MOUNT POPA’S ERSTWHILE MYSTERY DOG, AND AUSTRALIA’S STILL-UNEXPLAINED YOKYN – A COUPLE OF CURIOUS CANINE CRYPTIDS

 

Down by the many years, I’ve documented
a variety of canine cryptids, however two of the least-known examples are these
offered right here, making their ShukerNature debut. One is now a former thriller
canid, the opposite stays an enigma.

A wild canine of once-controversial scientific
standing was a mysterious specimen found on Mount Popa, a dormant volcano in
the area of Mandalay in central Burma (now Myanmar). Famend British
zoologist Reginald I. Pocock said in 1936 that no specimens of Asia’s very
distinctive wild purple canine or dhole Cuon alpinus had ever been obtained
from Burma, however shortly afterwards he learnt that acclaimed mammalogist and
animal collector Man C. Shortridge had secured a specimen on Mount Popa.

Naturally, Pocock was anxious to look at
this distinctive instance, an grownup feminine, particularly as Shortridge alleged that it
solely had 5 pairs of teats (feminine dholes have 6-8 pairs), and weighed solely
19 lb (unusually gentle for a dhole). Nonetheless, after finding out its cranium,
uncovered on the British Museum, Pocock acknowledged that it had been nothing
greater than an outdated, small home canine Canis
familiaris, with a excessive crown and quick muzzle. However, sarcastically, real
Burmese dholes have been obtained later, and in 1941 Pocock christened their
subspecies C. a. adustus – a taxonomic
classification nonetheless recognised right now.

 

A dingo – the id of Australia’s
elusive yokyn? (Katy Platt/Wikipedia – copyright-free)

As for the yokyn – this still-unexplained canine cryptid is an odd
dog-like beast apparently well-known to Australian aboriginals and farmers. Mentioned
to be roughly half the scale of a full-grown dingo, with disproportionately
lengthy claws, a stocky, muscular  construct,
and a really variable pelage (generally brindled, generally even multi-coloured),
a specimen has but to be formally examined, so its id stays unsure (Destiny, Could 1977; additionally click on right here for extra particulars on-line).

An unknown species, an odd sort of feral
home canine, a dingo Canis dingo
(aka C. lupus dingo aka C. familiaris dingo), a dog-dingo
crossbreed, and even a surviving mainland race of the marsupial Tasmanian wolf Thylacinus
cynocephalus are amongst these identities on provide. If anybody studying this
ShukerNature article has additional info regarding the yokyn, I might like to
obtain particulars.

This ShukerNature article is excerpted and up to date from
my e-book Extraordinary
Animals Revisited.