Curupira, And Other South American Wildmen

 

 

http://patagoniamonsters.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html

An index on South American Wild Men

(Click on the links below to read the Patagonian Monsters information for these creatures)

• CURUPI and YASY YATERE, Paraguay.
• CAAPORA, Paraguay
  Caapora - another wild man
• SAVAGE MAN, Venezuela
  The "Savage" Man of Venezuela
• SAVAGE MAN, Tucuyo, Venezuela.
  Ape men and Water Tigers in the 1620s
• CORUPIRA and BORARO, Amazon
  Korupira, the red haired Amazonian man
• SACHARUNA or CHULLACHAQUI, Peru.
  Sacharuna or chullachaqui the “jungle men”
• DIDI and NON DESCRIPT, Guyana
  Ape Men (Neanderthal?) sightings in South America

Corupira and all variants prob. originally variants of Corpo pelos, hairy body. Recorded synonyms for Wild Man include Sylvestres, Sauvages, Hommes Sauvages, Pilosi, Homo pilosus (Hairy man) and some of these are recorded from South America and used as caual synonyms for rumoured hairy subhumans such as the Didi and Maricoxi
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/08/some-impressions-of-texan-and-n-mexican.html

Curupira Little People of South America. Etymology: From the Guaraní (Tupí) curumim (“boy”) + pira (“body”). Kuru in Aché means “short” or “small.” Variant names: Caá-porá (“mountain lord”), Caiçara (for the female), Caipora, Cayporé, Coropira, Corubira (Bakairí/Carib), Kaaguerre, Kaapore, Korupira (Tupí/Guaraní), Kurupi (Guaraní), Kurú-piré (Guaraní), Yurupari (Tucano/ Tucanoan). Physical description: Height, 3–4[5] feet. Covered with hair. Red or yellow skin. Large head like a chimpanzee. Red head-hair. Shaggy mane around the neck. Flattened nose. Large mouth. Green or blue teeth. Large feet, said to point backwards. Crooked toes. Behavior: Arboreal. Poor swimmer. Emits a birdlike whistle. Eats bananas. Said to smoke a pipe. Lives in hollow trees. Said to abduct children and rape women. Can shape-shift. Protects trees, forests, and game. Rides a pig or deer. Tracks: Apelike prints.[and humanlike prints, allegedly turned back to front] Habitat: Forests, hills, ravines, mountains. Distribution: Pará, Amazonas, and Pernambuco States in northern Brazil; Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Goiás States in southern Brazil; Misiones Department in Paraguay; Chaco Province, Argentina. Present status: Caipora has become a minor god in the Candomblé religion. Possible explanation: Surviving Protopithecus, a Late Pleistocene spider monkey known from fossils in eastern Brazil. Sources: Charles Carter Blake, “Note on Stone Celts, from Chiriqui,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, new ser., 2 (1863): 166–170; Herbert H. Smith, Brazil: The Amazons and the Coast (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1879), pp. 560–569; Daniel G. Brinton, “The Dwarf Tribe of the Upper Amazon,” American Anthropologist 11 (1898): 277–279; Juan B. Ambrosetti, Supersticiones y leyendas (Buenos Aires: La Cultura Argentina, 1917), pp. 89–92; Luís da Câmara Cascudo, Dicionário do folclore Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, 1962), vol. 1, pp. 166–168, 261–262; Napoleão Figueiredo and Anaíza Vergolino e Silva, Festas de santo e encantados (Belém, Brazil: Academia Paraense de Letras, 1972); Maria Thereza Cunha de Giacomo, Curupira: Lenda indigena (São Paulo, Brazil: Melhoramentos, 1975); Karl Shuker, “On the Trail of the Curupira,” Fortean Times, no. 102 (September 1997): 17; John E. Roth, American Elves (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997), pp. 50–54, 83–89, 94–95, 107

