Bigfoot, Hoaxes, and Science

Bigfoot, the famous North American sasquatch was spotted in Washington state, US in the late 1960s, and these sightings were investigated in by a formal scientist (Grovern Krantz) and some amateur laymen who fell for a hoax (or maybe even created it!).

The article mentioned below shows how hoaxes and fake cryptozoology can mislead scientists who refuse to adopt a healthy skeptical attitude and apply critical scientific methods to their investigations.

Read the article here: What a Bigfoot Hoax Teaches Us About Public Mistrust of Science

Bigfoot evidence or hoax?

Fake Bigfoot track casts.

A paper by Brian Regal (2006) had alread addressed this issue, its title: "Entering dubious realms: Grover Krantz, science, and Sasquatch" although it is behind a paywall, its abstract is revealing, it paints Krantz as a good intentioned a scientist attempting to legitimate bigfoot, and rejected by orthodoxy and also by the amateurs whom he was working with:

"Physical anthropologist Grover Krantz (1931-2002) spent his career arguing that the anomalous North American primate called Sasquatch was a living animal. He attempted to prove the creature's existence by applying to the problem the techniques of physical anthropology: methodologies and theoretical models that were outside the experience of the amateur enthusiasts who dominated the field of anomalous primate studies. For his efforts, he was dismissed or ignored by academics who viewed the Sasquatch, also commonly called Bigfoot, as at best a relic of folklore and at worst a hoax, and Krantz's project as having dubious value. Krantz also received a negative reaction from amateur Sasquatch researchers, some of whom threatened and abused him. His career is best situated therefore as part of the discussion about the historical relationship between amateur naturalists and professional scientists. The literature on this relationship articulates a combining/displacement process: when a knowledge domain that has potential for contributions to science is created by amateurs, it will eventually combine with and then be taken over by professionals, with the result that amateur leadership is displaced. This paper contributes to that discussion by showing the process at work in Krantz's failed attempt to legitimize Bigfoot research by removing it from the amateur sphere and repositioning it in the professional world of anthropology."

An interesting paper by Lewis and Bartlett (2024) suggests that bigfoot exists, but only as a cultural object created by bigfooters (those who seek it and investigate it): "Bigfoot exists. If not as a biological creature, then as a cultural object about which people know with a high degree of stability. It also exists as an object which some people organise their lives around. Those who collect evidence of Bigfoot’s existence as a biological creature are known as Bigfooters" The paper is worth reading, it is skeptical and gives a short historical introduction to bigfoot, and then explains how rational, people get involved in bigfooting, constructing the creature with seemingly logic evidence.

As U.S. Defense Secretary (1961-1968), Robert McNamara, said: “We see what we want to believe.” (source), this applies to bigfooters and the credulous audience that backs them.

So, what is Bigfoot?

I tend to agree with Foxom (2023) whose paper, with a genuine scientific method, suggests that bigfoot sightings are actually misidentified black bears.

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Bigfoot a Fake according to an Oxford study

A recent paper published by Bryan C. Sykes, Rhettman A. Mullis, Christophe Hagenmuller, Terry W. Melton, and Michel Sartori (Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates Proc. R. Soc. B. 2014 281 1789 20140161; doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0161 (published 2 July 2014) 1471-2954) indicates that the Bigfoot and Yeti hair samples that were studied do not belong to unknown hominins but to other extant mammals:

In the first ever systematic genetic survey, we have used rigorous decontamination followed by mitochondrial 12S RNA sequencing to identify the species origin of 30 hair samples attributed to anomalous primates. Two Himalayan samples, one from Ladakh, India, the other from Bhutan, had their closest genetic affinity with a Palaeolithic polar bear, Ursus maritimus. Otherwise the hairs were from a range of known extant mammals.

The team was part of the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project, a project that began in 2012 to study these "anomalous hominids".

The scientists worked through a set of 57 hair samples which they screened and classified (some were not even hairs: the "hairs" were plant fibre or glass fibre) and the remaining group was analysed. mtDNA was extracted and sequenced in a broad manner allowing the identifiaton of the genus but not the species (i.e. canid but not wolf, coyote or dog).

The mtDNA was compared against known databases and... all were clearly identified as belonging to well known mammals: American black bears, canids, cows, horses, deer, and odd creaturs such as Malaysian tapir, serow or North American porcupines!.

A human hair was identified and, amazing find: an American racoon which came from a sample gathered in Russia (far away from the racoon's territory), a clear sign of cross-contamination or a deliberate fake.

The extinct bear

Two of the samples (#25025 and #25191) matched the sequence of a now extinct Pleistocene polar bear (Ursus maritimus). The samples are modern but the bear lived 40 kya in the Arctic islands of Svalbard, Norway. Also, they were not found in the polar regions: sample #25025 came from Ladakh, India, from an animal that was shot over 40 years ago. The other sample came from Bhutan in a high altitude bamboo forest (11,500 ft. or 3,500 m). What do these locations have in common with extinct polar bears?

Please see my post On Yetis and Polar Bears (Dec. 2013), which now, I see, is an advance report on the findings that were finally published early July 2014.

Implications and comments

It is a pity that they did not manage to confirm the existence of our well known Yeti and bigfoot, but it is also nice to know that good science can counter the poor science of some other "scientists" such as the bigfoot DNA of Melba Ketchum; by the way Ketchum is asking the public to donate money so she can keep up with her great research. Not a joke, see for yourself, I'd call it sponsoring non-science.

On the other hand I am persuaded that the bigfoot - hominin myths and those of South American Patagonian giants are not related to unknown apes but to our closer relatives such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus which probably reached America long before H. sapiens did, and shared the New World with them until relatively recently. If the Flores hominin co-existed with modern humans in an insular setting c. 13 kya and originated the local myth of "Ebu-gogo", why wouldn't our more primitive human relatives cause a similar reaction among the Paleo Indians in the Americas?

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

Paracas: Some jokes.. and some serious thoughts

In my (rational) mind, the Occam's razor point of view clearly signals that the people at Paracas, Peru, believed that an oblong skull was cool. So they bound their children's heads to deform them into shapes that they found cute. They were normal human beings like you or me.

Now, to imagine that they were aliens and that they had alien DNA in them is, to put it mildly, really crazy.

In the first place: why would aliens have DNA at all? The means for replicating protein could be based on some other set of molecules. The Universe is vast, I don't expect Star Trek-like aliens with humanoid appearance to be found when we finally encounter intelligent extraterrestrial beings.

They could have their biochemistry based on any kind of molecule! How about silicone?

The panspermia theory proposed by Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius is very interesting and even probable (Panspermia: hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe and is distributed by meteorites and comets as they collide with newly formed planets), but it is very different from the idea of extraterrestrials copulating with humans.

I found the paper about their HLA. And will post on it soon.

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

Paracas mtDNA or selling snake oil to the gullible

As usual something that might be interesting if (and this is a big if) it was studied in a serious scientific manner. Instead it is treated with the usual slapdash paranormal bunkum ways of pseudoscientists who are always trying to make a fast buck with candid suckers who buy the nonsense they put forth as "scientific".

I am interested in an early peopling of the American continent either by Homo erectus or Neanderthals. I am also keen on the idea that modern Homo sapiens entered the Americas a long time ago, shortly after leaving Africa. Clues for this could be found in the remains of ancient Paleo Indians and Indians.

