Unknown Ground Birds
Titanus walleri, the giant predatory bird which possessed arms instead of wings. This creature may be responsible for "dinosaur" sightings in South America
The animals listed here are ground birds which have escaped the attention of western science. There are two distinct groups here; game birds which spend much of their time on the ground, and birds which cannot fly, so are forced to stay on the ground. There is some overlapping here, and many of these birds don't nessecarily spend all their time on the ground, or on land. Two of them are primarily, if not fully, aquatic. Thus there is listed here everything from towering giant rattites (hard to believe they escape attention) to unidentified marsh hens.
Peruvian wattless gaun (Peru SA): Guans are members of the galliforms, which includes things like pheasents, grouse and turkeys. This is an all black gaun with no wattles, whereas most have large red wattles on the face or neck. Probably an unidentified species, although it could just be a wattless race or variant of a known species.
Amazonian "igaunodon" (Amazon Rainforest SA): There have been several reports over the last couple hundred years of animals which the observers described as igaunodon-like being seen in the Amazon. I, however, highly doubt that there could be dinosaurs in the amazon, and would like to propose a new theory. In South America there evolved a family of birds which were giant carnivores, some reaching almost 10 feet in height. In one of these birds, Titanus walleri, the wings had actually evolved into arms, with three clawed fingers (picture at top of page). What if the "igaunodons" people have seen were really these giant, armed birds? The observer would never think of there being huge birds with arms; he would liken his sighting to a dinosaur.
"sandgoose" (Countries in the Sahara Desert AFRICA): A rather amusing myth, I believe that the sandgoose may have a grain of truth to it. a flightles, goose-like bird said to live in the desert sands and to be completely unafraid of human beings. such a reaction would be expected of an animal which lives on a remote island and has no contact with people, not something in an area where any kind of animal is eaten. the myth goes on to say that the sandgoose can speak in the manner of a human, but I think this is probably due to some form of religious significance given to it by the natives of the region, which would explain it's fearlessness. in my opinion, it may be a large relative of the sand grouse, which are themselves related to pigeons.
Makalala (Central Africa): A giant predatory bird which cannot fly is said to exist by the natives of Central Africa. I don't know if there were ever giant carnivorous birds in Africa, but since there were in North America, South America, and Australia, and these continents were not connected at the time, it's possible for giant predators to develop independently of each other.
Zululand Black Fowl (Zululand AFRICA): A large black fowl with red beak and legs which was formerly reported Zululand. It may be extinct now. Most probably a new species of francolin or guinea hen.
Hiva Oa flightless bird (Marquesas Islands OCEANA): A flightless bird reported from Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. It was seen by people such as Thor Heyerdahl and several reputed ornithologists. The creature is said to resemble the takahe, a flightless relative of coots with a rich purple plumage, except that it has no green in the plumage and has a yellow beak and feet, as opposed to the red beak and feet of a takahe. Members of the takahe's genus are found throughout Western Polynesia, and sub-fossil bones of one species (Porphyrio paepae) are known only from Hiva Oa. It seems a safe bet, hell, a sure thing that the Hiva Oa flightless bird is P. paepae. However, according to the locals they were wiped out, so we may never prove that they survived to the 20th century.
Tahitian "goose" (Tahiti OCEANA): The accounts of early travellers to Tahiti speak of a large flightless bird found in the mountains. One traveller can be quoted as saying "[...] the mountains produce birds of different kinds unknown to us, among which are a large bird nearly the size of a goose, which is good food ; they are never observed near the sea nor in the low lands." Some have speculated that it is a treu goose, but I think that it's more likely to be a large marsh hen of some kind, like the Lord Howe Island woodhen.
Moas (South Island on New Zealand OCEANA): The moas were a group of strange birds, related to kiwis, which possesed no wings and shortened beaks. The largest of them reached over 10 feet tall; the smallest was the size of a pheasent. They were supposedly wiped out by the Maoris, but there have been recent reports of small moas, turkey-sized, and one woman in the early 1900's reported seeing a giant moa walking along a beach. It's doubtful that the giant species could still exist today,t hough they might have when the sighting occured, but the smaller species could still be around.
Dodo (Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean): Altough both dodo species and the solitaire were wiped out from the three populated islands in the Mascarenes, there are many other islands in that archipeligo which remain unpopulated and generally unexplored. This is where sightings of dodos are coming out of. If Mauritius, Reunion and Rodriguez each had thier own species (The solitaire lived on both Rodriguez and Reunion) then why not these other islands harbour a seperate species than the ones found on Mauritius or Reunion? As no solitaires have been reported (They looked kinda like big-headed geese) it's doubtful any survive.
Great Auk (Whale and Fish Islands in the North Atlantic): The Great Auk was wiped out by humans, but they are reportedly still alive on these islands in the Atlantic. I a breeding colony existed, I propose that they would take to nesting in caves like monk seals have, perhaps in caves with submerged entrances. If the auk's only nesting ground was in a cavern with the only entrance 60 feet under water, with a large air-filled space of course, then they could easily go almost entirely undetected save for a few sporadic sightings.
Florida Giant Penguin (Off the coast of Clearwater Beach in Florida NA): Although it seems ludicrus to think that a penguin could exist near florida, don't be so quik to judge.... Ivan T. Sanderson took a very avid interest in the reports of a gigantic penguin-like bird seen off of Florida and in the Suwanee River. He even proposed that the White Riover monster from Arkansas was such a giant penguin. Basically, there were two instances where groups of people witnessed the 15 foot tall bird. One was when it was actually on the beach, and masses of people sawtrhe creature. The second instance was when a groupof people in aboat witnessed such a bird floating on the ocean. Thirdly, several years later, a private airplane flying over the Suwaneee River saw such a penguin-like bird on the banks. My opinion is that there were many other sightings, probably by single people or a pair, and that they never said anything for fear of ridicule. I find these reports interesting, and encourage people to do as Ivan T. and follow up on 'em.
