Wolverhampton Monster (solved)

 

In the year 1934, a mysterious creature frightened a number of children in the suburbs of Wolverhampton. Nobody at the time knew what it was or where it came from but it was described as a cross between a rat and a dog. Local kids found it but a teenager named George Goodhead was alerted when a boy ran up to him to say the creature was chasing a baby. The teen went over to a kids den area of rubble in a pit, where he found this strange creature that he didn't know anything about. He rescued the baby and then killed the creature. A council worker removed the carcass and soon it was discovered what it really was. 

Dr Dyke from Wolverhampton Royal Hospital identified it as a South American animal named a coatimundi of the genus Nasua (a distant relative of the raccoon family). These animals are cute omnivores but very nervous, as they're hunted by wolves, big cats and birds of prey. It was unclear how it found itself on the loose in England but believed it got lost from a travelling circus. This particular animal met a sad end by being among people who didn't know any better. Years later, the area where the coatimundi was first found was used during the war, and that place became "Coatimundi Land". 

Since then, a number of coatimundis have been found wandering around the streets in the UK but more is understood about these animals. No longer viewed as unknown creatures or monsters anymore, they're exotic pets and any found are placed in animal rescue centres where they're given a lot of loving care such as these two: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-31726845

https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2017-04-05/middlesbrough-dog-walker-finds-exotic-south-american-coatimundi 

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Dragon sightings?

On the 23rd April is St. George's Day, the name of a famous dragon slayer of legend. It's celebrated in many countries and is the patron saint of England, Portugal, Catalonia, Venice and Ethiopia. Many people sought the protection of St George over the centuries during bad miserable times. 

During WWI, British soldiers saw a glowing apparition that they believed to be St George, along with an army of knights, descending on Earth to help them through the war. This event was called Angels of Mons. 

Did these soldiers of the trenches witness any dragons? That would make an interesting story. In England, St George is a dragon slayer and this day has also come to be known as a fantastic dragon day and a dragon memorial day among some. But there has been many dragon sightings over time, and after the two world wars. Here is a list of some well known historical dragon sightings:

https://www.blackdrago.com/history/sightings.htm

https://readerofdragons.home.blog/.

https://www.wimbornestgiles.dsat.org.uk/dragon-spotted-flying-over-salisbury-cathedral/

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The mysterious cat-fox

 

In many parts of the world are sightings of a strange cryptid known as the cat-fox. It's been reported in Corsica and in the forests of the island Borneo is a mysterious creature believed to be unknown, and resembles a cat and a fox. 

Described as a bit larger than a house cat, with a long tail, red fur, it's also a carnivore. It was compared to the fossa animal of Madagascar, that preys upon small mammals such as lemurs. The cat-fox of Borneo is less known, but has been seen and also caught on camera. While a number of new species of animals are still being discovered in the world, a number of sceptics believe the cat-fox is only a squirrel. These would be the flying squirrels, or Aeromys, or the red giant flying squirrel, Petaurista petaurista.  The squirrels are not carnivorous but the cat-fox is. The image of the strange creature is shown here:

The picture was captured by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), in the Kayan Mentarang national park. The same organisation plan to study this cat-fox more by trying to look for it, and once established as a new species, the cat-fox will be the next biggest carnivore in Borneo to be found since the Borneo ferret badger. 

Some members of the public have suggested the cat-fox is similar to another carnivore of the island, the Borneo Bay Cat. This Bay Cat is a rare sighting and very difficult to find. It might possibly be the same creature, although the island is filled with unknown species.  

Links on the subject:

The Cat-fox of Borneo at The Guardian science page. Cat-fox of Corsica at Live Science website. Fossa at Wikipedia. Red Giant Flying Squirrel also Wikipedia as well as the Borneo Bay Cat. 

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5 dark fairy tales

Stories like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Cinderella" and "Alice in Wonderland" are well loved favourites but it's really much darker and scarier than many people know. A lot of famous traditional children's bedtime stories are actually creepy. I shall share some of the fairy tales and their earlier scary versions and also my take on it. There's a lot of symbolisms that I will mention in more detail with each of the stories listed here and others in a future post.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" featured a more evil queen. She wanted the huntsman to kill Snow White and bring back her heart in a box as proof. Well she wanted the huntsman to return all of Snow White's internal organs to the queen, so that she could eat it! Later on in the story, the queen is brutally tortured at the wedding of Snow White and the prince. What is even more shocking too is that the original Brothers Grimm version, the evil queen is the biological mother of Snow White. (My view is that Snow White has "vampire disease" a blood disorder, with skin as pale as snow and lips red as blood, which sounds like porphyria). 

