By SedesGobhani

Okay, so most of us have heard of the Jackalope, right? One of the long standing "jokes" in the realms of the cryptid world. The fabled rabbit with antlers. It is an amazing sight that we can view thanks to some skilled taxidermy.
Like many unusual creatures and tales, there seems to always be some sliver of truth buried in these folkloric stories. The Jackalope is no different. As unreal as it seems, it has just a small dab of truth possibly sprinkled in the fabled creature story.

But first a brief history about the Jackalope.

The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns. The word "jackalope" is a portmanteau of "jackrabbit" and "antelope", although the jackrabbit is not a rabbit, and the American antelope is not an antelope. Also, many jackalope taxidermy mounts, including the original, are actually made with deer antlers.

In the 1930s, Douglas Herrick and his brother, hunters with taxidermy skills, popularized the American jackalope by grafting deer antlers onto a jackrabbit carcass and selling the combination to a local hotel in Douglas, Wyoming. Thereafter, they made and sold many similar jackalopes to a retail outlet in South Dakota, and another taxidermist continues to manufacture the horned rabbits in the 21st century. Stuffed and mounted, jackalopes are found in many bars and other places in the United States; stores catering to tourists sell jackalope postcards and other paraphernalia, and commercial entities in America and elsewhere have used the word "jackalope" or a jackalope logo as part of their marketing strategies. The jackalope has appeared in published stories, poems, television shows, video games, and a low-budget mockumentary film. The Wyoming Legislature has considered bills to make the jackalope the state's official mythological creature.

The underlying legend of the jackalope, upon which the Wyoming taxidermists were building, may be related to similar stories in other cultures and other historical times. Researchers suggest that at least some of the tales of horned hares were inspired by sightings of rabbits infected with the Shope papilloma virus. It causes horn- and antler-like tumors to grow in various places on a rabbit's head and body.

Shope papilloma virus is also known as cottontail rabbit papilloma virus (CRPV). Shope papilloma virus, is a type I virus under the Baltimore scheme, possessing a nonsegmented dsDNA genome. In the 1930s, hunters in northwestern Iowa reported that the rabbits they shot had several horn protrusions on many parts of their bodies including their faces and necks. This lead to the investigation and discovery of the virus in 1933 by Richard E. Shope when he was experimenting with cancer research. Shope separated the virus from horny warts on cottontail rabbits, and made one of the first mammaliam tumor virus discoveries. The virus is also a possible source of myths about the jackalope, a rabbit with the horns of an antelope, and related cryptids such as the wolpertinger. Bavarian folklore tells of the wolpertinger, also called wolperdinger, a mythological hybrid animal allegedly inhabiting the alpine forests of Bavaria in Germany. The wolpertinger is made up of several different animal parts, including antlers.

Shope determined the “horn” protrusions were keratinous carcinomas due to the infection of CRPV. These are typically found on or near the animal’s head, and can become large enough to interfere with the host’s ability to eat, causing starvation. The virus was originally discovered to affect only cottontail rabbits. in the Midwestern U.S., but can also infect brush rabbits, jackrabbits, snowshoe hares, and house rabbits.

Shope’s research has led to the development of an SPV model and the first mammalian model of a cancer caused by a virus. He was able to isolate virus particles from tumors on captured animals and use these to inoculate domestic rabbits, which then developed similar tumors. The animal model of the Shope Papilloma Virus (SPV) has contributed to our understanding of fundamental mechanisms in neoplasia, or the formation of a new, abnormal growth of tissue. The virus was sequenced in 1984, showing substantial sequence similarities to HPV1a. It has been used as a model for human papillomaviruses both before and after this discovery. The most visible example of this role is the HPV vaccine, which was developed based on and incorporating research done using the virus as a model. Similarly, it has been used to investigate antiviral therapies.

So, this is probably what started the jackalope stories way back in the day. It probably started with someone just catching good enough glimpse of a rabbit suffering from Shope Papilloma Virus, to start telling people "I saw a rabbit with antlers". You know, rabbits at notoriously fast and a fleeting view of one with antlers, would probably have gotten your attention. It probably would have got you laughed at pretty fast as well, while telling about it. But I suspect that others started getting a quick view of the running rabbit and the stories became more accepted.
 
