Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Possible explanation: An interspecies Leopard
(Panthera pardus) x Tiger (P. tigris) cross is unknown
in the wild, but if it occurred, it would
probably result in a sterile animal.
Sources: Frederick C. Hicks, Forty Years
among the Wild Animals of India from Mysore to
the Himalayas (Allahabad, India: Pioneer Press,
1910); Karl Shuker, Mystery Cats of the World
(London: Robert Hale, 1989), pp. 111–112.
DOGS (Unknown)
The Dog family (Canidae) arose from primitive
carnivores in the Eocene, about 35 million years
ago, in North America. Common characteristics
include elongated jaws, long legs relative to body
size, five toes on the front feet and four toes on
the hind feet, nonretractile claws, and an omnivorous
diet. Most species are uniform in coloration,
with special markings usually confined
to the head and the tip of the tail. In size, canids
range from the Fennec fox (Fennecus zerda) that
weighs about 3 pounds to the Gray wolf (Canis
lupus) that weighs up to 175 pounds.
The earliest canids were the hesperocyonines
of North America, small- to medium-sized
predators of the Late Eocene, 35 million years
ago. They were replaced by the borophagines, a
group that ranged in size from foxes to lions and
was dominant from the Miocene through the
Pleistocene, 25–1.5 million years ago. An early
true dog (Canis davisi ) moved across the Bering
land bridge to Asia and Europe in the Miocene.
About the size of a coyote, it ultimately gave rise
to the foxes and wolves that colonized all of
Eurasia. From 2 million to 700,000 years ago,
wolves, coyotes, and foxes moved back into
North America from Asia. All domestic dog
breeds are descended from the gray wolf, which
was apparently domesticated at different times
and places as early as 12,000 years ago.
Of the twenty canids in this list, only a handful
could represent new or surviving species
(perhaps the Hungarian Reedwolf or the Waheela);
most will likely turn out to be color
morphs, deformed individuals, or misidentifications
of known animals. Some, such as the
Alien B ig Dog or the Phantom Wolf, are undoubtedly
multicausal.
Mystery Dogs
Adjulé; Alien B ig Dog; Andean Wolf; B east
of G évaudan; C hagljevi; H orned Jackal;
Hungarian Reedwolf; Itzcuintlip otzotli ;
Mitla; Mlularuka; Phantom Wolf; Red
Wolf; al-Salaawa; Sham anu; S hunka
Warak ’ i n; Wahe e la; Waldagi ; Walru s D og;
Wolf D eer; Yokyn
Doko
Small H om inid of East Africa.
Etymology: Swahili (Bantu), “small.” Similar
to the ancient Egyptian Dongo; see Pygmy
(Classical). In some places, it has the meaning
“ignorant or stupid.”
Physical description: Height, 4 feet. Olivebronze
skin. Straight head-hair. Flat nose. Small
eyes. Thick lips.
Behavior: Eats fruit, roots, mice, snakes, ants,
and honey. Worships a superior being called
Yer. Taken as a slave by neighboring tribes.
Distribution: East of Lake Turkana, Kenya.
Present status: Possibly corresponds with one
of the Kenyan cryptids, designated as hominid
X5, described by Jacqueline Roumeguère-Eberhardt
in 1990.
Sources: William Cornwallis Harris, The
Highlands of Æthiopia (London: Longman,
Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1844), vol. 3,
pp. 63–66; Ludwig Krapf, Travels, Researches
and Missionary Labours, during an Eighteen
Years’ Residence in Eastern Africa (London:
Trübner, 1860), pp. 171–172, 302; Jacqueline
Roumeguère-Eberhardt, Les hominidés nonidentifiés
des forêts d’Afrique: Dossier X (Paris:
Robert Laffont, 1990).
Domenech’s Pseudo-Goat
An odd, goatlike Hoofed Mammalseen once in
Texas.
Physical description: Size of a cat. White,
glossy fur. Rose-colored, goatlike horns. Claws
instead of hooves.
Distribution: Central Texas.
Significant sighting: Around 1850 in Fredericksburg,
Texas, the French missionary Emmanuel
Domenech talked to an American offi-
DOMENECH’S PSEUDO-GOAT 139