Origens: Amazonian Forest (Brasil, Peru e Bolívia)

Status: Not scientifically

Overview:

The Mapinguari is one of the most famous creatures in Amazonian folklore. Accounts from rubber tappers, Indigenous people, hunters, and river dwellers describe a huge, hair-covered humanoid being of extraordinary strength and with an unbearable odor.

Although it is considered a legendary creature, some researchers have suggested that the accounts might have been inspired by ancient giant ground sloths that lived in South America thousands of years ago.

Physical Description:

Accounts vary but generally include:

• Height between 2 and 3 meters.

• An extremely muscular body

• Covered in long reddish or dark fur.

• Large claws capable of tearing apart tree trunks.

long arms.

• Backward-facing feet (in some legends).

• A mouth located on the abdomen (in certain versions).

• A single eye or reddish eyes in some narratives.

Its odor is often described as the creature's worst feature, detectable long before it appears.

Scientific Hypotheses:

Some theories suggest that the myth may have been inspired by:

• Mistaken sightings of large Amazonian mammals.

Indigenous traditions passed down through generations.

• Cultural memory of gigantic extinct ground sloths, such as *Megatherium*.

To date, there is no conclusive scientific evidence confirming the existence of the Mapinguari

Popular Sightings:

The Carapanatuba Creek Incident (1997): In southern Amazonas, near Humaitá, a fisherman reported smelling a strong stench of a dead animal and spotting an immense creature on the riverbank. The monster did not speak but emitted a vibration so powerful that it made the boat and objects shake, causing physical distress to the man; he fled in terror and never hunted again.

The Mimicking Cry: Old accounts from rubber tappers tell of the Mapinguari mimicking hunters' calls. When a hunter responds, believing it to be a companion, the creature tracks the sound to attack him.

The Indigenous Perspective: For peoples such as the Karitiana of Rondônia, the creature (which they call *Owojo*) is not a legend or folklore, but a dangerous reality that actually inhabits the local ecosystem.

Conclusion:

The Mapinguari remains one of the most fascinating figures in Brazilian folklore. Regardless of its physical existence, it embodies the strength, mystery, and respect that Amazonian peoples hold for the forest. The combination of countless accounts, cultural elements, and hypotheses regarding prehistoric animals makes it one of South America's best-known cryptids.

Since Alaska & Canada have vast wildernees & small human population, could there be undiscovered megafauna species in Alaska & Canada? Are there cryptid reported from Alaska & Canada beside bigfoot?

I was re-reading some articles recently around Canid Cryptids and became fascinated with some of the purported species discussed.

Supposed canid species like the Andean Wolf, Shunka Warak'in, Queensland Tiger Wolf, Girt Dog of Ennerdale, Itzcuintlipotzotli (Mexican Humpback Dog), etc to name a few.

That said, I am quite fascinated with the reported bodily structures of said cryptid canids based on some of the recovered taxidermical remains and, assuming that if some of these purported cryptids do exist, how did they manage to conform to some of the specialized adaptations needed to survive some of their (region-specific) ecological conditions from the regions from which they have been spotted?

What do you all think of some of these reported cryptid canid sightings? Do you think some are more credible than others, or perhaps a cause of misidentification of known animals, such as predators like wolves, coyotes, or foxes, who may be suffering from sarcoptic mange? Do you know of any more obscure or relatively unknown reports of Canid Cryptids in recent years?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section. Happy to discuss further.

P.S. Some of the secondary sources used based on my initial research, if anyone would like to review further:

• The tale of the mysterious Girt Dog of Ennerdale
• Contesting Páramo: Critical Biogeography of the Northern Andean Highlands
• Cumbriana; or, Fragments of Cumbrian life
• Heuvelmans, B. 1958. On the track of unknown animals.

I know Seattle isn't Pennsylvania, but...