Regardless, of the origin of the jackalope, the legend has many twist and turns. I guess that is what has helped it to continue to be in our current society and  to be a good source for humor.
 
The jackalope is subject to many outlandish and largely tongue-in-cheek claims embedded in tall tales about its habits. Jackalopes are said to be so dangerous that hunters are advised to wear stovepipes on their legs to keep from being gored. Stores in Douglas sell jackalope milk, but The New York Times questions its authenticity on grounds that milking a jackalope is known to be fraught with risk. One of the ways to catch a jackalope is to entice it with whiskey, the jackalope's beverage of choice. 

The jackalope can imitate the human voice, according to legend. During the days of the Old West, when cowboys gathered by the campfires singing at night, jackalopes could be heard mimicking their voices or singing along, usually as a tenor. It is said that jackalopes, the rare Lepus antilocapra, only breed during lightning flashes and that their antlers make the act difficult despite the hare's reputation for fertility.

So, in the end the jackalope is much more than just a myth. It's part of our history, our entertainment, our culture and I'm guessing, our future. 
 
(source: wikipedia)   


Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.



This post sponsored in part by

Read More

Read More

Okay, by now you are probably aware that I'm enjoying the return of the super awesome show The X-files. The current season (10) is rapidly coming to an end. But luckily for me, I missed almost all of the past seasons, mostly due to my work schedule at the time. Thanks to Netflix, I can now watch all of the past seasons of X-files.

So, I have started watching from season 1 and along the way there has been a couple episodes that I thought would be appealing to our Bigfoot/Dogman audience. All the episodes have been great but these two I want to talk about should be appealing to our Bigfoot folks.  So here we go.

The X-file Season 1 episode 5

This episode is titled "The Jersey Devil"  and the plotline is as follows:

"Mulder and Scully track a legendary creature that has roamed the New Jersey countryside for over 40 years."

But once you watch it, it's not really the Jersey Devil as we know it. Oh, the show does touch on the origins and legend of the Jersey Devil but during the episode it not the Jersey Devil. So, what is it you ask? It is more along the lines of feral humans, or what we call wild men. Once you watch it you should be able to related it somewhat to Sasquatch. How they hide, how they may forge for food in populated areas, how fast they are and how silent they can be. Definitely worth a watch.

The X-files Season 1 Episode 19

The title to this episode is "Shapes" and it should appeal to the Dogman/Werewolf/Shapeshifter crowd. I very much enjoyed this episode.
Here is the plotline:

"A creature, possibly from Native American lore, is suspected of killing a man, bringing Mulder and Scully to the Indian reservation where the attack occurred in order to uncover its identity."

There is a couple scenes where you see this creature running and it looks very much like a Bigfoot/Dogman. Then you throw in the shapeshiting element and it become more entertaining. I still wonder if "Dogman" is just the new term we are using for "werewolf".


So, there's you two very good episodes of the X-files from season one. If you have not watched them, I suggest you do. You can find them currently on Netfilx. It's a good way to kill a couple hours.


Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.



This post sponsored in part by

Read More

From the move The Giant Spider

While there are many cryptids I wouldn't mind chasing after, the Congolese giant spider, also just known as Giant Spider, is not one I'm interested in pursuing. Spiders in general make me squirm ...ugh.

The Congolese Giant Spider is a cryptozoological creature that is said to exist in the Congo, possibly representing a new species of arachnid. It is considered a cryptid and only in recent years has received publicity." said Robert B. Durham.

These Giant Spider are described as having a brownish body similar to that of a tarantula, with a legspan of four to six feet. I hope I never get to see one up close. The claim is that younger Giant Spiders have yellow coloring and it turns brown as it matures. I also don't want to see a young one.

While the idea of a large spider with a legspan of 6 feet may seem very far fetched, there has been a number of sightings.

Many sightings have been reported from Africa, especially in the Congo.

1938: Congo: Reginald and Margurite Lloyd were driving a Ford truck through a trail when they reportedly spotted a spider as large as a monkey. It resembled a tarantula, but had an estimated leg-span of 5 feet. Their daughter, Maurgurite Lloyd, would later relate this story in the 1990s to William Gibbons.

William Gibbons is a researcher who researched the Mokele-Mbembe , which is reported a living dinosaur, in the Congo.

