amyasleigh
Abominable Snowman
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2009
- Messages
- 813
A light-hearted daft one here -- might have been newly discovered, or a cryptid, but wasn't... (I'd provide links to and / or reproduce the articles mentioned below, if I could; but such doings are beyond my abysmal computer skills.)
On a website which deals with a wide range of cryptozoological and "quasi-crypto" topics, I just lately saw a link to an article from the "Scientific American" for 14 / 11 / 2012. It tells of scientists in Brazil who are apparently fully equipped for a project to clone a number of endangered mammals of that country, and are just awaiting legal authorisation. The animals on their list are maned wolf, jaguar, black lion tamarin, bush dog, collared anteater, grey brocket deer, and...Brazilian aardvaark.
My first reaction was, "What??" Saw it stated later in the article, that "Brazilian aardvaark" is an alternative name for the coati (nasua nasua). Still found that hard to credit -- one would have trouble thinking of a less aardvaark-like mammal, than a coati... The first item turned up by Googling the strange name for the beast, was the Wikipedia entry on the coati; the second was an article from the Daily Telegraph for 21 / 6 / 2010.
The "Telegraph" piece was about alien / exotic fauna which have somehow got loose and are now living and breeding in the wild, in Britain: including a very small number of specimens of the coati, "otherwise known as the Brazilian aardvaark". The Wikipedia item, as above, lists as alternative "monikers" for the coati: Brazilian aardvaark, and an assortment of another half-dozen bizarre names. Wiki's footnote giving authority for the name "Brazilian aardvaark", reads (wait for it) "Telegraph co. uk". (And of the few other entries re "B.a' " turned up per Google, all were considerably more recent than 21 / 6 / 2010.)
I have a strong suspicion that this whole thing started off with a prankish journalist dreaming up a bonkers and inappropriate alternative name for an animal, slipping it into a factual article about exotic species living in the wild in Britain, and seeing what happened...
On a website which deals with a wide range of cryptozoological and "quasi-crypto" topics, I just lately saw a link to an article from the "Scientific American" for 14 / 11 / 2012. It tells of scientists in Brazil who are apparently fully equipped for a project to clone a number of endangered mammals of that country, and are just awaiting legal authorisation. The animals on their list are maned wolf, jaguar, black lion tamarin, bush dog, collared anteater, grey brocket deer, and...Brazilian aardvaark.
My first reaction was, "What??" Saw it stated later in the article, that "Brazilian aardvaark" is an alternative name for the coati (nasua nasua). Still found that hard to credit -- one would have trouble thinking of a less aardvaark-like mammal, than a coati... The first item turned up by Googling the strange name for the beast, was the Wikipedia entry on the coati; the second was an article from the Daily Telegraph for 21 / 6 / 2010.
The "Telegraph" piece was about alien / exotic fauna which have somehow got loose and are now living and breeding in the wild, in Britain: including a very small number of specimens of the coati, "otherwise known as the Brazilian aardvaark". The Wikipedia item, as above, lists as alternative "monikers" for the coati: Brazilian aardvaark, and an assortment of another half-dozen bizarre names. Wiki's footnote giving authority for the name "Brazilian aardvaark", reads (wait for it) "Telegraph co. uk". (And of the few other entries re "B.a' " turned up per Google, all were considerably more recent than 21 / 6 / 2010.)
I have a strong suspicion that this whole thing started off with a prankish journalist dreaming up a bonkers and inappropriate alternative name for an animal, slipping it into a factual article about exotic species living in the wild in Britain, and seeing what happened...