#nessie — Public Fediverse posts

A cage optimistically built in 1933 to catch the Loch Ness Monster. I'd love to say they found the bars torn asunder, but I don't think any of the monster hunters caught anything worse than a cold. #Fortean #cryptozoology #monsters #LochNess #Nessie

@Natasha_Jay Hey, look, it's Nessie!

#LochNess #Nessie

@Natasha_Jay Hey, look, it's Nessie!

#LochNess #Nessie

Loch Ness Monster camera restored by Repair Shop experts

#Vintage #camera once used to hunt the #LochNess #Monster has been restored after spending more than 50 years on the #loch’s bed.

The camera was developed in the 1970s by Professor Roy Mackal of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau and is believed to be the first purpose-built device designed specifically for the task of locating and photographing #Nessie.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/25821250.loch-ness-monster-camera-restored-repair-shop-experts/

#Scotland #Folklore #Ness

Loch Ness Monster camera restored by Repair Shop experts

#Vintage #camera once used to hunt the #LochNess #Monster has been restored after spending more than 50 years on the #loch’s bed.

The camera was developed in the 1970s by Professor Roy Mackal of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau and is believed to be the first purpose-built device designed specifically for the task of locating and photographing #Nessie.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/25821250.loch-ness-monster-camera-restored-repair-shop-experts/

#Scotland #Folklore #Ness

Rainbow across Ness
In a land so enchanted
Bridging Inverness

#Haiku #OneHaikuADay #WritersCollective #writingcommunity #BackToHaiku #Seasons #Winter #Holiday #Christmastide #Christmas #NewYear #Travel #Family #Norway #USA #MerryChristmas #HappyChristmas #GodJul #Scotland #Inverness #RiverNess #Nessie #LochNess #Highlands #Rainbow #Photography

December 28, 2025

Rainbow across Ness
In a land so enchanted
Bridging Inverness

#Haiku #OneHaikuADay #WritersCollective #writingcommunity #BackToHaiku #Seasons #Winter #Holiday #Christmastide #Christmas #NewYear #Travel #Family #Norway #USA #MerryChristmas #HappyChristmas #GodJul #Scotland #Inverness #RiverNess #Nessie #LochNess #Highlands #Rainbow #Photography

December 28, 2025

Rainbow across Ness
In a land so enchanted
Bridging Inverness

#Haiku #OneHaikuADay #WritersCollective #writingcommunity #BackToHaiku #Seasons #Winter #Holiday #Christmastide #Christmas #NewYear #Travel #Family #Norway #USA #MerryChristmas #HappyChristmas #GodJul #Scotland #Inverness #RiverNess #Nessie #LochNess #Highlands #Rainbow #Photography

December 28, 2025

Rainbow across Ness
In a land so enchanted
Bridging Inverness

#Haiku #OneHaikuADay #WritersCollective #writingcommunity #BackToHaiku #Seasons #Winter #Holiday #Christmastide #Christmas #NewYear #Travel #Family #Norway #USA #MerryChristmas #HappyChristmas #GodJul #Scotland #Inverness #RiverNess #Nessie #LochNess #Highlands #Rainbow #Photography

December 28, 2025

Rainbow across Ness
In a land so enchanted
Bridging Inverness

#Haiku #OneHaikuADay #WritersCollective #writingcommunity #BackToHaiku #Seasons #Winter #Holiday #Christmastide #Christmas #NewYear #Travel #Family #Norway #USA #MerryChristmas #HappyChristmas #GodJul #Scotland #Inverness #RiverNess #Nessie #LochNess #Highlands #Rainbow #Photography

December 28, 2025

Pop Cryptid Spectator 20

Hi and welcome to the 20th, and last, edition of PCS. In nine months, this idea has run its course because, frankly, I can’t keep up. Everything is Pop Cryptid. I’ve certainly proven my point – the term “cryptid” now means “any weird and hidden creature”. In popular culture, it is rarely referred to in the context of a scientific effort to discover new species. I mean, when the President is referred to in this context, it’s game over.

That’s not to say that I won’t be writing about such topics in the future. I’ll certainly post more and on Modern Cryptozoology. But this PCS project is tapped; I’m moving on. Before I do, there are a few more things to $ay. So here goes.

In this final edition:

• Nessie, Jr. Another cute cryptid movie
• Faking Bigfoot
• Champ at the Museum
• Mothman says, “You Matter”
• Cryptids overexposed

Nessie, Jr – Another cute cryptid movie

There’s a new movie on the way that will influence how small children think about lakes and the Loch Ness Monster. It’s called Nessie, Jr. and it appears to be another cutified cryptid depiction in the same family-friendly vein as several other past movies – Harry and the Hendersons, Smallfoot, Abominable, Pete’s Dragon, The Water Horse, Baby: Secret of a Lost Legend, etc. It’s fine. I don’t have a problem with it. It’s just so… meh.

But speaking of fiction…

Faking Bigfoot

I wrote a piece on the performance art dude who displayed a fake Bigfoot at the NY state fair as real. It really didn’t go over well with serious Bigfooters, who said this guy was “ruining” Bigfoot research. Nah, the ‘footers do that part on their own – with their awful TV shows, in-fighting, and efforts to gain attention for terrible evidence. Bigfoot hoaxes have been around since the very beginning. In fact, cryptid tales are chock-full of hoaxes to the point where you are hard-pressed to sift through the chaff to find any wheat. Yet, the hoaxes themselves are quite interesting and very much a pop cryptid phenomenon. It’s not about finding the creature, it’s mostly about hope of finding it in what we like to imagine is a world that still holds mystery. And, unfortunately, it is an awful lot about people thinking you found it and usually making bank from that. Check out this short review of a book on how the media created Nessie. By the way, I don’t know how much money this Bigfoot Remains joker pocketed from the gaff, but the gimmick has already been mostly forgotten. We’re so used to such hoaxers.

Champ at the Museum

The monster of Lake Champlain now has its own exhibit. Both Port Henry, NY and Burlington, VT have tributes to Champ as they vie for the official place of the creature. Now Burlington has another attraction besides the Champ memorial and the Lake Monsters team mascot. They have a dedicated spot in the museum. The shore-side Echo Leahy Center at Lake Champlain is perfectly situated to promote the beast. The kiddie-themed gift shop was already full of toys depicting Champ as a cute cryptid. It’s logical they would capitalize even more as well as offering an opportunity to draw kids into learning about the lake’s natural history. I haven’t seen the exhibit because it just opened, and I was there last year. But the museum follows the template of Loch Ness, and other cryptid-themed real and pop-up “museums” that draw in those interested in the topic. And they sell merch.

Do you sense a theme? I’m afraid that I’m pretty jaded on the pop cryptid theme as it relates to cashing in. But that’s the American way these days. Gosh, it’s all so predictable and boring…

Mothman says, “You Matter”

In more rather misappropriate uses of pop cryptids, Mothman is pictured on informational material regarding mental health distributed by a West Virginia police department. This seems cool but using an imaginary creature that was also known as an omen of doom seems slightly clueless. While the project director says that distributing the material at the WV State Fair has let them connect to average people, the “friendly cryptids letting them connect with kids and create conversations”. Ok, sure. But, if people know the story about how Mothman was related to one of the most tragic events in WV history, the collapse of the Silver Bridge, they might struggle with the message “You matter”. Maybe I’m overthinking it…

West Virginia leads all states in the in commodification of their town mascots, like Mothman, Sheepsquatch, Veggie Man, and the Flatwoods Monster.

Cryptids overexposed

I don’t know… it seems to me the mystery is all gone. Cryptids are everywhere. They aren’t hidden anymore. They are losing their mystique. As I’ve noted in other places, cryptids, being copyright-free, are easily adapted for use in consumer products and logos. As the pop cryptid model spreads, where cryptids are seen as fun emblems or symbols, you can bet you’ll see their use increasing.

New Mexico indoor football team reveals new name: New Mexico Chupacabras

For more on the crossover between cryptids and sports teams, see here.

Here are more cryptid related stories from the past month from my main blog:

• If I don’t believe in cryptids, why am I here? – I answer why “skeptics” (those who question claims of cryptids), are bothering with participating if they don’t think there is any truth to the claims.
• Not a mystery beast, just a dog – Two photos on social media reveal that people can’t call a dog “a dog”.
• Pop cryptid in the News: Jackalope – I updated a section from a past Pop Cryptid Spectator to address the recent news of Frankenbunnies.
• Spooky seismic lakes – Loch Ness and its monster – In a crossover of spooky geology and cryptids, I dive into the idea that some people love: that Nessie is related to seismic activity.

The pop cryptid trend would not be icky if it wasn’t for the blatant overexposure and twisting of the concepts so that the original ideas behind them are now totally lost. In a way, this is what the Bigfooters hated about the NY State fake Bigfoot. It was disconnected from their vision and version of what a cryptid is. It mocked their view. Such things disregard the impact of the rich folklore and history by appealing to the casual fan and consumer who just know the stories from comics, games, mass distribution movies and Reddit groups. I can’t help but feel these depictions for the mass market are shallow and pathetic. Many people agree. I’m not sure it’s all that different from depicting other animals in anthropomorphic, cute, or exaggerated ways. This has also always been the way of things. It just took a longer time for beloved cryptids to become familiar enough to use in this way.

I’ve learned a lot in the few years that I’ve been examining cryptids in this new frame. I think it’s been highly useful, even if many cryptozoology-minded viewers thought it was dumb or reacted indignantly to what seemed like a cheapening of their belief system. I apologize if you felt aggrieved but, let’s face it, it’s NOT reasonable to view traditional cryptozoology as a useful field of study. You are not going to have success finding new species that correspond to Bigfoot, Nessie, Yeti, etc. However, you have a good chance of success in marketing these creatures’ images and talking about them in cultural terms.

A current wrap-up of trends

Some of the other trends I’ve seen lately:

• The #CryptidTok trend is far quieter than it was 2 years ago. It’s still a lot of AI and people performing knowledge (which isn’t knowledge, but stuff they got from other bad videos). I’m not sure how influential this is except for low-value content creators. Maybe people are tired of hearing the same wikipedia-derived info over and over again.
• Weird Appalachia – This genre continues to grow as we see with the prevalence of West Virginia/Pennsylvania/Ohio/Kentucky cryptid content and the marketing of their location-specific monsters. The popular idea now is that the land is haunted and the eldritch creatures or spirits take the form of not-deer, dogmen, shapeshifters and such that are called “cryptids”. It’s a fun and useful idea.
• Town festivals feature speakers who spread new stories as “lore” making it sound more credible than it is. But they aren’t asking any actual folklore or cultural experts, just popular content creators, personalities or artists. This is disappointing and a missed opportunity – I hope it changes.
• The continued gap between original cryptozoology concepts and the current state of things. There is very little solid work being done that produces credible knowledge worthy to be published. Instead, self-styled cryptozoology is still self-published books, YouTube, websites, and facebook posts. This is low value stuff that gets a short bump in interest but does not last.
• Increased use in all forms of merchandising and commercial representation. This means more fiction, movies, promotion, branding, etc. using cryptids.
• Growing popularity of “fearsome creatures” (fictional beings made up as old lumberjack tales such as the squonk, slide-rock bolter, hodag, snallygaster, etc. or indigenous/native stories such as the wendigo, skinwalker, La Llorona, etc.), “creepypasta” creatures (invented monsters from digital storytelling such as Slenderman and the rake), and AI generated monsters. These manufactured beings have nothing in common with traditional cryptozoology but are becoming the best known “cryptids”.
• Overhyping of bad evidence. The “sightings” are just as bad as ever. They are either nothing, obvious hoaxes, or AI generated. There is nothing worth paying attention to here. Yet, people click because it’s fun and they really want to believe.

All those trends say something important about cryptids. I’ve gotten the message – fun cryptid are great but serious interest in the complex folklore, the socio-economic and cultural effects, and the overall phenomena of cryptid encounters is unimportant to the masses. They want the scary, cute, funny, neatly packaged and easily digested popular fluff. But there are still several followers of “scientific” cryptozoology that only want a serious zoological (or supernatural) take on this subject and get angry with a lesser, “fluffier” treatment.

My view is the same as before – there is no value in an effort to search for mystery creatures as new species. It has not been successful and it CAN’T be, considering the modern times in which we exist. New species discovered by zoologists aren’t cryptids, even if they have the occasional help of citizen scientists. The contrived methodology of Heuvelman’s cryptozoology isn’t relevant. However, I’m all for expanding the field into relevant areas of anthropology, cultural studies – folklore, art, media, socio-economic, etc., psychology, wildlife biology, data science, etc. that will provide endless opportunities to research and analyze interest in cryptids. This was my position when I first envisioned the pop cryptid model and it applies just as much as ever. It’s likely to happen on its own.

For more, content and a fuller explanation of Pop goes the Cryptid, visit the subpage.

This has been the Pop Cryptid Spectator. My work here is done. Thanks for indulging me. Keep sending links and messages.

Now back to my regular blog.

#Bigfoot #cryptids #cryptidtok #Cryptozoology #Mothman #Nessie #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator #popCryptids #popCulture #WeirdAppalachia

https://sharonahill.com/?p=10328

Pop Cryptid Spectator 18

Hi, everyone.

