William T. Cox and the Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber Woods…

William T. Cox was the first State Forester and Commissioner of Conservation for Minnesota. He worked as a forester for the United States Forest Service. In 1929 Cox even traveled to Brazil to organize the Brazilian Forest Service. But what William T. Cox is most remembered for now is a brilliant field guide he wrote back in 1910 about imaginary creatures, or cryptids as we now know them today. 

Image from Cox’s obituary page.

This field guide, with illustrations by Coert du Bois titled Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber Woods, With a few Dessert and Mountain Beasts features fictional creatures loggers would make up in their time in the deep forests. Often to haze new lumberers with. 

Some of the amazing creatures featured in this book were the hodag, and the brilliant creature, the hugag. The Hugag is described as being similar to a moose with an extensive upper-lip, preventing it from grazing, and jointless legs preventing it from lying down. 

The hugag

But not all were completely fictional some were just embellished from strange creatures actually reported such as the Hyampom Hog Bear and the Snoligoster.  Whether you’re reading about the fictional or the embellished critters here, it makes for a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it again this weekend and definitely recommend it for the lovers of cryptozoology.

Have an awesome Sunday everyone!

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber Woods

The Holadeira Mystery

“In the 1990s, a strange creature emerged from the Brazilian Amazon Basin. Known as the Holadeira, or “sawtooth dolphin,” this cryptid was reportedly spotted by local and named the Holadeira and it even captured the attention of adventurers like Jeremy Wade.

Wade reportedly first saw the animal in 1994 about 100′ away from his boat while fishing. With its notched dorsal fin and elusive nature, some believe it was a unique species, while others think it might have been an injured Amazon river dolphin.  

Wade, after witnessing it again and being able to photograph it on his second expedition out there, confirmed it was a dolphin, perhaps mutilated by fisherman…

I was reminded of this little legend on Reddit , if you’d like to keep up with the conversation on it over there here is the link…


https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/s/jigVL5uWnA

Have an awesome Sunday and keep your eyes open you never no what you mind find out there wandering the forests and the seas…

The Small Clawed Otter is Back…

A rescued Asian small-clawed otter in Dadeldhura, Nepal. Image by Rajeev Chaudhary.

As reported by Mongabay…

Scientists have for the first time in 185 years confirmed the presence of the Asian small-clawed otter in Nepal, thrilling conservationists and researchers looking for clues to its existence here.

The last time the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus), the smallest of the world’s 13 known otter species, was recorded by scientists in Nepal was in 1839.

“After years of speculation about its presence in Nepal, we can finally confirm that the small-clawed otter lives on in the country,” said Mohan Bikram Shrestha, the lead author of a short note published in the latest edition of the bulletin of the Otter Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority.

https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/worlds-smallest-otter-makes-comeback-in-nepal-after-185-years/

I am Nature…

“I’ve dreamt I’m running through the Forest, my feet pounding on the pine 

I never feel so alive as I do when I’m outside 

I want to run with the wolves and howl at the moon 

Listen to nature answering back with its own magical tune

Footsteps that echo in ancient lore

As wild hearts beat forevermore

Like the pounding on a tightly locked door 

We move as one, both fierce and free

Fangs, paws and feet 

Bound by nature’s pure decree

That we should always be this wild free 

These majestic guardians of secrets forests far and wide 

No longer feel the need to hide 

As we hit the moss and fern, we tread so light

In harmony with the pale moonlight 

Streams sing tales of ages past

Of mountains climbed and valleys passed

We heed the call of nature’s song

In this wild dance, where I’ve always felt I belong

The wind’s caress upon our skin

A magical feeling that stirs within

The forest whispers ancient rhymes

Of a freedom found together for all our kind

Together with the wolves I soar

Me, an untamed spirit as never before

And In the heart of nature’s boundless dreams

I am part of this forest, the wild, nature and the fairy’s gleam”

Poem by me…

Video: Trail of Bigfoot Tracks Found in Snowy Maine Forest? | NewsRadio 1110 KFAB | Coast to Coast AM with George Noory

The BFRO are recognizing these prints as authentic bigfoot tracks. Some say they are deer tracks made to look larger from the snow.

