Lost Monster Files is a cryptid bust

It would be awesome if there were no more faked-science TV shows. Back in 2017, I published a book on how amateur paranormal researchers pretend to do science. Around that time, there were so many TV and YouTube shows of people doing this – staging “investigations” using sciencey-looking gadgets and language and playing at being experts – that I couldn’t keep track of them all anymore. Unfortunately, they are still going strong.

Cryptozoology is my favorite fringe subject, but it’s not fringe anymore, it’s mainstream. We can credit Monster Quest and Finding Bigfoot for the current popularity of self-styled cryptozoologists looking for mystery creatures. The latest cryptid show is Lost Monster Files on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb.

I realize that people want to be on TV and hope make a living doing stuff like this, but I argue that these shows make the audience less knowledgeable about the topic because of the dumbing-down of the presented scenarios, and the exceptionally poor content passed off as “facts”.

Recap

Episode 1 explored the Carolina Chupacabra and the content failed to include anything interesting or new except what they seemingly made up. A condensed show can hardly begin to explore the complex history of the legendary creature and its strange cultural evolution. However, all history and much of the interesting details were entirely ignored for a ridiculous plot and very silly conclusion.

Episode 2 covered Sanderson’s work on ABSMery (the study of abominable snowmen accounts). The cast goes to British Columbia to follow up on an old Sasquatch/Bigfoot account. They confuse us without enlightening or even entertaining us. They find nothing.

Episode 3 is on the Thunderbird where the team finds an eagle’s nest but concludes, laughably, that there might be a still-living Teratorn or unknown giant eagle here.

I took a break from watching the show because it was worthless to me. I was curious, however, so I binge-watched the (hopefully) last three episodes.

Bernard is ghosted

Episode 4 was on the Minnesota Iceman, or “wild man” as the show calls it. The Iceman was a very popular sideshow promoted by Frank Hansen in 1968 depicting a body of what people thought of as a “cave man” frozen in ice. The team, as usual, ignores much of the important parts of the tale – that the Iceman model that was used still exists, that Hansen made money off it, and that Sanderson conducted his inspection of the body with Bernard Heuvelmans. Mention of Heuvelmans is entirely absent from this show, even though his history is entwined with Sanderson’s. While these extractions were done for time limitations, it makes the cast appear clueless to those of us who know that actual history. For drama, one half of the cast goes to the old Hansen farm to look for the real Iceman body they believe is buried there. The other half goes to the remote location where Hansen supposedly shot the creature where they have an “infrasound” experience. (Again. They had a similar thing happen in episode 2, which was also dropped with no consideration). The best find they come up with is a footprint, which they do not show on camera in any detail, but gush over it, claiming it matches Sanderson’s information about the creature having a really big toe. They conclude with misguided blather about evolution connected to Denisovans. They totally don’t know what they are talking about.

Heuvelmans is entirely absent from this show
even though his history is entwined with Sanderson’s.

Deception island

Episode 5 sent the team to Kodiak Island in Alaska to find out about the Kodiak sea monster. This was probably the worst episode. It was boring and, tracking with all the other episodes, absurd in premise. Their suggestion is that a plesiosaur twice the size of a blue whale (just all sorts of wrong) could still be living in the offshore ocean trench. Really reaching for an exciting conclusion, they suggest that the chemicals dumped after WW2 could have caused a genetic mutant to appear as a monster 30 years later. Ironically, the episode closed with a voiceover of Sanderson talking about truth and deception.

The cave “dragon” final episode

Episode 6 took the cast into a cave in Arkansas where they actually found something! The subject cryptid was the Gowrow – a made-up legend of a giant, spiny backed lizard. What caught my attention for this was the appearance of a USGS hydrologist discussing groundwater. I’m certain his words were cut and edited to lose all meaning because the jumbled word salad spewed about aquifers and caves was rubbish. Summing up their misinformed ideas about how water moves underground, they suspected that the Gowrow creature was travelling between a surface pond and cave systems via underwater passageways (they erroneously called “the aquifer”). This is a well-worn and mistaken idea often proposed for lake monsters that large creatures use subterranean passageways (through rock) to the ocean. The average person doesn’t know how groundwater moves, and this episode shows that ignorance in spades.

“Finding all that water in [the cave] was a gamechanger,” says Brittany, who seems to be the one to say the most ridiculous things in the show. Caves are created by water and typically still have water in them because they are under the surface.

