Rare Monsters

  The hellidid is one of the fearsome critters of American folklore. Unlike most other fearsome critters, it’s found in the deserts of the south west. It is a chimeric monster with the head of an ant eater, the body of a zebra and four ostrich like legs, and a fluffy tail. The hellidid primarily ate fibrous plants, such as yuccas. It would use its long, serrated tongue to lick at the plants, scraping off the soft bits and leaving the fibre within the leaves behind. The hellidid was also extremely shy and would run off, allowing only quick glimpses of the creature. However, at night it would approach travellers sleeping out in the open and use its rough tongue to lick all the hair off their heads, leaving them shaved in the morning. Obviously the legend of the hellidid was part of a prank cowboys would play on greenhorns and people who overslept, shaving their heads, and blaming it on the hellidid. Sources https://www.deviantart.com/monstrumamericanum/art/Hellidi...

  The billdad is a fearsome critter from lumberjack lore. It's a hybrid of bird and beaver with a little kangaroo thrown in too. It has the head of a hawk or eagle. It's front legs are short and taloned like the back legs of an eagle. It has a fur covered mammalian body, long, jumping kangaroo legs that end in webbed beaver feet and a beaver tail. The billdad is found only in Boundary pond, a small lake in Maine. There the billdad would hunt for fish. It did this by waiting on the shore for a fish to surface while hunting insects. Then the billdad would leap just past the fish and slam it's tail down onto the surface of the water, knocking the fish out. The billdad could then collect up the fish and eat it as its leisure. It was said that large billdads could cover a length of 60 yards in one leap. Billdads were secretive animals and more often seen then heard. Their tail slaps making a distinct sounds like someone slapping the water with a oar. In spite of having a very ...

  The hodag is a fearsome critter from lumberjack folklore, a hoax perpetrated by a businessman trying to advertise his resort, and the beloved mascot of Rhinelander Wisconsin. The hodag looks like a giant, green, hairy beast, with a short bulldog face and prominent tusks. The hodag has bull like horns on it's head and a row of spikes running down it's back. It has a long reptilian tail, tipped with a spike at the end. The legend of the hodag starts in 1893 with resort owner Eugene Shepard. He created the hodag as a hoax to stir up interest in the area around Rhinelander so people would visit his resort. Mr. Sheperd reported that he and a group of hunters had a battle in the forest with the vicious hodag. They had fought off the beast with hunting rifles, hounds and 'poisoned water' in toy squirt guns. All their efforts were to no avail though, until one of the hunters finally killed the hodag by throwing a stick of dynamite at it. At first people were intrigued and ...

  The wamp ( Caudasal lakeshorekearni ) is one of the fearsome critters of lumberjack lore. It was a small and peaceful creature. The wamp was about the size of a raccoon and has a salt bag shaped body. It had a long, hollow tail with a salt shaker at the end and it would use this tail to leave salt licks for deer over the winter. Hunters caught wise to this and started following the wamp around to more easily find deer. So the wamp's efforts to help deer ended up in them being hunted down instead. Because April Fools is tomorrow I wanted a feature a light hearted and silly creature this time.