Texas Cryptid Hunter

Baby Bobs Captured on Video in Bell County

2012-01-29T20:52:00.010-06:00

I managed to get out and check on my game cameras this afternoon. I was three weeks past due on checking on them. This was due mostly to weather related issues. We’ve actually received a fair amount of rain over the last several weeks and I knew the road into the area would be very muddy and that the creek bed in which the cameras are deployed would be full of water. I didn’t want to get my truck stuck and walking that creek while it was full of cold, rushing water didn’t appeal too much to me so I decided to bide my time until things dried out a bit.

Finally, I got to the point that I couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to give it a go this weekend. The road in was still very soft but passable so I made my way to the creek. The water was still flowing but had receded enough so that I could traverse the creek bed so in I went.

I only had three cameras operational for this last set. You may recall that one of my Cuddeback cameras was submerged in rising waters during a very heavy rain event last month. I’ve cleaned it up but still don’t have it working at this point (I did purchase a used Cuddeback that I placed out today so I’ll have four cameras deployed for this next set). Since there has been water in the creek bed most of the last six weeks I was not expecting as many pictures as usual from the location. It turns out I was right; however, several of the photos I did capture more than made up for the lack of quantity.

While none of the pictures captured any unusual animals this time around there were some outstanding shots. I particularly liked one coyote shot and another of a great blue heron who were both walking the creek. These two photos, while very nice, were far from the stars of the set, however. That honor belonged to three bobcat kittens and their mother.

Three bobcat kittens (Lynx rufus) appear in the lower left-hand corner of the photo below. You can see the eye-shine of one of the kittens clearly and a second slightly to the left of the first. It appears to be descending the bank and moving toward the creek. The third kitten is not easily discernible in the photo but can clearly be seen in the video that follows the photo.

When I saw this photo and realized I had managed to get these “baby bobs” on video, I was thrilled. I also wondered where the mother might be. It would not be like a bobcat mom to allow her kittens to wander too far out of her sight. It didn’t take too long to figure out that mom was right there all along. The video below shows the mother jumping up into the tree to inspect my camera. She is so close to the camera that she appears a solid, ghostly white; however, there is no mistaking her identity. My guess is that she was with the kittens all along, maybe a bit closer to and almost underneath the camera location, and became aware of the camera once it fired. This is especially interesting as this is a digital, supposedly silent, camera that utilizes infrared and does not use a flash. What alerted her to its presence is a bit puzzling. Regardless, become aware of it she did and she quickly jumped up onto a branch to check it out and make sure it was not a threat to her young. She inspected the camera briefly, turned, and jumped down out of the tree. This was the only time I saw her or her kittens during this set.

The presence of bobcat young in late December is a bit unusual. I’m certainly not going to try to pass myself off as an expert on bobcats but from what I’ve learned they usually give birth in April or May. The gestation period is 60-70 days. So, this means that this female was mating in September or October. Normally, mating takes place from February through March. Obviously, everything happened earlier than that for this female. The whole cycle was accelerated for some reason. Could this be due to environmental conditions or is this bobcat family just one of the exceptions when it comes to the normal reproductive cycle of the species? I have captured quite a few photos of different bobcats over the last few months. Now that I’ve seen the female with kittens, it is likely that some of the individuals photographed were males following her around in the hopes of mating.

This location continues to yield some great images and interesting data. The previous set yielded images of river otters (never before documented in Bell County) and this set gave me images proving that at least some of the bobcats found here are mating and giving birth much earlier than the expected norm for the species.

I wonder what the next set of photographs will show?

Exotic Lionfish Invading Texas Coastal Waters

2012-01-28T16:25:00.007-06:00

When you think of the various dangerous fish that swim the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, images of tiger sharks, bull sharks, stingrays, and jellyfish probably come to mind. The exotic lionfish (Pterois volitans) would likely not jump to the top of your list of dangerous Gulf species. Unfortunately, that may change soon.

The lionfish is a beautiful animal that is characterized by reddish-orange, black, and white stripes, flashy pectoral fins, and venomous spikes. Adults average about 12” in length and are native to the waters of the Indo-Pacific. The lionfish is prized by aquarium enthusiasts due to its distinct and colorful pattern.

Three different lionfish have been spotted at Flower Garden Banks National Maritime Sanctuary. The sanctuary is east of Galveston Island and approximately 100 miles south of the Texas-Louisiana border. The spot is very popular among divers and fishermen due to the abundance of marine life living in close proximity to the coral reefs found there. That abundant marine life may now be in danger.

Lionfish are voracious predators that live near structure (coral reefs, oil rigs, shipwrecks, etc.) and feed on an extremely wide variety of creatures including important commercial fish like grouper and snapper.

Emma Hickerson, a research coordinator at Flower Garden Banks said, “They are pretty indiscriminate. They eat fish, crabs, shrimp, everything.”

The species has been known to completely take over reefs and other structure and virtually wipe out other species living there.

“What we have seen in the Tortugas and the Florida Keys is that they dominate and there are no small fish left,” Hickerson said.

The presence of lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico could have a domino effect. One such effect pointed out by Lance Robinson, executive director of coastal fisheries for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, was that the species feeds on parrotfish. Parrotfish are vital to the health of coral reefs as they eat algae. If the parrotfish disappear then there is a very real possibility that the algae will grow unabated and smother the coral. It is scenarios like this that have had the attention of organizations like the TPWD and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees Flower Garden Banks, for the better part of 12 years.

Officials have watched as the lionfish’s territory has expanded. The species, first spotted off of south Florida in the 1990’s has moved up the Atlantic coast as far as Long Island, infested the Caribbean, and spread to the Gulf coast. Lionfish have been found off the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, northern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Cuba.

Hickerson pointed to the presence of the Gulf’s many oil rigs as an aide to the lionfish’s quick migration.

“Not only are there reefs for them to live around, but you have the added dynamic of up to 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf, which provides them places to live. That’s how they ‘island hop’ around,” he said.

Experts feel that there is little possibility that the lionfish will not continue to spread and infest the Texas coast. Beside the favorable habitat found in Texas waters, there are no natural predators of the lionfish to be found here.

“There is nothing to keep them in check,” Robinson said.

So, how did this happen? As with other invasives, the problem stems from issues within the exotic pet trade. In this case, it is the aquarium trade.

“They are pretty fish, that’s why they are popular for aquariums,” Robinson said.

Hickerson adds, “They really are quite pretty. They just don’t belong here.”

Efforts to control the lionfish population will likely have to be multi-faceted. They are good to eat and have a white, mild flesh that is quite tasty. Officials hope that a market will develop for the meat of the lionfish. This won’t be enough alone, as divers can’t easily get to the depths where lionfish live (they’ve been observed as far down as 1,000 feet). Direct removal of the species and the development and management of a healthy population of natural predators will also have to play large roles. Along these lines, park officials at the Roatan Marine Park in Honduras have attempted to train sharks to feed on lionfish in an effort to control the Carribbean population of the species. Results thus far have been mixed. Likely, the only way the lionfish population will be kept under control will depend on whether or not a natural predator steps up that feeds off the larvae and young of the species. Without that the population could skyrocket.

Due to the depths at which lionfish usually live, there is only a minimal risk to swimmers. Divers and fishermen are more at risk, however, as lionfish have a nasty and aggressive disposition and are extremely territorial. Cases of aggression against divers have been documented. Lionfish venom produces systemic effects such as vomiting, fever, and sweating. Generally, while extremely painful, the sting of the lionfish is not fatal to humans though there have been a handful of deaths attributed to the venom of the species.

Even if population control efforts are largely successful it appears the lionfish is here to stay. The successful invasion of lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico once again points to the need for much stricter regulations on the exotic pet trade. Invasives like zebra mussels, snakehead fish, Burmese pythons, and even the wild burros of west Texas are wreaking havoc on ecosystems that have no defense against them. We’ve got to get this problem under control.

There is just too much to lose if we do not.

Source: “Invasive species on the prowl along Texas Coast,” Galveston Daily News, 28 January 2012.

Still Here

2012-01-27T22:06:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to touch base and let everyone know I'm still here.

This week has been crazy busy and I just have not been able to get any writing done. It has all been good stuff, thank goodness, keeping me tied up but it has hampered my blogging activities.

Part of what has kept me busy is looking into a black panther story. I will be posting that write up very soon. It will include a very intriguing photo.

I'll also be getting out to check on my game cameras this weekend. I am about two weeks past due on refreshing batteries and checking memory cards. I can't wait to see what these cameras have captured in this latest set.

So, I am still here and will be getting back up to speed as quickly as possible. Hang in there with me.

More soon...

Monocled Cobra on the Loose in Brownwood, Texas

2012-01-22T19:29:00.006-06:00

Here’s a scary story that illustrates one of the issues created by the exotic animal trade.

KCEN, an NBC affiliate out of central Texas, is reporting that a deadly sunset monocled cobra (Naja kaouthia)is on the loose in Brownwood, Texas. Brownwood is a town of roughly 20,000 people about 150 miles to the southwest of Dallas.

Nick Ferguson, the animal control officer in Brownwood, said the 12-16 inch long cobra escaped from its enclosure sometime last Monday. The owner had been looking for the snake for several days when he was arrested on Wednesday on a drug charge (obviously, this guy is a real winner). It was at this time that the authorities became aware of the missing cobra.

Ferguson feels the snake could still be somewhere in the house but can’t be sure of that. It is quite possible the snake has escaped into the surrounding area. A herpetologist from the Abilene Zoo has been brought in to help with the search as has a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department game warden.

I am no herpetologist but from what I can tell the “sunset” monocle is simply a pale, almost albino, monocled cobra. Like other cobras, the monocled cobra is extremely venomous and dangerous. The venom is neurotoxic in nature attacks the nervous system of the prey. This leads to flaccid paralysis and possible death due to respiratory failure.

Let’s hope that the snake has not left the home of the owner and that the authorities are able to get it rounded up quickly.

Source: http://www.kcentv.com/story/16572262/rare-cobra-at-large-in-small-texas-town#.Txyr4DNYj5E.facebook

The Wisdom of Aldo Leopold

2012-01-19T22:46:00.002-06:00

"There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot...like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech."

- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Most Recent European Great Ape Discovered; Provides Clues to the Adaptability of the Great Ape Diet

2012-01-15T22:04:00.030-06:00

According to an article on the Science Daily website, a team of scientists from Germany, Bulgaria, and France have discovered a 7 million year old hominid molar that proves that great apes survived much later in Europe than had been thought.

The tooth, a pre-molar, of a hominid was discovered near the Bulgarian town of Chirpan and proves that great apes were present in Europe until 7 million years ago. This is 2 million years later than anyone previously believed. Scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Science, the French Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique, and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tubingen teamed up on the project and share credit for this discovery which may cause some major changes in how the timeline of hominid evolution is viewed.

Scientists have long thought that great apes went extinct in Europe approximately 9 million years ago due to changing climactic and environmental conditions. The gradual change of European ecosystems from thick jungles and evergreen forests to a savannah-like landscape with a seasonal climate was thought to be too much for apes, who were heavily dependent on fruit, to survive. This newly discovered pre-molar, identified as hominid based on morphology and the thickness of the enamel, was discovered in fossiliferous sands estimated to be 7 million years old. Whatever this European great ape was, it post-dates the Ouranopithecus macedonensis fossils, found in Greece, by 2.2 million years.

Scientists found other animals in the fossil bearing level of sediment that one would expect to find in a savannah environment. The fossilized remains of elephants, giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, rhinos, and sabre-toothed cats were all found in the strata with the hominid tooth. The discovery strongly suggests that European hominids were able to adapt to the environmental changes far more easily than previously suspected. This hypothesis is backed up further by analysis of the tooth’s masticatory surface under an electron microscope. This analysis revealed that the Bulgarian hominid had partaken of some rough and abrasive foods like grass, seeds, and nuts. This diet would make the Bulgarian ape’s feeding behavior very similar to that of later African hominids like the australopithecids who survived up until about 4 million years ago.

The article, which you can access here, goes on to share some thoughts about where the origins of humans might actually lie. Scientists have long thought that human evolution took place exclusively in Africa and that humans migrated to other continents from there. Evidence is beginning to pile up that point to a significant part of human evolution taking place in Europe and western Asia. What really caught my eye, however, was the final statement in the article which says in part, “…both investigations document an at least 10 million year lasting population of great apes in Europe and a significant evolution from fruit-eaters to harder object feeders.”

Followers of this site likely can guess where I’m going next. If the great apes of Europe were able to successfully adapt to a pretty substantial change in climate and transition from feeding almost exclusively on fruit to eating all manner of rougher foods, why couldn't a great ape that had migrated to North America do the same? The short answer, in my opinion, is that they could...and did. Many will concede the point that it is possible for an ape to subsist on rougher foods than fruit but few think it is possible that it could have happened here in North America, much less the bottom-lands of the south. The environment, the thinking goes, simply is not rich enough to support a population of large apes. The seeming paucity of food on our continent has long been one of the primary objections by mainstream scientists to the possible existence of the sasquatch. Great apes simply could not survive on the types of food found here, they claim.

Sasquatch researchers have long argued that our continent is rich in food-stuff and that there is an abundance of edibles that could sustain a population of large primates. Pine nuts, hickory nuts, acorns, various algaes (black algae) and fungi (mushrooms), greenbriar, various tubers, berries, many types of seeds, and the like are all abundant. This is especially true of the bottom-lands of the American south. Wildlife biologist Dr. John Bindernagel, who visited east Texas in 2001 and 2002, was struck by the richness and scope of the region's forests, which are predominantly mixed deciduous, as opposed to the largely coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Bindernagel recognized the value and productivity of deciduous forests in terms of wildlife habitat and he pointed out that large species of mammals living in southern forests would almost certainly require smaller home ranges than in northern coniferous forests. Anecdotal evidence also strongly suggests that America’s great ape is omnivorous. When you add items like small mammals, deer, shellfish, insects, frogs, grubs, worms, fish, eggs, and birds to the menu, you have a veritable buffet in the forests and bottoms of the south.

It would seem disingenuous to claim there is not an adequate enough food supply in North America to support a large primate when the continent has shown it is capable of supporting animals the size of the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) and the black bear (Ursus americanus), not to mention a large number of Native American tribes, some of whom lived in what would seem to be very inhospitable regions, for thousands of years. When that is taken into consideration, to still claim there is not enough food to sustain a small population of large primates is ludicrous. One could argue the evidence needed to prove the sasquatch is real beyond the shadow of a doubt is lacking. That is something I can understand and will gladly discuss. To simply dismiss the possibility of a North American primate outright due to the “fact” that there is nothing for it to eat, however, is ridiculous and indicates laziness on the part of any who take that stand. Don't believe me? Just do a quick Google search on edible North American plants and see what you come up with. Anyone who argues that there isn't enough food for an animal the size of the sasquatch to subsist on simply has not done their homework.

But, you may ask, didn't black bears disappear from the Ark-La-Tex-Oma region? Doesn't that show the area can't sustain a population of large omnivores? No, it does not. Black bears were extirpated by human hunters and did not disappear due to any environmental factors. Take a look below at a passage from a paper written by TBRC members Alton Higgins and Daryl Colyer that addresses this very point:

"Did black bears disappear from East Texas because of a shortage of suitable habitat? No, or so says the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Biologists conducted a black bear habitat suitability study in four areas of East Texas: the Sulphur River Bottom (51,000 acres), the Big Thicket National Preserve (97,000 acres), the Middle Neches River Corridor (247,000 acres), and the Lower Neches River Corridor (312,000 acres). The purpose of the study was to determine the suitability of habitat in East Texas for the black bear, a large omnivorous mammal. The study is relevant because there may be a correlation between purported sasquatch and suitable black bear habitat. If an area is suitable for a large omnivore such as the black bear, it seems reasonable to posit that it is just as likely to be suitable for a small population of omnivorous sasquatches.

One part of the study dealt with food availability in summer and winter; all four areas scored very high. Biologists calculated a strong favorable rating for the availability of protection and concealment cover in all four areas. In the category of human/bear conflict zones, a less than favorable rating for the Big Thicket National Preserve was determined, but a moderately to strongly favorable rating was found for the other three areas.

Overall, the study indicated that the most suitable region for bears among the four study areas was the Middle Neches River Corridor, followed in order by the Lower Neches River Corridor, the Sulphur River Bottom, and the Big Thicket National Preserve. All four areas have had an abundance of bigfoot sighting reports.

Environmental suitability issues were also addressed by another group of scientists. While the curators of Chimp Haven in Northwest Louisiana probably do not spend too much time contemplating black bear habitat factors, they do devote much of their time discussing and evaluating primate habitat. According to their web site, Chimp Haven provides a permanent home for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) retired from biomedical research, the entertainment industry, and those no longer wanted as pets. Their new sanctuary, presently under construction, is planned to accommodate 300 chimpanzees, animals which may be the closest relatives of sasquatches. Due to its ecology and climate, Chimp Haven curators believe that Northwest Louisiana is ideal primate habitat. Western Louisiana and East Texas are virtually ecological clones. It should come as no surprise that Northwest Louisiana was selected as the new site of Chimp Haven’s operations, given what we believe about sasquatch habitat."

The discovery of a Bulgarian hominid that survived in the savannah grasslands of Europe until 7 million years ago strongly implies that great apes have the ability to eat all manner of items and can adapt more easily and faster than anyone previously suspected to a variety of ecosystems and habitats. If the great apes of Europe could adapt to a seasonal climate and rougher diet, why could an ape that had migrated to North America not do the same?

Sources:

Universitaet Tübingen. "Most recent European great ape discovered." ScienceDaily, 13 Jan. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2012.

Daryl Colyer and Alton Higgins. "Bigfoot/Sasquatch Sightings: Correlations to Annual Rainfall Totals, Waterways, Human Population Densities and Black Bear Habitat Zones." TBRC Featured Articles. Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy.

More Black Panther Reports

2012-01-11T19:27:00.006-06:00

Readers continue to send in reports of their encounters with black panthers from across the Lone Star State and beyond. Most of these reports have been submitted via the “comments” option at the bottom of various posts on big cats and are submitted by people who prefer to remain anonymous. This is unfortunate as it does not allow for any follow-up on my part. I thought I would share some of the latest reports that have come my way with you all.

Remember that I have no way of verifying the veracity of these reports. Having said that, and I think you’ll agree, the reports are not overly sensational and do not seem full of hyperbole. Nearly all of the reports are short and to the point. They describe what was seen and don’t go into a lot of extraneous detail. Now, having got all of that out of the way, here we go:

Submitted 12/3/11 from the Hillsboro, Texas

“I can't believe we took our picture card out of our camera and a hunter on our ranch saw what they thought was a black panther! We live near Hillsboro, Texas!”

Submitted 12/6/11 from New York state

“I live in western N.Y. and saw a black panther in our back yard.We live in the country and have 10 acres that are next to another 100 acres belong to a family member.There is an old apple orchard on the property and deer, coyotes, rabbits,turkey,racoons- plenty of food for this cat.It does concern me, as our dog roams the land rather freely and wouldn't be able to contend with an animal this large.I have to say, it looked beautiful,lying in the sun, but what havoc it could wreck in our lives. I don't know the laws about protecting our pets and would really hate to waste the animal's life, but we need to be safe. Any suggestions?”

Submitted 12/7/11 from Frisco, Texas

“I live in Frisco and once saw a large dark brown or black cat while driving at night, not more than a mile from my home. It was most definitely a cat with a long tail, although it was more like a German Shepherd in size.”

Submitted 11/9/11 from Llano, Texas

“Last week while hunting in my deer stand in llano, TX. I saw a large black cat. At first i though it was a bobcat and rejected the fact that it may be a black cougar but as i looked at it harder i noticed the cat was abnormaly large and had a tail as long as its body, and he was absolutly black. In a daze i grabbed my gun and shot twice at him. And missed before he tauntingly turned around a walked off. I later found out my guns scope had been knocked off sight. I told the land owner and he said he has seen him before. To me i have all the proof i need to know the cats are real.”

Submitted 11/24/11 from Denison, Texas

“I spotted a large black cat in the field next to my house this morning. I live in Denison Texas. It's long tail and the way it leapt through the grass assured me this was not a bobcat.”

Submitted 1/5/12 from Fort Worth, Texas

“I'm located south of Fort Worth and people around here, including myself, have spotted large black cats, as in panther size, I've been told many a story yet every game warden denies it.”

Submitted 1/5/12 from California regarding a sighting in Hunt, Texas

“Tell your doubting game wordens to go to Hunt Texas, from there drive a few more miles to what used to be called the " HEART OF THE HILLS GUEST RANCH " Maybe it still is. Once there go to the main building which should be about dead center of the other smaller buildings, The main building is backed by a large mountain/cliff as are most of the smaller buildings. One will have to work your way around to get to the top, I'm sure the owners will know the route, once on top get your bearings by walking towards the main building so as you can look down on it, you'll know your there because you'll find several 3 toed dinasaur tracks set down 5 or 6 inches in solid stone, I know, there the one's I played in as a boy in the 1950's . Now your in Black Panther country, this is where I saw the yearling pair of black panthers as a boy with my dad. Now, just set up some of those fancy tree cameras, don't check them but every couple wks. as to give time for your scent to wear off, and I'll bet you dimes to dollars you'll get the proof them city boys says ain't there. If nothing else, you get to see some tracks made a few million years ago.”

Submitted 1/9/12 from the Texas Hill Country

“Today, Jan 9th 2012, I spotted a solid black mountain lion. I live in the rural Texas Hill Country. The cat was the size of a medium dog with a tail as long as the body. It was 2:30 pm in the afternoon so there is no mistake of what I saw.”

Submitted 1/11/12 from Fort Stockton, Texas

“Coming up HWY 285 south of Fort Stockton, TX. I saw a black panther crouched down on the side of the road waiting to cross. I slowed down and saw it clearly and am positive it was a black panther. A local rancher told me he has seen them in that area as well.”

These are just some of the latest reports. I’ve received others. Could some of these people be mistaken about what they saw? I suppose. The fact of the matter, however, is that people continue to claim sightings of an animal that is not supposed to exist. What are they seeing? They can't all be mistaken can they?

I would be especially interested in any black panther sightings here in central Texas. I have game cameras ready and available for deployment and would love to take a shot at getting a photograph of one of these elusive big cats. Once we have a picture we might be able to deduce whether they are melanistic jaguars, exotic black leopards, jaguarundis, unusually dark cougars, or something else.

Let’s get this done.

Tragic News

2012-01-08T14:26:00.005-06:00

“A person that loses a partner is called a widow. A child who loses a parent is called an orphan. But there is no word to describe a parent that loses a child, because the loss is like no other.”

My good friend, and fellow TBRC member, Chris Buntenbah and his wife, Monica Rawlins, lost their 17-year old son Riley yesterday. Riley was struck by a car that was in the process of running through a red light while traveling at approximately 70 miles per hour. Miraculously, Riley survived the initial impact and fought bravely for his life for several hours before passing away. While it is, no doubt, small comfort, this did give Chris and Monica a chance to get to the hospital and be with him when he died.

I only had the privilege of being around Riley once and it was several years ago. The TBRC held a training camp for probationary members at Caddo Lake in northeast Texas. Monica was heading up the training camp and Riley accompanied her. I was very impressed with the young man at that time. He was intelligent, well mannered, and extremely polite and respectful. Despite the fact that it was very cold that weekend, he did not complain once that I ever heard. As a teacher/coach and the parent of a daughter his age, I greatly appreciated his positive attitude.

That Saturday night we decided, being so close to the Arkansas border, to visit the Fouke area. This is the home of the legendary Fouke monster of The Legend of Boggy Creek fame. The team split up into several groups and spread out up and down a road running through the swampland of Miller County in the general area where the sightings that inspired the movie took place years before and where sightings continue to the present day. Riley was assigned to my team and we spent several hours together that night. Again, it was very cold and absolutely nothing was seen or heard yet not one complaint was uttered by Riley; something I cannot say about some of the adults present that night. I came away impressed by the young man. I can’t remember if I voiced this to Monica before the weekend ended or not. I hope I did.

Riley was only months shy of joining the Marine Corps when he died. He wanted to serve his country. What could speak better of a young man than this?

I cannot imagine the pain my friends must be experiencing right now. My prayer is that the Lord will give them comfort and that they would turn to him rather than away from him at this time. While this tragedy will never make sense to us while we are on this earth, I hope that as time passes Chris and Monica can find peace.

The TBRC has set up a memorial fund for Riley. If any of you are so inclined you can go to the TBRC’s donation page and contribute. Any and all donations received by the group through this coming Thursday will be given to the family to help them offset the unexpected expenses something like this brings. Click here to donate. If you cannot donate please include the family in your thoughts and prayers.

I will close this post with the quote below which was actually posted on Facebook by TBRC member Daryl Colyer last night or early this morning:

"If anything is to be learned from this great tragedy, it is that life is far too short. It's too short to go around being mean to people. Our time is borrowed. It is but a vapor. So, in our borrowed time, be kind to people. Help others any time you can. Don't hold grudges. Forgive. Be compassionate. Treat others as you want to be treated. Do what's right."

Amen.

Rest in peace, Riley.

Endangered Whooping Cranes Wintering in Central Texas

2012-01-05T22:02:00.006-06:00

Six highly endangered whooping cranes (Grus Americana) are currently wintering at Granger Lake northeast of Austin. It has become something of a must see for birders who have never had the opportunity to see these awesome birds at their normal wintering grounds in and around Aransas National Wildlife Refuge north of Rockport.

Why Granger Lake? Experts theorize that the severe drought conditions Texas has faced over the last couple of years have severely cut into the population of blue crabs and other food sources for the wintering whooping cranes on the coast. A record 300 cranes were expected this year near Aransas Pass but it seems the birds have spread out a bit in search of enough food to sustain them. The drought has no doubt forced these birds to diversify their diets a bit. The whooping cranes at Granger Lake have been spotted feeding in cultivated fields near the impoundment and are probably subsidizing their diets with freshwater mussels, frogs, and fish.

While rare, sightings of whooping cranes are not unprecedented in central Texas. The cranes do fly to Texas yearly and there always seem to be a few that stop somewhere other than the usual wintering grounds along the coast. Each time it happens it, understandably so, creates quite a stir.

My brother, an avid birder, visited me over the holidays. He had gotten wind that two family groups of whooping cranes had been seen consistently over the last few weeks at Granger Lake. We made the trip out to Granger and managed to spot three of the great birds. Unfortunately, they were too far away for me to get any pictures. We could see them through binoculars but, alas, no photographs could be taken. The birds were just off an island in the middle of the lake. It might be more accurate to say what is left of the lake. The “island” was actually a sandbar that should be under water. It was only visible due to the extremely low water levels of the impoundment. That being the case, we simply could not get any closer.

