Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]
Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]

Gumberoo - [Fearsome critter]

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Gumberoo - (Latin: Megalogaster repercussus)

• About this Critter:
A gigantic plump, round bear-like creature in appearance, (but much larger than a bear) used to explain sudden forest fires. Gumberoo are scarcely met along the pacific coast, in the foggy forests from Washington to California, where they make dens underneath the hollowed-out trunks of burned-out old cedar trees. Coos Bay Woodsmen insist that the smell of burnt rubber in the air was a sure sign that the Gumberoo was nearby, often describing it as a gigantic, round, almost entirely hairless bear with coal-burnt, tough leathery skin, but with prominent eyebrows and long, bristly hairs on its chin. The creature has an insatiable appetite: A whole horse may be eaten at one sitting, but fortunately is not swift in its movements or annoyed in the slightest degree by the presence of enemies. -The creature's shiny, smooth rubbery pelt was said to be impenetrable and able to bounce back anything thrown or shot at it, be it a bullet or an axe, it will be flung back at the aggressor with fatal force. - indeed It would be the king of the woods if not for one glaring weakness, Fire: The animal burns very easily, like celluloid, but with explosive results!!! Because of this, it was believed that perhaps the prevalence of forest fires explained the scarcity of the creature. - In the dead of night, lumberjacks were said to be awoken by loud explosions caused by Gumberoos spontaneously combusting, due to ashes left over from campfires. -
Photographers beware as its said that taking a photo of the beast will cause the negatives to explode as well!! ...Wait... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

• History: Yet another Fearsome Critter with a near-perfect attendance record! –
The earliest published mention of the gumberoo seems to be William T Cox's Fearsome Creatures of the lumberwoods. [1910.] - As with most of the critters by cox, they quite likely originated as oral stories or tales spun around the campfire, spread & shared between lumberworkers and woodsmen

[William T Cox, Illustrated  by  Coert  Du  Bois Public domain.]

The Gumberoo has frequent ties in with Paul Bunyan lore, a shorter description to cox's was included in "Paul Bunyans Natural History [1936]"


•Variants: a goofier variant with the latin name: Formax rotor. was presented by Henry H Tryon in fearsome critters. [1939] - an odd creature not uncommonly met in the 'upsidown country' it has a small head with long monkey-like arms with sharp claws for hanging in trees, a" Pot-bellied-bunkhouse-stove-shaped-body" with 3 lower legs, which are mostly used for balancing upright, eight pairs of "strong springy feet" are set around its belly which it used to cannonball itself around the forest undetected. Apparently, the souls of these addittional feet make for fine gumboots but these arerare as the creature is nearly extinct. - This comical variant more frequently appears in published Paul Bunyan stories, it seems that tyron based it directly on "Ol' paul the mighty logger" [Glen Rounds, 1936 & 1976]
[above image Illustrated by Margaret R. Tryon - Fearsome Critters, 1939, Public domain.] This variant also reminds me of the Australian "drop bear" - There might be some relation as its said to be met in the "Upsidown Country" - I might make a  sticker variant for this version another time, its so charming.]

A short story titled "The Hunter, the Tick and the Gumberoo" (by George Mendoza published 1971.) - [You can read a retelling of it in
Hairticklers, 1989.] features an interesting variant to the Gumberoo: it tells a tale of a hunter resolving to shoot the Gumberoo. - During his travels he gets bitten by an annoying tick, which it embeds itself into the hunter's cheek, the hunter pays it little mind, but it begins to grow as a lump on his cheek, growing so large it eventually incapacitates him. The story ends when the hunter realizes what this actually is, and he must put a bullet in his own head: The Gumberoo in this story can apparently shrink to take on the appearance of a tiny brown tick, something which does not seem to be present in other lore. - But curiously enough, the original book does seem to have the round, Megalogaster repercussus variant on the cover.


• Modern day depictions:
Most popular modern depictions of the Gumberoo give it a very wide, creepy smile and squinty 'black' eyes. - This 'look' was seemingly inspired by artwork of the Gumberoo which was included in Richard Svenssons Fearsome Critters! (published in 2008.)
[The first few images that comes up when you google "Gumberoo"] - This image is spread wildly & like the rest of Richards Fearsome critter art sadly, it nearly almost always goes unaccredited when it is used: Worse yet, Unlike William T Cox & Henry H Tryon's, the mentioned design is NOT yet in the public domain.  - Derivatives of this design have been used in everything from Cardgames to Youtube videos to merchandise & bestiarys which include the Gumberoo, without any proper permission or attribution. - This bit of infringement is largely because the Cyptid wiki (& others like it)  almost never source or even date their images. - (Please also check out more of Richards work on his deviant art here: @loneanimator.) [I'm a huge fan of his iconically detailed critter artwork, I find it a bit of a shame that he's almost never given the credit for it... - [Just for the record, I am mentioning this just in case anyone might wonder why I didn't go for the 'modern-classic' toothy grinning smiley bear!]

in modern cryptozoology: The Gumberoo is often shrugged off and rationalized as have been simply 'a black bear with mange' despite being described 'as much larger than a bear' in the original texts. hmm...

• Some bonus bear facts! for those curious: ‘Gummy bears’ (the candy) where invented in 1922!!! - The concept of a "Teddy Bear" was also relatively new and had only come about in 1902 (Named after Teddy Rosevelt. [of course 'stuffed animals' date back much further.] The song "teddybears picnic" was composed in 1907 and given lyrics in 1932. Smokey the bear came about in 1944. - So, curiously, stories of bouncing Gumberoo does indeed seem to predate most of these seemingly relative concepts!

• see also: Similar critters: stiff legged bear.  •Similar yokai: Onikuma. Kodama Nezumi.

Sticker Art by Samkalensky, Part of my Fearsome Critters collection of stickers! Check my shop and follow for many more!

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