The Beasts that Hide from Man

Introduction

1. The
Dobhar-Chú
—Ireland’s Mysterious Master Otter

2. Tracking Mongolia’s Death Worm

3. Raven and the Terror Bird!

4. The Strange Case of Conan Doyle’s Brazilian Black Panther

5. A Belfry of Crypto-Bats

6. Man-Eating Trees and Vampire Plants

7. Hairy Reptiles and Furry Fish

8. The Sirens of St. Helena

9. Giant Mystery Birds

10. Slithery Surprises

11. Exposing the Chinese Ink Monkey

12. Living Unicorns and Latter-Day Dragons— The Physical Reality of Fabulous Beasts

13. Shamanus, Sun Dogs, and Other Canine Enigmas

14. Lemurs of the Lost—and Found?

15. Bring Me the Head of the Sea Serpent!

16. A Supplement to Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans’s Checklist of Cryptozoological Animals

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

MORE THAN 300 MAJOR NEW SPECIES OF ANIMALS WERE scientifically unveiled during the 1900s. As documented comprehensively in my book
The New Zoo: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century
(2002), they included such remarkable creatures as that famous forest-dwelling, short-necked giraffe known as the okapi (discovered in 1901); the gigantic but gentle mountain gorilla (1902) and the equally sizeable giant forest hog (1904); the extraordinary lobe-finned coelacanth (1938), belonging to an ancient lineage of fishes formerly believed to have died out at least 65 million years ago; large, spectacular birds such as the Congo peacock (1936) and Amsterdam albatross (1978); the stupendous megamouth shark (1976); a pig-like Ice Age relic called the Chacoan peccary (1974); eight different species of beaked whale (between 1908 and 1996); the formidable Komodo dragon (1912), currently the world’s largest known lizard; the Cambodian wild ox or kouprey (1937); the Queen of Sheba’s gazelle (1985); the buffalo-sized Vu Quang ox (1992), the largest new land mammal to be discovered for more than 50 years; the giant muntjac deer (1994); the bondegezou tree kangaroo (1994); and more than a dozen new South American monkeys (1990s and 2000s).

Moreover, judging from a vast array of well-documented, ostensibly reliable eyewitness accounts and other evidence on record, there may also be a sizeable number of spectacular animals still awaiting formal zoological detection and description in the 21st century, steadfastly remaining hidden from science despite apparently being familiar to their local human neighbors.

The official scientific investigation of these highly elusive creatures is known as cryptozoology (literally “the study of hidden animals”), a once-controversial fledgling zoological discipline that has gained increasing mainstream acceptance in recent years due to the startling number of unexpected zoological discoveries made by diligent field investigators, notably in Vietnam and South America.

Over the years, many books dealing with cryptozoological animals have been published. However, the majority of these have concentrated upon the same few, familiar examples—the Loch Ness monster and other freshwater mystery creatures, man-beasts (yeti, Bigfoot, etc.), sea monsters, and unidentified big cats in Britain and elsewhere. Conversely, throughout my own cryptozoological writings and research I have always preferred to pursue and highlight the little-realized plethora of lesser-known or decidedly obscure mystery beasts also on record—creatures that have often received only the briefest of mentions in the literature, and even then only in specialized, scarcely read, or largely forgotten journals, travelogues, historical accounts, and other esoteric sources.

Writing as I do for a wide range of publications, it has been regrettable but inevitable that many of my cryptozoological articles have been featured in English journals and magazines not available in the U.S., or in American ones not very accessible in Britain at the time of their appearance. Now, however, in response to popular demand from my worldwide readership, I have compiled in book form a selection of some of what I consider to be my most memorable articles from these disparate publications. In many cases, moreover, I have expanded and updated them to include additional information and illustrations that were not available at the time of my articles’ original appearances. And continuing my long tradition for making my research sources easily accessible to my readers, there is also a comprehensive bibliography of references consulted by me during my preparation of this book that can be utilized by readers wishing to pursue further any of the subjects documented therein.

Here at last, therefore, with no geographical barriers to separate them from my international reading public, are such hitherto-abstruse creatures of cryptozoology as the Mongolian death worm and the Sarajevo jumping snake, the mimiek dog and the ink monkey, the hairy lizards of New Guinea and the lost sirens of St. Helena, as well as Aztec sun dogs, Javan crypto-bats, Irish master otters, living unicorns, triangular serpents, giant eggs, dwarf emus, horned sea serpents, and a rich diversity of mystery beasts not even listed in Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans’ cryptozoological checklist. In other words, allow me to unfurl before your very eyes the fauna of the future—the beasts that (still) hide from man.