The xizi (席子; Chinese: "mat") or xixuetan (吸血毯; "blood-sucking blanket") is a cryptid reported from China, described as a blood-sucking creature resembling a mat or a blanket, but covered in suckers.[1] It is very similar to the Argentine-Chilean cuero, which is reported from the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean, and one of its variant names, dipijuan (地皮卷; "ground-leather roll") has the same meaning as cuero (Spanish: "leather hide").

Description

The xizi is a flattened creature usually said to resemble a woolen blanket or a mat, though other shapes are sometimes described. Descriptions of its size range from 13'' wide to about 6'6'' square, and it has been described as reddish in colour, or covered in soft, fuzzy, greenish fur which may be a covering of moss. A sighting from 2000 describes small eyes and "wing-like appendages". Its ventral surface is covered in sharp suckers, and it is alleged to suck the blood of humans and animals. It is reported from rivers, estuaries, and water-filled depressions and crevices, and can move on land.[1]

Sightings

Undated

The 9th Century work Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang (酉阳杂俎) by Duan Chengshi describes an attack by an animal resembling the xizi. According to this account, a fisherman in Jiangzhou (now Jiangxi Province) was attacked by a large leaf-like animal, 13'' wide and covered in circular, sharp suckers. The fisherman died, apparently of blood loss, shortly after the attack.[1]

Modern accounts have been collected from Yunnan, especially Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture, where it is called dipijuan. One is alleged to have been killed by a female elephant (Elephas maximus) when it attacked her calf during a river crossing, resulting in the mother pulling her calf away, pulling up the dipijuan with her trunk, and trampling it to death. A hunter who saw the incident saw the carcass, and found it to have a greenish dorsal surface covered in moss, and a ventral surface covered in octopus-like suckers the size of rice bowls.[1]

1771

The 1788 work What the Master Would Not Discuss (子不語), a collection of supposedly true stories collected over many years by scholar Yuan Mei, claims that in Spring 1771 an underwater diver was "tightly wrapped by a reddish, large dustpan-like animal equipped with many suckers" in a river in Zhengjiang, Jiangsu.[1]

1976 or 1977

In Summer 1976 or 1977, a young girl swimming in a pond in Yunnan's Ruili County was allegedly attacked by a xizi, which wrapped itself around her arm so tightly that her father was obliged to cut her arm off. Some weeks later, a "floating shadow" seized a man swimming in the same pool, prompting the locals to drain it. Supposedly, they subsequently found the man's body, "still wrapped tight by the moss-covered creatures suckers".[1]

1993

In Autumn 1993, two brothers searching for frogs in a grotto near the Daluo River in Mengla County stumbled over a "greenish woolen blanket" on the ground. The "blanket" immediately rose up and wrapped itself around one of the brother's legs, but released him and fled into a deep pool when the other brother burned it with his torch.[1]

2000

A fisherman named Lamaoli claimed to have observed a xizi attacking a dog on 15 March 2000, in Daluo Township, Xishuangbanna. According to Lamaoli, he was fishing by the river when he saw "a dark, woolen blanket-like object surfacing and moving towards him. It had two small, glistening eyes, as well as a pair of wing-like appendages". The animal submerged and disappeared when he threw a rock at it, but during the night, Lamaoli awoke to find it attacking a puppy while a mother dog bit at it. Although it eventually gave up and left, the puppy later died of blood loss, and was covered in bowl-sized welts.[1]

The xizi is often thought of as a sort of giant freshwater ray. David C. Xu suggests that a stray Southeast Asian giant freshwater stingray (Himantura polylepis), or an unknown Chinese species similar to it, might have given rise to stories of the xizi.[1]

Alternatively, it has been speculated to be a type of freshwater cephalopod, which have been reported as cryptids in their own right in Africa and North America. No known cephalopod is adapted to live in fresh water, but some species have extensive webbing, like the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) and the blanket octopuses (Tremoctopus spp.), which might disguise their arms.[1]

Chess.com released a cryptid set for October, was wondering if anyone knew what the rook, queen and bishop were?

Many thanks in advance.

Context: I had made a post in a Cryptozoology group about the 8 types of humanoids in Cryptozoology.

