Kongamato

Kongamato with reddish wings and reptilian body.

The Kongamato is a flying reptilian cryptid allegedly native to the remote, dense, swampy forests and wetlands of East, Central, and parts of South Africa. According to folklore, the Kongamato lives in caves in the Mutanda River, Jiwundu swamps, and the Mwinilunga District of northwestern Zambia. It is also allegedly found in the Bangweulu Wetlands … Read more

Hoop Snake

Stylised image of hoop snake in a forest

The Hoop Snake is a cryptid serpent from folkloric traditions across the U.S. and Canada. The Hoop Snake also appears in the ancient traditions of cultures from other parts of the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. A cosmic serpent that forms a hoop by biting or holding its tail in its mouth occurred … Read more

Giant Anaconda

A giant anaconda with its mouth open slithers through the jungle

The giant anaconda (Sucuriju Gigante or Megaconda) is a cryptid similar to but said to be much larger than the regular anaconda (genus Eunectes). Early 20th-century European explorers in the Amazon River Basin first learned about supposed giant anacondas from native accounts of fearsome super-sized boas living in the dense jungles. Some explorers later claimed to … Read more

Buru

The Buru is a large crocodile-like creature, seen here in a swamp with its large mouth open revealing some rather terrifying teeth.

The Buru (Bura) is a mythical cryptid that features in the origin legends of the Apatani (Tanw) of the Ziro (Silo) valley in the Eastern Himalayan Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Professor Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf was the first anthropologist to visit their remote communities in 1944. According to the Apatani, when their ancestors … Read more

Minhocão

The Minhocão is a worm-like creature and seen here with pale skin as it slithers on a murky riverbank

The Minhocão is a cryptid from Brazilian folklore. It is an alleged worm-like or serpentine burrowing creature described as a giant earthworm, eel, or fish. It allegedly lives in shallow or muddy waters, lakes, swamps, bogs, and other slow-moving bodies of water in the Amazon River Basin regions of southern Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru. Alleged … Read more

Fouke Monster

The Fouke Monster seen as a reddish humanoid in a forest

The Fouke Monster is a humanoid cryptid from the folklore of rural Arkansas. According to folklore, the Fouke Monster lives in the Sulphur River bottom and creeks around Fouke, a small town in Miller County, southwest Arkansas. The monster derived its name from Fouke, where the first alleged sightings occurred in 1971. Since 1971, scores … Read more

Honey Island Swamp Monster

The Honey Island Swamp Monster seen here as an apelike humanoid emerging from a dark swamp

The Honey Island Swamp Monster is an alleged humanoid creature from Louisiana (United States) folklore. Folklore says the monster is a Bigfoot-like creature native to the Honey Island Swamp and the wetlands (bayous) around Pearl River. Honey Island Swamp consists of pristine marshlands covering about 70,000 acres near Slidell in St. Tammany Parish. The island … Read more

Rougarou

A rougarou waist deep in a swamp. It has he body of a hairy man and the head of a wolf.

A rougarou is a werewolf-like creature said to inhabit the swamps, fields, and forests of Cajun French Louisiana. Description The legend of the rougarou is thought to have started in medieval France when werewolves were believed to be real. By the 16th century, people who believed in the rougarou thought it to result from a … Read more

Mokele-mbembe

The Mokele-mbembe is a semi-aquatic creature seen here looking a little like a herbivore dinosaur in a swamp.

Described as a semi-aquatic creature, the Mokele-mbembe (the name translates to “one who stops the flow of rivers”) is said to inhabit the Congo River Basin. Description Scientists and explorers have been hunting beasts in Congo – without success – for centuries. The legend of the Mokele-mbembe, however, is somewhat more recent. In 1909, a … Read more

Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp

The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp stares through a window with red eyes

The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp is a cryptid from the folklore of South Carolina. The alleged creature lives in the swamps around Bishopville in Lee County and the neighboring Sumter County. Media coverage of Lizard Man sightings in the late 1980s brought Lee County to national attention, and now South Carolina holds an … Read more