Alien Big Cats, or ABCs, are not cats from outer space. Instead, they are large cats that look something like black panthers, leopards, African lions, or cougars, but they are seen in Britain. They are "alien" in the sense that they are not thought to be native to the area. Most sightings are confined to the wildest places, especially swamps. A number of the more famous cases have received unique, local names, such as the Beast of Bodmin Moor or the Fiskerton Phantoms. Several dead bodies of the smaller type of ABC have turned out to be hybrids between the Scottish wildcat and domestic house cats. The larger varieties that look like a specific species such as leopards are generally presumed to be escaped exotic pets. These are often kept illegally by their owners, so the authorities never know how many of these might be around. However, the hardest skeptics, including the British government, tend to reject even the exotic pet hypothesis in favor of hoaxes and killings done by Scottish wildcats. A number of leopard skulls found on the moors have turned out to be from leopard-skin rugs, adding to the controversy. Some cryptozoologists believe that Britain has secretly supported a population of leopards, European lynxes, or some other species of wild feline for thousands of years with a total population of about 30. This assertion is supported by folklore. There is no time when people did not sight ABCs in the wilds of Britain. ABC sightings stretch back into the mists of prehistory. Before science replaced older explanations, these cats were usually thought to be demons in the form of cats, fairy cats or shapeshifting witches. There has also be a recent substantiation when in August 2000, a boy in South Wales was attacked by a creature resembling a panther. Some researchers in the field of cryptozoology use the label "alien big cat" to refer to any large feline glimpsed in an environment where it is not supposed to be a native animal. Thus, tigers seen in Africa or American lions or Appalachian Black Panthers would also count as ABCs. Sometimes, smaller cats are included in this label as well, as is the case sometimes with sightings of the Scottish wildcat in England. Britain is not the only place that they are found though. There are reports of cougars or pumas near the Australian city of Perth and more recently, a series of camera traps captured images of at least four jaguars in the state of Oklahoma (although whether these are native or migrants from Arizona is unknown. Also there are creatures out of place that aren't listed as cryptids, such as bull sharks in Illinois, piranhas in USA or even chimpanzees going into a killing spree in Florida.
Vampire Beast. The killings first happened on December 29, 1954, when a farmer reported a large cat-like beast has attacked one of his dogs and dragged it to an underbrush. More killings happened on New Years Day, 1955, where two dogs were found dead, all of their blood was drained out. The next day two more dogs were attacked by the mystery predator. On January 6, 1954, a 21-year-old mother named Mrs. C.E. Kinlaw walked outside one morning at 7:30 am and saw the beast stalking towards her. She screamed and ran inside the house. Her husband ran outside with a shotgun and saw the beast left cat-like paw prints. A farmer also reported a mystery creature killed three of his hogs, some of his cows, and one of his goats. The goat's head was fat and fritter. People also heard weird noises that sounded cat like, and some that sounded like a baby crying and a woman screaming. Locals reported seeing a creature that was part bear and part panther, it was three to four feet long, twenty inches high, weighing 150 pounds. It has brownish and tabby with bushy fur. The beast also has runty looking ears with a long tail and a cat-like face. These were the only descriptions of the Vampire Beast. The town's police chief, Roy Fores, organized a hunt for the creature but came up empty handed. When the Mayor, W.G Fussell, told the news papers about the creature. The beast got national publicity and hunters all the way from Tennessee. Newspapers from Arizona to New York made coverages for the hunts for the beast. Meanwhile the town was in chaos. Children were not allowed out at night and men stormed the forests with guns trying to find the creature. After a large bobcat was killed by a hunter, Fores and Fussell but end to the search, and after that, things started to settle down again. The beast returned to North Carolina in 2007, bringing more surprises and fear with it. In Lexington, 60 goats were found with their blood drained and their heads crushed. Thirty miles away in Greensboro, another farmer lost his goats in the same way. In Bolivia, a man named Bill Robinson lost his pit bull to the creature. He buried it, but the next day it was in the same location where it was killed. Four days later, another resident, Leon Williams, found his pit bull dead, it was covered in blood and it was missing a few body parts. There was sign of a struggle, which is strange for a pit bull. Other places lost a total amount of ten dogs in just two weeks. More tracks were found, these ones were measured 4 and a half inches in diameter. In 2008, TV show MonsterQuest did a search for the beast. They concluded that what people may have been seeing and killing, was a cougar. However, the cougars has been dismissed as extinct throughout the east coast of America, except the tip of Florida.
The Cactus cat is a mythical creature that has been reported in the American Southwest. It's described as a bobcat-like animal with thorn-like fur, sharp bones protruding from its front legs, and a branched tail. The cactus cat has been sighted in the Southwestern desert, in states such as California Nevada and New Mexico. Cowboys and pioneers of the nineteenth century reported these strange beasts coming out at night, slashing open cacti, and drinking the exposed sap. This caused the cats to enter a drunken state, stumbling around and rarely attacking travelers. The story of the cactus cat is probably fueled by numerous cases of misidentification, most likely being a bobcat or a mountain lion.
The Sliver Cat (Felis glabraspiculata) is a bizarre creature from the tales of the lumberjacks of North America, known as a fearsome critter. It is a big tree-dwelling mammalian creature that resembles a cat but has a long tail with a spiky hard ball in the end. Its ears are tasseled and its eyes red, with horizontal slits. This creature is very dangerous. It preys on unsuspecting animals and occasionally humans. The Sliver Cat ambushes them from the trees, knocking them unconscious with its tail. It would then drag the body up into its nest to devour it at its leisure.
The Iemisch, Yemisch or water tiger is a mythical creature from the Tehuelche people of Patagonia, South America. It is said to resemble a fox in the upper-part, and serpent in the lower. It was first mentioned in Ameghino’s 1898 Mylodon paper. Ameghino contended that his Neomylodon and Iemsich were the same creature. Could he have been correct in his assumption? It has a short head, large fangs and its external ears rudimentary. It had short and flat feet (plantigrade) with three fingers on its front paws and four on the rear ones, joined by a rotatory membrane with formidable claws. The tail is long, depressed and prehensile. The body is covered with short, hard and rigid hairs, of a uniform brownish color. The size is said to be larger than that of a puma, but with shorter legs and a much thicker body. It uses its powerful tail to crush its enemies and then drags them to its lair to be devoured It is said that its body cannot be penetrated by missiles or burning branches. Surprisingly, before Ameghino, not one single Patagonian explorer had ever mentioned the Iemisch; and there are no other records of any Aonikenk myths referring to an animal named Iemisch. To be fair, there are references to Aonikenk monsters such as Goshg-e, which though not described as aquatic, was very similar to the Iemisch in its dreadful size and aggressiveness. For this reason, Ameghino’s Iemisch was quickly under attack by other scientists, so he was forced to defended himself. In a letter dated April 4th, 1901 to German-Brazilian Dr. Herman von Ihering he said that “the references to Jemisch [sic] are exploited in ill faith. I have not described the Neomylodon by references but from the mentioned bones […] and simply referred the descriptions of a large mammal that inhabits the Patagonian lakes […] if these descriptions are not reliable, the blame is not mine […] Probably there is not only one mysterious mammal living in Patagonia, but several”. In his letter he enclosed a clipping of the Buenos Aires daily La Nación, in which his witnesses were not voluble natives, but supposedly more reliable “white people”. Regarding the article, Ameghino noted that “Steinkanpen was accompanied by two cow hands by the name Montesinos who live in Chubut and two sons, one aged 18, the other 16. The five of them saw the monster. Mr. Zubizarreta was accompanied by several soldiers. I have spoken to others who have shot at Jemish [sic] from a distance of 3 meters [9 ft.]”. Shortly before, on March 3rd, 1901, his brother had written to him cheerfully “it seems that the mylodon has been seen this time in the mountains by the Gallegos River by neighbors of that place, and it is not improbable that any moment we may get the news that it has been hunted. This time it seems to me that it is true and serious”. De Basaldúa was also on the look out, and in July 1901 wrote to Florencio that he was corroborating “very important news on the Neomylodon Listai”. What came of these leads no one knows. There is no further correspondence on the matter, Neomylodon and Iemisch vanished. French naturalist André Tournouer saw a creature emerge in the middle of a stream, during his 1900 Patagonian expedition, it has round head that was the size of a large puma, with dark fur. Its eyes were encircled with light yellow hair. It lacked external ears. He shot at it and the animal quickly disappeared under the water. He later came across some large cat-like tracks in the sand. His native guide seemed very frightened and told him that beast and tracks belonged to the mysterious Hymché. Tournouer was certain that it was not a Neomylodon and believed that it was a carnivore.
