UNICORN IN AMERICA

Unicorn rampant

Many will be surprised that there have been alleged sightings of unicorns in North America, but indeed there have been some.  Elizabethan mariner Sir John Hawkins (1532-95) claimed to have seen one in Florida.  Florida here may not mean the present state, but the larger Spanish territory in what is now the United States.  Unicorns were reported near the Canadian border in the 17th Century.  A kind of unicorn was rumored to exist in New York state.  These ones had shaggy manes, a stag's neck and tails like a wild pig's.

Unicorns were not unknown in South America, if Patagonian paintings are anything to go by.  The natives claimed there had once been many unicorns, but now they had been killed off.