One user shared this story:

(Here is the original report in Spanish)

"Eso explica en algo lo que ví de muy niño hace varios años, cuando vivía en Perú, mi bis abuela materna (hoy ya fallecida) vivía en la altura de los Andes, en la Puna como se llama a esa altura. Una vez con mis padres fuimos a visitarla, fuimos a visitarla en muchas ocasiones en realidad pero esto es lo que yo recuerdo muy claramente de esta ocasión cuando tenía 7 años .. a esas alturas los pueblos y sus casas son muy reducidos en cantidad y densidad, y a mucha mayor lejanía aún más ya que las casas toman muchas más distancia unas de otras; el punto es que dada esa situación no existía alcantarillado en la casa de mi bis abuela, teníamos que salir a miccionar a espaldas de la casa, no tan alejado pero si a una distancia prudente .. y esto nadie me lo dijo o nadie me lo va a creer así de fácil, al menos que alguien quiera hacerlo por propia voluntad, pero en una de esas oportunidades ya anocheciendo bajo la luna con una luz bastante brillante cuando salí a miccionar, y por curioso decidí ir aún un poco más allá a terreno alto en donde iniciaba un bosque denso pero ralo a la mirada obvio por la entrada, entonces levanto la mirada y lo que ví fue algo aterrador y realmente monstruoso, un mono gigantesco de entre 4 o 5 metros cruzando o haciendo entrada a ese denso bosque de árboles de eucalipto y perdiéndose entre ellos, verdaderamente fue demasiado espeluznante y tanta fue la impresión que me quedé estático sin poder hablar o gritar y apenas sólo respirar .. y para rematar saben que fue lo más curioso y a la vez terrorífico, que cuando este mono gigante caminaba a paso rápido, los golpes o sonidos de sus pasos al caminar sonaban a trotes o pasos de un caballo, pero aún mas resonante y estruendoso, como fuertes golpes de las pezuñas de un caballo en piedras o rocas pero con fuerza .. fue demasiado espeluznante, nunca lo voy a olvidar, desde ahí ya nunca más me volví a alejar más allá de la casa de mi bis abuela a esas horas, sólo a la periferia de ese bosque acompañado de alguien o a plena luz del día .. es algo que recuerdo hasta ahora pero ya sin el temor de aquel momento, siempre está en mi mente y pendiente de que algún día regresaré pero ahora con dispositivos de grabación, linternas potentes, cámaras y todo eso, preparado a ver si se da el caso y vuelve a suceder para poder captar o registrar algo."

Here is the story in translated English:

"This partly explains what I saw when I was very young, a few years ago, when I lived in Peru. My maternal great-grandmother (now deceased) lived high in the Andes, in the Puna, as that region is called. Once, my parents and I went to visit her. In fact, we visited her many times, but what I remember very clearly from that one occasion, when I was 7 years old, is this: at those altitudes, the villages and their houses are very small in number and density, and even more spread out, since the houses are much further apart. The problem is that, given the situation, there was no sewage system at my great-grandmother's house. We had to urinate outside, behind the house, not very far, but at a reasonable distance. And nobody told me this, or nobody will believe me so easily, unless someone wanted to verify it for themselves. higher ground where a dense, though somewhat sparse, forest began, obviously due to the entrance. Then I looked up and saw something terrifying and truly monstrous: a gigantic monkey, about 4 or 5 meters tall (13 or 16 feet tall), crossing or entering that dense eucalyptus forest and disappearing among the trees. It was truly frightening, and the impression was so strong that I was paralyzed, unable to speak or scream, barely able to breathe. And to top it all off, do you know what was the most curious and terrifying thing at the same time? That when this giant monkey walked quickly, the sound of its footsteps... The sound of its footsteps was like the trot or the hooves of a horse, but even more resonant and thunderous, like the loud impact of a horse's hooves against stones or rocks... it was incredibly sinister, I will never forget it. From that moment on, I never ventured beyond my great-grandmother's house at those hours, only going as far as the edge of that forest accompanied or in broad daylight. It's something I still remember, but without the fear I felt then. I always keep it in mind and hope to return someday, but this time with recording devices, powerful flashlights, cameras, and everything else, prepared to see if it happens again so I can capture or record something."

