The Australian Mini-Foot
Posted by: Nick Redfern on June 8th, 2012
In a new post at Weird Australia titled “Jerrawerra: the short, hairy man of the woods,” Andrew Nicholson begins:
“In the rugged mountain ranges that rise up from the fertile river plains of the Macleay and Clarence valleys on the north coast of New South Wales, a short, hairy creature the local Aborigines called Jerrawerra was once said to live. In a letter to The Clarence and Richmond Examiner of Grafton on 31 July 1880, a correspondent familiar with the area and the local Aborigines wrote of the Jerrawerra, a creature apparently similar to the Yowie, with one distinct difference, the Jerrawerra stood only four feet high.”
And here’s where you can find Andrew’s complete article, which makes for excellent reading on this fascinating aspect of the wider mystery of the world’s man-beasts.
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.
I often view smaller land cryptids more likely than big ones. The reasons are as follows:
1. Its easier for a small unknown animal to remain elusive than a regular to gargantuan unknown animal.
2. The vast majority of animals known are, compared to humans, small (from average sized dogs and dog-sized Sun Bears (i.e. 60-145 lbs) to microscopic mites).
Though I don’t doubt that Sasquatch, some lake monsters, etc exist, a small crytpid has a lot going for it over a big one. However, a whole slew of other factors need to be considered before any cryptid is deemed likely or unlikely to actually exist.
There seem to be two major descriptions. A monkey-like creature who walks upright with a slow gait. And a barrel-chested, long limb creature with three long claws on each limb.
I don’t know a whole lot about Australian wildlife, but the slow gait and three long claws makes me think of a sloth. Are there any records of ground sloths, or fossils/bones of sloths existing in Oz? I’ve heard that ground sloths could look like bears when put on the defensive (as in the one cornered by dogs) and used their claws to hack/slash at their predators.