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The entzaeia-yawá (Shuar: "water tiger") is a cryptid felid reported from Ecuador and described by Spanish cryptozoologist Angel Morant Forés.[1][2] It is one of a number of so-called water tigers reported from South America.[3]
Description[]
Forés wrote that "it appears that water tigers show a wide range of colour morphs (black, white, brown and reddish)."[1] The black version is also called wankánin-yawá.[4] "They are said to be nocturnal animals as big or somewhat bigger than a jaguar and with a bushy tail. Entzaeia-yawá is regarded as a most dangerous creature and attacks on humans are not rare."; it is regarded as a man-eater, and out of fear of it many Shuar people apparently avoid bathing in rivers alone. Its tail was compared to that of a cow. The informants described its paws as looking like ducks' feet, and identified the its tracks with images Forés showed them of otter and bear tracks.[1] Unlike other apparent water tigers, it is not described as having sabre-teeth.[5]
Sightings[]
Undated[]
A man named Carlos Pichama claimed that a water tiger had killed his cousins wife during a fishing trip to the Mangusas River. After finding her missing, he:
“ | ...located the spoor of a water-tiger which seemed to have been stalking his wife. Back in Suantza he told the story to her wife's parents who concluded that a water tiger had dragged her into the water. Next day, he and his brothers returned to the spot where the woman had been killed by the water tiger. The group of men exploded several charges of dynamite in the lake and saw the corpse of a long-haired reddish coloured animal of big size come at the surface.[1]
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1989[]
A man named Juan Bautista Rivadeneira claimed to have seen a water tiger in 1989 at the mouth of the Jurumbaino river, a tributary of the Upano.[1]
Theories[]
- See also: Water tiger§Theories.
Forés noted that sightings of the water tiger could be explained by giant otters, but wrote that this was unlikely, as the entzaeia-yawá is never described as having the white throat blotches characteristic of giant otters. Giant otters are also not man-eaters. "It should be also stressed that although my book on Ecuadorian mammals carried a picture of a giant otter none of my informants identified it with a water tiger."[1] The term is also used to refer to caimans and to the greater grison (Galictis vittata).[6]
Philippe Coudray proposes it is a living sabre-toothed cat like other water tigers, and suggests that the lack of sabre-teeth could be explained by the fact that the entzaeia-yawá is only ever seen from a distance, as indicated by the lack of precision regarding its colour.[5] A number of African water lions are also not described as having sabre-teeth: Bernard Heuvelmans suggested that the sabre-teeth of machairodonts were simply not visible at all times.[7]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Forés, Angel Morant Virtual Institute of Cryptozoology "An Investigation Into Some Unidentified Ecuadorian Mammals" cryptozoo.pagesperso-orange.fr (12 October 1999) [Accessed 10 September 2018] — Wayback Machine
- ↑ Shuker, Karl P. N. (2010) Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo: From the Pages of Fortean Times, CFZ Press, ISBN 978-1-905723-62-1
- ↑ Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
- ↑ Bottasso, Juan (1986) Los Shuar y los Animales
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Coudray, Philippe (2009) Guide des Animaux Cachés, Editions du Mont, ISBN 978-2915652383
- ↑ Tirira, Diego (2009) Nombres de los Mamiferos del Ecuador
- ↑ Heuvelmans, Bernard & Rivera, Jean-Luc & Barloy, Jean-Jacques (2007) Les Félins Encore Inconnus d’Afrique, Les Editions de l'Oeil du Sphinx, ISBN 978-2914405430