🦶 Cryptids
＋ File sightingAboriginal storytellers across eastern Australia, particularly Queensland's fig-forest country, describe the Yara-ma-yha-who as a small, red-skinne...
In the remote sandstone escarpments of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Aboriginal oral tradition and later station-worker testimony from the 1970s...
Among Xhosa and Zulu communities of South Africa's Eastern Cape, the Impundulu, or lightning bird, is described as a black-and-white bird able to t...
In Zulu tradition across KwaZulu-Natal, families still raise their beds on bricks, a practice documented by anthropologists since at least the 1930...
Along the swamps and mangrove creeks that flank the Gambia River, elders in Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau warn children away from the water af...
On Zanzibar's Pemba Island, a wave of terror in 1995 saw entire villages sleeping outdoors in groups after residents reported nighttime visits from...
Turkey's largest lake, Van, sits atop an alkaline, soda-rich basin where locals have reported a large, dark-humped creature since at least the 1990...
Pre-colonial Visayan cosmology, recorded by Spanish chroniclers from the 1600s onward, describes Bakunawa as a colossal serpent-dragon coiled aroun...
In the Philippine province of Capiz, long nicknamed the country's "aswang capital," villagers describe the Manananggal, a witch-like woman whose up...
Across Malay villages, the Penanggalan is feared as a woman by day and, by night, a detached floating head that drags its own stomach and entrails ...
Along the rocky coasts and river mouths of northern Japan, storytellers describe Nure-onna, the "wet woman," a yokai with the head of a beautiful w...
Ainu communities along Hokkaido's Uchiura Bay have long spoken of Akkorokamui, a crimson, glowing mass said to surge from the depths and drag boats...
Gashadokuro is a giant yokai skeleton in Japanese folklore, said to form from the piled, unburied bones of soldiers and famine victims who died wit...
Kuchisake-onna, the "Slit-Mouthed Woman," is a modern Japanese urban legend describing a pale woman wearing a surgical mask who stops passersby, us...
Gef the Talking Mongoose was reportedly a small, invisible-to-most, weasel-like animal that spoke in a high voice and claimed to live inside the wa...
Krampus, the horned, chain-rattling companion of Saint Nicholas in Alpine folklore, punishes misbehaving children while Nicholas rewards the well-b...
The Dahu is a goat-like creature said to roam the French and Swiss Alps, distinguished by legs shorter on one side of its body than the other, an a...
The Brosno Dragon, or Brosnya, is said to inhabit Lake Brosno in the Tver region of Russia, a deep glacial lake long rumored among local villagers ...
Storsjöodjuret, the "Great Lake Monster," is said to live in Storsjön, the lake beside Östersund in Jämtland, Sweden. The first documented sighting...
The Lagarfljótsormur is said to coil beneath Lagarfljót, a long glacial lake beside the East Iceland town of Egilsstaðir. The earliest written ment...
Am Fear Liath Mòr, "the Big Grey Man," haunts the summit plateau of Ben Macdhui, the second-highest peak in the Cairngorms of Scotland. The case en...
Morgawr, Cornish for "sea giant," entered modern cryptid lore in September 1976 when a woman using the pseudonym "Mary F" sent Falmouth Packet news...
Welsh tradition places the Afanc in the deep pools of the River Conwy, most famously the pool of Llyn yr Afanc near Betws-y-Coed, and in Llyn Barfo...
Across the lochs of the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, storytellers describe the Each-uisge as far more lethal than its cousin the kelpie, capabl...
On the Orkney island of Stronsay, islanders once whispered of the Nuckelavee, a creature that fishermen and farmhands preferred not to name after d...
Black Annis is a blue-faced hag of Leicestershire folklore said to live in a cave she clawed out of the sandstone of the Dane Hills, west of Leices...
The Barghest is a monstrous, shape-shifting black dog of northern English folklore, most associated with Yorkshire, where it is described as larger...
Black Shuck is the spectral black dog of East Anglian folklore, said to roam the coastline, churchyards, and lonely lanes of Norfolk and Suffolk as...
