4. Lake Monsters
Ogopogo Caught on Video - The Loch Ness Monster in Scotland gets most of the publicity, but the U.S. and Canada have their own versions of prehistoric-like lake monsters. There’s Champ in Lake Champlain, and in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia is a similar creature that has been sighted numerous times over many decades, and it’s known as the Ogopogo Monster. Sightings nowadays are rare, and rarer still are photographs and video. But on August 9, John Caruso and his family were vacationing on a rented houseboat on the picturesque lake when they spotted a long, writhing shape in the water. Caruso grabbed his video camera and taped about 15 minutes of footage, part of which shows a long dark hump rising above the lake’s surface. He estimated the creature to be about 45 feet long! (Full story.)
5. Weird Creatures
The Mutant Beastie - Strange, unidentified creatures seemed to pop up in various places in the summer of 2004. The one that grabbed most of the headlines, however, were weird dog-like creatures in Texas. But these weren’t just sightings. The authorities had actual bodies of the creatures, which for many weeks remained unidentified. The hairless, gray-skinned animals kind of looked like dogs, kind of like coyotes, but not really. They were so unusual that veterinarians and zoologists seeing the bodies of the animals first hand (they had been shot by ranchers) could not identify them. Speculation among some was that this was the mysterious Chupacabras. Finally, a DNA test was conducted, which determined that genetically they were coyotes, but probably were suffering from some extreme form of mange. Even those tests didn’t answer all of the questions, however. The animal’s lower jaw was abnormal – so abnormal, in fact, that experts guessed that it would have been almost impossible for it to eat. (Full story.)
6. Living Dinosaurs
Dino Hunt – What creature could be more spectacular than a living, breathing dinosaur? No, not the computer-generated dinos from Jurassic Park – I’m talking about real dinosaurs... alive... today! Impossible, you say? There have been reported sightings of pterodactyls in the U.S. going back 100 years or more, and alleged stories of large sauropods in the African Congo. In May, residents of the volcanic island province of East New Britain in Papua New Guinea claimed to have sighted a grey-skinned, nine-foot-tall dinosaur-like creature with a head like a dog and a tail like a crocodile, and “as fat as a 900-litre water tank.” They said it lived in a marsh near the the provincial capital, Kokopo. The local mayor sent out a police force armed with M-16s and shotguns. Unfortunately, no trace of the creature was found. (Full story.)
7. Earth Mysteries
Stones from the Heavens - Most of us can deal just fine with heavy rain, snow, sleet – even hail. But what do you do when you’re pelted with stones falling from the sky? A family in Limpopo, South Africa fell victim to this strange phenomenon in May. Incredibly, this is not the first such case of stones falling on an area – even on specific individuals – for hours, even weeks at a time. This past May, Joyce Lambani finally had to summon the police after her house had been rained upon by stones virtually every night for a month. The skeptical police came to observe, and sure enough they saw it, too. "We've been watching the house every night since Monday and have also seen the stones falling from the sky above the house,” one of the policeman said. Their investigation could find no culprit or any logical explanation for the phenomenon. (Full story.)
