WEIRD WEEKEND: Julian Vayne

For the second year running, we will be broadcasting the Weird Weekend (almost) in its entirety here on CFZtv. There were a couple of glitches due to technical problems beyond our control, but on the whole everything went well, so 95% of the conference will be up in the next days....

THE THIRD TRENCHE OF NEW ZEALAND ARCHIVES

Tony Lucas has been as good as his word. He has sent us an enormous cache of New Zealand press cuttings of cryptozoological interest. I have seen none of these before, and they are a great addition to our archives. You can download them from:

here

Our online archive of press cuttings is getting quite sizeable now, and we are desparate for indexers. If you feel like giving us a few hours every week, please get in touch. The CFZ needs you!

GUEST BLOGGER NIGEL WRIGHT: The Exmouth Mermaid - the mystery deepens

However long one is in this weird game of being a paranormal journalist, things can still catch you out. So it is with the story of the Exmouth mermaid, as I reported in my last blog for this column. Now, one would think that, after twelve years or so of writing for a living, I would have leaned to double check my sources etc. Well, I have been somewhat caught out by this one! The story of the Exmouth mermaid of 1812 is, in its essence true, but the one thing that does not ring true is the illustration that accompanies it.

It all started due to a reader of the article asking me for a higher resolution copy of the picture. This is a perfectly fair request, and one that I was happy to oblige with. Upon deeper research on the net, I found that the picture involved almost perfectly matched a drawing of a mermaid, famous in cryptozoology circles, called the “Feejee” mermaid. This was exhibited by the famous showman Barnum, in the US in the 1840”s. “Odd!” I thought, so I dug even further. Now, this is where the tale darkens somewhat. What on earth was a picture of an 1840’s exhibit doing, illustrating a story in an 1822 newspaper? For a moment my mind raced with fantasies of time warps etc! Oh!..The follies of old age! But, I am sad to say, the answer lay in the timeline of the relic itself. Let’s have a look at that timeline:-

1822…an American sea captain, Samuel Barret Eades brought to London a wonderful relic, which he had come across in the far east. This relic had been got from Dutch fishermen, who, in turn, had obtained it from some Japanese fishermen. This was the mermaid!. It was exhibited at the Turf coffeehouse, at St. James Street. Now, the same paper that had reported the Exmouth case, The “London Mirror” also reported on the number of visitors to this exhibition, some 400 a day!

1823...The exhibition comes to an end, when Eades is sued by the co-owner of the ship he had sold to but the mermaid in the first place. The relic disappears from public view then until the 1840’s, when it is sold to Barnum by Moses Kimball, owner of the Boston museum.

So, there is the answer!. For whatever reason he had at the time, the editor of the “London Mirror” decided to illustrate the 1812 Exmouth story with a picture of the “feejee” mermaid, which was at that time being exhibited at St James Street!. Journalistic license indeed!

The moral of this story? Well always double, double check your sources! And remember, there is always more than one ending to any story!

CFZ ARCHIVING PROJECT: The Owlman and Others

Oll Lewis has done a very good job (and is continuing to do a very good job) digitising the CFZ Archives. Eventually they will ALL be available on line, and they will be indexed and sorted. Even the 30,000+ pictures in the CFZ picture library will be available for free as low res thumbnails, and for money as high res downloads. But this takes time and effort, but we get there slowly.

In the meantime here is a collection of newspaper stories from the CFZ Archive of Owlman-Related material. There is tons and tons more, but these (which include the hysterically funny "Weirdest Family in the Land" story frtom The Sun in April 1978) will do for starters..


http://www.cfz.org.uk/Archiving/Owlman/Newspaper/

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: Tortoises in Essex, and a letter from Ken Livingstone

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

Dear folks,

It`s time for my update from the improbable world of Richard Muirhead. This evening I am giving the Macclesfield Courier a brief skip (we will resume with it after Easter) and turning to a letter I written on May 7th 1997 when I was living as a student in Oxford. (Not at Oxford University I hasten to add, but at Oxford Brookes University where I was doing my MA) I also publish for the first time a very brief and absolutely genuine letter to me about newts from Ken Livingstone M.P. as he then was in response to mine to him asking-was the “effet” a newt, or not?

Dear Mr Muirhead

By luck I saw your letter about tortoises in the wild in a recent issue of the Cambridge Evening News. I hope the following information helps you.

Between 1959 and 1964 my uncle kept a caravan for weekend and holiday use at Great Gibcracks Farm,near Chelmsford in Essex.The farm was about half a mile from the road, up a long and rutted drive. It was an extraordinary place, an Edwardian model farm built by an eccentric who placed busts of Dante and other poets in copses,had a swimming pool dug and planted exotic trees and shrubs.By the 1960s it was falling to pieces about the current owner.

