amyasleigh
Abominable Snowman
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2009
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Madagascar is a place that I find fascinating, for various reasons. One such is the possibility – even if slim – of present-day cryptozoological “action” there. Attempted summary, below, of such “just-maybe’s”. These culled from a combination of material from Karl Shuker’s blog; and Heuvelmans’s book “On The Track of Unknown Animals”.
Heuvelmans, writing some 55 years ago, made his Madagascar chapter principally a “lament”, centring on local stories of various creatures not recognised by biological science, but which were then according to the locals still around, or had been around in the measurable past. Heuvelmans’s “take” was that many of these represented, likely, memories of species which had still existed only generations or centuries back – he expressed regret that scepticism on the part of mainstream scientists in the preceding couple of centuries had weighed against investigation of the possibility of still-existing undiscovered creatures, there; and voiced the notion that it would seem appallingly bad luck that every single such, was actually extinct at the time at which he was writing – maybe something still living but undocumented, in the “remotest reaches”?
One gathers that in the time since publication of Heuvelmans’s book, Madagascar – already quite seriously environmentally degraded then – has gone a great deal further down that road, especially as regards deforestation: only a tiny percentage of the island’s one-time forest cover is now left, and that is under threat. None of this process over the past half-century, would seem to have uncovered any new sizeable-and-impressive species in Madagascar. However, Shuker still holds out possible hope for a few “mystery creatures” there. Seeking for relative brevity, am mostly sticking to those for which Shuker sees a chance, however remote.
(Madagascar is one of those places which go in for tongue-twisting and “as-long-as-your-arm” words and names.)
TRATRATRATRA: “Madagascar’s yeti”, if anything deserves that tag. Described by witnesses as “hairy-ape-man-like”, and quite large. Sundry putative giant-lemur species have been identified in Madagascar from subfossil remains, some seen as having lasted as long as up to several centuries ago (seen as exterminated by man). Envisaged “tratratratra” candidates: the sloth lemur Palaeopropithecus ingens, shown from radio-carbon dating of sub-fossil remains to have existed at least until c. 1500 AD. Or the supposedly extinct lemur Hadropithecus, with a relatively flattened ape-like or humanoid face? There is an account from the 1930s (source other than Heuvelmans) of a French forester in Madagascar who “came face to face with an animal sitting 4ft. high, and described it as being unlike other lemurs he had seen. It did not have a muzzle, but was like a gorilla with ‘the face of one of my ancestors’.”
A responder to Shuker’s blog gives brief reports, from Madagascan locals, of a couple of early 1990s brief encounters in remote areas, with possible tratratratra – happened at night, perceptions thus perhaps inexact, but creature reckoned over 2 metres tall. Shuker muses on its being possible, even if unlikely, “that a very small, relict population of at least one species of giant lemur does still persist in Madagascar, highly elusive, nocturnal, and actively avoiding humans whenever possible.”
KIDOKY: like the known lemur the sifaka (the mostly white and highly-agile one) but much larger. Two officially extinct genera, known from remains, are possible candidates; but there is a 1952 sighting report from an educated local, of a possible kidoky.
[A couple of “extreme outsiders”, whose Madagascan names I will spare people: a nocturnal sheep-like and sheep-sized, and white, creature (reported from the centre of the island); and a wild-ass-like creature, supposed by the locals to be extremely “bad juju” and greatly feared by them, reported from the far south. Both seemingly being reported – with some suggestion of footprints – up to the present day. Shuker and Heuvelmans concur on a theoretical possibility of large terrestrial lemurs which could have evolved specially hoof-like claws – while reckoning that these two very probably belong in the “myth” pile.]
TSOMGOMBY / KILOPILOPITSOFY / RAILILOMENA: water-frequenting creature, greatly like a small hippopotamus. Palaeontology holds that not a huge number of centuries ago there lived in Madagascar, alongside the giant lemurs, three species of – smallish – hippopotamus. Mentioned “in passing” in a published work (1829) by Dumont d’Urville, that there were “at the time of writing”, hippos in Madagascar’s rivers. Some recent-ish reports (the latest, from 1976) of sightings of a hippo-like creature – conjectured perhaps to be still-surviving Madagascan dwarf hippo, Hippopotamus lemerlei, estimated to have existed at least up to what Shuker calls “1000 BP” (don’t know what that means in terms of the “BC / AD and alternatives” controversy, and Google didn’t enlighten).
