The Jungle Monster You should Never Find

Monster lore is a product of wild imagination, a little hysteria and a much healthy dose of cultural mythology. Although it is easy to dismiss such mutant beasts as fictional, it can be much more difficult to disapprove the existence of these hidden animals, known as cryptids.

Example, widely dismissed as a hoax, the red-eyed Jersey Devil  reared its head and winged kangaroo-like body as recently as a few weeks ago in the US state of New Jersey.

“I do not think it’s real,” said Bill Sprouse, a descendant of Deborah Leeds, the woman at the center of Jersey Devil myth. According to the legend, the New Jersey Pinelands woman was not happy with the pregnancy of her 13th child –  because she could not afford to feed another mouth – proclaiming it “the devil’s child”. But Sprouse believes the whole story started as a family joke. “It never occurred to me that I will need to debunk this.”

Stories about a monster living in Loch Ness have speculations circulations for thousands of years. Mythical sea creatures known as kelpies, for example, have prevailed in Scottish folklore for centuries, with many sightings occurring at Loch Ness, explained Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum. However, the nature of these "Nessie" sightings is very questionable.

Both New Jersey and Loch Ness are both accessible, which could details for regular sightings of both areas’  monsters. But other cryptids’ native habitats still remaining practically off limits, making them more elusive, harder to disprove and even dangerous.

The three-fingered, three-toed dodu, for instance, hides deep in the forested areas of Cameroon in Central Africa. The purported hairy hominid is “very elusive”, never captured on camera or documented by researchers, but has been sighted by local indigenous people, said John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club.

“The people who live in that region are not rich, “They don’t have cameras. The hugh majority of them have never had the opportunity to operate a camera.”

But the locals have plenty stories – plenty of them. And the eye-witness accounts are awesome.

Steve relayed a story told to him by a local guide, in which a dodu reportedly hunted an animal,killed and skinned it and left it to rot and become covered in maggots before it returned to feed on the maggots days later.

“This is a vicious animal, and humans should stay away from it,” Steve warned. “They are very aggressive toward gorillas and chimpanzees.”

On top of all that, the woods are full with dangerous poachers and smugglers, Steve said, describing one incident when bird poachers arrived at his group’s campsite demanding beer and money.

“We take high risks when we travel,” he said, urging cryptid fans to abandon their search for this bipedal primate all together and instead stick with more tourist-friendly monster locations.

But, as Steve admitted, the dangers that lurk in cryptid territories will never completely deter die-hard monster hunters like him who live for shedding light on the unknown. “My belief is that everything is to be explored.”