r/Cryptozoology

I've been going through old UFO reports from Argentina, and I think I've found one of the strangest humanoid descriptions I've ever encountered: in August 1987, a 12-year-old boy was fishing with friends near a creek outside Viale (Entre Ríos, Argentina) when he reportedly noticed a tiny humanoid figure only about 20 inches tall.

According to his later description, it had:

• A completely red, skin-tight body covering
• A massively oversized, oval-shaped head
• Huge eyes
• No hair
• A normal-looking nose
• A tiny mouth
• And, weirdly, no clearly-visible arms

Apparently, the boy was fishing with friends near a creek, when he reportedly noticed this tiny humanoid figure. He watched it from only a few meters away before it suddenly disappeared into the vegetation. Then another one appeared. What happened next involved his friends, an old railway bridge, UFOs, and eventually the police.

I’m currently collaborating with the guys behind Proyecto Viale Desconocido, an archive documenting unusual cases from this region, and we put together an article with the full account.

Read the full report here: https://proyectovialedesconocido.substack.com/p/seres-humanoides-arroyo-prati-viale-1987

What the hell do you think these things could have been?

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."

Context is as follows. Robert W. Morgan is a Bigfoot researcher who was active in the 1970s. His philosophy dictated that a Sasquatch shouldn’t be killed for any reason, including for the purposes of proving its existence and thus getting it to be formally recognised by science.

Grover Krantz was an anthropologist who is well-known for his research into Sasquatch, especially its footprints. He firmly believed that a dead Sasquatch spread out and dissected on an examination table would be the only way to finally satisfy science and prove its existence. Even in his old age, he frequently went hunting with a rifle to try and find the elusive beast.

I was inspired to make this meme by the documentary Bigfoot: Man or Beast? (1972), which revolves around one of Morgan’s expeditions. It can be watched for free on YouTube here. Additional inspiration for the Krantz element was provided by Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World S01E04 “The Missing Ape-Men” (1980), which can also be found on YouTube.

Amusing - from the otter's pocket (2016)

Scientists said they were 3000 years old but one scientist said this was barely 12 months old with the cavers saying that the smell of the carcus was fresh.

I’m not buying the Grootslang as just some old African myth. Too many strange accounts describe a massive serpent lurking around the Orange River and deep caves in the Richtersveld. Could every witness have been wrong? Maybe. But damn, when the encounters keep lining up, I think this creature deserves a closer look. Watch: https://youtu.be/kNbh8-ZANeg

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.

The Yokozuna Slickhead. The biggest ever recorded is 8 feet(2.5 meters)which is still large to be a deep sea fish. But what Thompson saw is what I believe is a rare individual slickhead that grew twice the size of the biggest recorded. 16-17 feet rare gigantism fish. He probably overestimated the size way too much. Or he could have made this up, but I rather believe that he saw a something. A 16 feet long fish would seem very large when the view is is not that great from the submarine.