Monday 31 December 2012

Is the Altamaha river creature a snake or a fish?

The Altamaha river Creature ....The Altamaha-ha
There is said to be a creature living in the Altamaha river . The South Georgia coast is characterised by tiny islands, canals, waterways, deep rivers, and lots of inter-crossing creeks and streams. The Tama , indigenous natives to the area, told stories about the animal. According to Jim Miles in Weird Georgia, "Centuries ago, the Tama Indians first told tales of a huge water serpent that hissed and bellowed." The creature is called Altamaha ha, also known as Altie.”
The Altamaha-ha inhabits the Altamaha River and the surrounding waterways and marshes. This creature has been claimed to  be seen stranded on the banks of the river, trying to free itself frantically, and has also been observed cavorting on the surface. Some have said it approached them in a menacing way and even attacked a boat. It has been described as having a horizontal tail, like that of a porpoise, which moves up-and-down. It’s size is estimated  to be around 20 feet (6/7 metres) long. There have been some smaller creatures seen which are presumed to be youngsters and about 6 feet (2 metres )long. In appearance the creature is said to look somewhere between an alligator, an eel, and a dolphin, with large, protruding eyes and a pronounced alligator-like snout armed with large conical teeth. It has a serrated ridge across the back, like a series of small dorsal fins next to each other, and a true dorsal fin which is rather low. It is very elongated, grey on top and a white underbelly. There are said to be 350 sightings recorded.
In the 1920s, timbermen who rode the river reported sighting a creature , they described as a snake monster.
In 1935, a group of hunters spotted what they called a "giant snake" swim through the river.
A Boy Scout troop from the 1940s reported sighting a creature
In the 1950’s two officials from the Reidsville State Prison reported seeing a strange creature.
Then there is this from 1969:
On a night in July 1969 , Donny Manning and his brother embarked on his boat on the Altamaha River at Clark’s Bluff. The lights on the house boat allowed them to see for some distance. Fishing for catfish, Donny decided to use an old trick he had learned as a kid which was oatmeal and soda mixed on a three pronged hook. They were fishing in a little depression outside the rough water when something took the hook. It did not act like a regular catfish after a catch. Most catfish would take the hook, run and stop, and turn; instead it ran with the hook. Every once in a while it would come out of the water where they could see it. They say it measured about ten to twelve feet long and at first they thought it resembled a sturgeon, but after a few more jumps, they could tell it wasn’t. Donny claims it had a snout almost like an alligator, or, he thought, of a duck-billed platypus. He says it had a horizontal tail, instead of a fish like vertical one, and it also had a spiny kind of bony triangular ridge along the top of its body. The dorsal fin that was down, but he could see it on the back. The teeth were shining in the light were sharp pointed. The Creature was gun-metal gray on the top and oyster white-yellow on the bottom. It didn’t move along side to side like a snake either, but it moved up and down like a dolphin.” Mr. Manning says he has lived on the water all his life and has seen all kinds of creatures, but this was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. He also claims he was using a salt water rig with a 40 lb. test line and the creature snapped it like it was nothing. Mr. Manning estimates from the way it felt on the line and the way that it snapped it that it was at least 75 lbs.

During the summer of 1980 Andy Greene and Barry Prescott reportedly saw Altamaha-ha stranded on a mud bank near Cathead Creek. The creature lay halfway in the water, thrashing and trying to free itself from the bank. They described it as a dark coloured, with a rough skin and that it moved like nothing they had ever seen before. The creature was very large, three to four feet thick (1 metre) and twenty feet long( 6/7 metres). They observed the creature for ten minutes, before it freed itself, submerged, and disappeared.
In December of 1980 Larry Gwin spotted what he thought was Altamaha-ha in Smith Lake, located up the Altamaha River, while eel fishing. He described the creature as  fifteen to twenty feet( 5-7 metres) long and snake-like, with two brown humps that protruded from the water. It disappeared and did not resurface. The creature was spotted several more times in the early 1980s, particularly near Two-Way Fish camp. One eyewitness, Ralph Dewitt, a crab fisherman of fourteen years, described Altamaha-ha as "the world's biggest eel".
One of the most recent reports was from 2002 when a man who was pulling a boat up the river near Brunswick reported seeing something over twenty feet(7 metres) in length and six feet wide( 2 metres) break the water. The man reported that the animal seemed to emerge from the water to get air and then submerge again beneath the depths.
The story is popular in the McIntosh and Glynn County areas, which both border the Altamaha River. The local newspaper , The Darien News has covered the story several times . 

