A French Dragon

 

The Niort Dragon

There are four bronze dragons in the main shopping street of Niort in France. Niort is also known as the Green Venice

They are based on the story of a dragon from  1692.

The city was terrorised by a giant snake with wings that devoured  women ,children and men  The dragon sat on Notre-Dame and drank water from the Sèvre Niortaise. No one dared to challenge  it. Then Jacques Allonneau, a convicted deserter, a soldier .who was condemned to death offered to fight the dragon in exchange for his freedom. Wearing a suit of armour, that included a glass visor, he was  armed with a long spear and dagger. He fatally stabbed the dragon in the throat.  When he lifted his visor in triumph the dragon spat venom at him with its dying breath. The soldier was mortally poisoned .

His tomb was located in the old cemetery of Notre Dame de Niort , but the cemetery was destroyed in 1792,

A Description of the tombstone was found:

The tomb was roof-shaped, from which two sculptures can be seen on the tombstone:

First side: a character representing a soldier wearing a short coat and  holding  a short sword on his chest.His head is covered with a helmet.The top of his head is decorated with a cross.

The Second side shows  a winged serpent a  Dragon

So was this really the tomb of a dragon slayer? We shall never know but the town celebrates the story as real.

 

The Scottish Boobrie

 

The  Boobrie

 The boobrie is a legendary creature inhabiting the lochs in the west coast of Scotland. It is described as normally looking like a giant bird but sometimes looks like  a water bull. A shape shifting entity. . It can also manifest as a water horse .

It tends to be aggressive preying on livestock being transported across the lochs and also eats otters. Sometimes in the summer it appears as a giant insect sucking the blood of horses

The  folklorist  John Campbell of Islay, wrote an account of the size of the boobrie  provided by a witness .It is claimed to be "larger than seventeen of the biggest eagles put together".It has a strong black beak about 11 inches  wide and 17 inches  in length, the final 5 inches  of which taper like that of an eagle. The creature's neck is almost 3 feet  long with a girth of a little under 2 feet . Short black powerful legs lead to webbed feet with gigantic claws.”

 A footprint of  a boobrie's foot fond in some mud by a loch was said to  equal "the span of a large wide-spreading pair of red deer's horns".

 He also wrote that it bellowed loudly when angry.

The West coast sea lochs are its preferred home.

The great auk,now  extinct, is thought by some to be the source of a number of boobrie sightings due to its large size and similar colour.

I am surprised it hasn’t been cited as an explanation for Nessie. Its probably the only thing that hasn’t !

 

Campbell, John Francis (1860), Popular Tales of the West Highlands, vol. I, Edmonston and Douglas

Two articles about Cryptids

 Something I have thought about .If you found definitive proof what would happen?

What happens if someone finds the Loch Ness Monster?

People have been looking for Nessie for almost 100 years.

Humps have been seen moving across Loch Ness, and strange sounds heard from beneath the surface - but no actual monster.

A four-day "quest" - the latest in a long series of efforts to unravel the mystery - has been held this week.

But what would happen if the Loch Ness Monster was found - besides, of course, creating a global sensation?

The Nessie Contingency Plan sounds like it should be in an episode of TV sci-fi drama The X Files.

But it is a set of guidelines written by Scotland's nature agency, NatureScot.

A spokesperson told us: "The Nessie Contingency Plan was produced back in 2001, at a time when there was a lot of Nessie-hunting activity on the loch.

"We were regularly being asked by the media and others what we would do if or when she, or he, was found.

"The code of practice, which was partly serious and partly for a bit of fun, was drawn up to offer protection not just to the elusive monster, but to any new species found in the loch."

Read rest here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyzxmjj3m2o

 

 

I have speculated that cryptids could be hybrids that have evolved into a new species. It seems it could be a reality.

It Looks Like a Dolphin, Acts Like a Whale: This Bizarre Sea Creature Wasn’t Meant to Survive—Then It Had Babies

With traits from both a dolphin and a whale-like species, this rare creature is unlike anything scientists expected. Its surprising origins and even more unexpected legacy continue to puzzle researchers.

In 1985, on the southeastern shore of Oahu, an unusual marine birth at Sea Life Park startled researchers and captured the imagination of biologists worldwide. From the mating of two distinctly different marine mammals—a female bottlenose dolphin named Punahele and a male false killer whale named I’Anui—came a calf unlike any previously seen. The animal, named Kekaimalu, bore characteristics of both species, but conformed to neither.

