List
of
Land Cryptids
Almas
The Almas or Alma, the Mongolian for "wild man", is a purported hominid cryptozoological species reputed to inhabit the Caucasus and Pamir Mountains of Central Asia and the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. The creature is not currently recognized or cataloged by science.
Almas is a singular word in Mongolian. As is typical of similar legendary creatures throughout Central Asia, Russia, Pakistan, and the Caucasus, the Almas is generally considered to be more akin to "wild people" in appearance and habits than to apes.
Almases are typically described as human-like bipedal animals, between five and six and a half feet tall, their bodies covered with reddish-brown hair, with anthropomorphic facial features including a pronounced brow ridge, flat nose, and a weak chin.
Almases appear in the legends of local people, who tell stories of sightings and human-Almas interactions dating back several hundred years.
Sightings recorded in writing go as far back as the 15th century.
In 1420, Hans Schiltberger recorded his personal observation of these creatures in the journal of his trip to Mongolia as a prisoner of the Mongol Khan but described them more as hairy, savage humans than animals:
"On the same mountain there are savages, who are not like other people, and they live there. They are covered all over the body with hair, except the hands and face, and run about like other wild beasts in the mountain, and also eat leaves and grass, and anything they can find. The lord of the country sent to Edigi, a man and a woman from among these savages, that had been taken in the mountain."
Barmanou
The Barmanou or Barmanu or Baddmanus is a bipedal humanoid primate cryptid, inhabits the mountainous region of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. Shepherds living in the mountains have reported sightings.
The Barmanou is the Pakistani equivalent of the Bigfoot. In addition to the name Barmanou there are a few local variant names.
The proposed range of the Barmanou covers the Chitral and Karakoram Ranges, between the Pamirs and the Himalaya.
The Barmanou allegedly possesses both human and apelike characteristics and has a reputation for abducting women and attempting to mate with them. It is also reported to wear animal skins upon its back and head. The Barmanou appears in the folklore of the Northern Regions of Pakistan and depending on where the stories come from it tends to be either described as an ape or a wild man.
The first search in Pakistan for Bipedal Humanoid man was carried out by a Spanish zoologist living in France, Jordi Magraner, from 1987 to 1990. He wrote a paper, Les Hominidés reliques d'Asie Centrale, on the Pakistani cryptid.
He later researched the Barmanou extensively in the 1990s but was murdered in Afghanistan in 2002. Loren Coleman wrote that he "collected more than fifty firsthand sighting accounts, and all eyewitnesses recognized the reconstruction of Heuvelman's homo pongoides . They picked out homo pongoides as their match to Barmanu from Magraner's ID kit of drawings of apes, fossil men, aboriginals, monkeys, and the Minnesota Iceman."
In May 1994, during a search in Shishi Kuh valley, Chitral, Dr. Anne Mallasseand reported that once during a late evening she heard unusual guttural sounds which only a primitive voice-box could have produced. No further progress could be made.
Beast of Bodmin Moor
In British folklore, the Beast of Bodmin Moor, also known as the Beast of Bodmin is a phantom wild cat purported to live in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Bodmin Moor became a center of purported sightings after 1978, with occasional reports of mutilated slain livestock; the alleged panther-like cats of the same region came to be popularly known as the Beast of Bodmin Moor.
A long-held hypothesis suggests the possibility that alien big cats at large in the United Kingdom could have been imported as part of private collections or zoos, later escaped or set free. An escaped big cat would not be reported to the authorities due to the illegality of owning and importing the animals. It has been claimed that animal trainer Mary Chipperfield released three pumas into the wild following the closure of her Plymouth zoo in 1978 and that subsequent sightings of the animals gave rise to rumors of the Beast.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food conducted an official investigation in 1995. The study found that there was "no verifiable evidence" of exotic felines loose in Britain and that the mauled farm animals could have been attacked by common indigenous species. The report stated that "No verifiable evidence for the presence of a 'big cat' was found ... There is no significant threat to livestock from a 'big cat' in Bodmin Moor."
Less than a week after the government report, a boy was walking by the River Fowey when he discovered a large cat skull. Measuring about 4 inches long by 7 inches wide, the skull was lacking its lower jaw but possessed three sharp, prominent canines that suggested that it might have been a leopard. The story hit the national press at about the same time as the official denial of alien big cat evidence on Bodmin Moor.
The skull was sent to the Natural History Museum in London for verification. They determined that it was a genuine skull from a young male leopard, but also found that the cat had not died in Britain and that the skull had been imported as part of a leopard-skin rug. The back of the skull was cleanly cut off in a way that is commonly used to mount the head on a rug. There was an egg case inside the skull that had been laid by a tropical cockroach that could not possibly be found in Britain. There were also cut marks on the skull indicating the flesh had been scraped off with a knife, and the skull had begun to decompose only after a recent immersion in water.
Beast of Exmoor
There have been numerous reports of eyewitness sightings, but, the official Exmoor National Park website lists the beast under "Traditions, Folklore, and Legends." The BBC calls it "the famous-yet-elusive beast of Exmoor." Sightings were first reported in the 1970s, although it became notorious in 1983 when a South Molton farmer claimed to have lost over 100 sheep in the space of three months, all of them apparently killed by violent throat injuries.
Descriptions of its coloration range from black to tan or dark grey. It has been suggested that the beast may possibly be a cougar or black leopard which was released from a private collection sometime in the 1960s or 1970s after a law was passed making it illegal for them to be kept in captivity outside zoos. However, considering that cougar and leopard life spans are 12–15 years, this is unlikely. In 2006 the British Big Cats Society reported that a skull found by a Devon farmer was that of a puma, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs states that "Based on the evidence, Defra does not believe that there are big cats living in the wild in England.
