Mysterious Mapinguari

On our planet there are many mysterious creatures, exciting and is still exciting the minds. That and Bigfoot and the monster of Loch ness, and the mysterious fish-man Ranalah from the Caspian sea and the mythical and funny Chupacabra…

There is another mysterious and very terrifying creature called the mapinguari that live in the wilds of the Amazon. This creature is reputed to be the most wild, rare, terrible and mysterious inhabitants of the Amazonian jungle. As soon as it nor call: Cape Lobo (“wolf”), Mao de pilao (“push the hand”), de ne garaffa (“leg – bottle”), Juma…

According to numerous descriptions, it is covered with long red hair walking on its hind legs, and emits a stench so strong that the animals lose their orientation, and people faint (the Indians say that the monster is “second mouth” in the stomach. Scientists believe that killer smell of decaying meat can produce a special iron). This amazing creature, both frightening and makes admire.

Terrible smelly creature interested researchers and began to collect about the mapinguari information. One of the stories told to them by the natives, sounds like.

Many years ago lived on the river Tapajos a hunter named Joao. He didn’t have his hut, and he rarely went to people’s houses, spending all the time in the impenetrable tropical jungle. But once he lived in the village, he had a hut and a beautiful wife.

One day, when Joao was Smoking a pipe, sitting outside his home in the woods was a terrible roar. After a few moments, as the thicket there was a terrible creature: it walked on its hind legs and resembled a giant APE. Joao stood still, paralyzed with fear, as the beast approached, his young wife could easily have thrown her on the shoulder and in two bounds disappeared into the jungle, leaving behind an unbearable stench.

When hunter came to, it was too late: the thief disappeared. Joao’ve been running on traces of its unusual (it seemed that the giant was moving backwards) until you’ve stumbled on the headless corpse of his wife. Seen the monster, unhappy with the prosecution, in this way gave a man to understand that he’s a tough guy. Heartbroken, Joao went to the forest, vowing that he would not return to people without the scalp of a monster. They say he still wanders in the forests of the Amazon, but never, fate has not brought with it those who ruined his life.

The old Indians say that sometimes at night in the jungle you can see the fire, but no matter how much I go to this fire will never come. It is the fire kindled Joao. Long since dead unlucky hunter, but not repose his spirit continues to wander the jungle in search of the monster. The legend of the hunter joão and wild beast know almost all Indian tribes. And the name of the monster mapinguari means “Lord of the forest”.

But oral evidence scientists have, of course, is not enough, and here in the 80-ies of the last century Harvard scientist David Oren has organized several expeditions to the Amazon, wanting to establish whether there is a forest giant, moving on its hind legs, emitting blood-curdling screams and emitting such a stench that you can lose feelings. Judging by the deep scratches that the monster leaves on tree trunks, claws at him like sharp daggers.

The first expedition Mr. Oren outfitted in 1988. The only results of this expedition – a Piece of red wool and about 9 pounds of manure of unknown origin.

Along with Oren by boat on the river Tapajos went five like-minded people who never gave up hope that one day they all the same luck, and before them stand the giant from native American legends. After all, they had pictures of trees that were left deep scratches, as if they struck a huge dagger. On assurances of local residents, these were the marks of the mapinguari… However, the question arose: what next? Because the Indians told us that to shoot the monster impossible under the thick fur hides the bumps of bone that will ward off any bullet. But this frivolous enthusiasts searches mapinguari thought.

In 1993, David Oren wrote a book in which he collected the legends of the Indians of the Amazon about the mapinguari, but he was able to lead evidence of only one hunter who claimed to have killed the monster, but threw it back because he couldn’t stand how she exuded the stench.

Another witness, a collector of rubber, said Oren, as being in the jungle, he suddenly he heard a growl behind him, turned around… and froze in terror. The mapinguari! But the man kept his head and shot the creature. At this moment the air was filled with such a stench that the man rushed to their heels. After wandering several hours through the forest, he returned to the carcass and cut off his front paw. But the trophy is so “fragrant” that I had to throw it away into the bushes.

