Cryptid Chronicles: Paranormal Creatures, Monsters and Legends - YouTube
Transcripts:
[eerie music] [narrator] The Cryptid Chronicles. For the earliest humans, there was no corner of the earth that wasn't shadowed in mystery. Jungles and deserts were inhospitable, the seas were dark and ominous, the skies were beyond our reach, and they were all inhabited by seemingly bizarre and dangerous creatures.
As we began to explore our world, we slowly learned more about the fauna with which we share it. But over time, that knowledge became intermingled with myths, legends, superstitions, hoaxes, and mistakes. With the birth of the scientific method, however, we began to sort the real from the imaginary. But science is powerful, precisely because it allows for correction when mistakes or omissions are made.
Cryptozoology, the study of unknown animals, is the academic field that tries to catch those mistakes and omissions. Cryptozoologists catalog and investigate the existence of hypothetical species and unique creatures that have yet to be confirmed, but are recorded in folklore, myth, and other unverified reports.
The scientific establishment remains skeptical about the existence of cryptids, and the field of cryptozoology, as it must, because science requires proof. But in actual practice, it can sometimes be difficult, if not impossible, to tell where one ends and the other picks up. Even the highly respected 18th-century Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician, Carl Linnaeus, father of the classification system we still use for animals today, collected reports of what he termed "contradictory animals" in the Animalia Paradoxa section
of his landmark 1735 work, Systema Natura. These included creatures still regarded as fantastical, like the Hydra of Greek mythology, and the Phoenix of Egyptian lore. But they also included now commonly known animals like the antelope and the pelican, and that would be far from the last time an animal thought to be legendary turned out to be real.
New animals are still being discovered all the time. Most are small, but can we really rule out that there are still a handful of large creatures that have managed to slip through the scientific cracks? Cryptozoologists work to answer that question by studying and categorizing the terrestrial cryptids that live in the world's jungles and deserts, the aquatic cryptids that hide in the world's oceans and lakes, the volant cryptids that can soar silently through our skies, and the cryptid hominids that are the most like humanity itself.
Is it all really just folklore, myth, mistakes, and hoaxes? Or is there more between heaven and earth that is dreamt of in our philosophy? [reading words on screen] The Amazon rainforest covers roughly 2.5 million square miles of South America, making it roughly the same size as the continental United States.
Densely forested and teeming with wildlife, it's exactly the kind of place an unknown animal could plausibly remain hidden indefinitely. Take, for example, the Capelobo, a bizarre cryptid that has been reported by the indigenous Kayapo people of the Brazilian state of ParΓ‘. Long recorded in Brazilian myths and legends, the Capelobo, who has also been spotted in the states of Maranhao and Amazonas, is said to have the ability to shapeshift between two distinct forms, one more animal and one more humanoid.
In this sense, the Capelobo is similar to a werewolf and is generally believed that the word lobo in Capelobo is derived from the Portuguese word lobo, meaning wolf. Capelobos, however, are not the same as lycanthropes, as folklore holds that once a person becomes a Capelobo, they only change between the two forms, and never become human again.
How the Capelobo changes back and forth between its dual appearances is unknown, but their animal form is alleged to resemble a stronger, faster, thinner tapir, with shaggy black fur and a snout similar to that of an anteater or pig. Their humanoid form, on the other hand, resembles an extremely muscular human being with a thick, impenetrable skin, black fur, and the head of an anteater.
The humanoid Capelobo is extremely large, and reports hold that it appears to be seen over seven feet tall, even when hunched over. The Capelobo has round hooves, claws, and is said to emit a foul stench, which it has been known to use to stun other animals. Humans who have encountered the smell have reported headaches and dizziness that can last for months at a time.
The creature also possesses the ability to produce shrill screams, that can be heard for miles and used as a weapon against would-be attackers. Its thick hide has proven to be bulletproof, and local legend holds that a Capelobo can only be killed by a direct blow to the eye or the navel. The Capelobo has a large appetite, prefers to hunt at night, and is often spotted running through forests adjacent to human settlements in floodplain regions.
They prefer to hunt small animals, like dogs, cats, and young goats. That being said, they are formidable opponents, and can be extremely dangerous to human beings. Some of the more extreme stories hold that a Capelobo who attacks a human will crack open its skull and eat its brain matter, or sever its carotid artery and consume its blood.
In this sense, the creature more closely resembles folkloric vampires8 than werewolves. Among cryptozoologists, the Capelobo is often discussed in conjunction with a similar Brazilian cryptid known as the Mapinguari. Described alternatively as a giant ground sloth and a hominid, the Mapinguari seems to share the Capelobo's fur, claws, impenetrable skin, and ability to be both bipedal and quadrupedal.
Unlike the Capelobo, however, the Mapinguari is said to have a single eye, and in some tellings, only one leg when in its hominid form. Due to the similarity between the two cryptids, they are easily confused, and many observers use their names interchangeably. Some experts even consider the two to be the same species, but barring additional proof, nothing firm can be concluded.
[reading words on screen] On April 21st, 1977, at about 10 p.m., 17 -year-old William Bartlett was driving with two friends down Farm Street in Dover, Massachusetts, when atop a nearby stone wall, he spied what he would later describe as an eerie human-like creature, about four feet tall, with glowing orange eyes, no nose or mouth, and a watermelon-shaped head.
According to Bartlett, he was stone-cold sober, having had no alcohol that night, and the car was traveling at a relatively slow speed of 35 to 40 miles per hour. Despite seeing it from a distance of only 10 feet, he had no idea what the creature was, though he was sure it wasn't a dog or a cat, and he could tell that it had no tail.
He also saw that it had long, thin fingers, and described it as more human-like in its form than animal, saying that its appearance was similar to that of a child with a distended belly. Bartlett's friends didn't see anything, but about two hours after his sighting, while walking home from his girlfriend's house, 15-year-old John Baxter spotted what was likely the same creature in a wooded area along Mill Hill Road.
Baxter would report that he got within 15 feet of the cryptid before it got away from him. The following evening, around midnight, 15-year-old Abby Brabham was driving home with her boyfriend when she saw the same animal sitting upright in the street on Dover's Spring Hill Road. All three witnesses would draw similar sketches of the cryptid.
Though the stories would prompt a local man to report that he and his friends may have seen the same creature on Springdale Avenue, near Channing Pond, in 1972, there have been no more sightings of what would become known as the Dover Demon since Brabham's experience. Researchers have, however, noted that Farm Street has been an epicenter for strange, possibly supernatural occurrences since at least the 17th century.
According to a 1914 town history written by Frank Smith, quote, "In early times, this road went on the farm "of George Battelle, which was called for a man by that name, "of whom it is remembered, that amid the superstitions "of the age, he thought he saw his Satanic Majesty "as he was riding on horseback by this secluded spot." End quote.
Smith also reported that the location was connected to legends of buried treasure, writing that it had, quote, "long been looked upon as one in which treasures are hid." Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman of Portland, Maine, who headed up the original investigations of the creature and christened it the Dover Demon, found the area's history significant, saying, "In the same area you had three major legends "going on. I think it certainly says something.
