Jackalope

The Jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore (a so-called "fearsome critter") described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant's tail (and often hind legs). The word jackalope is a portmanteau of "jackrabbit" and "antalope", an archaic spelling of antelope.The jackalope is an aggressive species, willing to use its antlers to fight. Thus, it is also sometimes called the "warrior rabbit."

Origin:

In Central America, mythological references to a horned rabbit creature can be found in Huichol legends. The Huichol oral tradition has passed down tales of a horned rabbit and of the deer getting horns from the rabbit.The rabbit and deer were paired, though not combined as a hybrid, as day signs in the calendar of the Mesoamerican period of the Aztecs, as twins, brothers, even the sun and moon.

Folklorists see the jackalope as one of a group of fabled creatures common to American culture since Colonial days.The Jackalope has bred the rise of many outlandish (and largely tongue-in-cheek) claims as to the creature’s habits. For example, it is said to be a hybrid of the pygmy deer and a species of “killer rabbit”. According to some reports, Jackalopes are extremely shy unless approached. They can run up to 90 miles per hour. Legend also has it that female jackanapes can be milked as they sleep belly up and that the milk can be used for a variety of medicinal purposes. It has also been said that the Jackalope can convincingly imitate any sound, including the human voice. It uses this ability to elude pursuers, chiefly by using phrases such as “There he goes! That way!”

During days of the Old West, when cowboys gathered by the campfires singing at night, jackanapes could often be heard mimicking their voices. It is said that a Jackalope may be caught by putting a flask of whiskey out at night. The Jackalope will drink its fill of whiskey and its intoxication will make it easier to hunt. In some parts of the United States it is said that Jackalope meat has a taste similar to lobster. However, legend has it that they are dangerous if approached. It has also been said that Jackanapes will only breed during electrical storms including hail, explaining its rarity. 

Whether or not the Jackalope exists and roamed is up for debate but the stories of the Jackalope will go on and with it also carry on the legacy of the Old West, a time of when legends ran wild.

Explanation:

It is possible that the tales of Jackalopes were inspired by sightings of rabbits infected with the Shope papilloma virus, which causes the growth of horn and antler-like tumors in various places on the rabbit’s head and body.However, the concept of an animal hybrid occurs in many cultures, for example as the griffin and the chimera. Indeed, the term chimera has become the categorical term for such composites within the English language.A common southwestern U.S. species of jackrabbit is called the antelope jackrabbit, because of its ability to run quickly like an antelope.

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The Erlking

The Erlking (from Elf-King) or Lord Herne is a name from Danish and German folklore for the figure of a spirit or "king of the fairies".The Erlking comes from Scandinavian folklore, from a time when, as in England, elves had become depicted as creatures of dread. The character is most famous as the antagonist in Goethe's poem Der Erlkönig and Schubert's musical adaptation of the same name. 

Origin:

The Erlking as a character has its origins in a common European folklore, the seductive but deadly fairy or siren (compare La Belle Dame sans Merci and the nix). In its original form in Scandinavian folklore, the character was a female spirit, the elf-king's daughter (Elverkongens datter). Similar stories existed in numerous ballads throughout Scandinavia in which an elverpige (female elf) was responsible for ensnaring human beings to satisfy her desire, jealousy or lust for revenge.

According to Jacob Grimm, the term originates with a Scandinavian (Danish) word, ellekonge "king of the elves", or for a female spirit elverkongens datter "the elven king's daughter", who is responsible for ensnaring human beings to satisfy her desire, jealousy or lust for revenge.The New Oxford American Dictionary follows this explanation, describing the Erlking as "a bearded giant or goblin who lures little children to the land of death", mistranslated as Erlkönig in the late 18th century from ellerkonge.

