Mermaids

 

These adorable critters suddenly appeared on my browser home page. I´m not sure who to credit? Microsoft Bing?

Thomas Jefferson: Vampire Hunter?

 

Was Thomas Jefferson (who also served as US president) the first cryptozoologist, at least in North America? He collected stories about surviving mammoths, mysterious giant lions and lake-monsters in the American wilderness. 

None of these ideas were necessarily fringe at the time. I think the idea was that since all animals were created by God, divine providence would never let them go extinct. Ergo, mammoths must still be around. 

Jefferson wasn´t particularly credulous either, sometimes skeptically pointing out that some observations of unknown beasts were probably just mountain lions (cougars).  

The Soviet Sasquatch

 

An interesting video about Soviet cryptids. I was struck by how unoriginal they were. Yes, it´s essentially the same kind of cryptids as reported from North America or Western Europe: hairy humanoids, lake monsters, sea serpents and extinct charismatic mega-fauna still supposedly lurking somewhere in the far corners of Siberia. In this case the Steller´s sea cow, the wolly mammoth, and the giant short-faced bear (never heard of that one). 

There are two possible explanations for this curious fact. One is that the cryptids are actually real. After all, why *would* people behind the Iron Curtain see exactly the same kind of unknown animals as in the rest of the world? Another possibility is that Soviet cryptozoology was influenced by its Western counterpart. That´s not as far-fetched as it sounds, since one prominent Soviet cryptozoologist, Boris Porshnev, was a friend of Bernard Heuvelmans! (A book by Porshnev has been translated to English: "The Soviet Sasquatch") The same transformation of older folklore into "unknown real animals" - typical of much Western cryptozoology -  may have transpired in the modernizing Soviet Union, too. 

Misidentification is another factor. The Mongolian Death Worm (which was searched for by Soviet scientists) is often depicted as the monstrous Shai-Hulud from Frank Herbert´s science fiction novel "Dune". In reality, the Death Worm is only said to be about one and a half meters long. And it took me about five minutes to find *exactly such a creature* living in Mongolia: the desert sand boa. Case closed.

The Soviet Union was one of the few nations (if that´s the word for it) that launched several scientific expeditions in search of cryptids, both on its own territory and in Mongolia. Soviet scientists also participated in Chinese expeditions to find the Yeti. The fact that these official projects had as little luck as lay cryptid hunters in the US or Scotland is perhaps suggestive. 

The creatures don´t exist. Or maybe they do exist, but since they are ghostly in nature, Communists feared reporting what they had *really* found...

The body found

 

It´s actually quite funny that the media creates a panic (or is it a silly season) everytime some carcass of a sea animal washes ashore. The term "globster" for seemingly mysterious carcasses was apparently coined by notorious sensationalist Ivan T Sanderson. I assumed it was Charles Hoy Fort (who was definitely on the same wave length, LOL). 

This week, the unidentified fishy object is a "mermaid globster" (no less) from Papua New Guinea. Or strictly speaking the small Simberi Island a bit north of the PNG mainland. The experts are *baffled*, baffled I say, except of course they really aren´t, with guesses ranging from a whale of a tale to the pudgy dugong, but alas, nobody guessed a plump mermaid on a suicide mission.

The natives of the volcanic island, who presumably have better things to do, didn´t take any DNA samples and promptly buried the rottening mass of ectoplasm at an undisclosed location. Well, at least the media spared us the details!

So it seems we have to wait a few months until the next globster comes onland, hopefully with its monstrous mer-squid-megalodon DNA intact...  

Mermaid globster found in New Guinea

THAT'S THE LAST STRAW I'M OFFICIALLY OFF THE TRUMP TRAIN

It could have been much worse. They could have written "QAnon".

Most bizarre news item so far? Like ever.

The Trump Manatee

No mermaids in this one

“Handbook of the Mammals of the World” (HMW) is a multi-volume encyclopedia and reference work, the purpose of which is to illustrate and describe all extant wild species of mammals. Six volumes have been published, with at least three more to go.

This volume lumps together three very different groups of sea-mammals, apparently for practical or perhaps even commercial reasons. The pinnipeds (eared seals, earless seals and walruses) belong to the order Carnivora together with tigers, wolves, wolverines and other “classical” carnivores. The sirenians are distant cousins to the elephants, while cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are apparently close to hippopotamuses and hence the ungulates.

