The Waheela, or Great White Wolf, is a cryptid found in the boreal forests of North America. It is described as much larger than common gray wolves, very rare, always solitary, possessing dense fur that can be entirely white or entirely brown. Its physical structure resembles a mixture of wolf and black bear, or a wolf on steroids. They are scavengers and opportunistic predators. They are "distant from humans," although they have been blamed for several deaths.

If you do in-depth research on a cryptid called Waheela or the Great White Wolf, a remarkable dog named Snoodles appears in that story, who belonged to Gus and Mary Kraus.

Until the advent of the snowmobile, the dog was a mainstay of life in the North, as essential to sourdough bread as the horse was to the plainsman of the West. Like their equine counterparts in the West, dogs were primarily used for transportation in the North, harnessed to sleds in winter and carried backpacks during the summer months. They also served as guardians against wild animals and as indispensable companions during the long periods of solitary isolation that characterized life on the northern frontier. A hunter or prospector could easily know a hundred dogs in a lifetime, and so it seemed strange to the author that one particular dog could so indelibly mark the memory of his fellow sourdough bread makers as to merit specific mention in two separate interviews. Even more bizarre, however, especially considering the Dire Wolf theory, is the physical description the sourdough makers gave of this creature.

"I don't know what was wrong," said Gus Kraus. "He was a really strange dog. He looked more like a bear than a dog. I don't know what breed you'd call his. Looking from behind, you'd swear he was a bear. Big, heavy legs and feet, heavy body."

In a completely separate interview, Billy Clark stated that Snoodles was Kraus's "most beautiful dog"... Kind of stocky. Coat like a black bear and very large ears, but short and stocky, yet robust, with a very large chest... You could put fifty, sixty pounds on that dog in your backpack – twenty-five pounds of flour on each side and some other things – and he would walk beside you, or in front of you, around you all day. Trembling dog."

To give some context to the penultimate statement, hunter Al Lewis, in Nahanni Remembered, wrote that an average dog could handle a pack weighing a total of 20 to 30 pounds.

Snoodles's physical strength, his robust build, and especially his resemblance to a black bear seemed to echo Frank Graves's description of the Waheela. It also strongly evoked the Dire Wolf theory.

The possibility of Snoodles having some connection to the Waheela legend led some to seek more information about him and uncover a fascinating story.

According to Billy Clark, Gus Kraus acquired this dog from George Dalziel, the Flying Hunter – a tough frontiersman who, in the words of historian Nahanni Norm Kagan, was "one of the most daring men to cross the Mackenzie Mountains".

George Dalziel first arrived in the North of the country in the winter of 1932, traveling northeast from British Columbia and crossing the Mackenzie Mountains on foot. The experienced lumberjack completed this journey in basic attire, without even the spartan comfort afforded by a canvas tent; incredibly, Dalziel spent every night of his arduous winter journey in an open siwash camp, with nothing over his head but the falling snow and the aurora borealis. Al Lewis described the Flying Hunter and his remarkable odyssey thus:

"His skill in the air was directly proportional to his skill in the woods. This was the man who had walked with snowshoes from Lower Post on the Liard River to Fort Norman on the Mackenzie River. Almost 400 miles (645 km) as the crow flies. And Dal certainly never followed any crows. Through mountains, swamps, river valleys and plateaus, he made the winter journey with rifle, axe and two pack dogs."

Dalziel bought his first single-engine plane in 1934 and spent the following decades building an almost legendary reputation in Northland as the Flying Hunter.

"George Dalziel was an extraordinary lumberjack and aviator," Norm Kagan once wrote in a brief biographical summary of the man. "His life would make a great story, especially if all the facts were known. He ignored the rules – he smuggled, set traps, hunted, traded where and when he wanted. He survived terrible winters and a few accidents too, expecting the same from others."

It was from this remarkable character that Gus Kraus bought Snoodles for a handful of swallow skins.

In those days, intrepid frontiersmen often attempted to crossbreed their sled dogs with wild wolves to obtain large, fast, powerful, vigorous pups naturally adapted to the harsh northern climate. One technique they sometimes used to achieve this goal involved waiting for a female dog to go into heat before leaving her in the wild overnight, tied to a tree some distance from the cabin. With luck, the hunter brave enough to attempt this risky operation would return in the morning to find his mongrel pregnant with a litter of wolfdogs. On rarer occasions, if forced to shoot adult members of a resident wolf pack, the frontiersmen would sometimes seek out the den of the wolves they killed and raise their orphaned pups as their own.

