Phantoms and Monsters |  |
- Entire Chinese Village Disappears After UFO Event - UPDATED
- Fortean / Oddball News: Epic Journey, Mr. Fusion and Car-Eating Rabbits
- Searching For Nepal's Beast of Bardia
| Entire Chinese Village Disappears After UFO Event - UPDATED Posted: 14 Oct 2010 10:01 AM PDT  "I have heard, yesterday 4:00, the end of a village in the Qinling Mountains, all disappeared overnight! ... ... There are a large number of troops sealed off the scene ... ..." Baidu Post Bar in the Qinling reporter saw a lot of friends concerned about the so-called "foot of the Qinling Mountains next village disappeared." More users skeptical on the matter. Reporters today (13), respectively, to Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Bureau, Shaanxi Military District, and the Qinling Mountains surrounding Hanzhong, Ankang, Baoji, Xi'an, Shangluo confirmation, the parties did not receive any relevant reports have indicated that Network attached network belongs to the rumors. UPDATE: Just read this on one of the other Chinese news services that was conveniently removed within minutes: (translation) - According to eyewitnesses, a UFO flying around. Qinling Mountains snakes have fled, there are also insiders of the nuclear base in the Qinling Mountains in the accident....Lon  Click for video UPDATE: this report is from Chinese radio: China Radio report: October 10th at ten o'clock, Xianyang many people, and they saw in the sky several unknown luminous body in constant rotation, but can not find the light source, and everyone felt very strange. Xianyang reporters into the sky to see the two circular rotating in constant light, white light has been given, and everyone said that this phenomenon has been going on for a very long time. Xianyang people: PM seems to have a more than eight, has been staggered forward. Have passed since the nearly two hours, until ten at night and more, there are still many people standing outside watching, and everyone that had never seen such a phenomenon. Xianyang people: I thought it was a light shot back and forth. Although we have such a speculation, but can not find the spot of the lamp posts and the light source, with all of these questions, journalists can start driving in urban areas trying to find the source of light, the last reporter in Xianyang City Bank Thai Square to find the answer. Half past ten or so, the square of the spotlight off, everyone said before the light disappeared is unknown, it appears that only a false alarm. Xianyang light over there has been an unknown explanation last night, this phenomenon can be not only a city of Xianyang. Q: I am now in Xi'an Chang'an road, this will be the evening's eleven twenty, we now refer to the direction of my left hand down to see the color of the sky above the piece to be a little brighter, a little pale, but the surrounding sky The color is black, we see that it was a big aperture, surrounded by some small aperture in it rotated around. This phenomenon continued in Xi'an, about ten minutes over the time period of two small aperture in a rapidly rotating movement until after they disappeared to the north, while the clues in our platform Weinan, Tongchuan masses of the two cities but also to reflect the local press The same phenomenon also appeared. Tongchuan masses: a few light fly it back and forth. Reporter: How long is probably going on? Tongchuan the masses:: half an hour, was very, went three for a piece of light, and one will be separated. Weinan masses: about eight o'clock in it, white light, and flashlight on the kind of similar move, is still, I can see, running north and south turn back and forth semi-circle, the shape can not see, but light, so big are never seen, never seen three decades. Doubt one: Why do many cities simultaneously this phenomenon? Second doubt: Why the extra light appeared at about eight o'clock? Other cities is unknown light appeared in the sky somewhere in the spotlight is also due, we do not know, it seems only to the relevant departments to verify. This morning when the army several road bound for the Qinling Mountains. Passing from the streets of our county, tanks, missiles, transport vehicles as well as that, covered with canvas. About 10 o'clock last night, saw a lot of people in our county over the Qinling Mountains have a very strange direction of the flash, according to witnesses, that the flash is purple, the place was full of black clouds around three to five. Middle clouds associated with flash, thunder. A full half an hour. Qinling event no one know? Our people are the county's mass. Blocked in our county network. I am now other cities in the Internet. ~ Here I am in Xianyang City, people do not know. From only 200 in our