Here on Guam there are the Taotaomona. Jungle spirits that are revered and respected by the Chamorru that live here. They're not evil or anything like that. However, if you decide to relieve yourself one way or the other in the jungle without telling them you'll come out with some severe disease that only the local witch doctor can cure.

And back in the land of my ancestry (both my parents are from the Philippines) are the “Aswang”. They take many forms, and the ones I was told about detach themselves from their legs and pelvis and fly off in search of pregnant women. And like a mosquito they shoot a drinking straw-like thing into the women and suck out the unborn child, killing both mother and unborn child. The only way to kill that monstrosity was to find its lower half and add a special seasoning to the top. Monster comes back and if it can't reconnect by morning (thanks to the seasoning) the rising sun kills it.

What sort of monsters do you know of from where you live now or from the people you're descended from (your ancestry)?

David Lynch.

Well, I think the Sasquatch hangs around Canada.

And there are a lot of native stories about monsters…but I don't know much about those, unfortunately.

In London we had Spring Heeled Jack:



He could jump really high apparently. Not as high as Jet Legged Hippie though.

Here in New Zealand we have taniwha…

In Mori mythology, taniwha are beings that live in deep pools in rivers, dark caves, or in the sea, especially in places with dangerous currents or deceptive breakers.

At sea, taniwha often appear as a whale or a large shark; the Mori name for the Great white shark is Mang-taniwha. In inland waters, they may still be of whale-like dimensions, but look more like a gecko or a tuatara, having a row of spines along the back. Other taniwha appear as a floating log, which behaves in a disconcerting way . Some can tunnel through the earth, uprooting trees in the process. Certain taniwha are credited with creating harbours by carving out a channel to the ocean. Wellington's harbour, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, was reputedly carved out by two taniwha; the petrified remains of one of them turned into a hill overlooking the city. Other taniwha are said to have caused landslides beside lakes or rivers. Taniwha can either be male or female. The Taniwha Araiteuru is said to have arrived in New Zealand with the early voyaging canoes and her eleven sons are credited with creating the various branches of the Hokianga Harbour

An Aswang is allegedly a type of reptilian.

http://www.reptilianagenda.com/exp/e100301a.shtml

I recently read the remarkable book The Biggest Secret“, and was not at all surprised to learn of the existence of shape-shifting reptilian entities in human form, because I myself was married to a shape-shifter for five years. I sent you an e-mail (a few months ago) concerning my experiences when living with this woman, but I forgot to mention something that may be of interest to you regarding shape-shifters.

A few years after my divorce from the shape-shifter, I married a young lady from the Philippines and spent several years living with her on the island of Luzon, in a small town about 70 miles north of Manila. When I was living out there, I was repeatedly warned by people not to leave any house doors or windows open at night because of the danger from ”aswang.“ At first I dismissed the notion of ”aswang“ as a silly superstition, and ignored the advice to keep the house shut up at night - I couldn't stand the heat!

When I inquired as to exactly what an ”aswang“ was, my wife told me that there are certain families in the Philippines, notably in the central Visayan islands, who are not human beings but entities of an evil nature, having the power to literally shape-shift into something resembling a large bat or bird. At night, my wife explained, these people shape-shift and fly off in search of blood. When they find a victim, preferably a human victim, they sink a long sort of proboscis into the flesh and drain the blood. This, I was told, often results in the death of the victim from blood loss. When I was told all this, I laughed and refused to take it seriously, but I eventually discovered that there is much evidence that ”aswang“ almost certainly do exist.

The ability to shape-shift into an aswang exists only within certain families in the Philippines, and appears to be carried through the bloodline. Apparently, members of these notorious families never marry anyone who is not also a shape-shifter, thus the bloodlines are never mixed (hence never diluted) with normal human bloodlines.

I learned from my wife's mother that she herself was once a victim of an aswang attack, but fortunately woke up during the assault and cut of the proboscis of the entity with a sharf knife that she habitually kept under her pillow. (I discovered that many people in the Philippines sleep with a knife under their pillow in case of an aswang attack.)

During my time in the Philippines I found out that the phenomenon of the aswang is taken very seriously by many people there, and is almost universally accepted as a fact by the inhabitants of some of the central Philippine islands where most of the aswang families reside.

Not long before I left the Philippines for the last time (in June 1994) I read an interesting report in the Manila Bulletin, one of the country's national newspapers. It stated that several people in the Tondo district of Manila had recently become victims of aswang attacks, and had died as a result. In response to this, the police had set up what was called an ”aswang patrol“. This was a special unit of armed police whose duty it was to patrol the streets of Tondo at night, with orders to shoot and kill on sight any aswang that appeared on the scene. When I discussed this report with local people, they told me that aswang patrols were frequently set up in areas where aswang attacks ocurred. All this confirmed to me the seriousness with which the authorities take the phenomenon. It was obvious that they don't regard it as superstitious nonsense.

