Paranormal Creatures: The Agogwe and The Ahool · 3:31pm Mar 29th, 2017
Paranormal Creatures: The Agogwe
The agogwe is a purported small human-like biped reported from the forests of East Africa. It is 1 to 1.7 m (3.3 to 5.6 ft) tall with long arms and long rust-coloured woolly hair and is said to have yellowish-red skin under its coat. It has also been reported as having black or grey hair. Its feet are said to be about 12 cm (5 in) long with opposable toes. Alleged differences between it and known apes include a rounded forehead, small canines and its hair and skin colour.
The first recorded sighting was in 1900 by a Captain William Hichens who reported his experience in the December 1937 edition of Discovery magazine thus: "Some years ago I was sent on an official lion-hunt in this area (the Ussure and Simibit forests on the western side of the Wembare plains) and, while waiting in a forest glade for a man-eater, I saw two small, brown, furry creatures come from dense forest on one side of the glade and disappear into the thickets on the other. They were like little men, about 4 feet high, walking upright, but clad in russet hair. The native hunter with me gazed in mingled fear and amazement. They were, he said, agogwe, the little furry men whom one does not see once in a lifetime."
When Hitchens was criticized and ridiculed, Cuthbert Burgoyne wrote a letter to the magazine in 1938 recounting his sighting of something similar in 1927 while coasting Portuguese East Africa in a Japanese cargo boat. They were close enough to shore that they could view the beach using a "glass of twelve magnifications" they watched a troupe of Baboons feeding and..."As we watched, two little brown men walked together out of the bush and down amongst the baboons. They were certainly not any known monkey and yet they must have been akin or they would have disturbed the baboons. They were too far away to be seen in great detail, but these small human-like animals were probably between four and five feet tall, quite upright and graceful in figure. At the time I was thrilled as they were quite evidently no beast of which I had heard or read. Later a friend and big game hunter told me he was in the Portuguese East Africa with his wife and three hunters, and saw a mother, father and child, apparently of the same species, walk across the further side of the bush clearing. The natives loudly forbade him to shoot." Without the quote, an account of Mr. Burgoyne's making such a report is given in.
Charles Cordier, a professional animal collector who worked for zoos and museums, followed the tracks of an agogwe in Zaire in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Once, said Cordier, an agogwe had become entangled in one of his bird snares. "It fell on its face," said Cordier, "turned over, sat up, took the noose off its feet, and walked away before the nearby African could do anything."
In the Ivory Coast it is known as the sehite.
Paranormal Creatures: The Ahool
The ahool is a flying cryptid, supposedly a giant bat, or by other accounts, a living pterosaur or flying primate. Such a creature is unknown to science and there is no objective evidence that it exists as claimed.
Like many cryptids, it is not well documented, and little reliable information - and in this case, no material evidence - exists. Named for its distinctive call A-hool (other sources render it ahOOOooool), it is said to live in the deepest rainforests of Java in Indonesia It is described as having large dark eyes, large claws on its forearms (approximately the size of an infant), and a body covered in gray fur. Possibly the most intriguing and astounding feature is that it is said to have a wingspan of 3 m (10 ft). This is almost twice as long as the largest (known) bat in the world, the common flying fox.
According to Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark, it was first described by Dr. Ernest Bartels. Bartels published regular accounts of his work while exploring the Salak Mountains on the island of Java.
One speculation on its existence by the cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson is that it might be a relative of kongamato in Africa. Others have suggested it were a living fossil pterosaur, on account of its supposedly leathery wings. As is known today, most pterosaurs seem to have had wings that were covered with a downy fluff to prevent heat loss; this may or may not have been necessary in a tropical environment depending on these animals' metabolism. On the other hand, there might be an entirely mundane explanation:
Two large earless owls exist on Java, the spotted wood-owl (Strix seloputo) and the Javan wood-owl (Strix (leptogrammica) bartelsi). They are intermediate in size between the spotted owl of North America or the tawny owl of Eurasia, and an eagle owl (horned owl), being 40–50 cm (16–20 in) long and with a wingspan of perhaps 1.20 meters (4 ft). Despite this discrepancy, wingspans are usually overestimated in flying animals not held in hand, especially by frightened observers.
