GUEST BLOGGER OLL LEWIS: Kraken the code

Guest bloggers are coming out of the woodwork. It seems that young Max had no idea what he started with his guest blog from the other day, because the idea has taken off mightily. Links to the guest blogs are proliferating wildly with the latest being from our good friends at The Anomalist.

Now, for the second time, its the turn of Oll Lewis, the CFZ ecologist (who also happens to be the bloke living in my spare room) with an interesting concept that everything we knew about Krakens might be wrong...




There’s one fact nearly everyone knows about Kraken; it’s a giant squid.

But is it?

The Kraken, like many other cryptids, has suffered from an identity crisis similar in some ways to that of the Afanc (Welsh lake monsters that due to a mistranslation into English were thought to be beavers, never mind how absurd this made legends of afanc being pulled out of lakes by horses and chains) and the chupacabra (which no longer just describes the Puerto Rican goat sucker but is used as a catch all term for legged cryptids in the Americas whether they suck goats or not). Legends and myths about Kraken have been intertwined with misidentified whales, giant squid, turtles and Jörmungandr (the Midgard serpent).

One of the most well known descriptions of Kraken is that of Jacob Wallenberg, who described the creature in modest terms as being no larger than the width of the Swedish island of Öland. Sadly as Öland is 16 km wide this is not really the best size description he could have given for an animal particularly due to the fact that no animal could ever become that big. However, Wallenberg also described the Kraken as the ‘crab fish’ a description more evocative of a gigantic crustacean than of the gigantic cephalopods they have become synonymous with in modern day mythology.

When viewed in conjunction with other aspects of what the Krakens of legend, the earlier crab-fish description makes a lot more sense than trying to shoe-horn them in with the same description as giant squid (as fascinating as giant squid are). The bulk of Kraken tales told in the Middle Ages though to the 19th century concerned sailors or fishermen who would land on an uncharted floating island, settle down and light a fire only to witness the island sink beneath the waves. Often this would wreck their boat leaving the hapless mariners helpless and stranded. It would be very difficult to walk on a gigantic squid, no matter how large due to the consistency of the mantle.

According to legend Kraken were docile creatures and did not actively seek to destroy ships, but ships would be wrecked by the currents and whirlpools caused by their diving and surfacing. Other legends state that fish would feed on the excrement produced by a Kraken so if fishermen fished near to where one of these gigantic crab-fish was known to inhabit, provided they were careful and their boat did not get sunk by the animal, their haul would be much larger than normal.

Looking at the evidence afresh one can put together a quite plausible theory as to what Kraken may be, interestingly kraken are still with us today, and it may be possible to see one. Kraken are small rocky islands only viable at the extreme low tides caused by spring tides, which explains how such islands would have been uncharted. The illusion of sinking is caused by the tide coming in and covering the island which also causes whirlpools, currents and eddies the same way an incoming tide does on rocky beaches. The abundance of fish also supports this theory because the submerged island would provide a reef and a nursery for fish.

The Kraken of legend is most likely not a real animal, but the creatures it was lumped in with by unimaginative artists and later retellings of the tales are. Several cephalopod species, particularly squid can grow to gigantic sizes, although none approaching the legendary size of Kraken. The giant squid, Architeuthis dux, is found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and can be as long as 13 m from the tip of the mantle to the end of its longest tentacles, and is the second largest known cephalopod (the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, of the Southern Ocean being the largest).

CRYPTOZOOLOGY NEWS: IN THE NIGHT ALL CATS ARE GREY

On the excellent Tetrapod Zoology blog our friend and colleague Darren Naish details what may be a new species of leopard sized cat from India’s Western Ghats. The creature was discussed in BBC 2’s series The Natural World in an episode entitled Mountains of the Monsoon Friday 16th of January.

The pogeyam is said to be large, have rounded ears, a long tail and be gray in colour. Environmentalist Sandesh Kadur saw the creature in broad daylight, in the high-altitude grasslands around Anamudi. He set up a camera trap with bait but the pogeyam did not reapprear. Native people have long known of its existance, calling it ‘the cat that comes and goes with the mist’. There are no known photographs of the beast, but this drawing is excerpted from the BBC documentary on the wildlife of the Western Ghats (described above)that can be viewed HERE

It is possible that this is an unkown species or a colour morph of the leopard. Leopards have been known to exibit a wide variety of morphs. However the melanistic morph or black panther is the only commonly occuring one, the others are rare. So if people have been consistently reporting this big grey cat it would arge that this is either a new species or an isolated group of leopards with a dominant gene for this colour. This has occurred in other mammals such as the American black bear that has a white population on Queen Charlotte Island. We await more information with baited breath. With this new cryptid hot on the heels of yeti sightings, the Western Ghats seem like the place to head for.

