The Cryptid Zoo: Feline Bipeds

Feline bipeds are a bizarre variety of hairy humanoid that resembles Bigfoot, except that feline bipeds have cat heads. Often, feline bipeds have other cat features too, such as a panther's tail. Most of them seem to be based on black panthers, but other varieties such as tiger men are reported in lesser quantities.

This wereleopard is from the film 'Half-Caste' This screenshot is copyrighted by those who own the copyright to the film.

The Sumatran lion or cigau is sometimes characterized as a feline biped. Most scientists working in the field of cryptozoology ignore feline bipeds, since these creatures sound too weird to be real.

When cryptozoologists do pay attention to feline biped reports, they generally have two approaches: one, they try to reclassify these creatures as some variety of mystery big cat such as the eastern cougar, or two, they will try to classify them as ordinary Bigfoot-type hairy humanoids. In either case, they choose to discard as superstition any characteristics that clash with the chosen viewpoint. For example, a cryptozoologist who decided on the Bigfoot hypothesis might think that the cat features were mistakes due to the stresses placed on the mind of the witness by extreme panic, while a different researcher who favored the big cat theory might come up with a reason why a cat might be walking around on its hind legs, and then attribute any human anatomical features to faulty observation.

In the realm of folklore and mythology, there are more interpretations than are available in the field of cryptozoology. Sometimes feline bipeds are viewed as werecats in local legend. Werecats are shapeshifters that resemble werewolves, however they turn into cats instead of wolves. Werecats are found in the mythology of nearly every nation in the world. Other mythology assigns different origins to feline bipeds. Especially prevalent is the concept of a punishment or curse. North American Indian folklore explains a half-cougar woman, the ewah or wampus cat, as a punishment that befell a woman who spied on secret meetings that were for men only. On occasion, feline bipeds are supposed to be the result of humans breeding with cats.

You can find out more about Feline Bipeds from the following sources:

Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. New York: Paraview Press, 2001. Pages 110, 120

Hall, Jamie. Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures. Bloomington, Indiana: Authorhouse, 2003. Pages 97-100

Moggycat. Anomalous Felids

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Newton, Michael. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2005. Page 106

Steiger, Brad. Out of the Dark: The Complete Guide to Beings from Beyond. New York: Kensington Books, 2001. Pages 154-160

Wikipedia, The. Werecat

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