Has anyone in Leeds, Yorkshire eve spotted any cryptids or strange creatures? In Leeds or the surrounding areas?

I'm producing an analog horror series for YouTube involving cryptids and cryptozoology, and it will be multilingual (certain tapes in Brazilian Portuguese, others in Spanish, others in English, etc.). I need an idea of ​​the population distribution of Puerto Rico, to know where the rural areas are and produce the second tape, please help :^ (the account and the 1st tape were interested https://youtu.be/3STXhSMkFTc?si=LPlImd9XXc1qfeyR)

Btw I genuinely can’t tell the difference between this sub and r/Cryptids and if someone could tell or let me know if this post is more appropriate over there, that’d be great.

Anyway, I’m currently going through a cryptid phase that began with me buying a few cryptid-related books (notably The United States of Cryptids by J.W. Ocker) and binging Wendigoon’s cryptid iceberg on YouTube, now I plan on even buying more cryptid books/novels (big fan of Devolution by Max Brooks) and binging Lost Tapes on YouTube.

Speaking of Lost Tapes, I’m very sure this awesome show and Finding Bigfoot was my earliest exposure to cryptids during my childhood. I used to watch Animal Planet frequently and I clearly remember one day watching a random episode of Lost Tapes with my dad and getting the shit scared out of me by the Owlman episode.

This media exposure to cryptids would eventually lead me to this mini-series on Nat Geo called Beast Hunter (which is how I found out about the Mapinguari and the animatronic/statue portrayal the show used also gave me nightmare fuel as a kid) and randomly watching content creators like Wendigoon who make videos about cryptids or similar creatures.

Cryptids are just such a fascinating concept to think about even if more than a few are obvious hoaxes/fakes/folklore stories.

My personal favorites are the supposedly living dinosaurs such as Mokele-mbembe (which I also first found out about in Beast Hunter and makes a surprise appearance in the Japanese Goblin Slayer anime/manga/light novel series) and Burrunjor.

Though, the extant Megalania if it does count as a cryptid is my number one. Mostly because Lost Tapes gave it a really badass nickname which didn’t exist before the show aired (Devil Dragon) and the Megalania episode of the Monsters Resurrected documentary series makes reference of its status as a cryptid.

Let's say every single cryptid we've ever known participates in a guantlet. After every round the winner gets healed up into prime strength and fights another cryptid. Water cryptids stay in a body of water. Which cryptid will win the gauntlet?

Cryptid info source: https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Gray_Dhole

Wolf did reported found in northern myanmar based on paper "status selected species of north myanmar" for anyone want the paper, just download in this website: http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=refs&CODE=note_detail&id=1165248113

Here is more of the original footage of what we believe to be sasquatch surrounding my colleague, there is captured eyeshine, blinking, vocalizations and the infamous rock throw. He was up north in Michigan unloading his gear at night. He was staying up at his family Cabin for Bow Hunting. This was all recorded on the same night on a New iphone. https://youtu.be/gCT9SLQEkg4

I have found an old Chinese text describing a very weird tailed primate and linking it to the Yeren, the Chinese iteration of the wildman.

The Bencao gangmu entry for feifei, identified as the "golden snub-nosed monkey, Rhinopithecus roxellanae" and "baboon" Papio hamadryas,^([46]) lists other synonyms of xiaoyang 梟羊 "owl goat", yeren 野人 "wild man; savage" (see Yeren), and shandu 山都 "mountain capital".

Chen Cangqi: The baboon is found in the Yi areas in the southwest. The book Er Ya: The baboon is in the shape of a human being with disheveled hair. It runs very fast and may eat humans. The book Shanhai Jing: Xiaoyang has a human-like face, long lips and a black body. It is covered with hair. It has reversed heels. It laughs when it sees a human being, and when it laughs its upper lip may cover its eyes. Guo Pu: In the Jiao and Guang regions and also in the mountains in Nankangjun, such creatures can be found. A big one may be as tall as 10 chi. It is colloquially called Shandu. In one of the years of the Xiaojian reign of the Song dynasty (960–1279), people from the indigenous areas contributed a pair of baboons to the emperor, one male and one female. The emperor asked Ding Luan, a representative from the tribe, about the animal. Ding Luan answered: "The face of the animal looks like a human being. It is covered with red hair like a macaque. It has a tail. It can talk like a human being, but it sounds like the chirping of a bird. It can predict life and death. It is very strong and can carry very heavy things. It has reversed heels and seems to have no knees. When it sleeps, it leans against something. When it catches a human being, it first laughs and then eats him. A hunter can catch the animal by using this trick. He puts one arm through a bamboo tube to lure the animal. When the animal laughs heartily, the person uses a nail to try to pin its lip to its forehead. Then the animal will run around wildly and die shortly afterwards. It has very long hair, which can be used to make wigs. Its blood can be added in the dyeing of boots or silk fabrics. If one drinks its blood, one will be able to see ghosts." After this explanation, the emperor ordered a painter to do a portrait of the animal. Li Shizhen: The book Fangyu Zhi: The baboon can also be found in the mountains in western Sichuan and Chuzhou. It is also called Renxiong. People catch it, and eat its paws and peel off its hide. In the You Mountains of Shaxian County in Fujian, the animal is also found. It is more than 10 chi tall and laughs when it encounters a human being. It is also called Shandaren, Yeren, or Shanxiao. The book Nankang Ji by Deng Deming: Shandu looks like a wild man from Kunlun Mountain. Its body is covered with hair. When it encounters a human being, it closes its eyes and opens its mouth, seeming to laugh. It turns stones in mountain streams to find crabs for food.[48]

Note how the intro links this to the baboon and the Snub Nosed monkey. However it can not be the baboon because it does NOT live in China, yet even the Snub Nosed monkey is a poor fit because it is said to be 10 chi tall, which is 9 - 10 feet. Even though there is no way a primate was that big, I guess it was at least 6 feet tall, i.e. taller than a human.

I was watching an iceberg chart video by Zoanfly that had this encounter in it, and I googled it shortly after seeing the video, and the only thing that I could find was a post on r/Highstrangeness.

Less than a year before the Titanic sunk, another ocean liner from the same fleet encountered a dragon-like sea beast that seemed to emerge from ancient myth. The primary witness was a famous Broadway stage actor.

https://preview.redd.it/mxfl6s8vwx3e1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=c03eb5cf7cdc7d8a61a71958b9008124aa25faa2

By Kevin J. Guhl

Austin H. Clark, zoologist and marine biologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., declared in 1930 that modern steamships had destroyed the fables about sea serpents residing in American waters and beyond. It might be true that humankind's conquering of the oceans dispelled the old fears of ancient mariners who were tossed about the sea in rickety wooden boats. By the dawn of the 20th century, thousands of passengers were riding high on steel behemoths that could cross the Atlantic Ocean in mere days. But accounts of sea serpents still trickled out into the press during this era. In fact, a spectacular sighting occurred in 1911 aboard one of the world's largest ocean liners, operated by the White Star Line—the same company whose hubris would be tragically tempered by the loss of its "unsinkable" Titanic less than a year later. And the primary witness was one of the most famous actors of his day.

Victorian matinee idol Robert Hilliard, "the handsomest man on the American stage"—essentially the George Clooney of the 1870s—was known for his sartorial appearance and performance in "he man" roles during his Broadway heyday. Hilliard was celebrated for his immaculate dress. A striking figure on Manhattan streets, he wore a white carnation in his lapel that matched the silver whiteness of his hair in later years.

