Beastly Bunyips

Bunyip
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-australian-mythical-creatures.php
One of the most famous Australian monsters is the Bunyip, a creature that lives in or near bodies of water such as creeks, pools, and swamps. There are supposedly as many as nine regional variations of bunyips scattered throughout Aboriginal Australia. Because it is so widely known in so many different cultures, there is no real consensus concerning what a bunyip looks like. But some common characteristics include tusks, flippers, and a horse-like tail. It is believed that they come out at night to feast on animals, young children, and women. It supposedly makes a loud bellow when approached. It is sometimes argued that they harbor supernatural powers. Originally, they were punishing spirits derived from the Aboriginal Dreamtime. But today they have been toned down and are included in literature for children and even make appearances in television commercials. There is a long list of supposed sightings of bunyips. Some of the most recent and concentrated sightings were during the 1930s in the midst of the Depression. One possible theory for the existence of the bunyip is that they are diprotodon, which went extinct about 20,000 years ago

[It is important to remember that in Australia the actual strata relating to the extinction event are mostly missing from the period which would be the Upper Paleolithic in Europe. The dates for extinctions are mostly only the best-guess estimates-DD]

The dogfaced Bunyip featured in many sightings. Several sightings feature a hairy eared seal that is probably some sort of a fur seal, but there is a series of these reports featuring very shaggy creatures with horse's tails and large lop ears.The features are exaggerated enough to take the creatures out of the seal category, BUT we might still be taliking about the young of the larger "Bellowing Bullock" Bunyip since the "Dogfaced" ones average about five feet long and the bigger Bunyips average about 10-15 feet long

This is Megan Anderson's reconstruction of this kind of Bunyip and it is so "Normal" looking that I wondered if it was not possible that we might have a strain of longhaired amphibious dogs derived out of mostly a retriever dog ancestry. However in this case also the smaller animal also shares several of the traits of the larger ones. These are striking enough that I feel I must make some sort of a list here:


The creatures have an overall bearlike build, even something like a polar bear, tapering generally from the rather elongated head and neck to the thick and heavy rump section. The tail is bushy and often compared to a horse's tail. The fur is thick enough to bristle up on the back in the water and hang down from the belly on land. The feet are sometimes represented as webbed but are in any event generally big and floppy, and rather shapeless.

A reconstruction for Diprotodon, showing how smaller cubs and larger adults could account for both the smaller-sized and larger-sized series of reports. Below, a rock-art depiction of a four-legged Bunyip that also shows some of these distinctive traits such as the descriptions and the reconstruction here, including the elongated forepart and heavy rump.

Skeleton of a diprotodon: ten to fifteen feet from the snout to the hip joint would be just about right.

A famous collected Aboriginal tale about some hunters that took a baby Bunyip away from its mother. In this account,we definitely have a description of both the larger and smaller sizes, and the definite statement that the creature is the young of the larger type.

A more elaborate, later illustration of the same scene, zooming in on only the mother creatu're's face. There is perhaps too much of the Western idea of the Devil being shown here, but also perhaps still some glimmerings of the original Diprotodon lingering through.

Many reports make mention of the whiskers on the snout and the large tusks in the mouth: if it is a Diprotodon, the teeth would be protruding rodent-like incisors rather than sharp canines. Diprotodons are missing the canine teeth.in this case the ears could be what were being represented as horns in the artwork.

Yowies, Alternative Explanation (5) An unknown apelike marsupial. One fossil candidate is the Mountain diprotodont (Hulitherium thomasetti), a Late Pleistocene marsupial with a domed head and short muzzle discovered in Papua New Guinea in 1986. Its mobile limbs may have allowed it to stand upright or walk on its hind legs like a bear. Some Cryptozoologists theorize that the traditional Yahoo or Yowie was this bearlike marsupial and then the more Bigfoot-like creature was a myth of modern times. To this I would say, this theory in no way agrees with any of the older depictions made for the creature, but the suggestion does have some merit in explaining some reports. I would imagine the Marsupial Panda has been wiped out in the twentieth century in any event.