Beyond the farm were two cottages and then woodland.The nearest houses to the farm,apart from the cottages,were almost a mile away.

In late May or early June 1964 my younger brother,Nigel,and I found a tortoise moving along a furrow in a ploughed field immediately alongside the farm.(The field had been ploughed at Easter then left.) I can`t be more precise about the date; I do know that I`d been given a weekend away from preparing for the O levels looming over me.

The tortoise just fitted on my palm so would have been almost 6” long. We had kept several tortoises as pets in the past;this one had a darker shell than I could recall seeing before and yellow mottling between the eyes.It appeared to be a spur thighed tortoise.

We went to the farm,the cottages and then to the houses nearest the field but no one knew anything about the tortoise.Using the local bush telegraph we let people living farther away know but the tortoise was never claimed and became our pet,with the name Shostakovich-why that name was selected I can`t remember.Shostakovich was found dead in summer,1967.

In 1980 Nigel mentioned he had talked with a man who lived in a village called Bicknacre in the 1950s and 1960s;Bicknacre is not far from Gt.Gibcracks and we sometimes walked there through the woods.The man said that he twice found tortoises in the fields but had never traced their owners.Sadly,Nigel died in 1990 and I remember no details,like the man`s name.

I hope that your research is fruitful;the adjustment of animals to British conditions has always interested me.I have wondered if the Surrey puma and Exmoor beast are abandoned pets that are now acclimatized.I am sure you know about the scorpions that colonized the railways station at Ongar in Essex.

It would be more interesting though to discover native tortoises and native pumas. I hope one day to read about your research.

Yours sincerely.

J.S. Holford-Miettinen

I rang a Cambridge number about 2 months ago to try and find out more about the tortoises but got no reply. Now for “Red Ken`s” letter, it is very brief:

April 22nd 1996

“Dear Richard Muirhead Thank you for your letter of 15 April about the terms eft or evvet. They were just other names for newts-not crocodiles or anything else.

Yours sincerely,Ken Livingstone.

I have a lot of respect for a person as busy as he must have been to reply like this, albeit briefly. After Easter I will continue with the Macclesfield Courier and octopus invasions of the south coast of Britain,an historical approach. Bye for now and Happy Easter! Rich.

GLEN VAUDREY: Looking for the great Auk

The last confirmed sighting of a happy and lively looking Great Auk took place on the Icelandic island of Eldey on 3 June 1844 and how do we know it is the last confirmed sighting, we have the bodies to prove it. Unfortunately the witnesses to this last sighting happened to be a couple of hunters who had just dispatched the birds. It is unlikely that they even knew the importance of that days hunt.

Like many reckless acts of violence it would come to be regretted in the years to come and such was this case. Iceland may have played host to the last known populations of this remarkable bird but it was left without a single example of this most well adapted of sea birds.

It would be 1971 before Iceland would acquire its very own Great Auk buying one at a London auction for the princely sum of £9,000 which was at the time a world record price for a stuffed bird. Unlike the last bird leaving the island in a crate the new example was flown back to Iceland first class and received a hero’s welcome upon arrival in Reykjavik, with flags flying and children given the afternoon of to mark the occasion.

Fast forward twenty one years to a rain soaked, cold and dark Thursday afternoon early in November and you would find me wandering around the back streets of Reykjavik looking for the mortal remains of this seventies avian superstar.

Aided by nothing more than a small soggy map to guide me to the Museum of Natural History I was rather surprised to find that the museum was behind a solid looking door in a building that for all the world looked like a disused warehouse. After climbing a concrete flight of stairs I arrived at the entrance paid my handful of króna to a rather startled little old man at the door he appeared a little surprised at the prospect of a visitor. I was soon hunting through the display cases full of rock types and lava samples all very interesting I am sure but they didn’t really float my boat.

The search was not in vane because there in a glass cabinet in a far corner of the room proudly stood the Great Auk, looking if truth be said rather moth eaten. I couldn’t help but feel that while it arrival might have been heralded, it was now in danger of being forgotten. And as on my way back to the hotel I passed the whaling boats tied up in the harbour I suspected that the lesson of the birds extinction may also have been forgotten.

RICHARD FREEMAN: STRANGE TALES OF JAPANESE OCTOPI

Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai painted the picture Dream of a Fisherman’s Wife in 1820. The picture depicts a beautiful Japanese woman being sexually ravaged by a giant octopus. It may seem strange to westerners, but it is not an unusual image for Japanese culture, because somehow octopi have a hold on the Japanese imagination.

Several monster octopi turn up in their legends

Akkorokamui

In the legends of the Ainu people, the original inhabitants of Japan, this was a monster resembling a giant octopus or fish. It lurked in Funka Bay and adjacent waters off southwestern Hokkaido.

