Seeking answers to big 'mystery ape' (CNN) -- From a remote region in the heart of Africa to a genetics lab at the Omaha Zoo, scientists are trying to find out if they have a new big ape on their hands. "It doesn't look much like a gorilla, it doesn't look like a chimpanzee," said primatologist Shelly Williams, who captured a bit of video of the female mystery ape with a baby. Pictures of the rare ape are scarce. Wildlife photographer Karl Amman, who was first to spot the mysterious mammals a few years ago, said the animal has feet that are about two inches bigger than the average gorilla and is more flat-faced than other apes. Its behavior also sets it apart from other apes, researchers say. The mystery ape often sleeps in big ground nests. Chimpanzees, for example, usually nest in trees to stay away from predators. And the mystery apes hoot when the moon rises and sets, something chimps don't do for fear of attracting lions and hyenas, Williams said. [Read more...]
I never said anything about government funding any of this "research". My point is that, IMHO, there are much better areas of discovery to put money into; areas that actually benefit mankind. Your right, it is every person's right to put money into whatever they want to (legal). That doesn't mean that it isn't stupid or a waste of money.
I was referring to when you said "I can think of a few areas of legit science that could use more funding (private or public)" , public being the operative word here. Who knows how it could benefit mankind? When the telephone was invented many people thought it was a waste and would never amount to anything more than an oddity. Things turned out differently. Maybe these creatures have an enzyme that cures cancer. I doubt it, but the only way to know is to look. On this we agree, but boy bands are stupid and a waste of money. It's annoying but I have no right to stop it. At least until I begin my term as emperor of the planet and can end all wastes of money and energy.
Tasmanian tigers 'run wild' in parks August 18, 2003 TASMANIAN tigers are running wild in parkland 25 km from Melbourne's CBD, according to at least 20 sightings reported to the Victorian Government. Freedom of Information requests revealed 63 possible sightings of Tasmanian tigers and big cats in Victoria, including a Parks Victoria report into multiple tiger sightings in the Warrandyte State Park, in Melbourne's northeast. Other repeat sightings of Tasmanian tigers, panthers and pumas since the early 1990s centred around Wilsons Promontory National Park in the southeast and the Grampians range, in the west. Melbourne researcher Michael Moss, who made the FoI requests to the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria, said the Government was ignoring strong anecdotal evidence the Tasmanian tiger was alive and breeding in Victoria. The last known Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, died in captivity in Hobart in 1936. It is believed to have been extinct on the Australian mainland for 2,000 years. But Mr Moss said several recent sightings were made by credible witnesses, who gave detailed descriptions of the striped marsupial. He said many more reported sightings were ignored by sceptical park rangers and never officially recorded. "If this was in Tasmania there would be the biggest hunt on ever, but because it was in Victoria no one takes it seriously," he said. "I think every bushwalker down on the promontory and in the Grampians has a right to know these animals might be there." Parks Victoria officer Glen Jameson, who compiled reports of thylacine sightings in the Warrandyte area between 1991 and 1999, said they could be an example of "mass sociogenic illness". (I'm sure this park ranger is qualified to make this assumption) KC But he believed they were noteworthy because the people spoke with conviction, sincerity and did not come forward "in an atmosphere of media hype regarding Tasmanian tiger fever". In 1996, Victorian National Party environment spokesman Peter Hall asked then state conservation minister Marie Tehan to investigate a reported thylacine sighting at Wilsons Promontory in 1993. "I have no reason to doubt (this) account of the sighting as I believe (the person making the report) to be a very rational and responsible member of society," he wrote. http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6989698^13762,00.html
Another weird ape story i've seen pictures of this thing and it is very disturbing... IS OLIVER A "HUMANZEE"? Oliver: male, 30ish, very hairy, height 1.2 meters, weight 50 kilos, erect posture, unusual ears, offensive odor. Oscar always walks on two feet, uses a human toilet (which he flushes), can mix drinks, and enjoys a cup of coffee and a nightcap. Chimps ignore him; humans wonder what he is. Superficially, Oscar is definitely chimp-like; but shave his head and he becomes eerily human. Although Oscar was widely exhibited in the 1970s, his fame diminished in the 1980s. But now, scientists want to count his chromosomes and find out what he really is. One suggestion is a cross between a chimpanzee and a bonobo (a "pygmy chimpanzee"). Or how about a chimp-human hybrid? There have been dark rumors of hushhush experiments in China, Italy, and the U.S. While i'm at it... hardly a monster, but I wouldn't want to tangle with a hundred pound cat. In 1926, reports that a cheetah with black stripes down it's back, and splotches instead of spots, had been seen in Zimbabwe began speculation that a new, rare breed of cheetah, the "King