This is the last day of the fox posts. Hope everyone enjoyed it so far. Now, we have the Vulpes genus, which are your true foxes. There are 12 members here, which is the main reason why I couldn’t put them into a post with the ‘false fox’ genera. Before we dive into the pictures, I want to say that all 12 species are apparently listed as ‘LEAST CONCERN’ as far as conservation status goes. Honestly, I’m surprised since I really thought at least one would be in danger thanks to human activity. Guess foxes are more adaptable than I realized.
Bengal Fox- Omnivores that eat anything from rodents to termites to crabs.
Blanford’s Fox- Has cat-like, semi-retractable claws.
Cape Fox- Capable of breeding all year round.
Corsac Fox- Adapted to extract water from the food they eat.
Tibetan Sand Fox- Have been seen working with other animals (like bears) to catch prey.
Arctic Fox- Populations are closely linked to the population of lemmings in their territory
Kit Fox- Smallest fox in North America at 5 pounds.
Pale Fox- One of the least studied Canids due to remote habitat, desert camouflage, and nocturnal habits.
Ruppell’s Fox- Compete with fennec fox, pale fox, and red fox for food.
Swift Fox- Were hunted to extinction in Canada, but are there now due to re-introduction programs.
Red Fox- Can hear a mouse squeak from 100 feet away and hear rodents burrowing under dirt or snow.
Fennec Fox- Have largest ears relative to body size of any Canid. Ears used to disperse heat.
I didn’t have a good week in terms of health. Allergies, post nasal drip, and not sleeping well combined to make me limp through Thursday and Friday. That’s why I’m writing this Friday night because I don’t know if I’m sleeping through all of Saturday or not. Probably shouldn’t, but we’ll see what happens.
Glancing at my goals for this week, my simplicity made this a successful time. I only wrote one December blog post and biked once because I did a lot more Pokemon Go outings than expected. That might be why I felt so tired. Well, the breaking of my oral appliance before I got the CPAP yesterday didn’t help. Still, I can’t say the week was a wash and I got a decent amount of accomplished. With any luck, this weekend will see me with more energy and I can add finishing a chapter of Darwin & the Beast Collector to the list.
I’m bouncing around a bit because I don’t really know what I’m going to be like when I wake up on Saturday. As I said, I finally got a CPAP machine, so I’m using it for the first time. It’s not what I expected. It requires distilled water and I had to get the full face mask due to the way I sleep. I’ve been told that it will take 2 weeks to get used to everything, but also that I could end up getting a perfect night of sleep right away. There are a lot of morning maintenance things too, which will make workdays rather difficult. I ordered some CPAP wipes to help there, but I still need to pack everything away before leaving for work. We’ll see how this goes since I don’t know how deep a sleep I’m going to be getting.
As much as I want to get 2 chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector done this weekend, I’ll be happy with one. I’m at the start of the third act, so the next 3 chapters all have 4 sections. The final 2 chapters have 3 a piece. This means, I should finish by the end of November the latest. Doing two sections on a Saturday and 2 on a Sunday should be fine. If my energy and focus improves with the CPAP machine then I’ll start being able to write during a few weeknights or get back up to 3 sections on Saturday and Sunday. Be nice to get my old energy and mojo again. Hard to tell if it will happen because my sinuses are still a problem.
Oh! I almost forgot about what I did with my son last Sunday night. Since Monday was a day off, we went to the Bronx Zoo for a nighttime pumpkin event. They had a trail with pumpkins emblazoned with animals. Don’t really think they were real pumpkins, but I could be wrong. Here’s a few of my favorite pictures:
There weren’t any real animals like we thought, but it was still a lot of fun. Totally worth staying up until close to midnight. It was the highlight of last weekend since Saturday was raining (homework time) and Monday was sleeping in then appointments. We still got in enough Pokemon Go to get our exercise and accomplish tasks. Maybe my son not being around is why I tend to not have much energy or focus on the weekends he’s not here. I’ll have to think about that one.
Life event is still going on, which is another reason for stress. Going to be a long month with that continuing. I’m trying to distract myself with reading manga and watching some anime. Technically, I do this anyway, but I’m rationalizing my actions that don’t involve writing now. Whatever gets me through the worst of it.
This coming week is going to be more of the same. The next two weeks have a bunch of appointments and meetings too. It’s crazy that the life event is moving so rapidly while all this other stuff is going on. Feels like I don’t have enough time to focus or breathe with everything going on. If it isn’t an appointment for me, it’s one for my son. It’s a struggle just to carve out a small about of quality time with him and resting time for myself. Makes my head spin at times. That’s why I’m not trying to push book writing as much as I would like. I’d run myself ragged and either have to take a longer break from my books or put out terrible quality sections. Best to accomplish what I can and hope there’s a point in the future where I have the time, energy, and health to get back into author form.