I have also read a report by a Christian missionary who lived for more than 20 years in the Philippines, in which he writes of the ”demonic reality“ of the aswang. He claims to have seen these entities on several occasions, and says that he once actually witnessed the transformation of a certain person into the bat-like form of an aswang. He states that he also saw a number of blood-drained victims of aswang attacks, and knows how real is the existence of these terrible aswang entities. His personal belief was that the members of certain families out there become possessed by evil spirits at night, and are thus able to shape-shift.

When in the Philippines I also heard a story about a man who lived in Manila, who supposedly had the ability to shape-shift into a large snake. At first I was very doubtful about this, but I spoke to so many people who claimed to have witnessed this transformation, that I began to consider the story to be possibly true.

It appears that not only are there shape-shifting reptiles on this earth, there are also various other creatures - including the bat-like ”aswang." I would imagine that all of these entities originate in the lower fourth dimension, but I have no idea how or why so many of them managed to get into human incarnation. In my contacts with various positive spirit entities some years ago, I was told repeatedly that not only are there negative and destructive non-human entities on this earth, there are also a number of positive non-human entities in human form, who have incarnated here in order to try and counter-balance the negativity of the evil ones. So, it's not all doom and gloom! (If you are interested in knowing more about the positive non-human entities in our midst, just let me know.)

Warmest Regards
Name withheld

In Australia we have the Rainbow Serpent (among others) which is an Aboriginal monster.

Rainbow serpent? Trying really hard not make a joke about George Michaels Penis here…

The sea monster of Devil's lake in North dakota: http://www.devilslakend.com/tourism/lake_legends.htm

aside from the sea monster, North Dakota is basically full of aliens. UFO sightings, conspiracies, and the like. :P
we even got a few crop circles here.

In Los Angeles all we have is The Crabs…

Stay away from our women! Though it's impossible to do so ; )

Ryan_Scott
Rainbow serpent? Trying really hard not make a joke about George Michaels Penis here…

ehhh well, at least we don't have the marmite monster here.

The…Rat King?
I'm not sure if what I heard is bullshit or not, but I heard they're a bunch of rats, and their poo got caught in their tails, and now they're all stuck together. Sounds really unlikely…But I don't really doubt it.

Man that sucks.

I just checked now, “The Rat King is particularly associated with Germany, where the majority of instances have been reported.”
Dammit! I don't even have turd tail. ;_;

Yes, in Oz we wave the Rainbow Serpent, or "Woggle".
It's a gigantic, massive, monstrous snake with rainbow coloured scale and usually a black head. It's believed in by almost all the different aboriginal language groups. Sometimes it's size is super massive (planetary), but usually it just gets as big as something like a mountain (when it was making rivers and other geological features), and sometimes it's as small as an aircraft runway.
The Rainbow serpent was responsible for creating Australia and all the land features during the Dreamtime. It's the most sacred creature/god that there is to native Australians.

We have Dropbears. They're giant carnivorous Koalas that drop out of trees on to tourists and decapitate them. :)

There's the Bunyip or Yowie. No one knows for sure just what that thing is supposed to look like or what it does… They say it lives in secret quiet places in the deep bush, or under the waters of billabongs. They probably kill you by drowning or something. Some say they're like a dragon, some say they're a big hairy ape-man.

Then there's the Quinkan.
Quinkans are tall and very thin, usually dark, or very light with no features except two eyes on their face and two big hanging ear shapes on the sides of their heads. They're a good spirit people who guard the bush and protect lost children, keeping them safe and free from harm until their parents find them. But they can be vengeful if offended.
-There's another rival type of spirit people, they're sort of like the Quinkan, but they're shorter, more muscular and fat. They have mouths and sharp teeth, and patterns on their skin, I think they're usually dark red in colour. Unlike the Quinkan they try and steal children away to eat them. Indeed, they'll try to lure any unwary person away, deeper into the bush, to make them lost, bewildered and easy prey for their tribe.
-The Quinkan are well aware of their activities though and will try and thwart them if they can. They fight ferocious battles with each other.

NJ… well, the Jersey Devil is well renowned here for living in the Pine Barrens, but what it looks like depends on person to person. Usually reptilian body, bipedal, winged, sometimes with a horse like head.

We have a giant cat that eats people. He went on a prowl during winter solstace so now he's associated with christmas. Apparently he eats you now if you don't recieve any clothing for christmas. Makes all the little kids much more happy with recieving those soft presents.

Also there's this serpent that resides in this large river somewhere around here. The lagarfljot-serpent. Some crazy cryptozoology show called Destination Truth came here to find it once.

We've just got lots and lots of ghosts here in New Orleans. Unless you count the goblins that steal my socks at the laundry.

In Oregon there's Sasquatch of course, though Canada already called it. Damn Canada, always stealing our monster thunder! If ghosts count Old Town Pizza is supposed to be haunted. There's apparently a ghost that lives in what used to be an elevator (the pizza place used to be a hotel.) Also there's Pittock Mansion that's supposed to be haunted too but hey, all creepy old mansions are haunted right?
I'm not sure if this counts but Portland had pirates too. Not goofy people dressed as pirates, (we still got those,) but actual pirates. Old Town used to be a dangerous place to go drinking because in the wrong bar at the wrong time you could pass out and end up on a ship to be pressed into work or sold into slavery. This actually happened well into the 1920's and the Shanghai Tunnels that led from Old Town to the river are still there.