Didi Unknown Primate of South America. Etymology: Possibly a Carib word. Variant names: Dai-dai, Didi-aguiri, Drudi- di, Massikruman, Quato. Physical description: Height, 5 feet. Reddishbrown or black hair or fur. Thickset, powerful build. Receding forehead. Heavy brows. Large eyes. Big-lobed ears. Flared nostrils. High cheekbones. Thick lips. Jutting jaw. Opposable thumbs. Long arms. Long, slender feet. No tail. Behavior: Shy. Swings arms while walking erect. Apparently lives and travels as part of a pair. Call is “hoo hoo” or a long, melancholy whistle, beginning in a high key then dying away. Builds crude brush houses from palm leaves. Throws sticks and mud. Accepts food that is left out for it. Said to be able to mate successfully with humans. Tracks: Apelike. Large toe joint of the male flares out, while the female’s does not.[Humanlike] Distribution: Mazaruni, Cotinga, Berbice, and Demerara Rivers in Guyana; French Guiana. Significant sightings: A British prospector named Haines came across two Didi in the Konawaruk Mountains, Guyana, in 1910. They were covered in reddish-brown hair. A guide named Miegam was traveling up the Berbice River in Guyana in 1918 with three others when they saw two hairy creatures on the riverbank. The creatures’ footprints looked apelike rather than human. Mycologist Gary Samuels observed a 5-foottall Didi about 60 feet away in the Guyanese forest in 1987. It walked past on two feet, making an occasional “hoo” sound. Sources: Edward Bancroft, An Essay on the Natural History of Guyana, in South America (London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1769), pp. 130–131; Charles Barrington Brown, Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana (London: E. Stanford, 1876), pp. 87–88, 123, 385; L. C. van Panhuys, “Are There Pygmies in French Guiana?” Proceedings of the International Congress of Americanists 13 (1905): 131–133; Nello Beccari, “Ameranthropoides loysi, gli Atelini e l’importanza della morfologia cerebrale nella classificazione delle scimmie,” Archivio per l’Antropologia e la Etnologia 73 (1943): 1–112; Ivan T. Sanderson, Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life (Philadelphia: Chilton, 1961), pp. 178–181; Mark A. Hall, Living Fossils: The Survival of Homo gardarensis, Neandertal Man, and Homo erectus (Minneapolis, Minn.: Mark A. Hall, 1999), pp. 50–51; Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe, The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide (New York: Avon, 1999), pp. 72, 183.

Maricoxi Wildm an of South America. Etymology: Arikapu (Macro-Ge) word. Variant name: Morocoxo (Rikbaktsa/Macro- Ge). Physical description: Covered with hair. Apelike. Sloping forehead. Heavy browridge. Long arms. Behavior: Makes grunting noises. Bad odor. Uses bow-and-arrow weapons. Lives in villages. Uses a horn when hunting. Distribution: Serra dos Parecis, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Significant sighting: On an expedition to the area in 1914, Percy H. Fawcett encountered two hairy people who threatened him with bows and arrows and then ran away. Later, he came across a village in a clearing where they lived and was again approached menacingly. Fawcett fired a pistol and managed to retreat. Sources: Percy H. Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett (London: Hutchinson, 1953), pp. 200–202; Ivan T. Sanderson, “Hairy Primitives or Relic Submen in South America,” Genus 18 (1962): 60–74; Fritz Tolksdorf and Christian Darby, “Great White Chief of the Cannibals,” Argosy, July 1971, p. 42.

 

Didi, or Coaa-pora (Female and Male sightings)

 




Curupi
The stories that it wrapped its penis around the waist is more likely to be a reference to a be a rawhide belt or a
 loinclolth including an animal tail hanging at the back (Or wound around theneck it seems)

 

The standard Curupiri is of less than usual human height, but stocky build,

and the facial features are strongly Neanderthaloid .

Caapura



curuoira
The Creature is associated with wild pigs: more likely they like to steal the piglets to eat
"Feet turned in backward" is a common story told about the wildmen generally worldwide.