county in the land. No place so close to get the message, my junior high school students terrible just give me a call, and he saw it last night. Today a lot of troops from Xianyang highway to our county. High-speed roads have been closed. October 13, four in the morning event, it is rumored that the Qinling Mountains, four in the morning a Qinling mountain villages began to disappear. Now the army has blocked site. According to eyewitness, UFO nearby. Qinling Mountains of snakes have fled, insiders of the Qinling Mountains nuclear base accidents. Sohu News: 13 October, a bottom of "Qinling mountain village disappear overnight" posts in the network fengchuan, especially in micro-Bo was crazy. Journalists through multi-party confirmed, confirmed the news of the network. "I hear, 4 am yesterday, Qinling Mountains at the end of a village, all disappear overnight! … There are a large number of troops in the scene … " More information will come soon!  |
| Fortean / Oddball News: Epic Journey, Mr. Fusion and Car-Eating Rabbits Posted: 14 Oct 2010 09:50 AM PDT  Epic Journey For American Bird to Scottish Island stv - The Island of Tiree has recorded the first ever Scottish sighting of a tiny bird from the United States. The northern parula, which is smaller than a blue tit, was blown thousands of miles off course by strong westerly winds during its migration to Central America. This brightly coloured bird has been recorded previously in England and Northern Ireland, but the Tiree bird is a first for Scotland. It appeared on September 25 in the garden of local RSPB Scotland officer John Bowler, who has planted native trees to attract such migrant birds. John said: "The northern parula is such a beautiful bird, it's been a real treat to have it as a visitor on Tiree. It caused quite a stir among twitchers, and we've had about 75 people come to the island just to get a glimpse of it, which has been great for the local economy. It's actually the first major twitch we've ever had on Tiree, so we've had two firsts!" Twitching is a specific type of birdwatching where people travel, sometimes long distances, to see rare birds, usually species that are non-native to the UK and which are here by accident. This autumn has proved a particularly good twitching season, with strong winds bringing many rare species to the UK. **********  Back to the Future! news.com.au - The world's biggest laser has come one step closer to its goal of creating limitless energy for our planet. Admittedly, that means its goal is still several thousand steps away, but the signs are promising that the National Ignition Facility in California wasn't kidding when it said it could create a tiny sun all of its own. Based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the NIF is housed in a 10-storey high building that sprawls across a site the size of three US football fields. Researchers inside are trying to crack nuclear fusion, the high-energy reaction that in theory has the potential to provide clean, safe and most importantly, limitless energy. To do it, they proposed to split a laser beam up into 192 beams, then fire them at a tiny target wrapped in gold that's smaller than a fingernail. Heating their target up to something in a range that's five times hotter than the sun should cause some hydrogen isotopes to fuse and start emitting energy. And as recently as last week, they did just that. In its first test, its 192 beams delivered one megajoule of energy into a cryogenically layered capsule. The gold comes in the form of a cylinder the size of a pencil eraser, while the target is a "peppercorn-sized capsule filled with hydrogen fuel", according to Lawrence Livermore's website. Using just 75 per cent of the laser's power, the "peppercorn" was crushed. According to Wired, a one megajoule zap is like being hit by a car travelling at 160km/h. The shower of neutrons that exploded from the mess was exactly what the researchers were looking for - recreating the conditions at play in the centre of our sun. "From both a system integration and from a physics point of view, this experiment was outstanding," NIF director Ed Moses said. "This is a great moment in the 50-year history of inertial confinement fusion." The project, which has so far been five years in development and cost more than $3.5 billion, is expected to deliver useable outcomes within 20 years. The success of their first ignition will now see them perform similar tests on average about once a month. But according to Wired, the scientists have to work fast to milk what they can out of the NIF. Technology this expensive is considered too much of a luxury for science alone - in two years, it will be handed over to the military. ********** Outrage