Sidehill Gouger
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Sidehill Gougers are mythological creatures said to inhabit the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and the southwestern sandhills of Saskatchewan. Actually, they are merely fictional animals spoken of to confuse the gullible.
According to legend, little is known about the nature of the Sidehill Gouger as they are a rare and reclusive species, but they have one distinctive feature upon which all Sidehill Gouger spotters agree; the legs on one side of their body are significantly shorter than the legs on the other side of their body.
This unusual arrangement is due to the habitat of the Sidehill Gouger, grazing on the grasses and other vegetation of mountain slopes. They almost never come down to flatter terrain where they are unable to run well. Sidehill Gougers are believed to come in two main varieties, the left-handed Sidehill Gouger and the right-handed Sidehill Gouger (see: chirality). A left-handed Gouger always moves around a hill counterclockwise as it grazes because its left legs are shorter than its right legs, and the right-handed Gouger goes clockwise because its right legs are shorter than the left. The two varieties are sometimes known as clockwise and counterclockwise Gougers as a result. Note that these two varieties are not necessarily separate species; stories persist of rare offspring between left-handed and right-handed Gougers. Since these hybrids have awkwardly mismatched leg-lengths and usually do not survive to adulthood, however, it is not known if they are sterile mules.
All sources agree that the Sidehill Gouger is herbivorous and quite timid. The size reached by adult Sidehill Gougers is widely disputed, on the other hand; some sources indicate that they are no larger than mountain goats, whereas others attribute major landslides to Sidehill Gougers that become turned around from their usual orientation and dig their feet into the ground for stability. It is this belief that gives the species its name.
The notion of animals with one pair of legs longer than the other is popular: others include the Wild Haggis, the Sidehill Dodge Hodag, the Dahu, and certain breeds of mountain sheep.