Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Distribution: Lake Huron, Ontario.
Source: C. M. Barbeau, “Supernatural Beings
of the Huron and Wyandot,” American
Anthropologist 16 (1914): 288–313.
Striped Jaguar
Mystery CAT of South America.
Variant name: Striped tiger.
Physical description: The same size as a jaguar,
which grows to about 5 feet long. Tan, with
tigerlike stripes. Head slightly narrower than a
jaguar’s. Fangs about the same size as a jaguar’s.
Behavior: Sometimes tracks hunters.
Habitat: Rain forest.
Distribution: Río Abujao, Ucayali Department;
Pozuzo, Huánuco Department; Río Palcazú,
Pasco Department, Peru. Also reported in
Colombia and Ecuador.
Significant sighting: Peter Hocking acquired a
skull of this animal in 1992; a hunter had shot
the creature in the Pozuzo region of Peru. It apparently
exhibits several features distinguishing it
from a jaguar’s skull, but it remains undescribed.
Possible explanations: An aberrant Jaguar
(Panthera onca), a morph, or a new species.
Sources: Peter Mathiessen, The Cloud Forest
(New York: Viking, 1961); Peter J. Hocking,
“Large Peruvian Mammals Unknown to
Zoology,” Cryptozoology 11 (1992): 38–50;
Peter J. Hocking, “Further Investigation into
Unknown Peruvian Mammals,” Cryptozoology
12 (1996): 50–57.
Stripeless Tiger
Odd CAT of the Indian subcontinent.
Physical description: Uniformly brown or
whitish coat.
Habitat: Open, sandy areas.
Distribution: Similipal Tiger Reserve, Orissa
State, India.
Significant sightings: Four reports were
recorded between 1961 and July 27, 1988,
when a guard in the reserve saw a Stripeless tiger
walking away from a salt lick. It left behind a
footprint.
Possible explanation: Undescribed genetic
morph.
526 STRIPED JAGUAR
Source: S. R. Sagar and L. A. K. Singh,
“Tiger without Stripes,” Indian Forester 115,
no. 4 (1989): 277–278.
Stymphalian Bird
Unknown BIRD of Southern Europe.
Etymology: After the lake.
Physical description: Ibislike. Size of a stork or
crane. Sharp, hooked beak. Sharp talons.
Behavior: Nests in reeds or on cliffs. Screechlike
call. Said to eat humans.
Habitat: Marshes.
Distribution: Lake Stymphalos, Arcadia,
Greece. Said to breed in the Arabian Desert.
Significant sighting: One of the labors of the
ancient Greek hero Herakles was to rid Greece
of these noisy birds, which he did by scaring
them off with rattles.
Possible explanations:
(1) A personification of the diseases that
infest marshy areas.
(2) The Northern bald ibis (Geronticus
eremita), suggested by Michel Desfayes. Not
found in Greece any longer and by no
means ferocious, this bird is dark green with
a bright-red bill and breeds on cliffs. It
lingered in Turkey in small numbers but
became extinct there in 1989.
Sources: Pausanias, A Description of Greece,
trans. W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1918) (VIII. 22.
4–6); Michel Desfayes, A Thesaurus of Bird
Names: Etymology of European Lexis through
Paradigms (Sion, Switzerland: Musée Cantonal
d’Histoire Naturelle, 1998).
Sub-Hominid
Term used by Ivan T. Sanderson for unknown
apelike PRIMATES, especially the YETI and
GOLUB-YAVAN. He considered a species of ape
unknown in the fossil record to be a possibility.
This and other explanations are considered
under YETI.
Source: Ivan T. Sanderson, Abominable
Snowmen: Legend Come to Life (Philadelphia:
Chilton, 1961), pp. 358, 360, 372–374,
473–474, 476.