Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Significant sighting: Around 1910, Olivier
Garneau was fishing in Lac Blue Sea when he
saw a 10-foot animal with a horse’s head rise up
out of the water.
Source: Michel Meurger and Claude
Gagnon, Lake Monster Traditions: A Cross-
Cultural Analysis (London: Fortean Tomes,
1988), pp. 104–110.
Huáng Yao
Unknown Weasel of East Asia.
Etymology: Mandarin Chinese (Sino-Tibetan)
word; huáng means “yellow.”
Physical description: Weasel-like body. Yellow
above, black below. Head is like a cat’s.
Distribution: China.
Source: Richard Muirhead, “Some Chinese
Cryptids (Part Two),” Cryptozoology Review 4,
no. 1 (Summer 2000): 19–20.
Huia
A perching Bird of the Wattlebird family
(Callaeatidae) of New Zealand, supposed extinct
since 1907.
Etymology: Maori (Austronesian) word, from
its distinctive call.
Scientific name: Heteralocha acutirostris, given
by John Gould in 1836.
Physical description: Black plumage with
metallic green gloss. Length, 19 inches. Orange
facial wattles. Males have medium-length,
sturdy bills; females have long, curved bills. The
difference in bills between the two sexes is
unique among bird species. Both bills are ivorycolored.
Large, black tail feathers with white
tips.
Behavior: Call is soft and fluting. Formerly
prized by the Maori for its tail feathers.
Habitat: Beech and podocarp forests.
Distribution: When Europeans arrived in
New Zealand, Huias were found in the southern
half of North Island, from East Cape to
Wellington. Any survivors may have moved
north to the Urewera State Forest or the
Tarawera Range.
Significant sightings: Throughout the 1920s,
some twenty-three unsubstantiated reports were
logged. Signs of Huias were found during an official
search in 1924, though no living birds
were seen.
On October 12, 1961, Margaret Hutchinson
spotted a Huia at Lake Waikareti in the Urewera
State Forest, North Island, noting its distinctive
tail.
In 1991, Danish zoologist Lars Thomas
claimed to have seen a Huia in the Pureora Forest,
North Island.
Present status: Presumed extinct since shortly
after December 28, 1907, when W. W. Smith
spotted two males and a female; this is considered
the final official sighting. Scientists and
ethicists meeting in New Zealand in July 1999
agreed to allow the cloning of a Huia, using preserved
DNA samples.
Sources: William J. Phillipps, The Book of the
Huia (Christchurch, New Zealand:
Whitcombe and Tombs, 1963); Margaret
Hutchinson, “I Thought I Saw a Huia Bird,”
Birds 3 (September-October 1970): 110–113;
Karl Shuker, Extraordinary Animals Worldwide
(London: Robert Hale, 1991), pp. 83–86; Lars
Thomas, Mysteriet om Havuhyrerne
(Copenhagen: Gyldendal Boghandel, 1992);
“Cloning of Extinct Huia Bird Approved,”
Environmental News Network, July 20, 1999;
Errol Fuller, Extinct Birds (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 2001), pp. 367–372.
Huilla
Freshwater Monsterof the West Indies.
Etymology: Huilla is a common name for the
Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) in South America.
Physical description: Serpentine. Length,
25–50 feet. Moss green. Scaly. Horselike head.
Behavior: Amphibious. Swims swiftly by flexing
its body into arches. Migrates from one
body of water to another. Emits a high-pitched
whistle.
Tracks: Three-toed.
Distribution: Ortoire River, Trinidad.
Sources: Edward L. Joseph, History of
Trinidad (London: A. K. Newman, 1838);
John O. Brathwaite (letter), Strange Magazine,
no. 18 (Summer 1997): 2.
HUILLA 239