u/Sael_CaPa

In 1999, cryptozoologist Angel Morant Forés conducted expeditions in the forests of Ecuador in South America. He wrote:

"In the summer of 1999 I boarded a flight for South America to conduct cryptozoological fieldwork in Southern Ecuador's Amazonian region, more precisely in the Macas region (Morona-Santiago province).

But, why Ecuador ? I chose this country for several reasons. In the first place, as a Spaniard I preferred to visit a Spanish-speaking area to avoid communication problems. Moreover, Ecuador is at present a politically stable country where foreigners can travel without being threatened by guerrillas or drug-traffikers. Another advantage of Ecuador as a field for this kind of research lies in its zoological richness. Regarded as one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the world, Ecuador is home to 1580 bird species, 271 mammal species and 374 reptile species and there are many still-unexplored regions which could harbour animals unknown to science.

From the beginning, it was clear to me I would need the collaboration of native people, whose knowledge of local wildlife has played an important role in the history of zoological discoveries. Many native groups live in the rainforests of Ecuador's Amazonian region but, perhaps, the best known of them all are the shuar indians noted for their custom of keeping the head of their enemies as trophies (a practice which, fortunately, was eradicated long ago). Before departing, I consulted several anthropological books on the shuar indians which supplied me with valuable cryptozoological information. During my bibliographic research, I noticed that Shuar language has as many as six words for different types of big cats whereas science only recognizes the existence of two such animals in Ecuador: the puma (japa-yawá) and the jaguar (yampinkia-yawá).

Most shuar communities live in the Morona-Santiago province whose capital, Macas, is well communicated with the rest of the country. I established my headquarters in Macas and over the two next weeks (from 11 to 24 June), I visited five villages (9 de Octubre, Macuma, Sauntza, Sevilla-Don Bosco and Wapula) to question native hunters about the local wildlife. Whenever I went, I took with me a book illustrated with dozens of pictures of Ecuadorian mammals which I used to test the wisdom of my informants. Since I knew the Shuar name of a great deal of Amazonian species -- I spent three days in Quito gathering information on this subject -- I would hand the book to my informants and ask them to locate a particular animal, then another one and so on until we had gone through almost all of the photos in the book. It goes without saying most of my informants showed an extraordinary knowledge of local wildlife. Through interviews with native hunters I learnt of several animals which could be unknown to zoology, mostly cats. The majority of reports I collected came from people who had not seen the animals themselves but had heard of them. Except for Macuma, my fieldwork took place in a densely populated area from which some of these animals seem to have disappeared many years ago. Still, I was assured one can still find them deep in the rainforest, above all in the Trans-Cutucú region. None of my informants attached fairy-tale traits to any of these animals and spoke of them in a quite down-to-earth way.

Esakar-paki : an unknown species of peccary ?

According to the Shuar people there are three kinds of peccaries inhabiting the Amazonian region of Ecuador. This is a most interesting claim since mammal reference books only mention the existence of two species : the collared peccari (Pecari tajacu) and the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), both of them dark in colour (a third species, Catagonus wagneri, was described in 1975, but it is only living in the Gran Chaco of Paraguay, not in Ecuador). The Shuar speak of a third unidentified peccary they call esakar-paki. According to them, esakar-paki is the smallest of all peccaries, has reddish fur and lives in troops made up of 50 or 60 individuals. When I showed photos to my informants, many of them identified the esakar-paki with a juvenile specimen of collared peccary (Indeed, young collared peccaries have reddish fur). I was told the esakar-paki is the only peccary which attacks humans without provocation.

A Shuar speleologist called Marcelo Churuwia told me that he had been chased by a troop of esakar-paki in the rainforest on the Ecuador-Peru border and had to climb a tree for safety. Churuwia said the attacking animals were reddish-brown in colour.

Not all of the descriptions given to me are like the above-mentioned ones. Three hunters which I interviewed stated the esakar-paki resembles the white-lipped peccary except for the fact that it is much more aggressive. According to them, esakar-paki troops are led by a small, old individual, reddish in colour, which is particularly fearless of humans.

This animal is said to abound in the Sangay National Park and the Trans-Cutucú region.

Shiashia-yawá : an albino form of jaguar ?

All accounts of the shiashia I obtained were similar : it is a spotted cat white in colour and smaller than a jaguar (Panthera onca) but bigger than an ocelot (Felis pardalis). An old Shuar from Sevilla-Don Bosco, Carlos Pichama, told me the fur of the shiashia is covered by solid black spots which are more tightly packed than the rosettes typical of jaguars. I collected two eyewitness reports from people who claimed to have killed this animal in the past. Of course, there are numerous explanations for unusual color patterns in cats that are not related to taxonomic differences. So, it is possible that the shiashia is just an albino form of jaguar. However, all my informants insisted that this animal is smaller than jaguars (around 1.30 m long).

Pamá-yawá : the tapir tiger

Shuar hunters also informed me of the existence of a jungle-dwelling, very large cat called pamá-yawá (yawá meaning "tiger" and pamá "tapir", that is, the tapir tiger). It is described as a uniformly dark grey coloured animal the size of an Amazonian tapir (Tapirus terrestris). I was told this is the only cat which predates tapirs. Some people I interviewed stressed that the paws of pamá-yawá are of enormous proportions.

Pedro Anan Churuwia, a Wapula hunter, is one of the few persons who claims to have encountered the spoor of this animal in the jungle. According to him, one pawprint was as big as both of his hands (Let me say that Pedro is a very small person with diminute hands).

Juan Bautista Rivadeneira, a Macas settler, saw a pamá-yawá in 1969 on the Morona river at a distance of 50 or 60 meters. The sighting lasted ten minutes during which the animal came out of the river and walked lazily on a sandy beach before disapearing from view. He claims it was around 2 m long and 1.30 m in shoulder height. On seeing it, a shuar guide who was accompanying him exclaimed : "pamá-yawá !"

This cat is said to inhabit the Trans-Cutucú region as well as the area surrounding the Sangay volcano.

Tshenkutshen : the rainbow tiger

Tshenkutshen is a quite perplexing animal judging by the reports I collected. It is described as a black cat the size of a jaguar which has several stripes of different colors (black, white, red and yellow) on its chest. "Just like a rainbow"-- I was told by a native hunter. In contrast with other big cats thsenkutshen is said to be an exceptionally good tree-climber. In fact, my informants told me the tshenkutshen is capable of incredible acrobatic feats like jumping from a treetrunk to another with devilish speed. Regarded as the most dangerous of all jungle animals, tshenkutshen's forepaws are described as monkey-like except for the fact that it has very large claws instead of nails.

