Strange Animals Podcast

In episode 14, we discuss the big three of giant salamanders–and some possible mystery relatives. The Chinese giant salamander. An orange one. Enormous. Mostly harmless. Just wants to eat a snail. The Japanese giant salamander: The HELLBENDER reverb reverb reverb The Pacific giant salamander. Not as giant but has an angry.

This week we’re taking a close look at the legend of the chupacabra! It’s not what you may expect, but it’s definitely an interesting story. Ben Radford’s sketch of the chupacabra Madelyne Tolentino described in 1996: The Texas chupacabra taxidermied by Ayer: A happy, healthy Xolo dog: A coywolf without mange: Mange can be cured! ... [Read more...]

This week we range across the world to solve (sort of) the mystery of the wyvern, the basilisk, the cockatrice, and crowing snakes! Thanks to listener Richard E. for suggesting this week’s topic! From left to right, or whatever since the three have been confused since at least the middle ages: the basilisk, the cockatrice, ... [Read more...]

This week we’re going all goth in April for the vampire squid and the vampire bat. They’re so awesome I want to die. The vampire squid looking all menacing even though it’s barely a foot long. “I love you, vampire bat!!” “I love you too, Kate.” Thanks for listening! We now have a Patreon if ... [Read more...]

This week’s episode is about electric animals! There are so many of them that I could only touch on the highlights. We start with the electric eel. It’s not actually an eel but it is most definitely electric. This one has just read some disturbing fanfic: The oriental hornet is a living solar panel: Amphisbaenids ... [Read more...]

This week we take a look at (and listen to) the ivory-billed woodpecker and its close relative, the imperial woodpecker. Is it alive? Is it extinct?

Further viewing:

Ivory-billed woodpecker footage from 1935

A pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers. Photo taken in 1935:

Frames from the alleged ivory-billed woodpecker video taken in 2004. Not super clear there, guys.

left to right: imperial woodpecker, ivory-billed woodpecker, and pileated woodpecker:

A pair of stuffed imperial woodpeckers:

A still from the 1958 video of a female imperial woodpecker. She's so cute! Her crest bobs around as she moves.

Show transcript:

A lot of people who aren’t otherwise into birds have heard of the ivory-billed woodpecker because of the 2004 and 2005 sightings, which were widely reported in the press. Before we talk about that, let’s get some background and discuss the bird itself.

There are actually two ivory-billed woodpeckers, the American bird and the Cuban. Originally they were listed as separate species. They’re big birds, glossy black in color with white markings. The male has a red crest with a black stripe up the front while the female’s crest is all black. They need vast areas of undisturbed forest to thrive, something that’s in short supply these days.

By the early 20th century, the Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker was already restricted to pine forests in the northeast of Cuba due to habitat loss. By the late 1940s it was rare. In 1956 some small populations were still around, but while conservation was urged, the Cuban revolution in 1959 stopped any conservation progress. The last positive sighting was in 1989. The Cuban government designated the area of its sighting as protected, but no one’s seen one since.

Another bird, the imperial woodpecker, is the largest woodpecker in the world. It lives in Mexico and is over two feet long, or 61 cm, with a wingspan of probably around three feet, or about a meter—maybe more. The female’s crest curls forward.

Until the early 1950s, the imperial woodpecker was reasonably widespread although people did shoot it sometimes. Then companies started logging in the imperial woodpecker’s territory. One old man remembered a forester telling locals that the birds destroyed trees and even gave them poison to spread on feeding sites. But the imperial woodpecker only feeds and nests in trees that are already dead or dying. It was never a threat to healthy trees. The last confirmed sighting of the imperial woodpecker was in 1956.

No photographs of a living imperial woodpecker exist. Then researcher Martjan Lammertink found mention in a 1962 letter of video taken of a bird in 1956 by dentist and amateur birder William Rhein. Rhein had become reclusive in his old age and moved with no forwarding address at least once, but Lammertink managed to track Rhein down in 1997, when he was in his late 80s. Rhein died in 1999.

Once Lammertink found him, Rhein produced 85 seconds of 16 mm movie footage he’d taken back in the 1950s, which showed a female imperial woodpecker hitching up a tree and flying away. From those 85 seconds, researchers learned a lot about the bird, helped by a 2010 expedition that pinpointed the exact location where the footage was shot.

There have been numerous sightings of imperial woodpeckers since the 1950s, but the list is discouraging. The sightings taper off slowly in different areas over the decades. The most recent was 2005, but it hasn’t been verified and no photographs were taken.

These days, the areas where imperial woodpeckers once lived are now dangerous to explor...

This week’s episode is a collection of strange animal sounds, some unknown, others identified. We start with “the loneliest whale.” A blue whale. Not the loneliest whale, as far as anyone knows. A tarsier: This fox can see into your soul and does not like you: Further listening: Strange Matters Podcast “The Most Strange and ... [Read more...]

New information came out today about the infamous Ozenkadnook Tiger photo! Here’s all the breaking news! The photo in question, taken in 1964. Someone please tell me how to pronounce Ozenkadnook.

This week we look at three strange birds: a red-tailed Canadian raven that may or may not exist, the pied-billed grebe that definitely does, and New Zealand’s takahē. A common raven. No red markings: Here’s the Cryptodominion page with the red-tailed raven report. Here’s Karl Shuker’s post about the red-tailed raven. Precious smol baby pied-billed ... [Read more...]

This week’s episode is all about sea monsters: mysterious sightings, possible solutions, and definitely discovered monsters of the world’s oceans! The giant oarfish! Try to convince me that’s not a sea serpent, I dare you. The megamouth shark. Watch out, krill and jellyfish! The frilled shark. Watch out, everything else including other sharks! A giant ... [Read more...]