The Sumxu, Chinese lop-eared cat, drop-eared cat, droop-eared cat, or hanging-ear cat, all names referring to its characteristic feature of pendulous ears, was a possibly mythical, long-haired, lop-eared type of cat or cat-like creature, now considered extinct, if it ever actually existed. The descriptions are based on reports from travelers, on a live specimen reportedly taken to Hamburg by a sailor, and on a taxidermy specimen exhibited in Germany. The cats were supposedly valued as pets, but was also described as a food animal. The last reported Chinese lop-eared cat was in 1938. It is believed by some to have been a mutation similar to that found in the Scottish Fold. The name sumxu originally described the yellow-throated marten, but a series of mistranslations caused the name to be applied to the alleged cat or cat-like animal. Michael Boym (ca. 1612-1659), a Polish Jesuit missionary to south China, was the first Westerner to describe the sumxu in his illustrated book Flora Sinensis (1656). Sumxu was the Portuguese rendering of songshu, meaning "pine rat" and the description indicated the yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula) indigenous to that region. The white lop-eared cat, however, was said to be found in a northern region of the country. Later authors, copying and translating from early natural histories, conflated the two unfamiliar animals. Italian Jesuit Martino Martini had visited China in the 1650s and published Novus Atlas Sinensis in 1655. In the section on Peking Province, Martini described a variety of corseted white, long-haired and long-eared cats found in the region. The breed was once found in region around Peking and probably resembled a long-haired Scottish Fold. His description of white, droop-eared companion cats was copied in 1673 by John Ogilby and by later authors. An engraving from Athanasius Kircher's book China Monumentis, Qua Sacris qua Profanis(1666) describes the sumxu as cat-like, but the illustration resembled a small bear with a bushy tail. The engraving is clearly based on a picture in Boym's Flora Sinensis, where the picture is captioned as 松鼠 in Chinese (this is Chinese for "squirrel"; the word is transcribed songshu in modern Hanyu Pinyin, but sumxu was the standard way of transcribing these syllables in the 17th century Jesuit literature) and sumxu in Latin. Kircher's description, if not sheer fantasy, may have been based on reports of other writers (as detailed below) who refer to the creature as a droop-eared cat. In 1736–37, Martini's work was superseded by that of French Jesuit du Halde's works on the Chinese Empire. This included the description of the white droop-eared cat of Peking Province from Martini's book and remained the standard reference book for many years, being copied by other authors. German naturalist Alfred Brehm gave a very detailed description of the Chinese lop-eared cat in 1796, based on a specimen said to have been brought back from China by a traveler. In volume 4 of his Histoire Naturelle (c. 1767), Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, mentioned the pendulous-eared cats of Pe-chi-ly in China and he was unsure whether the black or yellow sumxu was a cat or some other domesticated animal used to control rats. His description was included in The Natural History of The Cat (Volume 4 of Histoire Naturelle, as translated into English by William Smellie in 1781): Our domestic cats, though they differ in color, form no distinct races. The climates of Spain and Syria have alone produced permanent varieties: To these may be added the climate of Pe-chi-ly in China, where the cats have long hair and pendulous ears, and are the favorites of the ladies. These domestic cats with pendulous ears, of which we have full descriptions, are still farther removed from the wild and primitive race, than those whose ears are erect.... I formerly remarked, that, in China, there were cats with pendulous ears. This variety is not found anywhere else, and perhaps it is an animal of a different species; for travelers, when mentioning an animal called Sumxu, which is entirely domestic, say, that they can compare it to nothing but the cat, with which it has a great resemblance. Its color is black or yellow, and its hair very bright and glittering. The Chinese put silver collars about the necks of these animals, and render them extremely familiar. As they are not common, they give a high price, both on account of their beauty, and because they destroy rats. Buffon's source was abbé Prevôt (written in French), whose source was John Green (written in English), whose source was French Jesuit de Halde (written in French), whose source was Martini's 1655 work. By 1777, Buffon had concluded the lop-eared cat was a different species than the domestic cat and that it might therefore be the cat-like marten called the sumxu. Hence the name sumxu (the yellow-throated marten found in south China) incorrectly became attached to an alleged breed of domestic cat or cat-like animal found in a northern region. He reached this conclusion because de Halde had omitted mention in his translation that the lop-eared cats were milk-white. Boym's illustration of the sumxu did not draw attention to its ears, whereas Martini described pendulous ears as the defining feature of the white cats of Pe-chi-ly. This was perpetuated through the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially by cat fanciers looking for new and exotic cats to import. In Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Charles Darwin refers briefly to a drooping eared race of cats in China. In The Cat by Lady Cust (1870) there is this brief description: Bosman relates that in the province of Pe-chily, in China, there are cats with long hair and drooping ears, which are in great favor with the Chinese ladies; others say this is not a cat but an animal called 'Samxces'. In 1885, the writer Gaston Percheron suggested the lop-eared cat might be a hybrid between the cat and a marten. In 1926, cat fancier Lilian J. Veley wrote in the magazine Cat Gossip that the Siamese cat (described in early breed standards as sable and dun in color) was linked to the marten (described as sable and yellow in color). Percheron's description changed the lop-eared cat from a corseted pet fed on delicacies to an animal consumed as a delicacy and this, along with the erroneous use of the sumxu name, was also perpetuated by later authors. Jean Bungartz (de) also described the Chinese lop-eared cat or hanging-ear cat, as a food animal and with much Lamarckian supposition, in his work Die Hauskatze, ihre Rassen und Varietäten (House cats, Their Races and Varieties) from Illustriertes Katzenbuch (An Illustrated Book of Cats) in Berlin in 1896: The Chinese or Lop-Eared cat is most interesting, because it provides proof that by continual disuse of an organ, the organ withers. With the Chinese cat the hearing and ears have deteriorated. Michel says the Chinese, not only admire the cat in porcelain, but also value it for culinary reasons. The cats are regarded as special morsels and enjoyed particularly with noodles or with rice. This cat is bred particularly for the purpose of meat production, and is a preferred Chinese morsel; this is not unusual if one considers that the Chinese consume much the sight of which revolts the stomachs of Europeans. The poor creature is confined in small bamboo cages and fattened like a goose on plentiful portions. There is extensive trade with other parts of Asia and the canny Chinese allow no tomcats to be exported so there is no interference in this lucrative source of income. Due to the restrictive conditions that have deprived the cat of its actual use, its hearing has decreased because it is no longer needed for hunting its own food. With no need for watchfulness, it had no need of sharp hearing to listen for hidden things so its hearing became blunted and as a natural consequence its ears lost their upright nature, gradually becoming lower and becoming the hanging ear that is now the characteristic feature of the Chinese cat. At first impression this is a surprising and amusing look, but this impression is lost with closer examination. If one ignores the characteristic of the ears, one sees a beauty similar to the Angora cat: a long, close coat of hair, albeit less rich, covers the body. The hair is silky-soft and shining and the color is usually isabelline or a dirty white yellow, although some have the usual colouring of the common house-cat. In size it is considerably larger and stronger than a house cat. The ears hang completely, as with our hunting dogs and are large in relation to the cat. Although the Chinese cat is found in considerable numbers in its homeland, it is rarely found at European animal markets. Only one such cat has reached us in the flesh; we acquired this years ago when a sailor returning from China brought it into Hamburg. The accompanying illustration is based on this cat. In character it is like the Angora cat and somewhat languid. It prefer to live by a warm fire, is rather sensitive to flattery, hears badly and is at its most animated when given milk or food. Apart from its unusual ears, it has no really attractive characteristics and is a curious specimen of house cat. In Frances Simpson's The Book of the Cat (1903), contributing author H. C. Brooke wrote: There is said to be a variety of Chinese cat which is remarkable for its pendent ears. We have never been able to ascertain anything definite with regard to this variety. Some years back a class was provided for them at a certain Continental cat show, and we went across in the hope of seeing, and if possible acquiring, some specimens; but alas the class was empty! We have seen a stuffed specimen in a Continental museum, which was a half long-haired cat, the ears being pendent down the sides of the head instead of erect; but do not attach much value to this. Elsewhere he said that the taxidermy specimen, which he saw in 1882, was "half-coated with yellowish fur", and that it might have been a fake or a cat with its ears deformed by canker. In 1926, Brooke wrote in Cat Gossip that for many years Continental cat shows had offered prizes for the drop-eared Chinese cat. On each occasion, the cat failed to materialize and Brooke considered it to be mythical. Other writers suggested the folded or crumpled ears were the result of damage or hematomas. Brooke wrote that although no one ever saw the cat itself, one always met "someone who knows someone whose friend has often seen them". Brooke himself had been assured by a Chinese gentleman he had met only once that "he knew them well". Brooke and several other cat fanciers contacted the Chinese Embassy in the UK, and Carl Hagenbeck's animal exchange in Hamburg and also a "certain well-known author, who has lived for years in China and knows that country well", but their inquiries bore no fruit. The search for this cat became so intense in the 1920s that the American Express Company instructed their representatives at Shanghai and Peking to make inquiries with the wild animal dealers who supplied zoos. They also had no success finding a Chinese lop-eared cat for cat fanciers in the West. With all avenues of inquiry finally exhausted, Brooke declared the Chinese lop-eared cat extinct. The last reported sighting of the Chinese lop-eared cat was in 1938 when a droop-eared cat was imported from China. On that last occasion the mutation was believed to occur only in white long-haired cats.
The Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi) is an elusive and possibly extinct subspecies of leopard endemic to Unguja Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, part of Tanzania. Increasing conflict between people and leopards in the 20th century led to their demonization and determined attempts to exterminate them. Efforts to develop a leopard conservation program in the mid-1990s were shelved when wildlife researchers concluded that there was little prospect for the animal's long-term survival. Rural Zanzibaris’ descriptions of the leopard and its habits are characterized by the widespread belief that a large number of these carnivores are kept by witches and sent by them to harm or otherwise harass villagers. This belief comes together with an elaborate package of ideas about how leopards are bred, trained, exchanged and sent to do the evil bidding of their owners. For local farmers this supplies a neat explanation for predation by leopards, and more generally for their appearance "out of place" in the vicinity of farms and villages. The growth of human population and agriculture in the 20th century was largely responsible for this state of affairs, as people encroached on the habitat of leopards and the animals they preyed upon. Increasing conflict with leopards and the fear that this generated led to a series of campaigns to exterminate them. These were localized at first, but became island-wide after the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, when a combined anti-witchcraft and leopard-killing campaign was launched under the leadership of Unguja’s most famous witch-finder, Kitanzi.The long-term result of this campaign and the subsequent classification of leopards as “vermin” was to bring them to the brink of extinction.
