his earlier article. He seems to wonder
information using DNA testing. why I assemble a collection of Loch Nes s reports
if I can not be sure that the stories from which they
Re DNA. Aberdeen University claim to have come are true or fact My answer is this: You've.
found the Common PipistreU:e population to got to start somewhere when you want to study a
consist of two separate but closely related species. thing like the case for the Loch Ness phenomena.
(Did this come befOre, after or coincidentally with One of the most important ingredients in this case
the discovezy of mu species of Pipistrelle in are the sightings. The sightings come from various
Yorkshire makiru! different sounds? Are there in sources. Mr Leadbetter should know this as he
met tbreespecies? Ed) stated thathc considers himself familiar with the
vast majority of Loch Ness sightings. He must
Perusing an early volume of this worthy journal, I therefore be familiar with the tact that a lot of
noticed an interest in the mustelidae on the behalf books and other material on the Loch Ness
of the editor. Some years ago, when I worked for Monster state the same sightin�s but not always
Marconi, we used to service the radars and the the same data. Sometimes you nave to deal wtth
echo-sounders of the fishing fleet. In those days additional information on a sightj.ng and other
the west coast boats sailed round into Aberdeen to times you have to deal with completely differeut
information concerning the same sighting. 1bis is
land their catch. This caused great anguish and
not always due to a messed up witness but very
angst among our engineers as wil� mink infested
often to a messed up author who has difficul ty in
these boats and led to much tucking of trousers copying_ material frOm earlier sow-ces, like other
into socks. A sort of Scottish version of the boOks. I agree with Mr Leadbetter that this makes
Yorkshire ferret olympics! the sightings liabl.e to being um:eli able. By PU:tting
the different versiOns together m one collccbon 1
Yesterday, driving from Tomintoul to Braemar hope to_ �et a clearer view into these sightings and
across moorland I was buzzed by red grouse. Half try to raKe out of this collection the data 'most
a dozen males flew straight at the car, swervin� at likely to be reliable', in order to make analyses on
the last second, only a metre or so away. Tney various details from this data. A lot of the
then settled on the road and commenced sightings are indeed unverifiable and could be
displaying to the females, using the tarmac as a
flawed but that does not mean that they cannot be
used for study.
'leek'. I hadn't realised they were so aggressive.
Mind you. bearing in mind the recent 'death Even recent sightings which can be verified could
plunge' perpetrated. by a grouse on .._ YOUR. be flawed, so for me there is no reason not to look
Monarch (REALL Y, Thomas! . . . Your friendly at the older sightings. If being verifiable, or 'may
Editor wbo approves oftbe Act of Union, but then
be subject to being flawed' were the main criteria
be's English), I'm starting to consider the in this study for me, then there would be no use to
possibility of role reversal on the moors. I quite study the Loch Ness phenomena at all , but I agree
like the. idea of the Aristocracy being thinned out with Mr Leadbetter that you have to keep these
by 'death wish' grouse catching them in the plus criteria in mind; and so does h e when he states that
fours when least expected. Add to that the likely sturgeon of 20 foot or more were common in the
future escapees from proliferating ostrich farms, Danube and the Volga during the 19th Century.
and green wellies and Range Rovers could soon This statement looks unverifiable and could be
become a folk memory ! highly . flawed, or did he find a witness? I heard
that peoJlle in the USSR sometimes reach a $feat
�e, bu� I cann<?t verify this, and this to mignt be
Yours still ducking and weaving, ffawed information.

