Gwiber - Flying Vipers

Oll Lewsis from the CFZ is a font of information on Welsh cryptozoology. He did an excellent blog post a while back on one of the weirdest of all Welsh cryptids the Gwiber, specifically a sub species the flying snakes or dragonets of South Glamorgan. Gwibers are reported all over Wales in folklore but it was in Penllyn they are reported more recently in Marie Trevelyn's ‘Folklore and Folkstories of Wales’ from 1909:

“The woods around Penllyne Castle, Glamorgan, had the reputation of being frequented by winged serpents, and these were the terror of old and young alike. An aged inhabitant of Penllyne, who died a few years ago, said that in his boyhood the winged serpents were described as very beautiful. They were coiled when in repose, and "looked as though they were covered with jewels of all sorts. Some of them had crests sparkling with all the colours of the rainbow." When disturbed, they glided swiftly, "sparkling all over," to their hiding places. When angry, they "flew over people's heads, with outspread wings bright and sometimes with eyes, too, like the feathers in a peacock's tail." He said it was "no old story," invented to "frighten children," but a real fact. His father and uncles had killed some of them, for they were "as bad as foxes for poultry." This old man attributed the extinction of winged serpents to the fact that they were "terrors in the farmyards and coverts.”

I once went for a look round the area but found no sign of the elusive beasts. The description if them sounded very much like the fire lizards in Anne Macffrey's Dragon rider books I have always thought.


Oll goes into some depth on the mystery in his post and he did attempt some interviews. His conclusion the creatures as reported are unlikely to exist.

OLL LEWIS: Penllyn Is In My Ears And In My Eyes

Meat Eating Squirrels in Wales?

Fascinating blog post from a while back from Richard Holland which features a Welsh wild cat and more strangely a carnivorous squirrel.

Squirrel

Giant Eels?

I did a guest blog at the CFZ's excellent online blog. It is on mysterious eels:

Giant Eels

Big Cats in Wales - More sightings

There have always been stacks of Big cat reports in Wales. They are definitely out there as this summary of reports from the Wales on Sunday show.

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Shock number of big cat sightings4 Jan 2009 ... BIG cats are clawing their way into the limelight as Welsh sightings of the “

purranormal” creatures rocket, Wales on Sunday can reveal.

Soon after this there was a shocking report of a mass sheep killing in Camarthenshire.

Big cats in Britain - Welsh NewsBig cats in Britain provide a good summary of Big cats repoorts in Wales at their site.

Welsh Cryptid Comic

Unbelievable Signing - Insomnia Captures The Beast of Bryn Boncath

A new neighbour has moved in. A man long thought dead has returned. Livestock are missing. There are noises in the night. People are afraid to go into out after dark and sightings of a giant hound, or maybe a big cat are on the increase once again.

Suddenly it seems to Ben that what he took to be the tall tales of his grandfather may be more than just stories. It seems that something is stirring in the forests and the mountains around Bryn Boncath. It seems that ancient history is repeating and this time round Ben has an important part to play.

Unbelievable is a dark masterpiece that weaves strands of Welsh legend, modern murder mystery and horror with a dash of crytozoology that wonders: What if seeing isn’t always believing, but believing will allow you to see?

Manatee hunt cancelled

Stuff has got in the way of going on a Manatee hunt. The witness has disappeared into the ether I think she has realised she actually saw a seal!

Manatees - Coming to Western Britain!

One thing I have discovered is that whatever the Beast seen in Pembroke Dock is Manatees will be returning to the UK soon.

The National Wildlife Conservation Park is to be built on the outskirts of Bristol on a 136 acre site and is scheduled to open in 2012. It will feature a total of 12 exhibit areas, some of them inside or under cover, one reportd exhibit is "the Central American Swamp where visitors will walk through lush vegetation and around pools to catch a glimpse of the manatee, a spectacular aquatic mammal never before seen in a UK zoo." Other areas include Congo Tropical Forest, Sumatra Rainforest, and Indian Ocean Coral Reef and it hoped to have bonobos, okapis, Sumatran tigers, giraffes, zebra, orang-utans, Livingstone's fruit bats, gibbons, bears, wolves, cheetahs, black rhino and black tip reef sharks amongst other exotic animals. "In the Sumatra Rainforest exhibit (open in 2012) visitors will be able to step across a chasm caused by a seismic shift, listen to a troop of gibbons calling to each other as they swing through the trees, get close to Sumatran tigers via a transparent tiger tunnel and visit the exhibit's ranger station, built in the style of a Sumatran stilted longhouse, to find out about the Park's conservation project in Sumatra via video links." Another of these areas is British Ancient Woodland which will recreate a lost habitat of ancient Britain boasting once-native species such as brown bears, lynxes and wolves. "This exhibit is set within the Park's existing ancient woodland - home to native trees such as oak, birch, ash and beech as well as flowering plants such as bluebells, snowdrops, orchids, wild garlic, foxgloves and ferns. Visitors will be able to walk along a screened boardwalk in the woods to see these woodland animals at close quarters. At a later phase lynx and wolverine will be added to the exhibit."That sounds of interest.

[Note - looking more closely at the website although news reports in March 2008 mentioned a Manatee exhibit there is nothing on the site. Have the manatee been cancelled?]

Besides this I am increasingly inclined to think the Pembroke beast can hardly be a Manatee as I indicated before and is more likely to be a seal. Besides the fact it is too far to swim and too cold for Manatees in British waters there is another point as the reported creature is amphibious it can hardly be a manatee they spend their lives in the water.