“Father of cryptozoology” and a pioneering writer on the subject of unknown animals. Inspired by the work of Jules Verne (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) and Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World), Heuvelmans has devoted his life to the discovery of references to unrecognized, mysterious animals in the writings of travelers and scientists. His most famous work, Sur la piste des animaux inconnus (1955), sold more than a million copies in English translation as On the Track of Unknown Animals (1958). On the Track of Unknown Animals looks at reports of unknown animal life ranging from reported sighting of the great American ground sloth in 16th-century South America to sightings of the abominable snowman in 20th-century India. In each case, Heuvelmans brings together the reports and suggests possible explanations for them.
Heuvelmans has also written other volumes on cryptozoological topics, including In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents (1968), L’Homme de Neanderthal est toujours vivant (Neanderthal man alive, 1974), Les demiers dragons d’Afrique (The last dragons of Africa, 1978), and Les Betes humaines d’Afrique (The human beasts of Africa, 1980). In 1975 he founded the Center for Cryptozoology in southern France, and in 1982 he became president of the newly established International Society of Cryptozoology. He frequently contributes to the society’s journal, Crypto- zoology.