FRONTIERS OF ZOOLOGY Dale A. Drinnon has been a researcher in the field of Cryptozoology for the past 30+ years and has corresponded with Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson. He has a degree in Anthropology from Indiana University and is a freelance artist and writer. Motto: "I would rather be right and entirely alone than wrong in the company with all the rest of the world"--Ambroise Pare', "the father of modern surgery", in his refutation of fake unicorn horns.
A mysterious creature standing upright was seen along the road between St. Mary's and Mt. Village by a traveler in the fall of 2011.
The thought of what she saw gives her the creeps even today, she says. “I believe in them – Bigfoot.”
This lady is from Bethel. Years ago in the 1990’s, she and her younger sister were traveling by snowmachine to Bethel from one of the tundra villages. The sister was driving the snowmachine and she was riding in the back in the sled.
It was nighttime and the moon was full and bright, illuminating the frozen tundra. Stars shone in the sky and there was not a cloud in sight. One could see a long way on a night like this.
The lady riding in the sled had been wearing glasses but took them off because they kept fogging up so she tucked them away. The two women were about halfway to Bethel when suddenly her sister stopped the snowmachine and said to her, “Look!” Her sister was looking at something.
She looked in the same direction and saw a person, or someone, yaqiurluni, (waving its arms) from a distance away. Thinking it was their brother, the lady in the sled said to her sister that they should go to him. She didn’t say why she thought it was their brother.
But no, never, the sister said. She told her to put on her glasses and take another look. “And I saw a yugpall’er!” (A very large, tall, person-like creature.)
Aakegka, her heart flooded with the pain of fright and shock. She yelled to her sister, “Ayii!” (Go!) And off they went, fast.
The lady in the sled was so creeped out that she got a hold of some of the sled’s rope and wrapped it around her wrist, securing herself just in case. Her spine was crawling from the sight of the Bigfoot-like creature, which began to follow them. “Qungvagyupaillruunga, I had the shivers,” she said.
The creature was much less than half-mile away from them and they could see it clearly in the moonlit night. However, from their story, it seemed much closer than what they say. And even as they went at near or full throttle speed, it ran in pace with the snowmachine with ease.
“It was plain to see that it was a yugpak, very large. It was running at the same speed as our snowmachine, and even when we were going fast, it stayed with us,” she said. It seemed to be twice her height, about 10 feet tall, she added.
“And when we went downhill, it followed us, it was running - maligqurqiikuk yaatemegnegun. When we would go up, it would go up, too. But on the third climb up, it was gone,” she said.
The Bigfoot-like giant had run with them for about 10-15 minutes before disappearing behind a rise in the tundra. At that point, the sister wanted to stop for some reason but no, the sister in the sled urged her on, to keep going.
When the ladies reached Bethel, they went to another sister’s home. The older sister told the younger that they should keep the sighting to themselves. “I told her that we won’t tell anybody - don’t talk about it, (or) people will think we’re crazy,” she said. “They won’t believe us.”
Then out of the blue right after that night, people were saying that there was a sighting of Bigfoot, she said, qan’ngarrluteng. It was even on the radio and everyone was talking about Bigfoot.
“My sister and I looked at each other and we thought no one would believe!” she recalled, laughing.
Looking back to that night, the creature had posed no threat, she said. It was only following them but running parallel to their path. It had run at a pace and distance that was impossible for a human.
“If I had heard it from somebody else, I would doubt it very much,” she said. “But now I believe in them. I am glad that we are not the only ones to have seen it.”
These Alaskan reports are very interesting although it seems uncertain whether the Hairy Man is a more Sasquatch-like creature as seen along the Western coast of North America, or the more inland creature also called The Bush Man, a more human-like being thought to be a Living Neanderthal by Loren Coleman and other researchers (An assessment I agree with)
Last week, we published a story of a Hairy Man being seen in Kasigluk last spring. We had been hoping to begin publishing a series of Bigfoot sightings since such sightings in the Y-K Delta seem to be more common than are told. Here in the delta, Hairy Man is the name given to the creature that others call Bigfoot or Sasquatch.
Here in the Bethel area, many people’s introduction to Hairy Man was through the creature we came to know of as “Gabriel Fox” in the 1960s. It’s the story of a young boy who ran away from the Children’s Home near Kwethluk and survived in the wilderness by turning into a Hairy Man. But big questions remain: How could a boy turn into a hairy creature that lived in the extreme wild? Was it really Gabriel Fox, and not a young Bigfoot that was starving and raiding fishcamps for food when it was caught? Why did the military and/or the US government say nothing about him after they took him away? And most importantly, why didn’t they return him home?
One can think a boy cannot survive long in the wilderness on his own, and such transformation from human-to-Hairy Man in such a short time is physiologically impossible. Even adults cannot survive for long without shelter and food in the wilderness, and it’s extremely doubtful their bodies will grow hair all over and replace the clothes they wear in order to survive in the cold. Of the humans that are reported to have become feral, the only hair that grows long is on their heads or faces while other parts of their bodies remain hairless.
So what are these creatures? How do they survive in the wilds of Alaska and elsewhere? Yet, witnesses report seeing them in winter wearing only the hair that covers their entire bodies. Or they see them in water in a time that would be dangerous for humans to be in water. Some say they are adapted to all kinds of weather just like moose and caribou are adapted. But lately, the creature is getting all kinds of attention on TV but mainly the stories are in the lower 48 states. Well, Yup’iks and other Natives in our area have seen or long known about these creatures but had rarely made any fuss about them to the point that no attention is barely made to their existence here.
Some sightings are of the creature itself. Some reports are of the tracks it leaves behind, its glowing eyes, its repugnant smell, the rocks they throw toward people, or the sounds it makes. There are stories from Chevak to Kotlik, and from Kotlik to Pilot Station. Some sightings are also along the Kuskokwim River, from McGrath area to Bethel, and up the Johnson River. But the greatest numbers of sightings are between the mouth of the Yukon River to Pilot Station, and around Tuluksak, a village that is sort of situated all by itself between Akiak and Kalskag.
