The document provides descriptions of various magical creatures featured in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It summarizes the key details about Knarls, Bowtruckles like Pickett, Demiguises, Nifflers, Graphorns, Thunderbirds like Frank, and Pukwudgies. Real-world animals are also described that may have inspired each magical creature's appearance and abilities.

1. Fantastic Beasts and
how Cuddly They Are

2. Knarl
• The Knarl is a creature that greatly resembles
a hedgehog, so much so that there is only one
known (behavioural) difference between them: when
food is left out for a hedgehog it will appreciate and
enjoy the gift; a knarl will see it as an attempt to lure
it into a trap and hence savage the garden of the
householder who left the food. Muggle children
have often been blamed for damage committed by a
Knarl.
• They were featured in the Care of Magical
Creatures O.W.L. where students had to locate it
amongst a group of hedgehogs. The trick was to
offer each creature some milk.

3. Pickett the Bowtruckle
• Eddie Redmayne’s favorite creature
• “Bowtruckles are tiny, pixie-like creatures made of wood.
Bowtruckles have knobbly brown arms and legs, two twig-like
fingers at the end of each hand, and flat, bark-like faces.
Bowtruckles are tree-guardians and usually live in trees whose
wood is of wand quality. They eat woodlice and fairy eggs.”.
• Their little claws can be quite vicious. In Order of the Phoenix,
Professor Grubby-Plank says angered Bowtruckes can gouge
at people’s eyes. Their small size and fingers with claws mean
they can be useful in picking locks.
• This ability is possibly how our most famous Bowtruckle from
the Fantastic Beasts series got his name.
• Newt Scamander’s Bowtruckles are named Titus, Finn,
Jeremy, Marlow, Tom, and Pickett. Pickett often lives in Newt’s
top pocket and is described as having attachment issues. The
other Bowtruckles pick on and bully him because of his
insecurity and neuroses.

4. Bowtruckle
(real life)
• The pouty Bowtruckle
resembles a green stick
insect, like this one
from Peru.
• Real stick insects can
regrow lost limbs, a near-
magical ability humans
lack.

5. Leaf Mimic
• Of course, Scamander's personal
Bowtruckle, "Pickett", is also a leaf
mimic, much like true leaf insects in
the family Phylliidae. Rather than
fairy eggs and insects,
these camouflage champions feed on
fruit and other plant material.

6. Demiguise
• “The Demiguise is a peaceful herbivorous beast,
something like a graceful ape in appearance, with
large, black, doleful eyes more often than not hidden
by its hair. The whole body is covered with long, fine,
silky, silvery hair. Demiguise pelts are highly valued
as the hair may be spun into Invisibility Cloaks.”
• The Demiguise, from the far East, looks like a small
ape with long, silvery, silky looking hair. This same
fur allows the magical creature to turn invisible when
it feels threatened.
• The hair is prized by wizards and witches because it
can be used to weave Invisibility Cloaks.
• J.K. Rowling says the Demiguise is her favorite
beast because of its invisibility powers.

7. Real Life
• The silvery fur and huge eyes of the Demiguise could have
been inspired by a nocturnal primate such as the Horsfield’s
Tarsier, from Malaysian Borneo. Tarsiers are elusive (though
perhaps not quite as much), near silent in the trees with the
ability to rotate their heads 180 degrees while seeking
insectivorous prey.
• They may not have precognitive sight, but their huge eyes give
them superb night vision and are actually heavier than their
brains, as the largest eyes compared to body size of any
mammal.

8. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljd
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9. Runespoor
• The Runespoor is a large, three-
headed snake that lives in
Newt’s suitcase - in a deleted
scene from the movie.
• It’s from the African country of
Burkina Faso. The one in the
guide is only 6 or 7 feet.
• Each head provides a different
part of the personality.
Produces eggs through its mouth
used for potions to improve
cognition.

10. Dougal the Niffler
• Nifflers are fluffy black creatures with long snouts and curiously
flat front paws, almost like spades. They are commonly found
down mines, as they are good at hunting out valuables and
sparkly things.
• With their fluffy black fur and long snouts, Nifflers resemble
moles. They’re gentle burrowing creatures that love shiny,
sparkly objects and have magically large inside pouches to
carry things.
• Rubeus Hagrid uses Nifflers in his Care of Magical Creatures
class. Ron Weasley likes his Niffler so much that he asks if he
can buy one for a pet, but Hagrid cautions against it because
Nifflers can wreak havoc.
• During the evil reign of Dolores Umbridge, Lee Jordan levitated
2 Nifflers into her office to tear it apart.
• Eddie Redmayne has said “I have a love-hate relationship with
that little guy.”

11. Niffler:
Real Life
• It appears to have the combination of dark hair and spines of the
echidna, with the bill of the Duck-billed Platypus. And of course, the
pouch.
• They might not have such incredibly sticky fingers, but platypuses
are equally good at seeking. These duck-billed, egg-laying
mammals have the unique power of electroreception, a skill that
allows them to locate prey in deep, silty water.
• Their back hair is hard and bristled, which helps the strange
creatures excavate burrows. This gives the platypus a "feathered"
appearance, much like Niffler's.
• With its mole-like clawed feet, an extinct platypus-relative called
Steropodon looked even more like Rowling's creation.

12. Graphorn
• “The Graphorn is found in mountainous European regions.
Large and greyish purple with a humped back, the Graphorn
has two very long, sharp horns, walks on large, four-thumbed
feet, and has an extremely aggressive nature. Mountain trolls
can occasionally be seen mounted on Graphorns, though the
latter do not seem to take kindly to attempts to tame them and it
is more common to see a troll covered in Graphorn scars.”
• With greyish-purple skin that’s tougher than dragon skin,
Graphorns are massive predators.
• Highly endangered, Newt Scamander has the last pair of
breeding Graphorns. The horn is highly sought after for potions
like the Antidote to Uncommon Poisons.

13. 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.”
(possibly until Newt)
• It looks like a puffer fish with a spiky balloon-like
appearance. Extremely dangerous, it moves
silently and its breath is toxic and filled with
disease.
•

14. Nundu:
Real Life
• “The ferocious Nundu appears to be a Jaguar crossed with a
cactus,” so it may come from the jungle/deseert pairings of
Mexico.
• The Nundu appears to have a history inspired
by big cats across the world, as Eldon Elsrickle
kept a cub as a pet, which eventually spelled
his downfall. Stories of large carnivores bought
as cute cubs are well-known throughout the
world, which grow up to be aggressive animals
unsuited to captivity.

15. Swooping Evil
• “A large, butterfly-like creature that
emerges from a small object,
possibly a cocoon” – Pottermore
• New for the movie.
• The Swooping Evil’s wings are
described as spiked while its cocoon
is green and spiny.
• Its venom can be diluted to help
……………erase bad memories or cause
…………..amnesia for the full strength
…………..version

16. Real Life
• It looks like a hybrid between a
butterfly, spoonbill bird, and blue-
green parrot.

17. Grindylow
• "A sickly green creature with sharp little horns had its face
pressed against the glass, pulling faces and flexing its long,
spindly fingers.“
• Newt Scamander had several Grindylows in his suitcase.
• Remus Lupin ordered a Grindylow for his third year class to
study. After his resignation, he left behind the tank in which the
Grindylow was kept.
• The Grindylows of the Black Lake attacked Fleur Delacour, and
Harry Potter.
• A folkloric creature from Yorkshire and Lancashire,
Grindylows are said to grab little children with their long sinewy
arms and drown them if they come too close to the water's
edge. They’re a bogeyman used as a ploy to frighten children
away from pools, marshes or ponds where they could drown.

18. Occamy
• The Occamy is found in the Far East and India. A plumed, two-
legged winged creature with a serpentine body, the Occamy
may reach a length of fifteen feet. It feeds mainly on rats and
birds, though has been known to carry off monkeys. The
Occamy is aggressive to all who approach it, particularly in
defence of its eggs, whose shells are made of the purest,
softest silver.”
• The Occamy is a feathered, two-legged serpentine bodied
magical creature with wings. Its wings can be up to 15 feet
long.
• It’s named after Occam’s Razor, the theory that the most likely
explanation for a strange predicament is likely to be the
simplest.
• Its magical nature gives it the power to be choranaptyxic –to
grow or shrink to fit available space.
• Professor Gilderoy Lockhart once wanted to make a line of
haircare products using the silver eggs, but they were too
difficult to obtain.

19. Occamy: Real Life
• It has the serpentine body of the Loch Ness
Monster but the beak, feathers and wings of an
exotic bird.
• Its indigo plumage and yellow eyes compare to
the Hyacinth Macaw, which can be found in
Paraguay.
• Exotic birds such as the Hyacinth Macaw are
under severe threat from the pet trade -- wild
chicks are stolen from nests and crammed into
small containers.

20. Billywig
• “The Billywig is an insect native to Australia. It is around half an
inch long and a vivid sapphire blue, although its speed is such
that it is rarely noticed by Muggles and often not by wizards
until they have been stung. The Billywig’s wings are attached to
the top of its head and are rotated very fast so that it spins as it
flies. At the bottom of the body is a long thin sting.”
• Billywigs are small, speedy, round, bright sapphire blue insects
from Australia. Oddly enough its wings are on top of its head,
allowing the entire animal to spin around while flying.
• Its sting makes the victim giddy, followed by levitation. Younger
witches and wizards in Australia often try to catch them to be
stung on purpose. However, too many stings and the victim will
hover uncontrollably for days, even permanently if there is a
severe allergic reaction.
• Dried Billywig stings are used in potions. They’re also thought
to be part of the secret formula of Fizzing Whizzbees. The
wings adorned Xenophilius Lovegood’s Diadem of Rowena
Ravenclaw to ‘induce an elevated frame of mind’.

