"At first I thought it was
one of those old-time Otter planes. Instead of continuing
toward me, it banked to the left, and that's when I noticed it
wasn't a plane."
So are the words of Moses Coupchiak,
a 43-year-old heavy equipment operator from Togiak, 40 miles west
of Manokotak, Alaska. Just one of many witnesses to have
seen a "giant bird" soaring the Alaskan skies last
month, Coupchiak immediately got on the radio afterwards and
warned people in Togiak to tell their children to stay away.
As of now, scientists have no clue
what to make of the reports. Few people doubt that others in the
region west of Dillingham have seen a very large rapto-like bird,
but biologists and other folks familiar with big Alaskan birds say
they're skeptical it really is that big.
But while flying into Manakotak,
one of those skeptics, John Bouker, owner of Bristol Bay Air
Service, looked out his left window 1,000 feet away and,
"there's this big . . . bird," he said. "The
people in the plane all saw him. He's huge, he's huge, he's
really, really big. You wouldn't want to have your children
out."
"I'm certainly not aware of
anything with a 14-foot wingspan that's been alive for the last
100,000 years," says federal raptor specialist Phil Schemf in
Juneau.
While the albatross, the biggest
bird known to man, can reportedly reach a wingspan of 12 feet, the
descriptions of this super bird don't necessarily match it.
Nicolai Alakayak, a freight and
passenger driver from Manokotak who was flying with Bouker, said
the creature looked like an eagle and was as large as "a
little Super Cub."
Regardless, something strange is
going on west of Dillingham,
and whatever it is, it's big.
New Species Of Owl Discovered
by Kyle
Stevens
TrueAuthority.com
On
September 3rd, Australian researches found a new species of owl on
a remote island in the Wallecea region of Indonesia.
The owls, now called the Little Sumba Hawk-Owl, had been
the subject of debate for several years as to whether or not they
or another unknown species existed on the island of Sumba.
They are a little bit bigger than a starling, weigh
only 90 grams, and are the smallest owls in the Wallecea region.
Reported sightings had
been made of the owl but some thought it was
probably the common Sumba Boobook Owl, or the Flores Scops Owl.
It was
during the second visit to the island in Dec 2001 that the
researchers, Jerry Olsen of the University of Canberra's Applied
Ecology Research Group and Susan Trost, Jerry’s co-researcher,
managed to videotape, audiotape, and photograph three pairs of the
owl and pick up a dead one from a local hunter.
They identified it by its voice, size and by sending some
of the dead bird’s feathers to Heidelberg University in Germany
for DNA analysis.
Because
the researchers recorded the owls, they were able to attract more
by playing the audiotape of their calls.
“Voice is really important with owls,” said Mr. Olsen.
Owls' vocalizations are inherited and they do not vary much
within the species, so it is critical to the study of owl
taxonomy. The
owls’ call is a monosyllabic 'who' repeated about every three
seconds. It
is a slight difference from the calls of the other owls on the
island.
Sea Creature Toys With Swimmers
• Story originally published by:
The
Herald / RI | Gregg M Miliote - Aug 1.02
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. -- A fun-filled day of swimming and fishing
for one local group of friends and family turned into a nightmare
that most only witness in the movies.
Fall River residents Dennis Vasconcellos, Rachel Carney, Joey
Mailloux, Tracy Roberts, a young child and another woman were at
Teddy's Beach in the Island Park section of Portsmouth Tuesday
afternoon when things got a little scary.
Half the group was fishing, while the other half were either
swimming or playing in the sand. But what seemed to be the perfect
summer afternoon got turned upside down the moment Vasconcellos
heard his fiancé, Carney, scream.
Carney was screaming for help, yelling that something was after
her. An unknown ominous sea creature seemed to be toying with
Carney, who was swimming beyond the "Danger" sign posted
at the quiet beach.
The sea creature -- described as being about 15-feet long, with
four-inch teeth, greenish-black skin and a white belly -- was
swimming around Carney and popping its head out of the water to
expose its teeth and hiss in a manner that could not soon be
forgotten, Carney said.
"I was deep out in the water and kept hearing this hissing
sound. Then I saw its head come up showing me its big teeth,"
Carney said. "It kept rolling while it was swimming and
knocking into my feet. I just froze."
In the meantime, Vasconcellos said he swam out to her aide and
just grabbed her from the backside and told her "don't look
back."
"This thing was big. I mean it's head was almost the size
of a basketball," Vasconcellos said. "I just kept
backing in to shore, but it was looking at me and hissing. The
other people around there were pulling their kids out of the
water."
Within minutes, the pair was back near the beach and safe
again.
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's Center for Marine
Science and Technology in New Bedford, one of the leadingmarine
science research centers in the region, has its lead aquaculturist
baffled by the description of the serpent-like creature.
Ed Baker, the center's lead aquaculturist, said Wednesday that
the description given is unlike any animal he knows. He said it is
conceivable that a tropical animal was swept northward through a
strong and warm gulf current.
He said a piranha was recently found in Coventry, R.I., and an
alligator is on the run in Lincoln, R.I.
Therefore, the mystery animal may have been placed in the water
by a local resident or it may have been carried into Rhode Island
waters from the south.
While the drama was playing out, Mailloux, who was nursing a
badly wounded leg in the brackish water said he witnessed the
whole thing.
"I just saw (Carney) swimming as fast as I've ever seen
anyone go," Mailloux said. "Then I saw this big, big
thing spinning around the two of them.
"It kind of looked like a giant eel to me, but I'm sure it
wasn't because it was so big and had that white belly."
Mailloux and the others said it was difficult to get to sleep
Tuesday night. He said he felt partly responsible because the sea
creature may have been attracted to the blood pouring out from his
leg into the water.
Mailloux, just minutes before, had caught a fish and slipped on
the rocks near the beach, cutting his legs.
"I don't know if it was a shark or what. All I know is
that (Carney and Vasconcellos) were both hysterical when they got
out of the water," Mailloux said. "I've lived near water
for years and have never seen an animal like that, ever."
Vasconcellos is also a somewhat experienced fisherman and also
stated that he has no idea what the creature was.
"My heart is still pounding. I don't want to seem scared
but people should know to keep their children close, because that
thing was definitely big enough to kill us," Vasconcellos
said. "I thought I was dead."
Portsmouth police said Wednesday that they have not received
any calls about the large animal. But Vasconcellos said he would
be calling the police to report what he and the rest of his group
saw.
Mailloux said he thinks the animal is nesting under the
unusually warm waters of the protected cove. He said he saw the
animal disappear near one of six broken-down piers in the area,
which could be used as a nesting area.
"That thing was not from around here," Mailloux said.
"I think it might have come up with the tropical stream of
water and found a good place to breed this summer."
Baker said Mailloux's hypothesis about the animal breeding in
the area is "somewhat of a stretch," and believes that
the mysterious sea creature is probably in distress and is using
the pier structure as a place to hide.
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