by Cole Herrold
Our planet has countless areas that are
covered in dense rainforests. These areas, aside from mountains and the ocean,
are perhaps the last unexplored areas of the world. It is not surprising that
then whenever people do enter these unchallenged areas that they encounter a
menagerie of bizarre beasts from living dinosaurs in the congo to hairy ape-men
in the Himalayas to sea serpents in the most remote sections of the ocean.
Scientists have often closed their minds to the idea of such creatures, namely
because of the reported animal's size, often following the logic and shadow of
Cuvier's dictum. However, one would be hard-pressed to find a scientist who
wouldn't claim there are countless species as yet undiscovered, just that they
would be smaller in stature than most reported cryptozoological beasts.
However, some of the most interesting and unique cryptids ever reported are of
a smaller size and, in many ways, are more realistic in this skeptical
scientific thinking; such creatures as the flashlight frog or the Mongolian
death worm, for example, are very much plausible and of a smaller stature that
would help in making them undiscovered.
The Kalanoro is described, as previously
stated a diminutive figure reaching a size of anywhere from 2-5ft tall, usually
covered in reddish-brown, grey, or dark-colored hair with a dark black or
grayish skin tone. The creature bears strong human-like characteristics. Many
sources often say they bear a strong resemblance to humans. Some reports,
however, claim the creature has glowing red eyes, which is similar to reports
of other cryptids and hominids. These creatures are typically said to not
possess any form of technology or tool usage or have any known form of culture.
While the hominid quality of these creatures might seem unremarkable and just a
localized name for a group of species that is seen in other portions of the
world. There are other features; however, that does make the Kalanoro stand out
and make it something entirely different than what we currently know in science
and in cryptozoology. The first feature, which is actually the more realistic,
is that Kalanoros are believed to possess a row of porcupine-like quills,
spines, or protrusions down their backs. The goal of these spines is never
expressed; however, we are safe to assume they are for protection from
predators. Secondly, the Kalanoro is also claimed to have feet that point
backwards. This feature is not unheard of in cryptozoological circles, as even
the Orang Pendek is claimed to have backward-facing feet. The reason for his is
that the reversed feet are to help the creature evade capture, so hunters will
follow the tracks in the wrong direction. While this has appeared time and time
again in the description of this creature from a folkloric standpoint, official
sightings of this creature do not mention it, and it might just be a
fabrication. The Kalanoro is described as being omnivorous. It has a particular
fondness for crayfish and fish as well as raw food in general but will and has
also been reported to eat vegetation.
While the Kalanoro, as I recently
described, is the common image of what this creature is supposed to be and what
is most often reported, it is also important to note that much like other
cryptids, be they the Jersey Devil or Tuttle Bottom Monster, the name has been
used to describe a variety of other creatures throughout the island. Different
tribes have different concepts of what this creature is. Most of what has been
written about the Kalanoro comes from Researcher Raymond Decary, who in the
1950s researched the varying tribe’s tales and stories of the Kalanoro. Near
Lake Kinkony, the Sakalava tribesmen describe the Kalanoro as small
three-foot-tall creatures; they live on the fringes of lagoons, particularly in
the reed thickets, and have three-toed feet. Their diet primarily consists of
raw food and fish, which they get from the lagoons. This variation is believed
to be capable of speech and will hold an individual in conversation until the
ill-fated gabber is consumed by the lake. Lake Aloatra tribes describe the
Kalanoro both as an amphibious creature similar in appearance as well as a
strictly land-dwelling creature. This creature is often described as having
hair down to its waist. There are oftentimes tales associated with this variety
in which these creatures will eat crayfish and leave their remains on rocks in
the middle rivers and other water sources.
