(Original headline: Franklin County's Wild Crypto Zoo )
During the past four years The RFP Research Project has received numerous reports from residents of Western Arkansas concerning wild animals they have seen that did not resemble any known native or exotic species.
One such report was received from a life-long resident of Franklin County in early August of last year. On August 17 the writer drove to Ozark to meet the witness. It was a coincident that Lucille Elders' Barnes News column in the Spectator that day mentioned another sighting of an enigmatic animal by a Cravens resident. Ms. Elders herself had seen one of the animals about a year ago, and wrote about the encounter in her column dated September 15, 2004.
The witness the writer had arranged to meet in Ozark is Harley Edgin who lives northeast of Ozark on the north side of Highway 352. The property consists of about 200 acres which is used for cattle ranching. In the fall of 1991 Mr. Edgin and a friend were driving across the property checking on the cattle when they observed two animals standing in the field watching the vehicle. Mr. Edgin stopped the truck, and looked closely at the animals. He and his passenger had initially thought they were seeing two coyotes, but they soon realized they could not identify the animals. The animals sat down on their haunches and nonchalantly watched the vehicle for a few minutes. During that time Mr. Edgin picked up his binoculars and looked intently at both animals for a short time. He then passed the binoculars to his passenger. The animals then ran to a barbed wire fence along the north side of the pasture and stopped beside it. At that time the animals were about 100 yards from the vehicle. The animals stood for a few minutes as the witnesses alternately continued to watch them through the binoculars. After a few minutes the animals turned and ran under the fence and into the woods.
Mr. Edgin stated the animals were unlike any he had ever seen. He said that one animal was about 5 inches shorter than the other, the larger being about 3 feet tall at the top of its shoulder. Both were about the color of a bobcat, with heads that seemed oversized for the bodies. The head and nose were noticeably more like a canine's than a feline's. According to Mr. Edgin the most noticeable feature on the head was the animals' ears. He stated the ears were unusually large for the size of the head. The ears were reportedly mule-like, about 6 inches long, with tufts of hair growing from their tips. He noted that the neck was also thick and muscular. He stated the animals had tails that were catlike, but longer than a bobcat's and shorter than a cougar's. He particularly noted the tails were rounded on the ends, and not pointed like a dog's.
He said the animals possessed massive chests and very muscular front legs. Their back legs were noticeably shorter, causing the back to be sloped like that of a hyena. When the animals ran, he stated they "pushed off" using their front legs, landed on all four feet, and continued their travel in that springing fashion.
Mr. Edgin stated that on three other occasions from 1995 to 1997 he saw one of these same mysterious animals. He said that two of those sighting occurred on a tract of land south of the road from Watalua to the junction of Highway 219. On each occasion Mr Edgin was driving across the open field on that property and had a different passenger each time. Each time the occupants of the vehicle had an unobstructed view of the animal, and it appeared to match in all respects the animals previously seen by Mr. Edgin. During one of those encounters, the passenger saw the animal first and initially thought it was a deer, then decided it was a coyote, and finally decided he could not identify the animal. Mr. Edgin then attempted to run the animal down in the open field with his truck. He stated his truck came within 20 feet of the animal, but he was unable to hit it. After the animal ran away, the passenger was still in awe of what he had seen and quietly told Mr. Edgin, "There ain't nothing right about that thing."
During Mr. Edgins' third encounter with one of the unknown animals on the same property, it was standing in the edge of the woods beside the pasture. He and a passenger watched it for about three or four minutes before it walked into the woods.
Mr. Edgin left and came back with a another friend who brought along a gun. They reportedly found the animal's tracks in loose soil and leaves inside a cedar glade. The three men noted that the animals' front paws left tracks that were generally round like a cat's, and were about three inches in diameter. The back feet left similar but smaller tracks. Mr. Edgin stated the tracks were unusual in the fact that the front paw tracks were about 12 to 14 inches apart in the side-to-side direction, while the rear paw tracks were only about half that distance apart in that direction.
Mr. Edgin's last sighting of the animal occurred in 1996 or 1997 when one of the animals crossed Highway 219 in front of his truck just north of I-40.
Mr. Edgin had previously arranged for the writer to meet with other area residents who have also seen animals they could not identify. The writer spent two days interviewing those witnesses.
