Wildlife Expert Investigates 5 Infamous Cryptid Animals

You know those stories around the campfire, the whispers of mythical creatures lurking in the shadows? Yeah, me too. But what if I told you that they're not all campfire tales and that some of these legendary beasts might just be animals shrouded in mystery? From bloodthirsty vampire creatures to hairy two-legged demons from the jungle, these are five of the best-known animal cryptids debunked, some that I've even searched for myself. Our first legendary creature's name literally translates to the goat sucker from Spanish, and it's been the talk of many a late-night campfire tale. The chupacabra is said to roam the Americas with sightings stretching from Puerto Rico to the United States and beyond. Picture this, a creature with thick, scaly, greenish-gray skin, sharp spines or quills running down its back, standing about three to four feet tall. Some say it moves in a kangaroo-like hop, adding to the mystique of its presence. Back in 1975, the small town of Moca, Puerto Rico was rocked by a series of mysterious livestock killings. Dubbed the Vampire of Moca, these attacks set the stage for the chupacabra legend. Each victim, whether it be goat or chicken, was found with small circular incisions drained of blood. Spooky, right? Fast forward to March 1995, when the chupacabra truly made its mark. Eight sheep turned up dead in Puerto Rico, each with three puncture wounds to the chest and not a drop of blood left. Then, eyewitnesses started coming forward, like Madeline Tolentino, who claimed to have seen the creature in action amidst the wave of farm animal massacres. But the chupacabra wasn't content with just Puerto Rico. Reports of similar attacks poured in from countries all over the Americas, painting a picture of a bloodthirsty beast on the loose. Now, let's separate fact from fiction here. After years of speculation, Benjamin Radford's investigation in 2011 revealed a surprising twist. The chupacabra might not be what we think. You see, that distinctive description of reptile-like creature with spines and a kangaroo-like hop turns out it's eerily similar to a sci-fi horror movie creature named Syl from the film Species. Yup, Madeline Tolentino, one of the earliest eyewitnesses, had watched the movie before her report. Talk about a plot twist. And as for those reports of animals drained of blood, well, no necropsy ever confirmed it. Dr. David Morales analyzed hundreds of supposed chupacabra victims and found no evidence of blood sucking. In fact, I actually think that the chupacabra sightings in the United States could be explained by coyotes or wolves with mange, causing them to lose fur and go on a livestock hunting spree out of desperation. So essentially, the chupacabra might just be a case of mistaken identity, fueled by a mix of Hollywood hype and wildlife misfortune. Up next, we have something that I personally searched for, and you won't believe what I found, the Awanchi. According to ancient Peruvian myth, the Awanchi is described as two-legged demons from hell. It's a legend as old as the communities living in the area. And people believe these creatures come to punish the damned. This creature is said to be too heavy for tree branches, with alleged witnesses describing them as giant man-shaped monkeys covered in long black hair and pimples. Yep, giant hairy pimple monkeys from hell. It's said to stand around four feet tall with thick, well-muscled arms and thighs and a short tail about five inches long. The Awanchi is reported to be a solitary animal, though some hunters have supposedly spotted them feeding alongside troops of spider monkeys. They mostly stay in the trees, but will come down to defend themselves, rearing up and charging on their hind limbs. Now, let me know if you're starting to pick up clues on what this could be. And although they sound dangerous, the Awanchi are reportedly entirely herbivorous, feasting on wild fruits and palm. In 2020, my wife Jess and I were actually contacted by a farming family in Peru who believed their livestock were being terrorized by the supposed Awanchi. Bordered by the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean on the west, Peru is an enormous but very remote country. It's more than three times the size of California. The farmer told me the Awanchi was descending from the Andes foothills and described it as a small, hairy, mythological man scaring his livestock. Now, when I hear reports like this, I try and immediately key out the list of possible suspects. And for this case, the puma was at the top of my list. But get this, the farmer has seen tons of pumas before. They've even attacked his livestock and he was absolutely convinced that it wasn't a puma. My wife and I also knew that it can't be a giant monkey coming and scaring his livestock. So we were left pretty stumped as to what this creature might actually be. So Jess and I set up trail cameras and proximity alarms around his farm and one night the alarms went off like crazy. We rushed outside in PJs to see what was triggering them. Using my night vision binos, I spotted a big, black, furry animal in a tree. Definitely not a monkey, but it was the Awanchi itself, a spectacled bear, the only bear native to South America. But it all makes sense. They're super rare. It's the last remaining short-faced bear in the world with its extinct cousins being able to stand over 11 feet tall. Jess and I never suspected it was spooking the llamas because while it is a predator, the diet of the spectacled bear is only around 5% meat. This bear mostly survives on orchids, fruits, and bromeliad hearts, similar to the description of the Awanchi. And when they posture up on their hind legs along with its short face, it only makes it look that much more like a man. And with a weight averaging