Eberhart Mysterious Creatures Article on the Bunyip
Mystery Marsupialof Australia. Etymology: Probably derived from the Aus- tralian Banib. A “monster of Aboriginal legend, supposed to haunt water-holes; any freak or im- postor,” according to G. A. Wilkes, Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, 3d ed. (Sydney, Aus- tralia: Sydney University Press, 1990). The form Bahnyip appeared in the Sydney Gazette in 1812. Bernard Heuvelmans thought the word derived from Bunjil, the supreme being of the Victorian Aborigines. The name is widely used in Victoria and New South Wales and was first heard by whites in the Sydney area. By 1852, the word had become a synonym for “impostor” or “hum- bug” in Sydney. The term bunyip aristocracy refers to snobbish Australian conservatives. Variant names: Banib, Bunnyar (in Western Australia), Bunyup, Burley beast, Dongus (in New South Wales), Gu-ru-ngaty (Thurawal/ Australian, New South Wales), Kajanprati, Katenpai, Kianpraty (in Victoria), Kine praty, Kinepràtia, Kuddimudra, Mirree-ulla (Wirad- huri/Australian, New South Wales), Mochel Mochel, Moolgewanke, Munni munni (in Queensland), Toor-roo-don (in Victoria), Tum- bata (in Victoria), Tunatpan, Waa-Wee, Wan- gul (in Western Australia), Wouwai (near Lake Macquarie, New South Wales).
Physical description: According to Tony Healy and Paul Cropper, about 60 percent of the sight- ings resemble seals or swimming dogs, and 20 percent are long-necked creatures with small heads. (The remainder are too ambiguous to categorize.)
Seal-dog variety—Seal-like. Length, 4–6 feet. Shaggy, black or brown hair. Round head and whiskers like a seal’s, otter’s, or bulldog’s. Shin- ing eyes. Prominent ears. No tail.
Long-necked variety—Length, 5–15 feet. Black or brown fur. Head like a horse’s or an emu’s. Large ears. Small tusks. Elongated, maned neck about 3 feet long, with many folds of skin. Four legs. Three toes. Horselike tail.
Behavior: Amphibious. Nocturnal. Swims swiftly with fins or flippers. Loud, roaring call. Eats crayfish. Lays eggs in platypus nests in un- derwater burrows. Said by the Aborigines to be a guardian water spirit that eats women and children and causes sickness. Tracks:Three-toed. Emulike.[Emph. added.Traditionally, the tracks are "Old 3-Toes" tracks again-DD] Habitat: Lakes, rivers, and swamps. Distribution:Traditions range throughout the continent, with sightings centered in Victoria, southern New South Wales, and eastern South Australia.

Significant sightings: In June 1801, mineralo- gist Joseph Charles Bailly of the French Le Géo- graphe Expedition reported hearing the bellow of some large animal in the Swan River, Western Australia. Hamilton Hume and James Meehan found skulls and bone fragments of amphibious ani- mals the day after they discovered Lake Bathurst, New South Wales, in April 1818. The earliest sightings by a colonist were at Lake Bathurst by Edward Smith Hall (later a founder of the Bank of New South Wales), who saw both the seal-dog and the long-necked vari- eties. In November 1821, Hall saw a black Bun- yip with a bulldog’s head thrashing in the water for five minutes. In December 1822, he was drying himself off after bathing in the eastern end of the lake when he saw a 3-foot, black head and neck gliding along the surface for about 300 yards. Some of the reports in the lake of animals with bulldoglike heads that made noises like a porpoise were possibly prompted by seals, which are known to have migrated to the nearby Mul- ware River in 1947. Employees of George Holder (or Hopper) saw two horselike Bunyips in Paika Lake, New South Wales, in the 1840s. Atholl Fletcher found a fresh skull along the lower Murrumbidgee River, New South Wales, in 1846. The top of the cranium, the front of the snout, and the lower jaw were missing. The cra- nium was about 9 inches long. The eye sockets were abnormally close to the upper jaw. No other bones were present. It was first examined by James Grant, who considered it to be a fetal skull of an unknown animal. William S. Macleay in Sydney also considered it to be from a young an- imal, possibly a fetus; comparing it to a fetal mare’s skull, he thought it most likely belonged to a deformed colt. Based on an illustration, Sir Richard Owen in England pronounced it a calf’s skull. It was taken to the Australian Museum in Sydney but has long since vanished. The Aborig- inal name for the animal was said to be Katenpai.

