Elwetrisch

Elwetritsch

Region of origin: Germany

A mythical bird said to live in the underbrush of the forests of southwestern Germany, the elwetritsh was believed to be created from the crossbreeding of ducks, chickens and other fowl with fae inhabitants of the woods such as goblins and elven creatures. Similar to the wolpertinger, the elwetritsch was a hoax of assembled animal parts to create a new creature; people would serve small game fowl and claim it was the creature, or take interested parties out on snipe-hunts in the night and attempt to catch elwetritschen by beating bushes and putting out a lantern that would attract the birds who got disturbed from their nests. Early depictions were commonly a large chicken with horns or antlers, but as time went on artists creating statues of the creature would add an increasing number and variety of parts, often including number of beaks or limbs from different animals and human breasts. Folk tales of the elwetrisch have carried over through emigration to America and still exist in some Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish communities.

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The Awful

The Awful

Region of origin: Richmond, Vermont

Per several articles written by H.P. Albarelli Jr. circa 2006, the creature known locally as “The Awful” was sighted around Richmond and Berkshire, Vermont starting around the early 1900s into the 1920s. Described as a large grey griffon-like creature, eyewitnesses claimed it was seen perched on rooftops or in flight carrying small animals. It was often described as observing people but there were no reports of it interacting directly; the only specific harm it caused was in one of the first sightings supposedly caused one of the witnesses to be startled into cardiac arrest. According to one of Albarelli’s articles, H.P. Lovecraft had become interested in tales of the Awful, going so far as to visit Vermont and try and locate the beast, and used the stories as inspiration for some of his later writings.

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The Nuevo Laredo Alien

The Nuevo Laredo Alien

Region of origin: Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

In July of 2015, footage supposedly showing a pink-hued alien figure scampering around the roof of a ranch house in Nuevo Laredo was posted on YouTube before making the rounds on some local television news and blogs. The video was quickly taken down but not before the story had spread. Less widespread was the correction that the video actually belonged to Jose Joaquim Perez, a Nicaraguan video producer who had created it along with several similar ones for his YouTube channel before someone had taken an edited version and posted it as real footage. As ever, the real monster here

is copyright infringement.

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The Tumor Seal of Mel’s Other Hole

The Tumor Seal of Mel’s Other Hole

Region of origin: Nevada, United States

Mel’s Hole is a whole thing. In short, a man called into a radio show saying he discovered a seemingly bottomless pit with strange properties near his home in Washington state before government intervention prevented him from further investigation. After hearing his story, he was contacted by people with a similar hole, on which they performed various experiments, including lowering a sheep into the hole. They left the sheep as far as they could lower it for a half hour before bringing it back out and found the animal had died. Cutting it open, they found the creatures insides appeared “cooked” and removed a tumorous growth from the sheep from which emerged a small animal like a fetal seal with kind, compassionate eyes. After a brief encounter with the, per Mel’s description, seemingly intelligent creature, it returned to the rim of the hole and hopped inside. Mel would also later claim the encounter coincided with the remission of cancer he had previously been diagnosed with. Mel left after this event but the original group of locals that had found the hole kept in contact and later told him the creature would make regular visits to their village, communicating with them through electronic devices but producing a sound that could not be recorded. It warned them about destroying itself with nuclear warfare, and of beings from other worlds with designs on inhabiting the planet once we had eliminated ourselves.

Originally posted on Tumblr on August 3, 2016

Gowrow

Gowrow

Region of origin: Blanco, Arkansas, United States

First mentioned in a newspaper in 1897 but discussed locally for at least a few decades prior, this species of twenty-foot-long lizard, also known as Arkansas’ dragon, was said to live in subterranean tunnels and lairs in the Ozarks mountains that it digs out with its two large tusks. It gained the name gowrow from the sound it makes while hunting, attacking humans and livestock with its claws and whip-like tail and dragging their bodies back to its lair to feed. Supposedly the females laid eggs “as large as beer kegs” and carried the young around in a possum-like pouch once they hatched. In the early twentieth century there were stories of a man who claimed to have captured one alive and took it on tour, but always appeared on stage in torn clothing warning the crowd it had escaped and scaring them away without having to produce the specimen.

