Index
I. Obeast Biology
II. Obeasts in Early America
III. Hunting the Land Whale
IV. Conservation: Back From the Brink
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I. Obeast Biology
The obeast is a genus of endangered bipedal mammals. There are currently three named obeast species: the northern obeast (obeastus superna), the southern obeast (obeastus inferus), and the western obeast (obeastus mortuus). This nomenclature is likely to be shifted and refined as the obeast studies currently underway reveal more about the nuances between species.
Fossil records and archaeological artifacts indicate that the obeast’s ancestors crossed the Bering Strait to North America at the end of the Paleolithic Era (approximately two million years ago). Obeasts as we know them have been around for the last 100,00 years. However, despite their long history here, these animals remain largely mysterious due to their significantly diminished populations and inherently shy natures.
Obeastologists agree that there are two distinct sexes of obeasts (male and female) and that is typically where their agreement ends. Male obeasts can be identified by their lack of ocular spectacles, their bright facial coloring (which is at its most spectacular during musth), and their slightly larger size. Females tend to be plainer with characteristic spectacles on their faces. Both sexes have pouch-like pelts with colorful patterns that vary depending on region and species.
Obeast reproduction had been the subject of much controversy within the scientific community until recently. Because of the obeast’s ability to conceal and carry its young within deep skin folds under its pelts, scientists hotly debated whether to classify the animal as marsupials. Consensus against the marsupial classification was reached when obeastologist Dr. Paul Keith proved that young obeasts are fully formed at birth and then concealed with its parents’ pelts for safety and warmth. Dr. Keith was also the first to identify the specially adapted mammary papilla (later named Keith’s papilla) within the female’s folds that nourish the young without it having to leave its fold. Male obeasts also possess these incubator folds and in fact take turns keeping the young, although only for short periods as they cannot suckle the young.
Obeasts tend to be opportunistic omnivores that will eat whatever food they can find or catch. Given their slow, waddling gait it is assumed that they are ambush hunters. They are very strong and probably intelligent creatures, so whatever prey they were able to catch they would likely kill and eat.
There are historical accounts of obeasts attacking humans when provoked, injured, or protecting their young. Mostly they prefer to run and avoid human contact, though some obeasts (typically adolescent males) have been emboldened by frequent contact with people and have come to see our neighborhoods as potential sources for food.
Click here to view a gallery of obeast images.
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II. Obeasts in Early America
We offer food to you so that you will eat and be content and whisper to Oxinuaca [god of abundance] of the spirit our people and the quality of our crops. Eat of our maize and drink the water from our bowl and know that we honor you who keep the wind in your bellies and speak to the gods. (Laguna proverb)
Wedding vase in the shape of an obeast (Acoma). Fired clay, circa 500 B.C. Excavated near the site of the San Juan Pueblo in New Mexico.
Obeasts have been an important feature of the North American cultural landscape for tens of thousands of years, and yet little is actually known about these shy and endangered animals today. Artifacts have been uncovered in North Carolina, Arkansas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and even as far north as New Brunswick Canada, which depict the obeast and its revered status amongst native cultures.
Tribes including the Quapaw, Acoma, and Laguna considered the creatures to be spiritual envoys to the gods, particularly to gods of the harvest. Thus in native cultures the obeast is symbolic of abundance and plays an important role in folk lore, craft and religious ceremonies. Northern tribes like the Shawnee also considered the obeast to be a holy animal and honored their gods by making sacrificial offerings of their pelts and nutritious blubber.
Click here to view a gallery of artifacts in the MOCS collection.
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III. Hunting the Land Whale
Obeast populations were devastated during the 1800s when they were hunted as an easy and abundant substitution for whale oil. By 1824 right and sperm whales, whose oil was vital for illuminating homes and lubricating machinery, had become scarce in the Atlantic Ocean due to over-hunting. Whalers, frenzied in their attempts to meet the huge fuel needs of the newly industrialized United States, rounded Cape Horn to the more abundant Pacific hunting grounds only then to be stymied by the lack of expedient means to transport the cargo to the major processing plants in New England. It simply took too long to get the product back to its consumers; although, the U.S. transcontinental railroad would be completed in 1869, by then the whale oil industry would be nearly wiped out.
Obeast oil, bottled in Mexico in 1860.