The Erlking's Daughter:

Johann Gottfried von Herder introduced this character into German literature in Erlkönigs Tochter, a ballad published in his 1778 volume Stimmen der Völker in Liedern. It was based on the Danish folk ballad Hr. Oluf han rider "Sir Oluf he rides" published in the 1739 Danske Kæmpeviser. Herder undertook a free translation where he translated the Danish elvermø ("elf maid") as Erlkönigs Tochter; according to Danish legend old burial mounds are the residence of the elverkonge, dialectically elle(r)konge, the latter has later been misunderstood in Denmark by some antiquarians as "alder king",  Danish elletræ "alder tree". It has generally been assumed that the mistranslation was the result of error, but it has also been suggested (Herder does actually also refer to elfs in his translation) that he was imaginatively trying to identify the malevolent sprite of the original tale with a woodland demon (hence the alder king).

The story portrays Sir Oluf riding to his marriage but being entranced by the music of the elves. An elf maiden, in Herder's translation the Elverkonge's daughter, appears and invites him to dance with her. He refuses and spurns her offers of gifts and gold. Angered, she strikes him and sends him on his way, deathly pale. The following morning, on the day of his wedding, his bride finds him lying dead under his scarlet cloak.

Goethe's Erlkönig:

Although inspired by Herder's ballad, Goethe departed significantly from both Herder's rendering of the Erlking and the Scandinavian original. The antagonist in Goethe's "Der Erlkonig" is, as the title suggests, the Erlking himself instead of his daughter. Goethe's Erlking differs in other ways as well: his version preys on children, rather than adults of the opposite gender, and the Erlking's motives are never made clear. Goethe's Erlking is much more akin to the Germanic portrayal of elves and valkyries – a force of death rather than simply a magical spirit.

Goethe’s poem tells of a father riding through the forest with his feverish young son. The son is aware of the presence of the foreboding presence of the Erlking, who calls to him to leave his father and join him in his faery abode. The father, however, believes the son is merely hallucinating. In the end, the father arrives at home, but not before his son dies in his arms.Franz Schubert used Der Erlkönig as the text for a Lied or art song for solo voice and piano in 1815

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Minhocão

The Minhocão ("big earthworm" in Brazilian Portuguese) is a large earthworm-like cryptid that allegedly exists in the forests of Central and South America.Although this species is principally fossorial, it also has aquatic habits. It has been reported to prey on large surface animals, including cattle, by suddenly capturing them from below the water.It reportedly resides in the wettest and warmest areas of South and Central America, and is a feared part of the culture in that region. The ancient Mayans depicted, through cave carvings and paintings, an extremely large serpent who was believed to eat humans. Some believe these drawings to be of the Minhocão. The possibility that the Minhocão still exists deep in the unexplored forests of South and Central America is debated, though there have been rumored sightings of the ancient serpent as recent as 2013. The Minhocão burrows massive trenches in which it will hide or live in.

Appearance:

It reportedly resembles a giant worm like Mongolian Death Worm, with scaly black skin covering its entire body,a visible mouth and a pair of tentacle-like structures protruding from its head. The Minhocão is said to resemble a 20 to 50 meter worm or serpent, with scaly black skin covering its entire body.It is reported to be ectothermic and have highly mobile jaws and is thought to be a burrowing animal, dwelling in enormous trenches or caves beneath the jungle floor.

Identity:

Cryptozoologist Karl Shuker has suggested that this animal may be an example of a giant caecilian. Caecilians are a poorly known group of amphibians with worm-like, limbless bodies, subterranean/aquatic habits and tentacle-like sense organs on the head. Also, most caecilians do inhabit the forests of South America. which fits the description of the minhocão well. However, known caecilians do not even begin to approach the supposed size of this animal.

In On the Track of Unknown Animals, Bernard Heuvelmans suggests that the animal may be a surviving glyptodont. However, unlike their modern relatives, the armadillos, there is no evidence that glyptodonts had burrowing habits. Whatever kind of creature the minhocão was, if real, it appears to be extinct now, as there have been no reported minhocão sightings in the past 130 years.

