Shiab operator

 

HA HA HA. Look what I just asked ChatGPT...

Should Greta Thunberg try to find a Waheela?

While that’s a fun idea on the surface, it’s not exactly in Greta Thunberg’s wheelhouse. Let’s unpack it a bit:

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🐺 What’s a Waheela?

The Waheela is a cryptid from Northern Canada and Alaska, particularly associated with the Nahanni Valley in the Northwest Territories. It's described as:

• A large, wolf-like creature

• Heavier and more muscular than modern wolves

• With unusually large feet, and sometimes said to have no tail

• Possibly a remnant prehistoric predator, like Amphicyon (a so-called “bear-dog”)

It’s sometimes linked in folklore to mysterious disappearances in the region, adding a supernatural or legendary aura.

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🌍 What’s Greta Thunberg Focused On?

Greta Thunberg is known worldwide as a climate activist, focusing on:

• Global climate policy

• Environmental justice

• Scientific consensus on climate change

• Mobilizing youth activism

She generally avoids mythological or fringe topics, especially those that could distract from the science-driven foundation of her advocacy.

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🧠 Would it Make Sense?

Unless it were part of:

• A campaign highlighting biodiversity loss

• Or a symbolic journey to protect endangered wilderness (and not actually looking for cryptids)

…then no, a Waheela hunt wouldn't align with her mission. In fact, being associated with cryptozoology might undermine her credibility in the eyes of scientific institutions and the climate movement.

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🧪 That Said…

If a creature like the Waheela were somehow real, and evidence emerged pointing to it being a surviving prehistoric species, then yes, environmentalists like Greta might have a reason to advocate for protecting its habitat.

But as it stands, the Waheela is a fascinating part of Northern folklore and cryptozoology, not a known species under threat.

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✅ Conclusion

Greta Thunberg searching for the Waheela would make a great satirical cartoon or metaphorical adventure, but in real life, it’s not aligned with her mission or strategy. Better leave cryptid-hunting to cryptozoologists — or sci-fi novelists!

Would you like a list of other northern cryptids or mythical creatures from Indigenous traditions in the Yukon and Alaska? 

Swamp thing

 

Just for fun, I asked ChatGPT a rather silly question, but actually got an answer. So I suppose this is today´s AI essay, LOL. 

Are there (alleged) reports of surviving dinosaurs from North America, i.e. cryptid reports interpreted as dinosaurs or similar prehistoric creatures by cryptozoology enthusiasts? 

Yes, there are a few alleged reports from North America that cryptozoologists and enthusiasts have interpreted as possible surviving dinosaurs or prehistoric reptiles. These are fringe claims and are not supported by mainstream science, but they have circulated in cryptozoological literature and popular culture.

Here are the most notable examples:

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🦖 1. Lake Monsters Interpreted as Plesiosaurs

🔹 Lake Champlain (Champ) — Vermont/New York/Quebec

• Sightings of a large, serpentine or humped creature in Lake Champlain.

• Some descriptions suggest a plesiosaur-like shape: long neck, flippers.

• Widely considered a modern myth or misidentification (e.g. sturgeon, logs, waves), but featured in cryptozoology circles since the 1800s.

🔹 Ogopogo — Lake Okanagan, British Columbia (Canada)

• Described similarly to Champ.

• Also interpreted by some cryptozoologists as a possible relict marine reptile, though more often described as serpentine.

These lake monsters are the most commonly linked to "prehistoric survivors", especially plesiosaurs, though no physical evidence exists.

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🐊 2. Bipedal Dinosaur-like Creatures

🔹 "River Dinosaurs" in the Southeastern U.S.

• Scattered reports in the 1940s–1970s, especially from rural Georgia and South Carolina, of large, upright lizard-like creatures.

• Sometimes described as being 5–7 feet tall, walking on two legs.

• Often interpreted in retrospect as hoaxes, folklore, or misidentified animals (e.g., large lizards, escaped pets, or alligators).

🔹 The "Dinosaur Swamp" legend — Louisiana

• Some local legends describe reptilian creatures in swampy areas, occasionally linked to cryptids or “living dinosaurs.”

• These often reflect tall tales, with little consistency or credibility.

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🧬 3. "Thunderbirds" as Pterosaurs

🔹 Pterosaur-like Sightings

• In states like Texas, New Mexico, and Illinois, there are scattered reports (19th century to 20th century) of giant flying creatures with leathery wings and no feathers.

• Sometimes described as having crests, long beaks, or bat-like wings.

• Occasionally interpreted as living pterosaurs by cryptozoologists.