This appears to be the same species which a Macas settler, Policarpio Rivadeneira, killed in 1959 in a low mountain called Cerro Kilamo near the Abanico river. Rivadeneira was walking in the rainforest when he saw a strange animal leaping from tree to tree. Fearing an attack, he aimed his gun and shot it in the head. Upon examination, Rivadeneira discovered it was a most extraordinary jaguar-sized cat. Its pelage was like that of a shiashia (white with black spots) but it had a series of multicoloured stripes running across its chest which differentiated it from all other cats he had ever seen. Three more details called his attention : the animal's arms were very muscular, it had a hump on its back and the forepaws were very much like a monkey's (with flat rather than round palms).

Apart from Rivadeneira, another hunter told me that, except for the stripes, the thsenkutshen's pelage is very similar to that of a shiashia.

This strange beast is said to live in the Trans-Cutucú region, Sierra de Cutucú and the Sangay volcano area near Chiguaza.

Entzaeia-yawá : the water tiger

Over the years many sightings of mystery cats with an aquatic lifestyle have been reported from South America and Ecuador is no exception. According to the Shuar people the rivers of the Morona-Santiago province are the abode of a water-dwelling feline they call entzaeia-yawá. Unfortunately, almost all the accounts I gathered concerning this animal were rather vague. It appears that water tigers show a wide range of colour morphs (black, white, brown and reddish). They are said to be nocturnal animals as big or somewhat bigger than a jaguar and with a bushy tail. Entzaeia-yawá is regarded as a most dangerous creature and attacks on humans are not rare.

Carlos Pichama told me how a water-tiger had killed his cousin's wife in the course of a fishing trip to the Mangusas river (not far from Suantza). After setting up a camp on the rivershore, his cousin went on a hunting excursion to the rainforest leaving his wife alone. A couple of hours later, when he came back to the camp she had disappeared. Following her footprints he arrived to a sandy beach at a place where the river formed a natural lake and cried out for her, but to no avail. Upon further examination, he located the spoor of a water-tiger which seemed to have been stalking his wife. Back in Suantza he told the story to her wife's parents who concluded that a water tiger had dragged her into the water. The next day, he and his brothers returned to the spot where the woman had been killed by the water tiger. The group of men exploded several charges of dynamite in the lake and saw the corpse of a long-haired reddish coloured animal of big size come to the surface. All my informants described the paws of the water tiger as being like a duck's (In fact, when I showed them some drawings of animal spoor, they would point to otter tracks as those which most resembled the entzaeia-yawá's). When I showed the track of a bear's hindpaw to a native hunter he claimed it was very much like that of a water tiger because it had a flat palm.

Could the entzaeia-yawá reports be based on sightings of giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis) ? I do not think so. For example, giant otters have a series of white blotches on their throats which have never been mentioned to me in accounts of water tigers. Moreover, Pteronura very rarely attacks humans whereas the entzaeia-yawá is regarded as a man-eater to the point that Shuar people avoid being alone while taking a bath in the river. It should be also stressed that although my book on Ecuadorian mammals carried a picture of a giant otter none of my informants identified it with a water tiger. The only eyewitness report containing a detailed description of this animal was given to me by Juan Bautista Rivadeneira. He saw a water tiger in 1989 at the mouth of the Jurumbaino river, a tributary of the Upano. It was a short-legged black cat bigger than a jaguar with a cow's tail. Its pawprints were described to me as being like those of an otter but without clawmarks.

Tsere-yawá : a social jungle cat

Not all of the unidentified animals reported to me were of big size. Several native hunters spoke of a one meter long semiaquatic cat which is said to hunt in packs of 8 to 10 individuals. Shuar Indians call it tsere-yawá on account of its brown pelage (tsere meaning "brown capuchin monkey"). In 1999 a young man named Christian Chumbi from Sauntza saw eight of these animals at a distance of 15 meters in the river Yukipa.

During my research, I collected second-hand reports about other apparently unknown animals (a bear-like creature called ujea whose description reminded me of a giant ground sloth, a cat known as jiukam-yawá which allegedly hunts in packs, and a maned "lion"). However, since I could not locate anyone who had seen these animals I have decided to exclude them from this paper."

Currently, only one species of elephant lives in the Congo Basin: the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), smaller than the savanna elephant, and curiously, once considered a cryptid. But in cryptozoology there are at least 3 other species or subspecies of elephants in the Congo Basin.

The first and most famous is the Pygmy Elephant; let's see what On The Track of Unknown Animals tells us about the Pygmy Elephant:

"Pygmy elephant, in which the adult does not exceed 1.98 meters at the withers. There is no doubt that such elephants exist. Specimens have lived in the zoos of Antwerp and New York, but some zoologists argue that this does not prove that they are separate species; they may just be atypical offspring of normal elephants. To resolve the issue, it would be necessary to observe the reproduction of pygmy elephants or prove that entire herds of them exist.

The pygmy elephant was officially described for the first time in 1906 by a German professor, Theodore Noack, from Brunswick, based on a six-year-old specimen from Ndjolé, Gabon. He named it Loxodonta pumilio. In 1923, Hornaday reported it in the same area, around Lake N'Gobi, and in 1926 Pohle reported it in Fernan Vaz. Not long ago, Professor Bourdelle, one of the world's leading experts on mammals, and Francis Petter published a remarkable study about a pygmy elephant that died on March 11, 1948, in Aloombé, on the coast of Gabon, between Libreville and Port-Gentil. It was a solitary, elderly male, considered very old. It was just over 1.95 meters tall.

In the Congo, pygmy elephants are often considered aquatic. A settler living near Lefini showed Hans Schomburgk a piece of thick skin, similar to that of a common elephant, but covered in a downy coat of reddish hair. He said it belonged to an animal the natives called a "river elephant" and that it had amphibious habits, like a hippopotamus. There were persistent rumors throughout the Lake Leopold II region about this curious animal.

Lieutenant Franssen, a Belgian officer, promised to conduct a systematic search for the animal and send a specimen to the Congo Museum in Tervueren, Belgium. "If the animal exists," he said, "I will return with it; otherwise, I will not return at all."

He returned, as promised, with the remains of a water elephant captured "after spending thirty-six hours in mud and water." Exhausted by the sufferings of the expedition and stricken with a violent fever, it did not survive long after his return.