Locals are hoping that these birds make Granger Lake their winter territory and will return year after year. It remains to be seen if this will happen but it would be a boon for local birders if it were to work out that way.

I would like to caution against approaching these birds too closely. Though the whooping crane population has bounced back over the last few years the birds remain highly endangered. As such, disturbing a family unit in any way could prove detrimental. Keep your distance and enjoy these great birds from afar should you decide to go see them.

The Expanding Role of Camera Traps

2012-01-03T09:19:00.005-06:00

A great article recently appeared on The Guardian website hailing the use of camera traps and how they are revolutionizing conservation. You can access the article here. I hope you will take the time to read it in full but I will attempt to summarize it for you below.

Writer Jeremy Hance notes some of the major discoveries that have been made by camera traps over the last few years. The list is extensive. The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) was documented in China for the first time in 62 years by a camera trap. A remote camera provided proof that the world’s rarest rhino, the Javan (Rhinoceros sondaicus), was breeding as a photo of a female with a calf was captured. The hairy-nosed otter (Lutra sumatrana) was rediscovered in Malaysia, a wolverine (Gulo gulo) was documented in California for the first time since 1922, the first video ever shot of the rare Bornean bay cat (Pardofelis badia) was captured, a rare short-eared dog (Atelocynus microtis) was photographed hunting amphibians in the Amazon, and the Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) was shown to still inhabit Cambodia.

Some species were photographed successfully in the wild for the first time ever by camera traps. This list would include the Saharan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki) and the giant muntjac deer (Muntiacus vuquangensis) of Southeast Asia.

Camera traps also provided the means for the discovery of some previously unknown species. Foremost among these would be the Annamite striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi) of Southeast Asia and the grey-faced sengi (Rhynchocyon udzungwensis) of Tanzania.

The author touts the usefulness of camera traps in raising conservation awareness worldwide. A picture, of course, is worth a thousand words, and photos of rare and endangered animals grab the public in a way no press release ever can.

Hance also provides a brief history lesson on the art of camera trapping. He details the first such devices used to snap photos used by photography pioneer George Shiras in the late 1890’s. These devices used trip wires and flash bulbs to capture animals on film. Early photos captured by Shiras in this way appeared in National Geographic magazine are likely the first camera trap pictures published.

Hance also details the many problems faced by users of early camera traps. I could relate to the issues he mentioned. I started out using 35mm film cameras and it was not a cheap proposition. Battery purchases were far more frequent than with digital models and the expense of buying film added up in a hurry. The worst part was you did not know if you had even photographed anything worth the cost of developing the film. It was quite frustrating to have purchased a 24 exposure roll of film, trek out to the middle of nowhere to retrieve it, wait a week to have it developed, and then find you had only six photos taken and they were all due to false triggers. Those of us now using digital models are quite spoiled. No two ways about it.

Hance also delves into what may be to come with camera traps. He notes that the practice is now widely accepted as scientifically viable and is on the brink of expanding to new areas of study. Cameras could be placed in rainforest canopies to study birds, reptiles, and monkeys. He also mentions something I’ve not given much thought to and that is the use of these cameras underwater to study marine life. How cool would that be?

I leave you with the following statement from the article which I think sums things up nicely:

“The camera trap has revolutionized wildlife research and conservation, enabling scientists to collect photographic evidence of rarely seen and often globally endangered species, with little expense, relative ease, and minimal disturbance to wildlife.”

I think that about says it all.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/06/wildlife-camera-traps-conservation?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

TCH Photo Prompts the TPWD to Officially Recognize River Otters in Bell County

2011-12-30T23:08:00.013-06:00

It is funny how things work out sometimes…

As regular readers of this blog know, I started a camera-trapping project here in Bell County in June of last year. I’ve chased mountain lion reports from one end of the county to the other. I have yet to capture a photo of one of these elusive big cats but remain hopeful. There continue to be periodic sightings of a cougar in the general area around my camera locations but things seemed to have slowed down quite a bit. It is possible the big cat has moved on.

While not getting that cougar photo to this point, despite sightings very close to my camera locations, has been frustrating, the project has not been a failure. As is often the case with these sorts of things, something very good has come out of it…just not the good thing I targeted in the beginning.

Last month I retrieved images from my cameras and was surprised to find a photo of a pair of river otters (Lutra canadensis) walking down a dry creek bed. I’ve lived in the area since 1987 and had never heard anyone mention having seen otters before. I did a bit of research and found, according to The Mammals of Texas – Online Edition, otters had never been documented in Bell County. The possibility that I had documented a species previously unrecognized in Bell got me pretty excited so I fired off the following email to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department:

"Would a photo of a pair of river otters taken in Bell County be unusual and/or something you folks would be interested in? I have a photo, taken by a game camera, of what I believe to be two otters in a creek bed outside of Temple, Tx. I was surprised to say the least. Let me know if anyone there in your agency
would be interested in viewing the photo."

I received a reply thanking me for taking the time to submit my query and saying that they would like to view the photo. So, I submitted the photo and waited. About two weeks later I received the following reply from Gary Calkins, District Leader, out of Jasper, Texas:

“Not too much doubt what you are looking at in the photos – probably a mother and a youngster.

Would you mind taking a moment to give me a location of the sighting – it doesn’t have to be specific just something like “where Rocky Road crosses Sandy Creek” would be fantastic. That will give me enough information to plot the sighting."

After submitting the general location where the photo was taken, I asked if the picture was enough for the TPWD to officially document the species in Bell County. Here is the reply from Mr. Calkins:

“Your photo is perfect and the sighting will be added to the map. Basically – I keep the email string as a reference and the sighting will be numbered and referenced to the email string by that number so that your personal information stays confidential if the map is distributed – however, if I or someone else doing otter work needs to get any additional information we have the email to go back to.”

To make a long story a bit shorter, because of my photo, the distribution map for the river otter will be changed to reflect the presence of the species in Bell County. The timetable on when this will take place is not clear but it will happen the next time the map is updated. The documentation of a known species a few counties west of where it is supposed to be may not seem like an important discovery but it is actually kind of a big deal in wildlife circles. I am very, very pleased by this turn of events and think it really shows that even an amateur naturalist, with extremely limited resources, can accomplish some pretty cool things.

So, a project that got started, and continues, with the hope of getting a photo of a mountain lion has reached its high point with an accidental photo of a pair of river otters.

I'll say it again...it is funny how things work out sometimes…

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T13:26:00.003-06:00

I wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It is my prayer that you all have a blessed holiday and a prosperous and peaceful new year.

I look forward to what the new year may bring.

My best to you all…

A Wise Man Once Said...

2011-12-22T12:25:00.006-06:00

"If I trim myself to suit others I will soon whittle myself away."

- Unknown

I try to keep this quote in mind when others give me a hard time about my interest in cryptozoology and other "non-mainstream" topics. I am who I am.

I may not be the one who solves the sasquatch mystery but it will be someone a bit like me. Someone who shakes off the ridicule and vitriol directed at them by those who spend life on the sidelines and stays true to himself. Someone who shakes off negativity and naysayers to do what they say couldn't be done. Someone who, even when it was tough, did not whittle themselves away to suit others.

Reindeer Visit Webster, Texas

2011-12-15T22:32:00.006-06:00

If you live somewhere along the I-45 corridor near Webster, Texas and your child comes home and says that he/she saw Santa’s reindeer running down the road…believe it.

Well, they weren’t Santa’s reindeer (as far as I know) but there were reindeer dashing about on and near I-45 yesterday. It seems a petting zoo was transporting a couple of its reindeer when the trailer in which they were being towed came loose from the truck. Somehow, the door to the trailer came open and the two reindeer made a run for it.

Webster police, after fielding several calls from surprised local residents regarding the reindeer, dispatched several units and helped round up the runaways. Neither the reindeer nor anyone else was injured during the incident.

Santa Claus didn’t come to town (it’s not time, after all) but a couple of reindeer did.

I guess it is just that time of year.

Source: http://www.kwtx.com/offbeatnews/headlines/_Run_Run_Rudolph_Two_Reindeer_Dash_Near_Texas_Interstate_135661958.html

Bell County Camera Trapping Project Update: River Otters Photographed

2011-12-13T21:29:00.018-06:00

I was finally able to get out and check my game cameras here in Bell County this past weekend. I was over a week past due on checking them due to inclement weather and a bad cold. I have to admit that I’m a huge sissy when it comes to colds. Any sort of injury I can handle ok. Sprains, strains, contusions, broken bones…I’ll handle them. A bad cold? I’m done. In any case, the skies cleared up, the water ran off, and I started to feel better so I got out and got it done this past weekend. I’m glad I did.

I again failed to capture an image of the mountain lion(s) that have, until recently, been spotted on a regular basis in eastern Bell County. Even so, I was able to retrieve more than 700 quality images from 3 of the 4 cameras. I say 3 of 4 because the bungee chord holding up one of my two Cuddeback cameras snapped shortly after deployment. I have a security chain on the camera that kept it from falling into the creek bed but it did fall down to the base of the tree and somehow got twisted so that it faced the trunk. So, nothing of value was captured on that camera. The other three cameras (Cuddeback Excite, Moultrie M80 GameSpy, Wildgame Innovations IR2) all performed very well.

The Moultrie captured a few interesting videos as well as getting some nice photos. At some point, the camera was twisted and shaken by an unseen animal. I’m guessing it was a raccoon. Easily 2/3 of the pictures taken were of raccoons which makes one of them a likely culprit. I would add that this is exactly the sort of video some people would put forth as evidence of a sasquatch tampering with the camera. Many would say no other animal was capable of shaking and shifting the camera in such a manner. So, keep my little video example here in mind the next time you see a similiar clip and it is offered as indisputable evidence of sasquatch behavior.

Despite the camera being shifted and moved around it continued to get some nice shots.

This camera is programmed so that when triggered it snaps a photo. It then immediately begins taking video. One video was a great insight into the behavior of whitetail deer during the rut. The camera captures a fully airborne doe leaping into the creek as if something was chasing her. The video, which started immediately after the photo was taken, shows a buck trot up, sniff the air, and then proceed to follow the object of his desire. Whether she ever decided to cooperate or not I cannot say but the video is exactly the sort of “behind the scenes” look you can get with a game camera. I love seeing clips of even the most common animals behaving naturally. I find it fascinating.

The Wildgame Innovations IR2 is easily the least expensive camera I have in the field. It actually performs pretty well. The photos it takes during daylight hours are very, very good. The nighttime shots, when most of the action takes place, are, unfortunately, not nearly as sharp. The sensor detects movement at an acceptable range but the flash is too weak to light these targets up sufficiently. The result tends to be shots that are murky and not sharp if the subject is on the periphery of the sensor range or washed out images if the subject is close to the camera.

I was especially pleased with the performance of the second Cuddeback Excite camera. As I’ve mentioned before, this is an old veteran of the TBRC’s Operation Forest Vigil. It has been an old warhorse for a long time now. One of the great things about this camera is that it takes color photos at night. This capability produced one of my favorite shots of the set when it captured an unusually reddish-colored coyote. He is quite striking and his coloration stands out starkly when compared to a more typically colored coyote that was also photographed.

The Cuddeback captured the widest variety of animals of any of the three cameras this time around. Included were the pictures below showing a black opossum and a striking bobcat with a very leopard-like coat.

The jewel of the set, however, was a photo of two river otters. This is one species I was not expecting to see. The creek bed where I have placed my cameras is not a live creek but a run-off creek. It is dry most of the time. That being the case, I would not expect otters to be present. The Mammals of Texas – Online Edition says:

“River otters are largely aquatic and frequent lakes and the larger streams. In the Gulf Coast region, marshes, bayous, and brackish inlets afford suitable range. Presently known only from the eastern one-fourth of the state in major watersheds: probably extirpated from the Panhandle, north-central, and southern Texas.”

I checked the distribution map provided as well and found that, according to known county records, no river otters have ever been documented in Bell County.

All of this being the case, I got very excited about this photo. Could these be the first river otters ever documented in Bell County, Texas? Short of that, could this photo prove that otters, once extirpated from central Texas, be rebounding? Well, maybe. I have been informed that unless an actual specimen has been taken from a county, a species is not considered “documented” there. In other words, river otters may have been seen, possibly even photographed, in Bell County before but since no one has trapped or shot one and presented the body as proof to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department the species is not considered to be present.

I submitted the photo to several biologists who all have confirmed that the subjects in the photo are river otters. I also sent an email to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department explaining that I had a photo of river otters taken in Bell County and asked if they wanted to view the photo. I sent the email Sunday night. It is now Wednesday night and I’ve heard nothing back from them as of yet. If I don’t hear back from them in the next couple of days I’ll contact the local office in Temple.

Regardless of whether this photo will officially “document” otters in Bell County, I feel very fortunate to have captured it. Otters, at best, are very rare in this part of the state and I think it is an incredibly cool addition to my wildlife photo collection.

There was some bad news. The Cuddeback that took these great shots was a victim of rising water after several storms blew through the area a couple of weeks ago. The camera was never completely submerged but some moisture did get into the camera causing the lens to fog up. While the camera still showed power, no photos were taken after the flooding event. I feel very fortunate that the compact flash card was not ruined. Currently, I am attempting to dry the camera out. Once it is dry and cleaned of mud I’m hopeful it will continue to function.

Even though the big prize that would be a mountain lion photo eluded me again, I feel very good about this last set of photos. I remain hopeful that I will eventually get a shot of one of these big cats. Even if I don’t the otter photograph proves that you just never know what you might get a picture of if you are patient and allow cameras to sit undisturbed for long periods of time. I’m due to check the cameras again in 4-5 weeks.

I can’t wait.

Bigfoot/Sasquatch Sightings: Correlations to Annual Rainfall Totals, Waterways, Human Population Densities and Black Bear Habitat Zones

2011-12-12T21:23:00.006-06:00

The following article originally appeared on the website of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy and is reprinted here with permission.

Bigfoot/Sasquatch Sightings: Correlations to Annual Rainfall Totals, Waterways, Human Population Densities and Black Bear Habitat Zones

By Daryl Colyer & Alton Higgins

In Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, anecdotes about huge, hairy, apelike creatures said to dwell in the deep woods and, occasionally, near the peripheries of rural communities, have accumulated for centuries. Many of these accounts were related by highly reliable and trustworthy individuals, people who had nothing to gain by telling their stories.

Indeed, in many cases, these witnesses became the subjects of much ridicule, even among close friends and relatives. To the present day, most witnesses hesitate to share their incredible stories of seeing this strange, undocumented animal. Their reticence should come as no surprise given the treatment of the subject by the mass media and some mainstream scientists.

There are many skeptics; their concerns are legitimate. Skeptics demand to know why no skeletal remains have been found; they want to know why no hunters have killed one, or why no driver has collided with one on a secluded country highway. Would not a large primate, skeptics ask, leave an undeniable, discernable mark on the environment in perhaps the same manner as mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei)? Such questions are not invalid. Expecting skeptics to accept the likelihood of such a species existing beneath our proverbial noses may be asking just a tad too much. Nevertheless, the body of anecdotal accounts and accompanying evidence seems to indicate just such a possibility.

Contrary to what some may assert, most hunters do not generally shoot at anything other than their intended game. While there are exceptions, most hunters will definitively identify their targets and normally just do not shoot at unknown or unidentified prey. That said, there have been a few scant reports of sasquatch shootings; most were relayed through second hand sources. Further, most of those few reports that were related to shootings indicate that the shooters either missed or did not immediately bring the fleeing sasquatches down.

Skeletal remains are rarely found of any common, large, wild animal, so it should not be surprising that the skeletal remains of a sasquatch are not readily available. The acidic forest soils and muddy river bottoms found in the preferred habitat for the sasquatch tend to work in tandem with scavengers to quickly eliminate the remains of deceased animals. Finding a cougar (Puma concolor) carcass as a result of a natural death would probably be most analogous to finding a sasquatch carcass, although the most conservative estimates of cougar population densities most certainly are far greater than even the most liberal estimates of sasquatch population densities.

There have been a few unsubstantiated reports of near misses of sasquatches by drivers, and given the probability that many encounters go unreported, it is possible that a sasquatch could have been hit and killed by a moving vehicle. However, realistically, given the probable rarity of these creatures along with their intelligence and caution, the odds of such an event occurring seem almost non-existent.

There are some discernable signs that possibly indicate the presence of sasquatches (thus the noticeable effect on the environment), however, the signs are easily disregarded by someone unfamiliar with purported sasquatch behavior. For example, there are numerous reports of bigfoots breaking branches, trees, and saplings, and to a lesser degree, constructing nest-like structures.

Tree damage, possibly done for the purpose of marking trails or territory is discernable, but oftentimes hardly stands out among deadfall and ice or wind-broken trees. Most people would miss or casually dismiss such signs. It is unlikely that a typical wildlife biologist or anyone not knowledgeable on this subject, upon observing sasquatch-related limb breaks, would ever suspect a sasquatch as the culprit, even in the absence of any other readily apparent explanation. The characteristic twisting accompanying such breaks would appear to require enormous strength that can only be accomplished by something with hands. Nest-like structures, purportedly built by sasquatches, have been found by researchers in areas of sightings.

Another contention often heard is that the thousands of credible reports from throughout North America are, in one way or another, the products of human imagination. The contention is that many of the witnesses are intentionally lying about what they encountered and are actually themselves the perpetrators of hoaxes, or the witnesses are simply mistaken and are misidentifying what they saw or heard. Or, as the argument goes, many of the witnesses are simply victims of practical jokes and/or hoaxes. All evidence aside, it may seem more plausible to consider that there actually is an undocumented animal that is prompting thousands of reports than it is to believe in an unrelated series of hoaxed sightings and misidentifications.

It should soon become evident to anyone who seriously and objectively delves into and studies the numerous credible sightings that many of the reports themselves are quite compelling. It is difficult to totally dismiss as fabrications all the reports that have accumulated from so many credible witnesses over so many decades.

However, the essence of the research presented here does not focus on the validity of any individual report, but on the body of reports as a whole in order to ascertain any correlations and patterns that may exist. When one impartially studies the sum total of all the reports it becomes evident that there do indeed seem to be correlations and patterns that could be representative of a living species.

Among these correlations, particularly in Texas, is the likelihood of sighting reports in areas with certain amounts of annual rainfall. The same pattern is also evident in the body of reports that originate in other states where there are divergent rainfall totals in different parts of each state, such as Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado and California. (Conversely, in states with widespread abundant rainfall totals, such as Arkansas and Louisiana, a rainfall total/reported bigfoot encounters correlation is not evident). There is also a pattern of reported sightings along rivers, creeks or lakes. Reported sightings and human population densities seem to have some correlation, as does the distribution of alleged bigfoot sightings and areas viewed as suitable black bear habitat.

John Green, journalist, author and renowned sasquatch researcher, first touched upon the association of reported sasquatch sightings and annual rainfall totals in his 1978 book Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us. Though the book was written nearly thirty years ago, the passage of time has not diminished its relevance. On the contrary, the increase of credible reports since that time has served to further validate Green’s thesis. He determined that eighty percent of the reported sightings and alleged footprint finds in North America occurred in areas receiving more than seventeen inches of annual rainfall.

When this observation is applied to credible Texas reports and is represented on a map, discernable patterns seemingly indicative of a living species emerge. In Texas and Oklahoma, roughly ninety percent of the credible reports occur in areas that see at least thirty-five inches of rain per year, or in the eastern third of the state(s). Since the vast majority of Texas and Oklahoma reports are aligned with rainfall patterns, it is possible to dispute allegations of fabrication or mistaken identity. It is not rational to assume or propose that people living in areas with more than thirty-five inches of annual rainfall are more likely to submit a hoaxed report or misidentify what they saw than people living in areas with less than thirty-five inches of annual rainfall. While a few reports have originated in areas with lower amounts of rainfall, they appear to be sporadic and isolated, possibly due to a natural propensity of wildlife to use watercourses as travel routes; if the sasquatch is a legitimate species, it makes perfect sense that it would also use watercourses as travel routes.

While portions of far western Texas and Oklahoma are certainly semi-arid, the eastern sections of both states receive abundant annual rainfall. These areas are heavily forested and feature an abundance of waterways and lakes; they are very much ecological clones of the two neighboring eastern states of the region, Arkansas and Louisiana.

The combined total amount of forestland in the four-state region equates to roughly 65,000,000 acres, or 100,000 square miles (the size of the state of Oregon). According to The Online Handbook of Texas, there are roughly 22,000,000 acres of forest in Texas alone; per the Arkansas Forestry Association, there are roughly 19,000,000 acres of forest in Arkansas; the Louisiana Forestry Association reports that there are 14,000,000 acres of forest in Louisiana; Oklahoma has approximately 10,000,000 acres of forest as indicated by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

While the forestlands of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma may be somewhat more parceled, or discontinuous, than northwestern forests, it is obvious that they are enormous in scope and depth, contrary to the misperceptions of some. Wildlife biologist Dr. John Bindernagel, who visited the region in 2001 and 2002, was struck by the richness and scope of the region’s forests, which are predominantly mixed deciduous, as opposed to the largely coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Bindernagel recognized the value and productivity of deciduous forests in terms of wildlife habitat and he pointed out that large species of mammals living in the southern forests would almost certainly require smaller home ranges than in northern coniferous forests.

Almost without exception, reported sasquatch sightings occur near water. This is even true with the relatively few reports originating in the drier regions of Texas and Oklahoma, where sasquatches are reportedly seen generally on or near waterways or lakes in thick brush or dense riparian vegetation. Most wildlife researchers and hunters would quickly reinforce the observation that many mammalian species often use rivers and creeks as travel routes. Since water is essential for the cycle of life, animals regularly congregate near or at least dwell primarily in areas featuring bodies of fresh water. Both Texas and Oklahoma have an abundance of rivers, creeks, swamps, reservoirs and lakes, particularly in their eastern regions. It is also reasonable for a large number of reported sightings to occur in or around swamps, river bottoms or bayous, since a reclusive, shy animal would find seclusion and sanctuary in such areas.

When a river basins map is viewed with an overlay of reported encounters and an annual rainfall overlay, it becomes evident that most alleged sightings have occurred along waterways and lakes and in areas with thirty-five inches or more of annual rainfall. Many reported sightings in Northeast Texas have occurred in the Red River Basin along the Sulphur River or Red River and/or their adjoining reservoirs or creeks. Many reported encounters have also occurred in the Red/Sulphur River watershed in southeastern Oklahoma, southwestern Arkansas and Northeast Texas. Similarly, the Sabine River Basin, extending from Southeast Texas into Northeast Texas has also generated quite a few reports. In Oklahoma, the Canadian River Basin is not without its share of reported encounters. In Southeast Texas, in what is called the Primitive Big Thicket (encompassing the Sam Houston National Forest and the Big Thicket National Preserve area), the Neches River Basin, Trinity River Basin and San Jacinto River Basin have had many reports through the years as well as in recent times. In fact, Southeast Texas is the most prolific area in Texas for reports of bigfoot sightings. Likewise in Oklahoma, the most prolific area for reported encounters is also in its southeastern region. It should come as no surprise that the southeastern regions in both Texas and Oklahoma also receive the highest amount of rainfall for both states, with totals as high as sixty inches per year in spots.

Although the East Texas river basins have generated far more reports, the Brazos, Colorado and Guadalupe basins have also had occasional reported sightings. These three basins average less than thirty-five inches of rainfall per year, but they typically have dense vegetation and trees in the riparian margins. Given that the vast majority of Texas and Oklahoma reports follows rainfall patterns and occurs along waterways, the notion that these reports are simply the result of the misidentification of known animals, wishful thinking, and/or deliberate fabrications seems flawed.

There is yet another interesting correlation with the distribution of these sighting reports. For the most part it appears that most reported sightings in the four-state region occur in counties with lower human population densities. There are a few exceptions. However, 100% of the sightings reported from counties with higher populations still occurred in areas that were along the peripheries of or outside of the realm of human development (such as in Montgomery County, Texas, in the Sam Houston National Forest, an area of consistent reports). Actually, suitable wildlife habitat often exists close to urban and suburban areas. That being said, reported sightings that have occurred on the edge of small towns and larger cities are by far the exceptions.

In fact, it seems that where human populations increase, reported sasquatch sightings decrease. Where human populations decrease, reported sasquatch sightings may increase. The reputed shyness of the sasquatch is only further girded by this human population correlation. This observation is further enhanced by the inference from reports that sasquatches are nocturnal, or at the very least, crepuscular. Not only do the reported sightings seem to suggest that sasquatches live in areas of low human population densities, along waterways, and in areas of high annual rainfall, but they may be most active when humans are not, which is at night. The notion of fabrications and mistakes is unrealistic in light of these correlations.

While Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana have resident populations of black bears (Ursus americanus), there remains the question of whether or not the 12,000,000 acres of dense forest in East Texas can support even a small population of large omnivores such as the sasquatch. After all, black bears no longer roam the Piney Woods of East Texas. But did black bears disappear from East Texas because of a shortage of suitable habitat? No, or so says the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Biologists conducted a black bear habitat suitability study in four areas of East Texas: the Sulphur River Bottom (51,000 acres), the Big Thicket National Preserve (97,000 acres), the Middle Neches River Corridor (247,000 acres), and the Lower Neches River Corridor (312,000 acres). The purpose of the study was to determine the suitability of habitat in East Texas for the black bear, a large omnivorous mammal. The study is relevant because there may be a correlation between purported sasquatch and suitable black bear habitat. If an area is suitable for a large omnivore such as the black bear, it seems reasonable to posit that it is just as likely to be suitable for a small population of omnivorous sasquatches.

One part of the study dealt with food availability in summer and winter; all four areas scored very high. Biologists calculated a strong favorable rating for the availability of protection and concealment cover in all four areas. In the category of human/bear conflict zones, a less than favorable rating for the Big Thicket National Preserve was determined, but a moderately to strongly favorable rating was found for the other three areas.

Overall, the study indicated that the most suitable region for bears among the four study areas was the Middle Neches River Corridor, followed in order by the Lower Neches River Corridor, the Sulphur River Bottom, and the Big Thicket National Preserve. All four areas have had an abundance of bigfoot sighting reports.

