Book review: Abominable Science! by Loxton & Prothero

By Mike Williams

The last book I had read by so-called "skeptics" on cryptozoology consisted of an anger-filled polemic against the "stupid people that chase monsters that everyone knows cannot exist".
I expected Abominable Science! to be something along the same lines. I was wrong.
But let me make a brief digression.

While on Facebook recently, I noticed some cryptozoologists deriding this book as garbage.
When I asked them directly which pages exactly contained mistakes, I was told that the authors "were being smart arses" in their book.
I agreed that they may well have been, but again I asked what information was wrong.
I was then told by one of the Facebook critics that they had already pointed out problems with the book on another site and were not going to do it again.
And from the cricket sounds to my subsequent questions, I guessed that I had been hit by the dreaded Facebook comeback, "the unfollow". (Apparently when some people find themselves in a corner and cannot answer a question, they "unfollow" the conversation.)

Anyway, this book slays any semblance of the possibility of the existence of the Yeti, Sasquatch and Loch Ness Monster dead.
The authors carefully lay out the claims, and then show you the actual facts.
Personally I gave up years ago on a Sasquatch-type creature ever existing. In Abominable Science, the authors expose all the fakery around the Yeti, and language translation problems involved with the word itself.
Who would not be annoyed at being told there was a Yeti, and having people point at a bear? Just a quick hint: a bear at a distance can be bipedal for short periods of times. There is your Yeti.

A popular representation of a Yeti.

But then the authors went too far and destroyed my fondest, dearest belief in the possible existence of The Loch Ness Monster! :-)
The Loch Ness Monster industry was spawned in the 1930s, around the same time that the first version of King Kong was released in Scotland by Hollywood studios. And in that film was a long-necked water monster. What a coincidence!
But believers often point to the "historical" account of a sighting of the beast by Columba, the Irish missionary monk, in the 560s.What they forget to mention is that it's not a first person account, but a story, one of many stories about Columba, made up by a man called Adomnan about 100 years later.

If you love the cryptozoology field - that is, what's left of it (and what hasn't been destroyed by hoaxing), then you should definitely buy Abominable Science!

 The famous (and disputed) 1934 'surgeon's photo' taken by
Lt. Col. Robert Kenneth Wilson.

A still from the original film King Kong. Inset image: A sketch made from a

witness’s description many months after his sighting.

Is Prof Sykes putting the nail in the Yeti coffin?