Austin's supposed to be pretty haunted as well, but I bet New Orleans gives it a run for its money ^.^ In my area, we have chupacabra, which, thanks to The X-Files, pretty much everyone knows about. It's the “goat-sucker,” and apparently it… well… sucks the goop out of goats and misc. other farm animals.

Here in Ecuador we have the usual encounters with the Devil (who builded the San Francisco's Church Atrium) and a few Ghosts like la Dama Tapada (The Covered Lady?) that enchants men before show her skull face. However, those are regarded as nothing but stories.

However, as proper monsters, we had some Chupacabras reports since 96…

Apparently the legend of Bloody Mary comes from Pennsylvania folklore. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, calling upon her and freaking out when you saw a glimpse of something was one of those things that was popular to do in the first grade. I never tried though, because I was and still am terrified of ghosts.

there are tons of legendary monsters and creatures of myth in utah, such as:

i have a monster in my bed i call TED…he eats my dreams and vomit nightmares. I then take my note pad and write the nightmares down and I make into a comic called “Dreams in Synergy”

subcultured
i have a monster in my bed i call TED…he eats my dreams and vomit nightmares. I then take my note pad and write the nightmares down and I make into a comic called “Dreams in Synergy”

TED seems like a gay monster if he sleeps with you - a man - every night. It is nice to see that you accept TED for his alternative lifestyle and continue to savor his friendship regardless of this fact.

I have a monster living in my bed named MIKEY, only what he doesnt know is… I'm the gay one.

im a legendary monster living in some humans house and i have to say our rights are being trampled upon.

A Zapdos.

ozoneocean
Yes, in Oz we wave the Rainbow Serpent, or "Woggle".
It's a gigantic, massive, monstrous snake with rainbow coloured scale and usually a black head. It's believed in by almost all the different aboriginal language groups. Sometimes it's size is super massive (planetary), but usually it just gets as big as something like a mountain (when it was making rivers and other geological features), and sometimes it's as small as an aircraft runway.
The Rainbow serpent was responsible for creating Australia and all the land features during the Dreamtime. It's the most sacred creature/god that there is to native Australians.

Great… read about him in a Wiki article. And I find him interesting (given my fear of snakes).

I wonder how he would fare if he ended up fighting Jörmungandr (the giant snake from Norse Mythology, child of Loki, etc…)

man, it's really cool learning about all these creatures. hell i might have to rip you guys off.

well there's nothing i'd call legendary here, but it does have it's ghost stories. i looked some up. there's supposed to be the ghost of an indian cheif that runs throught the woods howling, and there's supposed to be a colonial lady with a gun that shows up in some of the windows around town. then there's supposed to be a bird that turns into a lady under ceratin conditions at night at the dam up the road. this is a colonial type town so everyone's got stories. hell i just try not to get eaten by bears.

ozoneocean
There's the Bunyip or Yowie. No one knows for sure just what that thing is supposed to look like or what it does… They say it lives in secret quiet places in the deep bush, or under the waters of billabongs. They probably kill you by drowning or something. Some say they're like a dragon, some say they're a big hairy ape-man.

Bunyips and yowies are different things.

Bunyips live in the water and have many different descriptions of their physique. The only consistency about them is that they are lake monsters.

Yowies are the hairy ape men who live in the bush.


Australia also has the platypus and the black swan, both were treated as fictional creatures by the early European settlers.

BffSatan
Bunyips and yowies are different things.

From all the old stories I've heard, they were different names for the same thing, only later codified into different creatures. “Bunyip” from most reliable accounts is probably a European name for it, or heavily Euopeanisd version of the original. Originally there were stories of it in all sorts of environs.

As best as I can work out, it's more like regional and language group differences rather than an entirely different myth.

Like Pixies and Piskies etc in England… among other things.

Lonnehart
I wonder how he would fare if he ended up fighting Jörmungandr (the giant snake from Norse Mythology, child of Loki, etc…)

He's pretty bussy biting his tail and nibbling at the roots of the world tree and waiting for Ragnarock when he can fight Thor…
The Rainbow Serpent is a full on god though, and not just that but creator god. hmm… Jormangand is more like a demon, a big, ultimate destroyer demon. Both are pretty elemental as well. Interesting match up.

————-
You know everyone's fave prototype vamp: Dracula.
That dick was just a late 19th C pop fiction creation and not even the main one from that era. That title goes to another vamp:
Varney the Vampire was the king of the fiction vamps in the 19th C with heaps of stories and the mythology therein.
After Varney's era of fiction popularity ended there was Wagner the Werewolf.

In and around San Antonio, I am unaware of ‘local monsters’, however…there are ghost stories abound. Like the ghost children on the train tracks who supposedly push cars off of them if someone parks there. (it's been debunked several times, but that doesn't stop teens and tourists from sprinkling flour on their rear-windows and parking their cars over the tracks on neutral to watch it move.) There's also a ‘donkey-man’ ghost who apparently haunts a local farm. It's said that he was a freak of nature, and beat to death by locals…Anyway, that's all I can think of.