Paracas mtDNA

So when I read that the mtDNA of some mummies found in Paracas, Peru by Julio Tello in 1925 had been sequenced, I was quite thrilled.

I am well aware that most people who are interested in the Paracas mummies are considered either racists or wackos (the former because they promote an "arian" peopling of America and some mad notions of white supremacy, see, for example Alexander Kemp's book on the subject), the cranks on the other hand believe in Aliens (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Atlanteans or hybrids of some or all of the above.

A minority (which includes me) are drawn by the oddness of these Paracans, they have a Caucasian air and light colored hair (reddish, brown and even fair) which is also wavy and fine. This is in stark contrast with the typical Amerindian features of coarse black hair and, which are Mongoloid (as opposed to Caucasian). Some of their funerary masks have blue stones embedded in them, in the place of the eyes, perhaps hinting at that kind of colored eyes!

An mtDNA analysis would be of great help to trace their origin (Asia, Europe, North America), stray Greeks or Phoenicians, Romans or Vikings. There is a lot to be learned from these mummies.

Coneheads = Aliens

That is what most believe when they see a deformed Paracas skull.

A genuine Paracas skull, note the color of the hair.
And, a skull from Indiana Jones "Aliens" movie

But, people focus on their deformed skulls. Many American Natives deformed the skulls of their babies into an elongated form, the Paracans were no exception (New: 10.Feb.2014 See my post on this).

Getting back to the mtDNA, the museum where the mummies are kept, authorised that their mtDNA be tested, and samples were taken by an "authority" on these elongated-skulled-people, Brien Foerster, who recently revealed the findings of the "geneticist" he hired to do the tests:

"it had mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) with mutations unknown in any human, primate, or animal known so far. But a few fragments I was able to sequence from this sample indicate that if these mutations will hold we are dealing with a new human-like creature, very distant from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans [...] I am not sure it will even fit into the known evolutionary tree"

Fake science and hot air

Well, it turns out that the "expert" Foerster, has organized his livelihood around the mummies, he wrote and writes books, organizes tours and of course is keen on keeping his business growing [2].

He chose a rather strange analyst for the tests: "The samples were sent to Lloyd Pye in the US, famous as the caretaker of the Star Child skull, who has now delivered the samples to his geneticist in Texas" [2].

Star Child is a skull found in Mexico which (some non-scientists) believe is of extraterrestrial origin. Pye is therefore not a neutral, unbiased scientist interested in gleaning a human origin from the Paracans

In case you are wondering which is the University or Renown Laboratory that did the tests (i.e. the "geneticist in Texas"), don't expect a reliable institution, no, not at all, the analysis was done by "Dr. Melba Ketchum" [3]

You will recall that Dr. Ketchum said that she had sequenced bigfoot's DNA, which turned out to be so unscientific that she had to invent her own "peer-reviewed" journal to self-publish it.

I posted on thish Bigfoot DNA sequenced? or is it some fantasy?. And concluded in a later comment: "Actually, the whole paper seems to be based on poor science, incorrect assumptions and published in an unknown online publication apparently set up to specifically host this "paper". So I am extremely skeptical about the whole subject of the DNA testing." (I was trying to be polite. The Bigfoot mtDNA is fake science based on clumsy testing and incorrect interpretation of the results).

Having said this about Dr. Ketchum's credentials on mtDNA analysis, even though the "formal" paper with the Paracas mtDNA results has not been published, I can assure you all that it will display the same kind of "science" as the Bigfoot case. They will surely come up with an Alien origin for Paracans.

The press release hints at this, calling the Paracas people "new human-like creature[s]", worse still: their mtDNA has "mutations unknown in humans, primates or animal" which, is of course impossible.

Sources

[1] Tello, Julio C. Obras completas: Paracas. Primera parte. 2005. Fondo Editorial de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2004.
[2] B. Foerster Hidden Inca Tours
[3] Sharon Hill, February 6, 2014 Foerster, Pye and Ketchum collaborate: Paracas elongated skull exposed! (UPDATE)Dobutful News

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

Four years online. This is the beginning of our fifth year. And I want to thank you all for your patience and support, this is only possible thanks to you being over there, reading, posting comments and giving me feedback.

My recent trip to the US has (after seeing and feeling those wonderful forests from Arizona through Colorado to Oregon, Wyoming and California) given me me plenty of things to chew over. Bigfoot may not roam those mountains now, but H. erectus or our neanderthal ancestors must have surely roamed those forests!.

Patagonian forests, though distant and different may also harbor (or, in the recent past, harbored) a similar creature.

We must somehow come across definitive evidence in the form of stone tools that prove this beyond any doubt.

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2013 by Austin Whittall © 

Bigfoot or a trip to the Rockies

A few weeks ago my wife and I visited Western USA, and in our road trip (by chance thanks to a fortuitous encounter with a couple who had just visited the place), ended up visiting Pikes Peak, Colorado. The mountain of 14,100 feet (4,300 m) is right next to Colorado Springs, in the Pike National Forest. A densely forested area in the Rockies. The road takes you all the way up to the summit. The view is amazing (there is also a cog railway that reaches the summit).

To our surprise there were road signs showing a "Bigfoot crossing", a wood carving (see below, with me next to it) of Bigfoot and an imprint of the creature's "big" foot in concrete (next to me on the ground in the photo). A sign informed tourists about a sighting here in 1989.

An amusing place indeed. However I must admit that the thousands of square miles of pine and aspen forests that we saw on our journey across Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming as well as the thick woods of Western Oregon and California (especially the Redwood and Sequoia forests, so similar to the Patagonian alerce Fitzroya cupressoides to which they are related)impressed me deeply. It could be the home to this "bigfoot" creature. There is plenty of space for it as well as other forms of wildlife.

Patagonian forests on the other hand, with their "Southern Beech" forests (Nothofagus), are quite different, more somber perhaps, more ominous, with plenty of underbrush, which lacked among the pines in North America. But also quite different: no squirrels, deer, elk or bears. More birds perhaps (no crows of course, they are not found in Patagonia) but less mammals.

Enjoy the photos:

Summer 2013 road trip to the US, Bigfoot and Austin Whittall at Pikes Peak
Click to see the full photo. Copyright © 2013 by Austin Whittall

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2013 by Austin Whittall © 

The Chilludo - A Patagonian Yeti

Lon Chaney as the werewolf. Would The Chilludo look like him?

The Chilludo is another Patagonian hominid, which I mentioned briefly in a post (Patagonian Bigfoot?). Today’s entry will deal with this strangely named being.

Origin of the name

Though the word “chilludo” may seem to derive from the Spanish verb “chillar” which means to scream, to yell, to screech, to squeal or to squeak, it actually comes from a local Argentine word: “Chilludo: Said of people who have long straight and bristly hair or the body covered with this type of hair”.

The word is applied to sheep and goats that have long straight wool (Lincoln variety sheep are “chilludos” while Merino sheep are not).

Sightings

The only “old” source that I can find referring to it is in Gregorio Alvarez (1889-1986), who was Patagonia’s first native born to graduate as a Doctor in medicine in 1919. His book El Tronco de Oro compiles his anecdotes and experience during his years as a country doctor who rode about on horseback taking care of the ill children in the Andean region of Neuquén province.

Trivia: a dinosaur discovered in that region in 1991 bears the name Alvarezsaurus.

