It has to be admitted that the only reason I posted a hellbender video yesterday was because they are such groovy creatures that I would take any excuse. However, several things have come up as a result of this that are of vague crypto interest.
Christian, who commented on my giant water bug post last week, wrote back to me, and I asked him about mudpuppies. He wrote:
'unfortunately, mudpuppies do not occur within twelve hundred kilometers of my location, so I do not suspect that I will be coming across any for you. However, if I manage to head over to Pitt Lake, British Columbia anytime this spring/summer, I will be reporting on any evidence of the reported local giant salamanders that have been seen many times over the past century.'
This is reminiscent of the giant salamanders Loren talked about in his Tom Slick book, and also adds weight to a comment that Andrew Gable made to the original Hellbender post.
'Hellbenders... one of the animals we used to have around here (my dad told me about catching them while fishing) but that I've never seen. I've actually been toying with the idea that some of the sightings of alligators which occur in lakes and rivers might actually be of large hellbenders. Of course, I've not actually read any reports that turned out to be hellbenders, so this theory might be a waste of time, LOL.'
So once again, because I can, here is another hellbender vid...
The original report of the British Columbian/Pitt Lake Giant Salamanders was made public in Ivan Sanderson's book about Abominable Snowmen, 1961, and there the "Alligators" were said to be "Water lizards". The salamander explanation surfaced almost immediately thereafter but it has never been confirmed.
ReplyDeleteCanadian reports of "Alligators" are also further East, with old reports from around Toronto. I have a suspicion (it can be called no more than that) that they are the same as the Giant Hellbenders reported in the ohio River area. These are reported as up to 6 or 7 feet long, sometimes longer but usually less. A pink variety is also reported, and pink Japanese giant salamanders ARE known.