Eyewitness testimony has produced a number of different descriptions. Most accounts report the animal as being a large cat either resembling a puma or a panther. It is recorded as being somewhere between four and eight feet from nose to tail, standing very low to the ground, and as having the ability to leap over 6-foot-tall fences with ease. No such cat is native to England, and the variations in the description have led some cryptozoologists to believe that there might be more than one creature.
There was even a report of the Beast seen "fishing" with its paw into the River Barle at Simonsbath, while some locals theorized that its lair might be in old mine workings on the Moor. The Daily Express offered a reward for the capture or slaying of the Beast. Farm animal deaths in the area have been sporadically blamed on the Beast ever since.
BigFoot
Bigfoot or Sasquatch are said to be hairy, upright-walking, ape-like creatures that dwell in the wilderness and leave giant, humanlike footprints. They have been portrayed as a missing link between humans and human ancestors or other great apes. They are strongly associated with the Pacific Northwest, Washington, British Columbia, and Northern California, and the Appalachian Region of the United States. Individuals have claimed to see the creatures all across North America over the years. These creatures have inspired numerous commercial ventures and hoaxes.
Folklorists trace the figure of Bigfoot to a combination of factors and sources, including folklore surrounding the European wild man figure, folk belief among Native Americans and loggers.
A majority of scientists have historically discounted the existence of Bigfoot, considering it to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax, rather than living animals.
People who have claimed to have seen it describe Bigfoot as large, muscular, bipedal ape-like creatures, roughly 6–9 feet tall, covered in hair described as black, dark brown, or dark reddish.
The enormous footprints for which the creatures have been named are claimed to be as large as 24 inches long and 8 inches wide. Some footprint casts have also contained claw marks, making it likely that they came from known animals such as bears, which have five toes and claws.
According to David Daegling, the legends predate the name "Bigfoot".They differ in their details both regionally and between families in the same community.
Ecologist Robert Pyle says that most cultures have accounts of human-like giants in their folk history, expressing a need for "some larger-than-life creature." Each language had its own name for the creatures featured in the local version of such legends. Many names meant something along the lines of "wild man" or "hairy man", although other names described common actions that it was said to perform, such as eating clams, shaking or knocking on trees.
Other versions have also been recorded, such as one in 1840 by Elkanah Walker, a Protestant missionary who recorded stories of giants among the Indians living near Spokane, Washington. The Indians said that these giants lived on and around the peaks of nearby mountains and stole salmon from the fishermen's nets.
In the 1920s, Indian Agent J. W. Burns compiled local stories and published them in a series of Canadian newspaper articles. They were accounts told to him by the Sts'Ailes people of Chehalis and others. The Sts'Ailes and other regional tribes maintained that the Sasquatch was real. They were offended by people telling them that the figures were legendary. According to Sts'Ailes' accounts, the Sasquatch preferred to avoid white men and spoke the Lillooet language of the people at Port Douglas, British Columbia at the head of Harrison Lake.
About one-third of all claims of Bigfoot sightings are located in the Pacific Northwest, with the remaining reports spread throughout the rest of North America.
Bigfoot has become better known and a phenomenon in popular culture and sightings have spread throughout North America. Rural areas of the Great Lakes region and the Southeastern United States have been sources of numerous reports of Bigfoot sightings, in addition to the Pacific Northwest. In the Bigfoot Casebook, authors Janet and Colin Bord document the sightings from 1818 to 1980, listing over 1,000 sightings. The debate over the legitimacy of Bigfoot sightings reached a peak in the 1970s, and Bigfoot has been regarded as the first widely popularized example of pseudoscience in American culture.
A 2007 photo of an unidentified animal that the Bigfoot Field Research Organization claims is a "juvenile Sasquatch"
In 2007 the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization put forward some photos which they claimed showed a juvenile Bigfoot. The Pennsylvania Game Commission, however, said that the photos were of a bear with mange. However, anthropologist Jeffrey Meldrum and Ohio scientist Jason Jarvis said that the limb proportions of the creature were not bear-like, they were "more like a chimpanzee."
Both Bigfoot believers and non-believers agree that many of the reported sightings are hoaxes or misidentified animals. Author Jerome Clark argues that the Jacko Affair was a hoax, involving an 1884 newspaper report of an apelike creature captured in British Columbia. He cites research by John Green, who found that several contemporaneous British Columbia newspapers regarded the alleged capture as highly dubious, and notes that the Mainland Guardian of New Westminster, British Columbia wrote, "Absurdity is written on the face of it."
Tom Biscardi is a long-time Bigfoot enthusiast and CEO of Searching for Bigfoot Inc. He appeared on the Coast to Coast AM paranormal radio show on July 14, 2005, and said that he was "98% sure that his group will be able to capture a Bigfoot which they had been tracking in the Happy Camp, California area."A month later, he announced on the same radio show that he had access to a captured Bigfoot and was arranging a pay-per-view event for people to see it. He appeared on Coast to Coast AM again a few days later to announce that there was no captive Bigfoot. He blamed an unnamed woman for misleading him and said that the show's audience was gullible.
On July 9, 2008, Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton posted a video to YouTube, claiming that they had discovered the body of a dead Sasquatch in a forest in northern Georgia. Tom Biscardi was contacted to investigate. Dyer and Whitton received $50,000 from Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. as a good-faith gesture. The story was covered by many major news networks, including BBC, CNN, ABC News, and Fox News. Soon after a press conference, the alleged Bigfoot body was delivered in a block of ice in a freezer with the Searching for Bigfoot team. When the contents were thawed, observers found that the hair was not real, the head was hollow, and the feet were rubber. Dyer and Whitton admitted that it was a hoax after being confronted by Steve Kulls, executive director of SquatchDetective.com.