The 19th century Englishman and missionary John Batchelor, who lived among the Ainu , wrote firsthand a journal entry of an alleged actual incident concerning an apparent Akkorokamui in his book The Ainu and their Folklore.

In the morning, we found the whole village under a cloud. Three men, it was said, were out trying to catch swordfish, when all at once a great sea monster, with large staring eyes, appeared in front of them and proceeded to attack the boat. A desperate fight ensued. The monster was round in shape, and emitted a dark fluid and noxious odor. The three men fled in dismay, not so much indeed for fear, they say, but on account of the dreadful smell. However that may have been, they were so scared that the next morning all three refused to get up and eat; they were lying in their beds pale and trembling.

Another old 19th century account was made by a Japanese fisherman and was translated by cryptozoologist Brent Swancer.

And I saw ahead something huge and red undulating under the waves. I at first thought my eyes deceived me and that I was merely seeing the reflection of sun upon the water, but as I approached, I could see that in fact it was an enormous monster, 80 meters in length at least, with large, thick tentacles as big around as a man’s torso. The thing fixed me with a huge, staring eye before sinking out of sight into the depths.

Thomas Beal, a surgeon on a British Whaling ship, described being attacked by a huge octopus whilst on the Bonin Islands off southern Japan in 1835. He was rescued by his shipmates.

Another Englishman, Arthur Grimbal was also attacked but saved by his colleagues.

The Pacific octopus may reach 7 meters across the tentacle span but it does not seem large or aggressive enough to account for these sightings. Could we be dealing with a huge, unknown species?

Nurarihyon

In early legends from Okayama prefecture, Nurarihyon (whose name means slippery and strange) was an aquatic yokai from the Seto Inland Sea. He was said to look like a giant octopus or jellyfish and dived beneath the surface if humans came too close.

By the Edo period Nurarihyon had radically changed. He was then supposed to be the supreme commander of the yokai. For all this he is an unassuming, harmless and rather pleasant fellow. He resembled a green skinned man with an enlarged head shaped somewhat like a cabbage. In the evenings he entered people’s housed and drank their tea and smoked their tobacco. His manner is so confident he was never questioned.

Tako no nana ashi

An octopus with seven legs. These odd tentacled cephelopods haunted the seashore of Chubu District in the Edo period. They crawled up onto land to dig into graves and feast on rotting flesh.

Tako-ningyou

A human headed octopus captured by fishermen during the Meiji period. Make you wonder whether H P Lovecraft read old Japanese texts.

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: Feathered fish and eagle tales

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

In response to Jon`s plea for more effort on the blog front,I have decided to submit three between now, (Sunday afternoon) and next Thursday evening, so here we go.I n a strange coincidence,a few hours before I read the blog of a few days ago (sorry,I forgot to note down the exact date) about the furry fish, I noticed the following:

(I had that morning over the phone asked to use the microwave instead of the microfilm. D`oh!)

"Mr Brougham,of the museum,Maryport (1) who got lately (?) into his possesion a fish covered with feathers, has since caught one covered with hair." Macclesfield Courier. December 11th 1813 p.2

(1) There are two Maryports in the United Kingdom. One is in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland the other in Cumbria on the coast. A Google search on "Maryport Museum" uncovered a Maritime Museum in the latter Maryport, with a whales tooth etc. So I e-mailed them yesterday, Saturday April 4th, to ask them about the above mentioned fishes and I await, in hope, a reply.

"A fine eagle was killed on Friday se`night by the game-keeper of T.Thornhill Esq of Riddlesworth (2) In length from the end of the beak to the end of the tail, was three feet,the breadth,when its wings were extending,seven feet one inch,its weight nine pounds."Macclesfield Courier January 15th 1914 p.2

(2) Riddlesworth is in Norfolk

Those with a good memory amongst you will recall that a few weeks ago I recorded another huge eagle, this time near Stockport,Cheshire.

On Tuesday April 14th I hope to go to my bookish haunt; the Newspaper Library in North London to look at a County Mayo newspaper, or Achill Island paper if the latter exist. This is really because I am interested in the cryptid the Achill Island wolf. Between now and next Thursday I will have a more definite date/geographical location in Ireland of whatever newspaper I will look at.

Search requests for any cryptid to:richmuirhead@ntlworld.com please.

Finaly,if anyone has Fortean Studies vol.7 I am willing to spend up to £40 on it o.n.o.

Opisthoproctus soleatus - a very strange fish

I have heard of these things, but I didn't realise they were quite so damn freaky...

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Barreleyes, also known as spookfish (a name also applied several species of chimaera), are small, unusual-looking deep-sea osmeriform fish comprising the family Opisthoproctidae. Found in tropical-to-temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, the family contains thirteen species in six genera (four of which are monotypic).

