Having had magizoology rather on the brain of late, I have just bought, and read for the first time, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". One such creature struck an unexpected chord with me -- the Nundu: "This east African beast is arguably the most dangerous in the world. A gigantic leopard that moves silently despite its size and whose breath causes disease virulent enough to eliminate entire villages, it has never yet been subdued by fewer than a hundred skilled wizards working together."

A book I read long ago, was "On the Track of Unknown Animals" by Bernard Heuvelmans. It dealt at varying lengths, with an assortment – from most of the world's continents – of creatures reported in varied ways, but as yet unknown to science (including a very long chapter on the Abominable Snowman). This book's coverage of Africa included a briefish section on a crypto-beast known as the "Nunda" or "Mngwa", whose supposed characteristics closely match JKR / Newt Scamander's description (less the part about the appallingly lethal breath). An unclassified big cat (black, IIRC) said to live in the forests of East Africa – highly aggressive, with man-eating not an aberration, but standard behaviour for the species – inspiring great terror of the creature, in the locals. An indication seen, that JKR has likely read Heuvelmans's book!

Would stress that I am in no way complaining about JKR's having possibly got the inspiration for this item in the bestiary, from the source suggested, rather than 100% from her own imagination – any more than I would belittle Lewis Carroll for the fact that March hares and supposedly-mad hatters existed in adages; and Humpty Dumpty in a nursery rhyme; before he put them into his works. I was just delighted by the indication that our author may well be familiar with a book which, in my early teens, at once fascinated me and gave me the creeps.

That is very fascinating indeed.I love studying Zoology and magizoology sounds really cool.
It's possible that Jo got some of her Ideas from real life encounters such as the one you mention about the Nundu.
I have also read about the Nundu in Scamanders/Jo's book and it sounded pretty real to me,except the part about the killing breath,but the man-eating part sounded like a real leopard creature.
I am pretty confident that the Nundu was half-made up and half-real.

Potterfan6’s “half-made up and half-real” – one of the nice things about this kind of fiction, is the fun which the author can have, drawing on elements from the “real world” and elaborating on them.



I love the play which JKR makes in “Fantastic Beasts”, with our world’s two best-known items in this genre – the Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster – “The International Confederation of Wizards has had to fine certain nations repeatedly for contravening Clause 73 [re ‘concealment, care and control’ of magical creatures]. Tibet and Scotland are two of the most persistent offenders …” [et seq.]… (One infers, incidentally, that wizarding Tibet is still an independent nation, on which the post-1950 unhappy events for that country’s Muggles, have impinged little.)



Found delightful, her parlaying into the magical world, of the Yeti : “…believed to be related to the troll, though no one has yet got close enough to conduct the necessary tests. Up to fifteen feet in height, it is covered head to foot in the purest white hair…” I could have wished for her also to find space in the book’s “A – Z”, for North America’s Yeti-equivalent, the Sasquatch – for the existence of which, there is generally reckoned to be a good deal more evidence (though of a rather nebulous kind) than for that of the Himalayan creature. However, the book is basically a “slim volume” produced and sold for charity, not a “macropedia”; and with JKR being British, one envisages the likelihood of something which reputedly lives next door to the Indian erstwhile jewel in our imperial crown, being more in the forefront of her mind, than a transatlantic mystery beast.

Many of the Animals mentioned in 'Fantastic Beasts' have a basis in legend or myth.

Acromantula - just taking the arachnophobia to another level
Augury (augurey) - An omen
Basilisk - a real creature, but not the one from mythology, which this is based on.
Centaur - found throughout Greek mythology
Chimaera, Manticore - also found in Greek Mythology
Diricawl - The Dodo
Dragon - Dinosaur (The Chinese name for both is the same) and the Dragon was the way to explain Dinosaur bones in the olden days.
Erkling - German children's tales.
Fairy, Ghoul, Gnome, Imp, Leprechaun, Pixie
Griffin - found in Greek Mythology? based on the protoceratops skeleton.
Hippogriff - based on the statement about the strangest possible creature, half horse half bird.
Kappa - Japanese Mythology.
Kelpie, not sure of origins.
Knarl - A Hedgehog, blamed for Kids bad behaviour
Mackled Malaclaw - based on allergic reactions to Lobsters
Merpeople - widespread mythology
Mooncalf - an explanation of crop circles and UFO landings
Nogtail - The Runt of a litter
Occamy - Asian mythology of some description
Phoenix - one of the most famous creatures from mythology
Ramora - Sucker Fish: Remora.
Red Cap - a person in the UK army, someone will have a better description.
Salamander - well known animal.
Sea serpent - based on maniacal sailor's descriptions from history.
Shrake- The Sea Urchin?
Sphinx - Egyptian Mythology
Troll - Norwegian Mythology
Unicorn - Greek Mythology
Werewolf - European Mythology of some description.
Winged Horses - Greek Mythology, possibly others, I don't know. Hercules had one according to myth.
Yeti (Or Sasquatch, Or Abominable Snowman) - Based on the Pre-Historic? Creature, the Gigantopithecus, a Giant Ape that stood 3 metres tall.