Curupira

The myths of many lands including Peru describe the creatures as like satyrs in their lustful habits

curupi

The name alternatively  is supposed to mean "Wooly Leg"



mohan



Mohan_pijao



pombero

 

Pombero (Dwendi Version, Poss=Mono  Grande?)

Maricoxi meet Fawcett

The Caa Pora of Gustavo Desimone   Obviously intended to represent the orangutan sort of Mapinguary (Mono Rey). The eyes on stalks are the artist's personal  embellishment, since the  creature otherwise does not seem to have a regular head     



Alternative classification scheme. The big one in back should be more human-like and is the same as the 'Patagonian Giants'

 



Uruyali

Man v. Monster, Attack of the Brazilian Mapinguari

Man v. Monster

Attack of the Brazilian Mapinguari

FRIDAYS 10P


http://misterioamazonia.blogspot.com/2012/05/lenda-do-mapinguari.html

Mapinguary from a Portugese-Language Website "Legends of the Amazon (Amazonias)" which also has a Sucuriju Gigante article I hope to run here soon also.

Conventionalized outline of Mapinguari. Apelike build with one eye, "Mouth on body"

Mono Rey or Mapinguari (BUT NOT ISNACHI!) by TheMorlock on Deviant art
(The Pelobo as described in Agrosy letter column of ca.1975 and the Mono Rey of Monster of the Madidi
 are both described as being gigantic, upright, tailless red howler monkeys weighing in the realm of
250-300 pounds but usually less than average human height.)

Areas of Mapinguari and Mono Rey reports, red circle on map of South America at left. The orange circle represents the Mato Grosso where Ivan Sanderson placed the Mapinguari reports but actually described something else (a "Cattle-Mutilations Monster") Mapinguari reports ARE all over Brazil but may allege larger and smaller variations locally. The reports in the red-circled area are interesting in that the "One eyed monster" and the "Big Monkey" reports seem to mean the same creature more easily. "Mono Rey" reports are more common south into the Bolivian area.

Computer-generated Mapinguari attack. It is easy enough to see an original Orangutan-shaped head as being the origin of such an impression as is shown here

Conquistadores in search of Eldorado meet the Mapinguari. Stories about the Mapinguari are indeed old enough for this

Mythical Mapinguari (Right) and Groundsloth (Left). Clearly two different things.

More Mayan Monkeys (Apes)

From Ivan Sanderson's book Abominable Snowmen: legend come to Life, we know of two quite distinct unknown Primates of the Mayan lands, the Sisimite and the Dwendi. Rather than make exceptions to this idea, I think we should review the information given on them:

p.159

"There live in the mountain forests very big, wild men, completely clothed in short, thick, brown, hairy fur, with no necks, small eyes, long arms and huge hands. They leave footprints twice the length of a man's[and sometimes allegedly turned back-to-front]".
The area in question was in Baja Verapaz, around the town of Cubulco. Cubulco is the last vestige of civilization, the road ends there, and for all intents and purposes so does everything. The range of mountains in question is the Sierra de Chuacus, whose greatest peak is Mt. (Cerro) Sanché, 8500 feet elevation. Depending on which direction you're coming from, there are between 5 and 7 ridges from the floor of the Cubulco Valley [Rio Cubulco, which eventually joins the Rio Negro to the north roughly 20 kilometers] to C. Sanché. Further than this, I would not want to speculate as to range of this alleged creature. I have coloured in a patch on the enclosed map which depicts the approximate range according to what the natives told me, which means it would range into the departmento of El Quiche. (See Map V.)
Cubulco itself, at about 4200 feet, is really "tierra templada," and the area in question ranges up to "tierra fria." The vegetation is open pine and oak forests on the slopes, and many high plateau areas are covered with grass, as is the Cubulco environ. Along the margins of the highlands where rainfall is greatest, the oak and pine forest merges with the rain forest. Temperature ranges from 30°F to 90°F, and while I have no good figures on rainfall, it is considerably less than, say, Coban.
Now, as to "what the natives said." They referred to a large, hairy creature, which sometimes walked on two legs, and apparently ran on all fours. I considered bear first of all, and queried them regarding size, shape, appearance, etc. The answer was that it looked like a bear, but it wasn't from the description they gave—no conspicuous ears, no "snout"—it was somewhat taller [or "Somewhat shorter"]  than a man, and considerably broader, covered with darkish hair, and the locals live in mortal dread of disturbing it. Occasionally, one or two of the natives who got drunk or particularly boastful would go half way up the ridge and make a big show of "hunting" it, but no one has ever killed one that I learned. Several persons reported they were chased by it down the mountain, although with the fear they have of whatever it is, they probably just caught a glimpse of

