Archive for the ‘creature features’ category

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The Yeti-Bear?

October 18, 2013

Yeti– – I’m thankful for hairy hominids, without which this blog might soon expire from starvation.  And so, good readers, if you can suffer one more yeti theory, we offer yet another explanation being advanced:  the yeti is a type of previously-unknown, hybrid bear.

British researcher Bryan Sykes, a human geneticist at Oxford, has analyzed hairs from two alleged yetis, sequenced their DNA, and found a 100% match with a DNA sample from the jaw of an ancient polar bear.  Now Sykes is not saying that there are ancient polar bears wandering around in the Himalayas, but only that there could be a subspecies of brown bear in the High Himalayas descended from the bear that was the ancestor to the polar bear.  The Yeti accordingly may be a hybrid descended from two species of bear, an extinct polar bear and a closely related brown bear.

Such a species of bear might behave differently from other known bears, possibly being more dangerous, aggressive, or bipedal…and this Abominable Snowman apparently has a unique ability to cause any video recording device to go out of focus…

Categories: animals, anomalies, controversial, creature features, cryptozoology, research, unexplained, unidentified
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“Fleshy Corpses” and Other Fun Things…

May 9, 2013

sea monster

– – I’m always interested in unidentifiable mystery carcasses washing up on shore!  It’s better still if bathers are on the beach when it happens.  Submitted for your approval is this rather ferocious and prehistoric-looking specimen which washed up on Pukehina Beach in New Zealand…and no, I did not make up the name “Pukehina,” although it serves my purposes well.  About 9 meters in length with the lower part of the body mostly entrails from an attack, speculations soon surfaced that the remains were some kind of sea monster.   It probably didn’t smell like roses, either!

A marine mammal expert, however, has identified the remains as most likely being those of a killer whale, or orca.  When creatures wash ashore in a severe state of decomposition, they really don’t look their best, you see, and may not even look much like they did in life.   Bizarre-looking carcasses have been misidentified as sea monsters or even dinosaurs for generations.  Some masses of tissue brought up by the sea are so far gone as to be called, “blobsters.”  

In 1896, for example, a massive, six-foot-high “fleshy corpse” came ashore at St. Augustine, Florida.  After lots of speculation and probably gagging, a naturalist of the time decided that it was some kind of giant octopus previously unknown to science.  Then in 2003, something 40 feet long weighing 13 tons washed ashore on a beach in Chile.  Labeled the “Chilean Blob,” the remains were determined to be whale blubber.   More recently in 2008, I’m sure we can all remember the Montauk Monster, although this was much more modestly sized, being by most estimations the remains of a raccoon or a boxer dog.  Hopefully some more good stuff will wash up sometime soon, giving us material to write about!

…Anyways, there’s gotta be a really memorable bad movie for the Syfy channel lurking amidst all of this talk of fleshy corpses and bizarre-looking carcasses…Attack of the Blobster, maybe, I dunno…

Categories: bizarre, creature features, events involving animals, mysteries, strange happenings, weird
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Mythic Mayhem!

March 29, 2012

— It’s not easy being a demigod; everyone expects great things out of you!  Pity poor Perseus; as if whipping the Kraken wasn’t enough in 2010’s Clash of the Titans, now he has to beat a whole host of other assorted monsters in Wrath of the Titans.  There will be a slew of them to boot in this special effects extravaganza, everything from a thirty-foot high Cyclops to a Minotaur to my personal fave, a Chimera…I just like things with multiple heads and incongruous parts that spew fire, that’s the way I roll!  Mighty Kronos himself enters the fray,  just dripping with lava…what more could a boy want?  Yes, I know, robots, zombies, mummies, aliens, and werewolves are extremely cool too, but you can’t have them all in the same movie and preserve artistic integrity.- -Besides, I’d die of too much happiness!

While most of the beasties are computer generated, the Minotaur is played by an actor in a latex suit who underwent four hours of makeup for each day on the set!   You’ll also see Perseus’ noble winged steed Pegasus, and the demonic Makhai, who attack like whirling dervishes.  