Originally posted on Tumblr on July 22, 2016

Moha Moha

Moha Moha

Region of origin: Sandy Cape, Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

Spotted in 1890 by Selina Lovell, a London teacher and amateur naturalist who had relocated to Queensland, she described a giant creature that had features of both sea turtle and fish with a domed shell off the shore of Sandy Cape. She included with her description testimonies from several other local witnesses, including an anecdote of the same creature attacking a local village some years prior. Due to likely biological impossibilities in Lovell’s heavily-detailed account, the creature is often written off as a hoax or exaggeration, but regardless it has received the scientific designation Chelosauria Lovelli.

Originally posted on Tumblr on June 21, 2016

The Domsten Blobs

The Domsten Blobs

Region of origin: Domsten, Sweden

In 1958, two co-workers, Stig Rydberg and Hans Gustafsson, while making a pitstop when driving home after a night of partying after work investigated a glow in the woods they initially thought to be a fire. The glow turned out instead to be a glowing, disc-shaped vehicle surrounded by small living beings, described as “loaf-shaped,” viscous grey blobs which emitted a fish-like odor. The two men were beset upon by the blobs until Rydberg was able to break free, escaping to the car and laying on the horn. Hearing the noise, the blobs scattered back into their craft and took off into the western sky. The two returned home and while their friends and family largely wrote off their story as a prank, it was picked up by a newspaper, the Helsingborgs Dagblad and the two were interrogated by military personnel.

Originally posted on Tumblr on June 2, 2016

Gef the Talking Mongoose

Gef the Talking Mongoose

Region of origin: Cashen’s Gap, Dalby, Isle of Man (or Delhi, India if you listen to Gef)

In the early 1930s, the Irving family of the Isle of Man claimed a small rodent, ostensibly referred to as a mongoose, but shared features of rats, ferrets, cats and even having what were described as human-like hands, was living in their attic. Beyond his abnormal physiognomy, Gef, as he informed the Irvings he was named, possessed various supernatural powers such as shape-shifting, invisibility and, per his namesake, the ability to speak English, and quite loquaciously. Gef became something of a local celebrity, despite never being seen by anyone outside of the Irvings and attracted attention from both the scientific and paranormal activity, resulting in the creation two camps: those who believed Gef was a hoax perpetuated by the Irvings, specifically father James and/or daughter Voirrey, or those who viewed Gef as a poltergeist-like figure taking the form of a rodent, a conclusion which Gef himself contradictorily confirmed and denied at various points. The Irvings never recanted their story, and while Gef’s activity more or less dried up after their passing, sightings persist to the modern day.

For a far more complete history and analysis of Gef, check out this episode of Monstertalk, head here for some of Gef’s more memorable quotes and he was also the subject of this Lemon Demon song.

Originally posted on Tumblr on May 7, 2016

De Loys’ Ape

De Loys’ Ape

Region of origin: Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela

In 1920, a geologist on an expedition to locate a petroleum reserve, François de Loys, sent an account of his party encountering a pair of large, aggressive primates. They claim to have shot the male, causing the female to flee back into the forest. The male’s body was propped up for a photograph which remains the only evidence of the creature; however as it has no reference to scale, the creature appears to resemble a common spider monkey and the body itself was never recovered, it is largely believed to have been a hoax.

Originally posted on Tumblr on March 25, 2016

The Enfield Horror

The Enfield Horror

Region of origin: Enfield, Illinois, United States

A strange creature that stalked the nights of rural Illinois in the spring of 1973, including several accounts of being assaulted though most were rescinded or disproved as hoaxes and hysteria. Theories persist that the remaining claims had misidentified a wild ape or escaped kangaroo that had found its way into the Illinois woods, but the man who had first reported seeing the creature remained adamant it was neither.

Originally posted on Tumblr on February 23, 2016