"It's almost as if there are certain areas "that collect sightings, almost in a magnetic way." But Coleman was ultimately unable to identify the creature, later saying, "Nothing quite like the demon "has been reported seen before or since. "The Dover creature does not match the descriptions "of the Chupacabra, or of Roswell aliens, "or of the bat-eared goblin said to have attacked a family "in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in 1955. "It doesn't really fit any place.
" Of the Dover Demon incident, former Dover police chief Carl Sheridan would later say, "That thing has haunted me for 29 years. "I knew the kids involved. "They were good kids, pretty reliable kids." As for Bartlett, he would eventually tell the Boston Globe, quote, "In a lot of ways, "it's kind of embarrassing to me.
"I definitely saw something. "It was definitely weird. "I didn't make it up. "Sometimes I wish I had." [reading words on screen] In the early 1920s, American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews was contacted by the government of Mongolia with a strange request. They wanted him to capture an example of a species they called Allerghoi Horhai, now known as the Mongolian Death Worm.
Andrews traveled to Mongolia to meet with government officials, who told him that the worm lives in the most desolate parts of the Gobi, and is, quote, "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." Other accounts hold that it has a thick body, and bright red or yellow skin, and is prone to emerging suddenly from the sand to attack its prey before burrowing back under to rapidly make its escape.
Andrews would later recall, quote, "None of those present "ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed "in its existence and described it minutely." Indeed, the worm, which was also known in Mongolia as Olgoi-Khorkhoi, or the Large Intestine Worm, had been recorded in local folklore for centuries. Andrews made a plan to capture the worm, but locating one wouldn't be easy.
The Gobi Desert straddles the border of southern Mongolia and northern China. As one of Earth's most deadly and mysterious regions, it covers an area of over half a million square miles, which is larger than Germany and France combined. It is also inhospitable to many forms of life. Its ancient name means "waterless place," and it has been known to go for years at a time without seeing any rainfall.
Temperatures can swing from extreme lows to blistering highs, and vegetation can be sparse. Yet some life can thrive there. Species that are known to inhabit the Gobi include Mongolian wild ass, black-tailed gazelles, wild Bactrian camels, sand plovers, marbled pole cats, and over 30 different kinds of lizards.
So it's easy to imagine that in a place so vast, another animal, especially one that prefers to hide beneath the ground, could slip through the scientific cracks. An animal like the death worm. Andrews, as well as other cryptozoologists, have reported that the worm is said to live in the southern and western Gobi. It is alleged to travel underground, which can have the effect of creating telltale sand waves on the surface, and it has formidable attack abilities, including the ability to spray its venom and generate lethal electrical discharges, like some species of eel.
Andrews himself was never able to catch a death worm, and eventually concluded that the creature never existed. Similarly, skeptics tend to dismiss the stories as a combination of folklore and sightings of misidentified species, like worm lizards or sand boas. And it is indeed possible that the death worm was never, in fact, real.
But some have proposed that the Mongolian death worm is a prehistoric animal that has managed to survive by adapting to, and hiding in, the sands of the Gobi. And so far, no one has proved them wrong. [reading words on screen] In 1906, the Lewiston Daily Sun newspaper of Maine published a report of an unidentified animal that had been spotted by local berry pickers.
According to the story, quote, "The Injun Devil is frightening "the West Gardiner berry pickers. "They have seen him lying on his side "in fields and pastures, a strange dun-brown thing "with lolloping chops and tasseled ears. "They have caught glimpses of him flying "through the thickets at dusk, and he has been faintly seen "on distant hills against the twilight, "a ghost-like creature scenting the evening woods.
" Based on collected eyewitness accounts, the paper reported that the creature's height is 5 feet, and the tracks that he has made, as determined by local observers, measures 10 feet apart. Placing additional sightings around the towns of Cobbossecontee, Manchester, West Gardiner, and Purgatory Hills, the paper stated, quote, "Some call him 'Lucifee,' some call him the Indian Devil.
"He has injured nobody as yet, but the berry pickers "are afraid to go to the pastures. "No attacks have been made by him upon domestic animals, "and hence it is supposed that he lives on rabbits," end quote. Since that time, the Sun Journal newspaper has published numerous stories of sightings of similar creatures.
In 2006, it stated, quote, "For years, "consistent reports have arisen of an unidentified animal "with glowing eyes, a chilling cry, "and the features of a wolverine, "a hyena, and a Tasmanian Devil. "The mystery beast has been blamed for killing "a Doberman Pinscher in Wales, "and mauling a Rottweiler in Greene.
"It has also been suggested as the cause "of missing cats around the region," end quote. Despite how far the sightings go back, after a century, researchers have yet to identify the creature, and unfortunately, evidence has proven scarce. Several instances in which possible remains of the devil were recovered, all turned out to be the remains of canines or other known animals.
Complicating efforts to identify the creature is that the term "Injun Devil" has been used to refer to more than one kind of cryptid. According to cryptozoologist Lauren Coleman, the term "Could also be employed and attached "to Maine's preferred name "for the Eastern Bigfoot, also known as Windigo. "For example, I've interviewed "some individuals in the Rangeley, Maine area, "who told of seeing Injun Devils "and describing them as bipedal hairy hominoids, "like Bigfoot, with glowing eyes apparently reflected "from campfires near lumbering sites near the Rangeley Lakes "around the turn of the 19th to 20th century."
Some cryptozoological commentators have suggested a connection to the Glawackus, or Northern Devil Cat, which has been recorded in folklore and the oral traditions of lumberjacks since the 19th century. Described as a combination of features from a lion, a bear and a panther, the Glawackus is suspected to be behind a series of attacks on pets and livestock that happened in Glastonbury, Connecticut in 1939.
Sightings continued to occur in the area over the following months, and mysterious footprints were found, but the creature was never captured. It was later connected to a similar series of attacks in Granby during the 1950s. Without more evidence, however, it's impossible to confirm or refute the existence of either cryptid, or the possibility of a connection between them.
[reading words on screen] In 1918, L.C. Westenenk, the governor of Sumatra, wrote of an event that occurred eight years earlier. According to Westenenk, quote, "A boy from Pandang "employed as an overseer had to stake the boundaries "of a piece of land for which "a long lease had been applied.
"One day, he took several coolies into the virgin forest "on the Barisan Mountains near Loeboek Salasik. "Suddenly, he saw some 15 meters away a large creature, "low on its feet, which ran like a man. "It was very hairy and was not an orangutan, "but its face was not like an ordinary man's." End quote. It wasn't the only sighting. Westenenk also recorded the testimony of a plantation owner who sighted the same beast.
According to the man, "He clearly noticed my presence. "He did not so much as turn his head "but stood up on his feet, and seemed quite as tall as I. "Then I saw that it was not a man, "and I started back, for I was not armed.
