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Bulgaria’s Rabisha Lake

The world famous monster Nessie from the Loch Ness in Scotland is about to get a rather tough competitor – the Water Bull from the Rabisha Lake in Northwestern Bulgaria.

Even though the Water Bull and Nessie seem to be of very different species, the Water Bull of the Rabisha Lake is set to conquer the world going in the footsteps of the Loch Ness Monster, Emil Tsankov, Mayor of the town of Belogradchik has told Novinite.

Belogradchik is a small, though, rather famous and picturesque town in the Bulgarian Northwest. First and foremost, it is known for the Belogradchik Rocks – absolutely miraculous rock formations stretching for some 30 km in the western part of the Balkan Moutain (Stara Planina).

Over the past year, the Belogradchik Rocks did pretty well in the competition for the New Seven Wonders of the World, and even though they failed to make it to the finalists, they have found a spot on the prestigious reserve list. The other amazing thing near Belogradchik is the Magurata Cave with its enchanting paintings by prehistoric people.

And the third world-class tourist attraction the Belogradchik Municipality wants to add to its portfolio has to do with the Monster of the Rabisha Lake.

Mayor Emil Tsankov has submitted an application to the EDEN (European Destinations of Excellence) contest, a EU-wide project focusing on sustainable development. The topic of the 2010 edition of the contest is “Water as a Force of Life and Prosperity” which made the Rabisha Water Bull a rather logical participant.

With the funding that the Belogradchik Municipality hopes to get, it plans to promote the legend about the Rabisha Lake Monster and to resurrect the local traditions related to the mysterious creature.

The Rabisha Lake – Bulgaria’s Loch Ness

The Rabisha Lake (“Rabishkoto Ezero” in Bulgarian) is located between the villages of Tolovitsa and Rabisha, in the Belogradchik Municipality, to the northwest of Sofia.

It is the largest lake in Bulgaria’s interior even though with its area of about 1 square km it is much more modest in size than the Loch Ness.

The Rabisha Lake has a tectonic origin. It was formed in the Quaternary Period, some 2,5-3 million years ago, and its depth reaches 30-40 meters.

“The lake has never been explored in detail so it is not unknown exactly what sorts of species from previous periods it is the home of,” Mayor Tsankov told Novinite.com.

One thing that stands out about the Rabisha Lake is the fact that it is an endorheic lake – no rivers flow out of it. This has turned it into the object of many folk tales and legends of medieval Bulgarians who believed that water had to be in circulation all the time.

Thus, the people in the region thought the lake was bottomless, and was therefore the home of many scary creatures common to the Slavic mythology.

The Legend about the Water Bull, the Rabisha Lake Monster

There are various legends about the Rabiska Lake Monster but Mayor Tsankov has picked the most “credible” one – which dates back to the 18th century – in order to focus their project on it.

The legend has it that a fearful monster inhabits the lake. Unlike Nessie and many other lake monsters, however, this one is no dinosaur; it is a lot more human-like, and is actually more like a minotaur.

The Rabisha Lake Monster, the so called Water Bull, has the head of a bull, the body of giant, strong man, and the tale of fish.

In order to keep this terrifying beast at ease, the local people would offer as a sacrifice to it the most beautiful young girl in the entire region in order to buy their safety. They would hold a procession taking the girl to the Rabisha Lake where it would get on a boat together with many wonderful gifts, and would fall pray to the monster.

It is exactly this procession with a gorgeous young girl, lavish gifts, and songs and dances that a major focus of the project to revive the Rabisha Lake legend, together with some other traditional folklore customs of the region. These customs and ceremonies will be shown to tourists and guests, and they will actually be invited to participate in them.

“The terrible story of the annual sacrifices to the Water Bull actually has a happy ending,” Tsankov explains with a smile. “The most gorgeous girl in the world was born one day in the village of Rabisha. When she grew up and the time came to offer her as sacrifice, she was placed in a boat and taken to the middle of the lake.

“However, when the Water Bull saw her, he was so enchanted by her that instead of killing her, he fell in love. He asked his sister, who was a sorceress, for help, and with her powers she made the beautiful girl immortal. The Water Bull took his young wife to the bottom of the Lake, and never came back for more prey. The two of them are still believed to live happily down there.”