Generally, Oren was fortunate to meet with several witnesses, the gunman in the Lord of the forest: “I talked to seven hunters who claim that shot a mapinguari, and eighty of people have encountered them. What they describe? The creature, rising to approximately two meters, moving vertically, with a very strong, unpleasant odor, having rather heavy and powerful structure, the creature, which SAG under thick tree roots. The most probable mechanism of its protection from enemies – the stench, described by some witnesses.” “The creature is taller than two meters, has long coarse fur, four big teeth, as he walks on all fours or on its hind legs. He exudes a disgusting smell of feces and rotting meat. Perhaps the stench helps him to paralyze his victims. Mapinguari emits an incredibly loud cry, resembling a human, gradually turning into a growl. His power is so great that it can rip the heads off of large animals.” Oren recalled that during his expeditions he often yelled in the darkness, and the mapinguari answered him.

On the theory of Oren, a monster may be the last living on earth the giant sloth – megathere, a distant relative of modern sloths living in the trees. It is believed that the sloth earlier lived in the territory of South and Central America and disappeared from the face of the earth more than ten to thirteen thousand years ago.

The main opponent of Mr. Oren and a skeptic by nature, Professor and geologist at the University of Arizona Paul Martin says it’s a bold statement that thirteen thousand years ago is too long. Paul Martin believes that all surveys Oren – it is only wildest dreams, but admits that “if Oren still find the mapinguari (whoever this creature), that will revolutionize science”.

However, Oren argues that the giant sloth may still exist in the Amazon, because in this region still retains the huge, untouched by civilization forests, allowing to provide relict to create the necessary isolation. Thick and impenetrable, endless forest of the Amazon takes area more territory than all of Western Europe, and inhabits 30% of the total fauna and flora of our planet. The giant sloth was found previously in abundance all over both American continents, and his remains find from Patagonia to the North-West of the United States. Animal could move to the Amazon to hide from the hunters or the invasion of a civilization in its natural habitat.

Orken objects the skeptic, saying that “This creature still appears regularly. Some people who cross his path, I think that they encountered in the woods face to face with the devil.”

For his faith he has to pay dearly. Especially in the conservative scientific community, where reputation develops over the years. National geographic society rejected Oren, and he had to Finance his expeditions largely with his own money.

So extinct if the mapinguari actually or not? If he could survive until our days in the wilds of Patagonia and the Amazon?

The Amazon jungle is a real storehouse of mysteries. Among the dense thickets, impenetrable forests and damp river banks hidden animals whose existence even finished dreamers put under a big question. As for the giant ground sloth, it was one of those immense creatures that flourished on our planet during the ice age. A bit like a giant hamster, it ate mainly leaves, which were produced on the lower branches of trees and shrubs. He lived on the ground – unlike modern sloths, which most of life is spent on trees. America’s territory was inhabited by four species of giants: the Jefferson sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii), Lorillard sloth (Eremotherium laurillardi), the Shasta sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) and Harlan’s sloth (Glossotherium harlani). The largest of these was the sloth of Jefferson, who grew up roughly from modern elephant.

All four sloth had huge claws, but kept a vegetarian diet. They were relatively small and blunt teeth, which animals eat the branches. The structure of the femoral bones of sloths and powerful tail suggest that they could stand on their hind legs to reach high-growing leaves (the largest of them reaching five meters in height).

For the first time, animal bones were discovered in 1789 in the coastal marshes of the river Lujan near Buenos Aires. The discovery not only surprised the local aborigines, who decided that it was a giant mole came to the surface and died in the sun. The bones were carefully collected and sent to the king, Charles VI, who presented them to the Royal Museum of Madrid. Scientist Jose Corriga gathered up the skeleton and tried to describe him. Even one French diplomat visited a scientist and have purchased several prints with the portrait of the skeleton for the Paris Museum of natural history.

Like other giants, huge sloths became extinct in the late Pleistocene, and now the land is inhabited by only a small lazy instances. Well, at least, so us scientists say.

Oren was not the first one who believed in survivors of sloth. Sensation of its time was the article of the Argentine paleontologist Florentino Ameghino. He wrote that in the 90-ies of the XIX century, Ramon Sheet, the Argentinean Explorer, geographer and adventurer on his head (later he was killed by the Indians), was hunting in Patagonia. Suddenly a huge unknown animal, covered with long hair flashed in the bushes. It looked like a giant Armadillo. Sheet fired at the beast, but the bullets just glanced off him, slightly Tarapov.