The obeasts were slow and numerous enough to seem like a viable alternative for those who could not afford $2 per gallon for whale oil. The ubiquity of obeasts meant that the oil could be processed locally, thereby nearly eliminating the costs (and time) of transporting it from processing plants to consumers. Further, the size of the obeasts made them manageable for some enterprising families to render the meat and blubber themselves. Many small businesses were built from this trade including the McConnell’s restaurant chain and Chariot Hotels, which are still prospering today. Indeed for pioneering families seeking the American Dream, obeast was the perfect product.
While inexpensive, obeast oil had the disadvantage of not burning as brightly or cleanly as whale oil. (Users often remarked on its smoky, corn-like aroma.) Obeast oil was also not as plentiful as whale oil; it took four or five obeasts to produce the same amount of oil as one whale. Still, there were enough obeasts to provide oil, meat, and pelts for nearly 60% of U.S. families from 1826 to 1860. Then, in 1862 the obeast oil supply (and the obeast population itself) was finally tapped out by the steep fuel needs of the Civil War and was subsequently replaced by a newly invented product called kerosene.
Obeast oil almost singlehandedly fueled the early waves of western exploration, including the 1849 California gold rush. It is a sad irony that obeasts unwittingly facilitated the very western expansion that resulted in the development and loss of their precious habitats. Human encroachment coupled with dramatic over-hunting was nearly the death knell for the species. As scientists now know, obeasts prefer to live and graze the same area for generations. Their lack of adaptive nomadic foraging skills makes them particularly susceptible to habitat loss or infringement. Still, despite the widespread colonization during the 19th century it seems that small groups of obeasts managed to evade notice and persecution by living in far-flung rural areas like the hills of Appalachia and the deep woods of Vermont and Maine.
A sportsman with his kill. Virginia, 1922.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries local hunters and sportsmen still bagged obeasts for private use or even just sport, but at nothing like the scale of harvesting done earlier. The emergence of petroleum products made obeast goods obsolete by World War I, although they remained important staples for poorer families who rendered the blubber and cured the pelts themselves.
The meat rationing efforts of World War II again foisted obeasts into the role of commodity, only this time more for their flesh than oil. Rural farmers and hunters found themselves in possession of sizable portions of meat, which they then sold or traded on the black market. By the war’s conclusion in 1945, obeasts were thought to be completely gone from the entire eastern coast and extremely rare everywhere else. These numbers became only more bleak as North America continued to grow and develop the country side during the 1950’s and 60’s.
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IV. Conservation: Back From the Brink
The Endangered Species Acts of 1966, 1969, and 1973 at last provided legislature to conserve and protect not only endangered animals but also their native habitats. Sadly, it appeared that these efforts might have come too late for the obeasts. Early attempts to breed obeasts in captivity had completely failed; the shy creatures not only refused to breed, they also refused food and water and often died within a month or two of their arrival. When zero obeast sightings were reported between 1974 and 1983, the worst was assumed and the species was considered extinct.
Then something amazing happened.
The first image of an obeast, taken in 1984 after the species was thought extinct. Fort Bragg, NC.
Biologists researching the long leaf pine habitat of the endangered red cockaded woodpecker on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, found strange bipedal tracks in the mud. Judging from the depth of the footprint they gauged the animal to weigh about 250 lbs. Could it be obeastus inferus? Weeks later motion-activated cameras mounted to trees were able to catch the first images of an obeast in nearly ten years.
From 1984-1990 more sightings began to trickle, then lightly stream in. Small pods of obeasts were reported in North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Saskatchewan. By 1993 when President Bill Clinton officially added the obeast to the endangered species list there also were confirmed sightings in Mexico and the Southwestern United States.
Today obeasts, rare and shy as they are, can be found in nearly every U.S. state, the southern areas of Canada, and the northern areas of Mexico. They appear to be doing better in more temperate areas, probably because of the more moderate climate, abundant food supply, and larger areas of undeveloped land.
Obeasts are proving to be a resilient animal, fighting their way back from the very brink of extinction. They play such an important role in American history and culture, and yet we know very little about them. In early 2010 the Museum for Obeast Conservation Studies (MOCS) was founded with the intention of educating the public about the obeast and serving as a coordinating organization for research and conservation efforts.
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