Toteroad Shagamaw - [fearsome critter]

Tote-road Shagamaw - latin name: "Bipedester delusissimus" - [Fearsome Critter]

• About this critter:  Members of the Shagamaw family are often described as an improbable "bear-moose" mixes (though other odd versions do exist) they usually have the front paws of a grizzly bear and the rear legs of a moose. it walks upright and has a shaggy-scruffy-ugly-looking face, giving it an appearance like that of a particularly beastly looking satyr. -They are rarely met through the logging forests of North America & Canada, its home turf and territory is in the New Brunswick, Quebec & Maine area. (however, certain variants to the creature exist as far along Canada as far as logging camps in B.C.) -- Shagamaw are best known for leaving confounding "moose-bear" tracks along the muddy paths, known as toteroads (supply trails) The curious creature has an affinity for imitating the movements of timber cruisers & is best known for  its peculiar habit of walking on its hands & switching back with a somersault, give or take every 80 steps, (about a quarter mile) down the tote road. (its said that it switches because it has trouble counting any higher than 440.) - Despite its somewhat startling appearance, the shagamaw is not known to attack humans, but The shagamaw is known to make off with whatever human clothing that it can find along the tote road, it has been known to either wear or snack on whatever it finds, in particular its favorites are plaid flannel, wools and fleece jackets and boots are their favourite treats.

[*Note: a "Toteroad" is a rough pathway that lumberjacks & workers would use to haul & carry supplies to & from their work sites. Warm clothing such as hats, mittens and jackets would often be left alongside them while they worked, as well as their packed food, lunches & heavy toolkits.]

--I suppose theres a possibility that certain Bigfoot sightings are actually mistaken Shagamaw sightings: as 'Flannel shirt Sasquatch' sightings are a fairly common report within the creatures range (and as far west as california) as well. (However, Simply mentioning the folkloric Shagamaw in a cryptozoological  manner is sure enough to drive any serious cryptozoologist mad to point of doing somersaults!)

• History: it's another silly Fearsome Critter that was included in "Fearsome creatures of the lumberwoods" by William T Cox [1910] - It is also mentioned in Henry H tryons "fearsome critters" [1939] - Cox includes the following story & illustration (Tryon adds very little extra information)

"Gus Demo, of Oldtown, Maine, who has hunted and trapped and logged in the  Maine woods for 40 years, once came upon what he recognized as the  tracks of a moose. After following it for about 80 rods it changed  abruptly into unmistakable bear tracks ; another 80 rods and it changed  to moose tracks again. It was soon observed by Mr. Demo that these  changes took place precisely every quarter of a mile, and, furthermore,  that whatever was making the tracks always followed a tote road or a  blazed line through the woods. Coming up within sight of the animal, Gus  saw that it had front feet like a bear's and hind feet like those of a  moose, and that it was pacing carefully, taking exactly a yard at a  step. Suddenly it stopped, looked all about, and swung as on pivot, then  inverting itself and walking on its front feet only, it resumed its  pacing. Mr. Demo was only an instant in recognizing by the witness trees  that the place where the animal changed was a section corner. From this  fact he reasoned that the shagamaw must have been originally a very  imitative animal, which, from watching surveyors timber cruisers, and  trappers patiently following lines through the woods, contracted the  habit itself. He figures that the shagamaw can count only as high as 440  ; therefore it must invert itself every quarter of a mile."

(cox's Shagamaw - The majority of modern illustrations make his top half appear more bear like, so i decided for a moose.)

• Variants: in Late July, of 1921 Northern Minnesota's News Tribune had two days of coverage of "Minnie the Whiffin-Poofit"  an apparent cousin of the shagamaw, which had "The claws of a bear, Hoofs of a Cow, Back of a Bull, Belly of a  Monkey, Ears of a Hippo, eyes of a Gnu, the upper lip of a SeaCow, the  hind legs of a Moose and the posture of a Kangaroo." - she was apparently the last of her kind and any potential mates such as "the wimpus-wallopus", "the golloping-goofus" and "the shortear shagamaw" hd gone extinct ages ago.... (the article gives a nod to W.T.Cox as well, stating that when asked, he believed it to be a member of the Shagamaw family) - 

(News Tribune archive.)

• See also: HumpDumple, Bigfoot, Flannel shirt Sasquatch, Whiffin-Poofit, "Beer. (taxidermy)"