You're more likely to hear it before you see it in the flesh. (Or in the “feathers”, so to speak.)
Those who visit the right wetlands in New Caledonia, New Zealand, Tasmania or mainland Australia may encounter a tan and spotted heron that has the voice of an electric bass.
Deep and resonant, the thunderous cry that Australian males ( Botaurus poiciloptilus ) emit when they're ready to breed sounds like it could have been ripped from an '80s horror movie, the kind your parents used to never let you rent at Blockbuster.
And what do you know? The Australian bird is also called the “bunyip bird,” after a legendary cryptid with an equally frightening roar that is said to attack humans and lives in Australia's remote billabongs and swamps.
Content
- The indigenous origins of Bunyip
- Bunyip's Call of the Wild
- Down Under is no stranger to strange animals
The indigenous origins of Bunyip
“Everyone who has lived in Australia [sic] has heard of the Bunyip,” wrote Rosa Praed (1851-1935), a novelist who grew up in Queensland. Few, however, live to tell the story of an encounter with someone.
His 1891 short story “The Bunyip,” considered a classic work of gothic horror, explains the beast:
The Bunyip is said to be an amphibious animal and is described in various ways: sometimes as a giant snake; sometimes like a kind of rhinoceros, with smooth, fleshy skin and a head like a calf; sometimes like a huge pig, with a yellow body, crossed with black stripes. But it is also said to be something more than animal, and among its supernatural attributes is the cold, terrible, strange feeling that takes over a company at night, when the Bunyip becomes the topic of conversation.
Praed was drawing inspiration here from folk stories and oral traditions passed down through countless generations of Aboriginal people. The word “bunyip” is believed to derive from “ banib”, the name given to a water spirit by the Wemba-Wemba language-speaking aborigines, originating in present-day Victoria, Australia.
According to legend, the bunyip is a man-eating monster that lives in the rivers, lakes and swamps of Australia. The bunyip's frightening roar prevents people from entering the water, and at night it hunts women and children.
Many Australian regions have their own native myths and legends about riverine creatures. “[In] the Hunter River in New South Wales, Aboriginal people referred to equivalent water spirits as wawee , or variously as wauwai , whowie It is wowee “, wrote Fred Cahir, Ian Clark and Philip Clarke in their 2018 book, “Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in Southeast Australia: Early Settler Perspectives.”
Bunyip's Call of the Wild
Stories about the bunyip vary considerably, but the beast is often said to have a powerful roar, hence the bitter's incredible nickname.
“The mysterious booming sound made by the bittern… a very shy bird, has become associated with the bunyip, but royal observers usually describe the sound of the latter as a roar or bellow,” wrote Australian geographer Charles Fenner ( 1884- 1955). Bunyip stories flourished during Fenner's lifetime, as Europeans settled in Australia. Unfamiliar with the sounds of the bush, many settlers were convinced of the bunyip's existence as an unknown animal.
To this day, there are those who believe that the legendary bunyip could be a real and unknown 100% species that hides in the wetlands of the vast Australian continent. Wildlife experts are not convinced, especially since no verified corpses or remains have ever come to light.
A skull purported to belong to a bunyip was displayed in Sydney's Colonial Museum in 1847. However, naturalist William Sharp Macleay examined it and later revealed that it was in fact the head of a (deformed) mare. Another famous “bunyip head” – this one complete with fur – has arrived at Sydney’s Macleay Museum. Unfortunately, it turned out that the specimen came from another horse.
Down Under is no stranger to strange animals
Australia has no shortage of genuine animals that seem too strange to exist, like the platypus. Equally surprising – although a little less exotic – are the multitudes of seals and sea lions often found on the country's beaches.
We should also recognize the saltwater crocodile, a semi-aquatic predator that stalks Australian waterways and coastlines. Capable of weighing 1,200 kg (2,643 pounds) and reaching lengths of more than 6 meters (19.6 feet), it is the largest reptile alive today.
Could any of these beasts have contributed to the bunyip tradition? Perhaps.
There's also a chance that the storytellers of ancient Oz were inspired by the extinct herbivore Diprotodon, the size of a rhinoceros, who roamed Australia during the last ice age. Paleontologist Darren Naish has also questioned this idea, claiming that the Diprotodon doesn't line up perfectly with most bunyip descriptions.
Now this is interesting
Just like modern kangaroos and opossums, the Diprotodon was a marsupial . As such, the colossal animal likely raised its young in a pouch.