by Andrew Masterson, www.brisbanetimes.com.au

October 2013 will go down as a bittersweet watershed in the curious field of cryptozoology - the study of creatures that probably don't exist.
Cryptozoologists are people who search for animals of folklore and rumour: yowies, bunyips, rogue panthers, ape-men, the Loch Ness monster, the Beast of Buderim, the Goatman of Maryland, Oklahoma Octopus and many more.
In October, though, something really weird happened.
A well-respected mainstream geneticist, Dr Bryan Sykes, from Oxford University, announced that he had done DNA tests on two hair samples collected, centuries apart, by yeti hunters. The samples, he reported, both came from a species unknown to science.
For believers in the Abominable Snowman, that was the good news. The bad followed immediately: the species was not an ape, but some type of bear. The mysterious creature roaming the Himalayas was not so much Yeti as Yogi.
Sykes' research, yet to be published in full, has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of Australia's cryptozoological community. The hunt for our own ape-man, the Yowie, continues unabated.
Prime among the Yowie hunters is Rex Gilroy, 70, self-proclaimed ''father of Australian cryptozoology'', author, naturalist and hunter of improbable beasts.
''The silly sketches of Yowies as giant, hairy apes are all wrong,'' he says. ''Yowies are a living form of [human ancestor] Homo erectus.''
Gilroy claims to have collected a number of fossil hominid skulls - of Homo erectus and the even earlier Australopithecus - which he says proves that human ancestors were living in Australia long before the arrival of Aborigines.
Some of his best specimens were discovered near the Fish River in the central western district of NSW.
''I believe there is a population of Homo erectus still living there,'' he said.
''The Yowie is no gorilla-like monster. It's a fire-making, tool-making hominid. I've found campsites and stone tools, some of them only a few months old.''
Gilroy is also active in the hunt for two perennials of Australian cryptozoology - the thylacine and wild panthers.
This last is a popular target for investigation in Victoria. Reports of big cat sightings appear frequently in country newspapers, blurry video clips crop up on telly, and shots of hideously mauled dead sheep are often cited as evidence of big cat kills.
Indeed, in 2012 one of the first acts of incoming Victorian Premier Denis Napthine was to commission a review of big cat sightings. The review, conducted by the Department of Primary Industries, concluded that feral panthers, jaguars or other feline peak predators were almost certainly not roaming around the state.
However, because it is impossible to prove a negative, the report's findings are unlikely to dampen the spirits of the cryptozoological sleuths. Prime among them is Simon Townsend, of Geelong, who heads a group called Big Cats Victoria.
''We are desperate for actual specimens,'' he said, ''but that's a difficult thing. We think the cats are Malay leopards - black leopards - and there are maybe only a couple of dozen across the state.''
Townsend is careful to separate his pursuit from the windier shores of crypto-research.
''We take this as a totally serious undertaking,'' he said. ''We keep well away from the 'goblin university' folk. They're not very useful when you're after something that kills sheep and eats roos.''
Townsend enjoys a long-term collaboration with crypto-sceptic historian Dr David Waldron, based at Federation University in Ballarat. In 2012 the pair combined to produce a book: Snarls from the Tea-Tree: Big Cat Folklore. Waldron said that while ideas of yowies, bunyips and other fabulous beasts can be traced to the creation myths of different Aboriginal communities, the big cat idea arrived with the Europeans.
''Big cat stories go way back into the 19th century,'' he said.
''Settlers found themselves in an alien landscape, and they had to try to make sense of things such as stock predation and farm failures.
''Their tools for doing this derived from European colonial experience in Africa and Asia - where there were big, dangerous animals, including big cats.''
Some early settlers, he said, were startled that there were no monkeys in Australia. In 1826, settlers visiting Rottnest Island heard sounds in the night, noted dig-marks in the ground, and saw a large shape in the water. They concluded the place was home to hippos.
Big cats in the bush are not, in one sense, mythical at all. There have been several cases, especially in the later 19th century, when lions, pumas and so forth have escaped from travelling menageries and nicked off into the scrub. Waldron has a collection of skeletal remnants lodged in Federation University's library.
The myth kicks in with the idea that these cats somehow survived, bred, and established permanent populations. The usual evidence for this - bizarre stock mutilations - is easily explained.
''Most likely, the mutilations are caused by multiple animals,'' said Waldron. ''A wild dog kills the sheep, then a fox has a go, then birds, rats, and so forth. The result looks unusual.''
Back in NSW, Rex Gilroy, perhaps surprisingly, rejects the idea of wild big cats roaming the bush.
''The panther is a marsupial,'' he says. ''It's a large marsupial, possibly a relation to the extinct marsupial lion. There have been plenty of sightings around Katoomba.''
While many professional scientists dismiss cryptozoology as complete fruit-loopery, Professor Bill Laurence, a distinguished biologist at Queensland's James Cook University, sees great value in the field.
He points out that cryptozoologists have a good record of finding ''Lazarus species'' - types of animals presumed to be extinct but subsequently rediscovered. If the thylacine turns out not to be extinct, it will be a cryptozoologist who finds it, if only because no one else is looking.
''I think there is something similar between cryptozoologists and people who search for aliens, for instance,'' Laurence said. ''There's a desire for mystery, a love of the notion of something out there that we don't understand. It touches something deep in the human spirit.''
As for Sykes' possible Himalayan bear-cum-yeti discovery, Laurence is waiting for the full results to be published.
''A giant bear there would be very remarkable,'' he said. ''What's its food base? I'm a bit leery about it, but it's certainly put the cat among the pigeons.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/where-the-wild-things-arent-20140103-308eu.html#ixzz2pfaz5zAE

Yowie sighted at Bexhill in northern NSW

A Yowie has been sighted on Bangalow Road, just north of Bexhill by a Lismore resident.

