BLANCO BLUE DOG: DNA results

We have just received the interim DNA results from the Blanco blue dog carcass. Richie and Naomi retrieved tissue samples last year and they have languished in Naomi's freezer ever since. The DNA report from Davis Labs in California is only partly conclusive. They write: "Because it was a female, we could not examine the paternal lineage markers. We detected coyote in the sample, but the maternal lineage was non-coyote. It will take some more detective work to figure out if it is dog or wolf".


We shall be sending samples to Lars very soon for more tests.

UNCONVENTION 2010: Jonathan Downes - Texas Blue Dogs

MORE BLUE DOG NEWS FROM DONDI

Mr. Downes,

I wrote you about a potential Blue Dog sighting here in Texas at the end of August. I have an update on this.

The veterinarian at Olney, who took charge of the carcass, sent it off for testing, which proved it was a coyote. My sister finally sent photographs of the creature, and it is indeed a mangy coyote. I noticed the teeth aren't as elongated and protruding as the Blue Dogs' seemed to be. It was also extra thin - emaciated actually - and you could see on the skin where the mange had taken hold quite readily. There was no smooth skin involved. The final bit were the photos of the hindquarters: there were no fat pads as on the specimen(s) that you studied while here.

I couldn't recall whether those occurred on just the males found, or any females, or both genders. This particular coyote was a male, however (and not rabid, thankfully).

I can forward the best of the photos if you would like them, but I'm pretty sure they'll tell you the same things that they told me. Alas! No Blue Dog here this time!

That said, it does bring up a few questions regarding the Blue Dog phenomenon. It seems like the majority of cases are called coyote by the end. The ones that you studied here in Texas this spring: were genetic tests ever done on them and if so, what was the result? I'm never sure if when they say it's a coyote they mean full-blooded, or hybrid (the red wolf is a coyote-wolf hybrid, they just discovered, so they do happen and are viable for reproduction). We do have a particular dog in Texas called a Blue Lacy that supposedly has coyote blood in it as well as various canine breeds, but it's a bluish-grey colour. It's furred, however. And then there's the Peruvian Inca Orchid and the Mexican Hairless Dog. They're not only the same colour and hairless (or can be), but have been mistaken for that "chupacabra" myth.

But one problem I have with thinking these dogs are the "Texas Blue Dog" that's been found is quite simply due to their scarcity. There have been more than one Blue Dog discovered that wasn't immediately identifiable as a mange-covered coyote, and that had various traits that weren't common to them or to any other dogs. A rare breed is one that is self-explanatory. Having several of these dogs running around wild until they're shot just doesn't seem like it's going to happen - not the least reason because as a rare breed, it's fairly expensive to buy one, and most people spending that much on an animal aren't just going to let it run off like that.

But, I'm more willing to consider a coyote/hairless hybrid as the Blue Dog. Are they rare? Yes. But it would explain the colouration, lack of hair - and even the dentition. The gene for hairlessness in both the breeds mentioned also tends to make them have fewer molars and premolars. That just leaves the incisors and canines, which could make it appear more vampiric in nature. As for the padding on the bottom, around the anal glands, I have to wonder if perhaps that's not part of a mutation involved with the cross-breeding. I know when a lion and a tiger produce a Liger, it suffers from giganticism - becoming the largest big cat in the world. However, a tiger and a lion, a tigon, suffers from dwarfism. It's the same type of genetics, lion and tiger, but the genders make the difference. If these types of abnormalities can happen to affect a creature's physical appearance, then it's plausible to think that something in the genetic combination of a coyote and Xolo, for example, might produce longer canines and padding at the hindquarters. Given the Orchid and the Xolo both originate from hot climates, we could be looking at an indigenous population that originated somewhere in the Mexico area (where it is desert, to the north), that has moved into the U.S. over time. People are constantly breeding new dogs to satisfy their desire for a better breed. I've heard from several different sources that the feral and/or abandoned dog population in some areas south of the border is downright appalling. I can't recall where they actually let the Orchids and/or Xolos mostly run around on their own down south, but I know I've seen something regarding it on an Animal Planet episode (yes, not the greatest of sources, but still quite informative). Coyotes have been around just as long as the Xolos, at the very least (some 3500 years).

