New Series of "Finding Bigfoot" to Feature Search for the Mapinguari

The special two-part opener for the seventh series of Finding Bigfoot will see the team searching the Amazon Rainforest for the Mapinguari.

The description given by TVRuckus reads: "This month, in the two-hour premiere episode, the FINDING BIGFOOT team is in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, hoping to come face-to-face with a mapinguari, Brazil’s bigfoot-like legend. To locate the mysterious creature, the team travels hundreds of miles up the Rio Negro and through the perilous jungle while simultaneously warding off deadly snakes and jaguars in the darkest hours of night. The team is confident its signature North American bigfoot calls can lead to a sighting of Brazil’s beast."

Considering the success Pat Spain had on Beast Man with David Oren's Mapinguari call, it's somewhat doubtful a North American Bigfoot call will work. Nothing ever actually gets found on Finding Bigfoot anyway.

The first episode will air on Sunday, May 31, at 9 p.m, on Animal Planet.

Identifying the... Mapinguary

Megatherium reconstruction.
Image credit Sloth Sanctuary.

Given the evidence and general consensus amongst cryptozoologists, it seems unthinkable to characterise the Mapinguary as anything other than a relict ground sloth. Even so, there are theories that it is actually a type of large primate - and even it it isn't, there are still dozens of different ground sloths. The Mapinguary, if a sloth, can only be a descendant of one.

TrueAuthority.com's "Quest for the Giant Sloth": An Analysis, part I: Photography, External Links and John Lewis

The DNA code from the dung. Perhaps.
Image credit TrueAuthority.com.

Late last week, I made a post on a study which claimed to have found DNA evidence of the Mapinguary. Here, I hope to go into the study in far greater detail, and analyse the DNA result. The basic story is that a man named John Lewis went to South America, found a big pile of dung, had it tested, and found it to be a match for a prehistoric ground sloth. In 2001. After that, nothing else happened, but he did claim that he'd go back to the Amazon shortly after the DNA testing was done.

Review: Man V. Monster: Brazilian Bigfoot

Richard with a two-toed sloth.
Image credit National Geographic.

Man V. Monster was (is?) an interesting series. Aired on National Geographic and presented by English filmmaker Richard Terry, there have been two series' so far. Most of the episodes end with Richard deeming the cryptid he's searching for to be a regular animal mistaken as something else, and the episodes themselves sometimes focus more on the trecherous terrain than the cryptid. Not necessarily a bad thing. "Brazilian Bigfoot", the Mapinguary episode, is something of an exception.

No episode of the series is available for purchase, physically or digitally, so this review is constructed from memory. Some information may be incorrect or in the wrong chronological order.

Amazon Expeditions Since 2010 Discover at Least 441 New Species

Caqueta titi monkey or Callicebus caquetensis, a 'purring' monkey.
Image credit The Guardian.

At least 441 new species of animal have been discovered in the Colombian areas of the Amazon Rainforest from 2010 to 2013. These discoveries include include a herbivorous piranha relative and a monkey that purrs like a cat.