The pogeyam is not the only new mystery cat to have emerged recently. A small, beautifuly marked cat was photographed by Aldo Sornorza of Fundacion Jocotco at the Jorupe Reserve, Ecuador close to the border with Peru.

This photograph was taken by Aldo Sornoza of Fundación Jocotoco (FJ), who was helping with the construction of the new visitors' lodge on the Jorupe Reserve, Ecuador. It is thought to be a new species of cat, still to be described, which was first seen two years ago in Peru. The Jorupe Reserve, owned and managed by the World Land Trust's partners FJ, is close to the border with Peru and this would be the first known sighting in Ecuador.

If not a new species, the only other cat it could possibly be is an Andean Cat (Oreailurus jacobita), one of the rarest of all the cat species, about which very little is known. Its habitat and appearance make it the small cat analogue of the Snow Leopard. While it is only about the size of a domestic cat, it appears larger because of its long tail and silvery-gray, striped and spotted long fur.

It is believed to live only in the high Andes mountains of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. It has been sighted at elevations of 5,100 meters, well above the tree line. Since it lives only in the high mountains, human-inhabited valleys act as barriers, fragmenting the population, meaning that even low levels of poaching could be devastating. It is often killed in Chile and Bolivia because of local superstition.

Over the last 25 years there have been fewer than 10 documented sightings. Lou Jost, of Fundación EcoMinga, also an Ecuadorian partner of the WLT, is lucky enough to have seen the Andean Cat, not just once but twice. When presented with this photo, Lou commented:

"The ground color is very similar. However I didn't see any strong patterns on the legs, like this one has, though I would not have seen that from the angles I had (just the back and sides of the animal running through dense vegetation, both times). The elevations of my sightings were very high, around 2800-3000 m, and very wet, completely different from Jorupe. I could easily imagine that there is a new species of cat endemic to the Tumbesian zone of SW Ecuador and NW Peru."

CFZ PEOPLE: Let me introduce you to ... Arthur William Wood

Our old friends Claire and Scott Wood have just had a baby - Arthur Willliam Wood, born 15th January at 8.40am. Scott runs SELFS - the South East London Folklore Society, and was a welcome lecturer at the 2004 Weird Weekend. Congratulations guys...........

NEW MARINE SPECIES IN AUSTRALIA:"Check this out!!" says CFZ girls..

Showing a wonderful piece of acausal synchronicity, two CFZ ladies contacted head office to draw our attention to basically the same story. The divine Miss Fulcher (currently of Lincoln), sent us the link to a BBC story explaining how Australian scientists say they have found new marine life off the country's southern coast. They utilised a remote-controlled submarine sent back pictures of deep sea creatures never seen before.

At the same time, an Australian lass called Terri, who is one of Matt Osborne's contacts (as an aside - why are all your contacts invariably beautiful young women Matty?) sent us another link to the same story.

If you want the BBC tv news story, then follow Fleur's link, and if you want a more in-depth written story with a depressing absence of pictures, follow Terri's link, and if you want to know how to have a worldwide network of beautiful girls sending you news stories, ask Matthew Osborne..

Sad News: SIMON WOLSTENCROFT is dead

I am sad to hear that Simon Wolstencroft has died, because for many years we were very close friends.

I am certain that everyone reading this will know that there was bad blood between us at the end, and that there had been for several years, and I feel that it would be completely hypocritical of me to pretend that this never happened. Iggy Tavares, bless him, had tried to mend the rift on several occassions, but it was too deep and too fundamental, and - given the circumstances - was never going to be fixed. But I wanted to mark his passing, and remember the kind, funny, gentle, irreverent, and sweet man who was my friend for five or six years, before the illness took control..

When he was at his peak, he was the best editor that I ever had, and I learned a lot about the editor's craft from him. After he and I parted company I missed him a lot, and always hoped that somehow we would become friends again, although I knew that this was never going to happen. I still miss him, and my heart goes out to Debbie at this sad time.