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Nemean Lion

The Nemean Lion was a vicious monstrous lion, born to Orthos and Khimaira (Chimera).  It lived around Nemea and terrorized the nearby villages, often killing the cattle and sheep. It lived inside a cave with two entrances. One swipe from its paws was able to kill a man. On top of this, its skin, which appeared normal, acted as an armor that no man-made weapon could pierce.

Legend:

The Nemean Lion was the fearsome offspring of the legendary Typhon and its mate, Echidna, and participated with both monsters in the battle against the Gods. When the Typhon was defeated by Zeus, the Nemean Lion, along with its siblings Cerberus, Chimaera, Sphinx, Hydra, Ladon, and Orthus were allowed to live to pose challenges to future heroes.

Slaying the Nemean Lion was the first task that King Eurystheus asked of the Hercules during his myth of famous labors, Hercules was tasked to kill the Nemean Lion, which no weapon could kill. Hercules shot the beast with arrows. Since they had no affect the Lion did not even notice them, aside one which fell before him. The Lion charged the demi-God after seeing the arrow, and Heracles hit his head with a club made of oak. The weapon temporarly blinded the monster yet shattered to pieces. Half blind and suffering from vertigo the Lion retreated into its cave. Heracles blocked one of the two entrances, rushed inside and suffocated the beast to death. From that point on, he wore the Nemean Lion's skin as a mantle, protecting it from harm.

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Mngwa or Nundu

The Mngwa, also known as the Nunda is a mysterious creature sighted in Tanzania.Folklore from eastern Africa (especially Tanzania) describes a big cat that natives insist is a different species than the lion. 

Appearance:

It is described by both natives and white hunters as a creature larger than a leopard, with dark grayish, brindled fur. Brindling is the rough, intersperse and indistinct striping seen on many breeds of dogs. Brindling tends to look like one color from a distance. 

Chronology:

It was first mentioned in a Swahili song dating from the year 1150 which also mentions the Lion (Simba) the Leopard (Nsui) and the Mngwa as three different creatures. The legend says that this big cat is stronger than a lion and deadlier than a leopard. It moves silently, comes out to kill humans, and then disappears. No hunter has ever achieved success in killing one.  About 700 years ago, leaders of native tribes organized hunting parties to find the Mngwa, but there is no record of them catching any.

In early 1900s, famous British scientific journal Discovery, William Hichens, a British administrator working in Tanzania reported that several natives stated that they were attacked by this beast.He wrote about the mangled bodies of several natives that were said to have been attacked by the legendary monster; the victims were found clutching tufts of grey fur in their hands. He thought it to be a giant, man-eating lion that was responsible for the attacks, but both fur-samples and tracks were different from those of a lion.In 1937, Hichens wrote that the attacks had begun again:

 "Not long ago a man was brought in to me at Mchinga on a litter and terribly mauled by some great beast. He said it was a mngwa ... One well-known hunting-song tells of the Simba [lion], Nsui [leopard], and the Mngwa all in one verse, plainly showing that there is no confusion in the native mind between these three great carnivores."

In Frank W. Lane's 1954 issue of Nature Parade, Patrick Bowen, a hunter who tracked the Mngwa at one time, remarked that the animal's tracks were like those of the leopard, but much larger.  Lane believed that the attacks reported in the 19th century by the Chimiset, associated with the Nandi Bear, might actually have been attacks by the Mngwa.

Bernard Heuvelmans in his book “ On the Track of Unknown Animals” speculated that the creature may possibly have been an abnormally coloured variation. He later,in a 1986 Cryptozoology article, proposed that it may be a larger subspecies of the golden cat (Profelis aurata).

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Tatzelwurm

In Alpine folklore, the Tatzelwurm is a sturdy, lizard-like creature. It takes the appearance of a cat with the hind-end of a serpent with no hind legs. Narratives about the creature can be found in several areas of Europe, including the Austrian,Bavarian,Italian and Swiss Alps.It has several regional names including Stollenwurm, Springwurm, Arassas, Bergstutzen, and Praatzelwurm.

