"It doesn't look much like a gorilla, it doesn't look like a chimpanzee."

Primatologist Shelly Williams, who captured brief video of a female mystery ape with a baby, is now asking herself, "Well then, what is it?"

"We cannot rule out the possibility that it is a new species of ape, or a new subspecies or some form of hybrid," says Duane Rumbaugh, a professor at Georgia State University.

"Discovering any new primate is a huge thing, a new ape would be incredible," said Ed Louis, conservation geneticist at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska.

The animals in question live in a remote region in the heart of Africa;  that is, forests in the north central area of the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Pictures of the rare apes are scarce.  Karl Amman, who was first to spot the mysterious mammals a few years ago, said they have feet that are about two inches bigger than the average gorilla.  Their faces are also more flat than other apes, and their behavior is different, say scientists.

Williams speaks the local language of Lingala, and has interviewed villagers about their sightings of the creature in the Bili forest of what was once the Belgian Congo and later the Republic of Zaire.  What some locals call them is frightening.

"Lion eaters."

Williams also says the mystery apes hoot when the moon rises and sets, something chimps don't do for fear of attracting lions and hyenas.  On her last trip to the region earlier this year, she actually got within about 15 feet of the animals.

If they're starting to sound like Big Foot, that's because they're pretty similar to Big Foot.  An  84-year-old Norwegian Baptist missionary known as "Madame Liev," longtime resident of the region, had one walk right in front of her.

"Years ago, she was driving an old truck and one of these apes walked by in front of her. It was walking bipedally (upright) and was taller than her, and she's six feet tall," Williams said.

The apes could be a hybrid between a chimp and gorilla, which DNA tests of their feces have suggested.

In any case, the animals truly are fascinating, and Williams hopes to return to the African habitat again this autumn.

Champ Recorded Underwater
by Jonathan Drake
S: Boston.com (8-24-03)

''It took us totally by surprise.  For an instant we just stood there looking at each other with our mouths open.''

Such were the words of Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, leader of a team of scientists who were on the lake in June, 2003, doing research for the Discovery Channel, which had just finished shooting a TV documentary on Champ.  

Recent evidence has, not only Champ believers, but even scientists, confounded.  

It isn't a sighting.  It isn't even a photograph.  The evidence, believe it or not, is sound.  Underwater microphones picked up a series of strangely high-pitched ticking and chirping noises, similar to that of a dolphin or Beluga whale, yet different.  As stated on their website (www.animalvoice.com):

"The echolocation signal under analysis is similar to Beluga whale echolocation, yet different enough so that we can not make a positive identification.  Methods such as cross-correlation, where one compares the properties of one sound to another, can usually tell us what type of creature it is, but not in this case.  It is significantly different from both whale and dolphin, but it is echolocation."

Curious?  You can listen to the sound yourself here.

According again to Muggenthaler:

''What we can say is that there is a creature in the lake that produces bio-sonar.  We have no idea what it is.''

The mysterious sounds come as the best evidence of a large animal in Lake Champlain to date, and as TA has espoused from the beginning, it's only a matter of time until we discover what it truly is.

Asteroid Headed For Earth
by Jonathan Robison
S: Reuters (9-2-03)

It seems like something from Armageddon, although one shouldn't be too alarmed just yet.  A giant asteroid is heading for earth and could hit in 2014, U.S. astronomers have warned British space monitors.

The chances, though, are slim.

How slim?  Approximately 1 in 909,000.

It's been named asteroid "2003 QQ47," and it will be closely monitored over the next few months. It could potentially hit us on March 21, 2014, but astronomers say that any risk of impact is likely to decrease as further data is gathered.

If the asteroid did hit the planet, it would have quite an effect.  Specifically, the effect of about 20 million Hiroshima atomic bombs, a spokesman for the British government's Near Earth Object Information Center said.

Asteroids like this one are mostly kept at a safe distance from the earth in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.  Gravitational influence of giant planets such as Jupiter, however, can nudge asteroids out of these safe orbits and send them plunging toward earth.

But practically speaking, there's nothing to be worried about.

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