Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist’s Library

INTRODUCTION

Cryptozoology, the search for hidden animals, features prominently on all our modern social media platforms, not to mention television, movies, and publications. The amount of information available—good, exaggerated, or invented—is staggering. Fortunately, most of the useful information is available in a handy, durable format: books.

Books matter because this highly controversial field is barely 60 years old. Much information recorded before that, including the information in letters, diaries, telegrams, etc., is gone. While some have been preserved in institutions like Loren Coleman’s International Cryptozoology Museum, relatively few can visit such archives. Scientific papers are valuable, but few peer-reviewed scientific journals take cryptozoological articles, and fewer still specialize in them. (At this writing, I’m aware of two, the Journal of Cryptozoology and the Relict Hominid Inquiry.) So, we’re back to books.

This compilation does not cover all the cryptozoology books written. Such an endeavor, if possible at all, would take years. It collects the ones that have passed through my hands in the last four decades and have, in my view, been very influential and/or offered significant useful information. What I offer here is a collection of reviews from my books, my blog, my old newsletter Exotic Zoology (1994-99), and other sources, along with many recent reads.

Compiling this library is worthwhile because cryptozoology, when approached correctly, meets Karl Popper’s classic definition of a science. Cryptozoology deals with all three of Thomas H. Huxley’s divisions of zoology: morphology (including classification), distribution (the study of animals in relation to habitat or conditions), and, although to a lesser extent, physiology. Cryptozoological hypotheses can be proven false, even though the resources needed to disprove a proposition like There is an unknown Himalayan ape species may not be available. This quality of cryptozoology is why it should not be included under the heading of the paranormal, which contains much that cannot be proven false.

Definitions

Here are two definitions of the field that demonstrate its uneasy status in the scientific community:

Cryptozoology (Wikipedia)

Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that aims to prove the existence of entities from the folklore record, such as Bigfoot…

Cryptozoology (Bernard Heuvelmans)

The scientific study of hidden animals, i.e., of still unknown animal forms about which only testimonial and circumstantial evidence is available, or material evidence considered insufficient by some.

This is the definition I’d personally like to see used and consistently applied:

Cryptozoology

A scientific endeavor that takes traditional zoological methods of animal location, collection, and identification (using fieldwork, local reports of animals, chance discovery of trophies, etc.) and widens the aperture to consider animals based on evidence not firm enough or consistent enough to draw interest from most zoologists.

The Wikipedia version is harsh but understandable. There are pseudoscientists all over cryptozoology, and there’s certainly a subculture. While cryptozoology can and should be a science, it is too rarely practiced using robust scientific methods. It often looks more like a worldwide argument (sometimes, in the case of Sasquatch-hunters, a barroom brawl) where facts can come unmoored from the original context and be drowned in wild claims and speculations.

The internet both enables the exchange of information and exacerbates conflict. When I teach research classes, I always run into three uncomfortably common myths. The first is that information on the internet is mostly accurate, the second is that all important information is available online, and the third is that all sources are, with some variation, equally reliable. Any of these beliefs will ruin serious attempts to understand a scientific topic. So, I return, once again, to the books, where it’s easier to make a useful selection and evaluate the sources the author used as well as their approach to this data.

While the great naturalist Louis Agassiz wrote, Study nature, not books, the regions where new animal species might exist are inaccessible to most people in the industrialized world. Serious cryptozoological researchers who want to understand the field must start with reading. Almost all the books presented here are available in my favorite format–good old-fashioned paper, which doesn’t care whether you have connectivity or what software you have. Many are also available in electronic form, but many aren’t because converting old or obscure books isn’t always profitable.

Part of the value of books is based on the simple fact that they take time to write. Yes, the interested high school student can cut and paste and upload a book in days or hours, but for serious writers, just the act of writing books offers some time for reflection. Furthermore, books from the pre-digital age had to pass the eyes of an editor, fact-checker, and often peer reviewers, whose attentions often weeded out shoddy data prior to publication. That hasn’t saved us from a tsunami of ridiculous cryptozoology books from the 1960s on, including some from major publishers, so if I’m arguing with myself here, I’m not sure I’m winning. (Sometimes I think that, in cryptozoology, the plural of anecdote is book.)

I’ve kept the present-tense form of review, even with books from a long time ago, because it provides a consistency that improves the readability, and, I hope, the utility of this library.

