Heres my cryptid report. (Cryptids are animals - large ones generally - claimed to exist but unrecognized by science.) My neighbors Gerardo and Raquel have been reporting sightings of a tapir along the trail they travel frequently with their horses and mules, both to milk their cows when they are in the far pasture and to bring out lumber that Gerardo has cut in place. When describing the tapir they never hesitate to indicate its size, holding their arms out approximately straight from the shoulder or a little higher. Neither Gerardo nor Raquel are tall people so were talking a height or 4.5 - 5 ft. Recently I told Raquel, When you say its that high I dont believe you. She was undaunted. Yes, its like (the height of) a mule, indicating her mules on the trail ahead. Well I know a thing or two from my few minutes of tapir research on the Internet. I know that the local tapir is the mountain tapir, also called wooly tapir, and is 75 to 80 millimeters high at the shoulder or an upper height of just 2ft 71⁄2in. Bairds tapir, the largest new world tapir, stands a maximum 120 cm or 3ft 11 1⁄4in at the shoulder. Even if Gerardo and Raquel, both experienced animal people, are off by a foot were still talking about something that rivals the largest known new world tapir. If their estimates are accurate then we are looking at a creature that would be the most massive land animal in South America and beyond question a far different animal than what is known to exist in the Ecuadorian cloud forest. Now it could be that as the local gringo there is a desire to impress me with wild exaggerations about the animals in my vicinity. I would consider that alternative to be more likely than Gerardo and Raquel being way off in their true estimate of the size of the animal(s) theyve seen. For that reason I have discounted their size descriptions. However I have not been treating this matter like a good cryptozoologist should. Afterall, how many times have the animal reports of local people been discounted by expert authorities who have the advantage of many years formal education, only to have the local peoples claims eventually found to be accurate? No, I was treating this as an ivory-tower authority might. What if the sighting reports I have been getting are accurate? What if a huge and wary mammal lives very nearby? What if a very limited population of the largest South American land mammal remains to be discovered? Those are the questions a true cryptozoologist should be open to. I expect to be making more trips downtrail, perhaps in company of Raquel and Gerardo, camera ready. If they are exaggerating I would like to prove it. If they are spot on accurate, what a huge discovery! I have developed a theory about why they might see the tapir as often as they do. Tapirs have three hooves on each foot and these hooves make a clunk as they strike wood. I heard this on the second occasion of routing a tapir on or near my property, and seconds later I saw the probable site where this sound was made, a raised tree root with very freshly disturbed moss and leaves around it. Supposing a tapir, on hearing nearby hoof-falls on the log trail, thinks it might be another tapir and wants to come check it out? That could be the mechanism by which it exposes itself to any humans who are with the pack animals. Exciting stuff.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 00:46:12 +0000
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