Today was a fantastic day. The day started off with meeting Silas Hawkins up at the hall. Poor Silas was meant to be at the Weird Weekend yesterday but was let down by his satnav, which had taken it upon himself (or herself, I have no idea how to tell a satnav’s sex, but I’m sure Max knows so I’ll have to ask him at some point) to send him to the wrong Woolfardiswothy. But as Silas was here now he was able to sign a Family Ness book for me on behalf of his late father, Peter Hawkins, who had voiced the characters in the TV series. The show was what first introduced me to cryptozoology as a child and I have fond memories of running around with my brother pretending that we had Nessie summoning ‘thistle whistles.’ Later in the day I and the CFZ were donated some Eurycantha phasmids by Nick and Kara Wadham of Bugfest SW fame. I absolutely adore this species and they are, as I type this currently sitting in my huge fauna box munching away at moist bramble leaves.
Even more fantastic stuff was to come when Lars announced the results of his analysis of some of the hairs that had been found in the local woods… Back in January you will recall that I posted a cautious blog about some foot prints I investigated in the snow at a local farm. When I returned to the site the next day to take casts I got a better look and upon analysis I postulated to Jon and Richard that I thought they were leopard tracks and have been telling everyone who visited the CFZ since this was what I believed them to be. Lars concluded that some hairs collected in the woods were leopard hairs and he plans to test the hairs for DNA so, short of getting a body, the evidence for a leopard in the Woolsery area doesn’t get better than this.
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