That’s quite a controversial title for an article. But, it most definitely fits the content of that very same article, as you will see now. In August 1995, the Canovanas region of the island of Puerto Rico was hit by a spate of very bizarre attacks on farm animals. The unfortunate creatures – typically goat, chickens, and pigs – were found dead with deep puncture wounds to their necks and amid claims that significant amounts of blood were missing from their corpses. Farmers were on edge, the media had an absolute field day, and the people of Puerto Rico were plunged into states that ranged from fear to hysteria. When similar killings began to be reported in numerous other parts of Puerto Rico that fear was amplified to even greater levels. All of which is hardly surprising, when one takes into consideration the physical appearance of the beast that was believed to be behind all of the slaughtering. The first person – so far as we know – to see the beast was a woman named Madeline Tolentino, who lived in Canovanas, the initial scene of all the action, and whose story is told in Ben Radford’s 2011 book, Tracking the Chupacabra. She described it as a fairly compact animal that ran on two legs – in a strange hopping style – and which had what looked like row of feathers running down the back of its head and spine. As media interest grew and grew, so did sightings of the mysterious monster. But, that’s when things became not just interesting, but beyond interesting. There is a very good reason for that: not everyone saw the same beast that Tolentino encountered. Or, at least, it did not look the same.

(Nick Redfern)

On one of my many treks around Puerto Rico while seeking for the Chupacabra

It is one thing to suggest that, in the 1990s, one unknown and dangerous animal was on the loose on Puerto Rico. It is quite another, however, to suggest that multiple, strange creatures were running wild on the island. And, yet, that appears to have been exactly what was going on. Unless, all of the reports were of the same monster. But, given their physical differences, how could that be? Very easily, that is how, if the Chupacabra is a shapeshifter. As amazing as it may sound, a significant amount of data points in that specific direction. Although the first sighting of the creature in the summer of 1995 effectively dictated how the locals perceived the animal to look, not everyone reported something that resembled the monster seen by Madeline Tolentino, as we shall now see. In the days, weeks, months – and even years – that followed, countless reports of Chupacabra attacks on farm animals were reported. The problem, however, is that the descriptions of the beast varied to incredible degrees.

(Nick Redfern)

A small portion of Puerto Rico’s El Yunque rain forest

In some cases, witnesses told of seeing an animal that did not have the feathery line running along the back of its head, neck and spine, as described by Tolentino. Instead, they saw a row of menacing-looking spikes, which stood erect and around four to five inches in length. And, of course, it would be very hard to mistake a line of feathers for a row of vicious spikes! Then, there was the matter of how the animal ran. According to both Tolentino and the majority of the early witnesses, it was a bipedal beast, albeit one which bounced along in a bizarre hopping fashion. Others, however, were sure that the creatures they saw ran on four limbs only. And there was nothing bizarre about its movements: they were likened to the way in which a large cat – such as a mountain lion – would stalk its prey. Now, let us take a look at the eyes of the Chupacabra. Some sightings involved creatures with bright blue eyes. In other cases, the eyes were of a piercing, devilish red and glowing variety.

(Nick Redfern) P

uerto Rico: The lair of the Chupacabra

The most significant factor, however, was the matter of the wings of the Chupacabra. Yes, that is correct: wings. In some cases, but most certainly not all, the creatures were said to have had large and powerful-looking bat-like wings. In other words, they were black and leathery-looking. When faced with such stories, other witnesses swore the monsters had absolutely no wings at all. Adding to the puzzle is the fact that on my second expedition to seek out the Puerto Rican Chupacabra, I spoke with a man named Pucho who saw such a thing, but which had wings like those of a large bird: they were feathery. Most controversial of all are the reports of the Chupacabra transforming into a large and lumbering Bigfoot! I should stress that such reports are rare, and few and far between. However, I do have eleven such reports in my files. In all the cases, the witnesses saw the Chupacabra engulfed by a near-blinding white light and then mutating into a large, hair-covered humanoid, before their startled eyes. When we put all of this information together, we are clearly face with a major-sized conundrum: how can one creature take on multiple appearances and forms? Well, the answer is that no normal animal can do such a thing. But, there is nothing normal about the Chupacabra. Rather, everything suggests it is undeniably abnormal.

