Wolpertinger: The Bavarian Chimera That Nobody Has Ever Caught and Everyone Claims to Have Seen

The Wolpertinger is a creature from Bavarian folklore that combines the body parts of multiple animals into a single impossible being. The specific combination varies by account but typically includes the body of a rabbit or squirrel, the wings of a bird, the antlers of a deer, and the fangs of a predator. It may have the tail of a fox, the feet of a duck, or the ears of a hare. No two descriptions are entirely consistent, which is characteristic of the creature: the Wolpertinger is whatever the person telling the story needs it to be, within the broad framework of a small furry flying antlered fanged thing from the Bavarian forest.

The Wolpertinger is one of the most self-aware entries in European folklore in the sense that the tradition around it has always included a degree of playfulness about its own reality. Bavarian hunters have maintained for generations the tradition of telling tourists that the Wolpertinger is real, that it can be caught, and that the method of catching it involves a beautiful woman, a bag, and waiting in the forest at night. Stuffed specimens of Wolpertingers, assembled from the parts of real animals by Bavarian taxidermists, have been sold to tourists and displayed in museums including the Deutsches Jagd und Fischereimuseum in Munich, which has a permanent Wolpertinger exhibit.

The Bavarian Context

The Wolpertinger belongs to a broader tradition of chimeric creatures that appears across multiple cultures: the American Jackalope, which combines a jackrabbit with antelope horns; the British Skvader, which combines a hare with a wood grouse; the Rasselbock of the Thuringian forest. These creatures share the basic structure of combining familiar animals into an impossible hybrid, and they share the tradition of serious-faced presentation to credulous outsiders.

The Bavarian context is significant because Bavaria has a strong tradition of regional identity and a correspondingly strong tradition of presenting Bavarian distinctiveness to outsiders through a combination of genuine cultural expression and deliberate performance. The Wolpertinger sits alongside Lederhosen and Oktoberfest in the repertoire of things Bavarians present to the outside world with varying degrees of sincerity.

The Catching Method

The traditional method for catching a Wolpertinger, as described by Bavarian hunters to tourists, requires a beautiful woman to sit in the forest at night with a bag. The Wolpertinger, being a creature of simple desires, will approach the woman and can then be bagged. The hunter must be careful not to laugh during the process, as the Wolpertinger is sensitive to mockery and will disappear if it suspects it is being made fun of.

The impossibility of successfully executing this method has not prevented generations of tourists from attempting it, which is the tradition’s actual function: it gets tourists into the Bavarian forest at night looking for an imaginary creature, which is either a charming cultural experience or a practical joke of considerable duration depending on your perspective. Both perspectives have been maintained simultaneously in Bavaria for a very long time.

The Taxidermy Tradition

The stuffed Wolpertinger specimens sold by Bavarian taxidermists and displayed in museums are one of the more unusual aspects of the tradition. They are assembled from real animal parts — rabbit bodies, duck feet, bird wings, deer antlers — and presented with varying degrees of tongue-in-cheek sincerity. The museum specimens tend toward the serious end, displayed with labels and descriptions that treat the creature as a genuine folkloric subject. The tourist-market specimens tend toward the humorous end, presented as novelties.

For more on the folklore of Germany, the Rübezahl article covers the mountain spirit of the Sudeten. The Erlking article covers the dark forest spirit. The Germany folklore hub page has every article in the cluster.