Robert Hilliard, 1912

Hilliard's greatest success was his starring role in "A Fool There Was," described contemporarily as "a daring and realistic play that startled New Yorkers from their Lenten lethargy like a sudden explosion of dramatic dynamite." Hilliard began his run with the play at the Liberty Theatre on Broadway in March 1909 and continued to tour with the show for several years. Hilliard played the titular fool, who loses both his family and successful career as a Wall Street lawyer/diplomat when he succumbs to his lust for the (non-undead) "vampire woman," a femme fatale who enjoys using her charms to seduce men and ruin their lives. American playwright Porter Emerson Browne based "A Fool There Was" on Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Vampire," which was in turn based on a well-known 1897 painting, "The Vampire," by Kipling's cousin, artist Sir Philip Burne-Jones. "In making the vampire woman of 'A Fool There Was' a brunette, we followed Burne-Jones' painting exactly," Hilliard once mused. "As a matter of fact blondes—the real ones, not the peroxides—are the most dangerous type of womankind. There is ample scientific authority for this conclusion." Theda Bara portrayed the vamp in the 1915 movie version of "A Fool There Was," one of the popular starlet's few surviving films, opposite Edward José as the fool.

A black and white reproduction of \"The Vampire\" (1897) by Philip Burne-Jones. The original painting is lost.

Hilliard traveled to London with the express purpose of attending a production of "A Fool There Was" in the spring of 1911. No sooner did he step foot on land than he learned that the British production had been shut down for good the previous night. Severely disappointed, Hillard headed for Liverpool and boarded the RMS Celtic for the trip back across the Atlantic Ocean toward New York City.

The massive ocean liner RMS Celtic was launched in 1901 by the White Star Line, the same company that would debut the doomed RMS Titanic in 1912. Celtic exceeded 20,000 tons and could accommodate nearly 3,000 passengers, eschewing speed in preference for luxury and size. Averaging 17 knots, Celtic traversed its assigned 3,000-mile route across the Atlantic Ocean between Liverpool and New York in about eight days. Built by the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, as was Titanic, Celtic was briefly the largest the ship in the world until White Star launched RMS Cedric in 1902.

The RMS Celtic was briefly the largest steamship in the world. From the July 13, 1901 Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Celtic, carrying the deflated Hilliard on his return trip, pulled into port at New York on Sunday, June 4, 1911. That afternoon, reporters from the city's "ultramarine" press, including the Times and Sun, boarded at the ship's quarantine and headed for the smoking room to learn the latest gossip and news from the journey. It was here that a steward revealed the Celtic's surprising encounter with a "monoplanic" sea serpent at dawn Saturday morning, which Hilliard corroborated "under duress." The actor begged that his statements not be printed since he disliked notoriety, a wish we only know about since The New York Times gleefully reported it.

The early-rising steward saw the strange sight off the Celtic's starboard bow and, instead of carrying the news to the bridge, ran to the rooms under his care and begged those within to come on deck and see it. This included Mr. Hilliard, who, in the actor's own words, per the Sun, had requested to be awoken "if anything unusual occurred on shipboard or out in the illimitable ocean." Hilliard drew on his pajamas and went out on deck to join a mixture of fellow passengers and crew, where the supposed sea serpent was pointed out to him "as the first great streaks of dawn appeared far off on the ocean's misty brim," said Hilliard.

"The sea serpent—witnesses differ as to its length—was sighted holding a bewhiskered, calf-like head ten feet above water. Behind, where the ears ought to have been, were two wings extending outward about ten feet, thus giving the saurian monster the appearance of an aeroplane skimming over the sea. The steward, in fact, described it as a monoplane sea serpent," wrote The New York Times. The serpent, according to Hilliard and the steward, was either pursuing a school of whales or keeping company with them. The steward claimed that the sea serpent turned a pair of "large, mournful green eyes" toward the spectators on the Celtic's deck. "Then it passed on its monoplanic way, dipping up and down, just like that, but otherwise holding its head erect. Behind it appeared at intervals a dark-green body, moving through the water with a wiggly motion," according to the Times. Captain A.E.S. Hambleton did not enter the incident in the Celtic's log, unsurprisingly.