Water Bull or Wels Catfish?

What might have given rise to such a legend (there are actually a number of local legends about the Water Bull Monster in the Rabisha Lake which have slight variations)? Assuming of course the actual Bull doesn’t hang around down there.

The Rabisha Lake is actually proven to be the home of real water monsters – gigantic wels catfish have been caught there. The largest ones reach 5 meters in length, and a weight of 350 kg!

The Belogradchik Mayor says there are also various reports of spotting these fish monsters near the surface of the Rabisha Lake – mostly in the months of April and May – even though the wels catfish usually spend most of their time on the bottom of the lake.

“This huge fish – a real monster – might have been the cause of the Water Bull legend in the first place,” Tsankov thinks.

Legend or no legend, the development of a brand new tourist product has been initiated, and the 24 Chasa Daily and the Belogradchik Municipality have already announced a competition for taking a photo of the Rabisha Lake Monster, and everyone is welcome to participate.

Hopefully, the photos of the enthusiasts rushing there will not capture any dinosaur, Nessie-like monster in the lake as this is going to throw into disarray the tidy plans of the municipality about its Water Bull.

Of course, Mayor Tsankov actually is much in favor of advertising the Water Bull as “the Bulgarian Nessie” in order to benefit from the world renown of the Loch Ness Monster.

Source: novinite.com

We have all heard about the mysterious Texas sightings of an unusual creature, often called a chupacabra.  Now, it’s has been found roaming the countryside in Oklahoma.

This time the creature was caught alive.

The  hairless, scared looking critter was captured on a Oklahoma man’s back porch.

The wrinkly, bald creature was spotted by several people wandering around the countryside before being caught . It is now nicknamed the “Dry Gulch Chupacabra” or even “Kojak”.

There have been similar findings in recent years in Texas. Each time many have believed them to be one of those legendary blood sucking chupacabras.

But experts have been quick to disagree, as KENS 5 reporters have documented in the past.

The Dry Gulch Chupacabra, or Kojak , was taken to a wildlife animal rescue center where animal caretakers had to take a much closer look to figure out what she really is.

At first someone thought she was a baby wallaby, but upon closer inspection they determined the animal was actually a raccoon.

Animal caretakers say the raccoon has an advanced case of mange, but will eventually grow its hair back and look like a normal raccoon.

And so, the mystery is solved…this time!

Source: kens5.com

Here is a video on the legend of Bownessie a lake creature much like the Loch Ness Monster. Many people have reported seeing Bownessie and this video will cover some of those sightings and reports. Bownessie is said to reside in the depths of Lake Windermere.

In the woods of Salt Fork State Park, sightings of a bipedal creature with long flowing hair have been reported more than once.

In fact, believers of Bigfoot said that is where the creature dwells.

“For a number of years there’s been reports of Bigfoot or a big hairy creature type of thing,” said Hal Harper, a manager at the park in Guernsey County.

Even the History Channel has spotlighted the park by calling it “a place where eyewitnesses have long told stories of a creature that evokes the fear of a boogeyman.”

The bipedal creature is also known as the Ohio Grassman and alleged sightings date back decades.

Today, so-called “Footers” post their own videos to YouTube and other places online.

Even Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb from NBC’s Today Show went “footing” in the park in search of a Sasquatch or two.

Of the 23,000 acres in the park, most people said they’ve spotted the creature near the Orange Loop and the White Loop.

The last alleged Bigfoot sighting happened on a trail just over a hill about five years ago. A couple said they were having a picnic with their dog when Bigfoot showed up.

Harper said, “It followed them. It didn’t attack. It just kept the same distance and finally they got too nervous and bolted for the car.”

Park officials said they have never found any real physical evidence of the creature, but the speculation has put the park in the national spotlight. In addition, the talk has helped tourism since people want to try to see the creature for themselves.

Source: wtov9

sea creature carcass

Neither local residents Warrick Lovell, Rich Park, Basil Park, or anyone else it seems, knows what the big creature found dead on a beach here this week might be.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Corner Brook intends to check out the Lower Cove site today hoping to find some answers for the question of many curious onlookers who went there to see for themselves what Lovell found during a Wednesday afternoon walk on the beach.

