Mythical Creatures That Turned Out To Be Real

There's an old saying that goes, truth is stranger than fiction. And I would argue in the case of mythical creatures, this rule definitely applies. The concept of mythology in mythical creatures has existed for thousands upon thousands of years. And with such a long and rich history, it was only a matter of time until some of these mythical creatures turned out to not be myths at all. Which is why in today's double feature, I'm going to start the video by discussing mythical creatures that turned out to just be creatures, and then I'm going to discuss creatures that still remain mythical, but are heavily believed to be real. Let's begin. Mountain Spirits. Deep within the Indonesian jungle lives a group of people known as the Moni people. The Moni are an indigenous tribe of people from the Central Papua and Western New Guinea regions of Indonesia. They primarily speak their own Moni language, and in total there is roughly 28,000 Moni people. Not much is publicly known or understood about the Moni people or their traditions. However, one piece of their culture that has now become sort of mainstream is the not-so-mythical creature known as the Mountain Spirits. For countless generations, the Moni people have passed down stories of a mysterious black and white creature that lived in the forest. And this creature was believed to be a spirit, a positive spirit that should be protected. The Moni people themselves even said that this mythical creature walked upright like a small man. And while that may seem interesting, for the longest time there was no evidence to back up the claim of this black and white small man spirit that inhabited this remote part of Indonesia. Which is why for the longest time, the Mountain Spirit was considered to be something of myth to foreigners. That was until 1994 when the story of the spiritual mythical creature living deep within the Indonesian jungle came across the desk of a man named Tim Flannery. Tim Flannery was a highly decorated researcher from Australia. And when he heard the stories of the mythical creature, he knew there had to be something more to it than just fairy tales. Which is why he booked a flight and was determined to separate fact from fiction himself. After landing in Indonesia and traveling deep into the jungle to meet the Moni people, he was briefed on their customs and culture and then was briefed on the Mountain Spirit. The Moni people informed Tim that the Mountain Spirit was elusive, being seen only rarely by the locals. And that if it was seen, it was to be respected. As it was believed that this mythical creature was a spiritual entity. Timothy could tell that the Moni people took this seriously because when he asked them if they'd ever tried to hunt this creature, they instantly denied ever trying to hunt, attack or approach the spirit as it was something they almost instantly knew they were to protect. However, even with that interesting story and vague description of white and black creature that sometimes walks on two legs, Tim really didn't know what he was getting himself into. That was until he spent multiple days in the Indonesian jungle and didn't come face to face with any sort of mythical creature or spirit but actually came in direct contact with a creature known as the Dinguso. That's right. The Mountain Spirit is not a spirit at all. It's actually a rather endangered and extremely rare animal that in my opinion is actually more interesting than the Mountain Spirit ever could be. Let me explain. The Dzingo is a long-tailed marsupial that can only be found in mountain forests on the west side of New Guinea in Indonesia, which means that for the longest time, the Moni people were the only people in the entire world to even be aware of this animal. Even if they did consider it to be a spirit, which honestly isn't unfair because while they considered it spirit, the rest of the world considered it to be folktale and not even real at all. However, the Moni people knew what they saw and in my opinion, you should always trust the locals. Back to the Dinguso though. The Dinguso is also a mammal that is roughly shaped like a bear. It lives in trees. It's the size of a Labrador dog and believe it or not, it is technically a breed of kangaroo, which if you ask me is the most interesting in random combination of attributes you could probably imagine. Regardless, after Tim Flannery was able to confirm the existence of this mysterious creature in 1994, the entire suspicion of the mountain spirits just being fairytale was broken and actually proven to be fact. And while this discovery was shocking news to the rest of the world, to the Moni people, this was simply affirming something they already knew and fortunately, it didn't break their belief whatsoever. Even after Tim was able to confirm the existence of the Dinguso and then later name it and categorize it, they still treated it as a sacred symbol and believed that the Dinguso was the physical embodiment of the spirits of their ancestors, which in my opinion is pretty wholesome. Interestingly, at least in my opinion, if the Moni people didn't consider the Dinguso to be so sacred, it would have likely been hunted