These fish are named for their barrel-shaped, tubular eyes which are generally directed upwards to detect the silhouettes of available prey; however, according to Robison and Reisenbichler these fish are capable of directing their eyes forward as well. The family name Opisthoproctidae is derived from the Greek words opisthe ("behind") and proktos ("anus").

LINDSAY SELBY: SCOTTISH SEASERPENTS

There have been stories of sea serpents seen off the British Isles for many years, quite a few off the coasts of Scotland . The first one below is from 1898:

Read the original..

It tells of a serpent seen off Stonehaven near Aberdeen . The skipper of the fishing boat said it was longer than his boat which was 34feet long and had fins twenty feet apart . As a seasoned fisherman you would expect him to know an anomaly if he saw one. The next is 1958:

A sea serpent was reported to have been seen on Saturday night in the Tay. The report was made to Fife police by Mr Ronald Avery, bus driver, 3, Milton Crescent, Anstruther and was confirmed by the conductress Miss Betty Kay, Cellardyke. Yesterday Mr Avery said "The bus was standing at the Newport-on-Tay terminus. We were waiting for the starting time and I was standing on the step of the bus looking over the water. It was misty, but about five minutes to eight I was distinctly, about a mile out from Newport Pier, a strange creature moving in the water. Three humps were visible and although it was difficult to tell their colouring I thought they were dark. They were movinh towards the Tay Bridge. They disappeared, and then came to the surface again in exactly the same manner a short distance forward. I drew the attention of Betty Kay and together we watched the creature moving towards the Tay Bridge. We must have seen it disappear and surface eighty or nine times, it made a circle towards some boats near the opposite bank. Then it was time for us to move, but I was so impressed that I reported it to the police. I would say it was a sea snake or serpent, about 15 to 20 feet in length. I don't think the object I saw was porpoises or seals. I've seen sharks and whales in the Indian Ocean but this was the strangest thing I have ever seen in the water.

Various sea monsters have been reported as being seen off the shores of the Scottish Isle of Lewis over the years, including a sighting reported in 1882 by a German ship off the Butt of Lewis. The ship, 15 kilometres off the coast, reported a sea serpent around 40 metres in length, several bumps protruding from the water, along its back. Sea serpents have also been reported at the southern side of the island.

So is Scotland, the home of Nessie, a haven for sea serpents? This is just a small historical sample, there are many more. Keep your eyes peeled if you go fishing off the shores of Scotland,who knows what you might hook!

NEIL ARNOLD: Monster fish of Dutch Folklore

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

Out there, somewhere, in the silted depths of the Netherlands watery abodes, there do indeed exist large swimming forms dredged out of folklore and into the minds of the general public. One such beastie was ‘Big Mama’, a huge European catfish that had tourists fleeing from their skinny-dipping escapades. The terror of Centreparcs made big news in 2006 with website Ananova reporting:

‘The 2.3 metre European catfish eats two or three ducks a day and has even taken a few small dogs, reports Hetlaatste News.

Dutch divers reckon 'Big Mama', in the lake of a Centerparcs at Kempervennen, could be the world's biggest. Remco Visser, head of a Dutch diving school which uses the lake for practice dives, said the fish had scared a number of divers.

"They don't have to worry because catfish don't eat humans. Most of the ducks have moved to another lake but visiting ducks, who don't know there is a catfish in the water, get caught." He commented. Centerparcs guards patrol the lake to keep away fishermen who have been trying to climb over the fences at night to catch Big Mama. Biologist Jean Henkes, of Centerparcs, added: "The catfish has grown so big because of the excellent water quality, enough food and rest."

The world record European catfish weighs in at 226 lbs, caught in Spain’s Ebro River in 2007.

There are several legends pertaining to monster pike in the Netherlands. One such giant was hooked by Rotterdam man Ewout Blom in 2004. After a good day of fishing with friends, one of whom caught a 35 lb specimen, Ewout caught a big one, weighing in at 42.9 lbs (almost 20 kg), and measuring some 127 cm (approx 50 inches). Bizarrely, one of the photos of Ewout and his prize fish, began doing the rounds on the internet with anglers far and wide claiming they’d caught the fish, or been there when it had been hooked, and the legend spread worldwide. This amazing freshwater shark, as pike are known, became a true ‘friend of a friend’ tale in fishing circles and there were even statements of it being a world record, but this was false information. The world record pike stands at 55.1 lbs, caught in 1986 at Lake of Grefeern, in Germany by Lothar Louis. One particular giant pike, rumoured to inhabit the IJ, is said to measure 1.60 metres in length but because no-one has ever photographed it, and rarely caught it, it has taken on mythical status. The fish is said to haunt the depths behind Central Station and pike fishing is illegal in the area. In 1998 a rumour also circulated of a monster fish living in the Oosthaven in Dordrecht and another monster pike at Lith.