"The creature took several paces without "the least haste and then, with his ludicrously long arm, "grasped a sapling, which threatened to break "under his weight, and quietly sprang into a tree, "swinging in great leaps, "alternately to right and to left." Judging by its appearance in folklore, and the reports of early Dutch settlers, the creature has been known to the indigenous population for at least more than a century.
But Westenenk's accounts would be the first the western world would hear of a rare and mysterious species of ape, that walks upright and is known as the Orang Pendek of Sumatra. Sumatra is the largest island in Indonesian territory, and the sixth largest in all the world. Though it has lost more than half of its rainforest over the past half-century, it still has over 10,000 square miles of dense forest on its western half.
It is there that the Orang Pendek is alleged to hide. According to Richard Freeman, the zoological director of the Center for Fortean Zoology, the Orang Pendek can have black or blonde hair and, according to some reports, a mane that runs from its head down its back. It has been described as standing just four to five feet tall, and its name actually translates to "short man.
" But despite its relatively diminutive stature, it has a broad-shouldered, heavily muscled frame. Due to its great strength, the creature is generally feared by jungle dwellers, as it has been known to use sticks and rocks to attack those by which it may feel threatened.
But barring such incidents, the Orang Pendek is not considered to be aggressive, and is prone to simply running away when confronted by humans. Although Aboriginal Sumatrans do sometimes ascribe supernatural powers to animals considered to be spirit or tribal totem animals called neneks, they ascribe no such powers to the Orang Pendek. The Orang Rimba people, who live in the lowland forests of southeast Sumatra, do, however, speak of an extremely similar-looking creature called the Hantu Pendek.
With a name that translates to "short ghost," the Hantu Pendek is believed to be demonic or otherwise supernatural, and it has been known to ambush lone Orang Rimba hunters in the forest. Given the similarities between the two mysterious cryptids, it is at least plausible that there is an as-of-yet unknown connection between the Orang Pendek and its demonic cousin.
[reading words on screen] [reading words on screen] In the north of Ireland, close to Kinlough in County Antrim, in a small graveyard, called Conwall Cemetery, there's a heavily weathered, almost illegible headstone that contains a relief depicting a terrifying aquatic cryptid known as the Dobhar-chΓΊ.
The grave marker belongs to a woman named Grace McLaughlin, nee Connolly, who was brutally murdered by the beast in 1722. According to local legend, Grace McLaughlin lived on Glenade Lough in the townland Creevelea. One morning, while she was washing some clothes in the lake, the Dobhar-chΓΊ emerged from the water and attacked her. When Grace didn't return home that evening, her husband, Terrence, went to look for her, and found his wife dead on the shore, with the Dobhar-chΓΊ sleeping on top of her body.
Recognizing the creature, Terence attacked it with a dagger and managed to kill it. In some versions of the story, the dying Dobhar-chΓΊ is said to have let out a loud whistle, summoning its mate, who Terrence then also had to dispatch. Also known as the King Otter, the Dobhar-chΓΊ's name loosely translates as "water hound," or "hound of the deep," and it is said to live in lakes or other deep bodies of water, like rivers.
A monster associated with Irish folklore, the creature resembles a cross between an otter and a dog, but much larger than either. Estimates place its length at roughly seven feet long, which has earned it the nickname of the Irish Crocodile, and it is known for its speed, ability to travel long distances, both through water and over land, as well as its highly aggressive nature.
Existing mostly in oral legend, there are very few, if any, written records of the Dobhar-chΓΊ, but stories of the creature are widely believed to reach back into ancient times. McLaughlin's grave, which depicts a Dobhar-chΓΊ that has been stabbed with a dagger, seems to lend credence to the legend about her death and the existence of the creature.
Despite its possibly mythological origins, the existence of the Dobhar-chΓΊ isn't entirely implausible. That's because scientists have already identified and verified the existence of an extremely similar creature that lived roughly six million years ago. The Siamogale melilutra was a prehistoric otter that was roughly the size of a wolf and weighed over a hundred pounds.
It had extremely powerful jaws, and could easily crush the bones of a mammal with its bite. Could the two be the same? Is it possible that the legendary water hound, and the monsters that killed Grace McLaughlin, who Terrence fought on the shores of Glenade Lough, were Siamogale melilutra that managed to survive into at least the 18th century? It may still be possible to find out, because sightings of the Dobhar-chΓΊ continue right into modern times.
For example, in 2000, an Irish artist named Sean Corcoran spotted one while he was standing on the shore of a lake on Omey Island in Connemara, County Galway. According to Corcoran, the creature was large, dark, had orange flippers, and, quote, "Swam the width "of the lake from west to east in what seemed like "a matter of a few seconds," end quote.
Several sources also claim that a tiny population of Dobhar-chΓΊ live in the water at Sraheen's Lough. [reading words on screen] In 1913, the German captain Ludwig Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz, was sent to conduct a survey of colonies in the area that is now Cameroon. According to cryptozoologist Willy Ley, while von Stein was conducting his survey, some of his trusted guides told him of a strange and unusually large animal that lived in the jungle.
Von Stein recorded the description, writing, quote, "The animal is said to be of "a brownish-gray color, with a smooth skin. "Its size is approximately that "of an elephant, at least that of a hippopotamus. "It is said to have a long and very flexible neck, "and only one tooth, but a very long one. "Some say it is a horn.
"A few spoke about a long, muscular tail, "like that of an alligator." End quote. Natives referred to the beast as Mokele-mbembe, which means "one who stops the flow of rivers" in the Lingala language. An aggressive creature, von Stein was told that Mokele-mbembe was quick to attack any canoe that dared to come near it, and would kill the crews without eating their bodies.
Reports conflict as to whether von Stein himself believed in the reality of the Mokele-Mbembe, but stories of large-sized unidentified creatures, even saurians, surviving in the jungles of Africa, are common. Von Stein's story drew the attention of the world to these tales, and the similarity between his description of Mokele-Mbembe and the presumed physical appearance of the Brontosaurus raised for many the possibility that somewhere in the Congo river basin was a living, breathing dinosaur. Despite having a reported habit of roaring at humans,
and tales of it using its horn to kill elephants, Mokele-Mbembe is alleged to be an herbivore. Von Stein was told that the animal would roam the shores in search of food, even in daytime, and that its diet was entirely vegetable, preferring, "a kind of liana with large white blossoms, with a milky sap and apple-like fruits.
" According to Ley, von Stein believed these descriptions were at odds with claims the creature was a myth. Despite numerous expeditions over the course of the 20th century, no evidence of Mokele-Mbembe has ever been found in either the jungle or fossil record. Skeptics argue that this is because the creature never existed, and that it has been suggested that Mokele-Mbembe is merely a myth based on a cultural memory of the black rhinoceros, which was once common in central Africa, but is now extremely rare. Another possibility, however, is that the creature
is not an ordinary animal, but is rather supernatural. Indeed, some of the local legends of Mokele-Mbembe depict the giant reptile as a spirit rather than a biological entity. Paul Olind, a community development worker who spent more than 10 years living with the Bayaka in Congo and the Central African Republic, told the BBC that the locals had no doubt about the creature's existence, but at the same time, he emphasized their mystical and spiritual connection to it, saying, "The way they see the world
is a little different to the way you and I see it." [reading words on screen] Across vast, unknown stretches of water, on the oldest maps of the world, early cartographers scrawled the words, "Here there be dragons." That's because explorers of the era believed that the depths were churning with all manner of fantastical and deadly creatures, including among them, the sea serpent.