The close-up encounter that Geraldine Wyers' described was ominous and frightening. Her detailed observations portrayed an aggressive animal that has been similarly described in reports from Montgomery County Arkansas and from LeFlore and McCurtain Counties in Oklahoma.
Ms. Wyers stated that in mid-summer of 1994 or 1995 she drove alone to a small branch below a stock pond dam on the parcel of land on which Mr. Edgin had previously seen two of the animals. She went to the property to destroy a beaver dam on the branch, and to attempt to kill the beavers that had built it.
She said she parked her pickup truck in the edge of a field within about twenty yards of the beaver dam. When she exited the truck, she left the driver's side door open. She stated she destroyed the beaver dam and went back to the truck to get a .22 caliber, semiautomatic rifle which she loaded with ammunition. As she walked upstream away from the truck to find a place to conceal herself and wait for the beavers to return to the dam site, she heard a strange bird-like sound coming from across the branch. As she slowly walked toward the sound, she began to hear loud moaning sounds. She thought the sounds were coming from some kind of animal in great pain. As she slowly and carefully walked toward the sounds they diminished in volume. When she reached a point about 20 yards from the truck, she saw an animal crouched and watching her from the other side of the branch. She was less than 10 yards from the animal at that time. The bizarre and intimidating appearance of the animal reportedly caused her to freeze in fear. She said the animal's description generally matched those given by Mr. Edgin. She stated the animal's head was in fact massive, but it had canine upper teeth that extended two or three inches outside its mouth, and she saw blood on those teeth. She stated she could clearly see the animal was intently watching her and it was poised as if ready to spring in her direction. She had the distinct impression the animal was in no way afraid of her or the rifle. She was carrying the rifle at her hip in both hands and pointing forward. She momentarily considered drawing the gun to her shoulder and emptying the 19 shot magazine of long rifle bullets into the animal, but she quickly decided the animal was too large and too close for her to ensure she could get off enough shots to kill it before it reached her in a full charge.
She began to carefully, and very slowly, walk backwards toward the truck without taking her eyes off the animal. She was moving her feet a few inches at a time, and it seemed to her she would never reach the safety of the truck. When she finally did reach the truck, she stepped beside the opened door and slowly placed her right foot on the floor board. Only then did she briefly take her eyes off the animal to reach for the door handle. She immediately grabbed it, sat down on the seat, drew her left leg inside the cab and slammed the door shut. The second the door closed she heard and felt the animals impact against the outside of the door. She frantically started the engine and raced through the property to the main entrance gate. She opened the gate and hurriedly drove to Mr. Edgin's home, not remembering whether or not she had closed the gate to prevent the cattle from leaving the pasture. She then found the driver's side door was bent from the animal's impact.
The ferocious appearance and lack of fear of humans which Ms. Wyers observed were also noticed by an Ozark businessman who had a close encounter with one of the animals in Johnson County. The man stated he was in his pickup truck and stopped at a highway intersection north of I-40 when one of the animals walked closely past the driver's side of the truck, around the front of the truck and back down the other side. The animal reportedly stopped just past the end of the truck where it was brightly illuminated by the truck's taillights and brake lights where the driver was able to see it in his passenger side mirror. According to the driver the animal remained at the rear of the truck for nearly a minute, but it would turn its body to shield its eyes from the vehicles that were passing on the highway in front of the truck. This particular witness stated he clearly saw both upper and lower canine teeth outside the mouth of the animal. He said the animal's body and head were massive, and the jaws appeared to be wide and powerful. He stated the top of the animal's head was just below the bottom edge of the window openings as it walked past the truck. His description of the animal generally matched those given by Ms. Wyers and Mr. Edgin, although there was one notable exception. This witness estimated the animal's weight to be close to five hundred pounds. The animals seen by the other witnesses were estimated to weigh about 250 pounds. This witness was, by his own admission, very fearful of the animal, even though he was inside his pickup with the windows up during the encounter.
On a spring day about 1991, an animal similar to the ones described by the witnesses was also seen near the Belt Cemetery north of Ozark by two local women. Ruby Tolton and a relative had gone to the cemetery to do clean-up work when they saw a deer run from the woods into an open field behind the cemetery. When the deer reached the center of the field they saw an animal burst from the woods in hot pursuit. The women were very puzzled because they could not identify the obvious predator. They could plainly see that it was not a dog or coyote, although it appeared to be some type of canine, rather than a bobcat or mountain lion.
