A creek in the pine hills of south-western Arkansas, and the animal the town of Fouke has been talking about since the 1840s: seven feet or so, upright, covered in reddish-brown hair, and a smell witnesses reach for the word "animal" to describe. It is credited with killing chickens, dogs and livestock, and with never once harming a person. What carried it out of the county was 1971, when a family living outside town said a hairy arm came through a screen window at night. Two years later came a cheap film, The Legend of Boggy Creek, shot on location with local people in front of the camera, which took far more at the box office than it cost — and a local rumour became an industry. Fouke has lived on it since: the Monster Mart on the highway, signs through the town. The creek itself is marked by a small plaque on the bridge, easy to drive straight past.

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Bukit Timah and the Monkey Man

Singapore's highest point and a remnant of primary rainforest in the middle of the city. A creature has been described here since 1805, known as the Bukit Timah Monkey Man: grey-furred, about five feet tall, moving on two legs. Reports came in waves — notably during the Japanese occupation, when people were hiding in the forest, and again in 2007, which caused a stir in the Singapore press.