Wildmen & Hominids

HOMINID · 1958

Bigfoot

Pacific Northwest forests, reported across North America

North America’s most famous cryptid: a huge, hairy, upright ape-like being reported from the Pacific Northwest to Florida since the 1958 “Bigfoot” tracks.

WIDELY REPORTED HOMINID · 1921

Yeti

Khumbu and the high Himalaya, Nepal

The Himalaya’s “Abominable Snowman”: a Sherpa legend made global by footprint photos, monastery relics and DNA studies that kept finding bears.

WIDELY REPORTED HOMINID · 1818

Skunk Ape

Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades, Florida

Florida’s answer to Bigfoot: a shaggy, foul-smelling ape-man said to roam the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp, reported since the 1970s and before.

WIDELY REPORTED HOMINID · 1946

Fouke Monster

Fouke and Boggy Creek, Miller County, Arkansas

The hairy, red-eyed swamp beast of Fouke, Arkansas, whose 1971 “attack” on a farmhouse inspired the 1972 cult film “The Legend of Boggy Creek.”

REGIONAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · Pre-colonial

Yowie

Forests of the Great Dividing Range, eastern Australia

Australia’s hairy “bush man”: a tall, ape-like figure of eastern forests, rooted in Aboriginal hairy-man stories and colonial-era newspaper tales.

WIDELY REPORTED NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · 1869

Ohio Grassman

Eastern and southeastern Ohio woodlands

Ohio’s own Bigfoot, a tall hairy biped said to build grass nests, linked to the 1978 Minerva scare and the Bigfoot conference at Salt Fork State Park.

REGIONAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · 1876

Almas

Altai Mountains and Gobi margins of Mongolia

Central Asia’s “wild man”: a hairy, human-like figure reported from the Altai and Gobi to the Pamirs and Caucasus, once hailed as a surviving Neanderthal.

REGIONAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1910

Orang Pendek

Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra

A short, powerfully built upright ape said to roam Sumatra’s Kerinci forests – the Southeast Asian cryptid taken most seriously by field researchers.

WIDELY REPORTED NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · 1972

Momo (the Missouri Monster)

Louisiana, Missouri (Pike County)

A foul-smelling, seven-foot hairy beast reportedly seen clutching a dead dog in Louisiana, Missouri, in July 1972 – sparking posses and a festival.

REGIONAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · 1963

Honey Island Swamp Monster

Honey Island Swamp, Pearl River, near Slidell

A gray-haired, amber-eyed swamp ape said to roam the Pearl River’s Honey Island Swamp – launched by a 1974 report of webbed footprints near Slidell.

REGIONAL LEGEND HOMINID · Pre-colonial

Ebu Gogo

Nage country, central Flores

Small, hairy “grandmothers who eat anything” from the folklore of Flores – a tale that drew new attention after the 2003 discovery of the hobbit.

FOLKLORE HOMINID · Traditional

Migoi

Merak and Sakteng highlands, eastern Bhutan

Bhutan’s “strong man” of the high forests, a yeti-like being of Brokpa tradition with a wildlife sanctuary often said to be set aside for it.

REGIONAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1968

Minnesota Iceman

Traveling carnival exhibit; later stored in Cottage Grove, Minnesota

A hairy “ape-man” frozen in a block of ice, toured at 1960s fairs by showman Frank Hansen – hailed as a new species, then exposed as a latex model.

HOAX / DEBUNKED HOMINID · 1969

Moehau

Moehau Range, northern Coromandel Peninsula

A hairy, man-sized wild being said to roam the Coromandel’s Moehau Range – New Zealand’s answer to Bigfoot, declared “dead” by a newspaper in 1970.

LOCAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1974

Batutut (Người Rừng)

Central Highlands of Vietnam and the forests of northern Borneo

Vietnam’s “forest people” – upright, hairy wildmen reported by highland villagers, wartime soldiers and a state-backed search that began in 1974.

REGIONAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · 1976

Yeren

Shennongjia Forestry District, Hubei, China

China’s red-haired “wildman” of the Shennongjia forests in Hubei, the subject of state-backed expeditions since a famous roadside sighting in 1976.

REGIONAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · 1973

Murphysboro Mud Monster

Big Muddy River, Murphysboro, Illinois

A 7-foot, mud-caked, whitish creature reported along the Big Muddy River in Murphysboro, Illinois, in 1973 – a case local police say is still open.

LOCAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1903

Mogollon Monster

Mogollon Rim, central and eastern Arizona

Arizona’s own Bigfoot: a towering, red-eyed, foul-smelling ape-man said to stalk the pine forests of the Mogollon Rim and scare generations of campers.

REGIONAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1970

Hibagon

Mount Hiba, Saijō (now Shōbara), Hiroshima

A gorilla-like ape-man reported around Mount Hiba in Hiroshima in the early 1970s – so many calls came in that the town hall opened an “ape section.”

REGIONAL LEGEND HOMINID · 2005

Orang Mawas

Endau-Rompin and the forests of Johor

Malaysia’s “Bigfoot”: a towering, hairy forest giant of Johor whose reported 2005 sighting sparked an official state expedition in 2006.

REGIONAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1922

Nebraska Man

Snake Creek fossil beds, western Nebraska

A supposed American ape-man announced in 1922 from a single fossil tooth found in western Nebraska – which turned out to belong to an extinct peccary.

HOAX / DEBUNKED HOMINID · Pre-colonial

Mapinguari

Brazilian Amazon rainforest

A shaggy, foul-smelling giant of Amazonian tradition with backward feet and a belly mouth – suspected by one scientist of being a ground sloth.

FOLKLORE NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · Early 1900s

Selbyville Swamp Monster

Great Cypress Swamp, near Selbyville, Delaware

A hairy, screaming creature of Delaware’s Great Cypress Swamp – a decades-old legend that peaked in 1964, when a local man in a fur coat played the part.

LOCAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · 1920s

Wood Devils

Coös County, northern New Hampshire

Tall, thin, gray-furred figures said to slip between the trees of New Hampshire’s Coös County, a legend that grew out of North Country logging camps.

LOCAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1890s

Woodbooger

Flag Rock and Powell Valley, Norton, Virginia

Southwest Virginia’s hairy, Bigfoot-like ‘Woodbooger’ – the Appalachian bogeyman that Norton turned into a trademarked mascot with a sanctuary and statue.

LOCAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · Pre-colonial

Sisimite

Mountain forests of Honduras, Belize and the Yucatán

Central America’s hairy wild man of the mountain caves, said to walk on backward feet, fear water and dogs, and carry off people who stray into the forest.

FOLKLORE NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · Early 1800s

Bennington Monster

Glastenbury Mountain and the Bennington Triangle, southern Vermont

A huge, hairy creature said to have overturned a stagecoach on a mountain road near Bennington, Vermont, and still blamed for the woods’ eerie reputation.

LOCAL LEGEND NO PHOTO ON FILE HOMINID · 1937

Agogwe

Forests west of the Wembere plains, central Tanzania

Small, upright, russet-haired “little men” glimpsed by a colonial officer in Tanzanian forest – East Africa’s best-known mystery hominid.

LOCAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1890s

Albatwitch

Chickies Rock, Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

A small, apple-loving ‘little Bigfoot’ said to lurk in the treetops around Chickies Rock above the Susquehanna River in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

LOCAL LEGEND