People report seeing the creature in wide-open spaces and in forested areas. Others see it trying to hide from people, or fleeing from the witnesses. Some witnesses flee the creature instead. Most of the time, witnesses see a harmless or benign creature, but in one instance it appears hostile and charges a hunter, who fires at the monster but misses.
Another points a gun at the creature, but does not fire his weapon. In another story, a man kills a Hairy Man and flees, only to have other Bigfoots harass the killer in the village at night until he leaves the village for good. Another sees the Hairy Man hunting another animal. Others see it while flying in airplanes. Sometimes the sighting is so terrifying that the witnesses quit going hunting or frequenting an area where the sighting occurred.
The appearance of the Hairy Man is always the same, a cross between a man and a gorilla (what we see in pictures or movies, since we don’t have gorillas here). It’s always hairy, very large, and a fast walker. Its hair is either black, brown, auburn or white. It has almost no neck so when it turns around, it turns from its waist and not with its head like we humans do. The sightings seem always to be a natural occurrence, and not supernatural ones as in the magical Ircinraat or Little People stories.
Some in the science field are beginning to call Bigfoot or Sasquatch the North American Great Ape, due to the amount of evidence obtained by DNA, footprints, movies, photographs or otherwise. Some that want more proof need a body of a Bigfoot, yet around 30 known Bigfoot kills have been recorded in US history, several here in Alaska. Several were reportedly found dead during the big clean-up after the massive 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington. They even got a live one from right here in Bethel. But every time the US government obtains a body, nothing else is heard about it afterwards, which leads us to believe that the US government is not the place where we’ll hear of official proclamation that the Hairy Man exists.
Interest in Bigfoot is getting intense. Hairy Man is getting popular. Spike TV (channel 38) is now offering $10 million to anyone of presenting irrefutable evidence that Bigfoot exists. They plan to air a few of the expeditions that look for this evidence. On Animal Planet (channel 47), we have the “Finding Bigfoot” series, which have been on the air for a couple years, but they will probably not find one on TV because their production crews in the field might be so large that they probably scare away the Bigfoots they pursue, and they also spend so little time in the areas they investigate.
Well, whether or not they will be declared a real animal is up in the air. Here at Delta Discovery we’ll just print what witnesses tell us, and we’ll publish one or two stories per issue until we have no more. We hope you enjoy the articles in the upcoming issues. And if you’re a witness or heard of a story and want to share it with our readers, send it to us at hairyman@deltadiscovery.com. Let us know if you want to remain anonymous in the story. We reserve the right to publish any account sent to us, in order to try and weed out those that seem untrue or written in jest.
Some years ago, my brother Allen and I went moose hunting up the Tuluksak River during one weekend in late September, when moose hunting used to be 30 days long. We brought along Mitchell, a friend who worked at the Bethel Hospital as a licensed practical nurse.
It took most of a day to get way up the Tuluksak River in a 40 hp short shaft and jon boat and we camped pretty close to the Kilbucks. The next morning, we heard a bull grunting upriver inside a feeder stream, so my hunting partners went to go check on it while I went off in the opposite way, a little downstream from our camp. My brother said they could hear the bull grunt and rake brush occasionally, and despite their best efforts to coax him out, it did not show himself.
I myself had stopped on the edge of a clearing on top of high ground and hid myself in brush to watch the river and clearing for animals. Some time later, I saw something walking across the clearing but it was walking upright like a human. I first thought it was an animal, either a moose or a bear, but as it came closer, I couldn’t really figure out what it was. I saw the upper part of the body – head and shoulders – above the tall grass, and when it reached high ground it walked with a side-to-side sway of the body, like a person does when climbing a hill.
Then I thought it might be another hunter – but as far as we knew, we were the only ones in the area and we didn’t see any other hunters or camps below us. The odd thing about this “person” was that it had reddish hair all over, and the morning sun glistened off its head and shoulders. It was a couple hundred yards away or more.
Then Mitchell or my brother broke a dry stick while walking down to camp. The noise of the breaking stick was loud during the calm sunny morning and it carried far. The man-beast suddenly straightened up and froze, looking in the direction of the noise. A few moments later, it side-stepped slowly toward a couple spruce trees about 18-20 feet away and stopped between them, standing still. It watched for a long time for the source of the noise.
I also watched the animal for a time. The hairy man never moved. After a while, I realized this was not an animal that I knew and I began to feel a little uncomfortable about it, so I slipped out of my hiding place and walked quietly back to camp.
When I told my brother I’d seen some kind of animal, he got excited that I might’ve seen a moose instead. We all went to check the spot where I saw the creature but it wasn’t there anymore.
In fact, we saw nothing more during our hunt so we headed back to Bethel before dark set in, since we all had to go back to work the next day.
Author’s name has been withheld by request.
More Hairy Man stories: http://www.deltadiscovery.com/story/2013/01/23/in-our-native-land/legendary-bigfoot-sighted-near-kasigluk/817.html http://www.deltadiscovery.com/story/2013/01/30/speak-your-mind/hairy-man-in-the-y-k-delta/843.html
Here is the original sketch of the creature witnessed on May 29, 2012, drawn by one of the primary eyewitnesses. The being was tall, dark, and covered ground with amazing speed while walking.
A family out egg hunting last spring near their village of Kasigluk came upon an incredible sight – a large, dark, hairy creature walking upright was heading towards them.
They – two teenaged brothers and their mom - were on the outskirts of the village riding their 4-wheeler when they saw it. It was approximately around 3pm, and the weather was beautiful, although slightly cloudy. School was out for the summer and the date was May 29th, 2012.
Could it have been the elusive Bigfoot?
“We came across it by the lagoon here in Kasigluk,” said one the eyewitnesses. “It was back there southeast of Fox Lake.”
While they were out that day, the three family members saw other people who coming home from egg hunting. So at first they thought the creature was a person.
“After it passed, we looked at each other and thought, ‘we just saw Bigfoot’,” the eyewitness said.
The creature was very tall and dark. Its long arms hung below its knees. It was approximately 75 yards away. The family watched it for about 2 minutes.
“It was walking towards us and then once it saw us it turned and started going to the other side of the hill,” said the witness.
When it disappeared into the bushes, the family headed towards where they last saw it but it was nowhere to be seen.