“It would be nice to see if anyone knows what it is,” says Lovell. “First I thought it was a seal washed up (on the high tide earlier in the day), but when I went down to check on my boat that evening, I walked over to see and then I knew it wasn’t a seal.

“But, I don’t know what it is.”

Of unknown origin and species, so far, the odd-looking seaside carcass sits high and dry on the low tide, its approximately 15-foot length includes a pointed, 10-foot tail twisted in the sand, conjuring up Loch Ness monsters for some.

The animal, bearing a single flipper-like appendage on its right side, appears to have been decapitated and shows other signs of damage.

“I didn’t know what to think of it,” says Rich Park, also among the first to see it close up.

The long tapered tail on the squared torso of the carcass caused him to initially think the large hunk of flesh might be a tentacle off a giant squid Park said, but on closer inspection it became clearer what the protrusion was not that. It got hair on it in spots. I couldn’t (determine) what it was.”

“I’ve lived here all my life and never seen anything like it,” says Basil Park, who went Thursday went to take a look with friends and brothers Gilbert and Ernie Park, and neither one of them could say they knew what it was.

“There’s fishermen around here who fished all their lives and they couldn’t tell you.”

John Lubar with DFO says the Corner Brook office receives a number of calls from residents around the region each year reporting seals in brooks or to have rotting carcasses of whales or other dead things removed from a shoreline, but claims reports of unknown creatures from the deeps washing up are rare.

Common knowledge of the McIvers find spread by word of mouth over the past few days and at least one visitor to the site photographed the carcass and has posted it on Facebook.

DFO expects to have personnel in McIvers to do an inspection of Lower Cove by noon today.

Source: thewesternstar

He stands 9 feet tall with stringy brown fur all over his body and glowing red eyes, and if he truly does exist, he probably lives in a forest near you.

The ape-like beast known as Sasquatch is mere legend to skeptics, but to members of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, he is a legitimate scientific conundrum. The group regularly scours areas in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and other wooded parts of the state in search of “squatches” — that’s right — plural Sasquatch.

Based on sightings reported by BFRO’s Web site, Washington state is effectively Bigfoot central, more specifically the densely covered Cascade foothills of Southwest Washington. The group believes Sasquatches live in complex communities with advanced social norms and complex forms of communication, including their own language.

“These people who live here, if you could get them to talk to you, they would tell you, ‘We hear them all the time,’” said Scott Taylor, a particularly active member of BFRO who led a group of eight people on a research trip near Mount Rainier National Park last Saturday. “We try to come out to places like this to meet the witnesses and sit and talk and let them get it off their chest, because many of them have been bottling it up for years.”

The group’s claim to fame is the “Skookum Cast,” a body impression of an ape-like figure found in the Skookum Meadow, in the southern portion of the Gifford Pinchot. It was unveiled in 2000 and studied by the late Washington State University anthropologist Grover Krantz, who dedicated much of his career to studying Bigfoot, along with the Kennewick Man — skeletal remains of a prehistoric man found on the Columbia River in 1996.

Taylor, a retired U.S. Marine and engineer by trade who lives in Spanaway, said Lewis County is one of his most common areas of investigation, and he experienced one of his five Sasquatch sightings while deer hunting south of Mossyrock in December. He said his attention peaked when he heard the characteristic Sasquatch “scream.”

“It’s high-pitched like a chimp, but with much more timbre, like a growl. You experience a primal sense of fear,” Taylor said. “I scanned the slope and saw a creature on all fours dart from one tree to another. And that’s common when they come into contact with people. They’ll get low to avoid being seen.”

Tyler Bounds, a Stanwood man also on the expedition, said he has spent time on old logging roads outside Morton, where he saw trees jammed into the ground with root structures facing upward. He said he heard a strange growl on the excursion.

“It sounded like a monster,” he said.

But in the world of Bigfoot, the believers are clearly outnumbered. A total lack of bones, plus purposeful attempts at Sasquatch hoaxing serve only to bolster the case for skeptics.

