Covered with long red hair, on its hind legs, emitting a stench so strong that animals lose orientation, and people faint (the Indians say that the monster has a "second mouth" in the stomach. Scientists believe that the deadly smell of decomposing meat can be emitted by a special iron), the mapinguari is reputed to be the most wild, rare, terrible and mysterious inhabitant of the jungle
Many years ago a hunter named Joao lived on the Tapajos River. He did not have his own hut, and he rarely went out to human habitation, spending all his time in the impassable tropical jungle. But once he lived in a village, he had a hut and a beautiful wife.
One terrible day, when João was smoking a pipe, sitting near his home, a terrible roar was heard in the forest. In less than a few moments, an eerie creature emerged from the thicket: it walked on its hind legs and resembled a giant monkey. Joao froze, paralyzed by fear, and the monster approached his young wife, easily threw her on his shoulder and disappeared into the jungle in two leaps, leaving behind an unbearable stench.
When the hunter regained consciousness, it was already too late: the kidnapper had disappeared. João ran for a long time in his unusual tracks (it seemed that the giant was moving backwards), until he came across the
decapitated corpse of his wife. Apparently, the monster, dissatisfied with the persecution, in this way made it clear to the person that it was bad jokes with him. Heartbroken, Joao went into the forest, vowing that he would not return to people without the scalp of the monster. They say that he still wanders in the forests of the Amazon, but never once did fate bring him to the one who destroyed his life.
Old Indians say that sometimes in the night jungle you can see a fire, but no matter how long you go to this fire, you will never get there. This is João's fire. The unfortunate hunter died long ago, but his restless spirit continues to roam the jungle in search of the monster. The Indians always tell the legend of the hunter Joao and the forest monster to the white lovers of exotic who wander into these places. And the name of the monster is mapinguari, which means "lord of the forest."
Expedition to the Amazon
In the 80s of the last century, Harvard scientist David Oren traveled to the Amazon, wanting to determine if there really is a forest giant, moving on its hind legs, emitting blood-curdling screams
and emitting such a stench that you can lose your senses. Judging by the deep scratches that the monster leaves on the tree trunks, its claws are like sharp daggers.
Together with Oren, five like-minded people set off on a boat along the Tapayos River, who believed that one day they would be lucky and a giant from Indian legends would appear before them. What's next? After all, the Indians said that it was impossible to shoot the monster - under the thick fur there are bone cones that will reflect any bullets. But the frivolous mapinguari search enthusiasts did not think about this.
In 1993, David Oren wrote a book in which he collected the legends of the Amazon Indians about the mapinguari, but was able to give evidence of only one hunter, who claimed to have killed the monster, but abandoned its carcass, because he could not bear the stench emanating from it. Now Oren was lucky to meet seven hunters who were shooting at the lord of the forest. In addition, eighty people assured the researcher that they had seen the mapinguari with their own eyes. What do these "lucky ones" tell?
“This creature is more than two meters tall, walks on all fours and on its hind legs. It gives off a disgusting smell of feces and rotting meat. Perhaps this stench helps him to paralyze his victims. The Mapinguari makes an incredibly loud scream, reminiscent of a human, gradually turning into a growl. His strength is so great that he can rip off the heads of large animals."
According to Oren's theory, the monster may be the last giant
sloth on earth - a distant relative of modern tree sloths - who allegedly disappeared from the face of the earth more than 10 thousand years ago.
Oren says the monster has long, coarse fur, four large teeth, and can
move on both two and four legs. The creature also has an extremely loud voice. It makes sounds similar to a loud human scream, turning into a growl. Oren recalls that during his expeditions, he himself often yelled into the darkness, and the mapinguari answered him.
Is the giant sloth extinct?
The giant land sloth was one of those huge creatures that thrived on our planet during the Ice Age. A bit like a giant hamster, it ate mainly on leaves that it harvested on the lower branches of trees and shrubs. He himself lived on earth, unlike modern sloths who spend most of their life in trees. The territory of America was inhabited by four types of giants: Jefferson's sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii), Lorillard's sloth (Eremotherium laurillardi), Shasta sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) and Garlan's sloth (Glossotherium harlani). The largest of these was Jefferson's sloth, which grew out roughly the size of a modern elephant.