My impression of HMW is that most volumes are more popularized than Lynx Edicions' previous encyclopedia, “Handbook of the Birds of the World” (HBW). At least relatively speaking, they seem to contain lesser amounts of texts. Otherwise, both HMW and HBW keep to the same format: family presentations with more or less dramatic color photos followed by species presentations with “boring” color plates and range maps. The price tags are equally extortionate in both cases, but then, a lot of money and time must have been invested into making these bulky volumes! If you just want one book on sea-mammals (all of them) and have dime to spare, investing in this volume might be a good idea. More information, including a preview, is available at the website of the publisher.

Final point: like all other science books, this too peddles the ridiculous idea that mermaids and mermen are misidentified sirenians. Ahem, sirenians don't look like well-endowed females with sweet singing voices, and they are find nowhere near the waters were mermaids are supposed to live, so unless there is an unknown species of Icelandic Manatee roaming the colder waters of the North Atlantic…naaaah.

Don't mess with the manatee

Florida man arrested for riding a manatee

In the Lower 48, annoying or disturbing a manatee is strictly prohibited. Bail money if arrested? Around $ 25,000. Would you pay the bail of a friend suspected of annoying a manatee?

Another monster gets away

A review of the MonsterQuest episode "Sea Monsters" 

In this episode of History Channel's never-ending quest for the Holy Grail of Monsterhood, Doug Hajicek and his indefatigable research team (or television crew?) travel to Florida in search for a legendary sea monster.

A couple of locals have been taping the monsters in a local river (?) for several years (!!), and have decided to give the monster hunters exclusive rights to the footage.

Or something.

Even yours truly suspected something fishy, and the surprisingly patient scientists who show themselves on this program (I hope they get paid!) are about evenly divided between the "monster" being a seal or a sea cow, two relatively innocuous creatures. Especially the sea cow. I mean, can you possibly get more docile than that? We're talking evolutionary dead-end major time.

My private theory (which I don't really believe in) is that the Florida Sea Monster is a Stellar's Sea Cow on Caribbean holiday. I hope it gets away! Maybe it did, 'cause know what, Hajicek & Co didn't find no monster this time neither, LOL.

A tribute, not a field guide

This book is an excellent and lavishly illustrated introduction to sea-living mammals: pinnipeds, cetaceans and sea cows. The polar bear and two species of otters are also featured. I hesitate to call this a "field guide", and the authors admit in a foreword that the book is really a tribute to the mammals of the sea: "Few people who read this book will ever encounter Fraser's dolphin, the leopard seal or the African manatee". The main purpose is to give the general reader a certain feel for the sea-mammals, their life and their often threatened status. Martin Camm's colour illustrations are certainly worth the prize of the entire book. Since "Sea Mammals of the World" was published already in 1982, many of the facts presented in the book might be out of date. However, it would still make a nice addition to the library of any nature-lover. Therefore, I give it five stars.

Steller´s sea cow

“Mammals of the Soviet Union” is an apparently unfinished encyclopedia (at least in its English version), the original purpose of which was to describe all species of mammals found on the vast territory of the USSR. This volume, known as “Volume II, Part 1a”, is dated 1998. It's based on part of a Russian-language volume published in Moscow already in 1967. Why an old work like this is still of interest to zoologists is an interesting question – perhaps no other information on Soviet mammals (or are they ex-Soviet) is readily available?

This volume covers Sirenia and some of Carnivora. It's of interest due to the fact that it contains a translation of most of Georg Wilhelm Steller's original description of Steller's sea cow, a peculiar marine mammal known as Kapustnik in Russian. The type specimen was secured by Steller during the Bering expedition to the Commander Islands in 1742. The scientific description is dated 1751/1753. By 1768, Steller's sea cow had been hunted to extinction! Why this would be a problem for zoologists who understand the creative power of natural selection is, of course, another interesting question…

The rest of this volume covers more “regular” mammals, such as the Jackal, Gray Wolf, Arctic Fox, Red Fox, Brown Bear and Polar Bear. The whole book is 733 pages, despite only dealing with 12 species, thereby telling us something of the enormous amount of facts it contains…

“Mammals of the Soviet Union” is a reference work, and hence contain relatively few pictures, but if you are a budding mammalogist with a penchant for the Eurasian theatre, this might be the just the treat you're looking for.