But do I think that's the only explanation? Of course not. But if the padding is a development that has come with time rather than just with faulty genetics, then perhaps it has a basis in hotter climates than where it's been found recently. But that's just my tuppence worth. Take it as you will (preferably with a large salt block).

Dondi Ratliff

DONDI RATLIFF: Blue Dog report

Hello there, Mr Downes.

I'm Dondi Ratliff and I live here in Texas. I keep tabs on your site and blog. I'm fascinated by cryptozoology and the like, so it's definitely in my bookmark list. ;)

I'm writing today because my sister, who is an editor of the Olney Enterprise newspaper, just contacted me about a "chupacabra" sighting. Now, having seen you and Corinna came down to Texas in March looking for the blue dogs, I figured you might find this interesting. Is it a parasite or mangy coyote or raccoon? They've sent it off for testing after having shot it. It apparently bit a woman, though!

This is more or less in my "neighborhood" in that it's in Jack County, about one up and over from where I am in Stephens (I've attached a .gif I found with Texas counties on it so you're not completely lost with the names I'm tossing out - we have something like 245 counties in Texas or something akin to that). I know you and the team were down to the south looking for blue dogs, but this article from KAUZ Channel 6 in Wichita Falls states that other "grey" looking "chupacabras" have been found in Hood and Wise counties (south of Jack and east of it, respectively). They turned out to be parasite-filled coyotes and mangy raccoons, so this one may turn out the same. But who knows? The link my sister pointed me to is:

http://www.newschannel6now.com/Global/story.asp?S=13026402

She's from Texoma, but was in Jack County.

Now, my sister had something interesting to say about the blue dogs/"chupacabra" - she's heard that some decades ago, the coyote population here in Texas was such a nuisance that the Texas or national government actually infected several populations with mange or some other form of illness trying to eradicate them. These creatures may be the descendants or results of that attempt. I don't know where she got her information, and it may just be an old wives' tale she's heard some old folks talking about in the countryside, but there you have it.

I'll see if she can't keep me posted on what turns up out of this, if anything!

- Miss Dondi Ratliff

ANDREW GABLE: Blue Dog Thoughts (1)

I’ve been attempting to contribute somewhat to the Blue Dog research going on in Texas, or at least as much as I can contribute being in the eastern US and unable to offer any real assistance beyond trying to keep up on reports of similar animals, sometimes from other states as well. Which is why I was intrigued when a hairless coyote was reported from Steelton, PA (a suburb of Harrisburg) just this week, on July 20 (it’s bizarrely coincidental that this happens to come only a week or so after several of the hairless canines were shot in Hood County, Texas). Although “mangy coyote” is a common explanation for the Blue Dogs, an examination of the photo of the animal (http://www.wgal.com/news/24323601/detail.html) reveals a few differences. There is a good deal of facial resemblance, implying that indeed the Texas dogs may be at least part coyote, but the Steelton animal lacks the rougher hide of the Texas animals. Also the hind legs appear to be shorter than on the Texas animals, and the ears (although difficult to see clearly) appear to be pointed rather than the more rounded ears on many of the Texas ones.

This isn’t the first hairless animal in the Pennsylvania/Maryland area, however. A family living in a rural area near Joppa (Harford County), Maryland reported a bald canine beastie roaming their property in the summer of 2003. Apparently amateur cryptozoologists, they set up game cameras and captured several photos of the animal, including one of it drinking from a horse trough. In the summer of 2004, a similar animal was seen near Glyndon (Baltimore County), same state. Photographs were also taken of the Glyndon animal, and soon the two Maryland animals were given the name Hyote (hyena/coyote), although the two may not have even been the same individual. At least it wasn’t called Chupacabra, though… in the Glyndon case, though, an animal was captured on the property soon afterwards. The captured beast turned out to be a young red fox with a severe case of sarcoptic mange (some veterinarians felt it may have been afflicted with some sort of endocrine disorder, and not mange).