They didn’t hear about anyone else seeing the mysterious creature.
The following is the firsthand account about the sighting written by the mother of the two boys, one of the eyewitnesses.
“I wanted to go egg hunting, but didn’t want to go alone so I had my two sons follow me since I didn’t want to go alone. My oldest son said he knew of a place where we could go check so off we went towards the lagoon where there is flat land to the east.
“Upon reaching the lagoon my older son got off the four wheeler and ran off to see if anybody was in that area. He ran to the edge of the hill and soon ran back saying that somebody was already there. So we decided to go check somewhere else when that “somebody” started running at an incredible amount of speed. No human person would have gone from down there by that flat land to already towards us up the hill.
“That “somebody” was all black from top to bottom, kind of hunchbacked, like it had no neck and its head was cone-shaped. Its long arms went past its knees and it was incredibly tall.
“At first we all asked each other, “Who is that?” Then after about 10 seconds as it was walking with long strides it would occasionally look towards us. The way it walked was fast and no human could cover that amount of tundra in the same amount of time.
I asked, “WHAT is that?”
“All that time we were awestruck and dumbfounded to what we were witnessing. Then as it was going to disappear from our view finally I said, “I think we just saw Bigfoot!” As it passed in our full view it had covered the whole entire hill in a matter of about a minute. It seemed to be just walking but with big strides.
“We went up to the top of the hill but we didn’t see it anywhere so we went straight home feeling kind of excited.
“That’s my account. It looked exactly like the Patterson footage of Bigfoot if you’ve ever seen it.”
Big Foot or Hairy Man sightings are not unheard of in the Yukon Kuskokwim delta region. Last summer there were reports of a number of sightings in the Johnson River area and other locations.
A drawing of the creature witnessed near the Kwethluk River.
by Delta Discovery staff, as told by the witness
This happened when the witness was seven-years-old. He remembers everything vividly, even his age when he saw the Hairy Man.
When he was a young boy, “John” and his family were at fishcamp near Kwethluk. One fine day, John and his friends were out swimming and playing a game of “Not-it” when he ran around a corner of a beach and brush along the river. Suddenly, John stopped running when he saw a Hairy Man standing motionless less than 100 feet away looking at him.
The creature and John stared at each other for a long moment. Then John looked back behind him to see if his friends were there and seeing the creature too, but they weren’t there. When he turned around to look at the Hairy Man again, it was gone.
John then quit playing with his friends and went instead to his family’s camp where his mother met him. She asked why he seemed so anxious, and John told her he had just seen a “carayak,” not knowing how else to call the Hairy Man. (Carayak is the Yup’ik name for “beast,” often for the brown bear.)
John’s mother then told his father what happened. Then John and his dad left to inspect what he was talking about. All they saw were these strange tracks in the grass, which appeared to have been spun around at a point where the Hairy Man was standing and ran off. John’s father followed the tracks for a short way but didn’t see what made them.
To this day, John remembers the Hairy Man as a tall creature – about 8-9 feet high – and while standing its arms extended past its knees. It was hairy all over, the color being light brown. Its face looked like a cross between an ape and a man. Its eyes were small on a grey face, and its nose seemed flat. The creature’s chest, although hairy, showed a pinkish skin color beneath it.
John said he didn’t feel any fear at the moment when he saw the Hairy Man, which it was standing just in front of the trees when he saw it. But his mother later told John he appeared pale and perplexed when he came home after that moment of seeing the animal.
To this day John, now an adult, has never seen anything like it again. However, whenever he’s out alone in the wilderness and remembers his Hairy Man encounter, the hair on the back of his neck start to stick out a little.
It was about mid-summer in Chevak, about salmonberry picking time, and it was somewhat drizzling that day. However, it wasn’t affecting visibility that much, as one could see out about five miles.
My girlfriend and I had just brought a granddaughter to the airport on a four-wheeler for her to catch a plane to Hooper Bay, and had just boarded her when my girlfriend spotted a large, upright figure – like a large person – walking on top of a bluff about a mile away west of the airport.
“Hey, look at that! What is that?” my girlfriend asked me. I looked and saw the human-like figure going down a bluff and behind a stand of brush about 100-150 feet wide. I watched the end of the brush expecting it to show up from there.
But the large figure then reappeared in a few moments nearer about a half-mile away or less. “Wow, it’s really huge! What is that?” we said. It was dark in color, really dark. This time it was moving south and moving fast on two legs, even though it was just walking, not running.
Then we got on our ATV and began driving toward Chevak on the road. The human-like figure seemed to keep pace or moved in the same speed as the ATV we were riding. We drove about 300-400 feet while watching it walking on the tundra.
We then stopped to just look at it, and it too, stopped to look at us. Then it turned and began walking again and disappeared over a hill.
We got off the road and tried to drive our ATV in the direction it went so we could observe it more, but we couldn’t move fast enough because of the tundra and tussocks. Because we didn’t move fast enough, we didn’t see it again.
When it first appeared, it was at least a mile away from Chevak. At that distance, we could tell what something was if it was there: If it were an ATV, we’d know. If it were an animal, we’d know. If it were a person, we’d know.
We couldn’t believe how fast it moved. It walked on the tundra faster than a human, and I figure that the distance the human-like creature walked in a few minutes an ATV couldn’t do except for maybe in 15 to 20 minutes because of the tundra.
The area where we saw it was the same area where one of my young nephews saw a large, upright person some time ago when he was fishing for tomcods.
Also in the past few years, there have been quite a few Hairy Man sightings in the Chevak-Hooper-Scammon Bay area. What we saw must have been one of these.
Author’s name withheld by request. This sighting occurred in the summer of 2011.
This drawing shows a lineworker who approached this creature, mistaking it for a person wearing furs.
In these two sightings, we couldn’t determine the identities of the persons mentioned in this story, since they were both non-locals and have left or are now gone.
In 2011, a utility company installed four wind turbines in Emmonak. In addition to providing service to the village, the utility also built an 11-mile electrical intertie to serve the nearby village of Alakanuk.
During development of this intertie, one of the workers was walking along on the newly-cut corridor when he spotted someone dressed in furs, or so he thought, kneeling down along the bank of a small slough.
