Police Hunt For Lion In English Countryside (And Fail To Find One)

by Sean McLachlan on


A mysterious beast stalks the fields of Essex, England.

Over the weekend local police received calls from a number of eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen a lion in the fields near the village of St. Osyth. One person even snapped a predictably blurry and inconclusive picture of the beast. I’m not a wildlife expert but it looks like a house cat to me.

Police took the sightings seriously enough to scramble two helicopters and a team of officers and wildlife experts. They also checked with a local zoo and circus but neither reported a missing feline. After a long search they found … nothing.

A police spokesman said the sightings were probably due to “a large domestic cat or a wildcat,” the BBC reports. Police have called off the search and told people to enjoy themselves outdoors while remaining cautious. They should also have told them to stop overfeeding their pets with chips and kebabs and wasting police time.

This odd incident is actually part of a much bigger trend in the UK. Alien Big Cats, as they’re called, are giant felines not native to the area where they are spotted. Of course they’re never actually found. That would ruin the fun. We reported on one jaguar-like creature in Scotland three years ago and that’s just a drop in the Alien Big Cat bucket. The Big Cats in Britain research group has collected 240 different reports so far this year.

So why do Brits see lions and pumas in their fields while Americans get buzzed by UFOs? I guess it’s just one of those cultural differences we should all celebrate and not analyze too much. So next time you’re hiking in the UK, be sure to keep your camera out of focus. You might just start the next wave of Alien Big Cat sightings.

Don’t scoff too much, though. One woman said she was attacked by an Alien Big Cat. I’ve hiked a lot in England and Scotland and while I’ve never been attacked by an ABC (yes, that’s what they call them), I did nearly get attacked by cows.

[Photo courtesy Jennifer Barnard. As far as I know, this particular cat has never been the cause of a lion sighting]

China’s Popular Beach Trend: The Facekini

by Jessica Festa on




If you’re traveling to China this summer and want to fit in at the beach, you may be less than thrilled to learn the popular fashion trend will not allow you to get a tan. Dubbed the “facekini,” these masks cover the person’s entire face, head and neck, with holes cut out for the eyes, nose and mouth.

In northeast China’s seaside town of Qingdao, women especially find these masks appealing for beachwear. Unlike most Westerners who enjoy getting bronze in the summer, Chinese women view white skin as a sign of beauty. In fact, the Chinese have an expression that roughly translates to “white skin covers up a hundred uglinesses.” Because of this, these women will do whatever it takes to stay fair.

“[I wear this because] I fear getting tanned,” said Wang Xiuzhi (王秀芝), a “facekini woman” on Qingdao’s No. 1 Bathing Beach, as reported by Xinhua. “I come here to swim often and [the mask] does work.”

According to CNNGo, the facekini has other benefits, like preventing jellyfish stings, repelling mosquitoes and warding off sharks.

While many people from outside China are just finding out about the facekini, the truth is it has been popular in Qingdao for the last five years.

Would you wear a facekini to the beach?

[Image via AFP / Getty Images]

Does Nessie’s Norwegian Cousin Lurk In Europe’s Deepest lake?

by Sean McLachlan on


Hornindalsvatnet in Norway is Europe’s deepest lake. So deep, in fact, that’s it’s never been properly explored. Nobody is even sure exactly how deep it is, with the official depth of 514 meters (1,686 feet) being challenged.

Now it appears the unexplored waters may hold a creature unknown to science. A photo has been published in the local newspaper Fjordingen showing what appears to be a serpentine critter undulating along the surface of the lake. Click on the link to see the picture. Although the image has been pirated by pretty much every paranormal website on the Net, we respect copyright here at Gadling. Instead you get this public domain image from Wikimedia Commons of a sea serpent spotted off Cape Anne, Massachusetts, in 1639. They do look similar.

The monster was spotted and photographed by three men on the shore. They say they took their boat out to get a better look but the creature had already disappeared. Their photo appears to show a serpent-like creature in the water. Two and perhaps three loops of its body are visible above the surface of the water, along with a disturbance in the water and a wake. Another disturbance in the water is visible below and to the left.

Could this be a Norwegian Nessie? Will Hornindalsvatnet become a tourist destination for curiosity seekers like Loch Ness? Also, what do you think of this photograph? Real or fake? Tell us what you think in the comments section!

Gadling Blogger Snaps Photo Of Nessie (Not Really)

by Sean McLachlan on


On my recent trip to Scotland, I took this shocking photo of a strange creature out in the water. Is it Nessie?

Well, no, it isn’t. I won’t tell you what it is, except that the truth is hidden in one of the answers to the poll below. Vote for your most likely candidate and I’ll post the SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT MY NESSIE PHOTO a week from now.

Sorry for shouting, I got carried away.

While I didn’t photograph the Loch Ness Monster (or did I?), a certain George Edwards did. The Inverness Courier published his photo last week and it’s been making the rounds on the Internet. It shows a fuzzy lump in the water that could be a species unknown to science or simply a fuzzy lump in the water.

Mr. Edwards says he saw the dark gray shape “slowly moving up the loch towards Urquhart Castle.” He watched it for at least five minutes but for some reason only took one photo. Edwards claims to have sent the image off to some experts in the U.S. military to have it analyzed.

Proof that Nessie exists? Maybe. Maybe not. The fact that Edwards runs Loch Ness Cruises makes me a wee bit suspicious that this is a publicity stunt. Even the popular monster hunting site Crypto Mundo cast some doubts on the story, asking why there’s no wake from a supposedly moving object and why a lifelong Nessie hunter only snapped a single photograph.

Whatever the truth behind Edwards’ photo, you’ll learn the SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT MY NESSIE PHOTO next week.

Sorry, got carried away again.

UPDATE: The correct answer wins by a slim margin! Yes, this was a seal coming up for air. He’s poking his nose out of the water and looks remarkably like a shark, which is why 22 Gadling readers were fooled into thinking it was one. I’m a bit curious as to the six people who thought I swiped a “real” Nessie photo from the Internet. Are there so many blurry photos of the beastie out there that they all begin to look the same?

%Poll-76916%

Bureau Of Land Management Gives Advice On Finding Bigfoot

by Sean McLachlan on


Last week we reported on how the U.S. National Ocean Service publicly denied the existence of mermaids in response to a joke documentary on Animal Planet.

Meanwhile, another federal agency has taken a different course. The Bureau of Land Management in Oregon & Washington has released this video titled “Bigfoot and the BLM.” In it, people, who I assume to be BLM staff, are asked about their belief in Bigfoot and the narrator gives handy tips about where to go looking for the mysterious creature.

Is this all just a bit of silliness at taxpayer expense? A cheap publicity stunt? Maybe. Maybe not. As Matt Moneymaker, president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Association pointed out on his Twitter account, “Hmmm…The locations mentioned by this BLM Oregon dude all happen to be active Bigfoot areas. . .coincidence??”

Perhaps the agency hopes that by encouraging people to visit the Pacific Northwest’s beautiful natural areas, some lucky hiker will find definitive proof for Bigfoot? Hopefully it will be better proof than a pot-bellied guy wandering around in a gorilla suit like shown in this video.

Whatever the explanation for the BLM’s move, they’re obviously fond of Bigfoot. Even the banner of their blog features the creature. Click on the jump to see the image.