The Weiser Field Guide to cryptozoology

Werewolves, Dragons, Skyfish, Lizard Men, and Other Fascinating Creatures Real and Mysterious

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Contents

CHAPTER 1

Rods (Skyfish)

It's difficult to imagine that there might be creatures flitting about in theair around us, ordinarily undetectable by the naked eye. Yet many people believethat organisms, often called skyfish or rods, flying snakes, or serpents, andoccasionally referred to as solar entities or atmospheric beasts, are swimmingor undulating through the air around us right now.

These amazing cryptids have been captured on film numerous times in variousplaces around the world, even under water. They were first discovered in thismedium in 1994 by producer/director Jose Escamilla while shooting a documentaryin Midway, New Mexico.

In November 1996, at a deep pit called Solano de las Golondrinas, in the Cave ofSwallows in Mexico, some rods were inadvertently videotaped by Mark Lichtle, whowas recording some BASE jumpers. It was not until after several trips to thearea, when a segment of the Lichtle video aired on television, that Escamillanoted the rods on the video. A television crew from San Diego TV station KFMBaccompanied Escamilla to the Cave of Swallows in 1999 and filmed what might be acolony of skyfish.

Escamilla believes the anomalies captured are living creatures that dart throughthe air at speeds so fast that they are barely discernible by the untrainedhuman eye. Escamilla (actually, his wife) coined the term rod because of thecreatures' cylindrical shape.

Some observers contend that the rods are three-dimensional and seem to operatein an intelligent or instinctual manner, controlling their own flight paths.Often appearing playful, chasing each other around and even interacting withbirds. Rods sometimes come out of nowhere for a fraction of a second, only todisappear.

Rods range in size from a few inches to as long as 100 feet. Some haveappendages that resemble fins or wings along the length of the cylinder. Manytimes, multiple sets of wings are observed, or a thin membrane of wings iswrapped around the length of the body. It is reported that the torso undulatesas it travels. Escamilla identifies the three types of rods as "centipede rods,"which have several pairs of fins or wings; "white rods," which appear to have nofins and are more ribbon-like in shape; and the colorful "spears," which can beyellow, white, or brown. These last ones are thinner and faster than the othertypes of rods and do not have fins.

Theories about the origins of rods vary considerably; their sources are thoughtto range from aliens and interdimensional beings to atmospheric beasts. Somethink they are some kind of secret military weapon. There is one theory thatthey might be distant relatives of the anomalocarids or "strange shrimp," earlymarine animals believed to be extinct.

Although Jose Escamilla is credited with being the "discoverer" of these flyingcreatures, other reports precede Escamilla's; there are 1,000-year-old carvingsin Argentina that resemble rods or skyfish.

Although Escamilla believes that with patience and practice we can learn to seerods with the naked eye, most are detected on video. Some scientists speculatethat our ancestors might have had better eyesight than we do because of ourmodern habits of reading and watching television. Our ancestors' eyes would havebeen better trained for self-protection and to see far distances.

Accounts from China dating back to a.d. 747 describe serpents flying in the air.In September 1891, in the town of Crawfordsville, Indiana, a flying "serpent"was seen by several witnesses. It was "swimming" about 100 feet in the air. Itappeared to be 20 to 30 feet in length and 8 feet wide, with at least one pairof wings or fins attached.

Trevor James Constable, author and researcher, photographed what he called"critters" or "sky creatures" in the 1950s using infrared film. Skyfish havebeen filmed by photographers for the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, andthe Learning Channel. During the filming of the movie Braveheart in Scotland, arod was seen in the blue sky passing by Mel Gibson's head. They've also beencaptured in a music video made in Mexico.

Escamilla has collected more than 2,000 images of rods from as far back as a1910 sporting event. He has footage, taken in 1957 by a naval official with a35mm camera, that shows the cryptids leaping straight up out of the ocean intothe sky. Escamilla was amazed at their speed, estimating that they travel from150 to possibly 1,000 miles per hour! Escamilla often observes the skyfish highin the air, streaking by at "extremely high velocities."

On an overnight flight from Dallas to Denver, CO, Escamilla claims he saw a darkrod entering the cabin through the airplane window. He saw it pass in front ofpeople as it "darted down the aisle toward the front of the plane."

In May 1999, a rod was observed flying through a rare and violent F5 tornadonear Oklahoma City. It seemed to emerge from a cloud. Or perhaps it was"phasing" in and out, appearing and disappearing, materializing anddematerializing. This is the sort of behavior that might be typical of aninterdimensional entity. However, most rod sightings are of them flying, notpopping in and out of space.