But while stories of such monsters are usually dismissed as the stuff of myth and legend, at least one version of the tale isn't so easily disregarded. On a dark and cloudy August 6th, 1848, at about 5 p.m., a Royal Navy warship called the HMS Daedalus was traveling through the South Atlantic near the Cape of Good Hope, en route to the British colony of St. Helena.
It was there that several of the officers and crew, including the captain, Peter McQuee, witnessed what they would later describe as a sea serpent of extraordinary dimensions in the water near the ship. According to McQuee's account, w
hich was published in a contemporary London newspaper... [McQuee] "On our attention being called to the object, it was discovered to be an enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea. And as nearly as we could approximate, there was at the very least 60 feet of the animal." [
narrator] The captain further specified that... [McQuee] The diameter of the serpent was about 15 or 16 inches behind the head, which was without any doubt that of a snake. And it was never during the 20 minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses, once below the surface of the water. Its color, a dark brown with yellowish white about the throat.
It had no fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of seaweed washed about its back." [narrator] McQuee added that the creature passed the ship rapidly, but so close by that in the captain's words... "Had it been a man of my acquaintance, I should easily have recognized his features with the naked eye." [narrator] Published alongside the account were drawings of what, based on descriptions by McQuee and his crew, appeared to be an enormous sea snake, jutting its head out of the water as it swam.
Another sailor on the ship would give a similar account, stating, quote, "It gave one quite the idea of a large snake or eel. No one in the ship has ever seen anything similar. So it is at least extraordinary." End quote. Despite the fact that the men on the HMS Daedalus were experienced veteran sailors who got a long, up-close look at the creature, their accounts were received in various quarters with mixed reactions.
In the years since, cryptozoologists and other investigators have debated what exactly it was the crew saw in the water on that fateful day. Suggestions have included any number of undiscovered or presumably extinct species of shark, whale, eel, long-necked seal, giant salamander, or dinosaur. Writing for the Skeptical Inquirer in 2015, however, evolutionary biologist Gary J.
Galbraith presented a previously unpublished contemporary sketch of the Daedalus serpent and made a compelling argument that the creature seen that day was Balanoptera Borealis, also known as the Sei Whale. Galbraith pointed out that the Sei Whale was the right size and color, is known to inhabit in the waters of the South Atlantic, and is known to feed skimming along the surface with its mouth open, a behavior which, on a dark and cloudy day at sea, could easily create the illusion of a snake-like creature jutting out of the water.
On the other hand, maybe those old cartographers were right, and somewhere out in the seas, there really be dragons. [reading words on screen] Since the very beginning of history, seafaring peoples have told tales of monsters that lurked beneath the waves, and the Vikings were no exception.
Scandinavian mythology is replete with giant aquatic cryptids encountered by the famous marauders, including the hafgufa and the lyngbakur. But the most notorious of these monstrous creatures is the massive cephalopod known as the Kraken. While it is unclear exactly how far back oral legends of the Kraken may go in Nordic folklore, the existence of such a beast was first recorded in a late 12th or early 13th century manuscript called The Speculum Regale, or King's Mirror.
The archaic work, which has sometimes been attributed to King Sverre Sigurdsson of Norway, states, "There is a fish, not yet mentioned, which it is scarcely advisable to speak about, on account of its size, which to most men will seem incredible. In our language, it is usually called the Kraken.
I can say nothing definite as to its length in L's, for on those occasions when men have seen it, it has appeared more like an island than a fish." According to the legends, the Kraken inhabited the northern seas and roamed the areas between Norway, Iceland, and Greenland. It had long, powerful tentacles and would occasionally emerge from the deep to destroy ships or drag them beneath the surface.
When it submerged, its size alone was said to be capable of creating a whirlpool that could pull a ship under. In fact, the word Kraken is likely a reference to its frightening arms. The term is derived from the Norwegian word krake, whose root meaning refers to a malformed or overgrown crooked tree, and may be meant to evoke the image of a severed tree trunk with crooked outgrowths.
Belief in the existence of the Kraken persisted well into the modern scientific era. Even Carl Linnaeus included the elusive creature in the first edition of the Systema Naturae, and not in the Animalia Paradoxa. He listed it among the cephalopods, which is the group that includes octopuses and squid. But there have also always been skeptics, and with good reason.
Thanks to the work of Aristotle, among others, we know that as early as the days of the ancient Greeks, people knew of the existence of the animal science now referred to as architeuthis dux, or the giant squid. The largest invertebrate on the planet, architeuthis dux has eyes over 30 feet in diameter and has been known to grow to sizes of nearly 60 feet long and weights of over a ton.
Incredibly elusive, the species has been studied almost exclusively through dead examples that washed up on shore. In fact, it wasn't until 2004 that the first images of a live giant squid were captured on film. Later videos of the creature would back up the idea that it was a fast and powerful predator who used its tentacles to attack its prey, and many experts have concluded that the Viking's Kraken was just an exaggerated tale based on this real species.
Of course, it begs the question, if scholars have known of giant squids since ancient times, is it really likely that experienced seagoers like the Vikings wouldn't recognize one or would confuse it with an island-sized monster? Or is it at least possible that the Vikings knew exactly what architeuthis dux was, and when they used the word Kraken, they were describing something different, something much, much larger.
[reading words on screen] In the 7th century, the Irish abbot, statesman, and hagiographer, AdomnΓ‘n, wrote that a hundred years earlier, while visiting the territory of the Picts, the Irish monk, St. Columba, witnessed local residents burying a man they claimed was killed by what they called a water beast while he was swimming in the River Ness.
Though such tales were common in the era, this very well could be the first recorded sighting of what the world now calls the Loch Ness Monster. Adding credibility to AdomnΓ‘n's tale is that Irish mythology suggests the possible existence of numerous other water monsters.
For example, folklore records of sea serpents like the OilliphΓ©ist and the CaorΓ‘nach, which were large enough to swallow a man, living in local lakes and rivers. Investigators have also pointed to ancient Pict carvings that do, in fact, seem to depict a strange, unidentifiable flippered beast. But while scattered sightings of the creature continued over the centuries, it wasn't until the July 22nd, 1933 sighting of the creature by George Spicer and his wife that the world would take note.
According to Spicer, the couple was on vacation in the Scottish Highlands, in the vicinity of Loch Ness, when a large, unfamiliar creature with a large body, no limbs, and a long neck crossed the road in front of their car before disappearing into the loch. Then, on April 21st, 1934, the Daily Mail newspaper published the now infamous surgeon's photograph, allegedly taken by Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson.