In August 2012, a man in Montana was killed by a car while perpetrating a Bigfoot hoax using a ghillie suit.
In January 2014, Rick Dyer, the perpetrator of a previous Bigfoot hoax, said that he had killed a Bigfoot creature in September 2012 outside San Antonio, Texas. He said that he had scientific tests performed on the body, "from DNA tests to 3D optical scans to body scans. It is the real deal. It's Bigfoot, and Bigfoot's here, and I shot it, and now I'm proving it to the world." He said that he had kept the body in a hidden location, and he intended to take it on tour across North America in 2014. He released photos of the body and a video showing a few individuals' reactions to seeing it, but never released any of the tests or scans. He refused to disclose the test results or to provide biological samples. He said that the DNA results were done by an undisclosed lab and could not be matched to identify any known animal. Dyer said that he would reveal the body and tests on February 9, 2014, t a news conference at Washington University, but he never made the test results available. After the Phoenix tour, the Bigfoot body was taken to Houston. On March 28, 2014, Dyer admitted on his Facebook page that his "Bigfoot corpse" was another hoax. He had paid Chris Russel of Twisted Toy Box to manufacture the prop, which he nicknamed "Hank", from latex, foam, and camel hair. Dyer earned approximately $60,000 from the tour of this second fake Bigfoot corpse. He said that he did kill a Bigfoot, but did not take the real body on tour for fear that it would be stolen.
Bigfoot proponents Grover Krantz and Geoffrey H. Bourne believed that Bigfoot could be a relict population of Gigantopithecus. All Gigantopithecus fossils were found in Asia, but according to Bourne, many species of animals migrated across the Bering land bridge and he suggested that Gigantopithecus might have done so, as well. Gigantopithecus fossils have not been found in the Americas. The only recovered fossils are of mandibles and teeth, leaving uncertainty about Gigantopithecus's locomotion. Krantz has argued that Gigantopithecus blacki could have been bipedal, based on his extrapolation of the shape of its mandible. However, the relevant part of the mandible is not present in any fossils. An alternative view is that Gigantopithecus was quadrupedal; its enormous mass would have made it difficult for it to adopt a bipedal gait.
According to Matt Cartmill, and American Anthropologist, the trouble with this account is that Gigantopithecus was not a hominin and maybe not even a crown group hominoid; yet the physical evidence implies that Bigfoot is an upright biped with buttocks and a long, stout, permanently adducted hallux. These are hominin autapomorphies, not found in other mammals or other bipeds. It seems unlikely that Gigantopithecus would have evolved these unique hominin traits in parallel.
Evidence such as the 1967 Patterson–Gimlin film has provided "no supportive data of any scientific value". Great apes have not been found in the fossil record in the Americas, and no Bigfoot remains are known to have been found. Phillips Stevens, a cultural anthropologist at the University at Buffalo, summarized the scientific consensus as follows:
It defies all logic that there is a population of these things sufficient to keep them going. What it takes to maintain any species, especially a long-lived species, is you gotta have a breeding population. That requires a substantial number, spread out over a fairly wide area where they can find sufficient food and shelter to keep hidden from all the investigators.
In the 1970s, when Bigfoot "experts" were frequently given high-profile media coverage, Mcleod writes that the scientific community generally avoided lending credence to the theories by debating them.
The first scientific study of available evidence was conducted by John Napier and published in his book, Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality, in 1973. Napier wrote that if a conclusion is to be reached based on scant extant "'hard' evidence," science must declare "Bigfoot does not exist." He found it difficult to entirely reject thousands of alleged tracks, "scattered over 125,000 square miles" or to dismiss all "the many hundreds" of eyewitness accounts. Napier concluded, "I am convinced that Sasquatch exists, but whether it is all it is cracked up to be is another matter altogether. There must be something in north-west America that needs explaining, and that something leaves man-like footprints." However, anthropologists such as George Gaylord Simpson rejected Napier's conclusion noting that much of the data cited by Napier were hoaxes and since his book had been published, no evidence for Bigfoot was found.
In 1974, the National Wildlife Federation funded a field study seeking Bigfoot evidence. No formal federation members were involved and the study made no notable discoveries.
After what The Huffington Post described as "a five-year study of purported Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch) DNA samples", but prior to peer review of the work, DNA Diagnostics, a veterinary laboratory headed by veterinarian Melba Ketchum, issued a press release on November 24, 2012, claiming that they had found proof that the Sasquatch "is a human relative that arose approximately 15,000 years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo sapiens with an unknown primate species." Ketchum called for this to be recognized officially, saying that "Government at all levels must recognize them as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights against those who would see in their physical and cultural differences a 'license' to hunt, trap, or kill them."
Tom Biscardi Photo Rick Dyer Photo
Bukit Timah Monkey Man
The Bukit Timah Monkey Man, commonly abbreviated as BTM or BTMM, is a creature said to inhabit Singapore, in the forested Bukit Timah region. The creature is often cited as a forest-dwelling hominid or primate and is also accounted for as being immortal. However, its exact identity remains unknown, and its existence disputed. Documentation of the BTM is sparse and scattered; the creature is largely considered a product of local folklore.
Alleged sightings of the animal are rare. Records come mainly from Malay folklore, accounts from Japanese soldiers in World War II, and occasional unconfirmed reports from local residents. The first claimed sighting is said to have occurred in about 1805, with the most recent was in 2007. The BTM is said to be hominid-like, greyish in color, and between 3 to 6 feet in height, with a bipedal gait. All sightings have been centered upon the Bukit Timah region, which gives rise to the creature's name.