Notable case:

• Tombstone, Arizona, 1890: A newspaper account told of cowboys shooting a huge bird with a wingspan of 160 feet. Some cryptozoologists argue this could have been a pterosaur, but the story is likely fabricated or exaggerated.

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📚 Cultural and Folk Influences

• Native American legends sometimes describe giant birds, serpent-like river creatures, or monstrous reptiles — which modern interpreters occasionally link (anachronistically) to dinosaurs or prehistoric beasts.

• These are more symbolic/mythic than cryptozoological, but occasionally repurposed in fringe literature as “evidence” of survival.

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🧪 Scientific Evaluation

• No physical or fossil evidence exists of non-avian dinosaurs or Mesozoic reptiles surviving past the Cretaceous.

• Many sightings are explained by:

  • Misidentified animals (e.g., sturgeons, birds, alligators, hoaxes)

  • Folklore and storytelling

  • Pareidolia and eyewitness error

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🧠 Why This Idea Persists

• Popular interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric life

• Influence of creationist pseudoscience (e.g., young earth creationists sometimes cite these reports as evidence against evolution)

• Cultural fascination with the idea of "lost worlds" or "living fossils"

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✅ Summary

Yes, there are alleged reports in North America of creatures interpreted as surviving dinosaurs or pterosaurs, especially:

• Lake monsters (Champ, Ogopogo) → interpreted as plesiosaurs

• Flying cryptids (Thunderbirds) → interpreted as pterosaurs

• Swamp creatures → occasionally likened to bipedal dinosaurs

But these are folkloric or anecdotal, and lack credible scientific backing. They remain part of cryptozoological lore rather than biological reality.

Would you like a list of books or articles from cryptozoology circles that promote these interpretations?

Can you tell me more about the "river dinosaurs" in Southeastern US?

Yes — the so-called "river dinosaurs" or dinosaur-like cryptids of the Southeastern U.S. are a little-known subset of American folklore and cryptozoological lore, often involving reports of large, bipedal, reptilian creatures near rivers or swamps. These reports are rare, scattered, and not well-documented in scientific literature, but they have circulated in fringe or local sources, especially in the 1940s–1970s.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s known (or claimed):

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🐊 1. "River Monster" Reports in Georgia and the Carolinas

🔹 Description (varies):

• Size: 5 to 8 feet tall

• Stance: Bipedal, walking upright

• Features: Lizard-like skin, long tail, small arms, glowing or reflective eyes

• Movement: Fast and agile; some reports say they moved “like a man,” others describe “lizard-like hops”

🔹 Locations:

• Altamaha River, Georgia (also known for the lake monster “Altamaha-ha” or “Altie”)

• Congaree Swamp, South Carolina

• Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia/Florida border

• Green Swamp, North Carolina

These areas are rich in wildlife and have long been settings for swamp monster stories, some dating back to Native American oral traditions and pioneer legends.

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👣 2. The Bishopville "Lizard Man" (South Carolina, 1988)

Although technically not a "dinosaur", this is the most famous modern case of a bipedal reptilian cryptid in the Southeast.

🔹 Reported by: 17-year-old Christopher Davis

• He claimed a scaly, green, man-sized reptilian creature attacked his car near Scape Ore Swamp.

• Had red eyes, clawed hands, stood 7 feet tall.

• Prompted a media frenzy and numerous follow-up sightings.

• Widely considered a hoax or misidentification, but still celebrated locally.

🔹 Cryptozoological Interpretation:

• Some cryptid enthusiasts speculated it could be a “relic dinosaur” (e.g., a theropod, like a small T. rex or raptor).

• Others believed it might be a mutant alligator or humanoid reptilian.

The Lizard Man became a local legend, spawning festivals, merchandise, and decades of debate.

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🦕 3. Young Earth Creationist (YEC) Influence

• Some creationist authors in the mid-20th century and beyond (e.g., John C. Whitcomb, Carl Baugh) promoted the idea that dinosaurs still exist.

• They occasionally cited Southeastern U.S. sightings (along with reports from Africa and Papua New Guinea) as evidence against evolution.

• The narrative was that humans and dinosaurs coexisted, and isolated populations may have survived the Flood.

While most cryptozoologists separate themselves from creationist agendas, there's significant overlap in dinosaur cryptid speculation.

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🧪 Scientific Perspective

Mainstream scientists consider these reports to be:

• Folkloric exaggeration

• Misidentified animals, especially:

  • Large monitor lizards seen on two legs or alligators

  • Escaped exotic pets (e.g., iguanas)

  • Bears or other large mammals glimpsed briefly

• Hoaxes or pranks

• Possibly even mass hysteria in rare cases

There is no physical evidence — no tracks, scat, remains, or credible photos — for any of these supposed creatures.