Cheetah", was stalking the plains of southern Africa. Reginald Innes Pocock, was convinced that it was a new species and in 1927 named it Acinonyx rex...but the animal was only to be sighted five more times between then and 1974 when one was finally photographed in South Africa's Kruger National Park. The first time I ever saw anything about the animal was on a rerun of "Arthur C.Clarke's Mysterious World", where they showed some blurry film footage of one walking through the grass. "The Mysterious World" initially aired in the seventies, and judging by the quality of the picture, I assume that the footage I saw was some of the first ever taken of the animal. Debate then ensued about whether the King Cheetah was a separate species, subspecies, or color phase. It was even suggested that they were leopard-cheetah hybrids when some analysts noticed that the cuticular scale pattern from a king cheetah's hair more closely resembled that of a leopard than that of a normal cheetah. The question was answered in the early 1980's when King Cheetahs were born as a result of a pairing of normal cheetahs at the De Wildt Cheetah Center in South Africa. Since then two additional kings have been wild-caught, but the majority of the world population of King Cheetahs (est. <50) are descendants of the De Wildt cats. There are probably less than ten free-living Kings. The unique coat pattern is now known to be the result of a mutation inherited as a single autosomal recessive allele. The point of all this? There are still many large unidentified animals roaming the Earth.
Yetti is real and alive on this very board. All the other creatures, I don't really know. My attitude toward these things is skeptical yet open. The only monsters I'm pretty sure of their non-existence are those in Monsters Inc. . . . or am I really that sure? Hmm.
Great thread here, JAG! I remember when I was in junior high school as well as high school being interested in all kinds of things like Bigfoot/Yetti, Loch Ness Monster and other sea monsters, UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, etc. I do feel that there is a possibility that some of these things exist; however, part of that is due to the fact that I don't feel comfortable feeling that we already know everything that exists on this planet. 70% of the earth (I think it is 70) is covered by water. It makes sense to me that there *could* be several unknown creatures out there living in oceans, lakes, and other big bodies of water. Yet, you always get the "sensationalists" who will stop at nothing to make a mockery out of these "myths" such as the guy who dressed up in a Bigfoot costume (Roger Patterson) and had himself photographed to prove that Bigfoot does exist or the numerous people who have doctored photographs of the Loch Ness Monster. As for UFOs, there are far too many examples of people coming up with hoaxes. All this has caused great skepticism and make many people feel that there is no chance that stuff like this could be out there. And I think that is a shame. If we know all the answers, how will we ever learn anything?
Follow up questions....of all the famous 'monsters' of our age, which do you believe the most likely? Someone already said Yetti due to the remote and unexplored nature of his allaeged environs, what do all of you think? Where would you lay your monster money? And do you think that 'dragons', a creature mentioned in many seperate mythologies all over the planet, really ever existed?
Nessie our inability to study the depth with the same degree of accuracy we study things on land is the reason it's something, we just don't know what with yeti you have oxygen deprivation, drinking, and imagination to help
Most of this old thread was about conspiracies and such, but there were some interesting posts on bizarre creatures I believe... http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58981
this fascinates me because they're so stinking similar though from very different cultures' folklore. dinosaur remnants, maybe?? as i understand it, some of the accounts aren't told as myth, correct...they're told as if this actually happened. as if there were actual events where people encountered these giant lizards.
Quite right. I suppose the word 'myth' was somewhat dismissive. Yeah, the accounts in many places are mentioned as if they were factual. The similarities across the planet are also pretty hard to explain. The extrapolation from dinosaur bones, if that's what you meant, is possible; people see the bones, and reconstruct a telescopic version of pre-history. But how did they even know they were lizards from the bones? If what you meant was living leftovers from dinosaurs, again possible, but man would that have taken some doing. I am not offering an alternative explanation, so can't really poke holes, but wow, we're talking about them having to have hung on in minor numbers for an incredible amount of time.
I've always assumed that the Dragon legends came somehow from people finding fossils of bones, teeth, skulls, etc from dinosaurs over time. It is a fairly big leap to go from giant bones to giant lizards, but they did have crocadiles and other large lizards to develop a theory of what the fossils may have looked like while the creature was alive. They also had sharks and other large sea creatures to make some sort of hypothesis about fossils.
To all my fellow mexicanos...I remember when i was young and hearing the stories of "El Cucuy"... Scared the living sh%t out of me and all of my cousins...
