Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Variant name: Shag foal.
Physical description: Large, black, mastifflike
dog. Glowing eyes. Luminous breath.
Behavior: Lives in a pit.
Distribution: Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.
Significant sighting: In 1806, a man was walking
by Scholar’s Bridge near Sapcote, Leicestershire,
when a “shagged dog” flew by him and
brushed his right shoulder.
Sources: John Nichols, The History and
Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire
(London: John Nichols, 1795–1815); Eric
Swift, Folktales of the East Midlands (London:
Thomas Nelson, 1954).
Shaitan
Alternate name for WILDMEN in West and Central
Asia.
Etymology: Arabic (Semitic) equivalent of
Satan, the evildoer; the name can refer to any
evil spirit or creature. See DEV, FARISHTA.
Distribution: Islamic areas.
Sources: Marie-Jeanne Kofman, “Zagadka
Kavkazskikh Shaitanov,” Nauka i Religiia,
1965, no. 4, pp. 56–61; Odette Tchernine,
The Yeti (London: Neville Spearman, 1970), p.
23.
Shamanu
Mystery DOG of Japan.
Scientific name: Canis lupus hodophilax, given
by C. J. Temminck in 1839.
Variant names: Hondo wolf, Honshu wolf,
Japanese wolf, Nihon okami.
Physical description: Like the gray wolf but
smaller. Length, 2 feet 9 inches. Ash-gray or
beige color. Short ears. Shoulder height, 14
inches. Short legs. Black tail tip.
Distribution: Nara Prefecture and the
Chichibu-Tama National Park in Saitama Prefecture,
Honshu, Japan.
Significant sightings: On October 14, 1996,
Hiroshi Yagi took nineteen photographs of a
specimen at close range in the Chichibu District.
High school principal Satoshi Nishida snapped
ten photos of a female wolf on July 8, 1997, in
central Kyushu.
Present status: The Japanese wolf was the
smallest known wolf. It disappeared as Japan’s
deer population, its traditional prey, dwindled
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, perhaps
aided by an epidemic of canine distemper.
The last confirmed specimen of Japanese wolf
was killed near Washikaguchi, Nara Prefecture,
in January 1905. In 1970, a Dr. Yoshinori
classed it as a distinct species, but this identification
has not been accepted.
Possible explanations:
(1) Feral Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris).
(2) Descendants of pre-1905 Japanese wolf
(Canis lupus hodophilax) x domestic dog
hybrids. The wolf probably figured in the
creation of such Japanese breeds as the
shikoku, kai, and the shiba inu.
Sources: Y. Imaizumi, “Systematic Status of
the Extinct Japanese Wolf, Canis hodophilax,”
Journal of the Mammalogical Society of Japan 5
(1970): 62–66; “A Japanese Wolf Has
Survived?” Sankei Shimbun, January 7, 1997;
Karl Shuker, “Shame about the Shamanu,”
Fortean Times, no. 107 (February 1998): 15.
Shān Gui
GIANT HOMINID of East Asia.
Etymology: Mandarin Chinese (Sino-
Tibetan), “mountain monster.”
Variant names: Shān da-rén (“big man of the
mountain”), Shan tu (in Vietnam).
Distribution: Southern China; northern Vietnam.
Significant sightings: The poet Qu Yuan
(340–278 B.C.) wrote a poem about the Shān
gui.
Sources: Bernard E. Read, Chinese Materia
Medica: From the Pen ts’ao kang mu Li Shihchen,
A.D. 1597 (Beijing: Peking Natural
History Bulletin, 1931), pt. 51; Zhou
Guoxing, “The Status of Wildman Research in
China,” Cryptozoology 1 (1982): 13–23.
Sharlie
FRESHWATER MONSTER of Idaho.
Etymology: The name was chosen by local residents
in 1954.
Variant names: McCall serpent, Slimy Slim.
SHARLIE 495