Cryptids

[Laisrean]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cryptids

Cryptids are animals which may exist but are not yet proven to exist. They include things such as the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, Mothman, etc.

I think my favorite one is Mothman because it seems to be a supernatural creature. Bigfoot is also very interesting.

[FaerieGothMommy]

Great poll!

I voted for Loch Ness monster, just because theres so many reportings and even photos, and i've always found it interesting to read about.
But i also think Mothman is extremley interesting, i'd like to learn more about the mothman.

[Valnorran]

I went with Bigfoot, though I think BF, yeti, and skunkape are pretty much the same thing (assuming they're real, of course). Bigfoot was my childhood bogeyman. I've had a fascination with it ever since. Honest inquiry is something of a balancing act for me because on a certain level I want BF to be real, so I have to be careful not to let that desire override my objectivity. There are one or two interesting pieces of supporting evidence for BF.

[Noctis]

I went with old Nessie. I started researching :reading: :reading: a lot about the " Loch Ness Monster " after I saw the X-Files episode on it and found out all kinds of neat info on it.

[In Darkness We Gather]

hello ppl hmmmmmmmm it has got to be the mothman _twohorns_
In the earlier part of the 1900's, an area outside of Point Pleasant was set up as the McClintic Wildlife Preserve. It was, among other things, designed as a bird sanctuary.

During World War II, part of the preserve was ripped up in order to construct about 100 "igloos". These large mounds of earth were made to be unnoticed from the air. Deep inside each, cement and steel protected the contents : wartime explosives.

After the war, parts of the preserve were sold off or leased to companies like the Trojan-U.S. Powder Company, the LFC Chemical Company, and American Cyanamid..... Biochemistry enters the picture.

All the while, the preserve became known to area residents simply as "T.N.T." Its remote location became a popular hangout for local youth...."parking" and "partying" at T.N.T. became a norm.

The Mothman's glowing red eyes were first reported on November 14th, 1966 in Salem, West Virginia. That evening, Newell Partridge was watching television at his home. The following is his account:

It was about 10:30 that night, and suddenly the TV blanked out. A real fine herringbone pattern appeared on the tube, and at the same time the set started a loud whining noise.....It sounded like a generator winding up.

....The dog was sitting on the end of the porch, howling down toward the hay barn....

I shined the [flash] light in that direction, and it picked up two red circles, or eyes, which looked like bicycle reflectors....

....I certainly know what animal eyes look like....these were much larger ....It's a good length of a football field to that hay barn....still those eyes showed up huge for that distance.

....It was an eerie feeling. I have never had this sort of feeling before. It was if you knew something was wrong, but couldn't place just what it was.

Partridge described the intense, morbid fear that swept over him as a "cold chill". The dog snarled and ran toward the eyes, but Newell hurried inside. He slept with his shotgun all night.

The next day, he and his six-year-old son went searching for the dog, Bandit, a large, muscular German Shepherd.....

Those tracks were going in a circle, as if the dog had been chasing his tail, though he never did that..... There were no other tracks of any kind.

Bandit was never seen again.

At 11:30 the following night (November 15th), a '57 Chevy slowly creeps through the T.N.T. area.

Inside are two young couples, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Scarberry and Mr. and Mrs. Steve Mallette. They're looking for friends who might also be out that cold, winter night.

Their search pauses at the old generator plant on the preserve.

Linda Scarberry gasps.....

"It was shaped like a man, but bigger. Maybe six and a half or seven feet tall. And it had big wings folded against its back......"

"....But it was those eyes that got us. It had two big eyes like automobile reflectors......"

".....They were hypnotic. For a minute, we could only stare at it. I couldn't take my eyes off it."

The creature slowly turned toward the door of the abandoned generator plant. The door was seen... apparently ripped off its hinges.

Scarberry slammed on the accelerator pedal, trying to get to the highway. As they sped past a small hill,
the creature appeared and took off straight up in the air. The auto skidded out of the exit road onto Route 62 ....on two wheels.

"My God, it's following us! We were doing one hundred miles an hour and that bird kept right up with us. It wasn't even flapping its wings....."

It followed the car to near the city limits until the "bird" broke its pursuit. The couples immediately contacted the sheriff's office....

"I've known these kids all their lives. They'd never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night."

Deputy Millard Halstead was on duty in the Mason County Courthouse that evening. He accompanied the couples back to T.N.T. to find the cause of their fear.....