Cheers old mate... Jon

Shadow of the Thunderbird

While you read this, I shall be in London, doing my bit to further the onwards march of the art world, so once again it is Guest Blogger time for Richard Freeman again.

This time we are publishing an unprinted article from a few years ago on the contentious subject of Thunderbirds - those enormous avians from Native American mythology. Could there be any truth behind the legends?

Have you ever been walking in the countryside on a warm summer’s day and the wind suddenly whips up sending clouds hurtling across the sky? The great dark shadow sweeps over the land and you find yourself freezing like a rat in the shadow of an eagle. Strange, as there is no living bird large enough to carry off a full grown human. Or is there?

Across the USA and Canada Indian tribes tell stories of gigantic birds. They go by many names. The Lakota call them Wakinyan, the Ojibwa knew them as Animikii, and to the Illinois it was the Piasa, the bird that fed on men.

These giant birds were said to be so vast that the sound of their beating wings caused thunder and lighting flashed from their eyes. They are associated with rain fall and storms much like dragons in the Orient. The likeness of these monster birds graces totem poles of the tribes of the Pacific north-west. Rock art often depicts them shooting forth lightning in the form of zig-zag lines. Thunderbirds were said to be so huge that they could feed on whales. Some legends tell of how thunderbirds were perpetualy at war with giant, horned water serpents (strikingly like sea and lake monsters reported from the continent today).

So much for ancient legend; but thunderbirds, or something very like them, are still being reported in modern times.

Claude Schaeffer in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences ecords several accounts of Blackfoot indians seeing thunderbirds in the 19th century. In 1879, the daughter of Red Paint, Mary Jane and her white husband saw four giant birds at Chief Mountain, Glacier National Park, Montana. Big Crow (fitting name) saw a giant bird with a bald head and a feathered ruff about the neck in the southern section of the Blackfoot reserve in 1897.

Another hotspot is Pennsylvania. In 1940 Robert L Lyman saw a thunderbird standing in the middle of Sheldon Road near Coudersport. It took to the air when he got within 150 feet of it showing a 25 foot wingspan.

In March 1957 Hiram M Cranmer watched a thunderbird flying at a hight of 500 feet around Renovo. It’s wingspan was 25-30 feet. Sightings continued in the area for three weeks.

The most infamous encounter with a thunderbird occurred at 8.30 pm on July 25 1977 in a suburban garden in Lawndale, Illinois. Ten year old Marlon Lowe and his friend Travis Goodwin were playing in the Lowe family’s garden when two huge black bird swooped down and attacked the pair. Travis escaped by leaping into a swimming pool but one of the birds grabbed the 65lb Marlon and carried him at a hight of ten feet. His screams alerted his mother who saw her son spiritedly punching at his attacker untill it finaly let go. Marlon’s mother, father and two family friends all witnessed the attack. The birds resembled giant condors. The attack turned Marlon’s ginger hair grey.

Other victims might not have been so lucky. In Febuary of 1895 10 year old Landy Junkins of Webster County, West Verginia was sent on an errand to a neighbour’s house. She never arrived. Her foot prints were found in the snow. They ran off the path and into a field as if she was being chased by something. In the field her tracks seemed to show that she was running in circles as if to avoid something. Then they just ended as if she had been lifted from the ground. No trace of her was ever found.

A few days later bear hunter Peter Swadley was attacked by a bird the size of a man with an 18 foot wingspan. The monster sunk its talons into his back. He was saved by his gallant dog who attacked the bird. The monster turned on the dog and ripped the brave animal appart before flying off with the carcass.

In Tippah County Missouri in 1878 Jemmie Kenny an 8 year old boy was snatched by a huge ‘eagle’ whilst he was plaing marbles. The creature drpped the boy when adults shouted at it but the deep wounds and fall proved fatal to the child.

In 1947 there was an outbreak of livestock killings on farms around Ramore, Ontario, Canada. The culprit was a monster bird with a hooked beak, huge talons and eyes the size of silver dollars.

By 1948 the action had switched to Illinois were 12 year old James Trares reported a grey bird the size of a B-52. If the word of a boy was not good enough, how about a former army colonel. Walter Siegmund saw something very similar on April 4th of that year and conclude that ‘it could only be a bird of some tremendous size’.

