The Splinter Cat is a strange cryptid that is found in the lumberjack folklore of the United States. It is most often found in the Pacific Northwest and Splintercat Creek in Oregan is named after it.
| Cryptid Name: | Splinter Cat |
| Location: | Pacific Northwest, United States |
| Category: | Lumberjack Folklore Cryptid |
| Description: | Large, nocturnal feline with a thick skull and powerful claws. Striped or mottled coat. |
| Size: | Larger than a domestic cat, but smaller than a mountain lion. |
| Behavior/Characteristics: | Very fast and agile. Can jump great distances. Said to break open trees with its skull in order to reach food. |
| Diet: | Raccoons, honey, and other small animals. |
| Habitat/Environment: | Forests and woodlands. |
| Evidence: | None. |
| Sightings and Encounters: | Unverified sightings. |
| Skepticism/Explanations: | Widely regarded as a legend of lumberjack folklore with no scientific basis. |
What Does The Splinter Cat Look Like?
The Splinter Cat is a large, nocturnal feline creature with a thick skull and powerful claws. It is said to have a striped or mottled coat that blends in well with its surroundings. It can jump far and is incredibly fast and agile.
The Splinter Cat’s most unusual feature is that it uses its skull to break open trees to reach food such as raccoons and honey. It uses its agility and speed to launch itself into the air and uses its head to break trees open. It doesn’t choose specific trees but instead hits one tree after the other until it finds food.
The Splinter Cat Legend
The Splinter Cat legend is found in a book of Lumberjack folklore called, “Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts” by William Thomas Cox.
A widely distributed and frightfully destructive animal is the splinter cat. It is found from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and eastward to the Atlantic Ocean, but in the Rocky Mountains has been reported from only a few localities.
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
Apparently, the splinter cat inhabits that part of the country in which wild bees and raccoons abound. These are its natural food, and the animal puts in every dark and stormy night shattering trees in search of coons or honey. It doesn’t use any judgment in selecting coon trees or bee trees, but just smashes one tree after another until a hollow one containing food is found.
The method used by this animal in its destructive work is simple but effective. It climbs one tree, and from the uppermost branches bounds down and across toward the tree it wishes to destroy. Striking squarely with its hard face, the splinter cat passes right on, leaving the tree broken and shattered as though struck by lightning or snapped off by the wind. Appalling destruction has been wrought by this animal in the Gulf States, where its work in the shape of a wrecked forest is often ascribed to windstorms.
Source: Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
Similar Cryptids
- Cactus Cat – Southwestern United States
- Slide-Rock Bolter (Mountain Whale)- Colorado
- The Hodag – Wisconsin
- Hugag – Lake States Region
- The Squonk – Pennsylvania
