As we start winding up (or down) for the weekend, let’s take a moment to indulge in a little monkey business, just because it’s Thursday.

Let’s start with this bit from Dallas, TX where a contractor doing lot work for a Montessori school uncovered an out of place primate skull that bears a bit of a resemblance to the skull of a small baboon.

Out of place monkeys are nothing new to Texas. A troupe of Japanese macaques, brought to the state from around Kyoto to protect them from extermination by angry merchants fed up with their thieving, had some folks concerned about the potential for wild breeding populations establishing themselves in parts of south Texas after they began wandering outside the sanctuary they were relocated to in 1972.

But how this skull came to be buried in a north Dallas suburb remains a mystery.

We’ve also recently heard news about an orangutan (well known escape artists) short circuiting a security fence to escape an Australian zoo, as well as news of female gorillas using hand claps to gain the attention of offspring and mates and of apes using sticks to procure honey (part four in the TBRC’s Great Ape Behavioral Parallel series).

Speaking of the Great Ape Behavioral Parallel, my co-author of part three, and the author of part four that we reference above, Michael C. Mayes, has his own excellent cryptid related blog, Texas Cryptid Hunter, that is worth checking out. Recent articles include an examination of the gorilla clapping, as well as a wonderful vignette describing Teddy Roosevelt’s post-presidency experiences on the Amazonian tributary known as the River of Doubt.

Cryptomundo, or course, is still most folks “go to” source for breaking cryptid news (author included) but another cryptozoologically themed website that might be worth adding to your RSS feed is Cryptoworld. This UK based cryptid site features intriguing, regularly updated links, and is becoming a favorite “quick click” site for my lunch break web surfing.

So there you have it. A little down and dirty monkey business to jump start your weekend. Enjoy the links. Have fun. And try not to throw any feces at the scofftics.

While the word Bigfoot usually conjures images of the deep forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest, there is also a rich tradition of southern hominid sightings. Often known by various local names, the southern Bigfoot doesn’t get as much attention (or respect) as his northwestern cousins, but his impact on the local people and their lore has been just as profound. Southern Fried Bigfoot, premiering tonight on the Documentary Channel, takes a look at some of the more notable southern sighting reports, including the Fouke Monster of Fouke, Arkansas; Louisiana’s Honey Island Swamp Monster; the Lake Worth Monster of Lake Worth, Texas; and Florida’s Myakka Ape or Skunk Ape. Southern Fried Bigfoot also talks with the various authors and field researchers involved in the study of southern Bigfoot phenomenon about the historical record and continuing efforts to document the species.

The subtle emphasis throughout the film, intentional or accidental, seems to be the impact of these creatures on the local culture. Interview subjects, for instance, emphasize the legacy of local names and legends, many linking southern “wild man” stories to reports that pre-date the first use of the term “Bigfoot” by hundreds of years. Even the use of cheesy, Bigfoot themed clip art imagery and sports mascot logos throughout the documentary, while seeming amateur at first, helps emphasize the impact these stories have had on the human experience.

The documentary is a worthwhile watch for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject. While the documentary does not contain any major revelations or new info for the dedicated students of Bigfoot and cryptozoology, it is engaging and entertaining. What will probably be of most interest to those already familiar with the creatures profiled will be the ideas expressed by the various personalities involved in the search for Bigfoot in the south. DVD extras providing additional information related to various reports, info on hoaxes, the difference between reports in the North and the South, the sounds associated with Bigfoot reports, etc., will also appeal to those with a deeper interest in the history of reported sightings and the personalities involved in researching the creature.

The Monkeyhouse production, Southern Fried Bigfoot, premieres tonight at 9:00 PM EST/8:00 PM CST on the Documentary Channel (encore at Midnight EST, 11 CST).

Additional showtimes are scheduled for Saturday, April 18 (5 PM Eastern, 4 PM Central), Wednesday April 29 (8 and 11 PM Eastern, 7 and 10 PM Central), Wednesday, May 6 (5 PM Eeastern, 4 PM Central), and Saturday, May 16 (9 PM and Midnight Eastern, 8 and 11 PM Central).

The latest issue of the cryptozoologically themed Image Comics title Proof (issue # 18, on stands now) features a short interview with Sean Whitley, the writer/director of the forthcoming documentary Southern Fried Bigfoot, which discusses sightings of the Skunk Ape, Honey Island Swamp Monster, the Fouke Monster, and other southern hominids.

Keep your eyes peeled for an AnomalyMagazine.com review of Southern Fried Bigfoot as the premiere date approaches.

Proof # 18 is in stores now

Southern Fried Bigfoot premiers April 13, on The Documentary Channel

Bigfoot’s discovery is TBA

(For Parts 1 and 2 please visit the TBRC website at www.texasbigfoot.org)

by Michael C. Mayes and Jeremy D. Wells

A widely publicized study, authored by Mathias Osvath, a Ph.D. candidate at Lund University, seems to indicate some startling information about the intellectual capacities of the chimpanzee. In particular, Osvath studied the territorial displays of a captive chimpanzee named Santino. The observed behaviors of this particular chimpanzee seem to prove that apes are very much aware of the future and can plan ahead for it just as humans do.

