Is this what Malaya's
mystifying two-tongued cryptids looked like? (created by me using Grok X1)
The days spanning
Christmas and the New Year are traditionally ones filled with mystery and
magic, a time of weirdness and wonder. So what better day than today, New
Year's Eve, to present here on ShukerNature for your entertainment and enjoyument
during this time the following cryptozoological conundrum?
In 1997, I included the following account in my book From
Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings, hoping that
someone reading it might be able to propose an identity for the mysterious
creatures described, as I was thoroughly perplexed by them – but no-one ever
did. Consequently, I can only assume that these cryptids left them as
taxonomically tongue-tied as they have done with me. Nor have I ever uncovered
any additional information concerning them. So, 26 years later, in 2023, I
reprinted my account in my regular Alien Zoo column on mystery animals and
animal mysteries for the British magazine Fortean
Times as a fascinating crypto-riddle to ponder over during the festive
season, just in case it did elicit a solution from someone that time. Once
again, however, answer came there none.
My book From
Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings (© Dr Karl Shuker/Llewellyn Publications)
Consequently, one year
on from its appearance in Alien Zoo, and in the hope that the familiar phrase
""third time lucky" will indeed prove true on this occasion,
here yet again is the my account recalling the tangled tale of the two-tongues,
in case ShukerNature's redoubtable readers can provide the long-sought key to
its locked box of beastly secrets:
On May 27
1939, Modern Wonder documented some 'ultra-mysterious' mammals,
allegedly captured by a photographer in the Malayan jungles and later observed
by bemused officials in Manila, in the Philippines. Each of the beasts (of
unrecorded number) was described as being quadrupedal, weighing about 200
pounds, covered in a furry, mole-like pelage (i.e. dark, dense, and shiny?),
with a raccoon-like head [masked?], a pair of owl-like eyes (thus large and
staring?), and odd dentition - some of its teeth resembled a man's, others were
cat-like – plus a fondness for bananas. Except for their extremely heavy weight
(an error on the part of the original report?), there would seem to be a chance
of identifying them with some known animal type – until, that is, their most
distinctive characteristic is revealed.
For the
description also stated that each of these beasts had two tongues! Furthermore,
it alleged that they never drank, because they absorbed all of the moisture
that they required directly through their skins. This is generally a feature of
certain animals living in water or in moist habitats, but the animals concerned
are normally amphibians, fishes, and lower life forms, not mammals. Conversely,
it is true that many desert-dwelling rodents rarely if ever drink water,
because they obtain it from their food (e.g. juicy plant tissues) or from
metabolic water released as they digest the dry components of their diet, but
they do not absorb water through their skins. Masked palm civet Paguma larvata, native to Peninsular Malaysia, named after its raccoon-like
facial mask (© Denise Chan/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 2.0 licence)
In general
appearance (and excluding weight), they are reminiscent of some of the
lesser-known, mask-faced forms of Malay civet and badger – elusive,
short-furred creatures of nocturnal lifestyle and partial to fruit within their
largely omnivorous diet. Moreover, the owl-like eyes call to mind the tarsiers
- those orb-eyed, sucker-fingered, lemur-like primates indigenous to southeast
Asia (including the Malay Archipelago), and sufficiently strange in appearance
to those not familiar with these rarely-seen nocturnal creatures to attract
surprise and newspaper attention.
Sunda stink (=skunk) badger Mydaus javanensis, native to Indonesia and
Malaysia, photographed in Malaysia (© Thompson Hyggen – copyright-free)
Even so,
none of those identities can reconcile the mystery beasts' two tongues and the
ability to absorb moisture directly through their skins. Could these attributes
have been based upon misunderstanding or mistranslation, rather than upon
reality? As nothing more is on record regarding the photographer's mystifying
finds, there is no way of knowing.