In Kralingse Plas, Rotterdam, a person walking their dog filmed an unusual form in the water. Upon viewing the footage it’s likely that the ‘monster’ in question could be anything ranging from a dog, to a log, or something being dragged by a boat. In 2007 something very large was seen swimming at Moordrecht in the river Hollandse Ijssel. Witnesses claimed a freshwater shark was lurking in the twenty-nine mile stretch of water and the story made national news. Although it was believed to be a hoax, sharks have been known to turn up around the Netherlands. De Telegraaf reported in 2006 that a blue shark was the latest specimen to be added to Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum after it was found dead at Oosterschelde near Tholen. The shark was a young female measuring just over a metre and a half in length. Such creatures are considered very rare along the Belgian and Dutch coast line.

FOK!Weblog of March 2007 commented on an investigation into a sighting of a monster inhabiting a small lake called Oldambtmeer in Groningen but no beast was forthcoming. On the 16th August 2004 Patrick Scholte hooked a strange fish whilst angling at a canal in Rampur. The silvery fish with razor teeth turned out to be a piranha but at first Mr Scholte thought he hooked a Rock Bass due to its red belly. After photographing the fish, Patrick released it back into the water.

In the May of 1966 a white whale appeared in Dutch folklore. The creature, whilst en route to a zoo park in England, was aboard a boat which capsized during a severe storm, releasing the mammal into the north Atlantic. From here, and via the Rhine in Rotterdam, the whale would take in Berlin, Germany, and then travel back to the Netherlands, capturing the hearts of many who began to campaign against local pollution. In 2002 a documentary-film entitled ‘The Tale Of The White Whale’, directed by Stephen Koester was made about the incident, the promotional website stating:

‘This story of a white whale could have arisen from the fantasy of writers for Disney. However, it is a true story: On the 18th of May 1966, a huge animal appears from the dirty tides of the Rhine, near Duisburg-Neuenkamp and about 300 kilometres away from the open sea, to take a breath: the white whale. For one month this strange visitor will move the people and the media: it will raise conflicts between animal-rights activists and zoologists, between Germans and Dutch, between the political factions. In the meantime, the white whale swims further inland.’

THIS BEAR STORY IS GETTING MORE AND MORE PECULIAR

Yet another press release has come out from the Red Rose Chain Theatre Company which is staging an outdoor production of A Winter's Tale in the forest in August. It begins: "A 'bear' spotted roaming a Suffolk forest was actually an actor in costume promoting an outdoor production of Shakespeare."

This is actually the third different explanation for events in as many days. First we were told that the thespian bods had faked a video, then that they had made up the eyewitness sightings, and now that the sightings were provoked by a bloke in a costume.

This is rather odd. :

Actor and designer Jimmy Grimes said: "We didn't want to scare anyone. The idea is to get kids interested and excited about the play. We want to create a family-friendly, fairytale feel for the production.

Jimmy dude, you are certainly doing that, because now - in the best traditions of fortean investigation- nobody quite knows what was going wrong. According to all the stories:

The 'bear' was spotted by three people including Jenny Pearce who saw it as she finished a picnic with her three-year-old son. She said: "It was really big, moving through the trees. I picked up my son and went back to the car."

Now, no-one at the CFZ is disputing that the whole thing is an elaborate, and furthermore a well-staged hoax. But what exactly did happen. Did Jenny Pearce actually exist? Was she a figment of the imagination? Was she a friend or associate of the theatre company who just joined in for the lulz? Or did she see something?

If she did see something, did she see the shadowy figure of some bloke in a bear costume wandering about in the woods? If so, it must have been a good 'un! Even in these intellectually impoverished days when no-one seems to know ow't about the natural world, one would have thought that an eyewitness could have distinguished between a dude in a bear costume and a bipedal member of the family ursidae.

Or has the cutesy cartoon ethic which has so permeated society to the extent that intelligent, attractive, and otherwise seemingly together young people like the ones that I met at the Royal Academy back in January, call themselves members of a `furry fandom`, put on childish costumes, and have turned to recreating their childhood TV cartoon favourites to get their sexual jollies, permeated society to such an extent, that witnesses truly think that bears waalk bipedally all the time? If this is the case then Jenny probably ran back to her car in order to protect her picnic basket from Yogi and Boo Boo.

This is all very peculiar.

As I said above, nobody here is disputing the fact that the story is basically a hoax, but like all stories in the fortean ominiverse, it has developed a life of its own. Twice so far this year (the seal carcass in January, and the `Devil's Footprints` in March) the CFZ has become involved in a news story which balooned out of all control, and became far more important than it actually deserved. Darren naish also noted the same thing in connection with the absurd fuss made over a dead racoon last year, that was so banal that we ignored it to our detriment. Those who commented on it, had enormous amounts of media attention and tens of thousands of visitors to their websites.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this `Montauk Monster Syndrome` is an increasingly important phenomenon as far as cryptozoology is concerned, and in the current era of mass, and almost instantaeneous, communication it is only going to become more important.