1942: Papua, New Guinea: An Australian soldier at the Kokoda Trail said that he encountered a puppy-sized spider inhabiting a 10 to 15 foot sized web. It was described as being black with a bulky body, as well as hairy like a tarantula.

Now, here is a sighting that I don't like, yeah it's fine to have these killers elsewhere but not in the good ol USA. But at least it was a long time ago.


1948: Leesville, Louisiana, United States: William Slaydon and his grandchildren were walking north on Highway 171 to church when he motioned them to stop. After hearing a rustling in the bushes ahead, a spider described as the size of a washtub emerged and crossed the road. One of the grandchildren later told this story to his own son, Todd Partain, director of the documentary film "Eyes In The Dark: The Sasquatch Experience."


2001: Cameroon: Timbo, chief of the Baka tribe in Cameroon, tells William Gibbons that in November 2000 a J'ba Fofi (Giant Spider) had built a nest near their village.


2011: Amazon:  British cinematographer Richard Terry travelled to the Amazon to investigate reports of giant spiders in the June 13th episode of Man v. Monster. At a remote village, he was informed that giant spiders lived in holes deep within the jungle. These spiders measured roughly four feet in diameter.

Now, this next report is much more recent and once again in the United States. Sorry Missouri, I will not be visiting anytime soon.

2013:Missouri: A man named L. Smith spots a giant spider while he was fishing. The j'ba Fofi (Giant Spider) had grabbed his water canteen, then had crawled away very fast. L. Smith said that the incident only lasted a few seconds, and describes what he saw as a large hairy spider with long legs. He also said that it "moved like a spider catching it's prey."

That would be one spot I would never fish at again.

According to Baka natives, these spiders they call J'ba Fofi, build lairs of leaves and spin webs between two trees. They say the giant spiders prey upon birds and other small game. The Baka natives also claim the giant spider is now rare thanks to habitat destruction.

Well, that is one spider that I don't think I will ever try to find. I'll just stick to dumb spider movies where the spider dies in the end.


(source: wikipedia)   


Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.



This post sponsored in part by

Read More

This report and witness interview comes from Hopkins County, Ky. It is conducted by our friend Don Neal.

Here is the description of the video

"Young mother has a possible Bigfoot sighting just outside of Madisonville, KY in Hopkins county back in 2012. This interview was done on Friday February 5th 2014 at the exact location of the sighting. The witness had no trouble remembering every small detail as it is still strongly imprinted in her memory. NOTE......this location is within a 4 mile radius of several Bigfoot sightings and encounters. This fact was unknown to the witness in this video."

Here is the video interview, at the sighting location.



Great interview and report. Don is also a member of  KBFO. Thanks for sharing, guys.



Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.


This post sponsored in part by

Read More

Read More

Here in Kentucky and even many other southern states, we get told that there is no cougars in this area. But yet, we keep seeing them and sometimes even black panthers. But according to wildlife officials we do not have any cougars in the area and we are misidentifying other animals. It reminds me of a few years ago, when these same wildlife officials told us we didn't have any black bears in this area but of course we have a growing number of them.

Well, I got the following report of a cougar sighting in the state of Georgia and wanted to share it.

- Start Report -

Name: Ken ******

Email Address: On file

State: Georgia

County:

Date of Sighting: October 99

Time of Day: 7 PM

Nearest Town: Wrightsville

Length of Sighting: 20 seconds

How many Witnesses: 1

Any Photos/Videos: no

Describe sighting in detail:
Sitting in a tree stand deer hunting a pine grove, when at dusk a cougar walks right under my stand. It was on the trail I have to take back to the truck.  I live in the west and know a cougar when I see one.  Not a black panther but a tan cougar. 


- End Report -

I wonder why wildlife officials tell us that there is no cougars in an area, when in fact there is. Is it because they don't really know? or is it because they just don't want the general public to know they are there? To me, if the officials know they are there and are lying to people, it would be more dangerous to hikers and campers.  I think it would be better to let people know the possibly dangerous cat was in the area, so the hikers and campers could take precautions in case they ran into one. If an accident happened and the wildlife officials had lied about cougars being in an area, would that make the libel in some way?

Thanks to Ken for sending in his report.

Be safe everyone.



Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.



This post sponsored in part by

Read More

Read More

One thing that has always been in the back of my mind is finding the real truth about human origins. Where do we really come from, and why do we seem to have so many problems to overcome? Why are we such a unique life form on this planet? And, more importantly, why do we cause our planet so many problems?