between 150 and 250 pounds, it's roughly the same size as a person too. Now let's talk about something we all know and love, and I think there may be a logical explanation for this, the Loch Ness Monster. Known affectionately as Nessie, this mysterious creature is said to inhabit the waters of Loch Ness, a deep freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands. Descriptions of Nessie vary, but most accounts describe a large creature with a long neck resembling a plesiosaur. Some say it has one or more humps that break the surface of the water as it moves. The legend dates back centuries, but the first modern day sighting came in 1933 when a couple reported seeing a massive creature cross the road and disappear into the loch. Since then, countless sightings have been reported, including the world famous account from 1934 known as the Surgeon's Photograph, which allegedly showed the creature's head and neck protruding from the water, a picture I'm sure you're all familiar with. However, it was later revealed to be a hoax. Further reports include sonar readings, photographs, and even videos, but none have been conclusive. So despite the wealth of anecdotal evidence, most of the supposed photographs and videos have been debunked over the years, yet the legend of Nessie lives on. So now what is this monster really? That's the big question. Some scientists believe it could be misidentification of known animals. For instance, there are large European eels in the loch that could explain some of the sightings. Imagine a massive eel swimming around and surfacing from time to time and breaking the surface with those humps, that snake-like movement, it would definitely catch your eye. Then there are otters and seals that are known to visit the loch, and their swimming behavior could definitely contribute to the legend. There's even famous pictures of groups of harbor seals jumping in loch Ness, which to the untrained eye, could look exactly like the coils of a loch Ness monster. But take this. One interesting theory involves the Greenland shark. These ancient sharks can grow up to 20 feet long, which is wild, and they are known to inhabit the North Atlantic. They're dark in color and have a small dorsal fin, some similarities to the descriptions of Nessie. Some sightings could easily be one of these huge guys swimming close to the surface. But with that piece of information, there are also other things going on in the loch that might confuse people, like boat wakes and floating logs. They can mess with the water's surface and make it look like something's moving beneath it. Plus, wind and waves can cause water patterns that mess with our eyes, so it might not always be a monster, but just some natural phenomenon. As for the plesiosaur theory, while it sounds like a cool idea, it just doesn't add up. A creature that big would need to surface often to breed, and we'd see it way more frequently. Plus, the loch is relatively young in geological terms. So there is one other theory of the loch Ness monster that I absolutely love, and in fact, this is my theory. Wait for it, whale penis. Yup, you heard me right. So we're gonna put up a picture on screen here, and you're gonna take a look at what Nessie looks like next to a whale penis. Yup, I know how ridiculous this sounds, but when whales are mating, they will often roll over and get their little puppy-like red rocket that when you're a whale is pretty gigantic, and it looks just like the loch Ness monster. I think that the most likely cause of the loch Ness monster sightings could be a young whale coming into the loch and getting a little randy with himself. But at the end of the day, what people are probably seeing in the loch as far as loch Ness goes is a mix of different animals and natural occurrences. Whether it's whale penis or waves, the list of possibilities we have just gone through just goes to show the sheer number of possibilities as to what this animal might be. But the legend of the loch Ness monster continues to capture our imagination forever. Next up is another cryptid species that I went and personally debunked in the Midwest myself, a mysterious beast that's been the talk of the town in the wilds of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas for ages. The Ozark howler is said to be a hybrid creature with the tail of a cat, the body of a dog, and when it stands on its hind legs, it reaches an impressive nine feet tall. Its most distinctive characteristic is its chilling howl, a combination of a wolf and elk sound that ends in what some describe as a woman screaming. Talk about spooky, right? Others speculate it might be a misidentified or unrecognized big cat, a wild boar, or an Eastern woodland bison. Over the years, cryptozoologists and anthropologists alike and even folklorists have weighed in drawing comparisons between the howler and legendary beasts. Some say the howler is a dark omen predicting death for those who see it. But is it all true? I went to Missouri to search for the Ozark howler myself. Let me tell you, the wilderness out there is amazing. Lush, green, dense forests, tons of caves, incredible creeks everywhere. It really is a place where a cryptid like the Ozark howler could potentially hide out. The locals there shared encounters that included a distinctive howl and musky smell, key traits attributed to the howler. Yet these characteristics can also be found in common animals such as mountain lions, black bears, coyotes, all kinds of stuff, even skunks. Then the big reveal came when we stumbled upon a moonshiner who showed us a pelt and a skull his grandfather claimed were from an Ozark howler shot in the 1920s. Upon closer inspection, we found that the fur matched that of a North American red wolf, a species that once roamed the entire Southeastern United States. It's