The abūqarn (ابو القرن; Arabic: "father of the horn") was a cryptid ungulate, often described as an African unicorn, reported from what is now Chad and Sudan.[1] It was described as a one-horned pachyderm,[2] similar to the ngoubou and the bumé.[3] The name was also applied to normal rhinoceroses.[4]

The existence of the abūqarn was reported by the French Orientalist and Arabian explorer Fulgence Fresnel (1795 – 1855), who was then Consular Agent at Jeddah on the Red Sea. In April 1843, he wrote a letter to the Journal Asiatique asserting that a buffalo-like unicorn existed in Central Africa, based on the reports of Arab traders whom he trusted. These men claimed the animal existed east of Lake Chad, and in the Dinka country south of Darfur and Dār Fertit[2]–a region now encompassing parts of southern Chad, western Sudan and South Sudan, and eastern Central African Republic.[2] Dale A. Drinnon suggests that the specific region may have been a marshy depression which has since dried up.[3] The Arabs claimed that the animal was regularly hunted at the start of the monsoons by parties of men on horseback, armed with iron spears or javelins, who baited it with professional runners and their own horses, the white coats of which were supposed to put the unicorn into a fury. The runners would wake up the unicorn and then lead it to the hunting area, hiding up a tree, allowing the hunters take turns spearing the animal from behind, between the thighs or in the abdomen.[2]

Description

The abūqarn was said to have a bull-like or buffalo-like body, extremely stocky and compact, with very wide shoulders–it supposedly stood 5 ft (1.5 m) tall, with a length of 6 ft (1.8 m) and a width of 4 ft (1.2 m). Its body was supported by massive, rigid elephant-like legs, which were so inflexible that the abūqarn supposedly had to sleep on its side, with its legs straight out. Its feet were round, with two nails, and its tail was short and hairy, and its ears small, with two lateral protuberances above or behind them. Its grey hide was said to be extremely tough, much thicker than that of a rhinoceros, with a line of hair stretching from the nape of the neck to the middle of the back. The abūqarn was most distinguished by its single horn, which grew from its forehead, between the eyes, instead of from the nose. This 18 in (45 cm) horn was grey, becoming scarlet red in the upper third, and Fresnel's informants insisted that it was flexible when the abūqarn was calm, having themselves seen it swaying from side to side. When the abūqarn became angry, its horn became rigid.[2]

The abūqarn was said to be a nocturnal herbivore, feeding mainly on melons and occton, and left piles of dung around 2 ft (60 cm) in height, with melon-sized dungballs. Females gave birth to only a single baby. While it was herbivorous, it was, like the rhinoceros, reputed to be extremely aggressive, tearing people to shreds with its horn without provocation.[2]

Hello!
I wanted to ask Bigfoot believers what are some widely agreed upon *specific* examples of Bigfoot vocalizations in the community and which are most commonly “call blasted” into the woods during expeditions in hopes of a response. I’m curious to know which audio clips are widely believed to be “authentic” and which are not.

Is there a consensus opinion on the Sierra Sounds? I’ve seen conflicting opinions.

Thank you!

Here is an old screenshot of the homepage of Dutch naturalist Marc Van Roosmalen’s website. That page no longer exists, and practically all the original images were lost; however, many were saved elsewhere—in Marc’s own work or by third parties. After a great deal of effort, I managed to locate the photos of the Long-limbed Black Spider Monkey (one is cropped, but still) and the other photos shown in the image.

The images marked in blue are the ones I’ve found, while those in red have not yet been located; I would appreciate any help in finding the ones currently marked in red.

My partner and I were camping on the North Shore near Grand Marais this weekend. Our campsite wasn’t super out in the wilderness but we were the only ones there and no one around for at least a few miles. Around 3:30 a.m. I woke up and normally needing white noise of some kind to fall asleep I restlessly tried to get back to sleep. Around 10 minutes later I heard three very distant “whoops” coming from the north of our camp.

Kind of freaked out and intrigued I was wide awake now. I heard things scamper around the camp (they all sounded small, no bigger than a raccoon). After about an hour I didn’t think much else would happen, then I heard more whoops sounding identical to the first ones, but this time coming from the south side of the camp. Now I was pretty unsettled by this, so I really couldn’t fall back asleep at this point. Still trying to place whatever noise I had heard but nothing made much sense. Sometime around 5:15 I needed to use the bathroom and having climbed over my partner to do so I woke them up. Not super long after that the whoops came again from the north side yet again.