So, getting back to the Chilludo. Alvarez recorded it in the 1950s:

”The Chilludo” is the name of a giant that appeared for the first time at Colo Michi Co, a rugged place where the stones engraved by the ancient Pehunches can be found, and whose meaning is still a mystery. According to don Julio Della Cha, the first report of the apparition of The Chilludo was around 1950. A youth, upon seing it, lost his mind.
[...]
He is described like “a big man” covered with long hair (chillas), that runs and jumps about the mountain slopes and gullies; a kind of yeti or snowman like those seen in the Himalayas

He adds that in that same place, Colo Michi Co, a Hungarian miner named Bela Beico also went mad (Patagonian Cabin Fever?)

According to another source, this man, Della Cha, owned a ranch in the area, at Cancha Huinganco, close by, so the man existed.

The stones mentioned by Alvarez, engraved by the native Pehuenche Indians, can be seen online at the following site:
Colo Michi Co rock art, they date back to about 500 AD.

Sources

Gregorio Alvarez. (1981) El tronco de oro: folklore del Neuquén. pp. 116.

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall © 

Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project

Yes, you can now prove that those tufts of hair or organic matter that you believe belongs to bigfoot or yeti, are real. A team of scientists has requested that you send them these samples for DNA Analysis and publication in a formal scientific journal!

The Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project

Prof. Bryan Sykes and Dr. Michel Sartori, write at their site: "As part of a larger enquiry into the genetic relationship between our own species Homo sapiens and other hominids, we invite submissions of organic material from formally undescribed species, or “cryptids”, for the purpose of their species identification by genetic means.".

Read more at the Oxford University's Wolfson College site

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall © 

Ape Men (Neanderthal?) sightings in South America

 

The human-like "Nondescript", an ape-man from the early 1800s, former British Guiana, South America. From [1]

There have been many posts in this blog aiming at supporting the idea that perhaps some of our distant relatives, either Homo erectus or our close cousin, Neanderthal, somehow got into America long before modern humans did, and survived until recent times, and in the process, gave birth to the many native American myths about "ape men".

Today I will write about South American ape-men. Note, not the Canadian - American bigfoot, but instead, a creature sighted in South America, closer to Patagonia than those North American beings. Lets cover the strange nondescript ape-man.

Human like ape beings have been reported in South America since it was discovered. Today I will focus on the region of Guyana:

First Report, 1769

English naturalist Edward Bancroft wrote about them in 1769, [2]. He mentioned the creature that All the natives called “Wild Man” and it is clear that they were not “Apes”, which he dealt about in the following paragraphs.

These Wild Men were about 5 feet (1,5 m) tall, the walked in an upright position and had “human form, thinly covered with short black hair” the “Indians” “greatly dread them and instantly flee as son a sone is discovered”. They share some features with the Trauco hominid found in Patagonia: “they will attack themales, and ravish the females of the human species.” [2]

Second Report and a specimen

British naturalist Charles Waterton (1782-1865) described his four voyages to America in his book Wanderings in South America (1825) which has many observations of the American fauna. Among these creatures was one very peculiar one, an “ape-man” which he named “Nondescript”:

I also procured an animal which has caused not a little speculation and astonishment. In my opinion, his thick coat of hair and great length of tail put his species out of all question; but then his face and head cause the inspector to pause for a moment before he ventures to pronounce his opinion of the classification. He was a large animal, and as I was pressed for daylight, and moreover, felt no inclination to have the whole weight of his body upon my back, I contented myself with his head and shoulders, which I cut off, and have brought them with me to Europe....

[Footnote: My young friend Mr. J. H. Foljambe, eldest son of Thomas Foljambe, Esq., of Wakefield, has made a drawing of the head and shoulders of this animal, and it is certainly a most correct and striking likeness of the original.][1]

The drawing is the one shown at the begining of this post.

This incredible speciment which he brought with him to the UK, was obtained during his fourth voyage to America in 1824, when he visited the Demerara River in what is now Guyana.

The embalmed specimen can be seen at the Waterton Gallery at Wakefield Museum in Britain. [4]

According to the museum, the “Nondescript” was created by Waterton, who used his specialised taxidermist skills to fashion the head and shoulders from a howler monkey carcass. He worked on the face so that it looked just like the face of a customes officer who inconvenienced him when he returned from his 1821 trip. The man is said to be named Lushington.

Nondescript at Wakefield Museum. From [4]

Third report, 1868. The “Didi”

It was forty years later later, in 1868, that a British surveyour, who worked for the government of the colony of British Guiana, Charles Barrington Brown, reported these “ape men” once again, this time they were called “Didi”:[3]

The first night after leaving Peaimah we heard a long, and most melancholy whistle, proceeding from the direction of the depths of the forest, at which some of the men exclaimed, in an awed tone of voice, "The Didi." Two or three times the whistle was repeated, sounding like that made by a human being, beginning in a high key and dying slowly and gradually away in a low one.…

The "Didi" is said by the Indians to be a short, thick set, and powerful wild man, whose body is covered with hair, and who lives in the forest. A belief in the existence of this fabulous creature is universal over the whole of British, Venezuelan and Brazilian Guiana. On the Demerara river, some years after this, I met a half-breed woodcutter, who related an encounter that he had with two Didi—a male and a female—in which he successfully resisted their attacks with his axe. In the fray, he stated, he was a good deal scratched.[3]

Closing comments

So here we have some true and maybe some false reports concerning ape-men in Guiana, in north eastern South America. They are not the run of the mill South American monkeys, these are ape-men. Perhaps the remains of the original Neanderthal or H. erectus people that reached the Americas long ago.


Sources
[1] Charles Waterton, (1825). Wanderings in South America, the north-west of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824: With original instruction for the perfect preservation of birds &c. for cabinets of natural history .(Google eBook). Mawman. pp 293.
[2] Bancroft, Edward, (1769). An essay on the natural history of Guiana, in South America: Containing a description of many curious productions in the animal and vegetable systems of that country. Together with an account of the religion, manners, and customs of several tribes of its Indian inhabitants. Interspersed with a variety of literary and medical observations. (Google eBook), T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt. pp 131.
[3] Charles Barrington Brown, (1876). Canoe and camp life in British Guiana
[4] Waterton Gallery at Wakefield Museum.

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Patagonian Yeti. Fact and Fiction

 
FFabio Picasso, who seriously delves in the fantastic and cryptozoology,[1] has published on the web an interesting article on a “snow man” at Rengo, Chile in 1956 and 1957. I believe it is interesting, considering all my previous posts regarding Homo erectus and its possible entry into America before the arrival of modern humans.

The creature was described as a potbellied being about 2 m tall (6.6 ft.), clad in furs. It was referred to as an “ape man”, with long arms and long hair (it reached its waist).

The exact location is the following: VI Region, Cachapoal province, on the slopes of the extinct Palomo Volcano, close to the border between Argentina and Chile, and just north of Tinguirrica Volcano (home to some dwarves, the Tinguirricas – see map showing location).

Palomo (34° 36’S, 70° 17’W), is 4,850 m (15,901 ft.) tall, and is very close to the village of Popeta.

Carlos Soto, an eyewitness said he saw “an enormous man covered with hairs” [1].

Though not in Patagonia, it is quite close to it, just to the north of its northernmost reaches. Its habitat is similar to that of the other Patagonian mountains, which are all part of the Andean mountain range.

Could the hairy being (dressed with furs like a cave man) be an extant Homo erectus?

A hairy apeman has been reported in Patagonia, close to Taitao Peninsula: it is a variety of Yeti or snowman seen on Guaitecas Islands.

