The Monster That Terrorized New Zealand In The 1880s

After months of searching, the saurian monster met its end along the coast near Raglan. According to the Patea Mail dated November 10, 1887, a Maori man in a canoe off Raglan Harbor saw a giant animal sleeping on the beach. After assembling a group of men, they approached the animal. The monster awakened, "grunting, barking and snapping its ugly jaws."

After the men shot the animal, it perished on the beach. The Maori measured the creature, reporting it as "11 feet in length, and six feet in circumference." They dragged it to Raglan's wharf, where a crane positioned it for inspection by curious and confounded onlookers.

What did the Maoris present at the wharf? Something unlike any previous eyewitness descriptions. It wasn't a crocodile or an alligator, and it didn't have a thick, black, shaggy coat. Instead, the creature bore a fine layer of fur, from head to tail, along with two flippers and no ears. Journalists also noted that it had a "mouth that could swallow a man" with "16 teeth in each jaw, four of them being like tusks." Other reports described it as having "two large screw-like propellers in lieu of a tail" and a head "like that of a leopard" (via Atlas Obscura). It had a svelte, silverish body and a stomach stuffed full of dead birds, as opposed to mutton.

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