Fwd: Mothman Solved
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From: Barry Karr <SkeptInq@aol.com>
Subject: Mothman Solved
To: CSICOP-ANNOUNCE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
The following column will appear in the March/April 2002 issue of the
Skeptical Inquirer, now at the printer. We thought we'd send it out now, in
advance of the issue, because based upon the general drubbing the movie has
taken in the review columns, it likely won't be up at the theater when the
issue comes out.
Barry Karr
Skeptical Inquirer
'Mothman' Solved!
Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell is CSICOP's Senior Research Fellow and author of numerous
investigative books.
A 2002 movie, The Mothman Prophecies, tells the story of a reporter (played
by Richard Gere) who is drawn to a West Virginia town by eyewitness accounts
of a flying monster. From November 1966 to November 1967, residents in the
vicinity of Point Pleasant (near the Ohio State line) were frightened by
"Mothman" (whose appellation was a reporter's takeoff on the then-current
Batman TV series). The movie is based on a book of the same title by arch
paranormal mystery monger John A. Keel (1975). Keel rounded up giant bird
reports, both local and worldwide, and combined them with UFO sightings,
visits by Men in Black, telephone predictions from alleged extraterrestrials
and their "contactees" (precursors of the "abductees"), plus a tragic bridge
collapse and sundry other elements.
"Mothman" was encountered one night about seven miles from town when two
couples drove through an abandoned complex popularly called the TNT area
(after its World War II use for making munitions). About 11:30 p.m. they saw
the glowing red eyes of a creature, "shaped like a man, but bigger," one
witness would say. "And it had big wings folded against its back." It was
further described as greyish and walking on sturdy legs with a shuffling
gait. As it took flight and seemed to follow them, it "wasn't even flapping
its wings" but "squeaked like a big mouse" (quoted in Keel 1975, 52-53).
Soon others were seeing the winged enigma, including two Point Pleasant
firemen who visited the TNT area just three nights after the couple's
sighting. They too saw the red eyes and described the creature as "huge" but
were emphatic: "It was definitely a bird" (Keel 1975, 56). Most reports
described it as headless yet with large, shining red eyes set near the top
of its body. Not all accounts agreed, however: One woman stated that what
she saw "had a funny little face" although she "didn't see any beak," just
those "big red poppy eyes." Keel also describes some "gigantic birds" about
seventy miles to the north, in Ohio, that had a ten-foot wingspan and heads
with "a reddish cast," yet lacking "the famous glowing red eyes" (Keel 1975,
60-61).
Allowing for an exaggeration of size-perhaps caused by an overestimate of the
intervening distance-the Ohio birds seem to fit the appearance of the common
turkey vulture which can have a six-foot wingspan and an unfeathered red
head (Audubon 1977).
But what about the red-eyed "Mothman" sightings? The creature at the old
munitions area "had two big eyes like automobile reflectors," and others
echoed that description, including one man who, alerted by his dog in the
direction of his hay barn, spotted it with a flashlight (Keel 1975, 49, 52).
Revealingly, according to Frank B. Gill's Ornithology (1994), "At night some
birds' eyes shine bright red in the beam of a flashlight or automobile
headlights. This 'eyeshine' is not the iris color but that of the vascular
membrane-the tapetum-showing through the translucent pigment layer on the
surface of the retina."
At this point it seems relevant to consider a real West Virginia winged
creature-one that has "nocturnal habits" and "large, staring eyes" of the
type that yield crimson eyeshine, plus "facial discs" that can make the eyes
appear even larger. It has a large head and (unbirdlike) is "monkey-faced,"
but looks "quite neckless" (its very short neck sloping into its body so it
could seem headless in silhouette). It has "oversized wings and long legs,"
the latter being "powerful" and (unlike the spindly legs of many birds)
covered with feathers, making them look relatively thick. Its flight is
"noiseless" and indeed "mothlike," although during flight it may vocalize a
"loud, trailing 'khree-i.'" Its broad range includes West Virginia, and it
is a "widespread nester in human habitations"; in fact it "hides in old
buildings" (like those of the TNT complex), as well as barns, etc. Because
it is active only at night, it is "seldom disturbed or even seen by humans,"
so when it is encountered it has an unfamiliar as well as "sinister
appearance" (Bent 1961; Cerny 1975; Coe 1994; Peterson 1957, 1980; Steward
1977).
Its name is Tyto alba, the common barn owl. While it is far from man-sized,
due to its big wings (some forty-four inches) and long legs it nevertheless
"appears deceptively large, especially in flight" ("barn" 2001; Coe 1994).
Allowing for such deception-compounded by multiple unknowns (distance, true
size, size of nearby objects for comparison), as well as darkness, surprise,
fear, and other magnification factors-we have what I believe is the most
likely candidate for "Mothman." (Of course, given the many reports, there is
unlikely to be a single explanation for all, and hoaxes, hallucinations,
other birds, etc., may have been involved in the contagion.)
We are thus faced with a choice between a plausible, naturalistic explanation
on the one hand, and a fanciful, incredible one on the other, the evidence
for which is based solely on the most undependable evidence: reports by
excited eyewitnesses. I think we must choose the former, while realizing
that the latter will be preferred by Hollywood producers and others bent on
selling a mystery.
References
"barn owl." 2001. At www.thebigzoo.com/
Animals/Barn_Owl.asp.
Bent, Arthur Cleveland. 1938. Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey,
part 2; reprinted New York: Dover, 1961, 140-153.
Cerny, Walter. 1975. A Field Guide in Color to Birds. London: Cathray Books,
136-137.
Coe, James. 1994. Eastern Birds: A Guide to Field Identification of North
American Species. New York: Golden Press, 86-87.
Gill, Frank B. 1994. Ornithology, 2nd ed. New York: W. H. Freeman and Co.,
188.
Keel, John A. 1975. The Mothman Prophecies. New York: Signet.
Peterson, Roger Tory. 1957. How to Know the Birds. New York: Signet, 85,
100-101.
---. 1980. Eastern Birds. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 172-175.
Steward, Laura, ed. 1977. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Birds. London:
Octopus Books, 208-209.
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