“It serves them no purpose to be seen by us. How often do we find bones of bears or cougars? They quickly decay,” Taylor said. “And it’s pretty easy to tell what’s real and what is a hoax.”

Another member of the expedition Saturday says he has never seen a Sasquatch. He said he’s a federally funded anthropologist, but declined to give his name.

“Once you start looking into the evidence and reading books and all .. the idea that it’s all hoaxing and misidentification, I don’t know, is it a collective hallucination?” he said. “It seems more reasonable to start looking at the idea that these things really exist.”

Bigfoot Hoaxer Ray Wallace Has Roots in Toledo

Perhaps the most famous Bigfoot hoaxer of all time hailed from Toledo.

Ray Wallace, apparently with the help of a Toledo friend, Rant Mullins, wanted to play a trick on Northern California miners in the 1950s when he was on a road-building project. Wallace made a wooden cast from an outline of a friend’s foot expanded by three times and left impressions in the ground near logging sites.

According to interviews with Wallace’s family, the hoax began as a way to deter people from vandalizing the sites but later developed into a lifelong hobby. The fake tracks helped coin the term “Bigfoot” in a headline of the Humboldt Times in Eureka, Calif.

Wallace died in 2002, but is survived by family still in the area. Bigfoot believers generally don’t buy the Wallace hoax because its announcement came after his death when family members found the foot pressings after sorting through his old junk. The Bigfoot faithful also take particular umbrage with what they say are fabricated quotes in a 2002 article by the New York Times calling Wallace’s passing “the death of Bigfoot.”

“He used to mess with us kids. Then he made those tracks at a camp down there in California — ‘course they got up the next morning real excited,” said Dale Wallace, Ray’s 76-year-old nephew who lives in Toledo. “Yep, he was a real character.”

The following are Bigfoot-related news snippets from The Chronicle’s archives:

April 12, 1982 — A retired Toledo logger said he helped create the legends of a Bigfoot creature around Mount St. Helens. Rant Mullens, 86, said he and his uncle were returning from a fishing trip in 1924 and decided to throw a scare into some miners in the area. They rolled rocks over the edge and hightailed away. Later the three miners from Kelso reported seeing huge, hairy, apelike creatures that hurled boulders down upon their cabin. The miners said they fought off the creatures with rifle fire.

Mullens said he built on the legend four years later, when he whittled giant feet out of green alder wood and a friend stomped around the banks of the Muddy River, leaving tracks for berry pickers to notice.

“I tell you, people will believe just about anything,” the solitary, retired logger said from his home in Toledo.

April 19, 1982 — H. Woodman, Napavine, wrote a letter to the editor saying he saw a Bigfoot creature in 1953.

“Going home one evening on the Rutledge Road in the Littlerock area, I drove around a corner and saw a single animal — I thought it was a bear standing on its hind legs in the road. It was taller than a 6-foot man and was brown in color. It ran across the road, leaped a split rail fence and was gone in four or five seconds.

“Sometime later, I read some literature and remembered this sighting. The animal had hind legs that were of human proportions. A bear’s hind legs are short compared to its body. When it ran away at great speed it did not run on four legs but ran erect as a man would. A bear would run on all fours… I know what I saw and the only proof I need is to remember that it was erect when it ran away.”

Feb. 10, 1997 — Ruth Steele, 73, was convinced that a Bigfoot creature was roaming the hills near her home in Dryad.

“No question about it, I seen it … I’m not hallucinating — I’ve got a good mind.”

She believed she had seen either a Sasquatch or some kind of alien three times in six months. She didn’t carry a camera with her those times, but she had begun to. All the sightings took place near rural Doty and Dryad on the semiforested River Road.

The 7-foot-something tall humanoid was covered with gray, white and sometimes black fur, she said. The animal’s face appeared pink skinned. The furry creature walked upright and wore no clothing. In the most recent sighting, in January, the creature heard her car, turned and looked directly at her. Its eyes shone red.

“It shocked the devil out of me when I seen it,” Steele said. “I thought what in God’s name is that? … He wasn’t no human. He’s never nothing I’d seen in the woods.”

