Here they come!

#fresnonightcrawler #nightcrawler #cryptid #sketch #graphite #CreativeToots #MastoArt #FediArt #blackandwhite

😶‍🌫️ Did You Know?

Did you know the Fresno Nightcrawler has no arms, no face, and all legs… yet it's considered one of the most peaceful cryptids ever spotted?
It’s basically a haunted pair of pants.

#FresnoNightcrawler #WeirdCryptids #DidYouKnow #HypotheticallySound

Pop Cryptid Spectator 14

Thanks for joining me for another edition of Pop Cryptid Spectator. This week I have some news and thoughts and we go in search of the legend of the Nahuelito, a lake monster whose popularity predated Nessie and which is a great example of a Pop Cryptid.

In this edition:

• Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
• Update on Pueblo mystery creature
• Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
• Faking a fake nightcrawler
• Nahuelito represents!

Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science

The Big Picture Science podcast featured cryptids this week. The episode kicked off with a flashback to the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax press conference from 2008. I remember that day. It was ridiculous. Lots of people had high hopes, and I admit I also was thinking this was going to be the big reveal. It was a big scam. Tom Biscardi spearheaded the press event that garnered worldwide attention. We watched on CNN as he referred to reporters as “yous” and showed images of a Bigfoot costume in a freezer, even a close up on the teeth. Biscardi was a Bigfoot enthusiast (not the football coach) but he will be forever remembered (not fondly) as more of a gambler and charlatan. Biscardi continues to make exaggerated and insultingly credulous Bigfoot content.

Then, the host interviews Chris Rogers, Assemblymember in the California legislature pushing the Bill to name California the state cryptid. (See PCS 8 and 10.) He gets a number of things wrong in his comments to reveal he doesn’t know much about cryptid history, but he is transparent that the goal of the bill now is a tourism ploy. No surprise there. At this point, the bill might just pass because of the public interest.

In addition, Benjamin Radford then appears to talk about Bigfoot and cryptids in popular culture. Michael Branch talks about the Jackalope (as reviewed in PCS 3), and Boris Worm discusses real life searches for new and bizarre animals. Make sure to check out this episode from a top science podcast.

Update on Pueblo mystery creature

Last week in PCS 13, I shared the news story from Colorado of an unidentified mystery animal that was captured on video in a residential area. Since then, the story expanded worldwide because people LOVE opining on what it could be. Their comments are painful to read. While ridiculous commenters said it was a chupacabra or a skinwalker (just STFU with that), wildlife officials said it may be a raccoon. I was leaning towards coati. However, a second video was posted that showed the animal outside the window eating cat food. Unfortunately, the video was obscured by the lighting and dirty glass, and not altogether clear. However, the animal has obvious injuries on its face indicating it may have escaped from a cage, been in a wildfire, or has some other misfortune. While the silhouette does resemble a raccoon, the coloring is odd, more uniformly dark brown, so the ID is still a mystery. I’ve heard nothing more about the animals being seen again, or captured. I hope the local interest does result in it’s capture so we can put this to rest.

Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage

A cabin behind the Bigfoot discovery museum in Felton, California suffered damage after a fire. The cause of the fire is unknown but did not spread to the main museum owned by Michael Rugg where the Bigfoot memorabilia was stored. The museum was recently sold.

https://www.goodtimes.sc/bigfoot-museum-property-fire/

Cryptid Event!
Washington, DC, May 5, 2025 6:00 pm-8:30 pm
Profs & Pints DC: Encountering Cryptids, featuring Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror. Go to Popville for more info.

