Feline Reports

Black panther sightings in North Carolina.

Nothing new on the Georgia maned lion sightings, but they're still looking.

And, wampus cat folklore.

Lake Worth Monster

Not a lake monster, but the Lake Worth monster is back in the news (though there's nothing new).

China's Top 5

People's Daily has a top 5 Chinese lake monsters list.

Deep Sea Discovery

A new crinoid was discovered in the Bahamas. (News source.)

Bare-Faced Bulbul

A new "bald" songbird has been discovered in Laos. (News source.)

NZ "Walking Bat" Had Australian Kin

Scientists thought the agile walking/climbing abilities of the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat, Mystacina tuberculata, was the result of isolation on an island without mammalian competitors, but a fossil bat from Australia shows it also had similar muscle/bone adaptations. (Eurekalert.)

Catching Giant Earthworms

A Wired article notes some of the techniques being used to locate giant Palouse earthworms.

Giant Sable Antelopes

Three of the endangered antelopes were found during a recent expedition to Cangandala National Park and Luando Game Reserve, in Angola’s northern Malanje province. (News source.)

Palisades 'Panther' Hunt

Rockland County, New York, residents are donating money for cameras, traps, and the services of a tracker to catch the large felines that have been reported there. (News source.)

Bangladesh: Clouded Leopards

A clouded leopard cub has been captured in Bangladesh, where the species was considered extirpated. The cub's mother and other cubs were chased away by locals. (News source.)

MonsterQuest: The Last Dinosaur

Daniel M. just pointed out to me that the MQ episode of Bill Gibbons' latest tour of Cameroonian Mokele-mbembe spots is now online. (Temporarily, so watch it soon.) I'm currently finishing up Bill's book on the subject, and hope to have it available soon (just waiting on images).

New Horned Lizards

California's coast horned lizard, Phrynosoma coronatum, has been split into three species. (Eurekalert.)

New Monitor Lizard

A new monitor lizard has been described from the Talaud Islands of Indonesia. The new species, Varanus lirungensis, is apparently related to the mangrove monitor, V. indicus. (News source. Image: André Koch, ZFMK)

Rediscovered Whale to be Announced

A rediscovered "new species" of whale will be announced at the Indian Ocean Cetacean Symposium, currently under way in the Maldives. It was first discovered in 1963 by a Sri Lankan scientist, but "mistakenly categorised as a similar species that had been discovered a decade earlier." (News source.)

Searching for Evidence

A wing was all that was known of an Ethiopian nightjar, Caprimulgus solala, but adventurous birdwatchers managed to spot it, though they weren't able to capture it. (News source.)

A US FWS researcher is looking for the Charleston ant, Lasius nevadensis, in Nevada, which hasn't been seen since the 1950s. (News source.)

Shrew Rediscovered

A small Mexican shrew, Cryptotis nelsoni, first discovered in 1894, was not seen again until 2004. (News source.)

Strange Life

Sightings of "hammerhead worms" (actually terrestrial planarians) up to 14 inches in length are freaking out some Alabama folk. (News source.)

A strange "blob" in the ocean off Alaska's northern coast turns out to be mostly marine algae. (News source.)

And, some videos here on a moth that clicks to jam bat sonar.

Okanagan Lake Sighting

Noted on the BCSCC list: a large snake-like creature was reported by several witnesses on Okanagan Lake. (News source.)

Giant Nudibranchs

Mention is made of some strange, as yet unidentified, giant sea slugs "at the mouth of the Red Sea at Bab el-Mandeb" near Djibouti. First spotted in 1990, "to this day, it is uncertain whether the ‘Djibouti Giants’ are a giant form of the Red Sea Spanish Dancer Hexabranchus sanguineus or a species new to science." (News source.)

Belarus Ape Hunt Off

Police have called off a search for a strange apelike creature spotted in the Belarus marshes near the Latvian border.

"Farmers living in Belarus' northern Grodno province last Summer reported dozens of sightings of an ape-like creature in neighbouring swamps. Witnesses usually described what they saw as close to man-sized, and moving on two or four limbs. It most often often was sighted eating corn in farm fields in the Lidsky district of the Grodno province. Accounts varied widely on the creature's hair color, some observers recounting it had white or light grey fur, and others saying the animal was dark grey or black." (News source.)

Escaped Hippo Shot

One of a trio of hippos that escaped from the late drug lord Pablo Escobar's menagerie three years ago, has been shot. The other two are being hunted. (News source.)

Grover Krantz, on Exhibit

The skeletons of Dr. Grover Krantz (one of the few professionals to study Bigfoot) and his favorite wolfhound are on display now in a special exhibit at the Smithsonian NMNH. (News source.)

NC Panther Stories

Another article on big black cats in North Carolina, here.

Apparently, It's Art

Lake monster creations.

Deathworm2009

I think that just about says it all.

Old Specimens are New Species

Two old museum specimen of Samoan bats have turned out to be undescribed species, probably now extinct. (News source.) Download AMNH paper here. (Via Kevin Stewart.)

Florida Bone Carving of Mastodon

"A 15-inch-long prehistoric bone fragment found near Vero Beach contains a crude engraving of a mammoth or mastodon on it, said Barbara Purdy, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Florida." (News source.)

New Saddleback Tamarin

A new monkey, a subspecies of saddleback tamarin, has been described. (News source.)

New North American Salamander

A tiny new salamander has been discovered in the Appalachians. It has been named Urspelerpes brucei. (News source.)

A new genus and species of lungless salamander (family Plethodontidae) from the Appalachian highlands of the south-eastern United States
C. D. Camp, W. E. Peterman, J. R. Milanovich, T. Lamb, J. C. Maerz, D. B. Wake
Journal of Zoology
Published Online: Jun 22 2009 12:04PM

Indiana: Wandering Wallaby

Another missing marsupial in Muncie, Indiana. (News source.)

Bat News

The extraordinary nose of the paradoxolophus bat allows for a highly focused sonar emission. (Eurekalert.)

Robotic bats are being created (with numerous potential uses). (News source.)

New Florida Scarab Beetle

Polyphylla starkae has been described from the scrubs of Polk County, Florida. One significance of the discovery "is that it shows the contributions that citizen scientists — volunteers who don't have years of education and formal training who collect data in natural areas — can make." (News source.)

Decoy Spiders

Some researchers in Taiwan suggest that a small orbweaver there, Cyclosa mulmeinensis, creates decoy spiders out of detritus to divert the attention of predators. (News source.)

A Strange Fish from Yap

I recently ran across mention of a "mystery fish" from the Micronesian island of Yap, in Kenneth Brower's 1983 book, A Song for Satawal. Brower mentions that in a paper on ethno-ichthyology of the island, Dr. Margie Falanruw listed a fish the Yapese call galuf nu medai, translated as "monitor lizard of the sea." She noted: "Lives in mangroves, head like a crocodile, caught at night, has lizard-like skin and red meat that tastes like salmon. Three to four feet long."

It sounded interesting, so I contacted Dr. Falanruw to see if it was actually unknown. She was kind enough to provide an identification of the fish: Cymbacephalus beauforti, or crocodilefish.

But, she notes that she is currently working on the description of a new reptile from the region, so zoological discovery continues, even in a fairly well-known part of the world.

Kanas Lake Sighting

China's Kanas Lake "monster" was sighted a few days ago "by over 10 tourists" for about twenty minutes. (News source.)

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.