These huge birds are oftern mistaken for aeroplanes. In 1948 at Overland Illinois Clyde Smith, his wife, and their friend Les Bacon saw a huge shape in the sky they assumed was a plane untill it began to flap its wings! Then they realized they were observing a bird with a wingspan of over 20 feet. Other witnesses included policemen and flying instructors. Clive Dunn saw the giant bird on 30th April and said that it was as big as a piper club plane.

In May 1961 a New York buissnesman was piloting his light aircraft over the Hudson river when he was buzzed by a bird of stupendous size. He described the encounter in a local news paper as like a fighter plane making a pass.

What could be behind these stories? In the fossil record of the Americas there are a group of gigantic new world vultures known as teratorns. These giant birds evolved to feed on the carcasses of the now extinct mega-fauna of the new world. The largest of them Argentavis magnificens had a 25 foot wingspan. The last of this group of astounding birds supposedly died out around 10,000 years ago along with the mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths and giant cameles on which they fed. But could one species have survived perhapes switching to bison carcasses and the odd human as a food source?

There is a problem with this hypothosis. Teratorns, like all new world vultures, are not closly related to other birds of prey such as eagles and old world vultures. They are actualy more akin to storks! Their feet are not adapted for grasping and killing like those of the thunderbird. In fact, their feet are rather like chicken’s feet!

Maybe we are dealing with an unknown form of giant eagle or perhaps freakishly large individuals of known species. One theory of mine is that known species can, on occation, for reasons that are as yet unclear, throw up giants. Recently a six-foot long panther-like cat was shot in the Australian outback. DNA analysis showed it was a feral domestic cat! For years I have been convinced that many lake monsters are mutant strains of the common eel but grown to 25-30 feet long. If I am correct them perhaps some birds may exhibit this ‘goliath gene’ as well. Only time will tell.

BUJANG SENANG THE KILLER CROCODILE OF BORNEO

Guest Blogger time for Richard Freeman again. Richard has many obsessions, but one of the greatest is crocodiles - especially the really big ones. For no reason whatsoever, therefore, except for the fact that we wanted to, here is an article he wrote some time ago about man-eating crocodiles in Borneo...

The single most infamous man eating crocodile was a giant that terrorized the Lupar River in Sarawak, Borneo. His name was Bujang Senang. The name means “happy bachelor”. So the story goes he was one a much-feared human warrior who had never been defeated in battle. His wife betrayed him to his foes who ambushed and beheaded him. His spirit became a huge crocodile that haunted the Lupar River.

The first attack that grabbed the headlines occurred 26th June 1982. Bangan Anak Pali and his brother Kebir had gone fishing for shrimp. Banang had just been appointed a tribal chief. The 26th began as a happy day for him. At one point a banded kingfisher had flown across their path. In Sarawak this is considered a bad omen, much like a black cat crossing your path. But Bangan was not a superstitious man and the pair continued their trip.

The catch was poor and not wanting to return to the longhouse empty-handed Bangan climbed out of his boat and waded into the water to get closer to the shrimps. His last words to his brother were “Name utani…baka batang”, what’s that…it feels like a log?

It was not a log. Kebir said there was a thundering sound and the river exploded. His brother vanished. What little was left of him was found five days later. His death caused an outcry. Bangan was a popular man. His ancestors fought alongside Charles Brooke, the White Raja who purged the area of headhunters in the 1850s and 1860s. The newspapers ran the headline “Bujang Senang Terror” and a ten year reign of terror began.

The authorities tried to capture the huge beast by bringing in teams of sharpshooters, professional crocodile hunters, and Pawangs, Malaysian maintains. One pawing claimed to have harpooned Bujang Senang but the giant reptile had dragged his boat against the current and dislodged the spear. A six inch hook baited with a dead monkey but their quarry ate the primate and left the steel hook twisted straight. Even a hand grenade inside a dead duck was tried but Bujang Senang was having none of it. In another encounter two grenades were hurled at the crocodile but he escaped unscathed.

The killer avoided them all. But one thing did emerge from the hunt. Witnesses claimed that Bujang Senang had distinctive white markings on his back. Like Moby Dick, the crocodile soon gained an air of legend about it.