The Bhootbilli, also known as the "ghost cat" is a creature that has been reported in a neighborhood near Pune, India. This large feline cryptid has consumed forty-five pigeons and one goat belonging to one unlucky resident. The sightings of the creature have been in the Sanjay Park neighborhood ~100 miles outside of Mumbai. From MiD DAY: "The bhootbilli has been coming everyday the past 10 days around 7 pm. We had set up a lot of traps, but all turned into a flop show because whenever we would try to catch it, it would jump on the tree and sneak out somewhere," said Feroz Dilawar Khan, a driver and resident of the area. "It's fat and broad with a long tail, black in color, has a face like a dog and back like a mongoose." The bhootbilli, as it is called by the residents, has eaten around forty-five pigeons and one goat within a span of 10 days which all belonged to Feroz. Fed-up of the creature, Feroz called the police, fire brigade and forest officials on November 3rd around 10 pm, but the effort went in vain. "We arrived at the spot around 10 pm, but the animal had already escaped and hid somewhere in the trees," said one of the fire officials from Yerawada, who was at the spot. The residents have again set a trap and are expecting to catch the mischief-maker this time. Hrishikesh Sutar, chairman of the Sanjay Park Society, said: "The residents came complaining to me around four days ago and we haven't yet identified the creature. It's smaller than a lion but bigger than a hyena and I doubt if it's a wild cat." In North America, they might be called Mystery Cats or Phantom Panthers, but the Bhootbilli, The Ghost Cat of India, seems to inhabit a similar location in that country’s mentality. This report issues from a place called Pune, India. The name Pune derives from Punya Nagari (Sanskrit, “City of Virtue”). It is a relatively hilly city, with its tallest hill, Vetal Hill, rising to 800 m (2,600 ft) above sea level. Central Pune is located at the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers. Pune (Marathi: पुणे, pronounced [puɳeː]), formerly called Poona, also known as Punya-Nagari, is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra, after Mumbai and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Pune has a tropical wet and dry climate with average temperatures ranging between 68 to 82 °F (20 to 28 °C). This report is passed along to me by Chad Arment, the author of the new book, Varmints: Mystery Carnivores of North America, and his recent classic, Boss Snakes: Stories and Sightings of Giant Snakes in North America. A “weird, scary creature” has been giving residents of Sanjay Park area sleepless nights. Those staying near the airport in Lohegaon are complaining about a Bhootbilli (ghost cat), which they say has been feeding on domestic animals and birds the past 10 days. For several people, the incident brought to mind the monkey-man episode, a ‘monster’ that was reportedly roaming around Delhi in 2001. “The Bhootbilli has been coming everyday the past 10 days around 7 pm. We had set up a lot of traps, but all turned into a flop show because whenever we would try to catch it, it would jump on the tree and sneak out somewhere,” said Feroz Dilawar Khan, a driver and resident of the area. “It’s fat and broad with a long tail, black in color, has a face like a dog and back like a mongoose.” The Bhootbilli, as it is called by the residents, has eaten around 45 pigeons and one goat within a span of 10 days which all belonged to Feroz. Fed-up of the creature, Feroz called the police, fire brigade and forest officials on November 3 around 10 pm, but the effort went in vain. “We arrived at the spot around 10 pm, but the animal had already escaped and hid somewhere in the trees,” said one of the fire officials from Yerawada, who was at the spot. The residents have again set a trap and are expecting to catch the mischief-maker this time. Hrishikesh Sutar, chairman of the Sanjay Park Society, said: “The residents came complaining to me around four days ago and we haven’t yet identified the creature. It’s smaller than a lion but bigger than a hyena and I doubt if it’s a wild cat.” What could it be? Shekhar Nanajkar, president of a Wild, a wildlife organization, said: “It’s a rare case but according to the description given to me it can be a civet cat who attacks only small animals and birds. But if a goat has been eaten then it’s either a leopard or human being.” Anil Avchite, an animal lover, who had gone to the area around midnight on Wednesday, said: “I climbed up a 40-feet coconut tree as soon as the locals contacted me. I am sure it’s a civet cat. I have asked locals to get in touch with me if they see the creature again.” Also, attached to the article are these definitions: Delhi’s monkey-man A strange, monkey-like creature had been appearing at night and attacking people in Delhi in 2001. Many thought a man dressed as a monkey was intimidating people, but he was never caught The civet cat A civet is a small, lithe-bodied, mostly arboreal mammal native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. Civets have a broadly cat-like general appearance, though the muzzle is extended and often pointed, rather like an otter or a mongoose. There are four primary explanations for the Bhootbilli. The first is, of course, a new species of wild cat or mustelid, though this is the least likely scenario. Another possible explanation is a black panther. Contrary to popular belief, panthers are not a species of wild cat but are instead a melanistic coloration of one of three types of cat: leopards, jaguars or cougars. In this case, it would be a melanistic leopard (jaguars appearing in South America and cougars appearing in North America). Evidence for this being the culprit are the noted coloration and the descriptions of it being smaller than a lion yet bigger than a hyena. The other two likely explanations are the civet cat and the related binturong. While the exact species of civet would not be immediately obvious, the large Indian civet may be the best bet due to it being one of the largest civets and also being native to India. This species however does not fit the black-hued description that has been given; however, the binturong does. However, while binturongs are larger than large Indian civets they are also stockier, being known as "bear cats" for a reason. It ought to be noted also that civets and binturong are occasionally kept as pets, and therefore the culprit's species does not have to be indigenous to the area to be found on an individual or small feral group basis.
The Onza has been recorded since the Spanish conquistadors invaded Aztec Mexico (1519). They found some in the zoo of Emperor Montezuma (1466-1520) under the Aztec name of "cutlamiztli." The Onza is claimed to be a feline species similar to a cougar. It is a cryptid – a creature whose existence has been claimed but not proved. The term has also been used to refer to the jaguar, an existing species of Cougar. In 1938, and again in 1986, cougar-like animals shot in Sinaloa were identified as onzas. The only viable specimen to have been examined was contributed by a rancher named Andres Murillo. In January 1986, he shot what he thought was a jaguar attacking him. It proved not to be a jaguar, and he brought it to Vega, who owned a nearby ranch. It was a female weighing 60 lb (27 kg). The body excluding the tail was 45 inches (1.1 m) long, and the tail was 23 inches (58 cm). The cat had the appearance of a cougar with a very long, thin body and long, thin dog-like legs. Deer had been found in its stomach, indicating that it had eaten recently. Vega told Murillo that the specimen greatly resembled the onza his father had shot in the 1970s, the skull of which he still had. These animals were much like cougars but had lighter frames with longer, striped legs, longer ears, and a longer tail. Researchers from Texas Tech University examined a frozen onza corpse in the 1990s and concluded that it was most likely a genetic variant of the cougar, but not a distinct species. DNA testing has shown that specimen to be a puma, with no significant difference between it and any other puma. A legend less well known among cryptozoologists states that there are two species of jaguar living in Mexico, one usually called "onza" and the other called by other local names.
A Marozi is a lion with spots over its back. Some experts say, since some lions are born with spots that fade, some sort of mishap caused the spots not to fade. Some sources state that the Marozi is a Lion/Hyena crossbreed; but this is profoundly unlikely because of the lion and hyena being rival predators with completely different genetic makeups that to top it all off, compete with one another over the same food sources. It is most likely that Marozi sightings are either hoaxes or examples of lions with a gene mutation that causes the individual to not lose its spots as they get older or maybe even a new type of cat.
The Kellas Cat is a small black feline found in Scotland. Once thought to be a mythological wild cat, with its few sightings dismissed as hoaxes, a specimen was shot and killed in 1984 by a gamekeeper named Ronnie Douglas and found to be a hybrid between wild and domestic sub-species of Felis silvestris (the domestic house cat). It is not a formal breed of cat, but a land race of felid hybrids. The specimen was named by cryptozoologist Karl Shuker after the village of Kellas, Moray, where it was first found. Shuker suggested that the cait sìth of Celtic legend is based on folk memory of Kellas cats. The Kellas cat is described as being over 65 cm (25 inches) long, with powerful and long hind legs and a tail that can grow to be around 30 cm (12 inches) long. A specimen is kept in a museum in Elgin.
Wampus Beasts are large panther/cat-like creatures with glowing eyes. They are sighted in Pleasants County, West Virginia. As there are no official well known sightings, there are a lot in Pleasants County. One of the people from the AIMS team on the Mountain Monsters show saw it when he was 9 years old. His parents told him to get something from the farm late at night. He went out and saw a Black Panther like creature with glowing eyes that gave him an eerie feeling. The creature gave a weird high-pitch hissing like sound, which frightened him back inside his house. Many years later, on his same farm, he had the same kind of encounter with the beast, exactly like the encounter he had as a 9 year old. Another encounter around the same area happened when a lady was driving a school bus late at night and a creature that was black and large leaped out of the woods in front of the bus. The Wampus Beast is also known as the Wampus Cat. Folklore says that it was a witch late at night that turned herself into a unusual cat-like creature. It is rumored to stay in sewers in the day and have a repulsive stench. Another rumor of it is that it kidnapped children.
Exmoor is a region in England, home to many creatures including a terrible beast known as "The Black Beast of Exmoor". The beast may be an alien big cat, which are big cats that live in England. From 1970 to 1980, many people owned jaguars, leopards, and it is possible that small lions were owned as well. At that time, it was not illegal to own such animals without a license. But after 1980 people had to have a license to own a big cat, so many owners let their big pets free. Thus, the Black Beast of Exmoor is probably just a big panther. But unless someone can get enough evidence of it, we will never know what the Black Beast of Exmoor is. People have investigated weird animal kills and analyzed them, and concluded they were cat kills.
The Santer is a mysterious feline reported below the Mason-Dixon line. It is commonly seen in western North Carolina. It is rarely dangerous to mankind, but a frequent predator to livestock. The origin of this creature likely from tales of lumberjack in 19th and early 20th century. It is said to have a long body covered with florescent hair, its head is large and bald with small eyes, it also has long legs and a tail, and has eight hard knots in its tail, which makes them look like a string of beads. It can swing this flail with plenty of power and skill—enough to knock out a cow or a hog with one slap. And obviously this tail can be effectively used in combat. It lives mostly in wooded swamps in the neighborhood of small villages where cattle and hogs are kept. It is a remarkably fast animal, but is rarely seen. Its cry is a piercing, baby-like wail, that even dogs will scared to attack. A calf has been known to have been killed by one of these varmints near Statesville, and it showed eight distinct bruises, seven on the body and one on the broken foreleg. The hair about each bruise was severely singed.
