Barbara Malloy, a Newport City [Vermont] resident and local historian, said this week she saw Memphre the Lake Memphremagog monster on May 1. Like Nessie in the Loch Ness of Scotland or Champ in Lake Champlain, Memphre is the stuff of local legend and history.

It's not the first sighting of the creature that many claim to have seen on this long international lake. Area newspapers like The Stanstead (Quebec) Journal have recorded sightings of something big and elusive in the lake as far back as the 1840s. On Jan. 21, 1847, an eyewitness reported this: "I am not aware whether it is generally known that a strange animal something of a sea serpent ... exists in Lake Memphremagog." [...]

Memphre is believed to look somewhat like a plesiosaur, a water-living dinosaur of the Jurassic period, brown or black in color, with four fins or paddle-like feet, an elongated roundish body and a long neck. It ranges from 6 to 50 feet long. Popular drawings or artwork show his skin color as green, but that obviously depends on the eyewitness.

Women in Maru, headquarters of Maru Local Government area of Zamfara have been forced to remain indoors in the evenings for fear of a strange creature which chases them.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the mysterious creature, said to be half human, half horse, usually appear in the early hours of the morning and in the evenings.

The appearance of the strange creature has crippled the socio-economic activities in the town, especially at night as people prefer to stay at home from 4 pm till morning.

The creature believed to have surfaced in different locations of the town is causing so much anxiety and fear among residents, particularly women.

When contacted to comment on the issue, one of the sons of Emir of Maru, Alhaji Isa Maru said the rumour was strong and "we are still trying to get to the root of it."

ALDER POINT, N.S. - Wallace Cartwright, a lobsterman from Cape Breton Island, has only reluctantly been telling his latest fish story. He says he saw a sea serpent.

"I was kind of leery of approaching it," he told CBC Radio. "God knows, the thing might have been able to jump out of the water, you know? And I'm sure it could have swallowed you whole."

In 30 years on the water, he'd never seen anything like it, and he's been hesitant to tell anyone.

But word got out about the creature he and his mate thought at first was a floating log. As the fishing boat got closer, Cartwright said, the animal raised its head.

"It had a head on it like a sea turtle, and it had a body like a snake … about as big around as a five-gallon bucket," he said.

Cartwright trailed the eight-metre-long creature for about 45 minutes – from a distance – before going back to fishing.

He might have been concerned that no one would believe his tale, but the curator of zoology at the Nova Scotia Museum says he thinks he knows what Cartwright saw – an oarfish.

Oarfish have only recently been documented, Andrew Hebda said, mostly in waters north of Great Britain.

"They can be up to 40 feet in length. They are long, they are thin, they are snakelike in appearance," he said.

If he's right, Hebda suspects the oarfish followed a cold ocean current to Cape Breton.

But Hebda says it's still possible Cartwright saw something different, something never seen before.

Cat owners in Denver, Colorado have been warned to keep their pets at home after a number of mutilated cats were found dead in the area.

The eviscerated remains of four cats were found over the weekend, heightening fears that a cat killer may be on the loose.

The authorities say around 40 mutilated cats have been found in the Denver area over the past year.

There have been a string of similar cases in Salt Lake City, Utah, where 11 cats have been found been found mutilated - many with their heads or organs missing.

In the majority of cases in Denver the cats have been sliced open, often with surgical precision, and their internal organs removed. [...]

A FRONTIER town is divided over whether a mysterious creature roaming Cape York is a puma, a Tassie Tiger or a tree-climbing kangaroo.

Rumours of an introduced puma-like big cat living near Cooktown, north of Cairns, have persisted for decades.

Like the panther said to lurk in bushland outside Sydney, there have been many sightings but no proof.

Some believe pumas were secretly brought to north Queensland as mascots then left behind by American World War II solders.

There is an unrelated theory, held by renowned Cape York artist Percy Trezise, that the region is also home to a native marsupial wolf or thylacine. [...]

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Scientists said on Wednesday a huge mass of slimy flesh that washed up on a Chilean beach last week may be a rare type of giant octopus or just discarded whale blubber. ...