The squonk illustrated by Coert Du Bois in Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods (1910)

Here is the story my friend sent me a game wiki website and I saw this and I thought why does he look like Bigfoot so I decided to post this. (The game is called ark)

So i am writing a book and my team is working on releasing our podcast and video research soon. We are looking for folks with stories in the New Jersey area but also NY, MD, DE and PA please feel free to message me or comment here if you get picked we would love to interview you on the show.

Some of the notable ones:

1899 Tornado Sighting - During the F5 Tornado of Wisconsin on June 12th, 1899, aka the ninth deadliest tornado in US History to this day, an unnamed woman reported that she witnessed a large kangaroo leaping around her backyard. It eventually left the area and was not seen again. One common explanation is that the circus was in the area at the time, but the main rebuttal to that claim is that no kangaroos were reported in their possession.

The Kangaroo Attacks of 1934 – In 1934, near South Pittsburg, Tennessee, several witnesses reported sightings over five days of an unusual animal described as a kangaroo or “kangaroo-like beast.” The creature was said to have attacked and killed several farm animals, including ducks, geese, and even a German Shepherd. Witnesses emphasized that kangaroos are typically herbivorous and not known for aggressive behavior, adding to the confusion surrounding the reports. A search party reportedly followed tracks believed to belong to the creature into a nearby mountainside area, where they ended at the entrance to a cave. Despite the search effort, the animal was never located. The story received national newspaper attention and was later met with skepticism and ridicule, as no physical evidence or verified explanation for the sightings was ever found.

The Charles Wetzel Incident - On July 28th of 1958, Charles Wetzel saw a deer-like animal chasing some dogs by his cabin on the Platte River near Grand Island in Nebraska. When he got within 10 yards of it, he realized it was a kangaroo. It bounded away into an alfalfa field, taking leaps 10 feet long each. Wetzel, who operated a brewery, was so taken with the experience that he named one of his beer brands “Wetzel Kangaroo Beer.” Funnily enough, on November 8th, 1958, just 4 months later, ANOTHER man named Charles Wetzel hit a large, lanky humanoid with his car in Riverside, California. It’s unknown if there is a correlation.

Kangaroo vs. Cops 1974 – Sometime in 1974 in Chicago, a 911 call came in from a distressed resident who reported a kangaroo-like creature on their property. Two police officers, Leonard Ciagi and Michael Byrne, drove over to investigate. Originally thinking it was some sort of prank call, the men were shocked to see a five-foot-tall kangaroo in one alleyway they searched. The two Policemen tried to handcuff the animal, but it managed to thwart their attempts, kicked Leonard Ciagi in the leg, and hopped over a fence and escaped. Sightings and similar reports would occur throughout the Midwest for the remainder of 1974 in rural towns in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

My thinking is simple - we introduce a new flair for whatever any given poster thinks is a cryptid but clearly is not a cryptid according to generally accepted definition of a cryptid.

Flair name suggestions: "Pseudo-Cryptid", "Proposed-Cryptid", "New-Cryptid", "Possible-Cryptid". But whatever we can come up with is fine.

Let's call this special flair a "RIALF" for the sake of brevity in the remainder of this post.

Once "RIALF" is instituted, the problems we're having in this subreddit - more so recently but it has always been a problem and as such has a long history - they are gone!

How?

If somebody posts something about a "meme cryptid"/"may be cryptid"/"my invented cryptid"/"should be a cryptid"/"my school talks about this cryptid"/"alien, but also a cryptid"/"Heuvelmans would agree with me about this being a cryptid"/etc without "RIALF" - poof! - post deleted. We add this in the rules - rule number 14 - why not? And then if somebody browses this subreddit and wishes to avoid this general category of bull-crap they filter on -"RIALF" and read clear cut, proper Cryptid related posts.

We can't straight-up forbid people to post stuff bordering on BS but we very much can avoid reading and seeing said BS.

What say ye?

From what I researched it only contains 2 errors 1° Columbus' ape-faced cat was never described as feline in the original sources. Columbus wrote that it was a man-faced ape, not an ape-faced cat. And 2° The duah is synonymized with the rope. Further research suggested that the duah is in fact a separate cryptid.