This isn’t Shakespeare, but it’s good guy fun…and what’s wrong with that?  Wrath of the Titans opens March 30th…and it’s a cornucopia of creatures!!!– -Woo-hoo!

Categories: animal oddities, animals, anomalies, anthropomorphic, cool things, creature features, fantasy, furry, imaginary animals, movies
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MiO “Cheetah” at “The Watering Hole!

March 6, 2012

– – A rhinoceros, a cheetah, and a gazelle walk into a bar…it sounds like a hokey joke, but it’s the theme for a Kraft MiO liquid water enhancer commercial!   Blending the line between live action and animation, the spot makes over wild animals into twenty-something dudes, inhabiting a bar appropriately called, The Watering Hole.  The Rhino is a solid, muscular guy with glasses wearing a tight T-shirt labeled (–What else?) “Animal.”  The Cheetah is a sleek speedster in a leather jacket who bewails the fact that MiO energy drinks are “completely crushing my game” by making everyone “…more energized, more alert” after mixing MiO into their water.  As a result, the Cheetah is no longer the fastest beast around!

“Remember when I used to be it?,” continues the Cheetah.  “I was the man.  If you needed to track a gazelle down for dinner, you came to me.”  At that point a jeans-jacket wearing Gazelle literally laughs in the Cheetah’s face!

It’s a great furry bar scene, a place where I’d certainly be at home!  Watch for a future spot to include a giraffe…

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, creature features, furry, furry commercials, television
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Enter the Wolf…

January 18, 2012

– – Before vampires were pretty and made babies with human girlfriends, Anne Rice showed us how things should have been in her acclaimed Vampire Chronicles series that began in 1976.  Rice’s vampire Lestat was cunning, ruthless, rather classy, and quite magnetic, his exploits detailed in a series that had considerable literary merit.  Even folks not ordinarily into vampires found Rice’s  tales a powerful draw.  The giddy ride ended when Rice began writing books about angels and the life of Christ, leaving us literate horror fans to cry in our root beer.

That long dry spell may be alleviated with Rice’s return to horror at least  to a degree in her upcoming release, The Wolf Gift, coming in February on Valentine’s Day (–what could be more appropriate?)!  Called both a return and a departure, Rice’s new work marks a return to the horror genre, but with spiritual  elements as the lead male werewolf character is a kind of protector or guardian.  The book is also a departure in that Rice has never done the lycanthrope scene before.  She is, however, expected to bring her intelligent blend of class and romanticism to the effort while delivering the jolts.

While details about the work are few, it sounds promising.  Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the featured werewolf, a reporter operating in California, suffers no “disconnect” following a transformation; rather, he can recall all of his actions the previous night when in the wolf state.  This werewolf would also appear to suffer less angst about his status, and rather to see the potential in the “gift.”  We learn how the central character became a werewolf, and follow his growth in that condition and as part of a greater scheme.

So I’m looking forward to reading this one, and won’t wait until it’s on the bargain table…The Wolf Gift is not a present I’m likely to return!

Categories: cool things, creature features, furry, furry literature, furry stories
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Not the Usual Suspects…

October 29, 2011

 – – “Grimm…what a lovely name!,“  once remarked Morticia Addams.  In this new NBC series, a Grimm is a hunter of mythological creatures which only the hunters and their kind can perceive under the guise of normality as such beings walk among us.  Echoing such past shows as The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel, Grimm has been described as “one part police procedural drama and one part supernatural slug fest,”  drawing story lines and characters from the sizable corpus of Grimm’s fairy tales, many of which are dark delights.

In the season premier, we meet a reformed Big Bad Wolf, who is not big, no longer bad, does Pilates, and attends church.  There are others of his werewolf kind, but they don’t hang out much; bad things happen, ‘ya see, when they get into packs.   Some werewolves continue to exist who still do bad things like kill and abduct, but even the one perp the story concerns is a mixed bag who wears nice sweaters, lives in a beautiful mountain house, makes pies, works for the government postal service(–what else?), and keeps a young girl captive in his basement. –But hey, as Clint Eastwood’s character emoted in Tightrope, “There’s a darkness inside us all.”