Maybe a hoax

Then again the whole thing may have been a hoax, a joke. At that time the “yeti” abominable snow-man was in the media. Yeti tracks were photographed and published in Life magazine and other newspapers in 1951. [3]

This “caused a sensation and the world was launched into a yeti craze” [4], which surely would have reached even the remote village of Popeta in Chile.

In 1953, Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first men to climb Mount Everest on the border between Nepal and China. And, they said that they had seen large prints in the snow (yeti footsteps). [2] Hillary returned to lead another expedition searching for yeti evidence. [3]

Some websites that deal with cryptozoology also mention some "snowman" sightings further north along the Andes, in the Argentine provinces of Salta and Jujuy, and, the witness who saw the creature in the mid 1950s was a fellow named: Audio Level Pitch.

This is evidently a joke (someone got the name from a radio manual on how to handle the gadget's volume!), furthermore Audio is not a name (nobody is called Audio in Argentina), it is as fake as being called: Ipod Gigabyte Broadband.

However the "Ucumar" myth is true and can be found in the northern reaches of Argentina but it may be related to a local variety of bear, which is very rare (the only South American Bear), the Spectacled bear.

Sources.

[1] Fabio Picasso, (2008). El abominable Hombre de las Nieves de Rengo (Chile). EL FUEGO DEL DRAGON. Boletin Mensual de Ovnilogia. No. 113 Jan. 2008.
[2] Sue Hamilton, (2007). Monsters. World of Horror. ABDO- pp. 13
[3]Epitaph to the elusive abominable snowman. Life Magazine. Jan. 13, 1961. Vol. 50 No. 2, pp. +72.
[4] David H. Childress, (2001). The Yeti, from Far Out Adventures: The Best of World Explorer Magazine. Adventures Unlimited. pp. +465.

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Homo Erectus in America - More

 

Map of Melanesia. From [2]

Came across a very interesting article online today, it relates to some remains found in a Siberian cave, at Denisova, (I posted about this in my entry on Homo erectus in America - Part 2), which shared a common ancestor with modern humans about one million years ago.

"Densiovians" and Melanesians

Well, this article "DNA says new human relative roamed widely in Asia" mentions that these Denisovians were not restricted to their cave habitat in central Asia, but, seem to have spread out across Asia:

Scientists found evidence that in the genomes of people now living in Melanesia, about 5 percent of their DNA can be traced to Denisovans, a sign of ancient interbreeding that took researchers by surprise.[1]

Melanesia, as the map above shows, is just above Australia and comprises not only Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Caledonia, but also Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

Somehow these distant relatives got their DNA into modern Melanesians in Southeast Asia, but there are two possibilities:

1. Mating with modern humans after we came out of Africa and reached that area some 55,000 years ago.
2. No intermixing. Both Denisovians and modern Melanesians have retained ancestral strands of DNA in our genes, sequences that other modern humans have lost.

"Denisovians" in America?

It would be interesting to see if modern Amerindian populations have the same ancestral DNA as Denisovians, which would indicate that either the Denisovians came to America first, and mixed with the later humans when we arrived in America later.
Or, that a group of humans with Denisovian DNA moved into America and settled there.

Perhaps Denisovians could explain the "hominid" ape men or "Bigfoot" sightings in America just as easily as Homo erectus could. What is needed is to prove that one or the other came to America: we must find remains or artifacts made by them.

Melanesians in America?

Regarding people in South East Asia and their possible migration to America, I wrote about it in my book [3]:

mtDNA taken from skeletons of the now extinct Yagan, Selk’nam and Alakaluf populations as well as Aonikenk Tehuelche show that they, from a genetic viewpoint, were different from all other American natives (including the Mapuche in northern Patagonia).
[...]
Human remains discovered in Brazil show a very strong resemblance to modern South Pacific people, suggesting that America was first colonized by the generalized human (Homo sapiens) population that inhabited East Asia in the Late Pleistocene. These people arrived in America in very ancient times long before the Mongolid morphology of the forebearers of the Clovis had evolved [3]

Portuguese anthropologist Mendes Correia (1888-1960) proposed a migration route for these "Austronesians" from their homeland in Australia via Tasmania, the Antarctic and Drake Passage, instead of a trans-Pacific oceanic route, entering South America at Tierra del Fuego some 8,000 years BP. It his a highly disputed concept and lacks archaeological proof. Alternatively they could have sailed across the Pacific Ocean.

This same notion, but regarding the Melanesians reaching America through Polinesia was put forward by Erland Nordenskiold in 1931, [4] an event which would have happened long before the arrival of modern Polynesians in the region. This could account for many similar myths shared by peoples on both sides of the Pacific, and particularly, some that are common to Australians and Patagonians regarding mythical (or maybe real) monsters and entities such as: Yowie, Gubba, Mimi, Bunyip, the "Dreamtime". Or maybe these coincidences can be due to the "genetic memory" mentioned in yesterday's post, a shared "archetype" common to all humans.

Interesting reading on Homo erectus in America and very interesting topics regarding our ancient ancestor: The Pleistocene Coalition, they challenge conventional (or should I say "orthodox" views in a scientific way).

Sources.

[1] Malcom Ritter, (2010). DNA says new human relative roamed widely in Asia, AP Science writer. 22.12.10.
[2] ANU College of Asia & the Pacific. The Australian National University
Melanesia
[3] Whittall Austin. (2010). Unpublished. Patagonian Monsters. Zagier & Urruty. Soon to be released.
[4] Kenneth Emory, (1942). Oceanian Influence on American Indian Culture. Nordenskiold's veiw. Volume 51 1942 > The Journal of Polynesian Society. Vol 51 No. 2 pb 126-135

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Homo erectus in America?

 

In a previous post on Patagonian ogres and hairy giants, I suggested that this variety of Patagonian Bigfoot, might be a surviving Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of modern man (we are Homo sapiens).

Today I will look into this interesting subject. Interesting because, official orthodox archaeology does not believe that H. erectus ever reached America, and does not place modern man here earlier than some 20,000 years ago.

However, there is some controversial evidence (dismissed by mainstream archaeologists) that suggests an earlier peopling of America, roughly a quarter of a million years ago.

Recent survival of Homo erectus.

Homo erectus is an extinct species of humans that lived between 1,8 million years ago and at least 200,000 years ago (and probably even later than this last date). That is, during the Pleistocene Epoch. These hominids were intelligent creatures and manufactured stone tools, which we classify as belonging to the Acheulian culture. They were the first men to master fire. They were also explorers and were the first humans to break out of Africa, our birthplace and spread across the Old World.

Their remains have been found in Europe, Asia (as well as Africa). The oldest fossils are found in Africa, where they continued evolving into modern men. The African strain is different in comparison to the other H. erectus populations of the Old World and have been classed in a separate species named Homo ergaster. There is some debate whether H. ergaster or H. erectus is our direct ancestor.

Their use of a novel stone tool technology and fire, made them successful in spreading around the Old World and occupying different environments.

This may have been due to their larger brain size in comparison to our other older and more primitive ancestors. Their cranial capacities ranged from between 700 cm³ to 1,250 cm³, averaging 900 cm³. Their skulls had a thick cranial bone and large browridges over their eyes. Their braincase was long and low, with a receeding forehead.

They were not small like their ancestors, an adult H. erectus could weigh over 45 kg (100 lb) and measure 1,67 m (5 ft. 6 in).