Over 'Zombie Walk' Brain Injury Charity Event tvnz - A planned charity walk for Brain Injury New Zealand that is inviting marchers to dress up like zombies has outraged some of the people organisers are trying to help. The Rotorua event calls on people to channel their inner zombie and donate to charity, with organiser Layla Robinson hoping to raise at least $1000. One woman, who did not want to be identified, rang ONE News and said several people with brain injuries were horrified at any attempt to link zombies and brain damage. But that is not deterring Robinson, although she said she does understand their position. "I'm sad about it, I certainly didn't mean to offend by this event, but I can see how it is possible," she said. A Facebook page advertising the event says "seeing zombies have been eating brains all these years, it's time we gave back", and Robinson said many people had registered - including those with brain injuries. John Clough of Brain Injury New Zealand has also offered his support, and said similar events have already been held in Australia. "Some people might see a link between zombies and brain injury but it's a fictional character," he added. The exact date and time of the event remains a secret, with organisers saying they hope to maintain an element of surprise, but it is expected to be held later this month. ********** Serb Boy Suddenly Speaks English austriantimes - Schoolboy Dimitrije Mitrovic baffled his family and teachers in Serbia when he woke up speaking only English - despite never being taught a word of the language. Mum Dragana says her son simply got out of bed one morning at the family home in Nis and began talking to her in perfect English. Dimitrij - now 11 - is so word perfect that his family, friends and even his teachers can no longer understand him. "One day, when he was only three years old, he just got out of bed and started to talk to me in English. I know some English so I could understand a bit but he was soon so good I had to get a translator to speak to him for me," explained his mum. By the time he was five, Dimitrije was reciting entire Harry Potter novels to his pals in English and now he rarely speaks his mother tongue unless he has to. "I dream in English, speak it, and if stub my toe I'll curse in English too," he said. Baffled medics believe Dimitrije may have acquired some sort of autistic talent for the language. "He is absolutely normal in every other way and a very nice young boy. He just seems to think he's English," said mum Dragana. English language expert Professor Tatjana Paunovic from Nis University explained: "It's fascinating. We have talked to him for an hour in English and he speaks the language better than we do - like he was born speaking it." ********** Car-Eating Rabbits at Denver Airport kwgn - One air traveler says rabbits took a chunk out of his car while it was parked at Denver International Airport. After a nine day stay at DIA's Pike's Peak lot, Dexter Meyer returned from vacation and found that his car would barely start. "The (repair man) called me and told me that rodents had eaten through the wires," said Meyer. That's what the VW dealer said was wrong with his brand new Jetta. "You didn't just pick the car up from the airport did you?" the dealer asked Meyer. "And I said, 'well as a matter of fact I did.' And he said 'well we've had several problems with people having rabbits eating through the wiring.'" "We've seen rabbits and we've seen mice and they're eating up the newer cars," said Robert Bauguess, owner of Bavarian Autohaus. He said 2002 and newer models seem to be especially tasty. Cars like Meyer's use a soy-based compound in the wiring. Bauguess said a recent customer brought an unexpected passenger to the dealership along with her BMW. "There was a furry animal there and I poked at it, and it was a rabbit," said Bauguess. Meyer says DIA admitted there are rabbits there --and everywhere else-- so they can't be sure their bunnies did the biting. "We are aware of the problem," he said a woman from DIA told him on the phone, "And that they were thinking about increasing patrols. And I said 'to check out for bunnies?" Bunnies clearly have not gotten the notice based on the number we saw around the parking lot. "All I want to do is just to tell you there is a problem," Meyer said he told the woman, "Just to let you know that you might want to do something about it, and she said 'well, there is a fence.'" "They made it in there. They found my car," Meyer said he told the woman at DIA, "The fence isn't working. And she said 'well, I don't know what to tell you,' and I said 'I just want to make sure that this is reported.'" He says he never wanted reimbursement for repairs. "I ended up paying $238 plus $55 in parking," he said. It was about five years ago FOX31 News reported on this same issue at DIA when several travelers had the same complaint. DIA told FOX31 News they won't comment on the situation because there's no proof that rabbits at the airport did any damage to Meyer's car.  |