While that particular photograph is now known to be a fake, the interest it drew to the hunt for the creature was very real. Over the subsequent decades, the loch, and the creature that came to be nicknamed Nessie, became an object of fascination for both amateur and professional cryptozoologists. Despite, however, repeated searches and studies conducted by teams of observers with binoculars and cameras, boats equipped with sonar, submersibles equipped with cameras, and all other matters of technology, nothing dispositive has ever been found.
Skeptics suggest that the so-called monster is a myth that grew out of folklore, hoaxes, and a combination of other factors, including the misidentification of smaller known animals like eels, inanimate objects like logs, or natural environmental factors like boat wakes. But those who continue to investigate the creature have their own theories.
As early as 1933, it was suggested the Loch Ness monster could be a surviving plesiosaur, and the long-necked aquatic reptile, which is believed to have gone extinct approximately 66 million years ago, does seem to resemble popular conceptions of the monster. Other suggestions include that the monster could be a giant long-necked amphibian, like a newt, or an enormous invertebrate, like a giant bristle worm.
DNA tests on the water in the Loch conducted in 2018 failed to find evidence of any reptiles, dinosaurs, or other species that might plausibly explain the famous monster. Some cryptozoologists, however, have pointed to a decline in sightings over recent decades, and suggest the creature might have become extinct some time ago. That being said, sightings continue to occur.
For example, in March of 2022, while driving with a friend past Boleskeen House, the famous mansion once owned by the likes of occultist Alistair Crowley and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, documentary filmmaker Jamie Huntley spotted what he at first thought was a boulder in Loch Ness.
The object, according to Huntley, "was reflecting the water, so it looked wet, almost like a whale skin crossed with a fish skin." When it began to move, Huntley insisted that the driver stop, but by the time the two got a clear view of the water, the creature had submerged. Huntley did sketch what he saw that day, and would later say, "I can't explain what I have seen.
I was a skeptic about Nessie before all this." [reading words on screen] [reading words on screen] On July 25th, 1977, at 8.30 pm, two enormous birds swept out of the dark summer sky and into the backyard of the Lowe's of Lawndale, Illinois. According to Ruth Lowe, she was in the kitchen, cleaning up after a barbecue while her children were playing outside, where she couldn't see them.
A scream ran out, and Ruth could tell that it was coming from her son, Marlon, a boy of just 10 years old. She sped outside and was shocked to see him being chased and attacked by two giant raptors who were flying in tight formation. Ruth tried to protect her son, but one of the birds grabbed the nearly 60-pound boy in its talons and lifted him off the ground, as if to carry him away.
Ruth sprang into action and attacked the bird, managing to get it to drop Marlon after carrying him nearly 40 feet. Ruth would later give a statement to the local police, describing the volant cryptids that attacked her child. [Ruth] It had a white ring around its half-foot-long neck. The rest of the body was very black. The bird's bill was six inches in length and hooked at the end.
The claws on the feet were arranged with three in front, one in the back. Each wing, lest the body, was four feet at the very least. The entire length of the bird's body, from beak to tail feather, was approximately four and one-half feet. [narrator] Ruth's claims were generally met with skepticism, but they weren't unprecedented. In April of 1948, Army Colonel Walter F.
Siegman spotted a similarly large bird, later saying, "I thought there was something wrong with my eyesight, but it was most definitely a bird and not a glider or a jet plane." In fact, stories of large dangerous birds, like the ones Ruth Lowe and Walter Siegman witnessed, were told earlier than the 13th century by the Cahokia.
The tribe is even known to have decorated cliffs throughout their territory with motifs of fantastical creatures, including giant birds that they referred to as thunderbirds, on account of the sound made by their flapping wings. The thunderbirds were not simple creatures. The Cahokia believed them to be intelligent, and in their legends, the birds were known to sometimes attack humans and sometimes help them.
The Lakota, who also told stories of the thunderbird, even considered it to be the embodiment of the creator of all life on earth. The creature similarly plays a key role in Algonquian mythology, where the thunderbird is responsible for the creation of both thunder and lightning. Skeptics, however, suggest that these Native American stories are likely an etiological myth that evolved to explain the seemingly bizarre discovery of pterosaur fossils.
They also maintain that if Ruth Lowe really saved her son from a giant predatory bird that day in 1977, it was likely a large turkey vulture, or, less likely, rare endangered California condors that had strayed far out of their usual habitat. [reading words on screen] Truly one of the strangest and most compelling of modern cryptid encounters, the story of the Mothman began in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on November 15th, 1966.
According to reports, two couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallett, were driving near a former World War II-era munitions factory in the McClintic Wildlife Management Area, colloquially known as the TNT Range, when Linda spotted two glowing red eyes in the darkness.
Roger slowed the car to get a glimpse, and the four saw what Linda would later describe as a humanoid animal over seven feet tall, which was slender, muscular, and had large white wings. She was unable, however, to make out the features of its face due to the glow of its eyes. Terrified, the couples fled the area.
The creature, however, gave chase, pursuing the car at speeds that reached over a hundred miles per hour, while emitting a high-pitched shrieking sound. By the time the vehicle reached the city limits of Point Pleasant, the airborne cryptid had disappeared, but not for good. The four would spot the creature again later that night, and over the subsequent days, several other local residents would have encounters with the mysterious beast.
A local sheriff suggested the animal people were seeing was an abnormally large heron, and a respected wildlife writer pointed out that all the information about the sighting was consistent with the creature being a sandhill crane that had simply strayed from its usual migration pattern. But the sightings would continue over the next year.
These incidents seemed like, at most, a cryptozoological curiosity. But then, disaster struck. On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge, a suspension bridge across the Ohio River that connected Point Pleasant to Galapagos, Ohio, collapsed, killing 46 people. The bridge's failure was officially blamed on the cracking of an eye bar in one of its suspension chains, and it was attributed to 40 years of stress corrosion and fatigue.
But paranormal investigator and parapsychologist John Keel would eventually suggest that there was more to it, pointing to testimony that the creature, which local papers had taken to calling the Mothman, was sighted on the Silver Bridge just prior to its collapse.
Keel theorized that the earlier appearances of the Mothman were possibly supernatural omens of the disaster. He recorded the findings of his investigation in his 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies, which was later adapted into a motion picture starring Richard Gere. Since Keel's novel, the Mothman has been widely associated with the collapse of the Silver Bridge, but there have also been other sightings in connection with other disasters.
Some sources claim that the Mothman was seen near the Chernobyl nuclear plant before its meltdown in April of 1986 and in New York prior to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Whether the creature is warning people about such disasters, is somehow involved in causing the disasters itself, or is connected to them in a less direct way, however, remains unknown.
[reading words on screen] In 1935, British entomologist and world traveler Evelyn Cheesman published a book called The Two Roads of Papua. In that book, Cheesman recounted visiting the South Pacific island of Papua New Guinea - and briefly investigating reports of strange lights flying through the sky. On several occasions, the scientist even saw the lights herself, which she stated would flash on for a few seconds at a time before disappearing. In her own words, however, Cheesman would later admit...