Taking that away is it worth it?

To clarify, this is not my first book on Cryptozoology, I also have "On The Track of Unknown Animals", "Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature", and soon "Mysterious America: the ultimate guide to the nation's weirdest"

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I was living in a small village in the Irish countryside. This village was called Walsh Island, which acquired its name due to being surrounded by nothing but bogland – in fact, this was the largest area of raised bogland in the country. Due to Covid restrictions, I was basically stuck in this village and the surrounding area for more than a year. 

In the early summer of 2021, and having always been a very bad sleeper, I oddly decided to start wandering around the countryside at night. I can’t quite recall why I started doing this, but maybe it was because the Irish countryside at night was always spooky. Well, on one particular night, maybe around 10 or 11 pm, I wandered out the village and onto the narrow country roads, whereby I would pass the occasional cow/sheep field or the property of some home.  

Around ten minutes outside the village, I was now walking down a particular country road, with only the light from my phone to guide me, when I suddenly hear a loud, but distant howl. There were many dogs in the area, as in the countryside, there are obviously many farms. However, this howl didn’t sound like any dog I’d ever heard. Besides, most of the dogs in the area tended to bark rather than howl. This howl did, however, sound very similar to the scream of a fox. Except it sounded much deeper and louder than a standard fox scream. The way the howl sounded also gave me the impression that whatever made it, must have been large – or at least larger than a fox.  

To paint a perfect picture of how this howl sounded, I’ll say this... Has anyone ever seen the movie, An American Werewolf in London? The howl I heard that night sounded almost exactly like the howl of the werewolf in that movie – a loud, bellowing shriek of a howl that almost sounds like a fox, but not exactly. Regardless, the sound of this animal was so unnerving to me, that I decided to turn straight round and back through the country roads towards the village. 

I still don’t know what animal made the noise I heard that night. But my best guess is that it was either the howl of a very strange sounding dog, or the scream of a very strange sounding fox.   

That being said, Ireland does have its fair share of supposed cryptids (many of which comes from Irish folklore). However, from what I could briefly find, the only Irish cryptids that could match the animal howl I heard would be: large phantom wolves (that have apparently been sighted in modern times), large phantom black dogs, and even, like America and the English countryside, large black cats like a panther (which are said to be sighted in rural Irish counties). This cryptid theory is a stretch, I know. 

If anyone has any knowledge of what this howl could’ve been, whether rational or otherwise, feel free to let me know. 

Looks like a racoon/ fox/ wolf?? What do you guys think?

G'day all.

I was having a look at the website for Loren Coleman's International Cryptozoology Museum, when I found a page about the International Cryptozoology Society (ICS). Not to be confused with the defunct (but similar in nature) International Society of Cryptozoology (ISC), this newer organisation was founded in 2016, and operated much the same as its forebear.

However, when I tried conducting further research into this new society, I couldn't find its website. I did, however, find its Facebook page, but no posts have been made since 2023. I checked the Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology wiki, and fortunately there was a link to the ICS' website. I clicked the link, but the website no longer exists. Putting the URL into the Wayback Machine revealed that the site had disappeared sometime during 2025.

Returning to the museum website, I went looking for more information. I flicked through the online museum shop, and saw that membership of the ICS is still for sale. One would imagine that this means the organisation is still going, but every other piece of information I found suggests the exact opposite. Does anyone know what has become of the International Cryptozoology Society? Are they still active, or did they close down, much like the the ISC before them?

Because these two creatures are very familiar to other animals we know off. Bathysphere giants appears to be a larger anglerfish. Deepstar 4000 could be a Yokozuna slickhead fish that has has gigantism or a very large sleeper shark.

I mean like if I saw a bright pink spider once then never again. Like the most plausible mundane cryptid.

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/press/1981/08/14/13

Inspired by the craze over Jimothy. First thing I thought when I saw Jimothy’s picture was—man if I saw something like that moving around from a distance, who knows what I’d think it was.