This view was hardly novel. Folklorists such as Michel Meurger and Claude Gagnon emphasised in their 1988 book, Lake Monster Traditions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, that a major part of belief in cryptids comes from the cultural setting of those observing and sharing their encounters. Big, deep lakes, for example, are imagined in several European cultures to be inhabited by monsters that combine the traits of monstrous fish and predatory ‘water horses’. Belgian zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans used sightings to create nine categories of sea monster, from the ‘merhorse’ (top left) to the ‘father-of-all-turtles’ and snake-like yellow belly (right top and bottom). Illustration by Tyler Stone.

Also known as the Olgoï-Khorkhoï, which translates to something like “large intestine worm,” this giant, red, poison-spitting creature lives in the sands of the Gobi Desert, according to legend. Based on a description taken down by Roy Chapman Andrews—the explorer who may have indirectly inspired Indiana Jones, and who was skeptical of this creature’s existence—it lives up to that name: In his 1926 book On the Trail of Ancient Man, Chapman wrote that the Mongolian Prime Minister had described the beast as “shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor legs and is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death.” We’re at an early stage in understanding this stuff. Or, at least, those of us who aren’t experts in it are at an early stage. What I’m saying – by now it’s probably clear – is that, while bigfoot and Nessie and so on might not be ‘real’, they’re likely ‘real’ enough, culturally and/or psychologically, to be significant to us. I think that that’s important. We’re calling this whole subject ‘post-cryptid cryptozoology’, and I hope that Hunting Monsters is perhaps epiphanic on this front to at least some of its readers.

Advance Praise

Right now, Hunting Monsters only exists as an ebook. If you’re at all like me, this might be something of a disappointment, since I don’t get much satisfaction from ebooks and think of them more as badly formatted word documents, not as books at all. Front cover of Naish(2016). I like it. People ‘see’, describe and report the creatures they do because they interpret their recollections, sightings and encounters within the cultural framework in which they were raised. It is, so it seems, an inevitable consequence of being human that we imagine large, frightening creatures to lurk beneath the surface of the water, or human-shaped beasts in forests and other wild places. Cryptozoology is the study of mysterious creatures that fall between the realm of real and imaginary on the scientific spectrum. Cryptid Creatures: A Field Guide offers a closer look at fifty of these amazing creatures, examining the best possible evidence for each, including scientific papers, magazine and newspaper articles, and credible eyewitness accounts.

Nessie isn’t the only aquatic cryptid out there. One is Tahoe Tessie, which supposedly lives in California and Nevada’s Lake Tahoe. Another is Ogopogo, which lives in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. This creature appears in Syilxand Secwepemc tales as the N’ha-a-itk, an evil entity that required natives to make a sacrifice to cross the lake. White people reportedly started seeing the creature in the 1870s. And what of the interplay between cryptozoology and creationism? I say stuff about that in my chapter on the mokele-mbembe and ropen ( Naish 2016).I love folklore, so naturally, I also love cryptids, since they’re basically the scary story versions of modern folklore. Which is precisely what I enjoyed about The United States of Cryptids.”—BoingBoing

Some believe that the Yeti and Sasquatch are actually a species of animal that went extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago— Gigantopithecus, a polar bear-sized ape native to southern Asia. But genetic analysis of hair hasn’t yet turned up evidence of either animal. Analysis of supposed Yeti fur, for example, revealed that the sample wasn’t from an ape but from a Himalyian bear. 4. and 5. Alamasty and Amomongo

I love folklore, so naturally, I also love cryptids, since they're basically the scary story versions of modern folklore. Which is precisely what I enjoyed about The United States of Cryptids.”—BoingBoing

In recent years, some apparently good evidence for bigfoot has dissolved under scrutiny. Alleged dermal ridges have proved to be artifacts of the plaster-pouring process, as demonstrated by Matt Crowley (image of plaster ridges by Matt Crowley, used with permission). And claims that the lustrous pelt and realistic muscle tone of 'Patty' can't be replicated by a suit are highly questionable - look at the realistic tone and texture of the obviously fake suit on the right (photo by Darren Naish). For what it’s worth, Dr. Charles Goldman, an expert on inland aquatic systems, believes that sightings of lake monsters like Nessie, Tessie, and Ogopogo are actually mirages caused by temperature changes in the deep, cold lakes. Another possible explanation is the very big fish, like sturgeons, that live in those bodies of water. 13. Mokele-mbembeThis is in keeping with the view that cryptozoology is not a subset of biological science. Rather than seeing a biological phenomenon, we’re seeing a psychological, sociocultural one, formed from intertwined strands. These involve the way in which people perform as eyewitnesses and data recallers, how people’s expectations shape what they think they see, and the cultural setting of the reporter. No one has ever photographed the creature, and most reports seem to be of the “I have a friend of a friend who saw it!” variety. But many believe that it’s real, and continue to search for it to this day. 2. Bigfoot I’ve seen many of these places personally. If you tell me there’s a hodag statue in Wisconsin, I want to see it with my own eyes, same as if you told me there was an actual hodag in Wisconsin. In South Dakota, I took selfies with the world’s largest chainsaw bigfoot sculpture. In Vermont, I hiked an icy mountaintop to find Wampahoofus Trail. In Ohio, I climbed an ancient mound shaped like an underwater panther. I have been to many cryptid museums and gift shops, and I have a shelf full of souvenirs to prove it. I sometimes joke that when I say I’m hunting cryptids, what I mean is that I’m driving to a town to drink a craft beer named after one. But I did also venture into their territories. After dark, I entered the old cement bunkers in the West Virginia forest that are the lair of the Mothman. I boated from New York to Vermont across Lake Champlain looking for sinuous humps in the water. I walked through an Arizona canyon that skinwalkers are known to haunt—but only after I drove to town to see if they had any craft beers named after them. This ‘cultural’ view of cryptozoology is not in keeping with the ‘flesh and blood’ or ‘pelts and paws’ view preferred by advocates of the field, and for that reason it’s seen as a highly sceptical position, if not a cynical one. Ultimately it might mean that we should abandon the term cryptozoology altogether, since there may be little to no ‘zoology’ at the bottom of it. The Olgoï-Khorkhoï is said to be active during the months of June and July, and reportedly, you don’t even need to touch it to be taken down by the Death worm—it can kill by spitting its toxic, corrosive venom at you, or by hitting you with a bolt of electricity.