(Nick Redfern)

One of the many caves in Puerto Rico

On all of my many trips to Puerto Rico, I have heard several, often-repeated theories for what the beasts are or may be. The list includes alien beings, giant bats, and the products of secret labs run by scientists engaging in bizarre genetic-, cloning- and gene-splicing experiments. And there is one more theory: that the Chupacabras were invoked, or conjured up by clandestine groups that engage in the black arts, and who are directly responsible for creating a portal, or what we might call a supernatural doorway, that lets the monsters enter our world at will. There is no doubt at all that Puerto Rico is home to multiple cults and secret societies that engage in animal sacrifice, ritual magic, and occult practices. I know that, as I have had the opportunity to speak with a few of them. They are dangerous and powerful bodies, ones not to be crossed with. The most likely scenario to explain the nature and presence of the Puerto Rican Chupacabra, however, is that it is the shapeshifting denizen of another realm of existence. It is a monster that, when called forth, eagerly made a new home – as well as an entirely new hunting ground – on the island, and still has no intention of returning to the weird realm from which it first surfaced.

In late November 2021, a woman in Argentina, after regaining her memory of the event, claimed she was abducted by a bright UFO, carried for 40 miles, then left on a road 24 hours later where she was found and taken to a hospital. Details of her experience were scarce, her phone – which would have traveled with her and could have clues to what happened – seems to have disappeared, she had unexplained injuries, tracking dogs lost her scent near where she was allegedly abducted, and government officials are still investigating the incident. While skeptics and believers fought, the woman – Irma Rick – continued to give interviews – including one this past week when she revealed she may be pregnant … with an alien-human hybrid baby.

Why adopt when we can have our own?

“I am pregnant by an alien.”

In an interview on the “Bahía Hoy” program broadcast by La Brújula 24, the 55-year-old woman claimed she has a lot of things to tell” … starting with a possible alien pregnancy from her 24-hour, 40-mile trip in the backseat of a flying ET vehicle. How does she know? Green morning sickness?

“I don’t have a belly yet, I feel discomfort, things that happen to me. I have to consult the prosecutor because she does not want me to talk much yet.”

She’s talking to prosecutor Virginia Antón to make sure she doesn’t affect her case, but has she talked to her doctor? It seems part of the reason Irma Rick appeared on Bahia Hoy was to kickstart the examination to see what’s kicking indie her.

“I am doing studies because I can have an alien pregnancy. I don’t ask for much, I have to do a lot of things, I ask for a little help. Tomorrow I have to do ultrasounds and stuff. Supposedly I got pregnant when they took me away.”

Before you write off Irma’s pregnancy – or whatever medical condition she seems to have incurred since her alleged abduction — it’s worth noting that Jacinto Aráuz, the La Pampa town she calls home, has UFO investigators interviewing residents and they’ve found a number of others who saw a UFO or a bright light in the sky on November 16, 2021. Despite their efforts, these ufologists have neither proved nor disproved Irma’s story. It doesn’t seem anyone has interviewed her husband – who must be puzzled that his 55-year-old wife is pregnant by someone – or some alien – who is not him.

“Mrs. Irma Rick had a case in June 2002 with an experience in Jacinto Arauz, in the house where she lives.”

Carlos Ferguson, a well-known Argentine UFO investigator, reminded La Brújula 24 that this isn’t Irma’ Rick’s first rodeo with ETs – she also reported an experience in the same location in 2002. Her calls her a credible witness “who consistently stuck to what she had seen” and is not “a mythomaniac, delusional or contacted person or with any characteristic that does not fit into something objective.”

Alien abductees often have multiple experiences with UFOs and ETs, and Irma is not the first to announce she’s carrying an alien or hybrids baby. However, the amount of media attention being given to her – at least in South America – makes her different … and worth watching once she finally (hopefully?) sees a doctor.

In the world of mysterious undiscovered beasts we have creatures of all shapes and sizes, with some being more bizarre than others. One corner of cryptozoology that has quite a few rather strange stories is that of various flying, winged reptiles, which have popped up in numerous cultures across the world. Perhaps standing out among the oddest of these are the various accounts of flying snakes, and here we will delve into the weird world of such stories.

