After much anticipation, the Centre for Fortean Zoology have finally released a documentary recount of the 2005 expedition to Mongolia where the CFZ and yours truly trekked around the Gobi Desert for four weeks interviewing witnesses, and searching for evidence of the fabled Mongolian Deathworm!

Richard Freeman, the CFZ’s zoological director, does a fine job at narrating the two part documentary. Some of the events and facts seem to be a little fuzzy and vary slightly from how I remember them, but overall it’s an interesting account and I highly recommend it.

The two part documentary is available on YouTube (link), or for convenience, you can watch both parts here.

Lair of the Red Worm - Part One

Lair of the Red Worm - Part Two

Related Links:
Operation Deathworm (an almost complete history of the deathworm)
Operation Deathworm Gallery (a few pics from the 2004 expedition)
e-Mongol, Chupacabra and Bigfoot
Top 100 Endangered Species

Officials in Australia have warned that the server drought, the worst for more than 100 years, is driving thousands of snakes and other reptiles into urban areas.

Three people have been killed in Australian over the last few weeks, after being bitten by venomous reptiles.

Experts have warned that an army of snakes is on the move, looking for water. Driven by extreme thirst they have been discovered in gardens, bedrooms and even shopping centres.

Continue reading →

I would have thought that it’s safe to say that most of you would have heard about the UFO sighting at O’Hare Airport, Chicago on 7th December last year?

I’ve kind of neglected writing about it as Cryptoworld was off the air at that time, and there was and still is loads of information already out there on the web.

So instead of just reporting the same old stuff, I thought I would write a few posts with links to some of the more interesting stories, discussions and videos.

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After spotting the Protection for ‘weirdest’ species story on the BBC web site today, I followed the link to EDGE and found an extraordinary website.

Recent studies indicate that almost 75 per cent of the world’s most extraordinary threatened mammals are receiving little or no conservation attention.

If these species go extinct, they will be lost forever. There are no similar animals on earth to replace them.

The EDGE of Existence programme aims to conserve the world’s most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species by implementing the research and conservation actions needed to secure their future.

The site has an amazing list of the top 100 endangered and critically endangered species in the world. I highly recommend checking out The EDGE of Existence programme, and consider donating to help fund research and protection of some of the world most unique creatures.

Related Links:
The EDGE of Existence programme
The Zoological Society of LondonMangrove Terrapin rediscovered in Thailand
London Zoo breeds rare Dove

A Strange story indeed this, and one that will be very interesting to follow.

According to a release from the FARS News Agency, and unidentified (flying) object has crashed the the Barez Mountains in central Iran.

Officials in Iran have dismissed claims that is was a crashed plane or helicopter, and that it was also unlikely that it was a meteorite as the object appeared to be trailing smoke before it crashed.

Interestingly, it seems that similar incidents have been witnessed over the last year, causing speculation that the objects could be spy-planes or even high-tech espionage devices.

UFO Crash in Central Iran

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An Unidentified Flying Object crashed in Barez Mounts in the central province of Kerman Wednesday morning.

Deputy Governor General of Kerman province Abulghassem Nasrollahi told FNA that the crash which was followed by an explosion and a thick spiral of smoke has caused no casualties or damage to properties.

He further denied earlier reports that the explosion has been the result of a plane or chopper crash, reminding that all the passing aircraft’s have been reported as sound and safe.

The official further stated that investigations are underway by police and other relevant authorities in this regard.

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The critically endangered mangrove terrapin (Batagur baska), Asia’s largest fresh water turtle has been found in a mangrove swamp of western Thailand.

The female terrapin found by a local fisherman, is thought to have been on its way to nest when it was caught. Luckily the fisherman realised it was something special and contacted a local specialist from WWF Thailand’s Marine and Coastal Resources Unit.

In the past, the mangrove terrapin was hunted in their thousands for its eggs, meat and shells. Not surprisingly this has caused a sharp decline in their numbers, and along with over-hunting, the loss of their habitat and nesting areas (beaches) has meant they are almost extinct in the wild.

Dr Chavalit Vidthayanon, a freshwater biologist at WWF Thailand said “She is probably very lucky that she wasn’t eaten or sold to a wildlife trader,”.

Background Info:
The Batagur or mangrove terrapin (Batagur baska) is a species of riverine turtle. It is one of the most critically-endangered turtle species according to a 2003 assessment by the IUCN. Batagur baska is a rare and endangered Asian river terrapin also called the “Royal Turtle” in Cambodia because its eggs were a royal delicacy.

Continue reading →

So its been almost a month, my only defence is that the move from one server to the other took longer than I intended (and a little bit stressful at times).

Everything should be running as before, although you will have probably noticed we have had a bit of a redesign. It’s not completely finished, we are still missing the new features (see below), but as I promised the site would be back up by the end of this week, I thought I had better make the effort. So here it is…what do you think?

Normal service ’should’ now resume, but there will probably be a few hiccups over the next few days as I tidy up a few loose ends - like restoring the original Operation Deathworm Blog for instance!

As for the new features, the most exciting will be a video archive, showing clips from our investigations and expeditions. The clips will also be available for download as a video-podcast, so you will also be able to watch them on your portable music/video player of choice!

A few other features are in the pipeline, so stay tuned for more on these soon.

OK, that about wraps it up for now, thanks for being so patient, hope you all have a fantastic 2007.

Dear Friends,

This is just a very quick email to let everybody know that Cryptoworld will probably be off-line for the next few days. I am having a long overdue spring-clean and have also decided to move everything to a new server at the same time. Once the move is complete there will be a few changes including a few new features which I think you will find useful.

So stay tuned and I will let you know when everything is back up and running.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

So NASA hasn’t surprised us with evidence of monuments or alien artefacts on Mars, but it does believe it has evidence of ‘recent’ flowing liquid water on its surface. See our earlier story NASA to Announce Significant Find on Mars!

In a press conference this afternoon, NASA spokesmen told journalists that they believed light coloured streaks on the surface of Mars is water rising from below the surface and spilling down the slopes of craters and valleys to form gullies.

NASA believes the water flows in a similar way to that of a mudslides here on earth. Then as the water evaporates away from the sediment, it freezes on the top to form a kind of frost, giving it its lighter colour.

Continue reading →

At 1pm (EST) (6pm GMT), NASA plans to announce some Significant news regarding Mars!

Speculation on just what this news is or will be is rife, and a quick search on the internet reveals all manor of theories - Life, Alien Artifacts, Monuments and believe it or not ‘Elvis’ to name but a few!

But the most talked about and probably most plausible is the discovery of free-flowing water on or just underneath the surface.

The significance of such a find would open up all manor of possibilities for the existence of (primitive?) life on Mars, either in the red planets distant past or more excitingly - now!

We will let you know just what NASA has to say, when they say!

Related Links:
NASA Official website
NASA Airbrushes pictures of the moon
Search Cryptoworld for more NASA stories