Tote-Up Review

The following is my assessment of some of the Cryptid categories as given in the basic standard Cryptozoology. * indicates a category I consider to be of interest and a potential new species not catalogued by science, and the categories I would strike from the list are also indicated.  To make it easier to read I have also colour-coded it and purple indicates the Cryptid categories, black background and red print indicates the ones I would drop out

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Bernard Heuvelmans Sea Serpents:

*Long Necked A 30-60-foot (9-18 m), long-necked, Plesiosaur-shaped Cosmopolitan animal.
*"Megalotaria" an uncatalogued Walrus-sized sea lion (as a separate spinoff category)  

Super Eels: A group of large and possibly unrelated eel-shaped fishes. 
Partially based on the "Leptocephalus giganteus" larvae (Which includes two unrelated kinds also)
*"Megaloconger" the 30 foot long kind (as a separate spinoff category) 
*"Titanoconger" the 60-100 foot (18-30 m) long kind (as a separate spinoff category) 

*Marine Saurian: A 50–60-foot (15–18 m) sea crocodile,
 *Mosasaur (or Pliosaur) 60-100 foot (18-30m) long (as a separate spinoff category) 

VOID CATEGORIES:

Merhorse  A 60-100 foot (18-30 m), medium-necked, large-eyed, horse-headed pinniped. Maned and often has whiskers.   

Many-Humped  A 60–100-foot (18–30 m), medium-necked, long-bodied archaeocete. It has a series of humps or a crest on the spine like a sperm whale's

Super Otter A 65–100-foot (18–30 m), medium-necked, long-bodied archaeocete that resembles an otter. It moves in numerous vertical undulations

Many Finned  A 60–100-foot (18–30 m), short necked archeocete. It has a number of lateral projections that look like dorsal fins, but turned the incorrect way.

Yellow Belly: A very large, 100–200-foot (30–61 m) yellow-and-black-striped, tadpole-shaped creature. Dropped. (Could still count as a larger form of whale shark)

Father-of-all-the-turtles: A giant turtle. Dropped.
 .
Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe (Additional Categories)

Mystery Cetacean: A category of uncatalogued whale species including
   *Unknown porpoises and dolphins
   *Double finned whales and dolphins,
   *Dorsal finned sperm whales,
   *Unknown beaked whales,
   *Unknown orca,
   *Walrus-tusked whales and others. 
Mystery Sirenian:
   *surviving Steller's sea cow
   *and possible African freshwater dugongs 
*Giant Beaver 
   *Giant Otter (as a separate spinoff category) 
*Mystery Monitor
   *Mystery Iguana (as a separate spinoff category)
*Mystery Sharks

Mystery Manta (Possibly known species)
Mystery stingrays (as a separate spinoff category) (Possibly known species) 

 Mystery Salamander (Known species)
Big Fishes (Sturgeons, alligator gars, pikes, catfishes, paddlefish and others)  (Known species)     

Giant Octopus, Octopus giganteus or Otoctopus giganteus:   (VOID)
*Northern Colossal Squid (as a separate spinoff category) (Possibly a new species)

VOID CATEGORIES:

 Classic Sea Serpent: A quadrupedal, elongated animal with the appearance of many humps when swimming. Essentially a composite of the many humped, super otter, and super eels types. The authors suggest Basilosaurus as a candidate (Standing Wave)

Waterhorse: A large pinniped, similar to the long necked + merhorse. Both of their eyes are rather small. They are noteworthy for being behind both salt and fresh water sightings.
(Maned, horned, with prominent ears and beards, one prominent shoulder hump and occasional cloven hoofprints when they come ashore=Swimming Moose)

Cetacean Centipede (the Many-finned SS)  (Row of Dolphins or small whales)

                         
Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe (Abominable Snowmen Categories)

1. *Neo Giant (Reverts to possible Gigantopithecus after Krantz)
    *Subgiant (Tropical Africa)> (Possible robust Australopithecus sp)
2. True Giant (VOID) (Reverts to possible Gigantopithecus after Krantz,ie, included in Neo Giants)