Appearance:

Reports of this creature vary in description, some sighting claim the Tatzelwurm to be lizard-like between 3 to 7 feet long while others more bizarrely claim the features of a cat. The common description of this creature is lizard/snake-like creature with stubby appearance, two front legs without hind legs, and completely covered with scales, in some cases featured cat face and poisonous fume.

Chronology:

The earliest documented encounter with a Tatzelwurm took place in 1779 when two of these creatures appeared in front of a man named Hans Fuchs. Badly frightened by his encounter Hans suffered a fatal heart attack, however just before he died was able to tell his family of the encounter, he described the creature as 5 – 7 feet in length with a snake-like body, clawed front legs and a large feline-like head with sharp teeth.

In 1828, a peasant supposedly found the corpse of a Tatzelwurm which by the time he had managed to bring it home crows had apparently eaten half of the creature. Even so, the Tatzelwurm built up quite a following of believers and was even considered fact in the nineteenth century. It is now believed that even if this creature did actually exist that because sightings are so rare now it may be completely extinct.

Two other illustrations of the Tatzelwurm are known to exist; the first of which appeared in a Bavarian hunting manual called New Pocket Guild of the Year 1836 for Nature, Forest and Hunting Enthusiasts. This manual contains what Bernard Heuvelmans describes as a curious picture of a sort of scaly cigar, with formidable teeth and wretched little stumps of feet. The second of these illustrations appeared in the Swiss almanac Alpenrosen published in 1841, and took the form of a drawling which shows a long scaly creature with two tiny front legs.

In late 1954, a Swiss photographer by the name of Balkin claimed to have photographed a Tatzelwurm. The level of interest produced by the photograph’s publication led the Berliner Illustrierte, a weekly illustrated magazine in Germany, to sponsor an expedition in search of the Tatzelwurm, however the results of this winter expedition were disappointing and interest in the creature all but disappeared. Today the majority of cryptozoologists are certain that the photograph taken by Balkin is almost a hoax.

Another piece of evidence now considered to be a hoax was the discovery of a Tatzelwurm skeleton, said to have been mysteriously donated to the Geneva Institute of Science sometime in the 1900’s. The skeleton, only known by a single photograph, appears to be that of a long snake like creature with two clawed arms and a larger than normal head.However, it is not certain who donated the skeleton or if it was ever donated to anyone at all. The majority of researchers believe the photograph, and the story behind it, to be a hoax.

There are many other tales of the legend of the Tatzelwurm. The first tale is that of a young girl who was working on a Swiss farm. While chopping down bean poles she accidentally disturbed the burrow of a Tatzelwurm and was attacked. The Tatzelwurm in this account was described as being of a gray coloration and about the size of a common domesticated cat with a fleshy hairless body and possessing only two front legs. According to the story the Tatzelwurm glared at the girl and she ran away describing big bright eyes to intense to meet.

Another story tells that of a man and his son out gathering herbs in the mountains when the man suddenly heard his son scream and seemed to be paralyzed in fear staring at a rock. The man sprinted to his son only to see a ‘gruesome monster’ under the rock near his son which hissed like a snake and had the face of a cat with big bright eyes. The man managed to stab the Tatzelwurm with a sharped stick easily fleshing the flesh. According to the story the ‘green blood’ of the creature sprayed out and burnt the mans leg making his journey home long and painful due to his limp.

In July 1883 or 1884, Kaspar Arnold saw a Tatzelwurm on the Spielberg, near Hochfilzen, Tirol, Austria. He watched it from a mountain restaurant for twenty minutes and was certain it only had two legs.

A two-legged Tatzelwurm leaped 9 feet in the air toward two witnesses near Rauris, Salzburg, Austria, in the summer of 1921. It was gray, about 2–3 feet long, and had a head like a cat.

In 1924 the five-foot-long skeleton allegedly was found by two men, who said it resembled a lizard’s.In 1934, a Swiss photographer named Balkin claimed to have photographed a Tatzelwurm near Meiringen, Switzerland, but his photo was probably a faked image of a ceramic fish.In the summer of 1969, a local man reported a 30-inch-long animal with two hind legs near Lengstein, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy. It seemed to be inflating its neck.

