Cryptids - Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, and the like

[Candlelight Desolation]

I was a BIG cryptozoology nerd when I was a kid, and when creepypastas came to prominence in my early adolescent years (2013), that was right up my alley. I was also a fan of the Lost Tapes show that aired on Animal Planet in the early 2010s (though funnily enough, I never got into Secret Saturdays).

For those unaware, Lost Tapes was a found footage-esque show that dealt with a different creature every episode. My favorite episodes were the ones that focused on the Dover Demon, the kraken, and the poltergeist episode as well. I'm kind of disappointed they never did an episode on Nessie or the Loveland Frog, but I think the episodes about the Monster of Monterey (a plesiosaur) and reptilians covered those general ideas respectively.

 

[Hollywood Hulk Hogan]

The one cryptid that fascinated me was the "giant anaconda" that was photographed in the Belgian Congo in 1959 by a decorated WW II pilot (Remy Van Lierde, who has his own wikipedia article for his service).

Anacondas don't live in Africa so it was probably not an anaconda, if even real.

Something looks off about the photograph, but it was taken in the 50s in a helicopter and I doubt a decorated WW II pilot would go through the effort of faking a giant snake, but who the hell knows.

My personal guess is that it was a big ass snake, but probably more like 15 feet long and not an anaconda

 

[Calandrino]

I really, really, really like this image.

Rargh, I'm el chupacabra! Imma get you!

 

[FunPosting101]

Hearing some of the stuff about Bigfoot and cultural memories makes me wonder how much of a shitstorm you'd see if we actually found a living species of hominids other than ourselves on this planet.

 

[CivilianOfTheFandomWars]

I feel like most kids who were on the Internet around the rise of YouTube, say around 2010-ish, had at least a passing interest in Cryptids. Because who doesn't love stories about monsters, after all?
Anyways, the closest I come to being a True & Honest Believer is that there is probably enough weird things in the ocean that could wash up, and enough conditions that could make things look like monsters. For example, the oarfish could concivably be called a "sea serpent".


These things can get fucking huge, usually around 10ft up to maybe 26ft or even an unconfirmed 36ft, as well as look like that.
There's also this crazy virus called the Shope papilloma virus in rabbits that can cause them to grow horn-like protrusions, possibly leading to the myth of the jackalope.

 

[Heckler1]

I feel like most kids who were on the Internet around the rise of YouTube, say around 2010-ish, had at least a passing interest in Cryptids. Because who doesn't love stories about monsters, after all?
Anyways, the closest I come to being a True & Honest Believer is that there is probably enough weird things in the ocean that could wash up, and enough conditions that could make things look like monsters. For example, the oarfish could concivably be called a "sea serpent".

View attachment 1890386
These things can get fucking huge, usually around 10ft up to maybe 26ft or even an unconfirmed 36ft,as well as look like that.
There's also this crazy virus called the Shope papilloma virus in rabbits that can cause them to grow horn-like protrusions, possibly leading to the myth of the jackalope.

I think mis-identification is the awnser more often than not. People tend to try and lace unknown things into known categories, and if you had never seen an oarfish, but you had heard legends of sea serpents, than to make sense of what you had seen, you say you've seen a serpent.
Also drunk people.

 

[CivilianOfTheFandomWars]

I think mis-identification is the awnser more often than not. People tend to try and lace unknown things into known categories, and if you had never seen an oarfish, but you had heard legends of sea serpents, than to make sense of what you had seen, you say you've seen a serpent.
Also drunk people.

To be fair, if I was just chilling in the ocean and an oarfish swam past, my first instinct would probably be ‘fucking monster’ even though I know what one looks like.

 

[Taylor Swift's Ghostwrite]

I generally ascribe to the notion that if a couple people see it then it's two crazies but if a lot of people see it there is probably something there even if its being misinterpreted.

Like in the case of big foot. People have been seeing that bitch for years, so I think there must be something people are seeing. But I tend to error on weird bear that walks oddly in the area more than giant ape man. The ones that I get interested in are things like the missing411 cases where small children report being taken by "wolf-men" or "bear-man" because children that age probably don't enough to lie about a bigfootesque creature so it makes me believe more that they saw something outside of our general accepted knowledge.

 

[Puff]

I feel like most kids who were on the Internet around the rise of YouTube, say around 2010-ish, had at least a passing interest in Cryptids. Because who doesn't love stories about monsters, after all?
Anyways, the closest I come to being a True & Honest Believer is that there is probably enough weird things in the ocean that could wash up, and enough conditions that could make things look like monsters. For example, the oarfish could concivably be called a "sea serpent".

View attachment 1890386
These things can get fucking huge, usually around 10ft up to maybe 26ft or even an unconfirmed 36ft, as well as look like that.
There's also this crazy virus called the Shope papilloma virus in rabbits that can cause them to grow horn-like protrusions, possibly leading to the myth of the jackalope.

Hell, there are only a few known photos and videos of live oarfish to this day.

 

[AMHOLIO]

I really, really, really like this image.