Spring-heeled Jack is the demonic, athletic figure who terrorized Victorian London and its suburbs beginning in 1837, described in newspaper report...
The Nguruvilu, or fox-snake, is a malevolent water serpent from Mapuche mythology reported around the rivers and lakes of Chile's Araucanía region,...
The Ucumar, also spelled Ucu or Ukumar, is a hairy, bipedal hominid of Andean folklore reported across the cloud forests of northwestern Argentina ...
The Chullachaqui is a shapeshifting guardian spirit of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, best known for one telltale flaw: however perfectly it disgu...
Yacumama, "mother of the water" in Quechua, is a gigantic serpent said to lurk in the deep, slow rivers and oxbow lakes of the Peruvian Amazon, som...
The Minhocão, literally "big earthworm" in Portuguese, is a gigantic burrowing creature reported from southern Brazil, said to be large enough to u...
The Encantado is a shapeshifting river spirit from Amazonian folklore, said to live in an enchanted underwater city and to surface disguised as an ...
The Squonk is a wretchedly ugly, tear-soaked creature said to wander the hemlock forests of northern Pennsylvania, its loose, ill-fitting skin cove...
The Piasa Bird is a winged, dragon-like monster painted onto the limestone bluffs above the Mississippi River near present-day Alton, Illinois. Fre...
Memphre is the serpentine creature said to inhabit Lake Memphremagog, the long glacial lake straddling the Quebec-Vermont border. The first documen...
Manitoba's Lake Manitoba has carried stories of a long, serpentine lake monster since Indigenous Cree and Ojibwe oral traditions described a spirit...
Off Cadboro Bay near Victoria, British Columbia, mariners have long reported a long-necked, humped sea serpent nicknamed "Caddy," with reports comp...
Montana's Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake in the western United States, has hosted stories of a large, dark, serpentine or hump-...
Along the Utah-Idaho border, settlers of the Bear Lake valley have described a serpentine creature since at least 1868, when local Mormon pioneer a...
Trappers and Dene hunters in Canada's remote Nahanni Valley, Northwest Territories, have long told of the waheela, a heavyset white or cream-colore...
Among the Ioway and other Plains peoples, the shunka warak'in — roughly "carries off dogs" — was described as a dark, hyena-like or wolf-like beast...
Since at least 1915, and with a major wave of sightings in 1937, residents near Newport, Arkansas, have reported a massive gray creature — describe...
Deep in the Ozark Mountains spanning Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, rural residents have long described a stocky, black, bear-sized creature wit...
In 1949, the small farming town of Churubusco, Indiana, was gripped by "Oscar Fever" after farmer Gale Harris claimed to have seen an enormous snap...
Across the Rust Belt and New England, local legend tells of Melon Heads — small, pale humanoids with bulbous, swollen heads and thin bodies said to...
In July 1972, the small Mississippi River town of Louisiana, Missouri, became briefly famous when several residents reported a seven-foot, black-fu...
Deep in the bayous of Acadiana, Cajun French settlers preserved the medieval European loup-garou legend, but gave it a swamp accent: the rougarou, ...
In Navajo (Diné) tradition, the yee naaldlooshii — literally "it goes on all fours" — is a malevolent witch who has broken the deepest taboos of th...
The Sigbin is a creature from Visayan folklore, especially tied to Capiz and neighboring provinces in the Philippines, usually described as a goat-...
The Aswang is a broad and shape-shifting figure from Philippine folklore, most strongly associated with the Visayas region, particularly Capiz prov...
The Tikbalang is one of the most iconic creatures of Philippine folklore, typically depicted as a tall, bony humanoid with the head and hooves of a...
The Ropen is a cryptid from Papua New Guinea, particularly associated with Umboi Island and coastal jungle areas, described as a large flying creat...
The Ahool is a legendary giant bat-like creature said to haunt the mountainous rainforests of western Java, most famously the slopes of Mount Salak...