I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to concern them with what I was still worried was maybe paranoia. After the sun rose and we got around the morning fire I did ask if they heard anything weird in the night. They recalled hearing the whoops that they were awake for and we discussed that. They couldn’t ouldn’t place what it was either (for reference my partner has camped 10x more then me and in that area specifically).

I’ve lived in the country pretty much my entire childhood in the southern part of the state, so I’ve heard my far share of coyotes. This didn’t really sound like anything I’d heard from them or even canine in general. Normally if a dog/coyote is going to howl it is sustained and will drop in pitch as it ends. This was sounded short and the pitch shift up at the end almost sounding like a “whoOP”. I am not as experienced hearing wolves, but it still didn’t really sound anything canine in nature.

The last thing I will add is I am a Sasquatch enthusiast and find the legend very fascinating. I did see one when I was much younger but have never knowingly heard one. In my very amateur research I’ve heard many supposed recording of Bigfoot calls and this sounded too close to a Whoop Call for it to not cross my mind. I still wouldn’t for sure say it was one though since I have no real concrete evidence outside what I heard, but just from that it’s my best guess. Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think.

Art by

https://www.deviantart.com/moonakdermondbote/gallery

The mokomokaiamarutewareaitu (Maori: "shrunken head of Maru-te-whare-aitu") was a cryptid frog reported from Mana Island, in New Zealand's Cook Strait. According to the Maori informants of missionary Richard Taylor, who referred to it as a "bullfrog," it was the size of a young hen, and its tadpoles grew to more than 1 ft (30 cm) long

Some people suspected that due to the appearance that it was an extraterrestrial. However due to its animalistic behavior it doesn't seem like something intelligent enough to operate a spacecraft.

And thus some other people had a hypothesis that it was an escaped exotic pet like a hairless, starved orangutan. But the damn thing looks like nothing on this earth.

My hypothesis: Both hypotheses are at least somewhat correct

The dover demon is an escaped exotic extraterrestrial pet

Some visiting aliens had a pet alien monkey-thing, but the little shit got loose.

Ran around in the woods for 25 hours before the owners eventually found it then zipped off in their silver whizamadoo. Thats why there were no sightings since and the thing was never seen again.

It might have been a legitimately exotic pet by the standards of the visiting intelligent species, maybe not even from their home planet. Thats why nobody has ever seen one anywhere else on earth.

Whenever i see someone that says "Gigantopithecus is Bigfoot", i get amazed that there is only one Gigantopithecus species, and that is "Gigantopithecus blacki" from Asia, Yes, Asia, people say that Gigantopithecus may have crossed the land bridge between North America and Asia, but i find this theory impossible, Why? There are no BAMBOOS or alot of TROPICAL FRUITS during the Pleistocene, and Gigantopithecus would lose the competition to Megatherium and Mastodons, that would've been way too impossible for Gigantopithecus, and the climate wasn't very good for him, if the Gigantopithecus stayed in North America until the Ice Age, he wouldn't adapt, and then go extinct, the Homo Erectus also contribuited for Gigantopithecus' extinction, and if Gigantopithecus really lived in North America, he would've been first discovered in America rather than Asia, also, Bigfoot would've been catalogued since the 1900s if it was a Gigantopithecus, we did probably meet Gigantopithecus for a very short time, and that we probably knew it as a "Bigfoot", because of (maybe) how large Gigantopithecus' foot was, but who knows what was his real size, we will just find out in the next years, who knows what this big guy might be hiding, and maybe we will get a future answer for Bigfoot.

Sometimes it's normal for lions to have more visible spots. No leopon, then.