In assembling this library, the first challenge was to keep the books to a reasonable number. I’ve read zoology and cryptozoology ever since I could access elementary school libraries. One easy rule was limiting it to books published in English. It’s a failing of mine that I can’t read any other languages, but so it is. Also, I review only books I’ve personally read, although I mention some others.

I decided on three other rules to keep the reviews to a manageable number. One was to focus on books under 100 years old. R.T. Gould’s The Case for the Sea-Serpent (1930) turned out to be the oldest nonfiction book I kept. The second is that most state-by-state books were out, although I kept a few of the better ones. Finally, I also left out annuals published by periodicals: they certainly have value, but I must again plead too many books.

The reader will notice these books are almost entirely written by North American or European authors. There is a scarcity of books available in English from people who live in areas like South America and Africa. These are, ironically, the regions most likely to house unknown species. I’ve done my best to collect such books.

It was not logistically or financially possible to get the newest editions of some reprinted books, so the date on each review is the date of the edition I reviewed.

Books are borrowed minds, and because they capture the soul of a people, they explore and celebrate all it means to be human. – Diane Ackerman, poet and naturalist

Section 1 covers the cryptozoology books per se. This is the biggest room in our putative library. It’s chronologically organized but divided into A Basic Library, Primates, Land Animals (non-primate), Sea and Lake Creatures, and Other, a category for books that deal with other cryptids or cover the whole field.

I passed over or culled many of the Sasquatch and Loch Ness books because they’d overwhelm this entire book, let alone this section. If Sasquatch is ever proven real, I’m willing to bet the number of related books exceeds the number of living Sasquatches by a considerable margin.

There are far more books in this section that argue for the existence of cryptids than there are books that dispute them. This isn’t me taking sides. Pro-cryptid books outnumber the other kind at least a hundred to one, which means most of the information (if not always the most reliable information) is in the former. Not all the authors here call themselves cryptozoologists or even have any use for the field, but all provide relevant information.

This is a good place to mention that books offering mundane explanations deserve the same scrutiny as pro-cryptid books. Joe Nickell, in his book Tracking the Man-Beasts, shows a clear suit-glove interface on a line drawing of the creature in the famous 1969 Patterson-Gimlin film. I can’t see that on enlargements or enhancements, and Nickell doesn’t show the reader any imagery from the film or even discuss the topic in the text. It may be there, but he does not prove it.

For cryptozoology to gain wide acceptance within zoology, it must end its entanglement with the paranormal. Apparitions and extrasensory contact are matters for the parapsychologists: if it’s not zoology, it’s not cryptozoology. Some prominent cryptozoologists, though, are Forteans: they share the late author Charles Fort’s interest in many types of oddities, both physical and paranormal, and that’s reflected in their work. I also understand cryptozoologist Loren Coleman’s point that if someone reports an apparently physical animal, it’s part of cryptozoology until determined otherwise. I kept a minority of the mixed-topic books based on their cryptozoological value or influence.

Section 2, books on the relevant science in this field, holds a collection of books in zoology and related sciences of interest to the cryptozoological researcher. The lines between these categories can get fuzzy. For example, thylacines are a proven and almost certainly extinct species, but you’ll find some books on them in Section 1 because cryptozoologists still seek the animal out. I’ve largely set aside textbooks and scientific conference proceedings to focus on authoritative books which are also understandable and available to a broad audience.

Section 3 is our Fiction room. Crypto-fiction is a broad slice of literature that includes thrillers, mainstream fiction, science fiction, and horror. (Sections 3 and 4 are alphabetized by author.) When thousands of novels are uploaded to Amazon per day, no one can read a fraction of the cryptozoological ones, much less review them, so this is a tiny slice of the genre. I believe fiction is more important to cryptozoology than to established fields like geology. Where hard information is scarce, speculation must serve, and fiction allows cryptozoological writers to suggest how Sasquatches might live or how lake creatures could end up where they did.

I ruled out creatures munching humans novels, even if Pterodon Mall is one of the best titles ever. Also out were novels involving human-created creatures (I made an exception for the enormously influential Jurassic Park), aliens, magic, or time travel. A few of those pop up in Section 4, a room for books that didn’t fit into the other classifications but are too interesting or too much fun to leave out. Some books on unknown primates are shelved here to keep that category from overwhelming Section 1.