3. Marked Hominid (a Homo sapiens variety) (Known species)
4. Neanderthaloid (a Homo sapiens variety) (Known species)
5. Erectus Hominid (a Homo sapiens variety) (Known species)
6. Proto Pygmy (a Homo sapiens variety) (Known species)

7. Unknown Pongid (Generally Orangutan varieties) (Known species)

8. Giant Monkey
    (>*Isnachi in the New World) 
9. Merbeing >
     (Chupacabras) (VOID) +
    *?Freshwater Monkeys after Tyler Stone
    *?Merfolk (Basically allowed to stand)
               
Ivan T Sanderson Abominable Snowmen: Legend come to Life

 Of Sanderson's four categories, only the *Neo-Giants remain as an open category (as above), and in this category we follow Heuvelmans' example and defer to Grover Krantz.

Bernard Heuvelmans, On the Track of Unknown Animals

Contents
4	Nittaewo, the Lost People of Ceylon	91
5	Orang Pendek, the Ape-Man of Sumatra	119
6	The Not So Abominable Snowman (All possible Orangutans)	143
7	The Surrealist Dinosaur of New Guinea (Hoax)                                                             > *Giant Monitors	219
*8	The Incredible Australian Bunyips  (> Seals )                                                              and > *Giant Monitors,                                                               *Giant "Demon Ducks"	226
9	The Queensland Marsupial Tiger	251
*10	The Moa, a Fossil that May Still Thrive                                                   *Small Turkey-sized Moa                                                   *Medium Emu-like Moa                                                   *Large Moa like Dinornis	262
11	Waitoreke, Impossible New Zealand Mammal (Probable imported otter)	293
12	The Patagonian Giant Sloth > * Equatorial Forest Ground sloths	301
*13	The Giant Anaconda (*Sucuriju Gigante)  and Other Inland 'Sea-Serpents' (*Dormador or Black Boa)	338
14	Apes in Green Hell (Possible Apes: Mono Rey                                                      *And Mono Grande)	363
15	The Mammoth of the Taiga (Possible Survival but Possibly Now Extinct)	397
16	Three Large Pygmies: the *Forest Rhinoceros (African Unicorn),  the Water Elephant  (Forest elephant, known species) and the Spotted Lion (Lions are a known species)	427
17	The Nandi Bear, an East African Proteus (+Possible Unknown Brown Bear possibly involved, Brown bears are a known species)	445
18	Mngwa, the Strange One  (Possibly a giant Golden Cat in Mottled phase)	495
*19	The Little Hairy Men (*Gracile Australopithecus)	503
*20	The Dragon St George Did Not Kill (*Giant Monitor Lizard                                                         *Unknown Robust Crocodile                                                         *Unknown Giant Otter)	520
21	Kongamato, the Last Flying Dragon  (Possible Freshwater Stingray)	582
*22	*Vorompatra (>Lesser Elephant Bird), *Tratratratra, (4 Possible Giant Lemur Survivals) etcetera

Eastern Bigfoot, New Demonstrations

A facebook Friend of mine sent me photos of a variety of casts he hasd made in the Midwestern part of the US (mostly in Ohio I think. I selected two that I thought were exceptionally representative of the "Ape" (Swamp Ape/Wood Ape) and more humanlike (Actually Neanderthaloid) tracks out of the dozen or more examples that were on display. Both kinds are called Skunk Apes in Florida and Brush Apes (etc) in Texas. I also added drawings of the equivalent foot bottoms for an actual ape and a human being, from a textbook illustration that went on display on this blog a while back. I hoped to get a better impression of the "Long and thin" types of ape footprint which more closely resembles an orangutan's foot.

Here is a selection of the Unknown apes from around the Pacific rim All of them seem to be just variations on the orangutan and derived from the ground-dwelling "Fossil Pongo" that inhabited China about the same time as Gigantopithecus. The fate of their classification in general depends on decisions regarding some of the samples that we already have. If the Yeti DNA samples, Orang Pendek hair samples, Yeren samples and even the "Fossil Pongo" are all classified in the same species as the commoner orangutans, we will not have a Cryptozoological situation, we will only have an expanded range for a known species. At present tis is a quandary.
             .