During a recent sighting her daughter, Debra Steele, 41, also saw the creature. “It looked me right in the face — it scared the pants right off of me,” the younger Steele said.

Aug. 5, 2001 —  The public had its first chance to see the Skookum Cast, a plaster casting of what might be Bigfoot. Wildlife biologist Dr. LeRoy Fish, Oregon, said the heel had what appeared to be a callus.

The 3½ by 5 foot chunk of plaster held the reverse imprint of what Fish and Kevin Lindley of Mossyrock said was an unknown primate.

The impression had been discovered in Skookum Meadow in Skamania County in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, between Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams.

Bigfoot skeptics say Wallace could have been behind famous tracks found at the Ape Cave near Mount St. Helens.

Reported Bigfoot Sightings in Lewis County

1967

Winlock — “The Brinson Monster” — Startled by a tall standing beast, high school kids who were out for a night of beer drinking at their regular spot return with a rifle and attempt to kill Bigfoot.

1969

White Pass — A Washington State University student sees a roadside Sasquatch who was startled by his headlights and then stepped over the guardrail on U.S. Highway 12.

1980

Packwood — Man reports a large scream from an animal running across the back side of the High Valley Country Club.

1990

Morton — Two men cutting cedar shake blocks near a creek hear a peculiar scream on an old logging road.

1994

Mineral — Two friends see a “dirty white” Sasquatch picking branches from a crab apple tree near a farm.

1996

Morton — Two people spot a Sasquatch bathing in a pond and periodically slapping the water with huge hands.

1998

Randle — Two hunters hear unusual “whoop howl” in stand of old growth forest.

2000

Morton — Mother and daughter see “large animal with long reddish brown hair” cross the road.

Morton — Woman stops her vehicle to look at what she thinks is a bear in a roadside ditch, but when it stood up, she thought it was a gorilla. She said the Sasquatch appeared to be injured and bleeding and had a “sad look” as it crossed the road in front of her car.

2001

White Pass — Family traveling from Tacoma report a Sasquatch standing in the road.

2002

Mossyrock — Riffe Lake fisherman and his son see a Sasquatch walking in a clear-cut forest near the shore.

Randle — A man and his wife are awakened by a loud scream similar to a peacock, but louder and with more timbre. The man went outside and mimicked the call and was answered six times.

Packwood — Elk hunter is spooked to find giant footprints in snow.

2003

Morton — Night watchmen for a logging company hear a strange short scream with a deep tone and two days later describe a figure “like Andre the Giant stepping over a rope.”

2004

Doty — A dozen teenagers camping at Rainbow Falls State Park hear a strange scream after putting out their camp fire.

Mossyrock — A wife and her husband hear two strange screams while out elk hunting and camping near a clear-cut forest.

2005

Salkum — A man driving down a dead-end country road sees a nondescript “gray patch” get up and move two steps into the woods.

2006

Doty — A man hunting in a wooded area comes into direct contact with a Sasquatch, which screamed at him and then “said something” he couldn’t understand.

2007

Winlock — A man lets his dogs run in his back yard when he hears a strange scream come from Olequa Creek.

2009

Salkum — Three men sitting in a drift boat on the south side of the Cowlitz River hear a sound like a “chimp screaming” from dense brush directly across the river. They said the sound carried on wailing for a minute or more.

Source: bfro.net

Chronline.com

It is for those who claim they have seen the elusive ape-like creature roaming the woods and swamps of Florida including Polk County’s Green Swamp. Sightings of the animal have been reported around the world but rare, with quality photographs and videos even rarer.

Bigfoot and Sasquatch are names familiar to North Americans who have aggressively pursued evidence of the animal’s actual existence. As of this date only occasional sightings have been reported within any given year with no physical evidence ever found, other than hair samples whose DNA does not match that of any known animal.

Some speculate the creature is an offspring of a prehistoric monster ape that towered as tall as 15 feet and weighed 800 pounds, thought to be extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago.

A popular TV program, “Monster Quest,” which sponsors numerous expeditions to confirm reports of rare or unknown wild beasts, reptiles and giant birds, has drawn more light on the subject and predictably, claimed sightings have increased exponentially. The expeditions to confirm the beast’s existence have traveled worldwide and covered most continents.

