The existence red-eyed, felinoid entities, however, can hardly be relegated to the cinema of yore and has few points of contact with the lycanthropic traditions held by nearly every culture on this planet of ours. Strange felinoid entities have been reported throughout history, and continue to make their presence known right up to our Internet-saturated early 21st century.

Whenever accounts of this nature surface in journals or online, skeptics decry the simplistic assumptions of the untrained, pointing out that the eyes of most animals tend to glow red under certain conditions. This argument is brought to bear even in cases where witnesses stress the phosphorescent, self-luminous properties of the entities' eyes. The dispassionate approach of "experts is a small consolation to the person who has just had a run-in with one of the hairy hominids collectively known as "bigfoot" or "yeti", or to the householder who has lost beloved pets to the crimson-eyed predator known as the Chupacabras.

Field researchers and journalists have speculated, over the past 30 years about how such visitors came to be among us. Some theories suggest that they were dropped off by alien spacecraft in the same manner in which Spanish explorers of the Americas dumped cattle on uninhabited islands, in the hopes of returning and finding an abundant supply of work animals, while others believe that they represent survivals of species considered extinct, ranging from the elusive Gigantopithecus (known to us only through its impressive dental work) to pterodactyls and other life-forms of the Age of Reptiles. That some creatures may possess the gift or ability of roaming in and out of dimensions has also been thrown into the mix, to the dismay of the paladins of rational thought.

Unlikely Hominids

Bigfoot researcher and journalist Peter Guttila mentions a case which occurred in Texas Canyon, California from October 1974, during which a group of teenagers driving through the canyon were suddenly faced by a dust cloud, similar to one raised by a motorcycle or dune buggy. To their dismay, behind the cloud was no desert joy rider, but a trio of "tall, hairy creatures with dog-like faces, human bodies and eyes that glowed." The teens added that the creatures threw sand and pebbles at the car as it went by, making noises they categorized as "monkey chatter". Perhaps more ominous was the fact that some of the vehicle's occupants got the impression that similar creatures--visible only by the points of light that were their eyes--were running down the canyon's side to join their fellows. Surprised at the fear evinced by their offspring, some of the parents visited the canyon but could find nothing aside from the smell of rotting eggs that usually accompanies monster sightings.

Guttilla also discusses a case involving a Bigfoot-like entity engaged in the theft of a pig. Accounts of the shambling creature appeared in the Saugus Newhall-Signal and included an interesting detail: the oversized, hairy thief was wearing a "glowing blue belt". Most descriptions of these frightening entities fail to mention any accoutrements whatsoever. It is interesting that a similar description would emerge during the course of a conversation between this author and Puerto Rican UFO researcher Willie Durand Urbina regarding high-strangeness events in the island's El Yunque rainforest. Durand mentioned that sightings of hairy manimals were nothing new in Puerto Rico, and certainly not in El Yunque. However, in the wake of the Chupacabras apparitions of 1995-96, there were now reports of Bigfoot-type entities wearing cinturones de luz (belts of light) emerging from the rainforest. The researcher added that these creatures tended to be more violent than their unadorned counterparts. Other investigators of the unknown in Puerto Rico have mentioned cases in which human-sized hairy monsters have committed acts of violence against eyewitnesses.

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