5 Mythological Creatures Thought to Exist

Myth: A traditional story explaining some natural or social phenomenon and typically involving supernatural beings or events.

With many sightings and unexplainable occurrences happening in our world today, the question remains, do these creatures really exist? For generations, these legends have managed to elude captivity while leaving behind small traces of evidence in an almost taunting fashion. Here is a list of our five favorite mythological creatures that have left many today questioning their existence.

 5. The Jersey Devil

Sometime in the early part of the eighteenth century in the New Jersey forest called the Pine Barrens, a woman known as Mother Leeds gave birth to her thirteenth child and cried out, “Oh let this one be a devil!” The “child” arrived with horse-like head and bat-like wings.

It yelped menacingly and flew up and out of the chimney, disappearing into the dark only to spend centuries torturing anyone unfortunate enough to encounter it.

In 1740 a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn’t seen again until 1890. Since then, here have been many sightings and occurrences allegedly involving the Jersey Devil.

During the week of January 16 through 23, 1909, newspapers published hundreds of claimed encounters with the Jersey Devil from all over the state.

Among the alleged encounters were claims that the creature “attacked” a trolley car in Haddon Heights and a social club in Camden. Police in Camden and Bristol, Pennsylvania supposedly fired on the creature to no effect.

Sightings of the creature resembling the Jersey Devil were being reported throughout South Jersey and as far away as Delaware and Western Maryland. The widespread newspaper coverage led to a panic throughout the Delaware Valley prompting a number of schools to close and workers to stay home.

To this day, there have been many sightings and encounters with the Jersey Devil but the evidence detailing the existence of this monstrous creature still remains to be seen.

4. The Chupacabra

In parts of the Americas, the Chupacabra (meaning ‘goat sucker’) has been blamed for attacks on livestock, especially goats.

It is said to hop on its hind legs like a kangaroo, to hiss or screech when alarmed, and to emit a sulphuric stench.

People who have seen the creature describe it as being about 3 feet high, with leathery, greenish-gray skin, a row of sharp spines down its back, protruding fangs, and a forked tongue.

First reported in Puerto Rico in 1990, the creature attacked animals by drinking their blood through a series of small, circular incisions.

Many people believe that the Chupacabra is an unknown or alien species with supernatural powers. Reports claim that it can hypnotize an animal with its eyes allowing it to suck the blood of its prey through its hollow fangs.

In April 2006, MosNews reported that the chupacabra was spotted in Russia for the first time. 32 turkeys were killed and drained overnight.

Reports later came from neighboring villages when 30 sheep were killed and had their blood drained. According to Chernobrov, the two extraordinary things about the chupacabras’ ways are that the creature leaves a ‘vanishing’ line of footprints, looking as if it takes off as a bird, and also it tends occasionally to assort its victim’s aesthetically’, often by color and size, and buildspyramids with the killed bodies. In the last decade, there have been hundreds of reports detailing the casualties of this gruesome creature.

3. The Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster is reputedly an unknown animal that inhabits Loch Ness, a freshwater lake in the British Isles. This lake is twenty four miles long and, at one point, one and a half miles wide. It has an average depth of four hundred and fifty feet and at times plunges close to a thousand.

It is cold and murky, with dangerous currents. In short, it is the perfect place to hide a monster from even the most prying eyes of science. The creature is described as having a long, tapering neck, about 6 feet long, and a smallish head with a serpentine look about it. The estimated length of the “monster” is said to be about thirty feet.

The earliest report of a monster associated within the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written in the 7th century. According to Adomnán, the Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he came across the locals burying a man by the River Ness.

They explained that the man had been swimming the river when he was attacked by a “water beast” that had mauled him and dragged him under. They tried to rescue him in a boat, but were able only to drag up his corpse.

The most recent report of the Loch Ness Monster occurred on April 19th, 2014. Apple Maps showed what appeared to be the monster close to the surface of Loch. It was spotted by Andrew Dixon who was browsing a map of his home town at the time when he came across what appeared to be an image of this beastly creature. There has been no official determination or explanation as to what he discovered.

With many recorded sightings and equal number of hoaxes, it has become very difficult distinguishing the facts from fiction leaving us all to wonder, does the Loch Ness really exist?

4. Mermaids

This legendary aquatic creature is described as having the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. The first stories of mermaids appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover.

Reported Mermaid Sightings

In 1493, sailing off the coast of Hispaniola, Columbus reported seeing three “female forms” which “raised high out of the sea, but were not as beautiful as they are represented”. The logbook of Blackbeard, an English pirate, records that he instructed his crew on several voyages to steer away from charted waters which he called “enchanted” for fear of merfolkor mermaids, which Blackbeard himself and members of his crew reported seeing.

These sighting were often recounted and shared by sailors and pirates who believed that mermaids brought bad luck and would bewitch them into giving up their gold and dragging them to the bottom of the sea.

Two sightings were also reported in Canada near Vancouver and Victoria, one from sometime between 1870 and 1890, the other from 1967. In August 2009, after dozens of people reported seeing a mermaid leaping out of the water and doing aerial tricks, the Israeli coastal town of Kiryat Yam offered a $1 million award for proof of its existence.

In February 2012, work on two reservoirs near Gokwe and Mutare in Zimbabwe stopped when workers refused to continue, stating that mermaids had hounded them away from the sites. It was reported by Samuel SipepaNkomo, the water resources minister.

In May 2012, Animal Planet released a documentary titled “Mermaids: The Body Found” which tells a story of a scientific team’s investigative efforts to uncover the source behind mysterious underwater recordings of an unidentified marine body. The show presents the generally discredited aquatic ape hypothesis as evidence that mermaids exist.

While they may not be the blonde hair blue eyed beauty’s we’ve seen in movies and read about in books, evidence today suggest that theexistenceof these mythical creatures is quite possible.

1. Bigfoot A.K.A Sasquatch

Described in many reports as a large hairy ape-like creature, in a range of 2–3 m (6.6-9.8 ft) tall, weighing in excess of 500 pounds, and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair.Witnesses have described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead.Bigfoot is commonly reported to have a strong, unpleasant smell by those who claim to have encountered it.

Reported Bigfoot Sightings

-1924: Fred Beck claimed that he and four other miners were attacked one night in July 1924, by several “apemen” throwing rocks at their cabin in an area later called Ape Canyon, Washington. Beck said the miners shot and possibly killed at least one of the creatures, precipitating an attack on their cabin, during which the creatures bombarded the cabin with rocks and tried to break in.

The supposed incident was widely reported at the time. Beck wrote a book about the alleged event in 1967, in which he argued that the creatures were mystical beings from another dimension, claiming that he had experienced psychic premonitions and visions his entire life of which the apemen were only one component.

-1941: Jeannie Chapman and her children said they had escaped their home when a 7.5 feet (2.3 m) tall Sasquatch approached their residence in Ruby Creek, British Columbia.

- 2007: On September 16, 2007, hunter Rick Jacobs captured an image of a supposed Sasquatch by using an automatically triggered camera attached to a tree, prompting a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Game Commission to say that it was probably an image of “a bear with a severe case of mange.” The photo was taken near the town of Ridgway, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny National Forest.

Everybody knows the story. Everybody’s seen the video of a man in a gorilla costume taking a leisurely stroll through the woods. We’ve seen this blurry beast appear in many photos throughout the world. But is there any truth behind the tales of this big-footed missing link? Only time will tell as we continue the hunt for the elusive Bigfoot.

5 Mythological Creatures Thought to Exist