News
Are Big Cats loose in the UK?
The infamous big cats of Buckinghamshire and Bexleyheath have been spotted again this summer.
The Beast of Bucks was seen around 5pm on the 2nd August 2007 by Richard Skipp and a work colleague while driving home near Beldlow Ridge, just north of West Wycombe.
“It was a puma-like creature. It wasn’t panicked by us, it just went through the hedge and slinked off.” said Mr Skipp.
The Bexleyheath big-cat was seen earlier this summer (no exact date given) at around 9.30pm by Nicola Short, as she travelled by train near Crayford.
The big black animal, thought by some to be a puma like cat, was seen descending from a tree before disappearing into the undergrowth.
Have you seen or heard a story about Big Cats in the UK? Please leave a comment or contact Cryptoworld in confidence via our contact form.
Source:
Bizarre London [link].
Pet Camel Dangers
This sounds very nasty indeed. Apparently an Australian woman has been killed by her pet camel after it tried to have sex with her!
This has to be a Fortean moment if ever I have heard of one. It’s just a shame that it is such an unfortunate story and my feeling are with the woman’s family, friends and loved ones.
Pet related deaths are nothing new and range from the not surprised pet Crocodile, Lion and Snake incidents, to the weird and wonderful pet Cow, Goat and Mouse related fatalities.
I think it is clear that some animals should never be considered pets, you can keep them by all means - but as soon as you start to turn your back on a natural predator, you have to understand you could be its next meal, or dare I say partner!
Source:
Pet camel kills Australian woman (BBC)
I think the below says it all…
Yangtze River Dolphin
It’s a bout time we started to learn from our mistakes, action is needed before another and then another and another species disappears, never (NEVER) to be seen again.
External Links:
EDGE - The EDGE of Existence programme
Giant Homer
A giant underpants-wearing, doughnut-waving Homer Simpson has been painted on the hill next to the famous 180ft carving of the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset.
The painting, a promotional stunt for the upcoming Simpsons movie has upset some, and amused others.
Pagans have condemned the stunt as disrespectful, and plan to perform “rain magic” to wash away the water-based biodegradable character.
The landlord of the local pub the New Inn said it was different, but had not heard any complaints so far – he also added that he wasn’t sure if many of the locals would actually know who Homer was anyway!
What ever your views, I personally can’t help thinking the money spent on the stunt could have been used for an alternative form of publicity!
Perhaps a giant doughnut shaped crop circle for instance?
Note: you heard the crop circle idea here first!
Hatshepsut's mortuary temple
Preliminary results from DNA tests carried out on a mummy believed to be Queen Hatshepsut is expected to support the claim by Egyptian authorities that the remains are indeed those of Egypt’s most powerful female ruler.
Egyptologists in Cairo announced last month that a tooth found in a wooden box associated with Hatshepsut exactly fitted the jaw socket and broken root of the unidentified mummy.
Now, Dr Angelique Corthals, a biomedical Egyptologist at The University of Manchester, says that DNA tests she helped carry out with colleagues at the National Research Centre in Cairo have promising preliminary results suggesting the identity of the queen.
Dr Corthals, who is based at Manchester’s KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, advised and trained a team led by Dr Yehia Gad in Egypt in techniques of extracting DNA samples from the mummified remains of the mystery female.
Aggressive Honey Badger
This has got to be one of the most bizarre stories to come out of Iraqi – a seriously weird, some have even said scary rumour has popped up, claiming giant man-eating badgers have been released by British troops in the port city or Basra.
Several creatures have been caught and killed by locals, but have been identified by experts as nothing more than honey badgers, which are indigenous nocturnal carnivores that don’t attack humans unless cornered – and even then they would prefer to eat earthworms, termites and scorpions, not humans!
Interestingly, the honey badger, or Ratel (Mellivora capensis) to give its real name, has been named the most fearless animal in the Guinness Book of World Records for a number of years.
Amusingly, Major Mike Shearer, a UK military spokesman said: “We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.” Does this mean they have released them elsewhere?
Man it’s a crazy world, you have to wonder where these stories originate from.
External Links:
British blamed for Basra badgers
Giant badgers terrorise Iraqi port city
Giant Squid found on beach
On Tuesday 10th July a Giant Squid was fond washed up on Ocean Beach in Strahan, Tasmania.
It measured 1 meter (3 feet) wide and 8 meters (28 feet) long from the top of its body to the end of its tentacles, and weighed approximately 550 pounds said Genefor Walker-Smith, a zoologist from the Tasmanian Museum.