Environmental suitability issues were also addressed by another group of scientists. While the curators of Chimp Haven in Northwest Louisiana probably do not spend too much time contemplating black bear habitat factors, they do devote much of their time discussing and evaluating primate habitat. According to their web site, Chimp Haven provides a permanent home for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) retired from biomedical research, the entertainment industry, and those no longer wanted as pets. Their new sanctuary, presently under construction, is planned to accommodate 300 chimpanzees, animals which may be the closest relatives of sasquatches. Due to its ecology and climate, Chimp Haven curators believe that Northwest Louisiana is ideal primate habitat. Western Louisiana and East Texas are virtually ecological clones. It should come as no surprise that Northwest Louisiana was selected as the new site of Chimp Haven’s operations, given what we believe about sasquatch habitat.

In conclusion, several observations serve to dispel the notion that bigfoot sighting reports in Texas and Oklahoma are not the result of actual encounters. The reports, based on recent as well as older credible encounters, continue to accumulate and show no signs of abating. If one chooses to take the reports seriously and the apparent associated ecological patterns, as has been done in this paper, debates regarding the existence of this species are replaced by new issues such as those pertaining to ecology, distribution, behavior, and population densities.

References

Alley, J. Robert (2003). Raincoast Sasquatch. 351 pp. Hancock House, Blaine, Washington.

Bindernagel, J.A. (1998). North America's Great Ape: The Sasquatch. 270 pp. Beachcomber Books. Courtenay, B.C., Canada.

Chimp Haven.

Distribution of Precipitation in Oklahoma map. Provided by the online Web Atlas of Oklahoma.

Fahrenbach, W.H. (1997-1998). Sasquatch: Size, Scaling, and Statistics. Cryptozoology Vol. 13: 47-75.

Garner, Nathan P. and Sean Willis. (1997). Black Bear Habitat Suitability in East Texas, featured in Wildlife Research Highlights, pages 18-19 (.pdf). Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Austin, Texas.

Gould Ecoregions of Texas map (.pdf). Provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department GIS Lab.

Green, J. (1978). Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us. 492 pp. Hancock House Publishers Ltd., Saanichton, B.C., Canada.

Natural Regions of Texas map (.pdf). Provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department GIS Lab.

Natural Subregions of Texas map (.pdf). Provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department GIS Lab.

Oklahoma Ecoregions map. Provided by the online Web Atlas of Oklahoma.

Population of Oklahoma map. Provided by the online Web Atlas of Oklahoma.

Precipitation in Texas map (.pdf). Provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department GIS Lab.

Surface Hydrography of Oklahoma map. Provided by the online Web Atlas of Oklahoma.

Texas River Basins, Major Bays and Streams map (.pdf). Provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department GIS Lab.

Texas Sightings Database. TBRC Report Explorer. Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy.

The Vegetation Types of Texas map (.pdf). Provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department GIS Lab.

Vegetation in Oklahoma map. Provided by the online Web Atlas of Oklahoma.

Watersheds Across Oklahoma map. Provided by the online Web Atlas of Oklahoma.

Chester Moore on the Giant Catfish of SE Texas

2011-12-07T14:25:00.013-06:00

Tales of giant catfish patrolling the deepest waters of Texas lakes and reservoirs were very common in the area where I grew up. Even the occasional fisherman and/or outdoorsman in southeast Texas knew of these tales. Most of the stories from my youth centered around giant catfish that allegedly hung out near the dam of B.A. Steinhagen Reservoir in east Texas. The catfish of “Dam B,” as most called the lake, were said to be large enough to swallow a man whole. So intimidating were they, the story went, that several divers who had been sent down to inspect the dam refused to re-enter the lake once getting an eyeful of these beasts.

Outdoors journalist Chester Moore heard these stories too. He decided several years ago to pursue the myth and see if there could be a basis of truth behind the legends of giant-sized catfish. Moore documented his efforts in a 2005 article for the Port Arthur News called “Search for giant catfish.” I seem to recall seeing the article on Moore’s now defunct Cryptokeeper website as well. Here is a brief excerpt:

“While contemplating my surroundings, a chill went down my spine. It seemed as if something was watching me as I could see no farther than my hand in front of my face. Could it be that one of the creatures I was searching for was a reality and I was in the presence of one?”

If you missed the article you are in luck. The Port Arthur News has posted the 2005 article online. I don’t know how long it will be there so go check it out ASAP. You can access the article here.

The stories of giant catfish continue to circulate to this day. I heard a rehashed version of the story I mentioned above just the other day. The only difference is that the giant fish had allegedly been seen in Lake Belton. Another factor in the recycling of these stories is a photo that has been making the rounds for years. The photo shows two men holding up a mammoth catfish. The version I received said the fish had been caught in Lake Texoma. The only problem is that the fish was a Wels catfish (Silurus glanis). This particular species is native to Europe and not North America. From what I can tell the photo is real. The story surrounding it is bogus. It is not unlike the story of the Brokenbow gar I wrote about a while back.

It seems the stories of giant catfish will continue to live on whether the fish actually exist or not. I don’t know if these fish are real. If they do exist, their size has very likely been exaggerated. Even so, every time I’m tossing a crankbait along the rip-rap in the shadow of the Lake Belton Dam I think about what might be lurking in the deep water beneath me.

It makes me smile every time.

Rainy Days and Delays

2011-12-06T17:10:00.003-06:00

Those of you who have kept up with my camera-trapping project in Bell County, Texas may have noticed that I’m overdue on checking my cameras. As you can see from the schedule in the right margin of this page, the cameras were due to be checked on Saturday 12/3. Due to what has become an increasingly rare weather anomaly here in Texas, several days of heavy rains, I had to put off checking the cameras this past weekend.

Temperatures have ranged from the 30's to the 40’s, winds have been high, and, according to my rain gauge, we’ve received a little more than 4” of rain since last Friday. In addition, I’ve been flat on my back with a very nasty cold. The rainy weather is actually wonderful news for the drought-stricken part of central Texas in which I live so I didn’t really mind putting off the camera check for another few days. I’m sure the creek bed in which I’ve placed the cameras is full of water at the moment, which would make traveling from camera site to camera site difficult. All of this being the case, I decided this was a good weekend to stay inside and watch football. The plan now is to get out and service the cameras no later than this coming weekend. It is supposed to warm up some and the rain is going to stop. I’ll give the creek a couple of days to recede and then get on out there.

I have had a report that one mountain lion has been seen in the vicinity within the last two weeks. The spot where the latest sighting allegedly took place is less than two miles from the camera location. I already know that multiple species are using this creek bed as a travel route. My hope is that eventually the mountain lion that continues to be reported will show up there as well.

As always, I’ll post the latest pictures once I retrieve them.

Invasive Burros Threatening West Texas Ecology

2011-12-01T22:15:00.012-06:00

Most people who follow wildlife and ecological issues to any degree are familiar with the problems that invasive species are causing in various parts of North America. The plight of Florida officials fighting the exploding Burmese python populations in the Everglades is well documented. Other invasives are making headlines and causing major problems for native species as well. Zebra mussels, snakehead fish, feral hogs, and Asian carp are all causing problems to some degree in different regions of our nation. I’m willing to bet that one invasive species, that is causing major damage to the ecology of Texas, is not on the radar for most people. The invasive animal in question? The burro.

The burro (Equus asinus), which might best be described as a small, feral cousin to the donkey, is wreaking havoc on the ecology of far west Texas. Particularly hard hit is the Big Bend area the Lone Star State. The burros are, and have been for some time, entering Texas from Mexico. The animals are aggressive and extremely territorial. Kevin Good, a special assistant with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department says that the burros are commandeering watering holes and chasing other animals away from them. According to Good, they are also contaminating natural springs in the Big Bend area with their feces. The severe drought Texas is suffering makes each spring and watering hole vital. If native species are not able to drink due to aggressive burros or because the water has been contaminated they are going to suffer.

Good says the burros are stressing native populations of black hawks, gophers, mule deer, and, especially, bighorn sheep. Bighorn sheep populations have plummeted in the last few years and officials are concerned that competition from burros could doom them in Texas.

Sohatra Sarkar, professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin has spent years studying burro populations in Texas and Mexico. He agrees with the TP&WD that the burro population is out of control and poses a very real threat to the bighorn sheep population.

“They’re a threat to the entire ecology of the region,” Sarkar said. “Whichever method you choose to deal with it, the problem is very real.”

The question then is what should be done about the problem? For the TP&WD the answer is simple. Eliminate them.

Kevin Good said, “Our mandate is to eliminate all invasive species if we can. That is our priority.”

To carry out this goal of eliminating the invasive burro population the TP&WD has taken to hunting them. Park rangers are combing the 300,000-acre Big Bend Ranch State Park, one of the state’s most rugged and isolated locales, with rifles in search of these burros. It is believed more than 300 burros are spread across this vast park. So far, park rangers have shot 128 of them. This approach is not allowed everywhere in the area, however. In neighboring Big Bend National Park the burros are protected by federal law. Here state officials are forced to try to round up and capture the burros. This is expensive and extremely difficult work. The burro is very intelligent and is adept at avoiding capture. Those that are corralled have to be screened for parasites and diseases and are then taken to auction.

As would be expected in today’s world, the treatment the invasive burros are receiving is not sitting well with some. Animal rights groups are up in arms and some local residents remain firmly in the corner of the burros. Bumper stickers and placards showing support for the burros can be seen in and around Alpine, Texas and protests are beginning to get louder. Three dozen, or so, people attended a rally last month protesting the killing of burros in the region. Protesters sang songs and read burro-inspired poetry. They also suggested alternatives to shooting burros like darting and sterilizing them. The protesters did not seem to have any useful suggestions as to how to fund such a program, however.

Adding to the situation is that burros are incredibly difficult to round up. The rugged terrain and the high level of intelligence of these animals conspire to make capture all but impossible in many instances. It is very simply one of those things that is easier said than done. To illustrate this point, Good recounts an effort made three years ago to corral the burros. A burro rescue group was hired by the state to go into Big Bend Ranch State Park and catch as many burros as possible. Despite their best efforts the group failed to catch a single animal.

It really isn’t surprising that these burros would have some strong support. The animals are a living link to the past. The first burros and donkeys came over from Europe with the Spanish in the 16th century. The smaller burros quickly became the pack animal of choice for the arid and dry regions of the New World. The feral burros populating the southwest now are the descendents of the domesticated Spanish stock. The image of the grizzled old prospector leading his burro through rocky terrain is iconic. These burros are, in many ways, living history.

I wonder if the problem isn’t more widespread than the TP&WD might suspect. Back in the spring of 2010, while on a trip to the Sam Houston National Forest, I heard a “donkey” braying early one morning. I was nowhere near a farm or any other sort of private property. A group of my fellow TBRC members camped in the same location a couple of weeks later and not only heard the “donkey” but managed to get a photo of it. We surmised that this guy had escaped from a local and gone feral. I wonder now if he might not have been one of these burros that had somehow managed to make the trek into east Texas. The SHNF is certainly a long way from the Big Bend country but it makes me wonder.

As unpleasant as it may sound to animal rights folks, the only real solution is to eliminate the invasive burros of west Texas. They are cuter than a feral hog or a snakehead but no less destructive. The native species of our state need to be protected from all invasives. It does not matter if that invasive is an ugly boar hog, a dangerous reptile like a Burmese python, or a fuzzy brown-eyed burro. Trapping, rounding up, and/or tranquilizing and sterilizing these burros is just not practical. The state simply has to, in my opinion, continue with their efforts to eliminate these invasive animals. Having said that, I also think that any rescue group or individual interested in trying to capture these burros should be allowed to do so free of charge. The TP&WD should make interested parties register with them, report where they will be attempting their round-ups, and inform them of how many, if any, burros were removed. This would involve little more than setting up a database on the part of the state and allow those who find the shooting of these burros abhorrent to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak.

One thing is for sure. The problem cannot be ignored any longer.

Source: Jervis, Rick (2011). Wild burros wreak havoc on Texas ecology. USA Today online. Sourced from here December 1, 2011.

Sasquatch Stalkers

2011-11-30T17:39:00.007-06:00

There was a great article published in the December issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine featuring three of my fellow TBRC members. The article is titled "Sasquatch Stalkers" and was written by Russell A. Graves.

The article features TBRC members Chris Buntenbah, Jerry Hestand, and Lyle Blackburn. Graves questions each of them as to how they became interested in the sasquatch phenomenon and shares an unusual sighting he had of his own with them. Together the group travels to the woods of northern Fannin County, Texas to the spot where Graves had his encounter back in 1986.

The article is well-written and an interesting look into the different ways people get interested in what would be considered a fringe subject, at best, by most. It is refreshing to see a piece that is written in a straight-forward manner about the subject of the sasquatch and the people that are attempting to document the species.

Check it out at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine site or at the TBRC site. Additionally, Russell Graves has a terrific blog site of his own. Check it out here.

The White River Monster

2011-11-27T19:39:00.034-06:00

What would cryptozoology be without lake monsters? These creatures, real or not, are well known to the public. Names like Ogopogo, Champ, and, of course, Nessie, possibly the most famous cryptid creature in the world, have stirred the imaginations of people for generations. The three cryptids mentioned above make up a sort of “who’s who” of lake monsters but are far from alone in the world. There are numerous less well-known lake monsters that allegedly haunt bodies of water of varying sizes across the globe. One of these lesser-known beasts is said to swim the waters of an unassuming river in Arkansas.

The White River monster or “Whitey,” as it is referred to by locals, has been periodically reported for more than 100 years. The monster is very well-known regionally and accepted as being real by a surprisingly high number of Arkansas residents. There are rumors that the White River monster first reared its head during the Civil War. Legend has it that the monster played a part in the sinking of a supply boat during the conflict. Details are extremely vague, however, and while I found many references to this story, I could never determine whether the vessel that was supposedly lost belonged to the Union or the Confederacy.

What is more clear is that sightings began to pick up in 1912 when timber workers, who were floating rafts of cedar down the river below Branson, Missouri, reported seeing something highly unusual. The workers said they saw something very large on the bottom of the river that they, at first, mistook for a boulder. When it moved, however, they realized it was something else altogether. They estimated the size of the creature to be at least 300 lbs. The witnesses described the monster as a turtle of enormous size. As one might imagine, the sighting caused quite a stir and local fishermen and hunters quickly organized a monster hunt. The results of this monster hunt have been lost to history. That being the case, it is probably safe to assume the monster hunters returned empty handed without ever seeing anything out of the ordinary.

In 1924, “Whitey” showed up further downstream in Arkansas. A woman reported seeing the monster surface and emit a loud “blowing noise.” She described the animal as gray in color with a “strange kind of hide.”

The monster of the White River received a boat load of publicity in 1937 after a farmer named Bramlett Bateman reported that some of his workers had seen something strange in a deep eddy just six miles downstream from Newport, Arkansas. Bateman, not simply taking the word of his workers, went to the river to take a look for himself and also sighted the beast. He described an animal that was a car-length in width and three car-lengths in length with the hide of an elephant. The story spread like wildfire across the nation as newspaper editors from coast-to-coast published Bateman’s account. It should be mentioned here that this intense interest in the White River monster by newspapers might have been fueled by the intense interest shown by the public when the first real wave of Loch Ness monster sighting coverage occurred just four years previously.

The hunt for “Whitey” received intense publicity. Newport residents fashioned a huge rope net they hoped would suffice to bag the monster. The net was 40-feet long and 15-feet wide and the plan was for a small armada of boats to sweep the eddy area with it in the hopes of catching the monster. Adding to the circus-like atmosphere was the fact that a fence was erected by the Newport Chamber of Commerce on the banks of the river overlooking the eddy where the monster had been seen. For a mere quarter locals could come and gawk as the monster hunters plied the waters in search of the creature. Alas, nothing was ever found.

The White River monster was spotted periodically over the years after the 1937 flap but didn’t really receive much in the way of attention again until 1971. That is the year Newport resident David Jenks reported seeing a huge animal in the river that he described as being gray and long with a “pointy bone” protruding from its head. He estimated the weight of the creature at 1,000 lbs. On June 28th of that same year, a man named Cloyce Warrren snapped a photograph that he said showed the monster. The photo was a bit blurry but seemed to show a hump of some sort floating in the river. These two sightings put the search for “Whitey” back into high gear. On July 5th, a county sheriff reported finding unusual footprints on Towhead Island just north of Bateman Eddy. The prints were 14” long and 8” wide with three long toes. The prints appeared to show a spur of some sort that projected from the heel. Periodic sightings continued over the summer of 1971. Foremost among them was a report filed by a fisherman and his grandson who claimed something had come up from the depths of the river and bumped their boat from below.

The Arkansas legislature designated a stretch of the White River between Newport and Possum Grape as the "White River Monster Refuge" in 1973. The resolution made it illegal to kill, harass, or otherwise harm the monster within the boundaries of the refuge. Whether this was done in jest or not I cannot say with any degree of certainty. I can think of only one law anywhere else in the country that is similar and that is the ordinance originally passed by Skamania County, Washington in 1969, which made it illegal to kill or harm a sasquatch. Most considered Skamania County’s actions to be a tongue-in-cheek jest meant to capitalize on tourist dollars. Having visited the county, I can assure you that the people of rural Washington take the sasquatch a lot more seriously than you might think. From what I can tell, longtime residents living along the White River feel the same way about their monster.

What could the White River monster be? Several theories have been advanced. Two have gained the most traction over the years. Many believe “Whitey” to be nothing more than a giant alligator snapping turtle. These turtles can grow to some truly impressive sizes. The largest ever caught was in excess of 400 lbs and they do inhabit the rivers, swamps, lakes, and reservoirs of the south. Descriptions of an animal with a large hump with spikes, a pointed head, and dark gray in color could describe a snapping turtle. Remember, too, that the lumber men working the river in 1912 initially described what they saw as a giant turtle. In addition, these turtles are believed to live up to 150 years. One excessively large specimen could be responsible for decades of sightings. There are problems with this theory though. Very few witnesses describe the White River monster as being in the 300-500 lb. range. Some, to the contrary, report the creature to be truly enormous and in excess of 1,000 lbs. Snapping turtles have never been known to get this big. In addition, most people living in rural bottom-lands are very familiar with what a snapping turtle looks like. For these folks to mistake a turtle for a monster seems unlikely.

Biologist Roy P. Mackal has put forth what has become another popular theory; mainly, the White River monster is nothing but an incredibly lost bull elephant seal. Mackal theorizes that the elephant seal ended up in the White River after traveling up the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico. Elephant seals are truly enormous creatures. Males can reach lengths in excess of 16-feet and weigh in at 6,600 lbs. The bulls are known for their large trunk-like proboscis from whence they get their name. The bulls use this “trunk” to help them make extraordinarily loud roaring noises, especially important during mating season. Some of the descriptions given for the White River monster would seem to be a good match for a bull elephant seal. The “horn” that some have described protruding from the head of the creature could be nothing more than an elephant seal’s large trunk-like proboscis. The size of an elephant seal matches up to several of the descriptions of an animal the “size of a boxcar.” Also, some witnesses have described an odd type of skin on the White River monster that matches up well to what elephant seals look like during molting. It seems like a good match but, again, there are issues with this theory. The main problem is that no self-respecting elephant seal would be anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico. The northern elephant seal ranges from Alaska to Mexico but are always found on the Pacific side of the North American continent. Southern elephant seals are found much farther south on the islands surround Antarctica and only occasionally near Australia and New Zealand. This makes the southern elephant seal an unlikely candidate to have ventured up the Mississippi River. Finally, elephant seals typically live only about 15 years. A wayward bull could not possibly account for the sightings over so many years.

Personally, I don’t put much stock into the snapping turtle or elephant seal theories. I do feel that the most likely explanation is that a known animal has ventured outside its known range (though not as far as an elephant seal would have to roam) and is being seen by the locals. I think it is entirely possible that what people have seen, and continue to see periodically, is a Gulf sturgeon. Sturgeon are an ancient group of fishes that have remained virtually unchanged since the age of the dinosaurs. Some types of sturgeon can reach massive sizes. The Gulf sturgeon can be in excess of 8-feet in length and weigh more than 200 lbs. They are covered in scutes (modified scales) that form a very effective protective armor for the fish. Some of these scutes do appear raised and give the sturgeon a “razorback” look (appropriate for a river in Arkansas). This could account for reports of the White River Monster having spike-like projections on its back. These scutes also give the sturgeon an appearance very different than that of other fish. They would appear prehistoric and alien to someone not familiar with them. The head of the Gulf sturgeon features an extended snout with four tactile barbels on the chin in front of the mouth. The unique design of the sturgeon’s head further adds to the odd appearance of the fish. The Gulf sturgeon is anadromous. In other words, it lives in marine environments but migrates to freshwater rives to spawn. The Gulf sturgeon's spawning habits have not been well studied but it does appear that the species is a “home stream spawner.” Basically, this means that individuals return to the rivers where they were born to carry out their own reproductive efforts. The Gulf sturgeon is a long-lived species. Scientists conservatively estimate the average lifespan of the species to be 25-30 years with the females living longer than the males. Some have speculated the females of the species might be capable of living for 100 years or more. These fish do occasionally jump and have actually struck and injured swimmers and boater when doing so.

I posit that at some point in the past a Gulf sturgeon, or a small group of them, ventured farther up the Mississippi River than would be typical in order to spawn. They found their way into the White River and reproduced. The fact that they live a long time could account for sightings over the decades. In addition, the fact that sturgeon return to the rivers where they were spawned would mean that a small number of these fish would continue to return to the White River year after year. That being the case, sightings of the White River monster could continue in perpetuity.

The fact that Gulf sturgeon are anadromous, are home stream spawners, live for a very long time, reach truly large sizes, do occasionally breach or jump from the water, are known to inhabit the Mississippi River for several months of the year, and are very unique and “prehistoric looking” in appearance make them my number one suspect in the mystery of the White River Monster.

There is no definitive answer as to what the White River monster might be. One thing is for sure, however, and that is many locals continue to believe it is there, somewhere in the river, waiting to be discovered.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T22:36:00.004-06:00

I just wanted to take a moment and wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving.

It is easy to get caught up in the trials and tribulations that are a part of our everyday lives. I hope that on this day, at least, we will all pause to remember and dwell upon our blessings.

My best to you all.

Operation Endurance Presentation

2011-11-20T20:57:00.007-06:00

I have received several emails over the last few months asking about the TBRC's Operation Endurance. I haven't posted much about the operation for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to wait until the operation was complete. Second, the group was planning a detailed presentation on Operation Endurance to be given at the annual conference in October. It seemed appropriate to wait until after the conference before posting on the subject. The TBRC, recognizing the fact that many could not attend the conference, has now made this presentation available to the public.

Brian Brown did a terrific job presenting the details of Operation Endurance. That being the case, there is no real need for me to do a detailed post. You can simply listen to the presentation yourself at the TBRC website here. At some point, we hope to get the video of the presentation up on the site. In the meantime, you don't want to miss the audio of Brian's presentation.

Some amazing things occurred during Operation Endurance and some very intriguing evidence was obtained. I plan on commenting more about it in the future but, until then, take a listen to this presentation.

Rare Sighting of a Long-Eared Owl on Texas Coast

2011-11-17T22:42:00.005-06:00

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time at all you know that I am interested in all manner of wildlife. While I have a unique interest in animals that would be thought of as cryptids, I am not one of those people obsessed only with animals that might exist. Certainly, mysterious creatures like bigfoot, black panthers, and the like intrigue me. If they didn’t I would have come up with a different name for the site. While I have devoted many posts to cryptozoological topics, I have also written many posts on known animals like alligators, bears, cougars, sharks, wolves, coyotes, and, well, you get the idea. Sometimes, a known animal showing up somewhere it generally isn’t seen or just flat out does not belong interests me as much as anything else. This post sort of falls under that umbrella.

A friend of mine emailed me these photos of a Long-eared owl (Asia otus). This species of owl would not be considered uncommon in anyone’s book. What’s unusual about these photos is where they were taken. These images were captured in the Sabine Woods on the Texas Coast just outside of Sabine Pass. The Sabine Woods (formerly known as Grim’s Woods) is a bird sanctuary owned by the Texas Ornithological Society. It is a significant tract of woods consisting mostly of live oaks and features a natural slough/wetlands area. The area is only about a quarter of a mile from the Gulf of Mexico and serves as one of the most important migratory stops in the region for neo-tropical birds. All that being said, spotting a pair of Long-eared owls there qualifies as very unusual.

The Long-eared owl is very striking in appearance as you can see. It is considered a medium-sized owl averaging 12-17 inches in length. The most noticeable physical features of these owls are the erect blackish ear-tufts. It is theorized that the ear-tufts are designed to make the owl appear larger and more intimidating than it really is.

The Long-eared owl usually breeds between February and July. This owl is considered to be partially migratory as it does fly south from the northern parts of its temperate range to winter. However, as you can see from the map below, the Texas coast is considerably farther south than where you would expect to find these owls. In addition, it usually prefers coniferous forests in which to nest. The Sabine Woods, being made up mostly of hardwoods, doesn’t fit that particular bill. This owl will gladly use the abandoned stick-style nests of other birds like crows and hawks as well as man-made nesting baskets. Often these owls will roost communally during winter months though only two of these birds have been spotted in the Sabine Woods to this point.

I’ve always thought owls were really awesome birds. Their nocturnal habits always made them seem somehow more mysterious than other birds of prey. Many nights spent in the woods of Texas, listening to the calls of Barred owls (Strix varia) have done nothing to change my opinion. These Long-eared owls may not be cryptids but I think they do qualify as an out of place animal in this instance. Even if that is a stretch, I just enjoyed the photos too much not to post them.

I hope you enjoyed them too.

TBRC Report #01110076

2011-11-14T21:15:00.002-06:00

I just completed an investigation into a fascinating sasquatch sighting that allegedly took place on Bergstrom Air Force Base in May of 1981. The witness's original report and my write-up of the incident are below. I think you'll agree it is a pretty interesting account.

Airman reports night-time encounter on Bergstrom AFB.
Report# 01110076
Occurred May 1981 (Submitted November 1, 2011)

Witness Observation
I was in the Air Force (Security Police or now Security Forces). I was also a member of the base SWAT team and involved in the martial arts. I had just gotten off duty but was asked to respond to a call about a baby crying in base dump. I only went with them because we had to discuss an upcoming base SWAT team training exercise. This was at Bergstrom AFB (now Austin-Bergstrom International Airport).

I responded with three other guys. One was a black belt and SWAT team leader armed with a .38 caliber pistol. Another companion was a 3rd degree black belt armed with a .38 caliber pistol too. The third was a K-9 handler, with his dog. The dog was a holdover from those bred for duty in Vietnam. He was considered to be so dangerous that they had clipped and tattooed his ears to ensure no one accidentally handled this dog.

The call came from a general’s wife, so it had to be checked out.