He then approached the person to say hello, thinking it was another worker or someone from one of the villages. When he got within 10-15 feet and spoke, the “person” suddenly stood up and glanced at him. Instead of being a person, it was a Hairy Man!
The animal quickly began to leave, crossing the small slough and walking up the other bank toward the brush. Just before he entered the woods, he turned around to look at the worker once more before finally disappearing into the forest.
The worker then left the area immediately and went back to Emmonak. Once there, he went to the airport and got on a plane and left, never to come back again.
During work on the same project, a lineman was working up on a pole along the corridor when he saw a moose fleeing from the brush and into a small opening or meadow before disappearing into the brush on the other side.
Soon after, a white-colored Hairy Man also appeared in the same place where the moose had popped up from, following the trail or chasing after the moose. It too disappeared into the woods where the moose had gone moments earlier.
It was not known if the Hairy Man caught the moose or not.
Several comments on the supposed thunderbird photo have said they specifically remember the image of a giant bird on the side of a building, despite the fact that it would be difficult if not impossible to nail up such a monstrous bird on the side of a wall and have it stay up instead of being pulled off due to gravity upon its much greater weight (its OK to nail up a SMALL bird on a wall by its wings but whoever heard of nailing an ostrich on the side of a wall?): they very well might have remembered the Thunderbird on the side of a building. There are many photos of that: but in this case the Thunderbirds are actually painted on.
These buildings are from the Northwest Coast cultural area and these examples are Kwakiutl. The Thunderbirds are perched on top of whale skeletons and
in fact the design of the whale's ribs do look like men with outstretched arms and are about that scale (but sideways). It is easy to see how any number of people could have remembered such photos and mis-remembered them with the proper visual clues and the proper verbal nudging to get the image "Right"
Thunderbird and whale design as marketed for T-shirts and the like
Below is an idea of minee as to how this design got firmly entrenched into the Native mind: Thunderbirds would not actually be carrying off whales and flying with them, but they very well could be found feasting on carcasses of whales that had gotten themselves beached. And since thunderbird reports commonly say they have a wingspan of 20-30 feet (taking the paintings on the sides of the buildings to be about lifesized), their wingspan is as great as the whole length of many of the smaller whales.
Thunderbird=Giant Teratorn Scavenging Beached Whale Carcass
(Reconstruction-Not an actual photo but for demonstration purposes only)
And the most recent comment added on that discussion was: BTW, I have heard that the site Cryptomundo has dismissed this candidate photo
as "Merely another photoshopped photo found on the internet." It isn't: it came
from the period before photoshopping and the basic photop is legitimately from
the 1890s. It is a pasted-up montage and there was a fad for them in the early
part of the 20th century, the 19teens and twenties. They were very commonly made
into souvenir novelty postcards and that is EXACTLY what I think the reproduced
photo is and what "the Thunderbird photo" actually WAS.
Some new articles on the Lake Monsters of Lake Iliamna, Alaska, and Flathead Lake, Montana-Idaho border, both of which seem to be basically large sturgeons
After a prolonged absence of Flathead Nessie sightings, the
lake’s elusive monster may be out there after all. That’s what Pam Moriarty, her
daughter Laura Barthrop and Justin Lagemann are wondering after the trio viewed
a strange object swimming against the current about 7:30 p.m., Saturday, May
12.
From the picture windows in Pam cliff top home on the northwest end of Finley Point, they watched for about five minutes as it swam northeasterly away from
shore toward the main part of the lake. They were so surprised that Pam briefly
forgot her camera was nearby. She rushed to retrieve it and managed to snap a
picture, but it was too far away to identify.
Lagemann estimated the
object was about 40 or 50 yards off shore when they first noticed it. They
watched through binoculars and afterward he sketched how it appeared to him. He
thought the critter was at least 25 feet long. The head was not showing as it
moved away, but it had a “whale-like tail” and “spiked dorsal
fins.”
Lagemann had lived in Florida and had seen many types of unusual
aquatic animals – manta rays, alligators, crocodiles and more. He couldn’t tell
what this was though. - leaderadvertiser
-A sturgeon could well be described as having a row of spiked scutes sticking up along the back and a fishlike tail. Calling it a whale-like tail would be a mistake, but not a mistake that most witnesses would know any better about.
White Sturgeon illustration, note overall sharklike appearance. Original article was drawing attention to the scutes along the spine and highlighting them in blue.Recently some authors have been wondering if the Lake Iliamna creature could not actually BE a shark, as in this widely-circulated news article reprinted below.
Scientist wonders if Nessie-like monster in Alaska lake is a sleeper shark
For years, legendary tales from Scotland and Western Alaska described large animals or monsters thought to live in Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna. But evidence has been mounting that the Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna monsters may, in fact, be sleeper sharks.
Two exceptionally large Arctic sharks ply northern waters -- Greenland sharks and the Pacific sleeper sharks. During the last few years, scientists have documented Greenland sharks using the St. Lawrence Seaway, lending further credence to the hypothesis that some sharks can survive in freshwater. Bull sharks are also known to swim in fresh water, but this species needs warmer waters.
The idea of sharks possibly using Loch Ness is not new; that's long been one of the hypotheses explaining the Loch Ness Monster. But until now, nobody has suggested sleeper sharks, perhaps because they're secretive and so rarely seen.
20-foot sharks
Sleeper sharks can exceed 20 feet and weigh upwards of 4 tons. Sleeper sharks probably use rivers and lakes to find food, and there is an abundance of salmon and other fish in Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna.
Sightings are often consistent with descriptions of sleeper sharks in that the monsters' shape and colors usually match that of sleeper sharks. Salmon and lots of other prey species have been found in sleeper sharks' stomachs.
As much as we know about sleeper sharks, there are still plenty of unknowns:
How long can sleeper sharks cope with freshwater? Can they spend months in rivers and lakes?
Do they ever over-winter in freshwater?
What is the timing of their movements in and out of freshwater?
While most sighting descriptions are intriguing, in Lake Iliamna the "monsters" have reportedly been seen in the shallow waters near shore. But hard data is a necessity. Late this summer, I plan to lead a field expedition hoping to capture sleeper sharks in Lake Iliamna, attaching satellite tags to track their movements.