I was on patrol that night....There was a couple parked up in the T.N.T. area and this big bird - or they called it "the monster" - came up and pecked on their window. Nearly scared the life out of 'em.....

.....They met me up there and we looked around. Now, I couldn't see anything at the time..... it was dark. .....We did have a real frightened couple there.

As Halstead switched on his police radio, a loud screech came out of the speaker - a garble, like a tape recording being played at very high speed. Noticeably shaken, the deputy quickly turned off the radio. He left soon after that and reported the incident to his department.

...The next day we had reportings of seeing the same 'bird', they called it, flying near the area. In fact, on the highway, it came down near a car. And just flew over top of the car. And these people were scared also.

The following morning, Sheriff George Johnson held a press conference about the sightings. All the witnesses were interviewed by reporters.

The news story went out that day.....

As the fervor over the sightings mounted on November 16th, 1966, Mrs. Mary Hyre, editor of the Point Pleasant register, had it put on the Associated Press wire.

The copy editor who sent out the article is reportedly now a professor at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Since "Batman" was a popular series at the time, he dubbed the creature "moth-man".

"It rose up slowly from the ground. A big, gray thing. Bigger than a man, with terrible, glowing, red eyes."
---Marcella Bennet, a visitor to the home of Ralph Thomas, then superintendent of the Trojan-U.S. operations in Point Pleasant. Mr. Thomas lived in a bungalow among the igloos of T.N.T.

The Point Pleasant Register had no shortage of Mothman stories in the months to come....

More and more sightings were reported in the Point Pleasant area. Descriptions of the creature were consistent. All reported the same basic build and features. Communications devices squealed and whined. The same red, glowing, hypnotic eyes.

And all reported an uncontrollable, indescribable terror....

"I've never had that feeling before. A weird kind of fear. That fear gripped you and held you."

On November 24th, two adults and two children were driving past T.N.T. and reported spotting the Mothman.

Inside the preserve, thousands of visitors were streaming in every night - fueled by just such reports. It became a media event. Television crews set up at the old generator plant for a glimpse of the nightmarish creature.

To add to the confusion, an inordinately large amount of dog disappearances and mutilations were happening in and around T.N.T. One charred carcass was found inside T.N.T., although none of the surrounding earth was burned.

It has been speculated that this was the end result of "some secret magical ritual by some unknown local warlock," and that this ritual "brought the Mothman into being."

Others theorized that the explosives and chemicals routinely moved around in T.N.T. had leaked and inadvertently caused a biochemically-conceived freak of nature. Perhaps an errant bird, displaced by the igloos, had been forced to rely on spilled chemicals as sustenance, thereby mutating from the nourishment? The Mothman, to them, was the embodiment of our ecological sins.

Still others brought up the Curse of Chief Cornstalk. They believed his 200-year spell had conjured up a winged purveyor of terror. The Mothman, in this case, would be the final realization of Shawnee revenge.

"Suddenly it spread a pair of wings...."

The months passed. The reports continued long into 1967 - over one hundred total. The one-year anniversary of the first sighting came and went as the Christmas season sparkled across the Point Pleasant area.

Many people in the area said the Mothman was responsible for the fall of the Silver Bridge, connecting West Virginia with Ohio. Others said the Mothman was trying to warn people about the upcoming tragedy.

One Point Pleasant resident, who was a very young girl at the time of the collapse, reported having seen the Mothman outside her bedroom window one night prior to the catastrophe. He just hovered, studying her with his illuminated, red eyes.

On the day of the tragedy, the same girl and her family were scheduled to leave on a trip. Their route would take them over the bridge.

As they pulled out of the driveway, her father suddenly had a massive headache, and went back inside to lie down. When he recovered a short time later, they turned on the radio to hear of the disaster they narrowly avoided.

Was the Mothman protecting this child he favored? Did the Mothman have mind control powers that allowed him to cause her father's headache?

Whatever the cause of the collapse, it put an end to most of the Mothman sightings. The resulting suffering of the area residents no longer allowed them time to entertain the unexplained.

There have been more sightings since then, but none to match the frequency of which the reportings came in that 13 month period between November 1966 and December 1967.

Most every question regarding the Mothman will, most likely, go forever unanswered. But what do we know about him from the available information....?