We went to the dump area. I was then a very remote area of the base. There was a maze of deep creeks and natural drainages in this area. The closest civilization was Bastrop, Texas, and a small prison. The dump was fenced on three sides by a six foot fence with (I believe a 12" "Y" outrigger on it). The fourth side of the dump was a four foot high barbed wire fence. Beyond the fence was a freshly plowed field.

The area was maybe two acres in size, in the shape of a triangle. We arrived and entered through a gate on one of the short sides of the triangle. To our right were several large trailer sized dumpsters (maybe 8), and about 10-12 smaller (Dipsy Dumpster) on our left.

The K-9 unit went first. As he approached to dumpsters on the right, we heard the sound of a baby squeal. The cries seemed to move from one dumpster to another; moving further away from us. This was weird, but then the K-9 handler told us that he thought it was just a baby rabbit. He said he has heard them squeal like that.

After he got down to about the 5th dumpster, the sound came back towards us at the gate. We got a little creeped out by this so the senior Sergeant told us to just do a quick walk through so we could get out of there.

As we started back towards the vehicles, we heard the noise coming from the dumpster on our left, so we started checking them. When we finally got down to the 7th or 8th dumpster, we heard what sounded like a very large bodied impact against the end dumpster. Now these dumpsters were about 4 to 4.5 feet tall and maybe 6 feet by 6 feet wide. There was about 10-12 feet of space between them.

When we heard the banging sound against the end dumpster, we let the dog handler order (what we thought was maybe) a person to come out.

He gave them the order; there was no response. He then long leashed his dog and gave the order again. By now the dog was pulling and tugging to get to where the sound came from. The winds were blowing away from us, so all we could smell was the stench of the dump.

The dog handler gave a final command for the person to come out or he would release the dog. There was no response. The dog was going nuts now to get to the sound. The handler pulled the dog back, unclipped it from the leash and sent him towards the sound in attack mode.
Just as he reached the end dumpster, preparing to run around it, this huge creature leaped from behind the dumpster running. We all had our flashlights trained on the dumpster at about human height. This thing was huge. About 7-8 feet tall; covered with long dark brownish black (matted) fur. It did not turn towards us, but ran out and across the field.

It took two steps and stepped right over the barbed wire fence in as it ran off. Our flash light hit it about the shoulders. This was not a man. The stride covered the 10-12 feet in two steps, and then over the barbed wire fence without jumping.

Most importantly, this killer K-9, was frightened so badly, that he locked up all fours and abandoned his full out charge towards this creature and started screaming as if he had been hurt. He was looking up at the creature, and started backing up even as his momentum caused him to continue sliding forward. When he finally got his traction, he turned and ran past us back towards his kennel truck with his tail tucked between his legs. He was screaming in terror and was pissing himself looking over his shoulders to ensure the creature was not following him.

I would have doubted my own eyes, but this dog's behavior was one of pure terror. The dog was trained to attack on command without fear. I had never seen him behave in this manner, so I feared for my life. I knew he was responding to something real, so I was terrified too. We were no more than 15 or 20 feet away when this happened. The creature could be seen running across the field (in silhouette) disappearing into the woods.

Since we had to report this in an official government document, we delayed and discussed what we would put in the blotter until about 3:00am. Had we told the desk sergeant what we saw, we thought we could have lost our security clearances, so we simply said it was a rabbit or something.

I do not know if the report is public information now or not but it will validate the response if nothing else.

Time and Conditions
10:00 pm - It was a dark night, but there was enough natural light to see the silhouette.

Investigator's Comments
This investigation was conducted as a result of an incident that allegedly occurred in May of 1981 on Bergstrom Air Force Base in Travis County, Texas.

I spoke to the witness at length on the evening of 11 November 2011. The witness was serving in the United States Air Force at the time and was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base, which lies roughly twelve miles southeast of Austin, Texas. The witness worked security detail for the base and was also a sniper on the SWAT team. He was technically off duty but was visiting with three men who were on duty when a call came in that night—at approximately 22:00—reporting what sounded like a crying baby coming from the area of the base dump. The call came in from the wife of a General, whose living quarters were about one-half mile away from the dump area; despite their suspicion it was nothing, the men traveled to this remote part of the base to investigate. According to the witness, the dump was an irregularly-shaped, roughly triangular piece of property, approximately two acres in size. Three sides of the dump were protected by a six-foot high chain link fence featuring what the witness described as a twelve-foot “Y” outrigger on top. The fourth side of the dump marked the property boundary between the base and private farm land and was delineated by a simple barbed wire fence about four feet high.

The witness decided to tag along on the response to this call even though he had just gotten off duty. He accompanied three other airmen who were working security that night. The witness described his companions that night as fearless men who were armed with .38 caliber handguns, the standard weapon for the Air Force at the time (the witness was not armed as he was off duty). In addition, one of the men was a SWAT team leader and another was a K-9 handler who had his sentry dog with him. The sentry dog was described as being a German Shepherd weighing somewhere between 75-100 pounds. The witness, as noted in the original report, described the dog as extremely dangerous; the dog’s ears had been clipped and tattooed so that there would be no confusion between it and some of the younger sentry dogs that had been trained in a different manner and were not considered as dangerous and difficult to handle.

The four men arrived at the dump and entered the gate. To their right was a row of approximately eight large trailer-sized dumpsters, and on their left was a row of ten or so smaller dumpsters of the sort one might see outside restaurants or convenience stores. The men advanced with the K-9 unit leading the way. As they approached the dumpsters on the right, they heard a sound not unlike a baby squealing. The strange cry was repeated several times and seemed to be moving down the row of long dumpsters away from them. The K-9 handler told the others he thought the squealer was nothing more than a baby rabbit. One of the men suggested that the group do a simple walk-through and leave so as not to waste time investigating what seemed a frivolous report. The group proceeded with their walk-through, but their mood changed a bit when the squealing sound was repeated. The squealer had somehow doubled back and was behind one of the smaller dumpsters on the opposite side of the yard, much closer to them than before. As the men walked the line of dumpsters toward the sound, they suddenly heard a very loud and heavy impact against one of the dumpsters. The witness described it as sounding like a very large and heavy body striking the backside of the dumpster. He said it was very loud and powerful enough to shift one of the heavy dumpsters slightly. The men were now on high alert.

The men had walked up the middle of the dump property between the long dumpsters and the smaller ones on their initial reconnaissance. On the way back they were positioned in the narrow 10-12 foot alley between the row of smaller dumpsters and the barbed wire fence separating the base property from private farmland. The K-9 handler immediately ordered whomever was hiding behind the dumpster to show himself or he would release the dog. There was no response. The handler repeated the order and “long-leashed” the dog that was now tugging at his restraint and barking furiously. The handler gave the order one final time. When there was no response, he released the sentry dog and gave the attack command.

The men all had their flashlights trained on the dumpster and watched as the sentry dog bounded forward. The witness reported that just as the dog reached the corner of the dumpster, a huge creature stood up and leaped or ran toward the barbed wire fence. He described the figure as being of massive proportions, seven to eight feet tall and covered in dark, matted-looking hair or fur. The sentry dog attempted to stop and began backpedaling wildly once it sighted the figure. The dog’s momentum caused it to continue to slide forward to the point that it almost bumped into the creature despite its attempts to stop. According to the witness, the dog began “screaming” and, once it regained its footing, turned and sprinted past the men, away from the creature, with its tail tucked between its legs. The witness recalled that the dog was so terrified that it was “pissing all over” as it retreated. The witness said that he had never seen that dog, or any dog, for that matter, act so completely terrified.

The creature took approximately two steps, clearing the 4-foot high barbed wire fence without seeming to jump, and ran across the open farmland toward a wooded area. The witness said that no person could have run as fast as the creature he saw that night did. He said the movement was smooth and fluid. That fact, along with the sheer size of the creature, convinced the witness this could not be a person in an ape suit or costume. The witness stated that while it was dark, there was enough moonlight to see the creature in silhouette until it made it to the wood line.

The stunned and rattled men returned to their vehicles and discussed what to do. They decided that it would be detrimental to their careers if they reported what they had seen and decided to say it was only a rabbit. The men discussed their experience periodically and always tried to find an “acceptable fit” to what they had seen. They all considered themselves to be rational men and wanted to find an explanation they could accept. The witness said that they never could come up with that more rational explanation and eventually had to agree they had seen a sasquatch that night.

I asked the witness if the squealing sound he heard that night would have been loud enough to be heard from the General’s quarters, approximately ½-mile away. He stated that he did not think so and said that thought had puzzled him as well. I also asked him if he felt that the creature he saw was the source of the squealing. He said that he didn’t know but the noise was not heard again once the creature was spotted. He added that he has since heard a rabbit squealing and the noise he heard that night in 1981 would be a very close match. He speculated that the creature he saw might have been attempting to catch a rabbit, causing it to scream in fear. He felt it more than possible that the creature he saw never vocalized at all.

The witness has lost touch with the other three men over the years, so I was not able to follow up with them. Having said that, I found this witness’s account compelling and could detect no signs of deception. He related his account in a calm but very intense manner. He remains convinced that what he saw that night in 1981 was not a person and that he encountered a sasquatch.

*Bergstrom Air Force Base was closed in 1993. The Austin-Bergstrom International Airport now occupies the site.

This and many other reports can be found on the TBRC website at http://www.texasbigfoot.com/reports/report.

Wisdom from Berkeley

2011-11-10T18:13:00.003-06:00

"People should feel more entitled to go out and investigate things that scientists might say don't exist. The broader purpose of science is to find out what's going on in the world. What I'm saying is that the lay public can actually help science, and has a right, even a responsibility, to do so."

-Berkeley associate Professor of Philosophy Sherrilyn Roush.

Typically, I don't agree with much that comes out of Berkeley but I think Professor Roush is dead on with this statement.

What do you think?

Footage of Extinct Imperial Woodpecker Released

2011-11-07T17:14:00.006-06:00

Most people with even a passing interest in nature have heard of the plight of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The sad tale of how this magnificent bird became extinct, due mainly to loss of suitable habitat, is well known. What is not as well known is the story of an equally magnificent, and even bigger, woodpecker that once thrived in the Sierra Madre Occidental – a rugged mountain range stretching 900 miles, or so, south from the U.S.-Mexico border – and in the mountains of central Mexico.

The Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis) was truly a magnificent bird. It was (is?) the biggest woodpecker in the world. Males could grow up to 24 inches long. They were strikingly colored. Males had a red-sided crest but were mostly black in color with the exception of inner primary feathers, secondary feathers, and a scapular stripe, which were white. Females were similarly colored but the crest was solid black and recurved at the top. It had obvious similarities to the more famous Ivory-billed Woodpecker and was actually sometimes called the “Mexican Ivory-bill.”

The Imperial Woodpecker was common up until the mid 1950’s when habitat loss began to take it’s toll. The last confirmed sighting of this species occurred in 1956. Amateur ornithologist William Rhein, now deceased, captured 85-seconds of film of an Imperial Woodpecker foraging for insects on old growth pine trees and flying from one spot to another. The footage, a bit jumpy due to the fact that Rhein was riding on a mule as he shot it, is considered to be 85 seconds of pure gold by the birding world. The film has now been made available to the public for the first time. You can view it here.

The film had been in the hands of the Rhein family for years before it was tracked down by Martjan Lammertink of Cornell University. Lammertink became aware of the existence of the footage only after he came across an old letter that mentioned the film in the University’s archives. He tracked down William Rhein 10 years ago at his home in Pennsylvania and was able to view the film. Rhein’s nephew donated the film to Cornell upon his Uncle’s death in 2006.

Living Bird magazine editor Tim Gallagher said, “ It’s amazing that the bird does so many different things in 85 seconds. It’s a gold mine of information about this bird.”

Lammertink, who authored a paper about the footage published in the November issue of The Auk said, “It is stunning to look back through time and see the magnificent Imperial Woodpecker moving through its old growth forest environment. It is heartbreaking to know that both the bird and the forest are gone."

Gallagher and Lammertink traveled to the spot where the film was shot just a year or so ago but, not surprisingly, found no trace of the bird. Nearly all of the old growth forest had been cleared and the area is now the territory of drug cartels.

“It’s a very dangerous place,” Gallagher said. “There were a lot of people with AK-47s.”

As I watched the footage of the Imperial Woodpecker I found myself overtaken with a powerful melancholy. To know that this most magnificent of all woodpeckers is likely gone forever is sickening. To view the Rhein footage is both an incredible gift, as we can see exactly how the bird moved, flew, and went about it’s daily business, and a terrible reminder of just how badly we humans have failed at being good stewards of the natural world. I hope that we learn our lesson soon.

There are no second chances.

Sources:

Cornell University. "Study analyzes only known footage of the largest woodpecker that ever lived." ScienceDaily, 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45064203/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/long-gone-woodpecker-lives-again-newfound-film/

Giant Python Killed in Florida

2011-11-02T11:17:00.010-05:00

It has been a while since I have discussed the threat that invasive species pose to North American ecosystems. In particular, I have a concern regarding the threat posed by large exotic snakes like pythons, boas, and anacondas to the bottom-lands and marshes of the American south. A recent news story brought my attention back to the issue just this week.

The Huffington Post is reporting that Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officials captured and killed a 16-foot long Burmese python in the Everglades that had just devoured an adult deer. The deer is estimated to have weighed 75 lbs. You can read the story and see some pretty amazing photos of this snake at the link above. The giant serpent weighed in at a whopping 215.4 pounds with the deer in its belly and 139.1 pounds without it. The snake’s stomach had stretched out to an astounding 44.1-inches to accommodate the deer carcass.

Scott Hardin, the exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, is reported to have said that workers found the snake last Thursday and it has turned out to be one of the largest exotic snakes ever found in South Florida. Hardin touted the killing of this enormous snake as an important victory in the efforts of wildlife officials to stop the spread of these giants northward.

Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia but have become very popular as pets here in North America. The problem is that the snakes grow quickly and become too much for their owners to handle. A 20-inch baby python can grow to be 8-feet long in only one year. Owners often become overwhelmed and often release them into the wild where they can wreak havoc on native ecosystems. They are very comfortable in southern wetlands and are reproducing quickly. According to the University of Florida , no fewer than 418 Burmese pythons were found dead or killed in Everglades National Park between 2006 and 2007.

The marshes, swamps, bayous, and bottom-lands of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana are near perfect habitat for invasive tropical constrictors like anacondas, boas, and pythons. I particularly worry about the Big Thicket area of Texas. These invaders would do quite well there. Indeed, there is evidence that the invasion has already started.

So, the next time you hear a tale about a giant snake haunting some lonely swamp in the Lone Star State you might want to think twice before blowing it off. It could simply mean that the invaders have arrived.

A Change of Strategy

2011-10-31T16:37:00.007-05:00

I've decided, at least for the moment, to put all my eggs in one basket. I've taken all four of my digital game cameras and deployed them in the dry creek bed in NE Bell County where I've managed to get so many photos over the last month or so. The cameras have now been set up in a sort of picket-line covering roughly a quarter mile stretch of the creek that winds very close to the locations of a couple of recent horse-kills; the suspected work of a big cat or cats. In addition, there have been several credible sightings of a pair of mountain lions in the immediate area over the last couple of months. The sheer volume of photos of other animals walking this creek seems to indicate that it is being used as a travel route. I’m guessing that, if these big cats are still in the area, they will eventually make an appearance in this creek bed.

I spent the better part of the last week cleaning and checking my game cameras in the hopes of getting them all functional and ready for this deployment. As I mentioned above, I currently have four digital models: 2 Cuddeback Excites, 1 Wildgame Innovations IR2, and 1 Moultrie Game Spy M80 at my disposal but have had a few issues with two of them of late.

The two Cuddebacks are old veterans of the TBRC’s long-term camera project: Operation Forest Vigil. They were very high-end cameras 6-7 years ago but are beginning to show their age a bit now. One of these Cuddebacks was the camera that failed to capture any photos the last time around at the West Bell County location. The Compact Flash card seemed to be fine when I checked it but the camera gave me some trouble as I tried to program it this time around. I’m afraid this one may be on its last legs. The other Cuddeback keeps chugging right along, however, and continues to take some nice photos. It is the camera that has taken most of the photos of coyotes over the last few months in NE Bell County.

The IR2 is fairly new but is the lowest end camera I have. It cost me only about $60 at Academy. It was hurriedly purchased, on a tight budget, and placed in the field after I was contacted by a property owner who had lost a horse on her property to what they suspected was a big cat. I didn’t want to lose the chance to access this private property in an area where cougars were being sighted, and as my other cameras were already deployed, I ran and picked this one up. Ironically, despite its low cost, it has been the most productive of the bunch the last few months. Whether this is due to good performance or it having been placed in the best location remains to be seen. The IR2 is the camera that snapped the photos of the various animals walking the creek bed in NE Bell County (see my last post). It is pretty solid when it comes to snapping daytime pictures but has an extremely limited range at night as well as a slow trigger speed. There is one photo snapped by this camera, that I have not published, that may be of the mountain lion I’ve been seeking; however, the animal is on the extreme periphery of this camera’s nighttime range and I just can’t tell for sure. I’m pretty confident that if I’d had one of the higher end cameras up at this spot I would have captured a better photo that would likely have allowed me to positively identify this large mystery animal.

The Moultrie Game Spy M80 is probably the best camera I have right now. It is a solid mid-price range camera that cost me about $115. It has photo, video, and sound capabilities. It performed great for the first two sets I had it in NE Bell County but took no photos this last time after being out in the field for a month. After cleaning it up, I found that I had a bad SD card. I have replaced the card and the camera seemed to be functioning well during tests this week. I’m hopeful it was only the card that was causing the camera to fail this last time around. This being my best camera, assuming it functions properly, I have placed it in the location previously occupied by the IR2 camera that produced so many good photos. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this higher end camera functions properly and catches more photos than the lower end IR2 was able to get.

The Moultrie also takes high quality video. See the coyote footage below:

I’ll let the cameras “marinate” for a month or so and see what happens. I’ll likely be retrieving images around the Thanksgiving Holiday. I’ll let you all know what I find then.

Chimp Escapes From Dallas Zoo

2011-10-27T11:06:00.005-05:00

The Dallas Zoo continues to have issues keeping it's great apes in their enclosures. According to a report on the KWTX website, a large female chimp somehow escaped her enclosure and made a bid for freedom last Tuesday.

Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Sherri Jeffrey said officers were summoned to the zoo at approximately 10:20 a.m. Tuesday after zoo officials notified them that a large adult female chimpanzee had gotten loose.

Zoo and city officials quickly closed down the "Wilds of Africa" exhibit and moved visitors to other areas of the complex. Zoo officials were able to tranquilize the chimpanzee and recapture it. The zoo’s deputy director, Lynn Kramer, says that the chimp is fine and that she and her crew are trying to determine how she was able to escape her enclosure. No details on the dimensions or design of the chimpanzee enclosure were mentioned in the KWTX report.

As I alluded to in the opening paragraph, this is not the first time the Dallas Zoo has had a large primate escape. In 2004, a male gorilla managed to scale a 14-foot cement wall to escape his enclosure. Once out of his enclosure, the big male found himself right in the middle of zoo visitors and attacked three of them before police shot and killed him.

This situation could have been just as tragic. One need look no farther than this 2004 event or the tragic incident that recently occurred in Ohio to know what fate usually awaits any sort of escaped exotic animal. While zoo officials were quick to point out that, this time, their escaped primate never left an area that was closed to the public, this situation could have had a very unhappy ending for all involved.

Two great ape escapes in the last 7 years at the Dallas Zoo are simply unacceptable. For the sake of the public and the great apes being housed there, I hope the Dallas Zoo gets it's act together.

Bell County Camera Project Update

2011-10-24T21:35:00.028-05:00

I thought I would update all of you on my ongoing camera project here in Bell County, Texas.

As regular readers of this site will recall, this project was a direct result of two horse kills that occurred in the NE portion of the County just outside of Temple, Texas. I was contacted by a reporter from the Temple Daily Telegram and asked for my opinion on whether or not a big cat might be responsible for the kills. The reporter then put me in touch with the landowner who gave me permission to put cameras up on the property in the hopes of getting a photo of the predator responsible. Within a couple of weeks I received two more requests from Bell County landowners, who were seeing and hearing some unusual things, to place cameras on their property. In short order, I had one camera up in West Bell County just South of Killeen, Texas where, according to a local television station, a mystery predator was killing small livestock, two cameras up on the property in the NE portion of the County where the horse kills took place, and one more camera up on property about a mile away from where the horses were taken. It turns out the owners of this property had lost a horse themselves about a month before the more well publicized killings.

While all of this was going on, multiple mountain lion sightings were reported in the vicinity. Several anecdotal reports filtered in to me, the Temple Daily Telegram, and the local Texas Parks & Wildlife Department office. Finally, a sighting of two mountain lions just North of the site of the horse kills, near Troy, Texas was reported and deemed credible by officials as the big cats left behind tracks. Not too long after the Troy sighting, a cougar was spotted in, ironically enough, Lions Park in South Temple. While likely a different cat, probably following the Leon River, this sighting put “Cougar Fever” into full gear in the area.

The camera in West Bell County, to this point, has not captured anything unusual. The last time I had it out, however, it malfunctioned and failed to take any photos at all. This is one of my older Cuddeback cameras that has been a workhorse for me. I have not really had time to tinker with it yet but am hoping it is nothing more than a bad card. In any case, in the two months prior to this failed third set I only managed to take pictures of cattle. I do want to try one more time as the property owners and I located a really promising looking area that even they had been unaware of previously. Here’s hoping I can get that camera functioning.

I have had two cameras out on the property where the horse kills took place. As I mentioned previously, there have been multiple sightings of a pair of mountain lions in the immediate vicinity which, in my mind, all but seals the deal that they were the culprits in the deaths of those two horses. The land is pretty much rough pasture only, however, and doesn’t provide much in the way of cover. There is a creek bed that runs through the property but it meanders really close to the owner’s residence. It is deep enough for something to pass through unseen but is choked with vegetation, debris, and old barbed wire. These factors don’t make it an especially attractive travel route, in my opinion. There are several washouts where gulleys have been formed by runoff. This is the spot where most of the coyote pictures have been taken and I’ve had the most luck; however, it is pretty open country. I’m guessing whatever attacked those horses was strictly passing through and took advantage of an opportunity. I don’t think the predator(s) have taken up residence on or near this property.

The third location, as I mentioned above, is only a mile or so from the location of the horse kills. It is a much more active location. There is a very wide and deep creek that wanders through the property. It is easily ten feet deep or more in most places with a rock bottom. There are several deep holes that have, despite the terrible drought we’ve been suffering, held water all summer long. This location, though the last I gained access to, seemed to hold the most promise. The creek bed really reminded me of a creek in the Sam Houston National Forest in which TBRC Field Operations Coordinator Daryl Colyer and I found barefoot humanoid tracks back in May of 2010. That creek, dubbed “Barefoot Branch” by TBRC members, has proven to be a sort of wildlife highway. My hope was that this creek bed in Central Texas would prove to be the same. I’ve not been disappointed. The location has easily been the most productive of the three and has yielded well over one hundred photos in the last six weeks. The creek actually runs under a major highway only a mile or so from the camera location. I’m guessing that any wildlife in the area that needs to move East or West and get across the highway is using this creek to do so. If those mountain lions are still in the area, I really think they’ll show up in this creek bed sooner or later.

The plan for now is to get all the cameras cleaned up and functioning properly and then deploy them all in this creek bed. I want to spread them out over roughly a quarter mile stretch of the creek and find out just exactly what is coming and going here. Again, if those big cats are still here then I feel like they will show up here sooner or later. I hope to get these cameras in place this coming weekend.

The pictures featured in this post are all from the Bell County project. I have many, many more photos but these are some of my favorites and are representative of what I'm seeing out there. I hope you enjoy checking them out as much as I’ve enjoyed getting them.

I’ll update again once I get the cameras placed.

Reader Recounts Childhood Sighting of Two Black Panthers in Kerr County, Texas

2011-10-23T14:22:00.011-05:00

I received a great email from a gentleman named Chuck detailing a sighting he and his father had back in the 1950's of two black panthers in the Texas Hill Country. Chuck's account is below:

"I was born in 1949 in Kerrville, Texas, as a boy in the 1950's my dad worked as a ranch hand at several ranches in central texas, also called the hill country. As a boy he hired on one year at a ranch just out of Hunt Texas. His job was taking care of a guest ranch. He did carpenter work on the guest cabins, fixed what ever needed fixing and took care of around a hundred horses.

Now towards the end of summer and the approach of fall and the up coming deer and turkey season the owners had him take two 50 pound sacks of corn by horseback to a certain area several miles into the cedar covered hills. At a certain spot we (I got to ride the second horse carrying corn) would leave the corn all layed out for several feet.

One day as we were putting out the corn, I had noticed a small well hid shack about a hundred yards from us. When I asked my dad about it, he said he had built it for the hunters that would be coming before long from the big cities to hunt deer and turkey. He said the owners guaranteed the hunters a deer. I told him that since we had been coming up with the corn for several weeks now the deer didn't even run from us any more and that shooting them would kind of be like shooting fish in a barrel and that at that range I could probably kill one with a rock. He just smiled and said, "Don't seem right, do it boy?" but like I said, they guarantee them big city boys a deer.

Now late one afternoon after we had dropped the corn off and was about half way back to the barn our horses started going crazy, snorting, crow hoping, and trying to turn back. My dad turned around to me and said, "Hold his head up and keep a tight reign, cause your getting ready to see something." It wasn't even a minute after he said that, when a pair of black panthers ran right onto the trail in front of us not 30 feet away. I can remember it like it was yesterday, the horses going nuts, and then staring at something I had only seen once before and that was at night. This was broad day light and up close. As I looked at them, I remember there neon bright yellow eyes first, then how they were hunkered real low to the ground. I would say the second thing I noticed was the size. They were pretty darn big, about the size of a small mountain lion, jet black with the long mountain lion like tail. They only stayed about 10 seconds at most, then was gone as fast as they came.

After we finally got the horses to settle down and I had time to ask my dad what the heck I had just seen he said, "That was a pair of yearling Black Panthers." Now my Dad was a real Texas cowboy, as was his, and his before him. He didn't talk a lot but when he did what he said was sure worth listening to, and I never knew him to lie are stretch the truth. Like I said, this was the second time I saw a black panther as a boy. So if you want to believe they're not there, well, I suppose that's your right, but as for me, I know better. This by the way is the same area I use to wander off for a bit while my dad was putting out the corn and play pushing sticks and leafs across a giant 3 toed foot print set in solid stone, only later in life did I come to know what I had been playing in.

