There are thousands of cryptid or "hidden" animals that are believed to exist but have never been catalogued by science. There are also a number supposedly extinct animals that may only exist in the folklore and myths of many cultures. Please enjoy our Listing of Cryptids.  

(UMA) The majority of the planet is covered by water. A great number of creatures are speculated to exist in the depths of the Earth's seas and oceans. As technology allows us to delve deeper into the abyss, many of these species will be catalogued while others may never be captured. Two such species that have come to light are the Giant Squid (Kraken) and the Coelacanth.

(UMA/FL) In northern Africa (particularly in areas surrounding the Sahara) locals believe the Adjule to be a spirit that takes the form of a canine. This is obviously a cultural myth and is usually attributed to sightings of dogs, hyenas, jackals, and other wild canines.

(PR/FL) The Iraqi Desert is home to many lizards with the largest being the desert monitor. The myth of the Afa suggests that a species of large monitor lizards, far larger than the desert monitor, once roamed along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. Monitors this large have never been recorded in this region. The Afa could be a misidentification or isolated mutation of a known species of lizard. There is also a chance that these myths represent a species which is now extinct but survives in the local folklore.

(UMA/FL) In 1937 a British Captain name William Hitchins claimed to have spotted "two small, brown, furry creatures" while he was hunting in the Ussure and Simbiti forest in 1900. The captain "watched them come from the dense forest on one side of the glade and disappear in the thicket on the other. They were like little men, about four feet in height, walking upright, but clad in russet hair." Most accounts of this 2-5 foot tall, brown haired, biped come from the first half of the twentieth century and the European Occupation of Africa.

(UMA/PR/FL) Descriptions of the Ahool range from a giant bat, to a flying homonid, to a living pterosaur. This myth was first brought to the modern scientific community by Dr. Ernest Bartels. While exploring the Salak Mountains in Java, Bartels also discovered two large species of owl which led him to believe these birds had been misidentified and rooted in the Ahool legend.

(FL) In Aztec legends, this creature was said to be like a large otter with five hands or claws (one on its tail) like a raccoons. This creature was supposedly very fond of human flesh and would lure people to the river with its cry (like a baby) before devouring them.

(UMA/FL) From Ainu folklore, The Akkorokamui is a squid or octopus-like monster. It supposedly lurks in the Funka Bay in Hokkaido, Japan. It is described as having a red body.

(UMA) ABC's are a generic label for any sort of large, predatory cat seen outside of a natural or common habitat. 

(UMA/FL) Mongolian for "wild man". This hominid is reputed to inhabit the Caucasus and Pamir Mountains of central Asia, and the Altai Mountains of southern Mongolia.

(UMA) Reports from southeast Asia describe this bird as a cross between a pheasant and a chicken. It is believed to be a nocturnal creature and therefore a cryptic (rather than cryptid) animal.

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