The march of time, the changing climate and the progress of man has altered the world greatly. Be it just a few decades ago, or many centuries, you can see that the natural world and landscape has undergone great alterations. The countless species that live within them are also affected. Some may flourish with these changes, while others face extinction. Nothing makes this more apparent than the vanishing of megafauna. Go to any museum and you will see how the world was once filled with giants, but the ages have changed and the bigger beasts simply became bigger targets for its effects. Thus, many of these ancient large species have gone extinct, and those that survived faced new challenges. Man certainly has had his hand in a few of these losses, and others have been driven to the brink. Yet, not all has been lost. The world still has megafauna within it, and even those threatened by our past deeds are getting a chance to come back. We still have giants out there, no matter how broken things may seem, and the Hugag is one such species that still plods on despite the tumultuous times.
The hugag is a large mammal that totters about the forests of Minnesota, Wisconsin and parts of Canada. It is big as a moose, which combined with some of its anatomy has led to past assumptions that it was related to them. Yet, if such relations did exist, the Hugag split away from them a long, long time ago. It walks the forests in a stiff, awkward way, as its long stilt-like legs have no joints. It must remain standing at all times, only able to sleep by leaning against trees and other tall objects. Its body is clad in stiff, green hairs, with some equating their texture and appearance to pine needles. This green fur ends at its neck, for the head is bald and warty. Strange flap-like ears hang limply from its head, while bony nodules add to its warty look. Yet the most eye-catching feature is its massive upper lip. It has grown into a long prehensile appendage, much like the trunk of an elephant. Yet, the Hugag's lip isn't nearly as dexterous and precise as the elephant's, a convergent development that hasn't yet caught up with the pachyderm. This means its method of feeding is a bit more crude. It cannot graze upon the ground, for its lip can't pull off the movements needed for plucking grass, and it may step on its own mouth. Instead, it feeds upon trees, with a preference for conifers. The long lip slaps down onto branches or coils around trunks, then proceeds to strip it of needles and bark. Its fondness for pines is noted in folklore and it believed to be the reason why it has the needle-like fur, pitch-like musk and that fresh pine scent.
Fossils have shown that the Hugag has been around in North America since prehistoric times, surviving the end of the Ice Age and the spread of man. Ancient art has depictions of the Hugag, and legends from the natives speak of this stilt-legged beast. One such story claims the Hugag was a pine turned into an animal, yet the trunk of the tree became its legs, causing its lack of joints. The species was hunted by natives, its long, solid leg bones making for incredible material. It was through them that the first instances of the famed Hugag hunting technique was recorded. Hunters would follow the trail of one of these giants and look for trees that had an odd lean to them and high up wear marks on its bark. Those signs and the presence of pine tar-like markings would reveal the tree to be one the Hugag frequently leaned up against to rest. From there, the hunters would cut notches in the tree, as if preparing to fell it. Yet, they would leave it standing, and wait for the Hugag to come. When it tried to rest against the tree, the weakened column would give out, causing it and the Hugag to fall down. On its side with unbending legs, the Hugag would struggle to get back up. These beasts are capable of getting back on their feet after a fall, but the effort is long and awkward, the perfect time for hunters to pounce and finish them off.
As colonists came to North America, they would adopt the same hunting method for the Hugag, and partake in its meat and fur (with Hugag lip still being seen as a delicacy today). Some accounts show that its pine scent was appreciated as a sort of air freshener, placing its musk and fur in areas to help mask foul odors. Hunting pressure from man would lower its population, which would continue to be impacted by development and logging. The range of the Hugag used to be much bigger, but such changes have led to it being found in the few places we see today. Yet, even with lower numbers and rarer sightings, the species remains a well-known one. That is the draw of megafauna, people fascinated by beasts purely because they are big. That and its other features have endeared it to the public. From wildlife tours and mascots, to Hugag-shaped air fresheners hanging on car rearview mirrors. Towns that are located near remaining Hugag territory celebrate the creature and are bound to have it on at least three different souvenirs. You may even see one stomping down the street during a town parade, an amusing display put on by two costumed performers on stilts.
Unfortunately, acknowledgement of the old trend of "Hugag tipping" must be made. While hunting of the species has become incredibly restricted, the details of how to fell one has amused certain folk. This has led to troublemakers pulling off the same technique purely to witness this giant creature topple over. There is a good laugh taken from tormenting them, though the DNR certainly sees no humor in it. Laws and fines were put in to place to try and stop this useless cruelty, but it seems that the Hugag itself eventually put the trend to bed. At some point, a couple of folk got the bright idea of tipping a Hugag over themselves, much like how you would knock over a cow. Of course, such instances of insane stupidity have to be filmed, but such attempts went viral for an entirely different reason. This species is the size of a moose and has a prehensile lip, which may not be good for grazing on grass, but can certainly throw a 150lb drunk like a ragdoll. After number of injuries, and a few deaths, it would seem Hugag tipping has lost its popularity. For now at least, because if there is one thing that human history has shown us is that there will always be a small fraction of the population that fails to understand that herbivorous megafauna are not as safe and cuddly as their stuffed animals.
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There still be Fearsome Critters out there!