The team descends into a cave. The location is not shown, but the implicit suggestion is that they “found” it, and it’s unexplored. This is clearly false, because the cave is too large and accessible for it to be unknown. It is extremely dangerous for inexperienced people to go a mile into a cave system like this, and there were no safety precautions shown for white nose syndrome protocols.

They find evidence of an alligator in the cave. And, they actually find the alligator.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d2LWxeWEGIo

I searched for more information about an alligator discovered in a cave in Arkansas and found nothing. According to the show, they were 80 miles from natural alligator habitat. There is no way this animal was native to this cave because it was too cold to comfortably exist here. It seems likely that it was let loose here. I’m not saying it was planted, it could have been released by an irresponsible person, but I can’t trust anything on this show.

Common threads in the episodes

Over the six episodes, there were common threads:

In conclusion, this was a typical scientifical paranormal TV show with hype and no substance. It wasn’t even entertaining. For anyone who knows anything much about cryptids, this show was a total dud.

#alligatorCave #ArkansasAlligator #Bigfoot #cryptidTVShow #cryptids #Cryptozoology #DiscoveryChannel #evidence #IvanSanderson #LostMonsterFiles #MinnesotaIceman #ReviewOfLostMonsterFiles #science #television

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9045

Lost Monster Files Thunderbird episode flies in the face of reason

Here I am again with a review of the third episode of the Discovery Channel show Lost Monster Files (LMF). In the previous posts, I explained how I was left unimpressed by the quality of evidence and the dramatically overreaching explanations suggested by the cast. This episode continues the trend of mashing together the existing lore, the background from Ivan Sanderson’s (not) “lost” files, eyewitness stories, and their field investigations to produce an incoherent and rather insulting show for anyone who knows anything much about cryptid history.

This episode, they took up the Thunderbird – a legend of an enormous bird in the forests of Pennsylvania. It’s a history I know fairly well. LMF forgets all that or just condenses it into one stinky regurgitated pellet of barely recognizable bits, and, instead, focuses on recent claims along Chestnut Ridge, part of the Allegheny Mountains southeast of Pittsburgh.

As with the previous two episodes, it starts with the sensationalized claim that “a creature has been terrorizing” the place…

Except they can’t find it, so… not very terrifying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ImR9_Y4Bo

They do tell us about the most famous account of a thunderbird: the attack on 10 yr old Marlon Lowe in 1977. Marlon is still alive. They interviewed him at a Pennsylvania location. The details are sparse, as usual, but they fail to mention this incident took place in Lawndale, Illinois. That’s rather important considering this is all about PA. They also never examine the implicit claim that the bird lifted him. The drawing shown with the story depicts a child lifted by his foot into the air even though Marlon was never actually lifted this way (or at all). It is not possible for birds to lift more than their own weight, and they are very lightly built. But, nevermind, whatever.

I notice that the show never seems to give ample time to note all the critical information that might help viewers understand the stories – they have a set agenda to push and can’t fit too much into a short format. This is the rotten part of TV shows like this; they present a skewed story to the audience, who probably won’t fact-check and will assume these actors are doing something akin to actual research.

They head to Chestnut Ridge where a farmer says a huge bird, larger than he’s ever seen, has been spotted three times on his land. Unfortunately, he compares its size to the large birds in the area including pelicans and storks, except neither are not found anywhere near here. Oops.

The attempt to lure a large bird at the farm with (trigger warning) dead rabbits is a failure, but the producers can’t stop themselves from giving Brittany an ambiguous “hit” by claiming she sees a large bird (that looks for all the world like a super common turkey vulture). It disappears without her seeing it fly away. Nevermind, whatever.

The show then throws at us a ridiculous story that the local airport has caught mystery objects in the air over the ridge that are unidentifiable as planes. Therefore, these might be large birds or they might be military planes. Is it really possible that several large birds are flying repeatedly, unnoticed, but show up on radar and are mistaken for planes. Really? REALLY?

The team hikes up to an area they think might have nests spotted by a drone. (It’s a tiny hot spot among the roasting rocks. Nevermind, whatever.) They find a deer skull that Brittany says was pecked at by a beak. And they find a large “pellet” regurgitated by a bird of prey. It’s 3-4 inches long. A 3-inch pellet is not unreasonable for an eagle. They also find remains of a normal-sized raptor nest, long abandoned. All of this is not very unusual, except they make it so.

The DNA result on the pellet shows it’s from an eagle but the DNA is mixed with all the animal remains in it. So they suggest it might be something that ate an eagle. I am not making this up – they really are reaching that far. They end up concluding that the animal might be a (long-extinct) Teratorn or an eagle with gigantism, both of which are baseless because a regular eagle will suffice to explain the findings.