Ameghino decided to check whether there is the mapinguari, and went into the jungle. There he found quite a lot of witnesses from among the Indians who saw this creature. One of them was an old hunter. After hearing the story of the hunter, Ameghino suggested that animal – extinct giant sloth. He did not give any importance to the story Leaves if I did not collect the stories of the Indians about hunting giant beasts in ancient times. Animal of native American legends was out at night and during the day took refuge in a hole dug their own huge claws. The Indians told us that to make an arrow, which could pierce the thick skin of the beast, was not easy.

There was another witness: a small piece of skin found in 1895 in the cave of the hunter Eberharter. The skin was covered with long brown hair, and her bones were the size of a kidney bean at. It seems that such clothing could withstand the onslaught of arrows and bullets. Searching in the caves brought new finds – similar to the first strange pieces of “armor” skins, and a giant claw.

With the advent of carbon analysis in the twentieth century were able to determine the age of the skins. He was equal to approximately five thousand years: thus the time of disappearance of the giant sloth approached by several millennia.

Reasoning Amegino about the strange animal recorded in detail in his famous book “On the trail of unknown animals”, the zoologist Bernard Heuvelman. The book laid the Foundation for the emergence of a new branch of science – cryptozoology.

The search for the mapinguari was doing and journalists. Representatives of the news Agency “Reuters” organized his own expedition. When they reached the inhabitants of Barra do Sao Manuel, a small settlement on the banks of the river Tapajos in the depths of Patagonia, and after talking with them, reporters learned that some Indians 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 unfortunates who found death in clawed paws of the creature the mapinguari have been found without a head… While all celebrate the reasonableness of the actions of mysterious being. Say it afraid of the water, wanders far from the nomadic herds of peccaries and to protect them, but because killing hunters; feeds at night, twisting the trunks of palm trees, huge claws to extract the pulp; with one motion tears off people’s heads to feast on human brains. Tell that his legs are turned “backwards” and that it does not take no bullet, and the “face” he looks like a monkey.

“I worked at the river when I heard a scream, a horrible scream,” said hunter Joao Batista Azevedo correspondent of the Agency “Reuters”, Recalling his meeting with the mapinguari after sorokapyatiletnyaya canoe trips. Suddenly something that looked like a man completely covered with hair, came out of the woods. The creature walked on two legs and, thank God, not closer to us. I will always remember that day.”

But do not think that the information about the mapinguari is quite “fresh”, and until the twentieth century no one ever heard of such a creature. In 1558 he published a book of a French traveler and ethnographer andré Thevet. Among other things, includes a description and drawing of a strange animal “sucharat”. However, this animal is not found zoologists, and paleontologists. “Sucharat”, according to scientists – a resident of the tertiary period, the giant sloth. It’s a lot of puzzled researchers: how do the Indians information about this animal? Maybe because some representatives of megaterium were able to survive until the present day and Mr. Oren right after all?

Question – so is there a giant sloth or not remains open. After all, the Amazon jungle reliably keep their secrets, and allow you to shelter in thickets of even such large creatures. But do not despair. Maybe someday we happen to see a mysterious mapinguari-a sloth of Jefferson.

I must say that the mapinguari is the only mysterious creature, possibly relict, living on the American continent. The first Europeans who penetrated to Central Africa, heard from the natives there about “chipeque”, a huge, reptilianmuseum monster, supposedly living in inaccessible swamps. Skeptical travellers took these stories among the legends. Among the marshes, from time to time they came across a wide area, where for some reason there are no hippos. “Eats them chipeque” – patiently explained to the natives. Travellers in tropical pith helmets indulgently grinned.

Those smiles disappeared when in our time a famous hunter George. A. Jordan, coming out of the jungle shaken, told about his meeting with “chipeque”. He faced the monster in the channel of the intermittent stream. Jordan saw a huge, fabulous creature with the head of a crocodile and body of a hippopotamus, covered with bone plaques. An experienced hunter works instantly – Jordan made the shot. The rifle was his charge, prepared to hunt the elephant. Hardly Jordan missed – the beast was too large and close enough. But “chipeque” fell. As they shot in the direction the monster disappeared in a thicket, showering the hunter and guides a flow of liquid mud bog.