If a book title mentioned in another review is in boldface, that book has a separate review. A short review does not mean the book is of lesser quality: since circumstances did not permit my re-acquiring books with older reviews and reading them again, it reflects what I wrote when I had that book in hand.

I stress that this is A Cryptozoologist’s Library and not The Cryptozoologist’s Library. This collection was driven by my own curiosity. In addition to reading on cryptozoology and zoology practically since I could read, I’ve written two very well-received books on the topic along with several articles and presentations. I’ve talked and corresponded with researchers inside and outside cryptozoology, and some of their names are listed in the Acknowledgements. I’ve been a science and technology writer since the 1990s, publishing on topics from Martian soil to prehistoric fish.

With that said, this is not an authoritative list of the best books. Every well-read cryptozoologist (and many a cryptozoology author) will have disagreements with my list of books and the content of my reviews. This is an effort by one researcher to provide current and future generations with a useful guide to the books I’ve read. While book reviews, by definition, are opinions, I tried to read everything as a skeptic in the proper sense of the word: someone who wants to see new scientific discoveries but needs convincing evidence.

Onwards!

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. – Charles Darwin, naturalist, author of On the Origin of Species

PART I

CRYPTOZOOLOGY BOOKS

A BASIC LIBRARY OF CRYPTOZOOLOGY

The most solid piece of scientific truth I know of is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature. – Lewis Thomas, physician and naturalist, author of The Lives of a Cell

I have said that I’m not prescribing a canon. Still, those new to cryptozoology can profit from the advice of someone who has waded through much of the relevant literature. This section contains reviews of books that I believe form a basic reading list of the classics in the field.

Any list of must-read cryptozoology starts with Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans’ On the Track of Unknown Animals, which came out in English in 1958. Heuvelmans’ collection of cryptozoological reports from every inhabited continent is invaluable, even if few of the animals he surveyed turn out to be real. I recommend the revised 1995 edition from Kegan Paul International.

A second excellent book from the founding years of cryptozoology is Willy Ley’s Exotic Zoology. Published in 1959, this book collected zoological and cryptozoological material from Ley’s several books on scientific oddities. While some of the information is outdated, the book remains a fascinating collection of discoveries and mysteries. There are several books from the 1950s with similar themes, but this is my favorite example.

Dr. Karl Shuker’s Encyclopedia of New and Rediscovered Animals (2012) describes the variety of animal finds made in the 20 th and 21 st centuries. The modern bookend for Heuvelmans’ On the Track is Shuker’s Still in Search of Prehistoric Survivors: The Creatures That Time Forgot? (2016). The final survey book is the skeptical Abominable Science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids by Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero (2013).

There are several important books concerning large marine cryptids. A good collection starts with Gould’s 1930, The Case for the Sea Serpent. Writing when he still could correspond with some witnesses to the classic cases, Gould presented a formidable brief in favor of one or more monsters. Four decades later, Bernard Heuvelmans assembled all the known information on the subject in his massive In the Wake of the Sea Serpents (1968). Heuvelmans is still a vital resource, although few cryptozoologists accepted his belief in seven or more unknowns. Richard Ellis made a major contribution with Monsters of the Sea (1994), an open-minded treatment of the subject.

Henry Bauer’s The Enigma of Loch Ness (1991) is one of the most useful Nessie books, and Gareth Williams’ A Monstrous Commotion (1997) explores the people and events in depth. The books reach opposite conclusions, so reading them as a pair presents a balanced view of the topic.

Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science by Dr. Jeff Meldrum (Forge, 2006) is a presentation of the evidence by a qualified scientist convinced the animal is real.

These titles, reviewed below, are my suggested foundation texts. Please note that I often use the broader term primate rather than the commonly-seen term hominin because it’s often unclear where on the family tree a cryptid primate would be classified if caught.

On the Track of Unknown Animals

Heuvelmans, Bernard (1955: reviewed edition was 1995: Kegan Paul International, 677pp.)

This is an update to the founding work of cryptozoology. The updating, unfortunately, consists only of a 13-page preface to the original text, plus some new illustrations. Still, the amount of material here is impressive: the bibliography fills 26 pages. Heuvelmans, a zoologist, is famous for opening with Baron George’s Cuvier’s (1769-1832) rash dictum from his 1812 monograph Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles, There is little hope of discovering new species of large quadrupeds. There were plenty of spectacular examples that proved Cuvier was wrong. A more recent equivalent is Dr. George Gaylord Simpson’s 1984 dictum that only a few small and unimportant mammals awaited discovery. There, too, Heuvelmans disagreed, and new species from Southeast Asia in the 1990s supported his dissent.

