Since three or four of us have already started discussing this set of episodes, I figured it would be good to put this out so as to keep things closer on target.

Looks like at least the Navy will be happy with this week's episode.  But, whether the rest of us will take "Delight" in this pair of cases will have to remain to be seen.   The teases for these two episodes have the teams investigating videos of a predator caught on video in Dartmoor in the United Kingdom, and of a large triangular craft spotted in the air over El Cajon, California.

MonsterQuest treated us to the case of the Beast of Exmoor which is located a bit north of the Dartmoor National Park in the southeast of England.  Exmoor National Park starts only about 20 miles north of the boundary of Dartmoor so it is not unreasonable to imagine that the beasts are the same, or that the same creature is being mistaken for each of these beasts.

One set of example photos of the Dartmoor Beast (not to be confused with the Charity March/Hike Event) can be seen here at ForteanTimes:

http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/cryptozoology/546/dartmoor_mystery_beast.html

This article is from 2007. This is now 2010 and the episode of FoF should be interesting to watch to see what their take is and whether or not some of these photos are used.  Given that it turned out to be someone’s pet…Revenant provided a link to that in last week’s episode discussion http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-472909/Thats-Beast-Dartmoor–pet-dog.html …I suspect, then, that it will be more like video such as this (or this actual video) which is extremely interesting…at least, it’s interesting in how bad the focus is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y87IJ4-Rw-c

This one appears to be from 2008 based upon its posting date so after the admission about the dog.  Although it’s out of focus, I can see that the tail doesn’t quite match that of a Newfoundland.  It seems much longer and more “cord-like”.  The animal seems “front-heavy” too.   More like that of a boar or lion, and the tail does resemble a lion’s somewhat.

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Now, what about the large triangular craft over El Cajon?  It appears that El Cajon has had its share of sightings.  One of those was on 01 Jan 2010.  Suspicious date.  Be sure to read the Note and Update on this page which has a description:

http://www.ufosnw.com/sighting_reports/2010/elcajonca01012010/elcajonca01012010.htm

Is 2010 too recent for FoF to be investigating it, though?  They seem to go for much older stories.  This one may be more likely, being almost a year before the one above:

http://www.ufosnw.com/sighting_reports/2009/elcajonca02242009/elcajonca02242009.htm

There seemed to be a few such sightings around that date, with about a week later happening on the same morning as a failed launch from Vandenburg, although supposedly did not occur until 40 minutes after the sighting.  Some of the videos show three red lights in triangular form and since the title of this week’s is Red Sky at Night it will probably center around those particular videos…hopefully not the hoaxed one, though!  But since the hoaxer was able to emulate the three lights, some big steps toward replication would already have been done.

For a listing of UFO reports near El Cajon, see here…note that the last three take place decades in the future :)

http://www.ufomaps.com/city/El+Cajon

Expert on rabbits/hares/jackrabbits?

Elmer Fudd?

If we consider the other half of the show's title…Faked (vs simple misindentification) what of the possibility of taking a dog out and filming it running just a bit out of focus. What dogs have the physical characteristics and mannerisms of running that we see here?

I'm about 99.9% sure that this is the lake we see in the background:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.375303,-4.869604&spn=0.01144,0.019999&t=h&z=16

He is filming from an area maybe 1000 to 1500 feet northeast of there. There are several trails that match the configuration. The angle of filming would match the sun lowering in the western or southwestern sky. I'm trying to match the angle and distance in Google Earth but the resolution isn't as good when I get down near the ground.

I'm going to throw a lion back into the mix as well since there apparently were reports of lions there (escapees?) about 10 years ago in the late 90s and form-wise, a lion running is a pretty good match. Not sure about size but then we don't really know what the size is. There are some pretty dark lions, too, and then if you consider sun angle.

I've seen footage of lions going for the kill that looked quite similar to that, though I've never seen any of one just tromping through the savannah at that gait! I've also seen bulls in a similar style as well as buffalo, though the head didn't look right for a buffalo (the body curvature looked similar, though) But again, in both cases, there is usually something going on like a trampling or a stampede and not just out strolling through the glen!

Yes, a lion might leave a trail of destruction, but we have no reason to believe that this creature captured on video is anything more than a chance viewing and it doesn't necessarily have to be what everyone else is seeing everytime they come across some unknown creature. It is still, admittedly, unlikely. Ponies were brought up one place I was looking but someone had done some comparisons and the back curvature wasn't a match. I wouldn't throw it out, though…ponies do have a bit of a mane, though I think a longer neck that what we see here.

I spent quite a while yesterday researching my local rabbit population and they like to sit or lay with their ears flat back, but the second they start to move the ears popped up like a semaphore flag and continued to stay up even when they started running rather than just their little hop-walks. I tried some video but the darn things would not do anything while I was filming and I wasn't going to try to spook them since they seem to like hanging out near my place. I did get a bunch of "cute bunny nose twitching footage" though lol I will caveat this with the fact that I was only observing one particular species and a rather small sample set of that, too.

Well, in a little over 5 hours we'll get to see what the "experts" come up with….

Just a few thoughts:

1. A boar/cat hybrid? Huh? Is that even POSSIBLE?
2. The green room was too restrictive to allow the animals to get up to speed.
3. They tested ONE dog and dismissed all subsequent breeds of dog as a result?
4. The video was shot near sunset (as best as I can determine) yet they go out in pitch blackness?
5. They assumed large size animal (I suspect it was at least medium size) but they should still have looked at smaller animals and considered distance/scale. Even with my reservations about the ears, a jackrabbit or the local variety should have been tested to see what it looked like.
6. A boar/cat hybrid? Or did I already mention this one???? lol
7. I get the impression that they are taking the animal seen in the video as being the same as all the other sightings and not possibly a unique case.
8. Apparently the entire video lasts only 3 seconds…they did not question why it stops there, nor consider the road issue that Revenant brought up.
9. They were showing the animal too high up on the background when they merged the green screen. The animal in the video is partly obscured by a hill or mound so that the full feet are not seen. This would effect how the gait etc is seen.
10. A boar/cat hybrid?