RICHARD MUIRHEAD ASKS...

Could this be a report of a Hungarian Reed Wolf?

A STRANGE ANIMAL
In the Liype Schanmburg forest at Turba, in Hungary, a peculiar animal was recently shot, which was at first supposed to be a very powerful fox. The Vienna zoologists, however, have shown that it is a cross between a wolf and a fox. Its form is that of a fox, but it has the colour of a wolf. Dundee Courier 28-1-1881.

WHO'SE AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD......

Thanks to Lindsay and to Paul W. for letting me know of BBC reports of a wolf in Scotland. The BBC are carrying reports that Mr McDowell, 38, – who is a manager at the government’s Housing Access department – reported “I was just having a walk alongside the park when I saw a bit of commotion with the younger calves in the field just across from me. I saw something circling the cattle – but at first I thought it was only the farmer's dog or perhaps a fox. But then the larger cattle began charging right down the field after this animal. I think it had been after the calves. It came right through the fence onto the road – the cattle were stamping their feet and roaring around behind the gate. A small blue car came down the road and slowed down – if it hadn’t slowed down it would have hit the animal.

I was about 30 yards away when I realised it wasn’t a fox – and it was way too big for a dog. It was only when I saw the size of it I knew it was a wolf. It was silver with a sort of black dark streak along the back and it had quite a bushy tail".

I will be interested to see how the story develops, but before anyone gets excited I would ask them to remember what transpired earlier this year when people claimed to have seen a bear in Suffolk's notorious Rendlesham Forest. Caveat Lector, dudes.

http://deadlinescotland.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/8892-1689/

Richard Muirhead (slight return): Reedwolves and swarming blues

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.

However, as you may have guessed his natural habitat is the library. This past few weeks, for the first time since I have known him, he has been out in the field doing research. He has been working with a butterfly conservation organisation in Hungary, and whilst he was out there he has carried out a few cryptozoological tasks for us.

He telephoned the other day, excitedly telling me aboiut a swarm of blue butterflies he had seen; well over a thousand silver studded blues (Plebeius argus). Such swarms used to be common in Britain, (as you can see from the second extract this week from L Hugh Newman's seminal Living with Butterflies (1967) which is posted on the left.

However, to the best of my knowledge they have not been seen in Britain for many years, so Richard was unsurprisingly excited.

But it wasn't just butterflies that attracted his attention. About ten minutes ago he telephoned me from a train just outside Brussels - he is on his way home, and he said that he had some interesting news about the reedwolf, about which I first read in Karl Shuker's Extraordinary Animals Revisited. Karl wrote:

"The Hungarian reedwolf was a small, mysterious form of wild dog existing in Hungary and eastern Austria until the early 1900s. In 1856, M. Mojsisovics named it Canis lupus minor, treating it as a small wolf, but the precise nature of its identity remained a debated issue long after that. In the late 1950s, this extinct enigma inspired a series of interchanges in various journals between Hungarian researchers Drs Eugen Nagy and János Szunyoghy. Nagy staunchly supported Mojsisovics’s reedwolf classification, but Szunyoghy categorized it as a larger-than-normal version of the common jackal (in 1938, Dr Gyula Éhik had actually renamed it C. aureus hungaricus). However, the detailed studies of Prof. Eduard-Paul Tratz with the handful of museum specimens of reedwolf in existence provided persuasive evidence for believing that it had been an unusually diminutive race of wolf after all, an identity that has since won widespread acceptance."

It was difficult to make out what Richard was saying. There were train noises, crackling sounds, and he was on a mobile 'phone three countries away, and I am going deaf. But it appears that the controversy continues, over whether it was jackal or wolf, and also that the use of the past tense is not really justified. For, as far as I can gather, sightings continue to the present day.

More news when I get it (and BTW, Richard asked me to tell you all that Muirhead's Mysteries will be back next week)

Totally coincidentally, our new buddy Scotty Westfall over on the Wildlife Mysteries blog which gets better and better each day, has just published an article on the reedwolf which can be found at the link below:

http://wildlifemysteries.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/what-is-the-reed-wolf/

MORE FROM MUIRHEAD....

Richard Muirhead has been down the library again.

As regular readers will know, 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.

Today he writes saying that in his opinion the following two new stories are not thoroughly unusual,but they do border on being strange. The first, the Scottish wolf, found dead on the east coast of Scotland,dates from April 1811 and the giant (ish) snake from August 1811.

"There was lately found at Tyringham,near Dunbar,the dead body of a large Wolf. There were several wounds on its head, and a cut on its neck,and from the appearance of the body it has long bean dead. It was immediately skinned and stuffed, and is in good preservation. The colour is light dusky yellow a black ridge down the back,and nearly white in the belly and breast. It has a sharp snout,erect ears,strong foreparts and a bushy tail. The length from the snout to the tip of the tail is 6 feet. The legs are shorter than usually described. It is conjectured the creature had been on board some of the vessels lately wrecked on the coast."