Read rest here:

https://indiandefencereview.com/it-looks-like-a-dolphin-acts-like-a-whale-this-bizarre-sea-creature-wasnt-meant-to-survive-then-it-had-babies/

The Ngani-vatu Killer Bird.

 

The Ngani-vatu 

Ngani-vatu  is a huge bird from Fijian lore. Said to carry off people and animals to devour and able to block out the sun with its wings.  Male birds have  a light green back, while females are  a light brown hue. Sounds like prehistoric giant terror birds,the phorusrhacids,except they were flightless.

A story from local legend.

Okova and Tutu-wathiwathi, a married couple, were out fishing in their boat when the ngani-vatu swooped from the sky and carried Tutu-wathiwathi away. Okova went  to enlist the help of his p brother in law , Rokoua., to pursue the bird. They followed  the bird to its home  home on the island of Sawa-i-Lau, but were too late. All they found left of Tutu-wathiwathi were her fingers -. They swore revenge, and the two lay in wait.The ngani-vatu eventually returned, with a load of prey and began to eat. Okova and Rokoua plunged their spears into it . The bird collapsed, causing an avalanche, but the two managed to escape.

Sounds like the thunderbirds sighted in the USA . There are reports of giant birds from all over the world. Mistaken identity or prehistoric survivors..what do you think?

Zeegangsa of Indonesia.

 

Zeegangsa

A Zeegangsa is a water dwelling  cryptid that is said to live  in the Kali Miring River in Java, Indonesia.

In  1907, some  British businessmen working  in Surabaya, Java, went on a trip  crocodile hunting on the Kali Miring River.

Sitting in a boat near the mouth of the river, they saw something like  a swan's head appeared out of the water on the east bank . The group thought it was a dead tree trunk, but when they looked closed   they discovered that the top of the object had a mouth that opened and closed with teeth. The helmsman saw a crescent-shaped object protruding from the water on the starboard side, which he thoughts  was the creature's tail. They estimated it be  about 9 metres ( 27 feet) long between its head and its  tail.

One of the group shot at  the monster with a crocodile  gun. The bullet appeared to hit the creature and it slowly disappeared into the water. They told their story to a local  fisherman, who told them that it was a creature called Zeegangsa, a mild and harmless river-dwelling creature.

It sounded like many aquatic cryptids ,a sort of plesiosaur shape but not aggressive. A creature worth studying  and perhaps in the future someone may do so.

The Gyedarra.,Australian Cryptid.

 Gyedarra

The gyedarra is a cryptid that has been said to live in Queensland  Australia. The local indigenous people describe it as a giant wombat ,the size of  a horse,that lived near water holes.

 It  has stocky legs and is a herbivore. Mainly a solitary creature it was seen digging in creek beds for vegetable matter and plants.

A man from Gowrie Station in Queensland  was shown the fossilized bones of  a Diprotodon  in 1871 and identified them as the bones of a gyedarra.. The Diprotodon was thought to be extinct about 10,000years ago. The Wiradjuri people, who live near Gowrie Station, said the Gyedarra are now rare animals,

In June  1997, a man called  John claimed to have seen a giant wombat-like creature while driving in  New South Wales. The animal walked out of the bush in front of him and he had to brake suddenly. The  creature  turned to face him . He said it looked like a very large  wombat, with dark fur and long limbs. Afraid John fled at speed .

In 2001, a woman  named as Claire said she saw an unusual animal near Foster, Victoria. Walking through a thicket, a dark brown, long-limbed, tailless animal roughly the size of a sheep run across in front of her.She was left shaken.

So could the Diprotodon still be living in the Australian bush? Many animals thought to be extinct have been discovered  again in recent years,so it is a possibility

Malaysian Bigfoot ?

 

Hantu Sakai

The bigfoot of Malaysia.

 The Semang people of Malaysia reported sightings of a tribe of hairy-ape like creatures  called the Hantu Sakai. They are described as 5ft 10in tall (almost 2 metres), with long hair and some wearing loincloths made of tree bark. They live in trees and walk bipedally. Hantu means devil. One was captured in the  1870s and sketched by Aug Frederickson. Its fate is unknown. In 1953 several witnesses on a rubber plantation near Terolak in Perak State saw two males and a female. They said there was a strong smell. It seems there are types of bigfoot in most parts of the world. Descriptions are often similar : strong smell,hairy ,family groups. Could they be the missing link in evolution, these wild people?