In late October 2002, Brandon Mowry, a photojournalist for Fox News in Albany,New York, saw an odd cylindrical object zooming past an airplane while he wasediting some tape he had taken at the airport. He was very curious about what hewas seeing. Was it a missile, or an unidentified flying object (UFO)? Mowrynotified airport security, but it had not been caught on radar. The FederalBureau of Investigation (FBI) was contacted. An agent interrogated Mowry andconfiscated the tape. No further comment or reply has been heard from the FBIregarding this evidence.

In 2003, a rod was seen in Baghdad after a huge explosion of a Swedish tank atthe test firing range, leading to speculation of a possible connection betweenrods and secret military weapons. Many rods have been spotted near militarybases, operations, and aircraft.

On a July 31, 2003, episode of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, Escamillamade the claim that there is new evidence of skyfish from the United Kingdom. Hetells of a home video showing a rod flying into the open mouth of a girl singingat a wedding. He claims she is seen to pull it out of her mouth! Escamilla alsotells of footage of how a football referee is shown to flinch when a rod runsinto his body at a game.

At a Minnesota Zoo in 2005, an ape was recorded who seemed to be aware of a rodnearby, although the photographer did not notice it.

If you know what to look for, and you have enough patience, it is possible toobserve skyfish without the use of any video equipment. When our pets react tosomething that we aren't seeing, Escamilla says it could be a rod. He believesthat when we see something out of the corner of our eye, it is often a rodrather than an insect or bird. Speculation that the creature might be a bird oran insect has led to the examination of the Escamilla video by experts in thosefields. Ornithologists have determined that there are no birds resembling theentity found on the video.

Professor Wooten from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom states thatthe way the rod propels itself through the air does not fit in with any knownmethod. He believes that it is "not inconceivable" that a rod might be some kindof unknown bug, but there is "nothing particularly insect-like about theimages."

One very odd finding is a rod with three pairs of wings discovered by Escamilla.We are not aware of any insect in existence with three pairs of wings.

Suggestions regarding the lack of evidence of rod carcasses bring up thepossibilities that their bodies are absorbed up into the atmosphere, that theyinstantly decay upon death, or that they morph into something unrecognizable.

Escamilla offers some tips on how to catch the creatures with video equipment:It is easier and less costly to capture the skyfish on video cameras rather thanstill cameras. Adjust the camera's shutter to the higher sports setting. Whenyou aim your camera at the sky, be sure to include a frame of reference, like atree. Don't use a wide-angle zoom. Adjust it so that it looks like what you areseeing with your naked eye. Be patient. Escamilla recommends recording for atleast ten minutes before readjusting angles. When you play back your video, ifyou see an anomaly, slow the speed down to replay.

There is a company in Japan that advertises "Spoodles," traps for catching rods.Amazon Japan sells a DVD entitled How to Catch the Skyfish.

For me, the jury's still out on this one. There just isn't enough informationavailable at this time to make any determination as to what these anomaliesmight be, but if they do exist, and they are "alive," my question is: What arethey eating?

MongolianDeath Worms

Although they're not nearly as large as the worms in the movie Tremors, arooftop would still be as good a place as any to come across the acid-spitting,electricity throwing Mongolian Death Worm. Of course, a rooftop might be ratherdifficult to find in the Gobi Desert.

Approximately 1,000 miles by 500 miles, the Gobi Desert is one of the largestdeserts in the world and has more rocky areas than sand and dunes. Considered a"cold" desert, its temperatures range from freezing at night to sweltering inthe daytime.

An inhabitant of the southern Gobi Desert, the Mongolian Death Worm is firstmentioned in 1926 by Professor Roy Chapman Andrews, a paleontologist, in hisbook, On the Trail of Ancient Man. Mongolia's nomadic tribesmen called thecreatures Allghoi or Olgoi-Khorkhoi, which means "intestine worm" or "blood-filledintestine," because that is what the cryptid resembles.

The Mongolian Death Worm is usually described as blood red with darker spots,although it has been said to change color to match its environment. About 2 feetin circumference, it ranges from 2 to 5 feet in length. The invertebrate doesn'tappear to have eyes, a nose, or a mouth, so it is difficult to tell its headfrom its tail. Spiked projections appear at both ends.

Czechoslovakian author/explorer Ivan Mackerle believes the creature hibernatesmost of the year, only coming out of its underground chamber in the hot, rainymonths of June and July. The worm moves in a sideways motion across the desertfloor, similar to the sidewinding motion of some desert snakes.

The worm is considered to be extremely dangerous because of the toxic acid-likesubstance it spits as a defense mechanism. It is easier to tell which end is itshead when it is spitting at you! It also has the ability to discharge a lethaljolt of electricity from several feet away. For this reason, the worm has beencompared to an electric eel. But electric eels don't spit and they don't live onland. Some spectators state that the worm "raises half of its body up" and"inflates itself," emitting a "bubble of poison from one end." The poisoncorrodes everything it touches, even metal. However, the toxin loses itseffectiveness as the creature's time of hibernation approaches.