Tom Anderson, Yours faithfully ,

M. 't Mannetje
Aberdeen.
The Netherlands.
 THE LOCH NES S FUTURE PLANS FOR
SOCIETY 1TIHIJE CJENJrJruE JF(Q)�
We recently received the following press rekase:
JF(Q)JR� Z(Q)(Q)JLOOY
"Following the recent release of the Hollvwood
JiJm 'Loch Ness ', a new society has been i>rme.d
to further investiga te and conserve Loch Ness The Centre. for Fortean Zoology has now been in
itselfand the 'Nessie ' mystery.
existence for over four years, and we have been
active for the last two and a half. The time has
The new society aims to bring together all the
thousands of people who visit and share an
come to try and move onto a higher plane.
interest in the Loch. It intends to launch further
and more up to date techniques in the search to We have , as regular readers v.i.ll know, an active
solve the mystery of the monster. It \'!rill also and enthusiastic team of regional and national
involve itself in the many environmental and representatives. As of the first of April, Alison
conservation issues around the shores of Loch Downes is taking over the coordination of this
Ness. te.am of enthusiasts and she v.i.ll be. actively
organising several new areas of research.
There will be an annual expedition to the Loch in
the desire to re-kindle the spirit of the old Loch Starting this summer, we shall be producing an
Ness Investigation Bureau expeditions of the 60's irregular series of 'ANIMALS & MEN
and 70 's. In those days thousands of people from
SUPPLEMENTS'. The first two will cover exotic
all ages and backgrounds took pact in camera
watches, boat surveillance and collating the many pets, (their husbandry, taxonomy and potential
eye witness reports. threat to the UK Ecosystem) and Vagrant Birds
(A twitcher's delight - a list of every re.cord of an
This new Society has been tonned by Richard A.
aberrant bird during the previous twelve months,
Carter and Ian Kelloway wbo among many others together v.i.th ornithological details, maps and as
have been interested in the Loch and its mysteries much other information as we can find).
fOr many years. They ha ve become a ware of the
lack of one organisation to . which people can The supplement series will be edited by Alison
relate and partake in organised ac tivi ty and which Downes.
can update current inrorma tion. It is a shame tha t
there has been less and less promotion of Loch We are working on a number of new and reissued
Ness. \\-i:Uch attracts millions of visitors each year, publications as well. The first of our 'new wave'
and it is our intention ro reverse tha t trend". of products is now available:

"Morga wr- th e monster of

Fa lmouth Ba y"
You can contact the Loch Ness by Anthmy Mawnan-Peller.
Society at: This booklet was originally published
in 1 97 6, but with the permission of
34 W e s t on C r e s c e n t , the author, we have reissued it with a
H o r fi e l d C om m o n , new introduction by Tony ' Doe '
Br istol Shiels and an explanatory essay by
B S 7 8 UT Jonathan Downes. It costs £ 1 .50 (plus
25p p&p) and is available from the
editorial address.
 It is a highly pleasing book to read from an

BOOK aesthetic point of view, andbeautifully laid out

and designed. ·

The chapter on the Sphynx is J)articularly good,

REVIEWS
presenting, as it does a wealth of information that
has not to my knowledge been gathered together
in the same place before. Excellent!

'The Moron 's Guide to the 'Hong Kong 's mid Places - an
Paranormal' environmeniii J explora tion ' by ·

by Jon D Inman (ID £3.99 32pp). Edward Stokes (OUP 1 96pp £25.00).

As an author who has worked hard on his three or This lavishly illustrated book presents many of
four self published books, and a publisher who the reasons why Hong Kong is rapidly becoming
has worked hard for years to produce quality of greater interest to the fortean zoologist than
product at a reasonable price I find the elevation most other places (except possibly New Guinea
of what Frank Zappa once called 'A Tacky Little and Vu Quang). Stokes writes in a clear and
Pamphlet' into a book quite offensive. My prices happy style, and explains how although like the
are not cheap, some of the second hand books we rest of southern China Hong Kong waspractically
sell are quite expensive, it all depends on what I deforested by the time that the British arrived in
had to pay to get hold of them. This is nothing 1 841, but how a concerted programme of re­
short of exorbitant forestation starting in about 1904 started to
restore the landscape to the way it would have
The contents? It is one of those immensely sad been three or four hundred years ago.
tomes; a ' funny' book which singularly fails to
amuse. Its mildly amusing in parts. tedious in
others and veers towards blasphemy in one
particularly annoying section.
1
i The next twist in the tale happened when the
Japanese invaded in 1941, and over the next four
years cut down much of the carefully restored
i forest as firewood. Stokes shows how the process
It has only two thirds of the pages of an issue of i started again in 1946, and how, with the exodus

I
'Animals & Men', and costs twice the price. of people from the villages of the New
Buy it at your peril ! Territories, the traditional teng sbui woods have
spread, so now areas which even when your
'Mythical Bea sts ' Edited by John : editor knew them in the late 1960's were barren

c�Bhnbs
t:rryh Museum Publications 1 92pp 1
· 1
rocks and grassland, are. now dense. forest. What
Stokes has not discussed is the way that the
1 8.99).
I
original fauna is returning, and some totally new
beasts are aniving to populate these new forests .
Gloriously produced and as scholarly as one but that is, after all what the book currently
would have expected. This isn't chock full of i being written by your editor and Richard
revelations destmed to take the 'cxypto' world by 1 Muirhead is all about, so it is probably a good
storm. but it is a good solid primer on the subj ect thing at least as far as we are concerned!
which presents the available facts in a concise
and pleasing manner.
This is an excellent book and moreover one
This is not a book about cryptozoology, nor does which we reccomend wholeheartedly to anyone
it pretend to be. It covers historical matters to a with even the most passing interest in the orie.nt,
far greater depth than I have seen before. It is its wild places, and what is probably the most
probably the best book to be written on the fortean place on earth. Even if you just buy it for
subject of zoomythology since Peter Costello's
the photographs, (which are outstanding) it is, by
"'The Magic Zoo", and should probably be read in
anyone 's standards. worth the money !
conjunction with it
PERIODICAL REVIEWS ZOOLOGY
We now e�change �th so many pubJ..ications that only