21. Billywig
• It appears to have the compound
eyes and luminous colouration of an
orchid bee (top), one species of
which can be found in the Sierra
Gorda, Mexico.

22. Mooncalves
• “The mooncalf is an intensely shy creature
that emerges from its burrow only at the
full moon…Mooncalves performs
complicated dances on their hind legs in
isolated areas in the moonlight”

23. Erumpent
• “The Erumpent is a large grey African beast of great power.
Weighing up to a tonne, the Erumpent may be mistaken for a
rhinoceros at a distance. It has a thick hide that repels most
charms and curses, a large, sharp horn upon its nose and a
long, rope- like tail. […] The Erumpent will not attack unless
sorely provoked, but should it charge, the results are usually
catastrophic. The Erumpent’s horn can pierce everything from
skin to metal, and contains a deadly fluid which will cause
whatever is injected with it to explode.”
• There are not many Erumpents in existence, as males have the
rather unfortunate habit of blowing themselves up mating
season.
XXXXX:
Known wizard
killer/
impossible to
train or
domesticate
XXXX:
Dangerous/
requires
specialist
knowledge/
skilled wizard
may handle

24. Erumpent:
Real Life
• Both the name and appearance suggest an elephant-
rhinoceros hybrid. However, it appears to breathe
through a dorsal blowhole; perhaps it also has a
distant whale relative.
• The erumpent horn is a dangerous ornament in the
Lovegood household. It is mistaken for the horn of a
Crumple-horned Snorkack. On cue, it explodes. The
horn echoes the ‘magical healing’ properties the rhino
horn is thought to have, which is causing the poaching
crisis.

25. Thunderbird
(Frank)
• “I wanted to have one thing that was quintessentially American,
and the Thunderbird is. I feel a special kinship for birds. I loved
Dumbledore’s phoenix, and I wanted a bird in this film with its
own mythology. When the thunder bird flaps its multiple wings,
it creates storms, so it’s a powerful, mythical creature.”
• A relative of the phoenix that is native to the desert climate of
Arizona, Thunderbird feathers shimmer with cloud-like patterns.
They are said to be able to sense danger.
• A House at Ilvermorny and used as wand cores.
• In some tribes, Thunderbirds are considered extremely sacred forces of nature, while in others,
they are treated like unusually powerful members of the animal kingdom
• Newt Scamander rescues a Thunderbird from animal traffickers
in Egypt. He names him Frank and promises to take him back
home to Arizona. The 2017 book intro says President Picquery
made them protected.

26. Real Life
• Its head and crest resemble the
Harpy Eagle, one of the largest
raptors in the world, with 3-4 inch
talons and a 2-meter wingspan.
• From Belize, Brazil, Ecuador and Par
aguay.
• It is the size of one of the larger
Pterosaurs (sadly extinct).

27. Pukwudgie
• Isolt Sayre, founder of
Ilvermorny, was aided by William the
Pukwudgie
• A Pukwudgie is a 2-to-3-foot-tall helper figure from
the Wampanoag (Massachusetts) folklore. They
resemble humans, but with enlarged noses, fingers
and ears. Their skin is grey, and sometimes glows.
Pukwudgies can appear and disappear at will.
When angered, they can lure people to their deaths
or fire poison arrows. Their name literally means
‘person of the wilderness’ and they are usually
considered spirits of the forest.
• In the Ojibwe and other Great Lakes tribes, the
pukwudgie (or bagwajinini) is considered a
mischievous but basically good-natured creature
who plays tricks on people but is not dangerous.
• In the Abenaki and other northeast Algonquian
tribes, a pukwudgie (or bokwjimen) can be
dangerous, but only to people who treat him with
disrespect.
• In New England, pukwudgies are capricious and
dangerous creatures who may play harmless tricks
or even help a human neighbor, but are just as
likely to steal children or commit deadly acts of
sabotage.