In 1990, two naturalists found the skeleton of a lizardlike animal in the Alps near Domodossola, Italy. Giuseppe Costale saw a gray, crested reptile moving in a zigzag fashion on Pizzo Cronia in the same area on two occasions, in October 1991 and September 1992.

In the 1960′s a photograph emerged which was supposedly taken of the mysterious creature. This was given to a Geneva newspaper from a source unknown. Most researchers and cryptozoologists who have seen the photo are in agreement that it is probably a hoax – most likely by a mayor of a Bavarian town attempting to attract tourists.

In 1970, reports of an alleged Tatzelwurm were published in the Swiss newspaper La Tribune de Geneve by Georges Hardy.

In 2000 a strange skeleton was forwarded to a local college. Some scientists said at the time is the first physical proof of the Alpine Tatzelwurm. Along with the skeleton came a sizable donation as well. The original owner of the skeleton remains a mystery. The law firm of Gunterhaus Ltd. in Germany handled the donation and refuses to divulge the name of the contributor or why the Geneva Institute was selected to be the recipient.

In 2009, many reports were made in the Tresivio area of Italy, near the Swiss border. Authorities chalked up most of these reports to "missing monitor lizards" that had escaped their masters. Some of the sightings were even said to be of "raptor" dinosaurs! Only the oldest residents of Tresivio called the mysterious creatures by the name they always knew them as..."basilisco" or basilisk. That was the Italian name for Tatzelwurm.

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Marozi

The Mazori or spotted lion is a large, spotted cat that has been seen throughout East and Central Africa. According to witnesses, the creature is smaller than a typical lion. Although it resembles its more well-known cousins, the marozi has a coat that’s covered with gray-brown spots across its back and sides. It is variously claimed by zoologists and cryptozoologists to be a distinct race of lion adapted for a montane rather than savanna-dwelling existence, a rare natural hybrid of a leopard and lion, or an adult lion that retained its childhood spots.

Appearance:

The marozi looks like an ordinary lion, but it is spotted as an adult.It's total length is described as  8 ft 8 in (2.64 m). Like lion cubs, they possess spots that are easily visible, being brown on a dark yellow background. According to native folklore, large numbers of marozis inhabited the Aberdare Mountains from ancient times until about 30 years ago, when they were killed off. Marozi skins and skulls were secured before the last of them presumably died out. According to hunters in the area the marozi is smaller than a normal lion.

However some experts say, normal lion cubs have spots much like a leopard, but instead of black spots on an orange body, they have brown spots on a tan body, lions are born with spots that fade when they mature, but this creature has some sort of mishap caused the spots not to fade.

Some sources state that the Marozi is a Lion/Hyena crossbreed; but this is rofoundly unlikely because of the lion and hyena being rival predators with completely different genetic makeups that to top it all off, compete with one another over the same food sources.

Chronology:

While Africans have been familiar with the animal and Europeans have been reported seeing spotted lions since roughly 1904,  In 1924, A. Blayney Percival supposedly shot a spotted lioness and her cubs. In the 1930s, Michael Trent shot and killed a pair of spotted lions that were responsible for raids on his cattle farm. 1931 when Kenyan farmer Michael Trent shot and killed two individuals in the Aberdare Mountains region at an elevation of 10,000 feet (3,000 m). The unusual spotted markings on what seemed to be smallish adult lions prompted interest from the Nairobi Game Department; they were from pubescent lions and yet had prominent spots that are typical only of cubs. 

