Weird Animal Report | The place for cryptozoology buffs and cryptids, from the chupacabra to the yeti!

Box Turtle found 47 years later

This sturdy little fellow didn't wander far from home.

(I have to preface this by saying that this is a neat story, but please do not carve your initials into a turtle's shell! I mean honestly.)

In 1955, a 13 year-old boy in Pennsylvania spotted an Eastern box turtle strolling through his back yard. The boy, Jeff Cokeley, picked the turtle up and carved his initials into the scales on the turtle's belly, or plastron. (I suppose this was an ordinary sort of thing for a 13 year-old boy to do in 1955, even if it does sound a little bit "pre-serial-killer-y" in modern times. Thank goodness little Jeff didn't find a stray dog in his yard instead!)

47 years later, Jeff's father, now an 85 year-old man, still lives in the same house. Jeff's father notices an Eastern box turtle in his back yard. He picks it up, flips it over… and sees the initials his son carved in the 1950s!

Jeff's father took pictures of the turtle and sent them to Jeff, who is now a 59 year-old man who works for Kodak and lives in Rochester, New York. Jeff confirmed that it was indeed "his" turtle.

This story is bizarre and fascinating, but maybe not as unusual as you might think. Reptiles as a whole tend to have long lifespans, and the Eastern box turtle is known to be particularly long-lived. In the wild, they can live over 100 years, although they generally live shorter lives in captivity.

Thus it's possible that, if the turtle was only a few years old when Jeff Cokeley first encountered it, that it could live long enough for his great-great-grandchildren to stumble across it 40 years from now!

Luckily for Jeff's turtle, he only carved his initials into the turtle's scutes, and not directly into its shell. What we think of as a turtle's shell is actually two layers. The first is the underlying bone, which is part of the turtle's skeletal system. The outside of the bone is then covered with scutes, which are a modified form of scale, evolutionarily equivalent to a lizard's scales.

Unlike other turtles, the box turtle has a hinged shell. This allows it to close itself up entirely inside its shell, whereas other turtle species have to leave their tails and feet blocking the entrance. This adaptation has made box turtles essentially immune from predation. Unfortunately, their slow movements have left them vulnerable to cars and large farming equipment, and their habitat loss is also pushing the Eastern box turtle towards the "threatened" category.

The Silver Carp Menace

These 40lb monsters fly out of the water when scared

When will humanity learn to stop messing with the introduction of invasive species? America is playing host to dozens of introduced species, but few are as dramatic - or as threatening to humans, in addition to the ecosystem - as the Silver carp.

Several species are called "Asian carp," but the one which is causing assault and battery problems in America's waterways is the Silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix. This large relative of the familiar goldfish is a domesticated animal in China, where it has been cultivated for over a thousand years. They are a key species for both food and as ingredients in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Silver carp are voracious filter feeders, who use special gill rakers to filter zooplankton and algae. This makes them virtually impossible for anglers to catch them with a standard rod and reel, because they do not see insects or other lures as a food source.

In the 1970s, some municipal governments and aquaculture ranchers imported the Silver carp, for use as living water filters. Because the fish feed more or less constantly on suspended algae and particulates, they can be helpful in clearing water which is otherwise prone to becoming green and soupy.

Can you guess what happened next? Yep, they escaped.

The Silver carp probably wouldn't be such a menace, if it weren't for its size. Each carp can grow to over 40lbs. And when frightened, their primary means of defense is to leap into the air - up to 10 feet high!

Even this wouldn't be such a big problem, except that what apparently scares Silver carp the most is motor boats.

Silver carp have become a serious threat to human safety in waterways where they are abundant. If you power a motor boat through a carp-infested river, the carp begin to jump wildly in every direction. It may sound absurd, even funny - but you won't be laughing when you get hit in the face with a 40lb fish. People jet-skiing, boating, and inner tubing in carp rivers have suffered broken bones, broken vertebra, and in one case a broken jaw.

The EPA is attempting to barricade the Great Lakes waterway system from the Silver carp, and has so far been successful. These large fish can be stopped by dams and locks, but there is always the chance that a baby - or even some fertilized eggs - can be washed into the Great Lakes and establish a beachhead.

