Library of Cryptozoology

Just as NBC was signing off, Dr. Beebe gave an exclamation. A deep sea dragon at least six feet long crossed before the window and a moment later returned with its mate. Until that time scientists had doubted the presence of such large fish in the middepths. This was the only big dragon on record, and I had missed seeing it!

At the time of his terminal illness [Ralph] Wetzel was convinced there was a genuine possibility of a third species of Choloepus in this region [Brazil, Peru, Ecuador] of upper Amazonas distinct from C. didactylus and C. hoffmanni , but the puzzle was not resolved before his death.

Then there is the matter of dinosaurs ... The December 1990 issue of the German magazine GEO –usually nonfiction–features "Search for the Monster," a report that makes Auyantepui sound like Loch Ness. The article describes a trip that was inspired by the sighting of a strange animal several years before. Then three men helicoptered to the tepui and spotted a long-necked, saurian-looking creature swimming in a lagoon. All had left their cameras in camp. They went back to retrieve them, and as they returned to the lagoon, the mysterious animal animal reappeared! By the time they landed, it had vanished, leaving only widening ripples on the water's surface. No footprints, no pictures. I made light of the story, unaware that Fabian's brother, Dr. Armando Michelangeli, a founder and the president of Terramar, was one of the trio. Armando stepped in: "Look. I was there. I saw it. It had a head about the size and shape of a rugby football, and a neck about a foot long.

Alexander [Laime] is a keen student of wildlife on the tepuis, and he insists that on his 1955 expedition to Auyan he encountered three dinosaur-like lizards. Over tea in a corner of his garden he told us he had come upon them while searching for diamonds in one of the rivers on top of Auyan-tepui. "They were sunbathing on a rocky ledge above the river," he said. "At first I thought they were seals, but when I sneaked closer, I saw they were creatures with enormously long necks and ageless reptilian faces. Each had four scale-covered fins instead of legs." For proof Alexander rummaged through a pile of papers and came up with some drawings that he had made at the time. To me they resembled plesiosaurs, marine reptiles that became extinct 65 million years ago.

Segamai is described as being an animal about the size of a cow, that can walk on all fours or erect. It is described as having matted fur and a snout similar to that of the giant anteater. It is said to reside in caves and remote forests of the foothills and cloud forest, where it eats the pith of palms and Cyclanthaceae. The name segamai means ' Oenocarpus fibers,' referring to the dark, matted hair of the creature which is said to be like the fibers surrounding the leaf stems of the palm Oenocarpus . As recently as twenty-five years ago, a man claims to have seen the creature from a distance. The Matsigenka say segamai exists to this day in some locations. The Matsigenka are deathly afraid of segamai . It is said to be highly aggressive, emits a bloodcurdling roar, is impervious to weapons, and emanates a strong odor or supernatural force that dazes, stupefies or renders unconscious those who come near it.

A young Peruvian ranchman, Dr. Daniel A. Tovar, Huancayo, Peru has given me much information about the animals and plants of this region. He says they have three bears, a black one with brown nose, the largest, about as large as our Cinnamon bear and in the habit of killing cattle; a brown one nearly as large, perhaps a variety of the other; and the spectacled bear. He says that the large deer of the high altitudes has two pouches under its eyes, and when surprised by an enemy, draws down the skin so as to expose them, thus presenting the appearance of having four eyes.

... information from BBC producer Michael Andrews indicates that a platypus or platypus form has been reported from an island in Tierra del Fuego, at the southernmost tip of South America. The sighting was made in the 1970s by an amateur naturalist.

I have heard talk on the Liberdade of the mysterious little carnivorous boule-boule. It seems that an old Amazonian mesitzo who knew the nheen gatú dialect of the Tupi-guaraní tongue, called it anga i uára, which would probably signify "the greedy devil" or the "eater of souls." I also heard mention of a terrestrial caiman who lived in holes under the tree roots. They cited a seringueiro whose hand it had bitten and who had been maimed for life. It is said to be dark brown, almost black with a rather broad back. But the description is very vague. A literate seringueiro who had seen it found that it closely resembled the monotreme in his text book. Every person who had glimpsed it thought it a rare and strange animal.

It is about a year ago since the scientific world was startled by the report of a German naturalist traveling in southern Brazil, whence, in a lengthy communication to Nature , he substantiated the occurrence of a large and hitherto unknown quadruped inhabiting those forests. The animal itself had not been seen by him, but its tracks and diggings, as manifested in huge furrows channeled out in the soil of its primeval forest, supported the supposition that it was a creature of gigantic size. Notwithstanding the somewhat sensational character of the communication, it was, however, generally credited on account of the authenticity of its source. By instituting inquiries in regard to this matter in the central valley of the Amazons, where I had spent in former years several months in collected specimens of natural history, I have come lately in receipt of some facts communicated to me by one of my Brazilian friends residing there still, which tend to throw some light upon this mysterious

From a small chain of hills, near to this range of mountains [the Cordillera Occidental near Cartago], with a good glass, have been seen numbers of the carnivorous elephants, feeding on the plains which skirt these frozen regions: their enormous teeth have occasionally been seen; but no one has yet succeeded in killing one of these animals, or, indeed, in getting near to them.

