Ghastly Sea Creature And Wild Halloween Tales: Weird News & Oddities

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Ghastly Sea Creature And Wild Halloween Tales: Weird News & Oddities We take a glib look at how to pull off a costume based on stuff that really happened but that people may not believe. Because Halloween.

Just in time for Halloween, beachgoers in Dana Point, California, were greeted by the nightmarish sight of a ghastly-looking sea creature that had washed ashore.

Anyone in Dana Beach — or anywhere, really — who wants to be the most ghoulish and frightening at the Halloween party can't go wrong with a costume based on this.

Alive, the thing on the beach was probably scary enough.

But as a bloated, pale corpse with black holes for eyes, a wide open mouth and sharp, curved teeth to shred any prey in its path, the creature held the power even in death to, if not scare people, at least make them turn their heads in disgust or worse.

Spoiler: Although the creature appeared to have crawled out of some distant primordial pool, it was just a particularly ugly type of Moray eel.

Now This Is A Great Pumpkin ...

Keeping with the Halloween theme, a contest in Half Moon, California, is a perfect backdrop for a remake of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," based on the classic "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles M. Schulz.

Every year since 2020, Minnesota pumpkin farmer Travis Gienger has loaded his gargantuan gourds on a trailer for the 32-hour journey to the annual pumpkin weigh-off in Half Moon Bay, California.

Gienger, 44, has always gone home with the grand prize, and this year will be no exception. Rudy, this year's entry, came in at 2,471 pounds to win the contest, 278 pounds shy of last year's world-record winning 2,749-pounder, but "still a monster," he said.

Growing conditions weren't ideal this year. "That actually plays a role — how much rain you get," he said.

The problem with going as Rudy on Halloween is that you'd have trick-or-treat on a custom-made trailer and people would probably decide the last thing you need is more candy.

Not Your Average Lion, Tiger Or Bear

What's the over/under that someone in the Village of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, will dress up as a caracal for Halloween this year? Police earlier this month warned residents to remain alert and not approach a caracal on the loose.

Huh?

Residents can be forgiven for not knowing what exactly to look for. Native to Africa, the Middle East and Asia and internationally protected and endangered, caracals are medium-sized wildcats with a robust, healthy build, long legs, a short face, long tufted ears, a relatively short tail and long canine teeth.

Tell us that's not a great costume. But we digress.

The caracal was captured unharmed as it crouched under a resident's deck. Police don't know how it came to be to Illinois, but it's a resident of Wisconsin now after the Valley of the Kings Sanctuary and Retreat promised it a happy home for life.

Gator Disguised As Mattress Ad?

As long as we're spinning Halloween stories from the wild, what if an alligator spotted floating on a mattress on a debris-filled canal in north Florida after Hurricane Milton was actually plotting to show up at a neighborhood costume party dressed as a mattress and devour the guests before they could figure it out?

It's anthropomorphic for us to assign human traits to non-human beings, and we're not supposed to do that. But what a costume idea.

It was still a cool thing for Floridians to see: The roughest and toughest in their world, alligators like every living being caught in the path of powerful Hurricane Helene just needed to take a load off.

Panda Is Always A Good Idea

What about dressing up as an ambassador for international friendships? That would be a giant panda bear.

The "panda diplomacy" program with China started than 50 years ago by President Richard Nixon is continuing at three zoos across the country — the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the San Diego Zoo and the Memphis Zoo. San Francisco could get a pair of pandas as well.

The latest arrivals are Bao Li and Qing Bao, both 3, who will spend the next 10 years at the National Zoo. Giant panda fans were crestfallen last November when the agreement with China expired and Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub, Xiao Qi Ji, were returned to their country of origin. Their departure marked the first time in 50 years that no pandas were at the zoo.

Although there was concern that Beijing was gradually pulling its furry friendship ambassadors from U.S. zoos amid rising diplomatic tensions, anxiety turned to optimism when Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly stated a desire to continue the panda exchange programs.

The giant panda exhibit at the National Zoo won't open until January, but visitors to the San Diego Zoo can see Xin Bao, 4, and Yun Chuan, 5.