The Mothman is reported to :

Be approximately 7 feet tall
Have a wingspan over 10 feet wide
Have grey, scaley skin
Have large, red, glowing, and hypnotic eyes
Be able to take off straight up in flight
Travel up to 100 miles an hour
Like to mutilate or eat large dogs
Screech or squeal like a rodent or electric motor
Like to chase cars
Like to "nest" in remote, unpopulated areas
Cause radio and television interference
Be drawn to, and protective of, small children
Have some mind control powers
He may be a result of:
Chief Cornstalk's 200-year curse on the town of Point Pleasant
Chemical spills or experimentation by chemical companies or the military
An occult ritual that summoned him from the beyond
A mutant strain of the "sandhill crane"
What has happened to those who reported sighting the Mothman?
SOME GOT A DIVORCE OF MARRIAGE
MANY MOVED TO DISTANT STATES
SEVERAL SUFFERED NERVOUS BREAKDOWNS AND SOME WERE FORCED TO UNDERGO LONG HOSPITALIZATIONS
A FEW COMMITTED SUICIDE
MANY DIED WITHIN SIX MONTHS OF THE SIGHTINGS....ESPECIALLY ON THE SILVER BRIDGE
MRS. MARY HYRE DIED WITHIN THREE YEARS OF HER DREAM PREDICTING THE SILVER BRIDGE COLLAPSE
The Mothman is still being seen today by people who are too afraid to step forward. Scattered sightings are still reported, but most are held as private horrors

[WolfMoon]

I picked the bunyip!

Uhm, the thylacine was a real creature...also known as the tasmanian tiger.

[Laisrean]

I picked the bunyip!

Uhm, the thylacine was a real creature...also known as the tasmanian tiger.

Nessie was/is supposedly a real creature (a Plesiasaur), so was bigfoot which some consider to be either surviving neanderthals or surviving Gigantopithecus. So you see 'cryptids' are not necessarily species that have not yet been discovered, they can also be species that are known to have existed at one time but are now thought to be extinct yet may still exist. A good example is the Coelacanth which is a giant fish which was thought to have died out with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and was recently caught in fishing nets in the last century! So there may well be other creatures out there, maybe even dinosaurs which some believe Mokele Mbembe is.

[WolfMoon]

Nessie was/is supposedly a real creature (a Plesiasaur), so was bigfoot which some consider to be either surviving neanderthals or surviving Gigantopithecus. So you see 'cryptids' are not necessarily species that have not yet been discovered, they can also be species that are known to have existed at one time but are now thought to be extinct yet may still exist. A good example is the Coelacanth which is a giant fish which was thought to have died out with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and was recently caught in fishing nets in the last century! So there may well be other creatures out there, maybe even dinosaurs which some believe Mokele Mbembe is.

Okay, that makes sense then. :)

[davethevedek]

Bigfoot!

[misschief]

i chose other because..... i don't know which is my favorite. i would LOOOOOOVE to see any one of them in the flesh... and not be eaten. :)

[Iris]

I was always particularly interested in the legend of the Jersey Devil, because from the descriptions given by people who allegedly saw the creature, there's no way it could be any species that we know of. (That's not to say it couldn't be an undiscovered species of course...but the story still creeps me out!)

The stories of sea-dwelling monsters are pretty scary too. The sea is so vast, it's so easy to imagine horrid things hiding in the deeps...*shivers*

I know here in the UK, there are a lot of reported sightings of 'black' animals...the legend of Black Shuck oirginates from...um...Lancashire I think. Black shuck being a big black (allegedly supernatural) dog said to appear to, uh, lone travellers, I think the myth goes. Depending on who's telling the story, the dog is either a harbinger of doom or else a gentle spirit who will protect a lone traveller as long as they show respect to him.

[_Banbha_]

I choose Owlman because he just seemed like someone I'd like to meet. Turns out he lives in Cornwall and I'd love to go visit.Mawnan church is built in the middle of a prehistoric earthwork. They suggested that the church may be built on a ley line (a straight line that passes through and links several ancient sites), and speculated that the appearance of the Owlman may be a manifestation of earth energy in this place. However in a later book "Modern Mysteries of the World" 1989 they retracted this and stated that they believed that the sightings were probably of an escaped aviary bird rather than a paranormal phenomenon.

A more straightforward explanation may be that the Owlman sightings were of an escaped eagle owl (Bubo bubo), a species that can grow more than two feet long, with a wingspan of nearly six feet.

