The Swiss and Austrian Alps may harbor what appears to be the largest lizard found on the European continent. It is, if it truly exists, the famous tatzelwurm (tatzelworm). This is the animal's name in Austria, meaning "clawed worm." In the Jura Mountains, near Bern, Switzerland, the creature is called stollenwurm ("hole worm"). Other Alpine names include bergstutzen ("mountain stump"), springwurm ("jumping worm"), daazelwurm , and praatzelwurm . In the French Alps, the creature is called arassas .
"Dragons" with heads similar to those of cats were supposedly sighted in the Alps in the late 15th century. Many sightings of these Alpine dragons were collected and described by the early Swiss zoologist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer . In 1723, he wrote Itinera per Helvetiae , a sort of catalog of Alpine fauna. In this book, he devoted considerable space to Alpine dragons.
The earliest record Scheuchzer obtained came from Andreas Roduner of Altsax, who, while traveling with companions near the Wagsenberger Mountain, spotted a dragon that immediately reared up on its hind legs. The witness later claimed that the creature, when standing on two legs, "was as tall as a man." The creature was covered in scales, had four legs, a long tail, and the head of a cat. Its underbelly appeared segmented, and a thick mane covered its back.
Another account came from Jean Tinner , a farmer who shot a seven-foot-long snake with a cat's head. It was gray and black in color. The animal was suspected by villagers of sucking milk from cows' udders, a characteristic motif of local folklore.
The Tatzelwurm still appears today, albeit in a slightly modified form. It is now a four-legged lizard with a cylindrical body and a short tail. It has a wide snout and is capable of moving very quickly, leaping great distances, often making whistling sounds in the air.
There are two famous sketches of this creature. The first, from the 1836 hunting manual Neues Taschenbuch für Natur-, Forst- und Jagdfreunde auf das Jahr (New Taschenbuch for Nature, Forests and Jagdfreunde auf das Jahr) , is a crude drawing of a scaly, cigar-shaped animal with four small legs. The second sketch, from the 1841 book Alpenrosen (Alpine Frogs ), depicts a creature resembling a scaly worm with two tiny forelimbs.
The earliest sighting of such a "modern" tatzelwurm occurred in 1779. Hans Fuchs saw two such creatures and died of a heart attack, likely brought on by this unusual encounter. A painting made to commemorate his death depicts the two reptilian creatures in the background.
In 1861, Friedrich von Tschundi wrote a book about Alpine fauna titled The Thirty Years of the Alps . In this work, he mentions "a kind of cave worm, which is thin, 30 to 90 cm long, has two short legs, and seems to appear just before storms." The author also cites an example in which, in 1828, a resident of the canton of Solothurn found one in drying marshes and decided to take it to Professor Hugi. Unfortunately, crows devoured part of the carcass before it reached its destination. The skeleton was sent to Heidelberg, but there the trail ceased.
The 20th century also saw reports of sightings of the tatzelwurm. In 1908, a hunter was attacked by the creature near Murau, Austria. The animal was 50 cm (20 inches) long and 8 cm (3 inches) thick, with very short legs. In 1921, a tatzelwurm was seen in the Austrian town of Rauris, where it jumped 25 feet (7.5 meters).
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