Autumn, 2005 saw the first reports of the rather endearingly, but unfortunately, named creature called the Yardley Yeti (admittedly, it was also called Lower Makefield Lurker, Bucks County Boggart, or New Hope Hyena, but none of those have the ring of the first name). The animal was sighted in the area surrounding New Hope (Bucks County), Pennsylvania. Chief Ken Coluzzi of the Lower Makefield police received several reports of the “mutant” animal. Eerily, just before Halloween that year, author Jonathan Maberry, who lives in the area, and his wife photographed the “Yeti” in a New Hope parking lot. A local newscaster, Don Polec, also saw the animal, which he said was nearly the size of a German Shepherd dog and grayish in color. Polec wrote an article on the beast in the aftermath of his sighting. The beast as photographed by Maberry seems to be a mangy something or other, but whether it’s a fox, a coyote, or even a domestic dog can’t be said for sure.

One of the things I had mentioned to Naomi was that a perusal of Chad Arment’s Varmints (an invaluable resource on reports of strange carnivores) turned up no older reports of animals resembling the Blue Dogs. In fact, in general the Elmendorf carcass from 2004 is the first mention of them I could track down. There are older reports of canine animals from the same general area as the Blue Dog sightings, but they seem to be of hyena-like animals with hair. There are a few reports of black, canine “vampire” animals from other locales in the southern United States (similar to the sightings of bizarre animals sometimes reported in conjunction with animal mutilations in Britain), but none from Texas proper; this possibly implies that the Blue Dogs are a fairly new phenomenon, whether they are an outside species that for whatever reason migrated to Texas only a few years ago or whether they’re an indigenous one of fairly recent vintage.

Back in the East, an article appeared in the Baltimore Sun a few years ago stating that game wardens were concerned with a recent upswing in reported cases of mange. It is tempting to wonder whether the Texas dogs are merely one facet of a larger phenomenon.

Samson foxes, mentioned by others, are another possibility for the appearances. These are gray foxes which lose much of their hair during the summer months. It is notable that many of these reports of hairless canines take place in the summer and early autumn. Many also seem to be considerably larger than foxes, and it’s interesting to consider whether a similar phenomenon can take place in coyotes.

BREAKING NEWS

Ken Gerhard will today take receipt of a blue dog carcass, road-killed somewhere near Fayetteville, TX. It will be stored in Naomi's long-suffering freezer. What happens then, we don't know. Watch this space!

NAOMI WEST: Monsters - a softer side

For the past five years I have taught The Odyssey to my high school students. And each year I am intrigued by our textbook’s reprint of a painting depicting the Cyclops Polyphemus as a furry, long-necked creature with the soft, one-eyed gaze of a gentle pet.


This Cyclops strikes me as vulnerable, not the sort of creature that would snatch up men to eat them alive and drool pieces of them afterward in drunken hiccups.

Yesterday as my students were reading the gruesome scene with Polyphemus, I read the caption of the painting, which explained that its French artist, Odilon Redon, had wanted to portray a sympathetic cyclops.


This concept isn’t a complete fabrication: one of the most striking elements of the scene with Polyphemus is the gentleness he displays toward his sheep even as he gorges himself on men.

When the young Dawn with fingertips of rose
lit up the world, the Cyclops built a fire
and milked his handsome ewes, all in due order,
putting the sucklings to the mothers. Then,
his chores being all dispatched, he caught
another brace of men to make his breakfast,
and whisked away his great door slab
to let his sheep go through…

Upon each reading, I find myself oddly moved by the gentle shepherding of Polyphemus. The juxtaposition of his care for his sheep with his brutality toward Odysseus’s men leaves me feeling ambivalent and examining my own nature. While I am certainly not a cannibal or even a murderer, I understand feeling occasional hostility toward my fellow humans while caring deeply for animals. Most animal-lovers can attest to the same.

Beyond this common disillusionment with people, however, I find that I am slower than some to label any strange creature a 'monster.' What constitutes a monster? Something that kills and eats its food? That’s most of us but only people make a sport of it. Something that looks unfamiliar, like the Texas Blue Dog? In report after report, I hear the Blue Dogs described as 'ugly.' A man in Tennessee even stated, “It looks something out of ‘you know where’.” Assuming he meant hell, I observed a picture of the dog he had killed and tried to see what he was seeing. It was probably the fangs, the dark skin, the eyes shut tight against any possible expression of emotion. Still, I can’t see anything sinister in photographs or videos of live ones.

