Cryptozoology

Now that it is most definitely October, we thought it'd be fun to talk about the science behind some of the classic horror stories associated with Halloween, and about some animals that are generally associated with the spooky, occult, or unknown. Until Halloween, we'll be focusing on these topics to help get everyone into the spirit! Our first topic is the study of hidden monsters: cryptozoology.

Cryptozoology is the name for the field that focuses on finding cryptids, or animals that, so far, only exist in folklore and oral traditions. Some examples of these unknown animals are Bigfoot (or Yeti in the Himalayas); Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland; and the chupacabra of Mexico and the southwestern U.S. states, but it turns out there are hundreds of creatures that fit into the cryptid category. Because it does not follow the scientific method, a process where hypotheses are proposed, evidence is collected and analyzed, and conclusions are drawn that either reject or support the hypotheses, cryptozoology is considered a pseudoscience, halfway between zoology and the branch of cultural anthropology that focuses on folklore and legend.

A map showing some of the cryptids of American folklore and oral tradition.
From: https://www.hogislandpress.com/product/monster-map

I first heard of some of the animals in the graphic above from a television show that aired on Animal Planet. I used to wake up very early before school started, which meant my options for TV shows were limited. Animal Planet always had something on though, and for a while one of the shows I watched was Lost Tapes. Every episode focused on a different cryptid's story, going through the original folklore in between flashbacks from "lost tapes" that show a victim's interaction with one of the fearsome, mysterious animals. Every story was fictional, but some were done so well and were so unnerving that I think about them to this day.

The show only lasted for 34 episodes, unfortunately, and exposed its audience to monsters such as the Thunderbird, Wendigo, Hellhound, and the Jersey Devil. The descriptions of these animals and the legends behind them can be skin-crawling, and I think the show did an excellent job of presenting the monsters in a way consistent with the right levels of reverence and fear. I personally enjoyed learning about the history of the legends more so than seeing the flashback parts of the episodes, but sometimes they'd also share information about recent possible sightings of the animals. It always made me want to go out and try to find something on my own.

Luckily Animal Planet has another show about hunting a cryptid that I can watch instead of camping all over the country (even though I'll probably do that on my own anyway). This show is, of course, Finding Bigfoot. On the show a small team of Bigfoot enthusiasts go to towns where Bigfoot sightings have occurred and then attempt to have their own encounters. This team takes their work seriously, even though there is no concrete physical evidence of any kind of large ape living undetected in the continental U.S. and Canada. The team meet with local people who have stories to share, and then the team goes out into the area where the sightings occurred to recreate the encounter. They do this to figure out what kind of animal could fit the description the witness gives. A majority of the time, the team actually rules out Bigfoot as the culprit for an unusual sound at night or a quick glimpse in the woods, and instead attributes the encounter to a bear, elk, or deer.

The team also spend time walking around the woods at night, making Bigfoot calls and knocking on sticks as Bigfoot is thought to do. They use thermal imaging and night vision goggles to heighten their sense of sight and maximize any chance of seeing a Bigfoot. Their ultimate goal is to find definitive proof that Bigfoot exists, and the show exists to document their adventures. The probability that a large, bipedal primate (aka Bigfoot) has consistently escaped any kind of detection by modern humans is very small, but non-zero. This uncertainty fuels their curiosity and drives them to keep looking.

Model of Latimeria chalumnae in the Oxford Univ. Museum of Natural History.
Photo by: Ballista at the English Language Wikipedia

While it is unlikely that anyone will ever find hard evidence of Bigfoot's existence, it is important to acknowledge that there are still many things that science cannot answer. Wildlife biologists discover new species every year, and while the vast majority are new insects, invertebrates, and amphibians, sometimes a new mammalian or even primate species is found. Sometimes animals thought to be extinct reappear in the modern day; for decades, paleontologists thought the ceolacanth fish extinct since the Cretaceous, until one was caught off the east coast of South Africa on December 23, 1938. It was Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, curator at the East London Museum, who recognized the unusual fish in the catch of a local fishing captain, and brought it to the world's attention. Today, there are coelacanths in museums around the world.

Any scientist needs to walk a razor's edge between keeping an open mind to all possibilities while carefully and critically examine all the evidence in front of them to find the best answer. Often this means that there are far more likely explanations for something than "Bigfoot did it," hence why the existence of these animals isn't in any way guaranteed. What is fascinating to me is seeing all the ways that humans have explained nature around them and passed stories down through the centuries, and how they have spread across cultures. It also reminds me that there is much left in our world to discover and investigate, some of it fairly nearby! I'd love to get a story about the Mogollon Monster this weekend when I go hiking. I guess you'll have to wait for next week's blog article to find out what happens!

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Tapes
http://aplostapes.wikia.com/wiki/Lost_Tapes_Wiki
https://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/finding-bigfoot/
http://www.dinofish.com/discoa.htm