The Betsileo tribesmen called the Kalanoro
the Angalapono and described the Kalanoro as a strictly forest-dwelling
creature and describe it even smaller than the tribes that live around lakes,
often describing it as reaching around 2ft tall, yet some claim they are even
more wincey. They, aside from abducting children, are also claimed to abducted
adults from time to time. Some cases of such abductions include one where a man
claimed one abducted him to be its mate, whereas a woman who was abducted
claimed that she received powers of mediumship before her release. The Bara
Tribe of the Ankazoabo district also describes a forest-dwelling creature similar
to the Betsileo tribe. The Bara Tribe, however, claims that the Kalanoro is
extremely quick, an extremely good climber, and will come into their villages
to steal food, a behavior other tribes have noticed. In Northern Madagascar,
the Kalanoro is said to be particularly aggressive. They also are believed to
dwell in caves and are believed to have long claws, which they use to attack
any who attempt to capture them. In both the Ankazoabo district and throughout
Northern Madagascar, the Kalanoro is said to be feared by both young and old
for not only do they attack with sharp claws but also for their penchant for
kidnapping children. Similarly, the Bara of South-Central Madagascar describes
the Kalanoro as partially arboreal creatures that are excellent runners and
climbers.
One element that is important when
discussing geographical differences with the Kalanoro is that there are often
tribes who will claim their Kalanoro are all male or all female. Lake Aloatra's
Kalanoro, for example, is often connected more toward mermaid lore and is
described as being strictly female. The lake Kinkony tribes believe the
Kalanoro to be strictly male; however, interestingly enough, they are described
as having high pitched and choppy or female voices, which often lead people
astray. The Betsileo Tribe, however, believes that the Kalanoro is an
exceptionally hairy female exclusive land dwarf reaching heights of 2ft tall.
Other variations describe that the Kalanoro is a naiad or mermaid type creature
being exclusively female that seduces canoers, fishermen, and of course, lures
children away. Some cultures which view the Kalanoro as a female land dwarf do
have a male version which is referred to as the Kotokely. In these tales, the
Kalanoro lives in caves on a bed made of silkworm cocoons, often described by
western explorers and researchers as a fairy bed. The Female Kalanoro of this
variation is also interested in the children of men and, similarly to stories
in Celtic folklore, will swap her children for those of humans. The children
she steals are treated to resemble her and her husband. It is claimed she gives
a special potion to the stolen offspring, which prevents them from growing. Much
like in stories of Changelings, children who are often misshapen or sickly have
been referred to as sons of the Kalanoro and are believed to not of been the
human mother’s child but the replacement left by the Kalanoro.
Outside of the Kalanoros reported child
abducting, several other behaviors have reportedly been noted in regard to this
creature. For one thing, the Kalanoro, while omnivorous and extremely fond of
fish, crayfish, and raw food, cannot stand pork. Allegedly Kalanoros will enter
huts and homes at night to keep warm but will not enter a home where pork is
present. The Vezo's tribe has the phrase "to eat like a Kalanoro" it
means to eat what is available without giving thought to future provision, and
behaviorally for the Kalanoro implies that these creatures have a ravenous
appetite for such a small creature. Kalanoro also has no fear or aversion to
fire as some of the most interesting sightings involve them approaching and
even warming themselves by the embers or flames.
While most tribes feel the Kalanoro is a
flesh and blood creature, this is not absolute. Many tribes also view the
Kalanoro as a kind of nature spirit or supernatural being. For example, the
people of the village Ambalakedi believe that a particular cave known as
Andoboara cave is a sacred site for the Kalanoro. Their reasons for this
involves, interestingly enough, the disappearance of children while they were
out in the forest. In the 1990s, Joe Hobbs of the University of Missouri would
describe how two years prior to him being in the area, three children had
disappeared in the surrounding wilderness. The local belief was that a Kalanoro
had taken the children away. The motive not to better their own stock as seen
in alternative diminutive hominid or faerie folk stories but simply because the
entities felt the parents were not taking proper care of them. In a fashion
similar to films like Poltergeist or Insidious, a special kind of
medium is required to communicate with the Kalanoro or a spectral middleman
known as a Tromba (another supernatural entity). This medium would act as a
conduit in which the Kalanoro or Tromba could speak through and ultimately give
its or the Kalanoro's demands. These demands would need to be met in a timely
fashion if their children were to be returned to them. Often times this
revolved around leaving gifts or food to the creatures such as honey or even
sacrificing a Zebu cattle designated by the Kalanoro or Tromba. If the demands
are met, a Kalanoro will either reveal to the family or give the Tromba the
information of where the children's location is. In the case of the three missing
children, all had been found inside Andoboara Cave. Countless other cases
similarly have been reported, and allegedly to this day, this still occurs.
