Kalanoro

by Cole Herrold

Our planet has countless areas that are covered in dense rainforests. These areas, aside from mountains and the ocean, are perhaps the last unexplored areas of the world. It is not surprising that then whenever people do enter these unchallenged areas that they encounter a menagerie of bizarre beasts from living dinosaurs in the congo to hairy ape-men in the Himalayas to sea serpents in the most remote sections of the ocean. Scientists have often closed their minds to the idea of such creatures, namely because of the reported animal's size, often following the logic and shadow of Cuvier's dictum. However, one would be hard-pressed to find a scientist who wouldn't claim there are countless species as yet undiscovered, just that they would be smaller in stature than most reported cryptozoological beasts. However, some of the most interesting and unique cryptids ever reported are of a smaller size and, in many ways, are more realistic in this skeptical scientific thinking; such creatures as the flashlight frog or the Mongolian death worm, for example, are very much plausible and of a smaller stature that would help in making them undiscovered.

When looking at smaller cryptids, one group that always to me personally that stood out were those of hominids. Cryptids like the Orang Pendek of Sumatra, for example, have had some of the most consistent and intriguing evidence ever recorded. Around the world, other diminutive humanoids have been reported, such as the Agogwe of East Africa, the Kakamora of the Solomon Islands, the Didi of South America, the Alux of Mexico, and if the reports are to be believed, the Elves of Iceland and Leprechauns of Ireland. While the latter creatures are often believed to be linked to fairy tales and folktales, there are some extremely interesting accounts that do seem to indicate the possibility of a biological species. Many of their behaviors, even in folklore, are universal when you look at other diminutive humanoids. The abduction of children, for example, is something that we see in Irish faerie stories as well as in tales of the Ebu Gogo, a small hominid from Flores. Similar tales are seen in Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina with El Pombero, who kidnaps sleeping children. These collective accounts from entirely different continents and islands seem to indicate a phenomenon more global than just geographical isolated folktales, as is often viewed when the discussion of such things is brought up.

Millville Insanity Bird

by Cole Herrold

During one of the most intense Fortean flaps in history, New Jersey and the nearby states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland were in a state of turmoil as a bizarre winged flying freak plagued the rooftops and woods of the states. This flap took place from January 16th- January 23^rd, with some sightings occurring into February of that same year and featured none other than that chimeral back woods beast, The Jersey Devil. This timespan known as "Phenomenon Week" or "The Jersey Devil's Finest Hour" was two weeks of absolute terror in which children were kept home from school, wives refused to leave home, and men would be more than hesitant to leave their homes at night. Many skeptical researchers have viewed this timespan of sightings as either a mass hoaxing or an example of mass hysteria, and while certainly some of the "track waves" of the creature might be just that, the sheer number of sightings of a mostly identical creature that were reported seem to indicate to some potential authenticity to these accounts. During the madness of the Jersey Devil, however, there were other bizarre beasts sighted, but only one would take the cake of absurdity and downright unrealness that it is perhaps even more interesting than the Jersey Devil.