The New York Sun's article on the incident, written in a glaringly more absurd fashion, described the sea serpent as having a white beard that reminded Hilliard of King Lear. The monster was at least 200 feet long, with 20 "convolutions" showing above the ocean's surface, and rising from its back were two wings that were at least 100 feet from tip to tip, according to the Sun. An amateur aviator onboard remarked that the serpent reminded him of a hydroplane. As the Sun article also contained the jest that a four-masted "Swiss Navy" schooner had been dragged down to its demise when the leviathan dove, it is best to take their report with an ocean's worth of salt. Nevertheless, the Sun softened its outlandish claims, writing, "The purser denied the story, declaring that the Celtic had not been chartered as a seeing-the-serpent yacht, but he admitted that there had been an unusually large Sunday school of whales noted off the starboard bow, or inshore, toward Amagansett [on Long Island—Ed.] early yesterday morning before anyone who had gone to bed was up. He could not account for the visions of those who had not gone to bed and who might have been holding royal flushes made up of marine monsters before the lights in the smoking room were extinguished." 

Samuel A. Wood, a veteran reporter for the Sun and "dean of the ultramarines," told his counterpart from the Times that, "Sea serpent stories are rare at this port nowadays, but in the old days the men on sailing vessels saw many of them. Forty years ago, I wrote many of those stories, but as steam has replaced sail and romance departed from the seas, the sea serpents have evidently moved away from the steamship tracks." Wood's tenure might have been exaggerated here, as in 1906 the Times wrote that he had been "recording the coming and going of the ships from New York for 20 years." That March, between 50 and 60 ship news reporters, past and present, had gathered to celebrate the 50-year-old Wood for his professional accomplishments. L.A. Southworth of The World preceded the presentation of a loving cup to the senior reporter by "hazarding the guess that if Mr. Wood had not seen the Half Moon sail up the Hudson, he certainly had been at the launching of the old Peruvian bark Calisaya, with her renowned cargo of knotholes."

The ultramarine team gleaned some additional news tidbits from Hilliard in addition to the sea serpent sighting: Actress Grace Carlyle, a fellow passenger, had gone to London to study the play "Passers-By" by C. Haddon Chambers and would be the leading woman in the Broadway production, despite Carlyle keeping mum on the subject to reporters. (For the record, "Passers-By" ran at the Criterion Theatre on Broadway for 124 performances between September and December 1911, but it does not appear Carlyle was in the cast, with Louise Rutter as the female lead.) Also, Carlyle had been compelled to pay a $75 duty for bringing her Pomeranian dog onto the Celtic, and was "rather pleased to be the first person taxed under the new tariff on all American animals brought back to America."

Grace Carlyle. 1917

In addition, Hilliard had won about $300 during the voyage betting against fellow passengers on the English Derby, accurately picking both the first and second horse. (This was some time before the sea serpent became visible.) Not content with those spoils, Hilliard won an additional $50 in wagers thanks to his quick thinking and ingenuity. The actor had worn his trademark boutonnière on his lapel every day of the trip until the last, when a flower could not be obtained. The passengers joked about it, and Hilliard bet he would have one on by 4 o'clock. Hilliard wired ahead to a valet to bring a fresh flower to the pier. The valet rushed onboard the newly arrived vessel and Hilliard placed the boutonnière in his lapel a minute before the clock struck 4, winning the bet.

Sea serpents were once enough of a going concern that when breaking the somber news of the Titanic's sinking on April 15, 1912, some newspapers clarified that the creatures were not the cause of the disaster. "It is clear enough that the accident which has overtaken the 'Titanic' was due to an iceberg, either submerged or floating above water. When fifty or so years ago large vessels failed to reach their destination, it was quite common to attribute their loss to the machination of 'sea serpents'—more or less mythical creatures of enormous size. There are plenty of people even today who believe in the existence of these fabulous animals," wrote the Manchester Courier. In pondering the myriad ways that ocean liners like the Titanic become lost at sea, an article in Tulsa World stated, "The secrets of the sea have been investigated so well that no destructive agent is likely to exist which is not known to science. Collision with a whale would not damage a liner, though it would be bad for the whale. The sea serpent may be dismissed without comment."

