
ShukerNature
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ShukerNature explores cryptozoology & animal mythology - bigfoot, chupacabras, yeti, vampires, sea monsters, Nessie, sasquatch, dragons, mystery cats.
ShukerNature
2w ago
Is this what a luminous or glowing owl would look like?
Sceptics notwithstanding, the phenomenon of luminous birds whose lengthy history I surveyed recently on ShukerNature in Part 1 of this two-part review (click here to read Part 1) is assuredly genuine, but how can it be explained? Five principal potential solutions have been suggested by amateur naturalists and professional scientists alike down through the ages, and these are as follows:
1) It is due to the bird having made physical external contact with phosphorescent organisms living on decayed wood in tree holes
The idea ..read more
ShukerNature
2w ago
Is this what a luminous or glowing owl would look like?
THE LUMINOUS OWL
A marvellous fowl is the luminous owl,
It glitters and glisters and gleams.
It lights up the night in its shimmering flight,
A vision of wonder and dreams.
Dr Karl Shuker – from my Star Steeds and Other Dreams poetry blog
Anomalous phenomena come into and go out of fashion very much like fashions themselves, and the concept of luminous birds, especially owls, is no exception. Throughout ancient and medieval history, it was very much a subject for discussion among writers and scholars. Moreover, there seems to have ..read more
ShukerNature
1M ago
Is this what Malaya's mystifying two-tongued cryptids looked like? (created by me using Grok)
The days spanning Christmas and the New Year are traditionally ones filled with mystery and magic, a time of weirdness and wonder. So what better day than today, New Year's Eve, to present here on ShukerNature for your entertainment and enjoyument during this time the following cryptozoological conundrum?
In 1997, I included the following account in my book From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings, hoping that someone reading it might be able to propose an identity for the mysterious creatures de ..read more
ShukerNature
1M ago
My official Lionsgate Region 1 DVD of Razortooth (© Patricia Harrington/Gravedigger Films/Capital Art Entertainment (CAE)/PUSH/Lionsgate – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
Genetically-modified beasts, i.e. creatures converted from the mundane into the monstrous by mad scientists of the kind beloved by film audiences and directors alike for over a century now, have long been a staple theme in science fiction movies, and the two examples reviewed and mini-reviewed respectively here, both of which are of the piscean persuasio ..read more
ShukerNature
1M ago
Life-sized reconstruction of the North American scimitar cat Homotherium serum (© Dr Karl Shuker)
So far, in Parts 1 and 2 (click here and here to read them) of my comprehensive 3-part article on lesser-known Mexican mystery cats, I have documented no fewer than six different examples, incorporating a great deal of valuable information supplied to me on Facebook by Mexican palaeo-artist and cryptozoological enthusiast Hodari Nundu, who is also a longstanding friend of mine on FB. In addition, he has very kindly permitted me to include in my article a number of his exquisite illustration ..read more
ShukerNature
1M ago
One long-recognized and three currently-unrecognized Mexican felids – (top left) the puma; (top right) the mazamiztli; (bottom left) Montezuma's wolf-puma; (bottom right) the tlalmiztli (© Hodari Nundu)
In Part 1 of my ShukerNature blog article on lesser-known Mexican mystery cats (please click here to read it, and also click here to read my earlier ShukerNature article documenting Mexico's best-known mystery cat, the onza), I documented the mystifying ruffed cat, some skins of which were actually procured by American zoologist and cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson while visiting Mexico ..read more
ShukerNature
1M ago
Reconstruction of the possible appearance in life of Mexico's mysterious ruffed cat (created by me using Grok)
When cryptozoologists think of Mexican mystery cats, the example that always comes instantly to mind is the onza – that elusive gracile enigma that may simply be a bona fide puma, taxonomically speaking, or may not be at all, because the controversy regarding its taxonomic status is still far from resolved (click here to read my detailed ShukerNature article on this subject, and check out my definitive book on feline cryptids, Mystery Cats of the World Revisited, for addi ..read more
ShukerNature
1M ago
Is this what the elf chimp looked like? (created by me using MagicStudio)
My previous ShukerNature blog article was devoted to fictional green pigs (click here to read it), so now, continuing this colourful theme, the current one presented here is devoted to a (supposedly) factual green chimpanzee.
As regular readers of my blog, books, and articles will know well by now, I've always been attracted to the more unusual, little-known cryptids, and never more so than when they appear to be confined to a single source, and with no apparent follow-ups either. So it was that when, many years a ..read more
ShukerNature
2M ago
In Lewis Carroll's Looking-Glass Land, mome raths are small green pigs with long snouts (© Dr Karl Shuker)
Down through the years, I've documented here on ShukerNature, and subsequently in various of my books, a number of mysterious creatures featured in certain famous works of literary fiction, investigating their possible origins, in particular the real-life animals that may have inspired their creation.
Such book-dwelling beasts chronicled by me include (but are by no means limited to): the Cheshire cat and the mock turtle from Lewis Carroll's classic children's book Alice's Adventur ..read more
ShukerNature
2M ago
Did American actor Larry Hagman see something like this during his 'trip'?
My memory has always been akin to an exceedingly eclectic but generally well-organised, well-maintained filing cabinet whose innumerable drawers contain all of the myriad facts that I've acquired throughout my life, including the 40 years that I've spent researching and writing about cryptids, mythological beasts, and fantastical fauna (flora too) of every imaginable, and unimaginable, kind. Occasionally, however, a fact file somehow becomes misplaced, misfiled, or just plain missing. And so it was with the slim ..read more