So watch this space, and examine the aetiology of the next nonsensensical crypto-story as diligently as you can.

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: Suicidal dogs, and toads in an iron foundry..

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

Dear folks

For today`s instalment of Muirhead`s Mysteries I pass through the autumn of 1813 and encounter a break in the marine related features,only to uncover a case of suicidal dogs on the island of Samson in the Scilly Isles, (a strange coincidence here as the Biblically aware amongst you will remember that Samson did in fact commit suicide in the Philistine temple) and toads acting strangely:

“SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE: Last week, all the dogs in the Island of Samson (Scilly) in number about 14, ran simultaeneously into the sea,and were drowned together! No cause whatever can be assigned by the inhabitants for this extraordinary occurrence. The dogs appeared perfectly well a short time before this event took place.” Macclesfield Courier October 2nd 1813. p.2

“Remarkable circumstance- A few days ago,two living toads were found in the centre of the Cupola Furnace,at Mr Barnett`s Iron Foundry in Skipton.” October 16th 1813.p.3

I am familiar with the folklore of salamanders withstanding fire but not toads.

REDISCOVERED FISHES

When writing these pages I often feel like an old-fashioned harbinger of doom - like one of those
sad old blokes who used to hang around outside Leicester Square Tube Station brandishing a
placard which informed the world that “The End is Nigh!”.

Many fish species that have become extinct within the last few years. Sadly, the list continues to grow each year. But it’s not all doom and gloom; new species are discovered regularly, and species thought to be extinct are also sometimes
rediscovered.

The Dwarf Loach, Chain Botia, or Chain Loach (Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki, formerly Botia
sidthimunki) is a popular freshwater tropical fish in aquariums and belongs to to the Cobitidae family. It grows up to 3in in captivity, and 5in in the wild. It prefers water with temperature 77 to 86F (25 - 30C), pH 6.5 to 6.9 dGH to 8.0. It is omnivorous with diets including live crustaceans, insects, snails, etc. The Dwarf Loach is found in the Mae Klong river and River Kwai, Western Thailand. This species is endangered and is a protected species in Thailand. It was thought to be extinct in the wild until recently rediscovered in Sangkhla Buri.

Algansea barbata, the Lerma chub, is found in the headwaters of the headwaters of the Rio Lerma, Mexico. Algansea barbata was last collected in 1964, and last seen only eight years later, but its extinction was not suggested until 1998. However eight specimens (five males and three
females) of Algansea barbata Alvarez and Cortés, 1964 were caught in a lateral channel to Rio Sila, Tiacaque, Jocotitlán, State of Mexico (19º 40' N and 99º 42' W) in April of 1999. This extends the known range for the species in the State of Mexico toward the most southern population's northeast limit (13 Km to the NE of Ixtlahuaca, on highway 55, NNW of Toluca, State of Mexico) and it is the first record since 1972

The parasitic Miller Lake Lamprey (Lampetra minima) was thought to have gone Extinct in
about 1958. This was as a result of a deliberate chemical treatment of Miller Lake (the only
known location at the time) to exterminate this species to prevent predation on introduced trout fingerlings. However, in 1992, an adult lamprey collected in the Williamson River was identified as L. minima, and, in 1996, unidentified lamprey were collected in Miller Creek, the outflow stream of Miller Lake. Subsequent surveys in the summers of 1997–1999 reconfirmed the species extinction in Miller Lake but lead to the discovery of several subpopulations of L. minima within and outside the Miller Lake sub-basin (Lorion et al. 2000).

The rediscovery of this species was only brought to the attention of the IUCN Red List Programme in 2004. It is provisionally listed as Data Deficient - pending a reassessment of its status.

Formerly thought to be endemic to Miller Lake (16km northeast of Mt. Thielson), Klamath County, Oregon. Recent surveys documented subpopulations in Miller Creek, Jack Creek, and the upper sections of the Williamson and Sycan rivers (Lorion et al. 2000).

In 2002 biologists with Conservation Fisheries, Inc. (CFI), a Knoxville-based non-profit organization, recently found a single specimen of the slender chub while conducting a fish survey in northeast Tennessee. This find is the culmination of years of hitherto-fruitless searching.
"We were ecstatic," said Pat Rakes, co-director of CFI, "It's a wonderful feeling to be out there for so long, searching and searching, and then coming up with something."

The slender chub, a federally protected fish, is known only from the Clinch and Powell Rivers in
northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. It was last seen in the Clinch River in the mid-
1990s; it hasn't been seen in the Powell River since the early 1980s.

