The Minhocao - A Giant Worm By Any Other Name by:Robert W. Benjamin

The name "Minhocao" is a Portuguese word for "worm"

. Aside from the word "Minhocao", the natives of South America refer to the giant serpent by many names such as Batato, Biatat, M'boiguau Mboitat, Mboi-assu, Boitat, Baitat, Batat, Bitat, and Mba-Tata.

There have been many reports of sightings of a giant worm in the forests and fields of South America. As an amphibian creature whose appearance is akin to that of a giant earthworm, the Minhocao is said to be filled with scaly black skin. Instead of a mouth with sharp fangs like many other serpent beasts, the Minhocao has pair of tentacle-like structures that stick out of its head.

According to witnesses, the giant earthworm's body extends to as much as twenty five meters or more than eighty feet while its diameter is about three to four feet wide. Based on the stories, the Minhocao feeds on livestock and other large animals.

Because of its size and strength, the worm beast is said to be capable of capturing and dragging its prey with a single whisk of its body. It is also capable of digging subterranean trenches and overturning boats. As a result, the beast is often blamed whenever there are collapsed houses and trenches, and overturned vehicles in the forests and waters of South America.

The first recorded sighting to the giant earthworm appeared in the write up of Auguste de Saint-Hilaire. Published in the American Journal of Science, he noted that the beast was seen in the 'So Francisco' river region.

The said report was followed by an article written by zoologist Fritz Mller in 1877. In his article published in the Zoologische Garten, Mller stated accounts of actual sightings of the Minhocao.

In the article, Mller stated that a woman who was fetching water from the river saw a large animal as huge as a house. In the same area of the Parania State, the author also noted a testimonial of a lad who stated that he saw a huge worm-like beast about twenty-five meters in length. The boy said that as the worm beast moved along the ground, the surrounding earth shook as well and trees were overturned.

There is a website that describes the Minhocao and numerous other creatures of Cryptozoology in detail, this website is called: Unknown Creatures and it may be found at this url: http://www.unknown-creatures.com

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About the author

Robert W. Benjamin has been in the software business on the internet for over 8 years, and has been producing low-cost software for the past 25+ years. He first released software on the AMIGA and C64 computer systems in the late 1970's-80's. Robert has written many articles pertaining to numerous subjects, and he has also developed over 6 different websites.

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