Dr. Henri Schouteden named the water elephant, or maka-waka, as the natives called it, Loxodonta fransseni in its honor.

Although his specimen was one of the largest in the herd, it was only 1.65 meters tall at the withers. Its tusks measured 66 centimeters in length and, together, weighed less than 19.5 kilograms. They were, therefore, considerably longer than those of a typical elephant of the same size.

According to Dr. Schouteden, the shape of the ears and the two digit-like appendages at the tip of the trunk (L. pumilio, like the Asian elephant, supposedly has only one) are sufficient to justify a new species of pygmy elephant. Personally, I can't see much difference in the shape of the ears in photographs of L. pumilio and L. fransseni, and I find it hard to believe that there are elephants in Africa with only one finger at the tip of their trunk. It is more likely that L. fransseni is just a synonym of L. pumilio, which is a pity for Lieutenant Franssen.

In 1936, Glover M. Allen stated that pygmy elephants (L. pumilio and L. fransseni) are merely forest elephants (L. cyclotis) that have not yet reached adulthood. Even so, there is no doubt that adult pygmy elephants exist that are less than 1.98 meters tall. The specimen at the New York Zoo, whose growth Dr. Hornaday followed until the end, reached a height of only 1.96 meters and a weight of 1 ton and 200 grams. An adult of the larger species weighs between 5 and 7 tons. There is much evidence that small groups and even large herds of pygmy elephants exist, so Allen's view is difficult to sustain today.

Thus, there are three species of elephants in Africa, corresponding to three different habitats: the savanna elephant, naturally the largest and with the most developed ears, as is common in animals that live in relatively open areas; The forest elephant, smaller, darker, and with more rounded ears; and the swamp elephant, even smaller and hairier. There is no gap between the species, which has always made distinguishing between them difficult. But denying the existence of the pygmy elephant, even as a subspecies of Loxodonta cyclotis, is absurd."

On The Track Of Unknown Animals, pages 243 to 248.

The second most famous is the Water Elephant, which Heulvemans theorized was confused with the Pygmy Elephant, causing both to assume characteristics of the other:

Rumors about the existence of a tapir-like animal in the Lower Congo circulated for over a decade before the famous report of the water elephant in 1911. In the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Sport (1898), under the entry "Tapir," the big-game hunter Fitzwilliam Thomas Pollok (1832-1909) stated that "There is a similar-looking animal in the lagoons of West Africa, below the Congo. I saw one or two, but I couldn't capture them." According to Pollok, such an animal was also mentioned by the elephant hunter Henry Bailey (1848-1933). In the second revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Sport (1911), this passage was not present, having been removed by the zoologist Richard Lydekker (1849-1915). In 1911, the ornithologist Frank Finn (1868-1932) also stated that tapirs had been reported in Africa.

However, the first account of the existence of the water elephant was made by the French naturalist Charles Le Petit, who, affiliated with the Natural History Museum of Paris, was exploring what is now the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo around 1907. Le Petit communicated his experience to Professor Édouard Louis Trouessart (1842-1927), who published the information in La Natura in January 1911. Translations of Trouessart's article were later disseminated in England and the United States, initially by Richard Lydekker; At the time, Lydekker refused to give an opinion on the matter. Shortly afterwards, animal collector John Daniel Hamlyn (1858–1922) wrote to La Natura and other periodicals confirming Le Petit's account, claiming to have met the man in Brazzaville in 1905. In 1912, Le Petit, who was then in Nairobi, sent a more detailed account of the water elephant to big-game hunter Richard John Cuninghame (1871–1925), who subsequently published this information in the Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society. Le Petit claimed to have seen a water elephant for the first time in 1907. By this time, Lydekker was favorably considering the possible existence of the water elephant.

Professor Bonnivair told Bernard Heulvemans how he learned from Maurice Vermeersch that, around the Lualaba River, which connects Lakes Mweru and Tanganyika, the Baluba believe in a beast they call nzefu-loi, or 'water elephant'. It is an amphibious animal with a body almost as large as that of a hippopotamus, but with a very long neck and a furry tail like that of a horse. It has short, heavy ivory tusks – probably like those of a walrus – and this may be why it is called a 'water elephant'.

Height at the withers: 1.8 to 2.4 meters. Relatively short legs. Curved back as in *E. africanus*. Tail not observed. Neck about twice the length of *E. africanus*, with ears similar in shape to that species, but relatively smaller. Distinctly long and oval head, with a trunk only about 60 centimeters long. The shape of the feet was observed in the footprints in the sand, showing four clearly separated toes as in the hippopotamus, but the body weight seemed to be supported mainly by the toes, while the plantar impression of the sole was not very pronounced. The terrain was flat where these footprints were found. None of the observed animals showed traces of tusks. The skin is apparently hairless, smooth and shiny, similar to that of a hippopotamus, but darker. The gait was similar to that of an elephant, and the last time these five water elephants were seen was when they disappeared into the water, which was deep.

They are nocturnal, emerging to feed on tough, dense grass after sunset. They spend the day in the water, just like hippos. The Babumas (native fishermen) know this animal well and have a name for it, 'Ndgoko na Maiji', which means water elephant, and they fear it greatly because it is known to emerge from the water and, with its short trunk, capsize canoes. It is also very destructive to the natives' reed nets and traps. Its geographical distribution is apparently very restricted, and the natives claim that they are not very numerous.

The third and most mysterious is the Pygmy Pygmy Elephant.

The Pygmy Pygmy Elephant is a cryptid proboscidean reported in the Ituri Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, supposedly a smaller elephant than the pygmy elephant (Loxodonta pumilio).

The Italian explorer Attilio Gatti, who investigated various cryptids during eleven African expeditions, collected reports about these elephants, including from the local administrator, Reverend Gerard. He described them as "pygmies among pygmies," in comparison to the true pygmy elephants, also reported in the Ituri region. These smaller elephants were supposedly no more than 1.20 m tall and were whitish in color. Henri Hackars, future ranger of Albert National Park, was reportedly attacked by a small herd of white pygmy elephants during an exploration of the rainforest between the Epulu, Mava, M'bure, and Akaba rivers when he was District Commissioner of Kibali-Ituri. His Mbuti guides fled, and Hackars was forced to take refuge in a tree until a rescue team arrived a few hours later. Gatti heard this story from several of the oldest residents of Kibali-Ituri, but was unable to confirm it, as Hackars himself was not in the Congo during Gatti's expedition. Explorer Lewis Cotlow confirmed the existence of such stories in Ituri. In a May 1959 article for Go magazine, travel writer K. Westcott Jones also reported observing a herd of "small white elephants" in the distance near Lake Kivu.

