tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/cryptozoology-4866/articlesCryptozoology – The Conversation2023-01-24T13:22:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1969192023-01-24T13:22:32Z2023-01-24T13:22:32ZLots of people believe in Bigfoot and other pseudoscience claims – this course examines why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505185/original/file-20230118-22-sxk00c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C1979%2C997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don't believe the hype about Bigfoot, a flat Earth or ancient aliens.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collage from Getty Images sources</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course</h2>
<p>“Psychology of Pseudoscience”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>While teaching a course on research methods at the United States Air Force Academy, I concluded that the course needed a bigger emphasis on broad scientific reasoning skills.</p>
<p>So I incorporated material about the difference between science – the <a href="https://sciencecouncil.org/about-science/our-definition-of-science/">systematic process of evidence-based inquiry</a> – and <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo15996988.html">pseudoscience</a>, which is the promotion of unreliable scientific claims as if they are more reliable than other explanations. </p>
<p>I wanted to understand why people promote claims that conflict with science. I jumped at the opportunity to develop this type of course at SUNY Cortland.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>We look at some of the common scientific reasoning failures that pseudoscience exploits. These include <a href="https://aiptcomics.com/2021/02/01/stormtroopers-science-evidence-anecdotes/">hand-picking anecdotes</a> to support a belief, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/">developing a set of beliefs</a> that explain every possible outcome, <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/2017/05/vaccines-autism-and-the-promotion-of-irrelevant-research-a-science-pseudosc/">promoting irrelevant research</a>, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo15996988.html">ignoring contradictory information</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614567356">believing in unsubstantiated conpiracies</a>.</p>
<p>We particularly highlight <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480">motivated reasoning</a>, the tendency for people to process information in a way that helps them confirm what they already want to believe. For example, someone might accept scientific consensus about cancer treatments but question it with regard to vaccines – even though both are supported by strong scientific evidence and expert consensus. </p>
<p>We also review <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.6.1141">group polarization</a>, in which people develop more extreme positions after interacting with similarly minded group members.</p>
<p>Some of the topics we examine include the <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/yes-flat-earthers-really-do-exist/">flat-Earth</a> belief, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/denying-evolution-9780878936595?cc=us&lang=en&">creationism</a>, <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/2002/03/bigfoot-at-50-evaluating-a-half-century-of-bigfoot-evidence/">Bigfoot and other cryptozoology ideas</a>, <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/2022/02/the-great-australian-psychic-prediction-project-pondering-the-published-predictions-of-prominent-psychics/">psychic ability</a>, <a href="https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/therapeutic-response.pdf">conversion therapy</a>, <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/vaccines-and-your-child/9780231153072">anti-vaccination</a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/318419a0">astrology</a>, <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/2003/01/amityville-the-horror-of-it-all/">ghosts</a> and <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-madhouse-effect/9780231177863">climate change denial</a>.</p>
<p>Students complete two papers to reinforce their knowledge. First, students develop their own bogus scientific claims and a corresponding plan to convince people that their claims are legitimate. Allowing students to invent and promote novel forms of pseudoscience gives them a safe context in which to examine specious scientific arguments.</p>
<p>Second, students review old issues of <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/">Skeptical Inquirer</a>, the leading national magazine about science and critical thinking, to summarize the topics that were being addressed at that time. Students also dive more deeply into a specific topic like unexplained cattle mutilations or the Bermuda Triangle. Then they write a paper based on an <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/2022/12/on-the-origin-of-skeptical-inquirer/">example I recently published</a> in Skeptical Inquirer. I’m hopeful that future column installments will include students’ work.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>The internet has provided pseudoscience communities with the unprecedented ability to promote their false claims.</p>
<p>For instance, flat-Earthers have <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-watched-hundreds-of-flat-earth-videos-to-learn-how-conspiracy-theories-spread-and-what-it-could-mean-for-fighting-disinformation-184589">relied on YouTube</a> to create doubt about Earth as a globe. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization uses Facebook to support Bigfoot belief. These platforms take advantage of people’s tendency to believe material posted by their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2011.620764">friends</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-011-9219-6">authoritative-sounding sources</a>.</p>
<p>This course is also relevant now because the consequences of poor scientific reasoning are so significant. People who believe these sorts of false claims risk their own health and that of the planet, by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17430-6">avoiding helpful, safe vaccines</a> or <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-madhouse-effect/9780231177863">useful discussions about the problems presented by climate change</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>It’s important for students to understand that <a href="https://centerforinquiry.org/video/why-were-all-susceptible-to-pseudoscience-craig-foster/">reasonable, intelligent people promote pseudoscience</a>. When people encounter pseudoscience they don’t personally believe, they sometimes conclude that the pseudoscience supporters are unintelligent or mentally unwell. This type of explanation is shortsighted. </p>
<p>Everyday people are drawn into believing pseudoscience because they have limited cognitive resources and they use cognitive strategies, like relying on anecdotes, that can lead to erroneous belief. Human scientific reasoning is particularly flawed when humans really <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44085270">want to reach a particular conclusion</a>.</p>
<p>Belief in pseudoscience also develops out of social interactions. Friends and family members commonly share their reasons for believing in creationism, ghosts, fad diets and so forth. This type of social influence goes into overdrive when people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302211050323">join communities that collectively promote pseudoscience</a>. I have attended Bigfoot and flat-Earth conferences. These conferences create powerful social experiences, because so many friendly people are available to explain that Bigfoot is alive or the Earth is flat, both of which are, clearly, false.</p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>The “Defining Pseudoscience and Science” chapter by Sven Ove Hansson in “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo15996988.html">Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem</a>” sets up what I call the psychological puzzle of pseudoscience: How do people convince themselves and others that an unreliable scientific claim is actually reliable?</p>
<p>We also have guest speakers, including philosophy of science scholar <a href="https://massimopigliucci.org/">Massimo Pigliucci</a>, journalist and folklorist <a href="http://benjaminradford.com/">Ben Radford</a>, exposer of psychics <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/susan-gerbic-back-on-tour/">Susan Gerbic</a>, a local Bigfoot enthusiast, and Janyce Boynton, who discussed <a href="https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org">facilitated communication</a>, a discredited communication technique in which some people physically assist nonverbal people with their communication, for example, by guiding their hands as they type.</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>The course prepares students to identify dubious scientific claims. In so doing, they should <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-018-9513-3">become less vulnerable</a> to being drawn into pseudoscience. The course also enhances familiarity with specific forms of pseudoscience. I expect climate change denial, anti-vaccination and creationism to remain major points of contention in American society for decades. Educated people should understand the discussions that occur around these kind of social problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Foster is affiliated with facilitatedcommunication.org.
Anything else to declare: I am a Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Fellow.</span></em></p>A university course teaches students why people believe false and evidence-starved claims, to show them how to determine what’s accurate and real and what’s neither.Craig A. Foster, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, State University of New York CortlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891342022-09-15T02:19:25Z2022-09-15T02:19:25ZIn Bon and Lesley, Shaun Prescott has written an Australian horror story of uniquely local proportions<p>If ever a novel set out the territory that its author would continue to travel, Shaun Prescott’s debut The Town (2018) did just that. It was like the indie boy band that smooths all your favourite punk acts into a one-stop melange. </p>
<p>When I reviewed The Town <a href="https://theconversation.com/woke-to-the-past-shaun-prescotts-the-town-moves-beyond-colonialism-and-then-its-protagonist-112867">in these pages</a> in 2019, I noted in particular how Prescott was able to synthesise elements from the late <a href="https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/a-woman-of-the-future-david-ireland/">David Ireland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-gerald-murnanes-the-plains-26797">Gerald Murnane</a> to create an augmented Australian realism. Like Murnane and post-plot novelists such as César Aira or Ottessa Moshfegh in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Year_of_Rest_and_Relaxation">My Year of Rest and Relaxation</a>, Prescott wants the reader to focus on the poetics of variation within limited settings, scenarios and language. </p>
<p>Why? In The Town, Prescott took this approach in order to sit with his creatively blocked and socially awkward narrator. It didn’t totally work; the idea couldn’t endure the length of the novel. But in Prescott’s latest, Bon and Lesley, the banal and repetitious nature of the novel’s voice and structure create a more purposeful horror story of uniquely local proportions.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Bon and Lesley – Shaun Prescott (Giramondo).</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483127/original/file-20220907-17-q93l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483127/original/file-20220907-17-q93l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483127/original/file-20220907-17-q93l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483127/original/file-20220907-17-q93l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483127/original/file-20220907-17-q93l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483127/original/file-20220907-17-q93l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483127/original/file-20220907-17-q93l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483127/original/file-20220907-17-q93l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Readers of The Town will find some stylistic consistencies and familiar themes in Bon and Lesley. </p>
<p>The setting is a regional town and, as in the last novel, the town is disappearing in its way. There is, again, a mild class tension between an outsider and the town’s “original” inhabitants, and the related ethnographic curiosity or attraction that outsiders have towards the town and its inhabitants. The narrative is similarly affectless in tone, focused on procedural action and noticing emotional states, without milking them for drama. </p>
<p>Finally, there is something I consider truly Prescottian: the sexual ambivalence and even asexuality of his characters’ intentions. In The Town, this was a depressive trait of the narrator, but in Bon and Lesley the almost mindless rote expression of physical intimacy and the subconscious appeal of gendered role play become the disturbing point of the story.</p>
<p>With Bon and Lesley, Prescott acts as psychoanalyst to late-capitalist, lower-middle class Australian settlement. Some might imagine this a condescending subject for a “literary” author. But remember: most Australian writers are paid less than a blue-collar wage for their work, regardless of their education or origin. Most of us will at some time rely on Centrelink and work multiple casual jobs; most of us will be supporting partners or children, while living in modest outer-suburban or regional locations. Australian writers know the town, its history, and the people in it.</p>
<p>This is important to note because where Bon and Lesley ends up is not pretty. In the final section of the novel, Prescott’s vision of his society becomes as nasty as it can be without twisting into a sour grimace. I am not talking about graphic violence, but skin-crawling, psychological dysfunction at a perfectly normalised level. </p>