The region of Arabia has long been said to be the home of some sort of flying serpent, notably in the area around the Arabian Sea. They were typically described as looking like water snakes, only with bat-like wings upon which they could take flight, sometimes in vast numbers. They were said to lurk about under frankincense trees, and farmers harvesting these trees were so afraid of them that they would burn styrax, which is the resin of the Liquidambar tree, under the trees, which was said to drive the serpents away. The only time when the region was supposedly safe from these malicious winged snakes was during spring, when they were said to migrate to Egypt. Far from mere folklore, the Arabians described these as real animals, giving a good deal of detail on their behavior and life cycle. For instance, the female was said to kill the male during mating, that the young would eat their way out of the womb, killing the mother, and that their primary predator was ibis birds. Occasionally these winged snakes were seen by outsiders, and in the fourth century B.C., Greek historian Herodotus passed through the region and learned much about these creatures from the locals. They told him of the snakes’ habitats and behaviors, even showing him the mountain pass they were said to pass through during their annual migration, and how the ibis birds would congregate there in great numbers during this time to feed on the serpents. He would claim that he had also seen large numbers of skeletons from these snakes at the pass. Herodotus would write of these creatures at length in his tome Histories, saying:

There is a region moreover in Arabia, situated nearly over against the city of Buto, to which place I came to inquire about the winged serpents: and when I came thither I saw bones of serpents and spines in quantity so great that it is impossible to make report of the number, and there were heaps of spines, some heaps large and others less large and others smaller still than these, and these heaps were many in number.” “The region in which the spines are scattered upon the ground is of the nature of an entrance from a narrow mountain pass to a great plain, which plain adjoins the plain of Egypt; and the story goes that at the beginning of spring winged serpents from Arabia fly towards Egypt, and the birds called ibises meet them at the entrance of this country and do not suffer the serpents to go by but kill them. On account of this deed it is, say the Arabians, that the ibis has come to be greatly honored by the Egyptians, and the Egyptians also agree that it is for this reason that they honor these birds. As for the serpent its form is like that of the watersnake; and it has wings not feathered but most nearly resembling the wings of the bat. Let so much suffice as has been said now concerning sacred animals.

Again, Arabia is the most distant to the south of all inhabited countries: and this is the only country which produces frankincense and myrrh and casia and cinnamon and gum-mastich. All these except myrrh are difficult for the Arabians to get. They gather frankincense by burning that storax which Phoinikes (Phoenicians) carry to Hellas; they burn this and so get the frankincense; for the spice-bearing trees are guarded by small Winged Snakes of varied color, many around each tree; these are the snakes that attack Aigyptos (Egypt). Nothing except the smoke of storax will drive them away from the trees . . .So too if the vipers and the Winged Serpents of Arabia were born in the natural manner of serpents life would be impossible for men; but as it is, when they copulate, while the male is in the act of procreation and as soon as he has ejaculated his seed, the female seizes him by the neck, and does not let go until she has bitten through. The male dies in the way described, but the female suffers in return for the male the following punishment: avenging their father, the young while they are still within the womb gnaw at their mother and eating through her bowels thus make their way out. Other snakes, that do no harm to men, lay eggs and hatch out a vast number of young. The Arabian Winged Serpents do indeed seem to be numerous; but that is because (although there are vipers in every land) these are all in Arabia and are found nowhere else. The Arabians get frankincense in the foregoing way.

Herodotus

Another region long said to be inhabited by flying snakes is the desert of the Karas Region of Namibia, on the southwest coast of Africa. The so-called Namibian Flying Snake supposedly has quite the striking appearance, measuring 9 to 25 feet in length, with a wingspan of 30 feet or more, and being yellowish brown with light spots, or black in color, with the ability to camouflage itself like a chameleon. It is said to be able to produce bioluminescence from a crest on its head, and is known for its loud, roaring vocalizations. They are said to live in caves during the day and come out at dusk, and that they are extremely territorial. Locals are apparently terrified of the beasts, which they believe prey on livestock and even people.

Despite just terrifying locals, these creatures have been reported by outsiders since the days of the first African exploration of the region, and one of the more notable accounts supposedly occurred in 1942, in the vicinity of a farm near Kirris West, in south-west Namibia. The account goes that a farmer named Michael Esterhuise was tending to his flock of sheep when he smelled something like burnt tar and looked to see an enormous snake bounding down a hill before shooting straight up into the air on huge wings a sound like “wind blowing through a pipe” and a “great roaring noise.” Esterhuise would claim to encounter the creature on two more occasions after that, and it was compelling enough that it was investigated by Marjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer, the South African museum official who in 1938, brought to the attention of the world the existence of the coelacanth. In 1978 there was another notable sighting, when a French farmer who was tending his cattle and noticed a light approaching him. As it drew closer, he could see that the light was emanating from a crest atop the head of a vast winged serpent, which would swoop down to attack one of his cows and fly off. He would say:

I saw what looked like… as the best matching description I can give you is that it looked like a dragon, it had a white bright light on its head, which was blinding me, the color of it was brown and yellow, it had green eyes, there was a tar-like smell coming from it and it had smoke coming out of its nostrils.