Sightings of the BTM are rare, almost all in the Bukit Timah region and its vicinity. The first report of the creature came in 1805, before the colonial British discovery of Singapore when a Malay elder claimed to have seen an upright-walking, monkey-faced creature in the Bukit Timah area. Japanese soldiers also reported the creature during World War II. The most recent sighting of the BTM was in 2007. A Singapore tabloid, The New Paper, has since featured the cryptid on its papers, gathering accounts from a number of witnesses.
A crab-eating macaque. Such monkeys are frequently found roaming in the forested Bukit Timah rainforest
Monkeys are often seen roaming about and encountered by visitors in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, and the crab-eating macaque monkeys in particular bear similarities to the descriptions of the Monkey Man. The clearest distinction between the two would be in size; the crab-eating macaques are typically 13-21 in body length, while the BTM's height is said to be between three and six feet. Height perception, however, may also be influenced by factors such as darkness and angular perception.
Chuchuna
The Chuchuna is an entity said to dwell in Siberia. It has been described as six to seven feet tall and covered with dark hair.
In 1928, the Soviets sent out an expedition team to gather information about the Chuchuna near the Indigirka and Yana rivers. There they claimed to have found that Chuchuna was remarkably similar to the Mulen.
According to the native accounts from the nomadic Yakut and Tungus tribes, it is a well built, Neanderthal-like man wearing pelts as clothes and bearing a white patch of fur on its forearms. It is said to occasionally consume human flesh, unlike their close cousins, the Almastis. Some witnesses reported seeing a tail on the creature's corpse. It is described as being roughly six to seven feet tall.
Chupacabra
Literally interpreted as "goat sucker", is a legendary creature in the folklore of parts of the Americas, with its first purported sightings reported in Puerto Rico. The name comes from the animal's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, including goats.
Physical descriptions of the creature vary. It is purportedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail.
Eyewitness sightings have been claimed in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile, and even being spotted outside the Americas in countries like Russia and the Philippines, but many of the reports have been disregarded as uncorroborated or lacking evidence. Sightings in northern Mexico and the southern United States have been verified as canines that have been afflicted by mange. According to biologists and wildlife management officials, the chupacabra is an urban legend.
The first reported attack eventually attributed to the creature was in March 1995 in Puerto Rico. Eight sheep were discovered dead, each with three puncture wounds in the chest area and reportedly completely drained of blood. A few months later, in August, an eyewitness, Madelyne Tolentino, reported seeing the creature in the Puerto Rican town of Canóvanas, when as many as 150 farm animals and pets were reportedly killed. In 1975, similar killings in the small town of Moca were attributed to El Vampiro de Moca or The Vampire of Moca. Initially, it was suspected that the killings were committed by a Satanic cult; later more killings were reported around the island, and many farms reported the loss of animal life. Each of the animals was reported to have had its body bled dry through a series of small circular incisions.
Puerto Rican comedian and entrepreneur Silverio Pérez is credited with coining the term chupacabras soon after the first incidents were reported in the press. Shortly after the first reported incidents in Puerto Rico, other animal deaths were reported in other countries, such as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Brazil, United States, and Mexico.
In October and December 2018, there came many reports of chupacabras suspects in Manipur, India. Many domestic animals and poultry were killed in the same suspicious manner as the chupacabra.
Many people said that they had seen the species with their eyes. Forensic experts are of the opinion that there was no aspect of chupacabra but street dogs were responsible for the killing of domestic animals and poultries after studying the remnant of the corpse.
In October 2019, a video recorded by Mundo Ovni showed a supposed attack on chickens in the Seburuquillo sector of Lares, Puerto Rico.
The most common description of the chupacabra is that of a reptile-like creature, said to have leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back. It is said to be approximately 3 to 4 feet high, and stands and hops in a fashion similar to that of a kangaroo.
Another common description of the chupacabra is of a strange breed of wild dog. This form is mostly hairless and has a pronounced spinal ridge, unusually pronounced eye sockets, fangs, and claws. Unlike conventional predators, the chupacabra is said to drain all of the animal's blood and sometimes organs usually through three holes in the shape of a downwards-pointing triangle or through one or two holes.
Ebu Gogo
The Ebu Gogo are a group of human-like creatures. In the Nage language of central Flores, Indonesia, ebu means "grandmother and gogo mean, "he who eats anything".
The Nage people of Flores describe the Ebu Gogo as having been able walkers and fast runners around five feet tall. They reportedly had wide and flat noses, broad faces with large mouths and hairy bodies. The females also had "long, pendulous breasts". They were said to have murmured in what was assumed to be their own language and could reportedly repeat what was said to them in a parrot-like fashion.
The legends relating to the Ebu Gogo were traditionally attributed to monkeys, according to the journal Nature.
An article in New Scientist gives the following account of folklore on Flores surrounding the Ebu Gogo: in the 18th century, villagers gave the Ebu Gogo a gift of palm fiber to make clothes, and once the Ebu Gogo took the fiber into their cave, the villagers threw in a firebrand to set it alight, killing all of the occupants, one pair may have fled into the forest.
There are also legends about the Ebu Gogo kidnapping human children, hoping to learn from them how to cook. The children always easily outwit the Ebu Gogo in the tales.
The Ebu Gogo folklore has gained public attention with the discovery of Homo floresiensis, an extinct hominid species that inhabited Flores until c. 50,000 years ago. The ethnologist Gregory Forth has suggested that tales about Ebu Gogo and similar figures in the folklore of Indonesia such as the Orang Pendek are based on the memory of actual encounters between modern humans and Homo floresiensis. This proposal has little mainstream support, especially after the dating of the extinction of Homo floresiensis which initially was assumed to have occurred at c. 12,000 BP was revised to 50,000 BP.
Ebu Gogo Homo Floresiensis
Elwetritsch
The Elwetritsch is a birdlike legendary creature that is reported to be found in southwest Germany, especially in the Palatinate.