Macclesfield Courier and Stockport Express or Cheshire General Advertiser (MC & SECGA) April 27th 1811.

According to J.E.Harting the last wolf was killed in Scotland in 1743(1) but M.Carwardine reports a date as late as 1848.(2)

Now here,the giant serpent of Florida:

"A serpent of extraordinary size,has been recently discovered in the Mississippi swamp, a few miles above the village. I have conversed with three gentlemen of unquestioned veracity who have seen it. They agree in their description,which is,in substance that the monster is in body considerably larger than the ordinary man,beautifully stripped with gold and green,rich beyond conception-the length is not accurately known,but is supposed to be from 15 to 23 (or 25,type unclear) feet. One of the gentlemen with whom I conversed shot at it with a rifle,when it emitted a very offensive smell,from which he supposed he had wounded it. However,as it was seen the succeeding day,it is presumable that if it was wounded,the wound was slight.

This is the first serpent of such large size I have heard of." (M.C.& SECGA) August 17th 1811.

(1).J.E. Harting. A Short History of The Wolf In Britain.p.90
(2) M.Carwardine. The Guiness Book of Animal Records. p.42

RICHARD MUIRHEAD.17/2/09

GUNNERKRIGG COURT

http://squadcrypto.blogspot.com/2009/01/mothman-wolves-more.html

I was reading this intriguing post from one of Redfern's new recruits, Regan Lee, the other day..

"Not long ago, my husband “Joe” and I were talking about our childhood “weird” experiences; memories of the paranormal, or whatever word you want to use. Before I said anything, he began to tell me of something that happened to him sometimes when he was a kid. While he was in bed, furry gray “things” would gather around the edges of the bed, and tug at him, taking him away. (Neither of us remember where we went.)

I asked him if they reminded him in a way, of wolves; he said yes. Small nasty little wolf puppet, or stuffed animal-toy beings. He had never heard my story before."

And I was suddenly reminded of one of my daily time-wasting excercises. For over a year now I have been avidly reading a webcomic called Gunnerkrigg Court


Gunnerkrigg Court, the fictional school around which the story revolves, is a mysterious and vast establishment that many characters suspect hides much more than just a school. As the story progresses, it is soon revealed that the school is inhabited by a wide variety of both supernatural creatures—many of which become characters involved in the story's plot—and ultra-modern technology.


The court is built on the edge of a wide chasm, on the other side of which lies the Gillitie Wood, which is inhabited by "etheric" or magical creatures. At the time when the main story takes place, the two sides exist in a kind of truce, with the Court as the realm of science and technology and the Wood the realm of nature and the etheric.



All very well and good you might say, especially as you cribbed the two previous paragraphs from wikipedia, but what has this got to do with Regan's posting? Well, quite a lot. One of the characters is Reynardine, a fox demon who inhabits the body of a cuddly toy owned by the female protagonist of the story. Yes, I know it is a flimsy connection, but it gives me an excuse to plug Tom Siddell's excellent webcomic (now also in book form at last).



It also gives me an excuse to lean on Tom once more to appear at the Weird Weekend, because not only am I a massive fan, but I have been wanting to have a section of the event called "populating an imaginary world with creatures" for ages, and Tom would be perfect to launch it.



So, guys and girls. Go to http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/ and read the story from the beginning. I guarantee that a vast majority of the readers of the CFZ bloggo will become as addicted as I have become. Buy the book from Tom, and tell him that the CFZ sent you.....

WOLVES OF THE RISING SUN

I suppose that it was inevitable considering that Richard and I have lived together on and off for about ten years (although not, thank goodness, in the Biblical sense) and collaborated on various crypto projects for the entire time,that he should be sneakily becoming our foremost Guest Blogger. He has always been obsessed with dogs, so it is not surprising that Derek's marvellous posting the other day on the subject of stray wolves in Illinois prompted not one, but two wolf-related bloggings.

Canis lupus hodophilax

Some of the most fascinating wolves were found in Japan. There were two sub-species of wolf in Japan, the dwarf wolf, Honshū wolf or Shamanu (Canis lupus hodophilax) and the Hokkaido wolf or Ezo wolf (Canis lupus hattai ). The former was the smallest of all wolf species at fourteen inches shoulder hight. It was also the most strinkingly marked wolf species,with grey, white and russet fur. The Shamanu occupied the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū. It was eradicated by a combination of rabies (perhapse were the myth of the mad Hito-okami first arose), that first appered in the area in 1732 and the introduction of fire arms. Troughout the 19th century they were extensivly hunted and the last known individual was killed near Washikaguchi on Honshū in 1905. In Higashi-Yoshino Village in Nara prefecture a requiem for the Shamanu is carred out each year. Despite this there are sightings that sugest the dwarf wolf might still be extant.

A wolf was killed and photographed in Fukui in 1910 but the body was destroyed by fire.

In 1934 a group of farmers northwest of Hongu reported seeing five or six wolves in a pack. After World War II, sightings increased. Forester and writer Ue Toshikatsu, thinks that this makes sense as conscription and war reduced the population of rural areas and produced an increase in the numbers of wild game such as boar and deer.