According to a report on Osvath’s work in the journal Current Biology, Santino, a chimpanzee residing at Sweden’s Furuvik Zoo, collected a stash of rocks during periods of calm, stashed them away, and then hurled them at unsuspecting zoo visitors who gawked and laughed at his daily territorial displays. Because the enclosure is relatively rock free, and many of the stones Santino launched at visitors were covered in algae, it was inferred that he initially collected many of his stones from the waters of the moat surrounding his enclosure. However, in looking to supplement his arsenal, Santino went so far as to probe the artificial concrete “boulders” in his enclosure seeking weak spots. Once located, the chimp knocked off chunks of the material to add to his weapons cache. If the collected concrete was too large to easily toss, Santino worked at breaking it into more manageably sized pieces. Even more impressive is that Santino did all of his collecting in the morning hours before the zoo opened and waited until midday before raining down his collection upon zoo patrons.

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Next Thursday, February 12, marks the 200^th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. Few figures (if any) have had a greater impact on the course of scientific discourse and understanding, religious dialogue, and continuing public controversy.

This includes the controversy surrounding cryptids.

For some people, Darwinian theories are “proof” that certain cryptids are “impossible”. Ignoring (or misrepresenting) available evidence, they argue that certain animals simply can not exist because the design described by eye-witnesses doesn’t seem, in their mind, adapted to the environment where it was sighted. Ironically, some on the other end of the spectrum balk at the idea of cryptids because they are unwilling to confront their insecurities about where these creatures may have come from, or how they might have evolved to fill certain ecological niches.

It’s curious to me how people with conflicting ideas about a fundamental world-view can come to the exact same conclusion, from those different perspectives, based on nothing more than sheer stubborn insistence that their pre-conceived notions have explained everything there is to be explained.

It’s curious to the TBRC’s Alton Higgins too, who has given us permission to run his essay, “Bird Beaks, Bible Belt Biology, and Bigfoot” here at AnomalyMagazine.com.

I’m sure, were he still alive, Mr. Darwin would find it curious as well.

Bird Beaks, Bible Belt Biology, and Bigfoot

On February 12, 2009, the world observes the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. By any accounting, Darwin must be included with the most influential thinkers in the history of science. The young naturalist’s five-year voyage on HMS Beagle gave him an extraordinary opportunity to examine rich fossil beds and explore the diversity of life on many distant shores. Upon his return to England, Darwin spent the next forty-plus years contemplating his observations and writing books on a variety of subjects, including a four-volume set based on his eight-year study of the natural history and classification of barnacles, sessile marine crustaceans living in shallow water. In 1859 he published his landmark work, often abbreviated as “On the Origin of Species.” Contrary to popular opinion, the seminal premise presented in his book was not the concept or theory of evolution; the idea of descent with modification had been discussed for centuries. Darwin proposed a process, natural selection, by which populations might change. It continues to represent a central tenet of biology.

As almost any schoolchild can relate, variation in the beaks of Darwin’s finches, birds living on the Galápagos Islands, is one of the most prominently portrayed examples illustrating the influence of natural selection. Interestingly, at the time of his visit to the islands, Darwin was not overly concerned with the birds

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Loren Coleman posted an item over at Cryptomundo today about an art exhibit at St. Edward’s Universtity, here in Austin, TX.

Jeff Wilson’s Cryptozoology photo exhibit, running through November 5 at the St. Edward’s University Fine Arts Gallery (map), is described as photography that “subtly insinuate(s) the existence of the mythological, mysterious and unexplained in everyday life .”

While, as Loren notes, the description of cryptozoology used in the full text of the promo material is flawed, I’ll reserve my judgement until after I’ve had a chance to look at the exhibit. I was also intrigued by the fact that the next exhibit, opening after Cryptozoology, is the Alchemy. (Granted this is art from David Mack’s Marvel icons book Kabuki, and not related in any way to historical alchemists or alchemy, but the Fortean in me couldn’t help but leap a little at the juxtaposition of the shows and their titles. Plus its the juncture of high art and comics! What’s not to get excited about there?)

For more information about both shows, and other events, visit the St. Edward’s University: Art Program website here.

The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy has added archaeologist Kathy Moskowitz Strain to the list of speakers for their upcoming conference, October 18, in Jefferson Texas. Strain will be discussing her new book Giants, Cannibals & Monsters: Bigfoot in Native Culture.

We here at Anomaly have received a review copy of Giants, Cannibals & Monsters, and while we haven’t had the time to give it the proper, in-depth review it deserves, our initial impressions are positive. The book is gorgeously illustrated, and worth the price of purchase for the photographs alone. Nearly every page features amazing archival photography of the native peoples whose legends are discussed; including turn of the century candid shots of them going about their daily lives, participating in ceremonies and dances, and pausing to pose for gorgeous portraits.

