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An Ornithological Enigma: The Arthur's Pass Moa Photograph

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 The archipelagos of Oceania have been an epicenter of the sixth mass extinction, with many unique species unequipped to handle the arrival of mankind. Flightless birds in particular were vulnerable to invasive species, deforestation, and human overhunting. Few of these ecological losses have been more tragic than that of the many moas that once thrived on Aotearoa. There were at least nine species of these large ratites, the largest of which stood at over eleven feet high at its tallest. The moas were long gone by the time of European contact, having been slaughtered by the Māori. Because of their recent demise, along with the unique climate of New Zealand, Moa fossils are rather abundant helping ornithologists best understand these forest behemoths. Some remains have been naturally mummified by dry cold conditions, allowing great detail including skin and flesh to be excellently preserved, such as this eerie head. As with many other recently extinct species, sightings did not t
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Baby Mine: The Story of Helen Aberson-Mayer, Dumbo’s Literary Mother

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Walt Disney Studios was never shy about adapting familiar works of literature to the screen in the creation of their animated features, in truth many of their most acclaimed titles have bookly origins. From Hans Christen Anderson to Victor Hugo to A. A. Milne, many a famous writer would posthumously see their iconic prose adapted to cartoon form. Those only vaguely familiar with the history of Disney’s influences might be surprised to find that some films they assumed to be original ideas were in fact adaptations. One, unfortunately, doesn’t hear much said about Dodie Smith’s The Hundred and One Dalmatians or Felix Salten’s Bambi, a Life in the Woods , despite the familiarity most have with these narratives in the cinematic form. But likely the most obscure book to germinate into a Disney classic would be Dumbo. As one can see while watching its bombastic circus sideshow of title cards, the 1941 film states that it is “based on the book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl”. Dumbo was an
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Safe: The Strange Affliction of Cindy Duehring

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Note that this text is adapted from an earlier writing of mine, published recently elsewhere on the internet. In 1984, Cindy Duehring was a medical student in Washington State, working at a bank. An infestation of fleas affected her workplace and soon spread to her Seattle apartment. When it was fumigated, the exterminator illegally combined two insecticides together one of which was unsafe for indoor use. The result was her developing an extreme reaction as the toxic chemicals built up inside of her body. Her doctors said it was extraordinary that she wasn’t killed. The high number of industrial solvents and propellants that her body retained had done permanent damage. Even being exposed to common household detergents and cleaners would cause vomiting and respiratory failure. Sounds triggered grand mal seizures, and soaps and shampoos gave her temporary kidney failure. She had to frequently wrap her body in aluminum foil. Eventually, a specialized house had to be constructed for her i
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The First Murder at Disneyland

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Despite all the ingenious entertainment and heartwarming memories, there has been a great deal of tragedy at the Disney theme parks. One doesn’t have to do much online investigating to discover decades of deaths that have occurred on Disney property. While a fair number of these are merely the result of natural causes such as heart attacks, there have been a number of deaths or severe injuries caused by the rides themselves. Considering that the people who do get harmed in this way are but an extremely small percentage of the total number of people who visit Disney, the parks are actually remarkably safe. You’re doubtlessly at greater risk on a highway rather than a roller coaster. Nevertheless, there have been cases, few and far between, in which a person has been murdered on Disney property. Such is the forgotten fate of Melanchthon “Mel” Christian Yorba (September 6, 1962-March 7, 1981). Yorba was attending a private party at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, a celebration thrown
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Dearest Motty: The World’s Only Hybrid Elephant

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 On the rarest of occasions there comes into existence a specific organism that can truly be said to be genetically one-of-a-kind, possessing a unique attribute or history that we can say with near confidence has never occurred before and might never again. All the more surprising is when this occurs despite what we had assumed to be impossible. This is the story of a wee elephant like none other, who stunned the zoological community with his mere existence. Chester Zoo in England, founded in 1931, has long been called one of the greatest zoological gardens on Earth, with an impressive plethora of exhibits and a world-class conservation program. Dozens of elephants have called the zoo home over the decades since the opening of the elephant exhibit in 1941. One of these was Motty, the only known hybrid being an Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) and an African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta Africana). As the two species are in different genera, it was presumed that the two could never procrea
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Champ and Sandra: The Story of the 1977 Mansi Photo

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 Note that some of this text is adapted from an earlier writing of mine, published elsewhere on the internet. The 70s and 80s were a golden age of cryptozoology, something that is unlikely to be ever replicated again. The notion that these animals of folklore could still be existing in some remote tropical forest or mountain range was actually getting a fair amount of press, not just from the mainstream media but from a few academics as well. The superstars of the art of researching “hidden animals”, Tim Dinsdale, John Green, Bernard Heuvelmans, Grover Krantz, Roy Mackal, and John R. Napier were all active, bitten by that wonderful and childlike belief that monsters do exist not just in our imaginations. “Yes Virginia, there is a Loch Ness Monster and we’ll find him any day now!” Those hopeful days are long gone. The cryptids were all no-shows, so society had no choice other than to stop daydreaming and face the unfantastic reality of it all. But it’s certainly worth it to look back at
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Alice: Daughter Of The Ripper?!

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There’s a funny phenomenon we have of adding artificial darkness and mystery to artists, insisting that wild rumors we hear about their sordid private lives are true. Consider the long-running urban legends of Walt Disney freezing himself or of Mr. Rogers being a Korean War sniper. Perhaps when we see a person create genuine innocent art we are intimated and assume that more is at work here, a shadowy side being loosely hidden from public view. In the case of today’s post, we’ll be looking at an unusual hypothesis about Charles Dodgson (1832-1898), better known by his pen name of Lewis Carroll. Carroll was a mathematician but wrote fiction as well. Today the only works of his that are widely known are the Alice in Wonderland books, far from a poor literary legacy. In 1996, a man named Richard Wallace published a book promoting an alarming theory about Carroll being none other than Jack the Ripper, quite a scandalous claim to pin against the creator of the White Rabbit! Wallace’s book,
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