How exactly? Years ago when working in Prince William Sound, we spent the night in one of the bays on board our research vessel. One evening I tossed some fish scraps into a crab pot and lowered the pot to the bottom along with an underwater camera. Several fish visited --black cod, a skate and a sleeper shark.
I plan to try the same technique in Lake Iliamna to catch a shark on video. In addition, I will set some baited circle hooks to catch a shark for photographing, tagging and release.
The third technique I'm investigating is to use a camera device that is baited, dropped to the bottom and takes photos when approached. It later returns to the surface for collection by the scientists.
A subsequent expedition is planned for late summer 2013 to Lock Ness to repeat the exercise on Nessie.
Harbingers of Climate Change
Sleeper sharks are proving themselves very adaptable, so much so that they may become the Arctic's dominant large predator. Global warming is reducing Arctic Ocean ice and critical refuge habitat for ice seals and polar bears. Without ice to haul out on, seals and polar bears may be exposed to predation by these large sharks. In the waters near Tromsø, Norway, Greenland sharks were suspected of killing large numbers of harbor seals. In the stomach of a Greenland shark captured in the North Sea, researchers found the jawbone of a young polar bear. Harbor seals have been reported in stomachs of Pacific sleeper sharks.
In fact, nearly every marine species in the Arctic has been found in the stomachs of these sharks, which makes sleepers a unique predator. Scientists who examined a dozen Greenland sharks from Iceland found that six sharks contained remnants of marine mammals, accounting for a quarter of the total mass of stomach contents and, perhaps, a majority of the energy ingested based on the energy content of marine-mammal blubber.
Greenland sharks have been caught in large numbers in eastern Canada and western Greenland. One researcher estimated that 50,000 individual sharks were caught per year in the Baffin Bay region in the 1940s.From my research, I would offer one precaution: Don't underestimate the predatory skills of sleeper sharks.
No doubt, sleeper sharks can be easy to underestimate. Fishermen and scientists have described them as sluggish and distinctly unpredatory-like over the years -- based, in part, on how they appear when brought to the surface on a long line or in a trawl. But sleeper sharks have been detected attacking live and active prey such as Pacific halibut and salmon. One sleeper shark captured on an International Pacific Halibut Commission research charter contained six whole adult chum salmon. Each weighed more than 4 pounds and were so fresh and bright they could have been cooked for dinner. Fresh whale tissue is also common in sleeper shark stomachs.
Understanding the role of Greenland and Pacific sleeper sharks on marine ecosystems is critical for managing northern oceans. If they turn out to be the culprits described as monsters in Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna, their somewhat ho-hum reputation based, in part, on their uninspiring name may be due for an update.
--And the answer is, why are sleeper sharks even considered as candidates when their freshwater tolerance is in question and that seems to be a pivotal point in such cases? Why are we to eliminate sturgeons as candidates in favour of the sharks when the sturgeons are at least as good as candidates? Sturgeons grow every bit as large as the figures quoted for the sleeper sharks in the article, are known to live in freshwater for long periods, inhabit the approximate geographical region in question and are known to have a sharklike overall configuration, including the fins (see the illustration added at start of this article) Indeed, the only reason researchers are thinking in terms of sharks at all is because some researchers, such as Loren Coleman in A Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents [etc, 2003] seem to be genuinely unaware of what a sturgeon even looks like.
The Iliamna Lake Monster, or commonly referred to by locals as Illie, is a cryptid whose legend has haunted the Alaskan fishing village of Iliamna. The native’s tales describe a large beast that roams the waters. The monster has many reported sightings along with a few reported causes of death under the its belt. Over the years, it has gained enough attention to lure the Animal Planet show “River Monsters” in attempt to find out what may lie beneath the waters. The monster is a reported 10–30 feet in length with a blunt-snouted [and allegedly armoured] head that is used to place blunt force unto things such as small boats. Although there is no physical evidence to conclude the monster's existence, many reports beg to differ.
History
Stories of the lake monster have been around since the indigenous Aleut people lived on the lake and fished as a source of food. The monster was not brought to the public eye until the 40’s, when pilots started to report seeing large fish from their planes while flying overhead.[1] This sparked interest in others as pilots and fishermen began to wonder what the creatures were. Many more sightings were reported as people began to fly low over the lake for the purpose of seeing these monster fish. Consistent reports of large, dull, aluminum-colored fish were coming in by the late 50’s. Soon, enough attention was brought to the subject that in 1979 the Anchorage Daily News offered a sum of $100,000 to anyone who could provide conclusive evidence proving the fish’s existence.[2] The evidence is yet to be provided, as sightings have slowed in recent years.
Sightings
1942: Babe Alyesworth and Bill Hammersley reported seeing a large, dull, aluminum-colored fish from their plane. This encouraged others to come forth with sightings and more information[3]..
1963: Biologist reported seeing a 25–30 foot fish from overhead; it did not come up for air[4]..
1977: A pilot, while flying over Pedro Bay, spots a 12–14 foot fish on the surface as it dove down, revealing vertical tail[5]..
1987: Resident Verna Kolyaha reported seeing a large black fish with white stripe down its fin.
1988: Several locals report the same sighting from water and land, a large black fish with a fin swimming near the surface[6]..
These are just a few of the sightings that have occurred since the outbreak in the 40’s and 50’s. Most of the sightings in recent times take place near Pedro Bay and the fishing village of Iliamna, like the events of 1977 and 1988. With the lack of recent sightings, many have begun to disprove of the monster's existence although TV networks such as the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet have managed to feature the monster on episodes of popular series.