The stories selected also seem to run the gamut, from clearly legendary tales with a tenuous connection to the subject of Bigfoot, to simple and straightforward accounts of hairy bipedal animals and their home ranges. Strain keeps the editorializing to a minimum, letting the stories stand on their own merits. While much has been made of the mythical aspects lent to hairy giants in some native tales, mainly by those attempting to discredit these stories as a legitimate source of pre-20th century bigfoot accounts, it’s worth remembering that coyote, spider, and raven all feature prominently in various Native stories, and all are also real creatures (as are the fox, tortoise, hare, and other creatures employed to great effect in the fables of Aesop and others).

Even if you do not believe in the physical reality of hairy bipeds roaming the forested hills and secreted valleys of the modern landscape, Strain’s book serves as a very nice catalogue of legends and I expect it to be invaluable to me in years to come as a reference for placing our modern bigfoot stories in a context of developing American mythos of the wild man legends and in comparing Native American stories to other wild man stories from around the globe.

Kathy Moskowitz Strain will be in Jefferson Texas the weekend of October 18 to discuss her work and book.

Those who follow such things are probably already aware that two Georgia based “Bigfoot Hunters” are claiming to have the body of one of the creatures in their possession. They have been building suspense via YouTube postings and their website, www.bigfoottracker.com, for the past couple of months, claiming that the big disclosure was right around the corner, as soon as a few legal issues were resolved. As this post is being written the duo, police officer Matthew Whitton and former corrections officer Rick Dyer, who bill themselves as the world’s greatest trackers, are in Palo Alto, California, with Tom Biscardi preparing for a press conference to disclose their discovery, and possibly DNA evidence, to the media.

While some are being cautiously optimistic, most Bigfoot researchers are remaining skeptical, for various reasons. For instance Craig Woolheater, of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, disclosed during a recent broadcast of the Squatchdetective internet radio program that the two principals attempted to become associated with his organization via a fictional third party, a “Dr. Paul Van Buren”, and claimed to be associated with the organization on their website when no such association existed. This has lead to some conjecture that the entire event is designed to poke fun of the Bigfoot community, a la the Penn and Teller hoax film. Dr. Jeff Meldrum has stated that their method of preserving the body, among other things, leads him to remain skeptical as well. A surgeon and a primate specialist who have examined the photos have told me that the supposed intestines lying on top of the “body” in the photo are too small to represent what they would expect to see even in the small intestines of a creature of this size. Others have noted the similarity of the creature’s face to a widely available Bigfoot costume. While the nares on the creature pictured are very similar to those seen in known primates, such as the gorilla, some eyewitnesses have stated that it does not resemble the creature they have seen. Finally there is the association with proven hoaxer Tom Biscardi, as well as inconsistencies in the story as presented via the Bigfoottracker.com website and YouTube videos and in the interview on the Squatchdetective program. For example, the duo have videos that show them involved in “Bigfoot research”, which led them to a hunter who shot this creature, but on the Squatchdetective program they claim to have not been involved in research prior to this discovery and to have stumbled across it while hiking. While they state on the program that the You Tube videos were intended to poke fun at Bigfoot researchers, they also say that the people featured in the videos are “real people” who contacted them via their tip-line. While this may simply be bad editing and/or lack of explanation on the part of the duo, it exemplifies their flippant treatment of the situation. They also claim that rigor mortis had set in when they found and transported the body out of the forest, however after about 72 hours rigor mortis releases, so the body should not have been rigid if the level of decomposition supposedly shown in the photos had time to occur. Their description of the creature as more human than ape-looking also contradicts the photo images, however they have insinuated in the Squatchdetective interview that the photo released may not be of the actual creature, reason for further skepticism from many.

While many in the Bigfoot community have taken an “I’m skeptical but I want them to prove me wrong” approach, hoping that will be enough to raise them above any fallout a hoax will have on the community, I will personally come out and say that I feel this is a hoax. There are too many elements that don’t fit, and the entire situation, from attempting to freeze the animal in a block of ice to the “sale of the body to an undisclosed millionaire” is way too reminiscent of the classic Minnesota Iceman situation.

But, I hope they prove me wrong.

CNN report on upcoming press conference

Language? Sentience?

What is it that makes us human? While we acknowledge that we are animals, vertebrates, mammals, what is it that separates us from the other animals? What sets us apart? Is it unique to us?

I don’t know the answers. And this video doesn’t answer them. But it raises those questions and so many more. The narrator is a little hokey, and I wish I’d been able to hear more from Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh, but it’s worth your time.

The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy (TBRC) has released a list of scheduled speakers for their upcoming 2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference in Jefferson, TX.

This list includes famed hunter and conservationist Peter Byrne, who participated in a number of Himalayan expeditions funded by Texas millionaire Tom Slick to locate the Yeti before developing an interest in the North American Sasquatch; retired zoologist Dr. W. Henner Fahrenbach, custodian of what is arguably the world’s largest collection of suspected Sasquatch hair; author and filmmaker Dana Holyfield, whose documentary film The Legend of the Honey Island Swamp Monster examines hairy biped reports from the swamps and bayous of Louisiana; co-founder of the North American Bigfoot Search (NABS) and author of The Hoopa Project, David Paulides; and TBRC stalwarts, wildlife biologist Professor Alton Higgins and former USAF airborne translator Daryl Colyer.

For more information about the conference and speakers, including admission costs and venue address, please visit the TBRC site by clicking here.