p. 160

it and ran all the way down the mountain at top speed. No one seemed very anxious to guide us to the spot, or spots, but one of the braver souls agreed to do so finally. Unfortunately, we never got to it, for which you will curse, no doubt. I have no way of determining from their descriptions whether it was a bear or a Sisemite or something else, but it would seem reasonable that something is back there. You will be somewhat interested in the fact that the natives reported to me that this thing "calls" every so often, and they hear it from time to time when they are travelling about the ridges.

And then later on

Both these peoples—the regular British Hondurans or Belizians, and the Coast Caribs—assert that there dwell in the tall, wet forests of the southern half of their country certain small semi-human creatures which they call Dwendis, a form of Duende, Spanish for goblin. To the very well-educated Belizians, these are regarded more as we regard fairies than as real entities—unless they have lived or worked in the southern forested area. Then they, like the Caribs, take quite an- other view of the matter. I lived in that country off and on for years while we traveled Central America and the West Indies, and I talked to innumerable people there about them. Dozens told me of having seen them, and these were mostly men of substance who had worked for responsible organizations like the Forestry Department and who had, in several cases, been schooled or trained either in Europe or the United States. One, a junior forestry officer born locally, described in great detail two of these little creatures that he had suddenly noticed quietly watching him on several occasions at the edge
p. 165
of the forestry reserve near the foot of the Maya Mountains when he was "cruising" and marking young mahogany trees. His description of them coincided with that of all the others who were serious.
These little folk were described as being between three foot six and four foot six, well proportioned but with very heavy shoulders and rather long arms; clothed in thick, tight, close, brown hair looking like that of a short-coated dog; having very flat yellowish faces but head-hair no longer than the body hair except down the back of the neck and midback. Everybody said that these Dwendis have very pronounced calves but that the most outstanding thing of all about them is that they almost always held either a piece of dried palm leaf or something looking like a large Mexican-type hat over their heads. This at first sounds like the silliest thing, but when one has heard it from highly educated men as well as from simple peasants, and of half a dozen nationalities and in three languages, and all over an area as great as that from the Peten to Nicaragua, one begins to wonder. Then, one day, I came across a lone chimpanzee in West Africa in an open patch of forest and on the ground; and, by jingo, it was solemnly holding a large section of dead palm frond over its head, just like an umbrella and looking exactly like a large Mexican straw hat!
Dwendis are said to appear suddenly in the forest both by day and night and to watch you from a discreet distance. They are silent but seem to be very curious. I heard of no case of their ever making any threatening move, but I was time and time again told of them chasing, sometimes catching, and carrying off dogs [presumably to eat them]. They are said to leave very deep little footprints, that have pointed heels.

At the top is a Mayan-Empire-Aged pot showing what I suspect might be a Dwendi holding a large leaf over itself as an umbrella, as Sanderson states" I thake the creature itself to be identical to the DeLoys Ape and the Shiru mentioned in Sanderson's book slightly further on, AND I expect it to be a larger form of lesser ape most closely allied to the Siamangs. In the photos below, the first is a spidermonkey and the next two are Siamangs.