The witness said the creature moved across the two lanes of bitumen, raising his arm to apparently shield its eyes from the bright high beam glare of the approaching car.

"I would have seen it for between 20 and 30 seconds," the witness recalled. "It was really moving at the time. It leapt the fence no problem. All I can remember was seeing this large black object with a solid build, lanky legs and long lanky arms.

"It wasn't clothed ... it wasn't wearing clothes like a human."

The witness said the creature ran with a fast, stooped pace. It had high shoulders and almost no neck and a small head.

"It was like its head was shrunken into its shoulders."

Sydney-based yowie researcher, Paul Cropper, said the recent sighting revealed some "classic" elements which provided a common thread linking many experiences by many people over many decades.

"The fact that this thing was heavy set, with long arms and a small head ... these are classic traits," Mr Cropper said.

The area where the yowie was seen has a long history of similar sightings with stories running in the local paper, The Northern Star, since the 1800s.

'Throwback' catapults Yowie to the small screen

Seems everyone has Yowie fever!

Another group of film makers is shooting a movie right now in far north Queensland.

It's called Throwback and it's been a labour of love for all involved. They've been filming it for 2 years at various locations around Cairns.

The director, Travis Bain, is so confident it will take off, he's attracted a major name to the production. He arrives in the far north next week, so the Cairns based crew are busily rehearsing the scenes he'll shoot so all will be ready.

Check out the trailer!

New human-like species found in China

Red Deer Man, as depicted by Peter Schouten.

The cryptozoological world is buzzing with the discovery of a new human-like species in China, and what this could mean in relation to Bigfoot-style sightings all over the world. It seems we're discovering new relatives all over!

Of course China has had its fair share of 'manbeast' sightings with the Yeren or Wildman reportedly sighted in Yunan Province, about  day's drive away from where these fossils were discovered.

The Red Deer People, so-called after an analysis of the previously unearthed bones yielded evidence of a mixture of modern and ancient anatomical traits, were cave-dwelling, deer-eating people who lived 11,000-15,000 years ago.

Neanderthal Man as depicted in a recreation.

Fossils from two caves in south-west China revealed the previously unknown Stone Age people and give a rare glimpse of a recent stage of human evolution with startling implications for the early peopling of Asia.

The fossils are of a people with a highly unusual mix of archaic and modern anatomical features and are the youngest of their kind ever found in mainland East Asia.

One of the skulls thought to be of the 'Red Deer People'. Photo: David Curnoe 

Dated to just 14,500 to 11,500 years old, these people would have shared the landscape with modern-looking people at a time when China's earliest farming cultures were beginning, says an international team of scientists led by Associate Professor Darren Curnoe, of the University of New South Wales, and Professor Ji Xueping of the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology.

Details of the discovery are published in the journal PLoS One. The team has been cautious about classifying the fossils because of their unusual mosaic of features.

"These new fossils might be of a previously unknown species, one that survived until the very end of the Ice Age around 11,000 years ago," says Professor Curnoe.

"Alternatively, they might represent a very early and previously unknown migration of modern humans out of Africa, a population who may not have contributed genetically to living people."

The remains of at least three individuals were found by Chinese archaeologists at Maludong (or Red Deer Cave), near the city of Mengzi in Yunnan Province during 1989. They remained unstudied until research began in 2008, involving scientists from six Chinese and five Australian institutions.

A Chinese geologist found a fourth partial skeleton in 1979 in a cave near the village of Longlin, in neighbouring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It stayed encased in a block of rock until 2009 when the international team removed and reconstructed the fossils.

Scientists removing and examining the fossils.

The skulls and teeth from Maludong and Longlin are very similar to each other and show an unusual mixture of archaic and modern anatomical features, as well as some previously unseen characters.

While Asia today contains more than half of the world's population, scientists still know little about how modern humans evolved there after our ancestors settled Eurasia some 70,000 years ago, notes Professor Curnoe.