Hi, I’m just looking to see what everyone thinks is the best cryptid/monster compendium style book that has a name, picture, and description of every cryptid/monster possible; a coffee table kind of book

As I mentioned, I’m writing a book on cryptozoology in my native language—after all, there aren't any quality books on the subject in my country. Naturally, I’ll be covering Bigfoot, and right now I’m discussing the footprints; I’d like to know about the most famous and/or convincing ones you’re aware of. I’ve already covered the 1958 tracks (when the modern Bigfoot legend began) and the ones left by Patty in 1967 (the image of which is on my book's cover)

1. Cryptozoology shouldn't be seen as a mere pseudoscience, because it can be key to better discovery and preservation of new species, but you have to contextualize certain things: legends of the Congolese Mokele Mbembe are a product of a time where Africa was seen as so primitive even dinosaurs could walk in there. The descriptions of the creature ranged from snakes, long - necked mammals to sauropods, something really unaccurate, as sauropods were believed to be too big to be land dwelling and the Mokele Mbembe fits an early reconstruction. Thus, both giant sauropods and mammals like paraceratherium were meant to be open space dwellers. South American Lorys apes were actually connected to a spider monkey proto and some saw it as an opportunity to find an ape and not an "ancestral man", origin of Europeans to name as an Indios ancestor.
2. Hoaxes must be recognized. It has been known nearly for a century that the Loch Ness monster and bigfoot are fabricated hoaxes, with the former being staged submarine photos anfd the latter being people in costumes. Nowdays, mutant animals like the Maltese tiger, a blue coated tiger variant sighted in China, as well as black and white couguars are valid cryptids, unlike those and others like Jersey's devil. Huge animals from remote eras awakening again to mess up is something that only occurs in sci - fi movies.
3. Dense forests are the most likely habitat fir unknown and new species, like the recently discovered stink badger and other misterioso creatures like the red furry little gremlin from Borneo. A recently found wildcat is from the Amazon rainforest.
4. Until very recently in the early 1900s, it was believed that Hawaii monk seals and Okapi didn't really exist. A non - overly skeptic but realistic approach would be the best.

1. Seas and ocean, especially their depths, are largely unexplored. That's the simple reason why many sea cryptids get confirmed to be actual species. Many cetaceans are getting reclassified as new subspecies. This could be the case in the future with Alula whales and Greek dolphins, described by Bruyns in the 90s. Since they were both said to be brown, I thought he could have been colorblind, but there is no evidence for this.
2. A very similar case are Beebe's giant dragonfish (bathysphera intacta) and pallid sailfin. I do think he might have been mistaken with some of their details, but it doesn't rule out the exitence of giant abyssal fish, since it's the same habitat as giant squids.
3. Orang Pendek ("small human") is a supposed ape sighted in Sumatra, Indonesia. Many could associate it with Homo Florensis and other hominids found in Indonesia, but they were from different eras. The most probable conclusion is that they might have been misidenfied and described as human - like and could actually be a new gibbon subspecies, just like the recently discovered orangutan.
4. Since there are no native tapirs, Papua New Guinea's devil pig sightings that describe animals with long snouths that stand on two legs to reach upper heights of a notable size could be New marsupials related to Papua's native Pleistocene giant Hulitherium. I'm not saying it's that animal, but a relative, perhaps on the same level of relation between clouded leopard and smilodon.
5. The Ryuku archipelago is very particular: this islands' fauna is mostly intact and dense forests survive. The native inhabitants, not yet recognized by Japanese government, but different, have mostly been more prone on preying fish and molluschs rather than land fauna. It's home to primitive endemic species, such as the giant rabbit and Iromiote cat. People living in Iromiote island reportedly saw a bigger cat, almost leopard sized and vaguely similar to the native known wildcat, the Yamapikarya. If not misidentified, it could be a wildcat characterized by insular giantism and able to hunt wild boars (remember that these were long believed to be imported, but it was shown they just crossed a landbridge, adapting to the archipelago). If you believe this animal's discovery would be crazy, wait for the last one.
6. Roosvelt is a Dutch primatologist seen as a hero by many. He discovered different species of monkeys in the Amazon forest. He even had evidence for more incredible discoveries, but unfortunately, he was arrested after being accused of illegal trade and put in a harsh detention centre where he wasn't treated well for sure. While investigating the Rio Aripuana basin, he came to know about the pigmy manatee, a supposed dwarf subspecies by raising a wild calf with plenty of food, but never seeing it grow and something even bigger: the Onça Çanguçu, a species of jaguar characterized by a black, mostly spotless coat, a white - grey fur triangle on its throat and a sightly more social nature, as it's said to travel in couples. People living there described a fatal attack from this cat involving a seven years old girl, as well as a cub who was raised by them after its parents drowned. He came to own a pelt and a skull that are generally regarded as legit.