It is rare to say that a book created a discipline, but such was Heuvelmans’ aim. There were older books on unknown animals, some of them very good, but On the Track was by far the most influential and comprehensive survey book. The book includes alleged animals from all the inhabited continents, ranging from celebrities like the Yeti to little-known ones like Australia’s dinosaur-like gauarge. In general, in cases as varied as the bunyip, the giant anaconda, and the ground sloth, Heuvelmans comes down on the side of there being at least one unknown species involved. He includes some hoaxes, too, like a taxidermically-reworked langur monkey passed off as an orang-pendek in 1932. He uses that specimen to make the point that The fact that a forger of genius painted Vermeers which took in experts… does not mean the great Dutch painter never existed. Heuvelmans does good work in his examination of matters like the Nandi bear of Africa. He patiently untangles a welter of contradictory reports, explains most of them, and offers candidates for the ones he feels remain unexplained.

How does he do, given what he knew in 1955, at predicting new findings? It must be said that the score is close to zero. The extremely rare marozi, or spotted lion, appears to be an interesting oddity, as does the strikingly marked king cheetah. Some of the undescribed species may still be out there: the orang-pendek and the Queensland marsupial tiger are candidates, and one or two of the extinct mammals of Madagascar just might be hanging on. The pygmy elephant exists, but modern zoologists reject the idea that it is a distinct species or subspecies. Heuvelmans did correctly predict more species of lemurs, but that wasn’t a reach.

History has nevertheless vindicated Heuvelmans’ belief that new animals await, many of which will be found by listening to local reports around the world. Heuvelmans makes the important point that indigenous descriptions of animals aren’t necessarily invalidated by unrealistic or supernatural details. We may say a lion roared like thunder. If you translate that into, say, Warlpiri for an Australian Aborigine, the distinction between facts and flourishes might be lost, and so the other way around.

Despite the lack of success in finding Heuvelmans’ creatures, the book remains the literary foundation of cryptozoology. Heuvelmans introduced the world to animals (confirmed and unconfirmed) many had never heard of in the age when travel was often arduous, communications limited, and the colonial-era Western view that natives just told fairy tales still prevailed. We may yet meet a few animals that make us say, Oh, that’s what he was talking about! I hope so.

Exotic Zoology

Ley, Willy (1959: Viking Books, 468pp.)

In this early survey of cryptozoology, science and space writer Willy Ley (1906-1969) offers sections taken from his earlier works The Lungfish, the Dodo, & the Unicorn: An Excursion into Romantic Zoology (Viking Press, 1948); Dragons in Amber: Further Adventures of a Romantic Naturalist (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1951); and Salamanders and Other Wonders (Viking Press, 1955). His interests range from Pacific Islander stories of giant sharks to the discovery of the Congo peacock by a scientist whose imagination was fired by two enigmatic feathers. Ley’s discussion of a dragon frieze on the Ishtar Gate that once guarded an entrance to Babylon is just one of many items in this book that are still discussed by cryptozoologists in 2021. He explores folkloric creatures as well. How did the legend of a tree that bore lambs ever get started? What does the unicorn myth represent? He gives sea serpents a careful look and thinks at least one species will likely be identified. The book is well written, well organized, and fun.

Encyclopedia of New and Rediscovered Animals

Shuker, Karl (2012: Coachwhip Publications, 368pp.)

Building on two of Dr. Shuker's earlier works, The Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century (HarperCollins, 1993) and The New Zoo: New and Rediscovered Animals of the Twentieth Century (House of Stratus, 2002), the Encyclopedia deserves its title. This is a mammoth collection of scientific achievements from 1900 to the present. It's information-packed, thoroughly illustrated, and most enjoyable. Shuker does not try to include all discoveries since the beetles alone would merit a library. He goes for creatures that are relatively large or scientifically important, and those are more than sufficient to fill this large-format book.

Shuker is a highly knowledgeable writer, as you'd expect from a Ph.D. who has been poking into the odd corners of zoology for four decades. He discusses both species and important subspecies, including those where there is some dispute about taxonomy (e.g., it's not clear whether Rothschild's giraffe is a subspecies, species, or just a local variation). The zoologically inclined reader will enjoy every page of this romp through monk seals, giant stick insects, megamouth sharks, monitor lizards, and other discoveries simply too numerous to mention. One thing Shuker does not do is provide context by discussing species discovery curves or just how many new species are being found. He does, though, amply demonstrate his main theme: that discovery didn't end with the golden age of the 1800s—indeed, it's continued at a steady and often surprising pace right up to the present day.