SCIENTISTS have poured cold water on links between Nessie and a 150-million-year-old fossil found in the Ice Age loch.

The piece of fossilised backbone has been identified as belonging to a plesiosaur, the long-necked sea reptile from the Jurassic period which is most closely associated with Nessie - but suspicions have been raised that it may have been planted in Loch Ness much more recently than the last few million years.

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.

WERNER Herzog, the legendary German film-maker, has begun an epic hunt for the Loch Ness monster.

Over the next month Herzog, 60, who is regarded as one of the greatest film-makers alive because of his attention to detail, will attempt to discover the real story behind the monster which is said to lurk in the hidden depths. [...]

A BBC team says it has shown there is no such thing as the Loch Ness monster.

Using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to ensure that none of the loch was missed, the team surveyed the waters said to hide Scotland's legendary tourist attraction but found no trace of the monster. [...]

WINDSOR-GRAND FALLS, NFLD. - The alleged sighting of a mysterious creature has reignited talk of whether Newfoundland's Crescent Lake has its own version of the Loch Ness Monster.

Reports of "Cressie" sightings in the lake near Roberts Arm – about 150 kilometres northwest of St. John's on Notre Dame Bay – go back over half a century.

(CNN) -- From a remote region in the heart of Africa to a genetics lab at the Omaha Zoo, scientists are trying to find out if they have a new big ape on their hands.

"It doesn't look much like a gorilla, it doesn't look like a chimpanzee," said primatologist Shelly Williams, who captured a bit of video of the female mystery ape with a baby.

Pictures of the rare ape are scarce. Wildlife photographer Karl Amman, who was first to spot the mysterious mammals a few years ago, said the animal has feet that are about two inches bigger than the average gorilla and is more flat-faced than other apes. Its behavior also sets it apart from other apes, researchers say. [...]

So what could this animal be? [...]

Dublin doctor snaps photographic evidence of big cat on the loose...

A forensic expert in the US believes he has some of the strongest evidence yet that the Bigfoot, or sasquatch, creature exists.

[...] Investigator Jimmy Chilcutt of the Conroe Police Department in Texas, who specialises in finger and footprints, has said he believes he is certain around six footprints found - claimed to have been made by Bigfoot - are genuine.

He added that one 42 cm (18-inch) print found in Washington in 1987 has convinced him.

"The unique thing about this cast is that it has dermal ridges - and the flow and texture matches the ridge flow texture of one from California," Mr Chilcutt told BBC World Service's Discovery programme.

"The ridges are about twice as thick as in a human being."

A reported sighting of a mysterious black panther in mid-Canterbury has raised the interest of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Ministry is sending an investigation team to a South Island farm after witnesses reported seeing a prowling black cat. Truck driver Chad Stewart reported the sighting when he was delivering stock last Friday.

He is convinced it was a black panther, although the last one officially in New Zealand was years ago at Auckland Zoo. Amelia Pascoe from the Ministry of Agriculture is taking no chances.

"We do have to take the reports seriously. It was seen by somebody in daylight and was watched for some minutes, so we have to keep an open mind to all possibilities. We'll look for paw prints and panther poo," Pascoe said.

Mountain-climbers have discovered the mummified fragment of a leg of an unknown creature that lived several thousand years ago in Altai, Siberia.

The discovery was made at an altitude of 3,000 meters, local media reported. The scientists who x-rayed the discovery, established that it was several thousand years old and that the bones did not belong to any known animal.

Scientists from the Veterinary Academy and Altai Agrarian University think that it resembles a human leg. The position of the knee joint indicates that the being walked on two legs. The leg and foot are covered with red hair which indicates the creature moved on a soft surface, probably snow, the scientists say. The big toe consists of three phalanxes compared with the two that humans have.

The limb has been well preserved as the sun and air had mummified the muscle tissue.

The discovery continues to be examined. Scientists say it's early to attribute it to a yeti because this would require a DNA study. Besides, a European size 36 shoe would fit the discovered leg while yetis are believed to have exceptionally large feet.

PORTLAND, Maine (Wireless Flash) -- You've heard of the "Summer of Love" but this summer was the "Summer Of The Lake Monsters."

