Understanding Cryptozoology

Bernard Heuvelmans founded the International Society of Cryptozoology (ISC) in 1982. As a philosopher of science, he never questioned whether Cryptozoology was properly a ParaScience or a pseudoscience.

Heuvelmans was a Belgian/French scientist, explorer, researcher and writer. He was born in Le Havre in northwestern France in 1916 and was raised in Belgium. He earned a doctorate in Zoology from the Free University of Brussels at the age of 23. Heuvelmans had been interested in zoological oddities for some time but he credits a 1948 Saturday Evening Post article by Ivan T. Sanderson with inspiring him to become deeply determined to explore more fully his interest in unknown animals. He wrote a book "On the track of Unidentified Animals" in 1955, published in two volumes. It has been translated into over 20 languages. Heuvelmans wrote many other books and articles, only a few of which have been translated into English. His works sold well among general audiences but saw little attention from mainstream scientists and experts.

This creature has a confused and troubled timeline and history. Explanations range from misidentifications  to invented stories, to regular animals with mange, to urban legend and to myth.

The first attack by a Chupacabra is said to be in March 1995 when 8 sheep were found dead in Puerto Rico. Each body had three puncture wounds in the chest area and were said to be drained of blood. More stories came from the mountain region of Morovis and Orocovis. Chickens, sheep and goats were being found dead in their pens and enclosures, drained of blood with deep puncture wounds to the neck or chest. Nightly search parties of at least 200 men went out in search of the culprit(s) and to guard the animals. Nothing was found.

The Loveland Frog

The Loveland Frog [or Loveland Lizard] is one of those creatures that hovers between cryptid and urban legend. And what I thought would be an easy post turned more complicated than I thought.

You see, there are not only the multiple alleged sightings of this creature, but there are multiple versions of the multiple alleged sightings. But let's see if I can make some sense of it all.

The Loveland Frog is listed as one of the cryptids that the state of Ohio is known for. That and the Ohio Grassman [which is a regional name for bigfoot and not one that the rest of the state necessarily uses] and the Minerva Monster [which is another regional name for bigfoot]. Cedar Bog Monster [bigfoot]. Orange Eyes [either bigfoot or an alien]. We share Mothman with West Virginia, who is better known for the creature. We have dogman and the Crosswick Monster [humanoid snake]. And we have the Charles Mills Lake Monster and our own Lake Erie Monster, Bessie.

But back to the Loveland Frog.