In 1988, professor and explorer Roy Mackal travelled to the region to investigate such reports, and although he was unable to see one of the creatures or gather any evidence, he came away convinced that the creature was real. Europe has its share of such accounts as well, and in particular the woodland around Penllyne Castle, in the county of Glamorgan, seems to be a wellspring for flying snake accounts. The Welsh flying snakes have traditionally been described as being six to nine feet long, having feathers, and as being very beautiful, but at the same time very aggressive and dangerous. They were also supposedly ravenous as well, and often shot at by farmers trying to keep them away from their chickens. In her book Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales, author Marie Trevelyan writes of these mysterious creatures:

The woods around Penllyne Castle, Glamorgan, had the reputation of being frequented by winged serpents, and these were the terror of old and young alike. An aged inhabitant of Penllyne, who died a few years ago, said that in his boyhood the winged serpents were described as very beautiful. They were coiled when in repose, and “looked as though they were covered with jewels of all sorts. Some of them had crests sparkling with all the colours of the rainbow.” When disturbed, they glided swiftly, “sparkling all over,” to their hiding places. When angry, they “flew over people’s heads, with outspread wings bright and sometimes with eyes, too, like the feathers in a peacock’s tail.” He said it was “no old story,” invented to “frighten children,” but a real fact. His father and uncles had killed some of them, for they were “as bad as foxes for poultry.” This old man attributed the extinction of winged serpents to the fact that they were “terrors in the farmyards and coverts.” An old woman, whose parents in her early childhood took her to visit Penmark Place, Glamorgan, said she often heard the people talking about the ravages of the winged serpents in that neighbourhood.

Another recent report of a flying serpent of some sort in Wales supposedly happened in 2001 in the area of Powys. In March of that year, a British biologist and a few colleagues were doing some fieldwork in the area when they apparently encountered “a serpentine dragon.” A report on the incident in Strange Magazine says of it:

A British biologist and a few colleagues were conducting some research in the area after being notified by a local of “something” strange that was witnessed a month earlier. As they stood at the edge of some woods by a quarry they suddenly looked upon an extraordinary entity. Measuring 3 ft. or so in length, it resembled a serpentine dragon with four short limbs, but its head was shaped very like that of a sea horse, and it was airborne…undulating and wriggling as it flew about 10 ft above the surface of the quarry in a wide circle. They were unable to recall seeing any wings, but it had a long tail that ended in a pair of horizontal, whale like flukes. The entity was green in color and shimmered somewhat, but appeared solid, not translucent or ethereal. They watched it for 3-4 minutes, at a distance of approximately 50 ft, before it finally vanished into one of the numerous caves and large crevices pitting the quarry. The biologist had the distinct impression while watching this creature that it was deliberately seeking to keep them at bay, warning them off from approaching further into its territory.

Hopping across to the United States, here we also find many bizarre reports of flying, winged snakes. One spate of such sightings happened in the 1800s all over the country. In the 1850s, settlers in the state of Nebraska began telling of a giant flying “undulating serpent” with “lighted streaks along the sides” that was frequently seen soaring over the Missouri River. In 1873, several residents of Ft. Scott, Kansas saw in the sky “the form of a huge serpent, apparently perfect in form, surrounding the sun” for several minutes. In June of that same year, farmers near Bonham, Texas, saw a giant flying serpent flying along with a cloud. A report of the encounter in the Bonham Enterprise reads:

It seemed to be as large and as long as a telegraph pole, was of a yellow striped color, and seemed to float along without any effort. They could see it coil itself up, turn over, and thrust forward its huge head as if striking at something, displaying the maneuvers of a genuine snake. The cloud and serpent moved in an easterly direction, and were seen by persons a few miles this side of Honey Grove.

In Jerome Clark’s Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America, there is a report from September of 1875, when two young men in Leavenworth, Kansas, claimed to have actually captured a flying snake. They claimed that they had been out hunting when a flying serpent measuring one-foot-long and with spots on its body began fluttering around them on two wings about “the size of a man’s hands.” One of the men was able to swat it out of the air with his hand, and the two of them stomped it to death and put the body in a bottle of alcohol. Unfortunately, no one is really sure where this amazing physical evidence went or if it ever even existed at all.

