VENOMOUS CATERPILLARS! FISH WITH HUMAN HEAD!

The weird, weird world we live in continues to reveal stories of the strange and unusual. First up is the killing of a rare (and sacred to indigenous peoples) white moose by hunters ("I got me one, Pa!"). I'm not against hunting under certain circumstances, but this act was highly unwarranted, especially when the remains were left behind. There's no accounting for brains in our vast populace that never lets up in destroying and polluting the beautiful (and diminishing) spaces left in natural spaces.

Other stories gathered from around the web are an account of a teacher who seems to have decided to satisfy his curiosity regarding the consumption of human flesh, Cthulhu-sized squid going for the ocean's version of the Big Mac -- the Great White Shark, a fish caught in Thailand with an eerily-human face, and "toupee-ed" caterpillars with a venomous sting. It's not surprising that it's just one more non-native, invasive species introduced, and unbidden, to our shores.

Canadian First Nations Outraged By The Killing Of ‘Sacred’ White Moose

By Natasha Ishak | Published November 18, 2020

It is estimated that there are only 30 white moose in the area, which makes this killing particularly painful for Indigenous Canadians.

Canada’s First Nations are grief-stricken and outraged by the killing of a rare white moose in the Ontario area. The moose was part of a rare pack of white moose that inhabit the region and are considered sacred “spirits” by local tribes.

According to The Guardian, the suspects killed two female moose, including one white cow. The animals’ remains, including their heads, were found discarded on a service road.

“Why would you shoot it? No one needs one that bad,” said Chief Murray Ray of Canada’s Flying Post First Nation. “If you have a license to shoot a cow moose, you could shoot another one. Just leave the white ones alone.”

The white moose are not albino but possess a recessive gene which causes their fur to grow an unusual shade of white. Residents near the city of Timmins, Ontario claim that the white moose have inhabited the area for at least 40 years, though they are considered rare.

Indeed, according to Flying Post community member Troy Woodhouse, no one knows exactly how many of these creatures live in the area, “So the loss of a single spirit moose is one too many. It saddens me that somebody would take such a beautiful animal.”

Local photographer Mark Clement has also seen a number of white moose over the years, but he has counted at least four white bulls and estimates that there might be as many as 30 spread throughout the region.

“The spirit moose has and always will be sacred and respected in our family and our community,” Woodhouse added. “We coexisted with the spirit moose on our traditional territory. Our ancestors and elders have told us stories our entire lives about the majestic creature and how lucky we are to have them in our area.”

The special animals have also only recently received legal protections in the area, which remains the only area to have such protections in place.

In 2013, a group of hunters killed a white moose in the province of Nova Scotia, spurring outrage from the local Mi’kmaq people. The hunters returned the pelt of the white moose to the Mi’kmaq so that they could perform a sacred ceremony to honor its spirit, but then kept the head as a trophy.

The Flying Post peoples have urged authorities to return this white moose’s pelt to them so that a similar ceremony can be performed.

Poachers and hunters typically collect the animal’s head as a trophy, but in this case, the head of the white moose was left discarded with the rest of its body, which has led some to speculate that the rare creature was killed accidentally.

“Maybe hunters tried to get one moose and got the other by accident. If a person does come forward and admit what they did,” Woodhouse suggested.

Canadian wildlife officials are still investigating the matter and, in the meantime, are asking people to come forward with any information they might have about the slain white moose.

As of now, there are no clues as to who the moose killers might be. However, a reward has been offered by multiple parties, including a drilling company and an animal welfare group, for any information that leads to charges in this disturbing killing. The combined reward currently totals $6,000, and Woodhouse himself has offered a reward of $760.

[SOURCE: Allthatsinteresting.com.]

The smiling face of a human monster.

Teacher Arrested On Charges Of Cannibalism After Missing Man’s Fleshless Leg Found In Park

By Marco Margaritoff | November 23, 2020

Once the victim's leg was found riddled with bite marks in the Berlin park, police dogs led officers to the suspect's home, where they uncovered a bone saw and a cooler for storing meat.

A 41-year-old elementary school teacher identified only as “Stefan R.” was just arrested by German police in connection to the murder and suspected cannibalization of a man who went missing in September.

Police were alerted to the fleshless bones of 44-year-old Stefan Trogisch’s leg — which also had bite marks on them — in a Berlin park on November 8. The authorities were subsequently led back to the nearby home of Stefan R. by sniffer dogs.

According to Deutsche Welle, Berlin police suspect that the murderer cannibalized Trogisch after meeting him on an online dating site.