The name Bigfoot has been associated with the ape-like creature in North America; Sasquatch for the same creature but referring to the Indian name that is centuries old. The Abominable Snowman or Yeti originated from footprint sightings in the Himalayan Mountains and has spread to most countries.

Many of the Bigfoot observations, particularly those observed in Florida’s swamp areas, including Polk County’s Green Swamp, have been reported to have a very pungent and musty rotten egg smell, resulting in the moniker “Skunk Ape.” The sightings report the creature’s hair or fur varies between black, brown or reddish – the latter similar to an Orangutan’s.

Fresh and distinctive footprints, measuring up to 15-inches, have been observed and numerous plaster cast impressions successfully recovered. At several locations where footprints of the ape-man have been seen, samples of hair also have been recovered and failed to match that of any indigenous animal, with the exception of a small percentage that turned out to be bear-related.

One is led to believe that with as many people reporting what they saw as real and described as a giant upright ape, seven to 10 feet tall and weighing up to 500 pounds or more, have, for the most part, passed polygraph testing. Observations have come from a variety of credible sources including naturalists, forest rangers, surveyors, loggers and members of professional expeditions.

All sightings reveal the creature to be bipedal, or walking and running upright on two feet.

The creature has been observed as capable of superhuman feats such as jumping over obstacles as high as five feet or clearing streams 12 feet wide with ease; feats highly unlikely for a human being to accomplish while wearing a heavy monkey suit.

Skeptics speculate the creature is a manifestation of those with a vivid imagination or simply a man dressed in a clever gorilla suit and imitating a Sasquatch. The height of the observed creatures and the size of the footprint and weight required to create a deep imprint as those observed would make it almost impossible to replicate in the remote woods by a human being.

The observed physical abilities of the creature far exceed anything humanly possible, especially in hot and humid Florida, wearing a suit of thick hair and running 100 yards or more in 90 degree weather.

Only verifiable physical evidence will erase the doubt the vast majority of people have as to the validity of Bigfoot, especially as reported in Polk County’s Green Swamp.

Fortunately, no one as of this date has shot and killed a Sasquatch to prove they exist. It would be an unforgivable act if someone did.

Source: lakewalesnews

Some say it resembles a prowling hyena, others a ferocious wolf.

While there are those who have seen the mysterious creature menacing Buckshaw Village and describe it as a terrifying cross between a wild boar and some kind of big cat.

Whatever it is, it has been blamed for mauling several deer to death, and one resident’s Alsatian dogs were left quivering with fear after a particularly close encounter.

Now one intrepid villager has taken a photograph of what locals have dubbed the Buckshaw Beast, sparking a feverish online debate about what exactly it might be.

Residents of the ‘village’ – actually a modern estate on the edge of Leyland, Lancashire – have been reporting sightings of the shaggy, hulking creature for months.

The initial consensus was that it is a wild boar forced out of the countryside by the cold weather as it strives to find food, but experts have said one would be unlikely to kill deer.

Resident Tony Kenvig caught sight of the beast as it rifled through his bins late one night, and described it as resembling a dark-coloured hyena.

‘All the rubbish was strewn over my garden,’ he wrote in an online forum.

‘This happened on a few occasions, and one night I heard snuffles and looked out of my window and saw some kind of hyena standing rigid on its back legs.’

Another, calling himself Shelley Levene, also disturbed it late one night.

‘I’ve seen it too,’ he wrote. ‘It’s not a dog. I have two Alsatians, both ex-police dogs. I saw it going through my bins.

‘I couldn’t understand why they weren’t barking, so I went down to investigate and they were shaking and cowering in their kennel.

‘Just the scent of this thing must have been enough to spook them.’

He warned fellow villagers to be on their guard.

‘I no longer walk the streets of Buckshaw alone at night anymore and would advise all other residents to start to be vigilant.

‘This beast in dangerous.’

If it is a wild boar, it would not be the first driven into built-up areas by the recent big freeze – last week the Daily Mail told how two had been spotted rooting through rubbish bins in the similarly-named Buckshaft in the Forest of Dean.

