Mongolian Death Worm

The Mongolian death worm or olgoi-khorkhoi, "large intestine worm", is a creature purported to exist in the Gobi Desert. It is described as a bright red worm with a wide body that is 2 to 5 feet long; the ability of the worm to spew forth acid that will turn anything it touches yellow and corroded (and which would kill a human), as well as its purported ability to kill at a distance by means of an electrical discharge. (The image above is by Pieter Dirkx)

Professor Roy Chapman Andrews wrote a book, "On the Trail of Ancient Man", in 1926 that brought the Death Worm to the wider world; before that it was known mostly to native Mongolians only. He was not convinced of it's authenticity but the locals he spoke with, though none had seen it themselves, were adamant about it's existence and described it fully.

It is reported to be red in color, sometimes described as having darker spots or blotches and is said to have spiked projections at both ends. They are believed to resemble polychaetes, looking much like a sea-dwelling Bobbit worm. (pic below)


The worm lives underground, hibernating most of the year except for when it becomes active in June and July and is said to come to the surface whenever it rains, much like an earth worm. The local Mongolians also claim it has a fondness for the goyo plant, so they tend to steer clear of them.


What this creature could be is still a mystery, as is the way it is said to kill. While stingrays, eels and catfish are the most widely known animals with electrical capabilities, over 500 different creatures harbor the ability to create an electrical shock. Elephant fishes, bonytongues, and stargazers are all fish with various degrees of electrical power. No worms that I know of use venom, though some are poisonous. So this creature is completely new and unusual...and many think is merely a local legend like the Bogeyman of America, a story used to keep children in once the sun goes down. I however believe that the Mongolian Death Worm is a real creature and will eventually be found to exist. Exactly what it is though I have no idea.

Maltese and Black Tigers

Maltese tigers are said to be blue in color with dark gray stripes reported mostly from the Fujian Province of China. The term "Maltese" comes from domestic cat terminology for blue fur, and refers to the slate grey coloration. Many images have been made of "Blue" tigers and well, they are really really blue; most people seem to ignore that "blue" in an animal means a steel or slate gray with a slight blueish tint to it.

Most of the Maltese tigers reported have been of the South Chinese subspecies though they've also been reported in Korea. Around 1910, Harry Caldwell, an American missionary and big game hunter, spotted and hunted a blue tiger outside Fuzhou and had this to say about it: "The markings of the beast are strikingly beautiful. The ground color is of a delicate shade of maltese, changing into light gray-blue on the underparts. The stripes are well defined and like those of the ordinary yellow tiger."

Maltese-colored cats certainly do exist. The most common are a domestic cat breed, the Russian Blue, and a variety of the British Shorthair, the British Blue, but blue bobcats and lynxes have also been recorded.

In isolated populations, mutations can occur so the odd coloring of a Maltese tiger isn't too far out of the possible, even if they aren't neon blue like most artists depict them. Below is what one artist (I do not have the credits so if anyone knows, please tell me!) thinks it may look like:


Black tigers are another that seem to pop up in Cryptid sightings but no photo of one (or the Maltese) is believed to exist. Black tigers are probably the result of a psuedo-melanistic sub-population, or in other words, their stripes are so close together to appear as a solid or nearly solid black fur pattern. Most black mammals are due to the non-agouti mutation. Agouti refers to the ticking of each individual hair. In certain light, the pattern still shows up because the background color is less dense than the color of the markings. Animals with psuedo-melanistic coloration are said to be the result of inbreeding. They're also said to be smaller, which could be a result of inbreeding as well or black leopards being misidentified as tigers.


In other words, Maltese and Black tigers may be sub-populations of actual species, isolated and inbred to the point that their coloring has changed drastically. Personally, with the fact that tigers all over the world are endangered or near extinction (if not extinct already) then this may be the answer to why these ones look the way they do. One day we may find specimens of each, but if we do I hope we shoot them with cameras instead of guns; live animals are worth more to science then dead ones in my opinion.

The Chuti of Nepal

The above image was made by 6Sigillum6Diaboli6 on DeviantArt and is an excellent interpretation of the Chuti, a canine headed, tiger striped animal from Nepal.

Said to be a Hyena like creature, it is depicted in the art of Central Asia though I have not been able to find any of the artwork in any of my searches, just descriptions.

The creature is said to be large with a canine like head, tiger like striping and paws that have four toes facing foreward and one facing backwards on each paw. Said to attack livestock but pretty much leave humans alone, they are secretive animals reported in the Iswa and Choyang valleys as well as the Makalu-Barun National Park in Nepal.

One of the explanations of this creature is the Striped Hyena, which has a canine like head and stripes on it's body. Native to North and East Africa, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Middle, Central and Southern Asia it is concievable that the people of Nepal could have seen one at a distance and wrongly identified it. But the fact that they describe the paws in such detail leads me to believe they actually saw at least one close up; Striped Hyenas have four toes like a canine with no back toe so that little detail leads me to think that it's not a hyena.


Now, the image above is of a Striped Hyena...and yes, it is striped but the stripes really don't strike me as "Tiger like" like the Chuti is described as having. They just don't have much definition and in some specimens even look like smudges or large spots, not stripes.


Above is another excellent image made by Bloodshot_1031 on DeviantArt. Slightly different from the top image but still very good in fitting with the description of the Chuti.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any of the original Nepalese artwork featuring this creature and not much more information then what I've put is known about it. Nepal is a very wild place with few people scattered over a lot of area and plenty of hiding places for any animal savvy enough to keep safe, so we may never find a specimen. But the fact that the people of Nepal believe it is a real, unidentified creature makes me hope that it is real and that some day we may find evidence of it.

~Shara