That's how cryptozoologists are referring to the Summer of 2003 thanks to the large number of lake monster sightings in places like Loch Ness in Scotland, Lake Champlain in Vermont and also China and Sweden.

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman says there were about three times the usual number of sightings and figures that warmer, drier conditions made the lake monsters more active and easier to see. [...]

Two years ago, just past dawn in February, Rick Fisher was driving along a lonely stretch of Route 23 near Lancaster when he saw a strange creature.

It was about 5 feet tall, skinny, perhaps 80 pounds. It walked upright as if human.

"At first I thought it was just some guy in the middle of the road," he said. "From a distance it appeared to be a man dressed in black."

As he drew closer, he grew alarmed. [...]

In a neighborhood of area off South Cooper, residents say a mysterious creature on the prowl has grown larger, more violent and they're afraid its closing in on them.

"We are scared to come out at night." say Helyn Williams.

In the past few months, cats and all our dogs have been disappearing. Workers from the Shelby County Environmental Office didn't find anything when they combed the area Wednesday afternoon. But Helyn Williams knows something dangerous is out there, because she videotaped dead animals found mutilated along the railroad tracks.

No one has ever seen the creature but many have heard it. [...]

A documentary film featuring the 1955 invasion of "little green men" in the Christian County community of Kelly began filming this weekend in the Angeles National Forest just north of Los Angeles.

Barcon Video Productions, based in Glendale, Calif., filmed the dramatization of the local legend to include as part of a documentary entitled "Monsters of the UFO." [...]

BRIDGEWATER - Twenty-five years later, Joseph DeAndrade still gets a shiver when he recalls what he saw that winter day in 1978: ''A big, tall, strange-looking creature'' lumbering through the trees on the opposite side of a pond in the Hockomock Swamp.

''I've never seen anything like it,'' the former security guard said as he gazed across the still, murky water toward the spot.
DeAndrade's Bigfoot encounter may be the most widely publicized incident from the so-called Bridgewater Triangle. But it's far from the only one.

Over the decades and centuries, local residents have reported sightings of everything from UFOs and cattle mutilations to strange cats and birds within the triangle, which fans out from Abington to south of Taunton. [...]

There have been numerous sightings of a mysterious beast in the mountains of southeast Oklahoma. Now, a scientific team claims they have proof of the ape-like primate.

The first reported sighting was back in the 1800s. Since then, dozens of Oklahomans claim to have seen a strange ape-like creature. [...]

"It is a fun, new exhibit," said Graham Criglow, the facilities manager. "It is so controversial and I think that it is a fun way to get new people into the museum."

The exhibit includes a life-size replica of Bigfoot, photographs, footprint casts, films, books and newspaper articles.

The stories of Bigfoot have been around for years, and there have been reported sightings in all states of the union except Delaware and Hawaii.

"Everybody has a story, someone you know has a story," Criglow said. "I think that is what gets people in here."

The museum, despite the controversial topic, has circumstantial evidence that will make everyone think twice, Criglow said.

"At first, I was extremely skeptical, but after evaluating all the evidence, I realized that it is quite possible that it can exist," said junior biology major Ganiva Reyes. "After seeing the research they displayed, I began to think that it could be true." [...]

[...] An indigenous community in Yucatan has dedicated the last few days to try to hunt at night with shotguns the "huay keken" (diabolical depredator in Maya) which -according to their story- has cut into pieces their poultry, with the disbelief of the authorities. Abrisel Ek Baas, farmer and mother, slept in her house of metal roof when she heard noises on the back of her house. "The birds went wild. I was scared. It sounded like something big that walked on two feet", she says. The next morning, Abrisel found the birds, turkeys and chicken, destroyed and bitten.

[...] People say that the "huay keken" is a huge animal with legs of a horse, gray hairy body, female body from the waist up and makes a noise with a very high tone. From one of the communities, Chicxlub, the local sheriff Jorge Luis Aguilar said that every night the residents guard with weapons, and one of them described the beast as "a dog two meter high, with red eyes, that spits fire".