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🧠 Cultural Context

• The American South has a rich storytelling tradition, including monster legends tied to swamps, rivers, and backwoods.

• Some stories may stem from fear of the unknown, especially in isolated rural areas.

• Cryptozoological interest in the Loch Ness Monster and Mokele-mbembe (Central African "dinosaur") likely encouraged local reinterpretations of unexplained creatures as dinosaurs.

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📚 References & Sources

While not mainstream, some books and articles that discuss these creatures include:

• Loren Coleman, Cryptozoology A to Z (1999)

• Lyle Blackburn, Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster (2013)

• Regional folklore collections from the Carolinas and Georgia

• Cryptozoological websites (e.g., Cryptomundo, Mysterious Universe)

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✅ Summary

Yes, there have been scattered reports — mainly from the Southeastern U.S. — of bipedal, dinosaur-like creatures, especially near rivers and swamps. Most are folkloric or anecdotal and include:

• The Bishopville Lizard Man

• Rumors of “river dinosaurs” or reptilian bipeds in Georgia and the Carolinas

• Occasional interpretations by cryptozoologists or creationists as surviving dinosaurs

However, these remain unsubstantiated and are considered legend, hoax, or misidentification by mainstream science.

Would you like a map or timeline of these kinds of sightings across the U.S.?

Can you tell me about the Monster of Partridge Creek?

The Monster of Partridge Creek is a cryptozoological legend from the Yukon Territory in Canada, dating back to the early 20th century. It’s one of the more obscure “living dinosaur” stories and is often cited in fringe literature and cryptozoology discussions.

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📰 Origin of the Story

The tale originates from two main reports published in the French newspaper Le Journal in 1907 and 1908, written by a French writer and mining engineer named Georges Dupuy.

According to Dupuy, the creature was seen near Partridge Creek, close to Dawson City, during a gold prospecting expedition in the Yukon.

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🐲 Description of the Monster

According to Dupuy’s reports, the creature was:

• A reptilian, dinosaur-like animal

• Around 30 feet (9 meters) long

• Covered in scales, not fur

• With a serpentine neck and large tail

• Described as similar to a sauropod, like a Brontosaurus

Witnesses claimed the beast left large tracks in the snow and frightened both humans and sled dogs.

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🧔 Who Saw It?

Dupuy claimed he saw it himself, along with:

• Prospectors

• A local Indigenous guide named Tom, who reportedly said his people knew of such creatures

However, the only written source remains Dupuy’s articles, which appeared in Le Journal, a French popular newspaper of the time.

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❓ Is the Story Credible?

🟨 Problems:

• No independent corroboration of the event exists.

• No physical evidence (tracks, bones, photos) was ever collected.

• The story was published in a popular newspaper, not a scientific journal, and reads more like a piece of early science fiction or adventure journalism.

• The location (Yukon in winter) is ecologically and climatically implausible for a cold-blooded reptile or any large dinosaur to survive.

🟪 Some researchers believe:

• Dupuy may have fabricated the story or presented a fictionalized account as nonfiction.

• It could be a case of hoax, tall tale, or misidentification (e.g., a moose, bear, or even drifted snow around animal tracks creating odd illusions).

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🧪 In Cryptozoology

Despite the lack of evidence, the Monster of Partridge Creek is sometimes cited by:

• Young Earth Creationists seeking to discredit evolutionary timelines

• Living dinosaur enthusiasts

• Cryptozoologists interested in supposed relic populations of prehistoric creatures

It has appeared in books like:

• Mysterious Creatures by George Eberhart

• Searching for Hidden Animals by Roy Mackal

But even among cryptozoologists, it is treated as a fringe case with extremely low credibility.

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📚 Summary

• The Monster of Partridge Creek is a dinosaur-like creature reportedly seen in the Yukon in the early 1900s.

• Originated from reports by Georges Dupuy in Le Journal.

• Described as a sauropod-like reptile in a snowy, northern setting.

• Lacks any corroboration or physical evidence.

• Widely regarded as folklore, fiction, or hoax, though it continues to interest fringe theorists.

Would you like to see excerpts from Dupuy’s original articles, or how this story compares to other alleged "living dinosaur" tales like Mokele-mbembe?

A voice crying in the wilderness

 

Joe Rogan talks to outdoorsman Steven Rinella who cracks a tale (or tall tale) about a crazy Canadian hippie in Alaska who claimed to be the Biblical character John the Baptist?! The hippie turned out to be a parasite and petty thief, but ultimately met his doom in a small cabin during the unforbidding Arctic winter. Apparently, he lacked the proper Essene survival skills. Anyhow...