Where did we come from? Why are we here? Have we always been here? And if we have, why are we so…defective? I’ve always wondered if we were a hybrid being of some kind. Perhaps even the living subjects of some big scientific experiment conducted by beings from another world.

Until we have real answers, no suggestion is off the table as far as I’m concerned. And even though science is doing its best to answer all the questions, some pieces of our evolutionary puzzle still don’t quite fit in the way we’re supposed to believe they do. It doesn’t seem we have the whole story, yet. We’ve never been given really satisfactory or indisputable answers for questions about where we came from or what we might be…besides a highly-evolved ape. That’s fine, but is that all there is to our story? I have to wonder, and here’s why. See if you’ve ever thought about these things.

1. Humans can grow their head hair to undetermined lengths

We have weird hair. We’re the only hairless ape in our evolutionary line. But why? Most of us have very little on our bodies compared to other warm-blooded earth creatures. But what’s up with the hair on our heads? It can grow to undetermined lengths and then has to be cut before it gets out of control. There are no other animals that have hair that has to be cut before it reaches troublesome lengths except for one: dogs. More specifically certain breeds of purebred dogs; biologically engineered dog breeds such as Maltese’s, Shih-tzus, and Poodles. Have you ever wondered why this is? Is there some purpose for it that we don’t even know about? Or is it a throwback from some elusive ancestors of ours somewhere else besides earth? Or is this a defect from us being biologically engineered.

In I871, in The Descent Of Man, Charles Darwin suggested this happens because we’re the only creature on earth that has evolved the intelligence to cut hair. I’m not sure I buy this. He also suggested we humans may have evolved such hair as a means of sexual attraction. But Darwin also believed that many things we evolved were for the purpose of sexual attraction, but I tend to believe that we’d all be attracted to each other if we all looked like big raisins. Bottom line, Darwin really didn’t know either. The hair seems to have no purpose for our basic survival, and actually could undermine survival if it wasn’t kept under control by artificial means. So why IS our hair the way it is?

2. Humans have numerous allergies

Humans, strangely, are allergic to lots of things in their environment. If we were really true creatures of earth, why are we often hyper-sensitive to or just plain allergic to our own world? It’s one thing to be allergic to our man-made substances, but it’s quite another to be allergic to the trees and plants in our back yard; all the flora of the planet we’re supposed to have come from.

Based on Darwin’s ideas about continuously-growing hair, these allergies could have plagued us because humans are the only creatures with the intelligence to invent allergy medicines. Do you see where I’m going with this? I’m trying to point out how ridiculous some of our traits are and how authorities attempt to explain them within a framework of reference to things with which we’re familiar. But the only other creatures on earth that have allergy problems to this degree are, you guessed it, purebred dogs and cats and other domesticated animals. Bio-engineered animals whose biology has been tampered with by another species: us.

Have we been tampered with by some other species? Are we part extra-terrestrial, or did we maybe bio-engineer ourselves in some way?

Other animals in their wild, natural environments don’t have these problems to any degree. And if they do, it makes their survival more challenging. We survive because of our intelligence and adaptability. Our bio-engineered pets and domestic animals survive due to our intelligence and intervention. So, are we another bio-engineered species, created by…some other species…from somewhere else besides earth? Or did we bio-engineer ourselves by accident? Who knows?

3. Humans Seem Poorly Designed To Live On Planet Earth

Most people believe that humans now populate all the furthest corners of this planet. They believe we are everywhere and there is no part of the planet left that we haven’t conquered. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are still many places on earth that humans have not set foot on. And that’s mostly because it’s too hard for us to get there. We are simply not designed for it. And humans historically, instead of defining themselves by being in tune with nature, have often defined themselves by being able to conquer nature.

This is the exact opposite of the wild animals around us that seem to be perfectly suited to the world around them with the hearing, eyesight, sense of smell, body covering, subcutaneous fat, camouflage, size, shape, and reproductive traits to survive in their unique environments.

Humans are limited to where they can live on the planet. We don’t seem to be well- adapted to any particular terrain. Our hairless skin often burns in the sun if we lack enough skin pigment. Our lack of hair or fur would allow us to freeze to death without clothing in many areas of the world. We don’t have particularly keen eyesight or hearing or olfactory senses that might be helpful to our basic survival. And yet, here we are. A completely unique and weird being, separate from all the rest that live here, relying solely on our wits to remain here.