�
those magazmes received troae mag azmes who have sent SOUTH WEST HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
us material within the �vious three mombs will be Frank Gibbons, Acanthus, 59 St Marychurch Road,
reviewed each issue.
Torquay, Devon. Entertaining and informative
CRYPTOZOOLOGY AND newsletter from a thriving organisation.
ZOOMYTHOLOGY BIPEDIA, Francois de Sarrc, CERBI, 6, Avenue
Goorge V. 06000 Nice, France. Interesting journal
1HE BRITISH CDLUMBIA CRYPIOZOO about the theory of Initial Bipedalism.
UIJB NEWSI..ETIER, 3773 West 18th Avenue,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. V65 1B3. PORTSMOUTH REPTILE AND AMPIDBIAN
Excellent and well put together, and they are now SOCIEIY, M.Jones, 7 Haslemere Rd., Southsea,
on the Internet as well! Latest issue features Loch Hants. Erudite and witty magazine from another
Ness, the monster of Lake Tanganika and much excellent society.
more
MILTON KEYNES HERPETOLOGICAL
CRYPTOZOOL<XJIA, Association Belge SOCIEIY, 15 Esk Way, Bletchley, Milton
d'Etude et de Protection des Animaux Rares, Keynes. Fascinating reptilian facts and hints on
Square des Latins 49/4, 1050 Bruxelles. Belgium. husbandry. Reccomended.
A French language magazine published by the
Belgian society for Cryptozoology. MAINLY ABOUf ANIMALS, 13 Pound Place,
Shalford, Guildford, Surrey. GU4 8HH. A
BIGFOOT RECORD, Bill Green, NE Bigfoot zoological magazine of the sort most of us feared
Centre, 2 1 Benham St #F, Bristol. CT 06010. was lost forever.

an1
USA Round up of BHM News from the N.E.
USA ESSEX REPTILES AND AMPillBIANS
SOCIETY, 6 Chestnut Way, Tiptree, Colchester,
EXOTIC ZOOLOGY, Matthew Bille, 3405 Essex. C05 ONX. Insightful and well researched
Windjammer Drive, Colorado Springs. COl look at Reptiles and Amphibians.
80920. USA> Excellent newsletter on new
rediscovered species. PORCUPINE! c/o Kadoorie Agricultural Research
Centre, HKU. Lam Kam Road, Yueng Long, New
Territories, Hong Kong. Wonderful newsletter
FORTEAN about rare and newly discovered species in the
territory of Hong Kong . I cannot praise this
mag nzinc highly enough.
TEMS NEWS, 1 1 5 Hollybusb Lane, Hampton,
Middlesex, TW12 2QY. An entertami� .
collection of odds and sods and generally weird FRINGE SCIENCE
stuff. A magazine I alwaysenjoy reading
Reccomended.
NEXU S 55 Queen'i Rd, E. Grinstead, W e s t Sussex
FOAFfALE NEWS. MUN Folklore & RH19 l BG . Intell igent look at the fringes of
Language Archive, Memorial University oJ sci ence. WeU put together. Very impressi ve.
Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, A l B
3XB Canada. Scholarly magazine about folklore, SCIENCE FRONTIERS, P.O .Box 107, Gl en Arm,
and the mechanics of how it becomes assimilated MD2 1057. Pro duc ed by Willi am Corliss, of the
into societies. Highly reccomended. Sourcebook Project, this is a marvellous pot powri
of fringe science information.
THE ANOMAUST, available in the UK from
this office. Excellent bi-annual book about THE EDITORIAL TEAM APOLOGISE TO
anomalous phenomena, cryptozoology an 1 THE EDITORS OF THE MAGAZINES NOT
general forteana. Highly reccomended. LISTED ABOVE FOR OUR CHANGE IN
POLICY, BliT SEVERE LACK OF SPACE
PRECLUDES US HAVING THREE PAGES
I OF MAG-LISfiNGS
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