a critically endangered species. And currently there are less than 20 known American red wolves left in the wild, occupying less than 1% of their original range, which explains how such a rare creature could be mistaken for a mystery animal. Now, here's an interesting twist. The moonshiners in the region have historically played a significant role in expanding the myth of the Ozark howler. So what would happen was, and the timelines for this really line up, which is kind of fun, you can see it on our mysterious creatures show, is during prohibition, moonshiners would retreat to hidden areas in the woods. Now, if police or trespassers were in the area, these moonshiners would actually come out of their huts and howl and try and perpetuate and build up this myth to scare people away from busting them. So while the American red wolf was diminishing, and what happens when wolf numbers diminish? Well, they howl to locate each other. And so this howling started to perpetuate this myth. The moonshiners would then pick up on that and exacerbate it and make it even larger than life and tell stories of the Ozark howler to keep cops away from the areas they were distilling all of this alcohol and trying to get away during prohibition. Howl! So really it's interesting how something that is founded in fact, like the fact that we know the American red wolf was being driven towards regional extinction, and that it would start howling and become cryptic and weird to see, and that's likely what Daniel Boone shot at. When you couple that with perpetuating the legend and the myth as the moonshiners did to try and keep the police out, it really begins to take shape and support the idea of this cryptid known as the Ozark howler. And one thing we learned while we were there is that these moonshiners even use homemade growlers is what they call them, which were devices made from buckets and strings that produced a chilling sound that really mimics the description of the legendary howler's cry. So locals would hear these sounds in the woods and spread tales of the fearsome creature, amplifying the myth over time, and perpetuate the story, but sadly the real animal, the American red wolf, was the one that suffered. So what's the takeaway? The Ozark howler is likely just a case of misidentification of other existing animals like red wolves, black bears, and mountain lions. And to think that these people could have potentially had encounters with some of the last remaining wild North American red wolves, honestly, I'm just incredibly jealous. Next up, a mythical water-dwelling entity that is said to inhabit the dense and unexplored regions of the Congo River Basin, Mokele-bembe. Imagine a large quadrupedal herbivore with smooth skin, a long neck, and possibly a single tooth or horn, pretty much a long neck dinosaur. That sounds wild, right? Sightings of Mokele-bembe have long been reported by the pygmies, the local inhabitants of the region, who have an unparalleled knowledge of the flora and fauna of the forest. They describe the creature as rare, but still part of the living fauna in the Congo today. Now remember, thanks to identical accounts given by them, Western science has been able to discover animals like the gorilla and the okapi, so it shouldn't go disregarded. The first modern report comes from a German captain in 1913 who described an enormous reptile in his survey of the area. More accounts followed, including tales of the creature's path near the river, its preference for certain plants, and even reports of it attacking canoes. While the evidence of Mokele-bembe's existence is mainly anecdotal, there have been numerous expeditions to try and find this mysterious creature. However, just like other cryptids, the hunt for Mokele-bembe remains elusive. Now, what could Mokele-bembe really be? Well, some experts believe that the reports might be a combination of different animals and the region's dense environment. A common theory is that it is actually a black rhinoceros, which once used to thrive in Central Africa where the stories of Mokele-bembe originated. But sadly, it has become increasingly rare and is regionally extinct throughout much of its range. Other possible explanations include crocodiles, elephants, or even an unknown species of large animal roaming the jungles and rivers. Take this. In 1909, a zoologist by the name of Carl Hagenbeck speculated that sauropods may still live in Africa based on recently discovered dinosaur bones. But let's face it, that's pretty unlikely. There's no concrete evidence supporting that. The dense forests and unexplored regions of the Congo make it challenging to study the area, and the pygmy's descriptions add credibility to the legend. But my scientific consensus leans more towards more grounded explanations, such as misidentification of known animals. I think that this legend has come about as a result of many creatively varied stories from around the region. Having grown up in Zimbabwe, I know too well that stories like this can be perpetuated through numerous narratives and accounts. All in all, the legend of Mokole Bembe adds to the mystery and allure of the Congo River Basin. Whether it's a mix of different known animals or something entirely new, we may never know for sure. Well, there it is. Five of the most well-known cryptids debunked. Well, at least kind of debunked. It just goes to show that if you take a little bit of time to come to your senses and think of a scientific explanation on what you saw, we probably wouldn't have half the cryptids we have today. Anyway, let me know your thoughts. Let me know if you learned something new. And hey, if you have a scientific explanation as to what some other crazy cryptids might be, leave a comment below and who knows, we may just get to it in another video at another time.