Sunday, November 24, 2019

Linda Godfrey's Wolfmen are Bears

In my last posting I pointed out that, despite her best efforts, Linda Godfrey’s book Real Wolfmen absolutely convinced me that people were seeing bears despite Linda’s hypothesis that gray wolves (Canis lupus) had learned to walk upright like a circus poodle to frighten away humans. 
Traditional werewolf depiction, public domain
 

Lets look at two of the best documented sightings to see if they match wolves or bears…

The Schackelman Sighting


The first modern ‘dogman’ report was by Mark and Joe Schackelman in 1936. Seen near a Native American burial mound at the St. Coletta school for Exceptional Children in Wisconsin the creature was man-sized, covered in fur, on its knees, and digging with its front paws. It reared on its hind legs
when noticed and had long claws, smelled bad, and made a sound like “ga-dar-rah”. Mark approved of a sketch drawn by his son Joe - that shows an obvious bear, stubby tail, flat paws and all.
reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only


Godfrey does her best to turn this bear sighting into something supernatural by spouting all sorts of superstitions about Native American burial grounds, exorcisms, and even trying to claim that the animals call was actually the Biblical word “Gadara”, which is supposibly associated with demons. She apparently realizes how ridiculous this is and admits it may have been a ‘canines menacing growl’ but it is obviously a bear call. Just listen to some to see how similar they are to the ‘dogmans’noise.


Dogs cannot kneel though bears can as this photo proves..

Stock photo of polar-bear-kneeling (c) Rolf Hicker Photography on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only

The Martin Sighting

Another famous case that contains a witness drawing is that of Shelly and Eric Martin. They saw five ‘dogman’ in their front yard in Palmyra Maine in 2011. The animals were seen at night, had green eye shine, and moved both on all fours and on two legs. They were seven feet tall with stubby tails, pointed ears, brown fur, and prominent dog-like muzzles. Despite claiming that they walked on their toes “like a dog or deer” the Martin’s drawing clearly shows a plantigrade animal. The flat feet, short tail, coloring, and wide width of the muzzle (empathized in both drawings) clearly say they saw bears.
reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only

Why Insist their not bears?

So the best reports we have the large size (7 feet tall or more), plantegrade feet, long clawed fore paws, coloration (grizzled grown), and stubby tails of bears. They even sound like bears. So why do so many people insist that what they are seeing is not a bear? I think it is because most sightings are made by city folk unfamiliar with wild animals. They see bears in pictures and on TV that are healthy and well fed, usually well into the fall season when they are their fattest and their coat long and full to withstand the winter cold. Most people have never seen a skinny or mangy bear.

Grizzly Bear clipart, public domain

Here is a healthy but thin bear. Note the human-like way it holds its paws, the prominent ears that look so different from the round ears most people expect, and the shape of the muzzle and shoulders.

Brown Bear, blonde cub dancing, Geographic Harbor, Katmai National Park, AK Image copyright 2006: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only
 


They say a picture is worth a thousand words and here are some bears with mange. Note how much they resemble a hyena or big dog with a sloping spine, long-thin limbs, and very protuberant ears that look pointed without a covering of fur to blunt them. The snout is also much more prominent than normal without its covering of hair. 
 
@BlactimusPrime / Via Twitter: @BlactimusPrime, reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only
(c) Pennsylvania Game Commission , reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only

(c) John Binkele https://trektrax.blogspot.com/2011/10/np28-katmai.html , reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only

Non-Bear Reports

Now some sightings in the book are not bears – but they are not man-wolves either. My favorite are the ‘Doberman Lynx’ of California. Several sightings on Mount Wilson are of a cat-like animal the size of a doberman dog with tufted pointed ears, a stubby tail, short speckled gray-brown ‘hyena’ fur, and a frill of fur on its cheek and neck. The animal is first sighted standing upright before dropping to all fours to run off. One witness asked a park ranger what it was and was told it was “a type of lynx”.

Doberman Lynx from Godfrey's Book, reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only
Godfrey makes a big deal about the Ranger not saying what kind of lynx it is but as only one species is found in the southern United States is had to have been a bobcat Lynx rufus, and the reports are indeed a good description of that species which can be solid black or have hyena-like spots.
And by the way, despite what some cryptozoologist claim, cats can walk on their hind legs – and here are some videos to prove it…



So much for dogman reports. They are bears; not bigfoot in costume, wolves walking upright, coyotes bouncing around, werewolves, or cryptids. They are just mangy bears or bobcats seen by people unfamiliar with these animals.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Revewing Linda Godfrey's Real Wolfmen


Ever since I was young I was fascinated by werewolves. I had read most of the classics by the time I was in high school. From Montague Summers’ Werewolf (rather dry and boring), to Ian Woodward’s The Werewolf Delusion (best book on the subject I have read so far) so I am not unfamiliar with the basics.

Cover of my edition of the book


I purchased Linda S. Godfrey’s book Real Wolfmen: True Encounters in Modern America hoping to read some reports that would convince me that upright canines were real. Godfrey speaks of loads of folklore and has a tendency to use these myths to explain perfectly mundane things.

