Mapinguari

Cryptids Creatures (28 items)
list by filthyhandsgod

According to Brazilian stories, the Mapinguari or Mapinguary was once an Amazonian shaman who discovered the key to immortality thousands of years ago. He angered the gods and was severely punished for his discovery, which forced him to be transformed into a wandering, hairy beast for the rest of his life.

Due to the application of the name to what seem to be different cryptids, modern sightings show the beast as a giant sloth, whereas older sightings described it as an ape-like creature. Many cryptozoologists speculate that the Mapinguari is either a mylodontid or a megalonychid, medium-sized giant ground sloths from the Ice Age that lived in the area. The creature also supposedly has a horrid odor, which supposedly can knock a man unconcious. It is said to sometimes be a humanoid creature with a mouth in the middle of its stomach. It is sometimes said to have one eye, long claws, caiman skin, backward feet and a second mouth on its belly. Some samples of Mapinguari "hair" and "droppings" were collected by investigator David Oren, but turned out to be the deposits of giant anteaters and the hair of small rodents.

Initial descriptions of the mapinguari's appearance were vague. It was described as a primate, dark and thickset and bipedal, but still very agile. The traditional, folkloric depiction of the mapinguari is that of an ape- or man-like creature. It was described to investigator Paulo Aníbal G. Mesquita as a flat-snouted quadrupedal animal (which could nonetheless assume a bipedal gait) with caiman-like skin, long brown fur, a flattened snout, and robust claws. When startled it was said to rear up on its hind legs and show its claws, and some informants told Mesquita that it emitted an "extremely foul odour from its belly".