The dreaded Tailypo, while endowed with a delicious and highly nutritious tail, is also extremely possessive of its caudal appendage.

Cats are among those things I just can’t draw convincingly. Them and dogs. And horses. And people. Okay, I can draw things convincingly as long as they aren’t realistic.

Anyway! This is the dreaded Wild Cat of Craig-na-Seanean and a little friend. Found near Doo-Lough, this ferocious feline had a moon-shaped marking on its forehead and a sharp nail on the end of its tail. It killed and ate hundreds of people until it was slain by three heroic brothers who impaled it on their spears. The cat was then hacked to particles and burnt to ashes to prevent the potential spread of plague.

ABC al-Qazwini pop quiz! What on earth is this whalewolf-looking animal?

Al-Qazwini’s description of the sea turtle – not a distinct monster per se, just “sea turtles are huge and have vegetation on their backs and look like islands and people land on them”.

in awe at the size of that beaver

There’s a good reason why it’s front half horse, back half alligator and not the other way round

Sadly I will never be able to top Lewicki’s rendition of the alligator-horse, published in the LIFE Treasury of American Folklore.