| Searching For Nepal's Beast of Bardia Posted: 14 Oct 2010 08:49 AM PDT   telegraph - Dawn is the perfect time of day in the jungle Рstrips of dewy light cut through the cool haze before the power of the sun breaks through.Eight feet below me, a couple of hog deer scatter from their resting place under a blanket of pungent-smelling bonmara. We have seen the tracks and we must be getting very close. The hours tick by and the suspense mounts, but the beast we are tracking seems just out of reach. From my perch on the cushioned howdah I crane for a distant glimpse of the gargantuan creature Рbut the bush is still thick ahead. The driver, the phanit, directs the elephant we are riding through a thicket with a light thwack of his stick, which sets her galumphing down to a silt beach by a shallow channel of the Karnali river. Suddenly our party of six female elephants stop dead in their tracks, and you can sense wild bull elephant testosterone in the air. There he is, 40 yards in front of us, a colossal specimen with a giant twin-domed head and great sparkling tusks. We have surely found the Beast of Bardia. I have joined an expedition in the jungle of Nepal with Colonel John Blashford-Snell's Scientific Exploration Society (SES). We are on the trail of the infamous Raja Gaj, a hulking animal once considered to be more mammoth than elephant, but later discovered to be the largest specimen of Asiatic tusker ever recorded. Blashford-Snell, one of the 20th century's most colourful explorers, had first heard rumours of a mammoth-like bull elephant running riot in Bardia, a region of western Nepal, in 1987. Determined to get to the truth behind the legend, he collected evidence of footprints and rare sightings, and listened to tales of death and destruction. The beast, then aged in its mid-forties, was seen only at night when it emerged from the forest to feed on village gardens and smash down the heavy mud walls of houses. It had probably been responsible for the deaths of several Nepalese villagers through trampling. Blashford-Snell listened to tales about the elephant's massive domed head and tusks and heard claims that it was a direct descendant of the extinct woolly mammoth, one of an aggressive sub-species that had genetically evolved in the Nepalese jungle. Blashford-Snell was certainly the man for the job. Born in Jersey in 1936, he spent 37 years in the Army. Now 73, he has organised and led more than 100 expeditions to the frontiers of the world. Still an imposing, lean figure, Blashford-Snell has never lost his appetite for adventure. As a Royal Engineer in 1968 he made the first ever descent of the Blue Nile from its source, Lake Tana in Ethiopia, to the Sudanese border. 'People thought we were mad when we said we would go down the rapids in rubber boats,' he said. 'But it worked.' This was the inspiration for white-water rafting as we know it today. In 1974/5 he navigated almost all of the 2,700 miles of the Congo. He also established the youth charity now known as Raleigh International, running volunteer projects and global expeditions. In 2000 he managed to take a grand piano through the jungle to the musical Wai Wai tribe in Guyana. Blashford-Snell first tracked down two of the giant Nepalese elephants on an expedition to the Bardia National Park in Nepal in 1992. The SES party estimated the height of the larger bull to be 11ft 3in at the shoulder, its weight close to eight tons, its tusks more than 7ft long. They named it Raja Gaj, King Elephant. Further SES expeditions to the area recorded the existence of a herd of up to 50, including cows and calves. A television documentary, Mammoth Hunt, was made about Blashford-Snell Рthe film crew survived a full-blooded charge from Raja Gaj's companion, Kancha, when all their equipment was scattered Рand he co-wrote a book of the same name with the actress Rula Lenska, who went on one of the expeditions. In 1992, following the publicity generated around Raja Gaj, the country's wildlife conservation department enlisted 600 troops from the Nepalese Army to guard the Bardia park from poachers. But after the Maoist revolution in 2002 poachers encroached on the park again. Six years ago Raja Gaj disappeared completely. There were rumours that he had been poached or swept away in a flood. But no remains were found. Then, last year, the Kathmandu press reported that Raja Gaj was back, a little leaner than before, but