In other regions, such as in the Sambirano
Valley, mediums that can communicate with the Kalanoro often times live in the
bush. When summoning a Kalanoro spirit, there is often specific rules and
rituals that need to be performed. Typically, the medium sits behind a curtain
in a dark room when attempting to communicate with a Kalanoro. This is because,
unlike other types of spirits, Kalanoros solely works inside the medium's home.
It is considered taboo to have a dog
present during a Kalanoro séance because there is a strong belief that dogs
have the ability to see spirits and therefore see the Kalanoro. Kalanoro
mediums are sought out as a last resort because the Malagasy have an incredible
fear of the supernatural abilities of the Kalanoro. It is because of this that
a Kalanoro medium is turned to only when other healers or Tromba mediums have
failed in attempting to solve whatever problem or cure whatever ailment might
be afflicting the individual or out of curiosity. When a Kalanoro spirit is
present, there are often the sounds of walking and banging on the walls and
ceiling of the medium's home. It is often during this channeling that quick,
choppy, high-pitched, and difficult to understand speech is reported.
Kalanoro mediums are extremely different
culturally than those mediums who commune with spirits like the Tromba or
Tsinay (a nature spirit). In the book the Possessed and the Dispossessed,
Lesley Sharp goes into lavish detail about the vast comparisons and differences
between Kalanoro mediums and Tromba and Tsinay mediums. One major difference is
that a Kalanoro medium serves as the guardians of a single Kalanoro spirit. A
Tromba spirit, however, can possess a multitude of mediums. Kalanoro mediums
are also extremely rare. They are, as previously stated, often used as a last
resort partially for this reason. Kalanoro guardians (mediums) also have a
wider demographic as both male and female Kalanoro mediums exist. Whereas
Tromba spirits genuinely tend to possess women solely.
The supernatural element of the Kalanoro
is layered even more with their connection with the Vazimba, which were
believed to be the first population in Madagascar and that most anthropologists
feel were a race of pygmies similar to those found in Africa but who now are
represented as spiritual beings. Usually depicted as various supernatural
monsters or boogeymen-type figures. Interestingly they bear many similarities
to the Kalanoro from size to also an aversion to pork and the claiming of sacred
sites.
Kalanoros, aside from being spiritual
entities, are also believed to have supernatural properties. These creatures
allegedly have the ability to communicate telepathically, granted wishes, and there
is a belief that the Kalanoro's long hair gives them a supernatural strength
that is beyond that of what a creature their size should possess. Allegedly
some Mosies, which are herbalists or shaman-type individuals who claim to
create magical potions that are made up of ground-up Kalanoro hair, can provide
strong powers or exemplify the mystics' already supernatural gifted abilities.
While Kalanoros are often viewed as malevolent or shy in nature, there is a
belief that these creatures have great healing powers due to the fact that they
are nature spirits. Alternatively, however, Kalanoros are also said to be able
to curse people if they travel into their sacred areas or territory. The
afflicted individual would then go to a medium who can commune with a Tromba or
Kalanoro and seek to find a way to end their curse.
While I've described the various beliefs
and variations of what the Kalanoro is in Madagascar, I have not discussed any
particular sightings. The oldest officially recorded sighting was in 1879 and
interestingly, unlike other cryptozoological cases involves not a mere glimpse
of something anomalous in the woods but a full-blown capture of a strange
animal. This bizarre beast was captured in Northern Madagascar, West of Maroantsetra.
The creature was found sleeping on a branch and was taken by a group of the
Malagasy under the employ of a trader from the West Coastal Settlement of
Manahar. The group proceeded to grab the sleeping creature. The creature
struggled to escape the grasp of its assailants and managed to bite several who
had gotten too close to its mouth. The creature, however, was subdued and
contained in a cage where it was observed by a European trader known as Mr.
