CFZ PEOPLE: Tony Lucas

Happy Birthday to our New Zealand representative. Have a good one dude.

NEW ZEALAND GIANT SQUID.

TONY LUCAS WRITES: This arrived today. Why the hell don't I live in Wellington Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

EMAIL TO MARINE BIOLOGY INTERNATIONAL: Wellington, NZ - Te Papa educator Emma Best and interested children check out the massive squid which was washed up on the Wellington coastline. A spokesman from Te Papa said it was thought the squid had been attacked before washing up on the beach.

The squid is estimated to be about 4m long. Onlookers examine the remains of the squid. Crowds surround the squid at Houghton Bay.

Department of Conservation staff have removed the creature's beak so experts can use it to determine the age of the squid. The massive squid was found by residents at Houghton Bay on Wellington's south coast and experts from Te Papa have estimated it could be up to 4m long. The remains have now been washed out to sea.

Te Papa communications manager Jane Kieg said the creature was in bad shape as it had been attacked and had suffered further damage from being washed up on the beach.

Department of Conservation Wellington area manager Rob Stone initially identified the squid as a colossal squid - the largest type. But Ms Kieg said it was a giant squid. She said colossal squid have short tentacles with swivel hooks and massive fins. But the Wellington beast has long tentacles with teethed suckers and small fins.

Giant squid can grow up to 13 metres in length. Department of Conservation staff had removed the creature's beak and experts at Te Papa would measure it in order to determine the age of the creature.

Ms Kieg said it was however a "fantastic" opportunity to see a giant squid. Te Papa had one of its educators at the beach, explaining the giant squid to people. Because the area is a marine reserve, the remains were left on the beach but were washed backed out to sea about 3pm. Victoria University marine biology student and Island Bay resident Jeannine Fischer said she was in a laboratory this morning when she heard about the squid having washed up on the beach, so went down for a look.

''As far as I know it is very rare. I've never heard of such a big squid washing up so close to Wellington.''

Ms Fischer said the squid, which was white, with pink and white tentacles, was sitting in a stormwater channel.

TONY LUCAS ON THE RADIO

http://www.95bfm.com/assets/sm/195783/3/hour2-2.mp3


Tony Lucas has been incredibly active recently. This is a link to an mp3 of a recent radio interview about his activities and plans for the future.

Whilst on the subject of Tony L, I would like to take this opportunity to say how much I like and admire the fellow. He is in particularly bad health but still manages to continue his researches despite setbacks that would bring other men to their knees. His researches into the wildlife, both cryptic and otherwise, of New Zealand are admirable, and I can think of no-one that I would rather have running the New Zealand office of the CFZ.

It is one of the strange things about the internet and mass global communication that one can get close to people whom one has never met. Tony and his lovely wife are two such people, and I dearly hope that one day I shall make it to New Zealand to meet them in person....

MOA GENDER CONUNDRUM

Tony Lucas sent this:

Where are all the males? - ancient DNA raises questions about extinct moa populations.

A little more than 700 years ago multiple species of the gigantic flightless birds called moas were still running around New Zealand. They ranged over almost the entirety of the North and South Islands, from the coast to the mountain forests, but when the Maori people arrived in the late 13th century the birds were quickly driven to extinction. Within a few hundred years they were entirely wiped out (along with the immense Haast's eagle, which fed on the moas), but fortunately for scientists these birds left behind vast accumulations of bones.
Two such moa graveyards are the Pyramid Valley and Bell Hill Vineyard sites on South Island. Together they record the presence of four moa species (Dinornis robustus, Emeus crassus, Euryapteryx curtus, Pachyornis elephantopus) over the course of the 3,000 years prior to the arrival of the Maori, and these sites presented scientists with the opportunity to recover ancient DNA from a large sample of bones to investigate the population genetics of the birds, including the sex of each individual. As they collected and analysed the genetic data, however, they found something they were not expecting. In each species and across both deposits, females, which are considerably larger and heavier than males, were significantly more common, with an average of five females for every one male out of a sample of 227. What could could account for this disparity?