"Cinderella" has a twisted version too. The stepsisters mutilate their feet so they could try and wear the glass slipper. Their horribly bleeding butchered feet was too ghastly for the prince and he refused to let them try on the magical shoe. After Cinderella wears the glass slipper and reveals that she was the mysterious girl dancing with the prince at the royal ball, they plan their wedding. The stepsisters are invited along, only to have their eyes pecked out by birds, and these are friends of Cinderella. In the original version, there wasn't a fairy godmother but a tree where Cinderella would talk to the ghost of her deceased mother. (I always believed that the fairy godmother was the spirit of Cinderella's true mum).

"The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen, is a much more tragic story. When the mermaid visits the sea witch and asks for human legs, she has to give up her voice by having her tongue cut out. By being given legs, she would need to lose her voice as payment. Also another price to pay, if the prince doesn't notice her, she would die. The mermaid did get human legs, and she could walk and dance but each step was painful. Her sisters give her a blade to kill the prince so that she doesn't have to die. As the prince married another woman, the heartbroken mermaid refused to kill him with the blade, instead she flung herself into the sea and died. (I always felt sad for the Little Mermaid until Disney gave her a happy fulfilling ending).

"Rapunzel" is very grown up and not for children either. When the prince climbs up Rapunzel's hair to visit her in the tower, they would do more than sweet nothings. She became pregnant, and soon banished from the tower by the witch after cutting off her long hair. The prince was tricked into climbing up Rapunzel's hair, only to see the witch, who sent him to his death. He landed in brambles, cushioning his fall, but the sharp spiky plants cut his eyes and made him go blind. He wandered the land searching as a blind man, until he was drawn to Rapunzel's voice. She had twin children with her, and seeing the prince made her weep tears of joy. Her tears fell in his eyes and restored his vision. (I always wondered how Rapunzel first ended up in the tower as a child, as this was never explained. I guess, the main door was bricked up later on)

"Alice in Wonderland" is by Lewis Caroll and the original is much more detailed than in later versions. The animated Disney film was going to be much more scary. The bottle she drinks that changed her size was a person, a cheerful and even manipulative character. The Mad Hatter owned a hat shop filled with dummies of his likeness wearing hats and with moving eyes. Also the Mad Hatter and the March Hare were originally large in size. The mad tea party is set on an eerie vast table, while Alice is being chased by the Mad Hatter and March Hare who threaten to cut her legs off. The earlier plans for the Disney animation was going to end with Alice being executed by the Queen of Hearts! (That would've been a mistake if they kept to this initial idea, it wasn't meant to be a horror!) 

Links:

10 facts about Disney's original Alice in Wonderland.. 

10 fairy tales that are way darker

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Predatory plants

While Spring is a time of beautiful blossoms and wild flowers, there are also strange stories about blood thirsty plants, that drink blood and devour animals. Many of these evil man-eating plants are found in fictional horror stories, but also come from folklore. Some reported as cryptids. 

There is the Madagascar Tree, that was described by Karl Leche on his travels. He said that the Mkodo tribe in Madagascar performed human ritualistic sacrifices. What was also quite weird and very disturbing was a tree, with snakelike palp, wrapped around a human victim and strangled to death. There was also a book about the horrible tree by Chase Osborn, a former Governor of Michigan. Scientist Willy Otto Oscar Ley wrote that the tree and the Mkodo tribe don't exist at all. 

A Vampire plant was said to exist in the Mexican region of Chiapas, discovered by Byron de Prorok. He described the plant as enormous in size that was known to kill birds. Dr. Karl Shuker believed that it might be possible to have really happened as there were also sightings of another, the Mexican Snake-tree, a cryptid plant and appears in Aztec myth. Another horror is in South America, the Bird Eating Tree, believed to grow in Brazil. It produces sweet tasting juicy berries and catches small prey that goes to eat the fruits. 

Here is a page about Scary Plants and Botanical Horrors found on Atlas Obscura.

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Cryptid news April

Here are a few cryptid stories that interested me from the past month. It would only seem fair to provide links and sources. I shall be posting cryptid news at the start of the month and have been doing this for seven months. It's become a favourite and so I may keep posting monthly cryptid news tidbits permanently.    

Bigfoot is often associated with the Americas, or the mountains of Tibet and forests of Russia. However, there are many sightings of a Bigfoot type entity in other countries. There was one recent mention of this, when huge Bigfoot prints were found in Devon, England. This link goes to Devon Live News on that story HERE

Now the British Isles is the place well know for the creature Loch Ness Monster, but there are many similar types of cryptids found all over the world. One such place hit the headlines, with photographic evidence of a monster in the Hudson River, New York. Link to the article with photo at The Mirror found on this.  

It's believed that goblins have been terrorising a family in Zimbabwe. Three children living with their grandparents have been attacked by goblins, who keep taking their possessions, and then brutally assaulting them. They've been so scared of noises, lights turning themselves on and off, doors opening and closing by unseen hands, also much more that had to leave. This story found at Singular Fortean HERE.   

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