Other Strange Creatures

OTHER · 1995

Chupacabra

Canóvanas, Puerto Rico

The “goat-sucker” of 1990s Puerto Rico: a spiny, bloodsucking beast blamed for livestock deaths that spread across Latin America and Texas.

WIDELY REPORTED OTHER · 1922

Mongolian Death Worm

Southern and western Gobi Desert, Mongolia

A blood-red, sausage-shaped worm said to lurk beneath the Gobi’s dunes and kill with venom or an electric jolt – Mongolia’s most famous desert legend.

REGIONAL LEGEND OTHER · 1893

Hodag

Rhinelander, Oneida County, Wisconsin

A horned, spiny, grinning beast of Wisconsin logging-camp lore that prankster Eugene Shepard ‘captured’ in 1893 – now Rhinelander’s beloved mascot.

HOAX / DEBUNKED OTHER · 1773

Waitoreke

Rivers and lakes of the South Island, especially western Southland

A small, otter-like swimmer reported in South Island rivers since Captain Cook’s day, in a country whose only native land mammals are bats.

REGIONAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE OTHER · 1912

Nandi Bear

Uasin Gishu Plateau and Nandi Hills, western Kenya

A ferocious, bear-like night raider of western Kenya’s highlands – Africa has no bears, so colonial-era sightings remain hotly debated.

REGIONAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE OTHER · 1973

Enfield Horror

Enfield, White County, Illinois

A gray, three-legged creature with pink eyes reported in Enfield, Illinois, in 1973 – later a sociology case study in how monster panics spread.

LOCAL LEGEND OTHER · 1891

Specter Moose

Lobster Lake and the North Maine Woods

A giant, ghostly white moose said to roam northern Maine since 1891, shrugging off hunters’ bullets and chasing sportsmen up trees, as old papers told it.

REGIONAL LEGEND OTHER · 1954

Emela-ntouka

Likouala swamps, northern Republic of the Congo

A one-horned, elephant-sized swamp beast of the northern Congo, said to gore elephants and buffalo – pegged by some as a surviving horned dinosaur.

LOCAL LEGEND OTHER · 1932

Jackalope

Douglas, Converse County, Wyoming

A jackrabbit with antelope antlers, born of a Douglas, Wyoming, taxidermy joke in the 1930s and now the West’s favorite tall-tale animal.

FOLKLORE OTHER · 19th century

Wolpertinger

Alpine forests of Bavaria, southern Germany

Bavaria’s tongue-in-cheek forest chimera – a horned hare with wings and duck’s feet – made by taxidermists, hunted by the gullible, loved by tourists.

FOLKLORE OTHER · 1891

Nuckelavee

Orkney Islands, northern Scotland

Orkney’s most dreaded sea demon: a skinless horse-and-rider monster blamed for blight, drought and plague, which could not cross running fresh water.

FOLKLORE NO PHOTO ON FILE OTHER · 1998

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

Olympic Peninsula rainforests near Hood Canal, Washington

A tree-climbing octopus said to live in the Olympic Peninsula rainforest – a famous 1998 internet hoax used to teach students to check sources.

HOAX / DEBUNKED OTHER · 1910

Squonk

Hemlock forests of Pennsylvania, near Mont Alto

A warty, miserable creature of Pennsylvania’s hemlock woods that weeps constantly and, if caught, dissolves into tears – a lumberjack tall tale.

FOLKLORE OTHER · 1910

Slide-Rock Bolter

San Juan Mountains near Rico and Lizard Head, Colorado

A giant, whale-like beast that hooks its tail over Colorado ridges and toboggans down to swallow tourists – a tall tale from the 1910 Fearsome Creatures.

FOLKLORE