A similar animal was seen by an employee of a local utility company when it crossed Highway 219 about three miles north of I-40. The witness stated the animal ran across the road toward the creek on the west side. The man stopped his vehicle and got out of the truck to try to get a better look at the animal. He saw it standing and watching him from about 100 yards away, but the man could not identify the animal. As he watched, the animal sped across the creek, and with apparent ease and obvious agility, scaled the steep bluff on the other side and disappeared into the woods above it.
One of the witnesses vividly recalls driving to a local farm with her small children in the 1980s to pick purple hull peas, and being told by the farmer (now deceased) to park close to the pea patch and to watch her children closely. When she asked why, he told her he had recently seen a large, aggressive animal he could not identify near the pea patch. He said the animal was intimidating and showed no fear of him.
In the Cravens area northwest of Ozark the local residents have also reported seeing an enigmatic quadrupedal animals, although the descriptions of the animals seen in that area are basically the same, the descriptions are significantly different in some respects from those previously recorded.
The most pronounced difference between the descriptions from the two areas is in the length and size of the neck, and the angle of the neck in relation to the body when the animal is standing alert.
Ms. Lucille Elders, her son and another relative who have seen the strange animals in that area at close range report that the animals' necks are disproportional long for the size of the animals' bodies. Ms. Elder's son, who saw one of the animals at night on two occasions, particularly noted that the animal's long neck was held in a very upright, and somewhat awkward looking position when the animal stood watching him. He stated the neck was very thick, and the head was "fat". He estimated the top of the animal's head was about 3 feet from the ground when it was watching him.
One resident of the Cravens area reported that the animal he saw had long ears. The animal seen by Ms. Elder was reported to have "small like ears."
Anecdotal reports from this area indicate the strange animals have been recently seen by other residents. One rancher reportedly saw such and animal resting on a hay bale in his pasture. According to some residents, these animals have been seen in the area for generations.
Based on the variations in the descriptions of the animals seen in Franklin County, it seems there are either two separate types of enigmatic animals in the area, or there is one species that manifests very unusual changes in its appearance while growing to maturity.
The animals will probably never be accurately identified - or properly classified if they are in fact an unknown species - until their DNA profile has been examined by professionals in that field. While DNA can sometimes be obtained from a wild animal without it being killed, the odds are in this case that one of the animals will be shot by a farmer or rancher, or will be run over and killed while crossing I-40. If such an event occurs, and the animal still can't be identified upon close inspection, the preserved carcass would be of great interest to science and to the world in general.
Editors note:
Tal H. Branco is a life-long resident of Arkansas and an avid outdoorsman. He learned to hunt, track and fish while a child living in the forests of South Arkansas. For over 60 years he has lived in central Arkansas. During part of that time he was trained and employed as a law enforcement officer. He received special training in Crime Scene Investigations and in the Collection and Preservation of Evidence. He was later employed for 23 years as a chemical analyst for an international corporation, and in that capacity established and supervised the operation of 5 laboratories in Brazil, 2 of which were located several hundred miles up the Amazon River. During that employment he spend his spare time hunting and fishing with the local Indians. He has hunted and fished in other countries and in numerous areas of the United States.
He has for the past 9 years served as a consultant and expert witness in an unrelated field.
In his spare time he has done professional photography for publication, written Outdoor Sports columns for newspapers and a magazine, and authored a book which was recently published by the National Consumer Law Center in Boston.
He has investigated reports of enigmatic, (unclassified), animals for nearly thirty years, and founded The RFP, (Reclusive Forest Primate), Research Project about 15 years ago to gain help in pursuing those investigations. All of the members of the group are unpaid volunteers, and all have had personal encounters with enigmatic animals.
The primary focus of his research has been on the large, hirsute bipedal primate that is commonly called "Bigfoot," or Sasquatch." He also writes a column, "The Reclusive Forest Primate Chronicles," about these animals and their encounters with people in hopes of obtaining information from readers concerning recent sightings so that those sightings can be investigated.
The author can be contacted by e-mail at: talhbranco@aol.com