The giant squid, once believed to be a mythical creature, are deep-ocean dwelling animals that can grow to a tremendous size – recent estimates have put their size to a massive 13 m (43 ft) for females and 10 m (33 ft) for males. The larger Colossal Squid, discovered in 1925 is estimated to be at least 14 m (46 ft) long.
The squid found on Ocean Beach was expected to be taken to the museum, where DNA and other scientific tests would be carried out before it is preserved and possibly put on public display.
Megalithic Tomb, France
Man, everything changes so quickly. I have been in France and Italy for the last two months with my girlfriend, travelling and exploring a part of the world that is right on our doorstep (
I live in the UK just in case you didn’t know), yet for some reason we rarely visit.
We had planed to stay away for longer, but unfortunately had to cut the trip short because our motorhome was broken into in Pisa, Italy and everything was stolen, clothes, food and some personal belongings - bit of a nightmare really! But looking at things positively, it means we now have the chance to have a fresh start, something we have both been trying to do since moving out of London last year.
Anyway, enough of our troubles, we are both fine, have each other and the things taken were materialistic and can be replaced, and after all, this site is about weird and wonderful things, and we saw plenty of those, especially in France.
Gouffre de Padirac, France
I am planing to write about some of the places we visited, unfortunately most of our photos were taken, so I will have to rely on stock pictures for some of them, but my note books was left and my memory is still fresh so all is not lost.
Rather than delving right in now, I thought I would tempt you with a few places we visited and by committing them to print will also mean I will have to write about them – so pester me if I appear to have forgotten!
Some places we visited, would like to re-vist and which I will write about are, Mont Saint-Michel, Carnac and it’s 3000+ standing stones, Gouffre de Padirac, Prehistoric Peche Merle Caves and the lovely Rennes le Chateau.
So stay tuned, news, stories and updates are on there way.
P.S. If you happen to be the person who stole all of our stuff, including the pictures, we would appreciate it if you could send us the black backup device, or at least a copy of the pictures on CD.
Note: Amazingly my Laptop found its way home and I have managed to recover 90% of the photos - so I now have no excuse for not writing about the places we visited!
Little Gobi, Mongolia
Famed for hunting the Mongolian Deathworm, the self-made Cryptozoologist Ivan Mackerle receives an excellent review in the Prague Post.
Mackerle, 65, and his small band of friends have travelled across the Gobi desert, hacked through the jungles of Madagascar, and scuba dived remote Micronesian islands to name but a few.
Ivan was one the main influences for our very own expedition to Mongolia in 2005 where we also searched for the Allghoi khorkhoi. You can read more about Operation Deathworm here.
Related Links:
Read the Ivan Mackerle Prague Post article
Ivan Mackerle interview on Prague TV
Cryptoworld’s Operation Deathworm
Herod the Great's tomb
The long search for Herod the Great’s tomb has ended with the exposure of the remains of his grave, sarcophagus and mausoleum on Mount Herodium’s north-eastern slope, Prof. Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology announced on Tuesday (8th May 2007).Herod was the Roman-appointed king of Judea from 37 to 4 BCE, who was renowned for his many monumental building projects, including the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the palace at Masada, as well as the complex at Herodium, 15 Kilometers south of Jerusalem.
Herodium is the most outstanding among King Herod’s building projects. This is the only site that carries his name and the site where he chose to be buried and to memorialise himself — all of this with the integration of a huge, unique palace at the fringe of the desert, said Prof. Netzer. Therefore, he said, the exposure of his tomb becomes the climax of this site’s research.
The approach to the burial site - which has been described by the archaeologists involved as one of the most striking finds in Israel in recent years - was via a monumental flight of stairs (6.5 meters wide) leading to the hillside that were especially constructed for the funeral procession.
Mount Herodium
The excavations on the slope of the mountain, at whose top is the famed structure comprised of a palace, a fortress and a monument, commenced in August 2006. The expedition, on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was conducted by Prof. Netzer, together with Yaakov Kalman and Roi Porath and with the participation of local Bedouins.
The location and unique nature of the findings, as well as the historical record, leave no doubt that this was Herod’s burial site, said Prof. Netzer.
The mausoleum itself was almost totally dismantled in ancient times. In its place remained only part of its well built podium, or base, built of large white ashlars (dressed stone) in a manner and size not previously revealed at Herodium.
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