[Cheesman] I witnessed a most curious phenomenon which I could not understand. Nor could I later hit upon any satisfactory explanation for it. [narrator] Despite being unable to identify their source, she was confident enough in her observations to conclude that they could not possibly have been made by any human agency.
Cheesman never considered the possibility that the strange lights were caused by an unknown animal, but after the end of World War II, westerners descended on Papua New Guinea and began to make their way deep into its jungles. It is there that they first heard tales of a volant creature known as the Demon Flyer or Ropen. Reaching back centuries in local folklore, if not longer, the Ropen is described as a nocturnal animal which resembles a large bat or a prehistoric pterosaur.
Some accounts specify that the creature has a head crest and dermal bumps and a wingspan that can reach several feet. The Ropen is believed to live mostly off of fish, but it has also been accused of occasionally eating human flesh from graves. Most uniquely, however, it is also said to give off a bioluminescent glow.
That glow, which some suspect was the same thing Evelyn Cheesman saw in the skies above the jungle some decades earlier, is now widely referred to as a Ropen Light. Cryptozoologists often discuss the Ropen in conjunction with another similar local volant cryptid known as the Duah, with which it is often confused. Like the Ropen, the Duah is alleged to be pterosaur-like in appearance, with a long neck, a crest on its head, and an underside that either glows or easily reflects light.
It is also said to have a taste for human flesh and a habit of consuming it from graves. But the Duah is alleged to be much larger than the Ropen, with a wingspan said to reach over 20 feet in length. This has caused observers to maintain it as an entirely separate species of cryptid. Skeptics have bemoaned a lack of evidence for either creature, noting a distinct dearth of Ropen or Duah carcasses.
Suggestions for the creature's identity include misidentified bats like flying foxes, which could have wingspans ranging to several feet, as well as frigatebirds, which have the largest wingspan-to-body ratio of any bird in the world. Both of these creatures, however, would likely be known to local residents, and neither could explain the bioluminescent glow that is now commonly associated with the Ropen and Duah.
That alone has to at least leave room for the possibility that the Ropen and Duah are not the same as any known species, that they are cryptids surviving by hiding in the skies above one of the world's most remote locations. [reading words on screen] The folklore of the northeastern United States records that the Pine Barrens of New Jersey are home to a bizarre, volant cryptid known as the Jersey Devil.
The animal, which is known for emitting a piercing scream, has been described as appearing similar to the mythological wyvern, but with a more goat or horse-like head. It is also commonly said to have horns, short arms with clawed hands, cloven feet, a pointed tail, and bat-like wings.
According to the lore, after becoming pregnant for what would be the thirteenth time in 1735, a Pine Barrens resident whose name was possibly Jane Leeds declared in anger the child would be the Devil. Mother Leeds' child was born normal, but quickly transformed into a winged beast and flew up the chimney, escaping into the Pine Barrens. The story seems fantastical, but the creature was sighted on numerous other occasions over the centuries.
For example, Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of the infamous European conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte, is said to have spotted the animal on his New Jersey farm in 1820. Twenty years later, it was blamed for a series of livestock killings. But what really brought the Jersey Devil to the attention of the world was a series of sightings that occurred between January 16th and 23rd of 1909.
During that period, local newspapers published literally hundreds of stories detailing encounters between local citizens and the strange creature in an area spanning South Jersey all the way into Philadelphia. Given that many of the stories depicted the creature attacking people and locations, they caused a panic, and according to reports, several local schools and businesses were closed out of caution.
Even the experts at the Philadelphia Zoo became intrigued, and the institution offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could provide them with a sample of the beast's excrement. Despite the fact that sightings of the creature have continued into the present day, there remains a great deal of doubt as to whether it really does, or ever has, existed.
Skeptics have suggested the stories are possibly rooted in the superstitions of the early English settlers of the area. The dangerous reputation of the Pine Barrens, which has historically been a base of operations for fugitives, highwaymen, and thieves, and the misidentification of ordinary animals. In a 2013 article published in Skeptical Inquirer, researcher Brian Regal also points out the creature, which was once known as the Leeds Devil, is extremely similar to a gargoyle-like creature that appears in the crest of the Leeds family, who lived in the area during colonial times,
and published a widely distributed almanac that featured the crest in the masthead. It's impossible to know whether any of these explanations are, in fact, at the root of the stories of the Jersey Devil, but it's worth noting that the indigenous Lenape had long told stories of a winged deer-like creature they called Mesingw.
The tribe has even been said to refer to parts of the area as [indistinct], meaning Place of the Dragon. Swedish explorers also may have seen the creature, as they called the area Drakekill, which loosely translates to Dragon River. These names predate English settlement of the area, which seems to contradict the notion that the creature's origins were purely in the imagination of European settlers.
[reading words on screen] In 1932, cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson was traveling with Gerald Russell through the Asombo Mountains of Cameroon, in the north of Mamfe. After wading into a shallow river to retrieve the carcass of a baby bat they had shot, S
anderson was, in his own words.. [Sanderson] Confronted by an apparition such as I had never imagined existed, about 15 feet away and just above the level of my eyes." [narrator] The investigator would later write... [Sanderson] This animal that flew at me had a muzzle more like that of a monkey than of a dog or of any kind of reptile, in that it was not drawn out to a point.
The whole animal was coal black in color, including the wings, which were quite opaque." [narrator] The terrifying creature had bizarre, jagged teeth. According to Sanderson... [Sanderson] "Its lower jaw hung down and as the light of the sun was directly shining onto its face, I could have counted the huge white teeth if I had had the time.
They were a good two inches long, all about the same length and all equally separated by spaces of the same width." [narrator] The creature shot back into the sky. The two men grabbed their guns and scrambled to defend themselves. Sanderson reports... [Sanderson] "I swung around and called to Gerald to watch out for it to come back, and a short time later it did so.
We both blazed away with both barrels, but the great creature just sailed right over us, uninterrupted and making a sh-sh-ing sound. So fast was it going. In fact, its speed of flight was much greater than we had estimated, and this speed may have been the reason we missed it, though I have often wondered if we did hit it, but that our shot just failed to penetrate its hide.
Alternatively, we may simply have blasted holes through its vast wing membranes. [narrator] The two men would later place the creature's wingspan at roughly 12 feet in length. Sanderson described the creature to local hunters, who called the animal an Olitiau, and claimed it was highly dangerous. The word Olitiau is believed by some to derive from the Ipulo term "Ole Ntya", which refers to a mask with demonic horns used in a local dance.
Whether the locals had called it that before Sanderson's sighting, or whether they simply used the existing word in light of what he described is unclear, but whatever the case, the hunters fled the camp after learning of the sighting. Sanderson and Russell ultimately agreed that what they saw was a giant bat, and wildlife experts have identified the Megachiroptera as an order of large bats with teeth extremely similar to those Sanderson described, as well as a known habit of dipping into the water from the air. But cryptozoologists have suggested
that the creature was possibly a pterosaur, and even Sanderson briefly considered the possibility. Others have pointed out similarities to the Kongomato, which is a similarly pterosaur-like volant cryptid that has been sighted in Angola, the Congo, and Zambia. Sometimes compared to the Ropen of Papua New Guinea, the Kongomato's name means "Breaker of Boats", and the creature is said to frequently attack and capsize native canoes.