P.S. Even to this day I could go straight to that spot. If you doubt what I'm saying, I now live in Oregon."

Of course, I have no way to verify this account. Chuck could be pulling my leg, I suppose, but he did leave his full name and email address which certainly adds to his credibility, in my eyes. I certainly find no reason to doubt his truthfulness based on what he wrote. I will be emailing him to see if there are any additional details regarding this, or other, sightings. I appreciate his taking the time to write out his account.

As always, I'd like to hear about any big cat sightings from the Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and/or Arkansas region from readers of this site. Even if the sightings occurred years ago, I'd like to hear about them. Just email me at Texascryptidhunter@yahoo.com.

A Change of Heart

2011-10-17T21:18:00.000-05:00

I have decided to end what may be the shortest “retirement” ever this side of Brett Favre. I’ve had a bit of an epiphany regarding the blog and my efforts to keep it current. I started the site simply because I’d had an unusual experience and was very interested in the topic of bigfoot and all things “cryptozoology.” An awful lot of sites on the internet that delved into these topics seemed a bit “out there” to me and I thought there was a void out there in cyberspace when it came to sites that treated this subject matter seriously and objectively.

Don’t misunderstand. I don’t mind anyone thinking that bigfoot is an extraterrestrial shape-shifting telepath that can hop in and out of different dimensions. If that is their opinion, that is great. I just don’t happen to lean that way. I believe there is a biologically based explanation for the sasquatch phenomenon. Period. There aren’t a lot of sites out there that take this position. I hoped to provide a site where open-minded people could hear a voice from this side of the debate.

So, you may be wondering, why was I willing to just walk away and what changed my mind? First, the reasons I was going to hang it up…

The blog had become work. I felt pressure to produce something of high quality every two days or so. My schedule is such that this became a burden on me. I started to resent “having” to get something written up. I think it showed and the quality of the posts began to suffer. I decided that if it was no longer fun and the quality of the posts were not up to my standards it would be better to just drop the whole thing. As I mentioned in my “signing off” post, I’m pretty taxed physically this time of year and that, no doubt, played into my state of mind as I considered whether or not to continue.

I also mentioned in the “signing off” post that I had been discouraged by some recent incidents. I will, for now, leave it at that but can tell you that I have been absolutely amazed at the level of petulance exhibited by many, if not most, of the people who claim to be seriously looking into the sasquatch phenomenon. It is stunning. I could go on but I think the Blogsquatcher summed it up better than I ever could when he shut down his site. He wrote:

“…the field of sasquatchery, in what might be thought of as its "upper echelon" is full of idiots, cranks, bunglers, SOBs, biyatches, self-aggrandizing pricks -- I could go on, but you get the picture. The number of people who do not fall into this category could be counted with your fingers and toes. Fingers and toes, people! There are thousands of interested folk who do not aspire to the "upper echelon" and most of these are ordinary folk who do not deserve such appellations, and my list is not meant to cast any aspersions upon them. But on the whole, the "big fish, little pond" of bigfootery is an asshole magnet. It was downright unpleasant to deal with many of these folk day in and day out. The conniving douchebaggery in the field was staggering. If I even attempted to describe to you some of the things that went on, you would not believe me.”

Truer words have never been written. The “upper echelon” to which the Blogsquatcher referred is truly something. Certainly, his words do not apply to everyone but if you were to print up a “who’s who” list of well-known, notice I didn’t say well-respected, “researchers” you would be lucky to count a dozen or so that are sane, honest, decent, and not in the field in the hopes of making a buck. More prevalent than the charlatans hoping to make some money off the sasquatch enigma are those who are involved simply for the social aspect. They travel about to each other’s meetings, conferences, and symposiums to visit, sing songs, and pat each other on the back for being awesome. Very little actual field work is done by the majority of these folks. They do not; however, have a problem condemning and belittling the efforts of others. Worst of all, I strongly suspect that most, if not all, of these people have no interest in solving the bigfoot mystery at all. If the riddle ever is solved then they will no longer have a reason to get together. They have found a niche. They have found their religion. They will, and do, attack those who seriously seek answers as it threatens their way of life.

The followers of these folks are pretty unbelievable as well. You would not believe some of the emails and comments I get on the site. The level of vulgarity and mean-spirited bologna that came in day-to-day, even on what I would consider the most innocuous of posts, would blow your mind. I spent a lot of time and energy trying to have reasonable exchanges of dialogue with these folks. It never seemed to do any good and the negative exchanges far outnumbered the reasonable ones. I found myself taking on almost a siege mentality. I knew that I shouldn’t let the ignorant comments of a few anonymous knuckleheads get to me but after awhile that is exactly what happened. I just got to a point where I was like, “I don’t need this crap.” I began to take it personally.

Finally, somebody gave one of my kids a hard time about the site and my interest in the subject of cryptozoology. While I’ve never made any efforts to keep my identity a secret, neither have I actively publicized it. I’m in no way ashamed or embarrassed by my interest in any of this. Personally, I find it amazing that everyone isn’t interested in all this stuff. It was a bit sobering, however, to know that my interests in these topics were causing my daugher hardships at school. What decent parent would not be affected by that?

There are a few more things I could mention but that covers the major issues I was dealing with. So, what has changed? Why did I decide to come back so quickly? I’m glad you asked.

As I mentioned above, I believe that there is a biological entity responsible for the sasquatch phenomenon. There aren’t many sites carrying this particular torch and I began to think it bordered on being irresponsible to leave the blogosphere entirely to those with a more esoteric view of what is behind the sasquatch mythos. Again, don’t misunderstand, I have nothing against folks who believe differently than I do. I just haven’t experienced anything, or talked to witnesses who have, that has led me to believe anything other than a flesh and blood animal is responsible for the sightings of large, upright, hair-covered bipeds that continue to be reported from around the world. This view needs a voice.

Next, I decided not to let the idiots who continue to hammer away at me with negative emails and comments win. Call it stubbornness on my part but I decided I wouldn’t go out that way. It is tiresome and taxing to continually deal with some of these people who are emboldened by the anonymity the internet provides. I keep picturing 30+ year old guys still living with their mothers as the culprits behind the most ignorant of the emails I receive. That may not be true but it makes me feel better to think of them this way. Anyway, I’ll not be trying to hold intelligent dialogue with these folks anymore. I’ll simply be hitting the delete key. If you have followed the site at all you will know that I don’t publish only comments that are complimentary or that agree with my position on a particular topic. It is fine to disagree with me and as long as the comment is civil in tone it will be published; however, turds need not bother from this point forward.

Another reason that I have decided to hang in there is that several things are going on now that I’m keeping a very close eye on. I want to make sure there is at least one outlet out there that can, and will, tell the truth, warts and all, regarding these things. I do not mean to be cryptic and will enlighten you all when the time is right regarding the things I’m referring to. Simply put, I’m not going to walk away and leave the dissemination of information regarding these things to lard-assed wind bags that have axes to grind and are more than willing to take things out of context, tell half truths, and spread rumors and/or flat out lies.

Finally, and without a doubt, the biggest reason I decided to continue writing the blog is because of something my daughter said to me. She told me that she didn’t want me to stop doing what I enjoyed because some jerk at her school had been rude to her. She appreciated my wanting to protect her but assured me that she was a big girl who could take care of herself. “Besides,” she told me, “I think what you do is cool.” Needless to say, I’m a pretty proud Dad and that is all I needed to hear.

So, I’m back and will continue throwing my two cents out there regarding bigfoot and any other weird or out of place animals. I have promised myself not to let the blog become drudgery so I may post a little less often but I guess I’m here to stay.

Looks like you guys are stuck with me.

Signing Off

2011-10-06T22:37:00.001-05:00

I have decided to stop writing the Texas Cryptid Hunter blog…at least for a while.

I am just flat worn out. Right now I am at a stage in life where I have a lot of things tugging me in different directions. This certainly does not make my life any different than that of many others but I am finding it difficult to devote the time and energy it takes to do the blog right at this time. If I’m going to do it I want to do it right. Right now, well, I just don’t seem to be able to do that.

That being the case, I’m going to take a break. I’m going to leave the site up so that anyone who wants to can peruse old posts. I will continue to monitor my email and will be glad to answer questions and help anyone in any way I can that takes the time to contact me.

If asked right now I would guess that I will likely be back at some point. I plan to continue my pursuit of out of place animals and certainly my interest in cryptozoology and the natural world has not waned. There have been some incidents lately that have discouraged me a bit but I know that these things come and go. I was already thinking of taking a hiatus so these things did not sway me in any way. Neither, however, did they make me second-guess my decision.

So, for now this is goodbye. I want to thank each and every person who took the time to stop by and visit my site from time to time. It is very flattering to think that people out there are actually interested in the things I have to say. I will see you all down the road.

Until then, my very best to you all.

Mike

Do Pterosaur Fossils Found in the DFW Area Explain Thunderbird Sightings Today? Not Likely...

2011-09-26T20:16:00.014-05:00

A Rockwall, Texas roofing contractor named Gary Byrd made a very significant fossil discovery earlier this year. According to an article posted on the Science Daily website, Byrd discovered what are likely bones from the wing of a pterosaur. Specifically, the bones likely belong to a flying reptile dubbed Pteranodon. Pterandodon was a fairly typical type of pterosaur that had broad leathery wings and a slim torso and likely fits the picture most of us envision when we picture a “pterodactyl” with a bony crest.

This particular specimen would have died roughly 89 million years ago. This would make it the oldest Pteranodon specimen ever found found in North America by 1-2 million years and the second oldest example of a pteranodontid in the world. The find is special due to the rarity of pterosaur fossils.

Timothy S. Myers, a paleontologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said, “Any pterosaur material is fairly rare to find unless you have exceptional preservation conditions. They are frail, fragile bones, and they require rapid burial to be well preserved.” Myers added that the find of multiple bones, all from the creature’s left wing, is unusual. He pointed out that typical finds are of only one bone or a piece of one bone.

Pteranodon was a type of pterosaur that lived during the age of the dinosaurs in the late Triassic Period. Early pterosaurs had thin sharp teeth but later the toothed variety disappeared and the toothless forms, like Pteranodon, took their place. The pterosaurs were mainly fish eaters who flew above what is now Texas during a time when a large ancient sea bisected the North American continent from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico. Pteranodon was large, with a wingspan of 12-13 feet, but far from the biggest pterosaur that ever lived. It likely subsisted almost entirely on fish and may have floated on ocean thermals for days at a time in search of prey.

The DFW area has actually yielded a wealth of pterosaur fossils. Remains of both the toothless and toothed varieties have been found in the area. In particular, the remains of a toothed type of pterosaur called Aetodactylus halli, which lived approximately 95 million years ago, was found in the area and also positively identified by Myers.

“This new specimen adds a lot more information about pterosaurs in North America,” Myers said. “It helps constrain the timing of the transition from the toothed to toothless because there’s only a few million years separating this specimen and Aetodactylus.”

The fact that pterosaurs once did soar about what would become the Lone Star State has, once again, led some to ask if they could still exist and, if so, be candidates to explain the sightings of giant flying creatures or “thunderbirds” that filter in mainly from South and West Texas. Is it possible? Could a small population of pterosaurs, maybe even Pteranodon itself, have survived to this day? As has been covered here before, some reports seem to point to this possibility. Following is an excerpt from a post I did on thunderbirds back in November of 2010 titled Texas Pterosaurs:

“In 1976 two San Benito, Texas police officers, Arturo Padilla and Homer Galvan, reported seeing what was to become known as the "Texas Big Bird". While that might invoke images of the Sesame Street character to most people, rest assured, the creature seen by these officers fit the description of a pterosaur...

...In February of the same year, it was reported that several school teachers were "dive-bombed" by a creature matching the description of a pterosaur on their way to work. They reported the creature's wingspan to be at least 12 feet in length.”

What has also been pointed out on this site is that the chances of there being living pterosaurs of any kind left in Texas is very, very slim. TBRC Chairman Alton Higgins, spurred by reported sightings of living pterosaurs off the coast of New Guinea, pointed out that what the researchers were likely seeing were frigatebirds. Alton, in an article titled Pterosaurs and Thunderbirds, also pointed out that, while mainly seafaring by nature, frigatebirds do, on occasion, venture far inland and could be candidates for Texas pterosaurs. An excerpt from Alton’s piece reads as follows:

“All in all, the typical Texan would not be expected to see a frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) in his or her lifetime and would be even less likely to know what they were seeing. The fact that these impressive birds, with their singular appearance, range rarely and unexpectedly into unfamiliar domains could account for some of the reports from baffled witnesses who mistakenly relate their sightings to extinct and mysterious creatures.”

I have to say that I agree with Alton Higgins and feel it is highly unlikely any pterosaurs have survived into modern times. I stated several possible explanations for pterosaur sightings back in the Texas Pterosaurs post in 2010. I’ll not rehash all that now. I will add that the fact that pterosaurs were mainly fish-eaters makes it even more unlikely that they would be seen in the arid deserts of South and West Texas even if they had somehow survived to the present day.

So, in my opinion, even though Texas was once home to many of these creatures, pterosaurs are not particularly good candidates for the thunderbirds seen on occasion by people in Texas and the southwest. This in no way dampens my enthusiasm for the fossil find of Gary Byrd. It is a significant find and, as Timothy S. Myers of SMU pointed out, it will help further our knowledge of these ancient flying reptiles.

It just doesn’t further our knowledge of what the thunderbirds people continue to report might be.

Source: Southern Methodist University. "Rare 89-million-year-old flying reptile fossil from Texas may be world's oldest pteranodon." ScienceDaily, 1 Mar. 2011. Web. 26 Sep. 2011.

Way Behind...

2011-09-24T13:54:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to post a note and let all of you who have contacted me in one way or another over the last couple of weeks that I haven't forgotten you.

This has always been a crazy time of year for me and this year is no exception. Things have been nuts. I'm going to try my best to catch up on my correspondence this weekend. Please be patient if you've contacted me as I'm not ignoring you. I'm just way behind.

My best...

Copulation Calls in Chimpanzees and the Possible Sasquatch Connection

2011-09-21T18:44:00.009-05:00

I ran across an interesting abstract on the website of the International Journal of Primatology recently. The abstract, written by Simon William Townsend, Tobias Deschner, and Klaus Zuberbuhler, is entitled Copulation Calls in Female Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) Convey Identity but Do Not Accurately Reflect Fertility. Not the most exciting title in the world but an interesting abstract, nonetheless.

The abstract centers around the copulation calls of female chimpanzees. Copulation calls, it is pointed out, are a relatively common feature of female primate behavior. It is generally thought that these calls are an advertisement of female receptivity and also serve to incite male-to-male competition for the affections of said receptive female. Most of the research on primate copulation calls has focused on various small monkey species and not on any of the great apes. This particular study sought to remedy that situation and the results were interesting.

The authors point out that the little previous research that focused on chimpanzee copulation calls suggests estrous females call to avoid monopolization by a single male and to minimize competition from other females. For their study, the authors examined the acoustic structure of the calls of six adult female chimpanzees. In total they recorded and studied 71 separate copulation call bouts from these six individuals living in the Budongo Forest of Uganda. The researchers failed to find any acoustic differences in the calls given by the female chimpanzees based on whether or not they were made during fertile or non-fertile periods. However, what they did find were repeated encoded identity cues of each calling female. The authors constructed a couple of different hypothesis based on the data analyzed but the final line of the abstract is what interested me the most. It reads, “Owing to the low visibility conditions associated with chimpanzees natural forest habitat and their dispersed social system, providing identity cues may be of particular biological relevance for these nonhuman primates.”

Being who I am, after reading this abstract, I began to ponder on how this information might relate to North America’s great ape. People have long reported screams, howls, grunts, and growls from some of the most inaccessible and isolated areas of the country that they cannot attribute to any known species. These inhospitable areas where the sasquatch is reportedly seen and heard from time to time could easily be described as having low visibility conditions due to incredibly dense foliage, not unlike the habitat of the chimpanzees observed by the authors of this study. It would seem logical to assume that in order to communicate with other members of the species across this thickly wooded habitat the sasquatch would have had to develop a variety of vocalizations or calls similar to those used by chimpanzees.

The most famous call attributed to the sasquatch is usually called the Ohio howl. The Ohio howl was recorded in Columbiana County, Ohio back in 1994 by Matt Moneymaker and Jamie Watson. The call originated from an area not too far from the Ohio River. You can hear the Ohio howl by clicking here. It is true that it cannot be absolutely proven that a sasquatch is the howler in this clip. What is true is that I’ve heard this very same howl on several occasions in the deep woods of East Texas. Whatever was howling in Ohio seems to have kin in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. A variety of other strange calls, screams, grunts, growls, whistles, whoops, and mumblings have been recorded that seem to defy conventional explanation. The BFRO website has a nice library featuring a variety of these calls. I would encourage you to visit the site and take a listen. It is very interesting.

It is possible that sasquatches are mainly solitary but, if so, they must come together from time to time if for not other reason than to mate. Could the strange simian-like howls reported for decades be copulation calls? What about the other strange noises attributed to the sasquatch? Do they convey cues to the identity of the caller? The great apes make a wide variety of noises that convey a great many different messages. Check out this library of chimpanzee vocalizations at the Jane Goodall Institute website for some examples of this. If one accepts the premise that the sasquatch could exist, then it is not unreasonable to assume it actually vocalizes at times like the other great apes. In fact, it would be far more surprising if they did not vocalize in some manner.

As mentioned above, sasquatches are considered to be mainly solitary by most due to the fact that sightings of multiple individuals are rarely reported by witnesses; however, recent experiences in the field have led me to believe that these animals might be more social than most people think. My observations, and those of my fellow TBRC members, seem to indicate that these animals may very well live in small groups. Whether these groups are true family units with a male, female, and offspring or in troupes or clans remains to be seen. While such claims are rare, small clans and family groups of sasquatches have been reported in the past. One need only to review the reports of Albert Ostman, Muchalat Harry, and Fred Beck as a reminder that such claims have occurred. If true, does living in small groups lend itself to more or less verbal communication?

I have been guilty of dismissing a lot of audio recordings featuring calls and other noises that were said to be bigfoot in origin. Recent experiences along with a growing understanding of great ape behaviors have me rethinking my conclusions on some of these recordings. I stand by my opinion that audio recordings alone will never be enough to prove the existence of the sasquatch but the wide array of noises and calls associated with this creature really don’t seem to be too different than those associated with the known great apes. Again, assuming the sasquatch to be a living species, it would be far more surprising if they did not vocalize in the some of the ways witnesses have described.

Are these strange calls, thought to be sasquatch in origin, copulation calls? Challenges to territorial interlopers? Do these calls contain cues to the identity of individuals? All questions with no answers at this point. Let’s hope we can get this species documented so that we can begin delving into these questions.

Texas Bigfoot Conference Approaching

2011-09-19T19:26:00.008-05:00

The 11th annual Texas Bigfoot Conference is quickly approaching. The conference, put on by the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, will be held Saturday, October 1, 2011 at the Caldwell Auditorium in Tyler, Texas. The conference will begin at 9:00 AM.

The conference will be a fantastic opportunity to hear scientific presentations on the subject of the sasquatch made by some of the most well-known experts in the field and meet TBRC investigators and members. The official press release for the event is below:

For Immediate Release September 12, 2011

The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy (TBRC), a nonprofit 501c(3) scientific research organization, is pleased to announce the speaker list for the 2011 Texas Bigfoot Conference. The conference will offer a superb line-up of speakers.

• Dr Ian Redmond – Tropical field biologist and conservationist. The TBRC is especially pleased this year to present Dr. Redmond, considered one the world’s foremost field biologists, as the keynote and banquet speaker. Dr. Redmond studied mountain gorillas for decades and was the protégé of the late Dian Fossey. Like the celebrated chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall, Redmond is very open to the existence of an undocumented North American primate and his tremendous firsthand experience studying gorillas provides him with unique perspectives regarding the subject of sasquatch research.

• Dr. Jeff Meldrum – Associate Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology, Idaho State University, and affiliate curator for the Idaho Museum of Natural History. Meldrum is the author of the 2006 book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science. He is widely considered as one of the world’s foremost authorities regarding possible sasquatch-related evidence, particularly related to footprints and foot morphology. He has discovered tracks and has experienced probable sasquatch encounters. His laboratory includes a large collection of sasquatch foot castings. Dr. Meldrum will discuss an extremely intriguing hair sample found by a hog hunter in the Piney Woods of East Texas.

• Chester Moore, Jr. – Author, Executive Editor of Texas Fish & Game, Outdoors Editor for the Port Arthur News and Orange Leader newspapers. Moore has a long-time interest in mysterious animals. He has appeared on Animal Planet, National Geographic, the Travel Channel and others discussing the subject. At the 2011 Texas Bigfoot Conference, Moore will present a lecture entitled “Black Panthers and Beyond: The Truth about Big Cats in Texas.” He has studied big cats since his youth and has had the opportunity to work with them both in the field and in captivity. Moore’s presentation will tackle how Texas is wild enough and large enough to provide sufficient habitat for unknown large wildlife and how Texas could be the key to unlocking the mystery of black cats and other mystery cats.

• Alton Higgins – Biology Professor, wildlife biologist, and Chairman of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy. Ever since Higgins discovered large human-like tracks and scat in a very remote area in Washington, he has endeavored to explore the mystery of the sasquatch. He has spent the last decade investigating reported sightings and conducting field research as part of the TBRC. In 2002, he had his own sighting in a remote part of Oklahoma where he was investigating other reported sightings.

• Lyle Blackburn – Writer, author of the soon-to-be-released book, The Beast of Boggy Creek: True Story of the Fouke Monster; Blackburn is a frequent contributor and advisor to Rue Morgue magazine; TBRC Field Investigator. Growing up in Texas near the site of the cult-classic The Legend of Boggy Creek film, Blackburn has always been fascinated with the legends and reports of real “monsters.” He has intensely researched the subject in legend, fact, and fiction.

• Brian Brown – Owner of the digital market agency Ideapark, TBRC Marketing Director, TBRC Board of Directors, TBRC Field Investigator. Brown’s team was responsible for the TBRC’s outstanding website (www.texasbigfoot.com) and the TBRC’s iPhone application. When Brown is not designing websites for Betty Crocker, Redwing Shoes, or the TBRC, he spends much of his time in remote places as a TBRC Investigator searching for the group’s elusive quarry. Brown will be giving a presentation on the TBRC’s seminal Operation Endurance, a two-month field study held in the summer of 2011.

• Willie Mendez – Education Specialist at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Institute of Texan Cultures, a Smithsonian affiliate. Mendez was closely involved with the institute’s very successful Bigfoot in Texas? exhibition and speaker series, which ran during the summer of 2006. At this year’s conference, Mendez will share background information regarding the planning and implementation of the historic exposition and discuss some of the displays. This presentation should be a fascinating overview for anyone who was unable to make it to San Antonio for that 2006 project.

• Robert Swain – Cartoonist, author of the forthcoming book, Laughsquatch: Book One. Swain loves to kindly poke bigfoot and bigfoot researchers through his Laughsquatch cartoons. His engaging personality, insightful commentary, and gentle humor have made him a favorite at past conferences. Swain’s art can be seen at www.laughsquatch.com.

The 2011 Texas Bigfoot Conference will be held in Tyler at the Caldwell Auditorium, 301 S. College Ave., October 1, 2011. There is also an evening banquet, held at the Discovery Science Place, 308 N. Broadway Ave at 7:30 PM. The banquet will spotlight the talents of singer/songwriter Lenny Green and a special presentation by Dr. Ian Redmond.

General admission is $25, with various upgrade packages available. Discounts are available for students, educators and active military with proper ID.

The TBRC is comprised of volunteer investigators, scientists and naturalists, actively engaged in activities designed to test the hypothesis that a very rare form of unknown primate—commonly referred to as bigfoot or the sasquatch—resides in very remote areas where there is abundant rainfall, dense forestation, and low human population densities. The TBRC is funded by membership dues, fundraisers, and the annual Texas Bigfoot Conference, in addition to donations and grants. The TBRC desires to enhance the credibility of bigfoot/sasquatch research and facilitate a greater degree of acceptance by the scientific community and other segments of society of the likelihood of a biological basis behind the sasquatch mystery.

You can register and buy tickets for this exciting event by visiting the TBRC website at www.texasbigfoot.com and clicking on the conference banner. You can pay via credit card, PayPal, or check.

I would add that the presentation on the TBRC's Operation Endurance will be worth the price of admission. If you are interested in the subject of bigfoot, you will be kicking yourself if you miss this one.

I will be attending the event and would very much enjoy meeting and visiting with any readers of this site that will be there.

Wildfires Ravaging Texas

2011-09-13T22:34:00.007-05:00

I have to apologize for not posting more of late. It seems that this happens about this time every year. I am a teacher and a coach and the beginning of school and the start of football season make for a very hectic time of year for me. Add the fact that I have two kids of my own who are heavily involved in school and church activities and you have one very busy Dad.

There have been other issues, however, that have kept me out of the field. The main reason has to do with the wildfires that are ravaging Texas. I have been forced to evaluate even my most basic outdoor activities due to the tinderbox that is the Lone Star State right now. I know how to get along in the woods without fire, I don’t smoke, and my activities do not lend themselves to accidentally starting fires. I worry far more about being caught out somewhere when a wildfire pops up and right now they are popping up everywhere.

The worst fire, by far, has been in Bastrop County. Bastrop, the County’s namesake, lies just 30 miles SE of the state capital of Austin. More than 1,500 homes have been destroyed by the Bastrop complex fire. It is easily the most devastating wildfire in Texas history. A friend of mine emailed the photos included in this post. All of the photos are of the Bastrop complex fire. As you can see, the flames sometimes reached heights exceeding 100 feet. It is an awesome and terrifying sight to be sure.

Last week a small fire erupted near my home. The fire department pounced on it quickly and only 20-25 acres burned. Still, the site of flames and smoke that close to your home is pretty sobering. Just today my parents came within an eyelash of having to evacuate their home near Salado, Texas. Approximately 500 acres have burned near Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir and only the direction of the wind spared the home of my parents. It is a very scary time right now.

The threat of wildfires is not limited to Central Texas. There is another fire raging in Upshur County in NE Texas. Nothing less than the Piney Woods of East Texas are at risk here. If we don’t get some rain soon…well, it is going to be really bad.

I have been able to keep up with my camera project in Bell County. I will provide details on what I’ve managed to photograph in another post shortly. In the meantime, please be careful out there and use extra caution when out in the field. The slightest spark could begin a chain reaction with devastating results.

Just ask the unfortunate folks down in Bastrop.

