“What Kind Of Cryptid Are You?”
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 26th, 2011
There were a total of 220 participants on board for the Coast to Coast Chat Room last night.
All types of questions were asked, from the serious to the mildly humorous; answers were given, seriously, mostly. I saw it as an educational opportunity, of course. Here is a sample:
Question From Chris
Mr. Coleman, of all the research you’ve completed over the years, what ‘cryptid’ or creature do you think will be the first to officially be proven to exist?
Answer From Loren Coleman:
Here, I think, you are asking about a “Celebrity Cryptid”? Cryptids are found all the time, animals known by natives and locals that are new to Science.
But the big splash, the best bet for a new big deal cryptid, will be the “discovery” of the Orang Pendek in Sumatra in the next 25 years, I sense.
Question From Alan
Is the “Orang Pendek” Sumatra’s version of Bigfoot?
Answer From Loren Coleman:
No, Orang Pendek is small, and not like Bigfoot/Sasquatch at all. One of the reasons that I and Patrick Huyghe wrote The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates was to sort out all the different kinds/types
of mystery apes, hominoids, and hominids that are lumped together as “Bigfoot.”
A field drawing of the Orang Pendek based on Debbie Martyr’s and others’ sightings.
Question From Motorcity
If you could be any cryptid, which would you be?
Answer From Loren Coleman:
Next question please, as I enjoy being a human, or more specifically, a cryptozoologist. 🙂
Question From Cryto-Di in NH
Hello Loren I heard earlier this year that you are going to be relocating the Crypto Museum to another, larger location in downtown Portland. Any word on if the move is still going to happen? Hubby and I are looking forward to it.
Answer From Loren Coleman:
Yes, the International Cryptozoology Museum (http://www.cryptozoologymuseum.com) completed the physical move on October 23th. We are re-curating the entire collection this week, and will reopen on Sunday, October 30th, literally, right around the corner from our former location. The size increase is about four-five times as large, but due to the extra windows, an important museum restroom, high ceilings, and more, it feels like six times as big. The new address is 11 Avon Street, Portland, Maine 04101 (easily found on map search sites). It is down from the corner of Avon and Congress, next to Joe’s Smoke Shop’s parking lot, in the outer Arts District of Portland.
Question From james
Is your museum ‘child friendly’?
Answer From Loren Coleman:
Yes, the International Cryptozoology Museum is “child friendly.” Kids as young as three months, and as old as 95 have visited [and enjoyed it]. Home schoolers come a great deal, and we are very popular during school vacations.
Question From Mercedes
Do you think Big Feet 🙂 are observing us? Do you think they have an awareness of humans and purposely avoid us?
Answer From Loren Coleman:
Bigfoot is the plural of Bigfoot. Just saying…
Bigfoot are aware of humans, especially our cars or we would hit more of them.
Go to the Coast Insider if you want to read the full transcript (here).
Go here for more Coast Insider.
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.
I’m a werewolf.
The 2 cartoons do bring up something that most skeptics and researchers fail to realize, that if we were to find a bigfoot it would most likely be the most intelligent animal known to science. Some people may say duh, but if you really wanted to find something like this you would have to outsmart it and most people conduct investigations not having this in mind. Our research techniques would probably be insulting to something as intelligent as a bigfoot.
Something almost as intelligent as a human that has all of its wild instincts still intact (not to mention is still subject to natural selection) would prove extremely difficult to find if not by accident. Which is pretty much where we are now. Avoiding humans is the ultimate survival skill if you are an animal and if they do in fact exist no one does it better.
Great article Loren!
Clearly, being a cryptozoologist requires a sense of humor. 🙂
I think there’s still a lot of things that need uncovering, some things that need more audience, and some things that needed to be taken with a grain of humor.
Hopefully people remember that the best mystery is sometimes the one that doesn’t get solved.