If you believe the “generations of witnesses” – says the American biologist R. Meckel, in one of the lakes of the Congo to this day, the lives of several huge animals, some completely unknown to science beings. Scientists began to show the pygmies that live in the area, the images of different animals. Pygmies are easily identified elephant, Hippo. When I saw the Brontosaurus, in one voice stated that this is a creature living in the lake. According to their description, this animal, about the size of two elephants”, length up to 35 meters, with a powerful short legs.

Travelers from California, who had been recently in those parts, brought a story about the meeting with this mysterious animal. According to them, he had brown, smooth glossy skin, a small head on a long, like a snake, the neck”. According to press reports, they were able to take some pictures of this animal.

In 1981, there also went the expedition of biologists from the University of Chicago. In the soft marshy soil near the banks of the lost in the jungle the lake the Body they have found traces of an unknown giant animal science. Scientists have suggested that left them one of the few survivors of the Brontosaurus that lives in those parts.

Traces left on earth, – this is a substantive, material evidence. They can take a photo, fill with plaster… the trail is something that can be the object of study.

In the summer of 1983 world press toured the new message, which has blocked all previous. It was reprinted by the Soviet Central Newspapers. Expedition of Congolese researchers under the leadership of biologist Marcellin Anania lake Body found, finally, the legendary monster. Not far from the coast, scientists have seen sticking out of the water long neck, which ended with a disproportionately small head, and massive body, like living on a huge block. But, most importantly, the researchers were able not only to see but to shoot the animal on film, and the shooting lasted for ten minutes. The scientists who had seen the animal and the tape footage, the one: it’s a Brontosaurus.

Someone may object: how can live up to a fossil creature? And why, in fact, not? One such “fossil” – “dragon of Komodo” – a giant monitor lizard sizes up to seven meters, came to us all the way from the Jurassic period of time, remote from us at 110 million years. Interestingly, until 1912, when scientists have discovered the first instance of it, the scientific world unanimously believed all the posts about him a legend, and eyewitness accounts – fiction.

Or that the ancestors of modern ants. Paleontologists believe that they became extinct 200 million years ago. Great was the surprise when in 1931, in Australia, were caught two of these living ant. Light yellow, with a length of about one centimeter, they seemed to be the only one, as if leaked from the past. No matter how much searching the scholars, they could not find more than a single instance, a single ant of this species. However, persistence, in the end, rewarded. One of the researchers who have spent in search of forty six years, found eventually whole colonies “fossil” insects.

The same extinct and extinct a long time it was thought the coelacanth fish, of the family of lobe-finned. Her latest fossilized imprint is separated from us at a distance of 70 thousand years. After that, it was not revealed the slightest trace of a coelacanth. The coelacanth extinct. But some time ago in the Indian ocean was caught on a live instance of it. It turned out, the fish that swam in the seas of the Devonian period, tens of millions of years before nature has created the first dinosaur, now lives and in our world.

The oldest life forms that we thought disappeared a long time ago, unknown to us continue to exist around us. The tuatara, klusakova reptile that lived 150 million years ago and today lives on the desert coasts of New Zealand.

Italian entomologists have discovered relic species of beetles, which they called a relic of Croviana La pese. These beetles live deep underground and, as was believed prior to this discovery, this species is extinct 500 million years ago. Other of their contemporaries, Neopolis shellfish, alive and healthy were found recently in the Pacific ocean. The bloom takes us to the same limits of time. But this trait is not the limit, not the last barrier. Recently discovered living relic of metallobazy. They were found in sediments remote from us 2-3 trillion years.

In the depths of the ocean, in a sulphurous underwater geysers were discovered archeobacteria, the features of which put researchers in a deadlock. Representatives of this species can live at a temperature of 300 degrees and a pressure of 265 atmospheres, excellent feel in the sulfur vapor, but die, barely come in contact with oxygen. According to the researchers, it is also an undoubted relic that came to us of those epochs when the planet was a burning and oxygen depleted world. The lifetime of archaebacteria is equal to the expected length of life on Earth – about 4 trillion years.

In other words, this kind has existed for almost the entire evolution of life on the planet. Almost from its first days. It would seem that much more? So why, then, should be considered mapinguari character exclusively Indian folklore?

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