alive and about 70 years old, according to the Bardia game wardens. It was a mystery Blashford-Snell could not resist. Was Raja Gaj really still alive after all this time? Or was it another massive tusker? He set about organising one more hunt for his long-lost friend. Now something of a celebrity in Nepal (there is a rapid on the Trisuli river called Snell's Nose where Blashford-Snell broke his hooter), he was granted special permission from the government for a seven-day expedition this year. The park, which covers more than 370 square miles, is like a land that time forgot. Its species include wild Asian elephants, Bengal tigers, one-horned rhinos, sloth bears, chital and sambhar deer (spotted and shaggy), black wild boar, monkeys, golden jackals, pink Gangetic dolphins, and long-snouted, fish-eating gharial crocodiles. Among the SES party for the expedition are crew from previous trips Рfrom artists to zoologists and photographers Рincluding Sue Hilliard, a fingerprint specialist with Merseyside police who is an expert at identifying the tuskers; Sir Charles Blois, an experienced adventurer; Ali Criado Perez, a nurse with M̩decins sans Fronti̬res; and Blashford-Snell's wife, Judith, the ever-present and humorous foil to his grandiose ambition. By the third day the expedition party has narrowed down the areas where the tuskers may be found but has discovered no tracks. In a party of six elephants, riding three to a howdah, we set off on a southern recce. We cross a small tributary where tiny golden mahseer fish sparkle around a fallen branch in the water. We wander for miles through tangled vegetation that would take a man with a machete days to pass through. Hitlaal, our phanit, gently massages the skin behind the ears of his elephant, Sonar Kali, with his bare toes. He directs her left and right with his feet, and keeps her speed up with the odd whack on the head with a stick Рabout as hard as being castigated with a small twig would be for us. When we come to a seemingly impassable tree, Hitlaal gives the command to break the branches Р'Kuba! Kuba!' Рand with a couple of trunk-swats the obstacle is removed by our own private bulldozer. We arrive at a sparsely populated savannah of imposing kapok trees, the macabre nature of their gothic branches and crimson flowers accentuated by a deer carcase at the foot of one of the trunks. Sightings include a scuttling mongoose, an Indian horned rhino, plated like an ancient war machine, and a sleepy python digesting its lunch. But still no wild tuskers. It is funny how safe you feel on top of an elephant Рironic, because it is easy to forget the strength of your ride, which could flick you off and nonchalantly trample you to death if it felt like it. But there is an extraordinary bond between elephant and man. Humans have been training elephants since 3500BC; the Carthaginian general Hannibal crossed the Alps on his Atlas tuskers in 219bc. Elephants can understand 30 or more commands, but you have to be very careful when they are injured or jealous. It is not wise to swap the elephant you are riding on, or to be too widespread with your affection. In the late 1970s one of the females in our party, Madu Mala Kali (Honey Blossom), fought with another, Kristjen Bahadur, and when the handler walked over between them, she lashed out with her trunk and broke his back. He died from his injuries. The care needed for domestic elephants requires a jungle pit-lane crew. As well as the phanit there is a mahout in charge of the elephant's diet and health. Every day he must make 70 brick sandwiches of molasses and salt wrapped in folded grass; he has to be clever enough to get medicine down the elephants' throats when they are adept at sensing and blowing out any powder in their food before they eat it. And then there is bath time. Every elephant is happiest when it is being bathed and scrubbed behind the ears. When danger is near, elephants communicate by trumpeting or emitting a low growling sound. One afternoon there is a deep trembling inside Sonar Kali, an almost impalpable tremor of warning: tiger. The elephants come together and continue their growling, surrounding the area where a female tiger is crouching, 10 yards away. The tiger eyes us for a few seconds before strolling purposefully away; we glimpse her sleek, striped and muscled back as she slopes off into the jungle. On the morning of the fourth day our luck changes. At first light we spy wild elephant tracks no more than a day old. Then we spot an enormous mound of dung and a trail of destruction, as if wrought by a steamroller, leading through the bush. We follow the tracks to a tributary of the Karnali where our elephants cross, wading through rapids five or six feet deep. More broken branches on the other side lead through fields of yellow lentils into the village of Gola, where much damage has been done in the past. About 850 schoolchildren of the Dangora Tharus tribe are there to greet us. Last year, two children were trampled to death in the middle of the night by a wild bull elephant. The village has electric fences, but even so the children are 'very frightened by elephants', the assistant headmaster, Tikaram Chaudhary, tells us. 