How this works
Cryptid Junkie maps reported encounters with strange creatures, and links each one to where it was told. Here is how a report becomes a case, and what the map can and can't tell you.
What is a case?
A case is one reported encounter: somebody says they saw, heard or found something, at a place and a time. The case page says what was reported, where and when (only as precisely as the source does), and links every document we found that tells it.
We map claims, not creatures. A case records that an account exists, not that it is true. Nothing on this site is proof that any creature is real.
25,055 cases on the map today. Browse the newest or start from a creature.
How are reports grouped into a case?
A language model running on our own computer reads each document and pulls out the encounter it describes: what, where, when, and a one-sentence summary in our words, tied to the passage it came from. Then plain rules, with no model, decide which reports are the same encounter: shared text, the same place on the same day or month, the same named witness, the same details. A person reviews the close calls.
Each case's source trail shows which of those reasons joined its documents, and where they disagree.
Example: why these records are connected for Other Aquatic · Durban, KwaZulu-Natal · 1925.
Are copied accounts independent confirmation?
No. A story reprinted in thirty newspapers, or one post cross-posted to five forums, is one account. We detect copies by their shared text and keep them in the same row of the source trail as the account they copy. They are never counted as extra witnesses.
The earliest copy we hold is marked earliest found. It is the earliest we found, not necessarily the original: an earlier telling may exist that we haven't collected.
Example: follow one story through its copies. The 1,652 rabbit holes rank cases by how many documents stand on each independent account.
Why are some map locations estimates, or missing?
A case is never placed more precisely than its source. If an account names a town, it sits on the town; if it names only a county or a state, it sits on that, and the case page says which. Exact spots are never shown.
A fallback location is a stand-in when the account doesn't say where: usually the town a newspaper was printed in. It isn't where anything was seen, so the map hides fallback markers until you turn them on in the filters, and draws them hollow when you do. 2,584 cases have one.
Example: Other Aquatic · Loch Ness, Alba / Scotland · 2020.
Some accounts give no place we can look up at all: a video that never names a town, say. Those 9,361 cases aren't drawn on the map, but they are still cases, with their sources. The map lists them under Cases with no resolvable place, and each creature has a page of them.
Example: Bigfoot reports with no dependable place (3,703).
Where do the accounts come from, and how are sources chosen?
From public places where people tell these stories: witness databases (BFRO, NAWAC, the Loch Ness Sightings Register), historical newspapers from the Library of Congress, newsletters of the International Society of Cryptozoology, and first-hand posts and videos on Reddit, YouTube and TikTok. A checking pass drops videos that describe no encounter at all (commentary, folklore, ads).
How much of a source we show depends on that source: some cases carry a short quote, others only our summary and the link. Usernames are never shown, and private people's names in modern accounts are removed (a name an old newspaper printed is shown as printed). Every case links back to where we found it.
What are rabbit holes and flaps?
A rabbit hole is one case's source trail drawn as a graph: every document that tells it, in time order, one row per independent account, with copies and the sources they cite hanging off them.
A flap is a burst of reports: several separate accounts close together in place and time, far more than that place usually sees. A flap is a burst of reports; panics, hoaxes and newspaper fashions make flaps too.
Example: Flap: Loch Ness, Alba / Scotland, Dec 1933 – Aug 1934 · All rabbit holes and flaps
For a single strange place to start, Wait… what now? picks one reported account a day from a hand-approved shelf. Each one is a reported account, not a confirmed event, and links its case and sources.
Something is wrong. How do I report a correction?
Every case page has a Request a correction or removal link at the end of its source trail. Use it to tell us a case is misplaced, merged wrongly, or names someone it shouldn't; it reaches a person. If you own a source and want it credited differently or removed, use the corrections page.
We map claims, not creatures. Open the map · Creatures · Rabbit holes