<p>It is the sort of thing that non-Indigenous Australian writing and media has excelled at representing for a century: a society picking at its own scabs, cuddling itself, blazing up and watching the ghosts of its disorder come streaming in while it lies drunk on a soft couch.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-look-through-a-million-windows-by-gerald-murnane-28399">A look through A Million Windows by Gerald Murnane </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Outside the novel, inside the novel</h2>
<p>The setting of Bon and Lesley is Newnes, which is located west of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. Prescott transports us there with an epigraph from Eve Langley’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pea-Pickers">The Pea-Pickers</a>, which is set in Gippsland, but is the hit novel of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-history-listen/finding-eve-langley/13534180">an author who died alone</a> in a hoarder’s hut in the Blue Mountains. (Remember what I said about Australian authors and economic marginalisation?) </p>
<p>Outside the novel, this is the eastern side of Wiradjuri Country. On the descent from the Dividing Range, it is a fringe zone where altitude drops into the continental basin; it is the entrance to the massive, Triassic Capertee Valley and Wollemi National Park with its remnant stands of Gondwana species. Outside the novel, the Newnes area is famous in cryptozoology circles as the site of the only alleged <a href="https://www.facebook.com/yowiehunters.com.au/videos/possible-yowie-audio/1630240427106167/">recording of Yowie vocalisation</a>. It is also a heritage mining site, a “frontier” hamlet on the tourist trail.</p>
<p>Inside the novel, Newnes is a version of more populous neighbouring towns: a semi-industrial regional centre with a plaza, parking lots and a chicken shop, and an abandoned blast furnace resembling the one at nearby Lithgow. Inside the novel, the colonial apocalypse is happening again – but this time it is happening to the settlers. </p>
<p>The slippage reflects the way Prescott seals his characters and readers inside the void that is Newnes. Bon and Lesley are the outsiders, commuters who stop by on the train from the city and never leave. Their paralysis is not only psychological; we discover midway through the novel that the train service has in fact ceased since their arrival. </p>
<p>It is reminiscent of the experience of millennial modernism in Australia, in which suburban expansion is paradoxically defined by withdrawn services to the regions. It also alludes to the Australian gothic trope we find in the novel and film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_in_Fright">Wake in Fright</a>, in which the outsider may enter but not leave the town and a sense of clock time quickly melts upon arrival. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thats-not-us-wake-in-fright-at-50-a-portrait-of-an-ugly-australia-that-became-a-cinema-classic-159221">'That's not us'. Wake in Fright at 50, a portrait of an ugly Australia that became a cinema classic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>From here, Prescott can only decentre the decentred. Bon and Lesley are taken in by Steven and his supposed brother, Jack. They quickly establish a coercive mateship based on circumstance and co-dependence, rather than shared values or kinship. </p>
<p>One section each is focalised through Bon and Lesley, followed by a third chapter, omnisciently narrated. We don’t really learn much about Bon or Lesley through this structure. Rather, they offer very free and very indirect impressions of proceedings. </p>
<p>The found family’s routine consists of meals foraged from the food court or, as the pickings become slim, the service station. Rum is consumed from morning to night. The creation of domestic busywork and tiny dramas around habit and propriety become important, reproducing the routines of a bourgeois family. </p>
<p>Bon and Lesley yearn to escape to the tiny backwoods mining town of Sofala, the location for Peter Weir’s auto-horror film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071282/">The Cars that Ate Paris</a> (1974). Their dream is steadfast despite the constant bushfires and yard fires that lick their neighbourhood. In what must be the most grim representation yet of eastern Australia’s recent fire trauma, long traipses to the shops continue through grit-hazed air and blackened skies. The pedantically planned getaway to Sofala is curtailed because the road is aflame.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483128/original/file-20220907-12-80sq76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483128/original/file-20220907-12-80sq76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483128/original/file-20220907-12-80sq76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483128/original/file-20220907-12-80sq76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483128/original/file-20220907-12-80sq76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483128/original/file-20220907-12-80sq76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483128/original/file-20220907-12-80sq76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483128/original/file-20220907-12-80sq76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shaun Prescott.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giramondo Publishing</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-ambiguous-author-eve-langley-is-ripe-for-rediscovery-a-new-biography-illuminates-her-difficult-life-162932">Gender-ambiguous author Eve Langley is ripe for rediscovery. A new biography illuminates her difficult life</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Abject devolutions</h2>
<p>This dysfunctional ecology and culture is the breeding ground for what is happening within the miniature society of the family. From the moment Bon and Lesley meet Steven and Jack, they are aware of the presence of Colossal Man. The void at the centre of the novel, Colossal Man is a true horror presence: a faceless and speechless mass of flesh aimlessly cruising the curb (I imagined the Baron from Dune, or maybe Les Murray stuffed into a hatchback). </p>
<p>Colossal Man lives in a Eve Langley-like bush hut with an underground lair. He writes fascist literature and possesses an unspeakable hard drive. Jack is his incel apprentice. </p>
<p>Prescott chooses never to depict the contents of Jack’s and Colossal Man’s computer screens or DIY publications, though we know that Lesley recoils from them. In one sense, this is a classic horror technique, allowing readers to imagine their own worst fears. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Prescott is refusing to reinscribe the violence. It is not the kind he wants us to be concerned about. Once we come face to face with Colossal Man through Lesley, we realise that the impact of his material is meaningless compared to the ordinary degradation of the town. Colossal Man, the novel’s monstrous child, is just a symptom.</p>
<p>The devolution of the characters over the course of the novel is nothing short of abject. The horizons of the four protagonists are reduced to their safe, flat roles.</p>
<p>When sexual contact occurs, it is furtive frotting and bothersome embracing of or by Lesley. She develops a routine, which involves drinking cask wine, setting out snack platters, maintaining regular bedtimes, and praising Steven and Jack as they relax in front of Star Wars. Initially the plucky leader of the family’s destiny, and quite an action hero in her way, Lesley comes to relish her role as mother to “the boys” (another allusion: to Stephen Sewell’s and Rowan Wood’s menacing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_(1998_film)">film of that name</a>). When Lesley stops yearning to escape, Bon is free to give up his reluctant paternal role and drop out.</p>
<p>For a while, Steven clings to a stay-in-your-lane class dream, in which “freedom is having a job and not being bashed”. This provides him with a consistent if narrow philosophy of life. He starts out as the designer of the family group, but the purpose of his days dissolves into maintaining the household’s supply of booze and being paid cash to pointlessly torch abandoned houses. The job (literally) extinguishes itself and his fear of attack becomes a reality when an unseen force begins threatening the family house.</p>
<p>When we first meet Jack, he finds meaning as an online keyboard warrior and creates brown-noise tracks in his bedroom. He is secretive and defensive about his digital life and being in thrall to Colossal Man. This privacy gives him a sense of identity. Lesley’s probing influence encourages Jack to distance himself from the Colossal Man’s hate material. But Jack decides that withdrawing his creative voice from the world is the supreme form of independence: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Powers we don’t understand or even know about, try to control us through music and film and all so-called art […] But my sound – and he said <em>my sound</em> in a tone verging on pride – will outlast it all for not ever being heard.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If Jack’s theory of art is correct, then Prescott is using Bon and Lesley to immunise us against the infantilising and apathetic creep of cultural homogeneity and insularity. This is most definitely a Morrison-era novel. And maybe that highlights another layer of its intention: to persuade us that in the dysfunction of relaxed and comfortable settler colonialism, the old genres of apocalyptic and gothic horror have value yet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I share a publisher (Giramondo Publishing) with the title under review.</span></em></p>Shaun Prescott’s second novel is a gothic tale of skin-crawling, psychological dysfunction.Bonny Cassidy, Lecturer in Creative Writing, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505182020-12-14T13:19:59Z2020-12-14T13:19:59ZMermaids aren’t real – but they’ve fascinated people around the world for ages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373403/original/file-20201207-21-12cp4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C2690%2C1775&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Superstition or wishful thinking could trick you into thinking you saw one of these mythical creatures.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MermaidParade/0154fe6abe4e4c2cae3ccf829c03c60d/">AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Are mermaids real? – Verona, age 9, Owensboro, Kentucky</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Mermaids – underwater creatures that are half fish and half human – do not exist except in people’s imaginations. Scientists who study the ocean for the United States have investigated their possible existence and <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html">say no evidence of mermaids has ever been found</a>. </p>
<p>You might wonder why government scientists looked into this question. There are many stories about mermaids on TV, the internet and in magazines that pretend to be real science news. They try to fool people into believing mermaids are real, without any true evidence. This is called “cryptoscience” or “cryptozoology,” but it’s not real science. Don’t let intriguing stories deceive you about mermaids and other fun but made-up creatures, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. </p>
<p>But just because mermaids are not real does not mean they are not meaningful. Mermaids, or merfolk as they are sometimes called because not all of them are female, have a long history and are known all over the world – the same way dragons, fairies and unicorns are.</p>
<h2>More than one kind of mermaid</h2>
<p>Some of the earliest <a href="http://mermaidsofearth.com/on-the-origin-of-mermaids/">mermaid stories are part of ancient Greek mythology</a> from over 3,000 years ago. The Greeks imagined lots of creatures that were part human and part animal, like harpies (bird and human) and centaurs (horse and human). </p>
<p>Sometimes their mermaids were good, like the Greek goddess Atargatis, who protected humans, but others were dangerous, like the Sirens, who sang beautiful songs that made sailors crash their ships into rocks and sink. <a href="https://darkemeraldtales.wordpress.com/2018/04/03/merrow-seducers-of-the-irish-seas/">Irish mermaids, called “merrows</a>,” which date back 1,000 years, were also considered a sign of bad luck. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bronze statue of a mermaid with two tails. She is holding a tail in each hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A two-tailed mermaid from Padua, Italy, made in the first half of the 16th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mermaid-italian-padua-first-half-16th-century-italian-padua-news-photo/1277896003">Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mermaid bodies have been imagined differently in different places. There’s a legendary <a href="http://yokai.com/ningyo/">Japanese mermaid called a “ningyo</a>,” which is mostly a fish, but has a human face. Maybe you’ve seen the <a href="https://movies.disney.com/ponyo">animated film “Ponyo</a>,” about a goldfish with a little girl’s face? In Europe, there were mermaids called <a href="http://symboldictionary.net/?p=1153">“melusines” who had two fish tails</a>. </p>
<p>Stories about mermaids also varied depending on where and when they were told. Only some are about mermaids falling in love and wanting to be human, like Ariel and Ponyo. In the storybook “<a href="https://bookshop.org/books/mermaids-on-mars/9781614486701">Mermaids From Mars</a>,” for instance, mermaids have used up all the water on Mars and come to Earth to help people learn the lesson of water conservation. </p>
<p>In a lot of places, mermaids were used as symbols of power and wealth. For example, the city of Warsaw in Poland has a legend of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.21463/shima.12.2.13">mermaid who is considered to be the protector of the city</a>. There’s a huge statue of her there, and she is even featured on the city’s coat of arms. Many castles in Europe also have mermaid symbols to demonstrate royal power and wealth – <a href="https://www.dieriegersburg.at/geschichte/">even in countries with no oceans, like Austria</a>. </p>
<h2>Why mermaids?</h2>