28. Wampus Cat
• "A fast and powerful cat native to Appalacia.“
• The Cherokee describe a creature that can walk on its hind legs, and outrun arrows. Its yellow eyes
can hypnotize and read minds.
• In Missouri they call it a Gallywampus; in Arkansas it’s the Whistling Wampus; in
Appalachia it’s just a plain old Wampus (or Wampas) cat. A half-dog, half-cat creature
that can run erect or on all fours, it’s rumored to be seen just after dark or right before
dawn all throughout the Appalachians. But that’s about all everyone agrees on. In non-
Native American cultures it’s a howling, evil creature, with yellow eyes that can
supposedly pierce the hearts and souls of those unfortunate enough to cross its path,
driving them to the edge of sanity.
• Like the Sasquatch, rumors of sightings abound. It’s been seen throughout Northeast
Tennessee, in Eastern Kentucky, in Virginia and West Virginia, and even on the
campus at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

29. Horned Serpent
• To the Muscogee people, the crystalline Horned Serpent lives underwater with a single, large
crystal in its forehead. “Highly prized as aids in divination, these dazzling scales and crystals
could be obtained only by a shaman purified for contact with the dangerous powers of the lower
world.” The horns, called chitto gab-by, were used in medicine. “Fragments of the horns were
said to resemble red sealing wax and could be obtained only with the greatest exposure to
peril.”
• Jackson Lewis, who imparted the tale, adds, “This snake lives in the water and has horns like
the stag. It is not a bad snake....It does not harm human beings but seems to have a magnetic
power over game.” It fits into the tradition that the Horned Serpent aids Isolt in her moments of
need, especially with creating New World magic to protect her family.
• “As the embodiment of the Chaotic Force, the Horned Serpent and the Water
Cougar are traditionally associated with the Lower World and particularly with
floods and destruction. As principles of the Lower World, they stand in opposition
to birds of the Upper World.”
•

30. Pixies
• The pixie is mostly found in Cornwall, England. Electric blue in colour, up to eight
inches in height and very mischievous, the pixie delights in tricks and practical
jokes of all descriptions. Although wingless, it can fly and has been known to
seize unwary humans by the ears and deposit them at the tops of tall trees and
buildings. Pixies produce a high-pitched jabbering intelligible only to other pixies.
They bear live young.
• In the legends associated with Dartmoor, pixies disguise themselves as a bundle
of rags to lure children into their play. They adore music and dance. Pixies are
generally helpful to normal humans, sometimes helping with housework. They are
not completely benign, however, as they mislead travelers (being "pixy-led“) The
best remedy for this is to turn your coat inside out.
• They’re not very nice to Neville in movie two.

31. Hippogriff
• Trotting towards them were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures Harry
had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs and tails of horses, but the
front legs, wings and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel,
steel-coloured beaks and large, brilliantly orange eyes. The talons on their
front legs were half a foot long and deadly-looking.
• In Fantastic Beasts:
• The Hippogriff is native to Europe, though now found worldwide. It has the
head of a giant eagle and the body of a horse. It can be tamed, though this
should be attempted only by experts. Eye contact should be maintained
when approaching a Hippogriff. Bowing shows good intentions. If the
Hippogriff returns the greeting, it is safe to draw closer.
• The Hippogriff burrows for insects but will also eat birds and small
mammals. Breeding Hippogriffs build nests upon the ground into which they
will lay a single large and fragile egg which hatches within twenty-four
hours. The fledgling Hippogriff should be ready to fly within a week, though
it will be a matter of months before it is able to accompany its parent on
longer journeys.

32. Sphinx
• "The Egyptian sphinx has a human head on a lion’s body. For over a thousand
years it has been used by witches and wizards to guard valuables and secret
hideaways. Highly intelligent, the sphinx delights in puzzles and riddles. It is
usually dangerous only when what it is guarding is threatened.“
• This is often a female monster with the body of a lion, the head and torso of a
woman, eagle's wings and, according to some, a serpent's tail.
• She was sent by the gods to plague the town of Thebes as punishment for some
ancient crime, devouring all who failed to solve her riddle. Oedipus solved the
Sphinx's riddle and was made king as a reward, while she cast herself off the
mountainside in despair.
• Sphinxes in myth generally guarded passageways and treasure. A riddle is often
their test. One asks Harry such a riddle in the TriWizarding Tournament

33. Dragons
• Dragons show up in the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament: the Hungarian
Horntail, the Chinese Fireball, the Swedish Short-Snout, and a Welsh Green.
• Ron Weasley's brother Charlie works with dragons in Romania at the time
• Dragons guard certain vaults at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, and the trio ride the one in
the Lestranges’ locker, though they can’t control where it flies.

34. There’s more to see…

35. Harry Potter
Main Series

36. Sources
• “9 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” World Land Trust, 15 Nov
2016. http://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/2016/11/9-fantastic-beasts-
where-find
• Grantham, Bill. Creation Myths and Legends of the Creek Indians,
(Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2002), 25.
• “Puckwudgie,” NativeLanguages.org. http://www.native-languages.org/pukwudgie.htm.
• Rowling, JK. “Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” Pottermore,
https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/ilvermorny
• Scamander, Newt. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. New York:
Scholastic, 2001.
• Tabler, Dave. “The Story of the Wampus Cat,” Appalachian History, 6 Oct
2014. http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2014/10/story-of-wampus-
cat.html.

37. Please visit VeFrankel.com or
Amazon for more works by
Valerie Estelle Frankel