The Elwedritsch is a creature that supposedly inhabits the Palatinate of Germany. It is described as being a chicken-like creature with antlers. It also has scales instead of feathers. It is said that their wings are of little use. They live mainly in the underbrush and under vines. Elwetritschen has been depicted with antlers of a stag and their beaks often appear to be very long. In the second half of the 20th century, artists increasingly portrayed Elwetritschen as female by adding breasts. Elwetritschen supposedly originates from crossbreeding chickens, ducks, and geese with mythical wood creatures such as goblins and elves.
The area in which tales of the Elwetritsch are spread expands from the Palatinate Forest in the west of Germany towards the east across the Upper Rhine Plain to the southern parts of the Odenwald. The mythical creature also appears in the north of Baden-Württemberg. In the Main-Tauber-Kreis, where they are known as “Ilwedridsche”, the children are told that at night the creatures sleep in the crowns of the willow trees standing next to the river Tauber. In Neustadt a der Weinstraße, which is said to be the “capital” of the Elwetritsches, there is an Elwetritsche-fountain, created by Gernot Rumpf. Other sources consider Dahn in the southwestern Palatinate, which also has an Elwetritsche-fountain, Erfweiler, or other villages as secret capitals of these creatures.
In Pennsylvania, the lore concerning the Elbedritsch is similar to that of the Elwetritsch in that the victim of the trick was set out with a bag to catch one and left abandoned. The Pennsylvania Dutch are convinced that Palatinate people—their biggest group of ancestors—had taken some “Elbedritschelcher” with them so that they wouldn't become homesick. Tales of the Elbedritsche are also documented in Amish communities.
Elwetritsche-fountain Art by Holder 539 via deviant art
Fouke Monster
The Fouke Monster is said to have been seen in Fouke in Miller County, Arkansas, during the early 1970s. The creature was accused of attacking a local family. Initial sightings of the creature were concentrated in the Jonesville/Boggy Creek area, where it was blamed for the destruction of local livestock. Later, sightings were reported several hundred miles to the north and the east of Fouke.
The creature was named by journalist Jim Powell, who reported on it for the Texarkana Gazette and the Texarkana Daily News.
Various reports between 1971 and 1974 described the creature as being a large hominid-like creature covered in long dark hair, which was estimated to be about 7 feet tall with a weight of 250–300 pounds. Witnesses said that its chest was about 3 feet wide. Later reports, published during the early 1980s, claimed that it was far larger, with one report describing it as 10 feet tall, with an estimated weight of 800 pounds.
Some accounts describe the Fouke Monster as running swiftly with a galloping gait and swinging its arms in a fashion similar to a monkey. Reports also describe it as having a terrible odor, the odor is described as a combination of a skunk and a wet dog, and as having bright red eyes about the size of silver dollars.
A variety of tracks and claw marks have been discovered which are claimed to belong to the creature. One set of footprints reportedly measured 17 inches in length and 7 inches wide, while another appeared to show that the creature had only three toes.
Honey Island Swamp Monster
The Honey Island Swamp Monster is a cryptid said to have been seen in Honey Island Swamp since 1963.
The creature is described as bipedal, 7 feet tall, with gray hair and yellow or red eyes, and accompanied by a disgusting smell. Footprints supposedly left by the creature have three webbed toes.
The first claimed sighting was in 1963 by Harlan Ford, a retired air traffic controller who had taken up wildlife photography. After his death in 1980, a reel of Super 8 film showing the creature was found among his belongings.
In 1974, the monster gained national fame after Ford and his friend Billy Mills claimed to have found unusual footprints in the area, as well as the body of a wild boar whose throat had been gashed. Ford continued to hunt for the creature for the next six years.
Artist Rendition
Mapinguari
The Mapinguari or Mapinguary, also called the Juma, is a monstrous entity said to live in the Amazon rainforest.
It has been described as a hairy humanoid cyclops, while others claim it to be similar to the giant ground sloth, an animal that has been extinct for thousands of years. The creature is often said to have a gaping mouth on its abdomen.
Artists Rendition
Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp
In Lee County, South Carolina, the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp or the Lizard Man of Lee County is an entity said to inhabit the swampland of the region.
First mentioned in the late 1980s, the purported sightings and damage attributed to the creature yielded a significant amount of newspaper, radio and television publicity.
On July 14, 1988, the Lee County sheriff's office investigated a report of a car damaged overnight while parked at a home in the area of Browntown outside Bishopville, South Carolina, on the edges of the Scape Ore Swamp. The car reportedly had toothmarks and scratches with hair and muddy footprints left behind. Sheriff Liston Truesdale noted this was the start of various claims that eventually turned into a story about a lizard man in the swamp. Prompted by the news of the vehicle damage, 17-year-old local Christopher Davis reported to the sheriff that his car was damaged by a creature he described as green, wet, and about 7 feet tall and had three fingers, red eyes, skin like a lizard, snakelike scales two weeks before. According to Davis, he was driving home from working the night shift at a fast-food restaurant when his car got a flat tire. After fixing it, he saw a creature walking toward him. Davis got in his car and began to drive, but the creature was soon on top of the car. He applied his brakes, causing the creature to roll off the car, giving Davis enough time to escape. Coverage by newspapers and media resulted in increased attention for his claims.
The increase in newspaper and media publicity prompted further reports of sightings. Local radio station WCOS offered a $1 million reward to anybody who could capture the creature alive. On August 5, Kenneth Orr, an airman stationed at Shaw Air Force Base, filed a police report alleging that he had encountered the Lizard Man on highway 15, and he had shot and wounded it. He presented several scales and a small quantity of blood as evidence. Orr recanted this account two days later when he was arraigned for unlawfully carrying a pistol and the misdemeanor offense of filing a false police report. According to Orr, he had hoaxed the sighting in order to keep stories about the Lizard Man in circulation. Reports of the creature have gradually declined at the end of the summer. Local law enforcement officials speculated that the sightings were likely to have been caused by a bear.
