September 22, 2012
Cryptozoologist, historian, and publisher Chad Arment has weighed in with a powerful one-liner in conjunction with my essay looking at cryptozoology. As summer slipped into fall last night, Arment left the following comment on a social media site. It is worth repeating here.
“The unfortunate fact is that there are too many people who think that monster hunting is tantamount to cryptozoology, and bypass critical thinking for emotional responses to natural mysteries.”
| Haast’s eagle attacking two moas from a postal series on extinct New Zealand birds. Credit: Corrick. |
Chad Arment’s Cryptozoology and the Investigation of Lesser-Known Mystery Animals (Coachwhip Publications, 2006) extends the information on the non-stars of cryptozoology. Arment collected stories that included ones about unknown coelacanths, mystery pigs, luminous spiders, flying snakes, and the mystery bird Paul Gauguin painted, the pouakai, a large Polynesian bird that reportedly often attacked warriors and was quite capable of carrying off children.
One of Chad Arment’s best books is Varmints: Mystery Carnivores of North America, a researcher’s treasure trove of information about mystery felids and other hidden “varmints,” mostly for Canada and the USA, well-organized according to region.
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.
Filed under Books, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Men in Cryptozoology