Rinella´s friend evidently gave the hippie a classical "sky burial". He just threw his corpse outside and the next day it was gone, presumably consumed by some hungry denizen of the Alaskan hinterland.

I admit that this story didn´t move me as much as I expected, but perhaps I´ve been hardened by too much consumption of Tantric material from the happy generations of Tibet...

Cylons over Yukon

 

An intriguing postscript to the Chinese spy balloon scare of 2023. A photo of one of the objects shot down by the US Air Force over Yukon in Canada has finally been declassified. Now, we are supposed to think it may have been an UFO instead! Could there be a connection to the recent disclosure hearings in Washington DC? 

My guess is that the objects of course were Chinese (or even Andamanese) and that the USAF for some reason are trying to get the public to think that they were alien space craft. To avoid an embarrasing "Sputnik moment"?

Some quotes from the first article linked below:   

>>>What makes the incidents of February 2023 particularly intriguing is the lack of concrete details about the objects themselves. While the Chinese balloon was clearly identified as a surveillance device, the other three objects remain largely mysterious. The fact that no debris has been recovered has only fueled speculation about their nature. U.S. President Joe Biden suggested that the objects were likely benign, potentially private or research balloons, but the absence of detailed imagery or wreckage has left room for alternative theories.

>>>The limited information provided by the military has also stoked conspiracy theories, with some speculating that these objects could be of extraterrestrial origin or advanced surveillance technology deployed by rival states. Experts, however, caution against such conclusions.

>>>In the wake of these incidents, both the Pentagon and NASA have ramped up their efforts to investigate UAPs, a term that has largely replaced the older “UFO” terminology in official discourse. Meanwhile, Canada’s Sky Canada Project, led by the Office of the Chief Science Advisor, is expected to release its own report on UAP sightings in 2024, potentially shedding more light on these mysterious encounters.

The second link goes to a blog post by ultra-alternative blogger Vox Day who says (seemingly un-ironically) that the UFO over Yukon must be a Cylon ship?! The Cylons are the bad guys in the Mormon-inspired science fiction franchise "Battlestar Galactica"...

First image of "UFO" shot down by US Air Force emerges 

Cylons are real

Global fall

 

More like summer!

"A Year on Planet Earth" is a four-part nature documentary released in 2022. I just watched the fall or autumn episode. It´s pretty eclectic and follow very different animals all over the world. It´s not even clear whether it´s always "fall" in the various locations.

Elephants in Africa, grizzlies in the Yukon, chipmunks in Quebec, muskoxen in Norway, Amur falcons chasing swarming termites in Nagaland, and monarch butterflies in both Maine and Mexico...you get the picture. Add zillions of crabs on Christmas Island and you´re done! 

I think we´ve seen most of this before, tbh, but it was a nice diversion from the election drama in a certain North American nation...

The Headless Valley

 

The clip above is from Hammerson Peters´ cryptozoologically oriented YouTube channel, which frequently promotes his book “Legends of the Nahanni Valley” (a location in Canada´s Northwest Territories). I haven´t read it, but I have previously reviewed some other books on Canadian folklore. In this clip, Peters expounds on some length on the Waheela, a mysterious creature known from Native mythology and the yarns of White hunters and sensationalists. Unfortunately, it´s not known to science!

The Waheela is apparently particularly associated with the previously mentioned Nahanni Valley, but Peters have found similar stories from the US West, including a supposed encounter at the notorious “Skinwalker Ranch” in Utah. The Waheela is often described as a super-sized wolf-like creature, or an animal with both canine and ursid characteristics. “Cryptozoologist” Ivan T Sanderson was interested in the reports, and I suppose some enthusiasts within that particular subculture still are. Speculations about the Waheela´s real identity abound. Are they actual wolves suffering from gigantism, misidentified albino bears, or prehistoric survivals? Sanderson proposed that it could be a Amphicyon (a “bear-dog” believed to have been extinct for over 2 million years) or a Dire Wolf (believed to have gone extinct around 10,000 years ago).

While nothing´s impossible, the fact that modern science haven´t found any Waheela suggest another possibility: the beast doesn´t really exist at all. It seems to occupy a mythological Native landscape also populated by dangerous humanoids, ghostly monsters, deadly giant beavers, and creatures that simply can´t exist (such as the Otter-man). In the American West, a large white wolf is called “medicine wolf” and seems to be explicitly supernatural. The Inuit story retold by Peters is also clearly mythological in character. Indeed, do even the super-sized timber wolves mentioned in the stories of White hunters exist? They may just be yarns. And how are we to interpret the claim, mentioned by Peters in another video, that the main enemy of the Waheela is a “lion”, here interpreted as a Smilodon?