But instead of being tailor made for our world, we seem to have to adapt our world to us. Which can arguably make us the most invasive species on the planet. Why is this? Aren’t invasive species those that have been brought in to an area from somewhere else? And don’t they wreak havoc and upset the balance in their new areas? If we were meant to be here, and if we are natural inhabitants of the planet, why are we so invasive and destructive? As that destructive nature could lead to the end of our survival here, how does that make sense?

4. Humans have DNA that can’t be recognized

Back in the 1970’s, when biologists had their first glimpse of the big picture of human genes, they saw small bits of strange DNA that seemed to be floating in a weird cesspool of unidentified muck. Since they couldn’t identify it and it seemed to have no real function, they labeled it as “nothing more than junk DNA.” And this phrase “junk DNA” stuck for decades afterward, and is still used occasionally.

And as the group at Scientific American known as Encode are trying to make sense of our genetic code, they are also systematically attempting to eliminate the term junk DNA. But the nature of this DNA is still mostly “not understood.” And some have described this DNA as being “otherworldly” or “not of this world.”

So, if this DNA truly may be “not of this world,” then the big question is where did it come from? What is our true inheritance? And until it’s identified positively, we need to ask whether it holds a great secret about our origins.

5. Human intelligence has been forced to compensate for our many flaws

6. Humans are emotionally and intellectually conflicted.

Why do we always seem to have an internal conflict going between our logical side and our wild side? It’s almost like we have two beings inside of us. One that relies on instinct and does what comes naturally, something like an animal. And then there’s that logical side that tries to stop this kind of behavior. Are the rest of the animals in the kingdom so conflicted this way? I suspect not. They just do what comes naturally to them. We are in a constant struggle over this. Humans are the only animals on the planet that question their existence and question their own instincts.

In the famous novel about acquiring secret knowledge, The Celestine Prophecy, it explained that humans are in a constant state of resolution of the personalities of their two parents. We’re always trying to find a balance between the two. Is that us? Did we originally have one wild parent and one possibly more highly intelligent parent?


I’m sure there are many out there who will scoff at what I’m saying and they’ll go with the popular scientific explanations for my questions. And that’s fine. It’s comforting to think that everything in our world makes perfect sense in some way. But it doesn’t. Not yet, at least.

And my point is that until something is proved beyond doubt by anyone, it’s wide open for questioning, especially when you really look at the strangeness and the inconsistencies of everything around you.

Has Mother Nature been violated in some way? Is there an amazingly profound story of humanity we haven’t been told? Are we the upsetters of the delicate balance who maybe aren’t supposed to be here at all? I’m leaving it up to science to eventually answer all the questions. I’m just asking them.
*****DAF



This Post By TCC Team Member Dorraine Alters-Fisher. Dorraine is a Professional Writer, a nature, wildlife and Bigfoot enthusiast who has written for many magazines. Dorraine conducts research, special interviews and more for The Crypto Crew. Get Dorraine's book The Book Of Blackthorne!



This post sponsored in part by

Read More

Mark your calendars for Feb 20th! Charlie Raymond founder of KBRO and I will be talking about BIGFOOT!

This event will raise fund via donations and raffles to help local children with cancer. There is probably not one person who has not been effected by cancer in some way.The cost of travel and treatment can be devastating on a family. Well, now is your chance to help. If you can't make the event and would still like to donate, then please contact me personally by CLICKING HERE.

This event was organized by Randy Isaac, Appalachian Bigfoot on Facebook.

So far, there has been some nice items donated to help raise money for these children. Creatureplica has donated some figures to be raffled off, they are awesome and a great collectors item. There has also been some signed artwork.

So make sure to come out and help theses families.

In the event this event is cancelled for any reason (snow,sickness, ect) any donated funds will still be given to help these sick children.

Don't forget this event! It's for a good cause. Please feel free to share

Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.