Then there were the paintings and drawings in Nick Redfern’s study, most of them of the Owlman/Mothman. Many of these in particular looked like something out of ‘you know where’ as well, but I found myself staring with a slight, unexpected affinity at one. It certainly wasn’t because of its demonically glowing red eyes; maybe it was the furriness of its form. There is something about fur that softens people toward a creature – and something about the lack thereof that does the opposite, as many dead Blue Dogs could attest to.

So, while I still can’t quite define what constitutes a monster, what makes one person shoot a Blue Dog while another feeds it food scraps, or what makes a part of me like the vicious Polyphemus, I finally came to terms with my feelings for the cyclops and purchased a reprint of the painting yesterday. He will soon be hanging in my study, which may be well on its way to bearing its own wall of 'monsters.'

MAX BLAKE: 'Chupacabra' footage

Maxy sent the link to this story on Paranormal magazine's website.

http://www.paranormalmagazine.co.uk/2010/03/08/chupacabra-captured-alive/

Hopefully Jon and Corinna will have as much luck with the blue dog in Texas....

LIZ bids au revoir to the Downses and gets down to business....

The day arrived at last, then: yesterday Jon and Corinna Downes, Devon and cryptozoology's answer to Hart to Hart and Dempsey and Makepeace, left headquarters for sunny Texas. Their mission - which they chose to accept - is to document and investigate the existence of the infamous blue dog. I'm sure we all wish them Godspeed and good luck.

However, there are more pressing concerns back home. Graham phoned me earlier on this evening to discuss our managing of the blog while our glorious leaders are away and I'm afraid we have a very serious problem.

Graham has beer tonight to help him work and I don't! Please send all donations in recyclable aluminium c/o the CFZ address and I'm sure he'll pass them on to me....

Graham's note: yes, indeed. After the blog "proofreading" was done, I put my feet up and had a couple of cans of the somewhat strangely-named Worthington's Creamflow Draft Bitter.

Liz's note: Well, I had chocolate cake, so there....

LAUNCHING THE TEXAS EXPEDITION BLOG

http://texasbluedogs.blogspot.com/

Today we are launching the dedicated blog for the Texas expedition. Each time we do an expedition there is a dedicated blog but this one is different. Because we are going to have internet access most (if not all) of the time, we shall be able to upload stories, postings, pictures (and maybe even film) of our adventures, and will be able to share the expedition with the bloggo readership on an ongoing basis.

We are leaving the main bloggo in the capable hands of Lizzy Clancy and Graham Inglis, and we are sure they will do such a good job while we are away that you won't want to have us back in 18 days time....

CASTING SKULLS

As regular readers of the bloggo will know, thanks to the good offices of our friends and benefactors Richie and Naomi West, Corinna and I are off to Texas in a few weeks to study these bloody blue dogs at first hand.


When I was last there back in 2004 I photographed several skulls in the possession of Mr Devin Macanally of Elmendorf.


I want to make casts of these skulls to bring back to the UK. Has anyone got a cheap, and foolproof way to do it?



Suggestions please.

RICHIE AND NAOMI WEST: CFZ EXPEDITION TO TEXAS

On March 4 Mr Jon Downes and his lovely wife Corinna will be flying to the States and arriving March 5. Naomi and I are excited about being able to host them while they are here in Texas. We are starting to build an itinerary for them to include at least one very exciting venture.

A woman in southeast Texas has discovered a small family of hairless canines (referred by the CFZ as the Texas Blue dog) living behind her back yard. She has been feeding them and wants the CFZ to film them.

Naomi and I will be going down to that location next week to install day/night video cameras to film these creatures in action.

When Jon and Corinna arrive, we will be going there to further investigate them. The word from the family who discovered these creatures is that they have very unusual habits not normally associated with canines. Jon and Corinna will be accompanied for part of their trip by a team from a London TV Company who are following the CFZ for 8 months for a feature documentary for BBC2 and will be including the blue dog research in their documentary. We are excited as this will be a big story in the Fortean world. This picture was taken of the creature by the woman in southeast Texas.

But Jon and Corinna's trip will not all be work. We have invited Nick Redfern and Ken Gerhard to a small welcoming party where a small few of Naomi's friends plan to make food and drink. Jon is planning to make a few appearances at local MUFON groups.

Jon and Corinna will be able to continue providing updates to the CFZ and their respective blogs from the States. They will have computer and email access.