I just posted a thread in critter chat about giant escaped Eagle owls. 8O

edited to ad Owlman link:
http://www.cfz.org.uk/features/owlman.htm

[person of shadow]

I would have to say I like all of them, but I do have a fondness for mothman

[Sea-Witch]

Bigfoot.

[Phoenix Element]

I voted Mokele Mbembe!! I love dinosaurs and this guy stuck with me for some reason. I also like the Chupacabra. I remember exactly where I was and how I felt the first time the Chupacabra appeared on our tv news. I was very young, intrigued, and afraid to go out at night for a while :D

[Jolixte]

Mongolian Death Worm. O_O wth.

[Sea-Witch]

^^ Love that name! Beware the Death Worm ... mwhahahaha.

[Avalonia]

I'm interested in sea monsters in general, so I'd say Nessie. Because, you know, we still don't know what's in the deepest depths of the ocean.

However, a very close second would be the Jersey Devil. I remember watching a show about it about six or something years ago, and it's so very strange and intriguing.

[zede]

i voted for jersey devil because it is closest to me. i would have voted for mothman but he wasn't an option.

[Laisrean]

i voted for jersey devil because it is closest to me. i would have voted for mothman but he wasn't an option.

It is up there in the form of "Owlman". The creature in question more closely resembles an owl than a moth... in fact, it was originally called owlman until some reporter decided to call it mothman after a batman character...

You don't hear too much about this cryptid these days, which is a shame because he is quite cool... but unfortunately tragedy seems to follow in its wake, so maybe it is best it is not seen.

[smoodiver]

Got to be the Mongolian Death Worm, just to creepy choose any other. Now I don't know much about it, but it does sound snappy.

[Zibblsnrt]

(I suppose thread necromancy is appropriate for the paranormal forum. ;) )

I can only recognize about half the critters on that list. The Mongolian Death Worm is not one of them, but I was driven - nay, compelled - to vote for that one, because nothing with a name like that can't be awesome.

[CheshireEyes]

i'm from Jersey....three guesses on my fav...hehe.

And i've got a good story about that too, but.... "I'll never tell"....:hahugh:

[Lunacie]

Thread necromancy can be cool... I missed this thread the first time.

I don't recognize quite a few of the critters on the list either. I'd never even heard/read the term "Cryptids". But my ex swore he saw Big Foot a couple of different times.

The first time he was in high school, out with a group of other guys down along the river at the south end of town (Hutchinson Kansas). They saw some saplings that were snapped in half, kinda marking a path or something. They also saw some big footprints. Then they heard a noise like nothing they had ever heard before and took off running back to where they left their car.

The guy at the back of the group felt something whack him in the back, knocking him off his feet. My ex turned back to help him up and saw a large shape moving away. When they got home they saw a huge muddy handprint on the back of the shirt on the guy who got knocked down. At least twice as big as anyone in the group when they put their hands next to it to compare.

The last time my ex saw Big Foot was about 5 years later. He was working for a farm machinery manufacturer along the same river but a couple of miles upstream of the first sighting. He worked second shift so it was around midnight when he and a coworker were both out on fork lifts moving stuff from stacks in the lot into the plant, when they heard shouting coming from one the houses nearby.

They headed that way to see what was wrong and the headlights on their fork lifts picked out a very large shape running very fast long the river bank. The other guy peeled off and tried to chase the man-shaped figure but couldn't catch it even though a fork lift can go up to 30 mph. The police showed up soon after and warned them not to talk to anyone about what they had seen. Whatever or whoever it was had broken into the back door of a house and stolen a fresh baked pie that was cooling on the kitchen table.

[Sequoia]

Oh for the love of Pete. :lol:

Annnyyway... I voted "other". I'd like to see Dragons. I think they existed in one form or another, at one point or another, though I doubt sincerely that they do now.

But, y'know, a dinosaur-like creature sure seems to be very close to a dragon. There's no reason there couldn't have been a handful surviving into Early Man's time enough to generate the legends. At least, that's what the kid in me hopes. :hahugh:

[Laisrean]

Oh for the love of Pete. :lol:

Annnyyway... I voted "other". I'd like to see Dragons. I think they existed in one form or another, at one point or another, though I doubt sincerely that they do now.

But, y'know, a dinosaur-like creature sure seems to be very close to a dragon. There's no reason there couldn't have been a handful surviving into Early Man's time enough to generate the legends. At least, that's what the kid in me hopes. :hahugh:

Ancient Babylonians documented the existence of Dragons, and I think during Caesar's campaign in Gaul it was recorded their caravan was attacked by one...