The Serpopard is a term applied by some modern researchers to what is described as a long necked mythical animal known from Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian depictions. It is an animal that's depictions have been found on ancient Egyptian artifacts. Images of this creature have been painted on the Narmer Palette and the Small Palette of Nekhen. The Serpopard is a cross between a leopard and a serpent. It has the body of a leopard and the head of a snake on a very long neck. The Egyptians are well known for their accurate depictions of animals and so this has led some archaeologists to believe that the Serpopard is not a mythical creature but an extinct animal that existed during the time. Shoulder-Height: 4'2 feet Head and Neck: 12 feet The Serpopard is a cross between a leopard and a serpent. It has the body of a leopard and the head of a snake on a very long neck. Some state that its appearance resembles a reptile's head on a long-necked lioness. The Serpopard has no markings on its body, round ears and a tail that ends with a tuft of hair much like that of a lion. Since it bears a strong resemblance of a lion, many believe that the Serpopard is a heraldic beast symbolizing royalty and protection, since this is the symbolic meaning of a lion in the religious concepts of Upper and Lower Egypt. The serpopard is a term applied by some modern researchers to what is described as a mythical animal known from Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian depictions. This term is not used in any original texts, and is an interpretation made only recently. The image is featured specifically on decorated cosmetic palettes from the Pre-Dynastic Period of Egypt, and more extensively, as design motifs on cylinder seals in the Protoliterate Period of Mesopotamia (circa 3500-3000 BCE). Examples include the Narmer Palette and the Small Palette of Nekhen (Hierakonopolis). The cylinder seal displayed to the right displays the motif very clearly. Serpopard from Egyptian artifact. The "serpopard" has been defined as a cross between a serpent and leopard and is supposed to feature the body of the latter, and a long neck and head representing the former. The image generally is classified as a feline, and with close inspection resembles an unusually long-necked lioness. It bears the characteristic tuft of the species at the end of the tail, there are no spots, the round-eared head most closely resembles the lioness rather than a serpent, because serpents do not have ears, and there are no typical serpent features such as scales, tongue, or head shape.
The Splinter Cat is a fearsome critter from various places in North America. It is found from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and eastward to the Atlantic Ocean, but it has been reported in the Rocky Mountains from only a few localities. Apparently the splinter cat inhabits that part of the country in which wild bees and raccoons abound, because they eat racoons or honey during dark and stormy nights. Strangely, they have a hard head to charge and break every tree in sight knocking them down to the floor until a hollow one containing food is found. Then they leave this place broken and shattered. Maybe this story inspired by destroyed forest after windstorm. "Splinter cat Creek", found in the northern Cascade Range of Oregon is named after this legendary animal.
Rompo is a mythological beast originating from the legends of India and Africa. It has a long (approx. 2-3 feet) and thin body with the front arms of a badger and rear legs of a bear, the head of a hare, human ears and horse mane. It was said this creature was nocturnal, secretive, and known to eat human corpses. It is also said to croon softly as it eats. African locals reported that when the Rompo found a dead body, it did not immediately seize the body but would circulate it many times to make sure it was safe to approach. When the Rompo is cornered or put into a state of fright its skin will change to the color of what it sees. Among trees and shrubs, the Rompo’s skin becomes green. The legend of the Rompo may have been inspired from sightings of any of the Old world porcupines.
The Mngwa, also known as the Nunda is a mysterious creature sighted in Tanzania. It was described as a gigantic grey feline the size of a donkey. Evidence of this creature first arose in the early 1900s. In 1938 famous British scientific journal Discovery, William Hichens, a British administrator working in Tanzania reported that several natives stated that they were attacked by this beast. He thought it to be a giant, man-eating lion that was responsible for the attacks, but both fur-samples and tracks were different from those of a lion. In Frank W. Lane's 1954 issue of Nature Parade, Patrick Bowen, a hunter who tracked the Mngwa at one time, remarked that the animal's tracks were like those of the leopard, but much larger. The Mngwa was also described to have brindled fur that was visibly different from that of a leopard. Lane believed that the attacks reported in the 19th century by the Chimiset, associated with the Nandi Bear, might actually have been attacks by the Mngwa. Bernard Heuvelmans speculated that the creature may possibly have been an abnormally colored variation and larger size of the African golden cat (Profelis aurata).
The Beast of Bodmin, also known as The Beast of Bodmin Moor is a phantom wild cat purported to live in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. Bodmin Moor became a center of these sightings with occasional reports of mutilated slain livestock. The alleged panther-like cats of the same region came to be popularly known as the Beast of Bodmin Moor. The creature is panther-like, and black furred, and it stalks around Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England, killing live stock. It's supposedly a phantom, because big cats shouldn't be in England's moors. A long held hypothesis suggests the possibility that alien big cats at large in the United Kingdom could have been imported as part of private collections or zoos, later escaped or set free. An escaped big cat would not be reported to the authorities due to the illegality of owning and importing the animals. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food conducted an official investigation in 1995. The study found that there was 'no verifiable evidence' of exotic felines loose in Britain, and that the mauled farm animals could have been attacked by common indigenous species. The report stated that 'the investigation could not prove that a "big cat" is not present. Less than a week after the government report, a boy was walking by the River Fowey when he discovered a large cat skull. Measuring about 4 inches (10 cm) long by 7 inches (18 cm) wide, the skull was lacking its lower jaw but possessed two sharp, prominent canines that suggested that it might have been a leopard. The story hit the national press at about the same time of the official denial of alien big cat evidence on Bodmin Moor. The skull was sent to the Natural History Museum in London for verification. They determined that it was a genuine skull from a young male leopard, but also found that the cat had not died in Britain and that the skull had been imported as part of a leopard-skin rug. The back of the skull was cleanly cut off in a way that is commonly used to mount the head on a rug. There was an egg case inside the skull that had been laid by a tropical cockroach that could not possibly be found in Britain. There were also cut marks on the skull indicating the flesh had been scraped off with a knife, and the skull had begun to decompose only after a recent submersion in water.
The Maltese tiger, or blue tiger, is a reported but unproven coloration morph of a tiger, reported mostly in the Fujian Province of China. It is said to have bluish fur with dark gray stripes. Most of the Maltese tigers reported have been of the South Chinese subspecies. The South Chinese tiger today is critically endangered, due to their illegal and continued use in traditional Chinese Medicine and the "blue" alleles may be wholly extinct. Blue tigers have also been reported in Korea. The term "Maltese" comes from domestic cat terminology for blue fur, and refers to the slate grey coloration. Many cats with such coloration are present in Malta, which may have given rise to the use of the adjective in this context. Around 1910, Harry Caldwell, an American missionary and big game hunter, spotted and hunted a blue tiger outside Fuzhou. His search is chronicled in his book Blue Tiger (1924), and by his hunting companion Roy Chapman Andrews in his Camps & Trails in China (1925, chapter VII). Chapman cites Caldwell thus: "The markings of the beast are strikingly beautiful. The ground color is of a delicate shade of Maltese, changing into light gray-blue on the underparts. The stripes are well defined and like those of the ordinary yellow tiger." —Caldwell, Chapman (1925) A more recent report, given to Mystery Cats of the World author Karl Shuker, comes from the son of a US Army soldier who served in Korea during the Korean War. His father sighted a blue tiger in the mountains near what is now the Demilitarized Zone. Blue tigers have also been reported from Burma. The black tiger was also long considered mythical, but several pelts have proven that pseudo-melanistic or hypermelanic tigers do exist. They are not completely black, but have dense, wide stripes that partially obscure the orange background color. In support of the blue tiger theory, Maltese-colored cats certainly do exist. The most common are a domestic cat breed, the Russian Blue, and a variety of the British Short hair, the British Blue, but blue bobcats and lynxes have also been recorded, and there are genetic mutations and combinations that result in bluish hue, or at least in the impression of a blue-gray animal. Shuker suggested that blue tigers possessed two different pairs of recessive alleles — the non-agouti (s/s), and the dilute (d/d) which combine to produce a solid blue-gray color as found in domestic cats such as the British Blue and Russian Blue, but would not produce the striped blue tigers reported.
The Dingmaul (Saxicatellus vociferens), Ding Maul, Ding Ball or Plunkus was a giant cat that sat in a giant rock in California, that was nicknamed Dingmaul Rock. The dingmauls have wolf-like skin and a sad expression in their face. They have viscous bodies and they have been seen sat on a rock studying the dirt. They have a long tail that is half of their body length. They use the tail to scare flies away and produce splinters to fill their nests or burrows. The male hits himself in the breast with his tail to attract the female and mate. The female also has a ball that is darker than the male. The dingmaul is famous in the White Mountains; in fact, above the timber line extending in the hill that is between the Mt. Adams and the Mt. Jefferson of Presidential Range is a very visible rock, that was called Dingmaul Rock. There are two species of Dingmauls: the Northwest and the Californian.
The Ennedi Tiger is a purportedly living sabertooth cat inhabiting the Ennedi Plateau, located in the east of Chad, in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are reports of two different species, one that mainly inhabits the mountains (called Hadjel, Gassingram, or Vossoko), and a water-inhabiting one (called Mourou N'gou, Mamaimé, or Dilali). The mountain type, according to the reports, is larger than a lion and lacks a tail. The teeth protrude from the mouth, and the feet are hairy. The coloration is red or reddish-brown with white stripes. It is strong enough to carry off large antelopes. It is nocturnal and cave dwelling in the Ouadai district of the Ennedi mountain range. Natives described it to western explorers, who identified it as a Machairodus sabertooth. The water type is of unknown relation to the first, although it is also larger than a lion (8–12 feet), very fierce, and has protruding teeth. The animal's color pattern is red with white markings (comparable to mountain cats), to leopard-like with stripes, to uniform brown. Its teeth are always described as "walrus-like" and the tail is always long in reports. Some have suggested an otter as a candidate. Its habitat extends into the Central African Republic. There are also tales of water lions in folklore in Congo, Angola, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Sudan. A cave drawing that illustrates a walrus-like creature with a long tail exists in South Africa. A related footnote: the last lions in the Sahara also survived here, until they became extinct before mid-20th century (the last lion was seen in 1940).
