An Anthropologist's Perspective on Cryptids of the World
Considering the climate of America and elsewhere right now, this seems like a good time for a different sort of blog post. This isn’t meant to be political or to be accusatory to any scientific discipline, but I would like to explore one of the main reasons I got into cryptozoology in the first place; …
Continue reading “Special Edition Post: Cryptozoology as Anti-Racist Science”
The thylacine (or Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf as it is sometimes called) is an interesting cryptozoology case, because it isn’t really a cryptid at all. The thylacine is a well-documented real animal; it was a large (40-60 pounds) carnivorous marsupial that represented the only member of the family Thylacinidae to make it into modern …
Continue reading “The Thylacine: How Soon is too Soon to Declare an Animal Extinct?”
The Mothman has always been a strange cryptid to me. It seems to exist somewhere in the liminal space between actual physical creature and supernatural omen of death. Witness reports do indicate a physical entity and are fairly consistent. The Mothman is generally described as a bipedal creature, human sized or larger, with enormous wings—10 …
Continue reading “Mothman: Somewhere between Strange Creature and Spirit Omen”
One aspect of the North American bigfoot I have always had a hard time reconciling is the lack of conclusive evidence versus the first nations stories of the creature. Many people will argue that there is abundant evidence for bigfoot, but the sheer amount of people looking for him (researchers, scientists, entire tv shows) really …
Continue reading “Could a Giant Ground Sloth be Responsible for Bigfoot Legends?”
As someone with a master’s degree in primatology and a lot of real-world experience in primate behavior, I have a LOT of problems with the conventional methods for looking for Bigfoot/Sasquatch. My opinion on whether this cryptid exists (probably no in North America, probably yes in the Himalayas) aside, I do believe that most of …
Continue reading “Looking for Bigfoot in All the Wrong Places: Why Nighttime?”
The Orang Pendek has always been a strange cryptid to me. A three-foot-tall hairy ape living in the dense jungles of Sumatra is not something that seems at all out of the realm of possibility. Locals insist it is real but elusive, but science does not recognize it and many expeditions to find it have …
Continue reading “The Orang Pendek: Siamang? Or Something Else?”
I’ve always been an interested skeptic. Stories of the yeti and the Loch Ness monster fascinated me, but also made me laugh! As a scientist, I could never get behind the idea that those things existed without us knowing. That all changed a few years ago. In 2014 I was in Vietnam doing my master’s …