Like the Olitiau, the Kongomato has teeth in its beak, but it is said to be reddish in color rather than black. [reading words on screen] [reading words on screen] [reading words on screen] Lycanthropy is the notion that under the right circumstances, a human being can shapeshift into a wolf-like monster.
Belief in the condition traces its origins all the way back to the Proto-Indo-European mythological beliefs of the people of the late Neolithic period, which lasted from approximately 6400 to 3500 BCE. Greek mythology recounts several tales of people who turned into wolves, and such stories became common in Europe during the Middle Ages.
The Rougarou is a wolf-like beast, with the body of a man and head of a wolf, that Cajun folklore holds to inhabit the woods and wetlands of Louisiana. Usually depicted as a transformed human being, the Rougarou is said to hunt disobedient children, those who don't observe Lent, and those who attempt to hunt on holy days.
Despite its location in the US, this cryptid actually finds its origins in Europe, as it is likely derived from 16th century French tales of a beast called the Loup-Garou, of whom's name the word Rougarou is a corruption. The Loup-Garou, which literally translates as werewolf, was similarly connected to unruly children and observances of Lent, but the American version of the beast is thought to have also been influenced by Native American tales of similar shape-shifting cryptids, like the Wendigo.
This may account for the fact that some versions of the lore hold that the Rougarou, unlike ordinary werewolves, do not require a full moon to change into their monstrous counterpart. The influence of Native American myths may also be partially responsible for the Rougarou's frequent depiction as a dog or an owl, as opposed to a wolf, although that could also be explained by the rarity of wild wolves in Louisiana.
But while scientists regard the Rougarou as purely folkloric, cryptozoologists have left the door open for the possibility the beast is an undiscovered animal that has survived in the swamps. Tales of the so-called Honey Island Swamp Monster, another Cajun cryptid, which is typically regarded as a separate animal, serve as possible corroboration.
Sometimes referred to as the Cajun Sasquatch, the Honey Island Swamp Monster is said to be an ape-like hominid that lives in the Honey Island Swamp of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. The creature has been described as standing seven feet tall, with gray fur, and yellow or red eyes. Sightings have been accompanied by a putrid odor, which is believed to emanate from the creature.
First spotted and photographed by retired air traffic controller Harland Ford in 1963, the existence of the Honey Island Swamp Monster has never definitively been disproven. A connection to the Rougarou simply cannot be ruled out. In fact, the mere possibility that such an animal hiding in the swamps of Louisiana can go unverified for so long inevitably raises the question of whether the Rougarou is also a real species that has also managed to evade detection.
[reading words on screen] The Michigan Dogman is a seven-foot-tall bipedal creature similar to a werewolf, but less lupine in appearance. If you believe the lore, stories of such a creature date back at least to the mid-19th century folklore of northern Michigan lumber camps. Some even maintain that they go all the way back to the indigenous Odawa people, whose oral legends, they claim, placed a similar creature in the vicinity of the Manistee River.
The story goes that in 1877, a group of lumberjacks in Wexford County chased an animal they at first believed to be a dog, but then stood upright after they poked it with a stick. The Dogman is said to have then re-emerged every ten years after that encounter, being blamed for things like the death of a Buckley farmer in 1897, killing a team of horses in 1917, and attacking a hunter in 1937.
But skeptics have pointed out that what really put the Dogman on the map was the 1987 song "The Legend" by Traverse City, Michigan radio producer Steve Cook. The song tells the tale of a race of dog-like cryptids who emerge every ten years to menace the people of Michigan, and the lyrics recount all of the popular bits of lore about the Dogman.
Cook played the song for his audience on April Fool's Day of 1987, and was shocked to find people calling in with actual reports of such a creature. "The Legend" quickly became the station's most requested song. Its producer, however, insists that he made the whole story up from bits and pieces of folklore he had picked up over the years and had never really heard of a Michigan Dogman.
Some, including Cook himself, maintain that he accidentally recreated an existing folktale, but he remains skeptical as to the creature's existence, and the explosion of sightings after the debut of his song has led some skeptics to suggest that the song itself created the legend, which was then retroactively connected to existing campfire stories of creatures in the local woods.
Whatever the truth, the Michigan Dogman does certainly resemble other legitimate regional folktales. For example, cryptozoologists often discuss the Michigan Dogman in conjunction with a Wisconsin-based cryptid known as the Beast of Bray Road, first sighted in 1936 on Bray Road in Elkhorn, 40 miles southwest of Milwaukee.
Allegedly wolf-like in appearance, the Beast was spotted numerous times throughout the 1980s and 1990s, attacking cars, chasing wildlife like deer, and on at least one occasion, menacing a driver who claimed to have accidentally hit the animal with their car. There were so many sightings, the Beast even became the subject of an ongoing investigation by a local newspaper, the Walworth County Week.
Like the Dogman, the Beast of Bray Road is said to stand at roughly seven feet tall and have the body of a man and a head that resembles some type of canine. The Beast's eyes, however, have been characterized as red, while the Dogman's eyes are said to be blue. The connection between the two cryptids, if any, remains unclear.
[reading words on screen] Since our earliest days, humanity has told stories of reptilian humanoids. The ancient Greek myths spoke of beings like the serpentine giant Typhon who tried to overthrow Zeus and assume control of the cosmos, as well as the gorgon, Medusa, whose hair was made of living venomous snakes. There is also the Mayan rain god Chaac, the subterranean Naga of Hindu myth, Sobek, the Egyptian deity with the head of a crocodile, and dozens and perhaps hundreds, if not thousands more.
But such creatures don't belong to the ancient world alone. On July 14th, 1988, sheriff deputies in Lee County, South Carolina investigated reports of a car that was vandalized the previous night while parked near Scape Ore Swamp outside Bishopville. According to cryptozoological lore, the car was found to have scratches that appeared to be tooth marks, among other damage. Strange hair and footprints were also found at the scene.
More sightings of the creature were reported, and sheriffs soon found themselves looking for what was described as a humanoid lizard that some believed inhabited the swamp. The creature, which would become known as the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp, or the Lizard Man of Lee County, was covered in over a hundred newspapers across the U.S.
According to the stories, a local teenager named Christopher Davis, who claimed to have spotted the animal several weeks earlier while he stopped his car to change a tire, provided a description saying the Lizard Man was, quote, green, wet-like, about seven feet tall, and had three fingers, red eyes, skin like a lizard, snake-like scales. Davis claims that he got back into his car and tried to flee, but the Lizard Man jumped onto the vehicle and held on.