In 2008, CNN mentioned the Lizard Man legend in a story about a couple in Bishopville, South Carolina who reported damage to their vehicle, including blood traces. The blood traces were subsequently found to be from a domestic dog, though the local sheriff suggested it might have been a coyote or wolf.
In 2015, local television station WCIV featured photos and videos claimed to be Lizard Man, allegedly taken by unidentified individuals. In August 2017, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division sent a humorous tweet “regarding possible paranormal activity” during the solar eclipse that passed over the area hinting that people of Lee and Sumter counties should “remain vigilant” for sightings of the Lizard Man.
Minhocão
Is a creature from that is variously claimed to be a large fish or to resemble a worm measuring 64 to 165 feet in length.
The Minhocão was described to European explorers and naturalists in the 19th century by locals in Brazil. French naturalist Augustin Saint-Hilaire described in December 1846 accounts of the Minhocão in Padre Aranda and Feia lakes, with claims that they lived in the lakes and had drawn horses and horned cattle under the water.
He determined 'Minhocão' to be an augmentative of 'minhoca', Portuguese for the earthworm. Descriptions related to him claimed the creature to have a visible mouth and that it does not rise to the surface of the water, but that it causes animals to disappear by seizing them by the belly. Other accounts claimed the Minhocão to be a fish that has fins Saint-Hilaire speculated that the Minhocão described to him could be a large species of South American lungfish.
It was also reported in an article in a German scientific journal in 1878. It was claimed to exist in the highlands in the South of the country and was described as a "gigantic earthworm, 165 feet in length and 5 in breadth, and covered with bones. Other accounts describe it as 30 or 40 feet long and 6 feet wide. It was said to uproot trees and leave deep trenches in its path, and to prefer damp conditions. Other sightings stated that the creature had a snout like a pig. An earlier claim stated that it had horns. A claimed sighting of a dead Minhocão from 1849 stated that it had skin which was "as thick as the bark of a pine tree, and formed of hard scales like those of an armadillo". Some speculate that it may be a South American lungfish or Ceratodus.
The Minhocão has been blamed, without sightings, for damage to local roads and the appearance of deep trenches that appear after long spells of rainy weather. Claims of "a rumbling sound like thunder" accompanying its movement, led to suggestions that the Minhocão was simply being used as an explanation for seismic activity in the area.
Art by ProDanB via Diviant Art
Mogollon Monster
The Mogollon Monster is a creature said to dwell in central and eastern Arizona along the Mogollon Rim.
Reports of footprints, video, and hair samples have been documented by enthusiasts.
The Mogollon Monster is reported to be a bipedal humanoid, over 7 feet tall, with inhuman strength, and large eyes that some claim to be "wild and red". Its body is said to be covered with long black or reddish-brown hair, with the exclusion of the chest, face, hands, and feet. Reports claim it has a strong and pungent odor described as that of dead fish, a skunk with bad body odor, decaying peat moss, and the musk of a snapping turtle.
Stories say the creature is nocturnal, omnivorous, very territorial, and sometimes very violent. It is generally reported to walk with wide, inhuman strides and leave behind footprints measuring 22 inches in length. It can mimic birds, coyotes, and other wildlife. It is known to emit unusual whistle sounds, explore campsites after dark, build "nests" out of pine needles, twigs, and leaves; and can hurl stones from locations that are hidden from view. The creature has also been said to decapitate deer and other wildlife prior to consumption. In numerous reports, the monster has been said to emit a "blood-curdling" scream described as sounding like a woman in "great distress". Accounts of the creature regularly describe an "eerie silence" before an encounter and an appreciable stillness in the woods that commonly surrounds predatory animals.
The majority of Mogollon Monster sightings are said to occur in the Ponderosa pine forests of the Mogollon Rim.
Mongolian Death Worm
Is a creature alleged to exist in the Gobi Desert.
The creature first came to Western attention as a result of Roy Chapman Andrews's 1926 book On the Trail of Ancient Man. The American paleontologist was not convinced by the tales of the monster that he heard at a gathering of Mongolian officials.
In 1983 a specimen of Tartar sand boa was shown to locals who claimed to have seen "olgoi-khorkhoi" and they confirmed that this was the same animal.
In On the Trail of Ancient Man, Andrews cites Mongolian Prime Minister Damdinbazar who in 1922 described the worm:
"It is shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor leg and it is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death. It lives in the most desolate parts of the Gobi Desert."
In 1932, Andrews published this information again in the book The New Conquest of Central Asia, adding: "It is reported to live in the most barren, sandy regions of the western Gobi." Andrews, however, did not believe in the creature's existence.
The worm is said to inhabit the western or southern Gobi. In the 1987 book Altajn Tsaadakh Govd, Ivan Mackerle described it as traveling underground, creating waves of sand on the surface which allow it to be detected. The Mongolians say it can kill at a distance, either by spraying a venom at its prey or by means of electric discharge. They say that the worm lives underground, hibernating most of the year except for June and July when it becomes active. It is also reported that it most often comes to the surface when it rains and the ground is wet.
The Mongolians believe that touching any part of the worm will cause almost instant death and tremendous pain. It has been told that the worm frequently preyed on camels and laid eggs in its intestines, and eventually acquired the trait of its red-like skin. Its venom supposedly corrodes metal and local folklore tells of a predilection for the color yellow. The worm is also said to have a preference for local parasitic plants such as the goyo.
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Monkey-Man of Delhi
Or Kaala Bandar is a monster that was reported to be roaming Delhi in mid-2001. The entire incident has been described as an Indian example of mass hysteria.