“The suspect had an interest in cannibalism,” said Marin Steltner, a spokesman for the Berlin prosecutor’s office. “He searched online for the topic.”

Steltner added that it was unclear whether or not the victim shared his killer’s interest in cannibalism. While this seems like an odd point to make, it should be noted that cases of consensual cannibalism have occurred in Germany before.

Indeed, in 2015, a German police officer was convicted of murdering a man he met on an internet forum for cannibalism. And before that, the infamous “Rotenburg cannibal,” Armin Meiwes, had done the same in 2006.

Meiwes detailed eating his victim, whom he chatted up online first, and described the nuances of his macabre passion during his trial. Similarly, the crime took place in Berlin.

Meiwes had simply placed an ad on “The Cannibal Cafe” website in hopes of finding a “young, well-built man who wanted to be eaten.” Shockingly, somebody answered. The convicted murderer told the court that he had fostered the macabre fantasy since childhood and was grateful to have fulfilled it.

His victim, an engineer from Berlin named Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, had fortuitously been searching for someone to eat him. By all accounts, he was just as relieved to meet Meiwes as the cannibal was to find him.

Meiwes was charged with “disturbing the peace of the dead” and murder for the purposes of sexual pleasure. The Berlin prosecution has described Meiwes’ charge as “sexual homicide with base motives,” and Meiwes consequently became the first German citizen to be charged with “love cannibalism” and is now serving life in prison.

That case mirrors this latest incident in several ways, including the nationality of both victims and perpetrators, as well as the manner in which these individuals met.

While Meiwes was caught when a college student noticed a new ad of his alongside details of Brandes’ murder, Stefan R. became a suspect when his victim’s dating profile first led authorities to suspect him.

In October, police began to comb through Trogisch’s online history on the German matchmaking site Planet Romeo and found the math and chemistry teacher who is now in custody. Planet Romeo is a German social network for gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Founded in Berlin, the portal is used by millions.

Once police were led to Stefan R.’s house, they found further clues that suggested he did indeed murder and cannibalize Trogisch.

His home was practically littered with incriminating evidence, from an oversized cooling box, a bone cutter saw used by surgeons and 55 pounds of sodium hydroxide. This chemical is commonly used to make soap and the suspect claimed that is why he purchased it.

Of course, whether or not that’s true remains to be seen.

[SOURCE: Allthatsinteresting.com.]

Scars Found On Great White Sharks Suggest Massive Squids Are Attacking Them

By Marco Margaritoff | November 19, 2020

For five years across 2008 to 2019, marine experts at Isla Guadalupe have spotted sucker marks and scars on a total of 14 great white sharks.

According to a newly released study, marine scientists have found evidence that suggests great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) in the Pacific Ocean are being attacked by gigantic squids. The stunning claim comes from scars and sucker marks found on the fearsome predators.

Though the idea of an enormous tentacled creature battling a shark with razor-sharp teeth sounds like a vintage monster movie, according to Forbes, the encounters have been officially documented around Guadalupe Island off the Baja, California coast.

Published in the Scientific Reports journal, the study examined 14 great white sharks with peculiar scars on their bodies observed across five years between 2008 and 2019. Most of the specimens had yet to reach adulthood at the time, and the unusual marks almost universally appeared on their heads and trunks.

Razor-sharp squid suckers.

“The scars observed on the white sharks were double or single layers with multiple sucker marks around the shark’s head and in the trunk between the dorsal and pectoral fins,” the study explained. “Wounds near the shark’s mouth and trunk suggest a defensive response from squid to the white shark.”

Known as Isla Guadalupe, the volcanic island is a significant feeding site for the apex predators. With pristine visibility characterizing the waters, both researchers and tourists alike routinely travel to its waters to study or watch the animals in their habitat.

Interactions between sharks and cephalopods aren’t new. Species such as blue sharks, for instance, get half of their diet from these predatory mollusks. Rich in protein and carbohydrates, squids are an important part of these sharks’ healthy diet. Accounts of great whites interacting with large squids, however, are sparse — and make this study invaluable.

The largest predatory fish on Earth, great white sharks grow to an average length of 15 feet — with some specimens longer than 20 feet having been officially recorded in the past. They’re found in fairly cool and coastal waters around the world. On the surface, it seems like nothing save for orcas could threaten these animals.

Eastern areas of the North Pacific Ocean provide a fertile opportunity to reconsider that, however. In range of the region’s great white sharks, these are hotspots of substantial squid activity. There’s a large variety of them there, too, ranging from foot-long neon flying squids and purpleback squids to jumbo squids — and giant squids that can grow up to 46 feet.