I can’t help thinking the description sounds like an alligator Gar. I may be wrong of course and some snake /eel like creature of an unknown species is still waiting to be discovered.

2013

I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and that 2013 brings you all lots of good things. Thank you for reading the blog. Hopefully there will be new discoveries and cryptid sightings galore in 2013 to post about xx

Friday 28 December 2012

just a note about the blog

Just a reminder that posts on the blog are copyrighted. You are welcome to use anything  that is posted here  but you must cite this blog as the source.Thanks.

Thursday 27 December 2012

new sightings of Nyaminyami, lake creature



Sightings increase of Zimbabwe’s own ‘Loch Ness monster’
By JANE FIELDS IN ZIMBABWE
Published on Thursday 27 December 2012 00:11
A MYTHICAL serpent-like creature who lives in the murky depths of a lake and is the subject of countless childrens’ stories. Sound familiar? Meet Nyaminyami, Zimbabwe’s very own Loch Ness monster. He has the head of a fish and a snake’s body. He lives in Lake Kariba, a magnificent man-made dam in the northwest of the country, studded with hippos and the eerie skeletal tops of long-dead trees. And for the first time in more than a decade, Zimbabweans living on the shores of Kariba are reporting a mysterious sighting on the River God.State media is reporting that fishermen and residents of Mahombekombe, a suburb of Kariba town, saw Nyaminyami earlier this month.

Saturday 22 December 2012

Is Santa Claus a cryptid?

Do you believe in the cryptid Father Christmas ?

You may laugh but think about the similarities between Santa and documented  cryptids.
Cryptids tend to be seen in places with difficult terrain where they cannot easily be tracked or seen. -Santa lives in an icy wasteland.
Santa disappears and reappears. There are stories about bigfoot disappearing before people’s eyes and many cryptids are only spotted at certain times of the year when conditions are right .
Santa flies through the air on a sled with flying reindeer. There are many flying cryptids from thunderbirds to mothman.
Then there are his little helpers –the elves. They could be a descendant or offshoot of the Hobbit skeletons that were found in recent years.
He leaves gifts. There are old stories of wildmen who left food for the starving on their doorsteps.
Santa is rather hairy according to many depictions with flowing beard and locks. Ditto are many cryptids.
He has a distinctive cry-Ho Ho Ho. So do many cryptids including a species of giant bat that is said to make a similar noise.
Santa only exists in folklore stories, so do many crytids until people start to hunt for them. Nearly all cryptids from the Loch Ness Monster to the Yeti are first discovered in old stories when one looks back at the time line.
So Is Santa Claus a cryptid? Probably not as there is no eye witness testimony to back up his appearances that I am aware of (that does not include your parent in a red dressing gown and Santa hat and fake beard leaving presents at the bottom of the bed) but next time someone scoffs at your belief in cryptids, remind them they believed in Father Christmas once so don’t knock belief in the unknown.

merry cryptid christmas

Just to wish you all a Happy Christmas. I hope Santa is kind to you.I will post if there is any breaking news but otherwise the blog will be quiet over the holidays.May 2013 bring you your best year and all that you hope for xx

