Scientists and yeti enthusiasts believe there may finally be solid evidence that the apelike creature roams the vast Siberian tundra, reports the Guardian.
A team of a dozen-plus experts from as far afield as Canada and Sweden have proclaimed themselves 95% certain of the mythical animal’s existence after a daylong conference in the town of Tashtagol in the Kemerovo region, some 2,000 miles east of Moscow. In recent years, locals there have reported sightings of the yeti, also known as the abominable snowman.
The Kemerovo government announced on Oct. 10 that a two-day expedition the previous weekend to the region’s Azassky cave and Karatag peak “collected irrefutable evidence” of yetis’ existence on the wintry plateau.
“Conference participants came to the conclusion that the artifacts found give 95% evidence of the habitation of the ‘snow man’ on Kemerovo region territory,” read a statement. “In one of the detected tracks, Russian scientist Anatoly Fokin noted several hairs that might belong to the yeti,” it added. The group also discovered footprints, a presumed bed and various other markers.
The scientific community has historically disputed the existence of the yeti given scant conclusive evidence. But numerous sightings of such creatures have been reported in Himalayan countries and in North America, where it is known as Sasquatch, or bigfoot. - newsfeed.time
Yetis, Sasquatch and Hairy Giants
In Search of History - The Abominable Snowman (History Channel)
The Yeti Incident: The Sasquatch Encounters Four
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9-foot alligator attacks man going for dip in creek near homeless camp
James Wimmer did what he usually does to cool off Monday. At around 5 p.m., the air feeling like 99 degrees, he decided to jump in a creek.
His friend, J.C. Goodwin, said Wimmer stopped by the homeless campsite in the woods east of South Main Street to say hi before walking down to the water.
Goodwin, 52, didn't think anything of it when he heard a splash.
Then came the screams. "It was this horrific roar," he said.
Wimmer had been attacked by an alligator.
Goodwin ran down the bank, where he saw Wimmer backing away from a 9-foot alligator. Wimmer's left shoulder was shredded, with deep teeth marks creating half-moon bites on his front and back. His arm hung limp as he tried to run away.
Goodwin grabbed a nearby cinder block, hoisted it and heaved it at the animal. The concrete block broke into pieces when it landed on the alligator's head.
"I was just trying to get him to go the other way," Goodwin said.
It worked. As Goodwin dragged his friend up the creek to a shallow bank, another friend used Wimmer's cellphone to call for help.
Within minutes, emergency responders arrived and took Wimmer away to Shands at the University of Florida. As of late Monday night, authorities did not know the man's condition, and the hospital did not report a man named James Wimmer as a patient.
An hour later, "Three Legs" the alligator was dead. When trappers from the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission arrived, the decision was made quickly.
"He was on death row," Goodwin said.
Most people at the camp knew that Three Legs, named after the number of appendages he had, liked to hang around the creek.
To the community that lives in the homeless camp near the intersection of Williston Road and Southeast 16th Avenue, Three Legs was their mascot. He was almost a pet.
"I was sad they shot him," said Jennifer Schoendignst, 31, who frequents the area and had seen Three Legs many times before. - gainesville
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It's not uncommon to see porcupines up here, I mean, we have a lot of them here," said Brad Whitcomb. Whitcomb is the Regional Director at Allegany State Park in Cattaraugus County, NY and has always had a problem with porcupines chewing wood. "Buildings, our structures, in particular pine, the railings, the plywood panels on the bottom of screen doors," said Whitcomb.
Yet now the porcupines seem to have developed a new late-taste for climbing poles, and chewing on heavy-duty aluminum signs that are placed around the park. "And its not just a taste. They will in time, ingest the whole sign. They work on the edges, they hone them down, they're razor sharp and we don't find any filings beneath the sign to suggest they're just, just gnawing away at it," said Whitcomb.
What gnaws at park officials is the mystery behind why the porcupines find the signs so tasty in the first place. "It is crazy, I really can't explain why they do it, but it's not unexpected, by far," said Darrin Bierfeldt, Park Forester. "There's no rhyme or reason to it me. They find em, they like em, the chew em and we replace them as we go," said Whitcomb.
To help curb the problem, not to mention the appetite of the porcupines, park officials continue to look for answers, and are now replacing chewed metal signs, with what they hope are less appetizing new plastic ones. "To see if that makes a difference, they really haven't been out there that long to tell if its been working so far, it seems to help a little," said Bierfeldt. Park officials add they're unable to put a dollar figure on just how much damage the porcupines have caused so far. - rochester.ynn
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NYC subway rider forced to drop pants after rat crawls up her leg
A hotel supervisor was forced to drop her pants in the middle of a full midtown subway car on Friday — when a brazen rat darted up her trouser leg. Ana Vargas, 40, said she was sitting in an A train heading downtown as it approached the Columbus Circle station about 7:50 a.m. when the rodent suddenly sprang. “I thought it was my pants moving,” Vargas said. “It just crawled up my leg. I shook it and nothing came out.” But then she realized she was being attacked.
“I said, ‘Oh, my God — it’s an animal on my leg!’ ” she recalled. “He was very big. I was shaking, but nothing was coming out . . . I had to pull my pants down in front of everyone on the train.” Vargas, who works as a supervisor at the Doubletree by Hilton hotel in midtown, said three men tried to shield her from flashing everyone on the train as she shook the furry culprit loose. “I grabbed his head, because he was scratching me,” she said. “I didn’t want it to bite.”
The train came to a stop and Vargas dropped the rat as she ran for help on the platform. “I was very nervous,” she said. “I was shivering, shaking — everything.” Police soon arrived and called a crew of EMTs to take Vargas to Roosevelt Hospital, where she was treated for scratches to her leg and thigh. “It was burning me, but the doctors say it’s normal,” she said. The rail-riding rat went missing after the sneaky skirmish.
Vargas was given a Tetanus shot before she was released from the hospital more than an hour later. But after a day spent at work, she said she may go back to the doctors to get her wounds checked out. “It keeps burning me,” she said. “I’m worried.” Vargas said she was traumatized by the freak rat raid and is now nervous about riding the train to work every day. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. - nydailynews
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Farmer Blames Death Rays, Aliens For Cows' Deaths; Faces Charges In Canada
A Canadian farmer has lost at least 250 cows in the past 10 years. While the government has charged him and says he failed to feed them, the farmer claims the alien defense.
Werner Bock has posted plenty of YouTube videos in recent years detailing his cattle's malnourished appearance, sunken features and hair loss. He declares that his cows were the victims of "death rays," some form of alien weapon that's been covered up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
"At least 250 head of cattle have died from what we call a death beam," Bock said on camera in May of last year. "Where the atmospheric air is manipulated into a death beam, focused on the noses of the animals."
The animals breath in the death beam and slowly die, the eastern New Brunswick farmer claims.
But Canadian authorities are crying foul. Bock was slapped with charges Monday for not giving his cows adequate medical attention, CBC News reported.
In a pre-trial meeting on Monday, Bock wanted to subpoena three veterinarians and three officers to testify in his favor. But the judge noted that those individuals, if they were relevant to the case, would be there to testify against him.
Bock wanted to call a vet who apparently found no evidence of burns on his cows. He also wanted to call an officer who he says assured him there were no aliens flying in the airspace above his farm.
His trial will begin in September. - THP