Malawi terror beast

Malawi terror beast Illustration of an unusual hyena by an unknown artist, sometimes claimed to depict the Malawi terror beast. Category Man-eater Proposed scientific names Other names Country reported Malawi First reported 2003 Prominent investigators

The Malawi terror beast was a cryptid hyena reported from Malawi's Dowa District in 2003, which killed at least three people and severely injured sixteen others. It may have been the same species as a similar animal shot the previous year, which had killed five people and maimed more than twenty others. Although both animals were officially identified as spotted hyenas, witnesses disagreed.

Sightings

2002

In August 2002, a "mystery beast" in the Dowa District killed five people and maimed more than twenty others before being shot to death by game rangers and paramilitary police. It resembled a spotted hyena, but had longer hind legs.

2003

Another, identical animal began killing in the Dowa District in 2003. It killed at least three people, two old women and a three-year-old baby - crushing their skulls and eating their intestines and genitals - and severely maimed sixteen others. Some of the survivors lost both legs and hands, two lost both ears and eyes, and one woman lost her mouth and nose. One survivor, Morgan Amoni, believed that the animal was the beast that was killed in 2002, resurrected to exact its revenge.

The attacks caused general panic in the region, and at least 4,000 people fled their villages to seek refuge in the district headquarters. By 10 March, these people had returned to their villages with armed security guards as protection, but this second, more famous terror beast was never killed.

Theories

The first animal was officially identified as a spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), and the second was speculated to be a spotted hyena by government agencies. However, some survivors claimed that the terror beast's hind legs were longer than a hyena's.

Similar cryptids

Another man-eating, hyena-like creature, the Nandi bear, is reported from East Africa.