Thursday 20 December 2012

another extinct creature survived longer than thought



Extinct elephant 'survived late' in North China
By Michelle Warwicker Reporter, BBC Nature
Wild elephants living in North China 3,000 years ago belonged to the extinct genus Palaeoloxodon, scientists say.They had previously been identified as Elephas maximus, the Asian elephant that still inhabits southern China. The findings suggest that Palaeoloxodon survived a further 7,000 years than was thought.The team from China examined fossilised elephant teeth and ancient elephant-shaped bronzes for the study.The research, published in Quaternary International was carried out by a group of scientists from Shaanxi Normal University and Northwest University in Xi'an and The Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing.

extinct creatures being around in more recent times is a good sign for those who believe cryptids are surviving prehistoric creatures.

Tuesday 18 December 2012

watch the Irvine film of Nessie from 1936

Malcolm Irvine of Scottish Film Productions deployed a small team of cameramen around Loch Ness in 1933 for 2 weeks in December. On Dec 12th 1933 he shot a short film from the hillside opposite Urquhart Castle, of something in the water. Stanley Clinton and Scott Hay were also witnesses. The creature they filmed was estimated to be 16 feet (5 metres) long, moving at about 20 m.p.h. and was grey with a darker tail. The film apparently showed evidence of a tail or fluke movement when examined. Irvine also filmed a log in the water to compare and The Times reported on Jan 4th 1934 that the difference between the inanimate object and the animate one was obvious.
In 1936 on 22cnd September he filmed further footage of something in the water opposite Foyers. This second film was suspected by Constance Whyte of being a fake and she said she thought some “mechanical means” had been used to obtain it. She did however put stills from the film in her book as have others since. She got the stills from Fr J A Carruth at Fort Augustus who had a copy of the film in 1955.
There was then some mystery over the second film and Peter Costello (“In Search of Lake Monsters” 1974) said it had disappeared but it was in the Scottish Film Archive all along. You can view it here:|
Details about the film:Title: THINGS THAT HAPPEN NO. 1 ,Reference number: 0373 ,Date: 1936
Director: [d. Malcolm M Irvine] Production company: Scottish Film Productions (1928) Ltd. Sound: sound, Colour: bw Fiction: Non-Fiction Running time: 12.02 mins Genre: cine mag
Description: First in a series of monthly film reviews of Scotland. Film reconstructs a bank robbery, looks at the Borzoi dog, shoe manufacture at Saxone in Kilmarnock, latest hairdressing styles and the "first sighting" of the Loch Ness Monster!

See Add. Info. file 11/1/327 for research notes on nessie item and photocopy of interview with Malcolm M. Irvine in the Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post, November 1, 1936 entitled First Real Picture of "nessie". This newspaper article dates the first issue of this cine mag as November 1936. The film features Malcolm M. Irvine and his camera assistant Martin Wilson "filming" the Loch Ness Monster. The Loch Ness Monster - proof at last. Map of Loch Ness illustrating the positions of the most frequent "monster" sightings. Shots of models and skeletons of dinosaurs (9.45) Shots of cameramen filming on the shores of Loch Ness [Malcolm Irvine wears the beret, the other is Martin Wilson] (9.57) Film of the "monster" in the loch and shots of cameramen filming it. Duncan McMillan, a local resident, is interviewed by the eminent zoologist Eric Foxon, concerning his sighting of "nessie". Mr Foxon declines to give his opinion on the identity of the monster, declaring that "it must remain a mystery for at least a little longer"
So have a look, see what you think……is it an animate object or something man made? Bear in mind this was 1936 so technology would have been limited compared to today. It is disappointing the Zoologist fails to say what he thinks it is, on the film clip. That would have been interesting.

possible building work at Loch Ness and was it an owl or a bigfoot?