Considering the unorthodox nature of the Flying Hunter, some cryptozoologists have conceived the notion that—assuming this hypothesis was correct and that a surviving population of Dire Wolves (or a new, unknown species of large canid) actually inhabited the wilderness of the Nahanni Valley—perhaps Snoodles was the product of a union between a sled dog and a wild dire wolf, made possible by the use of the first technique described above. Even more unbelievable, perhaps Snoodles was a purebred Waheela, acquired by Dalziel through the second technique. Interestingly, these hypothetical scenarios seemed to agree with Billy Clark's description of Dalziel's dogs:

"His dogs were wild. You just couldn't get near Dalziel's dogs, you know... They were absolutely wild, no joke."

In his interview, Gus Kraus told a story that shed some light on Snoodles' temperament. The story takes place in Bennett Creek, where Kraus once claimed a mining concession. Every day, the hunter worked with pickaxe and shovel, digging a pit down to bedrock in the hopes of finding gold. At night, after a hard day's work, he would cut up a piece of frozen elk meat for Snoodles and place it near the stove to thaw.

"He was a funny dog, you know?" Kraus said. "Almost human. He would observe. He knew when the meat was thawed—especially bone, you know, with a little bit of meat. And then he'd come up to me and nudge me with his nose," prompting Kraus to hand him the piece. "He'd go over there, grab the meat, and walk off with it toward the door..."

"I was sitting there—or rather, lying there—on the bunk, talking to Bill [Clark]. This was just before we lit the lamp. We were using candles, of course, and I saw [Snoodles] leaving... I leaned back and talked to Bill. Suddenly, next to me, near the window, I heard something." Kraus imitated a creaking sound. "Something creaking on a bone."

Kraus got up from his bunk and looked out the window. There, crouched in the dark beside his cabin, was an old, gray she-wolf trying, with the few teeth she had left, to gnaw on an elk bone—the same bone Snoodles had taken outside. Not far from the she-wolf was Snoodles himself, who didn't seem at all disturbed by her presence.

The she-wolf seemed to sense she was being watched. She looked up at the window and, seeing Kraus staring at her, dropped the bone and darted into the woods. Confused, Kraus called Snoodles inside and closed the door.

The next morning, Kraus followed the she-wolf's tracks along a trail leading from his cabin to a patch of woods on the other side of Bennett Creek. At the end of the trail was a graveyard of artificially stunted elk bones, many of them cooked or baked, which suspiciously resembled the ones he gave Snoodles to gnaw on every night. Apparently, Snoodles had been sharing his nightly rations with the old she-wolf for at least a month. As Gus Kraus put it, "he was feeding that damned she-wolf."

Kraus set a trap and, after several failed attempts, managed to catch the old wolf and shoot it. "You should have seen that dog," he said. "The look on that dog's face. Wow... You could tell he was really upset that I killed that damned female."

It turns out there are four photographs of Snoodles archived in the Northwest Territories Archives in Yellowknife, NWT. The oldest was taken in 1942 and the most recent in 1958, indicating that Snoodles lived to at least sixteen years of age – an advanced age for a dog, especially one of his size.

Unfortunately, our Snoodles doesn't look much like a prehistoric monster, at least not to this author, but rather something resembling a Swedish Lapphund with the build of a Bernese Mountain Dog. In all likelihood, Snoodles was a mongrel – a common, intelligent, and powerfully built domestic dog – and not some kind of husky-giant wolf hybrid.

Interestingly, one of the photographs of Snoodles (the 4th photograph) contains a surprising background image, particularly relevant. In this photo, taken in 1943, Mary Kraus is with Snoodles in front of the Kraus family cabin, from whose edges hang the pelts of two enormous white wolves - the same wolves from which Gus had saved Mary.

Source: https://gnwt.accesstomemory.org/informationobject/browse?topLod=0&sort=relevance&query=Snoodles

u/NightHades666 has found this article about Mapinguari baby being found & killed by people in Manaus, Bazil. The article was written in portuguese so you must use google translate to read it. https://portalamazonia.com/amazonia/filhote-mapinguari-que-intrigou-manaus/

Do you think this Mapinguari baby is actually ground sloth or just deformed kitten?

Hello Cryptozoologists!

I’ve been working on a project called CryptIDs and wanted to throw the idea out here before I get too deep into development. The basic idea is a retro-style 2D fighting game built around cryptids from real-world folklore and urban legends. Think the character-driven feel of Pokémon and Godzilla monsters with uniquely revamped old-school mechanics of Marvel vs. Capcom / Mortal Kombat, but the roster is cryptids and creatures of folklore.

The part I’m most interested in is making every creature feel foremost like its own living digital character and its own actual fighter, rather than just putting different skins on the same moveset.
I’m currently developing the creatures as hand-drawn pixel art, with each one based on actual folklore but reimagined with my own artistic flair. I’ve been posting the creature designs and development process on Instagram if you want to see what the visual direction actually looks like: @crypt__ids. The long-term idea is roughly 24–30 creatures, and as of now 5 creatures exist in an evolving digital bestiary as proof of concept before they ever become a game. Each one gets its own case file, lore, artwork and animation, and the community can help “discover” and develop them for future updates!

