Monsterquest Central

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Monster Quest Music Video

Monsterquester

Monsterquest: 2007-2010

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Review: Monsterquest 7-8-09

Really well-done episode!!! Some notes:

Jim Hebert-1994, Grand Teton Park witness

Jeff Meldrum-Footprint Examination

Bill Munns-examination of the P/G Film.

Dr. David Begun-Paleoanthropologist

James "Bobo" Fay-BFRO member

2,500 sightings since 1969

Freeman footage examined, as is the Cripplefoot casts from Bossburg Washington

Bill Munns' work is highlighted on the P/G Film

The team of Munns, Bobo and others will attempt to measure the site of the P/G Film, led by Doug Devine

The team will attempt to fly over the film site, but the weather is not cooperating

David Murphy is also profiled, the man who is writing a biography on Roger Patterson

A recreation of Roger Patterson taking and passing a polygraph test is shown, which was written about in National Wildlife Magazine

Professor Jeff Sedlik is a forensic examiner who is also attempting to analyze the P/G Film

Mapping technology is being used to determine a chart of eyewitness accounts since October 20, 1967, by Frank Orr, a GIS specialist

The mapping is done based on average rainfall and its correlation

Casts are examined by Dr. Meldrum on the program in his usual attention to detail

The Freeman footage is examined next, and given an endorsement by Meldrum

Sedlik attempts to clean up the image to examine it properly

The helicopter team attempts to land near the P/g Filmsite, but it seems impossible due to excessive snow

They land close to the film site and attempt to hike into the site, but that is abandoned

Munns decides to instead do a photogrammetry examination of the site via photos

Based on the work he did with photogrammetry, he determines the height of the creature, along with the fact that Patterson used a 15-MM lens on his camera

Munns then builds 5 different heads to determine the actual head shape of "Patty"

He conducts experiments with the five heads and comes to a startling conclusion

Two witnesses from Wenatchee, Washington saw a Sasquatch there in 1976

The two fired shots over the creature's head, and frightened it off

Meldrum is seen examining tracks which show a mid-tarsal break

Meldrum believes this finding may the most significant since the Bossburg Cripple

He consults an orthopedic surgeon, David Howe, on his opinion on the Cripplefoot casts

Dr. Begun is skeptical, especially of the P/G Film

Munns is of the opinion that the film is real, using an overlay

An experiment is conducted with the five shaped heads to see if motion blur could account for the different shapes of the head shown in the film

it is shot on the same type of camera Patterson used and also on a High-Definition video camera

Dr. Howe believes the Cripplefoot cast shows a fracture, which indicates it is real and not hoaxed

Dr. Sedlik is on the fence on the P/G Film

Munns cannot get a human to fit into the proportions on "Patty"

His conclusion is that it is real

The various experts interviewed were split, but open-minded

MonsterQuest - Critical Evidence

Cryptomundo » Critical Evidence

Monday, June 29, 2009

The term Cryptozoology was coined in 1959 by Lucien Blancou in a book dedicated to the foremost researcher of unknown animals, Bernard Heuvelmans. As the term has now become a standard part of modern vocabulary and appears in almost all dictionaries, it is defined as "the science of hidden animals". It combines the three Greek words: kryptos, zoon and logos, which mean, respectively, hidden, animal, and discourse. In 1955, Heuvelman published On the Track of Unknown Animals and the new discipline was born. By 1982, the International Society of Cryptozoology was founded at a meeting held at the Smithsonian Institution. According to this meeting, Cryptozoology concerns "the possible existence of known animals in areas where they were not supposed to occur, either now or in the past), as well as the unknown persistence of presumed extinct animals to the present time or recent past...What makes an animal of interest to cryptozoology...is that it is unexpected". To be an animal of interest, it also must have at least one trait "truly singular, unexpected, paradoxical, striking, emotionally upsetting and thus be capable of mystification" according to Bernard Heuvelman.

The most famous creatures of Cryptozoology are the spectacular and disputed Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch and Colossal Squid. And while these legendary creatures have made the study of cryptids (as cryptozoologists call them) well known throughout the world, it is only a fraction of the hidden, un-catalogued, or out-of-place animals that have advanced this discipline. In 1812, Baron Georges Cuvier, the revered French biologist considered the father of Paleontology, declared the end of the age of zoological discovery. "There is," he said, "little hope of discovering new species [of large animals]. I hope nobody will ever seriously look for [Sea Serpents] in nature; one could as well search for the animals of Daniel or for the beast of the Apocolypse." A short seven years later, in 1819, the American tapir was found, the first of thousands of "new" animals to be uncovered in the last few centuries. Some other animals include the Giant Squid (1870s), Okapi (1901), the Komodo dragon (1912), the koupey (1937), and the coelacanth (1938). At one time even the Giant Panda was considered elusive and unknown, living in the valleys of the Himalayas, since it took 65 years between its "discovery" and the capture of a live one.

Cryptozoology represents the original way animals were studied and discovered. Researchers would go to new places and listen to local legends and reports. They would be led to amazing animals that they would document or capture to show off back in Europe at zoos or schools, where they would formally classify them. But more often than not, Cryptozoologists and their discipline is dismissed by other recognized fields like paleontologists, anthropologists and zoologists as a pseudo-science due to some of the extraordinary claims. For many, "the search for unknown animals was at best a tainted enterprise, at worst an exercise in folly."

Hoaxes also figure into the perception of Cryptozoology. From false news reports in the late-19th century to the Patterson Film today, Cryptozoologists fight an uphill battle to get their questions answered and creatures found.

New Monsterquest coming July 8th...

Review: Monsterquest 4-29-09

On Monsterquest, the main focus was what is known as "water apes", Sasquatch on Vancouver Island, which examines the possibility of these creatures swimming from Vancouver Island to the mainland of British Columbia. Several well-known Sasquatch personalities are featured on this episode, such as Dr. John Bindernagel, who lives on the island who gives his assessments of the sightings and the history. Thomas Steenburg and Richard Noll team up to search for evidence on the island. A wildlife biologist talks about his skeptical bent on whether or not such creatures could survive on the island; he also shows a rather interesting video of bears swimming in the Pacific from the island to the mainland, as well as showing apes swimming such as orangutans and monkeys, which somewhat negates the old myth that apes can't swim. Bindernagel is joined by a forensic podiatrist from the U.S. who examines his track casts and is rather open-minded about the possibility of them being from an unknown primate. Noll and Steenburg use different methods to attract some Sasquatch to in front of cameras, such as using fresh clams which the Sasquatch is known to eat. There is also a sighting recounted from 1901 in which a man was going to shoot a Sasquatch which was drinking from a stream because he thought it to be a bear, but when it stood upright, he changed his mind. Several encounters are recounted and witnesses interviewed, more methods of attracting Sasquatch are employed and the results are...well, I won't spoil it for you. A really good episode, I would give it a 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. Next week is a sequel to a Season 1 episode, titled Gigantic Killer Fish II, beginning at 9:00 EST/8:00 Central on History. Check local listings for time and channel.