ANTAMBA: as well as the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), Madagascar’s largest surviving known native mammalian carnivore (“superficially resembles a small long-tailed puma, but is more closely related to the civets and genets” – IMO a lovely animal – at least one specimen is in captivity in the UK, at Marwell Zoological Park in Hampshire); there is known from subfossil remains, a “giant version” , Cryptoprocta spelia, of this creature, some 3 metres long. Thought to have gone extinct several centuries ago; but rumours have continued, up to at least a dozen years ago, of a fearsome “very big cat” seeming to tick the “antamba” box, in the most-inaccessible forests in the north-east of the island. A 1999 expedition unfortunately found nothing conclusive.
KALANORO: if the tratratratra is Madagascar’s “Bigfoot”, the kalanoro is the corresponding “Littlefoot”. Less-improbable accounts of this creature (the more way-out ones have it as at least semi-aquatic, partaking of “merpeople / siren” traits) tell of it as a very small (stature a metre or less) hairy ape-man-like biped. Descriptions have the kalanoro as far more humanoid than lemurine (the kalanoro described as always tail-less – all existing lemurs except for the largest species thereof, the indris, have long and noticeable tails). Kalanoro had a limited amount of (not always harmonious) interaction with hom.sap.sap. One feels, in the Orang Pendek / Ebu Gogo / Nittaewo ballpark. Seemingly, no kalanoro reports in truly recent times (a European in Madagascar, writing in the 1880s, retailed at second-hand or more, local accounts which seemed to suggest that the kalanoro were “up and running” then). Shuker feels that this creature – if it ever was -- is probably no more – no suggestion of the hom.sap.sap. getting sick of them and wiping them out (the people of Madagascar do strike me on the whole, as a more-than-average gentle and kindly bunch) – they’d seem just to have faded out, “not with a bang but a whimper”.
As said, Madagascar is to me a fascinating place, hence this post. Would be most interested in any responses / additions.
Heuvelmans, writing some 55 years ago, made his Madagascar chapter principally a “lament”, centring on local stories of various creatures not recognised by biological science, but which were then according to the locals still around, or had been around in the measurable past. Heuvelmans’s “take” was that many of these represented, likely, memories of species which had still existed only generations or centuries back – he expressed regret that scepticism on the part of mainstream scientists in the preceding couple of centuries had weighed against investigation of the possibility of still-existing undiscovered creatures, there; and voiced the notion that it would seem appallingly bad luck that every single such, was actually extinct at the time at which he was writing – maybe something still living but undocumented, in the “remotest reaches”?
One gathers that in the time since publication of Heuvelmans’s book, Madagascar – already quite seriously environmentally degraded then – has gone a great deal further down that road, especially as regards deforestation: only a tiny percentage of the island’s one-time forest cover is now left, and that is under threat. None of this process over the past half-century, would seem to have uncovered any new sizeable-and-impressive species in Madagascar. However, Shuker still holds out possible hope for a few “mystery creatures” there. Seeking for relative brevity, am mostly sticking to those for which Shuker sees a chance, however remote.
(Madagascar is one of those places which go in for tongue-twisting and “as-long-as-your-arm” words and names.)
TRATRATRATRA: “Madagascar’s yeti”, if anything deserves that tag. Described by witnesses as “hairy-ape-man-like”, and quite large. Sundry putative giant-lemur species have been identified in Madagascar from subfossil remains, some seen as having lasted as long as up to several centuries ago (seen as exterminated by man). Envisaged “tratratratra” candidates: the sloth lemur Palaeopropithecus ingens, shown from radio-carbon dating of sub-fossil remains to have existed at least until c. 1500 AD. Or the supposedly extinct lemur Hadropithecus, with a relatively flattened ape-like or humanoid face? There is an account from the 1930s (source other than Heuvelmans) of a French forester in Madagascar who “came face to face with an animal sitting 4ft. high, and described it as being unlike other lemurs he had seen. It did not have a muzzle, but was like a gorilla with ‘the face of one of my ancestors’.”