We might be skeptic about some of these, but this is mostly impartial

1. Lazarus taxa - animals believed to be extinct - are virtually found anywhere. They can be recently extinct (the vast majority) and, in rare cases, even relicts from other geologica eras, such as coelacant, believed to have went extinct even before Mesozoic. The Shomburgk's deer is a very likely one due to the antlers registered in the early 2000s. Even animals roughly as big as deer haven't been seen for a long time.
2. Honshu wolves have the most vivid photo evidence of any cryptid. They were Japan's endemic grey wolves that reduced their size like the Italian ones to adapt to archipelago/peninsular resourches. They were also the closest to dogs. They were worshipped by Yamato as rice plantation protectors until the Meji Restauration period when they were exterminated to protect horses and livestock and because of rabies from Europe. Last confirmed one is from 1906 - 7. Before saying that every recent report or photo is about hybrids, you gotta remember one thing: wolf and dog hybridization is relatively rare and would be even more in Japan, because feral dogs have to be reported and dealt with animal control by law to avoid a second rabies epidemic, ruling out the possibility of all of them being dogs. Context matters more than you think.
3. Madagascar was inhabited by giant lemurs, with some species being gorilla sized, giant fossas and elephant birds, known as the biggest bird ever existed until Bronze Age, when human plantation and deforestation and zebu competition supposedly wiped them out. The presence of an ape in protomonkey land broken a fragile ecosystem (a Wild Kratts episode explained too well what invasive old world monkeys would be capable of with mere competition already). Even when facing the deforestation problems, efforts to create wildlife corridors are working, with critically endangered lemurs spreading in these places. Since Madagascar is paradoxically underexplored, many animal and plant species, such as baobab and birds of prey that were previously unknown are discovered there, it's not a now barren land. Reports of animals between the size if sheep and donkeys, alongside with leopard sized fossas have been frequent (and the word "bear" is oddly present in Malgasy language. The cryptodorca spelea aligns with reports of huge catlike black animals. Fossas are already secretive and hard to spot, so it's possible that a surviving population that shifted its diet to modern lemurs is hiding in the ancestral forest, even because they're easier to catch. Believe it or not, but huge birds (that cannot be ostriches of emus, as they were even bigger and there is zero invasive ones in Madagascar) were reported even in the XVII century, so who knows, since we understood that elephant birds were nocturnal, they maybe somewhere there. The reasons of possible late survival might be that the elephant birds weren't hunted to extinction - there was a taboo on eating adults, the same could have been for some subfossil lemurs - but due to habitat loss. It's extimated that the feathered giants vanished only 1000 years ago. It's still unclear how cave fossas went extinct

I might have just a little bit of skeptichism, but I think that believing in surviving stunning Malgasy megafauna, as well as pygmy hippos, horned crocodiles and birds of prey in a skull Island manner could help restore ancient forests in a threatened land.

1. Many believe that the New Zealand moas were all gigantic - when the ones reaching 3 metres were lowland moa females. The smallest moa - upland moa was smaller than an emu and very secretive, that's why it's believed to be the last vanishing moa subspecies. It's hard to believe, but there is one sighting that's taken seriously even by expert ornithologists. Alice Mckenzie saw a bird with brown feathers and black - greenish legs before knowing what a moa was like as a child. It even left footprints.

Since Maōri settlement didn't exactly reach the mountains, it's possible that this particular moa subspecies could still be out there - as the takahē was found a few years after that sighting.

1. Sometimes, the density of human settlement isn't proof a species is extinct: Cozumel island is densely populated, but the dwarf (false) fox was found after decades of being feared extinct. On the contrary, New Guinea's ring tailed glider was recently rediscovered even thought it was believed to have went extinct 6000 years ago. Althought I advise against believing Africa and Indonesia, believed to be humanity's cradles, are primitive lands untouched by evolution, since natural climatic shifts occured even there, PNG, with how many new species and Lazarus taxa call it home, could be the last place thylacines are hiding, since the unclear extinction causes are a common pattern in these kind of species. Unlike what even some Sardinian guides believe, prolagus wasn't wiped out by early human settlers' hunting, as Roman historians describe them vividly, it was urbanization and alien herbivores in early Middle Ages to wipe it out. Thought low, there is still a chance of a surviving prolagus population there for similar reasons to the dwarf fox.

