Most people have heard about Bigfoot, Chupacabra, Mothman or even the Skunk Ape. Unfortunately, many other less known cryptids go usually unnoticed.

Surprisingly, most of these unusual cryptids live near you.

5. Chickcharney

A giant, flightless owl native to the Bahama Islands, the Chickcharney has a furry-feathered body and is about five feet tall.

Scientists believe this cryptid could be the Tyto Pollens, a three feet barn owl that inhabited the area until the logging of the forests occurred in the 16th century. After its habitat was destroyed, this species of owl supposedly disappeared. Whether the two owls are the same specie or not, remains the subject of controversy among experts today. Some reports claim that these giant birds make an awful, scary, almost primate sound in the dark night. Locals believe its mere sighting brings good luck and an encounter with the animal is commonly sought after.

4. Momo the Monster

In 1971, two witnesses reported seeing a 7 feet ape-like creature with a huge pumpkin-shaped head in Missouri. Even though at first sight the beast resembles the popular Bigfoot, they are not –in theory– genetically related. Momo purportedly shares reptilian and primate DNA. Reports by witnesses of two lizard eyes attached to its big-bumpy head, attest to the mixed genetic claim. Its horrible emitted odor has been recorded as being very intense and many cryptozoologists erroneously consider this enough evidence of a family link to the Skunk Ape. Domestic animals, dogs, goats and cats, are part of the monster’s dietary menu.

3. Tatzelwurm

A ten feet reptilian cryptid inhabiting the European Alps. Some claim it is a big sized lizard, native to the area but either misidentified by witnesses or the damaging result of an escaped pet reptile –such as a monitor lizard. In the 1930s, a man from Switzerland named Balkin took a picture of the creature, but scientists and cryptozoologists have long believed the photograph to be a hoax and hastily dismissed the evidence. In 2008, a girl reportedly saw a tatzelwurm while walking in the forest of northern Italy. She estimated the animal was about ten feet in length and had a cat head. Its eyes, she said, were piercing, almost hypnotizing.

2. Spring-heeled Jack

This peculiar creature brought the city of London to its knees and even required the intervention of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Cowan in 1838 in order to calm down the population. A year earlier, a girl had been attacked by the Spring-heeled Jack while walking the streets of the city. The perpetrator, an excessively tall devil-looking man with a cape, was reported as capable of jumping walls of up to nine feet. His laughter, witnesses said, was high pitched. After the initial attack of 1837, other sightings were reported and the cryptid became increasingly popular among Londoners. The uncanny similarities of these reports with the Mothman sightings bring a new theory to light: What if the Spring-heeled Jack left a weary London on a ship headed to the North America in search of a better territory to pick his next victim?

1. Pope Lick Monster

Movie The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster

An ugly human-goat hybrid living beneath the Norfolk Southern Railway in Louisville, Kentucky. Goat legs transport the body of this horned human-like face creature, exhibiting the eyes of a snake which witnesses claim to be hypnotic; it is believed that the Pope Lick monster lures its victims into the trestle in order to get killed by the oncoming train. Often, victims claim to see a standing figure in the middle of the road and that, right after pulling over for fears of running someone over, a sudden noise erupts from the roof of their cars. All the eyewitnesses report a sudden irrational sense of fear, and even hearing words inside their heads asking them to pull over again so they can “meet their demise”. The creature’s origins are unknown, although some theories point at the possibility of a mistreated circus freak who –similarly to the Blair Witch legend– swore revenge on the town of Louisville. The last known sighting was reported in 2012, when a man coming home from work had a close encounter with the beast after stopping his car to urinate. This person explained that as soon as he felt the wind blowing on the back of his head he began experiencing auditory hallucinations and that a tall, dark figure emerged out of nowhere coming at him with an axe. He was able to get to his vehicle and leave the area before the ominous figure got close.