The scientists are calling them the "Red-deer Cave people" because they hunted extinct red deer and cooked them in the cave at Maludong.

The Asian landmass is vast and scientific attention on human origins has focussed largely on Europe and Africa: research efforts have been hampered by a lack of fossils in Asia and a poor understanding of the age of those already found.

Homo Floriensis.

Until now, no fossils younger than 100,000 years old have been found in mainland East Asia resembling any species other than our own (Homo sapiens). This indicated the region had been empty of our evolutionary cousins when the first modern humans appeared. The new discovery suggests this might not have been the case after all and throws the spotlight once more on Asia.

"Because of the geographical diversity caused by the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, south-west China is well known as a biodiversity hotspot and for its great cultural diversity. That diversity extends well back in time" says Professor Ji.

In the last decade, Asia has produced the 17,000-year-old and highly enigmatic Indonesian Homo floresiensis ("The Hobbit") and evidence for modern human interbreeding with the ancient Denisovans from Siberia.

"The discovery of the red-deer people opens the next chapter in the human evolutionary story – the Asian chapter – and it's a story that's just beginning to be told," says Professor Curnoe.

The Lake George Yowie

Over the years we've amassed quite a bit of interesting footage - mostly witness interviews but occasionally wildlife footage as well. We've also been given footage to share, and this latest offering from authors Tony Healy and Paul Cropper is a pearler - an interview with a man who saw the Lake George Yowie in the mid-1970s!

Lake George (also known by its indigenous name Weereewa - 'bad water') is an aquatic conundrum, a 25km long shallow, salty body of water that lies between Sydney and the nation's capital, Canberra. Its ebb and flow - the Lake will dry up completely for years at a time - has been the source of much local superstition and legend. Several fishermen and five Duntroon military academy cadets have drowned in its waters, and all manner of things have been found when the waters have receded - including a plane!

All kinds of phenomena has visited its unpredictable shore - ghosts, UFOs, and as you'll hear now, even Australia's own bigfoot, the yowie!

Meet the Cryptozoologist: David Hatcher Childress

How did you first get involved in researching strange and mysterious creatures?

I became interested in this stuff in High School, back in the early 70s. I read books about bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster and even had my local bookstore in Missoula, Montana specially order from me a copy of Bernard Heuvelmanns' classic book ON THE TRACK OF UNKNOWN ANIMALS.

What were some of the early influences in your life?

I was influenced by Hevelmanns and Ivan T. Sanderson, as well as by Erich von Daniken, Charles Berlitz, Andrew Tomas, Robert Charroux and other authors. I have a huge collection of books on cryptozoology and strange archeology, including lots of pulp paperbacks from the era.

Have you personally seen one of these creatures?

While I have participated in various Yeti and Bigfoot expeditions, and been to Loch Ness several times, I have not had any personal encounters as of yet.

What creatures particularly interest you?

I am fascinated by the giant snakes and stories of living dinosaurs... plus tales of living pterosaurs, the chupacabras, as well as bigfoot and skunk apes.

What cryptids are most likely to exist in your opinion?

I think that giant snakes, bigfoot and skunk apes are all genuine cryptids. Stories of Thunderbirds and living pterosaurs seem genuine, as well as the lake monsters and sea serpents... all very real.

What’s your favourite?

I suppose the stories of Thunderbirds and other flying cryptids are my favorite.

What’s your favourite Australian cryptid?

I would have to say the tales of the bunyip.

Have you developed any theories around where the more unusual...

I tend to think that these are real flesh and blood animals that live in remote places and are keep well away from humans for the most part. The world is really barely explored and there are lots of remote areas where shy animals can hide... not to mention the vast seas in which to live.

Check out David’s magazine, World Explorer at: www.wexclub.com

NZ pilot hunts for stolen 'Yeti' skull, hand

A KIWI adventurer is leading an international Yeti hunt!

Mike Allsop (pictured with a replica 'Yeti' hand and scalp created by special effects wizards WETA Workshops) , who conquered Mt Everest three years ago, is searching for the skull and skeletal hand of what was said to be a mythical "Abominable Snowman".