This post sponsored in part by

Read More

Hellhounds as they appear in the hit game Call of Duty Black Ops 2

A hellhound is a supernatural dog in folklore. A wide variety of ominous or hellish supernatural dogs occur in mythologies around the world, similar to the often seen dragon. Features that have been attributed to hellhounds include mangled black fur, glowing red eyes, super strength or speed, ghostly or phantom characteristics, and a foul odor. Certain European legends state that if someone stares into a hellhound's (perrish's) eyes twice or more, that person will surely die. In cultures that associate the afterlife with fire, hellhounds may have fire-based abilities and appearance. They are often assigned to guard the entrances to the world of the dead, such as graveyards and burial grounds, or undertake other duties related to the afterlife or the supernatural, such as hunting lost souls or guarding a supernatural treasure.

In European legends, seeing a hellhound or hearing it howl may be an omen or even a cause of death. They are said to be the protectors of the supernatural(scotts pack). Guarding the secrecy of supernatural creatures, or beings, from the world.
Some supernatural dogs, such as the Welsh Cŵn Annwn, were regarded as benign, but encountering them was still considered a sign of imminent death.


The most famous hellhound is probably Cerberus from Greek mythology. Hellhounds are also famous for appearing in Northern European mythology and folklore as a part of the Wild Hunt. These hounds are given several different names in local folklore, but they display typical hellhound characteristics. The myth is common across Great Britain, and many names are given to the apparitions: Moddey Dhoo of the Isle of Man, Gwyllgi of Wales, and so on. The earliest mention of these myths are in both Walter Map's De Nugis Curianium (1190) and the Welsh myth cycle of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (ca. tenth to thirteenth century).

Robert Johnson

In southern Mexico and Central America folklore, the Cadejo is a big black dog that haunts travellers who walk late at night on rural roads. The term is also common in American blues music, such as with Robert Johnson's 1937 song, Hellhound on My Trail.

In Greek mythology the hellhound belonged to Hades, the Greek god of death and the underworld, its name in Greek mythology is Cerberus, it has three heads but is still black with razor sharp teeth and super strength, it is used to guard the gates of hell.

Barghest, Bargtjest, Bo-guest, Bargest or Barguest is the name often given in the north of England, especially in Yorkshire, to a legendary monstrous black dog with huge teeth and claws, though in other cases the name can refer to a ghost or Household elf, especially in Northumberland and Durham. One is said to frequent a remote gorge named Troller's Gill. There is also a story of a Barghest entering the city of York occasionally, where, according to legend, it preys on lone travellers in the city's narrow Snickelways. Whitby is also associated with the spectre. A famous Barghest was said to live near Darlington who was said to take the form of a headless man (who would vanish in flames), a headless lady, a white cat, a dog, rabbit and black dog. Another was said to live in an "uncannie-looking" dale between Darlington and Houghton, near Throstlenest.

The derivation of the word barghest is disputed. Ghost in the north of England was once pronounced guest, and the name is thought to be burh-ghest: town-ghost. Others explain it as German Berg-geist (mountain spirit), or Bär-geist (bear-spirit), in allusion to its alleged appearance at times as a bear. Another mooted derivation is 'Bier-Geist', the 'spirit of the funeral bier'.

The Bearer of Death is a term used in describing the Hellhound. Hellhounds have been said to be as black as coal and smell of burning brimstone. They tend to leave behind a burned area wherever they go. Their eyes are a deep, bright, and almost glowing red. They have razor sharp teeth, super strength and speed, and are commonly associated with graveyards and the underworld. Hellhounds are called The Bearers of Death because they were supposedly created by ancient demons to serve as heralds of death. According to legend, seeing one leads to a person's death. Sometimes it is said to be once; other times it requires three sightings for the curse to take effect and kill the victim. These factors make the Hellhound a feared symbol and worthy of the name “Bearer of Death”. The Hellhound has been seen several times throughout history, and it is not specific to any one place. The most recent sightings occurred in Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, and Vilseck, Germany, in or near cemeteries.

The hit TV show Mountain Monsters, did a show on the Hellhound. They traveled to Pike county Kentucky. Here is the full episode.



Black Shuck or Old Shuck is the name given to a ghostly black dog said to roam the Norfolk, Essex, and Suffolk coastline. Black Shuck is sometimes referred to as the Doom Dog.
For centuries, inhabitants of England have told tales of a large black dog with malevolent flaming eyes (or in some variants of the legend a single eye) that are red or alternatively green. They are described as being 'like saucers'. According to reports, the beast varies in size and stature from that of simply a large dog to being the size of a horse.