These are just a few characteristics of the Mapinguari that greatly interest me, as it is one of my favorite cryptozoologists.

Whether the animal exists or not, I believe it does, but it may be extinct; for some reason it is gone.

Some cryptozoologists believe that this animal is extinct in the Eastern Amazon and lives only in the most remote areas of the Western Amazon, which includes the Peruvian Amazon, Ecuador, Colombia, and the states of Amazonas and Acre in Brazil, in these places and parts of them almost unexplored (there are tribes there that have never had contact with civilization).

The current situation of this cryptid is this:

In a 1993 text, Oren feared that the Mapinguari might have become extinct recently: firsthand accounts from Amapá, in northeastern Amazonas, all came from elderly lumberjacks, and Oren had no records of any sightings in the Tapajós River basin in the previous twenty years. He observed that "long gestation periods, large size, likely large territorial range, and hostile relations with local human populations are a classic formula for the extinction of mammals worldwide." However, although he believed the species had recently been extirpated from the eastern Amazon, he thought small numbers might still exist in the far west of the Brazilian Amazon, in Amazonas and Acre.

More sightings (including killings) have been reported since then, in the 21st century, and in 1999, cryptozoologist Richard Freeman listed it as one of the ten cryptids most likely to be discovered in the 21st century, along with the thylacine, Delcourt's giant gecko, giant anacondas, the yeti, the orang-pendek, the megalania, giant eels, the mokele-mbembe, and the lusca: he considered that "sightings of a monster resembling a mylodon sloth push coincidence to the limit." Karl Shuker writes about the mapinguari: "The mapinguari may be the largest native land mammal in South America today, as well as an important prehistoric survivor, therefore its discovery and formal identification as a living giant sloth would be a sensational zoological event. It certainly seems to be one of the creatures most likely to be officially revealed by science one day, especially if sought during the autumn when it supposedly descends from the Andes—and provided, of course, that its possible discoverer remembers to bring a very effective gas mask!"

Sources:

Williams, Jan "Giant Ground Sloths in Amazonia?," Animals & Men #1

Oren, David "Did Ground Sloths Survive to Recent Times in the Amazon Region?" Goeldiana Zoologia (1993)

Freeman, Richard "Monsters of the Next Millennium," Animals & Men #20

Shuker, Karl P. N. (2016) Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors: The Creatures That Time Forgot?

One point that interests me greatly is not even whether the creature exists or not, but rather its lifestyle and behavior. In my opinion, this demonstrates whether a particular animal is authentic or not, because cryptids, in theory, are just unknown animals, so their lifestyle and behavior say a lot about their authenticity.

I'll use Mapinguari and Mokele-mbembe (they're my favorites, but I neither affirm nor deny their existence; I'm neutral on that point).

The Mapinguari's Behavior: According to most accounts, it can walk on both four and two legs, but its bipedal gait is often described as unsteady (Salinas describes a "Charlie Chaplin" gait). Some sightings, however, describe a fast and agile animal. It is said to be nocturnal and crepuscular (i.e., active at night and dusk) and feeds on vegetation, including bacaba (Oenocarpus bacaba) and babassu palms (Attalea speciosa), which it twists to the ground and tears apart to feed on the palm heart and berry-like fruits. The diet of the Peruvian segamai is similarly described. In southern Brazil and Paraguay, the mapinguari is blamed for periodically killing large herds of cattle by tearing out their tongues, deaths associated with terrifying roars. It is said to be migratory, descending from the Andean slopes around February in Acre, near the Peruvian border. Salinas claimed to have seen a family group, and near the Venezuelan border they are said to be traveling in pairs. Folklore describes the mapinguari as having relationships with other rainforest animals. It is said to be followed around by swarms of flies or herds of peccaries, and a number of claimed eyewitnesses have alleged that they have seen a mappinguari while hunting peccaries. Those who believe in the mapinguari as a spirit see it as a protector of the rainforest which punishes hunters who kill more animals than they need to do to survive.

Although its call is often generically described as a terrifying roar or bellow, two distinct types of vocalizations are also described. The first is a deep call reminiscent of thunder, while the other is a very loud, high-pitched scream, "like a human scream," but with a growl at the end. This second scream often impresses and terrifies those who claim to have heard it: the eyewitness Innôcencio, who initially mistook the scream for that of a man, described it as "wild and dark," "horrible, deafening, and inhuman." Oren described a call he heard as being extremely loud and steady, lasting up to forty-five seconds, and resembling "jets flying low." Grunts, growls, and moans are also sometimes described, as well as a "grunt" similar to that of a frog in Salinas' account. When triggered, it produces an "extraordinarily loud, human-like scream." A very strong and unpleasant smell is often described, compared to a mixture of feces and rotting meat; leek (Mansoa alliacea) and a foul-smelling peccary; a skunk; or simply described as "the worst odor they've ever smelled." The smell makes people dizzy and nauseous, or even renders them unconscious.

Sources:

Oren, David "Does the Endangered Xenarthran Fauna of Amazonia Include Remnant Ground Sloths?" Xenarthra (2001)

Shuker, Karl P. N. (2016) Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors: The Creatures That Time Forgot?

Salinas, Luis Jorge (2010) Amazonas: ¿Pleistoceno Park? Un Testimonio Real

Heuvelmans, Bernard (1955) On the Track of Unknown Animals

Oren, David "Did Ground Sloths Survive to Recent Times in the Amazon Region?" Goeldiana Zoologia (1993)

Sanderson, Ivan T. (1961) Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life

"Hunt for the Monster of the Amazon," New Scientist 1909 (January 1994)

Mareš, Jaroslav (2005) Kurupira: Zlověstné Tajemství

"The Mother of All Sloths," Fortean Times 77 (October-November 1994)

Mokele-mbembe Behavior: Generally reported in rivers, but sometimes in the forest, the mokele-mbembe is amphibious, supposedly spending much of its time in the water, where it is said to flee for protection; it is able to "hide" underwater like a hippopotamus. Its large size creates prominent tracks and gives the impression that the river is "flowing backward" when it emerges from the water. Although only its head and neck are often seen when swimming, when it emerges from the water, it does so on its back. It is sometimes claimed to inhabit caves on the riverbanks, which are either natural or excavated by the animal. Female mokele-mbembe supposedly raise their young in nests built in swamps. Some Baka claim that it is able to stand on its hind legs to feed and that it sometimes digs channels. It is generally said to be crepuscular or nocturnal, leaving the water to feed at dusk. Sightings are most commonly reported during the morning and evening.