The lone fish, about the length of a human finger, is now in an aquarium at CFI's headquarters,
eating voraciously, while biologists hope to find a mate to begin the propagation process. The biologists at CFI have been key players in efforts to restore the aquatic biodiversity of the
Southern Appalachians. Their Knoxville facility, with its numerous aquariums full of rare and
imperilled fishes, is the site of captive propagation efforts being carried out for numerous fish species.

A rare fish that had not been seen by scientists for over 50 years has been rediscovered in
Auckland, New Zealand. The threatened Black mudfish, Neochanna diversus, is listed on the
current IUCN Redlist for fishes, but hasn't been seen since shortly after the species was originally described in 1949. However, a recent survey of the Te Henga and Tomarata wetlands revealed a population of Neochanna diversus alive and well.

Grant Barnes, Project Leader for Auckland Regional Council's State of Environment monitoring programme says that the new discovery of Neochanna says a lot about the health of the ecosystem. He told the news website Scoop: "Freshwater fish are sensitive to a wide range of environmental impacts such as habitat loss, pollution and sedimentation."

Neochanna diversus is a galaxiid, and a member of the Osmeriformes order. It gets its common name from its ability to spend part of the year in a state of aestivation when its pool dries up.

So it ain’t all doom and gloom. The natural world still has plenty of surprises in store for
us. Watch this space...

HOW THE BLOODY HELL DOES MUIRHEAD FIND THIS STUFF?

FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF MYSTERY (2009)

At last the new feature-length documentary from CFZtv directed by Jonathan Downes and produced by Richard Freeman.

In the summer of 2008, five British explorers from the UK based Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ], the world's largest mystery animal research group, fly to the mountains of southern Russia, just weeks before the region erupts into war..

They are searching for the almasty, a semi-mythical apeman, that the team believe could be man's closest relative; an evolved descendant of Homo erectus. Along the way they have many adventures, and several members of the team are nearly killed on more than one occasion.

With music by Gogol Bordello and Jonathan Downes. We wrote to Gogol Bordello's management, and were overjoyed when they wrote back saying that we could use the music as long as the movie was "non-commercial". Well, it is completely non-commercial, and like every other film from CFZtv, it is out there purely because this is a good thing to do. However it is mildly amusing to note that Gogol Bordello are doing two films this year - one with Madonna, and the other with the CFZ!

RSPCA: TIME TO GET MILITANT?

This following item has been posted across the internet. I do not know whether it is true or not, but if it is true it is disgusting:


"I have received some very alarming news regarding the RSPCA’s decision NOT to treat any wildlife, Hedgehogs included

The RSPCA's new policy ( because of lack of funds due to the credit crunch) is to euthanise ( KILL!!!) all wildlife taken to them or picked up by them

They will not pay for any wildlife to be taken to a vet or wildlife rescue centre and inspectors & ACO ( Animal Collection Officers) have been told to kill all wildlife they get instead. The Inspector or ACO has to get specific permission from the duty Chief Inspector for the region/group BEFORE considering any treatment or rescue/rehabilitation of any wildlife. This is all to do with saving money. The Chief Inspectors are instructing euthanasia for almost everything.

I am really worried that RSPCA staff are being told to kill sick, injured, orphaned hedgehogs and all other wildlife. If they become ill, no matter how minor or easily treatable the illness or injury is, they will be automatically killed regardless, without even being fully or properly assessed. Even if just cold, hungry and underweight. What about those just waking up from hibernation? They are all just thin and weak, nothing else wrong with them.

The big worry that I have, is that a member of public rings the RSPCA control centre. The call centre staff don't know that a different policy is now in place. They take the call, pass it to an ACO or inspector. The inspector or ACO report back to the Control Centre saying the call has been dealt with. The public won't know that "dealt with" means euthanised, instead of taking the animal to a vet or wildlife hospital for care and attention.

I can understand that the RSPCA has financial problems. It is totally unacceptable to use Euthanasia because of a decrease in their funds.

We must all protest about this decision by the RSPCA.

It is now even more important to tell as many people as you can to feed and look after hedgehogs in their garden. We need to keep them healthy. Once they become ill, that is the end of it. They will not be treated or saved any more.

Please spread the word, ask all your friends and family to support their local wildlife hospital and local carers.

Please do NOT ring RSPCA for wildlife. Contact your local carer or wildlife centre"

We have since received the following comment from a RSPCA volunteer:

"No of course its not true. Where do they get these stories. For a start members of the BVA and some other vets do not charge to see wildlife during working hours and we have 3/4 HQ run wildlife units who take wildlife along with many branch homes and volunteers and fosterers. Go put them straight for me please if you get the chance"

Now, we cannot leave a rumour like this. In recent years the RSPCA have done a lot of things which do not overly impress me, and their attitude towards captive exotic animals does, in our opinion, leave a lot to be desired. But I cannot bring myself to believe that the above statement can possibly be true.