The Ozark Howler, also known as the Ozark Black Howler, is a legendary creature that is purported to live in remote areas in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. It is typically described as being bear sized, with thick body, stocky legs, black shaggy hair, and as having prominent horns. Its cry is often described as being a combination of a wolf's howl and an elk's bugle. Cryptozoologist have speculated that the creature might be a misidentified or unrecognized big cat. Anthropologist have speculated that the creature might be a branching off of the Dark Dog of Death found in British folklore. But a few evolutionists who believe in the Ozark Howler believe that it's a mountain lion breed who has ether mutated into a new subspecies, or is a hybrid of a mountain lion and an unknown creature. Chad Arment asserts in his book Cryptozoology that the Ozark Howler myth is a hoax. According to Arment, he and many other cryptozoologists received email messages that made wild claims about Ozark Howler evidence. These messages were tracked down to a university student who had made a bet that he could fool the cryptozoological research community. However, stories of the Ozark Howler are said to predate this.
Vampire Beast. The killings first happened on December 29, 1954, when a farmer reported a large cat-like beast has attacked one of his dogs and dragged it to an underbrush. More killings happened on New Years Day, 1955, where two dogs were found dead, all of their blood was drained out. The next day two more dogs were attacked by the mystery predator. On January 6, 1954, a 21-year-old mother named Mrs. C.E. Kinlaw walked outside one morning at 7:30 am and saw the beast stalking towards her. She screamed and ran inside the house. Her husband ran outside with a shotgun and saw the beast left cat-like paw prints. A farmer also reported a mystery creature killed three of his hogs, some of his cows, and one of his goats. The goat's head was fat and fritter. People also heard weird noises that sounded cat like, and some that sounded like a baby crying and a woman screaming. Locals reported seeing a creature that was part bear and part panther, it was three to four feet long, twenty inches high, weighing 150 pounds. It has brownish and tabby with bushy fur. The beast also has runty looking ears with a long tail and a cat-like face. These were the only descriptions of the Vampire Beast. The town's police chief, Roy Fores, organized a hunt for the creature but came up empty handed. When the Mayor, W.G Fussell, told the news papers about the creature. The beast got national publicity and hunters all the way from Tennessee. Newspapers from Arizona to New York made coverages for the hunts for the beast. Meanwhile the town was in chaos. Children were not allowed out at night and men stormed the forests with guns trying to find the creature. After a large bobcat was killed by a hunter, Fores and Fussell but end to the search, and after that, things started to settle down again. The beast returned to North Carolina in 2007, bringing more surprises and fear with it. In Lexington, 60 goats were found with their blood drained and their heads crushed. Thirty miles away in Greensboro, another farmer lost his goats in the same way. In Bolivia, a man named Bill Robinson lost his pit bull to the creature. He buried it, but the next day it was in the same location where it was killed. Four days later, another resident, Leon Williams, found his pit bull dead, it was covered in blood and it was missing a few body parts. There was sign of a struggle, which is strange for a pit bull. Other places lost a total amount of ten dogs in just two weeks. More tracks were found, these ones were measured 4 and a half inches in diameter. In 2008, TV show MonsterQuest did a search for the beast. They concluded that what people may have been seeing and killing, was a cougar. However, the cougars has been dismissed as extinct throughout the east coast of America, except the tip of Florida.
The Cactus cat is a mythical creature that has been reported in the American Southwest. It's described as a bobcat-like animal with thorn-like fur, sharp bones protruding from its front legs, and a branched tail. The cactus cat has been sighted in the Southwestern desert, in states such as California Nevada and New Mexico. Cowboys and pioneers of the nineteenth century reported these strange beasts coming out at night, slashing open cacti, and drinking the exposed sap. This caused the cats to enter a drunken state, stumbling around and rarely attacking travelers. The story of the cactus cat is probably fueled by numerous cases of misidentification, most likely being a bobcat or a mountain lion.
The Sliver Cat (Felis glabraspiculata) is a bizarre creature from the tales of the lumberjacks of North America, known as a fearsome critter. It is a big tree-dwelling mammalian creature that resembles a cat but has a long tail with a spiky hard ball in the end. Its ears are tasseled and its eyes red, with horizontal slits. This creature is very dangerous. It preys on unsuspecting animals and occasionally humans. The Sliver Cat ambushes them from the trees, knocking them unconscious with its tail. It would then drag the body up into its nest to devour it at its leisure.
The Iemisch, Yemisch or water tiger is a mythical creature from the Tehuelche people of Patagonia, South America. It is said to resemble a fox in the upper-part, and serpent in the lower. It was first mentioned in Ameghino’s 1898 Mylodon paper. Ameghino contended that his Neomylodon and Iemsich were the same creature. Could he have been correct in his assumption? It has a short head, large fangs and its external ears rudimentary. It had short and flat feet (plantigrade) with three fingers on its front paws and four on the rear ones, joined by a rotatory membrane with formidable claws. The tail is long, depressed and prehensile. The body is covered with short, hard and rigid hairs, of a uniform brownish color. The size is said to be larger than that of a puma, but with shorter legs and a much thicker body. It uses its powerful tail to crush its enemies and then drags them to its lair to be devoured It is said that its body cannot be penetrated by missiles or burning branches. Surprisingly, before Ameghino, not one single Patagonian explorer had ever mentioned the Iemisch; and there are no other records of any Aonikenk myths referring to an animal named Iemisch. To be fair, there are references to Aonikenk monsters such as Goshg-e, which though not described as aquatic, was very similar to the Iemisch in its dreadful size and aggressiveness. For this reason, Ameghino’s Iemisch was quickly under attack by other scientists, so he was forced to defended himself. In a letter dated April 4th, 1901 to German-Brazilian Dr. Herman von Ihering he said that “the references to Jemisch [sic] are exploited in ill faith. I have not described the Neomylodon by references but from the mentioned bones […] and simply referred the descriptions of a large mammal that inhabits the Patagonian lakes […] if these descriptions are not reliable, the blame is not mine […] Probably there is not only one mysterious mammal living in Patagonia, but several”. In his letter he enclosed a clipping of the Buenos Aires daily La Nación, in which his witnesses were not voluble natives, but supposedly more reliable “white people”. Regarding the article, Ameghino noted that “Steinkanpen was accompanied by two cow hands by the name Montesinos who live in Chubut and two sons, one aged 18, the other 16. The five of them saw the monster. Mr. Zubizarreta was accompanied by several soldiers. I have spoken to others who have shot at Jemish [sic] from a distance of 3 meters [9 ft.]”. Shortly before, on March 3rd, 1901, his brother had written to him cheerfully “it seems that the mylodon has been seen this time in the mountains by the Gallegos River by neighbors of that place, and it is not improbable that any moment we may get the news that it has been hunted. This time it seems to me that it is true and serious”. De Basaldúa was also on the look out, and in July 1901 wrote to Florencio that he was corroborating “very important news on the Neomylodon Listai”. What came of these leads no one knows. There is no further correspondence on the matter, Neomylodon and Iemisch vanished. French naturalist André Tournouer saw a creature emerge in the middle of a stream, during his 1900 Patagonian expedition, it has round head that was the size of a large puma, with dark fur. Its eyes were encircled with light yellow hair. It lacked external ears. He shot at it and the animal quickly disappeared under the water. He later came across some large cat-like tracks in the sand. His native guide seemed very frightened and told him that beast and tracks belonged to the mysterious Hymché. Tournouer was certain that it was not a Neomylodon and believed that it was a carnivore.
