#agogwe

On This Day in Cryptid History

Bigfoot. A seven-foot tall, hairy, ape-like creature commonly seen and known across North America. Almost everyone living in North America has heard of these creatures, especially those living near the mountains on the coasts. Stories of sightings are passed down through generations and spread through news sites and social media. With the popularization of social media, it’s become even more popular to record things when confused about seeing something. Videos of supposed bigfoot sightings pop up almost on the daily and people have even made shows devoted to trying to find and hunt Bigfoot. With the rise in interest of cryptids, especially Bigfoot and Mothman, comes the rise of people searching for answers. Are there more than one Bigfoot? Is there believable proof of its existence? What could Bigfoot possibly be? And as is, I’m one of those people trying to figure the answers to these questions out.

Our first piece of information we’ll be looking at is the fact that there have been multiple sightings of creatures similar to Bigfoot across the world. Although going by different names, it’s generally accepted that they’re all related. You may know some of them as the Yeti, the Yeren, the Agogwe, the Mapinguari, the Yowie, and the Almas. All of these have certain attributes in common, they’re taller than the average man, covered in hair, and there isn’t enough scientific proof that they exist for the science community to classify them. The first official sightings of most of these creatures happened in the 1940s but it’s wildly accepted that based on the native stories of ape-like creatures, sasquatches have been around and seen hundreds of years before. In this situation, sasquatch could be compared to the myths from around the world of giant snakes or of how the world was created, they’re similar stories from all across the world predating when humans began to travel and communicate. Which makes you wonder; how do all these civilizations have these same or similar stories without communication?

A common theory for why all these civilizations have similar stories is that extraterrestrials visited each society and the stories are based on those experiences, but, of course, there’s no actual proof of that and a lot of the theories related to extraterrestrials are inherently white-centric and racist towards native societies, specifically the ones in the Americas. It would make the most sense if all these societies had seen an ape-like creature in their region and that’s how they all have these stories.

While there have been multiple search parties in these areas to find these creatures, I don’t believe a single group of people will ever be able to search a forest in its entirety by themselves. There is so much land that has never been completely searched, that there is an extremely high likelihood that there are more animals in the wooded and mountainous areas than we’ve found.

Every so often new species are discovered, especially apes. Just in 2017, a new species of Orangutan was discovered in Indonesia, so who’s to say a new species of ape can’t be found elsewhere? There’s even a possible species that sasquatches could be descended from.

100,000 to 300,000 years ago, as an ice age happened, a species of large apes went extinct. They’re described similarly to sasquatches but are known to be bigger (up to 10 feet tall and 1,100 pounds). They lived in the tropical forests of China for up to 9 million years and it’s closest related living relatives are orangutans. The common theory as to why it went extinct is that when the ice age began, their main source of food, berries and other tropical fruit went dormant and they didn’t adapt to eating the other food sources there like grass and leaves. These giant apes are compared to the giant sloths of the past a few times, both being large mammals and going extinct around the same time. The giant sloths went extinct likely either because of a change in climate, human hunters, or just a general disruption of their habitat.

Sasquatches can be filed down to several different species with different names. Each one from a different region of the world. They all hold the same traits though, tall and hairy.

The agogwe is a humanoid cryptid believed to live in the forests of East Africa. It is described as bipedal and covered in coppery hair. Its skin is orange, and it has been said to stand between three and five feet tall. Its feet are five inches long, with opposable toes.

The creature was first sighted in 1900 by a hunter named Captain William Hichens, who described his encounter to Discovery magazine. While the report was originally ridiculed, another letter was published in 1938 of another sighting of "little brown men" covered in hair. A professional animal collector by the name of Charles Cordier conducted extensive searched for the creature in the 1950s and 1960s, and though he reportedly encountered the creatures, he was unable to capture one.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Cryptid of the Day: Agogwe

Criptido del día: agogwe.