Orang Pendek, meaning "short person" in Indonesian, is described as a small, muscular, bipedal ape-like creature standing roughly 80 to 150 centime...
J'ba Fofi, meaning "giant spider" in a Congolese language, is a cryptid said to inhabit the remote rainforests of the Congo Basin, described by loc...
The Mngwa, also known as Nunda, is a legendary giant cat from the folklore of coastal Tanzania, particularly the area around the Rufiji River delta...
Inkanyamba is a giant serpent-like or eel-headed dragon figure from Zulu tradition in South Africa, most closely associated with the Howick Falls o...
The Grootslang, Afrikaans for "big snake," is described in South African folklore as a monstrous hybrid with the body of a serpent and the head and...
Emela-ntouka, a name from Congolese languages usually translated as "elephant killer," is described as a large, grayish-brown, semi-aquatic animal ...
The Kongamato, whose name in Bemba and related languages means roughly "breaker of boats," is described as a large reddish flying creature with a l...
The chonchón is a shapeshifting witch-creature from Mapuche and central-southern Chilean folklore, said to be a kalku (sorcerer or witch) who, thro...
El cuero, literally "the hide," is an aquatic monster from the folklore of Chile's southern lake district, described as resembling a flattened, cir...
The imbunche is one of the darkest figures in Chilote folklore, a grotesquely deformed being said to be created by the members of the legendary Rec...
The colo colo is a shapeshifting creature from Chilean and Mapuche folklore, traditionally described as hatching from the smallest egg laid by an o...
The trauco is one of the most famous figures of Chilote mythology, a short, gnarled forest goblin from the Chiloé Archipelago, usually described as...
The camahueto is a legendary beast from the folklore of the Chiloé Archipelago in southern Chile, pictured as a young bull or calf-like creature be...
Peuchén is a shapeshifting, blood-draining creature from Mapuche folklore in southern Chile and Argentina, most often described as a giant flying s...
Nahuelito is Argentina's answer to Scotland's Loch Ness Monster, a large aquatic creature reportedly living in Lago Nahuel Huapi in Argentine Patag...
Lobizón is the Argentine (and broader Río de la Plata) version of the werewolf legend, most famously tied to the belief that a family's seventh con...
Pombero is a small, hairy, gnome- or goblin-like spirit from Guaraní folklore in Paraguay, also known across parts of Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia...
La Sayona is a vengeful female spirit from Venezuelan folklore, typically described as a beautiful woman in a long white or black mourning dress wh...
El Silbón ("The Whistler") is a ghostly figure from Venezuelan llanero folklore, described as a tall, gaunt man carrying a sack of bones over his s...
Iara, also spelled Yara, is a water spirit from Brazilian Amazonian folklore, portrayed as a beautiful woman, sometimes with a fish tail like a mer...
The Boitatá is a legendary fire serpent from Brazilian folklore, often described as a giant snake made of flame or with glowing eyes that slithers ...
The Curupira is a small forest spirit from Brazilian indigenous, mainly Tupi, folklore, depicted as a boy or man with fiery red hair and, most dist...
The Mapinguari is a giant, foul-smelling, one-eyed humanoid or ape-like beast said to roam the deep Amazon rainforest across Brazil, Peru, and Boli...
The Nachzehrer ("night waster" or "after-devourer") is a vampiric revenant from German folklore, with Slavic-influenced variants across the Baltic ...
The lindworm is a wingless, legless (or two-legged) serpentine dragon from Scandinavian and broader Germanic folklore, usually depicted as a massiv...
Lariosaurus is the scientific name of a small, genuinely extinct marine reptile whose fossils were first unearthed in 1830 near Perledo, on the sho...
El Coco, or Coco, is the shapeshifting bogeyman figure of Iberian folklore, believed to have originated in Galicia and Portugal before spreading ac...
The Nuberu, also spelled Nubero, is the personification of storm clouds in Asturian folklore from northern Spain, imagined as an old, wild-haired m...
