Next?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 12th, 2007
Where do you think the next big discovery in cryptozoology will be? On the land? Or in the sea?
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
More little critters in the Antarctic Ocean.
More little critters in Borneo.
More little critters in New Guinea.
Maybe a few other little critters elsewhere.
Maybe some kind of resolution of this idea that 1,000 or more bird species – most all of them little – are waiting to be discovered in the shadows of virtual look-alikes.
Sasquatch? No way. Yeti? Fuggedaboudit. Agogwe? Gesundheit.
At least a few lake monsters debunked for good. And I am praying for no alleged thylacines that are not actual thylacines. Hey, one can hope.
(Somebody should research the zoological fascination with little critters. I could go into all kinds of allegories here, but I’ll pass.)
I’d speculate that research will find ‘Hobbit’ bones that are a lot younger than anyone would imagine.
I’m going out on a limb here (a sort of intentional but very poor pun) – a small bipedal ape in the jungles of a Southeast Asian country.
Not new, but even bigger squid as they come up from the deep ocean searching for food as the fish stocks dwindle and ocean temperatures and currents continue to change.
A big eel in Windermere…just so we can have something in the UK!
Another Yarwen capture.
I think the ocean is going to turn out some surprises in the coming years. It is vast and we have barely begun to truly explore its depths. In my opinion, it is a potential goldmine for cryptozoological discoveries. I mean, a whole new type of ecosystem was discovered at the undersea thermal vents! I always find myself speculating about what could conceivably be out there. I also think the deep jungles of South America and Africa aren’t done with giving us surprises yet.
I am an optimist.
I think this year will be “the year of the crypto-video/film.”
Let me explain.
More and more humans in a greater spectrum of the “walks of life” have got their hands on camcorders. Fishermen, boat owners, backpackers, oceanographic vessels, primatologists, archaeologists, curious naturists, you name it. We are getting more and more “wired in.” If they don’t have out-and-out camcorders, they will have cell phones with the 30-second video recorders on them.
I predict this, for 2007. (Keeping in mind I am not a US government “remote viewer.” LOL)
a) Flying Pterodactyls will be videotaped out of southeast Asia. The videotape will be decent in its resolution.
b) Lake creatures inhabiting lakes in North America will be videotaped at much closer range, and perhaps in great detail.
c) There will be, perhaps by late Summer, a new bigfoot video–probably taken where the other decent ones were (either northern California, or in Washington state) that will be the best since Gimlin-Patterson. Perhaps, it will be done with HD videotape. The BFRO has enough expeditions planned, in the right areas, that this may take place with better-than-even odds.
d) Someone may leak a Special Forces/Navy film from the 1960s or 1970s of an encounter with a sea serpent.
e) A Yeti may be videotaped, probably in Nepal.
f) The Russians may videotape at length a number of encounters around Kirov of Almasty. (That area appears to be a recent hotbed of sightings.)
g) Perhaps a long-range videotape of Nessie will be in hand, perhaps in the Autumn. It will be in color. And it will show more than “humps.”
h) A film will be discovered in someone’s effects that will be of a significant crypto-creature encounter.
These are all plausible predictions. I think we are “Getting There” with the coverage. Just a matter of time.
More forgeries posted on youtube, more of us waiting for something new, much conjecture, little of anything else. : (
I agree with Carrot.
mystery-man has it down…It (they) will come from beneath the Sea.
greenmartian2007: you are indeed an optimist.
Of course you didn’t say how many of those videos would be fake. 😉
I hadn’t thought about the orang pendek and I notice no one else has mentioned it yet either.
I just found out that National Geographic has given seed money to an effort to get carmera-trap documentation of the animal.
For what that’s worth.
Greetings all,
This is my first post; hopefully it does not come off too pessimistic…
I see more profit oriented groups and missions being formed. I foresee that these groups will be seeking alliances with mainstream media and will aggressively compete in a “race to the bottom” for funds and willing to bear significant financial risk themselves (or to pass it on to members). As media pays more attention to this content more unscrupulous individuals will self-proclaim expertise and we can expect to see much more litigation in regards to fraud, defamation, and IP issues.
I also agree that the “little brother” effect of ubiquitous recording devices will lead to viral videos of cryptids; new efforts allowing users to monetize their videos may bring some good quality clips (and more hoaxes) to wider visibility.
I also think that there may be backers from nontraditional fields; I think that some private equity money may find itself backing cryptozoology related endeavors (not necessarily field work) with an uncertain outcome. If field work is done with PE funds it will not be disclosed until deliverables have been 100 percent confirmed, resulting in definite proof.
Regarding discoveries, I think more small animals will be discovered as well as informal acceptance by the public of the existence of others (giant eels). I also think that many of the Eastern and Midwest DNRs will confirm the reestablishment of the eastern mountain lion.
I think more DNA evidence of Sasquatch will be found in East Texas or SE Oklahoma. The Skunk Apes of the SE US will be proven to be a separate species. This is the year we make contact with another intelligent species: Bigfoot.
