Category // 16 files

Critter

The self-confessed creatures: lumberjack tall tales, taxidermists' chimeras, mountain pranks. Fearsome critters and their cousins are the atlas's quality control — legends documented as inventions, invaluable for learning how a creature is born.

• Case file Nº006 1995

  Chupacabra

  Critter / 18.38°N 65.90°W

  The "goat-sucker" born in Puerto Rico in 1995 — every carcass tested has come back as a mange-ridden canid, identified by DNA.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº017 1893

  Hodag

  Critter / 45.64°N 89.41°W

  Wisconsin's horned beast — Eugene Shepard's confessed 1893-1896 hoax, now the proud official symbol of Rhinelander.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº020 1910

  Squonk

  Critter / 41.66°N 77.95°W

  The saddest creature in American folklore, dissolving into tears when caught — a documented literary invention of 1910.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº023 XIXe siècle

  Sheepsquatch

  Critter / 38.03°N 81.71°W

  A woolly white, ram-horned beast of Appalachian back roads — old "White Thing" folklore revived by a cluster of 1990s sightings.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº040 1741

  Steller's sea ape

  Critter / 55.10°N 159.75°W

  A sea animal seen once, in 1741, by naturalist G.W. Steller — most likely a young fur seal with its flippers out of sight.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº050 1926

  Olgoi-Khorkhoi

  Critter / 43.50°N 103.50°E

  The Gobi death worm of Mongol nomad accounts: a century of consistent stories, no specimen despite repeated expeditions.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº051 Folklore ancien

  Tsuchinoko

  Critter / 35.65°N 137.32°E

  A short, thick-bodied snake from Japanese folklore, backed by real municipal bounties yet never once captured.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº063 1938

  J'ba Fofi

  Critter / 2.50°S 23.50°E

  A giant spider of the Congo basin known from a handful of tales; spider physiology makes such an animal very unlikely.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº075 XVIIIe siècle

  Tatzelwurm

  Critter / 47.05°N 10.50°E

  The Alpine « worm with claws »: a stubby, cat-headed reptile of herders' tales since the 1700s — never caught, once faked on film.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº078 1802

  Beast of Dean

  Critter / 51.77°N 2.55°W

  The huge « moose-pig » reported near Parkend around 1802 — best read as an outsized wild boar, in a forest boar now roam again.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº086 1932

  Jackalope

  Critter / 42.76°N 105.38°W

  Wyoming's antlered rabbit, invented as taxidermy by the Herrick brothers in 1932 — yet 'horned' rabbits genuinely exist.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº087 1910

  Hidebehind

  Critter / 46.78°N 92.11°W

  The logging-camp predator nobody has ever seen — always hidden behind something, by definition. A documented folk invention.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº088 1910

  Cactus Cat

  Critter / 32.22°N 110.97°W

  The spine-furred desert cat that gets drunk on fermented cactus sap — a campfire invention of the Southwest, printed in 1910.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº089 1910

  Slide-Rock Bolter

  Critter / 37.69°N 108.03°W

  Colorado's mountain whale, tobogganing down slopes mouth-first — an openly invented lumberwoods tall tale, printed in 1910.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº090 XIXe siècle

  Wolpertinger

  Critter / 48.14°N 11.58°E

  Bavaria's taxidermy chimera — a hare with roebuck antlers, wings and fangs — openly manufactured since the 19th century.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº091 XIXe siècle

  Fearsome Critters

  Critter / 45.64°N 89.41°W

  The tall-tale bestiary of American logging camps — creatures invented for laughs, catalogued as pure folklore as early as 1910.

  Class 5