The Pop Cryptid Spectator is about the proliferation of depictions of cryptids in popular culture. In particular, these depictions are outside the context of the original, and serious, concept of cryptozoology as a specialized branch of zoology.

I realize this is a very niche topic. First, you have to know about cryptozoology. Then, you have to have some concept about how it was framed in its early inception. Finally, you have to be aware of, and interested in, the modern cryptid landscape, which exploded with new and imaginative ideas. Cryptids are EVERYWHERE today. And their presence in popular culture rarely has anything to do with a scientific endeavor to find a mystery animal unknown to science.

That calculation results in a tiny population of people that is going to get the gist of this specific newsletter. If you are one of them, thanks for coming along with me on this journey.

There are self-styled cryptozoologists and even scholars writing about these topics that don’t see the subject through the lens of pop cryptids. Even they aren’t catching this vibe. It’s still important for me to document the pop cryptid concept, since it helps me understand what’s happening in real time and tease out the reasons why cryptids are so popular these days, both commercially and socially. As always, I’m here to deliver examples of this popularity with each edition.

Through the pop cryptid lens, the creatures called “cryptids”, as defined and redefined continually through products of our society, transcend the idea of a “hidden animal” to be identified by zoological science. This is no longer the primary goal. Instead, the pop cryptid model shines a light on the many other purposes and goals. It’s important to document these cultural ideas because they can affect how we identify with the places we live or visit and our beliefs and our immediate environment. Cryptids are used in the stories we tell to convey important messages about ourselves and how we see the world. They reflect our fears and our relationship with the nature or the beyond-nature. The stories also play a huge role in tourism and media products. Let me illustrate…

In this edition:

• Jersey Devil is a Cryptid of the Moment
• Cryptid AI vlogs
• SpiracyCon goes heavy on cryptids and Christian commentators
• What’s with the “archiness” of water monsters?
• Monster Festivals Season – Thank the Mothman
• In Research Of… The Mothman Prophecies deep dive
• Pop Cryptid trivia

Jersey Devil is a Cryptid of the Moment

One can reasonably argue that the Jersey Devil (JD) is not a cryptid because it was viewed as a folklore creature, a mass panic event, or, in reality, a political smear campaign, instead of an animal to be discovered. However, JD clearly ranks as a top pop cryptid. It’s a fantastic creature and I love it. Reactor magazine has a lovely article about how a current book of poetry, a play, and a comic about the Jersey Devil have arrived to show it is still beloved. The three very different ways of utilizing the same subject show how versatile JD is. The writer remarks that it is “a combination of the Jersey Devil’s unique qualities and vague history that make it so appealing to writers and storytellers right now.”

Cryptid AI vlogs

I wrote a new piece for Modern Cryptozoology about the sudden proliferation of cryptid vlogs on visual social media platforms.

Starting in June 2025, video blog shorts have been materializing daily featuring cryptids rendered with amazing realism. They are meant to be humorous, with the cryptids pointing the phone cam at themselves and their friends, making jokes, and showing the viewer what it’s like to be their best selves. They talk, sing, demonstrate life skills, discover cool things, and even interact with people. Check out the piece here.

SpiracyCon goes heavy on cryptids and Christian commentators

I just want everyone to take a look at the header for SpiracyCon. This is really something!

This conspiracy conference promises “a world of intrigue and revelation!” “With a wide variety of speakers—bold investigators, daring theorists, and passionate truth-tellers… this event promises to challenge everything you think you know.” You wouldn’t expect cryptids to feature so prevalently – maybe UFOs and JFK. But, the dogman/werewolf, Bigfoot, and Mothman imagery is concerning when the content is advertised as “a thrilling mix of talks and discussions that dive deep into topics like government cover-ups, unexplained phenomena, and forbidden knowledge.” The term “truth seekers” is mentioned several times.

Of the content creators on the speakers list of 19 so far, 16 have “Christian” or Biblical studies in their bio. The other 3 might just not say it out loud, but clearly know this is an event with a seriously militant Christian vibe. Four mention Bigfoot research or cryptids in general. More than a few bios are downright terrifying in an evident personality disorder kind of way. If you know anything about the insane conspiracy ideas such as aliens as demons, Bigfoot as Nephilim, and Satanic allegations against one’s political enemies, you can bet what will be mentioned here will be even worse.

I would not be the least bit comfortable in such a crowd. However, it is not new that ideas about cryptids are popularly blending with the supernatural and occult, government coverups, and End Times Biblical stuff. Some people go hard core. Take this as a wake-up call – not all cryptid fans are in it for the fun.

What’s with the “archiness” of water monsters?

Charles Paxton and Adrian Shine have a new journal article out examining the “sticky” cultural image of water monsters depicted with “arches” of their long, serpentine bodies out of water. The conclusion of the article is that only very few eyewitness reports describe these “arches” in contrast to the very many media, art, and consumer imagery that does.

The more common description of “humps” (showing no space between the flesh and the water), while not examined in this article, is treated in Shine’s book A Natural History of Sea Serpents where he argues that the appearance of humps are frequently the result of natural wakes or waves on calm water. There is no related trend of eyewitnesses reporting “arches” even though the common pop-cultural depiction of, say, Nessie, shows these. This conclusion contrasts with other evidence that clearly suggests that pop-cultural depictions of cryptids influence eyewitness reports of seeing them. So, this is an intriguing finding.

It’s important to emphasize that NO vertebrate animal can move in a way that creates vertical “arches”, not even snakes. The best nature can do is a series of surface breaches just on the surface, such as when dolphins or porpoises travel in a line. Therefore, if a witness reports “arches” instead of humps, they can fairly be deemed to be mistaken to some degree.

A closing note on this, the BBC had a write-up where they got things confused regarding arches vs humps. People definitely see humps, but not arches.

Monster Festivals Season – Thank the Mothman

Town monster festival season continues: The Grafton monster festival, in its second year as one of several cryptid festivals located in West Virginia, was a huge success, and Port Henry, New York will hold its 40th Champ Day at Lake Champlain in early August.

Several other events coming in later summer and fall are ramping up to attract more visitors than ever as previous visitors tell their friends and families and word spreads via social media. Typically, these festival feature vendors, bands, and speakers. The speakers are frequently content creators, or associated with a TV show, what we colloquially call “para-celebs”. It used to be ghost hunters who got all the attention; but this social cachet is now rubbing off on cryptid investigators. If you visit one in your area, let me know how it was by emailing me!

Why do we have cryptid town festivals multiplying and growing every year? Mothman. Several new festivals, such as for Ol’ Green Eyes, Albatwitch, Grafton, Van Meter, and more, are spun from the template of Point Pleasant’s Mothman Festival.

In Research Of… The Mothman Prophecies deep dive

Here is a fantastic two-parter podcast that you must check out. Jeb Card and Blake Smith of In Research Of… go step by step through The Mothman Prophecies (2002) film. They compare the book to the movie and discuss aspects of the film and the phenomenon that you will certainly not have heard before. Instead of the usual Wikipedia-referencing shallow cryptid podcast, indulge with two extremely well-versed commentators sharing their thoughts on Mothman, movies, John Keel, and pop cryptids.
Part 1 https://inresearchof.libsyn.com/s04-bonus-the-mothman-prophecies-part-1
Part 2 https://inresearchof.libsyn.com/s4-bonus-the-mothman-prophecies-part-2

The Mothman festival, one of the most popular cryptid town festivals in the world, was almost certainly a result of this movie. And, remember, without the Mothman festival, there would probably not be the plethora of other monster festivals worldwide that we have today.

Pop Cryptid trivia

See if you can answer this movie trivia question.

What actress has appeared in TWO movies as a cancer-stricken wife of a man who embarks on a personal journey involving a cryptid?

Click here to go to my “reveal” page with the answer.

Thanks for reading.

Please continue to send me links to interesting news and content. I really appreciate that. Email sharon(at)sharonahill.com.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

Pop Cryptid Spectator 17

Pop Cryptid Spectator 16

Pop Cryptid Spectator 15

Pop Cryptid Spectator 14

Pop Cryptid Spectator 13

Pop Cryptid Spectator 12

#AICryptids #BigfootAsAlien #conspiracy #cryptidFestivals #JerseyDevil #Mothman #Nessie #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator #popCryptids

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9936

Pop Cryptid Spectator 18

Hi, everyone.

The Pop Cryptid Spectator is about the proliferation of depictions of cryptids in popular culture. In particular, these depictions are outside the context of the original, and serious, concept of cryptozoology as a specialized branch of zoology.

I realize this is a very niche topic. First, you have to know about cryptozoology. Then, you have to have some concept about how it was framed in its early inception. Finally, you have to be aware of, and interested in, the modern cryptid landscape, which exploded with new and imaginative ideas. Cryptids are EVERYWHERE today. And their presence in popular culture rarely has anything to do with a scientific endeavor to find a mystery animal unknown to science.

That calculation results in a tiny population of people that is going to get the gist of this specific newsletter. If you are one of them, thanks for coming along with me on this journey.

There are self-styled cryptozoologists and even scholars writing about these topics that don’t see the subject through the lens of pop cryptids. Even they aren’t catching this vibe. It’s still important for me to document the pop cryptid concept, since it helps me understand what’s happening in real time and tease out the reasons why cryptids are so popular these days, both commercially and socially. As always, I’m here to deliver examples of this popularity with each edition.

Through the pop cryptid lens, the creatures called “cryptids”, as defined and redefined continually through products of our society, transcend the idea of a “hidden animal” to be identified by zoological science. This is no longer the primary goal. Instead, the pop cryptid model shines a light on the many other purposes and goals. It’s important to document these cultural ideas because they can affect how we identify with the places we live or visit and our beliefs and our immediate environment. Cryptids are used in the stories we tell to convey important messages about ourselves and how we see the world. They reflect our fears and our relationship with the nature or the beyond-nature. The stories also play a huge role in tourism and media products. Let me illustrate…

In this edition:

• Jersey Devil is a Cryptid of the Moment
• Cryptid AI vlogs
• SpiracyCon goes heavy on cryptids and Christian commentators
• What’s with the “archiness” of water monsters?
• Monster Festivals Season – Thank the Mothman
• In Research Of… The Mothman Prophecies deep dive
• Pop Cryptid trivia

Jersey Devil is a Cryptid of the Moment

One can reasonably argue that the Jersey Devil (JD) is not a cryptid because it was viewed as a folklore creature, a mass panic event, or, in reality, a political smear campaign, instead of an animal to be discovered. However, JD clearly ranks as a top pop cryptid. It’s a fantastic creature and I love it. Reactor magazine has a lovely article about how a current book of poetry, a play, and a comic about the Jersey Devil have arrived to show it is still beloved. The three very different ways of utilizing the same subject show how versatile JD is. The writer remarks that it is “a combination of the Jersey Devil’s unique qualities and vague history that make it so appealing to writers and storytellers right now.”

Cryptid AI vlogs

I wrote a new piece for Modern Cryptozoology about the sudden proliferation of cryptid vlogs on visual social media platforms.

Starting in June 2025, video blog shorts have been materializing daily featuring cryptids rendered with amazing realism. They are meant to be humorous, with the cryptids pointing the phone cam at themselves and their friends, making jokes, and showing the viewer what it’s like to be their best selves. They talk, sing, demonstrate life skills, discover cool things, and even interact with people. Check out the piece here.

SpiracyCon goes heavy on cryptids and Christian commentators

I just want everyone to take a look at the header for SpiracyCon. This is really something!

This conspiracy conference promises “a world of intrigue and revelation!” “With a wide variety of speakers—bold investigators, daring theorists, and passionate truth-tellers… this event promises to challenge everything you think you know.” You wouldn’t expect cryptids to feature so prevalently – maybe UFOs and JFK. But, the dogman/werewolf, Bigfoot, and Mothman imagery is concerning when the content is advertised as “a thrilling mix of talks and discussions that dive deep into topics like government cover-ups, unexplained phenomena, and forbidden knowledge.” The term “truth seekers” is mentioned several times.

Of the content creators on the speakers list of 19 so far, 16 have “Christian” or Biblical studies in their bio. The other 3 might just not say it out loud, but clearly know this is an event with a seriously militant Christian vibe. Four mention Bigfoot research or cryptids in general. More than a few bios are downright terrifying in an evident personality disorder kind of way. If you know anything about the insane conspiracy ideas such as aliens as demons, Bigfoot as Nephilim, and Satanic allegations against one’s political enemies, you can bet what will be mentioned here will be even worse.

I would not be the least bit comfortable in such a crowd. However, it is not new that ideas about cryptids are popularly blending with the supernatural and occult, government coverups, and End Times Biblical stuff. Some people go hard core. Take this as a wake-up call – not all cryptid fans are in it for the fun.

What’s with the “archiness” of water monsters?

Charles Paxton and Adrian Shine have a new journal article out examining the “sticky” cultural image of water monsters depicted with “arches” of their long, serpentine bodies out of water. The conclusion of the article is that only very few eyewitness reports describe these “arches” in contrast to the very many media, art, and consumer imagery that does.

