Just the Facts?: The London Trackway -- Essex Lion Farce -- You're Invited! Fall UFO Conference in Philadelphia

The London Trackway: First Publication

The London Trackway: First Publication

From Cliff Barackman: The London Trackway is a unique event in bigfooting history. It started with an unsuspecting sasquatch wandering out of the woods and onto the muddy shore of Cottage Grove Reservoir (near Eugene, OR) probably on the Saturday night/Sunday morning of Februray 11/12, 2012. The event still has not come to an end because of the observations that are continually being made of the casts that were collected at the site. Just as new insights are still being gleaned by examining sasquatch footprint casts taken decades ago, the London Tracks will be slowly giving their secrets away for years to come.

Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science

In Search of Sasquatch

Creature: Shadow of the Sasquatch

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The Essex lion farce

Okay, so the rumours circulated that there was a lion on the loose near Clacton in Essex. How many more stories like this are going to be followed up by droves of police officers and reported on my drama hungry papers ? It's a sorry state of affairs, and it's hysteria that makes a mockery of my research because when investigators, as usual, find no evidence of the lion king, everyone starts laughing and saying that there are no large cats roaming Britain. So let's look at the details.

Someone claimed they'd seen a lion in a field a few days ago. The story spread like wildfire, newspapers got involved, my phone started to ring, the police turned up at the location, photographs of the 'beast' began being passed around and so was born the 'Lion of Essex' legend...another unfounded scare akin to the Shooter's Hill cheetah, The Edgware Tiger, the Winchmore Hill lioness, the Sydenham leopard blah blah blah. Yep, the police had every right to investigate it as it was a matter of public safety but surely such a fuss wasn't necessary. A couple of animal trackers would have sufficed because if anyone knows anything about cats, lions do not behave in an incredibly elusive manner, lions would seek large prey and also seek a pride, and lions DO NOT inhabit the wilds of Britain, neither do tigers, jaguars or cheetahs.

There are three suggestions for the Essex lion story - 1) maybe, just maybe there had been a lion that had escaped from a zoo/private collection - or if you read some of the papers, a circus which had stopped by a few weeks previous. 2) there was no lion at all, just a bunch of witnesses who didn't have a clue what they were seeing or maybe had nothing better to do than make it up, 3) judging by a couple of reports in which witnesses described seeing a tan-coloured cat with a white chest, a puma may have been involved. Whatever the truth, if there was a lion roaming Essex - it would no doubt be used to being hand-reared, lacking excerise and keen to feast on those mutant's with their swept over fringes, white teeth and small percentage of brain cells. If a lion had been roaming Essex then the police would not have called off the search. If a lion had bene roaming Essex it would have been heard roaring on numerous occasions, would have been on the prowl for livestock, and would have left behind a few very large prints. Lions are not elusive hunters that climb trees. Lions are bloody big animals. Continue reading at kentonline

Also...The weird history of the Essex Lion and his relatives

Big Cats: Facing Britain's Wild Predators

BIG CATS LOOSE IN BRITAIN

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South Texas mayor attacked and killed by donkey

A South Texas mayor has been found dead after apparently being attacked by a 500-pound donkey on his ranch.

The Atascosa County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that the death of Hollywood Park Mayor William "Bill" Bohlke appears to be an accident. Bohlke was 65.

Chief Deputy David Soward says Bohlke apparently was attacked Monday morning by an aggressive male donkey he kept on the ranch. His body was found Monday night during a search by deputies and relatives. A formal cause of death is pending.

"It is with great regret that we, the family of Bill Bohlke, wish to inform you of his passing last night, August 27th, 2012," said Bohlke's family in a statement. "Bill suffered a fatal injury while taking care of his prized cow herd near Pleasanton last evening."

A vigil for the mayor is planned on Monday, Sept. 3 at 7:00 p.m. CT at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, and a mass will be held at 9:30 a.m. CT at the same church the following morning.

"Bill, your mayor, dearly loved serving you, our community, and we only wish he was here to continue doing so," the family's statement said.

Soward says it's up to the family to decide what to do with the donkey.

Mayor Pro Tem Steve Phillips will serve as acting mayor of Hollywood Park, a town of about 3,000 just north of San Antonio. - WTSP

Deadly Kingdom: The Book of Dangerous Animals

The Book of Deadly Animals

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Exploding meteor causes sonic boom before blowing up over North Wales

After travelling millions of miles through the galaxy, a blazing meteor finally went out with a bang above a Welsh town.

The force of the explosion at 11pm last night rattled windows, set off car alarms and woke up children.

One resident described it as “like a bomb going off”.

Amateur astronomers had watched its progress as it sped over North West England and North Wales before it blew up over Cwmbran in South Wales.

Homeowner Steve Edwards, 56, said: “There was an enormous boom – It sounded like a bomb going off.

“The force of it shook the windows in my house, woke up my children and caused car alarms to start going off in the streets.

"I’m just glad none of it landed on my roof.”

Another witness, Nathan Jones, 34, said: “I’ve never seen something so amazing in my life.

“It had a heat trail behind, it was orange and white and very bright, and also seemed very close.

"It looked like it was skimming through the atmosphere due to the curved path it was taking.”

Police and coastguards had dozens of reports of a bright flash in the sky followed by the loud bang.

Hannah Sabido, 33, who spotted the meteor from her home in Bristol, said: “It looked like a bright white ball with a long bright tail and possibly a green hue.

"It was brighter than the moon.”

Space expert Dr David Whitehouse explained that the rock was only the size of a golf ball and would have burned up as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, leaving an incredibly bright tail.

Much larger objects which could cause a catastrophe only hit our planet once in tens of millions of years.

He said: “Scientists will now be very keen to know if it’s survived so they can try and collect it and examine it.

“As for the rest of us, we don’t have anything to fear from a meteor of this size. There’s no records of anyone having been killed by such a thing.

“Very rarely something large will come into contact with the Earth, like the one which helped the dinosaurs on their way – that was the size of Britain.

“But this meteor is a wonder of nature, something in the night sky to be admired and enjoyed.” - Mirror

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