a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal; in popular culture, a fanciful life form that is part human and part beast; a creature recognizable as human but possessing physical or primitive behavioral characteristics that are exclusive to animals in certain Native American traditions, a person who can transform into any animal when wearing its pelt; in Navajo culture, a person or being with the ability to change their physical form at will

any creature that may or may not exist– an animal that has been claimed to exist or that once existed in the fossil records but has not been proven to exist today

the study of and search for animals, usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence, that recently have been observed alive in nature by people and that lack a recorded type-specimen.
A cryptid is what cryptozoologists study.