It was known for nearly half a century as the Bigfoot of the Amazon, a once folkloric

forest spirit made into a real undiscovered animal by the cryptozoology community.

But then the story was turned on its head, and ever since then the press has labeled

the Mapping Warri as a surviving example of the supposedly extinct, giant ground sloth.

Well, whatever it is, it's coming up right now on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com

on the trail of the Mapping Warri.

Today we're going to take our machete and hack our way into the jungles of the Amazon

in search of a folkloric character that some say exists as a real creature.

Some say it's a species of bear, some say it's an undiscovered Bigfoot-like primate,

and some say it's, well, we'll get to that.

But until Americans got there, the Brazilians always considered their Mapping Warri

to be yet another character from their folklor.

Well, that story has now changed a lot.

The Mapping Warri has traditionally been one of many characters said to be spirits that

protect the forest and its animals from hunters, woodcutters, and any disrespectful people

who come in and are loud who make camps and leave messes or build fires.

As with nearly all such characters, a few people have reported actually seeing one.

The Mapping Warri is said to be quite remarkable in its appearance.

It's the size of a large human with a frightening single large eye on the front of its head.

It's mouth enormous and located way down in the middle of its belly.

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