Vietnam Vet Recalls Encounter with "Rock Apes"

2011-09-06T21:55:00.003-05:00

I received a very interesting response to a post I made back in November of 2010 called “The Rock Apes of Vietnam.” There really wasn’t much to the post at all as it was more of a recommendation to read an article by Loren Coleman over at Cryptomundo.

The response was in the form of a comment to the original post. Below is the comment:

“I was in Vietnam 1967-68 near a firebase called the Rock pile. One night we heard what we believed to be invaders coming through the minefield. A marine next to me said that they were rock apes and he then threw a rock in the direction of the intruders only to have it thrown back. He again threw it back but this time the rock got bigger and every time he threw the rock got bigger until it was almost bowling ball size. Quite the game. Due to darkness, we could not tell how many "apes" were there but later that night one managed to step on a mine. All accounts I have read as far as ape/humanistic look agrees with what I personally saw. It is not a myth.”

I shared this report with some of my fellow TBRC members. One of them shared the story below:

“A friend-of-a-friend of mine, XXXXX, is a Green Beret Nam-vet and claims to have had a near violent encounter with one of these rock apes. It occurred inside a hanger late one night and it climbed up onto a loft where he was sleeping. XXX was later a founding member of the remote viewing units in the late '70's. Kind of an interesting character, really. But he is deadly serious about his encounter in Vietnam.....”

If there are other Vietnam vets out there who have had experiences with these rock apes I would really like to hear about it. You can send me an email at Texascryptidhunter@yahoo.com or just leave a comment to this post.

Large Dark-Colored Cat Spotted in NW Fort Worth

2011-09-01T21:28:00.003-05:00

Here is the latest report I've received from a reader who claims to have spotted a large dark-colored cat in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"Big cat spotted tonight in NW Fort Worth at Eagle Mountain lake area, off Boat Club road and Eagle Ranch. Dark brown, size of a Lab. 50-60 yards behind house. Wife and son witnessed it too. Son thought it was a bobcat, but it was too big. Walked near a creek/ pond area."

According to the report, the sighting occurred just hours ago. It is too bad I'm three hours away.

Massive Gator Taken From Lake Livingston

2011-08-30T19:17:00.003-05:00

According to a report on the Click2Houston website, another huge alligator has been killed in east Texas. The story, written by Hasti Taghi, details the story of a monstrous alligator that was caught and killed in Lake Livingston near the Westwood Shores community. You can access the story here.

It seems the gator was spotted multiple times by frightened members of the community. The residents are certainly no strangers to alligators but the sheer size of this reptile gave them cause for concern. That being the case, they notified the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

The TPWD contracted a trapper named David Hunter to capture and remove the alligator. Hunter was successful and managed to capture the reptile. According to Hunter, the big gator had just attacked a deer. The bull gator measured 14-feet in length and weighed in at over 1,200 pounds. The alligator was euthanized shortly after being captured. Hunter said that he had little choice in the matter as attempting to relocate a gator this size would be just too dangerous.

TPWD officials said that the drop in water levels on Lake Livingston were likely behind this big gator showing up in the residential area. According to the officials, and Westwood Shores residents, alligators are being seen far more often this summer than is typical. Texas, of course, is suffering through the worst drought in the last 75 years.

It is unfortunate that the big alligator had to be killed. I will not play armchair quarterback and second-guess trapper David Hunter on his decision to put the gator down. No doubt, it would have been a dangerous undertaking to relocate an animal this size. While the article points out that the alligator had not harassed residents or their pets, the situation was untenable. The fact that the alligator was in this area in the first place was probably because it was having trouble finding food in its usual haunts. A hungry alligator of this size making itself at home in a residential area where there are, no doubt, young children is just not acceptable.

Unfortunate? Yes. Necessary? I’m afraid so.

A Word From Sir Edmund Hillary

2011-08-18T22:31:00.001-05:00

“You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated.”

Sir Edmund Hillary

Field Report: Mesquite Panther Sighting

2011-08-16T22:13:00.021-05:00

I recently posted several new accounts sent in by readers that detailed sightings of black panthers from several areas around the state. A regular reader, Justin Horn, contacted me and volunteered to scout the area near the Dallas water treatment facility in Sunnyvale, just north of Mesquite, where a reader reported seeing a large black cat back in 2008. His report, along with several photos, he took, follows.

Mike,

Earlier today, I went to check out that area where the alleged black panther sighting took place, In Mesquite, TX. As I mentioned earlier, I'm quite familiar with that area, as many years ago I lived in Mesquite. I just wanted to touch base with you and fill you in on the day's events.

I want to start by saying, I'm sure my "investigation" methods are sloppy, as I don't have a particular protocol for things like that, as you do with TBRC. I wasn't out to try and spot a cougar, as that sighting was 4 years ago (although it would have been nice to spot one!). I basically just wanted to do some basic recon of the area and give my opinion as to whether or not that area would be conducive to supporting a large predator like a mountain lion. The conclusion I came to is: Yes..... sorta.

First of all, despite only being 15 miles from downtown Dallas, the area is fairly rural. There are large tracks of heavily forested land, butting up to even larger tracks of clear cut farm land. A few large new development neighborhoods are interspersed throughout the area, but are generally surrounded on all sides by thick woods and farmland that stretches for miles. The area is abundant with wooded creeks, stock tanks, and smaller lakes. The East Fork of the Trinity River runs through the area, as well. A very large lake, Lake Ray Hubbard, is only about a mile and a half from this location. There are many food sources in the area, as even in these dry conditions, evidence of abundant wildlife was present. Not to mention, many of the farmers in the area have cattle, horses, miniature horses, goats, and sheep. An interesting note: DIRECTLY across the street from where the sighting occurred, there is a farm of miniature horses and goats, without any high fences, donkeys, or large dogs to help ward off predators. Seems ill advised if you ask me. It could be that this cat was drawn to the area by the easily accessible goats and miniature horses.

I included some pictures to help you get a feel for the type of land in the area. Unfortunately, the camera on my Blackberry does not at all capture the size of the trees or the thickness of the woods in many areas quite like it should.

Photo number 1 is a picture of a farmstead in the immediate vicinity. Photo #2 is of the goats directly across the road. Photo #3 is I'm going to guess is the large "pipe" the animal came out of, as it is the only one near the water treatment plant (and yes... the road is still full of potholes). This pipe, as you can see if you enlarge the picture, is less than 100 yards from the goats!. Photo #4 is most likely the area the animal retreated to. Heavily wooded, a creek flows through it, and there's nearly 1/2 a mile of woods before it meets the road again. The road is just a 2 lane road, and then on the other side of that road is a vast expanse of undeveloped woods. Photo#5 is where that expanse begins, and as you can see, more water there. Photo #6 is just about a half mile further down the road, where there are many ponds, and is apparently some type of catfish hatchery. That area brings all kinds of animals to the yard. I briefly took a look around for any sign of animals. I saw pig tracks and deer tracks, as well as all kinds of smaller game tracks, and of course... good ol coyote tracks. This was all in about a 20 ft area, let alone what all could have possibly been seen if I had ventured further onto the land and into the woods. I didn't take many pictures of the tracks, because I was in a hurry to get off of that land, but photo 7 shows some raccoon tracks intermingling with a few other animals, and photo 8 show's some coyote tracks.

All in all, from everything I saw I do believe it is very possible for a large predator... or even several of them, to occasionally call this part of DFW home. I'm not necessarily convinced that cougars could permanently take up residence here, as a long term breeding population of a predator of that size would no doubt decimate it's food sources after awhile. However, cougars could go in and out of this area, undetected, with virtual ease. Even when highways might cut through an area, the creeks, and even the Trinity River, itself, would provide plenty of.... "highways," if you will, to the next big track of land.

Furthermore, driving around the back roads for several hours in this area, I was able to follow large undeveloped areas (not even counting the river), that go virtually uninterrupted between there and deep into Kaufman Co. From there, there's nothing but woods and farmland standing between them and deep east Texas. It would not surprise me at all if animals were able to travel between this area, all the way to the extreme eastern edges of the state if they were so inclined. In fact, if you look at areal satellite pictures of the area on Google, you can see if you travel in a southeasterly direction, animals have basically a large clear path to east Texas.

Lastly, just a couple of interesting side notes, following the river, these animals could easily get to the Great Trinity Forest, literally thousands of acres of land near Downtown Dallas (of which the city has only purchased about 2000 acres). I have a friend who works in the dump there in the middle of that forest and claims they see bobcats and mountain lions pretty regularly. Also, if you remember that story I sent you a few months back about Bois D'arc Island in Dallas county, where bears and panthers were plentiful... Well that area is just about 5 miles down the road... and you guessed it --- nothing but farmland, sloughs, and woods between there and where the sighting occurred.

Someday I'd love to take some time and go knock on the doors of some locals around there area to ask what, if anything, they've seen in the way of wildcats.

Anyway... thanks for reading my book! lol Hope this information was at least somewhat helpful and entertaining. Keep up the good work!

Justin

I would like to thank Justin for taking the time to go and check the area out. I simply cannot get out and follow up on all the reports that come in to me. I really appreciate the help Justin provided on this one and think he did an outstanding job.

Bigfoot and the Bible

2011-08-14T17:00:00.001-05:00

Faith: (1) Belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2): Firm belief in something for which there is no proof (3): Something that is believed with extremely strong conviction; especially a system of religious beliefs.

Faith can be the greatest thing in the world. Faith gives hope to those in terrible situations. Faith provides us with the strength to get out of bed each and every morning, even when things are not going well for us. Faith strengthens our resolve in difficult circumstances and comforts us in the knowledge that no matter how badly someone has screwed up they are not beyond redemption. Faith can be powerful and wonderful.

Faith: (1) Allegiance to duty, a person, or an idea (2): Believing something or someone without question.

Faith can also be twisted into something negative and frightening. Blind allegiance to a person or an idea can make one close-minded, obtuse, and blind to facts that might point to an answer or fact that the individual is uncomfortable with for some reason. Often, blind faith leads to denial even in the face of unrelenting fact. Sometimes the reason is as simple as someone not wanting to admit they have been wrong, maybe for decades, about something. Sometimes the individual has some sort of stake in the status quo and not only wants to deny newly discovered facts but to suppress them. It is my opinion that this is part of the reason the possibility of the sasquatch actually existing is ridiculed, scoffed at, and just plain ignored by so many. For some reason, many find the possibility that we might share our planet with another bipedal hominid to be a direct assault on their faith in God. If such a creature existed then it might render their faith meaningless.

Some have not merely dismissed the possibility of the sasquatch. Instead, they have taken a different tact and looked to scripture in an effort to unearth some possible mention of the creature in the Bible. If beings matching the description of bigfoot are mentioned in the Bible, that would mean the creatures were just another animal created by God. If that were true, then the implications of evolution, Darwinism, and missing links would need not be considered at all. Those who have sought bigfoot in the Bible have presented some interesting theories based on scripture. The more commonly discussed are presented below.

One of the more popular theories is that sasquatches are the descendants of Cain. The basis for this theory emerges from the fact that Cain was cursed by God to be a restless wanderer on the earth as punishment for slaying his brother, Abel. Cain was marked by God so that any who saw him would not kill him and end his torment (Genesis 3: 10-16). One interpretation of all this is that Cain could not die and wanders all over the earth to this day. The "mark," I've heard others say, is that he was covered in hair and naked. This, obviously, matches the description of the sasquatch. If you continue with the Genesis account, however, it says Cain went on to live in the land of Nod, east of Eden, and fathered Enoch, for whom he built a great city (Genesis 3: 17). The account goes on to name multiple descendants. I've seen nothing in the description of the descendants to lead me to believe that they were hair-covered beings. Obviously, sasquatches do not build cities. Neither do I believe that every sasquatch witness has actually had a Cain sighting. The fact that Cain went on to be a builder of cities, was the father of many, apparently, normal (non hair-covered) descendents, and that the theory is dependent on Cain being the one and only sasquatch on the entire earth makes this one a stretch to say the least, in my opinion.

Another popular biblical theory is that the sasquatch species is a remnant population of the legendary Nephilim (giants) of the Old Testament. Genesis 6: 4 reads:

"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days - and also afterward- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children with them. They were the heroes of old, men of reknown."

Many have interpreted the verse to mean that the Nephilim were not human, at least not what we would consider human, and they were breeding with the "daughters of men." Whatever the case, the Bible seems to be clearly differentiating between the Nephilim, whatever they were, and the daughters of men (humans). The fact that the two different races could mate and have viable offspring certainly supports the idea that the Nephilim were primates of some sort. It is further posited by many that these offspring would have been very large and, to some degree, giants in their own right. Could the sasquatch be a descendant of these offspring? Some think so. Again, there is precious little to go on when it comes to what the Nephilim looked like. Obviously, they were very large and must have been at least “man-like” in order to breed with human women. While nothing close to the classic description of a sasquatch is attributed to the Nephilim, with the exception of their abnormal size, there does seem to have been something very different about them that made the “fraternization” between them and human females displeasing to God. Certainly, the thought of this kind of mixing between humans and other primates is an anathema to us now. Was this always the case? There has long been an underlying suspicion that sasquatches are more than open to mating with human females. Many of the Native American tribes relate tales to this day of sasquatches who, in the past, would abduct females that wandered too far away from the protection of the tribe. Albert Ostman himself speculated that the reason he was snatched from his remote campsite in British Columbia back in 1924 was that the big male who toted him off considered him a possible mate for the adolescent female within his family group. Such theories are, of course, mere speculation but it is interesting that the idea and/or fear of such couplings hangs on to this very day.

Another biblical character that is often mentioned when it comes to this topic is Esau. Certainly, Esau’s physical attributes are described in far more detail than whatever mark God afflicted Cain with or what exactly the Nephilim might have looked like. Many lean toward the idea that sasquatches are the descendants of Esau, son of Isaac and Rebekah. Genesis 25: 24-25 tells of the birth of Esau and his brother Jacob:

"When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau."

Esau is thought to have meant hairy. Esau was also called Edom, which meant red.

Genesis 25: 27-28 continues:

"The boys grew up and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents."

The well-known story continues with Jacob tricking Esau out of his birthright and stealing Isaac's blessing for his first-born son by pretending to be Esau. Jacob tricks his father by covering himself with the hairy hide of a goat so that when his father laid hands on him he would believe it was Esau he was touching. The fact that this deception worked gives testament to how hairy Esau must have been. The reddish hue of Esau’s hair-covered body is reminiscent of the brownish-red coloration often attributed to sasquatches today. The fact that Esau is described as a skillful hunter that preferred living in the wild and the taste of wild game to camp life and less exotic fare lends more credence to this theory.

There are problems with the idea that the sasquatches seen today are the descendants of Esau, however. As is documented in the Bible, Esau used language, rode horses, wore clothing, and commanded men. To think that his descendants would have somehow devolved into beings that, by all accounts, are much more primitive is unlikely in my mind.

There are other, less popular, biblical theories floating around out there that involve beings that some believe might have been sasquatches or, at least, their ancestors. It is said that the Israelites, after making their exodus from Egypt, were pestered by rock-throwing primitives resembling apes during their desert wanderings. Rock throwing continues to be a big part of described sasquatch behavior today. Another account, now excluded from most biblical texts, is the story of a Nephilim (giant) named Og who bartered his way onto the ark of Noah in order to escape the flood that destroyed all of humanity by promising to become a servant of the family. Needless to say, this giant reneged on his promise once the waters receded from the earth and he was able to set his large feet on dry land. How he might have propagated, being the sole survivor of his race, never seems to be discussed by those who favor the theory.

I don't really put much stock in these various theories. I do think the sasquatch is more than just another animal. They are more intelligent, stealthier, more cunning, and more wary than any other animal of which I'm aware. My goal, and that of the TBRC, is to figure out what they are and where they came from (lineage). Hopefully, one day soon, we will do just that. Until then, speculation on whether or not they are the descendents of people mentioned in the Bible, surviving Gigantopithecus blackii, or a remnant population of Neanderthals will go on unabated.

I don’t really understand why people of faith are often threatened by the possible existence of this species. In my mind, the sasquatch is just another one of God's wonders. Whether the Bible does or does not mention them doesn’t matter to me a bit. Many, actually most, creatures are omitted from scripture. The Bible really isn’t the story of the animal kingdom, after all, so this should hardly be surprising. Neither does the idea that the sasquatch is closely related to we humans disturb me. The DNA of a chimpanzee is 96% identical to that of humans. Maybe a sasquatch is genetically 98-99% identical to we humans. No big deal to me. These thoughts don’t shake my faith at all.

I believe in God. I believe the sasquatch is a real living creature. I don’t think the two beliefs have to be mutually exclusive.

Readers Report More Black Panther Sightings

2011-08-09T16:10:00.005-05:00

Here are the latest sighting reports I’ve received from readers regarding black panthers they claim to have spotted all across the Lone Star State. Most of the reports have been submitted anonymously so I can’t vouch for their veracity. Having said that, there is nothing in these particular accounts that strikes me as being a red flag. I present them as I received them.

From northeast Texas:

"I saw a large black cat in Dekalb, Tx (which is 2 1/2 hours north east of Dallas) during July 2010. There is a lot of open land and a river is close to here. I was driving and it crossed the road in front of me. I had to slow down to avoid a collision, as well as to get a good look at the creature. My wife was with me. I have done some extensive research on the topic of these cats being in this region of Texas. I would have to say that it was probably a black cougar. A lot of people refer to them as panthers in this area as well. But it was definitely not a bobcat. It was indeed a slick, smooth black coat, with a big square head. The muscular tone of the beast was spectacular. One of the biggest I have seen in the wild or captivity."

This one comes from McDade, Texas:

"Several sightings of a large dark cat. Supposedly we have a pair with 2 cubs, estimated to be last year’s offspring on the neighboring land. She could possibly have new cubs also. I live in a populated campground and I have seen it 2 times this summer and heard it scream this past week. Many pet cats have gone missing and it was seen taking a cat from a porch. Large footprints have been found as we have sandy soil. We have game cams set up trying to get a good picture."

The next report comes from Mesquite, Texas:

"Wow. I am so happy that others have seen what my daughter and I saw in October 2008. We live in Mesquite Texas right next to Sunnyvale.It was early evening around 4:30 pm. The road we were on had many potholes so we were traveling very slow, under walking speed. We were located right next to the Dallas water treatment plant when all of sudden this large black cat came out of a big drainage pipe, turned left, and came up to the road crossing right in front of my car 12 feet from us. I stopped the car and we both sat there in awe. The cat was over 5 feet long, stood 3 feet high, had a tail over 3 feet long, and was black with some grey mud dirt from the pipe. It turned towards us and I rolled up the windows. The funny part in this is when we first spotted this cat my daughter remarked, “Daddy, that’s not a bobcat,” which we had seen before in the area. Well it walked up to us and it opened its mouth and we saw its wonderful set of teeth. Large canines and a pink tongue. The cat walked closer to us and I called 911 and told them what we both were looking at and of course they did not believe us. The 911 operator told us we were looking at a large raccoon, to which I replied “With a 3 foot long tail and standing 3 feet high? Are you kidding?” She told me she would call back. The cat then stopped and I moved the car forward and we came within 4feet of it and it turned and walked halfway off the road then jumped from the middle to the far side and into the tall grass. 911 called back and told me that the local police knew of the cat."

From the Texas Cryptid Hunter Facebook page in response to the recent horse kills in Bell County:

"I'm a former student at UMHB, the university in Belton just down the road from Temple. I can truthfully state that I have seen at least on big cat up in that area late at night while driving back roads. I now live about 4 hours south of Belton and have seen big cats near the area I'm living now. Have spotted a particular black cat about 50 yards from the back porch of my house and watched him hurdle my 5 wire fence that surrounds my pasture. Just from the cats I've seen in person, I can say that I think that these horses were attacked by a big cat and nothing else."

Again, I do not know any of these people and can’t possibly know if they are all telling me the truth but find it interesting that reports of large black panthers, which are not supposed to exist, continue to roll in from all parts of the state.

What are these people seeing?

Bell County Update

2011-08-07T23:46:00.007-05:00

I thought I would take a few moments and catch everyone up on my activities this past week. If you have been paying any attention to this site at all of late you know that we’ve had some excitement here in Bell County over the last couple of months. Here is a quick rundown of where things currently stand.

Back in June, there were some livestock kills in western Bell County that got the attention of the Killeen Daily Herald and Waco television station KWTX. There has been much speculation on just what the predator might be. Theories range from coyotes, to wolves, to a mountain lion. I currently have two game cameras out on some property very near the location of the livestock kills. I have not yet captured photos of anything unusual on the property but am due to check the memory cards again at the end of the week.

Things in the area took a nasty turn last week when something attacked several horses in north Bell County. Two of the horses were injured so badly that they had to be euthanized. Again, I wrote a post on the story. Things started moving quickly at that point. One of the horse owners emailed me and included photos of the wounds suffered by the animals. We emailed back and forth a couple of times and I offered to place cameras on the property in an effort to find out just what the predator might be. Beth Androuais, a reporter from the Temple Daily Telegram, contacted me and asked my opinion regarding what the predator might be and said that the owner of the property where the horses were attacked was interested in speaking to me. She put me in touch with the property owner and I was invited to place two game cameras on the property.

This past Thursday, August 4th, I visited the property. The two horses that had been euthanized had been moved to the far back portion of the property but had not been buried. I was able to view what was left of them but between scavengers and decomposition there just wasn’t too much to be discerned. I then proceeded to walk the fence-line around the property. The barbed wire was all in good shape and I found no sign that these horses were injured by running through, or into, any of the barbed wire surrounding the property.

Sufficiently satisfied that the injuries to the horses were caused by an animal of some sort, I began to seek out possible camera locations. There is a dry creek that bisects the property that I believe is being used as a travel route by any number of animals. The creek is surrounded in several spots by large pockets of thick brush. It would be very easy for any sort of animal to travel on and off the property by using the dry creek bed. The brush on the property, and the properties adjacent to it, would also make ideal places for something to lay low during the brutally hot days we are currently suffering here in central Texas. I placed a camera in the creek bed in the hopes of catching whatever is coming and going on this travel route.

With the help of the two horse owners, an animal trail was located cutting through a corner of the property and into the creek bed. The trail went through/under a section of barbed wire fence and into a section of the creek that was surrounded by some extremely thick and nasty brush. I located two tufts of tawny colored hair on the fence. The hair was stuck on the middle two sections of barbed wire (four wire fence). The hair was short and very soft. It was almost downy in texture. Obviously, I can’t say for sure what type of hair it is but feel confident that it does not belong to a coyote, or hog. It just wasn’t coarse enough. Within twenty feet of the spot where the hair was located, right in the middle of the trail, was a pretty large scat. The scat contained hair and pieces of bone. It was white in color and about an inch or inch and a half in diameter and roughly six inches in length. The combination of the scat and the hair within twenty feet of each other convinced me that this would be a good camera location. The camera was set shortly before dark and we retreated to the home of the property owner.

I agreed to return and check the memory cards in about two weeks. The property owner also agreed to let me know if she saw or heard anything unusual before my scheduled return. The horses are being kept penned up close to the house for the foreseeable future. That being the case, I’m not sure there will be anything on the property that would draw in a large predator. Even if this turns out to be the case, I am hoping that the animal or animals responsible for these attacks will continue to use the creek bed as a travel route. If so, I will still have a chance to get the photo we are all looking for.

I’ll keep you all posted.

The Latest on the Bell County Cougar Attack

2011-08-02T14:34:00.010-05:00

I received a couple of emails from the Fisher family who owned one of the two mares that had to be euthanized after being attacked by what is believed to be a cougar in a rural area of north Temple in Bell County, Texas. Mrs. Fisher also included photos of the wounds suffered by the horses. Be warned some of the photos are graphic.

Below is Mrs. Fisher’s description of what she found the morning they went looking for their missing horses:

“My husband and I are the owners of one of the horses who had to be euthanized. We also own the 3-month filly who was orphaned after Chris Johnsen's registered paint mare, Kiki, who was also attacked had to be euthanized.

It was the most horrifying thing I ever encountered in my life. These poor mares struggling to remain standing, their skin, muscle and tendons on their front legs tore to the bone. Cola, our 6 yr. old mare, had punctures in her neck and air accumulating throughout her body. Blood drained from their body. Claw marks on their chests, their bellies on their hindquarters.

when my husband and I walked up the hill to where we could see a few of the horses, we first saw Cola standing in the distance. Our gelding, Flash, standing near her trying to comfort her, blood splatter on his hindquarters. We saw muscle and tissue and then her leg bones exposed, blood so thick on her legs it was horrifying. She couldn't walk but she continued to fight to stand.

We then saw Kiki in the distance and noticed she also had the same leg injuries. Our other gelding, Freckles, by her side. Her baby pacing, not knowing what was wrong with her mama. Freckles also had blood splatter on his left hind leg and left front leg. La'Kota, the baby, also had blood splatter on her. She had claw marks on her chest, belly and hind legs; signs showing a terrible and lengthy fight. She also continued to struggle to stand.

A third mare, Billy, was injured. She was limping on both her front legs. It was originally thought that she may injured herself running away, but further investigation into her wounds several days later, after her bandages were removed, showed deep claw lacerations below her fetlock on both front legs. Her baby, Hay Boy, also had lacerations on his chest.

What confuses us...are these several questions....can one cougar continue to fight and attack and mortally wound 2 one thousand pound horses and wound a third?

These horses were approximately 200 to 400 feet apart from each other. The attacks were in these two areas. Why attack and disable one horse and go after the other?

Most important question: What ever attacked these horses never completed one kill. These horses couldn't move, couldn't walk, couldn't run away....why wasn't the kill completed?”

There are only a handful of animals capable of inflicting this sort of damage on full-grown horses. Initially, I considered coyotes (Canis latrans) and/or a pack of wild dogs. Most of the wounds suffered by the horses are on the lower part of their body and legs; certainly, areas within reach of coyotes or dogs. The long claw marks on the backs and higher up on the animal caused me to rethink this and once I saw the deep claw wounds in the photo above I realized there is no way a canid of any kind was involved in this particular attack.

One of the animals native to Texas that has the power to inflict this kind of damage to an animal the size of a horse is a black bear (Ursus americanus). This would be highly unusual on several fronts. Bears are making a strong comeback in east Texas and have always maintained good numbers in far west and south Texas but it would truly be something if one were present here in central Texas. They have been creeping in from the west, however, and one was killed in Menard County not too long ago. Menard is only 175 miles away. That being said, a bear is highly unlikely. This just isn't their style.