This one comes straight out of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. I was surprised about how big and popular this monster was after I starting looking around. So, what is a Hodag?
First, let’s talk about the Hodag’s origin. It is considered a monster of American folklore from the 1800’s. It was supposedly spotted by a lumberjack, which associated it with the forest and even early Paul Bunyan stories. The Hodag remained low key until the late 1800’s when Eugene Shephard sent out a picture of one that him and some people hunted down. They shot it with poison water and then used dynamite. Three years later, he traveled around with a ‘captured Hodag’, which people could ‘see’ and hear in a darkened tent. He would admit to it being a fake when scientists were on their way to take a look, but the legend still existed prior to Shephard and had locked itself in place.
Keep in mind that Shephard’s Hodag looked very similar to the mishipeshu or underwater panther. This is an important mythical water being from the tribes of the Great Lakes and the Northeastern Woodlands. Both creatures resembled a cat covered in scales and having spikes running along its back and tail. The odd thing is that the description I gave and the one of the picture doesn’t even seem to match how Shephard described it or even his photograph:
Now, the Hodag is supposed to be large . . . Doesn’t look that way. Shephard claimed it had the head of a frog, the face of a giant elephant, thick short legs with claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long spiked tail. The first picture looks closer to what he described, but not exact. In fact, the Hodag looks more like a demonic ox, which makes sense. It was aid to be born from the ashes of cremated oxen and be the living embodiment of the abuse they endured as beasts of burden.
It was also said that they went extinct after their favorite food became scarce. What did these carnivores eat? All white bulldogs. This is why you really get a sense that this is all a hoax. I mean, it seemed clear from the hunted one and live one, but we’re looking at it with modern eyes. You would think that it being declared a hoax would make it lose its power.
Nope! The Hodag is the official symbol of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Their high school’s mascot is the Hodag. They have an annual music festival named after the creature. The same goes for various businesses. There are Hodag statues at the Chamber of Commerce and the ice arena. They definitely leaned into the creature’s fame and made it their own, which is very impressive. At this point, it doesn’t matter if the Hodag is a hoax. Then again, maybe it isn’t and this whole thing is being done to protect a heavily endangered species that lives in secret.
(This one was written when I had really bad anxiety. It was to the point that I had body spasms at times. Not fun. Glad I haven’t returned to that level.)
I’m almost tempted to put this under ‘Animal Posts’ because it’s really a giant bat. This creature is found in Cameroon and is associated with the Kongamato, which is a pterodactyl cryptid. Only because they both fly and tend to attack people wandering through a jungle.
Now, the Olitiau doesn’t come from folklore or mythology. It is a cryptid in the same vein as Sasquatch and Nessie. That is a mysterious creature that has been sighted in the wild and not identified as a known species. The Olitiau really does skirt this because it’s description is simply that of a giant bat. It is said to be all black and the size of an eagle with a 12 foot wingspan. It has a semicircle of pointy teeth that are spread wide apart and it makes a chattering noise. Finally, it was later said to have a face closer to that of a monkey than a dog.
Most of the information comes from a single encounter in 1936 by two men (Sanderson & Russell) who were leading an expedition to West Africa. They encounter the Olitiau, which buzzed them twice and disappeared into the night. Locals apparently said that they had seen the same type of creature of the years and revealed the name. An interesting and simple tale, but it starts with the two men having shot the following animal:
Hammerhead Fruit Bat
While not the size of the Olitiau, the hammerhead fruit bat does match the description and they could have angered one after killing the first. They don’t eat people, but that doesn’t mean they won’t attack. It was also dark or at least shadowy along with the two men being startled and fueled by adrenaline. So, the mind could play tricks to enlarge the beast that is coming for your face. Then again, other people claimed to see or get harassed by it, so maybe it is real.
This story gets stranger too because somebody would later claim the Olitiau was a pterosaur, which upset Sanderson. He didn’t agree even though he admitted it could be possible, but still thought pterosaurs were cliff-diving hunters. Even with that thought, him and his partner claimed they had seen a large bat. Unfortunately, the theory of a pterosaur muddied the waters and that’s why the Olitiau gets connected or absorbed by the Kongamato.
An interesting tidbit is the origin of the name. Olitiau is thought to be a transcription of the Ipulo word for cloven or forked. This is used for a local dance mask that depicts a devil. The locals may have thought Sanderson was describing a devil instead of a large bat, which is why they shared their term for the mask. When Olitiau was said to people in the region, they usually didn’t have a response. Yet, sometimes they would if the word was stated closer to the original, mask name. So, there could be a translation situation here as well.
My personal thought is that this could have been a incredibly large bat. Possibly a mutant that grew much bigger than normal. That’s if it really exists because it’s also possible that the Olitiau is a regular bat enhanced by human fear and imagination. Still popular enough to end up in fiction though.
Legends of Windemere 