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posted by martyb on Saturday November 01 2014, @12:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-did-not-see-any-unsighted-deer dept.

The Kashmir musk deer (Moschus cupreus) has last been sighted in Afghanistan in 1948. Now a handful of them have been spotted in northeast Afghanistan.

From the UPI article:

After an absence of more than 60 years, a handful of rare fanged deer have been spotted in Afghanistan — just in time for Halloween. The sharp-toothed mammal known as the Kashmir musk deer hadn't been seen in the country since 1948.

But as researchers recently reported in the journal Oryx [abstract; full article paywalled], a team of field observers with the Wildlife Conservation Society spotted several of the rare specimens — on multiple occasions — in the remote alpine fields of northeast Afghanistan, meadows lush with juniper and rhododendron and accented with forested slopes and rugged rock outcrops.

[Ed's note: this story was submitted on Nov 1st so we just missed the window for a timely Halloween story. But, it is the weekend... so let's see if we can have a little fun with this story. Or use this opportunity to share your favorite haunted tale, tech-related or not.]

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:20PM (#112187)

    Clearly they weren't absent for all that time if they were there then, and are here now. "Absent" implies that they weren't there at all, but they were. They just weren't seen by humans during that time.

    • (Score: 1) by crAckZ on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:31PM

      by crAckZ (3501) on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:31PM (#112191) Journal

      Maybe they were absent from the area and migrated back to it. 60 years of no sighting is a long time to "hide" from humans.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:38PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:38PM (#112192)

        Northern Afghanistan is extremely mountainous. Everything surrounding it is extremely mountainous. The deer were there the whole time. It's the people who weren't, due to strife.

        • (Score: 2) by tynin on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:55PM

          by tynin (2013) on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:55PM (#112193) Journal

          Or it could be the locals are all hopped up on their afghan opium, and rumors spread far and wide, till the internet heard. Upon which those wonderful photoshopped pictures were born.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:08PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:08PM (#112196)

            That could be. These are people who haven't discovered toilet paper yet, and instead use their left hand. Anything is possible.

  • (Score: 2) by SuperCharlie on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:09PM

    by SuperCharlie (2939) on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:09PM (#112197)

    Ooooh Rudolph the red fanged rein deer, had some very shiny fangs. And if you ever saw them, you had better run a-way. All of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names. That was until 'ol Rudolph, slashed his way through every vein.

    • (Score: 2) by bugamn on Sunday November 02 2014, @03:00PM

      by bugamn (1017) on Sunday November 02 2014, @03:00PM (#112417)

      There are many ways to get your nose red, blood is just the best.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:33PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:33PM (#112202) Homepage
    One thing I learnt from QI a few weeks back was that there are wild fanged deer roaming around Cambridgeshire. Allegedly some escaped from a zoo, and bred.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday November 01 2014, @07:04PM

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday November 01 2014, @07:04PM (#112240) Journal

    Favorite haunted tech story? I once had a keyboard with one bouncy key, the 6 key located above the alphabet. Each time I used that key I usually got 3 sixes.

    I donated that keyboard to a Christian charity. Figured they were the most competent people available to deal with that problem :D.