Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Micmac Indians of Eastern Canada
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1955), pp. 114, 345–347; Stuart Trueman, An
Intimate History of New Brunswick (Toronto,
Canada: McClelland and Stewart, 1970), pp.
27–28; Rod C. Mackay, Discoveries and
Recoveries of Eastern North America, accessed
in 2000, http://www.oldcelticbooks.com/
Fundy/george5.html; Joe Nickell, Real-Life X-
Files (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,
2001), pp. 133–136.
Old Sheff
NORTH AMERICAN APE of Kansas.
Physical description: Long arms. Large hands.
Behavior: Walks bipedally with a stooping
gait. Also goes on all fours. Pulls down fences.
Distribution: Crawford County, Kansas.
Significant sighting: In August 1869, a threatening,
gorilla-like animal terrorized the farmers
of Crawford County, Kansas. People were unwilling
to shoot it because it looked human.
Sources: St. Louis (Mo.) Democrat, August
15, 1869; Junction City (Kans.) Weekly Union,
September 11, 1869; Loren Coleman,
“Gorillas in the Midst,” Fortean Times, no. 101
(August 1997): 44.
Oldeani Monster
Mystery LIZARD of East Africa.
Scientific name: Chamaeleo oldeanii, proposed
by Peter Scott.
Physical description: Chameleon-like. Brown,
with small red spots and a horizontal stripe
across each flank. Small horn at the tip of its
snout. Long tail.
Distribution: Ngorongoro Conservation Area,
Tanzania.
Significant sighting: On February 25, 1962,
Peter Scott and John and Jane Hunter saw a
large chameleon in the Ngorongoro Conservation
Area near Oldeani Peak, Tanzania. They
captured it, and Scott took it back to England,
where it lived for eighteen months. Its remains
were preserved a short time before they were
lost. Herpetologists were unable to identify the
animal.
Possible explanations:
(1) The Dwarf Jackson chameleon
(Chamaeleo jacksonii merumontana),
suggested by Dick Hellenius, though this
subspecies is confined to the Mount Meru
area 90 miles distant.
(2) A juvenile Meller’s chameleon (C. melleri ).
(3) A hitherto undescribed species,
suggested by Peter Scott.
(4) Bradypodion uthmoelleri, a rare
chameleon discovered in 1938 and
restricted to the Ngorongoro area, proposed
by Karl Shuker.
Sources: Peter Scott, Travel Diaries of a
Naturalist (London: Collins, 1983); Karl
Shuker, “Here Be Dragons,” Fate 49 (June
1996): 31–34.
Olitiau
FLYING REPTILE or giant BAT of Central Africa.
Etymology: Ipulo (Benue-Congo) word. Possibly
a mistaken transcription of Ole Ntya
(“cloven” or “forked”), which is the name of a
dance mask with horns that is used to represent
a demon.
Physical description: Black body. Lower jaw is
filled with 2-inch-long teeth separated from
each other by spaces of equal width. Black, batlike
wings. Wingspan, 6–12 feet.
Behavior: Flies with a slow, flapping motion
of its wings. Its teeth chatter.
Habitat: Mountain streams.
Distribution: Southwestern Cameroon.
Significant sighting: An Olitiau swooped
down on Ivan T. Sanderson and Gerald Russell
shortly after they shot a hammer-headed fruit
bat along a mountain stream in southern
Cameroon in 1932.
Possible explanations:
(1) The Hammer-headed fruit bat
(Hypsignathus monstrosus) is the largest
African bat and has a wingspan up to 3 feet.
It is sepia on the back, with a pale brown
head and shoulders. Sanderson and Russell
may have been surprised by a much larger
specimen of the bat they had just shot.
However, these bats are usually shy and
harmless.
OLITIAU 405