It ’s sustain a reputation for favorable faces and immaculate manners , but Canada is still , by and large , a vast and wild place . So it should come as no surprisal to take heed that it has its very own ethnic pantheon of legendary beasts . Although some of them seem dreadfully standardized to certain European creatures of lore and began as folktales brought across the ocean by settler , other legends stem from primaeval myths . A few have initiate in the innovative geological era , describing monsters that were first sighted — and sometimes even photographed — within late retentivity .
1. CADDY
For over 200 eld , citizenry in the coastal region of British Columbia have been spot thisPleisosaur - looking ocean serpent ( purportedly pictured above ) with the drumhead of a horse or sometimes a camel , small flippers in the front , and either a large couple of flippers in the back or a powerful tail with a flipper on the end . Cadborosaurus , or “ Caddy ” for short , is name after Cadboro Bay on Vancouver Island , where it supposedly likes to hang out , and possibility on it abound : folk have excuse it away asa pipefish , a elephantine ribbonfish , a basking shark , and even a sea lion . At least nine carcasses have surfaced that masses have purported to be “ caddie , ” although they usually turn out to be sharks or small whales . In 2009,fisherman Kelly Nash took a videoof what he claims to be Caddy . Interestingly , the native federation of tribes in Alaska , just to the northwest of B.C. , tell a tale about a similar brute , and they once paint its image on canoe in hopes of warding it off .
2. WENDIGO
Wendigo , or sometimes windigo , is an evil human - like demon who , it was believed by the Algonquin tribes of the Great Lakes region of Canada , can sour humans into cannibals by possessing them . It was think that a homo could also become a wendigo just by participate in cannibalism , and as such , it was considered preferred by the aboriginal mass to kill yourself rather than recur to cannibalism , if the requirement should arise .
Wendigos are easy to blemish : They ’re extremely tall and emaciated , with yellowed , rotting skin and sunken eyes , and they hang out in freezing forests , looking for people who might be starving enough to eat another somebody . The wendigo was also a symbol of greed , and the fable was clearly terrify to some : In 1907 , a Cree honcho and practice of medicine piece named Jack Fiddler and his brother Josephwere charged with the murder of 14 people — the brothers claimed they were all wendigos or about to bend into them . Despite widespread appeals for his going , Jack either hung himself or exit of use ( source take issue ) soon after , old age 87 .
3. MUSSIE A.K.A. HAPYXELOR
DaMongMan , Flickr //CC BY 2.0
Canada have it off its lake monsters , which makes sense for a country that hasabout 2 million lake . name after its domicile of Muskrat Lake , about 70 stat mi nor'-west of Ottawa , Mussie ’s most interesting attribute is that nobody can seem to hold what it bet like . Sometimes Mussie look like a sea horse , sometimes a great sturgeon , sometimes a three - eyed Nessie . Sometimes it has stage and sometimes it does n’t . Sometimes it has a backtalk full of sharp tooth and sometimes it just hasa single glorious one in front . But all chronicle jibe that it ’s a creature name Mussie — believably because it was in the beginning called Hapyxelor and everyone agreed that that was too hard to say . Although no one can excuse what Mussie is , no one seems to be afraid of it either , with nearby village treat it as a ethnic mascot and cite itin travel pamphlets .
4. WAHEELA
Waheelas are gigantic wolves with wider heads , spread - out toe , and long bloodless fur , much like the prehistoricdire wolf . They are said to hang out in the Northwest Territories , specifically the outback Nahanni Valley , and their avocation admit rip your nous off . So ground is this repp , in fact , that the country has been nicknamed “ The Valley of the Headless Men , ” due tomore than a few cases of decapitated corpsesturning up there . All of these execution , of course of study , have been blame on the wily waheela , who allegedly stands 4 feet at the shoulder . Like Caddy , this monstrosity yield a strong resemblance to a mythologic Inuit creature , one predict anamarok : They ’re pretty much the same idea , except the amarok is gray and is less about ripping your brain off than it is about just eating you for being speechless enough to hunt alone in the iniquity . Tough but mediocre .
5. THE THETIS LAKE MONSTER
This is another lake monster , but it ’s not your received - return dinosaur - in - a - lake . This puppet is known as “ Canadian Lizard Man ” and he looks like a sleestak mix with Gill - Man , a.k.a . the Creature from the Black Lagoon ( above ) . Located ( purportedly ) in Thetis Lake on Vancouver Island , he ’s really just a short guy with silvery - grim scales and barbed fins down his back . He ’s only been sighted once , by two teen boy in 1972 , one of whom tell he was slashed by the goliath ’s net claws . ( Four day later , two men said they ’d seen the same affair on the other side of the lake , but they later recant , and in 2011 a Canadian fisherman supposedly come across it , but that account is vague . ) The story may have catch some melodic phrase because of its similarity to a aboriginal caption from nearby Haidi Gwaii ( a.k.a . the Queen Charlotte Islands ) that is basically the same concept , except the Haida goliath has two tails and a lid .
6. OLD YELLOW TOP
Old Yellow Top is just a blonde Sasquatch who hangs out in Ontario instead of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest . Originally reported in a paper in 1906 and sometimes called a “ pre - Cambrian shield man , ” OYT is often misguided for a bear , until people get a payload of its xanthous head of hair and talent for go around on two leg or else of four . The brute ’s pelt is dark everywhere except its head , and it ’s said to rock a shoulder - duration hairdo . For a while , it was sighted about once every 20 or 25 years , but its last cameo was in 1970 , when it walked across the route in front of a vehicle carrying a grouping of miners and almost caused the driver to immerse down a rock ‘n’ roll cut .
7. ADLET
Adlets are another Inuit innovation — they’re human people with dog ’s legs , who can pass tight like dogs , and are said to be the product of a conjugation between a woman and a elephantine dog . When this legendary woman birthed 10 puppies , she let five of them flow across the ice , which , the tarradiddle goes , became the original Europeans . The five that stayed behind became abominations and spent their time infighting and wandering the tundra , searching for Inuit village to feast upon . Ethnologist Franz Boas record several native tales about adlets while traveling in Baffin Island andpublished them in 1889 . correlation coefficient were made to other cultures ’ stories of half - human / half - hound creatures , including those of the Dakelh tribe of British Columbia and the autochthonal Chukchi people in Siberia .
8. LE LOUP-GAROU
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The Gallic wordloup - garoutranslates to werewolf , but in French Canada , it denote a very specific kind of lycanthrope . The Quebecois cognize le loup - garou as the unfortunate soul who failed to make out his religious duties in time for Easter — not once but seven twelvemonth in a row . His piteous country may also be penalty for the crimes of eithermaking a pact with the Devil or planting white potato vine on a Sunday .
Despite the name , the loup - garou does n’t have to be a brute and can take the frame of a pig , a cat , a calf , an ox , or another animate being . Most of the other werewolf rules use to this monster , though : He hold on his animal mannikin only at dark , then run around trying to eat citizenry . If a loup - garou attacks you , you ’re supposed to throw rocks at it or stab it with a knife — if you’re able to bring off to thread line of descent , the expletive will be broken and the monster will revert to its human form . Afterwards , neither side can verbalize about it or you both execute the risk of turning into loup - garous .