Tarsiers are nothing if not goblinesque, even
otherworldly, in appearance, especially to anyone unfamiliar with these curious
yet harmless creatures (© LDC Inc Foundation/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence / (© Pieere
Fidenci/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 2.0 licence)
So there it is, the
owl-eyed, twin-tongued, never-drinking plantain-eater – if nothing else (and confirming that I'm easily pleased!), it scans
satisfyingly like the one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater
immortalised in a classic 1958 Sheb Wooley novelty song and 30 years later in a
1988 family movie directly inspired by it! Failing abysmally in my attempts to
generate a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater, here's a two-eyed,
two-horned flying purple people eater instead! (created by me using
Magic Studio)Meanwhile, any thoughts or
suggestions as to the two-tongues' possible identity, or any extra reports/information
regarding them, would be very gratefully received! A two-tongue with a banquet of bananas awaiting
its pleasure! (created by me using Grok X1)Incidentally, as some
of you know, I've been experimenting with various AI image-generators, testing
their capabilities and limitations so as to be better equipped to recognise
AI-generated fake cryptozoologically-themed images with which the Net seems to
be increasingly awash of late. So, as no image of the Malayan two-tongues has
ever been created to my knowledge, I decided to put to the test two different
AI image-generators that I've been exploring, Grok X1 and Magic Studio, and see how
they performed when prompted to produce pictures of these bizarre beasts.
And, as I'm sure that
those out there who are not AI fans will be delighted to learn, both programs
were aptly rendered tongue-tied (or whatever the AI equivalent state is!) by
the tortuous challenge posed by the two-tongues. Not only did they fail utterly
to depict them as the very sizeable animals that anything weighing 200 lb must
surely be (instead presenting what look far more like diminutive cubs!), but
also, out of all the numerous images that they generated, only one, produced by
Grok X1, actually featured creatures possessing two tongues apiece – and here it
is:
A pair of two-tongues actually depicted
with two tongues! (created by me using Grok)
Overall, Grok X1 was the
superior creator with regard to this particular pictorial task, as it also
created a number of images featuring creatures with a single but bilobed tongue
that my own digital addition of a hand-drawn line separating the lobes into two
separate tongues was sufficient to engender some satisfactory twin-tongued
entities that I've included in this article. Even so, they still did not overly
resemble the original 1977 verbal description of these creatures, quoted by me
above.
As for Magic Studio:
usually a very accurate depicter of animals (give or take some extra or
deformed fingers/toes and the occasional additional leg, or two...): faced with
providing an accurate portrayal of the two-tongues, it threw a veritable
generative gasket, and yielded some illustrations of animals that bore no
resemblance whatsoever to the two-tongues' verbal description. It even garbled
my prompt for their tongues to be pink, bestowing upon its mixed-up mammals some
portions of pink fur instead! However, albeit wholly inaccurate zoologically speaking,
aesthetically some of the creatures thus created by Magic Studio were so attractive, appealing, and downright adorable that I couldn't bear to delete them. So here is a selection of them, in all of
their delightful dottiness:
All three images created by me using Magic Studio
If nothing else,
designers of prospective new cuddly toys could do a lot worse than be inspired
by some of these ultra-cute beasties. You can pay me my 10% creator's
commission later!
Today would have been
the birthday of Nan, my maternal grandmother Gertrude Timmins (who once
experienced a decidedly Fortean event of her own – click here to read all about it), who
passed away peacefully in her sleep at the grand old age of 99 back in 1994.
Just like me, and also like her daughter, my mother Mary Shuker, Nan loved wildlife
and Nature in general, so I'm sure that she would have approved of my writing
and presenting this fascinating fauna case here today on her birthday. God
bless you Nan, and Mom, and all of my family, all of whom are long gone now but
never forgotten by me. Ome day we shall be back together, never to be separated
again.
My late grandmother, Gertrude Timmins, with
Patch, my little wire-haired Jack Russell terrier (© Dr Karl Shuker)
Wishing all of my
ShukerNature blog readers, and all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog readers too, a Happy New
Year – may 2025 prove to be a kindly, successful year for you.
And it's toodle-pip from the two-tongues too!
(created by me using Grok X1)