Maybe it was just something the scribes made up to make the tale more interesting to citizens back in Rome, but it also could have been something. We're talking a few thousand years ago, and things were around back then that aren't around anymore. I doubt Dinosaurs lived into recorded history, but maybe the Romans and Babylonians and other cultures were witnessing a few of them weird giant mammals that lived until quite recently.

[Old Witch]

It says I've already voted in the poll but it's been so long I can't remember what I voted for...but "reptillian humanoid" has always been close to my Carolina heart. Gotta love Lizardman!
Old thread necromancy rocks!

[Valnorran]

Annnyyway... I voted "other". I'd like to see Dragons. I think they existed in one form or another, at one point or another, though I doubt sincerely that they do now.
Always loved dragons. I've always said if dragons never existed, they should have!
But, y'know, a dinosaur-like creature sure seems to be very close to a dragon. There's no reason there couldn't have been a handful surviving into Early Man's time enough to generate the legends. At least, that's what the kid in me hopes. :hahugh:
Another possibility is that ancient people stumbled across dinosaur skeletons and footprints and, having no knowledge of fossilization, assumed they were the remains of a creature recently dead. It's a pretty good explanation, even though I want dragons to be real.

In the deepest recesses of my soul, though, I can't help but hope that somehow, somewhere, there be dragons.

[TheWomanMonster]

Hurrah for thread necromancy! It liiives! :awilly:

I voted Ogopogo...
evil shaman turned into demonic lake monster, can't be beat.

Plus, he's local ;)

[Laisrean]

Another possibility is that ancient people stumbled across dinosaur skeletons and footprints and, having no knowledge of fossilization, assumed they were the remains of a creature recently dead. It's a pretty good explanation, even though I want dragons to be real.

Fossils probably form the basis for many myths and legends. Ancient Greeks may have came up with Cyclops from observing Mammoth skulls with their large nose cavity and assumed that was a single eye.

They perhaps also created the myth of Medusa from the fact the bones of some creatures had literally turned to stone.

In the deepest recesses of my soul, though, I can't help but hope that somehow, somewhere, there be dragons.

Somewhere in this universe such creatures probably exist. Either as flesh and blood animals, or as some supernatural beings. :)

[Moonlight's Daughter]

My theory is that these exist but in other planes and sometimes depending on the time of year or just your natural ability you step between worlds for a minute and are able to see them.

[VioletJadeWolf]

Chupacabras are pretty cool.

[HedwigHarfang]

Great poll!

I voted for Loch Ness monster, just because theres so many reportings and even photos, and i've always found it interesting to read about.
But i also think Mothman is extremley interesting, i'd like to learn more about the mothman.

Mothman is a rogue spirit of someone's cartoon character who has gone spare and roams about the time-space continuum frightening the hell out of people. Given that he looks more like a "super-owl" I suspect he is the product of some feverish imagination in recent years than an ancient deity.

Most of the others are possibly homesick spirits who passed over years ago or even millennia ago and never reincarnated; Nessie certainly is as she couldn't have existed so long without there having been a breeding colony and obvious evidence of her existence apart from a few sightings of her shadowy form in the depths of photographs. I have never been into wandering about looking for clues on the shores of Loch Ness, they would assume I'm up to something else BUT I know people who do investigate things like UFOs and so on once they switch on and find out what they really are.

[Laisrean]

Mothman is a rogue spirit of someone's cartoon character who has gone spare and roams about the time-space continuum frightening the hell out of people. Given that he looks more like a "super-owl" I suspect he is the product of some feverish imagination in recent years than an ancient deity.

Is that him in your avatar? :weirdsmil

[forestrangergrrl]

i chose 'other' since i find all of them fascinating. i've always been interested in cryptozoology and have often wondered what it would be like to study and try to prove/disprove the existance of cryptids and figure out what animals mythological creatures came from.

[Rosetta Morrigan]

Nessie has always fascinated me...I'd love to go to Scottland sometime to watch for her...

[SolitaryScholar]

My favorite has to be the Thylacine, because it's the only one that has a pretty legitimate chance of being found. We know that they existed in the past, and there's a chance that they exist to this day but are hard to find.

Even revered biologists and scientists have accepted the slim chance of there being a small group of them left in Tasmania. There are sightings all the time, of them.

I love tazzie tigers.