Could Nessie Be A Sleeper Shark?

This Arctic shark could be making its way upriver

An Alaskan biologist has an interesting new theory about the Loch Ness Monster and the Lake Iliamna Monster: he thinks these are sightings of the mysterious Pacific sleeper shark. Biologist Bruce Wright is planning expeditions to Lake Iliamna this summer, and a Loch Ness expedition for 2013 to investigate this theory.

The Pacific sleeper shark, a large relative of the dogfish, is typically a resident of the deep sea and continental shelves, down to 6,600 feet below the surface. Pacific sleeper sharks generally grow to 14 feet long, although they can get up to 23 feet long. In general shape, size, and color, Pacific sleeper sharks do match reports of the Lake Iliamna monster - and they certainly have the potential to attack people.

The Bull shark is the most well-known shark incursion into fresh water. However, many people have speculated that other shark species can also at least tolerate fresh water for short periods of time, particularly when they are hungry and looking for food. Both Lake Iliamna and Loch Ness are fed by icy rivers that connect to the ocean, so it is plausible that Pacific sleeper sharks could make their way upstream on the hunt for salmon and other fish.

Wright admits that the Pacific sleeper shark is not typically seen at the surface, and that it has not been documented in bodies of fresh water. But the potential is there, and Wright feels that global climate change may be driving the sharks into new territory. In fact, sleeper sharks have been documented at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada in recent years, where they have allegedly attacked caribou.

Wright says that sleeper sharks have "proven themselves to be very adaptable," and believes that climate change may result in a situation where sleeper sharks take the place of orca and polar bear to become the Arctic's apex predator.

(As unlikely as this theory may seem, one has to admit it is still more credible than the second reigning theory, which is a relict population of aquatic dinosaurs.)

Personally, I'm not sure why we need to look farther than the sturgeon when pointing the finger at a possible source of lake monster sightings. As a bonus, sturgeon are known to live in fresh water and to come to the surface, unlike sleeper sharks. But I will be eagerly awaiting the results of Wright's expeditions at any rate!

Manatee Beach Party

Herd of manatees surprises Fort Lauderdale beach-goers

You can imagine the surprise of the bathers when a group of dark shapes moved through the surf towards them - but luckily, it proved to be a herd of manatees. Fort Lauderdale Beach is one of the most populated beaches in the nation, which makes it a surprising location to host one of our most endangered aquatic mammals.

The harmless vegetarian manatees seemed unaware of their human beach companions, although lifeguards quickly moved to push tourists back from the animals. As a protected species, it is against the law to touch or interfere with manatees, although you can't really blame the people on the video for reaching out to pat the animals. Who could resist such an opportunity?

The sad thing about this story is how unusual this event really was, leading many news outlets to call it "the surprise of a lifetime." Manatees inhabit shallow coastal waters, including rivers, beaches, and estuaries. Although they concentrate in Florida for winter, during summer they disperse as far north as Massachusetts, and as far west as Texas.

These large, slow-moving animals are often called "gentle giants." Although there is one event that gets them decidedly frisky: mating time!

Some of the onlookers described the Fort Lauderdale Beach manatees as "playing." One woman believed that it was a large female manatee "with four or five calves that were all jockeying for a good suckling position." (Note: manatees only give birth to one calf at a time.) However, this was almost certainly a mating herd.

Female manatees can go into season any time year round. When a female manatee is in heat, "a single female or cow will be followed by a group of a dozen or more males or bulls, forming a mating herd." The mating herds can be quite, shall we say, "boisterous." The males are competing with each other, at the same time they are jostling for position with the female.

This can go on for up to three weeks, and as you might imagine, the females find it quite tiring. And potentially dangerous as well: the males often attempt to weigh the female down, forcing her below the surface in their excitement. Thus, females in heat will often seek very shallow water so that they can rest without risk of being drowned.

All of which is to say that Fort Lauderdale Beach's reputation as a location for spring break bacchanalia is most assuredly still in place - with both human and non-human visitors alike! (But at least the manatees don't leave a bunch of empty red plastic Solo cups lying around.)