I would like as many readers of this blog as possible to telephone 0300 1230721 and ask for the Wildlife Centre Administrator, or telephone the advice line: 0300 1234 555. Politely ask them for a comment on the above allegations. Then tell us what happened.

If it is true then the result of enough people telephoning them on the same day to ask about this policy, will give them a `shot across the bows` that such a policy is unacceptable from an animal welfare organisation, in which the British people have put their trust. If not true, then it will alert the RSPCA to the fact that their current PR is not working, and that in the public eye they have changed from a relatively benign organisation, into a rather sinsister Kafkaesque one that - on the whole - people no longer trust.

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: A giant basking shark and three white hares

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

I`ve been ill in bed most of the day with an appalling cough and cold but fortunately I have a small back log of animal stories from the pages of the Macclesfield Courier from late 1812 to mid 1813: Selling a basking shark for £600 seems alot even by early 19th century standards:

"Another fish of the basking shark species,measuring in length 32ft, girth 19ft,caught off Brighton on Friday se`nnight* (sic), in the herring nets of an industrious fishermen,named Collins-sold next day by Dutch auction,for £600 to some person who mean to exhibit it in London." Macclesfield Courier December 12th 1812. p.3.

This would make it one of the largest ever basking sharks? And if it was not a basking shark, what was it?

"A few days ago three white hares were found in a field of Mr Maws(?)of Hacknew(?) near Scarbro`about one month old."

Macc.Courier June 25th 1813.

* Se'nnight = seven nights (one week), an archaic usage, though fortnight (14 nights, or two weeks) is still widely used

GLEN VAUDREY: The hverafuglar Iceland’s hot-spring bird

Until fairly recently I had never even heard of the hverafuglar, Iceland’s very own mystery hot spring-dwelling bird.

Unsurprisingly for an island renowned for its geothermal activity Iceland has a large number of hot water springs and pools, in 1910 they numbered some 700 in total. The water in these pools goes from bath water warm to hot enough to boil you alive, dangerously there is little in the way to forewarn you of the exact temperatures of the steaming pools, so it’s best not to jump in to the first one you see. So it would seem on face value that these thermal pools would not be the first place that you would expect to find a mystery bird, with the possible exception of perhaps a parboiled fowl floating on the surface. But it is these same hostile waters that you have to look for sightings of the hverafuglar over the years

The first written reports of these birds are to be found in Dithmars Blefkan’s Islandia, sive populorum & mirabilium quae in ea Insula repriuntur accuratior descriptio published in Leiden, Holland in 1607. Dithmars tells of the red-coloured ducks that he saw first hand on a visit to Iceland in 1563, he watched these ducks from afar swimming around in the pools of boiling water, if they were approached they would dive below the bubbling water not resurfacing until the coast was clear.

By the 18th century the description of the birds had changed a little they were now described as being similar to small ducks, jet black in colour with white circles around their eyes. While their colour may have changed their habit of swimming around the waters of thermal pools had not and they would still dive below the boiling waters for safety rather than fly away. Their peculiar abilities and behaviour led to the belief in some more rural parts that the birds were in fact the souls of the dammed who had been cast down to swim in those boiling waters by way of punishment.

Dammed souls or not sightings of these remarkable birds would continue well into the 20th century. In 1912 two boys at Hengill in the north east of Iceland spotted some hverafuglar describing the birds as about the size of a small duck, a dark peaty brown in colour, except for their neck and breast which were lighter in shade, the two boys noted that when the birds flew they beat their wings rapidly, lest you think that these birds were not true hverafuglar the boys also watched them swimming in the boiling hot waters of the spring, something that the boys knew better than to try themselves.

The most recent recorded sightings that I have been able to find have come from the hot springs at Reykir, Ölfus when a hverafuglar was witnessed as recently as 1940.

If anyone else has heard of recent reports of these wondrous birds I would be delighted to know the details.

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: A giant whale and an entombed toad

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

Hello again, I`m back with my part of the blog,with another marine story (they seem to be cropping up alot lately) and an old familiar one, the entombed toad.

"On Wednesday, a whale supposed to measure above 80ft was seen of (sic) Rye (1) Bay,going up Channel. About one o` clock in the afternoon of the same day, two whales of the above description were discovered by the Dover fishermen, in Dover roads,which so alarmed them,that they all made for the shore,the fishermen say,that a large sloop was alongside of the fish going up Channel,when one of them spouted up such a large quantity of water as to preclude them from any the least sight of the vessel." Macclesfield Courier December 5th 1812 p.3

"A few days ago,some workmen,employed in a quarry in Byker-hill (2) on splitting a block of freestone, about 3 tons weight, found a live toad in the centre of it." Macclesfield Courier December 12th 1812.p.3

(1) There is a Rye in E.Sussex
(2)There is a Byker today near Newcastle-upon-Tyne