This attack screams “big cat” to me. This sheer depth of the claw marks visible in the picture above is really impressive. This would have had to have been a very big cat. That being the case, a jaguar (Panthera onca) is a possibility. Jags were once native to Texas and have been creeping back northward from Mexico in recent years. They have been documented several times in Arizona via camera traps over the last few years. There are anecdotal reports of jags being spotted in Texas as well. While most of the sightings and incidents have been far south of us I’ve heard of one notable exception. In the interest of full disclosure, this incident was related to me second hand after-the-fact; however, the person who shared it with me is a man of impeccable character and I have absolutely no doubt he told me the truth. He told me a rancher in the Panhandle reported losing large livestock on a regular basis to TPWD several years ago. After losing his second alpaca the game warden came out. They found the hind-quarters of the alpaca 20 feet up in a tree. The game warden told the rancher that this was not a cougar and that he likely had a jaguar on the property. The cat was never seen and eventually must have moved on as the killings stopped. There is speculation that the large "black panthers" often reported through out the state are actually melanistic jaguars. Still, a jaguar is the longest of long shots here.

Having said all that, a cougar (Puma concolor) is, by far, the most likely culprit. These big cats, while not common in the area, have been seen here before. I just wanted to cover all the bases by mentioning other possibilities. One thing I've learned over the years is that you never know what you might come across when you get into something like this. Personally, I do believe a cougar to be the predator in this particular case.

I am no expert; however, so I sought a second opinion from a friend of mine. Tod Pinkerton has a degree in Wildlife Biology from Texas A&M and worked for many years as a coyote and nuisance animal trapper in SE Texas. I sent him the photos and asked for his input. His reply mirrored my own thoughts and read as follows:

“While I'm certainly no expert on cougar attacks, I can think of no other native Texas animal that could have pulled this off. If what I'm seeing in some of the photos are claw marks and not folds of skin, etc. then the work has to be that of cat.

Coyotes, dogs, and wolves don't use claws in any appreciable manner to disable prey that I'm aware of. This should rule them out (again if those images represent claw marks, and not some other factor like thorns, wire, etc.).

There isn't a coyote or bobcat within this state tough enough to even think about taking on a full grown horse. Nor one that could inflict that level of damage on a living full grown animal. Small colts/foals are another matter, but this occurred to multiple full grown ones as well.

IMHO it is likely the work of a cougar. The only other known Texas critter even physically able to try to do this would be a black bear, but I've never heard of one trying to take down a horse.

I'll try to look up some information on this tonight. In the meantime you might advise them to contact their local wildlife/animal damage control specialist (trapper) if they haven't already. They can usually get in touch with one through the local county agriculture extension office. These folks are professionals and have probably investigated this sort of thing before.”

Why did the predator not finish the kills? That is hard to say but it was stated by Mrs. Fisher that it was clear these horses fought hard for their lives. It is very possible that the predator decided this particular meal was not worth the trouble or was kicked and injured itself. If so, it might have had to retreat. Wildlife biologist Tod Pinkerton added:

“It's likely the cat bit off more than it could chew. It may have gotten mixed up in all the confusion as to which animal it was attacking. Perhaps the horses came to each others aide? We'll likely never know the answer here.

I do know they (cougars) are quite capable of killing/wounding multiple animals in a single encounter. I've heard stories of them taking out 15-25 sheep or goats at a time. It might be that they get 'intoxicated' with the killing of prey?”

The drought we are suffering is making life very difficult on wildlife and forcing them closer to populated areas in order to find food and water. This, in my mind, is the scenario that led to the attacks on these horses. Our wildlife is starting to get a bit desperate and that desperation is beginning to manifest itself in some atypical behaviors.

It is quite possible, if we don’t get rain soon, that we will see more of this sort of thing in central Texas.

Two Horses Killed by Cougar in Northern Bell County

2011-07-29T17:13:00.003-05:00

According to an article in the Temple Daily Telegram, two horses had to be euthanized after being attacked by a mountain lion this past Wednesday in a rural area of north Temple.

The property, owned by Chris Johnsen, 56, is located off Berger Road just north of the H.K. Dodgen Loop. Johnson said she knew something was wrong when the eight horses she keeps on the property failed to show up at feeding time on Tuesday night. Worried, Johnsen asked her friends, Ted and Nancy Fisher, to look for the horses early Wednesday morning. The Fishers were interested parties, as they own two of the horses being kept on the property. The Fishers found the horses; unfortunately, two mares, including one they owned, were badly mutilated. The mares were alive but suffering from multiple serious wounds.

“They had large claw marks on them,” Johnsen said.

Dr. Katie Frosch of the Belton Veterinarian Clinic was called to the scene and decided the horses were mortally wounded and should be put out of their misery.

“We had to put them down just to be humane,” she said. “The horses were unable to walk due to severe lacerations on their legs.”

Dr. Frosch has worked in the area for two years and said this was the first such attack she’s seen. She did agree that a mountain lion was the culprit due to the specific types of injuries the horses suffered.

Game Warden Billy Champlin said that cougars are indigenous to the state but typically target animals smaller than the mares. He speculated that the cat in question here likely started out targeting the mares’ foals. He is quoted as saying that in his eleven years on the job he has never seen a mountain lion alive in the wild but that three to four sightings a year from the area are typical.

Chris Johnsen, on the other hand, has seen cougars on her property before but not recently. She said that the remaining horses would be penned up for awhile in the hopes that the big cat would move out of the area.

Texas is currently suffering through the most severe drought in the last seventy-five years. Central Texas has been particularly hard hit. It could be that this cougar is having a hard time finding its typical prey due to the tough conditions or that it came onto the property seeking water and could not resist the temptation the young foals represented. Several other unusual livestock kills have been reported in Bell County over the last few months. I currently have a couple of game cameras out in western Bell County now in the hopes of identifying the mystery predator in that area.

It seems northern Bell County now has a large predator of its own.

Monster Trinity River Gator Allegedly Killed Illegally

2011-07-23T15:55:00.006-05:00

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has filed charges against four men they say illegally hunted and killed a giant alligator on the Trinity River in Leon County.

Dallas lawyer Levi McCathern and three guides, Steve Barclay, Sam Lovell, and Ryan Burton, collectively known as the “Gar Guys,” face charges of taking wildlife on private property without the landowner’s permission. The monster gator killed by McCathern has been confiscated along with a gator killed just a day before.

The charges are Class A misdemeanors which could mean a fine of up to $4,000 and one year in jail for those involved. According to sources, TPWD will also be seeking civil restitution for the two slain alligators. That claim could exceed $5,000.

This story saddens me. I have no problem with the hunting of alligators as long as it is done according to the rules set forth by the TPWD. If this was, indeed, an illegal hunt then these guys should face the music. It would also back up the comment below made by a reader who had viewed the original post:

"Wonder why both gators were killed by different hunters but same guides and both were questioned kills. I fish the area the killed it and the " Gar Guys " are not liked at all and more so after this killing.They work that "grey" area of the law --maybe TPWD will close the loop hole since TPWD lost both claims against them."

I will say the rules of just when and how it is legal to take alligators in this state are a bit confusing. I outlined these rules in the previous post on this story. Personally, I think some of these guidelines need to be simplified to avoid potential confusion. Don’t get me wrong, guides are professionals and it is their job to know and understand the legalities regarding the hunting of whatever species they are targeting. If these guides did not know or, worse yet, ignored, the laws regarding the hunting of alligators in Texas then they deserve whatever they get.

I would caution against automatically assuming the worst of these folks; however, let them have their day in court. Remember the Duke lacrosse team scandal? A stripper claimed to have been sexually assaulted by multiple members of the team at a party. These guys were crucified in the media and all but convicted in the press. It turned out that the accuser was mentally unstable and made the whole thing up. The whole debacle ended up costing the District Attorney his job. While the circumstances of the two cases are vastly different, let's not make the mistake of assuming guilt too soon. Maybe I’m being naïve but let’s let the legal system run its course and find out all the facts before we lock these guys up and throw away the key.

A Word From Ivan T. Sanderson

2011-07-19T15:32:00.003-05:00

"Most of us dislike having to change our opinions. So, while facts are facts, objectionable ones are often deliberately misinterpreted."

Ivan T. Sanderson

The above quote is pulled from Sanderson's book Abominable Snowmen Legend Come to Life.

Sanderson had grown quite frustrated by the lack of movement on the subject of the yeti and the sasquatch by the scientific community and had little use for skeptics who could not back up their views. He went on to write:

"Besides being dull, most professional skeptics are insufferably conceited, and in this affair have never even bothered to collect the facts or examine them properly...The pronouncements of most of the scientific skeptics and experts are not caused exclusively by boneheadedness on the part of those who make them; some are deliberately misleading and designed to promote further skepticism, without any regard for truth."

Keep in mind that Sanderson's book was first published in 1961. Unfortunately, the climate has changed very little since then. Those of us who have come to the conclusion that the sasquatch does exist are, more often than not, dismissed out of hand as being "loonies." Most skeptics dismiss the possibility that the species could exist without ever seriously examining the evidence that has been collected. They don't have to, you see, because it just isn't possible for such an animal to exist. This way of thinking is totally unscientific and, unfortunately, all too prevalent.

Scientists who come to conclusions, in any discipline, that are different from those that are accepted by the majority of their peers are often ridiculed and vilified. Don't believe me? Ask any scientist who questions whether global warming is a man-made phenomenon.

The bottom line is that if the evidence points in a certain direction, regardless of whether or not it is a popular direction, it needs to be tested and examined closely and not ignored and ridiculed.

Let's hope that day is coming soon

Bell County Camera Trapping Project Update

2011-07-18T15:12:00.005-05:00

I checked the cameras I have out on some private land in Bell County this past weekend. The area has endured an unusual amount of predation over the last six months. Chickens and goats have been especially hard hit in the area. Witnesses have provided conflicting reports as to just what sort of animal the culprit, or culprits, might be. Ranchers in the area have reported seeing cougars (Puma concolor), coyotes (Canis latrans), and even wolves.

The property owners shared with me that they have seen some very large canids on the property in recent weeks. One story that was related to me was that of a very large coyote or wolf that circled one of the family members as he was out cutting some wood on the property. He reported that the animal was colored similarly to a coyote but was much bigger. The man said it was at least as big as his full-grown Labrador retriever. I haven’t seen his lab but do know that an adult male will typically weigh 75-110 lbs. The family member went on to describe the height of the animal that circled him as being up to his mid-thigh. This family member isn’t a huge guy but he is 5’10” or so. The point is that, if he is accurate in his size estimates, this animal is bigger than a normal coyote. The animal circled him multiple times while he was cutting wood making him very uncomfortable. He reported that the animal threw his head back at one point and howled loudly.

This is pretty unusual behavior for a coyote or a wolf. The skittish nature of these animals is legendary. However, as I’ve written here before, coyotes and wolves do seem to be living in closer proximity to people than ever before. As a result, they may be getting more comfortable around humans. There are other possible explanations for this animal’s bold behavior. It could be sick or injured. If so, it may be desperate for a meal of any kind. Desperation will certainly lead to atypical behavior. Another explanation could have to do with the terrible drought we are experiencing in Texas right now. We have gone months without any significant rainfall. Lake levels are plummeting, water rationing is starting to go into effect in a lot of locales, and wildlife is suffering. I read just last week about the increase in snakebites in Texas this summer. The number of bites is more than double what is typical in our area for the year. The reptile expert interviewed as part of this article posited that this was due in large part to the drought. Snakes, he said, are coming into residential areas where people are watering their yards in order to find a drink. Once there, the snakes are taking up residence under shrubs and in flower-beds which is causing them to come into contact with people more often than is usual. It is possible, whatever this animal is, the drought is causing our mystery canid to come into more populated areas to find water. The property would be among the first populated parcels that would be encountered by an animal coming in from the west looking for water.

I was encouraged that an unusual animal had continued to be seen over the last couple of weeks and was hopeful that I might have obtained a photograph. The cameras are in a remote portion of the property on a cow/game trail. Cattle roam all over the property but they are limited in their access to this area and appear to come through only sporadically. Come through a couple of times they did, however. As a result I got a quite a few cow photos. One shot in particular is pretty comical as it shows the rear-end of a rust colored cow quite close-up. My wife suggested that this could be the new logo for the blog. She was kidding…I think. All this would have been well and good except these girls brushed up against the cameras and/or the trees they were on which altered their cone of detection. The position of the cameras was altered only slightly but it was enough as they were no longer pointed straight up and down the trail. As a result, fewer photographs than anticipated were taken.

I have repositioned the cameras and am hopeful that they will eventually yield a photo of the predator that is, at least occasionally, roaming the property. My guess is that the animal in question is an unusually large coyote; however, hybridization did take place between coyotes and red wolves (Canis rufus). It is possible that this specimen is exhibiting more of the red wolf lineage than is typical. I will say it would be quite exciting to get a photo of a true red wolf as they are thought to have been extirpated from Texas.

I’ll check the cameras again in a month or so and provide another update at that time.

Texas Cryptid Hunter Site Revamped

2011-07-14T20:49:00.001-05:00

To state the obvious, I’ve made some changes to the look of the website. The changes were brought on by a couple of things that I'll outline below.

I had grown a bit tired of the dark look of the old design. I thought it looked pretty sharp but began to worry about it having too much of a Halloween look. The black background along with the burnt orange (I am from Texas) and white lettering certainly contributed to this look. What I did not want was for the site to come across as creepy or spooky. A lot of the sites that discuss the bigfoot phenomenon and/or other cryptozoological topics have gone with the dark and scary look. I wanted to avoid that. I actually received an email from a reader who complained that my blog was “more like that of a naturalist than a cryptozoologist.” This woman intended to insult me with that comment but I took it in quite the opposite way. You see, that is exactly how I see this blog. It is about the natural world. I just happen to believe that the sasquatch and other topics considered strange by most fit into that natural world. I find just as much pleasure in writing about an out of place alligator as I do about black panthers. It is all fascinating to me. I wondered if the predominately black look of the blog was sending the wrong message to potential readers as to what kind of content they could expect here. That being the case, I decided to lighten things up a bit. I wanted the site’s look to more properly reflect the content readers could expect to see on it.

I also thought that, since the site was called The Texas Cryptid Hunter, there should be more of the Lone Star State reflected in the site’s design. I am unashamedly proud of being a Texan and wanted the site to reflect that. I had attempted to do this by simply using an image of the Texas flag as the de facto logo for the site but never really felt it worked alongside all the black and burnt orange. I wanted a logo of some sort. I knew what I wanted was beyond my own capabilities of producing so that is why I put out the call to graphic artists for help. I received several submissions and was shocked at the outstanding quality of them all. I was really surprised at the level of interest that my request generated. I do want to say that if you are still working on a submission please do go ahead and finish it. I may go with a rotation of some sort if I really like multiple designs. You will receive full credit for your design and a link on the site to your business or personal site (whichever you prefer).

Some of the outstanding designs for a logo or masthead/banner for the site are below:

The extremely cool masthead/banner design above comes from Cullan Hudson. Cullan is an accomplished author and writes the Strange State blog. His is an outstanding site and deals with all manner of paranormal and cryptozoological topics. Cullan’s site is definitely worth a bookmark. Cullan also runs Fresh Eire Design. If you are looking for design work at affordable prices, Cullan may be your man and Fresh Eire Design may be your company.

The logo design below comes from a gentleman named Jimmy Denzlinger. Jimmy simply sent me an email saying he enjoyed the site and attached this very nice logo. I really liked how he incorporated the red, white, and blue of the Texas flag in it along with the sasquatch footprint and the pterosaur. Outstanding job, Jimmy.

Only one person has submitted a logo AND a matching masthead/banner. That person would be my friend Angelo Landrum. Angelo is a long-time reader of the site and someone I’ve corresponded with regularly over the last couple of years. There is a lot more detail in this logo than might at first meet the eye. The big toe on the sasquatch footprint is a silhouette (minus an eye-socket) of the skull of a Gigantopithecus blackii. Look closer still just below the big toe and you will see Angelo’s interpretation of what a sasquatch might look like in profile as it looks to the left. Other more obvious, but still very cool, features on this design are the sasquatch walking inside the “C” of the logo, the paw of a big cat, and a star placed in the location of my hometown. Angelo used a font called “Blackoak” for the “T” and the “H” in the logo. It was meant to reflect a western and athletic flair as my day job is a teacher and coach. The “C” was drawn by hand in what Angelo calls his “Cryptid” font using Adobe Illustrator. Angelo initially submitted his designs using the original black, orange, and white colors of the site. You can see these designs below.

I loved the design but, as I stated above, was ready to leave the black and orange behind. I asked if he would be kind enough to change the colors to reflect more of a Texas theme and he kindly obliged. He went red, white, and blue and even placed the actual Texas flag in the background. I think it is simply outstanding and want to publicly thank Angelo for taking the time to submit both a logo and a masthead/banner.

I may not be completely done tweaking things but do very much like the lighter look and feel of the site. I hope you do, too.

A Tale of Two "Alligators"

2011-07-12T19:17:00.001-05:00

It has been a busy month or so for all things “alligator” in the Lone Star State. Late last month, word came of a monstrous gator killed on the Trinity River in Leon County. Now we have a story involving a slightly out of place alligator captured in Waco.

According to Waco’s CBS affiliate KWTX, an alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) measuring between three and four feet long was captured in a residential area not too far from Lake Waco. The alligator was caught near the intersection of Edna Ave. and MacArthur Dr. This intersection is just northeast of Lake Waco near a small inlet called Lake Robinhood by local residents.

The alligator died soon after being captured. A necropsy, performed by officials from the Cameron Park Zoo, revealed severe dehydration and/or parasites as the likely cause of death. Wildlife officials stated that they believed the alligator was likely indigenous to Lake Waco and not an escaped pet (can you believe it?). They based this opinion on the stomach contents of the animal, which consisted mainly of insects. The wildlife officials did say it is possible someone caught the alligator with the intention of keeping it as a pet. They theorized that, if true, this person soon came to the realization that this alligator was just too big and aggressive to be safely kept and released it. A short video on this story can be viewed at the KWTX website.

In other “alligator” news, Cleveland, Texas angler Joseph Williams has set a new catch-and-release record for alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula). Williams, who says he fishes about 30 weekends a year below the Lake Livingston Dam on the Trinity River, hooked and landed a 7’ 4” long bruiser on July 4th that he will submit for recognition as the new state catch-and-release record. If approved, the Williams gar will surpass an 6’ 8” long gar caught by Leo Flores in Choke Canyon Reservoir back in March of 2011.

Williams is a gar fanatic that has done battle with these river monsters before. Back in April he pulled a 200 lb. gar from the Trinity that did not survive the battle. That fish, according to an article on the Texas Parks & Wildlife site, is the new rod and reel record for the Trinity River.

To qualify for a catch-and-release record, a fish must be landed, photographed, measured, and released alive. Apparently, and it makes sense, I suppose, as few would carry a scale capable of measuring a monster gar in the 200 lb. range, weight does not figure into catch-and release records for this species. It seems the record is based solely on length.

So, if you're looking for anything "alligator" related, Texas seems to be the place to be at this point in time.

Sasquatch FAQ: Why Has A Hunter Never Taken One?

2011-07-06T12:13:00.000-05:00

I received an email last week that brought this question up again. It is one of the 3-4 most commonly asked questions whenever I talk to people about the reality of the sasquatch. Below is the email, with the sender’s name removed in order to protect his/her privacy:

"I believe in bigfoot. There is something that bothers me though. There is an incident recounted on your (TBRC) site where a hunter saw a bigfoot picking up apples. He had him in his scope at 150 yards for two minutes. Why didn't this result in a kill ? Why do we not have any kills to support the other evidence?"

It is a good question. It is also a question that has as many different answers as there are hunters who have claimed to have had this opportunity. I will touch on the reasons given most often by hunters who have claimed to have found themselves in this situation.

One thing Ive heard often is that they just didn't know what they were seeing. As I'm sure most of you out there realize, hunters are not indiscriminate killers who go around shooting up the woods like crazy people (despite what many in our society think). Rather, they are trained to never fire unless they can positively identify what they are targeting. If a hunter sees a bipedal upright figure walking, especially during low-light conditions, it is only natural that they assume they are looking at another person. Many have asked, “Hunters are required to wear a certain amount of orange. If there is no orange on the figure why not pull the trigger?” It is true that hunters are required to wear orange in most locales; however, if you think every one of them actually does, you would be sorely mistaken. Firing at an upright figure just because it doesn’t appear to be wearing orange is a recipe for tragedy and most hunters just will not do it. They will hesitate in an effort to positively identify what they are seeing. By the time the hunter realizes exactly what he is seeing, often, the opportunity to take a shot is gone.

Another thing I've heard from several hunters is that they were not confident they had enough fire-power to take down the animal. The "I didn't think I had enough gun," statement is not an unusual refrain. They feared that they would only wound the creature, which would create a dangerous scenario for them. An animal, any animal, is never more dangerous than when it is hurt. They decided the weapon they were carrying might not be enough to finish the animal off and passed on the shot. I’m not sure if this is actually true or not. I’ve always believed shot placement is far more important than the caliber used. Admittedly, I’ve never been in this position so that is easy for me to say. I think it is more of a psychological hurdle that hunters who’ve found themselves in this position have been unable to clear. The average white-tailed buck weighs between 130-300 lbs. Does are smaller with an average weight between 90-200 lbs. Deer in Texas, and the south in general, trend toward the lower end of those estimates (see Bergmann's Rule). That being the case, a hunter who unexpectedly finds himself staring at a sasquatch many times more massive than the buck he hoped to see might, quite understandably, feel he did not have enough gun to take the animal down.

Other hunters have stated that they feared there might be more than one of the creatures in the vicinity. They were afraid that if there was a mate in the brush somewhere nearby it might not take kindly to the shooting of its partner. The hunters feared reprisal. They have said things along the lines of, "It was a pretty good walk back to the truck," and "I was going to have to come out of that tree stand at some point," as reasons why they passed on the shot. This may be the most valid of the reasons most commonly given by hunters who have not pulled the trigger. I’ve come to believe that these animals are often not alone. I’ve experienced some incidents recently that seem to confirm that (more on that soon). Indeed, more than one hunter who has told me he had a sasquatch in his sights soon spotted or heard a second creature after deciding against firing.

One other thing I've heard is that once sighted in the hunter found the sasquatch to be so human-looking that they just couldn't make themselves pull the trigger. When pressed on what it was specifically that made the sasquatch appear human, most have simply referred to the way the animal moved. They mention that it was standing up or walking, "like a man would." A few have claimed that they got a look at the face and felt it was not a typical animal. These hunters often struggle when asked to describe exactly what it was about the creature that made them feel that way. Again, I think that the shock of seeing something bipedal and walking like a person would be enough to convince almost anyone that this might not be an animal but a person of some sort. It is another one of those psychological hurdles. If it walks like a man, moves like a man, or stands up like a man it must be a man despite other characteristics that clearly make it different (covered in hair, extraordinary size, etc.). It is just the way we think.

While all of the above is true there are several incidents where hunters have claimed they did take a shot. Some of these stories are dubious at best, the story of a man going by the name of “Buggs” comes to mind, but some seem credible. Regardless, none have produced a body to this point. This is one of the very facts that those who dismiss the possibility of the sasquatch use in their arguments. I feel there are many solid counter-points to this argument but cannot completely satisfy the critics or, at times, myself as to why these scenarios have never, not even once, produced a body.

I'm not sure that you will find these explanations as to why a hunter has never taken a sasquatch to be completely satisfying. I'm not sure I do either but it is easy to second-guess these hunters when you haven't been in their shoes, I suppose. In any case, these are the things I've heard from hunters who claim to have been in this situation. It is what it is.

Make of it what you will…

Wanted: A Graphic Artist

2011-06-29T02:20:00.000-05:00

Ok, all you graphic artists out there (and those who would like to be), I’m in need of some help. I am thinking of revamping the site and would like to add some sort of logo to it. I really have no preconceived idea as to what it should look like except that I feel there should be, for obvious reasons, a strong association with the state of Texas and reflect the varied topics covered on the blog. In addition to a logo, a nice banner to go across the top of the page would be good but that might be asking a bit much, I suppose.

Let me be clear...I cannot offer to pay for the logo and/or banner. Being an amateur naturalist and cryptozoological researcher does not pay very well. In fact, it pays nothing. What I CAN do is offer you and/or your company a free plug on the site. I would post your logo/name prominently in the right hand margin of the site much like I now have the TBRC’s logo posted. This could also double as a link to your business site. That is the best I can do.

So, if you would like some free pub for your business or just a chance to show off your artistic talents a bit, submit a logo for consideration.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

New Camera Trapping Project Underway in Bell County

2011-06-24T16:44:00.000-05:00

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve started a new camera-trapping project right here in my home of Central Texas.

Back in March, Waco television station KXXV aired a video report about a “mystery animal” that was roaming rural SW Bell County and “ravaging livestock.” The video of the story has been removed from the KXXV website but, as of this writing, the printed version of the report is still available. Check it out here.

I kept a close eye on the story as it was taking place practically in my backyard. An article printed in the March 3rd issue of the Killeen Daily Herald suggested there really wasn’t anything mysterious about the predator(s) at all and implied nothing but a pack of coyotes was responsible for the lost livestock. While I agreed that coyotes were likely responsible for most, if not all, of the killings, I did find it very interesting how people who had claimed to have seen the predator could have such differing opinions on what the animal might be.

“No, I don’t think it is a coyote,” said farmer Dale Fisher in March. “It’s either a wolf or a mountain lion.”

In April, a man identified by the Killeen Daily Herald as rancher Jim Bob Fisher said, “I don’t want anyone to think this is different from anyone else’s problem. Someone has claimed it is a wolf or something but I don’t know why.” He added, “It’s a very large coyote we’ve seen or a coyote-cross. There have been coyotes crossed with dogs in this part of the world since forever.”

It is unclear if Dale Fisher and Jim Bob Fisher are related or, possibly, even the same person. What I do know is that Jim Bob Fisher is the son of Bell County Commissioner John Fisher. As such, it isn’t too surprising that his opinion fell in line with that of his father who said, “I saw a coyote. I didn’t see a chupacabras or whatever it’s called. They (KXXV) pumped it up like there’s this mysterious animal.”

