Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Angeoa
FRESHWATER MONSTER of northern Canada.
Etymology: Inuktitut (Eskimo-Aleut) word.
Physical description: Length, 50–60 feet.
Black. Enormous fin.
Distribution: Dubawnt Lake, Nunavut.
Significant sighting: An Inuit man told Farley
Mowat in the 1940s that his father had encountered
the Angeoa at the end of the nineteenth
century. It overturned his kayak, killing his
companion.
Source: Farley Mowat, People of the Deer
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1952), pp. 313–316.
Angont
FRESHWATER MONSTER of Ontario and Michigan.
Etymology: Huron (Iroquoian) word.
Physical description: Serpentine. Horns. Flaming
eyes.
Behavior: Venomous flesh, said to be used by
the Indians as a poison.
Distribution: Southern Ontario around Georgian
Bay; a pool near the Huron River, Michigan.
Sources: Paul Ragueneau, Relation de ce qui
s’est passé en la mission des peres de la Compaigne
des Jesus aux Hurons, pays de la Nouvelle France,
ès années 1647 et 1648, in Rélations des Jésuites
(Québec, Canada: A. Coté, 1858), vol. 2, pp.
45–82; Horatio Hale, “Huron Folklore,”
Journal of American Folklore 2 (1889):
249–254.
Anka
Giant BIRD of West Asia.
Etymology: Turkish word, originally from the
Arabic ‘ankā’. (Incidentally, anka means “sparrow
hawk” in the Quechuan language of the
Andes.)
Variant names: Angka, Anka kus¸u, Anka-mogrel,
Zümrüt anka.
Physical description: Female has eight wings.
Male is multicolored with a white ring around
its long neck. Wingspan is the breadth of five
elephants (roughly 20 feet).
Behavior: Terrifying call. Preys on large mammals,
birds, and humans. Carries off children.
Habitat: High mountain peaks.
Distribution: Caucasus Mountains, Russia.
Significant sightings: The prophet Hanzala ibn
Safwan saved his people by killing the Anka, to
whom a youth was sacrificed every day.
An Anka was said to have been housed in the
zoological gardens of the Fatimid dynasty in the
eleventh century (possibly in the capital at al-
Mahdiyah, Tunisia).
Possible explanation: Based originally on a
species of heron in Egypt, possibly a surviving
Giant heron (Ardea bennuides), which may have
inspired the BENNU BIRD symbol.
Present status: After the introduction of Islam,
the Anka became associated with the SIMURGH.
Sources: M. Th. Houtsma et al., eds., The
Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden, the
Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1913), vol. 1, p. 356,
and new ed., 1960, vol. 1, p. 509; Joe Nigg, A
Guide to the Imaginary Birds of the World
(Cambridge, Mass.: Apple-Wood, 1984), pp.
45–47.
Anomalous Jaguar
Unknown CAT of South America.
Physical description: The size of a jaguar. Cinnamon-brown
and white background color.
Covered with solid black, irregular spots.
Distribution: Central Peru.
Significant sighting: Peter Hocking obtained
the skull of a specimen shot in 1993 in the
Yanachaga Mountains, Peru.
Possible explanation: Undescribed color
morph of a Jaguar (Panthera onca).
Source: Peter J. Hocking, “Further
Investigation into Unknown Peruvian
Mammals,” Cryptozoology 12 (1996): 50–57.
Antarctic Killer Whale
Mystery CETACEAN of the Antarctic.
Scientific name: Orcinus glacialis, given by A.
A. Berzin and V. L. Vladimirov in 1983.
Distribution: Antarctic waters.
Significant sighting: Recorded in 1980 in Prydz
Bay in the Indian Ocean sector of Antarctica.
Possible explanation: Generally considered a
subspecies of the Killer whale (Orcinus orca).
Sources: A. A. Berzin and V. L. Vladimirov,
ANTARCTIC KILLER WHALE 19