<p>You may wonder how mermaids came to be. Why did so many people around the world imagine them throughout history? It’s an interesting question that probably has more than one answer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Period drawing of a Viking wooden ship surrounded by evil looking mermaids." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Danish Viking ship under attack by mermaids, circa 1200.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/circa-1200-a-danish-viking-ship-beset-by-mermaids-news-photo/51241447">Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Superstitious sailors, <a href="https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/10/12/mermaids/">including Christopher Columbus</a> and others, reported seeing mermaids on their travels, but scientists and historians think they probably saw real animals, like manatees or seals.</p>
<p>Throughout time, people have often created stories to help explain all kinds of things they couldn’t understand at the time. Stories also <a href="https://lithub.com/how-mermaid-stories-illustrate-complex-truths-about-being-human/">help people understand their own dreams, desires and fears</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever the reasons, people still clearly love mermaids. You can buy mermaid dolls, coloring books and costumes. You can find them on flags, coins and Starbucks coffee. At some aquariums and water parks, real people perform as mermaids and have to practice holding their breath and keeping their eyes open underwater for a long time. There’s even a brand of <a href="https://www.funslurp.com/mermaid-farts-cotton-candy">cotton candy called “Mermaid Farts,”</a> which is described as “sweet and fluffy!” </p>
<p>Even though mermaids are not really real, they can feed your imagination and creativity. Mermaids are also important because they are a shared idea that has linked people together around the world for a very long time.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Goggin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mermaids are not real, but are meaningful to people around the world.Peter Goggin, Associate Professor of English, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230752019-09-06T13:28:33Z2019-09-06T13:28:33ZHave scientists finally killed off the Loch Ness Monster?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291252/original/file-20190906-175691-17kvpqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C853%2C1997%2C1640&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/night-landscape-mountains-nessie-loch-ness-1274600659?src=-1-1">Jerryko/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scientists claim to have finally found a “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49419989">plausible theory</a>” for sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. She’s not an aquatic reptile left over from the Jurassic era or a circus elephant that got in the water to bathe with her trunk aloft. If Nessie ever existed at all, she was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49495145">most likely a giant eel</a>, according to a new scientific survey of the loch.</p>
<p>Starting with an <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle-2-15039/on-this-day-in-565-st-columba-spotted-the-loch-ness-monster-1-4209419">Irish missionary’s report</a> of a monster in the River Ness in 565AD, repeated sightings in the modern era have kept Scotland’s greatest myth alive. The most famous of which is a grainy photo from 1934 which appears to show the shadowy outline of a long-necked creature, bobbing on the water’s surface. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hoaxed photo of the Loch Ness monster taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Wilson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hoaxed_photo_of_the_Loch_Ness_monster.jpg">Robert Kenneth Wilson/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Until now, such glimpses were all people had to go on. But a new technique allows scientists to sample all the life contained within Loch Ness by <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/loch-ness-monster-how-edna-helps-us-discover-what-lurks-beneath/?utm_content=buffer98e27&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer">gathering environmental DNA</a>, or e-DNA as it’s known. This is genetic material that’s present in the cells of organisms and shed into their surrounding environment. Finding and identifying e-DNA can tell scientists what organisms are living in a habitat without them having to observe or capture them.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/full-video-otago-uni-professor-reveals-findings-plausible-loch-ness-monster-theory">Speaking from Drumnadrochit</a>, a village on the loch’s western shore, scientists announced the results of their e-DNA survey of Loch Ness. The team took well over 200 one litre samples of water from throughout the loch – including the surface and deep water – and compared them with 36 samples from five “monster-free” lochs nearby. Their census provides a list of all the species that call Loch Ness home – from bacteria to plants and animals.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/monster-hunt-using-environmental-dna-to-survey-life-in-loch-ness-98721">Monster hunt: using environmental DNA to survey life in Loch Ness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What did they find?</h2>
<p>The study detected over 500m individual organisms and 3,000 species. According to <a href="https://gemmell-lab.otago.ac.nz/our-team/16-team/group-leader/12-professor-neil-gemmell">Neil Gemmill</a> of University of Otago in New Zealand, who led the study, there are no DNA sequence matches for shark, catfish, or sturgeon. That rules out a large exotic fish in the loch. </p>
<p>There are DNA matches for various land-living species that you would expect to see around Loch Ness, including badgers, deer, rabbits, voles, and different birds. Sheep, cattle and dogs appear on the record alongside humans too. This suggests that the sampling is pretty good at picking up species that would only rarely visit the water – so it should be able to detect a monster living permanently in the loch.</p>
<p>The most popular representation of Nessie is as a <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2156370-this-is-the-oldest-fossil-of-a-plesiosaur-from-the-dinosaur-era/">plesiosaur</a> – an ancient long-necked marine reptile that died out alongside the dinosaurs in the last great mass extinction 65m years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The most popular theory of Nessie – that she is a plesiosaur that somehow survived the mass extinction of the dinosaurs – may finally have been put to rest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2017/02/plesiosaur-palaeoart-thoughts-for.html">Mark Witton</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scottish geologist Hugh Miller discovered the first British plesiosaur bones on the Scottish Isle of Eigg in 1844. But according to Gemmill, there’s “not a single reptile in our vertebrate data, and nothing that sat in the expected place that a plesiosaur [DNA] sequence might be predicted to lie – somewhere between birds and crocodilians”. </p>
<p>The most likely candidate for Nessie that has surfaced in media reporting of the research is a giant eel. This appears to be based simply on the fact that <a href="https://www.fishbase.se/summary/Anguilla-anguilla.html">eel DNA</a> was detected at “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49495145">pretty much every location sampled</a>” in Loch Ness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A large, but not monstrous, European eel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_eel#/media/File:Anguilla_anguilla.jpg">GerardM/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plenty of eel DNA doesn’t confirm that Nessie is a giant eel – only that there are lots of eels. Scientists don’t have monster DNA to compare with anything they found in the loch and so no one can say for sure if there is or isn’t a monster there. But the absence of anything unusual in the DNA record of Loch Ness suggests there’s nothing to get excited about - and that includes a giant eel.</p>
<h2>What next for Nessie?</h2>
<p>If Nessie doesn’t exist, why do eyewitness accounts of the Loch Ness Monster persist? The answer is likely to be a psychological phenomenon called “expectant attention”. This happens when people who expect or want to see something are more likely to <a href="http://tetzoo.com/blog/2019/4/27/sea-monster-sightings-and-the-plesiosaur-effect">misinterpret visual cues</a> as the thing that they expect or want to see.</p>
<p>This likely also happens with recently extinct animals. The last known <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/02/the-obsessive-search-for-the-tasmanian-tiger//https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-06/tasmanian-tiger-sighting-claimed-by-trio/8877598">tasmanian tiger</a> died in 1936 and exhaustive scientific surveys have failed to turn up any evidence that they’re still out there. Even so, people often still report seeing them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-wont-scientific-evidence-change-the-minds-of-loch-ness-monster-true-believers-97307">Why won't scientific evidence change the minds of Loch Ness monster true believers?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Still, Gemmell acknowledges that there is uncertainty. Seals and otter – two species known to appear in the loch at least occasionally – weren’t detected, while 20% of the DNA collected was “unexplained”. That’s normal for an e-DNA study, but it does leaves room for a monster.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1169512850790002688"}"></div></p>
<p>A YouGov poll in August 2018 found that 24% of Scots <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/opi/surveys/results?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=daily_question&utm_campaign=question_3#/survey/193afead-a77c-11e8-8abf-cd74e8917bdd/question/8b96a927-a77c-11e8-8d6b-4344130c8a7a/region">believe that Nessie exists</a>. </p>
<p>Science being science, we can never say with total confidence that there is no Loch Ness Monster. The Loch’s <a href="https://www.lonelyplanet.com/scotland/highlands-and-northern-islands/loch-ness">thriving tourism industry</a> can still count on a little mystery to attract true believers. Rest easy, monster hunters. Nessie <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2yH0Zh99Qw83VF9q63cCGQh/why-you-should-take-the-loch-ness-monster-more-seriously">lives on</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123075/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scientists are left with two conclusions. Either Nessie is an eel, or she never existed at all.Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/989202018-07-06T10:37:31Z2018-07-06T10:37:31ZThe monster festival – a pilgrimage to small town America<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226323/original/file-20180705-122256-108s5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A restaurant in Bishopville, S.C. markets the town's association to the Lizard Man.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph P. Laycock</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of my hobbies is dragging my patient wife to small towns to study beliefs and practices related to <a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cryptozoology">cryptozoology</a> – the hunt for creatures, from Bigfoot to the Loch Ness Monster, whose existence hasn’t been scientifically proven.</p>
<p>In 2018, our summer “vacation” included a stop in Bishopville, South Carolina, to attend the first annual Lizard Man festival. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizard_Man_of_Scape_Ore_Swamp">The Lizard Man of Scape Ore swamp</a> terrorized Lee County in 1988 – and, <a href="http://www.wistv.com/story/7948448/lizard-man-returns">according to some</a>, continues to do so today. </p>
<p>Bishopville isn’t the only town to turn local reports of terrifying paranormal encounters into annual festivals. Point Pleasant, West Virginia, has <a href="http://bulletin.equinoxpub.com/2012/09/west-virginia-is-one-big-portal-reflections-on-the-eleventh-annual-mothman-festival-part-1/">the Mothman festival</a>, while Flatwoods, West Virginia, has a festival honoring the <a href="http://www.braxtonwv.org/FlatwoodsMonsterInfo.aspx">Braxton County monster</a>. And every year, you can go to Fouke, Arkansas, to celebrate <a href="https://www.arkansas.com/blog/post/boggy-creek-festival-in-fouke/">the Beast of Boggy Creek</a>. </p>
<p>Cryptozoology isn’t a religion. But in his book “<a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A3296C">Haunted Ground: Journeys Through Paranormal America</a>,” Darryl Caterine argues that certain “paranormal hot spots” function like American sacred spaces – at least, for certain people. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4EKx-aoAAAAJ&hl=en">As a professor of religious studies</a>, I am fascinated by the people who visit these small communities in search of strange creatures, and why many of these small towns have come to embrace their roles as pilgrimage sites.</p>
<h2>The legend of Lizard Man</h2>
<p>Cryptid researcher Lyle Blackburn probably gives the best account of the Lizard Man saga in his book “<a href="https://www.anomalistbooks.com/book.cfm?id=77">Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster</a>.” </p>
<p>In July 1988, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a resident in a small community called Browntown complaining that their car had been “mauled” overnight, apparently by an animal. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://wach.com/news/local/former-lee-county-sheriff-passes-away-at-86">Sheriff Liston Truesdale</a> began interviewing Browntown residents, several described seeing a 7-foot tall creature with red eyes – what someone eventually referred to as “the Lizard Man.” Truesdale put the word out that if anyone knew anything about the damaged car or a strange creature that they should contact him.</p>
