MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A COLLECTION OF FORTEAN ZOOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES

Hello again,

Today I present a collection of Fortean zoological curiosities collected over the years from various British newspapers. There is no overall theme; they were really chosen for their strangeness. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Also, as you will see, the collection is bunched around the mid-1990s, the only reason being that this was the first batch I picked up from the murky, dark swamp of my files. And I`m supposed to be a qualified librarian!

Likewise, there is no particular reason for the emphasis on caterpillars and butterflies; they just took my fancy, plus Jon and I have been working on a book about butterflies.

MICE SACRIFICE: 'Hundreds of thousands of mice are said to have drowned themselves in rivers in North-West China. Experts say the mass suicide could have been triggered by over-population, although others suggest the animals may have had a premonition of disaster such as earthquake.' (1)

KILLER CATERPILLAR: 'A venomous,hairy species of caterpillar whose sting causes burns and internal bleeding and can kill humans has claimed its fifth victim in three years in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, a farmer`s wife' (2)

A GEMMA OF A FIND: 'Nine-year-old Gemma Thorpe found a caterpillar of a kind last seen in England in 1949 in her grandfather`s garden in William Road, St Leonard`s East Sussex. Moth expert Colin Pratt from Hastings Museum identified the 3 ½ in black,red and cream caterpillar as a spurge hawk moth. He said: It`s a freak accident. This caterpillar is normally only found on the Continent or in North Africa.' (3)

ARTY BIRDS: (this will make you smile..) 'Japanese psychologists have taught pigeons to discriminate between cubist paintings by Picasso and impressionist works by Monet, but they cannot tell a Cézanne from a Renoir.' (4)

EXTINCT BUTTERFLIES FOUND IN WOODS: 'Three butterflies - the pearl bordered and small pearl-bordered fritillaries and the wood white - which conservationists had believed were almost extinct in Britain have been discovered thriving in a secluded 20 acre wood near Godalming in Surrey' (5)

A BAD DAY FOR: 'Rats, hundreds of which were exterminated at the house of an elderly man in Florida who had kept them as pets. “They were all sizes,” said a public health official, “from grandpa and grandma rats to young babies. These rats were healthy, obviously well fed.” Their owner, Mr Angelo Russo, 76, has been taken to hospital for psychiatric evaluation.' (6) (That`s a bit extreme, I hope I`m not taken to the local psychiatric hospital because of my large key-ring collection. Unless they`re man eating key rings…HELP, WHAT`S THAT NOISE COMING UP THE STAIRS, ARGGGGH!!)

Er, where was I?

SMALL AND HAIRY: 'Researchers in Sumatra are looking for a 70 inch tall hairy dwarf, or a possible colony of dwarfs, in the Kerinici Slebat national park. “It`s quite difficult to catch the dwarf,” said a local, “because it always turns up alone and can run very fast.”' (7)

A BAD DAY FOR: 'Namibian politicians who have been shouting at each other across the chamber of the National Council after the loudspeaker system had been rendered inoperative by rats chewing through underground cables.' (8)

Now for something slightly different: this is a quote from New Scientist on August 29th 2009, p.12 in Creation Journal of the Creation Science Movement vol 16 no.6 December 2009 p.8. The bold type is the wording from the New Scientist, not bold from Creation:

'Did two species mix to make butterflies? An egg that hatches into a caterpillar that then changes into a seemingly dormant chryslasis from which a butterfly emerges to lay eggs containing all the genetic information for the entire cycle is rather hard for an evolutionist to cope with. This is the result of an ancient hybridisation between an insect and a worm-like animal, according to zoologist Donald Williamson…Nobody knows where caterpillars came from, says Williamson, who thinks that many other invertebrate groups acquired their larvae in the same way.`It is the only solution that makes sense.` “Tommyrot, other biologists snort. For a start, the resemblance between velvet worms and caterpillars is only superficial. “As appealing to the imagination as Williamson`s theory may be, it looks like the evidence is not there to support it.” And they say that creationist ideas are an abuse of science! Tadpoles into frogs are observed but frogs into princes are not' (9)

That`s nearly all, folks, except for one thing: I was talking to my Danish uncle Joergen the other day and I asked him if he had any books mentioning the Steller`s sea cow, which I talked about in my recent blog. Well, Joergen didn`t have any such books, but he revealed that Bering, upon one of whom`s ships Steller was a passenger and after whom the Bering Straits was named, was Joergen`s 10th great grandfather!


1 Daily Mail. August 12th 1993
2 The Guardian. January 13th 1994
3 Daily Mail August 31st 1994
4 The Independent. May 26th 1995
5 The Independent May 18th 1995
6 The Independent June 30th 1995
7 The Independent July 20th 1995
8 The Independent July 27th 1995
9 New Scientist August 29th 2009 in Creation vol 16 no 6 2009

Bob Dylan- The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest

Well, Frankie Lee and Judas Priest ,
They were the best of friends.
So when Frankie Lee needed money one day,
Judas quickly pulled out a roll of tens
And placed them on a footstool
Just above the plotted plain
Sayin` “Take your pick,Frankie Boy,
My loss will be your gain.”