Looking back, I agree that I could have switched in a few better choices in that list. Overall, I wanted to present the subject of cryptids in a fun way to an audience that might not be totally familiar with them, and the article did get a large response, so I was happy about that. I might write a follow-up if the editor desires one.

Thanks!

Kevin Guhl

I do indeed picture the “Beast of Busco” a giant Chelydra serpentina.
But I have nothing to base this on. While I lived in Maine there was a story of a giant turtle that lived in Rattlesnake Pond. There are no rattlesnakes in Maine (or at least they are a n extreme rarity), so who knows how the pond got its name which was later changed to Pequawket Pond so as not to scare the tourists away. We caught small sun turtles along the shores of this pond and imagined them as the young of the giant which we never saw. But sun turtle ain’t got nothing on ugly like a snapper has ugly.

I am glad your pet escaped while you still had all your fingers. Wonder if yours was a Mata Mata.

Curious why you did not bring up the Didi as a good cryptid film subject.

I recently read the “The Lost City of Z”, hoping that author David Grann would mention the Manicoxi that Fawcett claimed to have encountered in the Mato Grosso. But he did not, which probably means Brad Pitt will not be including this cryptid in upcoming film based on the book.

And good call Cryptidcrazy on the skrimsl and the other aquatics!

The “Beast of Busco” could very well be a snapping turtle. I just typed in “snapping turtle eating chicken” in a search engine and a lot of results emerged including some videos of snapping turtles being fed chicken breast.

As a side, when I was in Guyana South America, my mother brought home a snapping turtle as a pet (seemingly good idea at that time) and all I can remember from my childhood was being terrified of it and later watching it try and cross a make-shift wooden bridge (after my parents left it there) across from a small stream, breaking the wooden boards, and being swept away by the current.

This personal experience is a testament to not only the weight of a snapping turtle, but its ability to scare anyone from a toddler to a fully grown adult.

While not every observation will necessarily fit, it must be time to accept that the Tatzelwurm is a clear reference to the Olm, Proteus anguinus, first written about in the 1680′s and described and scientifically named by Laurenti in 1768.

Specimens washed out of the cave systems by floods were sometimes thought to be baby dragons, and their gills were seen as developing wings. We know better now.

The tatzelwurm is an Ex-Cryptid, pining for the Dinaric karst.