<p>On July 16, resident Tommy Davis brought his 17-year-old son, Chris, to the sheriff’s office. Chris Davis explained that when he was heading home from his night shift at McDonald’s, he took a shortcut down a rural road and got a flat tire. After he finished changing it, he saw a 7-foot tall, green creature, with three fingers on each hand and red eyes. When Davis tried to drive away, it leaped onto the roof of his ’76 Celica. By swerving back and forth, Davis dislodged it and escaped. Truesdale – who had after all asked the community for information about strange creatures – believed Davis was telling the truth. Chris even took a polygraph test and passed.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226336/original/file-20180705-122268-1hzpp33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226336/original/file-20180705-122268-1hzpp33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226336/original/file-20180705-122268-1hzpp33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226336/original/file-20180705-122268-1hzpp33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226336/original/file-20180705-122268-1hzpp33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226336/original/file-20180705-122268-1hzpp33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226336/original/file-20180705-122268-1hzpp33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226336/original/file-20180705-122268-1hzpp33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author on the road where Chris Davis claims he had his encounter with the Lizard Man.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph P. Laycock</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Davis’ story went public, more sightings were reported, some plausible, some clearly fabrications. Soon armed parties were exploring along the swamp. The media descended on Bishopville. Locals began selling Lizard Man t-shirts and other merchandise. Sheriff Truesdale was interviewed by Good Morning America and CBS’ Dan Rather, and newspapers as far away as South Korea ran Lizard Man headlines.</p>
<p>To this day, the mystery hasn’t been solved, with <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lizard-man-scares-south-carolina-residents_us_55c126ece4b05c05b01f67f4">alleged sightings</a> as recently as 2015. But the chain of events – a strange sighting, media attention, more sightings, followed by visits from curious tourists and monster hunters – have played out in towns across the country, from Point Pleasant to Roswell, New Mexico.</p>
<h2>A mystery that terrifies and fascinates</h2>
<p>If you believed a monster was real, why would you travel to its alleged lair?</p>
<p>Many find legends like the Lizard Man enthralling. But some become obsessed, longing to know more about something both mysterious and frightening. In these monster hunters, I see elements of religion.</p>
<p>The theologian Rudolf Otto believed there was an essence to religion he called “the numinous.” </p>
<p><a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7160292M/The_idea_of_the_holy">Otto claimed</a> that religion is best understood by observing remote cultures where “its primal quality of impulse and instinct” remains intact. To Otto, the numinous is experienced as a <em>mysterium tremendum et fascinans</em> – a mystery that terrifies and fascinates. This feeling arises from an encounter with “the wholly other,” or that which we cannot understand.</p>
<p>While listening to a lecture in Bishopville from Matthew Delph of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1402338320064907/">Mountain Empire Cryptid Research Organization</a>, I thought of Otto. Delph described his encounter with a Bigfoot while hunting in Indiana, when the creature hurled a log that narrowly missed his head. (Some think Lizard Man was a misidentified Bigfoot.)</p>
<p>Delph recalled, “I was seeing something that’s not supposed to exist.” He was frightened but also haunted by the experience. He explained that his research isn’t so much about proving Bigfoot’s existence but rather a personal need to “face that fear.”</p>
<p>Other festival-goers were seeking less direct connections to the <em>mysterium</em> using material objects and ritual. One researcher explained why he took some bricks and wood from a famous “butterbean shed” near Davis’ alleged encounter, adding, “You want to take something tangible with you because the mystery is intangible.” </p>
<p>While touring the Scape Ore swamp, I heard one anecdote about the Boggy Creek festival in Fouke. Someone said they were such a fan of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fouke_Monster">the legend of Boggy Creek</a> they wanted to be “baptized” in the swamp. The comment was facetious, but it betrayed a desire to something to become more closely intertwined to the mystery. </p>
<p>Cryptozoology might not be a religion, but the first stages of ancient religions may not have looked much different from the practices that form around these cryptid legends.</p>
<h2>Misfits and locals mix</h2>
<p>To me, what makes monster festivals strange are not the creatures they celebrate, but rather the way they facilitate the intermingling of cultures that have traditionally defined themselves in opposition to each other.</p>
<p>The conventional wisdom is that struggling small towns should appeal to a nostalgic time when America was more conservative, more Christian and simpler – not stranger. To be sure, monster festivals always attract local families with smiling children. But to bring in tourism dollars, they have to draw other elements not easily reconciled with what architecture professor Kirin J. Maker calls “<a href="http://www.hws.edu/alumni/pssSummer14/main.aspx">the myth of main street</a>.”</p>
<p>There certainly exists what might be called a “cryptozoology tribe” that turns out for these festivals – cryptid fan culture has heavy overlap with horror movie fans, conspiracy theorists and a “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychobilly">psychobilly</a>” aesthetic. Black T-shirts, tattoos and patches for “The Misfits” abound.</p>
<p>These eccentric tastes may be part of the reason small towns usually don’t invest in monster festivals until they have to. The mutation of monsters from bizarre police reports into emblems of the community seems to go hand in hand with the destruction of small town economies by the forces of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/16/us/global-economy-taking-toll-on-small-towns.html">globalization and urbanization.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226334/original/file-20180705-122247-i2fdyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226334/original/file-20180705-122247-i2fdyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226334/original/file-20180705-122247-i2fdyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226334/original/file-20180705-122247-i2fdyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226334/original/file-20180705-122247-i2fdyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226334/original/file-20180705-122247-i2fdyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226334/original/file-20180705-122247-i2fdyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226334/original/file-20180705-122247-i2fdyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plaster Lizard Man prints and T-shirts on display at the South Carolina Cotton Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph P. Laycock</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>John Stamey, the mastermind behind the Lizard Man festival, <a href="http://scpublicradio.org/post/30-years-later-legend-lizard-man-lives-bishopville">modeled it directly</a> on the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Like Point Pleasant, Bishopville has a struggling Main Street with empty storefronts.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Here I see another connection to religious traditions. Pilgrimage has always been an economic phenomenon, and <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2011/12/pilgrimage/">many medieval towns</a> depended on stories of local miracles to draw pilgrims. By inviting in the cryptozoology tribe, today’s small towns are celebrating aspects of local culture that were once pushed to the periphery or mocked. But like the medieval towns of the past, their local economies are getting a nice little boost, too.</p>
<p>At the same time, these festivals draw middle-class urbanites like myself who want to learn more about places that many Americans have forgotten about or <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11239.html">fail to understand</a>.</p>
<p>Surely, some in Bishopville would rather forget about the Lizard Man, while some Americans might not have any desire to learn about Bishopville. But America’s strange pilgrims keep drawing our attention to the edges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph P. Laycock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Towns are embracing their eccentric visitors as a way to boost their struggling economies.Joseph P. Laycock, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/817692017-07-30T10:19:33Z2017-07-30T10:19:33ZHow the search for mythical monsters can help conservation in the real world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180235/original/file-20170728-23754-1psity.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">aleks1949 / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/loch-ness-monster-missing-after-no-sightings-in-8-months-1-4422017">fears</a> the Loch Ness Monster had “disappeared” last winter, a new sighting in May 2017 was <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/regions/inverness-highlands-islands/video-does-this-prove-the-loch-ness-monster-is-real-1-4441401">celebrated</a> by its enthusiasts. The search for monsters and mythical creatures (or “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptids">cryptids</a>”) such as Nessie, the Yeti or Bigfoot is known as “cryptozoology”. </p>
<p>On the face of it, cryptozoology has little in common with mainstream conservation. First, it is widely held to be a “pseudoscience”, because it does not follow the scientific methods so central to conservation biology. Many conservation scientists would find the idea of being identified with monsters and monster-hunters embarrassing. </p>
<p>Moreover, in the context of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn">global collapse in biodiversity</a>, conservationists focus their attentions on protecting the countless endangered species <a href="https://theconversation.com/cryptozoology-no-need-for-an-apology-12332?sg=9fa1ab3d-a649-4781-a0ec-f8de2d7effba&sp=1&sr=2">that we know about</a>. Why waste time thinking about unknown or hypothesised creatures? Most people are rightly sceptical of sightings of anomalous primates or plesiosaurs in densely populated regions that have been surveyed for hundreds of years.</p>
<p>However, while there are strong <a href="https://theconversation.com/cryptozoology-no-need-for-an-apology-12332">ecological</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bigger-the-bigfoot-claim-the-bigger-the-need-for-evidence-12245">evidence-based</a> reasons to doubt the existence of charismatic cryptids such as Nessie and Bigfoot, conservationists should not automatically dismiss enthusiastic <a href="https://theconversation.com/bigfoot-the-kraken-and-night-parrots-searching-for-the-mythical-or-mysterious-75695">searches for “hidden” species</a>. In fact, cryptozoology can contribute to conservation in several ways. </p>
<h2>Known unknowns</h2>
<p>Firstly, the process of mapping out the world’s species is far from finished. Conservationists aim to protect and preserve known plants and animals – but it is not always appreciated how many remain “undescribed” by scientists. Since 1993, more than <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/106/10/3841.abstract">400 new mammals</a> have been identified, many in areas undergoing rapid habitat destruction. The number of undescribed beetles, for example, or flies, let alone microscopic organisms, will be huge.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180225/original/file-20170728-23805-qpfyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180225/original/file-20170728-23805-qpfyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180225/original/file-20170728-23805-qpfyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180225/original/file-20170728-23805-qpfyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180225/original/file-20170728-23805-qpfyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180225/original/file-20170728-23805-qpfyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180225/original/file-20170728-23805-qpfyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180225/original/file-20170728-23805-qpfyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pygmy three-toed sloth was identified in 2001. It exists only in one 4sq km mangrove forest in Panama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Pygmy-Sloth-Three-Toed-Sloth-Sloth-Bradypus-Pygmaeus-62869">MaxPixel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are entering a <a href="http://donoghuelab.yale.edu/new-age-discovery">new age of discovery</a> in biology with descriptions of new species reaching rates comparable to the golden era of global exploration and collection in the 18th and 19th centuries. The advent of methods such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691236/">DNA barcoding</a> offer the possibility of automated species identification. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royprsb/279/1726/67.full.pdf">recent mathematical model</a> predicted that at least 160 land mammal species and 3,050 amphibian species remain to be discovered and described. Other <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24684650">predictions</a> suggest that a large proportion of undescribed species will go extinct without ever being recorded or conserved at all – a phenomenon we might term “crypto-extinction”. </p>
<p>The father of cryptozoology, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Track-Animals-Bernard-Heuvelmans/dp/0710304986">Bernard Heuvelmans</a>, argued that “the great days of zoology are not done”. In the sense that so many species remain undiscovered, he was correct. The main principle behind cryptozoology is soundly zoological: species exist that humans have not discovered or described. The quest to locate and protect the world’s biodiversity is one that conservation and cryptozoology share, even if cryptozoologists tend to focus their attentions on the large, mythical and monstrous, over the small, plausible, and non-mammalian species in our midst.</p>
<p>Cryptozoology involves rampant speculation and unconventional surveying methods. But controversial new “findings” can inspire a renewed quest to better map out the natural world. This was the case with the cryptid <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2001/010315/full/news010315-4.html">spiral-horned ox</a>, never seen by a scientist in the flesh and known only from a few horns found in a market in Vietnam. The <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.jproxy.nuim.ie/doi/10.1017/S0952836901001522/epdf">debate</a> between <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v415/n6875/full/415956a.html">rival camps of zoologists</a> about whether the ox existed pulled together historic accounts, local folklore, and samples of museum specimens – all classic cryptozoological methodologies.</p>