Chupacabras: Now They Fly?

DUCK!!!

The Huffington Post is carrying a somewhat less-than-sober article about the latest round of chupacabra attacks in Mexico. It seems that in this case, the attacks are being blamed on a flying chupacabra. This is based largely on the report of one man, who is said to have witnessed a creature which had "fangs, claws, and wings."

Now some people might pooh-pooh these reports, and say that the man happened to spot an owl on a fence post near some dead sheep, or even a turkey buzzard feeding on the carcass of a dead sheep. But let's not be so hasty! Maybe it's actually true that monsters from hell are attacking sheep in Mexico! After all, you hear about it so often, surely there's a kernel of truth?

Well… maybe not. Probably not, actually. Everyone is pretty sure. But hey, that's what they say about the Mothman, but people still report sightings!

The thing is, every untoward livestock death in Mexico tends to be blamed on the chupacabra. In many cases, it's not a literal thing. It's more along the lines of an American blaming "Murphy's Law" when they are late for work, or cursing "gremlins" when they lose their keys. The chupacabra is, to many people in Central and South America, an all-purpose bogeyman and vague instigator of trouble. Most people don't really believe it, but they talk about it anyway… sort of like the way we in America talk about "Chester the Molester" or "Peeping Tom." It's a figurative use of language, a metaphorical way of collecting a group of related phenomena, as well as washing one's hands of any blame in the matter.

You also have the element of the bogeyman. Many people in rural Central and South America will tell their children that monsters patrol the area at night. Because this is true in a very real sense - from jaguars to mercenary guerilla armies and drug runners, rural Mexico is no place for a kid to be out after dark. It's just easier to make a kid scared of a monster than it is to scare them with stories of children pressed into military service against their will, even if the latter is more truthful.

In the case of the chupacabra, and many other colloquial monsters, the joke is on us. Imagine if a team of scientists came to America to hunt down this "Murphy's Law" fellow and make him explain why he kept messing things up!

Spiky Sea Snake Discovered in Australia

New species is the spiniest limbless reptile around

As far as snakes go, the waterborne kind has got to be at least eight times as terrifying as the type that slithers around on land. Land snakes are predictable. They may be hard to see, but at least they come from where I expect them: tall grasses or leafy trees. They make sense to me. Sea snakes, on the other hand? Catch me off guard every time. I simply do not expect to see a snake head pop up when I'm looking out over a swamp or a lake. Snakes don't even have appendages with which to swim. What are they doing out there in the water? How are they not drowning? And how many swimming children have they eaten today?

In case sea snakes weren't freaky enough on their own, nature has gone ahead and coughed up the kind that is entirely covered in spikes. Yep; instead of those smooth, shiny scales we're used to seeing on our limbless crawlers, these guys have armored themselves with rough, pointy skin that looks sharp enough to shred any potential captors to ribbons. This brand new species of snake was discovered off the coast of northern Australia, where all your nightmares come to life. Did I mention they're venomous? Cause they are.

A team of scientists led by Kanishka Ukuwela of the University of Adelaide discovered the new kind of snake while exploring shallow seagrass beds in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Wearing what I assume to be very thick gloves, the Australian scientists hauled a grand total of nine spiny snakes onto the decks of their boats. None of the researchers had ever seen anything like their catch. While some sea snakes may have spines along their bellies, no species has ever been known to be spiky all over.

Most species of sea snake in the area are discovered accidentally when they get tangled up in fishermen's trawls. But there's no reason to fish in the shallow areas where these new snakes live, so they've eluded capture so far.

Pretty much all the scientists have been able to deduce about their find is that it is dangerous and will likely kill you if you get too close. If the spines don't get you, the powerful venom will. The team is a little befuddled as to why the snakes would have evolved to be completely covered in spines, but my guess would be it has something to do with ruthlessly messing up any potential predators. I mean, why else would you grow weapons on your body throughout your evolutionary timeline if not to show everybody else up?

