Bonnacon

The bonnacon, also known as bonasus or bonacus,^[1] is a legendary creature described as a beast with a bull’s head and a horse’s body. Its immense inward-curving horns were useless for self-defence, but it was able to expel large amounts of caustic excreta from its anus at any pursuers, sufficient to cover three acres (1.2 ha).^[2]

The bonnacon first appeared in a story by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.^[3] The ancient Roman author Pliny the Elder included the bonnacon in his Naturalis Historia, and the book’s popularity during the Middle Ages led to the bonnacon’s inclusion in medieval bestiaries.^[4]

Bestiaries often ascribed moral and scriptural lessons to the descriptions of animals, but the bonnacon was never given any such symbolic meaning. Illustrations of the creature may have simply served as a source of humour, deriving as much from the reaction of the hunters as from the act of defecation,^[4] the earliest example of a comedy animal.^[3]