The mokele-mbembe is almost always described as entirely herbivorous, feeding on terrestrial plants and aquatic vegetation. Since 1913, it has been said to feed preferentially on the apple-like fruits of the liana *malombo*, a species of *Landolphia*. Chemical analysis of *malombo* fruits collected by Mackal indicated that they could not be the mokele-mbembe's sole food source, as the fruit is too poor in fiber and protein to sustain a non-ruminant and probably too poor for a ruminant animal as well. However, informants from the confluence of the Likouala-aux-Herbes and Sanga rivers reported that a mokele-mbembe would often emerge from the water and kill, and possibly eat, domestic goats. Despite its diet, it is notoriously temperamental, capsizing canoes with its tail, and has a particular hatred for hippos. It is also supposedly killed by elephants and crocodiles, although Ballot describes the crocodile as the only formidable enemy of the mokele-mbembe.

Mackal was informed that mokele-mbembes generally do not vocalize, but there are reports of vocalizations. Besides the controversial recording made by Herman Regusters, some of Mackal's informants claimed that the mokele-mbembe killed in Lake Tele emitted a strange cry, and the Baka people told Gibbons that the le'kela-bembe has a vocal sac similar to that of a frog below its throat. A fisherman from the Boumba River also told Michel Ballot that the mokele-mbembe emits a sound like "gou-gou-gou".

It is generally reported alone or in male-female pairs, although at least two alleged sightings of a mother and a single offspring have been recorded. The Baka hunters who made these observations believed that the mokele-mbembe gave birth to live young once every twenty years. In the Republic of Congo, it is generally seen during the dry season. In Cameroon, Ballot frequently heard that the mokele-mbembe appears when the rivers rise and retreats downstream when they recede, and Gibbons also heard from the Baka that the monsoons were the best time to see a mokele-mbembe. The seasonal movements of the kikuru from northeastern Congo have also supposedly been linked to the rise and fall of the waters. Dave Woetzel believes that mokele-mbembes are born in the Likouala region and migrate to the Dja-Sangha region in southern Cameroon as adults, which explains certain discrepancies in the descriptions from the two countries.

Sources:

Coleman, Loren (30 December 2009) News On Mokele-Mbembe Research cryptozoonews.com [Accessed 24 May 2020]

Ballot, Michel "A la Recherche du Mokélé-Mbembé, le Dragon Africain," Le Paratonnerre (28 March 2017) – Online

Heuvelmans, Bernard (1978) Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique

Mackal, Roy (1987) A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe

Weber, Charles W.; Berry, James W.; & Greenwell, J. Richard "Mokele-Mbembe: Proximate Analysis of its Supposed Food Source," Cryptozoology, Vol. 1 (1982)

Regusters, Herman A. "Mokele-Mbembe: An Investigation into Rumors Concerning a Strange Animals in the Republic of the Congo, 1981," Munger Africana Library Notes, No. 64 (July 1982)

https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Mokele-mbembe#cite\_ref-Radio\_38-0

Ballot, Michel (1 February 2008) Blog Post mokelembembeexpeditions.blogspot.com [Accessed 11 August 2021]

Shuker, Karl P. N. (2016) Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors: The Creatures That Time Forgot?

Gibbons, William J. "In Search of the Congo Dinosaur," Acts & Facts (1 July 2002)

O'Donnell, Phillip (2007) "Mokele-Mbembe: A Dinosaur of Africa," livingdinos.com [Accessed 22 July 2021]

Unknown HOOFED MAMMAL of South America.

Significant sighting: Pottery fragments showing animals that look like llamas with five toes were discovered in the 1920s in the pre-Incan Paracas culture area near Pisco, Ica Department, Peru, by Julio C. Tello. Estimates of the culture's age are now put between 600BC and AD200. Tello also apparently came across bones that seemingly belonged to such an animal. Llamas normally have only two toes, and most fossil camelids are similarly cloven-hoofed.

Possible explanations:

(1) A llama (Lama glama) with polydactyly, a condition producing more than the normal number of toes, might have been given special treatment by Paracan artists and shamans. Llamas have been domesticated for thousands of years; their ancestors are represented in cave paintings in the Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina.

(2) An unknown variety of litoptern, an order of odd-toed South American ungulates that ultimately died out in the Pleistocene. Some were medium-sized and horse-like (Thoatherium), while others were long-necked with an elongated tapir-like snout (Macrauchenia). Most had three toes, but some were reduced to one toe.

SOURCES:

Julio César Tello, "Andean Civilization: Some Problems of Peruvian Archaeology," in Proceedings of the Twenty-third International Congress of Americanists, September 1928 (New York, 1930), pp. 259-290;

Karl Shuker, "Hoofed Mystery Animals and Other Crypto-Ungulates, Part III," Strange Magazine, no. 11 (Spring-Summer 1993): 25-27, 48-50.

In 1948, Tony Signorini, an auto mechanic from Clearwater, Florida, donned three fingers and claws made from cast iron pieces weighing about 1.5 kilograms, went into the water at night, and hauled his boat ashore for several months.

The idea came from his boss and friend, Al Williams, who had seen a photograph of fossilized dinosaur bones in Smithsonian magazine and thought he could recreate them life-size. They had the shoes made, waited until nightfall, and went to Clearwater Beach. What they didn't expect was what happened next.

In February 1948, I found the footprints that morning. They measured 35 centimeters wide by 28 centimeters long. The footprints were spaced every few meters. They emerged from the sea, ran along the beach for miles, and returned to the water. The Clearwater police investigated and concluded that, if it was a hoax, it was the most masterfully executed one they had ever seen. The newspapers dubbed it the Clearwater Creature. In November of that same year, naturalist and cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson personally examined the footprints, publicly dismissing any possibility of a hoax by arguing that he couldn't possibly have had enough knowledge of animal behavior to fake that footprint pattern, and concluded that they had been made by a medium-sized penguin, four meters tall, possibly extinct.

Signorini and Williams remained in the dark for ten years. To create a wide swing, Signorini would push off with one foot and hop with the other, balancing like a pendulum. To ensure the stories didn't go unnoticed, a friend of the group discovered them the next day and contacted the press.

