This week, Japanese researchers are reporting the passing of a transgene from a primate to its offspring for the first time in a laboratory setting. David Cyranoski writes in the journal Nature that the scientists, who gave marmosets a gene that made their feet glow green, have observed that one of the monkeys has passed it along to its offspring. This is the first time in history that genes introduced to a species via medical means have been inherited by the test subject’s progeny. The event is being heralded as “a milestone that should make it easier to produce animals with versions of human disease for medical research.”

Of course, as a researcher of a variety of alleged cryptozoological wonders, this story reminds me of a term I’ve thrown around in various Fortean circles for years now. Indeed, these little Marmosets must be the closest I’ve come to seeing what I’ve always referred to as a “Fire Monkey”.

Fire Monkeys are a bit of a meme I helped create, born during a succession of live broadcasts of my buddy Joshua Warren’s radio program, Speaking of Strange (for which I am both executive producer and occasionally a guest fill-in host). My brother had initially joked about Fire Monkeys within the context of an imaginary cryptid that he said “tormented hillbillies”, especially mechanics, while working in wooded areas on hot summer afternoons in the American  Southeast. At one point, I recall the creature being discussed with renowned cryptozoologist Mark A. Hall on the program several years ago, and then being snuffed out, only to return to the annals of obscurity… for a while, at least.

Several years later, I remember calling in to speak with Josh remotely after a brief hiatus I had taken from the program, at which time he asked me what kinds of reports I had been gathering during a series of field investigations I had been involved with at the time. “Well Josh,” I confided, “It seems that my research has led me back to that dreaded fiend-of-all-fiends,” I told him. “Yes, I’m referring to the infamous FIRE-MONKEY!” Josh and I had a good laugh about it, and for a few days had forgotten about the poor little flamin’ critter yet again. The following week’s broadcast featured me as guest host for Joshua, and during the second hour of the program I recieved a phone call from the nearby town of Waynesville, N.C. The caller recounted a rather peculiar story, telling me that “he had seen a greasy-looking Fire Monkey while hiking with his cousin in the Blue Ridge Mountains.” Amused, I told the caller that I was interested in this report, and hoped he would follow up with any updates he may receive in the future. “Furthermore,” I said, “I invite anyone else who sees what they believe to be a Fire Monkey to call in to this program and share your experiences.” Within days, we were recieving a variety of stories and photographs (many of which were obvious fakes) detailing encounters with “Fire Monkeys”. Joshua, Mobius and I were so amused by this that we commisioned a talented artist friend of ours, Lee Brooks, to design a “Fire Monkey” logo for the Speaking of Strange web site. Around the same time, L.E.M.U.R. researcher and a good friend of mine, Vance Pollock, contributed a sighting from the late 1970s of a “phantom baboon” witnessed just outside Charlotte, North Carolina. By now, I was just waiting for the next report of a Fire Monkey, when I was also made privy to reports of “Big Yellows”, gigantic pipedal ape-men who glowed yellow, witnessed in Vietnam by a group of US Marines decades ago as discussed in Martin Caidin’s book Natural or Unnatural? What had unfolded before me, it seems, was an entire sub-category of cryptozoological reports involving “glowing ape-men” seen around the world. Incredibly, it was almost as if the Fire Monkey had manifested into a tulpa, physically entering the realm of my psyche and screaming its primal presence to me.

But in all seriousness, the Speaking of Strange staff and I have enjoyed musing over Fire Monkeys for some time now, and reports of Marmosets with feet that glow green only further deepen the enigma that surrounds my favorite fictional cryptid; which, if such news stories continue to be reported, may no longer be so easily classified as imaginary, after all!