The more common description of “humps” (showing no space between the flesh and the water), while not examined in this article, is treated in Shine’s book A Natural History of Sea Serpents where he argues that the appearance of humps are frequently the result of natural wakes or waves on calm water. There is no related trend of eyewitnesses reporting “arches” even though the common pop-cultural depiction of, say, Nessie, shows these. This conclusion contrasts with other evidence that clearly suggests that pop-cultural depictions of cryptids influence eyewitness reports of seeing them. So, this is an intriguing finding.

It’s important to emphasize that NO vertebrate animal can move in a way that creates vertical “arches”, not even snakes. The best nature can do is a series of surface breaches just on the surface, such as when dolphins or porpoises travel in a line. Therefore, if a witness reports “arches” instead of humps, they can fairly be deemed to be mistaken to some degree.

A closing note on this, the BBC had a write-up where they got things confused regarding arches vs humps. People definitely see humps, but not arches.

Monster Festivals Season – Thank the Mothman

Town monster festival season continues: The Grafton monster festival, in its second year as one of several cryptid festivals located in West Virginia, was a huge success, and Port Henry, New York will hold its 40th Champ Day at Lake Champlain in early August.

Several other events coming in later summer and fall are ramping up to attract more visitors than ever as previous visitors tell their friends and families and word spreads via social media. Typically, these festival feature vendors, bands, and speakers. The speakers are frequently content creators, or associated with a TV show, what we colloquially call “para-celebs”. It used to be ghost hunters who got all the attention; but this social cachet is now rubbing off on cryptid investigators. If you visit one in your area, let me know how it was by emailing me!

Why do we have cryptid town festivals multiplying and growing every year? Mothman. Several new festivals, such as for Ol’ Green Eyes, Albatwitch, Grafton, Van Meter, and more, are spun from the template of Point Pleasant’s Mothman Festival.

In Research Of… The Mothman Prophecies deep dive

Here is a fantastic two-parter podcast that you must check out. Jeb Card and Blake Smith of In Research Of… go step by step through The Mothman Prophecies (2002) film. They compare the book to the movie and discuss aspects of the film and the phenomenon that you will certainly not have heard before. Instead of the usual Wikipedia-referencing shallow cryptid podcast, indulge with two extremely well-versed commentators sharing their thoughts on Mothman, movies, John Keel, and pop cryptids.
Part 1 https://inresearchof.libsyn.com/s04-bonus-the-mothman-prophecies-part-1
Part 2 https://inresearchof.libsyn.com/s4-bonus-the-mothman-prophecies-part-2

The Mothman festival, one of the most popular cryptid town festivals in the world, was almost certainly a result of this movie. And, remember, without the Mothman festival, there would probably not be the plethora of other monster festivals worldwide that we have today.

Pop Cryptid trivia

See if you can answer this movie trivia question.

What actress has appeared in TWO movies as a cancer-stricken wife of a man who embarks on a personal journey involving a cryptid?

Debra Messing. She played Mary Klein in The Mothman Prophecies (2002) and Thea Linnea Pyle in The Dark Divide, a 2020 movie based on the memoir Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide by Robert Pyle. While neither movie was primarily about the cryptid aspect, I thought this was an interesting commonality.

Thanks for reading.

Please continue to send me links to interesting news and content. I really appreciate that. Email sharon(at)sharonahill.com.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

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#BigfootMuseum #cryptid #ElCuero #FresnoNightcrawler #GeorgiaBigfootHoax #hoax #lakeMonsters #Nahuelito #PuebloMysteryCreature

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9756

Pop Cryptid Spectator 15

Hello and welcome to the 15 edition of Pop Cryptid Spectator – a newsletter solely meant to indulge my interest in the subject of cryptids in popular culture. If you’re reading it, that’s awesome; I appreciate it. It’s important to me to document changes in the thinking about mysterious animals over modern times. It’s not just some weird fringe subject, it’s mainstream now. The modern stories and events associated with mysterious animals reflect societal views and the different agendas of subgroups involved in the topic. This edition does go a bit heavy on the traditional view of cryptozoology, where people are interested in finding a real animal behind the rumors of existence. But, things will go off the rails, as everything has in this wacky 21st century. Thanks for joining me on this kooky trip.

In this edition:

• Florida Bigfoot Conference review
• Sasquatch heads around town
• AI cryptids: Faked Nessie sightings
• AI cryptids: Fake Yeti photo circulating
• AI Fake Coelacanth News
• Mokele-mbembe and Creationists’ corruption
• Cryptid media: The Cryptid Factor podcast

Florida Bigfoot Conference review

Amanda from Swell Entertainment attended the Great Florida Bigfoot Conference in Ocala a few weeks ago and posted a video review. I found several parts interesting but also, there was a lot of the same old thing that always happens with cryptid conferences (vs conventions which are more fan oriented). However, conferences usually suggest a more serious audience but cryptid events in general seem to be leaning more towards merchandise sales and para-celebrity attractions, with almost no scholarly presenters (maybe because there are so few).

For example, Amanda says there was considerable time given to the audience to supply content. That is, there was a panel discussion that was mostly audience questions, and there was a big session of testimonials where people were encouraged to tell their (sometimes long and rambling stories). Often, these events get one or two big name speakers from TV shows to draw fans. The quality of content is hit or miss.

Amanda didn’t have a strong background in Bigfoot information. This can be an advantage or disadvantage for a fair review. The advantage is that she had fresh eyes on the content and was unimpressed by the quality of much of the evidence presented, the over-reliance on eyewitness testimony, and poorly documented physical traces (like footprints). Additionally, she noted the drama that took place regarding a certain skunk ape researcher (if you know, you know – I know), who felt he should have been the main draw at this and previous events. Not only do these events not invite scholars (who are mostly going to be skeptics), they also have much ado about internal squabbles re: claiming areas, ideas, and even evidence, for themselves. All of this shows how “zoology” based cryptid research is unscientific. She even noted that very few presenters had a scientific background, and there was considerable fringe talk regarding conspiracies, government coverups, and even obvious nonsense about pseudoarchaeology and Roswell’s alien bodies. None of this is at all surprising.

From her comments, and from my past experience from such events, it seems that this event really leans into an agenda that transcends Bigfoot as simply a mystery to be solved. Going by the popularity of UAPs and eccentric ideas about nature, a portion of Bigfoot audiences will buy into scary concepts without foundation, where belief and personal testimony outweigh scientific evidence and critical evaluation. That’s not rational, that’s religion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTiOZXToRk8

Sasquatch heads around town

Moving on to a more lighthearted, and very “pop cryptid” story, Seattle artist Henry is on a mission to paint 1000 Sasquatch faces across the city. He loves to create his cartoon, friendly-fanged version of the big guy and thinks it’s a nice way to connect the community with a common theme. He is still taking requests for locations on his website https://www.henry.art/1000-murals.html, if you have a spare space that needs a furry face.

AI cryptids: Faked Nessie sightings

I really didn’t anticipate that so many cryptid stories in the news would roll back around to AI. But with this slop taking over the internet and making that technology less useful every day, this is the way it’s going. The Loch Ness Centre has to consider that every photo they get purportedly of Nessie might be AI generated. In past decades, photo editing and hoaxes was a likely possibility, but now, the photos can be not only heavily manipulated through AI, but created entirely from prompts, not even needing some real event as a basis. The Centre has had to employ a team of consultants to examine the visual evidence for this kind of humbuggery.

Actually, the easier route is to not accept this kind of evidence at all. The odds are overwhelming that any image is not going to show anything worthwhile. Evidence needs to be far better than that.

AI cryptids: Fake Yeti photo circulating

For this story, I’m trying not to despair because the content is so blatantly fake that it should be obvious to anyone. But people still are circulating it as evidence of the Yeti. It’s so popular that Snopes.com had to put up a debunk of it. It began with an AI generated photo appearing on X (which I always call Xitter, pronounced “shi-ter”) showing a weird bear-like creature next to a man. It got over a million views. Within a few weeks, the image was being circulated on TikTok as evidence of the Yeti. This is not the first time that AI has been used to fool people with photo evidence of a hairy giant and other cryptids. The internet is making us stupid. I just hope most people see this as a form of modern art/commentary, and not real.

AI Fake Coelacanth News

And, finally, on the AI front, is the fake news circulated this week that a coelacanth (a cryptozoologist’s favorite red herring for mystery monsters that may still exist) was found off the coast of California. I wrote a separate post about this which you received if you are subscriber. It’s a depressing state of affairs when news media will simply regurgitate fiction as fact without checking. But this is a warning that it’s happening all the time and we need to be aware. Be SKEPTICAL! Check the sources.

Mokele-mbembe and Creationists’ corruption

In the past few PCS editions, I’ve mentioned the growing popularity of neodinosaurs (a term that was coined by Fortean and OG cryptozoology commentator Ivan Sanderson). In particular, the mokele-mbembe stories are showing up on media sites documenting the resurgence of belief by locals that a brontosaurus-like creature still exists in the Congo basin in Africa. A new piece from New Lines mag continues the story by emphasizing the connection of this tale to those trying to disprove evolution. The article packs a punch. I have to share a quote:

Mokele-mbembe is the Congo Basin’s bigfoot. Or that’s what it’s become, anyway — a cryptid. Nobody is sure when the myth originated, but it was born among the basin’s communities, who passed it down as an oral tradition. Locals tell me the myth was spiritual at first — a metaphor, perhaps, for humankind’s delicate relationship with the land. But today, nobody can say with certainty what exactly it meant because foreigners long ago twisted it well beyond recognition. 

“Congolese people originally believed mokele-mbembe was a spiritual being, not a real dinosaur,” Oyange told me last year. “But that all changed when the white man came to Africa.”  A confluence of European colonial expansion into Africa and the birth of paleontology gave rise to a version of mokele-mbembe that was a literal, flesh-and-blood, swamp-dwelling reptilian beast. Tales passed around by explorers, missionaries and colonial functionaries became warped by notions from Victorian literature and emerging science.

Take. Note. It is perfectly clear that the idea of a living dinosaur in the Congo was a manufactured myth. Unfortunately, it is still heavily promoted by a few backwards thinkers who insist that the Bible is a science book. And, worse than that, the locals now believe the modern myth. Similarly, the ideas of lake monsters and many other cryptids, especially Bigfoot, were linked to native stories by white people even where there was originally no strong similarity to the creature in the folklore. In time, the oral traditions merged with modern media depictions and the distinction between the two is lost, even to the point where modern Natives will equate their ancient tales to the manufactured media version of the creature. There have been several studies showing that when you go back to the original native tales of supernatural creatures, they do not resemble the exaggerated named cryptid of today. This article is worth a read.

Cryptid media: Cryptid Factor podcast

And now for something completely comedic. I have been listening to The Cryptid Factor when it was a radio show that turned into a podcast. I can’t remember the year I first heard it but I think it was 2008 or 2009. It was one of the earliest cryptid-related podcasts, though I use that term “cryptid-related” loosely. It’s more “cryptid-themed”. It wasn’t always easy to keep up. There were long breaks between episodes. For example, they are officially up to episode #106 in the 17 years that the show has been in existence. That’s 6.23 episodes per year. However, I forgive them because it’s hosted by TV and movie actor Rhys Darby, whom I first knew from one of my favorite shows, Flight of Conchords. Rhys is a busy guy, even appearing on the special X Files series event in 2016 as a cryptid himself. So the podcast crew couldn’t always manage a regular schedule. In the past 5 years, I gave up listening because I figured it was defunct. Instead, interest was surging on the pop cryptid wave! When I resubscribed a few months back, I realized that their fandom had expanded. Rhys and his cohosts now regularly promote the show, it’s on YouTube and they have a Shopify merch site! Clearly, hanging on to the brand through the lean times paid off. If you search for “cryptid” on BlueSky or Instagram social media feeds today, you’ll get Rhys as part of the results!

Like I said, the show is more comedic than anything. It’s all about having fun and being very silly. After all this time, I’m still not sure what the crew really believe or disbelieve but it doesn’t matter (since I have a liking for New Zealand accents). They have a genuine interest, but still not too much in depth knowledge, about cryptids and related subjects. I do credit Rhys for introducing me to the concept of the Taniwha (a mysterious creature of New Zealand that sort of serves as the catch-all monster, like the Bunyip of Australia). Even though the main purpose of the podcast appears to be an excuse for a trio of zany friends to make jokes and humorous sound effects, talk about their international travel, and “weekly” weird news stories, occasionally, some cryptid content is included. I love it. The Cryptid Factor was totally part of the Pop Cryptid scene before it even began!

Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

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#1 #2 #AICryptids #Bigfoot #BigfootHuntersDie #cryptid #cryptidFake #cryptidTVShow #giantOwls #GodzillaSighting #GoogleEarth #HoodCryptids #OutThereCrimesOfTheParanormal #popCryptids #scryptids #Skinwalker #TheCryptidFactor #Wendigo

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9171

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Welcome to the Pop Cryptid Spectator, the newsletter that goes to 11. So far. I am never short of examples to share that illustrate the Pop Cryptid model – where cryptids have moved into the mainstream for several social and economic uses but away from the zoological idea of discovery of new animals.