I did two separate posts on this story. One in March and one in April and offered the services of my game cameras to any landowners that would like to try and find out, for sure, what is roaming their property at night. I didn’t hear anything from anyone until late last week when I received the following email:

“I found your blog after losing my 8th cat in 2 years to coyotes (well, two of the cats went that way, at least..we saw a coyote last night in our yard.) When this started, I'd had the same 100% outdoor, mouser/snake-repelling cat for over 5 years. I live in the same general area as the Fishers but never heard the news report about the animals. Also within the last year or so, we've seen some large canines that we don't believe to be coyotes & are definitely not dogs. I hesitate to call wolf (pardon the pun, ha), but 3 of them were black, the other was so large that I would be shocked if it were, in fact, a coyote. 3 of these were seen right at dusk, the 1st black one I saw was road-kill, had paws the size of saucers and very thick ears. Like the Fishers, our family goes back generations in southwestern Bell county, we're accustomed to seeing coyote, all kinds of stray dogs & the occasional mountain lion. But I'm pretty sure there's something else out there.”

I replied with an offer to come out and place some cameras on the property to see if we couldn’t get a photo of these canids. My offer was accepted and I was privileged to visit with the family and tour the property last Saturday. As is often the case, I heard much more during my face-to-face visit with the family than was mentioned in the email. The family used to keep goats but was “run out of the goat business” due to the predation taking place. They just couldn’t keep their goats from being taken. Several members of the family have seen large long-tailed cats on the property as well. At least two different cats have been seen; one that was described as “yellow” and one was, you guessed it, black. I told them that the official opinion of biologists is that large black panthers do not exist. The family got a chuckle out of that, kind of shrugged their collective shoulders, and said that they saw what they saw.

I was then taken on a tour of the property by one of the family members and we soon found a clear game trail running through a particularly secluded and wooded area. Cattle are being run on the property and there were cow trails all over the place. This trail, however, was on some steeper terrain than is found on most of the property and wound a narrow path through the mesquite, scrub oak, and cedars in this wooded area. Cows can, and will, get in some pretty surprising places but this trail is narrow and the trees hang low (I did a lot of ducking) which leads me to believe that it is being used by smaller animals that are lower to the ground than cows (at least most of the time). We found a spot where two game trails intersected and decided to put both cameras at this spot. I positioned one camera facing east down the main trail (this is usually not ideal as the rising sun can cause the camera to trigger but the area is wooded enough that I don’t think it will be a problem) and one facing north down the intersecting secondary trail.

I can attest that there is much wildlife on this large piece of property. During my short stay I saw at least half a dozen Eastern cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) along with a Gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) sign was also seen though I didn’t actually see any myself. There does seem to be a prey base, on the property and in the surrounding area, that could adequately support a large predator at least temporarily. It will be interesting to see what turns up.

I’m particularly excited by this project. Unlike most of the camera projects I’ve undertaken, I will not have to drive 3-6 hours to check memory cards and change batteries. Assuming the landowners remain interested, this project could be a long-term census of the wildlife present in SW Bell County. More than that, however, it is nice to be able to help some of my Central Texas neighbors learn a bit more about what is inhabiting their land.

Hopefully, we’ll find something unusual.

Monstrous Alligator Killed in Leon County, Texas

2011-06-23T18:31:00.000-05:00

Who says dinosaurs are extinct?

No, I’m not talking about the legendary Mokele-mbembe of the Congo or the mythical Nessie of Scotland’s Loch Ness. I’m talking about a monster reptile that haunted a stretch of the Trinity River right here in Texas.

The beast in question is an alligator (Alligator mississipiensis) that was recently shot and killed in a stretch of the Trinity that flows through Leon County by Dallas attorney Levi McCathern. Inspired by the television show Swamp People, McCathern decided to go after a big gator.

“Something I wanted to do was hunt something that could hunt me and alligators seemed like a challenge,” said McCathern.

After searching the internet for likely hunting spots, McCathern chose to hunt an area of the Trinity River just two hours outside of Dallas. He hired a couple of guides and was off in an effort to bag his trophy. You can read the details of the hunt itself and see a news piece on the alligator put together by the DFW area NBC affiliate here.

The alligator was truly a monster and must have been the undisputed king of that stretch of the river in Leon County. The giant reptile weighed in at 900 lbs. and measured 14 ft. in length. To give you a bit of perspective, the rim of a regulation basketball goal is 10 ft. off the floor. This was one enormous gator. In fact, it may prove to be a state record.

There is a bit of confusion as to the legality of the hunt. The video report by DFW NBC and the online article didn’t help matters by stating the following:

“It is against the law to hunt alligators along the Trinity River but McCathern had special permission from a private property owner to go on the hunt after many of the rancher’s cattle were gobbled up by the behemoth reptile.”

Maybe I can help clear things up a bit…or maybe not. Here goes nothing. As I understand it, there is no spring season on alligators in the core alligator counties, which are Angelina, Brazoria, Calhoun, Chambers, Galveston, Hardin, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Matagorda, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Polk, Refugio, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Trinity, Tyler and Victoria Counties. Licensed hunters in non-core counties, however, are allowed one alligator per season, provided it is taken on private property with landowner permission using a line set, alligator gig, hand-held snare with an integral locking mechanism, lawful archery gear, or firearms. In addition, it is legal to take alligators from public water, provided the hunter is on private property when he or she does it. It is unlawful to discharge a firearm from, in, or across public water. Alligators taken from public water may be dispatched with a centerfire weapon, provided the alligator is on private land when you pull the trigger.

If you are thinking all of that is about as clear as the muddy Trinity River itself, you are not alone. I’m right there with you. I guess the point is that this hunt was legitimate and Mr. McCathern did nothing illegal in taking this alligator.

Many realize that the Trinity River is loaded with alligators. Many don’t realize that the stretch flowing through Leon County seems to be a haven for giants. The area is rich in wildlife. Beaver, nutria, otter, ducks, hogs, deer, turtles, frogs, and fish are abundant. All are potentially on the menu for an alligator and contribute to the staggering sizes being attained by these reptiles in the region.

Occasionally, despite this bounty of wild game, big gators are tempted by domestic livestock. Back in May of 2007, a huge alligator, dubbed “Big George” by the locals, was suspected by ranchers as the likely culprit behind the disappearance of several yearling calves that year. The ranchers decided “Big George” had to go. So, permission was given for local guides to bring clients in on their private land in the hopes that the huge gator could be taken. A Lufkin resident named Danny Vines shot and killed “Big George” in May of 2007. The alligator was truly a colossus. It weighed a staggering 735 lbs. and was 13’ 1 ¼” long. At the time, “Big George” was the sixth largest alligator ever taken by rifle in North America according to Safari Club International. The saga of how “Big George” met his demise can be read on the website of the Corsicana Daily Sun here.

The McCathern alligator would seem to have been a worthy successor to “Big George” as king of the Trinity River. No doubt, another bull gator, possibly the offspring of one of these two bruisers, will move in and fill the void left by the death of the latest giant.

How big will he get?

Upshur County Bear Project Report

2011-06-20T21:15:00.000-05:00

I thought I would give everyone an update on the camera project I’ve got going in Upshur County, Texas.

As you may recall, my friend Ken Stewart alerted me to a very credible black bear (Ursus americanus) sighting that took place in Upshur County back in November of 2010. You can read the original post here for the details. Ken interviewed the witness, an old family friend, and obtained permission for me to place a couple of game cameras on the property. So, this past May I made the trip to NE Texas, met Ken, and went to visit with the witness and place the cameras.

Not only did the witness share her experience of viewing three black bears as they helped themselves to an apple tree near her home but added the story of seeing a large black cat some months before as well. We also happened to run into a gentleman that leases some pasture-land belonging to the witness on which he runs cattle. He told us an interesting story of a sighting he had of a large black animal, which he says was not a hog or a bear. Read his account on this post.

The area looked promising as the property backed up to a natural slough area formed by a small tributary of Cypress Creek. Hardwood trees are everywhere and there are wild black berries and muscadine grape vines growing all over the property. Ken and I picked a couple of good looking spots, applied some bear attractant, and set out two cameras.

As of last weekend, the cameras have been out for a month. Ken was generous enough to go check the cameras himself so I wouldn’t have to make the long drive to NE Texas. The results were disappointing on two fronts. First, we got only a handful of photos. Second, it seems one of the cameras was stolen as Ken could not locate it. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the thievery but find myself shaking my head about it just the same. Not only was the thief brazenly trespassing but they just helped themselves to the camera without a second thought. It is too bad the second camera didn’t get a shot of this person as I’d have had that photo on the desk of the Upshur County sheriff ASAP.

The news wasn’t all bad as we did get a few pictures showing some wildlife including one that, at first glance, is really creepy. The photo in question shows a pretty scraggly looking coyote (Canis latrans) moving from the camera’s right to left. What is interesting is there are two sets of glowing eyes behind the coyote. The animals are pretty far behind the coyote, judging by the position of a stump in the frame, one of the animals appears to be very large. As I mentioned above, cattle are present on the property. Upon reflection, Ken and I both think the eyes probably belong to a cow and her calf that wandered down to the bottoms from the higher pasture. It is an eerie looking and fun image, however. Another photo is somewhat intriguing as it shows something getting up close and personal with the camera. All you can see is a large dark object blocking about ¾ of the frame. I can’t even be sure it is fur or hair visible on the object. It could be a falling stick, one of the bears we were seeking, or something else altogether. Again, keep in mind that the camera was set up about four and a half feet off the ground. Other photos showed white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and what looks like a running red fox (Vulpes vulpes).

I had Ken pull the one remaining camera. I have some other plans for it in the near future. Ken is going to deploy a camera of his own near the home of the witness pointed at the apple tree. Once fall arrives, and the apples ripen, our bruin friends might be back.

If so, we’ll be ready for them.

Operation Endurance: After Action Report

2011-06-18T16:06:00.001-05:00

Some of you may be wondering where my post on Operation Endurance went. Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about as it was only up for about 10 hours.

After sleeping on it, I decided, for various reasons, that it would be best to wait and post on my experiences and those of other TBRC members once the operation ended. I think it will be less disjointed that way and maybe I'll be able to draw more accurate conclusions once I have everyone's report.

So, if you read the after action report that detailed the experiences I had from my week in the field consider it a "sneak peak" of what is to come. I will re-post it, along with a comprehensive overview of the entire operation, once things have wrapped up.

Operation Endurance Kicks Off

2011-06-02T16:24:00.000-05:00

This will be my last post for a week or so. I am going to be out in the field as part of the TBRC’s Operation Endurance from June 4th-11th.

Operation Endurance is a forty-five day continuous research operation involving multiple four-person teams of investigators. The basic premise of Operation Endurance is pretty simple. Take an area of interest with a long history of sasquatch sightings and suspected sasquatch activity and stay there for an extended period of time in the hopes that definitive evidence can be obtained.

In my opinion, a large part of the reason the sasquatch remains undocumented is that the few who are trying to find this animal are limited to 2-3 day stays in the wilderness before having to pick up and go home to families and jobs. While it is possible that a “weekend warrior” could catch lightning in a bottle and get the proof needed to prove the sasquatch is a living creature, it seems unlikely. By maintaining a presence for an extended period of time, we in the TBRC are hopeful we can skew the odds a bit more in our favor and solve this mystery once and for all.

The effort is in direct contrast to some of the strategies being used by others. For example, you will see a lot of shows on cable television where researchers seem to locate extremely credible evidence over a couple of days only to pick up and head off to another location for next week’s show. I have always felt that if truly compelling evidence is found in a certain area there is no reason to leave to look for additional evidence elsewhere. Why, if you are truly convinced that a sasquatch is in the immediate vicinity, would you want to leave and start over somewhere else?

In any case, I will be out of pocket for a while. I will post an update on Week 1 of Operation Endurance, along with lots of photos, once I get home.

Wish me luck…

Cougar Shot and Killed in Downtown El Paso

2011-05-26T12:34:00.000-05:00

Here is one from a week or so ago that I missed…

According to the Texas Hunting website, and other sources, a 102 lb. mountain lion (Puma concolor) strolled right into downtown El Paso the week of May 14. The lion was seen in various locales around the city before wandering into a parking garage that, ironically enough, is used by Texas Parks & Wildlife employees.

Officials were able to shoot the cougar with a tranquilizer dart but it leaped from the second floor of the parking facility and bolted in an attempt to escape. The tranquilizer dosage may have been off as the mountain lion seemed unaffected for several minutes. During this time, the big cat ran through a schoolyard and onto the property of a car wash. Authorities, after evacuating the employees and customers, closed the security gate of the property in an attempt to hem in the lion. At this time the authorities were able to dart the cat a second time. Again, however, the drug proved ineffective and the animal took off again and was on the verge of escaping a second time. Officials deemed the agitated cougar a serious threat to the public at that time and put it down.

El Paso is a city of nearly 650,000 people and lies in the westernmost part of the state. When the population of Juarez, Mexico, which lies just across the Rio Grande River, is added, more than 2 million people live in the El Paso metropolitan area. Despite the large population, El Paso sits in some pretty rugged country. The Franklin, Juarez, and Hueco mountains border or lie within the city limits. In addition, the Rio Grande River flows just a mile from the heart of the city. The area constitutes prime cougar habitat. Just three years ago, a game warden shot and killed a mountain lion in a west El Paso neighborhood so this was not an isolated incident.

Why this mountain lion decided to take a tour of downtown El Paso is not clear. It is possible it was sick, hurt, or seeking a water source. It is also possible, at least in my opinion, that these big cats are becoming more comfortable living in close proximity to populated areas. If so, more and more incidents along the lines of what happened in El Paso are going to occur across Texas.

I believe mountain lions are making a comeback across the state. The TPWD does not agree and continues to hold to the premise that these big cats maintain breeding populations only in the Trans-Pecos region and along the Rio Grande River in deep south Texas. Cougar sightings farther east are often dismissed as misidentifications or escaped pets. I found it humorous that, for all practical purposes, this mountain lion walked right into the offices of the TPWD. I’m afraid it will take a similar incident somewhere in east Texas for officials before officials recognize these big cats are returning to their old habitats.

Buffalo Bill and the Bones of Bigfoot

2011-05-24T17:25:00.000-05:00

You would never know it from the large number of books and movies made about the era, but the days of the American “Old West” were shockingly few. Generally, the time period is considered to be the years following the end of the Civil War up to, and even this is very generous, the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1920; however, what the period lacked in longevity it more than made up for with the many historically important events that took place. The quest to fulfill “Manifest Destiny” was in overdrive, treaties with foreign nations were forged, wars were fought against and treaties forced upon native peoples, technology advanced greatly, and immigrants flooded west into the frontier. It was a time when the federal government struggled to maintain law and order in its territories and the people therein. Colorful characters were the rule of the day. One of the most colorful of all was William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody.

William Frederick Cody was born in the Iowa Territory on February 26, 1846. To say he had a diverse career would be an understatement. At one time or another, Cody is said to have been a trapper, bullwhacker, miner, Pony Express rider, wagon master, stagecoach driver, and hotel manager. He is best known, however, for being a buffalo hunter (hence his nickname), acting as Chief Scout for the Fifth Cavalry during the Plains Indian Wars (for which he won the Medal of Honor), and, of course, for his world famous Wild West Shows. What most do not know is that William F. Cody may have been presented with the remains of a sasquatch in 1871.

In his autobiography, The Life of Honorable William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill recounted the following interesting experience that occurred while he was still acting as a scout for the U.S. Army:

"While we were in the sand hills, scouting the Niobrara country, the Pawnee Indians brought into camp some very large bones, one of which the surgeon of the expedition pronounced to be the thigh-bone of a human being. The Indians claimed that the bones they had found were those of a person belonging to a race of people who a long time ago lived in this country; that there was once a race of men on the earth whose size was about three times that of an ordinary man, and they were so swift and powerful that they could run along-side of a buffalo, and, taking the animal in one arm, could tear off a leg and eat the meat as they walked."

Cody continued:

“These giants denied the existence of a Great Spirit, and when they heard the thunder or saw the lightning they laughed at it and said that they were greater than either. This so displeased the Great Spirit that he caused a great rain-storm to come, and the water kept rising higher and higher so that it drove those proud and conceited giants from the low grounds to the hills, and thence to the mountains, but at last even the mountain tops were submerged, and then those mammoth men were all drowned. After the flood had subsided, the Great Spirit came to the conclusion that he had made man too large and powerful, and that he would therefore correct the mistake by creating a race of men of smaller size and less strength. This is the reason, say the Indians, that modern men are small and not like the giants of old, and they claim that this story is a matter of Indian history, which has been handed down among them from time immemorial. As we had no wagons with us at the time this large and heavy bone was found, we were obliged to leave it.”

What is interesting here is that Cody claims the thigh-bone was examined by a physician and determined to be that of a human. While medicine in the latter half of the 19th century was not anywhere nearly as advanced as it is today, you would think it would be unlikely for a doctor, in this case a surgeon, with extensive training in anatomy to mistake an animal bone for a human femur. A much more likely scenario would be the doctor being able to determine the bone was not of human origin but unable to identify the animal from which it came...kind of an “I don’t know what it is but know for sure what it isn’t” sort of thing. When you get right down to it there just are not any documented animals living in North America, then or now, whose leg bones could be misidentified by a competent surgeon as belonging to a human. Others found the account compelling as well. The evidence was convincing enough that the story got all the way back east to Yale College and one Professor Othniel Charles Marsh, head of the Paleontology Department, was sufficiently intrigued to lead fossil hunting expeditions into the area later that year in search of remains of these giants.

One of the continuous arguments used by those who do not believe the sasquatch is a real animal is that there is no physical evidence to support its existence. This is, of course, debatable as samples of scat and hair have been located that defy classification. Other evidence, like footprints, continue to show up as well. Something is leaving tracks, and even the most hardened of skeptics hesitates to say all such tracks could be hoaxes. Getting back to the original point, when skeptics say there is no physical evidence, what they are usually getting at is that no body or physical remains have been found or acquired. In the case of the Pawnee presentation of bones to Buffalo Bill, we may very well have had the evidence so many continue to seek. Put it all together and it is quite intriguing. Think about it. A well-known historical figure, who was very image-conscious, gave his eyewitness account of unusually large human-looking bones in his autobiography. A medical professional, admittedly unnamed, is said to have identified the remains as human. Add in the Pawnee legend of the huge and powerful bipedal creatures that hunted bison without the use of any sort of weapon, and it is truly compelling. Proof? Sadly, no, but compelling nonetheless.

Separating fact from fiction when it comes to Buffalo Bill is not easy. He truly was an incredibly accomplished man but was also guilty of embellishing many a tale when it suited him. Still, in the case of the incident in question, I can think of no reason Cody would have fabricated the story. Cody was certainly guilty from time to time of telling tall tales in order to enhance his image for financial gain. He was one of the first heroes featured in dime novels and did all he could to maintain his rough and tumble reputation. His Wild West Show certainly did not give historically accurate accounts of battles and events that had transpired between the army and the Native Americans; however, these were the actions of a showman who was trying to entertain and sell tickets. The short section in his autobiography describing the event in question doesn’t seem to be the sort of thing Cody would embellish as it was not going to enhance his frontiersman image or help make his show more popular to the masses.

While the incident has the ring of truth to it, in my opinion, there really is no way to ever know for sure. Were the bones from a large primate or some other more common animal? Did the incident ever really take place at all? Again, unless someone is able to discover additional documentation of the event, we will never know. Regardless, the story has only added to the legend of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and picked up steam among sasquatch enthusiasts over the last several years.

Truly, William F. Cody led a fascinating life. Alas, it could have been even more interesting if he had kept the bones presented to him by the Pawnee and sent them to a university for further study.

Just think, if he had done so, he might now be known as Bigfoot Bill.

*You can read William F. Cody’s biography, The Life of Honorable William F. Cody for free at www.Gutenberg.org. You can read the specific passage discussed in this post here.

Louisiana Giant Snake Photo: Is it Real?

2011-05-18T10:10:00.000-05:00

A reader sent me the picture below of a giant snake slithering down the side of a road. The reader did not claim to have taken the picture but said the story was that the snake was photographed near the Morganza Spillway near Krotz Springs, Louisiana as it fled the impending flood waters from the swollen Mississippi River.

I have no idea if the photo is genuine. I’m guessing it is either a clever fake or a genuine photo of a snake from some other part of the world (though I can't tell just what species it might be). I am leaning toward a good photoshop job. The coloration and head shape look "mamba-like" to me. The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is a very long snake, and does hold its head up high when moving, but is not close to the length represented in this photo. In addition, there is something about the shadow beneath the snake’s head that doesn’t look quite right to me. Just my opinion but I’ve been wrong before.

If it is a hoax the perpetrator is playing off a real story. The Morganza Spillway has been opened in an attempt to spare Baton Rouge and New Orleans from potentially devastating flooding. Saving these two highly populous areas required flooding hundreds of acres of rural forest and farmland and the animals of the area are on the move as documented here by CNN.

In any case, it is a fun picture. I will be curious to see if it is debunked quickly.

Bear "Traps" Set in Upshur County, Texas

2011-05-17T12:59:00.000-05:00

I have just returned from a weekend bear hunt in Upshur County, Texas. It was not a literal bear hunt, of course; rather, it was a trip to interview a witness who claims to have seen four black bears (Ursus americanus) on her property back in November of last year. The witness, who owns 80 acres that back up to the bottoms of Cypress Creek, told the story of how she followed her German shepherd around to the back of her house that night leading to the encounter with the bears. You can read the details of her original sighting, as written up by my friend Ken Stewart, here.

Ken and I arrived at the property of the witness shortly after lunchtime on Saturday 5/14. While Ken has known the property owner for years, this was my chance to meet her for the first time. She was as delightful a person as you could hope to meet and upon hearing her story in a face-to-face setting have no doubt she saw bears and not hogs. She gladly gave us permission to access her property and put up game cameras in the hopes of getting photos of the bears. Ken and I hiked the property for more than two hours and it is absolutely ideal. Behind the house is a pasture, tree line, and then another pasture. Behind the second pasture the land drops off into the bottoms of a small branch feeding Cypress Creek. Hardwoods and their bounty are everywhere and the area is rich with blackberry bushes and muscadine grape vines just about to ripen. The area is wonderfully suited for all manner of wildlife.

Ken and I chose a couple of locations where game trails converged to place the cameras. I had purchased a product meant to attract bears and applied it liberally, in liquid form and powder form, to the trees and vegetation in front of the cameras. The aroma was, indeed, very strong and have little doubt that if the bears are still in the area they will come in to investigate. The product came highly recommended and I have high hopes that it will do the trick.

Ken and I had the good fortune to run into the gentleman who leases the pastures in order to run cattle. He was concerned about the safety of the property owner and, no doubt, his livestock and asked a lot of questions about black bear. We made it very clear that we were not bear experts before telling him that, if common sense is used, in all likelihood nobody has anything to worry about. For her part, the property owner is pleased the bears are there. She said she never felt threatened and likes the idea of their being around at least some of the time. It was during the course of this discussion that this gentleman shared an encounter of his own. He said that he saw a very large black animal of some sort in an area of heavy brush near the fence-line at the rear of the property. He was a bit perplexed as he could not identify it. He described it as being wider than a man and very heavy. He said that the animal would have been about chest high to him (I estimate his height at 6’0”) and probably weighed in the neighborhood of 500-600 lbs. He was sure it was neither hog nor bear. He couldn’t or wouldn’t speculate farther on what it might have been. He just said that, as a cattleman, he was used to seeing large animals and estimating weight. He said, “I don’t know what it was but I know what it wasn’t. It was no cow or bear.” The witness did not feel the animal could have been a hog either due to how high it stood. What it could be can only be speculated upon but it is interesting as this is a man who knows his animals. Hopefully, we’ll get a photo that explains this mystery as well.

The entire area has a long history of cougar and black panther sightings as well. On this trip alone I spoke to three different people who, in a very nonchalant manner, described experiences with large black cats. Throw in a handful of sasquatch sightings and you have a very exciting research location. I will be sure to post updates as pictures from our cameras become available. It is going to be at least 4 weeks before I return to check on them.

Fingers crossed…

Invasive Red-bellied Pacu Caught in Lake Conroe

2011-05-10T11:47:00.000-05:00

According to an article posted on the Yourhoustonnews.com website, a red- bellied pacu (Piaractus brachyomus), a distant cousin to the piranha, was caught in Lake Conroe by a catfish angler last week.

The article, written by Howard Roden, tells the story of Kenneth Evans who was out fishing for cats on Monday May 2nd. Evans had been having pretty good luck but had no idea what he was about to run into when his rod bowed over for the ninth time that day.

“I was really startled,” he said. “I didn’t know what to think.”

The fish was 13 inches long and weighed in right at 3 lbs. The body shape of the fish, the orange colored belly, and the prominent teeth led Evans to the conclusion he had landed a piranha. According to Evans, the fish made a “weird sound” and clamped down on a stick presented in front of its mouth like a pit bull.

Game Warden Brannon Menkowsky is confident the fish is a pacu and not a piranha. The teeth are the key to properly identifying the fish according to Menkowsky. The piranha has razor sharp teeth meant to rip off bite-sized chunks of flesh. The pacu, by contrast, has very human-looking teeth that are designed to crush rather than rip. Pacu can be purchased legally and often are dumped into Texas waters once they outgrow their aquariums.

Menkowsky added that reports of piranhas, while not common, have come in to his office at least two other times over the last eight years. Both of these reports originated from Lake Conroe. A fellow Game Warden, Derwin Biggerstaff, says he gets calls about once a year about “piranhas.”

This is the second time in the last year I’ve heard of a red-bellied pacu being pulled out of Texas waters. As documented on this site here, a lady I went to college with reported to me that her son pulled a pacu from a private lake near Leander outside of Austin. She sent me the photo and even posted a short video on YouTube showing her son’s unusual catch.

The pacu problem may be getting to a point where TPWD officials are going to have to address it. This invasive species is ravenous and will quickly put native species like bass and bluegill out of business if their numbers grow too large. I am aware I may be sounding like a bit of an alarmist but a recent episode of River Monsters documents that pacu can decimate native species, in this case tilapia, and even become dangerous to humans. While considered mainly vegetarians, pacu are actually omnivorous and will eat flesh. Jeremy Wade of the River Monsters program aptly demonstrates this fact as he documents attacks on New Zealand native tribesmen by this invasive species. The pacu has become known in the region as the “ball cutter” due to its preference for certain parts of the male anatomy. The Lake Conroe pacu bit a chicken gizzard meant for catfish. This would seem to prove that meat is not off their diet. I don’t point this out to insinuate that pacu will begin attacking swimmers; rather, I mention it out of concern that this invasive fish could decimate native species through competition for available food and by preying on their fry.

I cannot stress enough that releasing an exotic fish into public waters is a terrible idea. Owners do not want to kill their pets when they get too large. I get that; however, the potential harm that could be done to native species is just too great. It may sound cruel but, if a suitable home cannot be found for a pacu, it should be euthanized.

Anyone who catches a pacu or any other exotic fish species in Texas public waters should notify the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department immediately.