Fossils of H. erectus found at Ngandong, Java, have been dated to as recently as 53,000 to 27,000 years ago. These dates were obtained by Carl Swisher of the Berkeley Geochronology Center and colleagues. [1]. This is interesting because, it indicates an overlapping with modern man who arrived in that area roughly some 40 to 50 thousand years ago. So, if they managed to get to America, they could have also overlapped with modern man during some 20 to 30,000 years (which, would mean that they may have survived until a relatively recent date, or even still be alive somewhere out there).

In America?

During the late 1960s, at a site close to Mexico City, Mexico, named Valsequillo Reservoir, in the State of Puebla, some geologists of the United States Geology Survey (USGS) dated possible hominid remains as being 250,000 years old!. The team was led by archaeologist Cynthia Irving-Williams, and the results were published in a reputable scientific journal in 1969 [5] but were quickly dismissed by mainstream archaeologists as being ridiculously old (nearly ten times the accepted dates for human presence in America - the Clovis First theory). [2]

Click to see Photographs of the excavations and the artifacts.

These remains are part of a:

"rapidly growing dating evidence from fission- track, U-series, diatoms extinct by the end of the Last Interglacial Stage (Sangamonian), etc. for (pre-Wisconsinan) humans in America (>80,000 yr BP), which has been ignored or denied by members of the American archaeological establishment " . [3]

So, they may be modern human (i.e. Homo sapiens) remains that predate the orthodox time-frame of some 20,000 years for human arrival to America.

Other ancient remains of stone tools have been found at Calico [4] in California, US at around the same time. They have been dismissed by mainstream archaeology as natural (not human) artifacts.

Conclusions

As far as I am concerned, the case remains open and undefined. The evidence is interesting and definitively points to an early peopling of America.

H. erectus had the brains and the physical aptitude to trek from China (his known northernmost habitat) to America through Beringia, just like modern man would do later. He could also have rowed along the coastal waters of Asia, Beringia and America all the way down to Southern Chile.

Lack of interest and funding (specially in South America, where research is restricted due to lack of governmental or private support) to look into these non-conventional ideas may delay the final proof, but it will surely be unearthed in the near future.

Impact on cryptozoology. Leaving aside Bigfoot for my North American colleagues, as it is not a Patagonian "monster", the presence of H. erectus could account for many native Patagonian myths regarding "ogres" or "man slaying" primitive men, it can also explain the "wild-men" legends and some "hairy" or "ape-like" creatures reported in Patagonia.

Continues tomorrow in Part 2, Homo erectus in America?

Sources.
[1] Mark Rose, (1997). Homo Erectus Survival. Archaeology. Vol. 50 Number 2, March/April 1997
[2] Christopher Hardaker and Charles Naeser, (2007). The First American: The Suppressed Story of the People Who Discovered the New World. Career Press.
[3] Sam L. Vanlandingham. Extraordinary Examples of Deception in Peer Reviewing: Concoction of the Dorenberg Skull Hoax and Related Misconduct. Online.
[4] Chris Hardaker, (2010). The Abomination of Calico. Pleistocene coalition news, Vol 2. No. 5 pp. 10. Oct. 2010.
[5] Barney J. Szaboa, Harold E. Maldea and Cynthia Irwin-William, (1969). Dilemma posed by uranium-series dates on archaeologically significant bones from Valsequillo, Puebla, Mexico. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Vol. No. 4, July 1969, Pages 237-244

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

On Tourism and Cryptids

 
A cynical point of view regarding cryptozoology: the whole thing is a big lie made up to promote tourism.

This is not a new theme, actually, back in 1922, when an expedition was sent to hunt and capture a plesiosaur in Patagonia, some hinted that the whole thing was a publicity stunt to place Patagonia in the public eye.

In my book, I also suggested the same motive: [1]

Taking a more prosaic tack, some have suggested that the whole issue was made up by a local tycoon, Primo Capraro to promote Bariloche as an international tourist resort and, coincidentially, it was in 1922 that Argentina’s Federal government created the country’s first national park at Nahuel Huapi and set its headquarters in Bariloche.³⁶ Frey was named its first Superintendent. [1]

I have already posted on this supposed PR stunt: Plesiosaur Carnival float which shows the headlines and the pageant at Bariloche to celebrated the expedition.

Russian Tourism and Yeti

Today I came across not one, but two articles on the famed Yeti cryptid, on regarding its appearance in Russia (below),[2] the other about a scientific expedition that is being organized in China to search it [3].

The Russian article is worth quoting regarding the "tourist" aspect:[2]

Creating a non-existant tourist attraction has a long pedigree. Visitors to Verona, Italy, have the chance to see Juliet's Balcony, inspired by the famous scene in Shakepeare's drama "Romeo and Juliet".
[...]
Meanwhile the Scottish city of Inverness has traded heavily on the nearby Loch Ness Monster to boost its tourist trade [2]

The article adds: that these reports "about finding Bigfoot as fodder for gullible tourists" and that the site of the sightings was "an emerging tourist destination". [2]

The Russian yeti article can be found following the link below:

Yeti to entice tourists to Siberia

12/10/201016:57

China to search for the Yeti

Regarding the Chinese, the Hubei Wild Man Research Association, are seeking international volunteers and funding (about 1 million Euros) from private organizations to search for the Yeti, which was last seen in 2007. Chinese are more open minded about cryptids and the government organized several expeditions in the 1970s and 80s to track down the beast. [3]

This seems to be a more serious effort and not something staged to promote a tourist site.

If you are wondering if yeti has a relative in Patagonia, the answer is yes, The Patagonian Bigfoot, which is not a bigfoot but some variety of hairy hominid that has been sighted all over Patagonia.

Bibliography

[1] Whittall, Austin. (2010) Book in preparation. To be published shortly. The Monsters of Patagonia: A Field Guide to its Giants, Dwarves, Lake Creatures and Forest Beasts
[2] Washington, Tom. Yeti to entice tourists to Siberia. The Moscow News. 12.10.2010.
[3] Peter Foster. China to embark on Yeti expedition . Telegraph. London. UK. 12.10.2010


Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Hairy ape man at Guaitecas Islands, Chile

 

Magdalena Island, Chile. Copyright © 2010 by Austin Whittall

In a previous post on Patagonian dwarfs at Taitao Peninsula, I mentioned a sighting there by a Chilean sailor in the late 1940s which may indicate that hominids were alive in the region at the time. Today I found an interesting story (totally hearsay, and lacking evidence) which I translate below, regarding an island (Magdalena), which is located just to the north of Taitao:

Anonymous wrote...

Myth or not, a few days ago I heard a story which perplexed me, because, at least in Chile I had not heard about any previous records on this kind of stories [about the Yeti].

A person pointed out an old local person, that does not know anything about bigfoot or the yeti, because it is an area where not even the radio waves can be tuned, that some forty years ago, they landed on one of the largest islands in the area, Magdalena Island in the Guaitecas islands (thousands of islands, many of them untouched).

The surprise was to se "sitting on a rock a tall hairy man, that resembled a monkey, the dogs barked at it, and the man or monkey... I do not know what it could be ..." he tells ... "went towards the forest".

Strange story isn't it? especially from an old man, that has little or no information on these subjects.[1].

