Comments on: Shunka Wars

By: cryp-23

cryp-23 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:37:02 +0000

i also agree the two pic’s don’t appear to be the same animal but i don’t know if there a wolf made to look like something else or not but i can say that ( in at least the second pic ) that the creature is not a boar because boars have tusks and hooves.

By: Skullie

Skullie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:35:45 +0000

Sounds like a melanistic (dark-furred, too much pigmintation, opposite to albino if you will) Aardwolf…

Quote from article: “strongly resembles a wolf, but sports a hyena-like sloping back and an odd-shaped head with a narrow snout. Its coat is dark-brown, almost black, with lighter tan areas and a faint impression of stripes on its side. It measure 48 inches from the tip of its snout to its rump, not including the tail, and stands from 27 to 28 inches high at the shoulder. The mount is in amazingly good shape, showing no signs of wear and tear and retaining the color of the fur”

Quote from Wikipedia: “The aardwolf looks most like the Striped Hyena,… black vertical stripes on a coat of yellowish fur, and a long, distinct mane down the middle line of the neck and back, which is raised during a confrontation to make the aardwolf’s size appear bigger. It is 22–32 inches long, excluding its bushy 8–12 cm tail, stands about 40–50 cm at the shoulder, and weighs between 9 and 14 kg.”

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:44:32 +0000

Y’know, you don’t see many old taxidermy mounts that old…for a couple or reasons; bad preservation and they really were pretty bad. My brother just inherited dear head mount from the days before Carl Akeley’s revolution in the art and it does appear to be little more than a crude approximation of the animal, like a piece of old leather furniture with the leather peelin’ back. It’s quickly gained status of revered oddity out in the barn where it hangs next to the woodstove, cigarette hanging from its mouth. Unless it’s proved otherwise, I’d think this was from the same school of taxidermy.

By: Bexta

Bexta — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:01:13 +0000

When I first saw the two pictures together I didn’t think they looked like the same animal either.

But I also agree that a lot of things were spliced in the name of entertainment back then, to me it looks like a wild boars body more than anything

By: kittenz

kittenz — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:52:57 +0000

I believe that the animal is a poorly mounted wolf.

As to the ownership, hey, why not have both parties agree to donate it to the International Cryptozoology Museum :)?

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:33:32 +0000

To me, this really spotlights some interesting potential problems for cryptozoology because there are probably many objects or pieces of evidence floating around out there that are of cryptozoological interest. Who is the rightful owner of some of these cryptozoological relics? Does the rightful owner of the object have any interest in cryptozoology at all or even have any awareness of the importance of an object in their possession? If they do, are they willing to have it subjected to tests or to turn it over to those who would be willing to properly study it? What can anyone do about it if they refuse? What are the legalities of the sorts of tug-o-wars described above and what do they mean for the field?

These kinds of questions could have all sorts of implications for cryptozoology. This article brings some attention to a problem that might sometimes be overlooked.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:28:58 +0000

The beast is SOMETHING. Hopefully, DNA testing could be done.

By: DARHOP

DARHOP — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:26:53 +0000

These 2 photos, I don’t know. Something about ‘em. They don’t look like the same animal to me for some reason.

By: sasquatch

sasquatch — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:45:12 +0000

Wolf in new picture…The old one is maybe something else….Or it’s a terrible taxidermy job. WildBoarus lupus.

By: Robtastic1

Robtastic1 — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:13:08 +0000

You also have to realize that whoever mounted it could have taken a normal wolf and made it look strange in order to calm the people and make them think the beast has been killed, or he could have just wanted some local fame. Plus the back legs are a little squated making the back look more sloaped than it may actually be. But its just speculation since all we have is one bad quality picture and another good quality picture at a fairly bad angle.