Carmes. Carmes would describe the creature as the following: It was a
powerfully built man about 5ft 9" with a face and body thickly covered in
long black hair. The creature had a peculiar mode of movement as it would
travel on all fours, but when walking bipedally would move with its head down,
watching the ground the entire time. The creature, while very human-like, had animal-like
eyes and was naked when captured. In a manner of potential kindness or in an
attempt to civilize the creature, the men proceeded to give the creature
clothes which it would wear. However, while the creature was clothed, it still
remained very animalistic in its behavior, refusing to eat any food cooked and
would eat manioc and other roots. He also would only sleep in a squatting
position. As time went on, the creature allegedly was capable of picking up
some words and being able to converse with its captors. It was from this that
the captive revealed that it had a father and two brothers who lived in the
same forest. This would prove to be a poor decision, for attempts were made to
find his family and to capture them as well. In fact, on several expeditions,
his family were reported but were capable of evading capture by jumping from
tree to tree and running on all fours. The captured man would die only 5 months
after capture, and no known searches for his relatives had been recorded
afterward.
In 1886 an account was published in the Antananarivo
Annual by G. Herbert Smith. This account describes an eyewitness who would
encounter the creature only a few feet away from him. It was in the heart of
the Malagasy forest that an unnamed traveler had stopped for the night and
began to set up a camp for the night. The man had proceeded to light a large
fire to keep himself warm and also to scare off any potential threats. The man
laid awake through the night watching the glowing fire as the hours passed, so
too did the fire, and soon it was nothing more than hot glowing coals and
embers. It was in the slight glow and smoke that he noticed a small individual
come close and approach the fire. The creature stood near it warming itself and seemed to enjoy the heat produced. The man peered at the creature and
noticed that this creature was a small humanoid and was covered in long hair
and had a flowing beard. The man disturbed by this figure proceeded to slowly
reach down to a stick next to his body. Once his hand had wrapped around the
stick, he proceeded to lunge up ever so slightly and push the stick into the
fire, which sent hot embers and sparks at the creature. The hot projectiles
stung the creature's skin and, in turn, caused it to flee back into the dark
woods.
Another account that appeared in the Annual
had a similar occurrence regarding a Kalanoro and their love or interest in
fire. In this case, a man noticed that a Kalanoro appeared out of the woods, a
noticeably male one. This male had been intrigued by a large fire with a pot
full of rice over it. The creature proceeded to search around the area,
searching for any potential threats, and then released a cry. Shortly
thereafter, a noticeably female creature came from the brush and up to the
male. The two approached the pot of rice and, with a quick sniff, proceeded to
dip their hands in the pot grabbing fistfuls of rice, and in a slightly Lady
and the Tramp fashion, proceeded to feed each other in the warming glow.
The next documented account comes from
1889, where a report of a Kalanoro was given to the Royal Geographical Society,
which interesting enough also refers to a captured specimen. In 1924 Chase
Salmon Osborn would go on to describe an encounter he would have involving two
Kalanoros. It was during one night that as he looked out from his camp in the
area, he noticed two individuals wrapped up in the touch of intimacy. For some
reason, he had proceeded to get the most of this spectacle and proceeded to
peep at the enamored couple. He continued to stare at what he had thought was a
Honey Mooning Couple making love by the light of the fire, but when he
continued to watch, he noticed that the figures seemed less and less like a
typical human but instead seemed more like a kind of primitive humans.
While reports of the Kalanoro are believed
to be exclusive to Africa, a group of creatures bearing a similar appearance
was reported in 2006 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This sighting had
stirred some interest when the report was published by both Loren Coleman on
his website Cryptomundo and Karl Shuker on his website Shukernature.
This sighting, in many ways, is one of the more interesting because of a side
aspect of the account that is a video was taken of the creatures and that the
government has the evidence. While this seems like tinfoil hat territory, let
me elaborate. The account was reported by a US Navy SEAL who, while doing a
covert operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo near Lake Tanganyika
between 1997-2002 that he and his team, while trekking in the deep jungle,
would encounter a bizarre primate unknown to science. The team encountered no
more than 13 chimpanzee-like creatures. These creatures were approximately 4
1/2 – 5 1/2 ft tall and were covered with dark gray fur all over their bodies.