A responder to Shuker’s blog gives brief reports, from Madagascan locals, of a couple of early 1990s brief encounters in remote areas, with possible tratratratra – happened at night, perceptions thus perhaps inexact, but creature reckoned over 2 metres tall. Shuker muses on its being possible, even if unlikely, “that a very small, relict population of at least one species of giant lemur does still persist in Madagascar, highly elusive, nocturnal, and actively avoiding humans whenever possible.”
KIDOKY: like the known lemur the sifaka (the mostly white and highly-agile one) but much larger. Two officially extinct genera, known from remains, are possible candidates; but there is a 1952 sighting report from an educated local, of a possible kidoky.
[A couple of “extreme outsiders”, whose Madagascan names I will spare people: a nocturnal sheep-like and sheep-sized, and white, creature (reported from the centre of the island); and a wild-ass-like creature, supposed by the locals to be extremely “bad juju” and greatly feared by them, reported from the far south. Both seemingly being reported – with some suggestion of footprints – up to the present day. Shuker and Heuvelmans concur on a theoretical possibility of large terrestrial lemurs which could have evolved specially hoof-like claws – while reckoning that these two very probably belong in the “myth” pile.]
TSOMGOMBY / KILOPILOPITSOFY / RAILILOMENA: water-frequenting creature, greatly like a small hippopotamus. Palaeontology holds that not a huge number of centuries ago there lived in Madagascar, alongside the giant lemurs, three species of – smallish – hippopotamus. Mentioned “in passing” in a published work (1829) by Dumont d’Urville, that there were “at the time of writing”, hippos in Madagascar’s rivers. Some recent-ish reports (the latest, from 1976) of sightings of a hippo-like creature – conjectured perhaps to be still-surviving Madagascan dwarf hippo, Hippopotamus lemerlei, estimated to have existed at least up to what Shuker calls “1000 BP” (don’t know what that means in terms of the “BC / AD and alternatives” controversy, and Google didn’t enlighten).
ANTAMBA: as well as the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), Madagascar’s largest surviving known native mammalian carnivore (“superficially resembles a small long-tailed puma, but is more closely related to the civets and genets” – IMO a lovely animal – at least one specimen is in captivity in the UK, at Marwell Zoological Park in Hampshire); there is known from subfossil remains, a “giant version” , Cryptoprocta spelia, of this creature, some 3 metres long. Thought to have gone extinct several centuries ago; but rumours have continued, up to at least a dozen years ago, of a fearsome “very big cat” seeming to tick the “antamba” box, in the most-inaccessible forests in the north-east of the island. A 1999 expedition unfortunately found nothing conclusive.
KALANORO: if the tratratratra is Madagascar’s “Bigfoot”, the kalanoro is the corresponding “Littlefoot”. Less-improbable accounts of this creature (the more way-out ones have it as at least semi-aquatic, partaking of “merpeople / siren” traits) tell of it as a very small (stature a metre or less) hairy ape-man-like biped. Descriptions have the kalanoro as far more humanoid than lemurine (the kalanoro described as always tail-less – all existing lemurs except for the largest species thereof, the indris, have long and noticeable tails). Kalanoro had a limited amount of (not always harmonious) interaction with hom.sap.sap. One feels, in the Orang Pendek / Ebu Gogo / Nittaewo ballpark. Seemingly, no kalanoro reports in truly recent times (a European in Madagascar, writing in the 1880s, retailed at second-hand or more, local accounts which seemed to suggest that the kalanoro were “up and running” then). Shuker feels that this creature – if it ever was -- is probably no more – no suggestion of the hom.sap.sap. getting sick of them and wiping them out (the people of Madagascar do strike me on the whole, as a more-than-average gentle and kindly bunch) – they’d seem just to have faded out, “not with a bang but a whimper”.
As said, Madagascar is to me a fascinating place, hence this post. Would be most interested in any responses / additions.