In this edition:

• Digital hoaxes flooding social media
• Questioning the assumptions we make about supernatural cryptids
• Cryptid media – The Sasqualogist
• Blurry feral Florida cat causes a stir
• Loch Ness Quest 3
• Royal Mail mythical stamps
• Cryptids are “hot”, particularly in WV

Digital hoaxes flooding social media

If you can create digitally enhanced or AI-manufactured videos, you are in business these days. I don’t know how to do this but I suspect all it takes is some tech know-how, some raw material to start with, and a creative imagination. Digitally manufactured creature shorts make up about half of a TikTok #cryptids feed. Shorts are easily shared and also show up in Facebook feeds and on YouTube.

There are two general categories of these videos. First is the obvious artistic, fun hoax. Only the pathologically gullible viewers will think these depict real creatures (that’s usually around 20% but that depends, read on). The second kind is content that seems fake in the context of all the other fakes, but it’s not obvious because it looks like the typical cryptid video – blurry, too far away, and leaving room to imagine what you are seeing. Or, it shows just enough of a strange creature to convince you that it’s a legit but weird.

The fun hoax

The majority of “cryptid” short videos are obviously fictional. Frightening and bizarre creatures are shown oddly well lit in a cave or underground workings, or in a house or backyard setting accompanied by creepy music. The creatures may not be immediately identifiable because they are derived from exaggerated or extra features of real animals or people – giant size and terrifying teeth are typical examples. Made by accounts with names like “NightmareCanvas”, “CreatureCapture” or “CursedContent”, they carry hashtags like #cryptidtiktok and #nightmarefuel. These are pretty fun. Assuming the viewer doesn’t take this seriously, these function as an entertaining creepy short. Mostly, the commenters play along with silly jokes about it. They get it.

The questionable reality-adjacent vids

Videos that look more possibly real might grab a lot more people’s attention outside of the #nightmarefuel crowd. Many of these videos appear to come from Central and South America and feature what is said to depict a local folklore creature come to life. You can find the most popular of these videos being promoted by paranormal sites, like Coast to Coast AM. They often write up a summary featuring the location and background of the stated creatures which will reinforce and share the legend to a wider audience. That would be fine if the content wasn’t explicitly linked to a hoaxed video.

The latest of these is a short video of what is called a Chaneque said to have been found in Veracruz, Mexico. A translated version from a local TV network says the following:

The state of Veracruz is one of the regions with the most legends and myths about strangers in the country, and the appearance of a Chaneque in 2025 has made it clear.

The images show a humanoid figure with large eyes, wrinkled skin and pointed ears that emits indescribable sounds with a hoarse voice while trapped in a rocky area.

However, this clip quickly went viral on social media, where users questioned whether or not it was a {chaneque}, as this could have been made with artificial intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFc7cmHSjtM

So, this was presented in a sober manner. I am, however, losing valuable details because of the language barrier. I can’t tell if this is like the clickbait we get in the US on certain media sites (particularly FM radio station websites) that are designed for attention and ad revenue, not as news.

The background of the chaneque and other examples like these have a strong supernatural connotation. Also in this past month, Coast to Coast featured a story and video of a “demonic humanoid” in Argentina. Any moderately critical thinking will flag this as fake right off.

These shorts almost never have appropriate details for investigation. That’s not their purpose. They are meant to be consumed and shared, not researched. I cannot tell how they are perceived in their local context and I would like to know. Is it like our reaction to the Bat Boy cover of the Weekly World News tabloids?

Experiencing the presence of folklore creatures is normal in other cultures. However, inevitably, some English-speaking commenters are either childishly gullible (or are children, which is a reasonable possibility) or they are playing along with the alternative reality where it’s fun to believe these creatures exist.

The popularity of these creature shorts, and the willingness of paranormal sites to feature them as potential cryptids lend support to the Pop Cryptid model, which asserts that we really aren’t interested in the zoology anymore, but in entertainment.

Questioning the assumptions we make about supernatural cryptids

Let’s explore a bit deeper into the concept that other cultures have different views on supernatural entities.

This week, a paper by Roy Ellen titled Visualizing Spirit Entities: Naming, Classification, and
Pictorial Representation of Pseudo-Natural Kinds in Nuaulu Cosmography, published in Folklore caught my attention due to its reference to the overlap between spirit entities and animals. The Nuaulu people are in Seram, Indonesia. The author notes that while studying Nuaulu ethnozoology, it was “difficult to enquire about knowledge of animal forms without yielding related data on spirits, or to enquire about spirits without yielding data on animals.”

This topic has always interested me, but it fails to generate enough thought in the sci-cryptid researcher community. Cultures very different from our embedded culture interpret spirits and the supernatural very differently from our frame. There is a complication that arises via the translation since western audiences aren’t taking that difference into account.

Ellen writes that some of the native words can refer simultaneously to the animal and the spirit; spirits can inhabit animals and influence their behavior; animals may originate from spirits. The overlapping and multi-dimensionality is complex.

This is not uncommon. From the previous story about the chaneque, we are required to consider how accounts reporting encountering folklore creatures are received in the community. For comparison, there are certainly populations in the US where outright belief in ghosts, demons, angels and various other creatures are mainstream and not unusual. Context matters.

Cryptozoology researchers who claim a scientific framing in research will strip out the non-natural characteristics in the reported descriptions and assume a zoological animal is hiding in there somewhere. Such a process is prone to massive errors. They simply aren’t seeing important aspects of the bigger picture – that the “animal” can’t be discovered at all because it’s a spirit.

The most obvious example of use of native legends in this way is for Bigfoot itself. You can’t capture Bigfoot because he’s not an ape. He’s non-corporeal. Many cryptids suddenly seem to acquire a history related to native legends in order to boost its age and credibility. How do cryptozoologists know if the legend is realistically connected to the modern stories of encounters? They don’t. They assume it, giving the cryptid a much more colorful and credible history but misleading themselves. Or, has the inclusion of native legends greased the wheels for cryptids to become predominately non-zoological? I think that might have played a part, as well as the current practice of people exploring alternative spiritualities.

The Ellen paper can be found here.

Cryptid media – The Sasqualogist

The Sasqualogist is an independent drama/comedy staring Joseph Granda as a Bigfoot researcher and seeker. Website: https://www.thesasqualogist.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-pMjZoaBo

The new film, out soon, has as one of its themes, two people with different views on the nature of Bigfoot. Is it an ape to be studied and maybe captured? Or is it an inter-dimensional being flitting in and out of our world? That’s a core item of the pop cryptid theme right there – the changing nature of cryptids. Old orthodox views using the fringe science framing, is put up against the wide-open anything-goes belief. The writer/director of the film refers to these two groups as the “Apers” and the “Woos”. He further explains why he tackled this topic:

Director Statement: Why Bigfoot?

At the tender age of 10, my father walked away from our home, vanishing from my life forever. Years later, his lifeless body was discovered near the Sequoia National Forest. The absence of a father casts a haunting shadow over a young man, leaving behind a lingering void that never truly dissipates. It took me years to unravel the roots of my obsession with Bigfoot, tracing it back to the loss of my father amidst the wilderness of abandonment.

From childhood memories of the Six Million Dollar Man grappling with Sasquatch to my adulthood compulsion to collect Bigfoot memorabilia, each encounter served as a silent yearning for a surrogate guide through life’s dense forests. “THE SASQUALOGIST” is not merely a movie; it’s a journey into the depths of human longing, a quest for connection with something larger than ourselves.

Note that we have the 1970s depiction of cryptids, cryptid merch, symbolism regarding keeping the mystery alive, and shades of Missing 411 belief where people attempt to reframe an accident into something huge and mysterious. That’s a lot of interesting bits and pieces packed into a movie. The film was shown at film festivals last year but I can’t find it streaming yet. The website says it’s coming soon. Watch for it.

Blurry Florida feral cat causes a stir

On a regular basis, the news media will pick up on a Facebook post from an organization or person who has captured a strange thing on a game camera that is not readily identifiable. And the internet then embarks on what I call “mass opinionation” where everyone adds their uninformed two cents about what it is. Most often the comments are jokey, but many people play pretend wildlife experts. Frequently, when the animal has glowing eyes resulting from the image capture, some wild and crazy opinions are proposed. This happened last week when a (very) cat like creature was caught on the camera roll on public lands by the South Florida Wildlands Association. They posted the pic to Facebook and the story got picked up by the Miami Herald.

“Looks a little bit wrong and a little bit right for a number of different species,” the foundation wrote in the post. “Anyone want to venture a guess?” The post has racked up hundreds of reactions and comments, including references to legendary shape-shifters and the chupacabra, a vampire-like beast of legends said to have “glowing red eyes.”

Ugh. I’d bet on a feral house cat or some imported, escaped non-native cat. There is no need to invoke extreme explanations. I’m flummoxed by why a legitimate organization would do this kind of stunt other than it gets a ton of attention. I suppose it’s interesting data to find a feral cat in this area. But, in the end, it does promote misinformation.

Game cameras that take images in the dark will blur and distort the subject because it’s moving and the image capture speed is too slow. Instead of taking account of how that will happen, people will take the image literally and wildly speculate on what the blurry creature is. There is nothing confusing about the photo, just about the intent of its promotion.

Loch Ness Quest 3

The collective Loch Ness monster search, The Quest, is returning for the third year. The Loch Ness Centre has updated their Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to search the waters and are adding baited camera traps. The 4 day event in May brings people from all over the world to the Loch to participate in the search. Every year, someone finds some tantalizing bit that the media can chew on but the monster is myth, so it’s never going to fully appear. But the myth goes on…

Royal Mail mythical stamps

The British Royal Mail is releasing a set of eight new stamps from different regions across the UK that show the “rich mythological heritage”. Nessie is included along with Black Shuck (my favorite), selkies, Cornish piskies, (Welsh) Blodeuwedd, folklore figure Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), the Grindylow and Beowulf & Grendel. The artwork is fabulous.

I wonder if they will get complaints about lumping in the “real” Nessie with the “myths”.

Cryptids are “hot”, particularly in WV

Linking back to PCS 9, regarding a new zine for West Virginia about folklore traditions, this article about the projects shows just how popular cryptids are, noticed by people who didn’t know what they were at first. Then they saw the public reaction. Now they are aware. Lydia Warren, the director of the Folklife center in West Virginia remarked at how impressed they were with the turnout for the Veggie Man festival in 2024:

While we were at Veggie Man Day, they had booked all these amazing vendors, all these really cool West Virginia artists to do cryptid and other paranormal themed artwork. So, there were vendors who had dolls made out of felt, that were little cryptid dolls. There were people doing amazing drawings of Mothman, and, obviously, Veggie Man because it was Veggie Man Day.

In discussion with the founding director, they realized “this cryptid thing is really, this is hot. This is a big deal.” And they decided to pursue the new publication. The pop cryptid model in action!

When asked why cryptids are big, she notes the interest in all things Appalachia which follows from the cryptid depictions in the game Fallout. Along with media, particularly the Mountain Monsters TV show, people have built connections around folklore creatures. She also comments that cryptids are a safe and fun topic in these divided times. They are copyright free, fun, and become cultural touchstones. Gee, it seems like someone has been reading my Pop Goes the Cryptid page!

Veggie Man is a lower-tier cryptid, derived from one story in the 1960s in Marion County where a man of good reputation saw an injured “human” that “looked very vegetable-ish”. The story, associated with UFOs, was promoted by renowned legend promoter Gray Barker. The Veggie Man Day festival takes place in July at the Folklife Center in Fairmont, WV.

Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

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#1 #chupacabra #cryptid #Cryptozoology #deathOfAUnicorn #popCryptid #reddit #rollerCoaster #scientific #seaSerpents #Skinwalker #Wendigo

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9144

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Welcome to the Pop Cryptid Spectator, the newsletter that goes to 11. So far. I am never short of examples to share that illustrate the Pop Cryptid model – where cryptids have moved into the mainstream for several social and economic uses but away from the zoological idea of discovery of new animals.

In this edition:

• Digital hoaxes flooding social media
• Questioning the assumptions we make about supernatural cryptids
• Cryptid media – The Sasqualogist
• Blurry feral Florida cat causes a stir
• Loch Ness Quest 3
• Royal Mail mythical stamps
• Cryptids are “hot”, particularly in WV

Digital hoaxes flooding social media

If you can create digitally enhanced or AI-manufactured videos, you are in business these days. I don’t know how to do this but I suspect all it takes is some tech know-how, some raw material to start with, and a creative imagination. Digitally manufactured creature shorts make up about half of a TikTok #cryptids feed. Shorts are easily shared and also show up in Facebook feeds and on YouTube.

There are two general categories of these videos. First is the obvious artistic, fun hoax. Only the pathologically gullible viewers will think these depict real creatures (that’s usually around 20% but that depends, read on). The second kind is content that seems fake in the context of all the other fakes, but it’s not obvious because it looks like the typical cryptid video – blurry, too far away, and leaving room to imagine what you are seeing. Or, it shows just enough of a strange creature to convince you that it’s a legit but weird.