Faking a fake nightcrawler

There was a bit of drama in the extremely online cryptid community this week as a budding filmmaker says he was the one who hoaxed the Yosemite video (Facebook) showing the pair of Fresno Nightcrawlers. Everyone knew this video was a hoax to play off the original FN video (that still remains mysterious as to its origin). Yet, some people are even doubting this guy was the real hoaxer. Instead, they claim he’s trying to just get attention. Personally, his YouTube channel was the original host for this video 14 years ago. He describes how he did it and where, so I think it really was him. It is interesting, though, that claiming responsibility for hoaxes is going to get noticed. It’s almost as if you can get a pass for hoaxing a cryptid because it’s already assumed to not be real. You will be recognized for your skills and how many people believed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziB35K9shuI

The ubiquity of hoaxes weighs down the field of cryptozoology, making it difficult to take any of the creature claims that seriously. Hoaxes remain a viable explanation.

Nahuelito represents!

The city of Bariloche in Patagonia, Argentina will be getting a new tourist attraction – an iron sculpture of Nahuelito, the monster of Lake Nahuel Huapi. The large 6 x 4 meter statue will be placed near the water front and civic center so people can take a photo with it. It is expected to be in place by the town’s anniversary of May 3.

Bariloche has long embraced its local monster, first introduced to the wider world in the 1920s, even before the Loch Ness Monster. It’s most typically depicted as a plesiosaur, as is Nessie and many other lake monsters around the world. The town has used the creature as a tourism draw for decades: Nahuelito is its mascot in what they believe is an enchanted place.

Nahuelito assumed the common Nessie-shape over time (and also picks up some similar associated rumors). Like many modern cryptids, the Nahuelito’s existence is justified by relating it to a native folklore creature. But, as is almost ALWAYS the case, the historical view doesn’t match the modern view very well. Nahuelito is tied to a beast in the water known as El Cuero by the Mapuche people. However, El Cuero (the cow skin) was said to be like a “water tiger” or that looked like a piece of floating hide or leather. Except it ate people. Bizarre tales are used in all cultures to warn of dangers of the water and to be entertaining. It is hazardous to take those stories literally and use them to say that such a creature actually exists.

Culturally, legendary animals (which, as cryptids, are never clearly seen) tend to have evolving descriptions that coalesce around an iconic view for a while until the culture changes. The move from sea serpent to plesiosaur shape for lake monsters is a perfect example. (See PCS 7 for a review of A Natural History of Sea Serpents). We see other depictions of Nahuelito as a more of a thin, snakelike, loopy, sea serpent-type. But the plesiosaur shape became the default early on and has REALLY stuck, with the creature referred to as the Patagonian plesiosaur.

This doesn’t mean there are multiple animals of varying descriptions. The discrepancy suggests it isn’t a single type of animal (or two) at all; it’s a cultural interpretation of waves, logs, debris, or normal animals in the lake. The reported plesiosaur shape for lake monsters worldwide was influenced by literature and films from the early 20th century. Additionally, the land of Patagonia was commonly referred to as a sort of “lost world” where “antediluvian” (time before the Biblical flood) creatures still lived. This view also bolstered the common idea of a living plesiosaur.

Like Ogopogo, Champ, Nessie, and other lake monsters, the Nahuelito helps define the town of Bariloche. Its likeness is used in the town festivals and it has its own town park and documentary. People love their Nahuelito, particularly for the dollars it brings in for its association with the town. Its reputation is credited for the development of the town into the modern tourist location it is today.

The monster was featured on the TV show Destination Truth – an exaggerated show that promotes outlandish ideas to explain mysteries. For this cryptid, the show took up the concern by some that the creature is a result of nuclear experiments from the 1950s. Only in science fiction does a radiation event suddenly create bizarre mutant new species.

There are also claims that, like Loch Ness, geological conditions may cause some anomalies on the lake that are attributed to the monster. These natural claims also come with misinformation. For example, it is a common trope for people to believe that underwater caves connect the lake to the sea and the animals travel in and out. This is completely invalid – geology doesn’t work that way.

There have been hoax photos associated with the creature as well. Still, the creature is gaining in popularity as a pop cryptid. Some are pleased to call Nahuelito their favorite cryptid, but the dramatic sightings of old don’t occur much anymore.