PICTURE CAPTION: The skeletons of female (larger, background) and male (smaller, foreground) Dinornis robustus, with a pigeon skeleton for comparison. From Allentoft et al 2010

Read On..

TONY LUCAS WRITES

Hi Jon,

Thought you would be interested in this for the bloggo. There is a new mutation turning up in New Zealand captive bred frogs: Golden frogs; and a Lutenistic colour is also appearing as well. They are fetching a very high price and apparently breed true.

Tony Lucas

TONY LUCAS WRITES WITH SOME POTENTIALLY EXCITING NEWS

Received a report the other day of the sighting of a suspected moa chick - no, not historical: it only happened three years ago.

Now don't get all excited - I know I was too.


I'm looking into the possibility of it being an escaped emu as there are a lot in this country now. I wish I had the funding to shoot down there and take a look but that's impossible. If it does turn out to be a chick this will be the first one seen in decades and may well prove a healthy breeding population of these birds DOES still exist.

Kindest of regards
Tony Lucas

SADLY NOT THAT GIANT GECKO

Yesterday morning there was an email in my inbox from Tony Lucas. Well, I always like getting emails from Tony; he is an eminently reasonable cove and furthermore, someone who on the whole is on the same wavelength as me. He is also interested in nuts and bolts natural history as well as crypto stuff (like I am) and we are both more or less disabled. But this email promised even more:

GIANT GECKO DISCOVERED ON MAINLAND,

it said.

Bloody Hell, I thought. At last! A living specimen of Hoplodactylus delcourti has been found. For those of you not in the know (and it has to be said that the story has been mentioned serveral times in these hallowed pages), H.delcourti is an enormous gecko known from one specimen now in a French museum. It is the largest gecko known to man and has been linked in many people's minds with a legendary beast known from Maori folklore. It is probably the Holy Grail for most New Zealand herpetologists.

So has it been rediscovered? Well, no. The lizard in question is a much smaller species that has not been seen on the mainland since about 1920, but it is an interesting story and well done to everyone involved.

YOWIE SIGHTING?

Tony Lucas sent us this:

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2010/04/video-yowie-encounter-blue-mountains.html

Now, Richard and I watched it, and to be quite honest we didn't see a bloody thing. Are we just being dumb?

CAN YOU HELP TONY LUCAS?

Jon,


I'm working on an extensive article about the possibility advanced some time ago by a New Zealand palaeontologist that there could still be a population of smaller variety mosasaurs off the coast of New Zealand, breeding. I hope to go into this more deeply; biogeographical possibility, prey sustainability, isolation, etc. The area that I mostly need help in is sighting reports of mosasaur-like creatures around Australia (preferably the eastern coast) and New Zealand waters.

I would be grateful if you could put the word out and also get a nudge to any other researchers out there. I have quite a few of accounts of these creatures but having more will only bolster my argument. When complete I should be quite happy to hand it over to you for publication in the yearbook if you think it deems such.

Kindest of regards to you and the crew, and I certainly hope you and your dear wife have both recovered from your overseas trip.

Tony Lucas

TONY LUCAS SENT THIS...

Being employed to catch snakes in New Zealand, one of the few countries in the world with no snakes, may seem to have limited potential as a career option. Indeed, we don't have full-time snake catchers, but a small group of handlers is trained to deal with venomous snakes should one ever breach our biosecurity defences.

Snakes are excluded by law from entering New Zealand. There are no exceptions, which is why they are not found in zoos, research establishments or accompanying visiting entertainers. Read On...

TONY LUCAS: How do you prove a Negative?

I've got to be honest: how often do you hear witnesses say, when reporting their finds, "it maybe it's the last of its kind"?


Now, in New Zealand this phrase could quite possibly never be truer. Each year reports become fewer and fewer, and a lot of of the older generation clutch these memories with dread and fear as if admitting they had witnessed something that would cast derision on their validity as a man. It's all very well to prove something exists if it is already there: sightings, physical evidence, photos etc.

• But what if it is not?


• What if it is already dead and extinct?


• Is there such a thing as a Paleo-cryptozoologist?
  