It was on a warm Friday day in January 1909 when Dan Possack of Millville would have an experience that he would never forget. Dan was doing his outdoor chores on his property, certainly either smirking or fearing about the chance of encountering the bizarre monstrosity that had been making its rounds throughout the state. It was while out that he had begun to hear the heavy thumping of footsteps in the backyard. This would have been alarming enough, but all this would be exacerbated by the sound of someone calling his name. Dan proceeded to turn around, and it was in that moment he encountered "One of the strangest freaks of nature, or a monster straight from the bad place.". There standing before him, was a creature like a bird. It towered an enormous 18ft in height as it looked down at him. Dan froze as he stared up at the monstrosity in a scene that truly mimicked something from Jurassic Park when all of a sudden, the voice he heard earlier returned. The voice came from the hooked bright red beaked maw of the monstrous beast before him and from it uttered the words "Where's your garbage can?". Dan stared both confused and horrified by the request and proceeded to slowly back away from the bizarre bird. The bird watched as Dan slowly turned and began to sprint away. Dan thought he was in the clear until he felt a sharp vice-like grip around his body. He looked down, and there staring up at him was the bird's terrible eye. Its enormous beak wrapped around his torso, and he knew how a worm surely felt. In sheer panic, Dan reached towards his belt as he struggled to get to the axe, which he kept on him for chores. Feeling the smooth cold axe head, he quickly lifted it out of its holster and, flexing his fingers around the handle, proceeded to drop the heavy metal down on the anomalous avian. It was in that initial strike he noticed something bizarre that made the bird beast different from any game he had previously hunted. The wound he inflicted came out in a chunk like a sliver of wood. Realizing he could chop this strange creature up like firewood, he set to work continuously, hitting and removing chunks from the creature. The creature proceeded to unleash Dan from its maw and, slowly working its way up to his head, began to whisper something in his ear. What was whispered is not known. Yet it was enough to send Dan into a frenzy as he proceeded to drive the axe straight into the creature's face. The creature unleashed a scream of pain, and as Dan whittled the axe out of the creature's head out popped one of the creature's eyes. The creature backed away and seemed to have had enough of Dan and his axe, and as if this encounter couldn't get any stranger, the creature began to inhale deeply. It soon began to swell, and its body became rounder and balloon-like and soon began to float up above the ground and like some malevolent Mary Poppins proceeded to float higher and higher out and away until Dan could no longer see the freaky fiend. Dan stood in both fear and amazement at what he had just witnessed, not believing what had occurred. All his doubts, however, were ceased, and his fears reinvigorated when there on the ground he noticed something shiny glittering in the grass. He reached down and picked up the object, and there in his hand, he had the creature's eye. It was like an electric light bulb in appearance, and at night he noticed it gave off a bright, vigorous light that would change colors. Yet while he had a memento of his encounter with the bird beast, he never would see it again and nor anyone else.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from all of us here at the New World Explorers Society

Tick Canyon Giant Rabbit

by Cole Herrold

Rabbits are one of the most beloved pets that people get. While children year-round want an actual bunny for Easter as opposed to the nightmare that is the Easter Bunny for those not traumatically scarred by watching the not-so kid-friendly Watership Down, it can be a fun and loveable furry addition to the family. When people think of rabbits, they, outside that Lovecraftian Easter Bunny, tend to imagine tiny, sometimes overly fed, long-eared animals that have a hardcore urge to eat vegetables. In this way, we often feel that because we keep them as pets and for the avid outdoorsmen hunt them that there is nothing new regarding these animals, especially in the world of Cryptozoology. However, in California, there was a case of a rabbit whose proportions would have made it fit in with the other colossal kaiju creeps in the cult film Night of the Lepus.

It was in March of 1969 when Stephen P. Alpert, a geologist working towards his Ph.D., was out in the Northern part of L.A. County near Vasquez Rocks State Park is an area known as Tick Canyon. He was deployed to this particular area as part of a UCLA Geology project which focused on mapping the various rock kinds in the surrounding area. It was during this particular day, as he scanned the horizon mapping certain points down, that he noticed something bizarre on the landscape. A large dark form that seemed to almost blend in with the rocky terrain. He got closer and got to about 7ft from the figure when it raised up, and he could see that what he had been looking at was a kind of bizarre animal. The creature stood about five and a half feet tall, had large ears and a long face, and a dark brown body with muscular forepaws. He estimated that the bulky yet slender animal was about 150-175 lbs. Stephen stared at the anomalous animal as he stared back and thought, "that looks like a kangaroo! What is a kangaroo doing out here?". As he scanned the body, however, he noticed that the creature was missing something that seemed to indicate that what he was looking at was not a marsupial, and that was the lack of a pouch. He watched as the animal proceeded to turn and bound away. As the animal turned, he got his official confirmation that this was nothing of the classical marsupial variety, for instead of the classic long tail seen in kangaroos, wallaroos, and wallabies, this animal had in its place a white cotton ball tail as seen in rabbits and hares. He watched the creature until it finally managed to hop out of sight.