Cryptozoology: The Rational Perspective
Humans and animals. That is, perhaps the least objectionable divide present in our world today. What with every other guy (or gal) taking offence at being classified nowadays; stereotyping they call it. Fortunately, animals don’t seem to mind our pathological need to separate and segregate. We have classified and sub-classified animals in so many different ways that it sometimes feels like compensation for not doing it to humans.
Anyway, most of us are familiar with the general classification of animals — Domestic and Wild. Domestic animals are what you will see if you look out your nearest window at this moment — your neighbour’s dog, the stray cat, holy cows and so on. Wild ones are more difficult to encounter in your daily life unless you either work as a wildlife photographer or reside near the Aarey colony of suburban Mumbai.
However, there is another class of animals that are found neither in the forests nor our concrete jungles. They dwell in our stories, myths, folklore and perhaps some remote parts of the world that are yet to be explored. This class of animals is known as cryptids and their study is called cryptozoology.
Bernard Heuvelmans, a Belgian-French zoologist, was the pioneer of modern cryptozoology who elicited a huge public interest in the study of mysterious creatures by adding a scientific twist to common folklore and urban legends. The science fiction/exploratory works of Jules Verne, Ivan T. Sanderson, Arthur Conan Doyle and Anthonie Oudemans were pivotal in shaping his path that ultimately led to the establishment of modern cryptozoology as a stand-alone discipline. They transformed his inherent intrigue for the hidden aspects of nature into a full-fledged passion for exploring the unknown.
After completing his doctorate in zoology, Heuvelmans authored On the Track of Unknown Animals, In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents and several other works (yet untranslated) that today serve as a guide and a source of inspiration to amateur cryptozoologists.
Heuvelmans credits Ivan T. Sanderson for coining the term ‘Cryptozoology’ in the twentieth century, however, the origins of the discipline can be traced back to far more ancient times. Cryptids find mention in the sacred texts of all major and minor religions around the world, most of which were written in the pre-biblical era. Vanaras in Ramayana, Satyrs in The Bible and Broxa in The Holy Quran are some of the better-known examples of the enigmatic creatures that are said to have walked amongst us once and hold great cultural significance even today.
Our ancestors have implied and documented the existence of strange animals since the beginning of times. These creatures are associated with every form of human settlement, either through their religion or their geography. Throw a blind dart on the world map and no matter what part of our planet it hits, you will find a trove of legendary creatures interlaced in its history. The Loch Ness monster of Europe, The Mothman in North America, Mokele-mbembe of Africa, The Asian Yeti, and etc. The list goes on and on. There are at least 1,085 unknown creatures that are claimed to exist today or have existed in the recent past.
Yet, the majority of scientists and zoologists continue to turn a blind eye on all of them; disregarding all cryptids and the entire domain of cryptozoology as a concoction of idle minds and centuries-old folktales.
Zoologists admit that even today there are uncharted forests and unexplored jungles that could harbour inconceivable and unheard of creatures. There lies a whole kingdom of aquatic life in the depths of our oceans that modern science knows virtually nothing about. But the moment a species is even distantly associated with the word cryptid or cryptozoology, it is immediately discarded as pure fiction and a waste of time. Had a cryptozoologist ever spoken of a venomous, armour-scaled, dragon-like reptile, that hunts deer and is strong enough to fight off crocodiles, he would have been declared a naive attention-seeker before he could have even completed the word ‘dragon..’. Yet, that is exactly what William D. Burden, an American explorer and naturalist, found on some remote islands of Indonesia in 1926. Ironically, he was out searching for ‘dragons’ when he came across this strange new species, which he later christened as ‘The Komodo Dragon’.
The point here is simple; had Burden not been liberal and adventurous enough to conceive this dragon-hunting expedition that took him to the isolated Komodo island, we might have not found this amazing creature for decades to come.
Traditional science has always rejected what it could not explain. Throughout our history, the unconventional has been, invariably, opposed and criticised by the incumbent institutions. Any novel idea that challenged the status quo of its time, was habitually subjected to ridicule and perverse resistance by the orthodox communities of that era. And that is exactly what has happened with cryptozoology.
It has become the sour grapes of a very cunning fox.
Cryptozoology isn’t about fancy rumours and publicity gimmicks, nor are cryptozoologists the attention-mongers they are often made out to be. They are simply a lot that believes there is still wonder left in this world and has retained the most fundamental principle of a scientist, which their critics seem to have all but abandoned…. Curiosity.
Such is the nature of the orthodox that even when the tides of change stare it in the face, it chooses to stew in the filth of its own outdated notions and insularity.
Every step that has brought science to where it is today was a step built upon the rubble of conventional beliefs.
So the next time you find yourself questioning the need for fields like cryptozoology, remember what the British zoology once called a sick and ungodly prank of the Australian Government, we today call a platypus.