This isn’t The X-Files, but I enjoyed the opener, and hope for some Grimm times ahead.   Of furry interest is the reformed werewolf, who apparently in going to be a continuing character in the series, as is the toothy female pictured…

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, creature features, fantasy, furry, television
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“Cloverfield” Sequel?

September 1, 2011

 – – Whether and when there will be a sequel to the 2008 sci-fi movie Cloverfield is a topic of wild speculation, with no clear answer to either question at present.  I loved the original, although it took several viewings for the film to really grow on me.  Some good movies have had some disappointing or bad sequels, and I would hope that if a sequel is made, it would be worthy of its predecessor without that original essentially being re-made.  Clearly, the “hooks” are there on which a sequel could be mounted, most notably the creature’s apparent survival of even nuclear attack.   Speculations from the fandom have included a film made from the military’s perspective, a prequel, or even a film from the monster’s perspective! 

I am guardedly hopeful that a sequel will eventually be made, although probably not in the near future.   Director Matt Reeves and producer J.J. Abrams have had a variety of other projects, although interest reportedly still exists in eventually returning to the Cloverfield universe…

Categories: aliens, creature features, movies
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“Mongo-D” for Short…

May 8, 2011

 – – I, for one, find it easy to obsess over Mongolian Death Worms;  they are reputedly large,  homicidal red worms that spew fiery acid, burrow in one of the world’s largest and coldest deserts,  can reportedly electrocute unlucky things like camels and goat-herders from a distance, and for a finale, explode when they get angry! –What’s not to like, Mongo-D has it all!

Certain aspects of the biology of the Mongolian Death Worm are not unfamiliar; big worms are not uncommon, with Australia hosting earthworms that can reach five foot lengths.  Spitting acid is also fairly common among arthropods, to say nothing of my former supervisors.  Intestinal worms can also bring down an animal, although they need to be inside it to perform that feat.  It’s when you combine all of these attributes that you get a really cool, otherworldly-type of cryptid!

The subject of investigations by Destination Truth and even National Geographic,  the Mongolian Death Worm has never been found, leaving us only with eyewitness testimonies about them and at least one really bad movie…

Categories: anomalies, creature features, cryptozoology, unexplained, unidentified, weird
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A Goat Walked Into a Music Store…

April 20, 2011

 – – It sounds like a set-up line for a really bad joke, but it actually happened at a piano store in the southeastern Idaho town of Ammon!  The goat is reported to have followed a woman and her child into the Piano Gallery on Monday.  The staff corralled the goat in a bathroom until animal control arrived.

Dubbed “Beethoven” for its apparent love of music, the goat is being held at the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter;  if it isn’t claimed, someone is ready to adopt it.

We would suspect that the goat was just looking for some sheeeet music for his kids…


Categories: animal behavior, animal occurrences, animals, creature features, furry, strange happenings
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Werefoxes…

April 18, 2011

 – – On this night of the full moon, I find it appropriate to post about my fave were-animal, the werefox.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love werewolves dearly…some of my best friends, and all!  With the understandable excitement over werewolves, however, the other were-animals tend to be neglected a bit,  yet fall into the same furry shapeshifting family.

Werefox stories are common to northern China, where they are seen to inhabit the netherworld between the material plane and the unseen dimensions.  They can take human form and mate with normal humans, although such people tend to turn into a zombie-like slave of the werefox;  (–heh, gotta get me some of those!).  Even while in human form, the werefox retains his or her fox tail, which can be a dead give-away when it pops out of clothing!  The werefox can also lose control of its human form when it sleeps or gets good and drunk.  This can pose a major embarrassment.

Werefoxes are not the strongest of the were-animals, and are accordingly not as likely to rip deserving individuals to shreds.  They are rather more inclined to mess with the heads of their intended victims, playing heavy-grade tricks on them or perhaps laying a curse on their sorry asses.  For this reason werefoxes are often associated with sorcery, and in Native American legends sorcerers preferred to shapeshift into this form. – – Can’t say that I blame them!

So support and respect your friendly neighborhood werefox, and give him his due…you may have found a clever and resourceful new friend!


Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, cool things, creature features, furry spirits
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