Hodag/Black Hodag

The Hodag is a well known creature from Lumberjack Folklore. They live in the swamps of West Virginia and Wisconsin. They have horns and spikes on their bodies and are often depicted with a crazed grin. Sometimes they have the head of a bull with a human face, short legs, clawed feet, a humped back like a dinosaur, and a prehensile serpentine tail ending in an arrowhead. Some describe them as chimerical hybrids of a frog, lizard, and mammoth. They eat wildlife, often feed on turtles, snakes, and muskrats from nearby swamps, and sometimes also eat humans. They smell so bad that people have been known to faint when they approach. One was supposedly captured by a man named Eugene Shepherd and put on display for a fee.

Citations:

Bane, Theresa. Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore. United States, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2016.

Maberry, Jonathan. Vampire Universe: The Dark World of Supernatural Beings That Haunt Us, Hunt Us, and Hunger for Us. United States, Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2006.

Matthews, John, and Matthews, Caitlin. The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A-Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. United Kingdom, Harper Element, 2009.