There are a few more obvious points where the episode egregiously misleads viewers.

Location, Location, Location

They fail to explain locational information about the Thunderbird. The main tales of modern Thunderbirds took place in Illinois, and in the “Black Forest” of north central Pennsylvania in the 1970s. They could have at least mentioned that. Sanderson had known about the reports in the Black Forest area, but I never heard Chestnut Ridge mentioned until extremely recently.

Perhaps the people producing this show are just clueless about the US. When they showed examples of the Alleghenies, they stuck in what appears to be a photo of the Alps. This is not Pennsylvania or anywhere in Appalachia:

Area of High Strangeness

The area of Chestnut Ridge has recently been surging as an area of all kinds of paranormal activity. The fact that Thunderbird sightings have also been escalating in the past year is certainly related to more people looking for strange things, and more people willing to take their claims seriously. However, that does not mean that large unknown birds really exist here. You name it and people have claimed it in the Chestnut Ridge area – Bigfoot and other cryptids, UFOs, Bigfoot coming out of UFOs, earth lights, hauntings, portals, etc.

How to hide a huge, flying thing that millions of people are looking for

Of all mystery animals, those that fly, and that are excessively large, are the hardest to keep hidden. Millions of people are active bird-watchers and migration routes are monitored. Every year, citizen scientists all over the country take part in a bird count, actively cataloging birds. It’s absurd to suggest that even off track migrants won’t be noticed (they frequently are, and it makes for big news), or, that they deliberately hide from human binoculars.

After three episodes, LMF is formulaic, contrived, and non-credible. There is a pattern of outright carelessness, ignorance, and disrespect for the topic of cryptozoology and, frankly, it dishonors Sanderson’s memory. It’s very difficult to fit nuance and reason, let alone an entire investigation, into a 45-minute program. When you try to do that with a cast who pitch sensationalistic nonsense, and producers that are making stuff up, you end up with a very awful result.

Episode 1 review: Lost Monster Files – Carolina Chupacabra review
Episode 2 review: Lost Monster Files produces some abominable research

#cryptid #Cryptozoology #DiscoveryChannel #eagle #IvanSanderson #largeBirds #LostMonsterFiles #Pennsylvania #ReviewOfLostMonsterFiles #television #Teratorn #Thunderbird

https://sharonahill.com/?p=8832

Lost Monster Files – Carolina Chupacabra review

The Discovery Channel’s new series “Lost Monster Files” (LMF) is promoted as a cryptozoology program that uses a team of experts that consult the archives of “founder of cryptozoology”, Ivan T. Sanderson, in their investigations of modern claims of unclassified animals. The first episode, titled Carolina Chupacabra, aired on 9 October 2024. Here is my review about the content and conclusions.

Not a promising start

There is not a lot of reliable background information on this show on the web. There was a press release and that’s about it. The episodes listed in various places are jumbled and they are not yet airing on the usual streaming services (that is, it’s not on Discovery +). Here is the official blurb for the first episode:

In the premiere episode, the group investigates a series of strange livestock mutilations in the Smoky Mountains that locals fear could be tied to the infamous Chupacabra, which has terrorized the Southwest for decades. Using journals and evidence from Sanderson’s archive, the team investigates a rash of deadly encounters in North Carolina to try and document this killer canine…and the possibility that the creature could be migrating east.

Interestingly, I also found this alternate wording on another TV listing site that was more or less the same except for this part:

…the team attempts to uncover the identity of this killer canine and whether or not it could be part of a secret government testing program.

Right from the start, with the intro (“A horrifying, blood-sucking beast is terrorizing Appalachia…”), and the hint of conspiracy mongering from what might have been an earlier draft blurb, we’re in outlandish BS paranormal territory. The episode ends up NOT going there, at least, but I can’t help wonder if that was an editing decision. Before we get to the content, let’s check out the show’s “experts.”

A Team of “Experts”

From the press release:

The team includes field scientist and tech expert Charlie Mewshaw, cryptozoologist Brittany Barbieri, predator experts and wildlife trackers Troy Lillie and Justin Igualada, and former CIA officer and FBI agent Tracy Walder. Following evidence and theories buried away for decades and chasing up-to-the-minute encounters, they aim to bring fact to fiction by documenting one of these legendary creatures for the first time.