In March of 1882, two lumberjacks in Hurleton, California, saw above the tree tops a massive flying serpent with a head like a crocodile. One of the men fired his shotgun at it, which elicited a “cry similar to that of a calf and bear combined but gave no sign of being inconvenienced or injured.” Several other people in the area also claimed to have seen the creature. In 1888, three young women in Darlington County, South Carolina claimed to have seen a giant 15-foot-long serpent gliding above them at “about the speed of a hawk” making a hissing sound. In 1897, a witness in Detroit of all places claimed to have seen something remarkable as well, saying:

Going down Grand River about 4 in the morning, the policeman I was with and I saw an object that looked to be about three feet in diameter. It was about 1,000 feet in the air and was heading east. It was a silvery color and had a tail about three blocks long. It traveled like those big sea serpents you read about skimming over the top of the water. It made a low hissing noise that we could just hear. My dad, who was leaving our home for work, also saw it as it seemed to pass right over our house on Rivard between Leland and Alexandrine.

What are we dealing with in accounts such as these? While there are known “flying snakes,” in that they can glide from tree to tree, they do not have wings and are very different than anything we have looked at here. Are these misidentifications, tall tales, or what? Certainly many such accounts have quite a colorful cast to them, suggesting pure folklore or someone having some fun on a slow news day, but could any of these have something more behind them? No matter what the answer to this question may ultimately be, these are certainly curious historical oddities that add another strange corner to the realm of cryptozoology.

John Lennon has been gone for over 40 years, but perhaps Paul McCartney could be persuaded to change one word in a beloved song from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band written mostly by John. Why would he do that? Because new research suggest that astronomers can now see Mercury in the sky with diamonds. Will this change the exoplanetary focus of Musk and Bezos?

Mercury?

“The pressure wave from asteroids or comets striking the surface at tens of kilometers per second could transform that graphite into diamonds.”

Picture yourself in a seat at a conference – specifically, the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in Houston recently. There, Kevin Cannon, a geologist at the Colorado School of Mines, made the case for our solar system’s smallest planet being covered with diamonds. His explanation is actually pretty simple to follow. Mercury’s composition is primarily graphite — a crystalline form carbon. In its normal soft state, it’s perfect for pencil leads and lubricants. However, put it under high pressure and heat and it becomes diamonds. Many astronomers and geologists believe that four billion years ago, our inner solar system was in a state of cataclysmic asteroid activity called the Late Heavy Bombardment. While the asteroids pummeled Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, the telltale evidence was discovered in Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions. That’s when the Moon got a majority of its craters and it’s speculated that Mercury, with twice as many as the Moon, got twice the bombardment.

“You could have a significant amount of diamonds near the surface.”

Scientists believe the Mercury of 4 billion years ago was covered with magma and a layer of graphite upwards of 300 feet deep. As those asteroids hit Mercury, the pounding pressure turned the graphite into “shock diamonds.” What is a “significant amount”? According to Wired, Cannon estimates as much as 16 quadrillion tons! Before you book a seat and attempt to hijack a Blue Origin flight to Mercury, they’re tiny and buried all over Mercury.

Tiny diamonds found in some asteroids are thought to be shock diamonds formed by collisions. Earth and the Moon don’t have them because their surfaces aren’t covered with graphite like Mercury. Laura Lark, a researcher at Brown University in Rhode Island, also spoke at the conference and says dark spots of graphite on the surface of Mercury in images taken by cameras aboard NASA’s Messenger spacecraft between 2011 and 2015 support Cannon’s theory. Another mission could confirm it, but the next one isn’t until 2025 when BepiColombo, launched by the European Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency reaches Mercury and drops a probe to map the surface. That mission could also verify a second theory – that a huge asteroid smashed into Mercury between 10 or 20 million years ago and smashed what was once a bigger planet into the tiny one it is today, blowing the rest of it into space and onto Earth and its close neighbors.

Will 16 quadrillion tons of diamonds entice space miners to head to Mercury with big shovels and buckets … and space suits designed to withstand temperatures ranging from 800 degrees Fahrenheit in the daytime and -290 F at night?

Picture yourself in a ship on a mission … to Mercury in the sky with diamonds.