I have no idea what new creatures Luna has found in her job continuing on from Newt Scamander.

(Above post snipped, leaving items which responded-to below.)

Thanks for this one, DeanNZ. A few comments in turn, of mine --

Erkling: I had understood the name of this preying-on-children being, in German myth, to be "Erlking" (as in Goethe's poem on the theme) -- take it that JKR has chosen to transpose two letters.

Kelpie: as I understand, very much as set out by JKR in the book -- water demon from Celtic myth, predatory on humans, and most commonly taking the form of a horse.

Occamy: I find the definition of this word to be "an alloy imitating gold or silver" (connection here, with the "purset, softest silver" shells of the creature's eggs?).

Red Cap: quoting Wikipedia, "A Red Cap or Redcap, also known as a powrie or dunter, is a type of malevolent murderous goblin, elf or fairy found in British folklore. They inhabit ruined castles found along the border between England and Scotland. Redcaps are said to murder travellers who stray into their homes and dye their hats with their victims' blood (from which they get their name). Indeed, redcaps must kill regularly, for if the blood staining their hats dries out, they die. Redcaps are very fast in spite of the heavy iron pikes they wield and the iron-shod boots they wear. Outrunning the buck-toothed little daemons is quite impossible; the only way to escape is to quote a passage from the Bible. They lose a tooth on hearing it, which they leave behind." Thus, JKR's description in the book, bears some similarity to the being in "our world" 's myth.
Latching on to the "army" connection: in the British armed forces, the military police are known as "redcaps" (from that item of their uniform). They are, predictably, unpopular with the rest of the soldiery, who would no doubt relish the "brutal malevolent goblin" association...

Additional thoughts:

Hippocampus: a being in Greek mythology, closely corresponding to JKR's description (head and forequarters of a horse, tail and hindquartes of a giant fish).

For several of the creatures in the book's "A - Z", JKR has taken existing words or proper names, and given them new meanings, as fantastic beasts. As follows --

Doxy: archaic word for "a young woman no better than she ought to be".

Jarvey: in Ireland, the driver of a horse-drawn vehicle.

Jobberknoll: archaic word for a blockhead or stupid person.

Porlock: name of a village on the coast of Somerset, England. Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived in that area for a while; his poem "Kubla Khan" would be a good deal longer, had it not been that his writing of it was interrupted by the unexpected arrival -- on some trivial business -- of "a person from Porlock". Coleridge was never able to recapture the thread of the poem...


As for what new creatures Luna has found -- one almost dreads to speculate...

Aha, I always thought the Red Caps were a grim joke on the Grimm tale "Little Red Riding Hood", in the original "Rotkäppchen" ("little red cap").

The Brothers Grimm have always struck me as well-named; "Red Riding Hood" one of their (relatively) more sweetness-and-light tales...

True a lot of the creatures Jo has created in her world a based from legends.

As it's Christmas, a silly and off-topic Luna-and-Xenophilius-type thing which I hope may be forgiven for its off-topic-ness.

Bought, earlier today, a bottle of red wine from South Africa – brand called "The Wolftrap", with picture on front label, of stylised ferocious-looking wolf. I'd always thought that, in Muggledom anyway, there were no wolves (in strict sense of the term) anywhere in Africa. What's printed on the bottle's rear label, tends to confirm. It says, "The name is a tribute to the pioneers who in the early days of the Cape erected a wolf trap at [ as-long-as-your-arm Afrikaner place-name]. To date, no wolf either real or mystical has been seen in the valley."

Shades of the old story about the – rather eccentric – guy who kept, every couple of minutes, giving vent to a prolonged shrill whistle.

NORMAL PERSON: Why do you keep doing that?

ECCENTRIC GUY: It frightens the elephants away.

NORMAL PERSON: But this is England – there aren't any elephants here.

ECCENTRIC GUY: It works, doesn't it?