The fun hoax

The majority of “cryptid” short videos are obviously fictional. Frightening and bizarre creatures are shown oddly well lit in a cave or underground workings, or in a house or backyard setting accompanied by creepy music. The creatures may not be immediately identifiable because they are derived from exaggerated or extra features of real animals or people – giant size and terrifying teeth are typical examples. Made by accounts with names like “NightmareCanvas”, “CreatureCapture” or “CursedContent”, they carry hashtags like #cryptidtiktok and #nightmarefuel. These are pretty fun. Assuming the viewer doesn’t take this seriously, these function as an entertaining creepy short. Mostly, the commenters play along with silly jokes about it. They get it.

The questionable reality-adjacent vids

Videos that look more possibly real might grab a lot more people’s attention outside of the #nightmarefuel crowd. Many of these videos appear to come from Central and South America and feature what is said to depict a local folklore creature come to life. You can find the most popular of these videos being promoted by paranormal sites, like Coast to Coast AM. They often write up a summary featuring the location and background of the stated creatures which will reinforce and share the legend to a wider audience. That would be fine if the content wasn’t explicitly linked to a hoaxed video.

The latest of these is a short video of what is called a Chaneque said to have been found in Veracruz, Mexico. A translated version from a local TV network says the following:

The state of Veracruz is one of the regions with the most legends and myths about strangers in the country, and the appearance of a Chaneque in 2025 has made it clear.

The images show a humanoid figure with large eyes, wrinkled skin and pointed ears that emits indescribable sounds with a hoarse voice while trapped in a rocky area.

However, this clip quickly went viral on social media, where users questioned whether or not it was a {chaneque}, as this could have been made with artificial intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFc7cmHSjtM

So, this was presented in a sober manner. I am, however, losing valuable details because of the language barrier. I can’t tell if this is like the clickbait we get in the US on certain media sites (particularly FM radio station websites) that are designed for attention and ad revenue, not as news.

The background of the chaneque and other examples like these have a strong supernatural connotation. Also in this past month, Coast to Coast featured a story and video of a “demonic humanoid” in Argentina. Any moderately critical thinking will flag this as fake right off.

These shorts almost never have appropriate details for investigation. That’s not their purpose. They are meant to be consumed and shared, not researched. I cannot tell how they are perceived in their local context and I would like to know. Is it like our reaction to the Bat Boy cover of the Weekly World News tabloids?

Experiencing the presence of folklore creatures is normal in other cultures. However, inevitably, some English-speaking commenters are either childishly gullible (or are children, which is a reasonable possibility) or they are playing along with the alternative reality where it’s fun to believe these creatures exist.

The popularity of these creature shorts, and the willingness of paranormal sites to feature them as potential cryptids lend support to the Pop Cryptid model, which asserts that we really aren’t interested in the zoology anymore, but in entertainment.

Questioning the assumptions we make about supernatural cryptids

Let’s explore a bit deeper into the concept that other cultures have different views on supernatural entities.

This week, a paper by Roy Ellen titled Visualizing Spirit Entities: Naming, Classification, and
Pictorial Representation of Pseudo-Natural Kinds in Nuaulu Cosmography, published in Folklore caught my attention due to its reference to the overlap between spirit entities and animals. The Nuaulu people are in Seram, Indonesia. The author notes that while studying Nuaulu ethnozoology, it was “difficult to enquire about knowledge of animal forms without yielding related data on spirits, or to enquire about spirits without yielding data on animals.”

This topic has always interested me, but it fails to generate enough thought in the sci-cryptid researcher community. Cultures very different from our embedded culture interpret spirits and the supernatural very differently from our frame. There is a complication that arises via the translation since western audiences aren’t taking that difference into account.

Ellen writes that some of the native words can refer simultaneously to the animal and the spirit; spirits can inhabit animals and influence their behavior; animals may originate from spirits. The overlapping and multi-dimensionality is complex.

This is not uncommon. From the previous story about the chaneque, we are required to consider how accounts reporting encountering folklore creatures are received in the community. For comparison, there are certainly populations in the US where outright belief in ghosts, demons, angels and various other creatures are mainstream and not unusual. Context matters.

Cryptozoology researchers who claim a scientific framing in research will strip out the non-natural characteristics in the reported descriptions and assume a zoological animal is hiding in there somewhere. Such a process is prone to massive errors. They simply aren’t seeing important aspects of the bigger picture – that the “animal” can’t be discovered at all because it’s a spirit.

The most obvious example of use of native legends in this way is for Bigfoot itself. You can’t capture Bigfoot because he’s not an ape. He’s non-corporeal. Many cryptids suddenly seem to acquire a history related to native legends in order to boost its age and credibility. How do cryptozoologists know if the legend is realistically connected to the modern stories of encounters? They don’t. They assume it, giving the cryptid a much more colorful and credible history but misleading themselves. Or, has the inclusion of native legends greased the wheels for cryptids to become predominately non-zoological? I think that might have played a part, as well as the current practice of people exploring alternative spiritualities.

The Ellen paper can be found here.

Cryptid media – The Sasqualogist

The Sasqualogist is an independent drama/comedy staring Joseph Granda as a Bigfoot researcher and seeker. Website: https://www.thesasqualogist.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-pMjZoaBo

The new film, out soon, has as one of its themes, two people with different views on the nature of Bigfoot. Is it an ape to be studied and maybe captured? Or is it an inter-dimensional being flitting in and out of our world? That’s a core item of the pop cryptid theme right there – the changing nature of cryptids. Old orthodox views using the fringe science framing, is put up against the wide-open anything-goes belief. The writer/director of the film refers to these two groups as the “Apers” and the “Woos”. He further explains why he tackled this topic:

Director Statement: Why Bigfoot?

At the tender age of 10, my father walked away from our home, vanishing from my life forever. Years later, his lifeless body was discovered near the Sequoia National Forest. The absence of a father casts a haunting shadow over a young man, leaving behind a lingering void that never truly dissipates. It took me years to unravel the roots of my obsession with Bigfoot, tracing it back to the loss of my father amidst the wilderness of abandonment.

From childhood memories of the Six Million Dollar Man grappling with Sasquatch to my adulthood compulsion to collect Bigfoot memorabilia, each encounter served as a silent yearning for a surrogate guide through life’s dense forests. “THE SASQUALOGIST” is not merely a movie; it’s a journey into the depths of human longing, a quest for connection with something larger than ourselves.

Note that we have the 1970s depiction of cryptids, cryptid merch, symbolism regarding keeping the mystery alive, and shades of Missing 411 belief where people attempt to reframe an accident into something huge and mysterious. That’s a lot of interesting bits and pieces packed into a movie. The film was shown at film festivals last year but I can’t find it streaming yet. The website says it’s coming soon. Watch for it.

Blurry Florida feral cat causes a stir

On a regular basis, the news media will pick up on a Facebook post from an organization or person who has captured a strange thing on a game camera that is not readily identifiable. And the internet then embarks on what I call “mass opinionation” where everyone adds their uninformed two cents about what it is. Most often the comments are jokey, but many people play pretend wildlife experts. Frequently, when the animal has glowing eyes resulting from the image capture, some wild and crazy opinions are proposed. This happened last week when a (very) cat like creature was caught on the camera roll on public lands by the South Florida Wildlands Association. They posted the pic to Facebook and the story got picked up by the Miami Herald.

“Looks a little bit wrong and a little bit right for a number of different species,” the foundation wrote in the post. “Anyone want to venture a guess?” The post has racked up hundreds of reactions and comments, including references to legendary shape-shifters and the chupacabra, a vampire-like beast of legends said to have “glowing red eyes.”

Ugh. I’d bet on a feral house cat or some imported, escaped non-native cat. There is no need to invoke extreme explanations. I’m flummoxed by why a legitimate organization would do this kind of stunt other than it gets a ton of attention. I suppose it’s interesting data to find a feral cat in this area. But, in the end, it does promote misinformation.

Game cameras that take images in the dark will blur and distort the subject because it’s moving and the image capture speed is too slow. Instead of taking account of how that will happen, people will take the image literally and wildly speculate on what the blurry creature is. There is nothing confusing about the photo, just about the intent of its promotion.

Loch Ness Quest 3

The collective Loch Ness monster search, The Quest, is returning for the third year. The Loch Ness Centre has updated their Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to search the waters and are adding baited camera traps. The 4 day event in May brings people from all over the world to the Loch to participate in the search. Every year, someone finds some tantalizing bit that the media can chew on but the monster is myth, so it’s never going to fully appear. But the myth goes on…

Royal Mail mythical stamps

The British Royal Mail is releasing a set of eight new stamps from different regions across the UK that show the “rich mythological heritage”. Nessie is included along with Black Shuck (my favorite), selkies, Cornish piskies, (Welsh) Blodeuwedd, folklore figure Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), the Grindylow and Beowulf & Grendel. The artwork is fabulous.

I wonder if they will get complaints about lumping in the “real” Nessie with the “myths”.

Cryptids are “hot”, particularly in WV

Linking back to PCS 9, regarding a new zine for West Virginia about folklore traditions, this article about the projects shows just how popular cryptids are, noticed by people who didn’t know what they were at first. Then they saw the public reaction. Now they are aware. Lydia Warren, the director of the Folklife center in West Virginia remarked at how impressed they were with the turnout for the Veggie Man festival in 2024:

While we were at Veggie Man Day, they had booked all these amazing vendors, all these really cool West Virginia artists to do cryptid and other paranormal themed artwork. So, there were vendors who had dolls made out of felt, that were little cryptid dolls. There were people doing amazing drawings of Mothman, and, obviously, Veggie Man because it was Veggie Man Day.

In discussion with the founding director, they realized “this cryptid thing is really, this is hot. This is a big deal.” And they decided to pursue the new publication. The pop cryptid model in action!

When asked why cryptids are big, she notes the interest in all things Appalachia which follows from the cryptid depictions in the game Fallout. Along with media, particularly the Mountain Monsters TV show, people have built connections around folklore creatures. She also comments that cryptids are a safe and fun topic in these divided times. They are copyright free, fun, and become cultural touchstones. Gee, it seems like someone has been reading my Pop Goes the Cryptid page!

Veggie Man is a lower-tier cryptid, derived from one story in the 1960s in Marion County where a man of good reputation saw an injured “human” that “looked very vegetable-ish”. The story, associated with UFOs, was promoted by renowned legend promoter Gray Barker. The Veggie Man Day festival takes place in July at the Folklife Center in Fairmont, WV.

Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

Pop Cryptid Spectator 10

Pop Cryptid Spectator 9

Pop Cryptid Spectator 8

Pop Cryptid Spectator 7

Pop Cryptid Spectator 6

Pop Cryptid Spectator 5

Pop Cryptid Spectator 4

Pop Cryptid Spectator 3

Pop Cryptid Spectator 2

Pop Cryptid Spectator 1

#1 #chupacabra #cryptid #Cryptozoology #deathOfAUnicorn #popCryptid #reddit #rollerCoaster #scientific #seaSerpents #Skinwalker #Wendigo

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9144

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Welcome to the Pop Cryptid Spectator, the newsletter that goes to 11. So far. I am never short of examples to share that illustrate the Pop Cryptid model – where cryptids have moved into the mainstream for several social and economic uses but away from the zoological idea of discovery of new animals.

In this edition:

• Digital hoaxes flooding social media
• Questioning the assumptions we make about supernatural cryptids
• Cryptid media – The Sasqualogist
• Blurry feral Florida cat causes a stir
• Loch Ness Quest 3
• Royal Mail mythical stamps
• Cryptids are “hot”, particularly in WV

Digital hoaxes flooding social media

If you can create digitally enhanced or AI-manufactured videos, you are in business these days. I don’t know how to do this but I suspect all it takes is some tech know-how, some raw material to start with, and a creative imagination. Digitally manufactured creature shorts make up about half of a TikTok #cryptids feed. Shorts are easily shared and also show up in Facebook feeds and on YouTube.

There are two general categories of these videos. First is the obvious artistic, fun hoax. Only the pathologically gullible viewers will think these depict real creatures (that’s usually around 20% but that depends, read on). The second kind is content that seems fake in the context of all the other fakes, but it’s not obvious because it looks like the typical cryptid video – blurry, too far away, and leaving room to imagine what you are seeing. Or, it shows just enough of a strange creature to convince you that it’s a legit but weird.

The fun hoax

The majority of “cryptid” short videos are obviously fictional. Frightening and bizarre creatures are shown oddly well lit in a cave or underground workings, or in a house or backyard setting accompanied by creepy music. The creatures may not be immediately identifiable because they are derived from exaggerated or extra features of real animals or people – giant size and terrifying teeth are typical examples. Made by accounts with names like “NightmareCanvas”, “CreatureCapture” or “CursedContent”, they carry hashtags like #cryptidtiktok and #nightmarefuel. These are pretty fun. Assuming the viewer doesn’t take this seriously, these function as an entertaining creepy short. Mostly, the commenters play along with silly jokes about it. They get it.