 

Neanderthal as Wildman from "Yowie Hunter"

 Our other problem is that the "Hairy Cavemen" such as the Neanderthals turn out have interbred with us and so they were the same species as the rest of us. Furthermore at some point in the development of our species, the hairless tropical mutant form at some point broke out into the territory of the more cold-adapted Northern forms of our species and predominated over them. The situation follows this  mock-up:

  And presumably this is the end result of the "out of Africa"movement.

But that means that the hairy wildmen that persist in pockets of wilderness worldwide (and which includes both pygmy, normal-sized, and giant variations) Is only another kind of people. That was my conclusion made decades ago and Im sticking to it. The problem is that these "Hairy Primitives" (as Ivan Sanderson called them) are also not Cryptozoological subjects they are a known species
(Below is what could be called a cosplay for "Old Yellow-top, a Canadian example of the more manlike Eastern Bigfoot.)

The Tote-Up

http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2010/08/dale-drinnon-mystery-primates-tote-up.html
Coleman et al, in The Field Guide to Bigfoot... also gives nine categories, thus:
1. Neo-Giants, (=)
2.* True Giants (Gigantopithecus),

3.x  Marked Hominid, (=)
4.x  Neandertaloid, (=)
5.x  Erectus Hominid, (=)
6.x Proto-pygmy,

7.x*  Unknown Pongid,
8.x * Giant Monkey,
9. Merbeing,

-out of which I discount as separate categories the true giants, marked hominids, Neandertaloids, erectus hominids and proto-pygmys, and the last four of these on the grounds that they are not only probably variants of one species, but that species is most likely not separable from Homo sapiens. I retain the categories neo-giants, unknown pongid, giant monkeys and allow the mer-beings but also keep that category as a questionable status. [There is a good chance that many if not most sightings in the Unknown Pongid and Giant Monkey categories are of animals in known species and the categories are also invalid for that reason]

In this case, the categories unknown pongid, giant monkey and merfolk are NOT unified categories representing a single cryptid as a single species per category. The categories are thus also invalid as formulated. However, in each of those categories I have also eliminated some candidates such that the unknown pongids of Africa are removed from unknown status - they are very likely displaced or unusual chimpanzees and gorillas. The remaining Asiatic and American pongids are all mostly like orangutans and do form a recognisable sequence, although they may not belong to the same species ... By the same token, ALL of the giant monkeys are very likely merely outsized monkeys of known species, except for the South American Isnachi. It should be noted that it was a major error to make one category for both Old World and New World monkeys in the same group.

ADDITIONAL:
My Friend Jeffrey Patterson on Facebook has a collection of some pretty recognizable faces found in so-called "Blobsquatch" videos. One of the recent ones he has sent to me has that distinctive "Caveman" look: it is an Ohio "Grassman"

 

 

I told him that one was clear enough I could probably recognize him if I should see him again.

And another one from a 2008 video posted on YouTube is a clear profile of a young ape:

 

And I am very nearly 100% certain both of these are exactly what they seem to be at first glance. They are the more humanlike and more apelike versions of the Eastern Bigfoot, Swamp Ape, Skunk Ape or Wood ape. And typical of both categories over much of Asia, Australia, North America and South America. And neither of them are really at all mysterious when you come right down to it.

Cryptozoology Introduction and Definition

This shall call for a reproduction of the article, the reproduction of a counterproposal, and some additional discussion at the end.

Cryptozoology Introduction

http://www.examiner.com/article/cryptozoology-introduction

cryptozoology  September 3, 2012

By: Mitchell Waite

 

6 photosView the full slideshow

Cryptozoology is not a recognized branch of science or zoology, but is considered to be a pseudoscience. However, the study is a necessity for those animals whose existence has not yet been proven, animals that are considered extinct, or those who are mentioned in myths and legends but do not have any scientifically recognized evidence of existence. Cryptozoology will also encompass the study of misplaced animals, or those animals that are appearing where they should not be.
The term used for each animal species in the Cryptozoology studies is cryptid. A cryptid (from the Greek meaning "hide") is a creature or plant whose existence has been reported, but is unrecognized by mainstream science and often regarded as highly unlikely to exist.