'Hearts and minds of the locals are crucial,' Blashford-Snell says as he hands out gifts of school and sports equipment. 'We must teach them about conservation so they will not have to poach to survive.' Blashford-Snell and the children scramble up on to the backs of the domestic tuskers to play elephant soccer. The elephants pick up the ball with their trunks and wander off the pitch; then one of them treads on the ball and bursts it. The children scream with delight. Just as we are starting to think about lunch, one of the team spies through his binoculars a wild elephant on the other side of the river. A ripple of excitement runs through the party. 'It looks like a huge bull,' Blashford-Snell says. 'I can only see its behind, and it's jolly big. If he has scars on his bottom then that's Raja Gaj.' We cross the river again and approach quietly on the left flank through the bush, but the bull is out of our eyeline for half an hour, which makes us nervous that he might appear at any moment. Another order snaps through the walkie-talkies from Blashford-Snell, who is leading the way on his elephant: 'We need identification before he gets away. Please try to take photos of his left buttock.' For a split second, we come face to face with the gargantuan head of the bull. The rugged tusks and the head with its distinctive twin domes make him look like a wild ancient creature. Our domestic elephants freeze. As soon the bull sees us he throws up dust with his trunk and flees for the cover of the bush. He has no scars on his bottom. It is not Raja Gaj, the Beast of Bardia, but a stunning younger bull (about 25) with a similar domed head, hulking body, long tusks and sloping back. He turns to face us Рit feels like a moment frozen in time, a few slow seconds of visceral excitement. Then he charges. Our adrenaline goes into orbit. Hitlaal puts Sonar Kali into reverse, and we quickly shamble to a safe distance. 'I wouldn't like to see what would happen if you didn't back away from a bull like that,' Blashford-Snell says. At least we have had time to take pictures and a laser measurement down to his toes. The general feeling is that he must be the offspring of Raja Gaj, and he is swiftly named Rajim Рson of Raja Gaj. Big though Rajim is (more than 9ft at the shoulder), he will not outgrow his father, according to Professor Adrian Lister of the Natural History Museum in London, who had been on previous SES expeditions to Bardia. It was Lister who had discovered in 1994 that the DNA of the Bardia tuskers matched that of the smaller Asian elephants, although their domed heads are reminiscent of their ancient Asiatic ancestor, the woolly mammoth. 'If Rajim is 25-30 and 9ft at the shoulder, he might grow to be 10ft 4in by the age of 40,' Lister says. 'It is hard to speculate how much he may grow after this; some of these elephants continue to grow for the rest of their life.' After I had left Bardia, the expedition encountered a second, smaller bull elephant and the footprints of about 18 wild elephants and their calves in a nearby valley Рthe future of these rare Nepalese tuskers seems secure. Raja Gaj may well be dead. Long live Rajim. NOTE: there is further information on the Beast of Bardia, Raja Gaj at - Mysterious Creatures...Lon ********** In Search of Raja Gaj  ses-explore - The giant elephants of West Nepal were a legend until in 1992 a Scientific Exploration Society expedition discovered two of these enormous beasts living in the Bardia Park in a remote corner of this Himalayan kingdom. The largest tusker, estimated at 11 feet 3 inches at his shoulder and probably weighing up to 8 tons, was named Raja Gaj or King Elephant.With his great domed head and massive body it led the local villagers to believe that they had a mammoth in their midst. However research by eminent zoologist Prof Adrian Lister, who extracted DNA from his dung, showed that he was a type of Asian elephant. His unusual shape may have been due to isolation or perhaps a connection with a prehistoric elephant named a Stegodon. A fossil skull of one of these ancient creatures had been discovered by a German palaeontologist in East Nepal. For ten years Colonel John Blashford-Snell (JBS) and SES teams studied Raja Gaj and found a herd