All four sloths had huge claws, but they followed a vegetarian diet. They had relatively small and blunt teeth that the animals used to bite into branches. The structure of the thigh bones of sloths, as well as the powerful tail, suggest that they could stand on their hind legs in order to reach high-growing leaves (with the largest of them reaching 5 meters in height!).
The bones of the animal were first discovered in 1789 in the coastal swamps of the Luján River near Buenos Aires. Only the local aborigines were not surprised at the find, who decided that it was a giant mole that got to the surface and died under the rays of the sun. The bones were carefully collected and sent to King Charles IV, who presented them to the Royal Museum of Madrid. Scientist José Corriga collected the skeleton and described it in detail. Even one French diplomat visited the scientist and purchased several engravings of the skeleton for the Paris Museum of Natural History.
Like other giants, huge sloths became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene (this is about 10 thousand years ago). Now the earth is inhabited only by small lazy specimens. Well, at least that's what scientists tell us.
Oren was not the first to believe in a surviving sloth. An article by the Argentine paleontologist Florentino Ameghino became a sensation of its time
Promotional video:
… In the 1890s, the Argentine explorer, geographer and adventurer (later killed by the Indians) Ramon Lista hunted in Patagonia. Suddenly a huge unknown animal covered with long hair flashed through the bushes. It looked like a giant battleship. Liszt fired at the beast, but the bullets only slid over it, scratching slightly.
Amegino, after listening to the hunter's story, suggested that the animal was an extinct giant sloth. He would not have attached any importance to the story of
Lista if he had not collected the stories of the Indians about hunting giant animals in ancient times. An animal from Indian legends crawled out at night, and during the day hid in a hole dug by its own huge claws. The Indians said that making an arrow that could pierce the thick skin of the beast was not easy.
There was also another piece of evidence: a small piece of hide, found in 1895 in a cave by the hunter Eberhadt. The hide was covered with long brown hair, and from it were bones the size of beans. It seemed that such "clothing" could withstand the onslaught of both arrows and bullets. Searches in the caves brought new finds - similar to the first one, pieces of strange "armor-piercing" skin, as well as a giant claw.
With the advent of carbon analysis in the 20th century, it was possible to determine the age of the hides. It turned out to be equal to about 5 thousand years: thus, the time of extinction of the giant sloth approached by several more millennia.
Ameghino's reasoning about a strange animal was recorded in detail in his famous book "In the Footsteps of Unknown Animals" by zoologist Bernard Evelman. The book marked the beginning of the emergence of a new branch of science - cryptozoology.
Descriptions of Eyewitnesses
Both dos Santos and other residents of the village of Barra Do Sao Manuel, a small settlement on the banks of the Tapayos River deep in Patagonia, consider themselves the favorites of the gods. For none of them, who saw and heard the terrible beast, collided with him nose to nose. Those unfortunate ones who found death in the clawed paws of a mapinguari creature were found without a head …
Covered with long red hair, on hind legs, emitting a stench so strong that animals lose orientation, and people faint (the Indians say that the monster has a "second mouth" in the stomach. Scientists believe that the deadly smell of decomposing meat can be emitted by a special iron), the mapinguari is reputed to be the most wild, rare, terrible and mysterious inhabitant of the jungle. As soon as they call it: Cape lobo ("wolf skin"), mao de pilao ("pushing hand"), pe de garaffa ("foot-bottle"), juma …
They say that he is afraid of water, wanders near the nomadic herds of bakers and protects them, and therefore kills the hunters; feeds at night, twisting the trunks of palm trees with huge claws to get pulp; rips off people's heads in one movement to feast on the human brain. They say that his paws are turned "backwards" and that not a single bullet takes him, and that his "face" looks like a monkey …
"I was working by the river when I heard a scream, a terrible scream," Azevedo
told Reuters. “Suddenly something resembling a human, completely covered in hair, came out of the forest. The creature walked on two legs and, thank God, did not come close to us. I will always remember that day."
“I spoke to seven hunters who claim to have shot the mapinguari, and 80 people faced them. What do they describe? A creature, approximately 2 meters tall, moving vertically, with a very strong, unpleasant odor, having a rather heavy and powerful structure, a creature under which thick tree roots sag. The most likely mechanism for his defense against enemies is the stench described by some witnesses."