Williams died in 1970. Sanderson died in 1973, convinced until the end that giant penguins existed. In 1988, forty years after the first night on the beach, the St. Petersburg Times published Signorini's confession, including photographs. His son wore the giant penguin-skin shoes, which were left behind by a niece, who still keeps them in the family. His obituary, following his death in 2013, listed him as the creator of the Clearwater Monster as the first thing mentioned.

Do you think there's something in human psychology that leads us to believe in impossible creatures, even when there's no logical explanation, or was Signorini's prank simply so well executed that it's impossible to doubt it?

Source: hoaxesorg, "The Giant Penguin of Clearwater, Florida (1948)"; The Vintage News, "Man Used Giant Penguin Shoes to Pull Off History's Biggest Footprint Hoax" (2019); St. Petersburg Times, "The Clearwater Monster: Confession of a Hoax" (June 11, 1988)

It is a mystery big cat, seen in a large number of different places in North America.

Resembles a male African lion. Length, 5–8 feet. Shoulder height, 3 feet. Shaggy coat. Brown or tawny. Large head. Thick hair around the neck like a mane. Muscular shoulders. Long tail with a bushy tip. Some reports involve striped or partially striped animals.

Tends to travel in pairs, sometimes with melanistic Eastern Pumas. Roars. Attacks, kills, and eats pigs, chickens, calves, colts, lambs, dogs, and cats.

One of the most famous sightings was Nellie the Lioness. The furor started in July 1917 when Thomas Gullet, a butler at the Robert Allerton estate southwest of Monticello, was attacked while he was in the garden picking flowers.

Thomas Gullet had described "Nellie" as an "African lioness," as did Mrs. Shaw, the housekeeper for the Allerton Mansion. On the 15th of July, Mrs. Shaw spied "Nellie" as a 300-man posse searched for the lion on another part of the estate. Thus "Nellie" was very specifically de-scribed as an African lioness at the time (versus a cougar or mountain lion). But "Nellie" was not alone. Apparently, her male companion was nearby. Then, you will recall, on the 29th of July, a lion pounced on the automobile in which the families of Chester Osborn and Earl Hill were riding near Decatur.

Finally a view of the male occurred on the afternoon of July 31, 1917. James Rutherford, a farmhand, clearly saw a "large yellow, long-haired beast." A maned lion.

Throughout central Illinois during the summer of 1917, many wit-nesses viewed "Nellie" or her maned counterpart. In backtracking those stories and reviewing them, it is obvious that two cats were being seen, which were described as an "African lioness" and a maned "African lion." The lioness apparently was more aggressive, and seen more often, never-theless, contemporary reports talk of two "lions" and not just the lonely "Nellie."

In the autumn of 1977, a two-month-old lion cub was found in Mus-catine, Iowa, by Lt. Ronald King. The police attempted to discover who had lost a cub, but the young lion's origins remained unknown.

A lion cub appeared in August 1979 in West Chester, Ohio. An amusement park claimed it as its own, after which the lion cub was passed from zoo to zoo. By the time it reached adulthood, attempts to breed it with lions had been unsuccessful.

Also from western Mexico comes another indication of large cats with manes in 1940. Ivan T. Sanderson told Mark A. Hall of his collecting a cat skin that he described as over 6 feet long from nose to tail. The tail, he recalled, was about 18 inches long. He continued: "The legs appeared to have been rather long compared to, say, a house-cat or a puma. The paws were very big and splayed and well furred. The claws were bright yellow. The fur was soft below and rather firm on top and ba-sically was various browns throughout, plain on the head and shoulders but breaking up into light and dark sort of wavy stripes on the flanks and upper legs. The most singular feature of the skin was 'a large ruff around the neck' formed by hairs growing forward from behind the shoulders."

This specimen was subsequently ruined in a hurricane that struck British Honduras (Belize) where his collection was stored. When in 1972 Ivan told Mark A. Hall of this experience who asked him to write it down. A summary of this recollection was pub-lished posthumously.

A correspondent for Ivan T. Sanderson called Gugu wrote that a Dene informant claimed that in the Nahanni Valley, Canada, the Waheela/Great White Wolf, was almost invincible, but it had an archenemy: the lion. Initially he thought that he was talking about the puma (which he himself said he wouldn't have believed), but no, he was referring to a lion literally. This lion was described as enormous, at least the size of the waheela, with thick fur and "a large woolly [mane] extending nearly all over its body." This lion kills everything it finds when it feels like it, including bears, moose, and what appear to be mammoths. An "African lion" is also reported in Alaska.

How do you believe the ecological relationship between the Tigre Dantero and the jaguar would be, hypothetically speaking?

The word "tigre dantero," translated from Spanish, means "tapir-eating tiger." This feline is described as a long-fanged cat smaller than or the same size as a jaguar. These unknown cats are described as striped animals with two very large protruding teeth and are said to be somewhat smaller than a jaguar: the "mutant jaguar" specimen was allegedly 160 pounds with 12-foot fangs. A 1991 sighting from Venezuela described a jaguar-sized animal with light brown fur, a short tail, large fangs, and powerful, well-built forelimbs. In Venezuela, they are said to prey on tapirs and are always reputed to be very shy and rare animals, reported from deep montane and highland rainforests, most prominently Canaima National Park, which contains Auyán-tepui and the forests surrounding it.

The three main hypotheses about this feline are: First, a saber-toothed cat of the genus *Smilodon*, and although an eyewitness identified the Tigre Dantero as a *Smilodon* when shown images of felines, I find this particularly unlikely since the *Smilodon* is two or three times larger than the Tigre Dantero. The second is a saber-toothed cat of the genus *Xenosmilus venezuelensis*, which was the same size as the Tigre Dantero and, like it, inhabited Venezuela. The third hypothesis is that it was a carnivorous marsupial of the order Sparassodonta, family Thylacosmilus (generically called "Saber-toothed Marsupial"), which, unlike saber-toothed cats, was possibly a scavenger. The problem is that this animal became extinct 6 million years ago, before or during the Great American Interchange.

I particularly prefer the second hypothesis.

Now that I've introduced the Tigre Dantero, what do you think the ecological relationship between this cryptid and the jaguar was/is? First, we have to observe that the jaguar varies greatly in size; the closer to the tropics, the larger the jaguar becomes. The largest jaguars are those of the Pantanal and Cerrado (the "Brazilian Savanna"), which are the size of a lioness, while the jaguars of the Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Amazon, and Central America are smaller (they are not separate species, just geographical variations).