The Place

Roughly three quarters of Magdalena Island (44°40′S, 73°10′W) is a Chilean National Park, but there is no personnel there and very few visitors enter the park. The island is covered by the dense Valdivian rain forest, and the 6 km wide caldera of the Mentolat volcano (1.660 m - 5,442 ft.) is permanently covered with ice and snow.

The island is placed on the eastern side of Moraleda channel and has a surface area of 2.585 km² (998 sq.mi.). Jacaf channel runs between the island and mainland.

This was the land of the now extinct Chono natives, boatmen who lived along the beaches, fishing, collecting clams or hunting seals. By the late 1700s, they had disappeared.

Perhaps their (now lost) myths told about strange wild men that lived in the forests.

A variety of Yeti or snowman has been also reported in the Andes just north of Patagonia.

Bibliography.

[1] Cagliani, M. Blog. Mundo Neandertal. El Yeti ¿quién es le culpable detrás del mito? 12.12.07

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

The Patagon, Patagonia Giants – Part 1

 

“But one day, unexpectedly, we saw a man of gigantic stature who was on the beach, quite naked; who while singing and dancing threw sand on his head”
Antonio Pigafetta[1]

Patagonia was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Hernando de Magallanes – Magellan, who seeking a route to the Asian Spice Islands sailed along its coast and wintered in 1520 at a barren inlet that he named San Julián – Saint Julian- (49°20’ S, 67°43’ W).

It was there, at San Julián, that the Europeans first met the native Tehuelche and Magellan’s chronicler, Francesco Antonio Pigafetta (1491-1535) immortalized them as the gigantic “Patagons” in his 1525 book, Relazione Del Primo Viaggio Intorno Al Mondo (Report on the First Voyage around the World).

However Maximilianus Transylvanus wrote the first Patagonian best seller. In 1522 he was the first to interview the surviving members of Magellan’s expedition (the first to navigate around the world) and hastily published De Moluccis Insulis, which became the first written account printed about Patagonia and its hideous “Indians […] of very brave bodies, like giants”.[2]

Transylvanus’ and Pigafetta’s books instantly fixed Patagonia in the minds of Europeans as the “regio gigantum”, region of giants, and contemporary maps soon began including illustrations of gigantic men towering over dwarfish European explorers.

According to Pigafetta the first man that they saw at the beach at San Julián, was of “gigantic stature”; “so tall that we reached only to his waist”.[1]

Following Magellan’s orders, they captured a couple of Patagons, needing nine men to topple one of them to the ground; these unfortunate captives would later die at sea.[1]

Land of Giants. Detail of a 1562 map showing the “Gigantic Regio” (Region of Giants) and the “Tierra de Patagones” (Land of Patagons) .
From: [3]. Diego Gutiérrez and Hieronymus Cock. “Americae…”, Library of Congress.

Pigafetta laconically explained the origin of their strange name in one brief phrase: “Il capitano generale nominò questi popoli Patagoni” - The captain general [Magellan] named these people Patagoni.

No further explanation was given.[1]

In 1551, a contemporary of Pigafetta, Spanish historian Francisco López de Gomara wrote that they were called Patagons because they had “misshapen feet”.[4] This version was to be perpetuated by all later historians. Patagon had been taken to mean big feet (“pata” is the Spanish word for leg, foot).

In this way, Patagonia became the first home to Bigfoot.

It now seems that the word comes from a chivalric novel, Primaleón, popular back in the early 1500s. It described a monstrous character named Patagón. Magellan is believed to have read the book and when faced with the Patagonian natives, found their large fur clad bodies, boots, guanaco skin toldos [tents], bows and arrows as virtually identical to those of Primaleón’s Patagón.

The book goes on to clarify the origin of the name: “these Patagons, that we so named because of their savageness”.[5]

The giants are seen again and again

Whatever the origin of the name, it stuck, as did the gigantic proportions of the locals. Five years after Magellan another Spaniard, García Jofre de Loayza, reached Patagonia; a priest that was part of his expedition, Juan de Aréizaga, recorded in his Relación (Narrative) that the native “men are thirteen spans tall” that is, 2,74 m (9 ft.).[6]

The giants were again mentioned when the Patagonian coast was visited in 1577 by English Admiral and Privateer Sir Francis Drake. Upon returning to England his Chaplain, Francis Fletcher, wrote about seeing “men in height and greatnes are so extraordinary that they hold no comparison with anny of the sones of men this day in the world” [sic].[7]

Fletcher also quantified their height: “7 foote and halfe [2,29 m] describing the full height […] of the highest of them”.[8]

Sir Francis’ cousin, John Drake, who sailed with him on this trip, was later captured by the Spaniards and while being interrogated by the Inquisition at Lima Perú in 1587, recalled a skirmish with the “giants” that resulted in the death of one native and two sailors.[9]

Drake’s voyage troubled the Spaniards and in 1579 the Viceroy of Perú sent Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa to settle the Strait of Magellan to avert the possibility of the English occupying the region. Sarmiento’s written account tells us that the natives “were Big People […] Giants”; he also reported their great strength as it took ten of his men to capture a native (weak Europeans or strong Indians?).[10]

English Captain Sir Thomas Cavendish sailed along the Patagonian coast and through the Strait of Magellan in 1587 and saw what he believed to be the foot prints “of a gigantic race, as the measure of one of their foot marks was eighteen inches [45,7 cm] long”.[11]

In the 1591, Anthonie Knivet, an adventurer who had sailed with Cavendish, wrote a vivid book about his voyages around the world that mentions a Patagonian youth about “thirteen spans tall” – 2,74 m (9 ft.); he also recorded thaat at Port Desire (47°45’ S, 65°55’ W) he saw:

Giants fifteeene or sixteene spans of height. I affirme, that at Port Desire I saw the footing of them, by the shoare side, that was aboute foure foote of one of our mens in length; and I saw two of them that were buried newly, the one of them was fourteene spannes long [sic][12]

These were giants measuring between 2,94 and 3,36 m tall (9.6 to 11 ft.).

Nova Totius Americae sive novi orbis tabula… by Alexis Hubert Jaillot (1669). Paris
Notice the size of the natives and the Europeans.

Dutch Captain Sebald de Veert while sailing through the Strait of Magellan in 1599, reported seeing “savages whom he thought to be ten or eleven feet high [3,05 – 3,35 m]”;[13] they were so strong that they “tore up trees by the roots, that were a span in diameter, with great facility”.[15]

That same year at Port Desire, Dutch Admiral Oliver van Noort met “savages of a gigantic stature”[13] who told him that not all Patagonian natives were gigantic, but only one nation out of the five that lived there, the Tiremenen.

These Tiremenen were “gigantic people […] who were continually making war upon the other nations”.[14]

This tiny piece of information is very interesting, it offers a plausible explanation to the fact that some explorers had not seen giants while others had: they had met individuals belonging to different tribes. It also portrays these giants as aggressive war-loving people.

Tomorrow we will continue with the second part (out of three) of this intriguing story.

Bibliography.