<h2>Shared histories</h2>
<p>The second reason why conservationists should not automatically discount cryptozoology is its shared history, co-evolving with conservation in the 20th century and interesting many conservationists along the way. </p>
<p>One notable connecting thread comes through Peter Scott, the founder of the World Wildlife Fund and creator of the Red Data Book method of classifying endangered species. Scott first grew interested in Loch Ness Monster reports in 1960 and in the same year wrote to Queen Elizabeth <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/03/loch-ness-monster-was-nearly-named-after-the-queen/">offering to name</a> the – undiscovered – cryptid <em>Elizabethia nessiae</em> in her honour. Although the Queen was said to be “very interested”, her advisers wrote back saying it would be inappropriate to attach her name to something viewed as a monster or likely to be a hoax. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180233/original/file-20170728-31781-hb1ycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180233/original/file-20170728-31781-hb1ycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180233/original/file-20170728-31781-hb1ycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180233/original/file-20170728-31781-hb1ycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180233/original/file-20170728-31781-hb1ycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180233/original/file-20170728-31781-hb1ycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180233/original/file-20170728-31781-hb1ycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180233/original/file-20170728-31781-hb1ycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Loch Ness Lizzie?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Khadi Ganiev / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In an infamous article in <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v258/n5535/pdf/258466a0.pdf">Nature</a> in 1975 Scott published underwater photographs appearing to show a creature with a diamond-shaped flipper. Scott and his co-author, the American Nessie enthusiast Robert Rines, named the creature <em>Nessiteras rhombopteryx</em> with the intention that it could then be preemptively protected under the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act (1975).</p>
<p>Although he knew that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuD7z_fhB2I">grainy photographs</a> were insufficient taxonomic evidence in the long term, Scott argued “the procedure seems justified by the urgency of comprehensive conservation”. For Scott, conservation was at the heart of the hunt for Nessie.</p>
<p>Scott was not the only curious conservationist. In his book <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9780230111479">Searching for Sasquatch</a>, Brian Segal examines several other mainstream conservationists who grew interested in cryptozoological ideas and endeavours.</p>
<p>More recently, when specimens of a species named <em>Homo floresiensis</em> were found on the island of Flores in Indonesia in 2003, Henry Gee, an editor at Nature, <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041025/full/news041025-2.html">wrote</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If animals as large as oxen can remain hidden into an era when we would expect that scientists had rustled every tree and bush in search of new forms of life, there is no reason why the same should not apply to new species of large primate, including members of the human family.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180215/original/file-20170728-23754-1j1zwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180215/original/file-20170728-23754-1j1zwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180215/original/file-20170728-23754-1j1zwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180215/original/file-20170728-23754-1j1zwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180215/original/file-20170728-23754-1j1zwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180215/original/file-20170728-23754-1j1zwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180215/original/file-20170728-23754-1j1zwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180215/original/file-20170728-23754-1j1zwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Homo floresiensis</em> went extinct around 50,000 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/7283199410/">Tim Evanson / Smithsonian Museum of Natural History</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cryptozoology - in from the cold?</h2>
<p>Given conservation’s haunting relationship with the problem of absence, is it time to bring cryptozoology, in some form at least, in from the cold? A rapprochement would demand changes on both sides.</p>
<p>Cryptozoology’s appeal currently comes from its celebration of the anomalous and monstrous. A “post-monstrous” outlook might aid in forging new coalitions, and a stronger focus on plausible undiscovered species (such as the thousands of smaller amphibians and mammals predicted to exist) than on charismatic, but highly unlikely, cryptids. </p>
<p>The third way that cryptozoology can contribute to conservation is through the sense of wonder. From the conservation perspective, something might be learned from the Nessie and Bigfoot hunters about <a href="https://theconversation.com/bigfoot-the-kraken-and-night-parrots-searching-for-the-mythical-or-mysterious-75695">telling new stories</a> of weird and wonderful discoveries alongside the more familiar tales of flagship species decline. </p>
<p>Instead of rebuffing them, conservationists might consider enlisting cryptozoologists as part of a wonder zoology that accelerates conventional taxonomic efforts. Indeed, the <a href="http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/">EDGE of Existence</a> conservation initiative is doing exactly this by focusing its attention on “weird” endangered species. </p>
<p>Other examples of wonder zoology include the descriptions of new (although known to local people) primates by <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/trials-of-a-primatologist-17248331/">Marc van Roosmalen</a> in the Amazon, and the “lost world” of <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2666208?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">new species</a> found in or near Vietnam’s Vu Quang Nature Reserve in the 1990s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180213/original/file-20170728-5295-wsy7by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180213/original/file-20170728-5295-wsy7by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180213/original/file-20170728-5295-wsy7by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180213/original/file-20170728-5295-wsy7by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180213/original/file-20170728-5295-wsy7by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180213/original/file-20170728-5295-wsy7by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180213/original/file-20170728-5295-wsy7by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180213/original/file-20170728-5295-wsy7by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The saola, or Vu Quang ox, was first discovered in 1992 and first photographed in the wild in 1999.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/globalwildlife/28560535993/in/photolist-KvNdjn-L27k2N-cHPPJN-fqvEWw-57MWs-57MMV-57MSZ-57MKd-nqKQDx-LtgxTk-L27kYs-L27kvo-L2Q6EU-L27k5J">Bill Robichaud / Global Wildlife Conservation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One promising model of how conservationists and cryptozoologists might engage is sketched out by the paleozoologist Darren Naish. Naish’s “<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/my-new-book-hunting-monsters-cryptozoology-and-the-reality-behind-the-myths/">sceptical cryptozoology</a>” does not dwell on the question of whether cryptozoology is pseudoscientific or not but focuses instead on the ground it shares with conventional zoology.</p>
<p>Stories of the discovery and rediscovery of species routinely punctuate the depressing catalogue of extinction after extinction. Wonder and speculation – however untethered – must play a role in energising conservation actions. </p>
<p>Although no one expects conservation NGOs to start searching for Bigfoot, it would be remiss of them to ignore the powerful ecological imagination that can be inspired by cryptozoology.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In defence of ‘cryptozoologists’: we have a lot to learn from their curiosity and sense of wonder.Bill Adams, Moran Professor of Conservation and Development, University of CambridgeShane McCorristine, Visiting Researcher, Department of Geography, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/756952017-04-23T20:02:17Z2017-04-23T20:02:17ZBigfoot, the Kraken and night parrots: searching for the mythical or mysterious<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166229/original/file-20170421-12655-110r77u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2012 scientists succeeded in filming for the first time ever a giant squid in its natural habitat.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/NHK/NEP/DISCOVERY CHANNEL/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s remarkable how little we know about Earth. How many species do we share this planet with? We don’t know, but estimates vary from <a href="http://www.livescience.com/54660-1-trillion-species-on-earth.html">millions to a trillion</a>. In some respects we know more about the Moon, Mars and Venus than we do about the ocean’s depths and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-how-little-do-we-know-about-the-ocean-floor-32751">vast sea floors</a>. </p>
<p>But humans are inquisitive creatures, and we’re driven to explore. Chasing mythical or mysterious animals grabs media headlines and <a href="https://theconversation.com/cryptozoology-no-need-for-an-apology-12332">spurs debates</a>, but it can also lead to remarkable discoveries. </p>
<p>The recent photographing of a live <a href="https://theconversation.com/still-here-night-parrot-rediscovery-in-wa-raises-questions-for-mining-75384">night parrot</a> in Western Australia brought much joy. These enigmatic nocturnal birds have been only sporadically sighted over decades.</p>
<p>Another Australian species that inspires dedicated searchers is the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine. A <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-24/tasmanian-tiger-sightings-spark-scientific-study/8383884">new hunt</a> is under way, not in Tasmania but in Queensland’s vast wilderness region of Cape York. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166236/original/file-20170421-12655-1gh7pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166236/original/file-20170421-12655-1gh7pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166236/original/file-20170421-12655-1gh7pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166236/original/file-20170421-12655-1gh7pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166236/original/file-20170421-12655-1gh7pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166236/original/file-20170421-12655-1gh7pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166236/original/file-20170421-12655-1gh7pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166236/original/file-20170421-12655-1gh7pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This is the first photograph of a live night parrot, taken in Western Australia in March 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruce Greatwitch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other plans are afoot to search for the <a href="http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2017/04/researchers-to-search-for-ancient-%E2%80%98extinct%E2%80%99-echidna?adbsc=social_20170404_71301076&adbid=10154476450238339&adbpl=fb&adbpr=100614418338">long-beaked echidna</a> in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. </p>
<p>In the case of the thylacine, <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/182690697?selectedversion=NBD51749461">old accounts</a> from the region that sound very much like descriptions of the species raise the prospect that perhaps Cape York isn’t such a bad place to look after all. </p>
<p>But in reality, and tragically, it’s very unlikely that either of these species still survives in Australia. For some species there is <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13421/epdf">scientific research</a> that estimates just how improbable such an event would be; in the case of thylacines, one model suggests the odds are <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2128077-odds-that-tasmanian-tigers-are-still-alive-are-1-in-1-6-trillion/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&cmpid=SOC%7CNSNS%7C2017-Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1492680136">1 in 1.6 trillion</a>. </p>
<h2>Chasing myths</h2>
<p>The study and pursuit of “hidden” animals, thought to be extinct or fictitious, is often called cryptozoology. The word itself invites scorn – notorious examples include the search for Bigfoot, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster">Loch Ness Monster</a> or Victoria’s legendary <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/big-cat-hunt-declared-over-by-victorian-government-due-to-lack-of-evidence/news-story/0886b66e8c33f80036a5716634dad456?sv=daff6daf5f09e0747b704e9c5ef430e7">black panthers</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v77ijOO8oAk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The search for Bigfoot is an extreme case of cryptozoology.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Granted, it’s probably apt to describe those searches as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bigger-the-bigfoot-claim-the-bigger-the-need-for-evidence-12245">wild goose chases</a>, but we must also acknowledge that genuine species – often quite sizeable ones – have been discovered.</p>
<p><a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/shuker-encyclopaedia-of-new-and-rediscovered-animals/">Remarkable discoveries</a> of animals thought to be fantasies or long extinct include <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/edith_widder_how_we_found_the_giant_squid">giant squid</a>, <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/m/mountain-gorilla/">mountain gorillas</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi">okapi</a>, <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/k/komodo-dragon/">Komodo dragons</a> and <a href="http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/fish/coelacanth/">coelacanths</a>. </p>
