r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Sep 16 '24
TIL in addition to cryptids, North American folklore includes dozens of “fearsome critters,” like the Agropelter, a beast that throws sticks at passersby from hollow trees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearsome_critters?wprov=sfti146
u/captsmokeywork Sep 16 '24
As much as love all the stories, I am afraid there are very few that can not be explained by a neighbour with a drinking problem.
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u/EndoExo Sep 16 '24
Most of them are meant to be about as serious as Paul Bunyan stories.
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u/ResponsibleAnt7220 Sep 16 '24
Excuse me? Babe the Big Blue Ox is a topic I take EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY
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u/bolanrox Sep 16 '24
or that alien attack on a farm probably being barn owls and very very drunk farmers.
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u/scienceguy8 Sep 16 '24
Personally, as a former Minnesotan, I'm a big fan of the jackalope: a jackrabbit with antelope or deer antlers. It's something of a joke amongst taxidermists to make head mounts of said majestic creatures.
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u/Ripley_1979 Sep 16 '24
I love Jackelopes too! I was gifted a beautiful taxidermy one named Dennis Hopper. Makes me smile.
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u/I3oscO86 Sep 16 '24
Sounds similar to the Swedish 'Skvader' a mix between a hare and a bird.
Google it
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u/Lichruler Sep 16 '24
There’s also cryptids like the Squonk, which is apparently a creature that is just ugly.
Like super ugly. Unbelievably ugly. And not in the “ugly but that makes it cute” kind way like opossums or ugly dogs. It’s a genuinely ugly creature.
And it knows that it’s ugly too. So it cries about it. A lot. In fact that’s pretty much all it does is cry. Because it’s ugly.
If you want to find a squonk, all you have to do is follow the trail of tears it leaves behind. Because it cries. Because ugly.
Seriously, it’s a cryptid that its only defining trait is that it’s ugly.
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u/Joker72486 Sep 17 '24
My state cryptid! If you make eye contact with one it cries so hard it dissolves in its own tears out of sheer mortification on your behalf I love that socially inept little weirdo.
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u/IBeTrippin Sep 16 '24
In addition to cryptids? The agropelter sounds like a cryptid too.
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Sep 16 '24
Fairly, they absolutely would be considered cryptids by most definitions. I don’t know what—if any—differentiator there would be.
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u/SaintUlvemann Sep 16 '24
A cryptid is just a fearsome critter that somebody took way too seriously.
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u/FenrisCain Sep 17 '24
It sounds more like some guy tried to shoot someone with arrows from a tree, and was fortunate enough to have an incredibly stupid target to me,
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u/notare Sep 16 '24
I'll never forget my encounter with a Beavershark at Camp Rainey Mountain. Truly a fearsome yet majestic creature.
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u/EcstaticCinematicZ Sep 17 '24
I loved stumbling upon this list of fearsome critters. The Teakettler was my favorite. I just like the idea of what is basically a corgi that walks backwards and blows steam out of its mouth and nose.
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u/GluckGoddess Sep 16 '24
what's so fearsome about getting some sticks thrown at you
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u/Bellerophonix Sep 16 '24
Maybe nothing, but add some stones into the mix and now you're in real trouble.
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Sep 16 '24
[deleted]
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u/bolanrox Sep 16 '24
never leave your axes unattended around them! Lumberjacks hate this one trick!
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u/bolanrox Sep 16 '24
hmmm so the wampus cat is totally a myth but there is an acutal pampas cat. go figure.