Howls in the West

 The legend of an American hyena and its unknowns

We know well that America has been a cradle of different animal species which are extremely interesting, among them we can highlight that several animal species that we know today originated here such as horses and camels and others came from the other side of the sea through the Bering Bridge.

America has always been a diverse land but just as its diversity there are inexplicable mysteries like what we will see below, Today we will therefore analyze the existence of a possible American hyena in modern times.

La leyenda del shunka warakin

  The shunka warakin is a strange animal with a canine morphology that today lies in a museum in the American West and, according to history, would be feared by the natives of Canada and the United States since this creature was said to be quite wild and hunted and devoured their dogs.

This species would be widely mentioned in the regions of Alberta in Canada and Montana and Nebraska in the United States, being described as having an appearance similar to a very deformed wolf or a black hyena, with longer lateral limbs and capable of screaming like those of a human being, but strangely that is described very much like a real animal rather than a legend and supporting this, is the case that concerns us.

The history of ringdocus 

  The story is long but according to, at the end of the 19th century in 1886 a Mormon claimed to have killed an animal that was tormenting his livestock, which he described as a strangely deformed wolf with a longer than normal snout. in addition to being robust, this creature had thick black fur.

The settler then, not knowing what type of animal it was, took it to a taxidermist who bought the corpse, mounted it and exhibited it in his business under the name ringdocus, later the taxidermist retired and took his work to the Idaho Museum where it was kept for decades, below we have a photograph.

The creature is one and a half meters long and 71 cm tall at the shoulders, dark gray in color and with sharper teeth than those of a conventional canine as well as a longer than normal snout.

A family legacy

The body was lost for a long time, but it was not until 1970 when the colonist's grandson managed to find evidence of the creature, sending a photograph of the montage and a description to the Smithsonian Institution, who were unable to identify it.

Finally in 2007 the hunter's great-grandson managed to track it down to the Idaho Museum, what an achievement that he agreed to lend it to be exhibited at the Madison Valley Museum where it remains to this day.

But the question is what is this animal? Well, that is something very difficult to verify since it does not look like anything currently known, it is thought to be a deformed wolf although there are those who say that it could be a hybrid of dog and wolf like other cases, although the most accurate theory is that maybe and just maybe it could be a hyena and may be related to the creature mentioned by Native Americans in their legends.

The final question

Possibly this creature is a hyaenid, as we well know during the great biotic exchange between Eurasia and America across the BeRing Bridge There was crossing of different species from one side to the other, but very rarely there were hyenas according to.

 According to the official fossil record, the only known species of American hyena is part of the genus chasmapórthetes, a genus of running hyenas known to have inhabited America, Europe and Asia., This being specifically the species C. ossifragusasta that lived between 5 to 1.5 million years ago from what is now Arizona and part of Mexico Although it is also possible that it is a wolf with some bad training or atavism that gave it that appearance.

            [Recent photo of the specimen]

At the end of the day it may never be proven what this species is since the great-grandson of the original hunter asked that it not be analyzed as this could end the legacy that his grandfather started, Likewise, museum authorities, seeing the popularity of this beast, have also said that they are not going to give permission to analyze it because that would be putting an end to the legend of this iconic creature.

At the end of the day the identity of this will always be a mystery although there is also an alleged video of a live animal, although of very poor quality, which I will leave the links, but maybe and just maybe there were hyenas roaming the American West in ancient times and now they are extinct.

[[[[[Reading links]]]]]]

https://knowledgenuts.com/taxidermied-canid-no-one-can-identify/?amp=1

Video,(analizar bajo criterio propio):

https://youtu.be/Qi_GFurlKwE