It is my belief that the creature shown on the pot is larger and heavier than a spidermonkey, has different facial contours and a different nose, and it has no tail. Nor is it depicted in a way that the Mayas would have depiced spidermonkeys: they knew them well and could depict them at the same time accurately and in humorous caracature, and always with the tail, as below;

The style of the depictions on such pottery always reminds me of well- done Chinese and Japanese brushwork: the scribes definitely knew what they were about.

Below is the face of another such creature, once again with the nose of a completely different type than a spidermonkey's and probably depicting the "Dwendi"-Ape as a "Baby Monkey" with big eyes:

And here are a couple of them dancing from ornaments meant to be stuck into a lady's hair, photograph from Flickr from a series of several similar shots of the ornaments.

On the other hand, Sanderson's information concerning the Sisimite mixes descriptions of two different creatures, one of which leaving large human-looking prints thought to face backwards, and the other a large tailless ape that can walk erect but runs on all-fours. It could be that the confusion comes from collectors not knowing the distinction but possibly the confusion occurs at the local level. My impression is that locally the "Apes" are seen as one thing and the "Apemen" as their bastard offspring, but still a separate category. Below I add three reconstructions meant to show Sisemites, the first two probably illustrating an apeman and the second an ape, and the "Monkey" on the pot below I expect is a simplified and symbolic Sisimite. There are fuller depictions of the larger ape in Mayan artwork but they are hard to separate out from depictions of Apemen or depictions of Howler monkeys. The folklorists and Archaeologists tend to lump all of them together, BTW.

This depiction of "El Sisimite" below seems to me to be definitely an Orangutan, especially the face; and its backwards-turned feet in this case include an opposed toe facing foreward while the longer toes face back. Because of that, I think that we are talking about a track where the longer toes curl around and that the creature is the same as the "Bottlefoot" Mapinguari of the Mato Grosso.

Comment made on one website by Julio:
Re: Has anyone ever heard of the Sisimite? on 07-18-2009 9:25 a.m.

Apparently, some reports show the Sisimite as a man-ape, and others, is confused with the Goblin [Dwendi]or Sombrerón [Wears a Sombrero]. . . It is possible that the very word of Aztec origin "tzitzimitles" has been used to describe any kind of terror in general. So some anthropology books say seemingly meaningless things like "the Sisimite is a giant and a dwarf at a time.". .
See you later.. Julio..

Which would indicate that either the "Sisimite" or the "Dwendi" of Sanderson could be described as "Sisimites: and furthermore, "Dwendi" has the conventional meaning of a fairy-tale "Elf" and so much of the plain Folklore is actually in that vein: the same names are used to mean different things. And evidently "Sisimite" is an Aztec name, the Mayans use other names for it (Such as Cax-Vinic), and we are passing through layers of translations.

Mayan figurine of "Black Howler Monkey"-Except for the tail, a fair representation of an "Apeman"

Two Face-"Haches"(derived from Olmec figural celts): the one on the left is said to represent a Black Howler Monkey and the one on the right is supposed to represent its "Apeman" offspring

Handout for mythological humanoids believed to have fed into stories of the Sisimite and Mapinguari in Central and South America. The top entry represents cannibals and the version of "Headless Man" stories involved more usually show it as a Cyclops in the New World.








Best Wishes, Dale D.

Please see also this blog's reprint article on the Sisimite:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/05/repost-dale-drinnon-sisimite-tzitzimitl.html

Sample Comparisons for Latin-American Cryptids

 This is my recent pasteup to indicate the size of the head in a Gigantic Boa (Sucuriju) Based on Titanoboa.
I had done this with the idea I was showing "The Black Boa" but I cannot be certain that the sightings I am using for scale did not belong to the more usual Sucuriju Gigante. In particular I wanted to illustrate how big and heavy the head is if it is as large as the reports say, and also the vey large size of the eye as reported ("The size of plates" or larger). If the snakes really are this big then about the only prey animals large enough to sustain them would have to be caimans