HUGE Insect Clings To Existence Unseen For 80 Years

The poignant tale of the Lord Howe Stick Insect, a.k.a. "Tree Lobster"

In the family of stick insects, the undisputed champion is the Lord Howe Island stick insect, "as big as a human hand," so big and meaty that European visitors nicknamed it the "tree lobster." Unfortunately, they also brought rats with them when they visited, and the rats quickly made short work of these enormous, unique insects. They were thought extinct until fairly recently, and NPR's Robert Krulwich has the incredible tale of their return.

They are gross, yes. The stuff of nightmares for many of us. But so exceptionally rare, because of our own careless actions. They are also unique among insects in that they form pair bonds, and during the day they sleep together, the male with three of his legs protectively over the female.

Dryococelus australis was able to cling to existence as a species, thanks to an improbable chain of events and a secret location which was incredibly inconvenient for everyone but the stick insects. They hung out for the last 80 years on a single melaleuca bush, on a promontory sticking out of the ocean about 10 miles away from Lord Howe Island. This rock - one hesitates to call it an "island" - is named Ball's Pyramid and shaped like a butter knife, sticking several hundred feet straight of the ocean.

There were rumors that something odd lurked in the high crevices of Ball's Pyramid. Droppings had been found over the years, and a few remains of extremely large dead insects. In 2001, a pair of Australian scientists and their assistants managed to scale the pinnacle after dark, and discovered the tiny relict population of nocturnal stick insects, 24 in total.

The insects' existence was tenuous at best. Before a collection team could be sent back, a rock slide nearly wiped out that one bush where the insects lived. Experts had decided to collect exactly four insects. Two were sent to a collector and specialist, but unfortunately they died after two weeks.

The other pair was sent to Patrick Honan at the Melbourne Zoo, and his lucky guess has to take credit for saving this species. The insects began to die for him, too, but "based on gut instinct" he mixed up nectar and calcium and fed it to the last remaining female, "drop by drop, as she lay curled up in his hand." She recovered, and has created a legacy of thousands of offspring.

And now what? They can't be released back to their home island, because the rats still run rampant. Even if the rats could be eradicated, will the islanders allow scientists to repopulate their island with horrifically large, shiny, black insects? It's impossible to know, but the last line of Krulwich's article says it all.

"I'm still here. Don't let me go."

Scientists Discover New Species of Leaf-Nosed Bat

Somewhat unsightly flying mammal found in Vietnam

Um, so. The National Geographic is calling what you see to the left there a "leaf-faced bat". I don't know about you, but I don't see leaves. Maybe that bat has leaves on its face in the same sense that Georgia O'Keefe painted flowers. And only flowers. If you catch my drift.

Anyway. That rather hideous alien orifice-faced mammal is very much real and there's more than one of them. An entire species of them, in fact. They've just been discovered in Vietnam, where apparently it's considered acceptable for bats to evolve into grotesque, bubbly-nosed beings. Nature's a little weird sometimes. Sometimes, I guess, it expresses its Freudian nightmares through the snouts of animals.

Vu Dinh Thong of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and his team were out trapping bats in Chu Mom Ray National Park when they spotted the oddly-nosed critter flying around with some of its better-known bat fellows. They didn't recognize that face and had an inkling that they had stumbled upon a formerly undocumented species of flying mammal. Upon capturing it, the team found that the leaf-nosed bat was of a far gentler temperament than other bats of its size. I guess when you look like that, you have to learn to be nice to people, cause you're certainly not getting by on your looks.

Vu Dinh and his team came away with recordings of the bats' cries, which they later confirmed were distinct from those emitted by the great leaf-nosed bat. After running genetic tests on tissue samples from the bats, the scientists were able to confirm that it was indeed a separate species from anything that had been studied before. It was christened Hipposideros griffini, or Griffin's leaf-nosed bat. Not much else is known about it yet. Vu Dinh suspects that the odd-looking protuberances on its face aren't just there for aesthetic purposes. They likely aid in echolocation as the bats shoot out sound waves and hear how they reflect off of nearby objects. Perhaps the leaf noses act as some sort of amplifier or focuser for the bat's probing cries, allowing them to "see" much better even in the dark.

The new discovery of Griffin's leaf-nosed bat suggests that Vietnam may be home to several diverse species of as-yet-undocumented flying mammals. Scoping them out has its challenges, though; not only are bats hard to trap just by nature of their ability to fly, but Vu Dinh's team had to fend off countless leeches during their expedition. That's just how science goes sometimes, I guess.

Goats Have Accents

And they change over time!

Several big surprises out of a study recently published in the journal Animal Behaviour about goat voices. First, it had never occurred to me that goats had voices to begin with. We tend to think of all animals as making the same noises, although anyone who has had a dog or a cat can tell you that their voice is different from that of other dogs or cats. Obviously the same is true of farm animals as well, and it's only my ignorance which led me to think otherwise!

Second, goats were found to have "accents." An accent, in this context, is the series of inflections which the goat uses in its voice. I knew that orcas and other whales have dialects and accents to their songs - but then again, those are incredibly intelligent animals. I have known several goats, and while they aren't as stupid as (say) sheep, they are also not necessarily the smartest animals in the world.

And finally, it turns out that a goat's accent will change if it is put in with a new flock of goats. In other words, a goat's accent depends on who it has been hanging out with. Just like people, as you may have experienced if you have ever spent time with someone who had a strong accent, only to discover yourself picking up some of their vocal inflections.

This "vocal plasticity" in the goat greatly expands our understanding of what animals are capable of. Previously it was assumed that goats' voices were strictly a hereditary matter, end of story. Now it turns out that their voices change over time and depending on their situation, which brings an entirely new level of nuance to our book of goat knowledge.

In fact, the team which conducted this study expands that conclusion to say that it is likely that "most mammals can develop an accent from their surroundings."

Your friends' influence on your vocal patterns grows stronger over time, as well. There is a genetic component to a goat's voice, but this component is obviously static. But the more time a goat spends with its new friends, the more its voice changes to be more like theirs. This is no doubt an adaptation to herd life, a way to signal that "I'm one of you."

Which means, if I can speak philosophically, that goats have a pretty concrete understanding of The Other. Marginalization: coming soon to a flock of goats near you!

Vampiric Bat Fly Fossil Discovered

20 million year-old specimen found trapped in amber

When you think of bats, you tend to think of them as the perpetrators of vampiric activity. Even though most of the furry fliers aren't actually bloodsuckers, they've gotten a bad rap with the whole Dracula association. But we typically don't consider them the victims of bloodthirsty parasites. The bat fly, however, has been hard at work sucking the blood of all kinds of bats for millions of years, according to a newly found amber fossil.

While bat flies are still around today, they haven't been the subject of a whole lot of scientific research. Bats themselves are hard to catch, let alone the parasites that feed off of them. But George Poinar Jr. of Oregon State University, an expert on bug fossils, recently discovered a bat fly that wasn't hard to catch at all--one that has been preserved in amber for 20 million years.

Poinar came upon the bat fly specimen in a mine in the Dominican Republic. The fossil demonstrates that these bugs co-evolved with bats a long, long time ago. Their front legs are specially shaped to plow quickly all over bats' bodies. The specific genus that Poinar found in amber no longer lives on earth today, but the special bat-specific body modifications are present in both the extinct genus and the hundreds of still-living bat fly species.

While bat flies typically don't leave their bat hosts very often, they are known to wander from their food sources and homes while searching for a mate. Researchers speculate that this particular amber-coated bug was on the prowl for a lady bat fly when he got stuck in tree resin. His bad luck is now our gain 20 million years later; he may not have found a mate, but now he's a one-of-a-kind window into the past.

What's especially interesting about this bat fly fossil isn't just that the strange little parasites have been around for so long. Poinar found a new species of bat malaria that has never before been seen in the scientific community. Bat malaria is already a rare enough disease--it's only been written about in scientific papers maybe five or six times--and to uncover a previously unknown version of it is pretty cool stuff. Quite a lucky find on Poinar's part; not only did he unearth a rare bug in that mine, but he unearthed a rare disease, too. It's not every day that you get two bugs for the price of one.

Pages