Encounter Atlas
The Mapinguari is a large, shaggy, upright creature of Amazon folklore, said to stink so badly it dizzies hunters. Folklore gives it backward-turned feet, hooked claws, a single eye and, most strangely, a gaping mouth in its belly. Its roar is said to sound like a human scream or thunder.
Ornithologist David Oren, of the Goeldi Museum in Belém, spent years interviewing rubber tappers, miners and Indigenous people who said they had seen or even shot one. He proposed that the stories could describe a surviving giant ground sloth, a group that died out about 10,000 years ago. His field searches found no animal, and most scientists remain doubtful.
What witnesses report
- An overwhelming rotten smell
- Loud screams in the forest
- Twisted palm trees with the hearts eaten
- Huge reversed-looking footprints
Famous cases
- 1993Oren's ground sloth hypothesis
Amazonas, Brazil
Seen the Mapinguari?
Tell us what happened. Every report is read by a person before it goes on the map, and you can stay anonymous.