There are legends of Black Shuck roaming the Anglian countryside since before Vikings. His name may derive from the Old English word scucca meaning "demon", or possibly from the local dialect word shucky meaning "shaggy" or "hairy". The legend may have been part of the inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.

It is said that his appearance bodes ill to the beholder, although not always. More often than not, stories tell of Black Shuck terrifying his victims, but leaving them alone to continue living normal lives; in some cases it has supposedly happened before close relatives to the observer die or become ill. In other tales he's considered relatively benign, and said to accompany women on their way home in the role of protector rather than a portent of ill omen.


Sometimes Black Shuck has appeared headless, and at other times he appears to float on a carpet of mist. According to folklore, the spectre often haunts graveyards, sideroads, crossroads and dark forests. Black Shuck is also said to haunt the coast road between West Runton and Overstrand.

One of the most notable reports of Black Shuck is of his appearance at the churches of Bungay and Blythburgh in Suffolk. On 4 August 1577, at Blythburgh, Black Shuck is said to have burst in through the church doors. He ran up the nave, past a large congregation, killing a man and boy and causing the church tower to collapse through the roof. As the dog departed, he left scorch marks on the north door that remain to this day. Two men were touched by the beast and fell down dead
The encounter on the same day at Bungay was described in "A Strange and Terrible Wonder" by the Reverend Abraham Fleming in 1577:

This black dog, or the devil in such a linenesse (God hee knoweth al who worketh all,) running all along down the body of the church with great swiftness, and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible forum and shape, passed between two persons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them both at one instant clene backward, in so much that even at a moment where they knelled, they strangely died.

Other accounts attribute the event to lightning or the Devil. The scorch marks on the door are referred to by the locals as "the devil’s fingerprints", and the event is remembered in this verse:

All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.

The appearance in Chignal St James/Chignal Smealy, small villages near Chelmsford, Essex are said to have occurred many years ago. All those said to have seen the red-eyed devil dog are rumored to have met an untimely end within a year, matching the legend that all that see Black Shuck perish within a year of looking into his eyes.

(source wikipedia )

I can remember an old story that was told throughout our family about a family member walking at night on the railroad tracks. As he walked something kept brushing his leg. He reach down with his hand, without looking, a couple times and nothing was there. Then after feeling it again, he looked to see what it was and seen a headless dog walking beside him. The dogs tail was hitting his leg. Now, I can't remember the story in a lot of detail but best I can remember the dog vanished as the man ran off.  This supposedly took place close to where I live now and probably more than 50 years ago.

I have heard reports about truck drivers seeing the "black dog" but have never spoken to anyone who said they saw one.

If anyone has seen what they think might be a Hellhound or Black dog, feel free to share your story via the "Report a sighting" link or just Click here.

Hellhounds and Black dogs - are they real? lets us know what you think or have saw.

Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.


This post sponsored in part by

Read More

Did an eagle-eyed viewer spot a possible bigfoot during a past show? I got the above still shot from Robert, he wrote to me and sent in the above still frame from the his DVR. I think, this was from the most recent episode of Finding Bigfoot, Dronie Loves Squatchie.

While we may never know if this is part of the crew, a shadow or actually a bigfoot, it's still fun to speculate.





So, with that said I have attempted to zoom in and enhance the possible figure.
In this zoomed in shot you can see it does really look like an actual figure and not just a shadow.
 









In this further enhancement, it appears to have a human/bigfoot type of shape. Of course, we will never know what this figure was but it make a person wonder. Was it part of the film crew, was it a bigfoot? We will never know.





A good catch by Robert, thanks for sending it in to us.

Now, wouldn't it be kind of  funny and a bit ironic if the Finding Bigfoot show was being watched by a bigfoot and they never knew it?  We may need to watch a little more closely.



Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.



This post sponsored in part by

Read More

Here is the archive of last nights Monster X radio show that featured myself and team member Dorraine Fisher. The lasted about 2 hours and we covered a large range of topics. There were still many area we did not get into but many we will be invited back on the show. The 2 hours went by pretty fast it seemed. 

I hope you enjoy it.

Check Out Science Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Monster X Radio1 on BlogTalkRadio with Monster X Radio on BlogTalkRadio

Special thanks to the Monster X radio crew for having us on and promoting our facebook page, website and out research.


Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.



This post sponsored in part by

Read More