The Sumxu, Chinese lop-eared cat, drop-eared cat, droop-eared cat, or hanging-ear cat, all names referring to its characteristic feature of pendulous ears, was a possibly mythical, long-haired, lop-eared type of cat or cat-like creature, now considered extinct, if it ever actually existed. The descriptions are based on reports from travelers, on a live specimen reportedly taken to Hamburg by a sailor, and on a taxidermy specimen exhibited in Germany. The cats were supposedly valued as pets, but was also described as a food animal. The last reported Chinese lop-eared cat was in 1938. It is believed by some to have been a mutation similar to that found in the Scottish Fold. The name sumxu originally described the yellow-throated marten, but a series of mistranslations caused the name to be applied to the alleged cat or cat-like animal. Michael Boym (ca. 1612-1659), a Polish Jesuit missionary to south China, was the first Westerner to describe the sumxu in his illustrated book Flora Sinensis (1656). Sumxu was the Portuguese rendering of songshu, meaning "pine rat" and the description indicated the yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula) indigenous to that region. The white lop-eared cat, however, was said to be found in a northern region of the country. Later authors, copying and translating from early natural histories, conflated the two unfamiliar animals. Italian Jesuit Martino Martini had visited China in the 1650s and published Novus Atlas Sinensis in 1655. In the section on Peking Province, Martini described a variety of corseted white, long-haired and long-eared cats found in the region. The breed was once found in region around Peking and probably resembled a long-haired Scottish Fold. His description of white, droop-eared companion cats was copied in 1673 by John Ogilby and by later authors. An engraving from Athanasius Kircher's book China Monumentis, Qua Sacris qua Profanis(1666) describes the sumxu as cat-like, but the illustration resembled a small bear with a bushy tail. The engraving is clearly based on a picture in Boym's Flora Sinensis, where the picture is captioned as 松鼠 in Chinese (this is Chinese for "squirrel"; the word is transcribed songshu in modern Hanyu Pinyin, but sumxu was the standard way of transcribing these syllables in the 17th century Jesuit literature) and sumxu in Latin. Kircher's description, if not sheer fantasy, may have been based on reports of other writers (as detailed below) who refer to the creature as a droop-eared cat. In 1736–37, Martini's work was superseded by that of French Jesuit du Halde's works on the Chinese Empire. This included the description of the white droop-eared cat of Peking Province from Martini's book and remained the standard reference book for many years, being copied by other authors. German naturalist Alfred Brehm gave a very detailed description of the Chinese lop-eared cat in 1796, based on a specimen said to have been brought back from China by a traveler. In volume 4 of his Histoire Naturelle (c. 1767), Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, mentioned the pendulous-eared cats of Pe-chi-ly in China and he was unsure whether the black or yellow sumxu was a cat or some other domesticated animal used to control rats. His description was included in The Natural History of The Cat (Volume 4 of Histoire Naturelle, as translated into English by William Smellie in 1781): Our domestic cats, though they differ in color, form no distinct races. The climates of Spain and Syria have alone produced permanent varieties: To these may be added the climate of Pe-chi-ly in China, where the cats have long hair and pendulous ears, and are the favorites of the ladies. These domestic cats with pendulous ears, of which we have full descriptions, are still farther removed from the wild and primitive race, than those whose ears are erect.... I formerly remarked, that, in China, there were cats with pendulous ears. This variety is not found anywhere else, and perhaps it is an animal of a different species; for travelers, when mentioning an animal called Sumxu, which is entirely domestic, say, that they can compare it to nothing but the cat, with which it has a great resemblance. Its color is black or yellow, and its hair very bright and glittering. The Chinese put silver collars about the necks of these animals, and render them extremely familiar. As they are not common, they give a high price, both on account of their beauty, and because they destroy rats. Buffon's source was abbé Prevôt (written in French), whose source was John Green (written in English), whose source was French Jesuit de Halde (written in French), whose source was Martini's 1655 work. By 1777, Buffon had concluded the lop-eared cat was a different species than the domestic cat and that it might therefore be the cat-like marten called the sumxu. Hence the name sumxu (the yellow-throated marten found in south China) incorrectly became attached to an alleged breed of domestic cat or cat-like animal found in a northern region. He reached this conclusion because de Halde had omitted mention in his translation that the lop-eared cats were milk-white. Boym's illustration of the sumxu did not draw attention to its ears, whereas Martini described pendulous ears as the defining feature of the white cats of Pe-chi-ly. This was perpetuated through the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially by cat fanciers looking for new and exotic cats to import. In Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Charles Darwin refers briefly to a drooping eared race of cats in China. In The Cat by Lady Cust (1870) there is this brief description: Bosman relates that in the province of Pe-chily, in China, there are cats with long hair and drooping ears, which are in great favor with the Chinese ladies; others say this is not a cat but an animal called 'Samxces'. In 1885, the writer Gaston Percheron suggested the lop-eared cat might be a hybrid between the cat and a marten. In 1926, cat fancier Lilian J. Veley wrote in the magazine Cat Gossip that the Siamese cat (described in early breed standards as sable and dun in color) was linked to the marten (described as sable and yellow in color). Percheron's description changed the lop-eared cat from a corseted pet fed on delicacies to an animal consumed as a delicacy and this, along with the erroneous use of the sumxu name, was also perpetuated by later authors. Jean Bungartz (de) also described the Chinese lop-eared cat or hanging-ear cat, as a food animal and with much Lamarckian supposition, in his work Die Hauskatze, ihre Rassen und Varietäten (House cats, Their Races and Varieties) from Illustriertes Katzenbuch (An Illustrated Book of Cats) in Berlin in 1896: The Chinese or Lop-Eared cat is most interesting, because it provides proof that by continual disuse of an organ, the organ withers. With the Chinese cat the hearing and ears have deteriorated. Michel says the Chinese, not only admire the cat in porcelain, but also value it for culinary reasons. The cats are regarded as special morsels and enjoyed particularly with noodles or with rice. This cat is bred particularly for the purpose of meat production, and is a preferred Chinese morsel; this is not unusual if one considers that the Chinese consume much the sight of which revolts the stomachs of Europeans. The poor creature is confined in small bamboo cages and fattened like a goose on plentiful portions. There is extensive trade with other parts of Asia and the canny Chinese allow no tomcats to be exported so there is no interference in this lucrative source of income. Due to the restrictive conditions that have deprived the cat of its actual use, its hearing has decreased because it is no longer needed for hunting its own food. With no need for watchfulness, it had no need of sharp hearing to listen for hidden things so its hearing became blunted and as a natural consequence its ears lost their upright nature, gradually becoming lower and becoming the hanging ear that is now the characteristic feature of the Chinese cat. At first impression this is a surprising and amusing look, but this impression is lost with closer examination. If one ignores the characteristic of the ears, one sees a beauty similar to the Angora cat: a long, close coat of hair, albeit less rich, covers the body. The hair is silky-soft and shining and the color is usually isabelline or a dirty white yellow, although some have the usual colouring of the common house-cat. In size it is considerably larger and stronger than a house cat. The ears hang completely, as with our hunting dogs and are large in relation to the cat. Although the Chinese cat is found in considerable numbers in its homeland, it is rarely found at European animal markets. Only one such cat has reached us in the flesh; we acquired this years ago when a sailor returning from China brought it into Hamburg. The accompanying illustration is based on this cat. In character it is like the Angora cat and somewhat languid. It prefer to live by a warm fire, is rather sensitive to flattery, hears badly and is at its most animated when given milk or food. Apart from its unusual ears, it has no really attractive characteristics and is a curious specimen of house cat. In Frances Simpson's The Book of the Cat (1903), contributing author H. C. Brooke wrote: There is said to be a variety of Chinese cat which is remarkable for its pendent ears. We have never been able to ascertain anything definite with regard to this variety. Some years back a class was provided for them at a certain Continental cat show, and we went across in the hope of seeing, and if possible acquiring, some specimens; but alas the class was empty! We have seen a stuffed specimen in a Continental museum, which was a half long-haired cat, the ears being pendent down the sides of the head instead of erect; but do not attach much value to this. Elsewhere he said that the taxidermy specimen, which he saw in 1882, was "half-coated with yellowish fur", and that it might have been a fake or a cat with its ears deformed by canker. In 1926, Brooke wrote in Cat Gossip that for many years Continental cat shows had offered prizes for the drop-eared Chinese cat. On each occasion, the cat failed to materialize and Brooke considered it to be mythical. Other writers suggested the folded or crumpled ears were the result of damage or hematomas. Brooke wrote that although no one ever saw the cat itself, one always met "someone who knows someone whose friend has often seen them". Brooke himself had been assured by a Chinese gentleman he had met only once that "he knew them well". Brooke and several other cat fanciers contacted the Chinese Embassy in the UK, and Carl Hagenbeck's animal exchange in Hamburg and also a "certain well-known author, who has lived for years in China and knows that country well", but their inquiries bore no fruit. The search for this cat became so intense in the 1920s that the American Express Company instructed their representatives at Shanghai and Peking to make inquiries with the wild animal dealers who supplied zoos. They also had no success finding a Chinese lop-eared cat for cat fanciers in the West. With all avenues of inquiry finally exhausted, Brooke declared the Chinese lop-eared cat extinct. The last reported sighting of the Chinese lop-eared cat was in 1938 when a droop-eared cat was imported from China. On that last occasion the mutation was believed to occur only in white long-haired cats.
The Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi) is an elusive and possibly extinct subspecies of leopard endemic to Unguja Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, part of Tanzania. Increasing conflict between people and leopards in the 20th century led to their demonization and determined attempts to exterminate them. Efforts to develop a leopard conservation program in the mid-1990s were shelved when wildlife researchers concluded that there was little prospect for the animal's long-term survival. Rural Zanzibaris’ descriptions of the leopard and its habits are characterized by the widespread belief that a large number of these carnivores are kept by witches and sent by them to harm or otherwise harass villagers. This belief comes together with an elaborate package of ideas about how leopards are bred, trained, exchanged and sent to do the evil bidding of their owners. For local farmers this supplies a neat explanation for predation by leopards, and more generally for their appearance "out of place" in the vicinity of farms and villages. The growth of human population and agriculture in the 20th century was largely responsible for this state of affairs, as people encroached on the habitat of leopards and the animals they preyed upon. Increasing conflict with leopards and the fear that this generated led to a series of campaigns to exterminate them. These were localized at first, but became island-wide after the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, when a combined anti-witchcraft and leopard-killing campaign was launched under the leadership of Unguja’s most famous witch-finder, Kitanzi.The long-term result of this campaign and the subsequent classification of leopards as “vermin” was to bring them to the brink of extinction.