What it might be
Many theories have been proposed to explain what might lie beneath the waters of Lake Iliamna. Ogopogo is a cryptid very similar to that of the Loch Ness Monster which supposedly resides in the waters of Lake Okanogan in British Columbia. Some disagree with this theory based upon reports of what the monster looks like due to Ogopogo’s serpent-like features. Another theory that has gained attention due to the increasingly popular Animal Planet show “River Monsters” biologist Jeremy Wade determined that the monster may be no monster at all, but a white sturgeon which is indigenous to areas of Alaska.[7] The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission says, “White sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America and can weigh over 1,500 pounds, be 20 feet in length, and live for over 100 years.”[8] The sturgeon, being a bottom dwelling fish, would explain why sightings are rare. Additionally, catching them is considered a tough sport by many fishermen. Both of these ideas validate the theory. Although the white sturgeon is found in Alaska and much of the Pacific Northwest, there is no evidence of the white sturgeon residing in Lake Iliamna. Some see this as disproving Jeremy Wade’s theory.[On the other hand, sturgeon have been reported caught at Lake Okanagon and Flathead lake, two locations where the Sturgeon identity for the Lake Monsters has also been strongly insisted upon. The Sturgeon are ofen living on the bottom and easily overlooked, even large ones-DD]
Other Crypids
Large bodies of water, especially lakes, have always attracted attention due to their mystery. Throughout history, there have been countless stories and reports of monsters lurking in the depths of the lakes and seas. Ogopogo, as discussed earlier, is a legend whose tales predate that of the popular Loch Ness Monster. Bigfoot and the Yeti are two of the popular names for a hairy, ape-like beast. Legends of crypids span across the world. New discoveries of species are made all the time and people continue to wonder what else may be yet undiscovered.
Lake monster not the only mystery in Alaska's Lake Iliamna
Alex DeMarban | May 23, 2012
Add this question to the many mysteries of Iliamna Lake: Where the heck do its unique, freshwater harbor seals go when the lake and rivers freeze shut?
Dave Withrow, a federal research biologist who has flown numerous aerial surveys to count them, has spotted close to 300 of the seals in late summer.
In deep winter when there are no openings in the ice, he's counted as many as 73. During other such times, he's found none. Locals from nearby villages say the seals live there year-round, and based on what he's seen, he believes them.
Which begs the question: "How can 280 seals just disappear?"
Maybe the seals have a hidden cave where they winter, he once joked with colleagues. Then an elder told him just such an underground cave existed, providing freshwater access for the seals year-round, a legend that gets a mention in a recent article by a state Fish and Game biologist.
"We were just totally joking, but to hear an elder say that was like, 'Really? I don't believe it,'" Withrow said.
Welcome to Alaska's deepest and most massive lake, some 200 miles southwest of Anchorage across Cook Inlet.
The seals, hunted by Alaska Native villagers from communities like Kokhanok on the lake's southern shores, are fatter than seagoing harbor seals, and have thicker fur. The hunting was first documented by a Russian explorer in 1819, according to the article.
The animals are just one of two such harbor-seal populations in the world, and Withrow hopes to determine if they're a genetically distinct stock. But they're just one of the lake's mysteries. There's also the strange white beast that's said to occasionally ripple the surface, a la the Loch Ness Monster.
[Dave Withrow seems not to be aware that seals commonly live under the ice all winter long and make do by creating breathing holes in the ice. Polar Bears and Northern Natives commonly hunt the seals by waiting at the breathing holes when the ice is thick-DD]
An Alaska scientist thinks the "Iliamna Lake Monster," as some locals call it, might be sleeper sharks that spend much of their time dwelling on the bottom of the lake, occasionally rising to the surface to feed.
Bruce Wright, the scientist who led the Exxon Valdez restoration effort for the federal government, hopes to catch a sleeper shark this summer after capturing them on video with a waterproof camera lowered in a cage.
But, in a lake covering 1,600 square miles and 1,000 feet deep, he has to narrow down the search. To learn where the sharks might lurk, he's trying to figure out what they eat. Maybe they feast on huge runs of red salmon that surge 75 miles up the Kvichak River after leaving Bristol Bay. Maybe they chomp on the seals, ripping out their midsections with a form of night vision that senses electromagnetic fields when animals move.
Legend also has it that the bottom reaches of the lake are filled with saltwater where the sharks can dwell year-round, and that maybe there's some sort of connection to Cook Inlet. It sounds like something out of McElligot's Pool in the Dr. Seuss classic of the same name. Anything's possible in McElligot's Pool, and who knows, maybe it's the same for Iliamna Lake. At any rate, Wright plans to check out the saltwater theory, too, lowering a meter that can detect salinity.
Withrow isn't convinced of the sleeper shark theory, though he admits he can't disprove it either
He's conducted about six aerial surveys per year since 2007, and he's never seen a sleeper shark from the air in the lake. Growing more than 20 feet long, they'd be visible in the lake's clear water. But that doesn't mean they're not there. Maybe they don't bother with the seals because there's enough fish to keep them full.
Withrow believes it's more likely the baffling creature is a sturgeon, a prehistoric fish with a long snout. They grow several feet long and are known for swimming up rivers and into lakes, a feat that in the shallow Kvichak River would be tough for a sleeper shark.
Or, maybe the sturgeon, or some other beast, has been there since the last Ice Age, waiting to be discovered, he said.
The sturgeon concept jibes with what Chad Anelon of Iliamna, a village on the lake's north shore, has always heard. He's never seen the lake monster, but he's talked with others who have. They say "it looks like a sturgeon," he said. [Emphasis added-DD]
As for the lake's seals, Withrow expects to study them in greater detail soon. He works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but it's been a long process getting permits from the agency even to collect bits of samples from Native hunters, who enjoy an exemption for hunting those seals and other animals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. When those permits come through, as they soon should, Withrow also hopes to radio-tag the seals to track their routes. Then he just might learn their winter whereabouts.
[A photo from a video that claims to show Alaska's own version of a sea monster.]
Loch Ness monster-like beast filmed in Alaska Cryptozoologists think mysterious marine animal in video is a Cadborosaurus
Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
7/18/2011
Alaska may have its own version of the Loch Ness monster, according to prominent cryptozoologists who say a video shows a mysterious marine animal, which they believe is a Cadborosaurus.
Meaning "reptile" or "lizard" from Cadboro Bay, Cadborosaurus willsi is an alleged sea serpent from the North Pacific and possibly other regions. Accounts generally describe it as having a long neck, a horse-like head, large eyes, and back bumps that stick out of the water.
The footage, shot by Alaskan fishermen in 2009, will make its public debut on "Hillstranded," a new Discovery Channel special that will air Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. E/P.
