Mapinguari
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The Mapinguari is a giant sloth-like creature that is rumored to exist in the Amazon Rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia. The creature is reported to be up to six feet (2m) in height. Bolivian folklore in the more mountainous areas includes a bipedal creature called the jucucu (who COO coo), which may have some connection.
[edit] Mesquita's Expedition
Paulo Aníbal G. Mesquita was the first to enter the interior of the Amazon region with the knowledge of the mapinguari legend and the intent to investigate the possibility that this cryptid still exists -- perhaps the last representative of the megafauna of the Brazilian Amazon.
Mesquita's group investigated reports of the "mapi" in some remote points of the Amazonian bush in the states of Amazon, Rondônia, Pará and Mato Grosso. In the latter, they collected many stories of the indigenous people, some gold panners and others who reported observing this beast during the night. The stories are similar in several distinct points.
Witnesses affirm that when they startle a mapinguari, the mapi assumes a threatening position, rearing up and showing its robust claws. Some natives tell of it emitting an extremely foul odor from its belly. The mapi possesses long brownish to dark brown fur, and some still claim that its skin is similar to that of the Alligator. It is said to possess a flat snout and, normally, it is quadrupedal. The group was given to understand that a mapinguari violently attacked a landlord one night in a village in the extreme north of Mato Grosso, and that he is now missing.
The Glossotherium harlani, which stood about 1.8 meters (six and a half feet) tall, had an inter nona skin covering, a type of dermic plate, that formed a kind of carapace or shield that served for protection against predators. Some people affirm that the "mapi" had a hide similar to that of an alligator. Could the mapi be a living fossil, a relic or direct descendant of the Glossotherium? Innumerable fossils of these herbivores of the Endedata-Pilosa group of giant ground sloths have been found in all of South America, some of which had become extinct recently, in geologic terms (6000 years ago), mainly in the Western Amazon region, in the Brazilian Northeast, north of Argentina and in innumerable grottos in some regions of the country. According to research, at the time of the megafauna the Amazon was not a dense forest, but a region of savanas, where the forests were confined only to the longest of the main rivers.
Perhaps a great climatic change was one of the factors that contributed to the extinction of the giant sloths. Since this extinction was very recent, why could not some relict population survive currently? Might it not be the mapinguari? Comparing the mapinguari, the glossotheria, current sloth biology, etc., the idea doesn't seem far fetched.
However, the evidence so far analyzed is unconvincing, since claw marks on trees do not prove the reality of the Mapinguari myth. Unquestioned evidence or a live specimen is needed so that the "mapi" can leave the realm of Amazonian folklore, where it still terrorizes even the bravest of men in the darkness of the rain forest night.
It is unclear whether the Mapinguari exists. Ornithologist David C. Oren, head of the Zoology Division of Emilio Goeldi Museum in Belém, Brazil, spent eight years gathering accounts of the animal. His findings suggest that the Mapinguari may be a descendant of Megatherium, a species believed to be extinct, and he posited it as a surviving Mylodont.
[edit] In Popular Culture
A supposed "leaked script" for the season finale of Lost's first season, found on the show's website, featured a scene where Charlie Pace is running from the show's famous monster. Charlie stumbles and turns to see the creature, which is revealed to be a mechanical Mapinguari. The script was later revealed to be a prank.
In the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game Menace Manual, the mapinguari is listed as a possible enemy. Mapinguari generally don't fight, though, as their incredible stench keeps most enemies away and ensures their privacy