[...] The state secretary of Protection and Transit, Javier Medina Torre, urged people to remain calm because "while the beast doesn't exist, the hunting could cause someone getting shot and that would become a serious action". However, the rumour is still growing.[...]

While the presence of evil entities advances in Yucatan and motivates an atmosphere of terror among residents, the State Department of Protection and Transit [of Yucatan] warned this Wednesday that it will not allow and will even punish people who use weapons on their attempt to hunt these allegedly supernatural beings.

The reason is that for a second consecutive dawn the residentes of Texan Palomeque, in the municipality of Hunucma, did not sleep and armed themselves with the intention to kill a supposedly female werewolf, that in the last few days has created panic among the members of that and other communities in Yucatan, besides having destroyed hundreds of poultry and other domestic animals. [...]

DALLAS (Wireless Flash) -- A cryptozoologist has an explanation for why no one has been able to catch elusive creatures like the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot: Because they're not of this earth.

Nick Redfern believes the monsters are not part of the physical world, but instead fall in the paranormal realm.

Redfern and two other researcher buddies took a six-week whirlwind tour of known sighting areas in England and questioned locals as well as tried to track down devil dogs, lake monsters and ape-men.

What they found is that many of the so-called sightings took place near ancient stone circles -- similar to Stonehenge -- which leads Redfern to conclude that they are part of the paranormal and can not be captured by physical means.

He theorizes cryptozoologists may have to develop new methods of research, similar to the way ghost hunters use infrared photos to detect haunts.

Redfern's exploration is detailed in his new book "Men Seeking Monsters" (Simon & Schuster).

Stuart Caesar likes to hunt in the wilderness of upstate Pennsylvania.

And over the years, he's heard Native American legends of Bigfoot, the creature that roams the woods rustling sheep and deer, and sometime letting loose terrifying screams.

These sightings occur in remote places like Towanda and Wyalusing and Tioga.

But Caesar believes he has evidence that Bigfoot is stalking Levittown.

He snapped pictures to show doubters.

He says he's a Bigfoot skeptic. Still, he won't dismiss the creature's existence completely, mainly because of his eerie experiences while hunting...

Port Moresby - Authorities in Papua New Guinea ordered police to search part of a remote island after locals told of seeing a giant dinosaur-like creature roaming the area, local media reported Friday.

Villagers on the island of New Britain this week reported seeing a three-metre tall, grey-coloured beast with a head like a dog and a tail like a crocodile, The National newspaper recounted.

Christine Samei told reporters she saw the "dinosaur" early on Wednesday in a marsh just outside the provincial capital Kokopo on the eastern end of New Britain.

"I heard the people talking about it and went there to see for myself. Its very huge and ugly looking animal," Samei said.

A local ward councillor, Michael Tarawana, told the newspaper that villagers said the creature had been sighted by women on several occasions and had reportedly eaten three dogs.

On Thursday, six police officers armed with M-16 assault rifles and villagers carrying bush knives searched the marsh new Tinganavudu village but found no trace of the creature, The National said. The search was confirmed by government officials in the capital, Port Moresby. [...]

A file shot of earlier paw prints claimed to have been left by the "Blue Mountains panther".

Trackers of the so-called "Lithgow Lion" or "Blue Mountains Panther" claim to have further evidence of the creature's existence - a set of large paw prints.

There have been numerous unconfirmed sightings of the mysterious animal in the Blue Mountains area for many years.

Today, the chief of the Blue Mountains Big Cats Investigation Group, Rex Gilroy, claimed he has found new paw prints in a remote area of the Blue Mountains.

"We're dealing with a marsupial cat that from head to outstretched kangaroo-like tail - they've got a dog, yet cat-like head, their fur colour is brownish to black - but certainly they're anything up to two metres in length," Mr Gilroy told Sydney ABC radio.

Servicemen on night manoeuvres at a Cornish air base have reported sighting a large black puma-like animal.

They say they saw the creature in a series of separate sightings around the RAF station at St Mawgan.

Now motion detectors are being put around the base in a bid to track the animal and catch it on camera.