For example a black, shaggy, floppy-eared hound attacked a family’s pet dog one night in Argentina. Thinking it was a Lobizon the people beat the strange mutt with hoes and bricks until it was unconscious than dragged it outside.  It latter ran off and was last seen cowering behind a gas pump by a station attendant. Godfrey goes on about how it was probably a skinwalker that has lost his coyote skin and that was why it looked so scared when hiding behind the pump. I am not making this up - a skinwalker and not simply a terrified stray dog beaten by superstitious fools!


A Newfoundland (Right) compared to a coyote (Left) - No similarity other than both being canines.
 
She also claims things that are obvious falsehoods. Things easily checked simply by using google or going to a library. For example in the chapter on the beast of GĂ©vaudan she claims the 2009, the documentary The Real Wolfman said the beast was an extinct species of hyena. The hyena in question is the Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena) which is still alive and well throughout Africa and Asia.

Her writing reminds me of Janet and Colin Bord Alien Animals who also prefer supernatural mumbo jumbo to facts and made absurd claims, The topping on the cake being that Archaeopteryx was a large creature responsible for the Cornish owlman reports. Yes the Bords describe Archaeopteryx as “Large” - an animal the size of a crow!

By the time I was done with Real Wolfmen I was absolutely convinced that 90% of all the sightings in this book were nothing more unusual then bears. The other 10% were a mix of bobcats, perfectly normal canines (mostly domestic dogs and in one case a wolf suffering from deafness), and people with WAY to much imagination and little ability to tell reality from fantasy.

Why bears, as opposed to Linda’s own hypothesis that wolves have learned to walk upright like a circus poodle as a threat display? Simply if its the size of a bear, has the stubby tail of a bear, is the color of a bear, has the feet of a bear, and even sounds like a bear - its a BEAR, no matter how much the witness insist it was not. 

Next post - why I think the majority of "dogman" reports are bears.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Council of Wyrms Conversion for Pathfinder

Remember the old post about my Council of Wyrms conversion for the 3.5 edition of d&d? Well Dungeons & Dragons is in its 5th edition now so that book is useless to all but diehard 3.5 fans. So I wrote a Pathfinder conversion instead as Pathfinder is still popular and has remained consistent to this day.

The new Council of Wyrms differs from the old one in many respects. First it is a full conversion, even converting the adventures and NPC from the original box set. Second I have omitted the templates and published them as a separate book that includes a few more templates for the DM to unleash on unsuspecting players. Third, and the largest change, I have replaced the gem dragons with Pathfinder's primal dragons. As the differences between the gem and peal dragons are mainly cosmetic one can use whichever coloration one prefers without changing the stats but as only the primals are OGL they were the ones to use.

Click here to read the books and enjoy...


https://www.scribd.com/doc/275210046/Council-of-Wyrms-Conversion-for-Pathfinder

https://www.scribd.com/doc/293465540/Draconic-Templates-for-Pathfinder

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The Little Ones: Terrible Terrors & Friends

Sorry for the delay, I have had problems posting to blogger lately. But finally here is the next post for the HTTYD series.

Not all the dragons in the how to Train your dragon franchise are large, many are dog sized or smaller. The smallest are the insect-sized nanodragons but today we are going to look at those species commonly kept as pets and hunting dragons.

The most common in the movies is the Terrible Terror, a breed the size of a large house cat. The most common in the books is the dog sized Common garden and Basic brown breeds. The last is the Horrible Horror, my own hunting dragon according to This Website.

These small dragons may not be ridden but they can carry messages for the PCs (or NPCs for that matter), act as scouts, help hunt down dinner, be familiars, or simply be the team pet.

Terrible Terrors
 


Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Hideous Zippleback & Snaptrapper: Two (or more) heads are better then one

It has long been said that two heads are better than one and in How to Train Your Dragon this is true of two breeds of dragon, the Hideous Zippleback and the Snaptrapper. Here are the statistics for these multi-minded wyrms for In Harms Way: Dragons.

The two headed Zippleback is also known as the Two-Headed Gormatron in the books. While often thought to have a head on both ends like a Pushmi-pullyu the picture does show a tail thus indicating that this is actually a case of wonky perspective. In any case it is obvious that the movie zippleback is based on this breed.

Original Version of the Zippleback, the Two headed gormatron

The other breed featured here is the Snaptrapper. Found only in the movies this breed has four heads and resembles a beautiful tropical blossom.


The lifecycle of the snaptrapper
 
So look below for the perfect breeds for those role players who want to share large dragon and can't agree who should be the captain. 

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Marsh Tiger & Monstrous Nightmare

Here are the two more How to Train Your Dragon breeds for In Harms Way-Dragons! The Marsh Tiger and the Monstrous Nightmare. These breeds are so similar they are hard to tell apart at first glance but remember four legs is a water loving tiger and two legs is a flaming nightmare.


 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014