This book has plenty of mysteries along with definite discoveries. Some are well-known. Others, like a slow loris with a thick bushy tail, a species not yet taxonomically described although it's been held in captivity and photographed, surprised even a well-read aficionado like myself. Likewise, some of the stories of discovery, like the coelacanth's, have been told many times, but few people know the tragic tale behind the discovery of Flecker's sea wasp jellyfish or how Rudie Kuiter discovered an octopus pretending to be a flounder. Shuker also includes stories of animals that didn't live up to their hype as new species, like Mexico's onza, which is not a new species of big cat, just an odd puma.

He closes with a few words on possible future discoveries, a note on taxonomy, and a 33-page bibliography. The book includes hundreds of images, ranging from photos to Bill Rebsamen's wonderful color illustrations. This is one of the classic books, not just of cryptozoology but of zoology and conservation biology. Readers will revisit it many times. It's a great achievement.

Still in Search of Prehistoric Survivors: The Creatures That Time Forgot?

Shuker, Karl (2016: Coachwhip Publications, 612pp.)

Shuker, one of the few academically-credentialed zoologists to pitch his intellectual tent in cryptid territory, has assembled the most ambitious single volume on cryptozoology since Bernard Heuvelmans' original On the Track of Unknown Animals. It's also one of the most sumptuously illustrated cryptozoology books ever, thanks to Bill Rebsamen and several other artists.

Shuker, in this massive rewrite and expansion of his previous books, does not cover all reported cryptids. He is interested primarily in those who may be unrecognized survivors from past eras. This eliminates, for example, the intriguing giant fish of Lake Iliamna, and both Sasquatch and Yeti also get only brief treatments.

Shuker makes the most persuasive case for Australia's marsupial cat, the yarri, a possible survivor from the genus Thylacoleo. It does seem likely this animal existed into the 20th century and just maybe still does. Shuker does not accept every survivor theory: he doubts the late survival of the Irish elk, the mammoth, and the American lion Panthera atrox, among others. However, he seems accepting, to my mind, of a few too many. He makes the strongest case possible for the African dinosaur, most commonly called mokele-mbembe, but widespread similarities in stories and art can exist even with completely mythical animals. Also, paleontologist Louis Jacobs’s argument that the region involved is not a lost world where time has stood still for millennia needs more discussion.

All that said, this is a magnificent compendium of information, and Shuker is to be commended for his exhaustive research and clear writing. Though I’m a cryptozoological reader and writer with decades of experience, Shuker here offers a great deal that’s new to me. Notable examples are some reports of the North American waheela (a scary predator like a wolf on steroids, which may have been a late survivor of the bear-dogs or Amphicyonidae) and several African and Chinese animals.

Some of the subjects are famous, while some you've likely never heard of. Shuker builds interesting cases for lesser-known cryptids ranging from several large Indonesian birds to (relying a great deal on Professor Christine Janis' work) a pig-sized hyrax from China.

I doubt we will find more than a few of these animals alive, but I will be surprised if we don't find any. Shuker has poured many years of effort into this book, and the result is one of the foundational works of cryptozoology.

Abominable Science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids

Loxton, Daniel, and Donald R. Prothero (2013: Columbia University Press, 411pp.)

Loxton and Prothero have written a very useful book. There’s nothing else in this niche—that of the scientific, skeptical examination of the entire field and the most spectacular cryptids.

Dr. Prothero, a prominent geologist and paleontologist, and Loxton, a science writer, start with the question of whether cryptozoology is a science or pseudoscience. They come down on the latter side, arguing that cryptozoology as practiced includes some of the sketchiest science being written today.

The authors alternate being the primary authors of chapters, and it’s not hard to discern them. Loxton is a bit wistful, thinking cryptozoologists are overwhelmingly wrong but hoping that’s not entirely true. He thinks cryptozoology is harmless at worst and may offer benefits, like increased knowledge of the environments being searched. Prothero believes cryptozoology has no purpose and no redeeming features. He argues it contributes to a general belief in pseudoscience, including the paranormal and scientific