Many wonders of the natural world seem too good to be true. Turns out, that's a complicated—and curious—idea.
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Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
We don't really think about it, but our planet might as well be a universe all its own. There are still parts of Earth that have yet to be seen with human eyes. For example, much of the ocean still hasn't been explored, and there are even islands where no man has stepped foot. And in those areas are flora and fauna we cannot comprehend. Louis Deloyes thought he'd found such a place in South America in nineteen twenty. What he discovered was more than he bargained for. The Lace was a Swiss geologist, and in nineteen seventeen he started traveling through South America as part of an oil survey. He'd been joined by a crew of twenty men, but that number had dwindled since the starts of their journey. They had faced a number of hardships, including run ins with hostile indigenous peoples and devastating diseases. Several members had even disappeared in the mountains. By nineteen twenty, there were only four men left. The group had set up camp one night by Columbia's Tara River when they noticed something along the banks. Two creatures had emerged nearby, and they were getting closer. They were almost five feet tall and covered in red fur, and they looked like large apes, only they were walking upright on two legs like a human. One was a male, the other was a female. As the pair inch toward the camp, it was clear they had not come in peace. The creatures started making loud noises and throwing their feces at the crew. Scared and angry, the men kicked up their guns and fired. Both apes were hit, but only the female died. The male ran back into the woods to nurse his wounds and was never seen again. Deloys examined the creature that lay at his feet. It didn't look like any ape he had seen before. While on the surface, it had features like a spider monkey's, but it was much larger and had no tail, and while most monkeys only have thirty two teeth in their mouths. This one had thirty six. Deloys and the other men propped the animal up on a crate in a seated position. They wedged a long stick under its chin to keep it from falling over, and then photos were taken before the creature was skinned and its skull was removed. Any scientist would have been excited to share this discovery with the world. A brand new species of ape had been found along the coast of South America, and Louis de Loys was about to be famous. Except he wasn't. Not at first. He sat on the news for a number of years, refusing to tell a soul about what he'd seen. Plus, much of his evidence had been lost before or he'd made it back home. All that remained was a single photograph of the ape. It wasn't until nineteen twenty eight when his friend George Montendan found what had nearly been forgotten. He was a professor of anthropology and was paging through Deloys's notebook when he came across a photo tucked inside. He'd seen plenty of apes and monkeys throughout his career, but this one was much different than the others, and he knew it needed to be seen, it looked like Deloys had discovered what other scientists had only theorized about the missing link. The two men worked together and had stories about the eight published in several newspapers. Montandan also submitted a paper to the French Academy of Sciences, dubbing the creature the ameranthropoid's loisi. It was the biggest scientific discovery of the day, at least it was supposed to be. As soon as other scientists and naturalists got a look at the animal in the photo, they started asking questions, how big was it really, where did its tale go? Why did it look so much like a spider monkey. Eventually the answers weren't good enough, when both Deloy's and Montendan were labeled frauds. The final nail in the coffin, though, came in nineteen sixty two. That year, doctor Enrique Tahara sent a letter to the editor of a Spanish language magazine, a letter that wasn't published until nineteen ninety nine. In it, he explained how he knew Deloy's ape was a hoax, writing mister Montendan said that the monkey had no tail, that is for sure, but he forgot to mention something. It has no tail because it was cut off. I can assure you this, gentlemen, because I saw the amputation. Deloyz died of syphilis in nineteen thirty five. He was barely forty two and left behind a legacy of deception. Montandan didn't fare much better. When he wasn't fabricating hoaxes. He was pushing eugenics ideas and working with the Nazis. He was executed in nineteen forty four for betraying his country. It seems that the French resistance didn't tolerate monkey business of any kind. The world is full of natural wonders. We actually have a list of seven of the most impressive ones, which was compiled by CNN in nineteen ninety seven. They are the Northern Lights, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Everest, the Harbor of Rio de Janio in Brazil, Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls, and Perkutin, a volcano in Mexico. These are bucket list level phenomena places that people travel thousands of miles to see. But there's another lesser known location that's just as mysterious and breathtaking. It's called Mosquito Bay, which I know is not a particularly enticing name. It is not named after the blood sucking insects that we all know and hate. It's named after a pirate ship that once sailed through the area. Mosquito Bay is located on the southeast edge of Viakis, which is a tiny island about seven miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. By day, the waters there look perfectly normal, but when the sun sets, things get curious. The water glows neon blue in the darkness. There's an entire tourism industry around the glowing bay. However, there are also a lot of rules that visitors have to follow. For example, tour guides can't use motor boats to take people out on the water. They can only use kayaks. Plus, tourists can't swim in the bay. The closest they can get is just dipping a hand in. And despite being called Mosquito Bay, there is absolutely no bug spray allowed, at least not the kind that contains a chemical called deet. If you're wondering why all these restrictions exist, it's because the bay's neon blue light depends on it. You see, Mosquito Bay glows because the water is home to billions of microscopic, single celled organisms called dinoflagelets, which just happen to be bioluminescent now. Bioluminescence occurs when a living organism's body gives off lights as the result of an internal chemical reaction. The most common example of this is fireflies. Everyone knows them, but there are all kinds of species that glow, including certain types of bacteria, worms, starfish, jellyfish, and even sharks, so bioluminescence isn't actually that rare. However, Mosquito Bay is unique because of the sheer number of glowing organisms it contains. For every gallon of water, there's an estimated seven hundred thousand dinoflagelets. Over time, they've gotten trapped inside the bay and become the accustomed to feeding off nutrients from the surrounding mangrove trees. Still, these tiny glowing creatures are very sensitive to changes in their environment. Other bioluminescent bays have been destroyed by humans in the past, hence all the rules visitors have to follow. The fast movement and fuel exhaust from motor boats can kill them. Swimmers aren't allowed in the water because human sweat saliva and urine can throw off the marine ecosystem, and bug spray containing deep is the biggest problem of all. It could actually wipe out the microorganism that makes the bay so beautiful. Thanks to these conservation efforts, people have been able to experience this natural wonder without hurting it. In two thousand and six, Guinness World Records named Mosquito Bay the brightest bioluminescent bay on Earth. But a decade later, in twenty seventeen, disaster struck and it wasn't anyone's fault. Hurricane Maria decimated large portions of Puerto Rico, including Viacus and Mosquito Bay. For the first time in recent memory, the glowing bay went dark, and people feared that the dioflagelets had all been killed or would it return. But then eighteen months later, the bay's signature glow slowly began to come back. It seemed the microorganisms were recovering, and soon the water actually glowed brighter than it ever had before. These days, the bioluminescent creatures are alive and well, and people who visit the bay say it's one of the most magical places they have ever seen. In twenty twenty, Conde Nast named Mosquito Bay as one of its seven Wonders of the World. So who knows, Maybe one day the glowing water will earn a spot on CNN's official list. Until then, Mosquito Bay remains a uniquely bright spot on Earth. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.