The Basajaun, whose name means "lord of the forest" in Euskera, is a wild, hairy humanoid from Basque mythology in northern Spain and southwestern ...
The Cuélebre is a giant winged serpent or dragon from the folklore of Asturias in northern Spain, also known in neighboring Cantabria and Leon unde...
The Tarasque is a legendary dragon-like beast from the folklore of Provence, southern France, tied to the town of Tarascon on the Rhône river, whic...
The Wolpertinger is a fantastical chimera-like creature from Bavarian folklore, traditionally depicted as a small mammal, often based on a hare, fi...
The Tatzelwurm, whose name roughly translates as "claw worm," is a legendary creature said to dwell in the high mountain valleys and rocky slopes o...
The Beast of Gévaudan refers to a mysterious wolf-like predator, or possibly a series of predators, blamed for a wave of brutal attacks on men, wom...
The Owlman of Mawnan is a winged, humanoid figure with owl-like features—large glowing eyes, feathers, and pincer-like claws—said to haunt the chur...
The Beast of Bodmin Moor is a supposed large, black, cat-like predator said to roam the wild moorland of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, in the far southw...
Morag is the name given to a large, elusive creature said to inhabit Loch Morar, the deepest freshwater loch in the British Isles, on the west coas...
The Kelpie is a shape-shifting water spirit from Scottish folklore, most often a beautiful black or grey horse that lurks near lochs, rivers, and s...
The Cadejo is a supernatural dog-like spirit from Central American folklore, most prominent in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, sai...
The Nahual (or nagual) is a shapeshifting figure from Mesoamerican folklore, typically a human sorcerer believed capable of transforming into an an...
The Ahuizotl is a fearsome aquatic creature from Aztec mythology, described as a dog-like or otter-like beast covered in slick fur, with a hand at ...
Tahoe Tessie is the affectionate nickname for a serpent-like lake monster said to inhabit Lake Tahoe, the deep alpine lake straddling the Californi...
The Goatman is a legendary humanoid with the head and horns of a goat and the body of a man, said to roam wooded areas and back roads, most famousl...
The dobhar-chú, or 'water hound,' is a creature of Irish folklore from the western counties, most famously tied to a tale set in County Leitrim: an...
The banshee, from the Irish bean sí, 'woman of the fairy mound,' is a spirit woman whose mournful wail is said to foretell an imminent death in a f...
Selkies are shapeshifting beings from Scottish and Faroese-Norse folklore who live as seals in the ocean but can shed their skin to walk on land as...
Con rit is a legendary sea monster from Vietnamese folklore, described as an enormous centipede-like or serpentine beast with a segmented, armored ...
The taniwha is a supernatural being of Maori tradition, imagined as a large, serpentine or reptilian creature dwelling in deep pools, rivers, caves...
The bunyip is a fearsome creature said to lurk in the billabongs, swamps, creeks and waterholes of the Australian outback. Descriptions vary widely...
The Barmanou is a wildman cryptid described in the folklore of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, particularly among communities in Balochistan ...
The Yeren, or "wild man," is a hairy, ape-like bipedal cryptid reported mainly in the dense forests of Shennongjia in Hubei province, China, descri...
The Almasty is a wildman cryptid reported chiefly in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia and neighboring regions, described as short, stocky, and cove...
The Hibagon is a Bigfoot-like cryptid said to inhabit the forests of Mount Hiba in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, described as a large, dark-haired, ...
The tsuchinoko is a legendary snake-like creature from Japanese folklore, described as short and unusually thick-bodied, sometimes said to have fan...
The kappa is a water-dwelling creature from Japanese folklore, usually described as roughly child-sized, with green or yellow scaly or slimy skin, ...
The Jackalope is a whimsical hybrid creature of American folklore, depicted as an ordinary jackrabbit sporting a pair of antelope or deer-like horn...
The Fresno Nightcrawler is a modern cryptid known from a pair of short home-video clips, apparently filmed in a backyard in Fresno, California, sho...
