The Creature Phenomenon

By James Donahue

There seems to be a flood of stories in the news these days about sightings of big cats, hairy humanoid beasts, and strange animals that should not exist, or are living where they don’t belong.

I have selected a few of the strangest of these stories as examples of what people are seeing.

People in a rural area near Coquimbo, Chile, are reporting sightings of strange small humanoid/monkey like creatures. Mine worker Francisco Vega said he saw what first looked like a small monkey walking toward him. Closer inspection showed it looked more human-like, but was red in color. "It had a very bulky head, was no taller than 80 centimeters and looked like a gas bag because it was so fat," Vega said.

Elsewhere, near Santiago, Chile, several motorists reported a strange animal crossing the road in front of their cars. The sightings were all made on the same road between Iquique and Arica, passing through the Atacama Desert. Hernan Cuevas said it was "a weird animal looking like a dinosaur with two legs and huge thighs." Some described it as resembling a kangaroo.

In Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, Jim Lynn, a Roman Catholic priest, said he observed a monster with the "head of a dragon" swimming across Great Slave Lake where he makes his home. "I got the goggles because it was moving fast and I was kind of curious as to what it was," Lynn told a local newspaper. "It was high, six to eight feet above the water and moving at an incredulous speed. It was like the head of a dragon – just coming out of the water at just a ferocious speed, just moving like crazy." He said the creature was green in color. After moving behind an island it disappeared.

A strange new species of "furry" shark that hops like a frog instead of swimming, recently "popped up" in a Sea Star aquarium in Coburg, Germany, another story said. The shark, measuring 70 centimeters, is covered in red hairy bristles, has large nostrils and an extra gill. The shark, a female, is an unidentified species. Peter Faltermeer, the curator, said he has no idea how the animal got in with the other sharks. "She leaps over the seabed like a frog rather than swimming gracefully like most sharks," he said.

New Scientist reports the spotting of what may be a new species of gorilla in the remote forests of central Africa, north of the Democratic Republic of Congo. From the rare sightings, scientists calculate that the animals are about two meters tall. The animals have large black faces that look like gorillas, with a sagittal crest – a long bony ridge. Also like gorillas, the animal appears to nest on the ground. It seems to feed on fruit and vegetation.

Bow hunter Kevin Blum of Whitley, Indiana, recently shot what he first thought was a deer. But he discovered it was an exotic species of deer that is not a native to North America. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette said the animal was a red deer that lives in Europe and Asia. Authorities have no idea how the creature got in North America from so far away. Area zoos said they were not missing an animal like it.