The creatures walked bipedally around the area, much like a person and more
gracefully than typical primates. This, however, was not the most bizarre
feature, for these creatures have porcupine-like quills that ran down their
backs and stood erect, not flattened like a porcupine. These creatures were in
the act of hunting or killing another animal when the SEAL captured their
appearance on camera. The creatures' spines, when excited or agitated, would
become more erect, most likely for defense or for display. The US Navy SEAL had managed to get around
three minutes of these creatures on video; however, due to the complicated and
top-secret nature of their operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
the film has since been listed as classified. Adding to the ever-growing list
of evidence locked away regarding cryptids.
In Ivan T. Sanderson’s classic Abominable
Snowmen: Legend Comes to Life, a similar creature known as the Kakundakari
was searched after by Charles Cordier in 1961. On his expedition into the area,
small humanoid tracks claimed to be of the creature were found in the Congo.
While the Kakundakari is much smaller and often described as more humanoid than
what is reported in the Navy SEAL account, many of the other features match,
such as the gray fur. It is extremely possible that this creature, as well as
the ones seen by the Navy SEAL and the Kalanoro of Madagascar, are the same or
even a similar species of as of yet undiscovered primates.
In Karl Shuker’s book Mirabilis, he
discusses another hairy hominid type of creature that he feels is linked to the
Kalanoro. This creature called the Kotoko was the primary research subject of James
Skinner and Bob Skinner. This
creature is said to live in the Anosy region of South East Madagascar. In September
2012, an interview was conducted and later uploaded onto YouTube in November of
that year with a local to the area known as Aime. Aime described the creature
as a short hairy big-chested creature with small feet. In his interview, he
told Skinner of many of the beliefs about this creature, many of which from behavior,
diet, and the fact that everyone in his village has a story or has seen one of
the creatures. The creatures have a love of warmth and will approach fire; they
steal food, especially fish and rice, both males and females are seen.
Sightings are allegedly still going on in the area to this day. If an offering
of rice is made to a Kotoko, they will, in turn, leave honey and tenrecs as a
gift. Aime also describes a more amusing quality of the Kotoko that is similar
to that of the Kappa of Japan, and that is that the Kotoko love to wrestle. The
Kotoko is clearly a regional name for the Kalanoro as there are too many
similarities in diet, behavior, and description that match. In the works cited
below, I have included a link to the interview with Aime, and it is a
fascinating video.
A sighting that appeared in the Travel
Africa Magazine involved a man known as Eloi Razafimandimby who saw his
first Kalanoro in a rice patty behind his village. He described it as a little
man less than a meter or 3ft tall who had hair all over his body and long
fingernails. The creature seemed to of been lured out of the forest surrounding
the village by the smell of frying pistachio nuts. Eloi offered his expertise
on the subject to the magazine, elaborating some of the features and lore
associated with the creature reaffirming the backward feet feature and the
difficulty of tracking such a creature.
In the show, Destination Truth Josh
Gates and his team of truth-seekers had descended into the Malagasy Forest to
search for the creature in 2010. While there, he met two particularly
compelling witnesses. The first was research biologist Dr. Steven Goodman who,
while out in a particularly large section of the forest, was proceeding to
check his mist nets in search of animal activity. It was around 3:30 when he
noticed a strange, bizarre creature near the nets. The animal had a look of
absolute terror in its eyes either from being seen or at the contraption that
laid before it, and as quickly as it could, it slipped off into the ridge where
the trap was set and off to the woods where it left the view of Dr. Goodman. He
would later describe the creature as 3-3 1/2ft tall with long hair covering its
human-looking body.
John Mahazo, another witness and a local park
ranger, would have a much more harrowing encounter with a Kalanoro. It was one
day while out in the bush he would have a violent face-off when he saw a
Kalanoro not too far off in the distance. The creature realizing it was seen,
ran and lunged at him, ultimately grappling and grabbing his body with its long
taloned hands. John could not move as he was trapped by the inhumanly strong
grip of the creature, and fear electrified his body. However, the creature,
either in a change of heart or figuring the park ranger was not a threat,
proceeded in releasing the terrified man, and the two ran in completely
opposite directions. Which was lucky for him since rumors of the creature claim
that it utilizes its long talons to kill people by impaling them through the
chest and stomach.
