Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, something huge, red-haired, and reeking of death still walks on backward feet. Locals call it the Mapinguari: one eye, impenetrable skin, and a screaming vertical mouth in its stomach. First written about in 1542, it has terrified people ever since (hunters, rubber tappers, miners, even indigenous elders who say it was once a shaman cursed for revealing forbidden knowledge). Bullets don’t kill it. Only fire and deep water keep it away. Tonight we bring you the clearest sightings, the scariest recordings, and the chilling indigenous origin story no one outside Acre has ever heard.Sponsor: Top Squatch topsquatch.com use code FREEYETI for free shippingAnnouncements: Mitch is launching a new podcast "The Gamers Council" soon to be available everywhere you get podcastsSources:Historical / Early Written SourcesPero de Magalhães Gandavo – História da Província Santa Cruz (1576) – first European use of “mapinguari”João Daniel – Tesouro Descoberto no Máximo Rio Amazonas (written 1757–1776, published 1975) – earliest detailed Jesuit descriptionAlexandre Rodrigues Ferreira – Viagem Filosófica pelas Capitanias do Grão-Pará… (1783–1792, published excerpts 1971–1974) – first scientific expedition mentionIndigenous Origin Myths & Ethnographic DepthTerri Vale de Aquino – “O Mapinguari: um estudo etnográfico entre os Kaxinawá” (Master’s thesis, Universidade Federal do Acre, 1995)Angelika Gebhart-Sayer – “The Cosmos Encoiled: Indian Cosmos and Shamanic Transformations among the Kaxinawá” (in Shamanism, History and the State, 1996)Elsje Lagrou – A Fluidez da Forma (2007) – chapter on the Mapinguari as transformed shamanModern Sightings & Expeditions (1990s–2000s)David C. Oren – various articles:“Did Ground Sloths Survive to the Present?” Cryptozoology 12 (1993)Interview in Veja magazine (June 17, 1998)“O Mapinguari” in Revista do Museu Goeldi (1994–2000 internal reports)Glenn Shepard Jr. – “Sloth Man: The Mapinguari and the Giant Ground Sloth Hypothesis” (blog post & academic talks, 2001–2010)Pan-Amazonian Variants (outside Brazil)Stefano Varese – Salt of the Mountain: Campa Cosmology (on Boraro in Peru/Colombia, 2002)Fernando Santos-Granero – “The Enemy Within: Cannibals and Sorcerers in the Amazon” (on Boraro and similar beings, 2009)Peter Rivière – Individual and Society in Guiana (1984) – on Didiman/Yurokon in the GuianasPopular but Well-Sourced Books (in Portuguese or English)Cândido, M. – Na Planície Amazônica (1997) – classic collection of caboclo testimoniesBruce Means & David Oren – chapters in Lost Animals (2020) – short, accessible summary with sources

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