Yeho

The yeho (possibly from the Aja word for “devil”) is an unknown primate or sloth-like creature reported in the swamps and rainforests of the Antilles, especially the swampy forests around Fresh Creek on Andros Island in the Bahamas. 

They are described as being covered in fur or hair, with sharp claws and backwards-facing feet. They are able to stand upright and vocalize, making a “yeho! Yeho!” sound. The yeho’s size is inconsistent, with some describing them as the size of a monkey, and others the size of a bear. In folklore, they are usually depicted as malevolent, dangerous beings, and only come out of their caves at night.

 Some cryptozoologists like Dale A. Drinnon believe the yeho are based on early slaves and colonists encountering late-surviving populations of Antillean ground sloths like Megalocnus or Acratocnus, who are normally thought to have gone extinct 4000 years ago. This is based on the yeho having large claws and “backwards feet”, which could come from the unusual hand morphology of sloths. 

Antillean ground sloths may have died out even more recently, as according to Ernest Walker and Ronald Nowak’s 1964 book Walker’s Mammals of the World, ground sloth bones have been found in early European middens, alongside introduced pigs. Other cryptozoologists like George Eberhart speculate the yeho is based on folk memory of lowland or Cross River gorillas from early slaves.