Two years later, explorer Kenneth Gandar-Dower headed an expedition into the region in an attempt to capture or kill more specimens. He returned with only circumstantial evidence: three sets of tracks found at a similar elevation as Trent's lions (10,000–12,500 feet or 3,000–3,800 metres). They were believed to have been left by individuals that were tracking a herd of buffalo during a hunt, ruling out the possibility of the marozi being cubs. Dower also discovered that the natives had long differentiated the marozi from lions or leopards, which they referred to by different names. Aside from that, he found out that the marozi had also been called different names in other regions, such as "ntararago" in Uganda, "ikimizi" in Rwanda, and "abasambo" in Ethiopia. Around the same time four animals were sighted by Game Warden Captain R.E.Dent in the Aberdare Mountain region at an elevation of 10,000 feet (3,000 m). A pair sighted on the Kinangop Plateau by G. Hamilton-Snowball at an elevation of 11,500 feet (3,500 m). They were shot at but escaped.

Conclusion:

No reports of the marozi have surfaced from the Aberdare region since the 1930s and it is believed that the population has long since become extinct. The case still remains open. Some people claim that the spotted lion is a completely mythical creature.Reports of spotted lions are still fairly common throughout other parts of Africa, though. 

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Grootslang

The Grootslang or Grote Slang is a legendary cryptid that is reported to dwell in a deep cave in the Richtersveld,a mountainous desert region in northwestern South Africa. Grootslang is 20 to 39 tall with a head that's 7 inches wide. The skin is black with 

Legend:

According to legend, the Grootslang is a primordial creature as old as the world itself.When the Earth was evolved, the grootslangs were all apparently destroyed, but according to legend, some survived and retreated to the deepest caves of the Northern Cape province. Tales of enormous tusked snakes—probably inspired by real-life sightings of enormous pythons that live in the same area—have rumbled on in South African folklore ever since. Grootslang is claimed to devour elephants by luring them into its cave. The cave is known as the "Wonder Hole" or the "Bottomless Pit". Supposedly, it connects to the sea which is 40 miles away. According to local legend, the cave is filled with diamonds. It is also said to live in warm rivers and lakes

In Benin, it is said to be a huge elephant-like creature with a serpent's tail. Also according to the tale, Grootslangs covet gems, particularly diamonds, and despite the creatures' lust for cruelty, victims can often bargain for their freedom by offering a Grootslang enough precious gems. While searching for treasure in the richtersveld of South Africa in 1917, an English businessman Peter Grayson disappeared after members of his party were attacked and injured by lions, prompting legends that the Grootslang had killed him thereof.

Chronology:

A Nama rock painting on Cathedral Peak, Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa, depicts a great horned serpent called Koo-be-eng. Others appear in Brakfontein Cave near Koesberg; in the cave near Klein Aasvogelkop; and in the cave of the Great Black Serpent in Rockwood Glen, near the Upper Orange River. In 1867, Hans Sauer saw a large, black snake in the Orange River near Aliwal North, Eastern Cape Province.

In 1899, merchant G. A. Kinnear was crossing the Orange River near Upington, Northern Cape Province, when he saw the head of a monstrous serpent emerging from the water. In 1910, Frederick C. Cornell was camping about twenty miles from Augrabiesvalle, Northern Cape Province, with two companions, one an American named Kammerer, who was bathing in a pool nearby. Suddenly, Kammerer came back shouting and said that a great wave had come up behind him and that a head with massive jaws belonging to a giant snake had risen twelve feet in the air.

In May 1920, at the confluence of the Great Fish and Orange Rivers, Frederick C. Cornell and others in his party saw the head and neck of a large snake swimming in the water.John Clift saw a 20-foot crocodilian emerge from the Big Hole, an abandoned mine crater near Kimberley, Northern Cape Province, in November 1947.

In November 1963, newspapers started reporting various encounters with a water monster in the Vaal Dam, Free State Province. Most of the reports were vague. Stanley Jacob and his father, David, watched a monster surface 110 yards from their boat, near Oranjeville on February sixteen, 1964. At first, it looked like a swimming horse. They went to fetch a gun, then returned. The animal had grayish-brown skin, smoother than a hippo’s.