For more, check out this Strange Magazine article. And here is a documentary on the town and its most famous hidden resident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG64-e2sUe4

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 17

Pop Cryptid Spectator 16

Pop Cryptid Spectator 15

Pop Cryptid Spectator 13

Pop Cryptid Spectator 12

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

#AICryptids #cryptids #cryptidtiktok #folklore #hoax #LochNessMonster #Nessie #nightmarefuel #TheSasqualogist #VeggieMan #WestVirginia

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9679

Pop Cryptid Spectator 7

Welcome to the Pop Cryptid Spectator no. 7. This edition is chock full of news, media, and pop cryptid information. Cryptid popularity is exploding. Even old cryptid ideas are resurfacing in new ways all the time, as we’ll see regarding sea serpents and living dinosaurs. Books, movies, internet content, and music work to spread the modern concepts of cryptids, leaving behind crusty old ideas of “unknown animals” and repackaging them as new and exciting entities that share whatever “reality” we wish to embrace.

In this edition:

• Cryptozoology diploma
• Saxsquatch in Rolling Stone
• Past and future of Small Town Monsters
• Modern resurgence of mokele-mbembe
• Fresno Nightcrawler on Monstrum – Is it a cryptid?
• Frogman Festival in March
• Cryptid biographies
• Book review: A Natural History of Sea Serpents

Cryptozoology Diploma

A participant on the Forteana Forums on the Pop Goes the Cryptid thread pointed me to a “Cryptozoology diploma” provided by the Centre for Excellence online shop. You can take a (paid) course that claims to teach you to able to “decide whether lake monsters, sea serpents, Thunderbirds and other mythical monsters are rumours or a reality”. That is, if your really need to pay for that! This tip was in response to the item in last PCS 6 exposing the ridiculous article on the Indeed job search site regarding “How to Become a Cryptozoologist”. This “diploma” is worthless as credentials but might be fun if you like learning new things you don’t known anything about. And, it shows just how mainstream the topic is. Unfortunately, as I discovered with a similar course, I can safely assume the instruction is terrible, the source material is low quality and full of errors, and the effort might make you more misinformed than educated in the topic.

Saxquatch in Rolling Stone

Regarding the Saxsquatch story from last week, he then appeared as a Creature Feature in Rolling Stone. He’s a very BIG deal!

Past and Future of STM

You really can’t talk about the spread of cryptids in popular culture in the US without recognizing Small Town Monsters, a production company founded by Seth Breedlove and friends, that has been making documentary films for 10 years now. They make little-known cryptids into icons, small towns into tourist attractions. I was a big fan of STM films starting with The Minerva Monster (Ohio) and Beast of Whitehall (New York). Since those early projects, it’s become increasingly difficult to keep track of, let alone watch, all the various monster and paranormal content that they put out. Every time I watch a new film or YouTube series episode, I see familiar faces from the field of high strangeness, and I learn new things. While STM prides themselves on being the only company who take an “objective” approach to their subjects, making an effort to let the witnesses and researchers do the talking, they have slanted more towards the extreme paranormal stuff as time has gone on. This tendency, however, is the normal trajectory of Pop Cryptids, so it’s altogether possible that STM isn’t just riding the wave, but also helping to steer the boat.

Seth has produced a new intro video for this year explaining some of the challenges to the small company, mainly distribution issues, that shed light on the seemingly chaotic release schedule. He also gives a preview of the movies for 2025.

• The Kinderhook Creature is a story about a Bigfoot that terrorized families in the Catskills of New York in the 1980s. I am unfamiliar with this story which Breedlove calls “Minerva Monster writ large”. I fully expect the film treatment will launch this cryptid into the popular sphere.
• Dawn of the Dogman promises to explore the origins of the Michigan dogman, which is known to have been popularized by a hoax story put into song. Breedlove says that Linda Godfrey was consulted on the project prior to her death in 2022. Again, really looking forward to this topic since Dogman is the current king of Pop Cryptids.
• From the Beyond: The Bennington Triangle will take on the array of different phenomena reported in this area of southern Vermont. Window areas are of particular interest to me related to my Spooky Geology niche. I have written about the Bennington Triangle.