Judging from John Warms´ book “Strange Creatures Seldom Seen”, Native tribes in Manitoba – another part of Canada – claim that many different species of gigantic animals live in their territories. My point, of course, is that some of these creatures would have been found by now had they actually existed in flesh-and-blood fashion. A single and rare cryptid could (perhaps) hide out in some remote part of the Northwest Territories, but that an entire armada of over-sized Animalia could do so staggers the imagination…

Kill all the brutes

 

Credit: Jonathan Chen

"Mystery of the Ice Giants" is a German documentary about the relatively sudden disappearence of the Paleolithic megafauna at the end of the "Ice Age". Was it due to naturally occuring climate change? Or did humans hunt the mammoths and other megafaunal species to extinction? The film team follows a group of paleontologists as they trek around the world, trying to shade some light on the mystery. White Sands in New Mexico, the Yukon in Canada and Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic are visited. The culprit is soon identified: yes, it was Stone Age human hunters. 

The megafauna had already survived several periods of severe climate change. When a glacial period ended, the so-called mammoth steppe where most of the megafauna lived shrank considerably, replaced by huge forests. However, the animals dependent on a steppe habitat simply moved to the few refugia where such an environment still existed, staging a comeback when the interglacial was over and the steppes became great again. Why didn´t this happen again at the end of the latest glaciation? The new factor simply must be Homo sapiens. At Dolne Vestonice, virtual "mass graves" filled with mammoth bones (usually from young specimens) have been found. There is also evidence from North America that humans hunted ground sloths and cave bears. Personally, I was fascinated by the Yukon, where the paleontologists can simply pick up fossils as they walk around the riverside, including well preserved mammoth tusks! 

Mammoths were hunted for the meat, but also for the fat, apparently a necessity in a cold climate with very little plant-based food available Over 60% of the food intake of Paleolithic humans was mammoth meat. One of the scientists featured speculate that the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe were dark-skinned (they were originally from Africa, after all) and therefore couldn´t produce enough vitamin D naturally from the sun light. This made it even more necessary to hunt mammoths, presumably to harvest the fatty tissue. (I suppose somebody somewhere might find it uncomfortable that Blacks and the ancestors of the American Indians were behind the first mass extinction in human history, but there you go.) 

When mammoths and other large herbivores were gone, the carnivores preying on them also went extinct. The sabre-toothed tiger known as smilodon was evidently specially adapted to hunt and kill such animals. With them gone, the weird-looking feline with its huge canines (sorry, couldn´t help myself) was doomed. Climate change also played a role, however. What made the impact of human hunters extra severe was that the end of "the Ice Age" reversed the climate yet again, dramatically shrinking the traditional grazing and hunting grounds of the megafauna. A few mammoths actually survived in Siberia, but where stuck on Wrangel Island when sea levels rose, eventually starving to death when food sources got scarce. 

But I´m sure "primitive" peoples have something important to teach us about "conservation ethics", right? Right.  

Environmental destruction began during the Stone Age. 

This would explain a lot of things

Greta Thunberg in Canada, 2019 version.

According to a sensational photo from 1898, Greta Thunberg is a time traveler from the Yukon. You read it here first! Didn´t I say that Greta must go to the Yukon to hunt the Waheela? Yes, I did, and now it turns out that she was a cryptid-hunter already 120 years ago! :D

Greta Thunberg time traveler

A new mission for Greta?

When Greta Thunberg is done crossing the Atlantic on a small sail boat in the middle of hurricane season, I think she should go to Canada and try to catch one of these... 

Waheela

North Country Forteana

“Strange stories of Alaska and the Yukon” is a collection of Fortean-themed stories taken from old Alaskan and Canadian newspapers. The time period covered is roughly 1880-1930.

The compiler, Ed Ferrell, believes (or wants to believe) that the tales are true, but personally I'm skeptical to most material in this volume. Many seem to be the kind of stories gold-diggers or hard-boiled pioneers *want* to be true, including discoveries of unusually productive gold mines or Eden-like tropical valleys (with a lot of game animals!) in the middle of the Arctic. Others may be based on Native folklore, such as the story of the Pygmies.

I admit that I want a few of these strange tales to be true myself, mostly those dealing with crypto-zoological creatures (including living mammoths) and discoveries of evidence for advanced pre-Ice Age civilizations. Also included are tales about lost cities, petrified forests, an entire mountain of cinnabar and bizarre huge mirages. And yes, haunted houses…

Regardless of whether you believe in these “yarns” or not, they are entertaining or at least interesting. Shall we say five stars?