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A Huge Amazon Monster Is Only a Myth. Or Is It?
New York Times ^ | 08 July 2007 | Larry Rohter

Posted on 07/08/2007 12:14:36 PM PDT by BGHater

RIO BRANCO, Brazil — Perhaps it is nothing more than a legend, as skeptics say. Or maybe it is real, as those who claim to have seen it avow. But the mere mention of the mapinguary, the giant slothlike monster of the Amazon, is enough to send shivers down the spines of almost all who dwell in the world’s largest rain forest.

The folklore here is full of tales of encounters with the creature, and nearly every Indian tribe in the Amazon, including those that have had no contact with one another, have a word for the mapinguary (pronounced ma-ping-wahr-EE). The name is usually translated as “the roaring animal” or “the fetid beast.”

So widespread and so consistent are such accounts that in recent years a few scientists have organized expeditions to try to find the creature. They have not succeeded, but at least one says he can explain the beast and its origins.

“It is quite clear to me that the legend of the mapinguary is based on human contact with the last of the ground sloths,” thousands of years ago, said David Oren, a former director of research at the Goeldi Institute in Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon River. “We know that extinct species can survive as legends for hundreds of years. But whether such an animal still exists or not is another question, one we can’t answer yet.”

Dr. Oren said he had talked to “a couple of hundred people” who had said they had seen the mapinguary in the most remote parts of the Amazon and a handful who had said they had had direct contact.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: amazon; bigfoot; brazil; cryptobiology; fringe; godsgravesglyphs; legend; mapinguary; monster; mystery; ohsomysteriouso; sasquatch; sloth
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No doubt manbearpig, or simply Al Gore at Live Aid.

Seriously, It would be nice if it was a giant Sloth.

1 posted on 07/08/2007 12:14:39 PM PDT by BGHater
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To: BGHater

A +Bert ?


2 posted on 07/08/2007 12:16:01 PM PDT by cmsgop ( "cmsgop" a Mark Goodson / Bill Todman Production)
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To: BGHater

She’s not huge.

And she’s certainly not a monster.


3 posted on 07/08/2007 12:17:08 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (D is for Defeatism. R is for Reconquista.)
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To: BGHater

The dark of night, camp fires and deep shadows can bring about many stories of things larger than life.


4 posted on 07/08/2007 12:18:16 PM PDT by PeteB570 (Guns, what real men want for Christmas)
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To: BGHater

5 posted on 07/08/2007 12:18:28 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~~~Jihad Fever -- Catch It !~~~ (Backup tag: "Live Fred or Die"))
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To: BGHater
There's no doubt about it, it's definitely Manbearpig.

Those girls looking at it are none to shabby, btw.

6 posted on 07/08/2007 12:25:00 PM PDT by lesser_satan (FRED THOMPSON '08)
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To: lesser_satan

Oh, you mean over on the right? The stuffed dummy?

Oh. Yea. Big deal.

Now about that pink skirt.


7 posted on 07/08/2007 12:28:55 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (D is for Defeatism. R is for Reconquista.)
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To: BGHater
Seriously, It would be nice if it was a giant Sloth.

Really does the world really need another Michael Moore ...Fat, dull witted , slow moving and climbs down out of the trees to take a crap one a month... that Mike

(Yea Seriously in would be cool in they did find a giant Sloth:)

8 posted on 07/08/2007 12:30:57 PM PDT by tophat9000 (My 2008 grassroots Republican platform: Build the fence, enforce the laws, and win the damm WAR!)
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To: BGHater; pcottraux

Ping!


9 posted on 07/08/2007 12:31:50 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (I buy gas for my SUV with the Carbon Offsets I sell on Ebay!)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

Easy guys, they probably are under age and could be bag girls as well.


10 posted on 07/08/2007 12:32:51 PM PDT by BGHater (My Tagline will defend freedom.)
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To: BGHater

OK I give up.

What’s a bag girl? Never heard the term.


11 posted on 07/08/2007 12:37:19 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (D is for Defeatism. R is for Reconquista.)
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To: lesser_satan

Admiral Ackbar called.

He said it’s a trap. XD


12 posted on 07/08/2007 12:37:29 PM PDT by Constantine XIII
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

Look good from behind, but ya gotta put a bag over their...ohh...nevermind.


13 posted on 07/08/2007 12:40:52 PM PDT by BGHater (My Tagline will defend freedom.)
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To: cmsgop

memories...:-)


14 posted on 07/08/2007 12:43:06 PM PDT by katykelly
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To: BGHater

YES it’s real! And it’s currently running for president as the junior senator from New York.


15 posted on 07/08/2007 12:44:14 PM PDT by admiralsn (An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep. --Asian Proverb)
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To: BGHater
Megalonyx jeffersonii.

Did you know that Thomas Jefferson collected Pleistocene fossils and he described the giant ground sloth and thus was credited with its scientific name?

16 posted on 07/08/2007 12:50:27 PM PDT by Texas Songwriter
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To: BGHater

mapinguary = manbearpig

They even look similar.

I wonder whether the guys from South Park knew already about this Amazonas fuzzy.

Nice Amazonians btw... LOL


17 posted on 07/08/2007 1:38:01 PM PDT by SolidWood (UN delenda est.)
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To: K4Harty; Angelas; presidio9; Idisarthur; Hegemony Cricket; A knight without armor; new cruelty; ...

18 posted on 07/08/2007 2:02:25 PM PDT by pcottraux (Fred Thompson pronounces it "P. Coe-troe"...in 2008.)
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To: BGHater

Whatever it is, it couldn’t be worse than the Candirú.


19 posted on 07/08/2007 2:04:50 PM PDT by Zeon Cowboy (DUNCAN HUNTER for President - http://www.gohunter08.com)
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To: lesser_satan
They look too fragile.

Of course, when they become of age..........

20 posted on 07/08/2007 2:06:57 PM PDT by Thumper1960 (Unleash the Dogs of War as a Minority, or perish as a party.)
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