<p>In some cases, like the giant squid, these animals have been dismissed as legends. The <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/pictures-oarfish-philippines/">reclusive oarfish</a>, for example, are thought to be the inspiration for centuries of stories about sea serpents. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166233/original/file-20170421-12633-f2gpiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166233/original/file-20170421-12633-f2gpiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166233/original/file-20170421-12633-f2gpiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166233/original/file-20170421-12633-f2gpiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166233/original/file-20170421-12633-f2gpiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166233/original/file-20170421-12633-f2gpiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166233/original/file-20170421-12633-f2gpiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166233/original/file-20170421-12633-f2gpiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oarfish can grow up to 8 metres long and swim vertically through the water. Commonly inhabiting the deep ocean, they occasionally come to shallow water for unknown reasons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/ Coastal Otago District Office</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Technology to the rescue</h2>
<p>Finding rare and cryptic species is self-evidently challenging, but rapid advances in technology open up amazing possibilities. Camera traps now provide us with regular selfies of once highly elusive snow leopards, and could equally be used with other difficult-to-find animals. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/onNahCXzONc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Candid camera, snow leopards in the Himalayas.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/fishing-for-dna-free-floating-edna-identifies-presence-and-abundance-of-ocean-life-75957">Environmental DNA</a> is allowing us to detect species otherwise difficult to observe. Animal DNA found in the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201300060/abstract">blood of leeches</a> has uncovered <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2012/04/does-the-tasmanian-tiger-exist-is-the-saola-extinct-ask-the-leeches/">rare and endangered mammals</a>, meaning these and other much maligned blood-sucking parasites could be powerful biodiversity survey tools.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-conservation-scientists-are-listening-to-nature-73397">Acoustic recording devices</a> can be left in areas for extended time periods, allowing us to eavesdrop on ecosystems and look out for sounds that might indicate otherwise hidden biological treasures. And coupling drones with thermal sensors and high resolution cameras means we can now take an eagle eye to remote and challenging environments. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FIrgjCNcDBI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Drones are opening up amazing possibilities for biological survey and wildlife conservation.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The benefits of exploration and lessons learned</h2>
<p>It’s easy to criticise the pursuit of the unlikely, but “miracles” can and do occur, sometimes on our doorstep. The discovery of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-the-old-things-are-australias-most-ancient-trees-65893">ancient Wollemi pine</a> is a case in point. Even if we don’t find what we’re after, we may still benefit from what we learn along the way. </p>
<p>I’ve often wondered how many more species might be revealed to us if scientists invested more time in carefully listening to, recording and following up on the knowledge of Indigenous, farming, and other communities who have long and intimate associations with the land and sea. </p>
<p>Such an approach, combined with the deployment of new technologies, could create a boom of biological discovery.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Euan Ritchie is a Director (Media Working Group) of the Ecological Society of Australia, and a member of the Australian Mammal Society.</span></em></p>Searching for animals thought to be extinct – or fictional – is difficult, painstaking and often disappointing. But new technology like drones offer hope of a boom in biological discovery.Euan Ritchie, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/180002013-12-29T20:12:33Z2013-12-29T20:12:33ZFound: world’s most mysterious bird, but why all the secrecy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31051/original/hgqc9m32-1378779145.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A ex parrot: one of the few Night Parrots collected in the 1870s in South Australia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marie Meister, Museum of Zoology, Strasbourg</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Night Parrot has been called the “<a href="blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/09/the-worlds-5-most-mysterious-bird-species/">world’s most mysterious bird</a>”. First discovered in 1845, it was rarely seen alive for most of the next hundred and seventy years, but it has been rediscovered in 2013 by Queensland naturalist John Young.</p>
<p>The rediscovery has been shrouded in secrecy; photo and video evidence of the parrot was presented at an invitation-only viewing, and the Queensland government hasn’t been told the location of the parrot. So, why all the secrecy?</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30982/original/c43hbs4d-1378703716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30982/original/c43hbs4d-1378703716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30982/original/c43hbs4d-1378703716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30982/original/c43hbs4d-1378703716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30982/original/c43hbs4d-1378703716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30982/original/c43hbs4d-1378703716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30982/original/c43hbs4d-1378703716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30982/original/c43hbs4d-1378703716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What a living Night Parrot looks like.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first Night Parrot specimen was collected in 1845 in northern South Australia. After a spate of records in the 1870s, the parrot vanished. The 20th Century yielded almost <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MU07058.htm">no reliable reports</a> until a single, road-killed specimen was found <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MU9940037.htm">in 1990</a> in western Queensland. <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MU08018.htm">In 2006</a> another was found further to the south-east. This one was headless, presumably having flown into a fence line, decapitating itself.</p>
<p>Western Queensland seemed like the place to be. With colleagues, we have analysed existing records of Night Parrots to learn about where to look for the birds and when in relation to climatic events, and flowering and seeding cycles of plants that the parrots might feed on, such as spinifex. It has been a frustrating exercise, however.</p>
<p>In 2013, Queensland naturalist John Young found what he thinks might be two pairs of Night Parrots, and, to top it off, a nest with three nestlings. Young recently presented a select group of experts with photographic and video evidence of Night Parrots from May 2013, confirming that these were indeed Night Parrots.</p>
<p>Young also made recordings of the parrot’s vocalisations, which he used to draw the birds close enough to photograph.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31050/original/68c9cnwr-1378778512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31050/original/68c9cnwr-1378778512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31050/original/68c9cnwr-1378778512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31050/original/68c9cnwr-1378778512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31050/original/68c9cnwr-1378778512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31050/original/68c9cnwr-1378778512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31050/original/68c9cnwr-1378778512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31050/original/68c9cnwr-1378778512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Setting a camera trap that will hopefully capture a Night Parrot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allan Burbidge</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Young is keeping the Night Parrots’ western Queensland location secret for now. The fragile environments at the locality, if revealed, could be damaged by well-meaning but perhaps over-enthusiastic birdwatchers. The birds appear to have recently bred, and even relatively small numbers of people could have a serious impact. Disturbance could also interfere with research.</p>
<p>There is also the ongoing threat of illegal bird trade. Secrecy at least provides some restraint on this unscrupulous activity.</p>
<p>There are other examples of the locations of rare species remaining secret, particularly fish, reptiles and plants that are popular in exotic trade. In Australia, the exact location of the gorge close to Sydney in which the only known population of the Wollemi Pine grows remains a closely guarded secret.</p>
<p>But, this strategy can backfire, as shown by the case of the <a href="http://www.proteaatlas.org.za/extinct.htm">Mace Pagoda</a> (Mimetes stokoei), a South African plant related to Australia’s banksias. Discovered in 1922, the location was kept secret. Unfortunately, no one knew it was there when the land where it grew was cleared for an orchard in the 1960s. Only when a single Mace Pagoda germinated from a seed in the soil was the mistake realised, but it soon died. The Night Parrot, like these other examples, has its own set of circumstances. Some secrecy about the location for now has some merit.</p>
<p>The solution is for John Young to share the find with researchers, and we are happy to report that this process has begun. There is much to learn about the parrot: basic biology, threats, and where else the bird might live. This find is the biggest clue in a century as to where the Night Parrot lives and which habitat it prefers.</p>
<p>The sound recordings John Young made of the Night Parrots are particularly interesting. For example, computers could screen sound recordings to identify whether the Night Parrot’s vocalisation was part of nocturnal soundscapes. But Young made it very clear that even slight use of the recordings to lure a bird can stress them. Nobody wants to promote that.</p>
<p>Following on from this momentous discovery, we look forward to the Night Parrot’s removal from that list of the world’s most mysterious birds. With careful research conducted with due permits and effective management we believe its intriguing history could see it become a flagship species. Such a species could galvanize community support, not only for its own conservation but for the conservation of our precious rangelands and arid zone into the future for all, including the Night Parrot, to enjoy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31049/original/dcf3s8bz-1378778488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31049/original/dcf3s8bz-1378778488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31049/original/dcf3s8bz-1378778488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31049/original/dcf3s8bz-1378778488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31049/original/dcf3s8bz-1378778488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31049/original/dcf3s8bz-1378778488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31049/original/dcf3s8bz-1378778488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31049/original/dcf3s8bz-1378778488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inspecting the Night Parrot’s arid habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allan Burbidge</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by Allan Burbidge, Principle Research Scientist and the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife. Allan works in management of one of the Night Parrot’s closest relatives, the critically endangered Western Ground Parrot.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18000/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leo Joseph does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Night Parrot has been called the “world’s most mysterious bird”. First discovered in 1845, it was rarely seen alive for most of the next hundred and seventy years, but it has been rediscovered in 2013…Leo Joseph, Research Director and Curator, Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO, Canberra, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193682013-10-21T03:36:56Z2013-10-21T03:36:56ZYetis, Yowies and dinosaur trees: amazing finds in the hunt for living legends<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33326/original/bndfk4vw-1382324143.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Woodenbong at sunrise: could a Yowie really be lurking in the surrounding woods?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/gaw101 (Greg Wilson)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You might think the idea of a Yeti is far-fetched, but don’t tell that to <a href="http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/bigfoot-files-professor-brian-sykes-mark-evans-embark-global-quest-uncover-mystery-bigfoot/">Oxford University Professor Bryan Sykes</a> - or to the locals in Australian towns like Kilcoy and Woodenbong.</p>
<p>Sykes created a global frenzy when he recently announced that the Yeti <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24433-beware-of-the-yeti-and-spurious-science-too.html">might well exist</a>. His analyses were based on two hair samples collected 800 miles apart in the Himalayas.</p>
<p>When he analysed the DNA in those hairs, he found they perfectly matched the DNA of an ancient polar bear. According to Sykes, this could mean the polar bear is alive and kicking in the high Himalayas today. Those who claim to have seen the Yeti describe it as shaggy, bipedal and very shy, and Sykes reckons his ancient bear fits the ticket.</p>