View attachment 1890270

Rargh, I'm el chupacabra! Imma get you!

He's playing the air piano!

Cryptids are 99% fake and gay but kickass otherwise (colossal squid and other later proven to be real creatures are the 1%). Small town cryptids are some of the coolest out there.

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

The one cryptid that fascinated me was the "giant anaconda" that was photographed in the Belgian Congo in 1959 by a decorated WW II pilot (Remy Van Lierde, who has his own wikipedia article for his service).

View attachment 1890129

Anacondas don't live in Africa so it was probably not an anaconda, if even real.

Something looks off about the photograph, but it was taken in the 50s in a helicopter and I doubt a decorated WW II pilot would go through the effort of faking a giant snake, but who the hell knows.

My personal guess is that it was a big ass snake, but probably more like 15 feet long and not an anaconda

I think it's real but it's very hard to properly judge distance and proportions in these old photographs, so it's easy to over-estimate size without some clear points of reference.

Kinda reminds me of De Loys' Ape, where the immediate reaction most people have is to assume that it's man-sized due to lack of reference and lowered eye level, but it's really just a propped up spider monkey.

 

[Andy Bandy Man]

I think bitcoin is a cryptic

, I've never seeeeeeen one.

 

[The Curmudgeon]

I used to love crytozoology in my teens and twenties. I always wondered what types of undiscovered animals could be found! What really got me into it was learning how animals like the platypus, gorilla, and panda were once considered near-mythical in the West. What else could be out there, I used to think.

Nowadays, I accept that most so-called cryptids are just already known animals who were misidentified or hoaxes altogether. It made me a little sad to abandon cryptozoology, because it filled me with a sense of wonder, but that's reality. There is still one picture that I'm curious about. It's this:

I haven't heard any updates about it, but apparently it may actually be a genuine previously-unknown sea creature. However, I wouldn't be too surprised if this was just a hoax or misidentification.

 

[Niggernerd]

I always fall for skinwalker traps. Its all so tiresome.

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

There is still one picture that I'm curious about. It's this:

I haven't heard any updates about it, but apparently it may actually be a genuine previously-unknown sea creature. However, I wouldn't be too surprised if this was just a hoax or misidentification.

The going theory on the Corfu creature seems to be that it's a discarded boat bumper that got swept into the cave and just kinda bopped around in there. Bad image quality and surface distortion did the rest.

 

[The Curmudgeon]

The going theory on the Corfu creature seems to be that it's a discarded boat bumper that got swept into the cave and just kinda bopped around in there. Bad image quality and surface distortion did the rest.
View attachment 1892641

Thank you for sharing that! Yep, cryptids really are nothing but misidentifications or hoaxes.

 

[Niggernerd]

Hey kiwis, wanna have a meet up in the deep woods? Definitely not a skinwalker Haha

 

[Aidan]

I'd love to meet up in the deep woods. We should bring some axes and chop down some trees while listening to loud music and littering a lot, too! Skinwalkers aren't real, guys, let's go.

I really, really, really like this image.

View attachment 1890270

Rargh, I'm el chupacabra! Imma get you!

This is born from peak cryptid times where almost everything was tied into grays. Many of the cow mutilations, especially in Texas, got overlapped with Chupacabra mythos and so it was fun to read.
I used to be way into this stuff because you get real life creepypasta and the guessing game of "does this person actually believe their own story?"
Cow mutilations are still something I find interesting. Sure some wacko young adults/cultists can explain some of them, but there was a strange consistency across the country on the mutilated cows and it was so notable that even the feds got involved but never came up with anything worthwhile. Linda Howe, who was often on Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM, would update on her findings as she went around the country and that was always fun. If I remember right, most farmers didn't necessarily blame aliemz but they were very weirded out by it. There was some phenomena for awhile where farmers in the midwest were reporting black helicopters being spotted the evening of the mutilation, which I think is what kicked off the theory that the military was conducting experiments on livestock.

It was always fun, if anything.

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

Hey kiwis, wanna have a meet up in the deep woods? Definitely not a skinwalker Haha

"First of all, I'm 1/64th Navajo"
"I was hiking alone in the woods at night"
"Suddenly, I smelled rotting meat"
"I heard the voice of my grandma, but it sounded... distorted, like it was coming from an old radio"
"Then I saw it. It looked like a zombie with antlers"
"I ran, with the creature right behind me"
"Somehow, I got away"

 

[Aidan]

"First of all, I'm 1/64th Navajo"
"I was hiking alone in the woods at night"
"Suddenly, I smelled rotting meat"
"I heard the voice of my grandma, but it sounded... distorted, like it was coming from an old radio"
"Then I saw it. It looked like a zombie with antlers"
"I ran, with the creature right behind me"
"Somehow, I got away"

This reminds me of the /k/ greentext where a guy was near some big concrete slab and had an elaborate skinwalker story where he shot at it with his AK in his STALKER larp, then some anon did the "I recognize that spot..." and it ended up being right by a busy highway or something.
Anons can't even walk 100ft from civilization to get good skinwalker story pics.