In May 2001, reports began to circulate in the Indian capital New Delhi of a strange monkey-like creature that was appearing at night and attacking people. Eyewitness accounts were often inconsistent, but tended to describe the creature as about four feet covered in thick black hair, with a metal helmet, metal claws, glowing red eyes and three buttons on its chest; others, however, described the Monkey-man as having a more vulpine snout, and being up to eight feet tall, and muscular; it would leap from building to building. Many people reported being scratched, and two people even died when they leapt from the tops of buildings or fell down stairwells in a panic caused by what they thought was the attacker. At one point, exasperated police even issued an artist's impression drawings in an attempt to catch the creature.
Art by WattpadCreepyPasta via Creeplopedia
Orang Mawas
The Orang Mawas or Mawas is an entity reported to inhabit the jungle of Johor in Malaysia. It is described as being about 10 ft tall, bipedal, and covered in black fur, and has been reported feeding on fish and raiding orchards. There have been many sightings of the creature, which the local Orang Asli people call hantu jarang gigi, which translates as 'Snaggle-toothed Ghost'. Recorded claims of Mawas sightings date back as far as 1871. Some speculate the creature may be a surviving Gigantopithecus, while others dismiss the sightings as misidentified sun bears. The creature is similar to the Muwa, another hominid, this time found in the Philippines. In the jungle of southern Thailand, there are stories of hikers for many days, with monster hair covering the body like a monkey or ape, but speaking like a human called "Butnak".
Artist rendition
Ozark Howler
The Howler is a creature said to dwell in the Ozarks. According to tradition, the creature is bear-like in shape with a gray-colored, shaggy coat.
In December 2015, the Arkansas television station 40/29 News reported that it had received photographs purported to be images of the creature from a viewer. The station contacted the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, who responded that they had heard of no claims of sightings of the creature, and said that the images sent to the station were a hoax. However, recorded call records to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission during the fall of 2014 reveal reported sightings of the beast in Benton County, Arkansas.
In October 2014, a recorded emergency call received by the AGFC indicates a motorist nearly collided with an unidentifiable mammal at 9:45 PM. The recorded phone conversation reveals that armed state wildlife officers were immediately dispatched to investigate the bear-sized, gray, fast-running animal on Pump Station Road in Springdale,AR.
Skunk Ape
The skunk ape, also known as the swamp cabbage man, swamp ape, stink ape, Florida Bigfoot, Louisiana Bigfoot, myakka ape, swampsquatch, and myakka skunk ape, is a humanlike creature said to inhabit the U.S. states of Florida, North Carolina, and Arkansas. It is named for its appearance and for the unpleasant odor that is said to accompany it. In terms of appearance, the skunk ape is reported to resemble the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest, but is typically shorter in comparison, has long patches of fur on the shoulders and arms similar to an orangutan, and is often described as a mottled rusty-red color as opposed to the Sasquatch's brown or black coloration.
The skunk ape has been a part of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama folklore since the settler period. The Seminole Indians' myth speaks of a similar foul-smelling, physically powerful, and secretive creature called Esti Capcaki, a name which roughly translates as "cannibal giant". One of the first reports of a large simian creature in Florida came from 1818, when a report from what is now Apalachicola, Florida, spoke of a man-sized monkey or ape raiding food stores and stalking fishermen.
Reports of the skunk ape were particularly common in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1974, sightings of a large, foul-smelling, hairy, ape-like creature, which ran upright on two legs were reported in suburban neighborhoods of Dade County, Florida.
Yeren
In Chinese folklore, the Yeran or Man-Monkey is a legendary creature said to reside in the remote mountainous forested regions of western Hubei. The creature is often called the “Chinese Bigfoot” or “Chinese Yeti”.
Artists rendition via The Telegraph
Yeti
The Yeti is a monstrous creature. The entity would later come to be referred to as the Abominable Snowman in western popular culture. The names Yeti and Meh-Teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region and are part of their folk beliefs. Stories of the Yeti first emerged as a facet of Western popular culture in the 19th century. The scientific community has generally regarded the Yeti as the result of a complex of intricate folk beliefs rather than a large, ape-like creature.
In 1832, James Prinsep's Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal published trekker B. H. Hodgson's account of his experiences in northern Nepal. His local guides spotted a tall bipedal creature covered with long dark hair, which seemed to flee in fear.
An early record of reported footprints appeared in 1899 in Laurence Waddell's Among the Himalayas. Waddell reported his guide's description of a large apelike creature that left the prints, which Waddell thought were made by a bear. Waddell heard stories of bipedal, apelike creatures however, he could never corroborate any of the locals' stories.
The frequency of reports increased during the early 20th century when Westerners began making determined attempts to scale the many mountains in the area and occasionally reported seeing odd creatures or strange tracks.
1937 Frank S. Smythe's photograph of alleged Yeti footprints, printed in Popular Science, 1952
In 1925, N. A. Tombazi, a photographer and member of the Royal Geographical Society, writes that he saw a creature at about 15,000 ft near Zemu Glacier.
Western interest in the Yeti peaked dramatically in the 1950s. While attempting to scale Mount Everest in 1951, Eric Shipton took photographs of a number of large prints in the snow, at about 20,000 ft above sea level. These photos have been subject to intense scrutiny and debate. Some argue they are the best evidence of Yeti's existence.
During the Daily Mail Snowman Expedition of 1954, the mountaineering leader John Angelo Jackson made the first trek from Everest to Kanchenjunga in the course of which he photographed symbolic paintings of the Yeti at Tengboche gompa. Jackson tracked and photographed many footprints in the snow, most of which were identifiable. However, there were many large footprints which could not be identified.