probably into extinction because of how rare and endangered this animal already is. And if that were to have happened, then realistically, the Dinguso would have likely never being discovered by the scientific community and therefore remaining a mythical creature forever. Although we know that wasn't the case and in 1994, the Dinguso was proven to be a real animal and not just a mythical creature. Although it wasn't until 2009 when it was actually filmed for the first time ever after a BBC documentary crew and a local Moni tribesman spent 11 days in the jungle searching just to find one Dinguso or mountain spirit. The Devil Bird In rural Sri Lanka, there has been a long told legend of a mythical creature known as the Ulama or the Devil Bird. The lore behind the Devil Bird was simple yet terrifying and it was for those reasons that it quickly became legend. It is said that if you are in a rural part of Sri Lanka at night, potentially near a jungle or forest, then you could be at risk of hearing the blood-curdling, human-like shriek of the Devil Bird. Now, while you never saw the Devil Bird, the shriek alone was enough to turn your blood cold and terrify you, leaving most frozen in fear. However, this shriek wasn't only something that would temporarily scare you as it had a deeper meaning. According to Sri Lankan folklore, the shriek of the Devil Bird wasn't only terrifying, it was an omen of imminent death and it was believed that if you were outside at night and had been exposed to or have heard the shriek of the Devil Bird, you or someone you knew or loved was soon going to die. Just the lore alone around this mythical creature is enough to have you invested, even without any description of what it may or may not look like. And it's for this reason that this story was told and believed so heavily within Sri Lanka for generations and generations. Although, for people that were not local to Sri Lanka, when they were told about the Devil Bird custom, many people disregarded it as something of just that, legend, something of myth, something that was, well, downright not real or non-existent. That was until non-locals started to hear the shriek for themselves. And because the shriek was so terrifying and so human-like and so unlike anything that they've heard elsewhere before, biologists knew they had to take a closer look at what could possibly be causing this myth, because it was too long-running to simply be one hoaxter and it was too unique and terrifying to be something that was already currently known. And it was with that that in 2001, after some time searching, experts were able to confirm with a high likelihood that the Devil Bird or Ulama was maybe not as mythical as people once thought and that it was more likely the Spot-Bellied Eagle Owl, a bird that in its own right is definitely terrifying. The Spot-Bellied Eagle Owl is a huge bird of prey that literally just looks terrifying, like it looks like a mythical creature. These birds live primarily in the forest and live mainly in India and Southeast Asia. They reportedly weigh around three pounds and most notably, this owl is now famous after its semi-recently discovered human-sounding call, the call that essentially made this Eagle Owl a mythical creature in the first place. Now, with that being said, I know I can't keep talking about this legendary sound without showing it to you, so I'm going to play a bit of audio of a recording somebody took of an actual Spot-Bellied Eagle Owl. But I did want to give fair warning in case you were superstitious yourself and did believe that this call may actually bring death to you or a loved one, which I wouldn't blame you if that were the case, but with that, here's the sound. Sea serpents. I see serpents. Do you see serpents? I'll tell you who saw serpents. Sailors. Sailors saw serpents so often that they became legendary mythical creatures. Sea serpents were first reported as massive snake-like creatures that were found in deep, dangerous waters. And in folklore stories of these mythological creatures, they were described as dangerous ship-attacking monsters. Stories of sea serpents exist in many different cultures and mythologies. For example, Norse mythology, Babylonian mythology, and even Greek mythology. But what if I told you that, once again, this mythical creature was perhaps not so mythical? For thousands of years, different cultures and civilizations described seeing a nearly impossibly long snake-like creature approaching their boats and even attacking them. It was actually the persistence of these extremely similar stories being told across numerous cultures that actually inspired scientists in the 1700s to try to finally put this myth to bed once and for all. However, in their studies, they didn't find a nothing burger. What they actually found was fish tacos. That was corny, but we're keeping it in. No, but in reality, in 1772, scientists found what they believed to be what everybody was considering sea serpents to be in all of these different mythological accounts. This fish was identified as the oarfish. And the oarfish, similar to some of the other entries on this list, once again, just goes to show that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction. The