[1] Pigafetta, A., (1899). Primer Viaje Alrededor del Mundo. Madrid. 1899. pp. 11+
[2] Fernández de Navarrete, M., [Ed.]. (1837). Colección de los viages y descubrimientos… Madrid: Imprenta Nacional. v.4. pp. 257.
[3] Diego Gutiérrez and Hieronymus Cock., (1562). Americae sive quartae orbis partis nova et exactissima descriptio. [Engraving]. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
[4] Rivadeneryra, M., (1858). Historiadores Primitivos de Indias. Madrid. pp. 214.
[5] de Orduna, L., (2004). Libro Segundo de Palmerín, que trata de los grandes fechos de Primaleon…. 1524. Kassel: Reichenberger. pp. 626.
[6] Becco, H., (2003). Crónicas de los Patagones. B. Aires: Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho. pp. 7.
[7] Drake, F. and Fletcher, F., (1854). The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake…Collated with an Unpublished Manuscript of Francis Fletcher… London: Hakluyt Society. pp. 51.
[8] FitzRoy, R., (1839). Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836…. London: Henry Colburn. v.ii. pp. 61.
[9] Drake, J., (1587). Declaración de Juan Drake ante la Inquisición de Lima, 1587. Archivo General de Indias, Patronato, 266, R.54, ff.2v-5. Online. PARES.
[10] Sarmiento de Gamboa, P., (1768). Viaje al Estrecho de Magallanes por el Capitán Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa en los años de 1579 y 1580…. Madrid: Imprenta Real de la Gazeta. pp. LVI.
[11] Kerr, R., (1824) General History and Collection of Voyages… Edinburgh. v. x, chap. III, Sec. 1.
[12] Purchas S., [Comp] (1625). Haklvytvs posthumus… London: H. Fetherston. v. 4. pp. 1232.
[13] FitzRoy, R., (1839). Appendix v.ii. pp. 102.
[14] Hawkesworth, J., (1773). Account of the Voyages... the Southern Hemisphere. London: Cadell. v.i.: 12+


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Patagonian Bigfoot?

 

I have been asked if there is a "Bigfoot" in Patagonia.

The correct answer is: no. Bigfoot is a North American creature. But, Patagonia does have its share of strange beings (dwarfs, monsters, the gigantic "Patagons") and these include "wild men" or hominids.

In today's post we will look into the Patagonian "Bigfoot".

The Fuegian Yagans feared several man-like "ogres" that lived in the forests: the Selk'nam's one was Hashi, very similar to the Yagan's "Hannush", also known as "wild men".

Reverend Thomas Bridges described Hannush as:

a sort of demented or wild man of the forests […] similar to man in shape, living alone or in groups, but without wife or children; they were always stalking, trying to come upon men, women or children to kill them.[1][2]

A very credible witness mentions them; English naturalist Charles Darwin (of evolutionary fame) who in 1833 visited Tierra del Fuego aboard Captain Robert FitzRoy’s H.M.S. “Beagle”. Darwin wrote:

What the "bad wild men" were, has always appeared to me most mysterious […] I should have thought that they were thieves who had been driven from their tribes; but other obscure speeches made me doubt this; I have sometimes imagined that the most probable explanation was that they were insane.[3]

FitzRoy also wrote about the “wild men”, pointing out their “black” color: “A great black man is supposed to be always wandering about the woods and mountains […] who cannot be escaped”.[4]

He also reported that among the Chono his pilot Mr. William Low recorded that: “[They] believe in an evil spirit, called Yaccy-ma, who they think is able to do all kinds of mischief, cause bad weather, famine, illness, &c.: he is supposed to be like an immense black man”.[4]

Could these evil dark (i.e. black) men be some kind of fur clad hominid?

“Mwono” the southern abominable snow man.

The Yagan’s neighbors, the Alakaluf, feared Mwono, a “snow man”. Theirs was a land of jagged fjords and islands where the glaciers reach the sea calving icebergs into treacherous waters. Mwono reigned supreme inhabiting “the summits of the mountains and glaciers” where his tracks could be found.[5]

Chilean ethnolinguist Oscar Aguilera believes that this “‘snow man’ is a fabulous and mythical animal that the [Alakaluf] say lives in the glaciers and whose footprints they say that they have seen”.[6] What these prints look like, unfortunately, no one knows.

Potentially dangerous, its reclusive nature made it quite harmless; Mwono was a reclusive and peaceful being that would only hurt those who dared to enter his territory.[7]

Further north, the Mapuche believed in several gigantic beings; one was the Trauko -do not mistake with Chiloé’s Trauco dwarf which we will describe in a future post- which dwelled along the banks of Collón Curá River -stone mask in Mapuche language- in Neuquén (40°00’ S, 70°49’ W). This was a monster, a “terrible giant, man eater” described as hairy and having “a very long beard and his hair that seemed like rush stalks were fire red color”.[8]

Their myths also included the Chilludo, Carcancho and Huitanalhue.

The Chilludo is a very large and hairy creature. A bearded “bogey man”. Ape-like and covered with a long sheep-like fleece, it may be frightening, but is said to be harmless. It can be found in the isolated mountain regions of northern Patagonia in Chile and in western Neuquén province, Argentina.[9]

The Carcancho. These hairy men led a solitary existence in the mountains and meadows feeding on tubers. They could measure up to 2 m (6 ft. 7 in.) tall in the mountains, but were dwarfish (1 m – 3.3 ft.) in the lowlands, where they lived burrowing underground. This may indicate that they were two different kinds of being or that perhaps they were not men but some kind of wild animal.

They walked in the snow and their large foot-prints were the only clues of their existence (exactly like the Mwono but 2.000 km further towards the north - 1,240 mi.).[10]

Huitranalhue is a kind of undead, a zombie, described as a big man, which like a vampire attacked people to drink their blood or eat their flesh.[11] Its name means “alien ghost” (huitran = stranger, alien; alhue = spirit, ghost).

This hermit carried a wooden sword (perhaps a club), and did not speak. It was easily concealed as it kept to the forest and was dressed in dark clothes (perhaps animal furs). Later the Mapuche would “Europeanize” it giving it the appearance of a well groomed Spaniard riding a horse.

I have already mentioned the "Tailed men" of Patagonia, which are another variety of "primitive men".

Wild men, what were they?

We could, as Darwin, believe that these “wild men” were just that, crazy wild men; it is also very plausible that the Hannush and the Hashi were simply “homeless” Yagans living alone in a very harsh environment or even displaced Selk’nam, Alakaluf or Haush who had wandered into their enemies’ territory and tried to remain concealed to avoid attack and if necessary for survival, murdered any potential threats.

Apes and Homo erectus

Another option, not as far-fetched as believing that wild men are enormous bipedal apes that evolved separately in America, involves our distant relative, Homo erectus, which became extinct worldwide when modern humans, Homo sapiens, moved out of Africa about 100,000 years ago.

Erectus moved out of Africa and spread into Asia about 1.2 million years ago. There are no traces of erectus in America, so we do not know if they reached this continent.

However, it may be possible (though this theory is unproven)that H. erectus, our distant ancestor, entered and settled in America, adapting to its particular environment and surviving there for 200,000 years in splendid isolation until the arrival of modern men. An event that would have sealed H. erectus fate as it did all over the world. Unable to compete with man they disappeared.

Club wielding, fur clad H. erectus, with perhaps a limited capability for vocalization could easily explain all of these mythical wild men (Chilludo, Carcancho, Huitranalhue, etc.), and account for the dark "black" wild men reported by FitzRoy and Darwin.

Bibliography.