In 1993, Yanai Kenji published his own story of how, whilst mountaineering with his son and his co-worker, he was startled by a “horrible howling” near Ryogami Mountain in 1964. Soon after hearing the howls, the party encountered a lone wolf. The animal watched them briefly, then fled, leaving the half-eaten carcass of a hare behind.

In March 1994, a conference on the wolf’s possible survival was held in Nara. Over eighty professional and amateur researchers attended. They presented and analyzed reports from seventy witnesses who had seen wolves or heard howls. An accompanying story in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun stated that a shrine in Tottori Prefecture, just northwest of Nara, was discovered in January 1994 to hold a surprisingly recent specimen of a dwarf wolf. This animal may have been presented to the shrine as recently as 1950.

Most sightings have come from the Kii Peninsula. This rugged, mountainous block of land projecting into the Pacific from the southeastern coast of Honshu was the last stronghold of the Shamanu.

Canis lupus hattai

In 1966, a wolf expert named Hiroshi Yagi was driving on a forest road in Saitama prefecture (well north of the Kii) when he spotted what he believed was a wolf. He stopped, and the animal let him get close while he took photographs.

In 8th July 2000 Satoshi Nishida, a high school headmaster was on a camping trip in the mountains of central Kyūshū. He encountered a strange creature and took ten shots of it with an auto focus camera. Two of the best were taken at a range of only three to four meters from the left side of the animal.

Mr Nishida showed the pictures to Dr Yoshinori Imaizumi, a former chief at the National Museum’s animal research divistion and an expert on Japanese wolves. Dr Imaizumi noted several charactaristics inherent to the dwarf wolf including the rounded tip of the tail and the reddish orange fur behind the ears and on the outside of it’s legs. He thought it was a lactating female.

Thus far none of the alledged photos of Shamanu have reached the west.
Modern expeditions have focused on the Kii Peninsula but despite trapping efforts and playing recordings on Canadian wolf vocalizations the dwarf wolf remains elusive.

The Hokkaido wolf was closer in size to the average mainland wolf. It was found on Hokkaido, Shakhalin,the Kuril Islands and the Kamchatka Penninsular. It was thought to have become extinct in Japan around 1889 during the Meiji restoration period. It was deemed a threat to livestock and a bounty was placed on the species. They were erradicated mainly by poison.

Like the dwarf wolf, sightings of the Hokkaido wolf are reported from time to time. It is also thought they may survive in Kamchatka.

There can be no greater metaphore for the ‘progress’ of ‘civilization’ than the transformation of the wolf in Japan from a spiritual creature to noxious vermin as it’s culture became modenized. There is a striking similarity here to the case of the thylacine or Tasmanian marsupial wolf (Thylacinus cynocephalus). It too is offically extinct but continued reports from excellent eyewitnesses such as zoologists and park rangers sugest it still survives. If the same is true for the wolves of Japan it would be a triumph for both conservation and the Japanese nation. Let us hope that the howling gods still lurk in the fastness of the Japanese mountains.

CRY WOLF

I suppose that it was inevitable considering that Richard and I have lived together on and off for about ten years (although not, thank goodness, in the Biblical sense) and collaborated on various crypto projects for the entire time,that he should be sneakily becoming our foremost Guest Blogger. He has always been obsessed with dogs, so it is not surprising that Derek's marvellous posting the other day on the subject of stray wolves in Illinois prompted not one, but two wolf-related bloggings...

Isn’t it odd, our most beloved animal is the dog, but one of our most hated is the wolf?

Has there ever been an animal so maligned as the poor wolf? Once the most widespread carnivore on Earth it has been mostly wiped out were ever ‘cilvilzation’has sprung up.

Wolves send whole communities into states of unbridled and uncalled for panic. The few wolves that were migrating back into Scandinavia from Russia were met with hysteria and panic. Most were killed.

The Florida black wolf was hunted into extinction by 1917. The Mexican wolf’s wild population is now only just above 50 individuals. The Red Wolf has a world population of no more than 300.

Talk is now afoot of reintroducing the wolf, along with the lynx and the brown bear, into the Highlands of Scotland. Vast amounts of land have been set aside and I can only hope this wonderful and exciting project is not scuppered by spineless politicians and the cowardly bleatings of greedy farmers and landowners, not to mention the increasingly ludicrous Health and Safety Mafia.

During her two years as governor of Alaska, the pitifully stupid and revoltingly spiteful, creationist nutcase Sarah Palin proposed a $150 bounty for the severed foreleg of each wolf killed. Last summer, Alaska wildlife agency personnel hunted down 14 wolves in helicopters and shot them. They then entered the wolf’s dens and shot the defenseless pups. All this to ‘protect’ reindeer whose numbers are already artificially high.

To make her know wow appalled you feel about this sickening act of cowardly eco-terrorism follow the links below

Sign this petition!

Contact Palin's office direct and tell the bitch that the CFZ sent you!