Yowie can refer to either of two mythical creatures of Australian folklore: It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mythology. ... Folklore is the ethnographic concept of the tales, legends, or superstitions current among a particular population, a part of the oral history of a particular culture. ...

The name has been applied to an Australian cryptid analogous to the American bigfoot. Cryptozoology is the study of rumored or mythological animals that are presumed to exist, but for which conclusive proof does not yet exist; or are generally considered extinct, but occasionally reported. ... Frame 352 from the Patterson-Gimlin film This article is about Bigfoot, an unconfirmed North American ape-like creature. ...

Yowie (or Yowie-Whowie) is also the name of a completely different mythological character in native Australian Aboriginal folklore. It is said to be a giant beast, resembling a cross between a lizard and an ant. It emerges from the ground at night to eat whatever it can find - even humans. This is sometimes considered to be the same legend as the bunyip. It has been suggested that Myth be merged into this article or section. ... Australian Aborigines are the main indigenous people of Australia. ... The bunyip (devil or spirit) is a mythical creature from Australian Aboriginal mythology. ...

Jonathan Swift's yahoos is sometimes believed to be cognate with yowie. Some even believe it to derive from this source. Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gullivers Travels and A Tale of a Tub. ... For other uses, see Yahoo. ...

Yowie toys

From the mythology surrounding the Australian Yowies a line of toys and children's products have arisen. Invented by Bryce Courtenay and Geoff Piker, they were similar to Kinder Surprises in that they are basically a chocolate shell around a plastic capsule, with a toy inside. Unlike Kinder Surprises, the toy is usually an Australian or New Zealand animal, with a leaflet with educational facts and a picture of the animal. Bryce Courtenay (b. ... Kinder Egg, also known as a Kinder Surprise (Kinder being German meaning children), is a childrens confection in the form of a chocolate egg containing a small toy, often to be assembled by the aforementioned child or possibly a supervising adult. ...

There have been several series of Yowie toys. The first were just animals, with limited edition Yowie pencil toppers in some of them. Later, Grumkin pencil toppers also appeared. In 2001 there was a radical departure from the usual kind of Yowies. In conjunction with an Australian Museum exhibit called The Lost Kingdoms, new yowies came out. Instead of endangered animals, these had extinct animals in them, along with the modern koala and platypus. The yowies also got overhauls. The wrappers of the Lost Kingdom yowies could be distinguished by the sign and shovel being held in their paws. The Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, centering on natural history and anthropology, with collections centering on vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as minerology, palaeontology, and anthropology. ...

The Yowies, according to the story, are protectors of the various environments of Gondwana. Their names were Rumble(deserts), Boof (rainforests and mountains), Crag (swamps and mangroves), Ditty(bushland), Nap(gum forests) and Squish(rivers and waterways, possibly the ocean as well). A dune in the Egyptian desert Desert in California In geography, a desert is a landscape form or region that receives little precipitation, less than 200 mm per year. ... Rainforest on Fatu-Hiva, Marquesas Islands A rainforest is a forested biome with high annual rainfall due to the Intertropical convergence zone. ... Mount McKinley in Alaska has one of the largest visible base-to-summit elevation differences anywhere A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. ... A freshwater swamp This article is about the wetland type (a landform). ... Above and below water view at the edge of the mangal Mangrove are woody trees or shrubs that grow in coastal habitats or mangal (Hogarth, 1999), for which the term mangrove swamp also would apply. ... The term bushland usually refers to an area that has only a sparse flora and fauna. ... The Murray River in Australia. ...

The Yowies each had a respective enemy, called a Grumkin, representing the damage being done to it by careless humans. The Grumkins were Munch (careless building, enemy of Rumble), Blob (pollution, enemy of Crag), Ooz (also pollution, enemy of Squish), Spark (careless firelighting, enemy of Nap), Slob (litter, enemy of Ditty) and Chomp the Tiger Toothed Tree Chomper (deforestation, enemy of Boof). Pollution is the release of harmful environmental contaminants, or the substances so released. ...

See also

• Drop bear

Artists impression of a drop bear A drop bear (or dropbear, scientifically Phascolarctos hodgsonii) is an Australian marsupial related to the koala. ...

External links

• Australian Yowie Research