Davis was only able to break its grip by slamming on his brakes, which [indistinct] the creature from the car, allowing the driver to get away. Not everyone believes Davis, however, and skeptics have pointed to numerous inconsistencies in his story over repeated tellings, but his tale was far from the only one. That being said, some of the sightings were objectively hoaxes.
For example, Airman Kenneth Orr initially claimed to encounter the Lizard Man on Highway 15, and even filed a police report in which he said he shot and wounded it. As evidence, he presented scales and blood from the creature, but after being charged with filing a false report, he confessed to making the whole thing up in the interest of keeping public attention on the Lizard Man.
While sightings of the Lizard Man dropped off in the subsequent months, the creature didn't disappear altogether. In August of 2015, local Charleston, South Carolina television station WCIV ran a story that a Sumter woman they identified only as Sarah was exiting her church with a friend when the pair saw the Lizard Man running along a nearby tree line approximately a mile away from Scape Ore Swamp.
Sarah managed to use her phone to snap a photo of the creature, which was also captured on video by witnesses more reluctant to discuss what they had seen. [reading words on screen] In 1971, University of Maryland student George Lizama conducted an investigation of urban legends local to the area of Clinton, Maryland concerning the existence of a cryptid known as the Goatman.
Although descriptions of the Goatman could vary considerably, it was generally understood to be a horned creature with either the head of a goat and the body of a human or the head and torso of a human but the legs of a goat, like a mythological faun of Greek and Roman mythology. Lizama's research, which included versions of the tale that depicted the Goatman as violent and dangerous, was placed in the University's Folklore Archive, where it was discovered by Karen Hosler, a journalist for the Prince George's County News. Hosler used Lizama's research as the basis of an article
about the Goatman, although for reasons that remain unclear, relocated the creature from Clinton to Bowie. She may have been on to something, however. In October of 1971, April Edwards of Bowie, Maryland was at home with friends when they heard suspicious noises coming from outside the house. The group went to investigate and would report seeing a hairy creature over six feet tall lurking in the woods nearby.
The next day, Edwards realized that her dog was missing. After searching the area, the animal's decapitated body was found in the vicinity of a local route called Fletchertown Road. A headline story by Hosler ominously blared, Residents Fear Goatman Lives, Dog Found Decapitated in Old Bowie. Sightings of the Goatman continued over the following month, and by November, the Washington Post was covering the mysterious cryptid.
No one knows exactly how old the Goatman legend is, and there is no single canonical version of the story, but in the most popular telling, the Goatman was once a scientist who worked at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center before an experiment on a goat gone horribly wrong changed him into the creature.
In this version, the Goatman is said to carry an axe and attack cars in the vicinity of the research center, a story the USDA, who maintains the facility, strongly denies. Another version of the tale portrays the Goatman as a peaceful old hermit who lived in the woods and generally runs away when confronted by other people. Skeptics argue that Hosler's initial article created a panic that led to the usual hoaxes and false sightings based on imagination and the misidentification of ordinary objects and animals.
But in April of 2016, WBAL-TV in Baltimore received multiple reports of a creature in Montpelier Park in Laurel, Maryland that one witness described as, quote, a Sasquatch with horns, and another said resembled, quote, a bear, except it doesn't look like a bear.
The reports were accompanied by a photograph, which was published along with a story that concluded it looked like a goat standing upright on two legs. The blurry picture is far from dispositive, but it's enough to keep people wondering whether the Goatman may still be out there, somewhere. [reading words on screen] Tales of shapeshifters go back to ancient times.
They appear in Greco-Roman mythology, as well as the folklore of Britain, Ireland, Norway, India, Armenia, the Philippines, China, Japan, Korea, Somali, South Africa, and numerous other cultures. As human beings that shapeshift into animals, the skinwalkers of Navajo mythology are frequently grouped with werewolves and other similar cryptids, but skinwalkers are neither an evolutionary oddity nor cursed human beings trapped in the body of an animal.
Skinwalkers are evil people that have chosen to be beasts. According to the ancient myths, skinwalkers, known to the Navajo as yee naaldlooshii, meaning, by means of it, it goes on all fours, can be men or women, and are typically evil witches or sorcerers. Known as [indistinct], these practitioners of dark magic are, in a sense, the metaphysical opposite of medicine men, and achieve their transformations into creatures like wolves, foxes, and coyotes through the breaking of cultural taboos and the purposeful commission of horrible acts, like murder.
They also may wear the pelts of the animals they change into, though this isn't always considered essential. While Navajos generally don't even like to mention skinwalkers out of a belief that such a thing might make them a target of such a creature, skinwalkers, nonetheless, came to the attention of the world in 1987, when a grisly murder in Flagstaff, Arizona, was blamed on the creature.
The victim, a 40-year-old Navajo woman named Sarah Saganitso, was found dead behind the Flagstaff Medical Center, at which she worked as a housekeeper. Stripped and stabbed, Saganetso's body had teeth marks on it, and her face was beaten to the point of being nearly unrecognizable. A former North Arizona University professor named George Abney was placed under suspicion, and would eventually be arrested and tried for the homicide.
Abney confessed to the killing, but would also protest that he had difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality. At trial, his lawyers pointed to the presence of a broken stick across the victim's throat, and a clump of what they characterized as graveyard grass close to her vehicle.
Considering the victim's Navajo heritage, the lawyers argued that these items suggested some kind of black magic ritual had occurred, and raised the possibility that Saganitso was killed by a skinwalker. Despite the imaginative defense, reports say that Abney's teeth marks matched the ones found on Saganitso's body, and at the end of the trial, Abney was, in fact, convicted of the crime.
He would be acquitted, however, at a subsequent trial only a year later, and even some members of Saganitso's own family reportedly believed him to be innocent. Whether Abney was the killer, or whether Saganitso was killed by an aspiring skinwalker, however, remains an open question. The relationship between cryptozoology and mainstream biology has always been a precarious one.
A scientist's job is to be skeptical and reject all in the absence of proof. A cryptozoologist's job, on the other hand, is to be open to all possibilities, so that the truth isn't accidentally left out in the cold. While not every cryptid will turn out to be real, however, there are simply too many credible sightings and similar stories to be ignored.
Ancient ancestors from far-flung regions and disparate cultures have reached across the ages to warn us of the things that live and survive in the darkness. We need only not let our science, technology, logic, and empiricism make us too arrogant to hear them. Taking the widest view, it's nearly impossible not to conclude that our planet is, and always has been, home to strange, often terrifying, unknown animals.
They can be found in not only its farthest and most inhospitable regions and the darkest depths of its oceans, but in the very neighborhoods and areas in which we feel safe living our lives every day. The mere existence of cryptids exposes cracks in our scientific understanding, and the seemingly supernatural aspects many of them display suggest the existence of powerful, potentially dangerous forces that remain yet beyond our grasp.
Forces that, if revealed to us, may make us wish we were back with those earliest humans, when the whole world was still, like the cryptids remain today, shadowed in mystery. ♪ [man] Ten, nine, ignition [indistinct]. Six, five, four, three, two, one. [dramatic music plays] [theme music plays]
