Cryptid Detectives

Bernard Heuvelmans, father of cryptozoology, claimed that

“cryptozoological research requires not only a thorough grasp of most of the zoological sciences, including, of course, physical anthropology, but also a certain training in such extraneous branches of knowledge as mythology, linguistics, archaeology and history…”

I have serious doubts about linguistics and archaeology – but cryptozoologists must definitely be trained in police investigative work. More precisely, in interrogating witnesses… and, yes, suspects. Suspects in hoaxes that is.

Every police detective worthy of his or her badge knows for a fact that everybody lies – both witnesses and suspects (especially the latter). Intentionally or not, but everyone supplies the investigator with false, misleading information. And it is the job of the latter to detect and identify lies and extract valuable knowledge contained in witnesses’ statements.

As there is no physical evidence of the existence of cryptids, cryptozoologists face the same problem in their investigations – and therefore must acquire the police investigation skills (fortunately, there are lots of places that provide such training – for private investigators).

Ace Ventura the Pet Detective (now a household name) might be a fictional character, but cryptid detectives are very much real. In fact, every cryptozoologist is either a well-trained cryptid detective… or not a cryptozoologist at all.