The Bhootbilli, also known as the "ghost cat" is a creature that has been reported in a neighborhood near Pune, India. This large feline cryptid has consumed forty-five pigeons and one goat belonging to one unlucky resident. The sightings of the creature have been in the Sanjay Park neighborhood ~100 miles outside of Mumbai. From MiD DAY: "The bhootbilli has been coming everyday the past 10 days around 7 pm. We had set up a lot of traps, but all turned into a flop show because whenever we would try to catch it, it would jump on the tree and sneak out somewhere," said Feroz Dilawar Khan, a driver and resident of the area. "It's fat and broad with a long tail, black in color, has a face like a dog and back like a mongoose." The bhootbilli, as it is called by the residents, has eaten around forty-five pigeons and one goat within a span of 10 days which all belonged to Feroz. Fed-up of the creature, Feroz called the police, fire brigade and forest officials on November 3rd around 10 pm, but the effort went in vain. "We arrived at the spot around 10 pm, but the animal had already escaped and hid somewhere in the trees," said one of the fire officials from Yerawada, who was at the spot. The residents have again set a trap and are expecting to catch the mischief-maker this time. Hrishikesh Sutar, chairman of the Sanjay Park Society, said: "The residents came complaining to me around four days ago and we haven't yet identified the creature. It's smaller than a lion but bigger than a hyena and I doubt if it's a wild cat." In North America, they might be called Mystery Cats or Phantom Panthers, but the Bhootbilli, The Ghost Cat of India, seems to inhabit a similar location in that country’s mentality. This report issues from a place called Pune, India. The name Pune derives from Punya Nagari (Sanskrit, “City of Virtue”). It is a relatively hilly city, with its tallest hill, Vetal Hill, rising to 800 m (2,600 ft) above sea level. Central Pune is located at the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers. Pune (Marathi: पुणे, pronounced [puɳeː]), formerly called Poona, also known as Punya-Nagari, is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra, after Mumbai and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Pune has a tropical wet and dry climate with average temperatures ranging between 68 to 82 °F (20 to 28 °C). This report is passed along to me by Chad Arment, the author of the new book, Varmints: Mystery Carnivores of North America, and his recent classic, Boss Snakes: Stories and Sightings of Giant Snakes in North America. A “weird, scary creature” has been giving residents of Sanjay Park area sleepless nights. Those staying near the airport in Lohegaon are complaining about a Bhootbilli (ghost cat), which they say has been feeding on domestic animals and birds the past 10 days. For several people, the incident brought to mind the monkey-man episode, a ‘monster’ that was reportedly roaming around Delhi in 2001. “The Bhootbilli has been coming everyday the past 10 days around 7 pm. We had set up a lot of traps, but all turned into a flop show because whenever we would try to catch it, it would jump on the tree and sneak out somewhere,” said Feroz Dilawar Khan, a driver and resident of the area. “It’s fat and broad with a long tail, black in color, has a face like a dog and back like a mongoose.” The Bhootbilli, as it is called by the residents, has eaten around 45 pigeons and one goat within a span of 10 days which all belonged to Feroz. Fed-up of the creature, Feroz called the police, fire brigade and forest officials on November 3 around 10 pm, but the effort went in vain. “We arrived at the spot around 10 pm, but the animal had already escaped and hid somewhere in the trees,” said one of the fire officials from Yerawada, who was at the spot. The residents have again set a trap and are expecting to catch the mischief-maker this time. Hrishikesh Sutar, chairman of the Sanjay Park Society, said: “The residents came complaining to me around four days ago and we haven’t yet identified the creature. It’s smaller than a lion but bigger than a hyena and I doubt if it’s a wild cat.” What could it be? Shekhar Nanajkar, president of a Wild, a wildlife organization, said: “It’s a rare case but according to the description given to me it can be a civet cat who attacks only small animals and birds. But if a goat has been eaten then it’s either a leopard or human being.” Anil Avchite, an animal lover, who had gone to the area around midnight on Wednesday, said: “I climbed up a 40-feet coconut tree as soon as the locals contacted me. I am sure it’s a civet cat. I have asked locals to get in touch with me if they see the creature again.” Also, attached to the article are these definitions: Delhi’s monkey-man A strange, monkey-like creature had been appearing at night and attacking people in Delhi in 2001. Many thought a man dressed as a monkey was intimidating people, but he was never caught The civet cat A civet is a small, lithe-bodied, mostly arboreal mammal native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. Civets have a broadly cat-like general appearance, though the muzzle is extended and often pointed, rather like an otter or a mongoose. There are four primary explanations for the Bhootbilli. The first is, of course, a new species of wild cat or mustelid, though this is the least likely scenario. Another possible explanation is a black panther. Contrary to popular belief, panthers are not a species of wild cat but are instead a melanistic coloration of one of three types of cat: leopards, jaguars or cougars. In this case, it would be a melanistic leopard (jaguars appearing in South America and cougars appearing in North America). Evidence for this being the culprit are the noted coloration and the descriptions of it being smaller than a lion yet bigger than a hyena. The other two likely explanations are the civet cat and the related binturong. While the exact species of civet would not be immediately obvious, the large Indian civet may be the best bet due to it being one of the largest civets and also being native to India. This species however does not fit the black-hued description that has been given; however, the binturong does. However, while binturongs are larger than large Indian civets they are also stockier, being known as "bear cats" for a reason. It ought to be noted also that civets and binturong are occasionally kept as pets, and therefore the culprit's species does not have to be indigenous to the area to be found on an individual or small feral group basis.
The Onza has been recorded since the Spanish conquistadors invaded Aztec Mexico (1519). They found some in the zoo of Emperor Montezuma (1466-1520) under the Aztec name of "cutlamiztli." The Onza is claimed to be a feline species similar to a cougar. It is a cryptid – a creature whose existence has been claimed but not proved. The term has also been used to refer to the jaguar, an existing species of Cougar. In 1938, and again in 1986, cougar-like animals shot in Sinaloa were identified as onzas. The only viable specimen to have been examined was contributed by a rancher named Andres Murillo. In January 1986, he shot what he thought was a jaguar attacking him. It proved not to be a jaguar, and he brought it to Vega, who owned a nearby ranch. It was a female weighing 60 lb (27 kg). The body excluding the tail was 45 inches (1.1 m) long, and the tail was 23 inches (58 cm). The cat had the appearance of a cougar with a very long, thin body and long, thin dog-like legs. Deer had been found in its stomach, indicating that it had eaten recently. Vega told Murillo that the specimen greatly resembled the onza his father had shot in the 1970s, the skull of which he still had. These animals were much like cougars but had lighter frames with longer, striped legs, longer ears, and a longer tail. Researchers from Texas Tech University examined a frozen onza corpse in the 1990s and concluded that it was most likely a genetic variant of the cougar, but not a distinct species. DNA testing has shown that specimen to be a puma, with no significant difference between it and any other puma. A legend less well known among cryptozoologists states that there are two species of jaguar living in Mexico, one usually called "onza" and the other called by other local names.
A Marozi is a lion with spots over its back. Some experts say, since some lions are born with spots that fade, some sort of mishap caused the spots not to fade. Some sources state that the Marozi is a Lion/Hyena crossbreed; but this is profoundly unlikely because of the lion and hyena being rival predators with completely different genetic makeups that to top it all off, compete with one another over the same food sources. It is most likely that Marozi sightings are either hoaxes or examples of lions with a gene mutation that causes the individual to not lose its spots as they get older or maybe even a new type of cat.
The Kellas Cat is a small black feline found in Scotland. Once thought to be a mythological wild cat, with its few sightings dismissed as hoaxes, a specimen was shot and killed in 1984 by a gamekeeper named Ronnie Douglas and found to be a hybrid between wild and domestic sub-species of Felis silvestris (the domestic house cat). It is not a formal breed of cat, but a land race of felid hybrids. The specimen was named by cryptozoologist Karl Shuker after the village of Kellas, Moray, where it was first found. Shuker suggested that the cait sìth of Celtic legend is based on folk memory of Kellas cats. The Kellas cat is described as being over 65 cm (25 inches) long, with powerful and long hind legs and a tail that can grow to be around 30 cm (12 inches) long. A specimen is kept in a museum in Elgin.
Wampus Beasts are large panther/cat-like creatures with glowing eyes. They are sighted in Pleasants County, West Virginia. As there are no official well known sightings, there are a lot in Pleasants County. One of the people from the AIMS team on the Mountain Monsters show saw it when he was 9 years old. His parents told him to get something from the farm late at night. He went out and saw a Black Panther like creature with glowing eyes that gave him an eerie feeling. The creature gave a weird high-pitch hissing like sound, which frightened him back inside his house. Many years later, on his same farm, he had the same kind of encounter with the beast, exactly like the encounter he had as a 9 year old. Another encounter around the same area happened when a lady was driving a school bus late at night and a creature that was black and large leaped out of the woods in front of the bus. The Wampus Beast is also known as the Wampus Cat. Folklore says that it was a witch late at night that turned herself into a unusual cat-like creature. It is rumored to stay in sewers in the day and have a repulsive stench. Another rumor of it is that it kidnapped children.
Exmoor is a region in England, home to many creatures including a terrible beast known as "The Black Beast of Exmoor". The beast may be an alien big cat, which are big cats that live in England. From 1970 to 1980, many people owned jaguars, leopards, and it is possible that small lions were owned as well. At that time, it was not illegal to own such animals without a license. But after 1980 people had to have a license to own a big cat, so many owners let their big pets free. Thus, the Black Beast of Exmoor is probably just a big panther. But unless someone can get enough evidence of it, we will never know what the Black Beast of Exmoor is. People have investigated weird animal kills and analyzed them, and concluded they were cat kills.
The Santer is a mysterious feline reported below the Mason-Dixon line. It is commonly seen in western North Carolina. It is rarely dangerous to mankind, but a frequent predator to livestock. The origin of this creature likely from tales of lumberjack in 19th and early 20th century. It is said to have a long body covered with florescent hair, its head is large and bald with small eyes, it also has long legs and a tail, and has eight hard knots in its tail, which makes them look like a string of beads. It can swing this flail with plenty of power and skill—enough to knock out a cow or a hog with one slap. And obviously this tail can be effectively used in combat. It lives mostly in wooded swamps in the neighborhood of small villages where cattle and hogs are kept. It is a remarkably fast animal, but is rarely seen. Its cry is a piercing, baby-like wail, that even dogs will scared to attack. A calf has been known to have been killed by one of these varmints near Statesville, and it showed eight distinct bruises, seven on the body and one on the broken foreleg. The hair about each bruise was severely singed.
The Serpopard is a term applied by some modern researchers to what is described as a long necked mythical animal known from Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian depictions. It is an animal that's depictions have been found on ancient Egyptian artifacts. Images of this creature have been painted on the Narmer Palette and the Small Palette of Nekhen. The Serpopard is a cross between a leopard and a serpent. It has the body of a leopard and the head of a snake on a very long neck. The Egyptians are well known for their accurate depictions of animals and so this has led some archaeologists to believe that the Serpopard is not a mythical creature but an extinct animal that existed during the time. Shoulder-Height: 4'2 feet Head and Neck: 12 feet The Serpopard is a cross between a leopard and a serpent. It has the body of a leopard and the head of a snake on a very long neck. Some state that its appearance resembles a reptile's head on a long-necked lioness. The Serpopard has no markings on its body, round ears and a tail that ends with a tuft of hair much like that of a lion. Since it bears a strong resemblance of a lion, many believe that the Serpopard is a heraldic beast symbolizing royalty and protection, since this is the symbolic meaning of a lion in the religious concepts of Upper and Lower Egypt. The serpopard is a term applied by some modern researchers to what is described as a mythical animal known from Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian depictions. This term is not used in any original texts, and is an interpretation made only recently. The image is featured specifically on decorated cosmetic palettes from the Pre-Dynastic Period of Egypt, and more extensively, as design motifs on cylinder seals in the Protoliterate Period of Mesopotamia (circa 3500-3000 BCE). Examples include the Narmer Palette and the Small Palette of Nekhen (Hierakonopolis). The cylinder seal displayed to the right displays the motif very clearly. Serpopard from Egyptian artifact. The "serpopard" has been defined as a cross between a serpent and leopard and is supposed to feature the body of the latter, and a long neck and head representing the former. The image generally is classified as a feline, and with close inspection resembles an unusually long-necked lioness. It bears the characteristic tuft of the species at the end of the tail, there are no spots, the round-eared head most closely resembles the lioness rather than a serpent, because serpents do not have ears, and there are no typical serpent features such as scales, tongue, or head shape.
