Strange and obscure folklore and sayings relating animals

The Birriliburu aboriginal peoples of Australia have an interesting dreamtime story about the the greater bilby (known to them as "muntarngarku" in the language spoken by the tribe).
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One day the moon came to earth and was wandering the desert when it came across strange footprints in the red sand and began to follow them to see what animal had made the tracks and eventually came across a bilby.
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The bizarre appearance of the bilby so intrigued the moon that it ran to catch the animal to get a closer look but the bilby was such a timid and nervous little creature that it burrowed into the sand building tunnels to escape.
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The bilby continued to burrow through the sand of the desert and would occasionally raise its head to peep above the surface to see if it was still being followed by the moon
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The Birriliburu believe that the marks of the bilby's burrows may still be seen in the landscape today and the story itself lists the names and locations of such holes.
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However, despite what it may first appear to be this is not just a charming story but also one which was of life and death importance for the Birriliburu tribe.

This is because this dreamtime story passed from generation to generation through oral tradition actually formed a mental map of all of the waterholes (and the distance between these) that contained drinkable water within the area and without such knowledge humans living in the desert would perish of thirst.

Sources: "New partnerships for managing large desert landscapes: experiences from the Martu Living Deserts Project", Tony Jupp et al, 2015 (Journal: The Rangeland Journal).

Photo credits to @Najade, @WhistlingKite24 and @Giant Eland.
 
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The bilby is not just an animal that is significant in indigenous aboriginal folklore and mythology but has also found a place of cultural significance and salience within wider Australian society.
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While the iconic animal associated with Easter for much of the world may be the "Easter bunny" Australians with the encouragement of conservationists have adopted the bilby with its faintly rabbit-like appearance as an iconic native cultural symbol of Easter.
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During this Holiday season the image of the bilby abounds and there are even chocolate "Easter bilbies" sold all of which serve to raise awareness of this endemic and endangered Australian species to the general public and most importantly younger generations who will one day become the next stewards of native biodiversity.

Sources: "Bunnies, Bilbies and the Ethic of Ecological Rememberance", Katherine Wright, 2012 (Journal: M/C Journal).

Photo credits to @Giant Eland and @Hix.
 
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The Malagasy people are attentive observers of nature. Their ethics forbid them harming animals without a valid reason. All animals have spirits that can avenge them. Some sick people are called ‘animal spirit victims’.

Here is the first of a series of Madagascan tales:

Long ago, wild animals walked in peace. Birds of the night crossed paths of people at noon. God made no distinction between people with hair on top and other animals. People soon became sly and killed animals. The animals demanded divine interdiction as all living things had liberty and equal status. God told all breathing things should meet at Mount Ampitsonjoana. The animals ran there; the people stayed in the fields. Before any animals could complain, God threw down a fearful thunderbolt and unleashed a furious tempest. The swollen clouds billowed out into monstrous forms and colours.

The scared people wore loincloths and were armed with coupe-coupes (machetes). They climbed to the meeting place, sprinkled the area with water from wooden bowls and chanted “Be gentle. Be sweet”. The thunder stopped, the wind died and God was powerless for a moment. He said the people had grown too strong, defied his laws and didn’t listen to him. He said the animals should run away from people and not come out by day; crocodiles had to hide in water. The people wouldn’t have good senses of sight and smell.
 
Dassie rat said:
The Malagasy people are attentive observers of nature. Their ethics forbid them harming animals without a valid reason. All animals have spirits that can avenge them. Some sick people are called ‘animal spirit victims’.

Here is the first of a series of Madagascan tales:

Long ago, wild animals walked in peace. Birds of the night crossed paths of people at noon. God made no distinction between people with hair on top and other animals. People soon became sly and killed animals. The animals demanded divine interdiction as all living things had liberty and equal status. God told all breathing things should meet at Mount Ampitsonjoana. The animals ran there; the people stayed in the fields. Before any animals could complain, God threw down a fearful thunderbolt and unleashed a furious tempest. The swollen clouds billowed out into monstrous forms and colours.

The scared people wore loincloths and were armed with coupe-coupes (machetes). They climbed to the meeting place, sprinkled the area with water from wooden bowls and chanted “Be gentle. Be sweet”. The thunder stopped, the wind died and God was powerless for a moment. He said the people had grown too strong, defied his laws and didn’t listen to him. He said the animals should run away from people and not come out by day; crocodiles had to hide in water. The people wouldn’t have good senses of sight and smell.
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Thank you for sharing this @Dassie rat !

This is very interesting and well written indeed, did you write this after researching the topic through reading or when you were in Madagascar did you speak to people about this creation myth ?
 
Dassie rat said:
I can't remember. I think it was a TV programme, although I never heard from the person again.

I once did a radio interview about snakes for an Austrian radio programme
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I'm not suprised really because as a topic the Malagasy ethno-zoological folklore seems like a rich vein for a TV programme or a book.

