Sightings Index

The following is a comprehensive list of all known Mapinguary encounters and TV investigations. This list is constantly being updated as new information comes to light!

     Undated encounters
Overall, at least eight Indian hunters claimed to have killed Mapinguaries, in the following staes: Eirunepé, Marabá, a region of the Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor, Juína, Manicoré, and Carauarí (Oren, 2001).

At an unknown time prior to 1999, a native hunter named Manuel Vitorino Pinheiro dos Santos shot four peccaries before hearing the call of the Mapinguari. He fled to the river as the second call shook the trees themselves, and hid under the water. The calls became muffled as the animal seemed to move deeper into the jungle, but Manuel remained hiding for hours. (Heuvelmans, 1955)

At some point, a man named Edinalo worked for an oil company putting pipelines through the Amazon. When he got off his boat onto dry land, he was attacked by a large, smelly, hairy animal which broke his jaw. Overwhelmed by the smell, he blacked out, and was later found by more people. The encounter was so terrifying for him, he quit his job and refused to enter the forest again. (Beast Man, Nightmare of the Amazon)

At some point, two men were driving in their car when the Mapinguari came out of the forest. They hid, and it spared them. (Beast Man, Nightmare of the Amazon)

At some point, a native woman was gathering fruit near her house when she was disturbed by a Mapinguari. She fled back to her house. (Man V. Monster, Brazilian Bigfoot)

At an unknown time, a native hunter was stalking peccaries when a Mapinguari emerged from the trees. The man fled. (Man V. Monster, Brazilian Bigfoot)

At another time, a man was cooking dinner inside his hut when the entire straw roof was torn off. He fled outside, only to be attacked by a Mapinguari. (Man V. Monster, Brazilian Bigfoot)

At one point, a Karitiana man heard a Mapinguary call in the night. Believing it to be another person, he responded, and the two gradually came closer to each other, until the Karitiana realised what he had been communicating with. (Beast Man, Nightmare of the Amazon).

     1930
In 1930, an explorer named Inocèncio was travelling the Amazon with ten friends, from whom he was seperated from at nightfall. Lost and alone in unfamiliar territory, he decided to sleep in a tree for the night, but was soon disturbed by a terrible noise. A shadowy bipedal figure came at him from the jungle. He shot at the beast, and it retreated, leaving behind a trail of blood. (Heuvelmans, 1955)

     1937
In 1937, a news report from Central Brazil claimed that a Mapinguary had gone on a rampage, killing cows and tearing out their tongues for three weeks. (Wikipedia)

     1975
A mine worker named Mário Pereira de Souza claimed to have come face to face with a Mapinguary in 1975, at a mining camp in Rio Jamauchim. The animal made a screaming noise and came at him. He never said how he escaped. (Heuvelmans, 1955)

     circa 1977   
A colleague of Dr. David Oren claimed to have seen a Mapinguary in around 1977. (Beast Man, Nightmare of the Amazon). The encounter happened in the Tocantins State (Oren, 2001).

     circa 1980's
In the Rio Juruá valley, a group of Kanamarí Indians claimed to have captured two baby Mapinguaries around the 1980's. They claimed to have raised them on a diet of bananas and milk until the stench became too much for them to bear, at which point the animals were released. (New York Times)

     1981
A woman named Lydia claimed to have seen a Mapinguary in the September of 1981. She was near her hut, which was on the edge of the forest, when she was startled by a howling cry. She fled to her father inside, Teofelo, who grabbed a rifle to ward of the beast, as his cow was tied up outside, defenseless. He shot at the animal and returned inside, the cow freed.

Upon morning, the animal had disappeared, the shot apparently not having been lethal. The incident affected the entire village to much, they moved to the other side of the river, on the bank. (Beast Man, Nightmare of the Amazon).

     1997
Glenn Shepard Jr., an American conservationist, ethnobiologist and anthropologist, was amongst the sceptics until 1997, when he was doing research about local wildlife among the Machiguenga people of the far Western Amazon, in Peru. Tribal members all mentioned a fearsome slothlike creature that inhabited a hilly, forested area in their territory.

The clincher that really blew him away, Shepard said, came when a tribal villager casually told him of a Mapinguary on display at the Natural History Museum in Lima. When Shepard checked the museum, he found a model of a ground sloth on display. (New York Times)

     circa 1990's
In the late 1990's, a Dutch named zoologist Marc van Roosmalen heard that an entire tribe living along the river Rio Purus had found Mapinguary prints near their houses, and had moved to the other side of the river out of fear. (New York Times)

     circa 1993
A (at time of writing) seventy year old native named Joao Batista Azevedo claimed to have encountered a Mapinguary in about 1993. He said he was working along the river, returning home in a canoe, when he heard a terrible scream, and a hairy bipedal animal came at him. However, it neglected to attack or even approach him. (New York Times; Heuvelmans, 1955)

     2004
A Karitiana hunter named Geovaldo claimed to have encountered a Mapinguary in 2004. He was hunting wild pigs when he was attacked by a large hairy biped. He fled, stopping and turning to fire at it several times, to not effect. Eventually, he turned and loaded a large led slug, meant specifically for killing a Mapinguari, and fired it at the animals face. It stopped and screeched in pain as Geovaldo escaped. (Beast Man, Nightmare of the Amazon).

Geovaldo has recounted his sighting to numerous sources, including a well-known news report on Oren and the Mapinguary, as well as Josh Gates and Pat Spain, for Destination Truth and Beast Man, respectively.

     2008 Destination Truth investigation
In 2008, Josh Gates carried out an investigation in the Amazon for Destination Truth. He was told of numerous native encounters (including Geovaldo's), and was initially sceptical. When he and his team carried out a night investigation, they realised they were being circled by a large, heavy animal. Josh and his cameraman found broken down palm trees, whilst the two other team members recorded an odd noise. A former Los Angeles zookeeper was unable to identify the call.

     2011 Beast Man investigation
In 2011, Pat Spain travelled to the Amazon for Beast Man. He carried out a night investigation, during which he and his sound man blasted a simulated Mapinguary call and got a response. Although the team heard it, the microphones failed to pick any sound up.

Pat also interviewed Geovaldo, showing him images of numerous animals, foreign and native. He correctly identified the native animals, and didn't know what the foreign ones where - since he had never seen them. When he was shown a reconstruction of a ground sloth, he identified it as the animal he shot.

     2011 Man V Monster investigation
An investigation by Richard Terry for Beast Man captured a night vision image of a large animal, but no details could be made out.

     2014
In 2014, anonymous berry pickers from the Yapock Forest Reserve claimed that they heard a loud scream whilst picking berries, and began to imitate it. However, they realised that the sound was coming from nearby, and soon noticed "a creature dark in colour", two feet high and with only one eye. They fled, and apparently did not sleep for the following week.

Notes and references

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