Flying Wolpertinger
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 17th, 2010
Strange things do happen at night in museums.
This morning, I came into the International Cryptozoology Museum to find the Wolpertinger replica on the floor, about a meter from the display area where it usually sits. (This item, donated by Mahl Wagner, is the Germanic folkloric figure that pre-dates the Jackalope by about 100 years.)
Above is the photo of the museum’s Wolpertinger on the floor, and below, it is shown in its normal location.
The last time something like this happened was on the mornings of the second and third days after the museum had opened. In both of those cases, the winged horse-like Jersey Devil figurine was on the floor.
It appears the winged replicas in the museum get restless overnight.
Perhaps too many people have been talking about little green hominids, like the one on the cake that was presented by the museum to the 661 Congress St.’s spacemate, Michelle Souliere, for her birthday today?
The gentleman who personally frosted the final “Happy Birthday” for Ms. Souliere’s cake holds the freshly baked object with the wee figure on its top.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Creepy indeed, Loren…
Ive never heard of a Wolpertinger before.To be honest it kinda freaks me out.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all cryptomundians! Sláinte from Ireland
The Wolper-thingy obviously has some Australian connection – I note the Platypus-like “bill”…..
The earliest origins of the Wolpertinger are already quite old, and interestingly not restricted to Bavaria. Already Gesner wrote about the “horned rabbit” in his famous Historia animalium. I once saw a very good book about the history of hunting in a museum´s bookstore, I think it was at a castle of Passau. There was a whole and very long chapter about the history of the “horned rabbit” with many old illustrations. The modern Wolpertinger, which is mainly a composite of different animals which often includes no more rabbit parts at all, seems to have appeared later, around in the 19th century.
There are also some similar composite animals, for example the “Rasselbock” of the thuringian forest, a hare with the horns of a roe deer or the similar “Raspelbock” from Friedland. There are also a lot of other, mainly locally known, chimeras in the (hunting) folklore of Germany like the “Dilldapp” or the mainly avian “Elwetritsch”. Another chimera known mainly from the Switzerland and Austria, and which is said to have legs of different lengths at each side of the body, is the “Dahu”, and there is also a chimera from Sweden, the “Skvader”, which is portrayed as a hare with the wings and the tail feathers of a mountain cock.
Time to install security cameras, microphones and lights, eh?
Maybe it’s time for Ghost Hunters and MQ to team up at the museum…