The controversial artefacts were stolen from a monastery in the tiny Nepalese village of Pangboche, in the 1990s.

"I am hoping that the person who has them wants to give them back," Allsop told Sunday News. "I hope they will have an alert set up on their computer for whenever the artefacts are mentioned on the internet.

"I am offering... to go and reclaim them. I will go anywhere in the world in person, free of charge, no questions asked and I will also buy them a beer."

Weta Workshops has created life-sized replicas of the skull and hand to help searchers find the real things.

Allsop, 41, is an Air New Zealand pilot and was introduced to Weta boss Sir Richard Taylor by Air NZ chief executive Rob Fyfe.

Allsop will hand-deliver the replicas to the monastery when he and 17 Air NZ co-workers travel to Pangboche in April.

The original Pangboche hand and skull came to international prominence in the 1950s.
Texan adventurer and oil magnate Tom Slick photographed the items during one of his early missions to find the Yeti in 1957.

Two years later, one of Slick's team returned to the Pangboche monastery.

He reportedly drank Scotch with a monk until the local passed out, before stealing bone fragments from the hand. He then supposedly replaced the bones with those from a human hand, before rewrapping the Pangboche hand to disguise his theft.

The stolen fragments were allegedly smuggled back to America by a Hollywood star.
Then in 1999, the skull and what remained of the skeletal hand were stolen from the monastery.
Allsop, who scaled Mt Everest in 2007, was intrigued when he learned of the artefacts and determined to reclaim them for the monastery.

"These were very treasured artefacts," he said. "There was a huge outrage when they were stolen.
"The monks initially wouldn't show them to anyone, then slowly they showed them... unfortunately they showed them to one person too many."

China's Wild Man could be real deal

Exciting news from China this week - The Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province has examined a strand of hair which it has not managed to identify, prompting local people to speculate that it may belong to the 'Wild Man' aka the Yeren, China's own Bigfoot!


Piao Jinlan, a researcher at the reserve, said that scientists need to continue their tests before they could identify the species. The hair is said to be thicker than human hair and thinner than horsetail hair, and the reserve posted a photo on its website on November 22.

More than 400 people have claimed to have seen the half-man, half-ape "Wild Man" in the area in the last 100 years. Witnesses describe the creature as walking upright, more than 2 meters tall and with grey, red or black hair all over its body.

An investigative team was set up in 2009 and started a large-scale search for the mysterious creature in Shennongjia this year.

And there's this from the CFZ archives: As far back as 1981 people were pondering alleged Wild Man 'nests, hair, tracks and faeces...

From the archives: the Jingera Yahoo (1886)

Yowie researcher hits the airwaves

Australian yowie researcher Tony Mehmed is a special guest on the Nite Callers internet radio show this week. This is the second time Tony has appeared on the show, and apparently he's pulled one of the highest audiences the show has ever experienced!
Tony discovered his interest in the Yowie while in High School in 1980. His friend's dads would tell stories of large hairy creatures that would stand by the side of the highway and watch them as they drove by in their trucks. These stories captured Tony's attention and spawned a major interest in the subject.

Tony has been researching for more than 20 years and has had several close encounters with the Yowie and has photographed what many believe to be the image of a Yowie in one of his research areas.

Listen to the show at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nitecallers/2010/11/22/tony-mehmed-returns-to-nite-callers-radio

$1.5M sought for Chinese Yeren Expedition

Beijing, China (AHN) - Despite more than 400 people claiming to have sighted an elusive ape-like creature covered all over with red, gray or black hair, lurking in the mountainous region of Shennongjia Nature Reserve, Heibei China, it has never been found.

Past expeditions have only brought back hairs supposedly from the creature, which when analyzed were neither of human or any known animal species. If found, this “missing link” would help scientists learn how primates evolved from ape to human.

Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7020168792?Scientific%20Search%20for%20Chinese%20Bigfoot%20Relaunched#ixzz12163zdM4