<p>People who study legendary creatures such as the Yeti or its Australian equivalent, the Yowie, are called <a href="http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/17438/">cryptobiologists</a>. They run the gamut from mainstream scientists to fringe types claiming to have been attacked by giant man-eating plants or kidnapped by aliens.</p>
<p>But while the creatures they’re searching for can seem far-fetched, we shouldn’t dismiss cryptobiologists as cranks - because in their search for living legends, they have uncovered some amazing lost creatures.</p>
<h2>Yowie spotting in Australia</h2>
<p>Accounts of Yowies by Europeans hark back to 1876, when a report of an “indigenous ape” appeared in the <em>Australian Town and Country Journal</em>. Yowies were soon being seen in abundance. One enterprising chap even offered to capture a Yowie for the Australian Museum for 40 pounds sterling.</p>
<p>Since then, eastern Australia has been peppered by Yowie sightings. Yowies, it’s been claimed, have attacked dogs, frightened gold miners and wandered into cities. </p>
<p>In 2010, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yowie#Australian_Capital_Territory">a man in Canberra reportedly spotted</a> a “juvenile Yowie” in his garage. He said it was hairy with long arms and was definitely trying to communicate with him. Presumably he didn’t confuse it with his teenage son.</p>
<p>Some in the small farming town of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilcoy,_Queensland">Kilcoy</a>, northwest of Brisbane, claim that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yowie_%28cryptid%29">Yowie</a> lives to this day in the mountains surrounding them. They even have a wooden statue of a Yowie and their very own Yowie Park.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Yowie statue in Yowie Park, Kilcoy, Queensland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia Commons/Somersetpedia.paul</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not to be outdone, people living in and around the northern NSW town of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNXhjzPpIbk">Woodenbong have been Yowie spotting</a> since the 1890s. <a href="http://woodenbong.org/">Two alleged sightings</a> in the 1970s prompted scientists to investigate the reports, but the women who made the claims were mocked and since then there have only been whispers of further sightings.</p>
<h2>Monsters in our midst</h2>
<p>I encountered the Yowie legend in the 1980s while doing fieldwork for my PhD in the rainforests of the Atherton Tableland, in far north Queensland. The newsagent in a local village told me, in great seriousness, about a giant ape-like creature that decades earlier had chased a logger in the rainforest of the nearby Maalan area. The logger was so frightened, she said, that he never set foot in the rainforest again — and <a href="http://www.northqueenslandregister.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/some-tall-tales-from-timbercutter/2337946.aspx">the local legend of the “Maalan Monster”</a> was born.</p>
<p>I spent quite a lot of time in the Maalan rainforest, often spotlighting alone at night. I never saw any monsters but I did startle a number of Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroos, which can make a tremendous racket when they plummet down from trees and then loudly bound away.</p>
<p>A bit perversely, I once hatched a plot with a colleague — an Aussie biologist who was leading some American university students on a spotlighting hike in the Maalan area — to reveal the Maalan Monster to the world. Our scheme was that I’d hire a gorilla costume and then roar across the track just in front of the students, before disappearing forever.</p>
<p>Alas, I couldn’t find a gorilla outfit anywhere, otherwise I reckon they’d be selling Maalan Monster burgers in the local takeaway to this day.</p>
<h2>Cryptobiology and its discoveries</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Mindoro fruit bat, which has metre-long wings and was recently discovered in the Philippines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Used with permission from H.J.D. Garcia/Haribon Foundation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While it’s tempting to giggle occasionally, cryptobiologists have made many valuable discoveries. These include recent finds such as the Mindoro fruit bat (pictured right) and the Laotian rock rat — representing a completely new family of mammal — as well as so-called “Lazarus species” that were long presumed extinct. Examples of the latter include the coelacanth, okapi, Javan elephant and giant terror skink, among many others.</p>
<p>Here in Australia, the mountain pygmy possum and <a href="http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/plant_info/wollemi_pine">Wollemi Pine</a> are notable Lazarus species. Nicknamed a “dinosaur tree”, the pine is the only known survivor of a plant family that was thought to have disappeared 200 million years ago. It was discovered in a deep, narrow canyon in 1994, just 150km from Sydney.</p>
<p>Some respected scientists have become very caught up in the search for legendary or putatively extinct species, which are known as “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptid">cryptids</a>”. </p>
<p>Francis Crome, a former CSIRO biologist, spent considerable time trying to photograph a thylacine in north Queensland, following a reported sighting from an amateur spotlighting group.</p>
<p>Likewise, Aaron Bauer, an American herpetologist, once desperately searched the length and breadth of New Zealand after a local resident sent him a photo of a six-foot-long gecko, which according to Maori legend had once lived on the island. The photo, it turned out, was a practical joke by one of Bauer’s New Zealand colleagues, a tale I recount in my book, <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Stinging_Trees_and_Wait_a_Whiles.html?id=HAyV9y-EPcQC">Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles</a>.</p>
<h2>Mysterious creatures</h2>
<p>Perhaps the search for cryptids tells us something about ourselves. All of us — even including sober-minded scientists — enjoy a mystery and the search for the unknown. </p>
<p>And it’s not as though nature has come even close to revealing all its secrets. It’s currently thought, for instance, that less than half of the plant species in the Amazon have been scientifically discovered, and possibly just a tenth of the planet’s insect species.</p>
<p>All this means we should probably keep an open mind about the world’s biological mysteries.</p>
<p>And even if I actually think the Yowie legend is pretty dubious – just don’t tell the folks in Kilcoy or Woodenbong that I said so.</p>
<p><br>
<strong>Further reading:</strong> <br>
<strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-evidence-for-himalayan-yetis-doesnt-bear-scrutiny-19350">DNA ‘evidence’ for Himalayan yetis doesn’t bear scrutiny</a></strong> <br>
<strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/cryptozoology-no-need-for-an-apology-12332">Cryptozoology? No need for an apology</a></strong> <br>
<strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/media-puts-its-bigfoot-in-it-yeti-again-its-abominable-3738">Media puts its Bigfoot in it Yeti again: it’s abominable</a></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. In addition to his appointment as Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University, he holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. This Chair is co-sponsored by Utrecht University and WWF-Netherlands.</span></em></p>You might think the idea of a Yeti is far-fetched, but don’t tell that to Oxford University Professor Bryan Sykes - or to the locals in Australian towns like Kilcoy and Woodenbong. Sykes created a global…Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193502013-10-18T11:57:22Z2013-10-18T11:57:22ZDNA ‘evidence’ for Himalayan yetis doesn’t bear scrutiny<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33254/original/36n63n8q-1382091168.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Enough evidence?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">samrich2003</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent DNA testing of two hairs, purportedly from a yeti, has raised a lot of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10387186/The-yeti-comes-in-from-the-cold-with-link-to-ancient-polar-bear.html">public interest</a>. Does the evidence really show that yetis exist? </p>
<p>Well, not just yet. The test looked at mitochondrial DNA sequences, a commonly used forensic technique that looks at genetic material inherited from the mother only. This is an easier test to conduct because mitochondrial DNA is present in many copies in every cell, so there is more to work with in small or degraded samples. </p>
<p>Critically, the test was conducted in a lab that works primarily on humans, and they produced sequences that, when matched to a database, turned out to be bear-like, specifically polar bear-like. I haven’t seen the data, but I would find this result convincing. If Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University, had found the DNA to be human there would be question marks due to possible contamination, because a tiny fleck of dandruff can easily contribute spurious DNA.</p>
<p>Accepting that the hair samples came from polar bears, the next question to ask is how they came to be in the Himalayas and associated with the yeti story. Many alternative explanations need to be eliminated before we can take this story seriously. It is possible, for instance, that the hairs got there by accident. </p>
<p>Journalists, explorers and scientists interested in the world’s colder regions may well visit both the Arctic, where polar bears live, and the Himalayas. Could hairs travel between these places either on or even made into clothing or mementos? Possibly. Certainly, if someone found a putative yeti footprint and, when crouching over it, a polar bear hair fell onto the snow, I can imagine a level of excitement where the person forgets what they are wearing. </p>
<p>If the hairs did not get to the Himalayas by accident, then we must consider the possibility that they were placed there deliberately. History is littered with hoaxes, from <a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/the-scientific-process/piltdown-man-hoax/">Piltdown man</a> to the famous photos of the Loch Ness monster. Journalists would be motivated to produce a good story. Locals might like to increase tourism. Rogue scientists might like to take credit for solving a riddle or perhaps even play a joke on colleagues. For a scientific prankster, what better artifact to place than a polar bear hair?</p>
<p>I know nothing about the circumstances in which these hairs were collected, but to take the bear story at face value I would need to see a lot of solid evidence that a spoof was out of the question. Such evidence is not easy to come by.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yetis might remain as toys.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">dlanham</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What if the hairs were not placed there deliberately? Then the story gets more interesting, but it would still be somewhat difficult to swallow. A polar bear could do a good imitation of the storybook yeti. Rearing onto its hind legs it would appear huge and frightening. And bears living in perennially snowy conditions, like most other species, would tend to evolve white fur: prey species don’t want to be discovered while predators need to be able to sneak up on their prey unseen. However, bears are large, warm-blooded species that need a lot of nutrition. </p>
<p>Polar bears survive by eating seals, which are seasonally abundant and provide large chunks of high calorie blubber. A similar species of bear living in the Himalayas would probably find life more difficult. These regions are depicted as barren landscapes not bursting with energy-rich fruits and berries or large, small mammals. From my limited knowledge I struggle to see how such a large species like a polar bear could obtain sufficient nutrition. This is even more of a problem if we are to believe there is a viable population numbering at least tens and probably a few hundred. Why are there not more sightings?</p>
<p>To dismiss all stories of this kind would be wrong. New species of mammal are occasionally discovered, even now, and there is the famous case of <em>Homo floriensis</em>, the so-called “hobbit”, a recently extinct form of human found in Indonesia. However, even these discoveries are open to revision. <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-heads-and-headlines-can-a-skull-doom-14-human-species-19227">New research</a> has questioned whether <em>Homo floriensis</em> could be considered different from <em>Homo sapiens</em>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, everyone likes a good story, so in cases like the yeti we need to be particularly careful that all the pieces add up. I can be convinced the reported hairs came from bears. I would take a lot more convincing that they came from yeti footprints and that there is a viable but previously unknown population of bears in the Himalayas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Amos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recent DNA testing of two hairs, purportedly from a yeti, has raised a lot of public interest. Does the evidence really show that yetis exist? Well, not just yet. The test looked at mitochondrial DNA…William Amos, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123982013-03-31T21:14:11Z2013-03-31T21:14:11ZCan’t bear ‘em: how GPS is helping to track drop bears<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20727/original/p9kc2mcr-1362005197.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beware the drop bear.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Drop bears (<em><a href="http://australianmuseum.net.au/Drop-Bear">Thylarctos plummetus</a></em>) are a species of carnivorous Australian marsupial, renowned for preying on tourists in the bush. Infamous for their mode of attack, new technology is now shedding light on their distribution, population and behaviour.</p>
<p>Drop bears spend most of their time in treetops. They hunt by ambushing ground-dwelling animals (mainly medium to large mammals) from above, skilfully latching onto the victim’s neck to kill the prey. Quietly waiting in a tree for several hours, the drop bear closely resembles a <a href="http://www.acuteaday.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/sleepy-koala.jpg">sleeping koala</a>.</p>