Based on all this, in your opinion, what would be the ecological relationship between the two felines?

Hi, I recently acquired this book, and I joined this community and I would like to share it with you. I would like to know your opinion.

Although the author acknowledges that some sightings could be explained by lions escaping from their owners or by owners possessing them illegally and not pursuing them, the author does not rule out the possibility of a small population of undiscovered felines existing in the most remote parts of North America. The author expands on the theory by suggesting that a genetic mutation could cause females to have a high level of melanism, since one of the reports describes a lion with a mane next to a black panther (although he himself says that it is very unlikely, as two distinct and equally unidentified feline populations are also unlikely).

Another interesting thing I found was in Hammerson Peters' book "Legends of The Nahanni Valley," which contains the following information.

"In his letter to Ivan Sanderson, the anonymous letter-writer mentioned in the previous chapter learned from his Dene informant, Gugo, that the Waheela was "almost invincible, but he has one enemy. "Now hang on to your hat! That enemy is a LION!" I thought he was talking about a puma, which I wouldn't have believed anyway, but no, he was talking about a lion [...]The lion itself is a giant, at least as big as the damned dog, and apparently fears nothing. Very hairy, with a large woolly [mane] extending nearly all over its body. The lions kill everything when in the mood, including bears, moose, and what would appear to be mammoths."

What's your opinion?

At least I'm reading books and looking for a job to earn money and buy more cryptozoology books...

I was looking at some theories and hypotheses about the identity of the Gbahali, and when I read *On the Track of Unknown Animals*, in which Bernard Heulvemans suggested an unknown and endangered species of dwarf crocodile, slightly larger than the Nile crocodile, as the identity of the Dingonek and the Water Lion, it clicked.

Could the Gbahali be an unknown species of dwarf crocodile with habits somewhat similar to the Cuban crocodile?

When Shephard showed some villagers pictures of various modern and prehistoric crocodilians and crocodilian relatives, they said that the head and body were similar to those of the *Postosuchus*, but the gbahali's legs were more like those of a crocodile; sprawling, rather than supporting the body from below. Despite this, it is alleged to walk with its belly off the ground. Informants described it as resembling a crocodile or monitor lizard, but up to 25–30 ft long, with its back covered in three rows of serrated armor, a short snout with large teeth, and a powerful tail. According to several of Mungeam's informants, its head is more like that of a monitor lizard than a crocodile.

Coincidentally, the size proposed by Bernard Heulvemans for this unknown species of dwarf crocodile is similar to that attributed to the Gbahali.

What is your opinion?

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

Taking that away is it worth it?

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

When cryptozoologists learned of the existence of Ghabali (image 1), upon showing images of animals, the natives pointed to a Postosuchus (image 2) as being Ghabali. They said that the head and body were similar to those of Postosuchus, but the legs of Ghabali were more like those of a crocodile; spread out, instead of supporting the body from below.

And there's another problem: Postosuchus lived in the Triassic period, meaning a T-rex lived closer to us than a Postosuchus.

Then, some time ago, I learned of the existence of a family of South American crocodilians called Sebecosuchia (image 3). These were crocodilians that appeared in the Middle Jurassic and survived until the Miocene. Their fossils have been found in South America, Europe, Madagascar, India, and North Africa.

All sebecosuchians were carnivorous and terrestrial. But could some individuals have reverted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle to escape competition with mammals? This leads some to theorize that South American sebecosuchians became extinct in competition with large felines and canids during the Great American Interchange about 6 million years ago.

I recently contacted a man who is investigating the Thylacine, and he sent me these photos with this text:

"A little fieldwork at a hotspot for Victorian Thylacine sightings exceeded Expectations. I managed to find matching prints for an adult and juvenile, displaying the characteristic thumb claw and carpal pad that is close to the plantar pad. (Thylacines have short metacarpals relative to canids, who's carpal pad is much further back.)"

I was reading about the Stoa in a post by Karl Shuker about the Creatures of Tepui Kurupira. And after that I went to read about the Mapinguari and realized that the Waiká Indians who live at the base of Tepui Kurupira also mention the Mapinguari. So I thought, "If both are real, have interactions between them already occurred? If so, what were they like?"

To answer these questions, we first need a description and the behavior of both animals; I'll start with the Stoa.

Karl Shuker, based on information from Percy Fawcett and the Czech zoologist Jaroslav Mareš, who documented some of his findings in his cryptozoological encyclopedia Svět Tajemných Zvířat ('The World of Mysterious Animals'), published in 1997. Mareš spent time residing at the base of Kurupira during an expedition in 1978 (unfortunately, his attempts to climb the steep slopes of this tepui were unsuccessful) and learned about the Waiká Indians' belief in the Stoa.

The Waiká Indians described Stoa as being up to 7.6 meters (25 feet) long and superficially resembling a giant caiman. However, they also stated that it can be easily distinguished from these reptiles by the following main differences. First, the remarkable fact that Stoa is exclusively bipedal stands out, moving entirely on its two gigantic hind legs, as its forelimbs are so short that it cannot support itself on them. Its jaws are also much shorter than those of a caiman, but its head is higher and it possesses a pair of prominent horns above its eyes, somewhat reminiscent of those displayed by South American horned frogs of the genus Ceratophrys. The Waiká compared the frog's body coloration to their own (green or golden-brown with darker markings), but its mouth is not as wide as that of frogs famous for their wide mouths, and its skin is covered in hard, non-overlapping tuberous scales. Above all, they stated that there is never any hope of escape if pursued by a Stoa. The Stoa's most common prey is tapirs. Apparently, it hides in dense forests near riverbanks where these large, horse-related ungulates usually bathe, and then emerges abruptly to attack them when they arrive. It also devours capybaras, those large, pig-like rodents that also occur in the region. One account describes an alleged confrontation between some Waiká hunters and a Stoa they encountered by chance while it was searching for prey. They shot arrows at it, but could not penetrate its tough, scale-protected skin, and the enraged Stoa killed several of them before the others fled. In an attempt to explain both the origin of the Waiká's firm belief in the Stoa and (as he also discovered during his investigations) the complete absence of such belief among the indigenous tribes living further from Kurupira, Mareš cautiously offered the following intriguing theory. He suggests that, if the Stoa is indeed real, perhaps its species is confined entirely to the isolated and elevated plateau of this tepui, but that a single individual may, very occasionally, find its way to ground-level territory through a fissure or fracture that descends from the tepui's summit to its base, after which the Waiká live in great fear of it, even after its death, thus maintaining and reinforcing its presence in their minds and traditions for another generation or more, until the next accidental visit of the Stoa occurs.