  

To date there are no photographs of any of New Zealands cryptids unless you count Mr Freaneys moa (?) photo; no plaster casts or other physical evidence. So what do we have? Often third-hand accounts, reluctant witnesses, suspicious indigenous people who know tales but refuse to pass them on. Well, you say, look further afield. Well, my reasons for my research were not for money, personal power or anything like that; it was for national pride - our people need to know this hidden part of their heritage, a part very much extinct I fear and will be lost to the mists of time as just another rumour.

TONY LUCAS ON THE RADIO

As regular reader will know our head honcho in New Zealand is Tony Lucas. He is a good bloke, and recently appeared on a NZ online radio show talking about his work as New Zealand's foremost cryptozoologist.

You can listen to the show at the link below:

http://accessradio.org.nz/nzpi_paranormal_radio_show.html

its the show marked NZPI 26-08-09 59 min

TONY LUCAS HAS A NEW WEBSITE

One of the most important things about the CFZ is how it has become a very real community, even though it is one that only meets up in person occasionally. You may be thinking that this is leading up to another shameless plug for the Weird Weekend and another last chance to buy tickets and you would be partly, but not completely right.

Sad to say, some of the CFZ family won't be here this year. Although Redders is coming over from the U.S. and is being driven down courtesy of Dr Dan, there are several of our compadres in foreign lands who we would love to have with us, but sadly won't be able to make it...

...such as Tony Lucas. He is a bloody good bloke and a dear friend who is CFZ head honcho in New Zealand (well, we couldn't really give that position to my old pal Roo Besley who runs a house of ill repute in Napier), and he has just launched his new website. You can find it here:

http://nzcryptozoology.ucoz.com/#

And he also has a blog:

http://grainofsandnz.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

TONY LUCAS: Is Bigfoot a liver lover?

As a lot of you are well aware I generally consider myself a behavioural cryptozoologist as due to being disabled I cannot get out in the field and get my hands into it as I would like to.
So like some of us here at the CFZ family, I tend to angle more to research.

I generally like to try and get into the animal's head: its behavioural patterns; why it does what it does.

I was sitting down, going through the vast flood of new cryptozoological information, which seems to arrive each day, when I came across an article entitled 'Bigfoot enjoys Deer Liver'.
Now I started to contemplate this, maybe due to the fact that personally I can't stand liver. Why leave a perfectly good deer carcass and just take the liver? I then decided to pester my local medical centre (God bless them, they are used to unusual requests from me) and found out that the liver is extremely high in iron, so it is quite possible Bigfoot's metabolism burns iron quickly and the creatures are prone to anaemia.

It's also extremely high in protein and low in fat; in fact red meat itself ranks second to liver, followed by poultry and fish. Perhaps they eat it because they enjoy it, or perhaps they use it medicinally to treat anaemia among themselves.

Could this be a sign of Bigfoot actually practising some form of medicinal help for perhaps an ailing creature? Only taking what is needed and leaving the rest as unnecessary?

As we all know, women going through pregnancy also generally need a lot of iron. Could these be being taken to bolster a pregnant female in preparation for birth? At this stage we don't know, but we do know animals lacking in iron, for whatever reason, will generally seek out liver above anything else.

THE NZ BEACH BODY

A few days ago we posted some pictures sent to us by Tony Lucas of a body on a beach in New Zealand, and included the portentous words that "in our opinion it was no placental mammal known to science". We were hoping that the marching morons of t'internet (or `teh internetz` as it is more widely known to these people) would jump upon the bandwagon and start shouting nonsense about alien bodies and Government conspiracies.

True, a few did just that, but most of you (golly, what sensible and erudite readers we have) correctly noted that it was the body of an oppossum. Something both Tony and we had agreed on before we posted it. The clue was in our line about PLACENTAL mammals.

However, this is a second body from another NZ beach, and we include it because it is bright blue. It is probably another opposum, but this time we honestly do not know....