The Splinter Cat is a fearsome critter from various places in North America. It is found from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and eastward to the Atlantic Ocean, but it has been reported in the Rocky Mountains from only a few localities. Apparently the splinter cat inhabits that part of the country in which wild bees and raccoons abound, because they eat racoons or honey during dark and stormy nights. Strangely, they have a hard head to charge and break every tree in sight knocking them down to the floor until a hollow one containing food is found. Then they leave this place broken and shattered. Maybe this story inspired by destroyed forest after windstorm. "Splinter cat Creek", found in the northern Cascade Range of Oregon is named after this legendary animal.
Rompo is a mythological beast originating from the legends of India and Africa. It has a long (approx. 2-3 feet) and thin body with the front arms of a badger and rear legs of a bear, the head of a hare, human ears and horse mane. It was said this creature was nocturnal, secretive, and known to eat human corpses. It is also said to croon softly as it eats. African locals reported that when the Rompo found a dead body, it did not immediately seize the body but would circulate it many times to make sure it was safe to approach. When the Rompo is cornered or put into a state of fright its skin will change to the color of what it sees. Among trees and shrubs, the Rompo’s skin becomes green. The legend of the Rompo may have been inspired from sightings of any of the Old world porcupines.
The Mngwa, also known as the Nunda is a mysterious creature sighted in Tanzania. It was described as a gigantic grey feline the size of a donkey. Evidence of this creature first arose in the early 1900s. In 1938 famous British scientific journal Discovery, William Hichens, a British administrator working in Tanzania reported that several natives stated that they were attacked by this beast. He thought it to be a giant, man-eating lion that was responsible for the attacks, but both fur-samples and tracks were different from those of a lion. In Frank W. Lane's 1954 issue of Nature Parade, Patrick Bowen, a hunter who tracked the Mngwa at one time, remarked that the animal's tracks were like those of the leopard, but much larger. The Mngwa was also described to have brindled fur that was visibly different from that of a leopard. Lane believed that the attacks reported in the 19th century by the Chimiset, associated with the Nandi Bear, might actually have been attacks by the Mngwa. Bernard Heuvelmans speculated that the creature may possibly have been an abnormally colored variation and larger size of the African golden cat (Profelis aurata).
The Beast of Bodmin, also known as The Beast of Bodmin Moor is a phantom wild cat purported to live in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. Bodmin Moor became a center of these sightings with occasional reports of mutilated slain livestock. The alleged panther-like cats of the same region came to be popularly known as the Beast of Bodmin Moor. The creature is panther-like, and black furred, and it stalks around Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England, killing live stock. It's supposedly a phantom, because big cats shouldn't be in England's moors. A long held hypothesis suggests the possibility that alien big cats at large in the United Kingdom could have been imported as part of private collections or zoos, later escaped or set free. An escaped big cat would not be reported to the authorities due to the illegality of owning and importing the animals. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food conducted an official investigation in 1995. The study found that there was 'no verifiable evidence' of exotic felines loose in Britain, and that the mauled farm animals could have been attacked by common indigenous species. The report stated that 'the investigation could not prove that a "big cat" is not present. Less than a week after the government report, a boy was walking by the River Fowey when he discovered a large cat skull. Measuring about 4 inches (10 cm) long by 7 inches (18 cm) wide, the skull was lacking its lower jaw but possessed two sharp, prominent canines that suggested that it might have been a leopard. The story hit the national press at about the same time of the official denial of alien big cat evidence on Bodmin Moor. The skull was sent to the Natural History Museum in London for verification. They determined that it was a genuine skull from a young male leopard, but also found that the cat had not died in Britain and that the skull had been imported as part of a leopard-skin rug. The back of the skull was cleanly cut off in a way that is commonly used to mount the head on a rug. There was an egg case inside the skull that had been laid by a tropical cockroach that could not possibly be found in Britain. There were also cut marks on the skull indicating the flesh had been scraped off with a knife, and the skull had begun to decompose only after a recent submersion in water.
The Maltese tiger, or blue tiger, is a reported but unproven coloration morph of a tiger, reported mostly in the Fujian Province of China. It is said to have bluish fur with dark gray stripes. Most of the Maltese tigers reported have been of the South Chinese subspecies. The South Chinese tiger today is critically endangered, due to their illegal and continued use in traditional Chinese Medicine and the "blue" alleles may be wholly extinct. Blue tigers have also been reported in Korea. The term "Maltese" comes from domestic cat terminology for blue fur, and refers to the slate grey coloration. Many cats with such coloration are present in Malta, which may have given rise to the use of the adjective in this context. Around 1910, Harry Caldwell, an American missionary and big game hunter, spotted and hunted a blue tiger outside Fuzhou. His search is chronicled in his book Blue Tiger (1924), and by his hunting companion Roy Chapman Andrews in his Camps & Trails in China (1925, chapter VII). Chapman cites Caldwell thus: "The markings of the beast are strikingly beautiful. The ground color is of a delicate shade of Maltese, changing into light gray-blue on the underparts. The stripes are well defined and like those of the ordinary yellow tiger." —Caldwell, Chapman (1925) A more recent report, given to Mystery Cats of the World author Karl Shuker, comes from the son of a US Army soldier who served in Korea during the Korean War. His father sighted a blue tiger in the mountains near what is now the Demilitarized Zone. Blue tigers have also been reported from Burma. The black tiger was also long considered mythical, but several pelts have proven that pseudo-melanistic or hypermelanic tigers do exist. They are not completely black, but have dense, wide stripes that partially obscure the orange background color. In support of the blue tiger theory, Maltese-colored cats certainly do exist. The most common are a domestic cat breed, the Russian Blue, and a variety of the British Short hair, the British Blue, but blue bobcats and lynxes have also been recorded, and there are genetic mutations and combinations that result in bluish hue, or at least in the impression of a blue-gray animal. Shuker suggested that blue tigers possessed two different pairs of recessive alleles — the non-agouti (s/s), and the dilute (d/d) which combine to produce a solid blue-gray color as found in domestic cats such as the British Blue and Russian Blue, but would not produce the striped blue tigers reported.
The Dingmaul (Saxicatellus vociferens), Ding Maul, Ding Ball or Plunkus was a giant cat that sat in a giant rock in California, that was nicknamed Dingmaul Rock. The dingmauls have wolf-like skin and a sad expression in their face. They have viscous bodies and they have been seen sat on a rock studying the dirt. They have a long tail that is half of their body length. They use the tail to scare flies away and produce splinters to fill their nests or burrows. The male hits himself in the breast with his tail to attract the female and mate. The female also has a ball that is darker than the male. The dingmaul is famous in the White Mountains; in fact, above the timber line extending in the hill that is between the Mt. Adams and the Mt. Jefferson of Presidential Range is a very visible rock, that was called Dingmaul Rock. There are two species of Dingmauls: the Northwest and the Californian.
The Ennedi Tiger is a purportedly living sabertooth cat inhabiting the Ennedi Plateau, located in the east of Chad, in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are reports of two different species, one that mainly inhabits the mountains (called Hadjel, Gassingram, or Vossoko), and a water-inhabiting one (called Mourou N'gou, Mamaimé, or Dilali). The mountain type, according to the reports, is larger than a lion and lacks a tail. The teeth protrude from the mouth, and the feet are hairy. The coloration is red or reddish-brown with white stripes. It is strong enough to carry off large antelopes. It is nocturnal and cave dwelling in the Ouadai district of the Ennedi mountain range. Natives described it to western explorers, who identified it as a Machairodus sabertooth. The water type is of unknown relation to the first, although it is also larger than a lion (8–12 feet), very fierce, and has protruding teeth. The animal's color pattern is red with white markings (comparable to mountain cats), to leopard-like with stripes, to uniform brown. Its teeth are always described as "walrus-like" and the tail is always long in reports. Some have suggested an otter as a candidate. Its habitat extends into the Central African Republic. There are also tales of water lions in folklore in Congo, Angola, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Sudan. A cave drawing that illustrates a walrus-like creature with a long tail exists in South Africa. A related footnote: the last lions in the Sahara also survived here, until they became extinct before mid-20th century (the last lion was seen in 1940).
The Ozark Howler, also known as the Ozark Black Howler, is a legendary creature that is purported to live in remote areas in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. It is typically described as being bear sized, with thick body, stocky legs, black shaggy hair, and as having prominent horns. Its cry is often described as being a combination of a wolf's howl and an elk's bugle. Cryptozoologist have speculated that the creature might be a misidentified or unrecognized big cat. Anthropologist have speculated that the creature might be a branching off of the Dark Dog of Death found in British folklore. But a few evolutionists who believe in the Ozark Howler believe that it's a mountain lion breed who has ether mutated into a new subspecies, or is a hybrid of a mountain lion and an unknown creature. Chad Arment asserts in his book Cryptozoology that the Ozark Howler myth is a hoax. According to Arment, he and many other cryptozoologists received email messages that made wild claims about Ozark Howler evidence. These messages were tracked down to a university student who had made a bet that he could fool the cryptozoological research community. However, stories of the Ozark Howler are said to predate this.