Often seen in the vicinity of the saxaul plant, it has been considered that theworm might obtain its poison from the plant's noxious roots or from the goyaplant parasite found on the roots.

A witness currently working as an interpreter for an exploration team rememberedan incident from his childhood when a visiting geologist was killed instantly bya "huge fat worm" that emerged from the ground. A native ranger tells a storyfrom the 1960s of an entire herd of camels killed by a worm lying below thesurface of the desert. The locals tell the story of a worm hiding inside ayellow toy box and killing a little boy instantly when he reached inside. Itthen killed the child's parents when they tried to exact revenge.

There is another tale about two friends riding on horseback on a hot July day.One fellow and his horse both suddenly fell down dead. The other fellow saw a"big fat worm slowly crawling away."

To the west of Mongolia, in the neighboring country of Kazakhstan, the DeathWorm is called bujenzhylan. Similar worms have been reported in other countries,although they aren't known to be dangerous. The Megascolides australis ofVictoria reaches lengths of 13 feet; the Didymogaster sylvaticus of New SouthWales is a "squirter earthworm" that spews harmless internal fluids into the airout of its pores; and a Microchaetus rappi of South Africa found in 1936measured 22 feet!

Michel Raynal, a cryptozoologist from France, suggests that the worm might besome kind of burrowing serpent or cobra, although the creature is said to havesmooth blotchy skin, not scales.

Similar to an earthworm, the cryptid makes its way to the Earth's surface aftera rainfall. It also appears to respond to terrestrial vibrations. Usually,though, an earthworm requires a damp, moist climate, not the arid environment ofthe desert.

During the past few decades, a few exploration teams have ventured into the Gobisearching for the Mongolian Death Worm. They have used various techniques, suchas bucket traps, ground "thumping," and sending shock waves through the groundin attempts to roust the creature out into the open. A team led by Dr. ChrisClark in 2005 was driven out by a sandstorm. Prior to that, following arainstorm, Dr. Clark had found that "the whole desert floor was covered inburrows."

This is one cryptid I'd advise not trying to find. The Gobi Desert is full ofticks, biting flies, and vicious spiders; that's enough to deter me!

Ahooland Other Giant Bats

I have always loved bats. I have one tattoo, and it is a little bat on myshoulder. Maybe my infatuation with these flying mammals has something to dowith my lifelong love of vampire movies and exploring caves. Of course, I mightnot feel so affectionate toward them if I encountered a bat with a 12-footwingspan and a face like a monkey!

The Indonesian island of Java contains numerous volcanoes and some amazing cavesystems. Usually, where there are caves, there are bats. A giant bat called theAhool, named for the sound it makes, has been sighted numerous times throughoutwestern Java since 1925, when it was first seen by the naturalist Dr. ErnestBartels.

Using the claws on its featherless wings, the Ahool is able to capture largeriver fish for its food. It is said to be dark gray in color, with a flat facethat looks like a monkey's (a macaque or a gibbon) and huge black eyes. The formof the Ahool's feet indicates that the creature is likely to hang upside down,as most bats are known to do.

Cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson believes the Ahool is related to the speciesof insect-eating bats called Microchiroptera. Further, he thinks the Ahool is anAsian version of the Zambian Kongamato or the Olitiau of Cameroon.

Although there are similarities, the Kongamato is not quite as big as the Ahool;it has reddish fur, and its snout is long rather than flat. Kongamato means"breaker or overwhelmer of boats," and the flying pterosaur-like creature issaid to attack small boats and is considered to be extremely dangerous,according to Frank Melland in his 1923 book, In Witchbound Africa.

In 1956, in what is now Zambia, an engineer spotted two Kongamatos flyingquietly through the sky. The creatures circled around and flew overhead again,allowing Mr. J. P. F. Brown a thorough look at them. In addition to the standarddescription of the Kongamato, Brown noted a long, thin tail, narrow head, and a"mouth full of sharp teeth." In 1957, near the same location, a man with a badchest wound showed up at a hospital, saying he had been attacked by a creaturefitting the description of the Kongamato.

The Olitiau ("forked one" or demon) of Cameroon looks much like the Kongamato,although its body fur is black and its wings are blood red. It has largeserrated white teeth, a 12-foot wingspan, and a monkey face. CryptozoologistIvan Sanderson encountered the cryptid bat near a mountain stream in 1932 whenit dived at him before flying off.
(Continues...)Excerpted from The Weiser Field Guide to cryptozoology by Deena West Budd. Copyright © 2010 Deena West Budd. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
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