But another concerned local resident, John Russell, managed to photograph the beast using his camera phone, and he is convinced it is some kind of carnivore, blaming it for the deaths of three deer savaged on nearby parkland.

‘I can’t work out what it is,’ he wrote on the forum.

‘This was no boar. I saw it move and it had a feline movement. They say it’s to blame for the recent deer slayings.’

Whether there really is a savage beast marauding through the village, or if it is a case of mistaken identity or even an elaborate hoax remains to be seen, although local police have received no calls about it.

And Chris Bailey, from nearby Chipping Wild Boar Park, said that while it was possible that a hungry boar would attack a deer, it was unlikely.

‘There is lots of countryside around there that they could go into, so it is possible,’ he said. ‘But I’m surprised. I have heard of cases like this before – but only when they are very hungry and looking for food.’

After examining the picture, Mr Bailey said the animal’s features did not appear to match those of a wild boar.

‘Unfortunately, the picture isn’t too clear, but from what we can see, the nose seems shorter and the back legs are different. They look similar to that of a dog.’

Source: dailymail.uk.co

Animal experts are baffled by a small, hairless creature found dead on the golf course at Runaway Bay in Wise County.

Maintenance worker Tony Potter picked it up Wednesday morning.  To him it looked a little like a raccoon with no hair.

“Definitely not a dog,” he said.

Potter showed the remains to several people and then took it to a veterinarian’s office in Bridgeport.  He said no one there could identify it, either.

“My wife wouldn’t let me keep it in the freezer,” he said, so Potter gave it to the Center for Animal Research and Education, a big cat sanctuary in Bridgeport.

The creature is dark brown, about 18 inches long, with a black nose and a face resembling a rodent — but with long canine teeth jutting from the upper and lower jaws.

The front claws have narrow digits about a half-inch long, with long, narrow nails.

Whatever this is has powerful rear legs “almost like a kangaroo,” according to CARE research assistant Sherre Sacher.   She said the front claws look like they’re made for digging.

The tail is like that of an opossum, but not quite as long.

“It’s really exciting,” Sacher said.   “I can’t wait to find out what it is.”

The center hopes to hear from experts who would like to examine the animal. Some who have seen it wonder if it’s the legendary chupacabra, an animal that supposedly sucks the blood of goats.

If nothing else, one thing appears certain:  This is the ugliest bogey ever seen on the Runaway Bay golf course.

Source: kens5

Cammie, the purported Cameron Lake monster, has made its presence known once again.

This time the creature was sighted by Coombs resident Kim MacDonald and her eight-year-old son Tristan, who were driving towards Port Alberni on just after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

“I had just picked my son up from school and we were driving towards Port Alberni and were getting towards the far end of the lake when something kept catching my eye,” MacDonald said. “At first I just thought it was a bird skimming across the water.”

However, as she got closer to the disturbance, that all changed in a hurry.

“There was an enormous splash, like when someone jumps into the water,” she said.

Where the splash had been, she said, there was now a large object — something that didn’t look like a log. To her, it looked alive.

“It was big,” she said. “My son said, ‘Oh my God, what’s that mum?’”

Fortunately, MacDonald was at a spot where it was possible to pull over to the side of the highway and she did.

“The head, if that’s what it was, was huge, bigger than a beaver,” she said. “I grabbed my camera and hopped on top of my truck.”

MacDonald was able to capture about a second and a half of video before she switched the camera to picture mode and snapped one shot before whatever it was sank out of view.

“After I took that picture it was gone,” she said. “I drive past there all the time and I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was round and big. My heart was pounding for a long time.”

The object or creature did not re-appear and MacDonald and her son continued on to Port Alberni.

“When I came back later I kept looking for it, really looking, but it was gone,” she said.

MacDonald has no theories about what she saw, although she has a couple of ideas about what it wasn’t.

“I think it’s definitely not a fish or a beaver,” she said.

Cameron Lake has long been reputed to have some form of large creature living in it, with numerous reports over the years of brief sightings of strange ripples and other disturbances in the water. The lake made national news last fall when a team of Vancouver cryptozoologists made an expedition to Cameron Lake to investigate.

Source: BClocalnews