You can see Monster Chronicles: The Past and Future of STM on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE7xW4yfN5c

Modern resurgence of mokele-mbembe

Syfy website put out an article regarding the claim of living dinosaurs in the African Congo River Basin. The most famous of these is mokele-mbembe, which cryptozoologists interpret as a potential sauropod dinosaur. The article is, as you will often find, clickbait promotion, in this case linked to the next upcoming Jurassic Park franchise movie. It piggy backs off a Nat Geo article from early February about deforestation. Due to this environmental condition, encounters between locals and wildlife are becoming more frequent. People aren’t all that used to being so close to elephants and gorillas and seem to be attributing sounds and experiences to the folklore creature instead.

“In bigger settlements where habitats are being pushed into and people aren’t used to seeing large animals, they’re suddenly encountering them all the time,” says Laura Vlachova, a Czech conservationist. “It’s these people who tell me they’ve seen mokele-mbembe. I think what it really shows is how folklore is starting to reflect the reality of a shrinking ecosystem.”

Fresno Nightcrawler on Monstrum – Is it a cryptid?

Monstrum is a very popular PBS produced series on folklore creatures. The latest episode is on Pop Cryptid star, the Fresno Nightcrawler – a creature known from a grainy video from 2007 that shows a pale entity made up almost entirely of billowy legs and maybe a really tiny head on top. Host Emily Zarka can’t decide whether this is a “cryptid” or not, first calling it that but then suggesting it’s something else. She defines a cryptid as a biological creature that people say exists but science hasn’t documented, which, as I have shown in previous issues of PCS, can be problematic. The old school idea of a cryptid is zoological, however, the nightcrawler doesn’t seem to be perambulating anywhere near the path of zoological discovery. Mostly perceived as a hoax, I have seen some attempts to recreate it – digitally and manually. But nothing quite works. So the Nightcrawler remains a fun and creepy mystery. But, is it a cryptid?

• Yes. People claim to encounter the creature in other areas after the original Fresno incident came to light. If we consider cryptids as a mysterious and unrecognized creature that, supported by anecdotal (and bad video) evidence, then it’s a cryptid.
• Yes. Even if the supposition is that it’s an alien or spirit being, it’s a usually hidden entity that sometimes walks through our physical space. This is boosted by poorly sourced claims that it resembles some creature of Native American lore.
• No. In no way does it depict a plausible biological creature, and there is no indication it can be captured or has a typical organic existence; it looks like a pair of puppet pants; it’s a made-up creature.
• Yes. The Fresno nightcrawler always ranks high on lists of favorite cryptids. People remain fascinated by it, and it is the subject of a crazy amount of merchandise because it is cute and easy to draw! Pop cryptid all the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrGcxeyIPx4

Frogman Festival in March

Coming up on March 1-2 in Loveland, Ohio is the Frogman Festival celebrating the sightings of a humanoid frog- or lizard-like entity reported in 1955, 1972 and 2016. The festival features the usual family fun and merch vendors riding the Pop Cryptid wave. But the speakers are always my main interest. Among the paranormal and metaphysical “researchers” speaking at the event is an academic who is the most knowledgeable of all these presenters put together, Dr. Jeb Card. Unfortunately, this location is a bit too far for a day drive for me. If you are within reach, give it a go and let me know what you think.