Witnesses, who did not wish to be identified, compared the cat's size with a fox that was in the field at the same time, saying it was "five times the length of the fox", with a head like a puma or panther.

The animal was observed for various lengths of time from different points around the airfield by personnel using night vision equipment.

Squadron Leader Dave Webster said: "We need to maintain the integrity of the sighting area so that zoologists can ascertain whether or not the creature was in transit or if it has become a more frequent visitor.

"The zoological specialists on site are keen to get on with the job of determining how often this creature has visited RAF St Mawgan."

Sqn Ldr Webster warned: "This is an active military installation, which is regularly patrolled and guarded.

"In the present security climate it would be extremely unwise for anyone to attempt to venture on to the base in an attempt to see if this creature is still here." [...]

The truth is out there for a group of amateur investigators who search for evidence of the existence of large apelike creatures roaming throughout western Pennsylvania. The creature known as Bigfoot is described as standing nearly 8 to 10 feet tall with footprints measuring 17 or more inches in length. It has been seen by hundreds of witnesses over the past 50 years.

Eric Altman, of Jeannette, hasn't had a sighting of the elusive creature, but he's heard unidentifiable sounds and tracked miles of large inhuman footprints in the woods of central and western Pennsylvania.

"In the summer of 2000, I was investigating a Bigfoot sighting in Bradford County when I heard growling, mumbling, raspy breathing and heavy footfalls in the woods," said Altman, who, along with his wife, Kathy, are the director and secretary, respectively, of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society. "In some sightings, people have reported hearing it sound like a woman screaming."

Denny Calisti, and his wife, Colleen, also of Jeannette, serve as the society's assistant director and treasurer, respectively, which the couples formed in 1998. Calisti became intrigued by all things paranormal as an 11-year-old boy growing up in the Export area. He was walking in the woods when he saw something large, standing on two feet that he couldn't identify. The Calistis also head the Pennsylvania Researchers Organization, which involves them in wildlife and scenic photography, paranormal investigations, archaeology, and cryptozoology.

"Some of the Bigfoot sounds from all over the U.S. were recorded and taken to university audiology departments," said Calisti. "Although some were identified, others couldn't be and researchers said the closest the unidentified sounds came to were primates."

Since the inception of the society, Altman and Calisti have collected about 500 sighting reports.

"We get about five sighting reports per week, with most being older sightings," said Altman. "We jump on recent sightings and go to the scenes and try to collect evidence."

They search for footprints, fur, and other tangible evidence, including animal carcasses, to prove or disprove the existence of Bigfoot.

"We don't know if Bigfoot exists or not," said Calisti. "I'd say we have a healthy skepticism."

"It's very black and white," Altman said. "There are people who completely disbelieve and those who are absolutely convinced that there is a Bigfoot. We don't know. That's why we go out and try to locate evidence whenever we get a sighting report." [...]

After five weeks without a reported sighting, a big cat apparently is on the prowl again in Lake County.

Tracks and other evidence have been examined and live traps have been set for what state authorities believe is a cougar that has taken up residence in an Antioch subdivision.

Lake County animal control received reports on April 7 and 13 of a large animal near Beach Grove Road. [...]

Wilms, an environmental science teacher and head tennis coach at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, said he began checking his yard after hearing the neighbor's description: a large animal with rounded black ears, black face and a very long black tail.

"The next day, I was out there with my kids. Sure enough there were a couple of big cat prints," he said.

Wilms got a first hand look at the elusive animal around dawn Wednesday.

"All of a sudden, this unmistakable cat pranced through," he said. "It's been here at least four times." [...]

Cougars were once common in Illinois, experts say, but there are none here now that are wild. Piotrowski noted that two of the reports were from Belvidere and Woodstock, putting into question exactly what people were seeing.

Authorities believed fresh water and the abundance of deer may have lured the animal and accounted for the sightings near the Des Plaines River. How it drifted about 15 miles from the Libertyville area to Antioch is a mystery.

"Why wouldn't the cougar stay in one area? How is it moving? Nobody knows," she said. [...]

A government watchdog has asked a regional council why it placed a mythical monster on Sweden's endangered species list.

The