The shanlü (山驢; Chinese: "mountain donkey") or sangli is a rhinoceros-like cryptid ungulate reported from the mountainous forests around China's Red and Yuan Rivers, Yunnan Province. It was described as resembling a Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus), but was smaller, and had a pair of horns on its forehead rather than one on its snout. During negotiations with a stockaded Hani village in Yunnan, employees of state-owned trade and procurement companies saw alleged skulls and skins of shanlü, and it may have been hunted to extinction by locals since the 1960's.[1]
David C. Xu suggests that it could have been an unrecognised species of Chinese rhinoceros, or perhaps a surviving descendant of Chilotherium, a fossil rhinoceros known from Yunnan, which is believed to have gone extinct in the Pliocene. Though it did not have horns, it did have a pair of large tusk-like incisors, which could potentially be mistaken for two horns.[1]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Xu, David C. (2018) Mystery Creatures of China: The Complete Cryptozoological Guide, Coachwhip Publications, ISBN 978-1616464301