OLL LEWIS: 5 Questions on... Cryptozoology - MAX BLAKE

In the hotseat today is Max Blake. Jonathan, Richard and I first met Max at Bugfest South West when he excitedly told us about the fact that he had just spent a king's ransom on beetles, and he has since gone on to become a valued member of the CFZ team.

So, Max Blake, here are your 5 questions on... cryptozoology.

1) How did you first become interested in cryptozoology?

I first became interested in the subject as part of my self-taught zoological knowledge grew. I think my first encounter with the subject, ignoring the common knowledge stuff like Bigfoot, the Yeti etc., must have been in a book I picked up in a book sale about the unknown. In it it detailed profiles of mainly zooform phenomena, but after reading it through, at the age of 6, alone and in the dark, I was so scared I could hardly sleep for weeks! As many will tell you, fear breeds interest, and over the years I got slowly more and more into the subject, until by the age of about 12 I just took it for granted that mainstream science was happy to accept the existence of such animals. Now however, I can see that my naivety in youth was very wrong, and I aim to change this during my time at university.

2) Have you ever personally seen a cryptid or secondary evidence of a cryptid, if so can you please describe your encounter?

I have been lucky enough to see evidence of 2 cryptids in my short time within the scene. The first was the various encounters with British big cats (not strictly cryptids, but close enough to make them exiting) that I have had in the last year, ranging from large artiodactyl kills, including sheep and deer, that I have come across in two locations, and the vocalisation I heard when approaching a small patch of dense shrubs and trees. This small area had had a big cat (black leopard) sighted 3 days before I heard the noise on the exact road I was walking down, and the day before I discovered a dead deer killed very recently, so recently that it’s leg twitched in a nerve spasm as I photographed it. It was very warm to the touch, but little flesh had been eaten away. That which had had been taken from the leg. When I came down the road before I saw the body, I must have scared the cat away from its kill with the noise from the quad bike I was driving. An hour later I noticed the body when I came past again. The next morning (about 0730-0800) I went down the same road on foot with my camera. When I walked near to the wooded area, 100 meters from the body of the deer, I heard a loud noise come up from the wood very close to me. It was a harsh, rasped “KhhhaaaH”, matching very closely with the warning noises I had heard leopards make on wildlife documentaries when they feel threatened. Needless to say, I backed away slowly and calmly. After 30 minutes, I left for a fish auction without seeing anything.

My other encounter happened this September when in South West Ireland, in Killarney. Along with Jon and Corinna Downes and Tony Sheils, I witnessed a completely calm lake, upon which nothing had broken the surface nor caused any form of ripple (other than the wind), transform for about 5 minutes into a highly active area. Many fish jumped from the water, large birds took off from the water, other birds were visible swimming under the surface, large animals in groups and alone were swimming in a number of areas on the lake, and odd white shapes were visible. After 5 minutes, the whole lake returned to being completely still. We stopped to watch to see if anything else occurred, but the lake appeared to be completely dead. Nothing except the wind caused any movement.

3) Which cryptids do you think are the most likely to be scientifically discovered and described some day, and why?

The Thylacine and Orang-pendek, are practically certain to exist, but there are a whole list of others which are less “charismatic megafauna” types. More beaked whales and other cryptocetacea almost certainly remain to be described, whilst animals like colossal and giant squid have yet to have their maximum sizes truly established; they certainly get larger than their current known maximum. Seeing as Humboldt squid, a smaller species, are usually between 4-5 feet, but 7+ footers are scientifically verified. This could potentially be extrapolated onto the giant and colossal squids, taking their largest sizes from 40 feet and 45 feet respectively, up to between 70-80 feet for both species, assuming that the specimens so far caught have been of normal size. The sheer bulk of an 80 foot long colossal squid (a rough estimate would give a weight of 2.6 tones, incredible for an invertebrate!) would certainly be a sight to behold. Beebe’s manta ray is a very interesting possible aberration, possible new species that certainly exists, but remains unstudied.

4) Which cryptids do you think are the least likely to exist?

All of the zooform critters don’t exist in a physical sense, but from the standard list of cryptids I would have to pick any of the surviving dinosaur, plesiosaur and pterosaur explanations given for various cryptids. These groups have laid unseen in the fossil record for 65 million years and as large animals, they fossilise comparatively well. Much better than the coelacanth which has much more fragile bones. Any remaining population of plesiosaurs, sauropods, or large pterosaurs would have left evidence in the fossil record, particularly if they were living in swamps which are known to provide excellent conditions for fossilisation.

5) If you had to pick your favourite cryptozoological book (not including books you may have written yourself) what would you choose?

Rumours of Existence and Shadows of Existence by Matthew A. Bille were the first two books to get me truly interested in the subject, but I would also have to cite Richard Freeman’s Dragons: More than a Myth?, Nicholas Witchell’s The Loch Ness Story, Bigfoot by John Napier and Dr. Karl Shuker’s Extraordinary Animals Revisited as big inspirations.