Heh. I agree with monkeyz.
Of course, we could branch off into cryptomysticism. Then we could claim anything we want, citing personal metaphysical events, and defy doubters to dispute it!
WOW-with some of the comments I’m reading here I’m thinking it might be a new species of skeptic! 🙂
The climate is changing and rather quickly, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we do find several four-footed land animals and sea-going creatures as they move to new areas in search of food.
But I’d guess that we will see some rather awesome bigfoot sightings this year, more OOP big cats (hopefully black ones), a few highly interesting lake monster videos, normal sized female models, and Elvis living in a nursing home under an assumed name.
I fervently hope that this is the year that thylacines are rediscovered, in numbers capable of sustaining their species, and that they are given the protection and the habitat they deserve.
Furthermore I believe that this just might be the year that the eastern puma is officially proven to exist, and habitat set aside for its preservation.
Oh yeah … I want this to be the year that the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease is stopped in its tracks, so that devils will not join thylacines in the shadow world of cryptids.
You know the expression ‘hidden in plain sight’? I think something unusual, unexpected or previously undiscovered to be found smack bang in the middle of London, SF, NY, Rio, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow or some other urban area.
Sasquatch lumbering along a freeway in LA? Black Puma skulking down the Whitechapel Road in London’s East End? Why should all the good cryptids be hiding in the wilds? They could just as easily sink into the darkness of the backstreets or sewers of any large town or city.
Except Burnley.
Even cryptids draw the line somewhere.
Rillo777,
If you do find Elvis, please post! My mother is a fervent Elvisian. Her home is chock full of Elvii 😀 .
Tom Biscardi will stumble across a real Bigfoot. He will try to popularize it but it will turn the tables on him and sue him for slander :).
I agree with DWA though I will go further and predict a live one will be captured. They are smaller and more easily contained and someone will catch one.
Bigfoot pancakes will debut at IHOP, and will be a big hit. Those fuzzy Bigfoot shag rugs from the 70’s will make a big return.
Something spectacular will be discovered around a deep sea vent.
kittenz:
I thought I found some Elvis tracks in my backyard but they turned out to be a hoax.
joppa, I had forgotten about those big shaggy footprint rugs! That little reminiscence made my day.
DWA, orang pendek – “a small bipedal ape in the jungles of a Southeast Asian country”. I was trying to be broad and nebulous to cover Hobbits as well!
sausage1 – you aren’t from Blackburn are you?!
I would like to see all these things happen, however I fear it will be another year like any other in cryptozoology. The past few years have turned up some cool stuff, but most falls into the blurry picture category. However, the orang pendek was mentioned and I was wondering if anyone knew anything about the recent progress of research into that subject? I remember reading in one of Loren’s books that there was at least one group in the field that had obtained hair samples, and one researcher was quoted as saying that he felt a new primate discovery was “in the bag”. If i am mistaken or read it wrong I’m sorry, its been a while and im not sure where my copy of the book is. Mostly I’m just wondering if anyone knows anything about current expeditions for the pendek.
I think that if the orang pendek was discovered it would be the bridge that allowed modern science to truely begin accepting that BF and other mystery primates might be real. Let’s hope it happens.
I think the next successes for cryptozoology – that is, the next large animals capable of getting media as well as scientific attention – are likely to come out of SE Asia (orang-pendek or more recent “hobbit” evidence) and from the Pacific Ocean, where new beaked whales await classification. I would not be surprised at all to see new species of large squid and sharks turn up as well. SE Asia is likely to offer a couple of new large hoofed mammals as well – remember the “black deer” and “slow-running deer” of which MacKinnon found fragmentary remains?
I expect someone to eventually confirm van Roosmalen’s tapir, which seems stuck in some kind of taxonomic limbo.
If I had to pick two additional creatures I would LIKE to see confirmed, but will not yet venture to predict, they would be van Roosmalen’s black and white jaguar and an undocumented strain of very large sturgeon from Lake Iliamna.
I would have to say the ocean as the next place of finding a new species of large animal. Maybe the forests of Southeast Asia will produce a living specimen of Homo Floresiensis, which might turn out to be an orang pendek. Hey, it could happen.
Being an optimist, this is the year for many things…I am voting for the ocean…with recent success stories on the giant squid, I am hoping someone will go hunting for more and catch some “something else’s” and then we can really have some fun!
Good luck…remember to pack your cameras (and put film in them…and get the lens cover off…and get closer…have I missed anything?) AND look for hairs, fibers, scales, prints (foot and finger), and for the love of Pete (whoever Pete is…) do better than blobs…in the water or on land!!!
Kittenz – I thought of another comeback: bigfoot gas pedals for your VW van.
I would like to see a living group of Hobbits show up being very hacked off that somebody dug up Uncle Charlie.
Rillo777,
That was a just a man in a suit that left those tracks ;).
LOL I’d like to have another VW “bus”. Even one as beat-up as the last one.