Bipedal Wolves in the USA?
Posted by: Nick Redfern on March 3rd, 2015
My new Mysterious Universe article is, to be sure, a controversial one. It starts like this…
“As readers of Mysterious Universe will know, one of the things that particularly fascinates me is the matter of werewolves. Not in mythology. Not in folklore. And not in the movies. We’re talking about werewolves in… reality. Of course, most people scoff at such a fantastic scenario. But, the fact is that there is an undeniably huge body of data on record that suggests these things do exist. Check out the excellent, published work of Linda Godfrey and you’ll see what I mean.
“Now, when I talk about werewolves, I’m most definitely not referring to people who literally shape-shift from human to wolf, sprout hair and fangs, and then change back again. I’m talking about creatures that appear to be wolves of some kind, but that have the ability to walk on their back legs – as in upright form, and not unlike us. Could it really be the case that an unrecognized type of bipedal wolf calls the United States its home?”
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
All canids can or can be trained to move about on their hind legs with little difficulty. They can also be trained to hop skip and jump as anyone who has seen a trained dog act will attest. They are however not bipedal in any sense. All canids have digitigrade feet and ankles and cannot walk heel to toe as do humans and other plantigrade animals including bears, mice, rabbits, kangaroos and raccoons to name a few. The entire foot, ankle, knee, leg and hip structure would have to change and now you would talking about a half dog/wolf of some kind. Highly unlikely. If these cryptids were to actually exist, they would more likely be a bear relative/offshoot than a canid of some sort. There are many such dog/bears in the fossil record but most became quadrupeds once they achieved large size whether they were digitigrade or plantigrade. Yes, I know of Faith the “bipedal” dog. This is a dog that has been taught to “walk” on it’s hind legs as it has lost it’s front legs. This is walking in a sense but the animal is not truly bipedal as evident when she moves quickly. The dog hops and skips. Her hip, leg and foot structure will not allow her run as a full biped can.
Wow. Just… wow.
Ah, I’m no expert on bipedalism. Not my primary motivation for cryptids. I know enough of Darwin to know that in going bipedal it left our hands free to deal with other things like creating tools, giving us a leg up on the competition, so to speak.
However, I think that’s the place to start with this kind of discussion. Looking into how bipedalism started in apes and humanoids (homo and all its kind) and theories on what led to it. Then I’d say you get to go from there and see if there are real possibilities for other animals becoming capable of going bipedal–like said wolf cryptid.
I’d say the biggest argument against it would be the fossil record which doesn’t seem to have any canine specimens (that I’m aware of) moving toward that ability. Now, I’ll grant the fossil record isn’t the be-end-all: it’s woefully incomplete, but on the other hand, I would expect something.
I’ve read Linda’s books and people definitely are seeing something, and those somethings definitely seem to have more canine characteristics than BF or human. It is intriguing. And while I don’t tend to take mythology and legend as verbatim, I think they often times point toward at least some sort of factual reference: Jormangandr from Norse mythology for example. Do I think there’s a giant snake wrapped around the earth waiting for the end times to do battle with Thor? No. However, I think there’s a real possibility some Norseman (or Norsewoman to be fair), quite possibly encountered the equivalent of a sea serpent and stories grew from there. Eh, I’m going out on a limb with that one, but it works.
Do I think people are wandering around changing into wolves during the full moon? No, but could there be some basis in fact to the legends? According to the sightings in Linda’s books, could be. An aberration? Something previously unknown? Again, people are seeing something and it’s worth exploring theories and ideas until we can get to the bottom of it.
If you want to introduce a new idea, give it a new name. Don’t borrow a name from folklore to describe your idea, then turn around both (1) mock the folklore and (2) lament that people confuse your idea with the stories from folklore. Call it the Luparoo (lupus + kangaroo, if you think it hops) or Anthropodoggy or whatever. Maybe Anubitherium, since before long you’ll be wondering if the Egyptians saw this “cryptid” and incorporated it into their pantheon.