Josh Gates proceeded to investigate the
Northern forests of Madagascar at the Amber Mountain Preserve. While there, his
team had found small childlike footprints which, while inconclusive, bore a
striking resemblance to how the Kalanoros tracks were supposed to look. Another
anomalous finding was a hit on their thermal camera of a bizarre figure dodging
in and out of the forest. Yet, the identity of the figure remains a mystery.
With the Kalanoro, there is a lot to
unpack when trying to break down the phenomenon. For one thing, as stated
previously, there are several creatures that are called the Kalanoro, and each
is different. As stated, there are nature spirits, physical diminutive
humanoids, spiny backed chimp-like creatures, backward footed hominids, merfolk,
and semiaquatic humanoids. With that said ill focus primarily on the primate
and hominid type varieties since they do seem to be the main variations that
are reported in Madagascar and Africa. Skeptically speaking, some
anthropologists believe tales of such creatures are a universal trope or some
form of folk memory. These tropes and folk memories speak to us on some
internal level of some previous experience, whether it be ancestral tales of
interaction with other hominids such as Homo Floresiensis or some other
universal fear or human expression. Some researchers have claimed that the
story of the Kalanoro comes from tales of the Tokoloshe, an African goblin type
figure that potentially was influenced by the Bantu on the Malagasy culture. Another
idea thrown around by many researchers such as Bernard Heuvelmans, Gregory
Forth, and Professor Charles Lamberton has proposed the idea that ancient
lemurs like Hadropithecus might have spawned the legend of the Kalanoro. Many physical features, especially those of
the face in Kalanoro accounts and legends, seem to have many parallels,
particularly with Hadropithecus. In fact, the Malagasy people had traveled from
Borneo to Madagascar over 1,500 years ago, and in that entire area, there in
Indonesia and Oceania is a concentration of tales of diminutive hairy hominids
or humanoids such as Ebu Gogo, Orang Pendek, and the Kakamora.
While this idea of ancestral storytelling
is a compelling idea, it is truly not a satisfying one. Also, it does not
consider the fact that there are and have been captured specimens and physical
evidence of these creatures in the way of footprints. It’s easy to dismiss such
tales when no such evidence is present, but when there is some form of possible
proof, you have to not necessarily remove it from the table but push it closer
to the edge. With that, there is the possibility that what the Kalanoro might be
is an as of yet undiscovered lemur or monkey. Lemurs and monkeys are and do
have some very unique and bizarre features that seem like a conglomeration
between man and animal, and some, such as tarsiers, marmosets, lorises, and so
on, have facial features that are very similar to a human compared to other
lemurs or related species. It could be very possible that this could be what
the Kalanoro could be, a kind of arboreal bipedal lemur. There's also a rich
history of cryptid primates in Madagascar. Another Madagascan Cryptid is the
Tratratratra which appears as a giant lemur or primate with a round head and
human-like face, which could be the same or similar to the Kalanoro. It is
often described as being the size of a 2year old calf and had sightings up till
about the end of the 17th century. Many of the depictions of this
cryptid appear to be morphologically similar to what has been seen in Kalanoro
reports.
While the Kalanoro is, as discussed
previously, a creature that appears in a variety of ways from hairy hominids to
porcupine quilled primates, to merfolk, to supernatural entities, most
depictions are either of a hairy hominid or a porcupine quilled primate. There
has been enough written about both in this article and in countless other
sources on the origin of diminutive hominids and their potential origins, such
as Homo Floresiensis or some Australopithecine descendent. While this is a
category that does need to be brought up to explain potentially what people are
seeing, I feel it is one that does not need an in-depth explanation. Instead,
and more interestingly, the porcupine quilled and reverse footed elements of
the animal or variation is something that I feel should be possibly explained
or hypothesized about. If the few reports indicating these features are correct
and authentic.
