Agropelter

The Agropelter (given the mock-taxonomic designation Anthrocephalus craniofractens)^[1] is a mythical fearsome critter^[1] said to inhabit hollow trees of the conifer woods from Maine to Oregon.^[2] From this vantage point, the creature would await an unwary person and hurl wooden splinters and branches at the intruder.^[2][3][4][5] Some have described the creature as being so quick that it has never been seen.^[3] One reference describes the creature as having a "slender, wirely body, the villainous face of an ape, and arms like muscular whiplashes, with which it can snap off dead branches and hurl them through the air like shells from a six inch gun."^[5]

The agropelter subsists on woodpeckers, hoot owls,^[5] high-holes,^[4] and dozy (rotten) wood.^[4] Its pups are born on February 29 and always arrive in odd numbers.^[4] They are blamed for the disappearance of people in northern forests.^[6] When loggers died from branches falling on their heads, the agropelter was blamed for throwing the heavy branches.^[7] Another reference describes the creature as having "the head of a gorilla or some other terrifying ape, but fully furred, and its body was like that of a stretched-out, starving bear."^[8] They are also said to be "completely black save for its face, which had a spoken ash-grey skull pattern contrasting with the black of the rest of the animal".^[8]

In one account, an agropelter kidnapped a pioneer surveyor and fed him raw fish until he escaped.^[9]

Torrey Peters' story Stag Dance in the book of the same name features an agropelter.^[10]