The questionable reality-adjacent vids

Videos that look more possibly real might grab a lot more people’s attention outside of the #nightmarefuel crowd. Many of these videos appear to come from Central and South America and feature what is said to depict a local folklore creature come to life. You can find the most popular of these videos being promoted by paranormal sites, like Coast to Coast AM. They often write up a summary featuring the location and background of the stated creatures which will reinforce and share the legend to a wider audience. That would be fine if the content wasn’t explicitly linked to a hoaxed video.

The latest of these is a short video of what is called a Chaneque said to have been found in Veracruz, Mexico. A translated version from a local TV network says the following:

The state of Veracruz is one of the regions with the most legends and myths about strangers in the country, and the appearance of a Chaneque in 2025 has made it clear.

The images show a humanoid figure with large eyes, wrinkled skin and pointed ears that emits indescribable sounds with a hoarse voice while trapped in a rocky area.

However, this clip quickly went viral on social media, where users questioned whether or not it was a {chaneque}, as this could have been made with artificial intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFc7cmHSjtM

So, this was presented in a sober manner. I am, however, losing valuable details because of the language barrier. I can’t tell if this is like the clickbait we get in the US on certain media sites (particularly FM radio station websites) that are designed for attention and ad revenue, not as news.

The background of the chaneque and other examples like these have a strong supernatural connotation. Also in this past month, Coast to Coast featured a story and video of a “demonic humanoid” in Argentina. Any moderately critical thinking will flag this as fake right off.

These shorts almost never have appropriate details for investigation. That’s not their purpose. They are meant to be consumed and shared, not researched. I cannot tell how they are perceived in their local context and I would like to know. Is it like our reaction to the Bat Boy cover of the Weekly World News tabloids?

Experiencing the presence of folklore creatures is normal in other cultures. However, inevitably, some English-speaking commenters are either childishly gullible (or are children, which is a reasonable possibility) or they are playing along with the alternative reality where it’s fun to believe these creatures exist.

The popularity of these creature shorts, and the willingness of paranormal sites to feature them as potential cryptids lend support to the Pop Cryptid model, which asserts that we really aren’t interested in the zoology anymore, but in entertainment.

Questioning the assumptions we make about supernatural cryptids

Let’s explore a bit deeper into the concept that other cultures have different views on supernatural entities.

This week, a paper by Roy Ellen titled Visualizing Spirit Entities: Naming, Classification, and
Pictorial Representation of Pseudo-Natural Kinds in Nuaulu Cosmography, published in Folklore caught my attention due to its reference to the overlap between spirit entities and animals. The Nuaulu people are in Seram, Indonesia. The author notes that while studying Nuaulu ethnozoology, it was “difficult to enquire about knowledge of animal forms without yielding related data on spirits, or to enquire about spirits without yielding data on animals.”

This topic has always interested me, but it fails to generate enough thought in the sci-cryptid researcher community. Cultures very different from our embedded culture interpret spirits and the supernatural very differently from our frame. There is a complication that arises via the translation since western audiences aren’t taking that difference into account.

Ellen writes that some of the native words can refer simultaneously to the animal and the spirit; spirits can inhabit animals and influence their behavior; animals may originate from spirits. The overlapping and multi-dimensionality is complex.

This is not uncommon. From the previous story about the chaneque, we are required to consider how accounts reporting encountering folklore creatures are received in the community. For comparison, there are certainly populations in the US where outright belief in ghosts, demons, angels and various other creatures are mainstream and not unusual. Context matters.

Cryptozoology researchers who claim a scientific framing in research will strip out the non-natural characteristics in the reported descriptions and assume a zoological animal is hiding in there somewhere. Such a process is prone to massive errors. They simply aren’t seeing important aspects of the bigger picture – that the “animal” can’t be discovered at all because it’s a spirit.

The most obvious example of use of native legends in this way is for Bigfoot itself. You can’t capture Bigfoot because he’s not an ape. He’s non-corporeal. Many cryptids suddenly seem to acquire a history related to native legends in order to boost its age and credibility. How do cryptozoologists know if the legend is realistically connected to the modern stories of encounters? They don’t. They assume it, giving the cryptid a much more colorful and credible history but misleading themselves. Or, has the inclusion of native legends greased the wheels for cryptids to become predominately non-zoological? I think that might have played a part, as well as the current practice of people exploring alternative spiritualities.

The Ellen paper can be found here.

Cryptid media – The Sasqualogist

The Sasqualogist is an independent drama/comedy staring Joseph Granda as a Bigfoot researcher and seeker. Website: https://www.thesasqualogist.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-pMjZoaBo

The new film, out soon, has as one of its themes, two people with different views on the nature of Bigfoot. Is it an ape to be studied and maybe captured? Or is it an inter-dimensional being flitting in and out of our world? That’s a core item of the pop cryptid theme right there – the changing nature of cryptids. Old orthodox views using the fringe science framing, is put up against the wide-open anything-goes belief. The writer/director of the film refers to these two groups as the “Apers” and the “Woos”. He further explains why he tackled this topic:

Director Statement: Why Bigfoot?

At the tender age of 10, my father walked away from our home, vanishing from my life forever. Years later, his lifeless body was discovered near the Sequoia National Forest. The absence of a father casts a haunting shadow over a young man, leaving behind a lingering void that never truly dissipates. It took me years to unravel the roots of my obsession with Bigfoot, tracing it back to the loss of my father amidst the wilderness of abandonment.

From childhood memories of the Six Million Dollar Man grappling with Sasquatch to my adulthood compulsion to collect Bigfoot memorabilia, each encounter served as a silent yearning for a surrogate guide through life’s dense forests. “THE SASQUALOGIST” is not merely a movie; it’s a journey into the depths of human longing, a quest for connection with something larger than ourselves.

Note that we have the 1970s depiction of cryptids, cryptid merch, symbolism regarding keeping the mystery alive, and shades of Missing 411 belief where people attempt to reframe an accident into something huge and mysterious. That’s a lot of interesting bits and pieces packed into a movie. The film was shown at film festivals last year but I can’t find it streaming yet. The website says it’s coming soon. Watch for it.

Blurry Florida feral cat causes a stir

On a regular basis, the news media will pick up on a Facebook post from an organization or person who has captured a strange thing on a game camera that is not readily identifiable. And the internet then embarks on what I call “mass opinionation” where everyone adds their uninformed two cents about what it is. Most often the comments are jokey, but many people play pretend wildlife experts. Frequently, when the animal has glowing eyes resulting from the image capture, some wild and crazy opinions are proposed. This happened last week when a (very) cat like creature was caught on the camera roll on public lands by the South Florida Wildlands Association. They posted the pic to Facebook and the story got picked up by the Miami Herald.

“Looks a little bit wrong and a little bit right for a number of different species,” the foundation wrote in the post. “Anyone want to venture a guess?” The post has racked up hundreds of reactions and comments, including references to legendary shape-shifters and the chupacabra, a vampire-like beast of legends said to have “glowing red eyes.”

Ugh. I’d bet on a feral house cat or some imported, escaped non-native cat. There is no need to invoke extreme explanations. I’m flummoxed by why a legitimate organization would do this kind of stunt other than it gets a ton of attention. I suppose it’s interesting data to find a feral cat in this area. But, in the end, it does promote misinformation.

Game cameras that take images in the dark will blur and distort the subject because it’s moving and the image capture speed is too slow. Instead of taking account of how that will happen, people will take the image literally and wildly speculate on what the blurry creature is. There is nothing confusing about the photo, just about the intent of its promotion.

Loch Ness Quest 3

The collective Loch Ness monster search, The Quest, is returning for the third year. The Loch Ness Centre has updated their Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to search the waters and are adding baited camera traps. The 4 day event in May brings people from all over the world to the Loch to participate in the search. Every year, someone finds some tantalizing bit that the media can chew on but the monster is myth, so it’s never going to fully appear. But the myth goes on…

Royal Mail mythical stamps

The British Royal Mail is releasing a set of eight new stamps from different regions across the UK that show the “rich mythological heritage”. Nessie is included along with Black Shuck (my favorite), selkies, Cornish piskies, (Welsh) Blodeuwedd, folklore figure Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), the Grindylow and Beowulf & Grendel. The artwork is fabulous.

I wonder if they will get complaints about lumping in the “real” Nessie with the “myths”.

Cryptids are “hot”, particularly in WV

Linking back to PCS 9, regarding a new zine for West Virginia about folklore traditions, this article about the projects shows just how popular cryptids are, noticed by people who didn’t know what they were at first. Then they saw the public reaction. Now they are aware. Lydia Warren, the director of the Folklife center in West Virginia remarked at how impressed they were with the turnout for the Veggie Man festival in 2024:

While we were at Veggie Man Day, they had booked all these amazing vendors, all these really cool West Virginia artists to do cryptid and other paranormal themed artwork. So, there were vendors who had dolls made out of felt, that were little cryptid dolls. There were people doing amazing drawings of Mothman, and, obviously, Veggie Man because it was Veggie Man Day.

In discussion with the founding director, they realized “this cryptid thing is really, this is hot. This is a big deal.” And they decided to pursue the new publication. The pop cryptid model in action!

When asked why cryptids are big, she notes the interest in all things Appalachia which follows from the cryptid depictions in the game Fallout. Along with media, particularly the Mountain Monsters TV show, people have built connections around folklore creatures. She also comments that cryptids are a safe and fun topic in these divided times. They are copyright free, fun, and become cultural touchstones. Gee, it seems like someone has been reading my Pop Goes the Cryptid page!

Veggie Man is a lower-tier cryptid, derived from one story in the 1960s in Marion County where a man of good reputation saw an injured “human” that “looked very vegetable-ish”. The story, associated with UFOs, was promoted by renowned legend promoter Gray Barker. The Veggie Man Day festival takes place in July at the Folklife Center in Fairmont, WV.

Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

Pop Cryptid Spectator 10

Pop Cryptid Spectator 9

Pop Cryptid Spectator 8

Pop Cryptid Spectator 7

Pop Cryptid Spectator 6

Pop Cryptid Spectator 5

Pop Cryptid Spectator 4

Pop Cryptid Spectator 3

Pop Cryptid Spectator 2

Pop Cryptid Spectator 1

#1 #chupacabra #cryptid #Cryptozoology #deathOfAUnicorn #popCryptid #reddit #rollerCoaster #scientific #seaSerpents #Skinwalker #Wendigo

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9144

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Welcome to the Pop Cryptid Spectator, the newsletter that goes to 11. So far. I am never short of examples to share that illustrate the Pop Cryptid model – where cryptids have moved into the mainstream for several social and economic uses but away from the zoological idea of discovery of new animals.

In this edition:

• Digital hoaxes flooding social media
• Questioning the assumptions we make about supernatural cryptids
• Cryptid media – The Sasqualogist
• Blurry feral Florida cat causes a stir
• Loch Ness Quest 3
• Royal Mail mythical stamps
• Cryptids are “hot”, particularly in WV

Digital hoaxes flooding social media

If you can create digitally enhanced or AI-manufactured videos, you are in business these days. I don’t know how to do this but I suspect all it takes is some tech know-how, some raw material to start with, and a creative imagination. Digitally manufactured creature shorts make up about half of a TikTok #cryptids feed. Shorts are easily shared and also show up in Facebook feeds and on YouTube.

There are two general categories of these videos. First is the obvious artistic, fun hoax. Only the pathologically gullible viewers will think these depict real creatures (that’s usually around 20% but that depends, read on). The second kind is content that seems fake in the context of all the other fakes, but it’s not obvious because it looks like the typical cryptid video – blurry, too far away, and leaving room to imagine what you are seeing. Or, it shows just enough of a strange creature to convince you that it’s a legit but weird.

The fun hoax

The majority of “cryptid” short videos are obviously fictional. Frightening and bizarre creatures are shown oddly well lit in a cave or underground workings, or in a house or backyard setting accompanied by creepy music. The creatures may not be immediately identifiable because they are derived from exaggerated or extra features of real animals or people – giant size and terrifying teeth are typical examples. Made by accounts with names like “NightmareCanvas”, “CreatureCapture” or “CursedContent”, they carry hashtags like #cryptidtiktok and #nightmarefuel. These are pretty fun. Assuming the viewer doesn’t take this seriously, these function as an entertaining creepy short. Mostly, the commenters play along with silly jokes about it. They get it.

The questionable reality-adjacent vids

Videos that look more possibly real might grab a lot more people’s attention outside of the #nightmarefuel crowd. Many of these videos appear to come from Central and South America and feature what is said to depict a local folklore creature come to life. You can find the most popular of these videos being promoted by paranormal sites, like Coast to Coast AM. They often write up a summary featuring the location and background of the stated creatures which will reinforce and share the legend to a wider audience. That would be fine if the content wasn’t explicitly linked to a hoaxed video.

The latest of these is a short video of what is called a Chaneque said to have been found in Veracruz, Mexico. A translated version from a local TV network says the following:

The state of Veracruz is one of the regions with the most legends and myths about strangers in the country, and the appearance of a Chaneque in 2025 has made it clear.

The images show a humanoid figure with large eyes, wrinkled skin and pointed ears that emits indescribable sounds with a hoarse voice while trapped in a rocky area.