On March 19, 1954, the Daily Mail printed an article which described expedition teams obtaining hair specimens from what was alleged to be a Yeti scalp found in the Pangboche monastery. The hairs were black to dark brown in color in dim light, and fox red in the sunlight. The hair was analyzed by Professor Frederic Wood Jones, an expert in human and comparative anatomy. During the study, the hairs were bleached, cut into sections, and analyzed microscopically. The research consisted of taking microphotographs of the hairs and comparing them with hairs from known animals such as bears and orangutans. Jones concluded that the hairs were not actually from a scalp. He contended that while some animals do have a ridge of hair extending from the pate to the back, no animals have a ridge running from the base of the forehead across the pate and ending at the nape of the neck. Jones was unable to pinpoint exactly the animal from which the Pangboche hairs were taken. He was, however, convinced that the hairs were not of a bear or anthropoid ape. He suggested that the hairs were from the shoulder of a coarse-haired hoofed animal.
Sławomir Rawicz claimed in his book The Long Walk, published in 1956, that as he and some others were crossing the Himalayas in the winter of 1940, their path was blocked for hours by two bipedal animals that were doing seemingly nothing but shuffling around in the snow.
Beginning in 1957, Tom Slick funded a few missions to investigate Yeti reports. In 1959, supposed Yeti feces were collected by one of Slick's expeditions; fecal analysis found a parasite that could not be classified. The United States government thought that finding the Yeti was likely enough to create three rules for American expeditions searching for it, obtain a Nepalese permit, do not harm the Yeti except in self-defense, and let the Nepalese government approve any news reporting on the animal's discovery. In 1959, actor James Stewart, while visiting India, reportedly smuggled the so-called Pangboche Hand, by concealing it in his luggage when he flew from India to London.
In 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary mounted the 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition to the Himalayas, which was to collect and analyze physical evidence of the Yeti. Hillary borrowed a supposed Yeti scalp from the Khumjung monastery then himself and Khumjo Chumbi, a villager, brought the scalp back to London where a small sample was cut off for testing. Marca Burns made a detailed examination of the sample of skin and hair from the margin of the alleged Yeti scalp and compared it with similar samples from the serow, blue bear, and black bear. Burns concluded the sample "was probably made from the skin of an animal closely resembling the sampled specimen of Serow, but definitely not identical with it: possibly a local variety or race of the same species, or a different but closely related species."
Up to the 1960s, belief in the yeti was relatively common in Bhutan, and in 1966 a Bhutanese stamp was made to honor the creature. However, in the twenty-first century belief in the being has declined.
In 1970, British mountaineer Don Whillans claimed to have witnessed a creature when scaling Annapurna. He reported that he once saw it moving on all fours.
In 2004, Henry Gee mentioned the Yeti as an example of folk belief deserving further study.
In early December 2007, American television presenter Joshua Gates and his team reported finding a series of footprints in the Everest region of Nepal resembling descriptions of Yeti. Each of the footprints measured 13 inches in length with five toes that measured a total of 9.8 in across. Casts were made of the prints for further research. The footprints were examined by Jeffrey Meldrum of Idaho State University, who believed them to be too morphologically accurate to be fake or man-made. Later in 2009, in a TV show, Gates presented hair samples with a forensic analyst concluding that the hair contained an unknown DNA sequence.
On 25 July 2008, the BBC reported that hairs collected in the remote Garo Hills area of North-East India by Dipu Marak had been analyzed at Oxford Brookes University in the UK by primatologist Anna Nekaris and microscopy expert Jon Wells. These initial tests were inconclusive, and ape conservation expert Ian Redmond told the BBC that there was a similarity between the cuticle pattern of these hairs and specimens collected by Edmund Hillary during Himalayan expeditions in the 1950s and donated to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and announced planned DNA analysis. This analysis has since revealed that the hair came from the Himalayan goral.
A group of Chinese scientists and explorers in 2010 proposed to renew searches in the Shennongjia Forestry District of Hubei province, which was the site of expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s.
Yowie
Yowie is one of several names for an Australian folklore entity reputed to live in the Outback. The creature has its roots in Aboriginal oral history. Yowie-type creatures are common in Aboriginal Australian legends, in the eastern Australian states
The yowie is usually described as a hairy and ape-like creature standing upright at between 6.5 feet to 12 feet tall. The yowie's feet are described as much larger than a human being but allegedly yowie tracks are inconsistent in shape and number of toes. The descriptions of yowie feet and footprints provided by yowie witnesses are even more varied than those of bigfoot. The yowie's nose is described as wide and flat.
Some report the yowie as timid or shy. However, others describe the yowie as sometimes being violent or aggressive.
In the late 1990s, there were several reports of yowie sightings in the area around Acacia Hills. One such sighting was by mango farmer Katrina Tucker who reported in 1997 having been just feet away from a hairy humanlike creature on her property. Photographs of the footprint were collected at the time.
The Springbrook region in south-east Queensland has had more yowie reports than anywhere else in Australia. In 1977, former Queensland Senator Bill O'Chee reported to the Gold Coast Bulletin he had seen a yowie while on a school trip in Springbrook. O'Chee compared the creature he saw to the character Chewbacca from Star Wars. He told reporters that the creature he saw had been over 9 feet tall.
A persistent story is that of the Mulgowie Yowie, which was last reported as having been seen in 2001.
In March 2014, two yowie searchers claimed to have filmed the yowie in South Queensland using an infrared tree camera, collected fur samples, and found large footprints. Later that year, a Gympie man told media he had encountered yowies on several occasions, including conversing with and teaching some English to, a very large male yowie in the bush northeast of Gympie, and several people in Port Douglas claimed to have seen yowies, near Mowbray and at the Rocky Point range.