I also did a composite showing a basilisk lizard running in comparison to a repoted "Chupacabras" from a company that prints it as a logo onto t-shirts and such.This type of "Chupa" reports extend from Texas and the SW USA through Mexico and Central America, Colombia and Venezuela to Brazil, and to Northern Argentina and Chile. They not only correspond to descriptions given iin Conquistadore days and traditionally, they are similar to depictions made in Pre-Columbian Art where even some of the given names sound similar to "Chupacabras" : and Chupacabras (goat-sucker) is also the name given to certain large lizards (and snakes) in the belief that they drink the goat's milk. This legend is also verifiably traditional in Mexico and most of the rest of Latin America.


Just as a reminder, all of these points have been discussed on this blog before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History: "The first reported attacks occurred in March 1995 in Puerto Rico...In 1975, similar killings in the small town of Moca, were attributed to El Vampiro de Moca (The Vampire of Moca)..[At about that same time, mutilations of sheep and goats were being attributed to a creature described as a "Snake on its (hind) legs" with a sawtoothed ridge down its back, which was called by the Comanche name Timbo (Hairless) as well as other names of other traditional figures from Native Folklore according to region, the Navajo name Kleesto also being used, but probably improperly-DD] ...Puerto Rican comedian and entrepreneur Silverio Pérez is credited with coining the term chupacabras soon after the first incidents were reported in the press. Shortly after the first reported incidents in Puerto Rico, [similar reported creatures and] other animal deaths were reported in other countries, such as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Brazil, United States, and Mexico.^[5]
5^ ^{a b c d} Stephen Wagner. "On the trail of the Chupacabras". http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa051898.htm. Retrieved October 5, 2007
[Silviero Perez at best only recycled the pre-existing name for the Folkloric "Milk Snake/Lizard" which otherwise has been the subject of legends running as far back as Roman times, at least-DD]

Appearance: The most common description of chupacabras is a reptile-like being, appearing to have leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back.^[40] This form stands approximately 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 m) high, and stands and [runs on its hind legs or] hops in a similar fashion to a kangaroo.^[41] In at least one sighting, the creature was reported to hop[jump] 20 feet (6 m). This variety is said to have a dog or lizard-like nose and face, a forked tongue, and large fangs. It is said to hiss and screech when alarmed, as well as leave behind a sulfuric stench.^[41] ...Some reports assert that the chupacabras' eyes are coloured an unusual red [and the stench from the bowels] gives the witnesses nausea.
[This form is also said to climb rocks and trees well and to leap down out of trees when disturbed. it also dives into water where it can swim away rapidly and it is sometimes referred to under traditional names for water-monsters as well. Its total legth including the tail usually ranges from 6 to 10 or 12 feet long-DD]
41^ ^{a b c} Stephen Wagner. "The Top 10 Most Mysterious Creatures of Modern Times". http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa010101b.htm. Retrieved October 5, 2007.

....Another description of chupacabras, although not as common, describes a strange breed of wild dog.^[41] This form is mostly hairless and has a pronounced spinal ridge, unusually pronounced eye sockets, fangs, and claws. It is claimed that this breed might be an example of a dog-like reptile...
[This latter kind is most definitely based on feral dogs and sometimes foxes or coyotes, diseased with scabies and the mange, and generally in a bad way when they are found. several examples of the type have been killed or produced as corpses: they are invariably hairless canids or canids with the hair reduced to a ridge along the spine. Almost all of the supposed "Animal Mutilation" cases can also be attributed to them]
[The Wikipedia article also says the Chilean Peuchen are analogous to Chupacabras, but that creature is more definitely a giant vampire bat. There are several other creatures in Chilean lore that are better fits and much more like the modern Chupacabras reports: Currently the term Chupacabras is used anyway-DD]