Size nonwithstanding, the Javan or Bartels's wood-owl seems an especially promising candidate to resolve the ahool enigma: it has a conspicuous flat "face" with large dark eyes exaggerated by black rings of feathers and a beak that protrudes but little, and it appears greyish-brown when seen from below. Its call is characteristic, a single shout, given intermittently, and sounding like HOOOH!. Like most large owls, it is highly territorial in breeding season and will frighten away intruders by mock attacks from above and behind.
Its flight, being an owl, is nearly completely silent, so that the victim of such sweeps usually only becomes aware of the owl when it homes in, diving with outstretched talons (held at "breast" height to the observer), and they would just have time to duck away. The Javan wood-owl is a decidedly rare and elusive bird not often observed even by ornithologists, as it hides during day. It is found in remote montane forest at altitudes of probably around 1,000-1,500 meters, and does not well tolerate human encroachment, logging and other disturbances.
From its appearance and behavior, the Javan wood-owl matches the characteristics of the ahool surprisingly well, despite the cryptid at first glance giving the impression of a mammal. Observer error due to the circumstances of being dive-bombed in a remote gloomy forest by a fierce snarling and clawing bird may well account for the apparent discrepancies.
Notwithstanding, the wood-owls of Java are not generally mentioned in cryptozoological discussions of the ahool, and most authors of cryptozoologial works seem to be entirely unaware of the birds' existence. Be that as it may, it is not resolved how well the owls are known to locals, especially the local name - if any - and whether they are present in locations of ahool reports would seem to be highly relevant. It is also possible that the cry and the flying animal are not identical; even the local population is sometimes unaware which jungle animal makes which vocalization.
Sources
Source One: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agogwe
Source Two: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahool
Source Three: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptids
I love how you put so much effort into these interesting blog posts. Good job!
4476060 Aww thank you so much. I like sharing interesting things that I find. XD
My mother once saw a sasquatch
4476155 I saw Big Foot when I went camping with a friend. At first I thought it was a bear, but when I kept staring at it I realized that it had a face like an ape. It was pretty interesting. My mom and I have also seen three thunderbirds while walking in the forest; a black one, a white one, and a grey one. Thunderbirds are giant birds about the size of a small plane. Native American legends sat that they create thunderstorms. The ones we saw were pretty big as well. They looked like giant falcons but the tail feathers looked different and they were skinnier. And I used to visit a place called Bear Lake, Idaho where my grandfather had a lake front property every summer. Supposedly a lake monster known as the Bear Lake Monster lives there. One time I was swimming and I kicked the side of something that was HUGE. I caught it diving back under the water when I swam back to shore. I think I had an encounter with the Bear Lake monster because of its size and the fact that it looked odd and had a serpent like appearance.
4476181 all the reports i've heard of the Bear Lake Monster say it's crocodilian or mosasaur-like in appearance.
Yay for Cryptozoology!
I met Loren Coleman once.
4476190 The Native American legends in the area actually say that the Bear Lake Monster looks closer to a large serpent. And the creature that I saw looked more like a large serpent (from what I could see). I tend to trust the Native American legend more since those stories were around a long time before the pioneers or settlers showed up.
Agagwe hmmm. I'll look for any relative myths.
As for the Ahool..... I'm not sure. They are bats?
I thought for a moment from the name that the Ahool were like the cannibalistic Owl-Pony Hybrids that I indirectly already introduced in "The Symphony of Canterlot" through Lyra's narration. Though that isn't the case it seems.
A story with them would just be a quick Hellboy style monster fight, maybe I could make that work?
4476869 I think that it would be awesome if you could incorporate some real cryptids into your stories. I am sure that all cryptids exist on Equestria in some form. :)
Very interesting.
4478836 I am glad that you enjoyed reading it, my friend. :)
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And I am glad you posted it.
4483588 Yay! I will be posting more soon. :)
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Huzzah!
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:)
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^W^