In Loren Coleman’s book Field Guide to
Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates, he categorized the Kalanoro as a type
of what he referred to as a merbeing. These creatures are aquatic mammals that
spend either some or all of their time in the water. This group, of course,
included merfolk and the Steller's Sea Ape, but a subgroup is of a semiaquatic
variety of creatures that feature a row of spines down their back. The Kalanoro
was obviously included in this group, as was the Chupacabra. It was in this
group he broke down the spine feature and explained how there have been
primates that do possess such features. The main species that have these spines
are, interestingly enough, a loris from Central Africa and is known as the Potto.
The Potto is a sloth-like animal that can produce spines from its arched back.
These spines are located on the last of the cervical vertebrae, and the first
few thoracic vertebrae actually pierce the skin and are used as a defense
against predators. The Potto has special control over the fur around this
feature which part on either side to let the spines be utilized. With that said, this anatomical feature is
then possible in a primate. The Potto's spines are used as a defense feature,
so perhaps this is the same for the Kalanoro in that when it feels threatened,
they pop out. This could also explain why some sightings do not have these
spines and instead simply seems like typical hairy hominids or primates. Since
a lot of the sightings do not describe this feature at all, but they do occur
outside of local lore. We can even possibly take this a step further and
hypothesize that the Potto might be a relative of the Kalanoro since both
appear to be primates and some researchers have even commented on the Kalanoros
face being similar to that of a lemur.
Another less exciting possibility is what
is being reported is nothing more than the hair being raised out of fright, not
unlike that of a cat. The length of the hair could, in fact, be mistaken for
quills and could lead to the belief that the Kalanoro has quills. This
explanation would make much more sense, especially in regard to breeding since
the spines one would think would cause some issue for this species in some
manner or another.
The second feature that seems to be an
impossibility when describing the Kalanoro, even though I've never found a
report confirming this aspect of the creature, is the backwards feet. The feet,
it would seem, would not be able to function properly or be, for that matter,
useful at all since the balance one would think would be off. While, as
previously state, the explanation for this is so that the creature can avoid
being captured, it would seem odd that it would develop this trait specifically
to avoid humans since they are the only species that truly relies on tracking
footprints to hunt. However, in the Crash Course Cryptozoology video
"Anatomy of the Kalanoro," it is proposed that in many ways, this
creature could be primarily arboreal and that the backwards feet could aid in
gripping trees. Birds, for example, have similar feet, such as pamprodactyls.
These feet are specifically designed for gripping, and while they are not the
backwards style as reported on the Kalanoro, it could be a similar style
feature seen on this cryptid.
While these features are typically never
reported, they are biologically possible in some regard; however, outside of
the quills, I feel the feet to simply be a fanciful addition to the legend. If
they are actually part of the creature's natural biology, they would be
revolutionary and extremely interesting from an evolutionary standpoint. Yet
until one is captured in modern times or a video is officially released to the
public, the exact anatomical details will remain fuzzy.
Venturing out of the realms of
cryptozoology and more into the esoteric, I feel the need to delve into another
possibility to what this creature could be, and it has appeared time and time
again in both this article and other bizarre creature articles, and that is the
extremely strong faerie connection to this creature. The fact that the Kalanoro
is viewed as a nature spirit is very much akin to what has been many of the
faerie folk. The gifting aspect in the Kotoko beliefs is similar to what
legends of the Brownie or Domovoi feature. Even the diminutive appearance is
connected obviously with Leprechauns and other faeries. Yet to be the most
glaring similarity is the kidnapping of children aspect. The tales are
essentially the Madagascan equivalent of the Changeling. Is it possible that
faeries, if real and supernatural in origin, have similar behaviors universally
speaking? There to this day are reports of faerie folk in almost every corner
of the world, and all of them have some supernatural element to them. Tales of the
Kalanoro also have this element so possibly what we are seeing is a Madagascan
Elf and not an example of a diminutive hominid or primate. This could also take
into account why there is a wide range of creatures that are associated with
the Kalanoro, as well as the reported mystical quality they are said to
possess.
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