Precolumbian statue showing giant iguanid lizard with characteristic boss at angle of jaw, dewlap under chin and spiny crest down back: similar to other such depictions from Mexico to Peru, all depictions varying a great deal in artistic quality of course. The scale represented in such depictions is consistent with the recent reports. From the Larousse Mythology  reference encyclopedia. [DD Personal Files]

Chart comparing the various known apes and man at the top, from appendix to Time-Life Nature Library book Evolution.
Bottom row shows reported size range for both Mono Grande and Mono Rey in different parts of South America. Males only shown. The Mono Rey comes in sizes from about the size of a standard siamang to the size of a small and slender chimpanzee: the Mono Rey comes from chimpanzee to gorilla sizes basically, although the larger sizes might be much exaggerated (perhaps doubled).

Both Mono Grande and Mono Rey appear to be variations on recognisable types of ASIATIC apes.Colours are very diverse but smaller ones tend to be dark or black and larger ones more reddish brown. I suspect that the standard "Yeti" sizes are much like the Mono Rey.

CFZ REPRINT:
http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2009/11/dale-drinnon-looking-at-chupacabra-part.html

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

DALE DRINNON: Looking at the Chupacabra (Part One)

Knowing of our involvement with things apertaining to the Puerto Rican goatsuckers, Dale sent us several of his musings on the nature of the chupacabra, which we read with great interest. We have condensed them into a two-part article.

Early on in the Frontiers of Zoology group I had posted a link to a site that said that chupacabras depradations were being caused by giant vampire bats. All well and good; Shuker had mentioned reports of these giant vampire bats, and the website specified that they ranged from a wingspan of a foot to a few feet, walked on all fours on the ground and the largest ones were the size of a small dog on the ground. This is generally comparable with reports and traditions elsewhere in Latin America.

But there is a complication; there are different types of giant bats in the New World being reported and their characteristics are quite different.

While I was working for the Anthropology department at IUPUI I came across some photographs of some stone statues from Colombia, illustrating something that reminded me strikingly of Ivan Sanderson's Ahool drawing from Investigating the Unexplained. These reference photos were on file at the department and the captions stated that such 'Bat-effigies' were found occasionally from the American southwest to northern Argentina. Later I realised that these same figures were well known in Mesoamerica and related to the Mayan Kamazotz (Camazotz): in some of the UFO books, Kamazotz stories are ascribed to the Ikhals. They were said to stand on their hind legs as tall as a small child (2-3 feet or so) but were still regular bats, and ordinarily fish-eaters. And they are still being reported as chupacabras in some regions (notable examples from the southwest and illustrated on Cryptomundo, but known in 'Big Bird' lore from Texas in the mid-1970s, as bat-winged and monkey-faced, differing from the usual 'Big Bird' reports)

Moreover, the typical vampires of South American lore are chonchons, said to be a human head flying on ears transformed into batwings a fathom wide. Eberhart's Mysterious Creatures has entries on all of these giant bats, and the usual explanation given is they are all giant vampre bats.



pajaro-batchupa-chile
est 1 meter tall, wingspan at least 3.5m


It is not that simple: you have a small, medium-sized and a very large giant bat species emerging from these reports, and the medium-sized one is on a scale comparable to an Old-World flying fox (fruit-eating mega-bat) The largest is pretty much exactly comparable to an Ahool. The smallest reported unknown bat would be the giant vampire bat, the medium-sized one would be a giant false vampire bat, the chonchon. It is the size of a flying fox and the body of a flying fox is about the apparant size of a human's head.
 

So the smallest one is the bat with a wingspan of a foot or two, but it is the blood-drinker. The others are innocent but get the blame; however, false vampire bats are still predatory and one that size might give a human a bad mauling if it was very frightened or rabid. And while the biggest one gets blamed for such things as haunting graveyards and kidnapping children, it would much rather keep to itself. The big one is at least comparable in size to a big owl or a big eagle, unless stories are very much exaggerated



Cryptid Bat Photo, 2003 in Brazil; estimated as Eagle-sized



Best Wishes, Dale D.