Snake Story in Maine

A "monster snake," "perhaps up to 17 feet long" was reported in a Rumford, Maine, canal. (News source.)

"Self-Watering" Plant

Desert rhubarb in Israel's Negev desert harvests minimal rain at higher than expected levels. (News source. Thanks to Kevin Stewart.)

Sewer Creature Identified

A "sewer creature" in North Carolina turned out to be a colony of Tubifex worms. (News source.)

Bigfoot Hoax

A woman reporting a Bigfoot sighting in Connecticut actually saw a "16-year-old dressed in a gorilla-like costume." (News source.)

Moa Coloration

DNA from ancient feathers is helping researchers figure out what moas actually looked like. (News source.)

Lake Van Monster Movie

A Turkish folk singer is shooting a movie about a three shepherds who create a fake monster in Lake Van. (News source.)

Sasquatch Fun

More Sasquatch shenanigans by Jack Link's Beef Jerky.

Parasites Lost

This isn't new, but I just ran across mention of this article from 2002, reprinted on biologist Rob Dunn's website, on the lice of the extinct passenger pigeon.

The "Giant Prehistoric Minnow"

Years ago, I came across Lost Legends of the West, by Williams & Pepper (1970). They briefly mention the story of a man in the early 1960s who caught a "giant prehistoric minnow" in Lake Mojave, which excited wildlife officials. The story is repeated in the 2007 book, Weird Las Vegas and Nevada. When I posed the question of the species of the fish on the old CZ list in 1999 (actually, I see that Matt Bille had previously queried on the subject there), Jack "Rabbit" noted that it was probably the Colorado squawfish, Ptychocheilus lucius (now called the Colorado pikeminnow). With recent advances in search capabilities, it's now possible to confirm this identification, and I can point to a closer source to the story. Desert Magazine from August 1963 gives a few details in its article on Lake Mojave. The court battle (with victory for the fisherman) for the 1960s fish's remains (noted in Lost Legends) isn't mentioned, so I am uncertain as to whether it is apocryphal. Today, of course, there would be no legal grounds for possession of an endangered fish, but as Federal protection wasn't even available until the ESA in 1973, I suppose such a court case could have happened.

Perception and Reality

A good example of why critical examination of stranger stories is necessary, here with a Kentucky man's confused perception of local herpetofauna, and how that affected his interpretation of events he witnessed.

New Bat in Comoros

A new small bat, named Miniopterus aelleni, has been discovered in the Comoros. (News source.)

UK: Dolphin Superpod

Hundreds of dolphins were spotted migrating through the Moray Firth. (News source.)

"Stoned" Wallabies Make Crop Circles

Tasmanian wallabies have been getting into medicially-grown poppy fields, and end up high and hopping in circles. (News source.)

Oklahoma Bigfoot

A letter to the editor on Oklahoma Bigfoot sightings, here.

Fun with Genetics

An interesting article in Wired on the T. rex protein research.

Lampreys lose about 20% of their genes as they develop. (News source.)

Fossil Mystery Ape

Russell L. Ciochon has an interesting essay in the latest Nature:

The mystery ape of Pleistocene Asia
Nature 459, 910-911 (18 June 2009)

Available here.

Montague "Mouse" Mystery

Sightings of a strange rodent on Montague island, a nature preserve off the coast of New South Wales, after a massive pest rat/mouse eradication effort, has instigated a search to determine if it is a native rodent. (News source.)

Giant Out-of-Place Arapaima?

Sightings of a giant fish ("the size of a baby elephant") in Tasik Kenyir, Malaysia, supposedly to blame for the drownings of two men, suggest the South American Arapaima to one local fish biologist, who suggests it may be an introduction. (News source.)

Another Mangey Coyote?

A man in Bandera County, Texas, shot what appears to be another coyote with mange. (News source.)

Alabama: Monkey on Loose?

The Baldwin County Sheriff's Office noted "a caller reported seeing a monkey at about 6 a.m. today along Baldwin County 12, east of Baldwin County 65, near the Pleasant View Baptist Church." Species indeterminate. (News source.)

Cougar Attack

A three-year old girl was saved by her mother from a cougar attack along the Squamish River in British Columbia. (News source.)

Red Hairy Snail Hunt

A biologist is surveying King Island (off Tasmania) for red hairy snails after recent fires. The snails were rediscovered in 1996, thought extinct before then for some decades. (News source.)

Planktonic Superorganism

Picture here. General info here.

Swedenborg Whale Bones?

Old bones possibly from a controversial fifth species of right whale, the "Swedenborg whale," have been discovered. (News source.) (Via Kevin Stewart)

Ecuador: Possible New (Small) Species

A team from Conservation International has come up with a number of possible new reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates in the forested mountains of Cordillera del Condor. Photos here. (Via Kevin Stewart)