THE GREAT SEA SERPENT AGAIN.—Captain J.F. Cox, master of the British ship \"Privateer,\" which arrived at Delaware on September 9 from London, says:—\"On August 5, 100 miles west of Brest (France), weather fine and clear, at 5 p.m., as I was walking the quarter-deck, looking to windward, I saw something black rise out of the water about twenty feet, in shape like an immense snake of 3 feet diameter. It was about 300 yards from the ship, coming towards us; it turned its head partly from us and went down with a great splash, after staying up about five seconds, but rose again three times at intervals of ten seconds, until it had turned completely from us, and was going from us with a great speed, and making the water boil all round it. I could see its eyes and shape perfectly. It was like a great eel or snake, but as black as coal tar, and appeared to be making great exertions to get away from the ship. I have seen many kinds of fish in five different oceans, but was never favoured with a sight of the great sea snake before.\"—The Illustrated Police News, Oct. 4, 1879

As an interesting aside, you might wonder what became of the White Star Line following the tragic loss of the RMS Titanic and several other vessels. Did it go out of business? Nope; it merged with its chief rival, the Cunard Line, in 1934, and Cunard was absorbed into the Carnival cruise line in 2005. The company that launched liners such as Titanic, Olympic, Oceanic, Britannic and Celtic lives on in the "White Star Service" that Carnival offers its passengers in the present day.

As bizarre and mismatched as a "transmedium" sea serpent with wings might sound, there were scattered reports of them following the 1911 encounter on the Celtic:

-In February 1912, Miss Gertrude Green, a Maryland girl who won a trip to Bermuda in a publicity contest, returned on the Bermuda-Atlantic steamship Oceana with an amazing story. She and the four other Maryland girls who accompanied her on the voyage witnessed a weird creature rise up from the sea when the ship was about five miles out from Hamilton, Bermuda's capital city. The girls were so startled that they had trouble describing what they had seen to the Bermuda-Atlantic press agent, but all agreed that the monster of the deep had white wings and green eyes.

-In September 1922, a dispatch from Constantinople stated that the Greek government had ordered an armed fleet to the Sea of Marmora to pursue a winged sea monster which had appeared off the Princes' Isles. The creature was first sighted in the Aegean Sea off the island of Negroponte (aka Euboea), where it frightened fishermen before passing unseen through the Dardanelles. Witnesses declared that the monster measured 40 feet "and that its flappers alone would smash a ferry-boat." The passengers and crew of the Siri Sefain saw the serpent halfway between Pendik and Cartal, a station of the Anatolian railway in Turkey. There was a violent commotion on the surface of the otherwise tranquil sea, followed by the appearance of the vague form of an enormous winged monster. First the head and then the tail were seen. The Siri Sefain danced about in the disturbed waters "like a toy ship" until the monster dived and disappeared toward the islands. Naturalists, of course, believed the monster to be a whale.

-A sea serpent with "a set of large wings resembling those on an airplane" was spotted on July 26, 1938 on Jefferies Bank, 35 miles northeast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. The crew of the small fishing boat Giuseppe reported that a strange-looking black creature, 50 to 60 feet long with a head like a horse, broke the surface of the water several times that day within one-quarter of a mile from where they were fishing. Each time the serpent emerged, it opened its huge mouth wide, striking terror into the hearts of the fishermen. It also frightened the huge whales that were swimming in the vicinity, sending them scattering in all directions. The crew of the Giuseppe postulated that the monster was feeding on the shrimp that were abundant in the area. The sailors weren't able to offer a more complete description of the winged serpent, as they weren't particularly interested in getting too near it.

The White Star Line had a storied and tumultuous history, but who would have thought an encounter with a winged sea serpent was among those chapters? As for Hilliard, he is a reminder that even the most cherished celebrities can be forgotten in the passage of generations and time. But sea serpent legends are immortal, and the actor's brush with one—even if it was the result of bleary eyes and perhaps a long night playing cards—brings him back to top of mind for today's lovers of the strange.

Theda Bara in the 1915 film \"A Fool There Was\"

Here is a curious ones, what are the chances of prehistoric primates still exist alive ? Small like homo floresiensis may possibly still hiding in somewhere rural and undisclosed away from modern sights.