However, this clip quickly went viral on social media, where users questioned whether or not it was a {chaneque}, as this could have been made with artificial intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFc7cmHSjtM

So, this was presented in a sober manner. I am, however, losing valuable details because of the language barrier. I can’t tell if this is like the clickbait we get in the US on certain media sites (particularly FM radio station websites) that are designed for attention and ad revenue, not as news.

The background of the chaneque and other examples like these have a strong supernatural connotation. Also in this past month, Coast to Coast featured a story and video of a “demonic humanoid” in Argentina. Any moderately critical thinking will flag this as fake right off.

These shorts almost never have appropriate details for investigation. That’s not their purpose. They are meant to be consumed and shared, not researched. I cannot tell how they are perceived in their local context and I would like to know. Is it like our reaction to the Bat Boy cover of the Weekly World News tabloids?

Experiencing the presence of folklore creatures is normal in other cultures. However, inevitably, some English-speaking commenters are either childishly gullible (or are children, which is a reasonable possibility) or they are playing along with the alternative reality where it’s fun to believe these creatures exist.

The popularity of these creature shorts, and the willingness of paranormal sites to feature them as potential cryptids lend support to the Pop Cryptid model, which asserts that we really aren’t interested in the zoology anymore, but in entertainment.

Questioning the assumptions we make about supernatural cryptids

Let’s explore a bit deeper into the concept that other cultures have different views on supernatural entities.

This week, a paper by Roy Ellen titled Visualizing Spirit Entities: Naming, Classification, and
Pictorial Representation of Pseudo-Natural Kinds in Nuaulu Cosmography, published in Folklore caught my attention due to its reference to the overlap between spirit entities and animals. The Nuaulu people are in Seram, Indonesia. The author notes that while studying Nuaulu ethnozoology, it was “difficult to enquire about knowledge of animal forms without yielding related data on spirits, or to enquire about spirits without yielding data on animals.”

This topic has always interested me, but it fails to generate enough thought in the sci-cryptid researcher community. Cultures very different from our embedded culture interpret spirits and the supernatural very differently from our frame. There is a complication that arises via the translation since western audiences aren’t taking that difference into account.

Ellen writes that some of the native words can refer simultaneously to the animal and the spirit; spirits can inhabit animals and influence their behavior; animals may originate from spirits. The overlapping and multi-dimensionality is complex.

This is not uncommon. From the previous story about the chaneque, we are required to consider how accounts reporting encountering folklore creatures are received in the community. For comparison, there are certainly populations in the US where outright belief in ghosts, demons, angels and various other creatures are mainstream and not unusual. Context matters.

Cryptozoology researchers who claim a scientific framing in research will strip out the non-natural characteristics in the reported descriptions and assume a zoological animal is hiding in there somewhere. Such a process is prone to massive errors. They simply aren’t seeing important aspects of the bigger picture – that the “animal” can’t be discovered at all because it’s a spirit.

The most obvious example of use of native legends in this way is for Bigfoot itself. You can’t capture Bigfoot because he’s not an ape. He’s non-corporeal. Many cryptids suddenly seem to acquire a history related to native legends in order to boost its age and credibility. How do cryptozoologists know if the legend is realistically connected to the modern stories of encounters? They don’t. They assume it, giving the cryptid a much more colorful and credible history but misleading themselves. Or, has the inclusion of native legends greased the wheels for cryptids to become predominately non-zoological? I think that might have played a part, as well as the current practice of people exploring alternative spiritualities.

The Ellen paper can be found here.

Cryptid media – The Sasqualogist

The Sasqualogist is an independent drama/comedy staring Joseph Granda as a Bigfoot researcher and seeker. Website: https://www.thesasqualogist.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-pMjZoaBo

The new film, out soon, has as one of its themes, two people with different views on the nature of Bigfoot. Is it an ape to be studied and maybe captured? Or is it an inter-dimensional being flitting in and out of our world? That’s a core item of the pop cryptid theme right there – the changing nature of cryptids. Old orthodox views using the fringe science framing, is put up against the wide-open anything-goes belief. The writer/director of the film refers to these two groups as the “Apers” and the “Woos”. He further explains why he tackled this topic:

Director Statement: Why Bigfoot?

At the tender age of 10, my father walked away from our home, vanishing from my life forever. Years later, his lifeless body was discovered near the Sequoia National Forest. The absence of a father casts a haunting shadow over a young man, leaving behind a lingering void that never truly dissipates. It took me years to unravel the roots of my obsession with Bigfoot, tracing it back to the loss of my father amidst the wilderness of abandonment.

From childhood memories of the Six Million Dollar Man grappling with Sasquatch to my adulthood compulsion to collect Bigfoot memorabilia, each encounter served as a silent yearning for a surrogate guide through life’s dense forests. “THE SASQUALOGIST” is not merely a movie; it’s a journey into the depths of human longing, a quest for connection with something larger than ourselves.

Note that we have the 1970s depiction of cryptids, cryptid merch, symbolism regarding keeping the mystery alive, and shades of Missing 411 belief where people attempt to reframe an accident into something huge and mysterious. That’s a lot of interesting bits and pieces packed into a movie. The film was shown at film festivals last year but I can’t find it streaming yet. The website says it’s coming soon. Watch for it.

Blurry Florida feral cat causes a stir

On a regular basis, the news media will pick up on a Facebook post from an organization or person who has captured a strange thing on a game camera that is not readily identifiable. And the internet then embarks on what I call “mass opinionation” where everyone adds their uninformed two cents about what it is. Most often the comments are jokey, but many people play pretend wildlife experts. Frequently, when the animal has glowing eyes resulting from the image capture, some wild and crazy opinions are proposed. This happened last week when a (very) cat like creature was caught on the camera roll on public lands by the South Florida Wildlands Association. They posted the pic to Facebook and the story got picked up by the Miami Herald.

“Looks a little bit wrong and a little bit right for a number of different species,” the foundation wrote in the post. “Anyone want to venture a guess?” The post has racked up hundreds of reactions and comments, including references to legendary shape-shifters and the chupacabra, a vampire-like beast of legends said to have “glowing red eyes.”

Ugh. I’d bet on a feral house cat or some imported, escaped non-native cat. There is no need to invoke extreme explanations. I’m flummoxed by why a legitimate organization would do this kind of stunt other than it gets a ton of attention. I suppose it’s interesting data to find a feral cat in this area. But, in the end, it does promote misinformation.

Game cameras that take images in the dark will blur and distort the subject because it’s moving and the image capture speed is too slow. Instead of taking account of how that will happen, people will take the image literally and wildly speculate on what the blurry creature is. There is nothing confusing about the photo, just about the intent of its promotion.

Loch Ness Quest 3

The collective Loch Ness monster search, The Quest, is returning for the third year. The Loch Ness Centre has updated their Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to search the waters and are adding baited camera traps. The 4 day event in May brings people from all over the world to the Loch to participate in the search. Every year, someone finds some tantalizing bit that the media can chew on but the monster is myth, so it’s never going to fully appear. But the myth goes on…

Royal Mail mythical stamps

The British Royal Mail is releasing a set of eight new stamps from different regions across the UK that show the “rich mythological heritage”. Nessie is included along with Black Shuck (my favorite), selkies, Cornish piskies, (Welsh) Blodeuwedd, folklore figure Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), the Grindylow and Beowulf & Grendel. The artwork is fabulous.

I wonder if they will get complaints about lumping in the “real” Nessie with the “myths”.

Cryptids are “hot”, particularly in WV

Linking back to PCS 9, regarding a new zine for West Virginia about folklore traditions, this article about the projects shows just how popular cryptids are, noticed by people who didn’t know what they were at first. Then they saw the public reaction. Now they are aware. Lydia Warren, the director of the Folklife center in West Virginia remarked at how impressed they were with the turnout for the Veggie Man festival in 2024:

While we were at Veggie Man Day, they had booked all these amazing vendors, all these really cool West Virginia artists to do cryptid and other paranormal themed artwork. So, there were vendors who had dolls made out of felt, that were little cryptid dolls. There were people doing amazing drawings of Mothman, and, obviously, Veggie Man because it was Veggie Man Day.

In discussion with the founding director, they realized “this cryptid thing is really, this is hot. This is a big deal.” And they decided to pursue the new publication. The pop cryptid model in action!

When asked why cryptids are big, she notes the interest in all things Appalachia which follows from the cryptid depictions in the game Fallout. Along with media, particularly the Mountain Monsters TV show, people have built connections around folklore creatures. She also comments that cryptids are a safe and fun topic in these divided times. They are copyright free, fun, and become cultural touchstones. Gee, it seems like someone has been reading my Pop Goes the Cryptid page!

Veggie Man is a lower-tier cryptid, derived from one story in the 1960s in Marion County where a man of good reputation saw an injured “human” that “looked very vegetable-ish”. The story, associated with UFOs, was promoted by renowned legend promoter Gray Barker. The Veggie Man Day festival takes place in July at the Folklife Center in Fairmont, WV.

Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

Pop Cryptid Spectator 10

Pop Cryptid Spectator 9

Pop Cryptid Spectator 8

Pop Cryptid Spectator 7

Pop Cryptid Spectator 6

Pop Cryptid Spectator 5

Pop Cryptid Spectator 4

Pop Cryptid Spectator 3

Pop Cryptid Spectator 2

Pop Cryptid Spectator 1

#1 #chupacabra #cryptid #Cryptozoology #deathOfAUnicorn #popCryptid #reddit #rollerCoaster #scientific #seaSerpents #Skinwalker #Wendigo

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9144

❄️ Artist: #DavidZinn in City: #AnnArbor MI USA 🇺🇸 02/2025 - Title:
🟡 "Roger is secretly fond of attention
and the Loch Ness Monster's most
embarrassing cousin." 🐍
🔴 "Roger liebt insgeheim die
Aufmerksamkeit und ist der
peinlichste Cousin des Monsters
von Loch Ness."
#StreetArt #Art #Chalkart #Artist #SidewalkChalk #Seamonster #Nessie #Swimminghole #LochNess #Snake

❄️ Artist: #DavidZinn in City: #AnnArbor MI USA 🇺🇸 02/2025 - Title:
🟡 "Roger is secretly fond of attention
and the Loch Ness Monster's most
embarrassing cousin." 🐍
🔴 "Roger liebt insgeheim die
Aufmerksamkeit und ist der
peinlichste Cousin des Monsters
von Loch Ness."
#StreetArt #Art #Chalkart #Artist #SidewalkChalk #Seamonster #Nessie #Swimminghole #LochNess #Snake

❄️ Artist: #DavidZinn in City: #AnnArbor MI USA 🇺🇸 02/2025 - Title:
🟡 "Roger is secretly fond of attention
and the Loch Ness Monster's most
embarrassing cousin." 🐍
🔴 "Roger liebt insgeheim die
Aufmerksamkeit und ist der
peinlichste Cousin des Monsters
von Loch Ness."
#StreetArt #Art #Chalkart #Artist #SidewalkChalk #Seamonster #Nessie #Swimminghole #LochNess #Snake

❄️ Artist: #DavidZinn in City: #AnnArbor MI USA 🇺🇸 02/2025 - Title:
🟡 "Roger is secretly fond of attention
and the Loch Ness Monster's most
embarrassing cousin." 🐍
🔴 "Roger liebt insgeheim die
Aufmerksamkeit und ist der
peinlichste Cousin des Monsters
von Loch Ness."
#StreetArt #Art #Chalkart #Artist #SidewalkChalk #Seamonster #Nessie #Swimminghole #LochNess #Snake

❄️ Artist: #DavidZinn in City: #AnnArbor MI USA 🇺🇸 02/2025 - Title:
🟡 "Roger is secretly fond of attention
and the Loch Ness Monster's most
embarrassing cousin." 🐍
🔴 "Roger liebt insgeheim die
Aufmerksamkeit und ist der
peinlichste Cousin des Monsters
von Loch Ness."
#StreetArt #Art #Chalkart #Artist #SidewalkChalk #Seamonster #Nessie #Swimminghole #LochNess #Snake

Pop Cryptid Spectator #5

Hello and welcome to the 5th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. 

My interest is in exploring the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives. They are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and wonder about monsters, and animals that may still be out there to find. Or, they are useful as liminal creatures formed from and existing only in our imaginations, or on the internet, but that we enjoy believing are real.

In this edition:

• Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case
• Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race
• The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot
• E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect
• Sidenote – Excited whale parts
• The Utah Yetis dream dissolves
• Reality Shifting and Cryptids
• The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case

A recent news story shows how important Bigfoot is to some peoples’ personal identity, so much so that it impacts their relationships and their work life. A man in British Columbia lost a claim for spousal support after a judge concluded that if he was capable of hunting Bigfoot, he was capable of getting a real job. The judge made multiple references to the unnamed man’s love for “camping, fishing, hunting, riding ‘quad’ motorcycles, and exploring remote areas of B.C. in search of sasquatch”. During a camping trip in 2020, the man was joined by an ex-girlfriend, who apparently shared his interest in cryptid hunting, without the wife’s knowledge. This led to the dissolution of the marriage. He claimed that a fall in 2016 while on a Sasquatch expedition caused him injuries and chronic pain that still prevented him from being able to work. The judge did not agree since evidence was provided that his still pursued his hobby and he had a capable brain for jobs that didn’t involved physical exertion. Sounds like he might do well as a Bigfoot reality TV star.

Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race

In a tangentially related side note, a Bigfoot “hunt” for the more physically fit occurs in Polk County, Florida on February 1 when Parks and Recreation will host its 9th annual The Hunt for Sasquatch trail race. Here’s hoping the winner finds a Sasquatch!

The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot

The Times (UK) has an article out this week, which highlights the continued interest in Bigfoot. Unfortunately, however, it features Matt Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization and Finding Bigfoot TV show, a person who is less than reasonable or cordial to anyone who doesn’t unquestionably accept his fringe claims. Just skip over his parts to see that the article states Bigfoot is “one of the most enduring myths in the United States has inspired a thriving subculture”. The writer cites a 2022 poll that shows 13% of American adults agreed with the statement that Sasquatch is a real, living creature, and suggests that percentage is growing. There is an unavoidable problem when polling people about beliefs, or anything else – they give you their opinion of the moment. This is heavily influenced by the media they consume and maybe the last person they talked to about it, or perhaps they answer “Sure, why not?” just because they are in a cheeky mood. We don’t know. But it is a reasonable estimate for interest in the subject for that particular population sampled.

E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect

In 2019, Professor Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, used eDNA collection procedures and analysis at Loch Ness. The result was a bit of a bust since he found no mystery DNA that provided evidence of an unknown animal in the lake. But, he found lots of eel DNA, and then, inappropriately concluded that there may be giant eels which might be what people are seeing in that loch. Gemmell hit the jackpot by hooking his research to Nessie as it made headlines worldwide. The giant eel nonsense has reared its head out of the water again.

Prof Gemmell is once again planning to head back to the lake for Loch Ness 2.0 where he wants to use a different type of DNA sequencing to show the proportional change in a species’ population over time. The project has real world value regarding biodiversity, but Gemmell continues to use Nessie as the gimmick for attention even though he doesn’t expect to find a monster (eel or otherwise).

“[L]ast time around with Loch Ness 1.0, being able to capture that excitement and communicate it to the world was so much fun.”

He might still be pushing the big eel idea that no knowledgable Nessie researcher takes seriously. Of course there are eels in Loch Ness, but there is no evidence, not even DNA, that suggests a giant eel lives there. Gemmell erodes his cred by taking such a leap, previously saying, “Well, our data doesn’t reveal their size, but the sheer quantity of the material says that we can’t discount the possibility that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness. Therefore we can’t discount the possibility that what people see and believe is the Loch Ness Monster might be a giant eel.”

The enormous eel trope stuck with other DNA researchers too. When Prince William was visiting scientists at NatureMetrics, a research lab near London that also uses eDNA processes, he joked, “Does this mean you can find the Loch Ness Monster?” Firm founder Dr. Kat Bruce then claimed that the so-called creature was more likely a “very big eel” — at least according to testing done on one of the world’s most infamous lakes. Ugh! Silly ideas can be so sticky!

Sidenote – Excited whale parts

In the same Prince William article, the NY Post tabloid also printed that “A few years back, one daring academic proposed that the mythical beast is actually a “whale’s penis” — only to retract the whopper of a theory after being ridiculed mercilessly.” That’s incorrect. The whale penis suggestion is not ridiculous – the appearance of such a spectacle almost certainly happened in the past and threw observers for a loop – but it was in relation to sea serpents, not lake monsters like Nessie. For more on that story – see this compilation. (It’s SFW.)

The Utah Yetis Dream Dissolves

Here’s an update on the story from Pop Cryptid Spectator #4, there will be no new cryptid-named NHL team. You can thank your vacuum-sealed double-walled water bottles and coolers. The Utah hockey club stated the following: “An SEG executive shared that it explored every avenue to make Yeti work but that YETI Coolers, LLC was ultimately unwilling to agree to a co-existence agreement. SEG has confirmed it is no longer pursuing Yeti as a potential name for the team.” That’s a real shame. The next best name is the Mammoth, especially since mammoths did once roam the area now known as Utah.

Reality Shifting and Cryptids

There is an undeniable rift in the cryptozoology scene now. On one side is the idea that cryptids exist in our reality – that we can search for them, maybe find them, even if they have non-natural attributes. On the other side is that cryptids are made part of our reality because we put them there, we create them, and believe in them for strong personal reasons. For the latter, discovery is not the goal. The creatures exist in our defined reality because we allow them to and they serve a purpose that is not zoological.

If you are still following along and haven’t rolled your eyes and checked out, I thank you. I think the concept of reality shifting is important to why we are are experiencing the explosive growth of “cryptid” in its popular context, why cryptid cosplay and merchandise is so popular, and why cryptids are now incorporated into how some define their identity.

Reality shifting is a deliberate activity where a person, usually under the age of 30 (a generation known as Gen Z or Zoomers, born after 1996), decides to construct their own reality and live in that instead of the stressful, unrewarding, day-to-day grind of modern times. The world feels unreal and upside down to many people, so they go online. While the concept of reality shifting appeared in 2019, Covid lockdown created a surge of people constructing their alternate reality. People who create their own fantastical reality can include cryptids or even be cryptids themselves.

Internet folklorist, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, writes about reality shifting. And, she is also a huge fan of cryptids. I was introduced to her work via the Reality Studies vidcast from August 2024. Calling reality shifting an “ascendant form of zoomer spiritualism”, she talks about the development of shared fantasies online, where reality and fantasy merge. People take up a desired reality as a form of escapism and creative expression. The current internet landscape makes this very easy to do.

“To imagine the cryptid – a creature that is by definition unknowable – demands us to suspend real-world rules and immerse ourselves in the fantasy of what’s ‘out there’. […] The desire to uncover hidden truths extends across our post-truth landscape, from the tin-hat conspiracies we consume, to our ongoing fascination with creepypastas like Slenderman and Loab, and the UFOria sweeping across the mainstream. Similarly, we cannot fully comprehend the cryptid because it exists outside the human world.” – Gunseli Yalcinkaya

Gunseli talks about cryptids mostly in the pop cryptid framework, which is where she excels, but sometimes slips into the old timey cryptozoology tropes. She defines cryptids as creatures that may or may not exist under a Western scientific framework, in the sense that any undiscovered animal is a cryptid. She counts interesting animals, like the gorilla, as cryptids prior to it being discovered; I don’t agree with framing historical finds as cryptid prior to the word existing. But she has keen insight into the modern view of cryptids that sci-cryptozoology lacks entirely. In one article, she noted that the appeal of Bigfoot may be that it manages to “exist” in reality, or as just an icon, but still manages to avoid being overtaken, tracked, and captured by technology. Her way of using cryptid, however, is often missing the concept of it being “ethnoknown” (a subject that exists in prior human knowledge, usually from local cultural tales). The minimizing, or total loss, of the historical anecdotal basis for cryptids is evident with new AI cryptids that appear online – LOAB, crungus, and erosion bird. They are shared online in a form of “existing” but their origin is hidden; it remains unclear how or why they appeared. They might appear so often in your online environment that they begin to feel “real”. If any faked or fictional thing sticks around long enough, it can become real – like when fakelore turns into folklore and people tell the stories about encoutering the creatures that originated in Internet liminal space.

I talked about AI cryptids in the Pop Cryptid Spectator #2, but there far is more to be said on these creatures. I know that talking about very modern pop cryptids, from the view of the “extremely online” population of mostly young people, is so far from the original concept of cryptozoology that it makes many people uncomfortable. But fields of study evolve in response to changes in society and technology. That is certainly happening with cryptozoology.

Check out this talk by Gunseli called Cryptid: A Theory of Post-Digital Selfhood for some more brain stretching exercises. I really love the statement early on that the cryptid is defined by the “patchwork of stories” about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0X8C8WmCUM

The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

A fakelore cryptid is thriving at Spa Spring in Alexandria, Virginia. The “goosepig” legend gets a boost by appearing on signage designating historical areas. The creature, resulting from the cross-breeding of pigs and geese, derived from the town’s history of banning these two animals from the city via a local ordinance. Pushed to the fringes, they interbred creating an impossible four-legged animal with a beak. The source of the story on the historical marker is a book on local pets dated 1972. But the story derives from tales referenced from 1928. It might have circulated even earlier as a town historian says that swine and geese were banned from the town beginning at least around 1811.

The new Alexandria Historical Sign Finder map will certainly help boost the goosepig story as more people will find and popularize the sign celebrating the creature. Although the animal is fake, it represents a social event that pushed livestock, and a way of living, out of a city aiming to modernize. While the goosepig does not qualify as a “mysterious animal” in terms of the original intent of “cryptid”, it is set to become a pop cryptid similar to the Hodag of WI and the Squonk of PA. Next logical step is for a goosepig festival to appear!

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

#Bigfoot #cryptid #EDNA #GiantEel #Goosepig #LochNess #Nessie #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator #PopGoesTheCryptid #Sasquatch #utahYetis

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9257

👽 #Bigfoot on #Nessie 🛒 www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/1646... __________________________ #stickers #tshirts #magnet #ufoapparel #UFO #sasquatch #ibelieve #xfiles #Scotland #UFOS #cryptozoology #cryptozoologist #paranormal #monster #LochNess #cryptid #cryptids #lochnessmonster #disclosure #redbubble

👽 #Bigfoot on #Nessie 🛒 www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/1646... __________________________ #stickers #tshirts #magnet #ufoapparel #UFO #sasquatch #ibelieve #xfiles #Scotland #UFOS #cryptozoology #cryptozoologist #paranormal #monster #LochNess #cryptid #cryptids #lochnessmonster #disclosure #redbubble

"Happy Nessie"
#happy #happyday #ness #nessie #lochness #lochnessmonster #seaserpent #happynessie #happynessieday #scotland #higlands #folklore #mythology #art #artist #artwork #artworkoftheday #ink #inkdrawing #watercolours #watercoloursketch #pencils #colourpencils #colourful #mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #hi #happymonday #haveagoodday #haveagoodweek #chillvibes ✨

"Happy Nessie"
#happy #happyday #ness #nessie #lochness #lochnessmonster #seaserpent #happynessie #happynessieday #scotland #higlands #folklore #mythology #art #artist #artwork #artworkoftheday #ink #inkdrawing #watercolours #watercoloursketch #pencils #colourpencils #colourful #mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #hi #happymonday #haveagoodday #haveagoodweek #chillvibes ✨

5 billion photos are now taken each day, for over 1.8 trillion per year. Phones have up to 200 megapixel cameras. That's large enough to print a photo on the side of a building.

Yet, every new UFO, Bigfoot, Nessie or big cat roaming the UK sighting is either not photographed or is blurry like it was taken on a 640k resolution camera from the 90s.

I'm going to go out on a limb and be sceptical.

#Sceptic #UFO #Nessie #Bigfoot

5 billion photos are now taken each day, for over 1.8 trillion per year. Phones have up to 200 megapixel cameras. That's large enough to print a photo on the side of a building.

Yet, every new UFO, Bigfoot, Nessie or big cat roaming the UK sighting is either not photographed or is blurry like it was taken on a 640k resolution camera from the 90s.

I'm going to go out on a limb and be sceptical.

#Sceptic #UFO #Nessie #Bigfoot

5 billion photos are now taken each day, for over 1.8 trillion per year. Phones have up to 200 megapixel cameras. That's large enough to print a photo on the side of a building.

Yet, every new UFO, Bigfoot, Nessie or big cat roaming the UK sighting is either not photographed or is blurry like it was taken on a 640k resolution camera from the 90s.

I'm going to go out on a limb and be sceptical.

#Sceptic #UFO #Nessie #Bigfoot

5 billion photos are now taken each day, for over 1.8 trillion per year. Phones have up to 200 megapixel cameras. That's large enough to print a photo on the side of a building.

Yet, every new UFO, Bigfoot, Nessie or big cat roaming the UK sighting is either not photographed or is blurry like it was taken on a 640k resolution camera from the 90s.

I'm going to go out on a limb and be sceptical.

#Sceptic #UFO #Nessie #Bigfoot

5 billion photos are now taken each day, for over 1.8 trillion per year. Phones have up to 200 megapixel cameras. That's large enough to print a photo on the side of a building.

Yet, every new UFO, Bigfoot, Nessie or big cat roaming the UK sighting is either not photographed or is blurry like it was taken on a 640k resolution camera from the 90s.

I'm going to go out on a limb and be sceptical.

#Sceptic #UFO #Nessie #Bigfoot

Heute ist nicht nur Tag des berühmten Nessie-Fotos, sondern auch des weniger berühmten Bilds seines Bruders.
#Nessie #Messie #Monster #cartoon #mastoart

Heute ist nicht nur Tag des berühmten Nessie-Fotos, sondern auch des weniger berühmten Bilds seines Bruders.
#Nessie #Messie #Monster #cartoon #mastoart

The first recorded sighting of Nessie was in 565 by St. Columba. Columba allegedly saved a man from the monster by making the sign of the cross and telling Nessie to leave him and go back.

[Sorry, no photos available.]

#Nessie #Columba #LochNess #Highlands #Scotland