The vertical movements of great whites in the so-called “twilight zone” is typical foraging behavior for the species. Curiously, it occurs at depths inhabited by numerous squids.

With interactions between these species and great white sharks being rather rare, marine experts have heartily welcomed the latest study. Among numerous benefits is the invaluable light it has begun to shed on the importance of squid as prey for subadult and adult great whites.

The fascinating encounters are currently believed to occur at great depths. It’s well established that subadult and adult great white sharks routinely dive down to the “twilight zone,” a layer of water beyond sunlight’s reach between 650 and 3,300 feet deep. Their vertical movements here are classic foraging behavior.

In the Shared Offshore Foraging Area (SOFA), great whites reach an average depth of 1,450 to 1,634 feet, while they descend deeper than 984 feet in Guadalupe. Thus, these sharks are in regular contact with a variety of animals likely to have caused the observed scars.

“Both SOFA and Guadalupe Island have been suggested as areas with a high diversity of potential prey, in which cetaceans, sharks, bony fish, and cephalopods seasonally occur,” the study said.

The study detailed a total of 14 great white sharks being spotted with either sucker marks, scars, or both.

Though it has yet to be proven that giant squids are responsible for the sucker marks and scarring, researchers have narrowed potential candidates down to the jumbo squid, neon flying squid, and most excitingly, their giant counterpart.

While we await more direct evidence that great white sharks battle giant squids, we’ll just have to make do with this enthralling image of shark vs. squid combat from the study:

“The fact that squid cause these marks on sharks suggest an extremely aggressive encounter between predator and prey, in which the defensive scars protrude on the head, gills and body of the white shark.”

“The suction power of the arms and tentacles of large squids is likely to deform the structure of the shark dermal denticles and hence the scars, and in some cases generate open wounds depending on the intensity of the embrace.”

[SOURCE: Allthatsinteresting.com.]

Fish with Eerie Human-Like Face Caught in Thailand

By Tim Binnall | October 29, 2020

A fisherman in Thailand was aghast when he reeled in a catch that sported an eerie human-like face that appeared to be sad about its fate. The weird denizen of the deep was reportedly caught by Prasert Shookul earlier this week as he was trying to snag some blue crabs from the Andaman Sea. Upon pulling in his net to see how he fared, the fishermen was stunned to see a fish with "a face like an ugly, frowning human" staring back at him.

The sight was so unsettling that Shookul actually considered tossing both the fish and the net that delivered it back into the water. Instead, however, he opted to bring the creature back to his village in the hopes that someone could identify it, but not even the community elders had ever seen such a thing. Although the fish perished by the time he reached his residence, Shookul was still uneasy about the creature, explaining that "I did not dare to cook it for myself or anybody else. It was so weird."

The human-faced fish apparently caused such a stir in Shookul's village that word of the weird creature managed to find its way to a local marine center which dispatched a team to his home to investigate the matter. According to the wildlife experts who examined the animal, it was likely a Pollicaris fish. While they seemingly squashed any concern that Shookul's catch was some kind of mer-creature, the man wanted nothing further to do with it and promptly handed it over to the center citing a fear of bad luck.

[SOURCE: Coast 2 Coast AM.]

Venomous Caterpillars Invade Virginia

By Tim Binnall |October 8, 2020

Wildlife officials in Virginia have issued a warning about hairy venomous caterpillars that produce a powerful and painful reaction when touched. According to the Virginia Department of Forestry, the deceptively diminutive creatures with the appropriately nightmarish name puss caterpillars have recently been spotted in several counties in the eastern part of the state. Somewhat resembling a tiny toupee, the fuzzy bug is far from adorable and, in fact, is one of the most venomous species of caterpillar in the United States by way of toxin which is easily transferred from its fur.

Cautioning that the insects "can be found in parks or near structures," the department advised residents "if you find the caterpillar, leave it alone and let its natural enemies control their populations— there are a number of other insects that will prey on them at different stages of their life cycle." Should an unfortunate individual come into contact with one of the creatures, experts say that they could suffer a variety of reactions including an initial intense wave of pain followed by possibly nausea, fever, vomiting, and muscle cramps.

"It was like nothing I'd ever experienced," recalled puss caterpillar victim Julie Hammer to a local television station, "it was excruciating. It did not let up at all." The experience was so intense that she wound up in the emergency room seeking treatment where "it felt like I was still being stung" during the entirety of her hospital visit. While experts are uncertain as to why the non-native insects have arrived in Virginia, given the strangeness that has been 2020, it's not altogether surprising. To that end, now we're left wondering what might happen if they tangled with a Murder Hornet.