View slideshow:Cryptids

Some examples of animals that have not yet been proven are the Mogollon Monster, Bigfoot, Yeti, Yowie, Grass Man, Loch Ness Monster, Ogopogo, Skin Fin, and the Chupacabra.
Examples of those that were considered extinct, but are rumored to exist are the Thunderbirds (possible pterodactyls), Mokèlé-mbèmbé ( a possible brontosaurus), Ogopogo, Nessie, Champ, Skin Fin (possible plesiosaurs) and the coelacanth (prehistoric fish).
Mythological creature studies deals with folk lore, myths, and legends of supernatural creatures of both past and present. Some examples of the past are griffins, dragons, trolls, fairies, and unicorns. Present Mythological creatures are the Jersey Devil, the Mothman, the Wendigo, Dog Faced Bigfoot, Vampires, and Werewolves.
Misplaced animals may be the jaguars in Arizona, alligators in New York City, Javilina (a rodent looking like a small bore pig) in the Southwest United States, and pythons in Florida. Some other interesting animals are the ivory-billed woodpecker, and the giant vampire bat.
There have been several cryptids which have been removed from the Cryptozoology studies, and are now verified as to exist in the real science of zoology. Some examples of these animals are the okapi (discovered in 1901), mountain gorilla (October 1902), giant squid (2004), and the Hoan Kiem Turtle (1967). Please note these dates are when the Scientific Community declared them real, not when the locals reported their first sightings. In many cases, the locals knew of cryptids existence centuries before they were proven to exist by science.

NOW, to quote Randy Merrill (The Cryptozoologist) on his Facebook Page:

CRYPTOZOOLOGY VS. FORTEAN ZOOLOGY: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

[Cryptozoologist's Note: The purpose of this post is to explain for my members who don't already know the difference between the two disciplines, cryptozoology and Fortean zoology. It is also intended to clarify my individual position as just one cryptozoologist who does not embrace all of Fortean zoology; I do not include most "zooforms" among my investigations. This is in no way intended to disparage the work of my colleagues who do extend their investigations into that area. It is simply a personal choice which I briefly explain at the end of this posting. Randy]

CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Cryptozoology is, strictly speaking, the study of hidden or unknown so-called "mystery" animals belonging to species wholly or partly unknown to science, often collectively called "cryptids". Cryptozoology consists of two fields:

1. The search for extinct animals - living examples of animals taxonomically identified through fossil records, but which are believed to be extinct.

2. The search for unknown animals - animals that fall outside of taxonomic records due to a lack of empirical evidence, but for which anecdotal evidence exists in the form of myths, legends, or undocumented sightings.

It has been proposed that the first field of cryptozoology described above be incorporated into a new, separate discipline termed "eclipsazoology", or the study of extinct animals. Animals of interest to eclipsazoology would be termed "eclipsids" ("eclipsid" singular) and researchers within the discipline would be termed "eclipsazoologists".

FORTEAN ZOOLOGY

The primary focus of Fortean Zoology involves CRYPTOZOOLOGY, but Fortean Zoology also examines unusual and aberrant animal behavior, animal mutilations, animal color variants, teratology (the study of abnormalities of physiological development), animal folklore, and such classic Fortean staples as creature falls ("fafrotskies" - a rare meteorological phenomenon in which flightless animals "rain" from the sky), and vampire/werewolf reports.

Fortean Zoology is therefore divided into the following areas or "tiers", introduced to aid classification and analysis of unknown animals:

Mystery Animals - Fortean Zoology studies the various aspects of cryptozoology and its allied disciplines.

Pseudo-cryptids - Many researchers are interested in a related category of mystery animals often dubbed pseudo-cryptids, which are not strictly part of cryptozoology. This is one reason why Downes formulated the portmanteau discipline of Fortean Zoology. These creatures are animals which are out of place, i.e., known species which by accident and/or artificial introduction are living where one would not normally expect to find them—one good example being alien big cats said to live in the British moorlands.

However, not all out-of-place animals occur because of human intervention. Some are the result of accidental migration due to inclement weather or unusual marine currents. They are often known animal species that seem to be dramatically increasing their geographical range.