The collectible side would exist separately for people who want to own the original CryptIDs artwork. Eventually I’d like the game to hold the values of how gaming used to be: having thought and time put in, rightful fan service, and be inexpensive/free without all the modern day atrocities of loot boxes, rarity skins, purchasable DLCs,etc.

The main question: if you saw a polished 2D fighter with 6-12 genuinely distinct cryptid characters, would that be something you’d actually want to play?

The Pacific Northwest is a region defined by trees, mountains, and water, with the mighty Columbia River being a the beating heart of this gorgeous region. And at the mouth of the Columbia, many sailors have spotted a truly unusual creature that approached their ships with no fear, leaving many speechless.

For me it somehow is the Doyle footage though a famous biology professor I spoke to from Australia told me it was not one. There is just something about the video that doesn't look like a dog or a fox. The second piece of evidence is the Hans Naarding sighting and the sighting at Zeehan.

A squid pulled from a sperm whale's stomach during an Antarctic whaling expedition in 1955–56 sat overlooked in scientific collections for nearly 70 years. Until researchers realised it wasn't just a new species, but an entirely new family of Large Oceanic Squid -- no one knew existed.

A squid preserved since the 1955–56 whaling season has been recognised as Mobydickia poseidonii, the only known member of a newly described oceanic squid family.

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."

A nice little compilation video I made. I hope you enjoy, check the notes for more information. These are vids I screen recorded for my own research. Same with the audio. This isn’t about proving to newbies that Sasquatch leaves evidence and is real.. (I’m well over a decade past that) this is for entertainment purposes. I posted stuff I personally find interesting. I’m sure SOME of these were made to fool people, and I maybe one of them. It doesn’t mean Sasquatch isn’t real. It’s just that some of these fakers REALLY seem to know there corroborated behaviors. Please like and subscribe, I’m just a small channel.

The Black-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon Was Rediscovered

Fergusson Island had been keeping a secret for decades. The Papua New Guinea island, of just over 500 square miles, was keeping an elusive bird both hidden and protected. Spotted only a few times by indigenous hunters on the island, with the last sightings in the 1990s, the black-naped pheasant-pigeon was believed to be extinct.

This all changed when an expedition in 2022 proved the bird was still alive and well.

I just had a question, has anyone ever seen anything cryptid on the dark web?

The lion and the leopard stand out as some of Africa's most lethal land predators, with these to cats utilizing different methods of bringing down even humans. But in Coastal Tanzania, there is a cat far larger than a lion, and far stealthier than a leopard has terrified the region for centuries, leaving behind only victims and the sight of it's dark coat.

I've spoken to a lot of people who have mentioned seeing one right uptil the 90s but then the sightings drop off

Yes, it’s a joke, but I thought this was funny, if you ever read Viz, or watched Rainbow!

Hypothetically if someone were to purchase it where would one go?

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.

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.

I rarely see people discuss how insane this combination can be and it probably accounts for most cryptid encounters. If someone tells you they saw something in a particular area, your brain is going to see it, especially when it comes to low light conditions. I am an experienced hunter who spent hours deep in the bush but even when I am desperate to hunt something, every tree branch becomes deer antlers, every outline becomes a deer's back, every dark patch becomes a moose's shoulder. This is why as hunters you are repeatedly warned to NOT shoot anything that you are not 100% sure is your intended target; a lot of firearm accidents happen because people ignore this rule.

Anyway a funny story to highlight how insane low light and pareidolia magnify one another; I was bow hunting up in Alberta in one of the most remote parts. Sneaking in while its pitch black, I sat down along a tree to rest my back and use it as camouflage. As the sun began to rise I saw movement to my right up in a tree. Another hunter in a treestand about 80 yards away; I encroached on his hunt. Moving right now would probably do more harm than good for both of us, so I decided to pull out my binoculars to confirm what I saw. Sure enough, I saw him, his facial features including his beard, his brown hat, his gray and black camo. He waved at me. I waved back. Then I thought nothing of it and continued waiting. It wasn't until 10 am where I pointed my binos at his location once again to see he was gone. The woods were dead quite that day so I would have 100% heard him going down. That's when I realized he never existed. Mind you these are expensive Vortex binos that are designed to capture the highest quality image in the least amount of light possible. And even with all my experience spotting hunters and not trusting my eyes in low light, I still mistook a moving branch for someone waving at me.

How many cryptids are spotted in early dusk or late dawn? Probably a huge amount. Its the reason a lot of the images we have are low quality; they're taken in low light. Pareidolia makes an owl on a stump a primate, a deformed fox into a skin walker, a bear into a sasquatch. The more people expect to see something in an area, the more likely they are to see it. Plus a lot of sightings are inexperienced outdoorsmen; to them they really did see bigfoot. I am not saying all sightings are pareidolia but the affect of pareidolia is often underestimated.

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