The famous Zuiyo-maru carcass

Lake monsters sightings are very very dubious because of the limitation lakes have.

But out in the sea, who's to say? The ocean is still 70% unexplored. Not saying gigantic, but whale-sized marine animals. Giant squids exist. Maybe there can be some sort of gigantism of other known animals in the deep sea. 30 feet sized white shark? 40 feet giant octopus? Descendants of the plesiosaur that has adapted to the deep sea and able to breathe underwater.

I found a video showing a small, 2-3 feet tall apelike creature swinging on a tree in North America. I would assume it is an escaped gibbon but a larger humanoid standing creature is briefly seen near it. If Bigfoot is real juveniles could very likely be tree climbers, since they would have evolved from smaller tree climbing apes and have lost the ability to climb without breaking a tree by getting larger. So even adult Bigfoots should theoretically be somehow able to climb, they would just fall by breaking trees with their weight.

Here is the video...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjFs9_e4PyJAxXLywIHHV8ZJsQQFnoECBQQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DsdMTakWBtME&usg=AOvVaw2XzDMuEa3pXlIfZC2Gieim&opi=89978449

Note, there are more claimed Bigfoots in it, but I do not think the others are legit at all.

As you can see it can not be a human in a suit. It would be a young kid due to size, but no young kid can do that.

So I'm very interested in getting into cryptozoology but I don't know where to start. I've watched some videos and read about cryptids on the internet, but there's just so much stuff😭. Does anyone have any advice? For example books that i could start with? Or good youtube channels or anything like that?

Recently, Joe Rogan (half seriously) shared a documentary talking about the existence of living dragons/dinosaurs. The doc, produced by creationist group Genesis Park, has a lot of flaws I want to point out.

• The doc takes many Bible verses that are CLEARLY meant to be metaphors not to be taken literally and claims that they're proof the Bible is talking about real dinos. Another weird interpretation is that the verse about "traveling a dragon underfoot" is meant to be taken literally.
• They repeat lines about how "every culture in the world had dragons", which ignores that these cultures around the world had VASTLY different interpretations and descriptions of dragons, like how Chinese dragons didn't even have wings
• It cites a South Dakotan fossil (Dracorex) as a dragon-like dinosaur, but it makes no attempts to actually connect it with any legends from South Dakota. (Also, Dracorex didn't fly. Or breathe fire).
• It cites the Peruvian Ica Stones, which are now known as hoaxes (especially since some of the "dinosaurs" on the stones didn't even appear in South America).
• It sites a story of a giant reptile being killed in Northern Africa by the Romans as a dinosaur story, even showing a sauropod while talking about the tale. The problem is that story *explicitly* says it was a giant serpent, not a lizard
• It mentions Herodotus seeing "flying reptiles" that were supposedly pterosaur like in appearance. But Herodotus explicitly described them as flying *snakes*, which Phil Senter points out as evidence he wasn't talking about pterosaurs due to their non snake-like bodies
• The documentary briefly mentions Alexander the great seeing a giant dragon in India. Again Mr. Senter points out that this story first appeared centuries after Alexander's death, and was greatly exaggerated (like it claiming the dragon's eyes were 2 feet or 70 cm in diameter).
• It cites Egede's sea serpent sighting as a living plesiosaur(?) which I don't think any serious cryptozoologist has agreed with . Most think its a misidentification (Charles Paxton) or a large cryptid otter or something similar, not a plesiosaur (though one theory is that it's a basilosaurus)
• The video calls Sagan's theory that dragons exist in our unconscious dreams because of our primitive ancestors encounters with dinosaurs "ridiculous", while also saying that humans lived with dinosaurs which is kind of funny
• The doc claims that dragons were wiped out by men fighting them, which is a handy explanation for why they're not still being sighted in large numbers, but it gives no evidence that this happened. You'd think we'd have more trophies of them
• It claims that the similar appearances of dragon art throughout the millennia is evidence that they were based on real animals. I think its more likely that people who drew dragons based their drawings on the artists who came before them