Other pseudo-cryptids include outsized or oddly colored individual or groups of animals of a known species. A good example of a pseudo-cryptid would be the golden frogs of the United Kingdom which are the subject of a current Fortean Zoology research project.

Zooform Phenomena - The third ... category consists of zooform phenomena. These are not animals at all, but entities or apparitions which adopt or seem to have (quasi)-animal form. This is where some cryptozoologists cross into the territory of science fiction or the supernatural. In many ways, these elusive and contentious entities have plagued cryptozoology since its inception, and tend to be dismissed by mainstream science as thoroughly unworthy of consideration. Zooform phenomena seem to be a strange blend of paranormal manifestation and mythology.

However, Jonathan Downes, who first coined the term in 1990, maintains that many zooform phenomena result from complex psychosocial and sociological phenomena, and suggests that to classify all such phenomena as "paranormal" in origin is counterproductive.

In my opinion such zooform phenomena include, aerial ghosts, ghost lights, will-o-the-wisp’s, fairy lights, spectral aircraft, ghostly airmen, phantasmal helicopters, ghost rockets, and haunted places and structures of every kind

[Cryptozoologist's Note: As a discriminating cryptozoologist who is also a theologian, it is my professional opinion that many zooform phenomena are manifestations of evil spirits (fallen angels; demons), which have no place in the scientific study of cryptozoology. That is why readers of my cryptozoology sites and blogs will find no mention of any entities which exhibit characteristics beyond what is rightly considered possible for a corporeal creature.]

PREVIOUS COMMENTS

Penny Odell: So basically If it's not a new animal discovery and you cannot touch it as a solid form then it is not included in your countenance of Cryptozoology :)

Penny Odell: I would agree with that..leave the fairies at the bottom of the garden.:)

Randy Merrill: I only exclude zooforms and other supernatural (paranormal) manifestations.

Loren Coleman: Trouble with your "coined words."

Loren Coleman: Eclipsid: An endodermic skin therapy draught to be taken only in extreme heat to protect the consumer from the harmful effects of the sun.

Directions: To be partaken of only in doses of six or seven drops placed directly on the tongue not more than four times in a seven day period.

Ingredients:

3 powdered dried black nightshade leaves
1/2 spoonful of dried wormwood
2 heliotrope petals

Mixing Instructions: Boil the ingredients in one medium flask of water. Let steep for seven days. Boil again, strain, and store in the sun for 4 hours.
http://thevampire.diaryland.com/eclipsid.html

The Vampire of Perdu
thevampire.diaryland.com

Karl Shuker: The problem is that we cannot always be sure what a given entity is, based solely on anecdotal evidence. The sky beasts or flying jellyfishes are a case in point. Opinions re them vary greatly and fundamentally - zooform entities, UFOs, und...iscovered animals adapted for an exclusively aerial existence in the stratosphere. Until a specimen is obtained, we have only opinions as to their identity. So that is why I do not reject them out of hand as cryptozoological entities. They are not so far removed from other cryptids as to be impossible as cryptids. Nature abhors a vacuum etc. There is a huge environment up there in the atmosphere seemingly lacking any major life forms, which to me is a very odd situation.

Randy Merrill: Loren Coleman, Hahahahahahaha! Very good! However, those are not my words, but rather a concept developed by Chris Rehberg, Author and administrator of "Where Light Meets Dark: Examining the evidence for rare Australian fauna" http://www.wherelightmeetsdark.com/index.phpWhere Light Meets Dark (www.wherelightmeetsdark.com)
http://www.wherelightmeetsdark.com/

Critical analysis of the photographic, video, film and other evidence for the ongoing existence of Australian fauna including the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), Tasmanian devil, East...

Randy Merrill: Oh, and I did report on the Cottingley Fairies, but only to show how easily a hoax can be perpetrated if people want badly enough for it to be true.