THE BIG THREE: Tony Lucas

A FEW WEEKS AGO WE ASKED VARIOUS BLOGGO REGULARS TO TELL US WHAT WERE THEIR TOP THREE FAVOURITE MYSTERY ANIMALS... AND WHY


Tony Lucas is one of our New Zealand representatives. We first published his work in the 2008 Yearbook when he wrote us an overview of New Zealand cryptozoology....



1. New Zealand laughing owl.

I choose the New Zealand laughing owl-Sceloglaux albifacies as the first of my three because the evidence for a remnant population of these maniacal little residents of the forest is so strong.
Although the last trace of this little bird was a dead specimen found in July 1914 at the Blue Cliff Station in Canterbury, there have been over the years possible calls heard occasional pellets and most tellingly possible egg fragments which seemed to indicate that the species may still exist d and still remains unsighted.

There are many remote and unexplored areas of open, rocky high country in the Southern Alps which is habitat that these birds dwelled in.

This moderately sized species of owl could easily have been driven back into the high country of the South Island and could remain undetected with very little difficulty.

Regrettably I feel there is no hope however the North Island subspecies exists as from the records the last of these were kept in captivity by Mr. W.W.Smith in Wellington and died somewhere around 1883.

2. Thylacine-Tasmanian Tiger

It is very likely that the species still exists as there have been numerous reports of sightings, close encounters, tracks, droppings, pictures and video footage.

There have even been reports of adults with young indicating that somewhere a breeding population still exists.

When you get this much evidence being presented from a supposedly extinct creature you have to start asking yourself whether it truly is extinct.

There are no shortage of eyewitnesses and quite a few people believe in certain areas these animals definitely still roam about, not only in Tasmania but also still on parts of the mainland.
My personal theory is that these animals do still exist and have retreated further back into the bush after being made scared of humans by the relentless hunting that went on during the 1930s.

There are vast areas of both the mainland and Tasmania with ample habitat and enough abundant food resources to easily support remnant populations.
Their reclusiveness is probably the only thing that saved a remnant population from being wiped into extinction by overenthusiastic hunters and direct competition from the introduced Dingo.

My third of the big three is a somewhat unusual choice but seems to have a lot of backing.

3. New Zealand Mosasaurs.

There have been numerous reports of sea monsters around New Zealand waters, all described as having a Crocodilian like head, long slender body and flippers.

A New Zealand paleontologist, Alan Marks presented a theory that a small population of these creatures live in the depths of the Pacific Ocean and range occasionally into the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

With New Zealands deep coastal waters there are enough species such as the giant squid that could provide more than enough food for these marine reptiles.

One of the more fascinating tales of this creature comes from researcher Sam Yivano; apparently in 2008 two of these creatures rammed and attack a boat belonging to Ivan Levy for about an hour.

The unfortunate and bewildered man returned to the shore with a very wrecked and battered boat.

Were these a breeding pair protecting an area they were breeding in? Or was the boat mistaken for a whale, another possible food source for these creatures? We may never know but something did tear up Mr. Levy’s boat. This is only one story of many of crocodilian headed monsters and their encounters with humans.

Like most marine mystery creatures they no doubt are very well attuned to the noise of boat engines and have no doubt learned to avoid them and stay out of the way of shipping lanes.
Perhaps somewhere in the dark waters around New Zealand this large reptilian predator cruises the oceans even today feasting on giant squid and raising young as they have done for millions of years.

Regards
Tony Lucas
New Zealand Cryptozoologist

TONY LUCAS: Moa Feather follow up

Tony Lucas is one of our New Zealand representatives. We first published his work in the 2008 Yearbook when he wrote us an overview of New Zealand cryptozoology....

As you may well remember, if you have been keeping up with the blog, a few weeks ago I wrote to Jon regarding a Moa feather that was for sale on the Internet auction site "Trademe".

I decided to conduct an investigation into whether this was a genuine Moa feather, which if it was would have proven the Moa was still around in the late 1800s, or whether it was a very similar Emu feather. After some investigation I found an anomaly at the bottom shaft of the feather which seemed to indicate a secondary feather which would definitely indicate emu as it is the only bird in the world which has this double feather configuration. My suspicions aroused I tell the seller to take it to the museum which they did and visually identified it as Moa, they also wanted to send a small portion away to be DNA tested. I advise the seller strongly to do so which he duly did.