Your thoughts?

An intriguing video from Maine shows a trail of sizeable prints found in a snowy forest and some suspect that the peculiar tracks could have been left behind by Bigfoot.
— Read on kfab.iheart.com/featured/coast-to-coast-am/content/2025-03-03-video-trail-of-bigfoot-tracks-found-in-snowy-maine-forest/

Thylacine in History…

Preservation of the Tasmanian Tiger…”

Consequent upon the information reported in our last Proceedings, another search was made in the wilds of Tasmania for evidence of the existence of this almost extinct Marsupial.

Thanks have been transmitted to the Tasmanian Board for its generosity in allowing M:. M. S. R. Sharland the opportunity of first hand knowledge of the position. Apparently

The expedition was fitted out by the Tasmanian Animals and Birds’ Protection Board, and as a guest, Mr. M S. R. Sharland accompanied it. A full account will be published in the Proceedings, from which it will be seen that new footprints were observed more than once indicating that more than one individual still survives in the locality searched.

Mr. Sharland upheld the traditions of the Society as the Tasmanian Board has renewed its invitation to their next research expedition.

It is a matter of regret that no animals were seen but this is mainly due to the nocturnal habits of the marsupial.”

This Information was printed in the Proceeding of the Royal  Zoological Society of  New South Wales for the year 1938 

The mention of footprints makes me hold out hope…

The Deer Woman…

Shedevrum AI

“In the moonlit woods where shadows play

Roams the Deer Woman, wild and fey

With eyes like embers, dark and deep

She wanders through the forest’s keep

Her form shifts in the twilight’s glow

Half a woman, half a doe

She tempts the heart with graceful ease

A spirit of the ancient trees

Whispered tales of love and fear

Of those who dared to venture near

With every step, her mystique grows

A haunting presence, soft and close

Legends speak of her allure

A warning wrapped in beauty pure

She beckons with a lusty siren’s call

To those who heed, they’ll rise or fall

In her gaze, both life and death

A fleeting touch, a stolen breath

She dances in the moon’s embrace

A mystery, a timeless grace

Beware the Deer Woman’s charm

For in her arms lies both harm and calm

A story woven in the night

A legend in the pale moonlight”

Bigfoot in Books… The Story of Man

Picture from Story of Man, 1962

“Of Giant Apes and Snowmen
IN the 1930’s, Ralph von Koenigswald, who discovered the first man-ape jaw in Java and some human remains to be described shortly, combed the Chinese drugstores of several Oriental cities, in search of fossil teeth. For centuries the Chinese have used the bones of fossil animals to cure their ills, in the belief that courage, strength, and virility come from the powdered remains of large, strong, and potent animals. Their cure for toothache is powdered teeth. Out of thousands of teeth, von Koenigswald found, in Hong Kong, six of particular interest.
They are human-like in form, but six times as large, in volume, as those of living men. Between the stubs of the roots, gnawed by cave porcupines, he detected powdered yellow earth, which told him that the teeth had come from caves near the Yangtze gorges.
He called the animal to whom the teeth had belonged Giganto-pithecus, the giant ape. For years some paleontologists believed that Gigantopithecus was an ancestor of man, but in the late 1950’s Chinese scientists found three jaws of this animal, which was an aberrant ape. It lived in the Pleistocene, too late to be our ancestor.
An even more famous and fabulous animal is the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. His tracks have been found in snow and mud in the Himalayas, and he has been reported as far north as Mongolia. Eyewitnesses have described him as tall, two-legged, tawny-coated, maned, big-muzzled, and big-toothed. Several expeditions to Nepal and Soviet Central Asia have failed to find this elusive animal, whose numerous tracks are so far unique.
Even if it turns out to be a primate it is more likely to be a survival of Gigantopithecus than an Australopithecine.”

From, The Story of Man
Carleton S. Coon, 1962