But people become complacent. Bujang Senang seemed to have vanished and life began to gradually return to normal. On September the 27, at a place not far from the first attack, Badong Anak Apong, 51 was out gathering shrimps. A massive object rammed his boat tossing him into the water. The object was none other than Bujang Senang. Badong was seized and thrashed about like a rag doll. Horrified on lookers ran to fetch hunters with rifles from a local longhouse. They estimated the crocodile to be some twenty-five feet long. All of them saw the distinctive white back. They perused the killer and fired at it from a range of only ten feet. Despite flinching the crocodile did not seem harmed and submerged taking the body with it.

Soon after a local farmer Bah Jukin bin Tapaling offered a reward of 300,000 rupees for anyone who could kill Bujang Senang but the monster had done his disappearing trick again.

Five years later on February 29th 1989 he struck again. 57-year-old farmer Berain Anak Tungging was repairing his boat in shallow water. Bujang Senang rose from the river and grabbed him about the waist. The sole witness Pandi Anak Lia was only thirty feet away from him. He heard the victim cry out “Help me I’m dying” before he was dragged off.

Some people came forward and claimed that the white backed crocodile had been around and killing for at least thirty years. Tuah Anak Tunchun a 70-year-old man said that a crocodile with the same distinctive markings killed his brother Inch Anak Tunchun in 1962. Others said that Bujang Senang’s first victim was an Iban woman killed around 1960. No one could recall her name. A second Iban called Lindang was killed shortly afterwards. Since 1960 fourteen people had been killed by crocodiles along the Lupar River. Could they all have been the work of one rogue?

On May 21st 1992 thirty year old Dayang Anak Bayang and her elderly parents were returning to their farm after visiting a longhouse. They usually waded across a small tributary but it was high tide and the stream was deep. Her parents decided to wait for low tide but Dayang was impatient and decided to wade across. She crossed once and seeing that the water came up to her chest and no higher, returned for her mother. She did not know that a huge crocodile lay submerged in the water. As she led her mother across
It lunged out of the water and grabbed her. Dayang`s mother beat the reptile with a tree branch but it would not leg go. Her father screamed for help and several farmers raced to the scene. One shot at the crocodile three times but missed.

Dayang`s brother Enie Anak Bayang was fishing downriver when he was informed of the attack. He grabbed a shotgun and paddled to the spot. He saw the crocodile and shot at it twice but did it no harm.

By noon an armed posse of twenty-five were in pursuit of Bujang Senang. They suspected he had taken his victim’s body to a deep pool along the river and stored it among the debris. They broke into two groups. The first kept watch whilst the second erected a fence of wood and bamboo across the lower portion of the river.

Enie found his sister’s body among the debris at 12.15. At 12.30 the crocodile returned to finish it’s meal. Enie shot at its head at point blank range hitting the eye. Thrashing wildly the monster submerged. As it dived another man hurled a spear that lodged in it’s back.

As the tide began to ebb the villagers followed the killer upstream the spear shaft showing above the water. They peppered it with more shots. It reached the fence and smashed through. However a little way along a large tree had fallen across the river and become stuck in the mud blocking the reptile’s way. One man ran ahead and shot at the crocodile’s head and neck forcing it to turn about and go back the way it had come. More spears were hurled but they bounced off. Bujang Senag became enraged and reared out of the water roaring, jaws agape Enie and two friends raised their guns and fired simultaneously into the crocodile’s mouth. Thrashing in a mad frenzy it bit at floating wood and other flotsam and jetsam. Finally it sank its fangs into a tree trunk and expired. The man-eating career of Bujang Senang was over.

It took four hours to haul him ashore. His length had been overestimated. At 19 feet 3 inches and weighing over a ton he was big but certainly no record holder. This species, Indo-Pacific crocodile, can grow to over 28 feet long and weigh well over two tons. The scales on his back were indeed oddly pale. But legends die hard. Many said that the white backed crocodile was not the true Bujang Senang. One man claimed to have seen a black crocodile 35 feet long emerge from the river shortly after Berain Anak Tungging was killed in 1989. Another man said he saw the same creature in the area when Dayang was killed. Many feared that the black giant would start a new killing spree in revenge for it’s smaller kin. An anonymous person wrote to the Sarawak Administrative Office stating

“Bujang Senang cannot by killed by a bullet. Only God can determine his death.”