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Bunyip
A bunyip is a legendary spirit or creature of the Australian Aborigine. Bunyips haunt rivers, swamps, creeks and billabongs. Their main goal in life is to cause nocturnal terror by eating people or animals in their vicinity. They are renowned for their terrifying bellowing cries in the night and have been known to frighten Aborigines to the point where they would not approach any water source where a bunyip might be waiting to devour them.
There are many reports by white settlers who have witnessed bunyips, so cryptozoologists may still be searching for these creatures. They may have some difficulty in locating their prey, though, since Aboriginal tribes do not all give the same visual description of the creature. Some say the bunyip looks like a huge snake with a beard and a mane; others say it looks like a huge furry half-human beast with a long neck and a head like a bird. However, most Australians now consider the existence of the bunyip to be mythical. Some scientists believe the bunyip was a real animal, the diprotodon, extinct for some 20,000 years, which terrified the earliest settlers of Australia.
The bunyip (usually translated as "devil" or "spirit") is a mythical creature from Australian folklore. Various accounts and explanations of bunyips have been given across Australia since the early days of the colonies. It has also been identified as an animal recorded in Aboriginal mythology, similar to known extinct animals.
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Sightings
During the early settlement of Australia, the notion that the bunyip was an actual unknown animal that awaited discovery became common. Early European settlers, unfamiliar with the sights and sounds of the island continent's peculiar fauna, regarded the bunyip as one more strange Australian animal and sometimes attributed unfamiliar animal calls or cries to it. At one point, the discovery of a strange skull in an isolated area associated with these 'bunyip calls' seemed to provide physical evidence of the bunyip's existence.
In 1846 a peculiar skull was taken from the banks of Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales. In the first flush of excitement, several experts concluded that it was the skull of something unknown to science. In 1847 the so-called bunyip skull was put on exhibition in the Australian Museum (Sydney) for two days. Visitors flocked to see it and the Sydney Morning Herald said that it prompted many people to speak out about their 'bunyip sightings' "Almost everyone became immediately aware that he had heard 'strange sounds' from the lagoons at night, or had seen 'something black' in the water." It was eventually concluded that it was a 'freak of nature' and not a new species. The 'bunyip skull' disappeared from the museum soon afterwards, and its present location is unknown.
As European exploration of Australia proceeded, the bunyip increasingly began to be regarded as nonexistent. The mysterious skull was later identified as that of a disfigured horse or calf. The idiom 'why search for the bunyip?' emerged from repeated attempts by Australian adventurers to capture or sight the bunyip, the phrase indicating that a proposed course of action is fruitless or impossible.
The Greta Bunyip was a bunyip which was believed to have lived in the swamps of the Greta area, in Victoria, Australia. Locals often heard a loud booming sound which emitted mysteriously from the swamps, yet none of the frequent search parties were able to locate the source of the sound. Once the swamps were drained, the sound subsided. Some Greta locals believed that the bunyip moved on to another area, whilst others believed it had died once its habitat was gone.
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Explanations
Although no documented physical evidence of bunyips has been found, it has been suggested by cryptozoologists that tales of bunyips could be Aboriginal memories of the Diprotodon, or other extinct Australian megafauna which became extinct some 50,000 years ago.
The cries of the possum or koala could likely be mistaken for the bunyip, as most people are surprised to find koalas or possums are capable of such loud roars. The Barking Owl, a nocturnal bird that lives around swamps and billabongs in the Bush is sometimes credited for making the sounds of the bunyip. The bird is known to make a call that can easily be mistaken for the cries of a woman or child. Other species of birds, such as bitterns and bush-stone curlews emit blood curdling sounds that were sometimes attributed to bunyips.
The most likely explanation for the existence of Bunyips relates to their locations on the Murray-Darling river system. Australian Fur Seals are known to swim up the river system during times of flood, subsequently becoming trapped within the river system once the flooding subsides. There have been dozens of Fur Seals killed or captured as far north as Canberra, incidentally, in close proximity to areas where a Bunyip has been heard or sighted.
The coincidence of the features and sounds made of both animals, would necessarily lead to an inland dwelling Aborigine or European to come to the conclusion that the creature was in fact a new species. Meanwhile, those having travelled more widely, would immediately recognise the same creature as a fur seal. It must be remembered, however, that the bunyip myth is apparently of very ancient origin (tens of thousands of years). Thus, modern bunyip tales may be folk memory that was originally based on large diprotodonts, but had changed into the malevolent mythical beast after these animals had become extinct, and eventually adopted physical elements from fur seals which matched the supposed ecological characteristics of the bunyip better than other living animals.
Also worth noting, the Procoptodon, a pre-historic Kangaroo-like animal, had a rounded face and could lift its arms above head height. Sighting such an animal - especially at dusk or twilight - could easily be mistaken for a bi-pedal humanoid beast.
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