Peruse this in the USA Today’s list of top 10 Haunted hikes.
New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve/Wharton State Forest
“Since 1735, hundreds have seen or heard a yellow-eyed creature with a bat’s wings, a dragon’s breath and a kangaroo’s tail that, according to legend, makes the Pine Barrens its home,” Lankford says. To improve your chances of spotting this UBE (unidentified biological entity), she suggests hiking a section of the Batona Trail, a 49-mile route connecting Batsto Village and Ong’s Hat. “This path ventures deep into prime New Jersey Devil habitat.”
It’s the first time I’ve heard the term ‘UBE’ (unidentified biological entity). I like it!
If you pronounce it “u-be”, as in “What might u-be?” it’s a hoot!
It would be useful to designate something that a witness has seen but can’t identify as opposed to immediately labeling it as a cryptid and saddling it with the cultural reputation associated with that. It appears to leave open the possibility that the entity is a misidentification. However, I fear that it could potentially get a paranormal vibe attached to it (if it doesn’t automatically trigger that anyway).
What do you think about this new term? It seems to have been spawned from EBE (extraterrestrial biological entities) which is used in UFO forums. But are these scientifically accepted terms used in peer-review journals? I can’t find that it is but someone please let me know if they have a reference.
Also, I must apologize that I prattle on about semantics (as I did with ‘scoftic’ and ‘blobjects’). I find it fascinating to think about how people categorize subjects in their minds and with language. The names and connotations that become forever attached to these concepts influence how others respond to them. Just the act of naming a thing or event propels it in to the cultural sphere, making it a meme. [I need to do more reading about this.]
The trouble with UBE is the same as with UFO, the built-in assumption that some perception was of a living creature, or with UFOs, that it was flying. There is a famous bigfoot photo of recent years that turned out to be a tree stump (ok so that’s actually biological…), similarly of course UFOs often turn out to be planets etc., which are not flying.