"I am quite impressed with the video," Paul LeBlond, former head of the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of British Columbia, told Discovery News. "Although it was shot under rainy circumstances in a bouncy ship, it's very genuine."
LeBlond, co-author of the book "Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep," said the animal is "the least unlike a plesiosaur," referring to carnivorous marine reptiles thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
Sightings of Cadborosaurus have been reported for ages. In 1937, a supposed body of the animal was found in the stomach of a whale captured by the Naden Harbour whaling station in the Queen Charlotte Islands, a British Columbia archipelago. Samples of the animal were brought to the Provincial Museum in Victoria, where curator Francis Kermode concluded they belonged to a fetal baleen whale.
The animal's remains, however, later disappeared. James Wakelun, a worker at the whaling station, last year said that he saw the creature's body and "it wasn't an unborn whale."
Like other cryptids — animals whose existence is suggested but not yet recognized by scientific consensus — Cadborosaurus has otherwise existed only in grainy photographs and eyewitness accounts. The 2009 video, therefore, "adds to its authentication," LeBlond said.
John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, agrees. In an issued statement, Kirk described the video as being "important. They (the fishermen) simply don't know what they have got in terms of the creatures in this video."
While many have speculated that Cadborosaurus is actually a frill shark, a large eel, or some kind of fish, LeBlond counters that it cannot be a fish due to the way Cadborosaurus moves.
"It must be a mammal or a reptile, since it oscillates up and down in a vertical plain, which eliminates sideways-oscillating fish," he explained.
A possible new believer in Cadborosaurus is Andy Hillstrand of "Deadliest Catch" television show fame. He told Discovery News that he might have seen the enigmatic animal while filming "Hillstranded," a new Discovery Channel special debuting tonight that features the 2009 footage.
Hillstrand and his brother Johnathan traveled to sites in Alaska where Cadborosaurus has been spotted. Referring to one location, he said, "We saw a big, long white thing moving in the water. We chased it for about 20 minutes."
"Spray came out of its head," he continued. "It was definitely not a shark. A giant eel may be possible, but eels don't have humps that all move in unison. I've never seen anything like it before."
Hillstrand speculates that whales, following salmon, might be pushing the animals closer to shores and in the view of humans.
While he understands the controversy and skepticism over such sightings and claims, Hillstrand believes the many fishermen who have reported seeing the animal "are not a bunch of fruitcakes. These are people who are familiar with the local marine life."
In order for a cryptid to gain scientific credibility, more physical evidence must be obtained. LeBlond said, "We cannot go out in the ocean poking everywhere, but we are always on the lookout for new accounts."
Hillstrand, on the other hand, isn't ruling out another Cadborosaurus-related trip.
"We live in Alaska, so we might investigate Cadborosaurus again in future," he said. "We are always up for an adventure."
Let's just say that I am keeping my fingers crossed until I review the footage myself. What I have heard so far is impressive, although earlier reports of a "Moose-headed monster" had left me very suspicious before.
Recent Neanderthal reconstruction with squinty eyes, bulbous nose, pricked ears and wide toothy grin; same features as shown in the Billikens
Karl Shuker had recently posted a blog about trolls and included a passing mention of the little Troll dolls so popular during the 1960s. This actually ties in with one of my older blogs mentioning carved lucky charms in the form of brownies, leprechauns and koboldes, and added as a commentary on imps.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the Troll dolls came from a certain specific Danish woodcarver named Dam who made his own trademarked version of traditional Kobolde woodcarvings. There is incidentally a traditional sort of Japanese representation for 'little people' which resemble Troll dolls, at least according to Wikipedia. That was a different discussion last summer at Frontiers-of-Zoology, but today I am going off on another tangent that will come back to the same point later.
Billikens For Sale at Alaskan Curio Shop
In this case I came back around to the carved wooden kobolds as luck charms by way of discovering a sort of popular Alaskan souvenir item called a Billiken. The Alaskan natives claim that they are traditional idols made for good luck, and the Chuckchee of Siberia say something similar about their corresponding Pelliken figurines. Checking up on this leads on a convoluted history.
Billiken [Billiken statue enshrined on fifth floor observation deck in Tsutenkaku Tower in Osaka, Japan. Photographed 24 May 2005.]
The Billiken was a charm doll created by an American art teacher and illustrator, Ms. Florence Pretz of St. Louis, Missouri, who is said to have seen the mysterious figure in a dream.[1] In 1908 she patented the Billiken who was elf-like with pointed ears, a mischievous smile and a tuft of hair on his pointed head. His arms were short and he was generally sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him. One point on Billiken luck: To buy a Billiken gives the purchaser luck, but to have one given to you is better luck [but to steal one from somebody else undetected was the best luck of all].[2] The Billiken was one of the first copyrighted dolls and the first likenesses of the Billiken, banks and statues, were produced in 1909. After a few brief years of popularity, like many other fad toys, the Billiken faded into obscurity. The Billiken should not be confused with baby-like Kewpie figures that debuted in the December 1909 Ladies' Home Journal.
Many current on-line articles about the Billikens are based on an article by anthropologistDorothy Jean Ray that first appeared in Alaska Sportsman (now Alaska) in 1960, with an updated version in Alaska Journal in 1973.
[Saint Louis University's mascot, the Billiken which is actually not located where the picture was taken anymore]
Billiken, His Life and Times
The Billiken sprang from the height of the "Mind-Cure" craze in the United States at the start of the twentieth century.[citation needed] It represented the "no worry" ideal, and was a huge hit. Variations appeared, such as the "Teddy-Billiken Doll" and the Billycan/Billycant pair (to drive petty problems away). The Billiken helped touch off the doll craze of the era
In its heyday, the Billiken enjoyed worldwide celebrity. In America he became the athletic mascot of Saint Louis University, because the figure was said to resemble coach John R. Bender. The school's athletic teams remain the Billikens to this day. A bronze statue of the Billiken stands in front of the Chaifetz Arena on the Saint Louis University Campus. A junior version of the Billiken became the mascot of nearby Saint Louis University High School; a stainless steel statue of the Junior Billiken stands adjacent to the Danis Fieldhouse, on the St. Louis University High School Campus. Bud Billiken was a youth-club mascot for the Chicago Defender, and was created in 1923.