OK now, we have a perfectly good and perfectly concise definition of Crypozoological subjects: they are not-presently-recognised, fully corporeal, normal animals, in general comprising only two sorts: animals that are not currently correctly classified and more especially not generally recognised as rreal zoological subjects by consensus of opinion, and survivals of extinct animals, specifying fossil animals (and hence not recently extinct)

Cryptozoology is considered a valid science by certain scientists and not one by others. This in itself does not determine if it is a true science or a pseudoscience. I would argue that Cryptozoology sensuo stricto falls ONLY into those two categories and both of those categories count as scientific subjects: and that the critics who call Cryptozoolgy a pseudoscience are considering more the subjects of FORTEAN Zoology, especially the zooforms and "Spirits": Randy Merril and I both explicitly exclude those from our definition.

Now as to the major unreconised problem: Cryptid categories as they are presented in the media. There is a MAJOR problem in that there is no effort in most of Cryptozoology to give a specific name to a specific type of creature as opposed to whatever is ALLEGED to belong in that category, and in the allocation of separate category names for local "Manifestations" of alleged creatures. The main problem is that ALL of the major categories are composites including reports of more than one type of creature: Even something which seems as distinct and manageable as "The Loch Ness Monster" includes manyy different reports of different things that are nothing like each other. In the category called "Bigfoot" and the similar one called "Yeti" there are reports of apes, humans and possible fossil relicts spoken of in the same breath as reports of bears and yes, even pure hallucinations. So saying anything so simple as "Bigfoot is a man" or "Bigfoot is an ape" becomes a horrible complicated proposition. Major fights errupt between Cryptozoologists over the allocation of "Mapinguari" reports in South America: there really shouldn't be a problem because the category itself is composite and includes reports f more than one type. As do all of the other categories.

And just to repeat once again, reports of KNOWN species-including individuals found outside their usual range-are NOT Cryptozoological, they fall into the category of Fortean Zoology. Along with the Zooforms.

I am quite comfortable with Randy's definition and it is much like my own. The article from the Examiner is none too careful in sorting out categories and there are some mistakes in there. Coelacanths are not Cryptids, they are known animals: javelinas are not rodents, they are usually called peccaries: neither javelinas nor jaguars are actually outside of known historical ranges when they occur in Arizona. At any rate, an international border means nothing to a wild animal. Ivorybilled Woodpeckers are NOT officially "Extinct" but might be replenished by survivors outside of the United States. They are not Cryptids in any event. Thhunderbirds are most commonly understood to be birds, survivals of the La Brea Tar Pit Giant Vulture Teratornis. The Giant Vamire Bat is not currently "Known" as the Ivory-billed woodpecker bracketed with it is, and nobody even disputes the existance of feral pythons in Florida.

The article in The Examiner is rather misleading when it groups all of these creatures together. In Cryptozoology we have a lot of published material which is actually irrelevant to thhe proper study itself.

Best Wishes, Dale D..

This is why Out-of-Place Animals of KNOWN Species CANNOT be assumed to be Cryptids.

This news story has been continuing for the last several days until it is coming to a grisly ending for all of the poor captive exotic animals involved. My point here is not to say that this is a disaster for all of the species involved as far as preserving genertic variation goes, but to point out that this scenario is a bona fide example of a person who had a hobby of importing exotic animals and who ened up by intending to release all his animals into the wilderness, without public notification and of course quite illegally. When we have such examples as this going on, there really is no good reason for saying reported exotic animals could not have been brought into the country and released secretly, which is a mantra repeated constantly by some persons that collect such reports as "Black Panthers", "Surrey Pumas", "Australian Big Cats" , "Errant Crocodylians", "Displaced Pythons" and call such reports Cryptozoological. The collectors of such reports frequently insist that such creatures which are otherwise species known to exist currently in other parts of the world must be Cryptozoological mostly on the assumption that other researchers have always said that these creatures were so.
There is no "Must Be" to it. If ANY Animal is a  KNOWN species then it is NOT an unknown species and hence it is not a subject fit for Cryptozoological study: It is NOT a CRYPTID.

 Best Wishes, Dale D.



A sign warning motorists that exotic animals are on the loose rests on I-70 Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, near Zanesville, Ohio

  



The Ones That Didn't get Away. Sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals , including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions, after Terry Thompson, owner of the private Muskingum County Animal Farm near Zanesville, threw their cages open Tuesday and then committed suicide. Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound

 



Investigators walk around a barn as carcasses lay on the ground at The Muskingum County Animal Farm Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in Zanesville, Ohio.