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Lariosauro

Lariosauro is a cryptid reported to live in Lake Como, Italy. about 30 miles north of Milan. Como is one of the deepest European lakes, at about 410 m (1200 feet) at the deepest location.Lake Como is a glacial lake, meaning it is both very old and deep. Believers in Lariosauro point out that although the area is now home to lakes and mountains some 225 million years ago during the Middle Triassic Period, it was covered by sea. In 1830, a fossil of a reptilian creature with a short neck and flippers was discovered at Perdelo on Lake Como. An extinct type of nothosaur, the 2-foot-long fossil was classified as Lariosaurus balsami in 1847. Lake Como is also known as ‘Lario’ after its Latin name ‘Larius Lacus’ and Lariosaurus means ‘lizard from Lario’. Some have suggested that Lariosauro is its descendant and perhaps even related to Scotland’s Nessie. 
Chronology:

Lariosauro lives in Lake Como near the aptly named hamlet of Nesso on the shores of Lake Como in Lombardy. In 1946, eye witnesses allegedly reported seeing a reptile-like animal swimming in the waters of the lake. It was called Lariosauro, the same name used a century before to name a prehistoric reptile creature whose fossilized remains were found by the lake (Lariosauro balsami). In 1957, a diver in a Bathysphere reported seeing a strange beast in the lake at a depth of 328 feet, saying that it had a head like a crocodile and feet like a reptile. The monster even became the subject of a book published in 2000, ‘Il Lariosaurio’ by Giovanni Galli.

There were other alleged sightings, in Lake Como.

• In 1954 in Argegno a creature with round shaped muzzle and back and webbed paws.
• In August 1957 an enormous monster in the waters between Dongo and Musso
• In September 1957 a strange animal whose head was described as similar to a Crocodile head.
• In 2003 a giant eel, 10–12 m long, in Lecco.

Skeptic researcher Giorgio Castiglioni, who studied these cases, thinks that the animal of 1954 was an otter, the monster of August 1957 a hoax, the beast of September 1957 possibly a pike and the 2003 eel actually a group of fish swimming together.

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Lone Pine Mountain Devil

The Lone Pine Mountain Devil is a winged carnivore of North American folklore. Some believe it to be a West Coast relative of the New Jersey Devil. One early account by a priest described them as “winged demons” sent from the “depths of hell.”Also referred to as the California Mountain Devil, the animal is said to be a bat-like legendary creature or cryptid believed to inhabit the wilderness and mountainous regions of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.

Appearance:

The Lone Pine Mountain Devil is usually described as a large, furry, multi-winged bat-like creature with razor-like talons and multiple layers of deadly, venomous fangs.These vicious creatures attack the face and head of their prey, and are said to only eat the soft cartilage of the face and torso, leaving the rest of their slaughter to simply rot for other scavengers.The scientific community considers the Lone Pine Mountain Devil to be a combination of folklore and misidentification rather than a real creature.

Chronology:

Tales of the Mountain Devil began circulating in the 1800s. As more people moved into California, Early settlers, including the Forty-niners, began spreading tales of the creature’s existence after numerous coyote and bobcat carcasses were found in the rough desert and mountain wilderness of the Southwest in the mid 19th Century. No one knows who first coined the name “Lone Pine Mountain Devil.” The Mountain Devil became legend as the settler’s told each other tales of finding entire convoys of adventurers, families, and gold prospectors who had been murdered, their faces left unrecognizable and their torsos appeared to have been eaten clean to the bone.Since the early-1900s, sightings have dropped significantly. Some attribute the massive population influx of the early 20th Century to the regions of Southern California (Los Angeles and San Diego areas) as to the disappearance of this alleged beast. 

After years in decline, the new millennium has seen a sudden jump in Mountain Devil sightings.Many of these sightings supposedly take place west of Lone Pine, California in Alabama Hills along Whitney Portal Road on the way up to Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental United States.California cryptozoologists have stated that they have recorded an exponential rise between 2003 and 2010. Local authorities are currently investigating the disappearance of a group of local high school students missing in the Death Valley region since March, 2010.

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Andean Wolf

The Andean Wolf, or Hagenbeck's Wolf is an unsubstantiated Wolf-like canid,  from the Andes.The Andean Wolf was first discovered with only a skin bought by a German animal-dealer, Lorenz Hagenbeck, in Buenos Aires in 1926.