The onça-da-coleira-branca [white-collared jaguar] was mentioned twice. The animal was seen in a community in the late afternoon, while the locals were playing football. The jaguar was sitting at the edge of the forest, "enjoying the ball-game". When noticed, it fled into the woods and was not seen again ... the onça-da-coleira-branca has been described as a black jaguar with a strip of white fur around its neck. There was also a mention of the onça-preta-do-peito-branco [white-breasted black jaguar]. ... There have been three reports of the killing of the onça-tigre . In the first, the ribeirinho claims that he killed a male animal — like a spotted jaguar, but it was bicó (tailless), with its hands turned backwards ... the hair was very short on the back, and the chest was hairy. The hunter's wife saw the animal and confirmed the description. The second informant also killed and measured the onça-tigre , which was 9 spans (about 1.80 metres) from the chin to the

It [Zabalo River region in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve] is rumored to be home to several species "unknown to science," as the phrase has it, such as the ferocious "giant giant river otter," the "black-water tiger," and the "howler-monkey tiger," a marsupial with humanlike hands.

IT HAUNTS the Amazon jungle with a giant bear's body and a monkey's face, clad in dark red fur and trailing a cloud of flying beetles. Its stench is disabling, its upright bulk disconcertingly humanlike and its roar like endless thunder. "When you hear it, you want to move in the other direction," said ornithologist David Oren. "It's absolutely terrifying." To rubber tappers and Indians in the forest's remote western fringe, the creature is the Mapinguari, the Amazon's version of the legendary Yeti or Bigfoot. No scientist has ever seen it, but Oren may be on the verge of proving the mythological animal actually exists. Scientists in the US and Germany this month are performing DNA tests on hair and feces Oren collected in Brazil's remote Acre state. If his suspicions are correct, the tests will reveal a biological shocker: The fabled monster is actually a species of giant ground sloth believed extinct for 8,500 years. "I have ev

Our guide, Juan Villca, was able to distinguish the three species at a glance and called them respectively "Guaichete" [sic – jetete ] ( Phoenicopterus chilensis ). "Tococo" ( Phoenicoparrus andinus ), and "Chururo" ( Ph. jamesi ). He stated that sometimes a few "parinas" (flamingos) of another kind known as "Jetete" [sic – guaichete ] were also to be seen, and that these could be distinguished from the others by their whiter wing-coverts and by the absence of the wine-colour on the neck. Although the remote possibility that a fourth species of flamingo does in fact exist in these desolate wastelands should not be discarded altogether, and in spite of our guide's assurance that a few might be seen at the nesting colonies, it is our impression that the "Jetete" corresponds to inmature specimens of Phoenicoparrus andinus which, as we learned from experience when we later shot one, mistaking it for an adult Ph. jamesi , cann

In September of the same year [1900], the government of the Territory sent a note to the Chief of Police, Pedro Martínez, with instructions to "hand over to Messrs. Steinkamp, ​​and Nicolás Illin, upon receipt, two Mauser rifles and four hundred bullet cartridges ... These inhabitants of the Corcovado River [...] intend to beat the banks of the Argentine lake 'General Paz' [Lake Vintter] trying to hunt the Yemische of the Indians, ' Neo Mylodon Lista Ameghino ', which they say they have seen in that region."

Besides the cobra grande , there are yet more fabulous animals in the Amazon, such as ... the Janaú or Janahúy, an animal which walks in groups through the forest, like a pack of dogs or small wolves, very dangerous and carnivorous, intoxicating its victims with a strong stench, allowing it to sate its verocity; the Tapira-yauara, meaning tapir-dog in Tupi, a gigantic animal which has the shape of a jaguar with the hooved paws of a tapir, with which it digs into the earth to fell the trees whose branches provide refuge for its enemies, who must flee. Note : The name janaú is used for procyonids such as the kinkajou and olingo.

Mr. [Nicholas] Illin, who has recently been exploring in the Andes of Chubut ... believes that in a country where nothing rots for 20 years, probably also nothing would rot for ten thousand years, and that the skin and bones of mylodons found are of great age ... Mr. Illin tels us that there is a large animal of the beaver class. He saw a lady in Chubut who has a boa made of the skin of one which is of a yellowish color. He also saw footprints of, as is supposed, this animal which has no name as yet. The prints were smaller than those of a puma but larger than those of any other carnivorous animal in those parts; for they were evidently of a carnivorous animal. Several Indians and settlers had seen this beast, but it is very rare.

The popoke. This animal, with the head of a tiger, long teeth, and a tiger-slash-spider monkey's body, is carnivorous. Similar to a water tiger, it lives mainly in the river, but it has previously been seen in the forest by some locals. The elders say that a popoke is responsible for the death of a young boy who bathed at the Maripa-Soula dégrad in the 1960s. According to Fiscal Djani, this animal was usually seen at Kormontibo. The wataabubu . This is one of the most feared mythical animals in the Maroni. Its home is usually found in caves submerged at the bottom of the river. The elders say that it has points of resemblance to the hippopotamus. It usually advances in fairly deep water, taking advantage of the ideal camouflage to attack its prey, which it devours before spitting out their guts. According to Fiscal Djani, in the 1970s, an Amerindian was eaten by a waatabubu in front of the old sawmill of Papaichton (Lusini), on the Surinamese side of the place called Daay Olo.

... whilst watching from the dizzy heights its mirrored surface, my attention was directed to some strange animal, which I discovered to be one of those enormous sea-horses, to which I have already alluded, in speaking of the Island of San Lorenzo. Its appearance, from the great elevation at which I beheld it, was extremely singular. Its body seemed to be of a prodigious length, and covered with a short, glossy coat. With the exception of two great white tusks, projecting from the mouth on either side, the form of its head resembled that of a seal. This monster swam about with great rapidity, at times showing the greater portion of his body above the water, and at other times disappearing from view altogether.