In
American folklore
American folklore encompasses the folklores that have evolved in the present-day United States since Europeans arrived in the 16th century. While it contains much in the way of Native American tradition, it is not wholly identical to the tribal ...
, a Sidehill gouger is a
fearsome critter adapted to living on hillsides by having legs on one side of their body shorter than the legs on the opposite side. This peculiarity allows them to walk on steep hillsides, although only in one direction; when lured or chased into the plain, they are trapped in an endless circular path. Some claim these creatures play a large role, and in some cases, are responsible for the creation of
hoodoos
A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock formed by erosion. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the ...
. The creature is variously known as the Sidehill Dodger,
Sidehill Hoofer,
Sidehill Ousel, Sidehill Loper, Sidehill Galoot, Gyascutus, Sidewinder, Wampus, Boofum, Gudaphro, Hunkus, Rickaboo Racker, Prock, Gwinter, or Cutter Cuss.
Sidehill gougers are
mammals who dwell in hillside burrows,
and are occasionally depicted as laying
eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
.
There are usually 6 to 8 pups to a
litter
Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. Litter can also be used as a verb; to litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups ...
.
Since the gouger is footed for hillsides, it cannot stand up on level ground. If by accident a gouger falls from a hill, it can easily be captured or starve to death.
When a clockwise gouger meets a counter-clockwise gouger, they have to fight to the death since they can only go in one direction.
[ The formation of ]terracette
A terracette is a landform consisting of a hillside ridge arranged as part of sub-parallel "step-like sequences" of such ridges. Terracette occur on step hillsides and are regularly spaced. Various causes have been suggested to explain their origi ...
s has been attributed to gouger activity.
Gougers are said to have migrated to the west from New England, a feat accomplished by a pair of gougers who clung to each other in a fashion comparable to "a pair of drunks going home from town with their longer legs on the outer sides".
A Vermont variation is known as the Wampahoofus. It was reported that farmers crossbreed them with their cows so they could graze easily on mountain sides.
Frank C. Whitmore and Nicholas Hotton, in their joint tongue-in-cheek response to an article in ''Smithsonian Magazine
''Smithsonian'' is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970.
History
The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' mag ...
'', expounded the taxonomy of sidehill gougers (''Membriinequales declivitous''), noting in particular "the sidehill dodger, which inhabits the Driftless Area of Wisconsin; the dextrosinistral limb ratio approaches unity although the metapodials on the downhill side are noticeably stouter." A special award, the Order of the Sidehill Gouger, is awarded to worthy members for hard and long standing volunteer efforts by the Alberta Group of the Royal Canadian Air Force Association.
In popular culture
* Sidehill Gougers feature in the MMORPG ''Villagers & Heroes'' as mobs. It is depicted as a combination of a cougar and a wolf.
* ''James and the Giant Peach
''James and the Giant Peach'' is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The first edition, published by Alfred Knopf, featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. There have been re-illustrated versions of ...
'' (1961), the children's novel by Roald Dahl. When the peach lands in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, skewered on the spire of the Empire State Building, policemen gather around it. When they see the Centipede, a policeman exclaims "It's a Prock!"
* "Deadhead Mile" (2016) by K.N. Johnson (included in the anthology ''A Journey of Words'') suggest gougers to be the culprits behind ski trails with dead ends.
* ''Sidehill Gouger'' (2009) by Canned Games is a puzzle game on Xbox Live for Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
, featuring a young boy hunting the sidehill gougers of his grandfather's stories.
* Storyteller John Dashney featured the sidehill gouger (referred to as the "sidehill wowser") in a story supposedly about his grandfather, who specialized in hunting the creatures to the point of stretching his hounds' legs to help them chase the creatures better along hillsides. The story details an encounter in which his grandfather stumbled across two gougers at a time, resulting in a harrowing spiral chase up a hill until the opposite-oriented creatures crashed into one another, solving his problem.
See also
* Dahu
*Wild haggis
Wild haggis (given the humorous taxonomic designation ''Haggis scoticus'') is a fictional creature of Scottish folklore, Jonathan Green, ''Scottish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Scotland the Brave''p. 128/ref> said to ...
References
*
External links
The Wampahoofus: A Sad Evolutionary Tale
{{American tall tales
Mythological caprids
Fearsome critters