In the intro, we also are told that all of these people are “experts”. Obviously, we are meant to find them credible and experienced in investigating mystery animal claims. Mewshaw says he has several degrees,

• Barbieri is listed as a “cryptozoologist”, and the others are touted for their experience and knowledge. My idea of experts must be different than the producers as none are zoologists or biologists. Barbieri, is known as a paranormal researcher who has interest in UFOlogy. She has given herself the title of cryptozoologist like many others in that field. But her IMDB bio states Actress, Writer and Producer.
• Charlie Mewshaw is an author, podcaster, and artist (and now “program host”) who cites his “natural resource science” background. It’s unclear what that means but it that is not “biology” or “zoology”.
• Troy Lillie is Brittany’s brother. His job, according to Facebook, is Co-Owner of Crocstar clothing and produces crocodile-related conservation media content.
• Justin Igualada is a wildlife handler and alligator wrestler.
• I don’t doubt that CIA/FBI person Tracy Walder was what she said but it doesn’t actually have any value to a show about mysterious animals unless they are going to focus on eyewitness accounts (which seems like the way it’s going to go) or government secrets (which also might be the direction they are headed).

So, from my point of view, this is a team of people who call themselves experts but they haven’t done much, if any, scientific research, published papers, and undergone peer review for their work. Discovery producers can call them “experts” and won’t get in trouble for it. I’ll drop in here a reminder that Sanderson himself had a degree in Zoology. Calling oneself an “expert” is usual for paranormal content, so this flummery is almost expected.

If I’m wrong about any of these assertions, feel free to let me know. The reason I’m irked by this use of “expert” in a presumably zoological show is because, if you are going to do animal investigations regarding interpretation, conclusions, etc., that is framed as scientific, you had better have some legit cred and know how science actually works. None of these people have that, though it will not be obvious to the casual viewer. This is a Monster Quest-style show where people are pretending to do science and look very serious-minded, but their conclusions mean little because the results are contrived without peer review and critique. Scientific discoveries aren’t legitimized via TV show.

Oh dear, I’ve shown all my cards already. But it’s no surprise that I deeply despise this ‘I play a scientist/researcher on TV’ gambit. It is how many nonfiction mystery docu-shows are formatted, which is, unfortunately, promoting misinformation to the audience. My choice would have actual scientists talking about this stuff, but, I’d bet they are busy creating actual knowledge.

At least LMF does not appear to be manufactured fiction like previous Discovery Network shows. And, it is possible that the content could be informative. Plus, we all know that Monster Quest was useful in getting people interested in animals. Some of those people undoubtedly realized that the MQ content was not altogether reliable; that it was solely entertainment, not scholarship.

Episode 1: A tale of two chupacabras

I’ll hit the few points that stuck out to me in this episode.

Sanderson is emphasized as “the” founder of cryptozoology.

I’m going to assume that the people reading this have some background in the history of cryptozoology. The program uses Ivan T. Sanderson’s ideas as a foundation, and maybe nothing more than a plot device. I’m a bit concerned about that. Sanderson was problematic but I enjoy his writing without taking it too seriously. The narration tells us Sanderson was “the” founder of cryptozoology. The press release says “a” founder of cryptozoology, which is more correct. There is no mention of Bernard Heuvelmans (“father of cryptozoology”) so far, but they do head to Minnesota…

Where is the archive from?

The archive of recordings, papers, binders, casts and animal remains are said to have been “lost” for 50 years and that this team got access to it in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I don’t know the background for this. Sanderson’s paper are known to be in the archives of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. I do not know the difference between the collections. Could this content be some of the material taken from his Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU) headquarters in New Jersey? It was known that after his death people made off with stuff from the headquarters. The origin story of the archives is not addressed in the first episode.

Hybrid canids and the chupacabra

For this episode, the link to Sanderson, who wrote back in the 1950s and 60s, is that he considered that hybrid wolf-like canids could account for mystery animals in the US. This is the show’s jumping off point to discuss livestock deaths by mystery canids in both North Carolina and Texas. Brittany, Troy and Justin visit farmers in Appalachian North Carolina who report seeing a large canid and experiencing livestock deaths. Notably, the creature is said to be bigger than a coyote with some reporting “glowing green eyes”.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Tracy pay a visit to Phyllis Canion, owner of the iconic “chupacabra” that was killed and taxidermied in Cuero, Texas. Canion’s DNA test showed that the strange animal was a coyote with a mix of Mexican red wolf. However, it is notable that the “wolf” portion could have been introduced generations ago, according to information from UC Davis. In LMF, however, the DNA result is said to include a “unknown” portion as well. Much is made of this “mystery” as I will circle back to in a bit.

