April | 2017 | The MarkoZen Blog

WINNIPEG — Bright lights, airplane near-misses and light-fingered aliens with a penchant for cool shades are all part of the annual report on UFO sightings in Canada.
The 2016 Canadian UFO Survey produced by Winnipeg-based Ufology Research was released this week. In total, there were 1,131 sightings of unidentified flying objects reported across Canada.

In a first for the 28 years the study has been conducted, only four per cent of the sightings could not be explained. Study author Chris Rutkowski said that record-low rating is likely the result of more careful scrutiny of raw report information available.

Summer is the big time of year for UFO sightings and mostly they were simply lights that people saw in the sky.

The provinces with the largest populations had the most reports, so Quebec led the country with 38.5 per cent of the sightings, while Ontario had 26 per cent and British Columbia had 17 per cent.

The most popular shape of UFO reported in 2016 was a simple point source of light (57 per cent). Other shapes reported were triangle (four per cent), ball (nine per cent), cigar (three per cent) and fireball (five per cent). The classic “flying saucer” was only reported 48 times.

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As for what the study calls “unknowns,” they included such cases as the “gigantic, disc-shaped object with searchlights” that was seen moving over the mountains in North Vancouver, and the boomerang-shaped “cluster of stars” that moved across the sky near St. Thomas, Ont.

There was also the commercial airplane over Toronto that had a near miss with an object while on a routine flight on Nov. 14.

“The flight crew noticed an object directly ahead on their flight path. The object appeared to be solid, approximately five to eight feet in diameter and shaped like an upright doughnut or inner tube,” said the study.

“Cabin crew members received minor injuries when evasive action was taken. While the object was not likely a balloon and was suggested to be a drone, it was noted that drones could not fly at that altitude and distance.”

The study said the Transportation Safety Board ruled the incident as “a near collision with an unidentified airborne object.”

Close encounter cases are in the minority, but high on the strangeness scale.

Those included a man in Cornwall, P.E.I., who reported that a thin, six-foot-tall, long-fingered white alien in a black suit spoke to him in his bedroom before leaving by walking through a wall.

A man in Lanaudiere, Que., said he was transported into a field of plants and plunged into a bathtub “where he was surrounded by three green, big-eyed humanoid creatures who communicated with him telepathically.”

Not all close encouters are so dramatic, however. One person in Tecumseh, Ont., reported that an alien stole his sunglasses and belt, while someone from Rimouski, Que., filed a report which read simply: “They contacted me!”

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In January 2016, Evan Buechley found one of his carcasses in Utah’s Great Basin had disappeared.

The conservation biologist, who leaves animal corpses out in the desert and sets up cameras to record scavengers, figured a pack of coyotes had dragged the 50-pound calf away.But after a short search yielded no sign of the carcass, Buechley downloaded the camera’s images to see if he could find some clues.What he saw, no one had ever seen before.Over the course of five days, the photos reveal, a single American badger excavated tunnels beneath the calf carcass until the whole thing collapsed into a pit. The badger then covered the carcass completely and constructed a burrow beside it, inside which it feasted on beef for 11 straight daysLater investigation into the scientific literature revealed no one had ever recorded a badger entomb anything larger than a jackrabbit.Found throughout the United States, southern Canada, and northern Mexico, American badgers are known for creating underground food lockers called caches. Such stores keep food safe from competing scavengers and prevent decomposition, thanks to the earth’s natural coolness.Similarly, the corgi-size creatures, which are related to weasels and wolverines, have a number of adaptations that allow them to dig like nobody’s business.For starters, badgers have powerful, heavily muscled forelimbs and long rakes for claws, which allow them to rip through hard, compact dirt. Their heads are cone-shaped, perfect for a life spent scooting around in tunnels. The burrowers also sport a third eyelid, called a nictitating membrane, which helps keep dirt from getting in their eyes.But for all their burying prowess, no one has ever seen a badger tuck away such a large carcass, not to mention one more than two times its weight.