Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

A KAPTAR, or wildman, examined in 1941 by Lt. Col.
Karapetian of the Russian Army Medical Corps in the
Caucasus Mountains. (Fortean Picture Library)
staked out a spot near Balakon in northwestern
Azerbaijan in the hopes of photographing an albino
Kaptar said to frequent the area. They were
accompanied by an old hunter named Hajji
Magoma. Soon, they saw and heard the whitehaired
creature splashing in a stream and making
laughing noises. Instead of taking its picture,
however, Merezhinskiy shot at it with a revolver
he had concealed. The Kaptar escaped, and
Magoma never took visitors back to the area.
Possible explanation: Hominid fossils from
this region are sparse but promising. An archaic
human mandible has been found at Azych,
Azerbaijan, in association with Early Paleolithic
hand axes. Neanderthal toolkits occur in several
caves in the region, and a probable Homo erectus
mandible 1.5 million–900,000 years old was
found in 1991 at Dmanisi in Georgia.
Sources: Boris F. Porshnev and A. A.
Shmakov, eds., Informatsionnye materialy,
Komissii po Izucheniyu Voprosa o “Snezhnom
Cheloveke,” 4 vols. (Moscow: Akademiia Nauk
SSSR, 1958–1959); Ivan T. Sanderson,
Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life
(Philadelphia: Chilton, 1961), pp. 289–296;
Tekhnika Molodezhi, 1966, no. 8; Boris F.
Porshnev, “Problema reliktovykh
paleoantropov,” Sovetskaia Etnografiia 2
(1969): 115–130; Bernard Heuvelmans and
Boris F. Porshnev, L’homme de Néanderthal est
toujours vivant (Paris: Plon, 1974), pp. 164–
170; Dmitri Bayanov, In the Footsteps of the
Russian Snowman (Moscow: Crypto-Logos,
1996), pp. 15–18, 24, 31–33.
Kashehotapalo
Cannib al G iantof the southern United States.
Etymology: Choctaw (Muskogean), kasheho
(“woman”) + tapalo (“call”).
Physical description: Small head. Shriveled
face. Hairy legs. Cloven hooves.
Behavior: Enjoys frightening hunters.
Screams like a woman.
Habitat: Swamps.
Distribution: Louisiana.
Source: David I. Bushnell Jr., “The Choctaw
of Bayou Lacomb,” Bulletin of the Bureau of
American Ethnology 48 (1909): 31.
Kaurehe
Mystery otterlike mammal or reptile of Australasia,
similar to the Wai to rek e.
Etymology: Maori (Austronesian), uncertain;
may mean “very spiny,” may be related to
“swimming” or “ancestors,” or may just be a
generic “monster.”
Variant name: Frequently misspelled as Kaureke.
Physical description: Otterlike. Whitish fur.
Behavior: Nocturnal. Seemingly less aquatic
KAUREHE 267