Altamaha-ha, affectionately nicknamed Altie, is a serpent-like river monster said to inhabit the Altamaha River near Darien, on the Georgia coast. ...
The Wampus Cat is a fearsome feline creature from Appalachian and Cherokee-influenced folklore, described as a large cat-like beast that walks upri...
The Enfield Horror is a cryptid reportedly seen around the small town of Enfield, Illinois, in the spring of 1973, with the first and most detailed...
The Pope Lick Monster is a legendary humanoid creature said to lurk beneath the railroad trestle built in 1929 that spans Pope Lick Creek near Loui...
The Honey Island Swamp Monster is a reputed swamp-dwelling creature said to inhabit the dense, largely undeveloped wetlands of the Honey Island Swa...
The Fouke Monster is a Bigfoot-type creature said to haunt the swamps and bottomlands around the small town of Fouke in southwest Arkansas, describ...
The Hodag is a squat, spiny beast from Wisconsin lumberjack folklore, described as having the head of a frog, the face of an elephant-like grin ful...
The Snallygaster is a fearsome hybrid creature from Maryland folklore, typically pictured as part bird and part reptile, with a metallic beak, tent...
The Michigan Dogman is described as a large, muscular canine-like creature that walks upright on two legs, standing roughly seven feet tall with a ...
The Wendigo is a gaunt, emaciated humanoid of Algonquian folklore, said to stand far taller than a man, with grey or ash-colored skin stretched tig...
The Kraken is a legendary sea monster of Scandinavian folklore, imagined as a colossal, tentacled creature capable of dragging entire ships beneath...
The Mongolian Death Worm, known locally as olgoi-khorkhoi ('intestine worm') for its resemblance to a cow's intestine, is described as a thick, dar...
The Yowie is a large, hairy, ape-like humanoid said to roam the remote forests and mountains of eastern Australia, often described as taller and mo...
The Thunderbird is a colossal bird from Native American oral tradition, described across many tribes as a raptor-like being with a wingspan wide en...
The Skunk Ape is Florida's answer to Bigfoot: a large, hairy, ape-like biped said to roam the swamps and hammocks of the Everglades and other wetla...
The Loveland Frog is an Ohio legend tied to the town of Loveland, along the Little Miami River, with roots reaching back to a 1955 account by a loc...
The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp is a modern Southern legend rooted in Bishopville, Lee County, South Carolina, dating to the summer of 1988. The ...
The Beast of Bray Road belongs to the broader American 'dogman' tradition: a bipedal, wolf- or dog-headed creature said to prowl rural roads near E...
The Dover Demon is one of the shortest-lived but most vivid cryptid cases in American folklore, born from a single weekend in the quiet suburb of D...
The Flatwoods Monster, also nicknamed the "Braxton County Monster," refers to a tall figure reportedly seen near Flatwoods, West Virginia, in Septe...
Champ is the name given to a supposed lake monster inhabiting Lake Champlain, on the border of New York, Vermont, and Quebec, generally described a...
Ogopogo is the name given to a long, serpentine lake monster said to dwell in Okanagan Lake, British Columbia, usually described as a dark, multi-h...
Mokele-mbembe is said to be a massive, elusive animal lurking in the remote rivers and swamps of the Congo Basin, described as reptilian with a lon...
The Jersey Devil is a chimeric creature said to roam the sandy Pine Barrens of New Jersey: a kangaroo-like body on hooves, small forelegs, bat-like...
The Yeti, popularly known as the Abominable Snowman, is an ape-like, bipedal creature said to roam the high snowfields and forested valleys of the ...
Mothman is a winged, humanoid creature said to have haunted the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, described by witnesses as roughly man-...
The chupacabra, literally "goat-sucker," is a legendary predator blamed for killing livestock and draining their blood through small puncture wound...
Bigfoot, also called Sasquatch, is a towering, hair-covered, ape-like humanoid said to roam the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest and beyond, ...
The Loch Ness Monster, affectionately nicknamed "Nessie," is the best-known lake monster in the world, said to inhabit the cold, peat-darkened wate...