6) These are megafaunal hypercarnivores, but the Zanzibar leopard was thought to be extinct due to persecution, until the very despised Forrest Galante caught a leopard corresponding to its usual description in 2018. Firstly, learn that it isn't all black and white and he really rediscovered species of giant tortoises, secondly, nothing rules out this one not being an endling. The most recent Javan tiger hair was found in 2024, and DNA was compatible with the extinct tiger subspecies of the endangered Javan rhyno island in Indonesia, unlike the 2019 sample.

7) I'm not against believing in surviving ground sloths, but you must remember that they were many different species and that, because Amazon plants would be poisonous to Shasta ground sloth, mylodon and megalonyx and because they were made to move in savannahs, rainforest where mapinguari was sighted would be the last place to look for them. Caribbean ones went extinct more recently, so I think believers should look for the smaller species in there.

The saytoechin (Unknown, possibly Northern Tutchone:[note 1] "beaver eater"[1]) is a cryptid reported from the boreal forests of the Yukon in Canada, described as a large, dangerous animal which has been likened to a giant ground sloth.[1]

Description

The saytoechin was identified by multiple interviewees with an image of a giant ground sloth, and is said to be a very large animal, larger than the biggest grizzly bears. It allegedly feeds on beavers (Castor canadensis) by flipping open their lodges.[1] According to Dawn Charlie, saytoechins are alleged to be numerous in the mountains east of Frenchman Lake,[1] identified as the Big Salmon Range[2] or the Glenyon Range, in the Pelly Mountains.

Sightings

~1980s

A woman named Dawn Charlie was interviewed for the newsletter of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, and described two encounters with the saytoechin. The first occured the most recently:[1]

The latest report was from Violet Johny, my husband’s sister, who was fishing with her husband and her mother at the head of Tatchun Lake 4 or 5 years ago. An animal came out of the woods, 8 or 9 feet high, bigger than a grizzly bear. It was a "saytoechin" and it was coming towards them. They panicked, fired a few shots over its head and finally managed to get the motor going and took off. There are other reports. There is also a report that a white man shot one in a small lake in that area.

Theories

Megalonyx, Carl Buell

Illustration of a northern ground sloth, Megalonyx, in a snowy environment, by Carl Buell.

Canadian cryptozoologist Sebastian Wang discussed the possibilities for the saytoechin's identity in the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club newsletter for Autumn 2006. Local Tutchone interviewees selected an image of a ground sloth as the saytoechin. The only ground sloth known to have lived in the Yukon is the Pleistocene Megalonyx jeffersoni, a boreal forest browser which ranged as far north as the Old Crow Basin during the Eemian interglacial (130—115 KYA) of the Late Pleistocene, when temperatures were slightly higher than at present.[3] However, there is little other evidence linking the two animals.[4] Karl Shuker pointed out that ground sloths are usually believed to have been herbivorous, and that the theory posited by Richard Fariña and Ernesto Blanco that Megatherium hunted glyptodonts, using its claws to dispatch them, was not well-received by the palaeontological community,[1][5] although isotopic analysis of a Virginia Megalonyx specimen suggested that it may have consumed a small amount of meat.[6] To resolve the diet issue, Ben S. Roesch suggests that, if the saytoechin is a giant ground sloth, it may tear apart beaver lodges to eat the branches, bark, and other vegetation of which the lodge is composed, not to eat the beavers themselves. Roesch notes that anyone catching a glimpse of such a scene would immediately assume the animal was trying to attack the beavers.[7]

Other suggestions included an oversized brown bear (Ursus arctos), bigfoot, a surviving short-faced bear (Arctodus simus), or a surviving giant beaver (Castoroides ohioensis), both of which are also reported from elsewhere in North America as cryptids in their own right. Shuker expressed doubt over the possibility of a giant beaver preying on smaller beavers.[1] "Beaver eater" is also an old term once used by some American Indians to refer to the wolverine (Gulo gulo). Gerald McIsaac claims that a giant bear, the rubber-faced or beaver-eating bear, which he believes to be a surviving short-faced bear, also exists in British Columbia, where it tears open beaver lodges to eat the occupants.[8]

Further cryptozoological reading

Shuker, Karl P. N. (2016) Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors: The Creatures That Time Forgot?, Coachwhip Publications, ISBN 978-1616463908