Major bid for Loch Ness development unveiled
By Cheryl Livingstone
Plans to transform a Highland tourist haven with the addition of a major housing development and business park have been unveiled. The picturesque village of Drumnadrochit on the shores of Loch Ness – which attracts thousands of visitors a year because of the loch’s reputation as the home of the world-famous monster – has been earmarked for expansion. Loch Ness Homes, owned by Inverness businessman David Sutherland, wants to develop land on both sides of the A82 Inverness-Fort William road at Kilmore, between Drumnadrochit and Lewiston.
I  wonder what effect that will have on sightings of Nessie? Will the noise of the building works bring her up more?

Bigfoot investigators search for Sasquatch in upstate New York and Vermont
Frank Siecienski of Hubbardton, Vt., says he sighted Bigfoot in his backyard in 2010. But Bill Brann, director of the National Sasquatch Research Society, the video is likely an owl shot close up to make it look bigger.
By Christine Roberts / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Bigfoot investigators say multiple Sasquatch sightings have been reported in Whitehall, N.Y. and Vermont. 
Bigfoot sightings have long been thought to be a phenomenon regulated to the Pacific Northwest.A group of Sasquatch investigators, however, say reports of the creature pop up on the East Coast more than one would think.Frank Siecienski of Hubbardton, Vt., says he captured video of Bigfoot ravaging an apple orchard in his backyard in 2010.“Both my wife and I, when we looked at it on the computer, said, ‘What in the world is that?’” said Siecienski. “Right now I have a picture that everyone is telling me – and I think it is – a female Sasquatch with its young.”   Bill Brann, director of the National Sasquatch Research Society, and others have dismissed Siecienski’s sighting, arguing that the animal is likely an owl.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/bigfoot-investigators-search-sasquatch-upstate-new-york-vermont-article-1.1222327#ixzz2FOUNTqOA

Saturday 15 December 2012

new primate discovered



Primate species: new slow loris found in Borneo
By Matt Walker Editor, BBC Nature
A new species of small nocturnal primate has been discovered by scientists in Borneo. The primate is a type of slow loris, a small cute-looking animal that is more closely related to bushbabies and lemurs than to monkeys or apes. Uniquely among primates, they have a toxic bite, belying their appearance. Two previously known subspecies of slow loris have also been accorded full species status.
Read rest and see pics here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/20704172

new primate discoveries are always good news to those who believe bigfoot is a primate.

Friday 14 December 2012

sasquatch in New Jersey and new species discovered



Sasquatch in New Jersey?
Bigfoot has a long history in Morris, Sussex counties
It was a crisp November morning in 1980 when Richard Biggins came face-to-face with what he believes was a Sasquatch. He was deer hunting with his father by the Walpack Inn in Sussex County.“It had snowed pretty good the past few days, so there were six to 10 inches on the ground,” Biggins recalled. “My father dropped me off and told me to walk into the woods almost to the base of the hill, wait 15 minutes, and then start walking to him to help push any deer toward him to shoot.”The hill being steep, Biggins slid down it. Five minutes into his wait, he could hardly believe his eyes.“I saw him walking down the hill on an angle, upright like a person!” Biggins said. “He looked like a human being with an ape head and had jet-black hair all over him. I had to take a double take on what I was seeing. His arms swung back and forth, and he had regular steps like a person on a spring walk.”

Blind cat fish species discovered
By Siva Parameswaran BBC Tamil Service
A new species of blind cat fish has been discovered by scientists working in south India. This, along with other new animals, were identified in an old deep well in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The new blind cat fish, which is blood red in colour, has an elongated body measuring about 3.8cm in length. The scientists say the find sheds light on hitherto unexplored subterranean habitats in India. The new species of blind cat fish has been named Horaglanis abdulkalami after former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.It was meant as a tribute to his contributions to science and science education, the discoverers said. The unique character of H. abdulkalami is it's red blood colour. The scientists say the fish are able to feed on minute organic matter in the soil. Kerala's wetlands provide an ideal habitat for such animals. Species like the catfish are key to maintaining these ecosystems, since their faeces provide sustenance to other species.