Christian Pinchbeck - FMP

"Cryptozoology is the study and investigation of evidence for animals unexpected in time or place or in size or shape." Professor Roy P. Mackal,In Search of Prehistoric Survivors: Do Giant 'Extinct' Creatures Still Exist ?(London: Blandford 1995), "

Okay, you've spent much time and money hunting down a somewhat sensational animal, but all you have to show for it is footprints, sightings, and maybe a fuzzy photograph. It was all hard work that took much patience, yet you feel you have gotten enough evidence. However, after having reported your findings, you've discovered that the work has only begun. Despite your evidence, few people believe it. If anyone takes it seriously, it's only to pick it all apart, and tell you what animal it really was that you or others saw. And if you've got a picture, it's certain that it will somewhere be branded a hoax. Objective examination will be about as rare as the animal you've been searching for.

The most likely opposition to be encountered is claims of fraud/hoax or misidentification. Such claims are sometimes true, yet usually are easily countered by common sense. Fraud is often fairly obvious by minor facts or details that are contradictory or incorrect. Sometimes hoaxes actually have too many details. Few hoaxes stand up to serious, objective examination.

Misidentification (seeing something known, but mistaking it for something unknown) is more likely to be true than fraud. However, it's not as common as may be supposed. If a witness knows the animals of his area, misidentification is very unlikely. Yet, the "armchair experts" have long lists of what people have actually seen. Some of the explanations truly are correct in some situations, yet, when viewed objectively, the scientist's explanations are often harder to believe than the observers' eyewitness reports.