About Albatwitch Zoological Survey

September 20, 2020September 22, 2020

Status Report

Albatwitch Zoological Survey continues planning for the first paleoanthropological “dig” for Albatwitch bones & fossils in a coal strip mine, drained for other reasons, that was a wetland habitat for many years. Field survey continues for live Albatwitch in remote, riparian wetlands near the mostly unmapped, backwoods route of the Lehigh Path.

Additionally, the founder studies the archaeological literature and documented images of Native American “rock art,” looking for indications of familiarity with ape-like creatures by the Iroquoian Susquehannocks or Algonquian Lenape.

A former member of the Navy’s Mobile Diving & Salvage Unit Two, Detachment 304, a certified, advanced open water diver, and past skipper of a dive-cruising, sailboat, the founder plans an expedition for next summer to photograph underwater petroglyphs in Pennsylvania rivers.

September 17, 2020September 20, 2020

Albatwitch Zoological Survey’s Goal

Without harm to any Albatwitch (Pan chlca sp. nov.) through DNA collection from shed fur and dropped scat, Albatwitch Zoological Survey will prove the existence of Albatwitch with scientific certainty for inclusion of the species in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System.

After collection of Albatwitch (Pan chlca sp. nov.) DNA, the Albatwitch Zoological Survey will sequence the Albatwitch genome, then, with bioinformatics locate the genes for its unique “cloaking” camouflage phenotype. Theoretically, embryos from species of other endangered furry mammals could be CRISPR, germline edited to give them the same “cloaking” ability as Albatwitch. The CRISPR-editing would be heritable from generation-to-generation, automatically giving offspring of the first genomically modified animals the same “cloaking” camouflage as their parents, protecting the parents and their descendants’ offspring from poachers through genomic facilitated adaptation.

September 3, 2020September 4, 2020

August 10, 2020September 20, 2020

The founder of Albatwitch Zoological Survey was an active duty, field medic corpsman with the United States Marine Corps’, “G”olf Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, and a former ready reservist with the United States Navy’s Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two, Detachment 304. Currently, he is a retired, senior citizen who has two undergraduate degrees in sciences. Although he has never been a professional scientist, as an avocation during retirement he anonymously analyzes and solves mysteries of science ignored by professional scientists because of cultural and/or political reasons, enjoying the research adventure and the intellectual satisfaction associated with adding to the body of public knowledge for the common good.

While hunting Eastern Coyotes (Canis latrans × Canis lupus lycaon) in a remote, riparian bog located in a Pennsylvania Game Land, the founder was twice confounded by the sighting of a bipedal, female mammal that he could not identify despite extensive knowledge of the forest ecosystem. The Albatwitch Zoological Survey is an attempt to apply the scientific method with public input and assistance of consulting science professionals to the field survey, behavioral study, genomic analysis, taxonomic classification and preservation of the animal currently known in the Susquehanna River Valley, Pennsylvania, USA as the “Albatwitch.” All pertinent information and data collected will be published on this website, however, detailed, geographic locational information will NOT be published in the interest of preservation of the Albatwitch (Pan chlca sp. nov.) and Albatwitch habitat.