I decided to follow this up the other day and wrote to the seller, with the merest slimmest of hope that it was indeed a Moa feather.

I received his reply last night, and regrettably for both him, he was trying to get the money together to buy a house, and I, it turned out to be a 100-year-old emu feather.

The one thing I've learned from this is not to take things at face value but to investigate everything thoroughly, there was apparently an American buyer interested as well as a large auction house.

So hopefully through a little research I have saved all parties involved a lot of embarrassment.

Who knows perhaps the next item to appear may well be the genuine thing, what a discovery that would be. Until then I'll continue to keep my eyes open but not take things at face value.

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!

TONY LUCAS DOES IT AGAIN

How does the bloody man do it? It is becoming ever more obvious that various members of the CFZ bloggo team have what Charlie Fort would have described as "wild talents". Richard Muirhead and Nigel Wright (for example) no sooner have to walk into a public library before they unearth a hitherto unsuspected treasure trove of data.

Max Blake is equally lucky with tropical fish shops, and it seems that our resident New Zealander Tony Lucas has a similar Lovejoyesque power over auction houses.

Cop a load of this.

He wrote to me saying that this was something in which we might be interested, and the answer is that of course we are (even though we still have some financial problems, even though the worst have now been alleviated).

The description is as follows:

This auction is for some RARE Moa Fragments and other items found Ex Wairau Boulder 28 April 1956 By Jim Eyles who was one of New Zealands best Archeologists at the time.

There are 29 pieces all up. There is a card inside the box which reads Odd Moa Hunt Fragments Etc Ex Wairau Bar (Jim Eyles) Hawkeye 28 April 1956 29 pcs. Jim Eyles was a well known Moa Hunter. Later in life he was the Director of The Nelson Provincial Museum. Please feel free to ask me any questions you have regarding this item and i will answer them as best as I can.

To describe Jim Eyles as a "well known moa hunter" is an understatement. To quote wikipedia:

James Roy (Jim) Eyles OBE (1926–2004) was a New Zealand archaeologist.
Born in 1926, Jim spent his early years living with his family at the Wairau Bar near Blenheim where, in 1939 as a schoolboy, he discovered early human skeletons and associated artefacts including necklaces, stone tools and moa egg. Jim discovered several more burials on the bar, and assisted with the exacavtions carried out by Roger Duff from the Canterbury Museum. The site is regarded as one of the oldest and most important archaeological sites in New Zealand.

So this item is actually quite an important piece of cryptozoological history. We have no money, but of course we are bidding on it. If anyone fancies donating a few quid towards the purchase price we would be very grateful..

A FEATHER BRAINED SCHEME

Tony Lucas, who is rapidly becoming my antipodean right-hand man wrote to us this morning. He found the following item on an auction site in New Zealand:

"I've had this guy get in touch with me and is selling a Moa feather.

The guy rang and spoke with me tonight, the feather, that was in a first edition Maori bible that had been locked in a metal trunk since 1900, has apparently been authenticated by Te Papa Museum in Wellington as the genuine article. I was wondering if the CFZ museum would be interested in purchasing this item"

Well, despite the fact that we are skinter than we have been in a long time, with enormous printer, garage and council tax bills on our plate, I am interested, yes.

But then came a second e-mail:

"Just done some research and Dont think this is a Moa feather, if you look at the bottom of the second pic of the feather you can see the split where asecond spine came off, Yes there were two feathers attached,The only bird to have such feathers after extensive research is - You guessed it an EMU.Sorry to get your hopes up Its not the genuine article by the look of it soforget it.Feel a bit of a dumb ass now. Still who knows one day perhaps the real thing."

Tony, I will not have ANYONE badmouth members of my team. Not even the members themselves. You have done a remarkable piece of detective work, and deserve to be congratulated, so be warned that I will be really cross with you if you EVER describe yourself as a `dumb ass` again.....