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 worlds 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 cant 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 ...
Seriously, It would be nice if it was a giant Sloth.
A +Bert ?
She’s not huge.
And she’s certainly not a monster.
The dark of night, camp fires and deep shadows can bring about many stories of things larger than life.
Those girls looking at it are none to shabby, btw.
Oh, you mean over on the right? The stuffed dummy?
Oh. Yea. Big deal.
Now about that pink skirt.
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:)
Ping!
Easy guys, they probably are under age and could be bag girls as well.
OK I give up.
What’s a bag girl? Never heard the term.
Admiral Ackbar called.
He said it’s a trap. XD
Look good from behind, but ya gotta put a bag over their...ohh...nevermind.
memories...:-)
YES it’s real! And it’s currently running for president as the junior senator from New York.
Did you know that Thomas Jefferson collected Pleistocene fossils and he described the giant ground sloth and thus was credited with its scientific name?
mapinguary = manbearpig
They even look similar.
I wonder whether the guys from South Park knew already about this Amazonas fuzzy.
Nice Amazonians btw... LOL
Whatever it is, it couldn’t be worse than the Candirú.
Of course, when they become of age..........
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