The existence of an unknown large predatory animal in the center of North America may seem nonsense, but something strange still lives there, but rarely catches the eye of a person.
This creature looks like a hybrid of an African hyena and a wolf, and in the nature of North America such creatures were not officially found even in antiquity. In the legends of the Iowa Indians, these predators were called by the term Shunka Warakin - "Shunka Warakin", which translates as "kidnapper of dogs."
This creature had a large ribcage and long front legs, and the back of the body is lower and with shorter legs, which made the creature look very similar to a large hyena. His coat was dark brown and his jaws were as powerful as those of hyenas.
Shunka Varakin was seen by the Indians and the first white settlers. The latter described these animals as very large and stocky wolves with black and red fur. Both the Indians and the whites knew that these animals were extremely dangerous and when seeing them it was best to leave the area as quickly as possible.
African spotted hyena.
However, one of the brave men dared to shoot the hyena-like wolves with a gun and even kill them. Until the 1980s, a stuffed animal of a strange "hybrid" of a wolf and a hyena was kept in a small private shop in Idaho. According to legend, he was killed in 1886 in Montana by a local hunter, Israel Ammon Hutchins.
The slain beast was bought from Hutchins by taxidermist Joseph Sherwood and made into a stuffed animal. Sherwood named this animal the Ringdocus. In the 1980s, an effigy of Ringdocus disappeared from a shop in Idaho, but in 2007 it was found in the Madison Valley History Museum in Montana.
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Unfortunately, none of the serious scientists studied this unusual stuffed animal and did not take its DNA for analysis, so it is still considered only a funny historical artifact.
In 2006, in Montana, after something bitten 120 sheep, a strange wolf with a reddish-yellowish coat was shot. After examining his body by representatives of the local departments of wildlife, hunting and fishing, it was concluded that this is an abnormally developing representative of the usual wolf species for these places.
In May 2018, another very unusual wolf was killed in Montana, whose photographs riveted the attention of the entire Internet. Some cryptozoologists assured that this is the same Shunka Varakin. Officially, it was announced that this is a gray wolf from the north of the Rocky Mountains.
Strange animals that look like a cross between a hyena and a wolf have also been seen in the states of Maine, Colorado and New York over the past ten years. In the latter case, it happened at Adirondack Park in 2010:
In the northwestern lands of Canada, there is an animal similar to Shunka Varakin. According to the descriptions of local Indians, it looks like a wolf, but much larger and more muscular, and its front legs are longer than the hind legs.
This picture of a strange wolf was taken near the city of Milwaukee.
The Indians call this predator the word Waheela and describe that his body is so heavy and thick that it resembles the body of a bear. His paws are generally not long, but thick and he leaves wide marks. The head is broader than that of wolves, the ears are smaller, and the coat is mostly white, but there are also dark individuals.
One of the modern eyewitnesses aptly described this creature as "a wolf on steroids."
According to legends, it is a lonely predator, which is not like wolves or hyenas that live in family groups. He mainly lives in the valley of the Nahanni National Park, which, by an ominous coincidence, was previously regularly found headless corpses of hunters and tourists. Therefore, this place is sometimes called the ominous "Valley of the Headless". You can read more about it here.