Does a Species of Giant Ground Sloth still exist in the Amazon Rain Forest?

I’m not impressed with the science credentials and logic of most cryptozoologists such as Loren Coleman.  Bigfoot is a man in an ape suit.  The famous film footage shot in the 1960’s is not of some unknown species of ape, but rather of a Hollywood stuntman in an ape costume.  The stuntman, Bob Heironimus, took a lie detector test on a television talk show, and the test showed he was telling the truth when he confessed to being the man filmed in the ape costume.  Still, Bigfoot believers (like Christian fundamentalists who believe in a literal translation of the bible despite the facts) refuse to accept that the film is a fake.  There may be a great deal of wilderness left in the Pacific northwest but it’s not so remote that a population of a gigantic species of ape could survive undetected following expedition after expedition.  However, the same can’t be said for parts of the Amazon jungle where there are still whole Indian tribes yet to be contacted by Western civilization.

The Amazon rain forest is so vast  there is  a remote possiblity that a large mammal species unknown to science may still live here.  Photo from google images.

I’m skeptical that a large mammal is yet to be discovered here, but it’s much more plausible than the existence of Bigfoot in the Pacific northwest.  The locals description of an animal they refer to as Mapinguari sounds just like a 3-toed giant ground sloth.  They say it is large, has long arms, red fur, long claws, and leaves foot prints with 3 toes.  Pat Spain of the National Geographic Series, The Beastmaster, interviewed a man who even claims to have shot and killed one, and his description of the event is consistent with what one would expect from an encounter with a ground sloth.  The hunter reported that his gun shots to the body had no effect, but eventually he killed it with a shot to its head.  This makes sense (if it actually happened) because ground sloths had armor, like their close relatives the armadilloes, under thick fur that could perhaps protect them from bullets to the body.  Pat showed the hunter pictures of various mammals, and the hunter pointed out an illustration of a giant ground sloth as the animal he killed.  However, he didn’t save any part of the animal because supposedly it smelled horrific, making his story doubtful in my opinion.  A poor Indian would surely understand the value of an unusual animal, particularly the monetary reward he could get by selling it to science. 

Illustration of Harlan’s ground sloth from google images.  The creatures the natives in Brazil describe sounds like a mylodon type of giant ground sloth.  Harlan’s ground sloth was the species of mylodon sloth that lived during the Pleistocene in southeastern North America.  Without positive physical evidence I remain doubtful that it is still extant even in the Amazon rain forest.

If the locals are telling the truth though, some interesting characteristics of giant ground sloths have come to light that we could never gain from just their skeletal remains.  Apparently, giant ground sloths move together with herds of the vicious white lipped peccary.  Perhaps, they forage on the same plant species and mutually attack predators for the Indians claim the sloth is the peccary’s protector.  Fruits and leaves brought down by the sloths when they tear trees apart may be a convenient source of food for the peccaries as well.  The sloths also have an odor that is said to be incapacitating, making for an additional defense mechanism besides their size, armor, and claws.  If it exists, it is probably a mylodon species of sloth related to Harlan’s ground sloth which used to inhabit southeastern North America during the Pleistocene.

Pat suggested stories among the natives of the Mapinguari may be legends passed down from actual encounters their ancestors made with this animal thousands of years ago.  The native people living in this region have had a continued existence here for thousands of years, and perhaps this animal only became extinct 2-3 thousand years ago rather than 11 thousand as science assumed. (See my blog entry entitled “CSI: Pleistocene Alaska.”)  And in fact, scientists know that dwarf ground sloths living on Carribean Islands survived until at least 4 thousand years ago, becoming extinct shortly after human colonization.

Photo of the Chacoan peccary from google images.  This South American species was unknown to science until 1970 and was thought to be extinct for 10 thousand years.

New recent discoveries of mammal species in South America would not be unprecedented.  Scientists found a population of Chacoan peccaries (Catagonus wagneri), a species thought to be extinct for 10 thousand years, in 1970, though the local natives had been hunting them for millenia and reporting about it to Westerners for years.  In the past decade scientists have discovered 10 new species of monkeys in the Amazon.  Maybe that’s why a real scientist, ornithologist David Oren, risked his reputation searching for this possibly extant species of ground sloth.  If it exists, it is likely in grave danger of extinction because natives from uncontacted Indian tribes still probably hunt them with no restrictions.

A review of The Beastmaster (National Geographic Channel Fridays 9:00 pm)

I like Pat Spain, host of The Beastmaster, because he’s a real scientist (a marine biologist) who seeks rational explanations first before succumbing to the possibility that a reported creature is an animal unknown to science.  On one episode for example he traveled to the Congo to investigate reports that a dinosaur-like creature inhabited a remote jungle.  He showed  pictures to the natives of various large animals, including those of long-necked sauropods.  The natives identified a sauropod as the creature called Mkobe Mkembe.  But Pat demonstrated that an elephant swimming across a deep river with only its head and trunk showing, closely resembled a sauropod, the trunk looking very much like a long neck, the head having the appearance of an animal’s upper body. 

On another episode Pat investigated reports of sea serpents off the coast of British Columbia.  He suggested a rare fish knowns as an oarfish, Agrostytichthys (sp.), may be the sea serpent of myth.

3 men holding an oarfish.  Photo from google images.  This creature may be the sea serpent of myth which means the sea serpent is not actually a myth.  They grow larger than this.

Pat leaves the door slightly open  for the possibility that a giant species of ground sloth still roams a remote region of the Amazon.

Pat’s great uncle was Charles Fort, the founder of Cryptozoology and the study of all unnatural phenomena, but the host of The Beastmaster says that he became interested in strange creatures long before he knew he was related to Fort.

 

Tags: Amazon jungle, Amazon rain forest, Bigfoot, Bob Heironomus, Catagonus wagneri, Chacoan peccary, cryptozoology, Harlan's ground sloth, Mapinguari, Mylodon sloth, National Geographic Channel, Oarfish, Pat Spain, The Beastmaster