of up to 50 including cows and calves. Shown to be the largest known Asian elephant Raja Gaj was a prize to be protected and thus the Nepalese Wildlife Department and the Army guarded Bardia. This in turn led to the conservation of both the Bengal Tiger and the One Horned Indian Rhino in the Park. Tourists poured in and the area prospered, but then came the Maoist revolution and from 2002 the poachers began to attack the wildlife. However the Wildlife Department and the Nepalese Army managed to protect some of the creatures and today there are over 600 troops guarding Bardia. But Raja Gaj has not been seen since 2008 and villagers have reported that a large elephant was swept down the Karnali river by a sudden flood. Nevertheless some believe he is still alive. In January JBS and a team of enthusiasts from the SES returned to Bardia to seek evidence that the King Elephant, who would now be about 64, is there. On 1st March they set up camp beside the Karnali and using six trained female domestic elephants and expert Nepalese trackers from the Tiger Mountain Company, they searched the jungle and high grass areas of the valley. With their mounts forcing their way like living tanks through the dense foliage the expedition saw many animals and birds. They had exciting encounters with the impressive Bengal tiger and prehistoric looking rhinoceros. After several days searching they spotted a large wild bull elephant feeding near the river and cautiously approached him. When they were a hundred yards away the tusker threw up dust and dashed into the bush. The team followed and suddenly their quarry reappeared. His huge domed head and gleaming tusks broke through the cover and hurling up clouds of dust he came after them. Emerging from the jungle he pressed forward scenting the tame female elephants. Then suddenly he seemed to loose interest and tramped back into the trees. "I believe this behaviour may be due to his short sight" said JBS. "He has to come close to see who we are and once this is determined he may decide we are no threat and continue with his lunch, but one needs a steady nerve to stand and let the tusker approach". The new bull looks very like Raja Gaj and behaves similarly. He has been named Rajim Рson of Raja Gaj. Later a second large bull elephant was discovered who behaved in a similar way and once gave a demonstration of his strength by charging a tree and knocking it down. "Like all men, just showing off" said Dr Tessa Donovan-Beermann who was helping JBS to control the search with a Motorola walkie-talkie radio. Phyllis Angliss organised some aid for the villagers in the area around the Bardia Park, giving out material to schools, medical items and glasses. This was much appreciated. To encourage the local children to like elephants in a village often raided by wild ones, an elephant football match was played at a local school. The children rode the domestic elephants, but the Jumbos preferred to pick the ball up in their trunks and run with it. The game ended when one stood on the ball and burst it! Footprints of around 18 wild elephants and their calves were also discovered in a nearby valley. Susan Hilliard, a finger print officer with the Merseyside Police who has been on many of the Bardia expeditions, spotted a set of footprints 21 inches in diameter indicating that a bull of about 10 feet 6 inches height at the shoulder is moving with the herd. Larger prints were also found indicating even taller elephants but sadly none as high as Raja Gaj. Nevertheless the expedition's discoveries show that the elephants of Bardia have survived the poaching during the recent conflict and the protection by the Army may well allow the wildlife to multiply. However the guardians cannot relax and as the expedition left the area the Army shot dead three local people and captured one whom they say fired on them. It is claimed these people were poaching, but as may be imagined there is uproar in the area as villagers state the victims were simply collecting traditional medicine. Even if Raja Gaj has died his fame lives on along the Himalayas. He is featured on a 10 Rupee Nepalese stamp! Video film of the 2010 expedition has been shot by Sir Charles Blois and Elodie Sandford and is now being edited. JBS hopes to do further research on these elephants in the years ahead. Send us an email   New Items - Strickler's Celebrity Autographs  ANOMALIST BOOKS Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog  The 'C' Influence Actualizing Esoteric Discussion   "The latest news from beyond the mainstream" Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast! Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!  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