<p>Once prey is within striking range, the drop bear will plummet several metres out of the tree to pounce on top of the unsuspecting victim. The initial impact generally stuns the prey, allowing it to be bitten on the neck and quickly subdued.</p>
<h2>Look out above</h2>
<p>Bushwalkers are prone to come in contact with drop bears when hiking off the beaten track in Australia. Thanks to a new approach to animal tracking, it is now possible to minimise attacks on humans and enhance conservation practises in these areas.</p>
<p>Drop bears do not specifically target human beings. Yet there have been several cases where humans have fallen victim to drop bear attacks, resulting in serious lacerations and even death. Numerous disappearances may also be attributed to drop bears.</p>
<p>While the Australian government has been accused of orchestrating a conspiracy to cover up the existence of drop bears in order to protect the tourist industry, these claims have never been substantiated.</p>
<h2>Animal tracking goes high-tech</h2>
<p>For about 50 years, the tagging and tracking of animals has been a vital tool to better understand animal behaviour and ecology. </p>
<p>The introduction of <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1550/2163.short">satellite-based positioning technology</a> into the field of animal tracking has <a href="http://nrac.wvu.edu/classes/resm575/readings/gps_abstract_2001.pdf#page=57">made a huge impact</a>. It has opened the door to many exciting discoveries and heavily supports animal conservation efforts.</p>
<p>Global Positioning System (GPS) and other Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals can provide accurate, regular and frequent estimates of the changing distributions of many rare animal species. This means that it is possible to determine animal positions continuously rather than relying on occasional snapshots of the animal’s whereabouts.</p>
<p>Conventional GNSS-based tracking methods require the sensor to be directly attached to the animal of interest. This makes it extremely difficult to study tree-dwelling animals like the drop bear. The dense tree canopy regularly causes extended periods of complete GNSS signal loss, and sensors are often damaged during attacks on prey. This severely reduces the availability of meaningful tracking data and substantially increases the cost of drop bear tracking.</p>
<h2>Tracking drop bears, the student method</h2>
<p>To address these shortcomings, an alternative for tracking drop bears has recently been proposed in the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00049182.2012.731307">Australian Geographer</a>. This indirect GNSS-based method involves tracking the prey rather than the predator. The animal population is then mapped by pinpointing the location and timing of drop bear attacks.</p>
<p>It has been demonstrated that this method can effectively estimate the number and distribution of drop bears in a particular area. The analysis has also given valuable insights into the animal’s hunting behaviour.</p>
<p>The study has confirmed that foreigners are much more likely to be “dropped on” than Australians. The results also indicate that drop bears do not necessarily target the last person walking in a line.</p>
<p>Obviously, a better understanding of drop bear behaviour and ecology allows us to ensure that a sustainable population is maintained, while the possibility of attacks on humans is limited. The indirect GNSS-based tracking method provides us with a tool to do just that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/12398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Volker Janssen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Drop bears (Thylarctos plummetus) are a species of carnivorous Australian marsupial, renowned for preying on tourists in the bush. Infamous for their mode of attack, new technology is now shedding light…Volker Janssen, Honorary Research Associate, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123322013-02-26T03:12:49Z2013-02-26T03:12:49ZCryptozoology? No need for an apology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20624/original/pv49y98r-1361840283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C283%2C1024%2C691&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Claims of mysterious creature sightings dominate cryptozoology – but where is the evidence?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chi-Yun</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>All forms of science are reliant on facts, hard evidence and statistics to maintain relevance and credibility. But what of the legitimacy of the so-called “pseudosciences”?</p>
<p>A warning: I’m going to pick on <a href="http://animal.discovery.com/cryptozoology/">cryptozoology</a> here – the study of hidden, extinct or mythical creatures.</p>
<p>Creatures dear to the cryptozoologist’s heart include: the kraken, ogopogo, Nessie, the chupacabra, yowies, mermaids, orang pendek, and the coolest of them all, the <a href="http://www.virtuescience.com/mongolian-death-worm.html">Mongolian Death Worm</a>. If you’re interested in these and others, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptids">Wikipedia</a> will keep you busy for hours.</p>
<p>Despite the (lack of) plausibility, one of the main criticisms levelled at scientists is that we won’t investigate cryptozoologists’ claims. As Australian cryptozoologist <a href="http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/">Rex Gilroy</a> said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Go and search for the evidence rather than be critical. I have struck a lot academic criticism over the years by people who stick to a textbook and who are glued to their office desk.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why not go and search? </p>
<p>I can already hear the dull chanting of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRaXvPQ-ayk">Carl Sagan’s</a> “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. But this is <em>not</em> why we don’t investigate strange ideas.</p>
<h2>To publish or not to publish</h2>
<p>Scientists consider strange ideas all the time. Indeed, we make up most of them. If we lived by Sagan’s mantra, scientific inquiry would never happen.</p>
<p>The reason research is not done on extraordinary claims is quite simple: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/please-reject-me-a-survivors-guide-to-publish-or-perish-1278">publish or perish</a>”.</p>
<p>Let me explain.</p>
<p>If you want to be a professional scientist, you need to do science. This means formulating questions to answer, doing the research, and then, publishing the work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20599/original/f9wfdb3d-1361795499.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20599/original/f9wfdb3d-1361795499.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20599/original/f9wfdb3d-1361795499.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20599/original/f9wfdb3d-1361795499.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20599/original/f9wfdb3d-1361795499.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20599/original/f9wfdb3d-1361795499.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20599/original/f9wfdb3d-1361795499.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20599/original/f9wfdb3d-1361795499.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Why do researchers publish their work?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alma Swan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As you can imagine, doing research costs money. This means going on bended knee to those holding the purse strings. They evaluate your project and your ability - that is, your published research - to carry out the project.</p>
<p>It is basically a catch-22 situation. Without a good publishing history, you will likely not get funded. But you can’t do much research without the funding. And around we go.</p>
<p>Hence the phrase, publish or perish.</p>
<p>You would think then that making a big discovery would be great for a scientific career. It absolutely is!</p>
<p>No scientist, ever, would turn down discovering a new species, especially something such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bigger-the-bigfoot-claim-the-bigger-the-need-for-evidence-12245">Bigfoot</a>. It would be an instant publication in a major journal, and research funding would flow like the Amazon River.</p>
<p>As such, scientists are not shying away from strange claims because they don’t want to make discoveries. They shy away because of the plausibility and probability of making the discovery.</p>
<p>Let’s take Bigfoot as an example.</p>
<p>Bigfoot, a 500-kilo bipedal primate standing 3.0 metres, is biologically possible. Other than the bipedal locomotion, a primate from South-eastern Asia, <a href="http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/g/gigantopithecus.html">gigantopithecus</a>, would have fit the bill - if it hadn’t gone extinct 100,000 years ago.</p>
<p>But given <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-biogeography-10696">biogeography</a> and population biology, such a species is not plausible.</p>
<p>Bigfoot’s biggest bunions are his biggest supporters, the Bigfoot hunters. Sightings of the creature have come from all over North America.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20598/original/3vc3tfc9-1361794207.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20598/original/3vc3tfc9-1361794207.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20598/original/3vc3tfc9-1361794207.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20598/original/3vc3tfc9-1361794207.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20598/original/3vc3tfc9-1361794207.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20598/original/3vc3tfc9-1361794207.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20598/original/3vc3tfc9-1361794207.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20598/original/3vc3tfc9-1361794207.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bigfoot sightings in Northern America – seems like you can’t go outside without running into him.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mangani's Bigfoot Maps</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet any species with a huge distribution would consist of a large number of individuals, and therefore, we would have plenty of physical evidence.</p>
<p>Proponents justify this lack of evidence by claiming Bigfoot is low in numbers, and they bury their dead, and …</p>
<p>Whoa Nelly! You’re telling me in a country where there are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/shooting-gun-laws-2012-12">88 guns for every 100 people</a> no one has shot and recovered the body. </p>
<p>Until 2009, there were no sightings of pygmy hippos in all of Australia, nevertheless a <a href="http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2009/11/16/101241_ntnews.html">NT hunter managed to shoot one</a>.</p>
<p>You can’t have it both ways. The Bigfoot population cannot stretch across North America enabling sightings every other Tuesday, <em>and</em> be in such low numbers that solid evidence never materialises.</p>
<p>In Bigfoot’s case, scientists don’t look because he is simply not plausible.</p>
<h2>Dealing with claims</h2>
<p>Not all claims are in this canoe though. If tomorrow’s newspaper headline was: “Panther found in Australia”, I wouldn’t be surprised.</p>
<p>Wildlife trafficking is one of the three largest crimes in the world and <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/man-arrested-with-endangered-baby-animals-in-suitcase">large cats are certainly on the price list</a>. If you do a search of “exotic” animals in Australia, you quickly realise Australia is not <a href="http://www.feral.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Incursions_2011.pdf">immune from the industry</a>.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether animals are being kept legally or illegally, escapes can and do happen. In 2008, a 1.5 metre <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/conservation/alligator-long-way-from-home/2008/12/30/1230399192287.html">alligator was found in Pambula</a>, on the south coast of New South Wales.</p>
<p>Though a big cat living in Australia is as plausible as a hippo or alligator, to commit research time and funding to finding it is too much of a gamble.</p>
<p>If one could be found, great! But what if nothing is found? Years could pass without finding a thing – and that translates to not publishing a thing.</p>
<p>And for a scientist, that’s game over.</p>
<p>Cryptozoologists shouldn’t be too concerned. Scientists are doing research all over Australia: if strange critters are out there, they will be <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7366530/Frog-thought-to-have-been-extinct-for-30-years-discovered-in-Australia.html">detected incidentally</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_pFSFgPWnjE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The ‘rediscovered’ yellow-spotted bell frog in NSW.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the end of the day, it’s encouraging that passionate, amateur zoologists are out looking for animals. I, for one, would rather they look for Bigfoot than sit at home watching Big Brother. And if they find solid evidence, a scientist will always be keen to have a look.</p>
<p>When it comes to scientists conducting research, it boils down to a simple calculation that everyone recognises:</p>
<p><em>What do we spend our finite resources on?</em></p>
<p>Odd animals may exist, but there are certainly many that need our attention now. And in the meantime, let’s see what else we come across. </p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong> <br><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bigger-the-bigfoot-claim-the-bigger-the-need-for-evidence-12245">The bigger the Bigfoot claim, the bigger the need for evidence</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/12332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dustin Welbourne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>All forms of science are reliant on facts, hard evidence and statistics to maintain relevance and credibility. But what of the legitimacy of the so-called “pseudosciences”? A warning: I’m going to pick…Dustin Welbourne, PhD Candidate in Biogeography + Science Communicator, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.