Cryptid biographies

Incidentally, the Frogman has no well-researched cryptid biography. Surprisingly, neither does Mothman. Here are some recommended books to explore the “true” stories behind some famous cryptids:

• Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore – Benjamin Radford, 2011
• The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster – Brian Regal and Frank Esposito, 2018
• The Untold Story of Champ: A social history of America’s Loch Ness Monster – Robert Bartholomew, 2012
• Ogopogo: The True Story of the Okanagan Lake Million Dollar Monster – Arlene Gaal, 1955
• The Beast of Boggy Creek: The True Story of the Fouke Monster – Lyle Blackburn, 2012
• Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster – Lyle Blackburn, 2013
• The Great Sea Serpent: An Historical and Critical Treatise – A.C. Oudemans, 1892
• The Great New England Sea Serpent: An Account of Unknown Creatures Sighted by Many Respectable Persons Between 1638 and the Present Day – June P. O’Neill, 1999
• Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend – Joshua Blu Buhs, 2009
• Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality – John Russell Napier, 1972

Might I suggest purchasing books from local or independent booksellers instead of Amazon. Try https://bookshop.org/ or https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/.

Book Review: A Natural History of Sea Serpents

A Natural History of Sea Serpents by Adrian Shine (Coming March 2025)
I am a tough book critic, particular regarding my favorite subject. No copy-paste, Wikipedia-sourced garbage passes muster with me. What I truly appreciate is a genuine expert, who has put in the time, presenting their well-reasoned arguments, supported by evidence. You can hardly get a better example of this than Adrian Shine’s new volume on sea serpents. Shine is the world’s foremost expert on the Loch Ness creature reports.

In this book, he guides us through the history of a long-bodied swimming creature that people have reported for centuries, how it changed, and what people probably saw. For example, early sea serpent sightings were of “loops” surfacing in the water with the suggestion of a flexible tubular animal. But around 1848, Shine explains the change to interpreting the same shape as “humps” connected to the back of an animal with a larger middle, like a plesiosaur. This version of the idea also continued into Loch Ness reports.

There are an array of historical sightings by sailors and other credible witnesses for which sensationalistic cryptid literature will label as representing mysterious creatures or unknown species. Shine declares what all reasonable people with some biology background already know – a hooping/looping animal is absurd. Maned water creatures, like cadborosaurus, make no sense. The volumes of eyewitness testimony, examined individually, is not compelling to suggest a mystery creature exists; there is a complete dearth of scientific evidence for these water cryptids.

Shine blasts a few worn tropes clear out of the water. First, locals and professionals don’t always know the animal they are seeing, if it’s an animal at all. Everyone can be fooled by viewing an unfamiliar or atypical situation. Second, there is no need to invent new animals to account for these sightings. Third, no single animal is going to account for all the various descriptions grouped under a single phenomenon, such as “Nessie” or “sea serpent”.

Shine provides convincing explanations for the most famous accounts cited by cryptid proponents, and he supports his conclusions with photographic examples. Even though no exotic cryptid is proposed as an explanation, his presentation is fascinating.

As with other cryptid-related books of outstanding scholarship, cryptozoological proponents will reject, ignore, or foolishly try to sink it. Back in 2012, a few big-mouthed and small-minded cryptid fans protested the book Abominable Science by Loxton and Prothero, probably because it spelled out cogent arguments against the zoological reality of famous cryptid creatures. The bottom line for sci-cryptozoologists is that they still lack substantive evidence for their extraordinary claims. I suspect they will dislike Shine’s book too. Their loss. Or, the accumulated wisdom he has will be acknowledged and respected.

Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to popcryptid(at)proton.me. 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 8

Pop Cryptid Spectator Issue 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

My pumpkin carvings this Halloween: Mothman and his buddy the Fresno Nightcrawler.

#halloween2024 #mothman #fresnonightcrawler #cryptids #halloweenlover #halloween #halloweenvibes #pumpkin #pumpkincarving #jackolantern #bristol

In recent cryptozoological news, this Fresno Nightcrawler has been spotted on their nightly crawl.
Ok ok no but seriously I painted this lil buddy using a new watercolour palette I mixed recently as a lil gift for a fellow Cool Stuff Enthusiast because I don't know how else to convey my esteem x

#cryptid #cryptozoology #fresnonightcrawler #art #whimsy #watercolour #forest #creature