oarfish is an extremely long, ribbon-like fish that is typically only found deep in tropical oceans and is usually rarely ever seen by humans. One subsect of the oarfish known as the giant oarfish is the longest bony fish alive and can grow up to 36 feet long. Besides just being rare and massive, oarfish are also extremely unique because they have been cited swimming vertically, meaning they're not, you know, doing normal fish stuff. They're literally swimming as if they were walking to work. Besides the weird methods of transportation, they also have a rather unique look to them. They have a silvery, scaly body, but they also have a bright red dorsal fin along its back, which definitely makes it stand out against blue water and also gives it a rather mythical appearance to some individuals. Further bolstering the theory that this never-before-seen fish was a mythical creature and not your average fish, which, if you think about it, isn't unreasonable for somebody in the 15 or 1600s or even, you know, earlier than that to see a crazy never-before-seen fish and to assume it's, well, something of myth rather than a never-before-seen fish because of how different it was from most fish we know today or were even known at the time for that matter. Regardless, even though today it is commonly believed that most sea serpent accounts are simply encounters with oarfish in the modern day, now that this mythical creature has been more or less demystified, it doesn't mean that there isn't any superstition still surrounding this fish. And what I mean by that is that even today in 2026, the oarfish is still considered not a sea serpent but a sign of a doomsday event coming. And I'm not joking. It is commonly believed by some that if you find an oarfish washed up on the beach somewhere, there is a very high chance that there will be a devastating earthquake or tsunami to happen shortly after the discovery of this fish. Now, while calling the oarfish a doomsday fish may seem like just another legendary attribute being associated with an animal that is real and not mythical, that superstition has unfortunately been bolstered in recent years. From 2009 to 2010 in Japan, there was over 20 oarfish sightings that were washed up on the beaches. And in 2011 in Japan, there was a tragic earthquake that ended up killing over 20,000 people, which has led some people to believe that potentially the sightings of the oarfish had something to do with it or at least predicted the tragedy. Now, regardless of what you believe personally, I think the story of the oarfish is just so interesting because it started as a fish that was thought to be a sea serpent of legendary proportions. And then it was found out to just be an extremely odd and rare fish. But even then, within its scientific discovery, it took on a whole new meaning as a doomsday fish, which later went on to kind of prove that it may or may not have some mythical properties after all. The black swan. It is reported that in the 1400s, 1500s and even 1600s in Europe, there was a saying that if you called something a black swan, you were essentially saying that something did not exist. Consider it a post-medieval way of saying when pigs fly. The analogy of a black swan was reportedly rather common, and it for a long time was rooted in fact. Across all of Europe, every swan that had ever been seen ever was white. And it was believed for that reason that swans across the globe were only white because only white swans existed in Europe. Hence the existence and popularity of the black swan analogy. Regardless, up until 1697, according to Europe, swans were white and only white, and a swan of any other color was simply not possible. That was until 1697 when Dutch explorer William de Vlaming arrived in Western Australia on an expedition and just so happened to almost instantly be met with a creature that he and everybody he had ever known considered to be something that truly did not exist. He came face to face with a group of black swans. Obviously shocked, William knew that he had to take some examples home with him to prove he was not crazy. Because if he did go home and claim to have seen black swans, he would not only be ridiculed, but potentially even be exiled for suggesting such a crazy thing. And it was with him showing the rest of Europe the existence of the black swan that the entire European mindset was essentially shifted. Initially only about the existence of other types of swans, but the lesson that was taught from this experience was pretty significant. The moral of the story that was kind of taken away from this entire experience down the line was that just because you haven't seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And it's actually for that reason exactly that I wanted to add it in this video. Because as almost every creature I've discussed has proven, just because you haven't seen it yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And the story of the black swan is almost a perfect example because it wasn't even thought to have existed by anybody. It was literally thought to have never existed and its mythology was actually in the fact that it could not exist simply because it had never been seen and it was the opposite of what was seen. To Europe at the time, a black swan was and I'm sure you see the irony. Regardless, the revelation of the existence of the black swan was so significant in fact that it actually coined a new term. Before this event, black swans were analogy of something that simply could not happen, would not happen, does not exist. But after the discovery of black swans in Europe, the term black swan or black swan event was used to describe an event that was rare, unexpected, and challenged beliefs or has or had outsized effects on society. Which is pretty interesting to think about. The duck-billed bozo. Okay, I'm gonna keep this section short because it's technically not a mythical creature, but I really wanted to talk about it because this story is so funny. As most people probably know by now, platypuses are real but also insane and likely the best example of fact is stranger than fiction. And that's because platypuses literally have mythical creature level lore while being an extremely real creature. And platypuses have such mythical creature level lore that when the first platypus bodies were discovered by European naturalists, the Europeans actually believed that these bodies had to be mutilated bodies of an assortment of different animals because of how strange the platypus appeared. Let me set the scene. The year is 1799. A British explorer is in Australia, once again, and finds this weird creature. They don't know what it's called, they don't know what it's all about, but he sends it back to Britain. The naturalists in Britain examine this creature that was sent from Australia and the conclusion they come to was not that this was some unseen animal, but they actually came to the conclusion that somebody must have tampered with the specimen simply because of how outrageous it was. At the time, the platypus was officially considered a hoax by the scientific community simply because of how weird it was. In case you're unfamiliar with exactly how strange platypuses are, let me fill you in. For starters, platypuses are essentially beavers with duck bills and otter feet. And it was actually that exact combination of animals that these British naturalists thought were put together by somebody on the ship who tampered with the specimen. On top of that, platypuses are mammals, but mammals that lay eggs, which is essentially a contradiction, but we're only getting started. On top of laying eggs, platypuses are also venomous. That's right. They basically have little toenail or little horn on their fins that they will use to stab their prey with and inject them with venom. And if that wasn't crazy enough, while platypuses are amphibious, when they go underwater, they close their eyes and ears, making them deaf and blind. And it's because of this in water they rely on electromagnetic pulses to hunt, which they do rather effectively. And on top of that, they also outsource teeth. That's right. Platypuses don't have teeth, but if they need to chew, they'll put rocks in their mouth so that they can use something to crush their food. Now, you might be asking if they lay eggs, do they feed their young like birds? And the answer is, of course not. Since platypuses are mammals, they have milk, but they don't have nipples. They feed their young through their armpit milk. That's right. Their milk comes out of their armpits. I could go on a lot longer about platypus facts, but I think you guys get the idea. Platypuses are so strange that when they were first discovered, they were considered to be a hoax or something of mythology. And even after describing this very real creature to you now, I'm still not convinced that platypuses aren't some mythical creature that snuck their way into reality. Like I've made a lot of videos on mythical creatures back in the day. They actually were kind of the cornerstone of my channel. And if you watch those videos, well, you're definitely an OG. But I mentioned this because I have learned about and talked about plenty of mythical creatures that don't have nearly the cool lore that platypuses do, which, if nothing else, proves that truth is definitely stranger than fiction. But let's move on. OK, I want to use this moment to mark the turning point in this video. As I mentioned earlier, this video is going to be a two parter, basically a double feature. I wanted to start with creatures that were verifiably real or at least extremely closely linked to real creatures and scientifically believed to be those creatures. But now I'm going to discuss creatures that are either more loosely connected to real creatures that I didn't want to necessarily say as real because the connection is a bit loose or creatures that essentially have no basis, but are still heavily believed in some cultures. Of course, there was a bunch of other real mythical creatures I wanted to mention at the beginning of this video, but I can only add so many. So if you want to see a part two where I talk about more mythical creatures that are provably real, then please leave a like or leave a comment on this video saying part two. And finally, I wanted to mention a few honorable mentions for the first part of this video. Two other mythical creatures that turned out to be real are the gorilla and the host eagle. And the only reason I didn't mention in this video was because I actually talked about them in my video last month about myths that turned out to be fact. So if you like this video about mythical creatures that turned out to be true and want to learn about myths that turned out to be fact after this video, check out that video. I'm going to link it in the description and I'm also going to pop it on screen at the end of the video. So don't worry about watching it now, but I figured I'd at least mention it because I'm sure some people are going to bring it up. But with that out of the way, let's discuss more mythical creatures with a bit of a looser basis in reality. The chupacabra. Honestly, I was a bit torn on where to put the chupacabra because personally, I think that the explanation for it makes a lot of sense and for that reason could kind of give a real explanation for this mythical creature. But because some descriptions of this creature are so different than the logical explanation, I figured it would be a safe bet to put it in this part of the video. Now, if you're not familiar, the chupacabra is a legendary mythical creature from Latin America specifically, and it's most popular in places like Mexico or Puerto Rico. The name chupacabra itself, it literally means goat sucker. And this mythical creature is referred to as the goat sucker because it almost has been exclusively reported to attack livestock, specifically goats in particular. Now, visual depictions of the chupacabra kind of vary drastically. Some descriptions state that the chupacabra looks like a short reptilian alien looking creature that's a couple feet tall, covered in scales and green, while others say that it kind of looks like a hairless dog with sharp teeth, glowing eyes and no fur. But regardless of what the mixed visual accounts of the chupacabra look like, the one common denominator among all accounts is its trademark method of murder, which is, of course, to bite the neck of the goat, drain all its blood and leave it for dead, essentially being vampiric in nature. And it's because of this consistent and strange method of attack coupled with its strange look that turned the chupacabra into legendary folklore in Latin America and now more parts of the world as well. Here's the deal. Some people that live in rural Latin America, whether they own livestock or not, believe in the chupacabra deeply and for that reason, go to extra measures to ensure the safety of their animals, pets or even themselves. And it's because of this, once again, like we've seen in other sections that the widespread belief in fear caused scientists to take a closer look at what actually was going on because they didn't believe there was a mythical creature on the loose. And for that reason, they wanted to get to the bottom of it. And the conclusion they came to after years of research was simple, but in my opinion, likely the case. Many scientists believe that the chupacabra mythical creature is more of a sad situation than a legendary sighting. What they believe is that the chupacabra in most cases is a wild dog or even coyote with a disease known as mange. And what mange does, at least in severe cases, is causes the animal's hair to fall out, causes them to be emaciated and causes them to be extra aggressive. Traits that are almost exclusively associated with chupacabra attacks and sightings. For scientists who believe that to be the case, they deem the story of the chupacabra legend to kind of highlight how folklore can sort of spawn from real world events, but through storytelling, exaggeration and fear of the unknown, grown into something much different and even in some cases, an entirely new entity of its own, causing a creature in reality to be the artistic inspiration for a creature in mythology. Vampires. Since we were on the topic of blood-sucking mythical creatures, I figured why not talk about the most iconic of all, the vampires. The stories of vampires exist across multiple different cultures, across multiple different eras of history. But most people typically associate vampires with Eastern Europe specifically. Think Transylvania. If I asked you to describe a generic vampire, what would you describe? Tall skinny man, slick back black hair, emaciated skinny face, sharp teeth, sunken in eyes, basically looking dead. Interestingly, descriptions of vampires have stayed relatively consistent from the 1800s to today. Although how this mythical folklore creature is treated definitely differs by time period. At the time of the vampire's establishment in the 18th century in Eastern Europe, the story of vampires was treated a lot more like fact than fiction. For good reason too. In countries like Romania and Albania, life was hard and mysterious disease was prevalent. And it was for this reason that individuals were looking for almost any explanation they could find on why people were seemingly dying mysterious deaths. And besides just theorizing on what it could potentially be, they decided to go directly to the source, which included digging up people who have died from these diseases. And what they found was gruesome. Upon digging up the graves of people that have died, they found bodies that they believed to look alive. But not only do they look alive, they look like they had attacked somebody. Bodies that were dug up from these graves had blood around their mouths. Their body was bloated. It appeared that their hair and fingernails had grown. And it was then assumed that these individuals were not dead at all. They were simply plain dead during the day, but at night they were becoming undead and causing some of these mysterious deaths. And it was this discovery that triggered a short-lived mass hysteria, which we later adopted into pop culture in the modern day, but I'll get to that later. The result of this mass hysteria depends on the region in which we're talking about. But some of the most common practices involved digging up bodies and chopping off their heads if they looked like they were vampires, burning coffins or burning people as soon as they die to prevent them from becoming vampires, or simply staking down bodies in coffins to prevent them from being able to get up. Now, it should be noted that this hysteria was typically shared among lower classes and the royalty at the time in the regions were actively trying to disprove the vampire myth so that they could prevent the amount of bodies that were being dug up. And they eventually enacted laws to prevent tampering with graves, to prevent more graves from being dug up, as they believed that the whole vampire hysteria was total garbage. Now, at a glance, it might seem interesting how these royals knew anything more than the common people. But then when you realize that, well, the royals were the really only people that had access to any sort of education, including education about biology, it becomes easier to understand how potentially these people could have more context on life and reality than people that are essentially kept in the dark and have to fight every single day to get a morsel of food. Regardless, after the hysteria died, beliefs about vampires were extinguished for the most part. However, the legend did not die and stories that were originally used as words of warning were now used for entertainment and eventually evolved to the vampire stories that we now know and associate with the creature today. Mermaids. For hundreds of years, sailors across the globe, different cultures, from different civilizations have all told similar stories of beautiful half-woman, half-fish creatures out at sea, either seducing, singing songs, or trying to lure these sailors, typically, to their doom. But what if I told you that the mythical creature of the mermaid may have more basis in reality than you may think? And in my opinion, the explanation that experts have come up with is utterly hilarious. I really don't think I need to explain what a mermaid is, so I'm just going to kind of get into it. But right now, if you had to guess, what real world animal do you think inspired the story of the mermaid? If I told you the manatee, would you believe me? Because that is, of course, the case. Now, while at a glance, it may seem hilarious to suggest that a manatee could inspire the story of the mermaid, these experts do have some claims that have at least a bit of validity. For starters, manatees are large, typically human size, at least from a distance. They live mostly in warm coastal waters, and they are considered by some to have human-like characteristics. For starters, manatees are typically seen standing in shallow water, poking their heads out of the water, which at a distance, either in foggy water or rough water, could look like a person. They also have flippers that contain bones, which they can use in a similar fashion to human hands to try to grab or move objects. And if you weren't really looking, you could say they have a sort of humanoid shape, especially if you're only seeing the bottom of them above water and the top of them underwater. Now, interestingly, if you want a historical account, in 1493, Christopher Columbus himself reported seeing mermaids, but also noted that they were not nearly as beautiful as he expected, which does give more validity to the expert's theory that, well, mermaids were actually likely inspired by manatee sightings. But in my opinion, these sailors would have had to have a lot to drink if they saw manatees and started seeing beautiful women. Like, talk about beer goggles. But with that, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to end this video. If you loved this video about mythical creatures that either actually exist or are at least based in reality, then please leave a like or leave a comment saying part two to let me know that you want more videos like it. And if you can't wait for that part two, check out the video on screen right now. It's the video I mentioned earlier about myths that actually turned out to be fact. But in case you want to focus back on mythical creatures solely, check the playlist I linked in the description or just go to the channel and find my mythical creature playlist. If you haven't seen them yet, I literally have like eight videos only about mythical creatures and you're going to love it. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. And as always, trust me, bro.