[1] Bridges, T., (1893). La Tierra del Fuego y sus habitantes. Informe de Thomas Bridges publicado por el Instituto Geográfico Argentino. B. Aires: Instituto Geográfico Argentino. 06-08.1893.
[2] Bridges, T., (1998). Los indios del último confin. Sus escritos para la South American Missionary Society. Ushuaia: Zaguier & Urruty Publications. pp. 152.
[3] Darwin, C., (1987). The Voyage of the Beagle. Ware: Woodsworth Editions. pp. 205.
[4] FitzRoy, R., (1839). Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836…. London: Henry Colburn. v. ii. pp. 180+ and pp. 191.
[5] Emperaire, J., (1963). Los Nómades del Mar. Santiago: Ediciones de la Universidad de Chile. pp. 156.
[6] Aguilera F., Lenguas y culturas de Chile – Kawéscar. Online.
[7] Grebe, M., (1974). La música alacalufe: aculturación y cambio estilístico. Revista musical chilena. Nº 126-127 pp. 80-111.
[8] Koessler-Ilg, B., (2000). Op Cit. pp. 71.
[9] Eberhart, G., (2002). Misterious Creatures: A guide to Cryptozoology. S. Barbara: ABC Clio. pp. 82.
[10] Batic, L., (2005). Seres mitológicos argentinos. Diario 1. Patagonia. B. Aires: Ed. Albatros. pp. 119.



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Patagonia origin of the name and broad description of the place

 

«In calling up images of the past, I find that the plains of Patagonia frequently cross before my eyes (…) they bear the stamp of having lasted, as they are now, for ages, and there appears no limit to their duration through future time»
Charles Darwin[1]

Patagonia, the place.

Darwin was right; Patagonia is boundless and impressive. It comprises the southernmost tip of South America and stretches 2.100 kilometers (km) about 1,300 miles (mi.) from north to south, between Argentina’s province of Neuquén at 36° latitude south (S) and Cape Horn in Chile at (55°S) on the windswept tip of the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago barely 800 km (500 mi.) from the Antarctic continent.

Its shape is roughly triangular being widest in the north (760 km - 475 mi.) and growing narrower towards the south (230 km - 140 mi.) at the Strait of Magellan.

It has a surface area of over one million square kilometers (km2) or roughly 403,000 square miles (sq. mi.)

Patagonia’s western coast, bathed by the South Pacific Ocean, has an intricate network of islands, inlets and deep fjords carved by the extensive glaciations of the Ice Ages.

The Andean Cordillera is Patagonia’s back-bone; it is the southern portion of the mountains that run along the western side of the Americas from Alaska to Cape Horn and Isla de los Estados. The Patagonian Andes have several summits above 3.500 meters (m) or 11,500 feet (ft.), snow capped mountains with abrupt peaks and steep slopes that drain into deep valleys shaped by the glaciers which traverse the cordillera from east to west. Many of the valleys are filled by deep lakes fed by the abundant rain and snow that falls on the mountains.

The Andean Region is covered by a temperate “Andean-Patagonian” forest that thrives on the heavy rainfall and cold yet temperate climate.

It has a large number of species that are “endemic” (that are unique to Patagonia) such as the “Southern Beeches” (Nothofagus) species like the ñire, lenga and coihue. They are part of a genus that was contemporary to the dinosaurs and is now restricted to the Southern Hemisphere and related species can also be found in New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia and Papua New Guinea. They are a relict of the continent of Gondwana that they once formed part of.

Contrasting with this lush Andean district is the arid Extra-Andean district that covers 92 percent of the surface area of Patagonia. Yearly rainfall is barely 100 mm (4 in.) on the Atlantic coast.

This vast steppe has a rugged relief made up of isolated low hill ranges and flat topped basaltic plateaus, the “meseta”. Its topsoil is coarse and sandy, strewn with glacio-fluvial gravel and rounded boulders.

A few rivers that have their sources in the mountain lakes cut across the Patagonia from west to east; their tidal estuaries are the location of the few towns and ports that dot the coast.

Temperature is extreme and the prevailing strong westerly winds, persistently beat the meseta.

The origin of the name “Patagonia”

Patagonia was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Hernando de Magallanes – Magellan, who seeking a route to the Asian Spice Islands sailed along its coast and wintered in 1520 at a barren inlet that he named San Julián – Saint Julian- (49°20’ S, 67°43’ W).

It was there, at San Julián, that the Europeans first set foot on this wonderful land and met the native Tehuelche.

Magellan’s chronicler, Francesco Antonio Pigafetta (1491-1535) immortalized them as the gigantic “Patagons” and their territory as “Patagonia”, the “Land of the Patagons”.

We have posted on these Patagonian Giants (it is a three part post due to its lenght): Here is Part 1.

In his 1525 book, Relazione Del Primo Viaggio Intorno Al Mondo (Report on the First Voyage around the World), Pigafetta laconically explained the origin of their strange name in one brief phrase: “Il capitano generale nominò questi popoli Patagoni” - The captain general [Magellan] named these people Patagoni. No further explanation was given.[2]

In 1551, a contemporary of Pigafetta, Spanish historian Francisco López de Gomara wrote that they were called Patagons because they had “misshapen feet”.[3]
This version was to be perpetuated by all later historians. Patagon had been taken to mean big feet (“pata” is the Spanish word for leg, foot).

So, according to this version, Patagonia would be the first land of the Bigfoot.

It now seems that the word comes from a chivalric novel, Primaleón, popular back in the early 1500s. It described a monstrous character named Patagón. Magellan is believed to have read the book and when faced with the Patagonian natives, found their large fur clad bodies, boots, guanaco skin toldos, bows and arrows as virtually identical to those of Primaleón’s Patagón, who was described in the novel as a savage wild man-beast, covered with furs that had a dog-face and hunted animals with bow and arrow.[4]

New and original explanation to the origin of the name Patagón.

In my research, I have found a text that offers another version to the origin of the name. As I have not come across any other references to this particular text, I believe that it has been overlooked in the past, so let me share my discovery with you:

This text dates back to 1577, when the Patagonian coast was visited by English Admiral and Privateer Sir Francis Drake. Upon returning to England his Chaplain, Francis Fletcher, wrote about seeing “men in height and greatnes are so extraordinary that they hold no comparison with anny of the sones of men this day in the world” [sic].[5]

Besides noting their gigantic size, he also quantified their height and their name: “the name Pentagones, Fiue cubits, viz., 7 foote and halfe [2,29 m] describing the full height […] of the highest of them”.[6]

This name Pentagones gives an intriguing alternative explanation to the origin of their name (“penta” is Greek for five), and we add that Magellan being Portuguese would have said “côvado” for cubit –in Spanish it is “codo”) resulting in penta-covado or penta-codo which Pigafetta may have interpreted as the similar sounding Patagón.

Patagonia, or at least northern Patagonia, was known for several centuries as "Chica", a mysterious name whose origin we explain in another post Here.

Bibliography

[1] Darwin, C., (1987). The Voyage of the Beagle. Ware: Woodsworth Editions, pp. 467.
[2] Pigafetta, A., (1899). Primer Viaje Alrededor del Mundo. Madrid. 1899. pp. 11+
[3] Rivadeneryra, M., (1858). Historiadores Primitivos de Indias. Madrid. pp. 214.
[4] de Orduna, L., (2004). Libro Segundo de Palmerín, que trata de los grandes fechos de Primaleon... 1524. Kassel: Reichenberger. pp. 626.
[5] Drake, F. and Fletcher, F., (1854). The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake…Collated with an Unpublished Manuscript of Francis Fletcher.... London: Hakluyt Society. pp. 51.
[6] FitzRoy, R., (1839). Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836.... London: Henry Colburn. v.ii. pp. 61.



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters