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A lot of folks who have never actually been to Arkansas themselves have a lot of ideas about the ozark howler, Arkansas' most famous mysterious creature (other than Bill Clinton, har har!). Now, I'm not saying that their ideas don't sound great, but the truth is that almost NONE of these people who have so-called "scientific ideas about the ozark howler have never seen it themselves, or ever even lived south of the Mason-Dixon Line! See the problem? Well now, one of the most common misperceptions about the ozark howler is that it's some kind of cat. These so-called experts say that the ozark howler is a mutant bobcat (in spite of the fact that all ozark howler sightings describe it as at least three times the size of a bobcat), a hybrid mix between a cougar and an ocelot, or even a surviving member of a presumed extinct sabretooth cat species. Humbug! They've never even seen the howler themselves, so how would they know? I may have moved across the Mississippi a few years back, but I still know more than one person who has seen the ozark howler face to face. Fact is that everyone who has actually seen it says that the ozark howler is NOT a cat! |
The common myth that the ozark howler is a cat originates from a sighting in the early 1980s in which a truck driver pulled off the side of the road for the night saw what he described as a black "cat-like" creature with a long tail, shaggy fur, a stocky build, a beard, and red eyes. Well, that description sounds more like a goat than a cat! In fact, back in the 1950s, there's a sighting report that describes the ozark howler as a "black, goat-shaped creature". I know one guy from Ohio who researches Bigfoot, and he said that the ozark howler is probably a form of Sasquatch! Another fellow who now lives in Washington state but grew up in Oklahoma tells me that the ozark howler looks more like a hairy lizard than anything else.<br><br> One thing is for sure: the ozark howler is one strange beast. It defies explanation, and doesn't fit well with the preconceived notions of folks from back East and up North to re-define it until it sounds like something they want to hear about. |
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