It strikes me that you could write a whole bestiary in the style of Jorge Luis Borges' "Book of imaginary beings" and Caspar Henderson's "The Book of Barely Imagined Beings" for both living and mythological animals and entities present in the Malagasy folklore.

Wow, how did you get that interview ?
 
The olm salamander is the subject of rich folklore in its native Croatia and Slovenia.
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Though rarely seen by humans due to dwelling deep within subteranean cave systems it was occasionally washed to the surface by heavy rains and seen by rural Slovenians who believed it was a "baby dragon" that was washed to the surface from the earths crust where adult dragons were said to dwell.
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This intriguing amphibian is also known as the "human-fish" ("človeška ribica") in Slovenia and in many of the languages of the neighbouring Balkan cultures due to its unpigmented skin which is said to resemble that of a human.
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Sources: "Recycling proper names into zoonyms as a neologisation device, 1: Coinages by Abramowitsch", Ephraim Nissan, 2013 (Journal: International Conference on Onomastics Name and Naming).


Photo credits to @Maguari and @devilfish.
 
The Eurasian lynx is an animal that is surrounded by strange folkloric beliefs in the Balkan and Carpathian countries of Eastern Europe.
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In Albania and Bulgaria folkloric stories recount that to meet the gaze of a lynx in the forest is especially dangerous because doing so will make a person become blind.
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In Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Romania the lynx also has a ferocious reputation and it is believed in some communities to be far more dangerous to humans than either bears or wolves.
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In these countries it is thought that this feline waits in trees for prey (including humans) to pass by and then ambushes it by jumping upon their backs and biting their necks to suck out the blood and so some hunters will even wear hoods while hunting because of this belief.




Sources: "Fear of the unknown: local knowledge and perceptions of the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx in western Macedonia", Nicolas L escureux et al, 2011(Journal: Oryx).

Photo credits to @Benosaurus, @ThomasNotTom and @ro6ca66.
 
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Myths that lynx, wolves and wild boars as especially dangerous animals are still common among hunters and foresters in Poland.

Despite numerous stories, I was rather surprised that I could not find any credible record of a wild lynx attacking a human. Wolf attacks were extremely rare, and concerned attacks on children and small women herding livestock in the 19. and early 20. centuries. Despite numerous tales, I could find no story of a wolf attacking a human in living memory, wolf attacking an adult male human, attacking a person during hunt, or attacking a group of people (despite the stories of throwing a coachman out of a troika etc.). Wild boars attack a hunter after being shot and wounded, but, contrary to widespread knowledge, I could not find a single first-person account that a big male boar, a sow with piglets or any other wild boar(s) attacked a person in the forest unprovoked.

Fake stories are partially told in hope of allowing legal trophy hunting of lynx and wolf, as 'maintaining a healthy fear of humans among dangerous animals'. Part of the story is self-elevation between hunters as doing dangerous job. In fact, the only danger faced by a hunter is being casually shot by a colleague.

The underlying reason, however, is the culture of hunters, foresters and fishermen of telling tall tales. They work alone in the wilderness, so their stories cannot be easily refuted. Maybe a person really met a group of wolves chasing him up a tree or caught an enormous fish which broke the fishing line just before being pulled out of water? This is part of a long cultural tradition of European folklore that forest as a place where strange and dangerous things can be encountered. Man-attacking lynxes and wolves are just another take of stories of ogres, werewolves, elven folk or Big Bad Wolf.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I'm not suprised really because as a topic the Malagasy ethno-zoological folklore seems like a rich vein for a TV programme or a book.

It strikes me that you could write a whole bestiary in the style of Jorge Luis Borges' "Book of imaginary beings" and Caspar Henderson's "The Book of Barely Imagined Beings" for both living and mythological animals and entities present in the Malagasy folklore.

Wow, how did you get that interview ?
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Thanks, OC

I used to answer animal questions on the AllExperts website. Someone contacted me via that and offered me the chance to do a radio interview about snakes.
 
In rural villages of many countries of the Middle East and Central Asia the marbled polecat is captured when young, kept and tamed in order to be a working pet for controlling vermin like rats and mice in households.
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In Kabul the capital city of Afghanistan the marbled polecat was once commonly kept in this way by shop keepers in order to control rat infestations of their stores.

Sources: "Wild Animals in Human Assistance", Riin Magnus and Ingvar Svanberg, 2017 (Journal: Ethnologia Scandinavica).

Photo credit to @Rayane.
 
Malagasy people considered the gold ring cowry to be a talisman. The Mahafely and Sakalava people used the opercula of murex shells to make a perfume for sorcery; the Sakalava used the shells in other magical rituals. The Triton’s trumpet shell was used as a trumpet in war, to call the sea to calm the wind and to warn of a storm or a spreading locust swarm. The male trumpet shell gave a powerful sound and could be used on its own or with a female trumpet shell, which could not be used on its own.
 
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