Richie and Naomi

LIZ CLANCY: Cryptokid strikes again!

Yes folks, he's at his crazy crypto antics again! Not content with subduing the Heywood Blue Dog and redeeming a Heywood Burney Dragon, Master Leo Carney, whose second birthday was last week, can be seen here watching a nice crypto-film about dinosaurs or dragons or something whilst boldly sitting on his newly conquered ferocious fairground-dwelling tiger-patterned tiger shark. Is there no end to this boy's bravery and talent? Tune in next week to see him tell Jon that Sisters of Mercy was a cack band....

EDITOR'S NOTE: I only wanted to play the young lady the music I was listening to when I was her age. I had a trip down Floodlands memory lane, and she was just rude to it.

P.S. I am listening to Warren Zevon now. She treats it with indifference.

SUB-EDITOR's NOTE (I hope I'm allowed to do this...too late): I would treat the editor's 'taste' in music with less disdain if he was not so disparaging about the Pete Waterman era of Kylie Minogue's music...I should be so lucky.

ON THE TRACK EPISODE 26

ANOTHER TEXAS BLUE DOG

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/10/28/guy.spies.possible.chupacabra.khou
Andrew Gable keeps up with this very well. He sent me this link.

Naomi

BLUE DOG EXPEDITION ANNOUNCEMENT

We can exclusively announce that due to the remarkable generosity of Richie and Naomi West, Corinna and I will be flying to Texas for a fortnight in mid March to carry on the Texas blue dog investigations at first hand.

The trip is being funded by Richie and Naomi who are being so ridiculously generous that words fail me, and I will never be rude to Richie, or tease Naomi again. No. Sadly, even in the face of such kindness I will not make promises that I cannot possibly keep.

Thank you, my dears, from the bottom of our hearts.

CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE OF CRYPTID

Well, folks, I honestly thought that I'd have run out of ideas by now but I think I have this editing lark cracked! Today I'm going to big up the other posts, which are all MOST fascinating, particularly Oll's on Happy Families - nope, it's not a run-down of life at Myrtle cottage....

However, leaving the most exciting thing till last, and tying in with Scottie's post about the Blue Dog of Texas, conclusive photographic proof of the existence of the Blue Dog of Heywood has been captured by yours truly, being modelled by my assistant for this week, Mr Leo Carney.

BLUE DOG PROJECT

Scottie Westfall is an invaluable addition to the CFZ family. Over at his blog http://wildlifemysteries.wordpress.com/ he does much the same sort of fringe natural history as we do, and his is one of the few blogs (along with TetZoo and the Birdchick) that I read avidly. He has been following the ongoing debate about the hairless blue dogs of Texas which have been the subject of CFZ investigations since 2004, and has thrown another piece of information into the investigative melting pot:

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/hairlesskhala.htm

He writes: "Hairless Village dogs in Latin America - they exist as far north as Mexico. Perhaps some of their genes have trickled into the coyote population, and then the Mexican coyotes with these genes wandered into Texas."

TEXAS BLUE DOG WEBSITE COMING SOON

I am getting increasingly fond of Naomi and Richie West - two of our Texas reps. Indeed I am fond of all of our Texas reps because they also include Redders and Ken Gerhard (who won my heart when he told an interviewer that his idea of a "good time" was "stalking through the woods at night with my shotgun, dressed in leather and wearing eyeliner."

God, I love the CFZ.

But Naomi and Richie are particularly dear to me. As regular readers will know, Naomi is running the Texas Blue Dog project for the CFZ, and she writes:

"Devin has finally written up his very lengthy blue dog story and is ready for me to post it to the web site. The URL is http://www.texasbluedog.org/. Devin wants it available as the authorised version for researchers and wants Richie and me to be the point of contact for any info seekers. He has put an ungodly amount of work into it (I have my work cut out for me) and he has even more planned. He also has exclusive pics."

So - there you have it....


He is anxious to hear what's going to happen with the new creature. I'm no longer convinced it's not the same as his after all, but I can hardly tell what I'm looking at in a field where even the experts don't know. :)

TEXAS BLUE DOG PROJECT: TV Report

I just wish that the TV Reporter didn't sound so much like John Waters narrating the opening scenes of Pink Flamingos