In 1931 on the Isle of Man, the Irving family claimed that their farm was home to a spectral talking mongoose. Many British tabloids carried stories on Gef and various psychic investigators visited, searching for evidence of the creature. Was is a hoax, paranormal activity, or some combination of them?

The curious can attend a symposium on Gef at the University of London, Thursday 10 April. Tickets are £7, including light refreshments.

Zenescope Entertainment, the home of Grimm Fairy Tales, are now presenting their own unique take on Rudyard Kipling’s famous story The Jungle Book.  Here’s their write up on it: “The new five-issue miniseries will follow Mowglii, a young girl raised by wolves who finds herself in the middle of what the animals call The Great Animal Battle. Mowglii must learn her place in the jungle and fight for survival against many exotic beasts. But she is not the only human in this jungle island. Three other children have been raised by different animal tribes: Bomani grows up in the tiger tribe that is led by the conniving Shere Kahn, Akili learned the ways of the jungle from the mischievous Tavi mongoose tribe, and Dewan comes of age within the unpredictable Monkeys of Bandar Log, which is led by the insane King Bandar Louis. Mowglii and the rest of the human cubs play key roles in the ongoing Great Animal Battle of Kipling Isle as they approach adulthood.” The series is written by Mark L. Miller and illustrated in full color by Carles Granda, with variant wraparound covers available from Ale Garza and Mike DeBalfo. Look for it in March.

The Mongoose.net Anthroportal, an inactive but still often-used resource, will be vanishing this week. Robert "Chiaroscuro" Armstrong, owner and wembaster of the site, has sold the domain name to Verisoft, LLC for an undisclosed sum.

"Given my current financial position, the offer to purchase the domain was one I felt it prudent to accept.. I appreciate those who have enjoyed it through the years, and I'm sorry I have not been able to keep up with updating the content."

Mr. Armstrong further said that he has plans to create a new site on another domain - Furhoo.com - in the near future, with aims to replace and improve upon mongoose.net.

--Mongoose.net Press Release

The BBC is carrying an article here about a remote camera trap in Africa managing to take a picture of a relative of the mongoose (called Lowe's servaline genet) previously known only through the discovery of a pelt by a British explorer, 70 years ago. Pretty animal. }:)