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Premise

I need help designing the behaviour/hunting patters of a beastie that lives in the Canadian wilderness to terrorize our protagonists.

Information

The area this creature would live in would consist of densely wooded coniferous forests. Creature would be an ambush predator.

The creature is relatively large/tall when compared to a human, has head-pulpifying strength, uses sound to hunt and is cunning enough to create and lure prey into traps. Has a monstrous worm like head (regardless of biological plausibility)

Question

Based on the aforementioned information, what would this creature actually hunt like? How does it avoid having its monstrous bulk scare off prey items?

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    $\begingroup$ It sounds like you already know what you want it to look like. What further details is it that you need? $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Feb 19, 2018 at 9:38
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    $\begingroup$ It would look like a beast that is taller than a human and has a toothed-worm like head. $\endgroup$
    – The Square-Cube Law
    Feb 19, 2018 at 11:42
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    $\begingroup$ Sounds like Drop Bears, though they're Australian native. $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Feb 19, 2018 at 12:36
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    $\begingroup$ Having grown up in Alberta, the Canadian forests, apart from BC, are thickly treed, but the trees tend to be too spindly to be climbable. Once you get north of Edmonton, it's pretty much all muskeg with stands of short evergreens until you hit tundra. $\endgroup$
    – pojo-guy
    Feb 19, 2018 at 13:35
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    $\begingroup$ Grizzlies are darned smart, super-strong, scary as a nightmare...and already native to the area. Not scary enough? Fine: Two Grizzlies. Make one an angry mom. II'll be in the next county. $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    Feb 20, 2018 at 1:32

5 Answers 5

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1. The Wendigo

This white-furred bestial man-eating creature seems to perfectly fit your request. It lurks in the wintry wind, stealthy despite its large size, and is insatiably hungry. This supernatural beast is sourced from Algonquin legends, a native American tribe that lived around the Great Lakes.

Two easy sources for further information are Until Dawn (the 2015 computer game), which showcases a weaker, more humanoid version of the creature, and Descent: Journeys in the Dark (the 2016 board game), which has the toothed worm-like head you're looking for, as below:

enter image description here

2. The Sasquatch

This large, hairy, bipedal ape-like being reportedly lives in the Pacific Northwest (esp. Washington state and British Columbia) and stands roughly 6-9 feet tall. Various native American legends have variants of this creature, some are notedly gentle, others are ferocious and capable of carrying off humans to be eaten.

No versions of this legendary critter have a worm-like head with teeth, but there's no reason why a mutant version can't exist.

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    $\begingroup$ Bigfoot + Tremors = Nightmares $\endgroup$
    – kingledion
    Feb 19, 2018 at 13:36
  • $\begingroup$ I had no idea there was a version of the wendigo with a worm-like head. Thank you so much! $\endgroup$
    – DevourerOfStars
    Feb 19, 2018 at 17:15
  • $\begingroup$ I'd also recommend Algernon Blackwood's short story The Wendigo as a good example. This particular one fits very well with the creature description given by OP. $\endgroup$
    – s.anne.w
    Feb 21, 2018 at 0:21
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So large, strong, quite clever, carnivorous, lives in the canadian wilderness.

A bear?

Maybe one that got hurt and disfigured in a forest fire and now hunts humans because they are the only creatures slow enough chase down.

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You do not have to make it up. Wolverines are very close.

Fishers are mustellids, in the weasel family. They are arboreal predators but too small for your needs.

fisher in tree

But wolverines are mustellids too. They live in the north. They can also be arboreal.

wolverine in tree

Wolverines are formidable predators. They are as strong, smart, relentless and fierce in the weasel way - they kill for pleasure. Wolverines can take elk and moose. A wolverine is outmatched by a bear and probably could not catch one by surprise by dropping onto it - unless the wolverine were smart enough to disguise its scent by rolling in the carrion it knows will attract the bear.

The dead grizzly can be an opening scene, like when they find the dead orca at the beginning of Jaws. The dead bear by the carrion, the side of its head torn off, its body uneaten.

Scale up the wolverine - a mutant that is 50% bigger and 50% smarter. You are all set.

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    $\begingroup$ A wolverine that size would be terrifying. But it climbs trees to hide its kill, safety and to see around the area. Not to hunt from. Otherwise good answer, I'd be more terrified of it than a Sasquatch. $\endgroup$
    – Dan Clarke
    Feb 20, 2018 at 18:19
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The Canadian wilderness contains several types of (rarely) man-eating or man killing monsters.

1) Polar bears. the largest carnivores on land and quite willing to eat humans.

2) Grizzly bears.

3) Black bears.

4) Cougars or mountain lions.

5) Wolves.

6) Coyotes. There is one case where Canadian coyotes killed an adult human.

7) wolverines. They can attack and kill humans but rarely do so.

Both mountain lions and wolverines are said to sometimes jump out of trees onto their prey.

So if you want to make your monster a hard science fiction monster instead of a fantasy or horror monster you should take one of those and make it much bigger, stronger and more dangerous and also make it much more likely to attack. Climate change or something has killed all its prey and it is starving, it has rabies, a human killed her babies, or like "Big Ghost Basin" it was burned in a fire and ferociously attacks campfires and those who make them, etc.

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Beavermorph: the trick is, nobody ever survived to tell how it morphes. His strength is, normal beavers are cute.

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