In North Carolina, a stake out by the crew with a live goat as bait resulted in a brief glimpse on infrared video of a canid shape racing through the area. Almost unbelievably, the animal ran into a pole they placed in the ground to act as a hair trap, dislodging it. It left not hair, but skin. The skin sample was sent for DNA testing and the result was said to be exactly the same as Canion’s result, leading to the team to conclude that it’s the same species of animal.

Blood-sucking beast

The history of the cryptid called a “chupacabra” is socially complex and rather confusing. If you know, you know. Throughout the episode, the cast states that it would be awesome to finally get proof of whatever the “chupacabra” is. However, not only is Canion’s animal referred to as a “chupacabra” (so we already know that, in this four-legged chupa-form, it’s a coyote), but the legend of other sightings are assumed to be factual, as if this is all one-in-the-same “new” species of animal that “drains the blood” of livestock. At no point is there ever mention of the fact that canids do not and cannot “suck” blood. Dead animals don’t bleed because blood quickly coagulates. If the carcass is “mutilated” by scavengers after it is deceased, there will not be blood everywhere. The cast appears to be egregiously ignorant of how biology works. Or the whole vampire angle is emphasized for creepy effect.

Ridiculous conclusion

A trendy idea by non-scientists in the fantastical cryptid scene is that dire wolves are still living out there. There is zero scientific evidence for this, not even a hint that they exist, with the youngest remains dated at about 10,000 years ago. LMF suggests that the “unknown” portion of the two DNA results could represent dire wolf, vindicating Sanderson’s hybrid idea. However, we do have DNA from extinct dire wolfs and it shows they diverged from other wolf lines nearly 6 million years ago. The animals in question are not part dire wolf. The real conclusion, no matter if you believe or not, is that these animals are weird looking coyotes. Wolf-like canids readily hybridize. The DNA mix appears to not be unusual as it is common for southern coyotes to have red wolf DNA, but, here, the gaps are exploited as “mysterious” for dramatic effect (and as misinformation).

Barbieri and Mewshaw casually decide, on the basis of dubious reports and DNA conjecture, that both animals belong to a new species that they call “Lykos sphinx” – and inappropriate and nonsensical name. Zoological names must be based on specimens, and be published, not a hot take from a TV show. This is undoubtedly the stupidest part of the show, even outdoing the gross sibling jibes (which are sort of realistic and funny) and gratuitous sexist reference about Brittany asking to talk to other witnesses.

I’m not buying much of the “evidence” in this presentation. The premise of a blood sucking, green eyed, ravenous beast is supported. Coyotes, and many other things, kill livestock and there are several explanations for why a body remained uneaten. I’m not even convinced by the bite marks on the dead pig shown. Too many questions remain unanswered and the anecdotes are also unconvincing. LMF appears to be another in a very long parade of samey pseudoscience paranormal shows. The scientifical cast appears to want to use the gimmick that Sanderson was prescient in thinking about cryptids decades ago. I feel this is reaching, and it doesn’t land well. I will watch a few more episodes to see.

Real mystery animal out there?

I don’t want to end on that note – there is something interesting to me going on with animals like the one Phyllis Canion found and I would like to know more from actual experts. The Cuero specimen has some unique characteristics, and I wonder if more than one animal like this has been documented. In a way, these pseudo-chupacabra animals are cryptids in that the legend is growing and outpacing the ability of scientific information to reach the public.

Sometimes called “Texas blue dogs” for their hairless, blue-skinned appearance, some show hairlessness beyond typical patterns of sarcoptic mange, and have unusual jaws, eye color, leg length, etc. I cannot find that there was ever a published article on these specimens, if they fall within the range of morphology for coyotes, and if this ties into the claims about these hybrid animals as a population or an anomaly. It would make an actual good show to hear more about this and see what’s real and what has been exaggerated.

For more info on the history of the chupacabra, check out Benjamin Radford’s Tracking the Chupacabra (2011)

More: Episode 2, ABSM and the origin of the files and Episode 3, Pennsylvania Thunderbird

#chupacabra #coyote #cryptid #Cryptozoology #direWolf #DNA #IvanSanderson #LostMonsterFiles #MonsterQuest #paranormalTV #PhyllisCanion #ReviewOfLostMonsterFiles #science #sciencey #Scientifical #TexasBlueDogs #TVShow

https://sharonahill.com/?p=8791