North American Cryptids
Adlet
Northwestern Canadian Coast
Dog / human hybrid type creature
Fast
Taller than humans
Supposedly an ancient race that
lived alongside Inuit tribes that
always warred with humans
Some tribes claim ancestry from
adlets
Akhlut
Wolf / orca hybrid
“It is described as being similar in form to the
killer whale and is credited with the power of
changing at will to a wolf; after roaming about
over the land it may return to the sea and
again become a whale. While in the wolf form
it is known by the above name, and the
Eskimo say they know that this change takes
place as they have seen wolf tracks leading to
the edge of the sea ice and ending at the
water, or beginning at the edge of the water
and leading to the shore. ... These animals are
said to be very fierce and to kill men.” –
witness report from 1900
Bering Sea area
Batsquatch
Mt St. Helens, Washington
Wolfman or sasquatch type body
with the wings of a bat
Stands around 9 feet tall
Sightings from 1980s to 2014 being
the most recent
Beast of Busco
Indiana
In 1898 a farmer claimed that a giant
turtle was swimming in his pond
In the 1940s more eyewitnesses claimed
to have seen the turtle – guessing that it
would weigh at least 500 pounds
Several attempts to catch the beast have
been unsuccessful
Yearly festival in the town celebrates the
turtle
Bigfoot / Sasquatch
Tall, hairy, apelike creatures that walk upright and leave large footprints
Some people say that they are the missing evolutionary link between humans
and apes
Can be found in accounts from around the world
Live in wooded areas mostly
Regional differences of fur color, height, etc
Thousands of sightings in North America
According to a 2014 poll more people believe in bigfoot than in the big bang
theory
Foot casts are the main proof collected
Champ
Sea monster
Lives in Lake Champlain, between New
York and Vermont
During the 1800s PT Barnum offered a
reward for anyone that could bring him
the monster
Crocodile like tracks have been found
around the lake – too cold for that
species
Pictures, video, and sound recordings
have been taken of the creature
Dakwa
Fish that lives in the Tennessee River
Large enough to swallow humans whole
Dover Demon
Dover, Massachusetts
Main sighting in 1977
Three teenage witnesses all saw the same
creature on the same night in three
different areas
Alien type creature
El Chupacabra
“Goat sucker”
First sightings in Puerto
Rico
Mostly seen in the
American South West
or Central America
The few specimens
that have been
captured turned out to
be canids with the
mange
Enfield Monster
Originally spotted in Enfield, Illinois in April
1973
"It had three legs on it, a short body, two
little short arms, and two pink eyes as big
as flashlights. It stood four and a half feet
tall and was grayish-colored.“
Became a basis for social contagion
studies.
Flatwoods Monster
UFO and Alien sighting
West Virginia
September 12, 1952 was the first sighting
Skeptics say it was a meteor falling
through the sky with a large barn owl
perched in a tree
Gici Awas
Giant hairless bear
Walked with stiff legs
Ate humans
Some believe the stories come from
mammoth bones that were found by
native tribes
Could have been a diseased bear?
Gloucester Serpent
Massachusetts
Sightings start in 1638
A black snake with bumps on its back
washed up on the beach in the 1800s –
thought to be offspring of a larger
monster
Later studies of the specimen determined
it was a common snake with tumors on its
back
Some accounts say that it has a spike
coming out of its head – scientists think
that a narwhal came too far south?
Haietlik
“Lightning Serpent”
Pacific Northwest
Hunted whales
Giant eel type creature with pointy heads
and carried an electrical charge
Ancient tribes used to carry their skins as
good luck while whaling
Have been witnessed with thunderbirds,
working together to take down a whale
Hodag
Wisconsin
Mentioned in Paul Bunyan stories
“The head of a frog, the grinning face of a giant elephant, thick
short legs set off by huge claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a
long tail with spears at the end.“
In the 1890s a group supposedly blew one up with dynamite and
another group caught one alive then displayed it at the local
county fair
Scientists from the Smithsonian investigated and announced it as
a hoax
Still the mascot of Rhinelander Wisconsin
School mascot
Statues in town
Festival
Pop culture
Entry in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
Scooby Doo Monster
Lumberjanes graphic novel
Jackalope
Have become the most popular in North
American lore, but accounts from all over
the world
Jackrabbit with antelope horns
Many wall mounts are made with deer
antlers instead
Earliest accounts date back to the 13th
century in Renaissance paintings
There were stories of rabbits with horns
before, but most likely they had common
tumors, not entire racks of horns
Jersey Devil
Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey
Goat or horse like head, leathery bat-
like wings, horns, small arms with clawed
hands, legs with cloven hooves, and a
forked tail.
Moves quickly and screams
Leeds family legend from 1700s – cursed
child
Sightings coincide with livestock killings
Philadelphia Zoo has a $10,000 reward for
the live capture of one that could be kept in
the zoo for study
Keelut
Inuit
Mostly hairless dog
Eats only dead things
Tracks always disappear or run cold
Lizardman of Scape Ore Swamp
South Carolina
“Green, wet like, about 7 feet tall and
had three fingers, red eyes, skin like a
lizard, snakelike scales“
Car crash in 1988 that had teeth marks
and scratches on the car was the first
sighting
Loveland Frogman
Ohio
4 foot tall frog humanoid
Witnesses have seen more than one on a
time
Mothman
West Virginia
Man like creature with moth wings and
glowing red eyes
Sightings during the 1960s tied to other
supernatural events and a bridge
collapse
Festival
Museum and Research Center opened in
2005
Ogopogo
Standard sea monster in Okanagan Lake
in British Columbia, Canada
About 50 feet long
Multiple sightings and footage of wakes in
the water
Ozark Howler
Ozark Mountains, Arkansas
Cat like shape with glowing eyes and
horns
Recent photographs have been
collected by the Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission – who have made “no
comment” their official statement
Pope Lick Monster
Kentucky
Human and goat or sheep hybrid
Hypnotizes people to jump off the bridge
it lives under or stand on the bridge and
get hit
A lot of accidents can happen around
train bridges?
Skinwalker
Navajo culture
Navajo people reluctant to talk about
them
Human that takes the skins of animals and
can take on their traits and properties
Associated with evil
Not a werewolf
Snallygaster
Maryland and Washington DC
Dragon like beast
half-reptile, half-bird with
a metallic beak lined with razor-
sharp teeth, occasionally with octopus-
like tentacles. It swoops silently from the
sky to pick up and carry off its victims. The
earliest stories claim that this monster
sucked the blood of its victims.
Teddy Roosevelt proposed to hunt one
Thunderbird
Pacific Northwest mainly, but all over
North America
Large eagle type bird that are large
enough to pick up a whale and carry it
away
Myth – controls the weather, especially
thunderstorms
Modern day pterodactyls that have
survived?
Waheela
Saberwolf
Alaska and Canada
4 feet tall at the shoulder
Larger, faster, stronger, than a modern
day wolf
Wampus Cat
Appalachia
A large cat like a panther or lynx that can
swim like an otter
Drawn to campfires and will yowl just out
of visible range
One of the four house mascots in JK
Rowling’s Ilvermorny American School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry
