A super-sized bird in Alaska

Scripps ^ | 10/15/2002 | Pter Forco

[SteveH]

A super-sized bird in Alaska By PETER PORCO Anchorage Daily News October 15, 2002

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A giant winged creature, like something out of Jurassic Park, has reportedly been sighted several times in Southwest Alaska in recent weeks.

Villagers in Togiak and Manokotak say they have seen a huge bird that's much bigger than anything they have seen before.

A pilot says he spotted the creature while flying passengers to Manokotak last week. He calculated that its wingspan matched the length of a wing on his Cessna 207. That's about 14 feet.

Other people have put the wingspan in a similar range.

Scientists aren't sure what to make of the reports. No one doubts that people in the region west of Dillingham have seen a very large rapto-like bird. But biologists and other people familiar with big Alaska birds say they're skeptical it's that big.

A recent sighting of the mystery bird occurred Oct. 10 when Moses Coupchiak, a 43-year-old heavy equipment operator from Togiak, 40 miles west of Manokotak, saw the bird flying toward him from about two miles away as he worked his tractor.

"At first I thought it was one of those old-time Otter planes," Coupchiak said. "Instead of continuing toward me, it banked to the left, and that's when I noticed it wasn't a plane."

The bird was "something huge," he said. "The wing looks a little wider than the Otter's, maybe as long as the Otter plane."

The bird flew behind a hill and disappeared. Coupchiak got on the radio and warned people in Togiak to tell their children to stay away.

Pilot John Bouker said he was highly skeptical of reports of "this great big eagle" that is two or three times the size of a bald eagle. "I didn't put any thought into it."

But early this week while flying into Manokotak, Bouker, owner of Bristol Bay Air Service, looked out his left window and 1,000 feet away, "there's this big ... . bird," he said.

"The people in the plane all saw him," Bouker said. "He's huge, he's huge, he's really, really big. You wouldn't want to have your children out."

Nicolai Alakayak, a freight and passenger driver from Manokotak who was flying with Bouker, said the creature looked like an eagle and was as large as "a little Super Cub."

Comparison to an eagle, certainly. Super Cub? Probably not, scientists said.

"I'm certainly not aware of anything with a 14-foot wingspan that's been alive for the last 100,000 years," said federal raptor specialist Phil Schemf in Juneau.

Schemf, other biologists, a village police officer and teachers at the Manokotak School said the sightings could be of a Steller's sea eagle, a species native to northeast Asia and one of the world's largest eagles. It's about 50 percent bigger than a bald eagle.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.)

Copyright © 1999 Scripps Howard News Service

[alaskanfan]

Did you hear about Alaska thinking of splitting into two states, North Alaska and South Alaska.

I guess that would probably make Texas the third largest state in the Union.

[Tench_Coxe]

We really are doomed!:

[alaskanfan]

It was probably just one of those North Slope mosquitoes that wandered to far south.

[DWSUWF]

This story reads like the prelude to a 50's Sci Fi flick.

John Agar would play the pilot, James Whitmore the heavy equipment operator.

[denydenydeny]

[sit-rep]

Seen this flyin' around by you??

SR

[NELSON111]

I grew up and live in the Houston area. I remember when I was a kid...about 6 years old...that there was this story on Channel 13's 10 o'clock news about a giant bird. I used to stay with my great-grandfather a lot and he always watched channel 13. I have always remembered the story but can't remember a lot of details. It was about 1975 or so...and they ran the story at the end of the broadcast. they talked of a giant bird sighting in the Houston area and it was supposed to be bigger than anything they could explain. Pretty interesting.

[Cvengr]

Which Texas? Present day? or the other several states it was split into?......of course Alaska ain't so big if it were kept in the sun allowed to thaw for a couple a years. ;^)

[Psycho_Bunny]

We should have listened to the Enviorfreaks.

Global warming is melting the glaciers of northern Alaska and releasing the frozen dinosaurs.

I predict conservatism will collapse under the weight of this revelation.

[SCHROLL]

Hillary has taken to wearing mu-mu's while riding her broom. Why all the fuss?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

France surrenders.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Wait a minute...14-feet wide?

Is Hillary! stumping for a Dem in Alaska?

[T. P. Pole]

Albatross wings run 10 or so feet, don't they? 14 feet wouldn't be too far out of line.

[Nick Danger]

[Between the Lines]

I guess that would probably make Texas the third largest state in the Union.

Texas would still be second in population.

[alaskanfan]

Still no contest. Did you know that Alaska has more shoreline than the rest of the U.S. put togeather? The tides are so extreme that at extreme low tide the state grows by 1/4.

[SKI NOW]

Was the pilot that reported the sighting perhaps an ex-Northwest pilot.

[Dog Gone]

[agrandis]

When I lived in FL, I saw two Florida panthers in an area in which they were not supposed to exist.

[RightOnline]

There was a simply fascinating show on either Discovery Channel or TLC or one of those........some time back........about giant birds like this. The stories........the legends dating back hundreds of years.........are legion. The sightings, even in modern times, are numerous. Even the legend of the "Thunderbird" from American Indian lore is tied to these creatures. It was, again, truly fascinating. These guys (sort of a cross between a giant vulture and a giant eagle) are simply enormous and can definitely carry away a sizeable human child.

Here in NC, where I live (only this was out in the mountains in the western part of the state), there is a mountain that the Indians feared. Many of their children disappeared, never to be seen again, and it is said they were taken by these giant birds (not based on their conjecture; based on eyewitness accounts). There was even an interview with a perfectly normal family..........who damned near lost one of their sons when one of these "super birds" grabbed him and carried him halfway across their very sizeable yard..............the bird eventually dropped him (he was about nine years old and just a bit too large).

Anyway, cool-but-scary stuff. I have absolutely no doubt that these folks saw this type of critter.