Canada’s Royal Mint has introduced a line of quarter dollar coins with native cryptids on them. One one side, you can find Queen Elizabeth II. On the other, you’ll see variously Memphré, which is a reptilian monster that inhabits a lake in Quebec, Mishepishu, which is a water panther of Lake Superior, or the more internationally famous Sasquatch.

Link -via Geekosystem

A teenage boy in Texas has claimed to have shot and killed a Chupacabra, the infamous “goat sucker” of Cryptozoology. I like how although they claim to have the Chupacabra dead in their backyard, there is still only this grainy, blurry photo. If you claim you have a Chupacabra you really have to get in there with the HD camera, and snap some high res photos and video.

“It just walked across and started shaking, slowly moving across,” Pope said. “No hair on it at all, the back legs were shriveled up, and I honestly think it was a chupacabra.”

Pope said he ran to his parents’ room to wake up his dad to come see what he had discovered.

“I thought, ‘I’m dreaming or this kid is crazy, but probably a little bit of both,’” Pope’s father Will said.

Will said when he came outside with his son, he was amazed by the creature. The animal was about 200 feet away when Pope fired three shots before the animal stopped moving.

Link

There is plenty of American Indian lore concerning True Giants; they have left their mark in the names given to places in North America. And there are modern reports for them as well, from all over the world. To survive at all, they remain shy of human beings. It is no accident that the detailed observations of these giants are so often made from a distance and that the best records generally come from mountainous areas, just as they do in North America. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, these surviving giants no longer confront human beings if it can be avoided. In rare instances of prolonged visual contact, they have kept their distance from observers. Secondly, in the New World’s Pacific Northwest there has been an unparalleled effort to collect accounts of hairy beings of all kinds. If comparable efforts were made elsewhere, we would be likely to hear of similar matter-of-fact and detailed sightings of True Giants.

Of course, you’ll want to read this while taking a few large grains of salt. Link

The Ropen or ‘demon flyer’ is a monstrous animal that is said to have terrified the natives of Papua New Guinea for thousands of years. Another smaller animal, known as the Duah, is possibly related to the Ropen, a cryptid creature said to haunts some of the far-flung outlying islands.

The flying animals described are said to “glow” in the dark, as reported both by locals and researchers. It has been hypothesized that the bio-luminescent glow assists the animals’ effort to hunt and catch food in the deep darkness of the tropical night. One of the researchers, David Woetzel, has said that he recorded images of the animals while studying them.

Link

(Image credit: Wikipedia user DinoGuy2)

You’ve heard of Bigfoot, Nessie, and the Abominable Snowman. Here are a few of their more obscure (but just as fascinating) cousins.

Monster: Sciopod
Where it lived: Ethiopia
Legend: Latin for “shade foot”, these relatively peaceful creatures were first recorded in around A.D. 77 by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder. They were said to live in the wilds of what is now Ethiopia and were described as small, pale, humanlike creatures-but with only one leg and a giant foot. They hopped around on that giant foot, but they also used it as sun shade: Sciopods supposedly spent several hours a day lying on their backs with their giant feet in the air to block the harsh North African sun. Sciopods were extremely powerful, too. They could kill a large game animal (or a human) with a single jumping kick. But never fear-the strange creatures didn’t eat meat. Or plants. Or anything. They existed solely on the aroma of living fruit, with they always carried with them. Sciopods are mentioned in numerous writings over several centuries, ending sometime in the Middle Ages.

(Image credit: Flickr user Miss Cellania)

Monster: Gowrow
Where it lived: Arkansas
Legend: This monster was first heard of in the 1880s, when Arkansas farmers reported being terrorized by a huge lizard. In 1897 Fred Allsopp, a reporter for the Arkansas Gazette, wrote about an encounter with the beast. The monster, which Allsopp named a “gowrow” after the sound it made, had been eating livestock in the Ozark Mountains in the northwest of the state. A local business man named William Miller formed a posse to hunt and kill it. They found its lair, which was littered with animal (and human) bones, and waited for it. It surprised them by emerging from a nearby lake and attacking them-but they were able to kill it with several gunshots. Miller described the gowrow as being 20 feet long, with huge tusks, webbed and clawed feet, a row of horns along its spine, and a knifelike end to a long tail. He said he sent the body to the Smithsonian Institute-but it mysteriously never made it. Allsopp finished the article by saying he believed it was a “great fake”, but sightings of a similar lizardlike creature were reported in the Ozarks for many years.

(Image credit: Flickr user Luciana Christante)

Monster: Encantado
Where it lives: The Amazon River
Legend: Encantado means “enchanted one” in Portuguese and refers to a special kind of boto, or long-beaked river dolphin native to the Amazon-that can take human form. Encantados are curious about humans and are especially attracted to big, noisy festivals, which they often attend as musicians, staying in human form for years. How can you recognize one? Look under its hat: They always have bald spots that are actually disguised blowholes. Encantados are usually friendly, but they occasionally hypnotize and kidnap young women and take them back to the Encante, their underground city. Sometimes the women escape and return…pregnant with an Encantado baby.

Monster: Kappa
Where it lives: Japan
Legend: Kappas are said to inhabit lakes and rivers throughout the Japanese islands. They look like frogs, but with tortoiselike shells on their backs. They can leave the water-carrying their shells with them-because they have shallow depressions in their heads in which they keep a bit of water that not only allows them to walk around on land but also makes them incredibly strong. If you encounter one, bow to it. They’re very polite, so they’ll have to bow back to you…and the water will spill out of their head-bowls, weakening them. Their favorite food: the blood of small children. Their second-favorite: cucumbers. That’s why you can still see people in Japan throwing fresh cucumbers into lakes and rivers-with the names of their children carved into them. This, the legend says, will protect their little ones from the kappa’s clutches.

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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

They at first suspected each other of a prank, but have decided it wasn’t actually one of them, and nobody else knew about the camera, or its location.  Tim, the father, asked neighbors about the night in question.

(T)hey said they had gone out about 2 a.m. to use the outhouse and had heard strange squealing noises. Tim said he asked them to show him the direction of the sounds. They pointed to the area where the camera had been, although they had no idea of its location.

In spite of such seemingly credible reports, biologists remain unconvinced.

“Personally, I don’t buy the fact this thing exists,” said Blane Klemek, assistant wildlife manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Bemidji.  He also noted than no one has ever found a Bigfoot carcass.  ”All organisms die; they don’t just go away,” Klemek said. “You’d think someone someday would find one.”

Link via The Obscure Store and Reading Room.

Whether you are a conspiracy theorist or just like the crazy animals they believe in, you’ll love these cryptozoology toys. Featured creatures include Nessie the Lock Ness monster, Bigfoot, the chupacabra, the mothman and The Jersey Devil (who was new to me). But where’s the abominable snowman?

Link Via Boing Boing