In 1927, Lorenz hagenbeck bought one of three pelts from a dealer in Buenos Aires who claimed that they had come from a wild dog of the Andes. When Dr.Ingo Krumbiegel studied the skin in Germany in 1940, he concluded that it belonged to a new and still undescribed species. 

In 1947, Krumbiegel connected the pelt with a skull he had discovered about ten years earlier. He claimed the skull was 31 centimeters long and belonged to an omnivorous canid substantially larger than a Maned Wolf, as Maned wolf skulls are smaller, about 24 cm. The skull had allegedly been lost in 1945 during World War 2 and was not available for peer review.

Krumbiegel began to reconstruct the animal from the skin.  He noticed the legs were a lot shorter than the typical maned wolf, which is creature of open woodland and grassland habitats and uses its long legs to help it see, hear, and smell over the tall grass.  He drew sketches of what he imagined this montane maned wolf looked like.

Krumbiegel thought the animal was unique enough that it deserved its own genus. He initially gave it the name Oreocyon hagenbecki or “Hagenbeck’s mountain dog,” but on learning that Oreocyon had been used before, he changed it to Dasycyon hagenbecki–“Hagenbeck’s thick (furred) dog.”

A 2000 attempt at DNA Analysis of the remaining pelt at Munich’s zoological museum failed because it was contaminated with human, dog, wolf, and pig DNA, and had been chemically treated.

No one has tried to extract DNA from the anomalous pelt since 2000. It’s generally been ignored. We do have better techniques for DNA extraction now, so maybe it is worth another go. The truth is we really don’t know, but if we were to find out that it was something that spectacular, the question ultimately would be whether this animal still exists.

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Wendigo

According to the lore, the Wendigo is created whenever a human turns to cannibalism to survive. In past years, such a practice was possible, although still rare, as many of the tribes and settlers in the region were cut off by the absinthal snows and ice of the north woods. Lamentably, eating another person to survive was sometimes resorted to and thus, the legend of the Wendigo was created.

Appearance:

The Wendigo is a part of the traditional beliefs of a number of Algonquin-speaking peoples, notably the Obijwe and Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu people. Although descriptions vary somewhat, common to all these cultures is the view that the wendigo is a malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural being. They were strongly associated with the winter, the north, and coldness, as well as with famine cannibalism and starvation. 

Native American versions of the creature speak of a gigantic spirit, over fifteen feet tall, that had once been human but had been transformed into a creature by the use of magic. Though all of the descriptions of the creature vary slightly, the Wendigo is generally said to have glowing eyes, long yellowed fangs and overly long tongues. Most have a sallow, yellowish skin but others are said to be matted with hair. They are tall and lanky and are driven by a horrible hunger.There is only one way to destroy the Wendigo. That is to burn it alive. Make sure to aim for the heart or else the Wendigo's soul would still be there and would find another body to take over.

Chronology:

One of the most famous Wendigo hunters was a Cree Indian chief and medicine man named Jack Fiddler. He claimed to kill at least 14 of the creatures in his lifetime, although the last murder resulted in his imprisonment at the age of 87. In October 1907, Fiddler and his son, Joseph, were tried for the murder of a Cree Indian woman. They both pleaded guilty to the crime but defended themselves by stating that the woman had been possessed by the spirit of a Wendigo and was on the verge of transforming into one entirely. According to their defense, she had to be killed before she murdered other members of the tribe.

There are still many stories told of Wendigo's that have been seen in northern Ontario, near the Cave of the Wendigo, and around the town of Kenora, where a creature has been spotted by traders, trackers and trappers for decades. There are many who still believe that the Wendigo roams the woods and the prairies of northern Minnesota and Canada. Whether it seeks human flesh, or acts as a portent of coming doom, is anyone's guess but before you start to doubt that it exists - remember that the stories and legends of this fearsome creature have been around since before the white man walked on these shores. 

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