 

Exotic animal escape in Ohio

Amid expressions of horror and revulsion at the killing of dozens of wild animals in Ohio — and photographs of their bloody carcasses — animal rights advocates agreed there was little local authorities could have done to save the dangerous creatures once they began roaming the countryside after their owner released them before taking his own life. (AP)

Three Animals Still Running Free in Zanesville, Ohio: Town Under Lockdown

By KEVIN DOLAK, DEAN SCHABNER and CHRISTINA CARON | Good Morning America – Wed, Oct 19, 2011

• Three Animals Still Running Free in Zanesville, Ohio: Town Under Lockdown (ABC N …

http://news.yahoo.com/three-animals-still-running-free-zanesville-ohio-town-074109227.html

A grizzly bear, mountain lion and a monkey are still on the loose in Ohio after authorities hunted down as many as 51 ferocious animals who were set free by the owner of an animal preserve before killing himself.

Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz told reporters he can't be 100 percent sure that those three animals are the only ones unaccounted for.

Lutz and ABC News' wildlife expert Jack Hanna, who will take the living animals at the preserve to the Columbus Zoo, urged the public to remain cautious.

"If you see these animals you do not run," said Hanna, who added he is most concerned about the mountain lion, since those animals have "great leaping ability."

The sheriff said that when his men arrived at the animal preserve in Zanesville, they found bears, lions, Bengal tigers, black bears, leopards roaming the area. Since it was about to get dark, he feared the animals would escape into the night.

He said his deputies had to kill animals at close range with their sidearms. One animal that got away was hit by a car on a highway some distance away, he said.

The animals' cages were opened up by Terry Thompson, who owned an animal preserve in Zanesville. Thompson killed himself after freeing his menagerie, Lutz said.

Hanna and his vets visited the farm today, calling conditions deplorable. He plans to take all five living animals to the Columbus Zoo.
The man who is believed to have set the animals free, Thompson, 61, was recently released from prison after serving one year on federal weapons charges. According to investigators he has been cited in the past for animal abuse and neglect.

Lutz said at a news conference that residents should stay inside until the animals, which escaped around 6 p.m. Tuesday, are rounded up. Several schools across the area have cancelled classes for Wednesday.

Police, who have been ordered to shoot to kill, describe the loose animals as "mature, very big and aggressive."

Lutz said that several aggressive animals were shot by deputies when they were discovered near Thompson's body at his preserve. Thompson's preserve was surrounded by a fence, and not all animals on the property fled through the open gates.

"These are wild animals, wild animals that you would see on TV in Africa," Lutz said at a news conference Tuesday evening.

Last night, as many as 51 wild animals, including cheetahs, grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, lions, a white Siberian tiger, camels and giraffes were running free in Zanesville, which has a population of about 25,000 residents. Police said that orangutans and chimps were found in Thompson's home, but they were still in their cages.
"This is a bad situation," Mutz said. "It's been a bad situation for a long time and the last thing we want to do is have any of our public hurt."
Deputies are working with the animals' caregiver, who says the animals were fed on Monday.
They're putting food in the animals' pens in the hopes they might return, where they can then be secured.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol has cordoned off seven square miles near Interstate 70 and officers are using infrared devices to find the animals.
On "GMA" Wednesday Hanna said that in controlling this situation human life and animal life must both be considered, as does timing of capture.
"Human life has to come first but that's what we have to look for. We have to take care of our animal life. You cannot tranquilize an animal at night. It's hard enough during the daytime," Hanna said.
Danielle White, one of Thompson's neighbors, said that she saw a loose lion in the area in 2006.
"It's always been a fear of mine knowing [the preserve's owner] had all those animals," she said. "I have kids. I've heard a male lion roar all night."

Thompson has been warned repeatedly over the last decade to get his animals under control – and no less than 30 times in the past year. He was arrested in April of 2005 for cruelty and torture of cattle and bison he had on his property, according to the website pet-abuse.com. He was charged with one count of having an animal at large, two counts of rendering animal waste and one count of cruelty to animals.