The Cryptid Zoo: Caddy

Caddy is the name given to a variety of sea monster that is reported from areas of the Pacific Ocean adjacent to Alaska, Canada, and continental America (from the coasts of Washington to Oregon). Caddy is a shortened form of "cadborosaurus" and, like the term "Bigfoot," it is often used as if it is the proper name of one creature instead of the name for an entire species of creatures. Caddy is rightly one of the most famous varieties of sea serpent, because of an unusually large number of well-documented sightings, plus the recovery of at least one genuinely puzzling carcass. Live captures of very small (juvenile?) specimens have also reportedly happened, but in each case the creature was released back into the wild before scientists could confirm its existence.

Long and serpentine in shape like most sea serpents, Caddy is at least fifteen feet long, and either has humps on its back or likes to swim in an undulating fashion that creates an illusion of humps. The head looks vaguely like that of a horse with the end of the snout turned down, there are spikes near the tail end, and the tail itself is split and shaped a bit like the tail of a whale. Caddy may also have flippers towards the head end. Caddy may have patches of hair, including a mane on the neck and a tail tuft of fur, linking Caddy to the zeuglodons, primitive whales that still had hair. Skin color is probably blackish-blue.

In 1937 a creature that sounds much like Caddy was recovered from the stomach of a dead whale, but when skeptics attacked this idea fervently, the scientists supporting it became embarrassed and threw away the carcass. Today, the surviving photograph and records of the carcass do not sound like any known animal, and scientists wish they still had the body to examine it.

You can find out more about Caddy from the following sources:

Blackman, W. Haden. The Field Guide to North American Monsters New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998. Pages 50-53

Bousfield, Edward L. & Leblond Paul H. Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep.

Clark, Jerome and Coleman, Loren. Cryptozoology A-Z. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Pages 51-53, 135

Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. New York: Paraview Press, 2001. Page 84

~Authors~
Would you like your nonfiction book indexed
in The Cryptid Zoo? Ask if you can send a
review copy.

Newton, Michael. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2005. Pages 30, 80-82, 128, 140, 175, 188, 242, 257, 296, 320-321, 370, 380, 406, 411, 416-418, 428, 469, 470, 488

Weidensaul, Scott. The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species. New York: North Point Press, 2002. Pages 156-158

Wikipedia, The. Cadborosaurus willsi