At least two Billiken-themed songs were recorded, including "Billiken Rag" and the "Billiken Man Song."
The billiken, as a good luck charm, appears multiple times in the Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor movie Waterloo Bridge. It is employed as a device that both prompts recollections of the male lead, Robert Taylor, and that links several scenes within the movie as the plot unfolds.
The Billiken made its Japanese debut in 1908. A statue was installed in the uppermost level of the original Tsutenkaku Tower as it was opened to the public in 1912. When the nearby Luna Park was closed in 1925, the tower's Billiken statue disappeared. In 1980, a replacement statue made its appearance in a new Tsutenkaku Tower that was built in 1956.....
Billiken in Alaska
In 1909, the Billiken began its appearance in souvenir shops of Alaska. In Nome, Alaska, an Eskimo carver by the name Angokwazhuk copied a Billiken figurine in ivory brought to him by a merchant. Since that first appearance in Alaska, some Eskimo carvers began to include the billiken in the collection of figurines they created.[citation needed] By the 1960s the Billiken was ubiquitous in larger Alaskan cities like Anchorage, and heavily touristed areas. Billikens were often carved from Alaskan ivory and were used in jewelry and knick-knacks. Often these souvenirs were accompanied by printed, romanticized Billiken lore. In Anchorage, the name was also adopted by merchants, as in the Billiken Drive-in Movie Theatre
Modern Walrus-Tusk Billiken
[interested parties are invited to peruse the original article on Wikipedia and follow the links to the original sources. However, my discussion has more to do with features of the Billiken story outside of the Wikipedia article's posted information]
Russian Billikins, owned by Narwhal on long term loan to NIAEF
--A few things need to be said at this juncture. The first thing is that the Billiken design was not entirely original with the schoolteacher, it was an adaptation of a pre-existing traditional figure known as a Gobbo (Goblin=Kobolde), which is basically admitted to in the existing documentation, and the next thing is that although the figures may seem bald and babylike, at the beginning they had furry bearlike bodies.
And there is nothing mysterious about the name "Billiken". It means pretty directly "Little thing carved out of a small piece of wood" (billet+-kin) According to one of the Wikipedia's listed sources, the schoolteacher had made up the image of the future doll but specifically not the name "Billiken"
...And then again, what caught my eye was the fact that they always have features associated with relic hominid reports: pointed heads and wide, Neanderthal-patterned feet. Those feet are traditional in all carvings of the type (turn your trolldoll bottom-to-top and look at the soles of its feet) and in fact I had thought at first the Alaskan carvings represented baby Bigfoots.
[Alaskan "Toonook" or Shamanic Spirit Charm]
[Old Bering Sea Carving, some of these indicate the big square feet-but dangling at the bottom and not drawn up]
That brings us to the other major point: This design was not wholly introduced by the White Trader as is stated in in the original Anthropologist's report. Some features are traditional in pre-contact Alaska and Siberia, if not also China and Japan. The oldest figurines exhibiting some of the important features such as a pointed head, big feet and slanted eyes come from the earliest dynasties in China and from Preclassic Mesoamerica, and figurines with the same traits occur otherwise around the North Pacific rim. Some bigfooted-anthropomorphic ivory carvings come from Iputak, Alaska and the folklore of both Alaska and far Northeastern Siberia refer to their legendary Bush Men as "Sharpheaded". So only the current configuration and the name Billiken are from White Traders, and those features were applied to pre-existing traditional figures which the Natives perceived as being similar. So basically we are brought back to the notion of short hairy implike or goblinlike creatures being represented as lucky charms, no doubt with the sort of idea that if you carry the image, the thing itself will not act against you and in fact might do your bidding. And in Northeast Siberia and Alaska, if not also including areas to the south on both sides of the Pacific, the actual creatures that the charms were taken as depicting were Almaslike Bush Men with squinchy eyes, pugged noses, big toothy grins and egg-shaped crania. The typical European Neanderthal skull tended to rise to a peak at the back of the head and slope away to the front and the back, incidentally. And if that was not specific enough, these Billiken Koboldes are depicted with the proper Neanderthal-like feet (also alluded to in one of the English Goblin or Brownie names of Squarefoot.)
[Heuvelmans' illustration: A) Iceman B)Almas C) Neanderthal D) Modern human ]
[Greenland Tupilak Sculpture, Representing a Shaman's Helper Spirit]
[Caveman-like Tupilak]
Some of the same traits in ivory sculpture turn up in Greenland as representing Shamanic spirits called Tupilak. The features include a big toothy mouth, often grinning, pointed head, pug nose and slit eyes; alternatively bulging eyes. These Tupilak were said to represent spirits or objects the Shamans used to destroy their enemies. The Wikipedia gives this information:
Meanings of the same term in various Inuit cultures
Eskimo cultures were far from being alike, although there were some similarities.[12] Similarly to shamanism among Eskimo peoples, also the tupilaq concept had variants. It might be a man-made object, a ghost-like being or a haunting soul. In some cultures it was exactly the shaman who had to deal with it. [a double of...?]
The tupilaq was an invisible ghost. Only the shaman could notice it. It was the soul of a dead person, which became restless because the breach of some death taboo. It scared game away from the vicinity. Thus, the shaman had to help by scaring it away with a knife
Caribou Inuit
The tupilaq was also an invisible being. Like at Iglulik, also the shaman was the only one who could see it. It was a chimera-like creature, with human head and parts from different species of animals. It was dangerous, it might attack the settlement. Then, the shaman had to combat it and devour it with his/her helping spirits
Greenland
The tupilaq was manifested in real, human-made object. It was made by people to the detriment of their enemies. It was a puppet-like thing, but was thought of have magical power onto the victim. It might be made e.g. of mixed parts of dead animals and dead children
Copper Inuit
To the Copper Inuit the tupilaq was similar to the Christian Devil
[At least some of the concepts are identical to the descriptions of the Canadian Wendigoes]
"Dorset Eskimo" Mask representing a Hairy Wildman from Baffin Island.
