In which Jonathan and the cat commit image fraud

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/19/is-100ft-long-snake-mythical-borneo-monster-or-just-a-photo-fake-115875-21137187/

The Daily Mirror describes the latest rather dubious giant snake photographs from Borneo (see yesterday's post) as a "clever piece of photo editing". Having too much time on my hands and a copy of adobe photoshop I decided to see just how clever a piece of photo editing it actually was.

12:20 I open Adobe Photoshop and Google Earth
12:22 I find Bideford Bay on Google Earth and press the "print screen" button on my keyboard
12:24 The cat comes into the office and jumps on the keyboard
12:25 I swear at the cat
12:26 I start again
12:28 After a bit of mucking about I have the following image as a *.jpg on photoshop

12:30 I then type the words 'swimming snake' into Goodle.com/images and find This URL
12:32 I download this picture

12:34 The cat comes back in and jumps onto my lap. We make friends again and I waste several minutes fussing him
23:36 Using the magic eraser tool I do a fairly half-arsed job at getting ridof the background and produce this:
12:38 With the cat still on my knee I paste the snake image onto the image of the Torridge Estuary. I then blur it a little bit, and making sure that I have an opacity of about 40% I resize the snake and cover it with a pasted image of the muddy water.
12:40 We have this - conclusive proof that giant snakes swim up and down the River Torrisge between Bideford and Appledore.

If I had paid more attention to the job in hand, rather than only taking twenty minutes (most of which was spent alternatively playing with the cat, or remonstrating him for his sins) I could have done a much more convincing job.

So If the Daily Mirror really thinks that the Borneo image is a "clever piece of photo editing" can I have a job in the Art Department? I am, sure that they pay more than I earn at the moment..

RICHARD FREEMAN: Giant Snakes (for goodness sakes)

The recent supposed aerial photographs of the 'Borneo Monster' HERE are clearly badly photo shopped fakes. The first shows a South American anaconda, the second looks like it has actually been drawn on, rather than showing a real object.

There are massive snakes in Borneo. The reticulated python can reach 33 feet plus. The South American anaconda is likely to get even larger, with 50 foot specimens being well within the realms of possibility. Isn't it fishy that these particularly crappy looking fakes come hot on the heels of the discovery of Titaniboa, the 43 foot fossil boa?

When snakes at least as large as Titaniboa are still reported today, it is indeed galling when time is wasted with such crude fakes.

In 2007, we travelled to Guyana on the track of the giant anaconda. Drought prevented us from reaching Corona Falls - the remote lake that was its lair.

We want to return this year to search for the monster and are currently looking for funding.

If anyone out there can help, we would be grateful. Forget the fakes, let’s look for the real deal!

GUEST BLOGGER RICHARD HOLLAND: A Wide World of Man-Monkeys

The CFZ blogging family would like to introduce you to a new guest blogger: Richard Holland, editor of Paranormal Magazine, and all round good bloke. He intends to be a regular visitor tho these pages, and I am sure that you will all agree with me that this will be jolly good news for all of us..

Of the many hobbies I inflict on my ever-dwindling bank balance is my enthusiasm for bound volumes of wonderful Victorian/Edwardian magazines like The Strand, Pearson’s and Pall Mall, stuffed full as they are of Golden Age illustration, crime and spook stories and contemporary commentary.

One of my favourites is Wide World, which first started publishing in the 1890s. Wide World was packed with adventure stories from the exploration (and exploitation) days of the British Empire, as sterling chaps with enormous moustaches forged their way through jungle, desert and mountainous wastes encountering indigenous peoples and, yes, monsters on their way.

I’ve republished several edited highlights from my Wide World collection in the ‘Unearthed’ section of Paranormal Magazine, many of a cryptozoological nature (or supernature). Two of these were devoted to what the editorial chaps of the early 1900s liked to refer to as ‘Man-Monkeys’. ‘The Hunt for the Man-Monkey’ retold an expedition to Borneo, which included the celebrated Rajah Brooke, to capture a Mai-as, described as an ‘extraordinary animal emphatically distinct from any other variety of the ape family [and] gifted with a really high degree of intelligence’.

Needless to say, rather than capture this splendid hominid, they end up shooting one (the accompanying illustration of the savage-looking beast was a Rider Haggard-style treat). ‘The dead body of the monkey having been skinned and the flesh removed,’ we are informed, ‘the skeleton was brought back to England, where it remains in the possession of the owner of the yacht who had organized this expedition.’ Frustratingly, neither the name of the owner or his yacht is vouschafed to us, however: does the skeleton still exist, mislabeled maybe in some private collection?

The other story referred to the Mudevar tribe, also known as Tiger People, who inhabited the jungles of the Cardamom Hills near the Southern India Malabar Coast. These hairy, dwarfish, ape-like people were entirely new to me. Like the Mai-as of Borneo, they are described as living in ‘nests’ high up in the trees. They used boluses to kill their game, which would include humans if they were lucky enough to get one. For this reason alone, we are informed by the translator of a hill-tribe chieftain’s yarn, they were cheerfully slaughtered by other tribespeople. I believe their former stamping ground has been largely cultivated now, all that jungle tamed. They must be long extinct, or, if they were human, absorbed into the more general Malabar gene pool.

I would be pleased to learn how well-known the Tiger People are in cryptozoological circles. Does anyone have any more information on them? And what of the Wild Man of Borneo’s missing skeleton? The Wide World does feature stories that are patently untrue or exaggerated, although I suspect the editors at the time may have been unaware of this. But the tales of the Man-Monkeys do have the ring of authenticity to me. So, over to the experts at the CFZ!

Richard Holland, Editor of Paranormal Magazineand Uncanny UK.

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.”