This is all the online information I found about Stoa.

Now let's move on to Mapinguari, according to the Cryptozoology Encyclopedia website, which compiles various sources, including books, news, articles, videos, blogs, etc.:

Early descriptions of the Mapinguari's appearance were vague. It was described as a dark, robust, bipedal primate, yet very agile. Traditional folklore depictions of the Mapinguari portray a creature resembling an ape or a man. One such description portrays the Mapinguari as a very tall and powerful humanoid, covered in a turtle-like carapace, that emerges at night to feed on human flesh. Frequently, especially in modern times, it is depicted as a cyclops. A 1913 account calls it a fabulous giant of the forest, but also describes the "rubber monkey" of Acre, an animal covered in long, matted fur that repels bullets. The rubber monkey was the size of a Newfoundland dog (males of this breed measure 69 to 71 cm to the withers, which would be 27 inches) when on all fours, but taller than a man when standing on its hind legs (I would guess between 5'9" and 6'5" feet). A local resident interviewed in 1960, specifically contesting the traditional folkloric description, described the Mapinguari as a carnivorous animal of horrible appearance, similar to a very tall horse, which was tall enough to rub itself against the tops of tree trunks when it had an itch. It was described to investigator Paulo Aníbal G. Mesquita as a quadrupedal animal with a flat snout (which could, however, assume a bipedal gait) with skin similar to that of an alligator, long brown fur, a flat snout, and robust claws. When frightened, it was said to rear up on its hind legs and bare its claws, and some informants told Mesquita that it emanated an "extremely foul odor from its belly." David Oren compiled a description of the mapinguari in 1993, based on interviews with several alleged eyewitnesses. Based on his accounts, he described the mapinguari as a man-sized animal, no more than 5'9" feet long, with long, reddish fur, feet turned backward, and a face resembling that of a monkey. It was sometimes said to have a crest of longer fur, similar to a mane, on its neck and back. Later, in 2001, after speaking with more witnesses and seven hunters who claimed to have killed specimens, Oren was able to provide a presumably more accurate description of the animal. According to his 2001 article, the mapinguari is a very heavy and powerfully built animal, up to 6'6" tall when standing on two legs, that breaks tree roots with its steps. It is covered in long, rough fur that varies in color from reddish to brownish and black, and has a snout similar to that of a horse or donkey, though shorter, armed with four canine teeth. The Mapinguari has a pin-shaped form. Its formidable claws are similar in shape to those of the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), but are the size of those of the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus). Its tail is short and wide, or "large and thick". Furthermore, Luis Jorge Salinas stated that the animals he saw had hunched backs, strange necks similar to those of turtles, and hairless chests (which is also a characteristic of the kida harara). Several other physical characteristics that may apply to the Mapinguari are described in the Segamai and the Kida harara – for example, the Segamai's matted fur is said to resemble the fibers of an Oenocarpus palm trunk; and both the Segamai and the Kida harara are said to live in caves. The Mapinguari is considered invulnerable to bullets and arrows unless struck in the navel, eye(s), mouth, or... Sometimes, elsewhere on the head. This invulnerability is sometimes attributed to the animal's thick or crocodile-like skin, or fur. Hunters who claim to have killed specimens say they used special solid lead bullets fired into the head; a special lead shot used for tapir hunting fired into the navel with a .16 gauge shotgun; and all the bullets from a .38 caliber revolver, discharged into the chest. Mapinguari feces have always been described to Oren as "like horse droppings" and are said to contain little decomposed and recognizable plant matter, such as leaves and stems. Of all Amazonian mammals, only the South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris) produces horse-like feces, but this animal usually defecates in water, while the supposed dung of the mapinguari is found on land.

According to most accounts, it can walk on both four and two legs, but its bipedal gait is often described as unsteady (Salinas describes a "Charlie Chaplin" gait). Some sightings, however, describe a fast and agile animal. It is said to be nocturnal and crepuscular (i.e., active at night and dusk) and feeds on vegetation, including bacaba (Oenocarpus bacaba) and babassu palms (Attalea speciosa), which it twists to the ground and tears apart to feed on the palm heart and berry-like fruits. The diet of the Peruvian segamai is similarly described. In southern Brazil and Paraguay, the mapinguari is blamed for periodically killing large herds of cattle by tearing out their tongues, deaths associated with terrifying roars. It is said to be migratory, descending from the Andean slopes around February in Acre, near the Peruvian border. Salinas claimed to have seen a family group, and near the Venezuelan border it is said to travel in pairs. Although its call is often generically described as a terrifying roar or bellow, two distinct types of vocalizations are also described. The first is a deep call reminiscent of thunder, while the other is a very loud, high-pitched scream, "like a human scream," but with a growl at the end. This second scream often impresses and terrifies those who claim to have heard it: eyewitness Innôcencio, who initially mistook the scream for that of a man, described it as "wild and dark," "horrible, deafening, and inhuman." Oren described a call he heard as being extremely loud and of steady pitch, lasting up to forty-five seconds, and resembling "jets flying low." Grunts, growls, and moans are also sometimes described, as well as a "grunt" similar to that of a frog in Salinas' account. When triggered, it produces an “extraordinarily loud, human-like scream.” A very strong and unpleasant smell is often described, compared to a mixture of feces and rotting meat; leek (Mansoa alliacea) and a foul-smelling peccary; a skunk; or simply described as “the worst odor they have ever smelled.” The smell makes people dizzy and nauseous, or even renders them unconscious. Although most people who haven't seen it consider it a myth, Amazonian peoples greatly fear the mapinguari, seeing it as a dangerous creature. There are several stories of entire villages that moved after discovering its tracks or hearing its “terrifying” calls, and, according to Oren, people will do everything possible to avoid a mapinguari if they know it is in the area. Folklore describes the mapinguari as having relationships with other animals of the rainforest. It is said that it is followed by swarms of flies or herds of peccaries, and several eyewitnesses have claimed to have seen a mapinguari while hunting peccaries.

Based on all that has been said, if both are real and truly are as they are, what is the relationship between them in the ecosystem? It's important to remember that interaction between them, based on the information provided, is extremely rare.