Editing Sidehill gouger

{{short description|Mythical creature from American folklore}}
[[Image:Sidehill-Gouger.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The Sidehill Gouger: a "left-sided" mother looks forlornly at her "right-sided" pup.]]

In [[American folklore]], a '''Sidehill gouger''' is a [[fearsome critter]] adapted to living on hillsides by having legs on one side of their body shorter than the legs on the opposite side,<ref>{{cite news |last=Childs |first=Art |date=23 July 1922 |title=Yarns of the Big Woods: The Side-Hill Gourger |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/409553427/ |department=Junior Courier |newspaper=Buffalo Courier |location=Buffalo, New York |volume=87 |issue=204 |page=7 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> having evolved to resemble any form of mammals such as [[pangolin]]s, [[goat]]s, [[human]]s, and [[bear]]s. This peculiarity allows them to walk on steep hillsides, although only in one direction; when lured or chased into the plain, they are trapped in an endless circular path.  Some claim these creatures play a large role in, and in some cases are responsible for, the creation of [[hoodoo_(geology)|hoodoos]].  The creature is variously known as the Sidehill Dodger<ref name="Brown1935"/> Sidehill Hoofer,<ref name="Randolph1951"/> or Side-hill Gazink.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stegner|first=Wallace|title=The Sound of Mountain Water|year=1969|publisher=Doubleday & Company|pages=74}}</ref>

Sidehill gougers are [[mammal]]s who dwell in hillside burrows,<ref name="Brown1935">{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Charles Edward |title=Paul Bunyan Natural History: Describing the Wild Animals, Birds, Reptiles and Fish of the Big Woods about Paul Bunyan's Old Time Logging Camps |url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1126 |year=1935 |publisher=C.E. Brown |page=5 |via=[[Wisconsin Historical Society]]}}</ref> and are occasionally depicted as laying [[egg (biology)|eggs]].<ref name="Randolph1951">{{cite book|last=Randolph|first=Vance|title=We Always Lie to Strangers: Tall Tales from the Ozarks|url=https://archive.org/details/wealwayslietostr0000rand|url-access=registration|year=1951|publisher=Columbia University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/wealwayslietostr0000rand/page/61 61]–62}}</ref><ref name="Kearney1928">{{cite book |last=Kearney |first=Lake Shore |title=The Hodag and Other Tales of the Logging Camps |year=1928 |publisher=Democrat Printing Company |pages=34–35}}</ref> There are usually 6 to 8 pups to a [[Litter (animal)|litter]].<ref name="Tryon1939">{{cite book |last=Tryon |first=Henry Harrington |title=Fearsome Critters |year=1939 |publisher=The Idlewild Press |location=Cornwall, New York |pages=38–41]}}</ref> Since the gouger is footed for hillsides, it cannot stand up on level ground. If by accident a gouger falls from a hill, it can easily be captured or starve to death.<ref name="Randolph1951"/> When a clockwise gouger meets a counter-clockwise gouger, they have to fight to the death since they can only go in one direction.<ref name=Randolph1951/> The formation of [[terracette]]s has been attributed to gouger activity.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilson |first=Jackman |title=Study casts doubt on existence of side-hill gougers |date=12 September 1980 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/385113786/ |newspaper=Corvallis Gazette Times |location=Corvallis, Oregon |volume=119 |issue=221 |page=1 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

Gougers are said to have migrated to the west from New England, a feat accomplished by a pair of gougers who clung to each other in a fashion comparable to "a pair of drunks going home from town with their longer legs on the outer sides".<ref name="Tryon1939"/> 
A Vermont variation is known as the '''Wampahoofus'''. It was reported that farmers crossbreed them with their cows so they could graze easily on mountain sides.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

[[Frank C. Whitmore]] and [[Nicholas Hotton]], in their joint tongue-in-cheek response to an article in ''[[Smithsonian Magazine]]'', expounded the taxonomy of sidehill gougers (''Membriinequales declivitous''), noting in particular "the sidehill dodger, which inhabits the Driftless Area of Wisconsin; the dextrosinistral limb ratio approaches unity although the metapodials on the downhill side are noticeably stouter."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eshelman |first1=Ralph E. |last2=Ward |first2=Lauck |editor-last=Berta |editor-first1=Analisa |editor-last2=Demere |editor-first2=Thomas A. |date=1 May 1994 |title=Tribute to Frank Clifford Whitmore, Jr |url=https://archive.org/stream/proceedingsofsan29sand#page/8/ |journal=Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History |issue=29 |pages=3–10 |issn=1059-8707 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Hotton |first1=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Hotton |last2=Whitmore |first2=Frank C. |author-link2=Frank C. Whitmore |year=1972 |title=Letters to the editor: Fantastic Animals Prowl the Tall Timber of our Mythology |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |volume=3 |issue=7 |page=13}}</ref> A special award, the Order of the Sidehill Gouger, is awarded to worthy members for hard and long standing volunteer efforts by the Alberta Group of the Royal Canadian Air Force Association.

==In popular culture==
* "Deadhead Mile" (2016) by K.N. Johnson (included in the anthology ''A Journey of Words'') suggest gougers to be the culprits behind ski trails with dead ends.<ref name="PaoneHayes2016">{{cite book|last1=Johnson |first1=K. N. |title=A Journey of Words |chapter=Deadhead Mile |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9BVDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT186 |date=1 September 2016 |publisher=BookBaby |isbn=978-0-9979485-9-2 |pages=186–197}}</ref>
* ''Sidehill Gouger'' (2009) by Canned Games is a puzzle game on [[Xbox Live]] for [[Xbox 360]], featuring a young boy hunting the sidehill gougers of his grandfather's stories.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cannedgames.com/gouger.html |author=Staff writer |year=2009 |title=Sidehill Gouger |website=Canned Games |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708114349/http://www.cannedgames.com/gouger.html |archive-date=8 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Storyteller [[John Dashney]] featured the sidehill gouger (referred to as the "sidehill wowser") in a story supposedly about his grandfather, who specialized in hunting the creatures to the point of stretching his hounds' legs to help them chase the creatures better along hillsides. The story details an encounter in which his grandfather stumbled across two gougers at a time, resulting in a harrowing spiral chase up a hill until the opposite-oriented creatures crashed into one another, solving his problem.{{cn|date=April 2023}}

==See also==
*[[Dahu]]
*[[Wild haggis]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
*{{cite book |last=Dill |first=Lawrence M. |editor-last1=Scherr |editor-first1=George H. |editor-last2=Liebmann-Smith |editor-first2=Richard |title=The Best of the Journal of Irreproducible Results |chapter=Behavioral Genetics of the Sidehill Gouger |url=https://archive.org/details/bestofjournalofi00sche |url-access=registration |year=1983 |publisher=Workman |location=New York, N.Y. |isbn=978-0-89480-595-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bestofjournalofi00sche/page/9 9]–10}}

==External links==
*[http://www.naturecompass.org/gmcburlington/news/0410wamp.html The Wampahoofus: A Sad Evolutionary Tale]
*[https://www.boofum.com/ Boofum]
{{American tall tales}}

[[Category:Mythological caprids]]
[[Category:Fearsome critters]]