A TEAM of part-time explorers may have proved the existence of a Yeti-like creature on a tropical jungle island. Tests by experts at Cambridge University and in Australia have shown that hairs and a footprint found by the Indiana Joneses from Stockport and Macclesfield do not belong to any known species. The explorers were searching for the mythical Orang Pendek - also known as the Sumatran Yeti. A scientific paper on their amazing discovery will soon be published. Tales of a half-ape, half-man-like creature in the rainforest are part of the folklore of tribespeople on Sumatra in Indonesia but, despite many sightings by locals and Western scientists, its existence has never been proved. ...

Imagine you're in the middle of nowhere, Northeast USA, walking along a set of power lines when you notice something strange on the top of one. You get closer to find that it's -- It's a dead DEER, lying on top of a 22-foot high pole, with its rear legs clipped off. How did it get there? The images are from a talk radio show website here (tw pls ignore), and the accompanying text suggests that it might have been hit by a train. "There is a train track several yards away and there is a possibility that the deer was struck and tossed into the air, thus landing on the pole. However, the deer would have to have traveled in the air approximately 45 feet (across) to the pole and reach a ...

Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years and thinks perhaps she has found a Chupacabra, however many others think it's actually just an ugly coyote. ...

Biologists baffled by a mysterious, underwater sound think it may be herrings farting. No fish had previously been known to emit sound in such a way, reports the New Scientist. But a team from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver say the noise matches bubbles coming out of a herring's anus. "It sounds just like a high-pitched raspberry," says Ben Wilson of the university. Mr Wilson and his colleagues cannot be sure why herring make this sound, but initial research suggests that it might be a means of communication. Wilson points that, unlike a human fart, the sounds are probably not caused by digestive gases because the number of sounds does not change when the ...

Features in a Martian meteorite believed by some to be the fossilised remains of alien bacteria may have formed underwater, scientists claim. Researchers have found a "striking" match between microscopic features on underwater rocks and mineral deposits from Earth and microbe-like structures in the famous Martian meteorite ALH84001. ...

Portland, ME (WFN) -- Bigfoot made big news this year, and one cryptozoologist wants to know what the average Joe considers the most important Bigfoot event of 2003. Loren Coleman plans to release a list of the ten most newsworthy Bigfoot events of 2003, which he says is done for educational purposes. But first, he wants to see what average folks think is big Bigfoot news. Coleman says a lot of people are still buzzing about the death of Bigfoot hoaxer Ray Wallace, but Coleman says that was "last year." He figures the event that will top his list this year is the Willow Creek Conference in September where primate expert Dr. Jane Goodall was supposed to have voiced her beliefs i ...

Recently a two-headed calf was born at a farm in Russia's Vologda region. Unfortunately, farmers failed to save its life At the end of February milkmaids at the Zarya farm clutched their heads in horror: their favorite cow named Toma delivered an unusual animal: it was a calf with two necks and two heads. The farmers were unhappy to see that the two-headed calf died during difficult confinement. Fortunately, the cow itself survived. Veterinary specialists of the Vologda region say that appearance of the mutant calf is closely connected with worsening ecological situation in the region. Vets say that soils in the area where the strange calf was born catastrophically lack selenium and io ...

A colossal squid has been caught in Antarctic waters, the first example of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni retrieved virtually intact from the surface of the ocean. "All we knew prior to this specimen coming through was that this animal lived in the abyssal environment down in Antarctica," New Zealand squid expert and senior research fellow at Auckland University of Technology, Dr Steve O'Shea, told BBC News Online. "Now we know that it is moving right through the water column, right up to the very surface and it grows to a spectacular size." Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni was first identified in 1925 after two arms were recovered from a sperm whale's stomach. ...

It may be the first-ever reported carjacking by a raccoon, according to a Local 6 News report. Christine Leonard of Barrington, RI said that when she was getting into her car to go to the grocery store over the weekend a raccoon dove into the vehicle and forced her from the car. Leonard said that she had the car in reverse before she got out. With the door closed and locked, the car with the raccoon inside backed out of the driveway, striking a neighbor's fence. The car then suddenly lurched forward, heading back up the driveway striking several trees before the ride ended. When police arrived on scene, they found the raccoon locked in the car with no way out. "These animals ar ...

WASHINGTON - They're loud, messy and neighborhood dogs love them. No, they're not relatives left over from the holidays. They're cicadas. And, like relatives who only visit once and a while, they're coming this spring after a 17-year hiatus. A cicada is a distant cousin of the locust. After spending their entire lives underground, they burrow out, head to the tree tops to mate and then they die. The above-ground cycle of cicadas lasts less than four weeks. But in that time they'll be annoying. Not only are their mating calls really loud, dogs are known to pig out on them; and when their shells decay, they leave a stinky mess behind. Their density can reach 1.5 ...