Geologist E. J. Dunn observed several ani- mals swimming in the flooded Murrumbidgee River near Gundagai in 1850. A naturalist named Stocqueler reported “freshwater seals” in the Goulburn and Murray Rivers, New South Wales, in 1857. Horsemen saw a whitish, dog-sized animal in 1886 along the River Molonglo, Australian Capital Territory. On September 8, 1949, L. Keegan and his wife reported they had seen a 4-foot animal with shaggy ears several times over the past two weeks in the Lauriston Reservoir, Victoria. They claimed it used its ears in swimming through the water at tremendous speed. In the 1960s, Jack Mitchell collected many re- ports by Aborigines, farmers, and tourists of a seal-dog Bunyip in the Macquarie River between Wellington and Warren, New South Wales. A roaring animal that splattered mud around the bank of the Nerang River was heard near Gilston, Queensland, in 1965. supernatural being by the Aborigines of south- eastern Australia at the time of white settlement. There are few modern sightings, and most are vague or fanciful. The long-necked variety of Bunyip has not been reported since the nine- teenth century and may be extinct.
Possible explanations: (1) Australian fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) or Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea) that stray inland through the river systems might explain some sightings of the seal-dog Bunyip. In the nineteenth century, these were known to travel many miles up the Murray, Shoalhaven, and Murrumbidgee Rivers. Elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) were also known along the coast. Either of these animals seen unexpectedly in an un- usual habitat could be misidentified. (2) An unknown form of freshwater seal endemic to southeastern Australia. (3) Booming calls of the Brown bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus) of Victoria and New South Wales have been attributed to the Bun- yip. One of its nicknames is the “bunyip bird.” (4) The Musk duck (Biziura lobata) was re- sponsible for one report in Sydney in 1960. (5) Some reports may have involved large Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii peelii), which grow to more than 5 feet. (6) The Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), the largest living reptile, is found in northern Australia, but it may have been known to Aborigines in the south in pre- colonial times, forming the basis for a Bun- yip legend. Mature males average 14–16 feet long and are generally dark, with lighter tan or gray areas. (7) An Australian version of the long-necked Freshwater Monster. (8) Aboriginal legends of surviving Quater- nary marsupials. Two candidates are the ter- restrial, herbivorous, tapir-snouted Palor- chestes, suggested by Tim Flannery and Michael Archer, said to have been the size of a bull, or Diprotodon optatum, the largest known marsupial, about 10 feet long with a 3-foot skull, suggested by C. W. Anderson and Karl Shuker. Neither were amphibious, however.[A suggestion has been made that the amphibious adaptation was not original but was adopted under stress from hunters and from drought conditions-DD] (9) An unknown species of otterlike marsupial.

Sources: “The Bunyip, or Kine pratie,” Sydney Morning Herald, January 21, 1847, p. 2; William H. Hovell, “The Apocryphal Animal of the Interior of New South Wales,” Sydney Morning Herald,February 9, 1847; William Sharp Macleay, “On the Skull Now Exhibited at the Colonial Museum of Sydney, As That of the ‘Bunyip,’” Sydney Morning Herald,July 14, 1847; William Westgarth, Australia Felix (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1848); Ronald C. Gunn, “On the ‘Bunyip’ of Australia Felix,” Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science3 (1849): 147–149; John Morgan, The Life and Adventures of William Buckley (Hobart, Tasm., Australia: A. Macdougall, 1852), pp. 48, 108–109; Moreton Bay (Queensl.) Free Press, April 15, 1857, p. 3; Charles Gould, “Large Aquatic Animals,” Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1872, pp. 32–41; Robert Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia: Government Printer, 1878); William Hardy Wilson,The Cow Pasture Road(William Hardy Wilson, 1920), p. 19; C. W. Anderson, “The Largest Marsupial,”Australian Museum Magazine2 (1924): 113–116; John Gale, Canberra: History and Legends(Queanbeyan, N.S.W., Australia: A. M. Fallick, 1927); Charles Fenner, Bunyips and Billabongs(Sydney, Australia: Angus and Robertson, 1933); Gilbert Whitley, “Mystery Animals of Australia,” Australian Museum Magazine7 (1940): 132–139; Charles Barrett, The Bunyip and Other Mythical Monsters and Legends(Melbourne, Australia: Reed and Harris, 1946), pp. 7–30; Alan Marshall, “Bunyips Never Whistle,” Melbourne Argus Magazine,December 14, 1951; K.G. Dugan, “Darwin and Diprotodon:The Wellington Cave Fossils and the Law of Succession,” Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales104 (1980): 265–272; Patricia Vickers-Rich and Gerard Van Tets, eds., Kadimakara: Extinct Vertebrates of Australia (Lilydale, Vic., Australia: Pioneer Design Studio, 1985), pp. 17, 234–244; W. S. Ramson, ed., The Australian National Dictionary (Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 109–110; Christopher Smith, “A Second Look at the Bunyip,” INFO Journal,no. 64 (October 1991): 11–13, 37; Tony Healy and Paul Cropper, Out of the Shadows: Mystery Animals of Australia(Chippendale, N.S.W., Australia: Ironbark, 1994), pp. 161–180; Malcolm Smith, Bunyips and Bigfoots(Alexandria, N.S.W., Australia: Millennium Books, 1996), pp. 1–24; Robert Holden and Nicholas Holden, Bunyips: Australia’s Folklore of Fear(Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2001).