Seeing Cryptids: The Problems

My eldest has one of those white tigers.
They're bigger than a house cat at least...:)
 
Now Italy has a panther on the loose

Experts at the nature reserve of Torbiere del Sebino, Lombardy, are being led on a wild goose chase by a suspected escaped panther that they have been pursuing without success for two weeks. The lengthy and expensive pursuit of the invisible panther has exasperated the president of the park, Edilberto Rinaldi. “I would have liked to go on holiday this weekend but I'm being held hostage by the panther! I'm getting 100 calls a day about it, I'm fed up with it,” Rinaldi told Corriere Della Sera.

The park was closed in July by the order of the regional prefect after a truck driver first saw the panther while filling up at a nearby Esso garage. The trucker described the beast as “a large feline with orange eyes”.

It was decided that the safest strategy was to close the park and members of the local, regional and military police forces alongside a team of vets were called in to organize a panther hunt. The idea was simple: get forestry experts to lay traps in the woods, baited with delicious slices of steak. The traps were duly laid but strangely, the panther didn't bite.

The failure of the strategy led the experts to develop a startling new hypothesis about the panther: it is a vegetarian.

Most probably, experts argued, the panther had been raised illegally in captivity before being released into the wild. This meant it would have been reared on a diet of cat crunchies and explained why the traps had failed.
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No, most probably it's a housecat. Again.
 
William Parcher said:
No, most probably it's a housecat. Again.
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I'd like to meet the housecat or exotic pet that would turn up its nose at yummy steak because it's not pet food.

For that matter, if it's too fussy to eat bait, what the heck is it supposed to be eating?

I don't like criticizing people while they're trying to deal with a problem, but c'mon, "experts."
 
Drewbot said:
This is the footage you get, when an actual giant exotic animal is loose in a city.

http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/8874216-story

Tiger let loose at Packard Plant, recaptured
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Loved to hear from Sam Bernstein again. :D

Why was the guy using a hedge trimmer and weed whacker at the tiger?
Photographer?
That video was less than stellar, MORE TIGER!

Maybe I have become cynical, but does any of this feel like a promotional
stunt? :boxedin:
 
I've seen many photos lately of blue footed boobies. Does anyone have pics of a blue boobied 'foot?
 
BayWatcher said:
I've seen many photos lately of blue footed boobies. Does anyone have pics of a blue boobied 'foot?
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20031125%20223544-L.jpg
 
bruto said:
Depends on the cat. Skip the juicy steak and buy some cheap cat food. A few years ago while trapping skunks, I baited my havahart with cat food, and caught the same well fed plump neighboring house cat more than once.
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I'm sure it's possible to sate a housecat, but most of the ones I've met were pretty much always open to a mouthful of yummy, yummy tuna.
 
snoop_doxie said:
Why was the guy using a hedge trimmer and weed whacker at the tiger?
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I too spent most of my time watching that video thinking, "...Okay, what are you doing here? What was the plan again?"

For all I know, those were the best tiger catchers in the western hemisphere, but a bit of context would have been nice. As it was, it felt a bit like Dada.

"There's the tiger! Do you have your hedge trimmer?"
 
jerrywayne said:
An interesting contribution from Sharon Hill:

https://idoubtit.wordpress.com/2015...usion-of-facticity-in-unknown-animal-reports/
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It's a bit curious she uses the term "wood ape", a little used and seeming anti-folklore term that didn't even exist until a couple years ago.

And I'm not sure how much of a "literary adventure" is possible in a non-fiction book whose premise is telling me I shouldn't believe everything I hear (or read).

"As the mighty sea serpent breathed fire down upon the huddled masses sitting on the ship's deck, the doomed could be heard chanting 'Death to allah for he has forsaken us'. And they perished in the viciousness of a hundred thousand fires burning at a billion degrees. Over and over and over again. So fierce and mighty was the, umm, fierce and mighty sea serp..."

<OS-NL-CBFKY mode>
Hmm, I'm wondering if that really was a fire breathing sea serpent?
</OS-NL-CHBFKY mode>
 
William Parcher said:
A Bigfoot hunter stumbles upon the Star Wars Endor filming scene. Well, not stumble, he actually smelled the catering truck. We get a look into his mind...

"Oh my God! I can't believe what I am seeing. There is a Bigfoot surrounded by guys in orange vests. It looks like they are filming it. Damn they have nice cameras, and they even brought generators. But these guys are idiots. Don't they know that nobody will ever believe a film of Bigfoot? I mean, nobody believes the PGF. Well, I mean nobody believes the PGF except for the people who believe it. Why would they think that this will work? I'm gonna shoot that Bigfoot and show them how a real confirmation works. Maybe they will catch the shooting on film. Damn they have nice cameras." Kaboom!
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There is a story that Bob Burns was almost shot by park rangers while in his gorilla suit. So there may be precedence in hollywood gorilla film shoots to provide protection.

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/185024|0/In-the-Know-Rat-Pfink-a-Boo-Boo.html

The ape scene in Rat Pfink a Boo Boo was reportedly shot in Griffith Park, on the opposite side of the L.A. zoo. Legend has it that two park rangers patrolling the area mistook Kogar The Ape for an escaped bear and almost shot him with a shotgun before noticing the film crew!
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HarryHenderson said:
It's a bit curious she uses the term "wood ape", a little used and seeming anti-folklore term that didn't even exist until a couple years ago.

And I'm not sure how much of a "literary adventure" is possible in a non-fiction book whose premise is telling me I shouldn't believe everything I hear (or read).

"As the mighty sea serpent breathed fire down upon the huddled masses sitting on the ship's deck, the doomed could be heard chanting 'Death to allah for he has forsaken us'. And they perished in the viciousness of a hundred thousand fires burning at a billion degrees. Over and over and over again. So fierce and mighty was the, umm, fierce and mighty sea serp..."

<OS-NL-CBFKY mode>
Hmm, I'm wondering if that really was a fire breathing sea serpent?
</OS-NL-CHBFKY mode>
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I tried reading the book Hill is highlighting years ago. I didn't understand it.
 
BayWatcher said:
I've seen many photos lately of blue footed boobies. Does anyone have pics of a blue boobied 'foot?
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John Nowak said:
[qimg]https://bsccollateral.smugmug.com/By-Year/2003/i-mmPkdpx/2/L/20031125%20223544-L.jpg[/qimg]
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:thumbsup: Obviously, a blue footed bigfoot! :D

John Nowak said:
I too spent most of my time watching that video thinking, "...Okay, what are you doing here? What was the plan again?"

For all I know, those were the best tiger catchers in the western hemisphere, but a bit of context would have been nice. As it was, it felt a bit like Dada.

"There's the tiger! Do you have your hedge trimmer?"
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Yes! LOL

"Quick, get the friggin weed whacker! The blue tarp didn't work!"

:D
 
snoop_doxie said:
:thumbsup: Obviously, a blue footed bigfoot! :D



Yes! LOL

"Quick, get the friggin weed whacker! The blue tarp didn't work!"

:D
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I hasten to add it was an easy picture to take, because blue-footed boobies are real. In fact, the animals on the Galapagos were so casual about being approached my biggest problem was having lenses with too much zoom.

I suspect that the news item is linked to other media and so the text is actually changing over time. At one point, I'm sure there was a comment that the gentlemen in the video had no experience with tigers, and their intention was to get the tiger to move down the stairs and into the arms of its handler.

Assuming I'm not hallucinating that, I think they handled themselves much better than I would have in a similar situation. I would not care to be in the position of annoying a tiger until it walked away from me, but if I were, a hedge trimmer and tarp seem like good strategies.
 
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