The Science and Biology of the Wendigo
It is a spirit said to stalk the frozen north, seeking any it may devour. The reality is not supernatural, but it is no less disturbing.
In the northern territories, winter falls quickly, lying on the land like a body, heavy and unfeeling. But in those regions, it's more than simply cold.
Winter seems to swallow warmth, drawing it out of every surface it touches. Long, frigid nights are broken only by the howling of the wind, and the forests that teemed with life only months before become lonely and desolate.
Stalking this frozen wilderness is a creature of legend, a spirit of the lonely places, a hunger that is never satisfied, selfishness personified. The Algonquin people have many names for it, a kind of manitou most often called the “wendigo” or “windigo.”
The wendigo is said to be cursed to wander the land eternally, seeking to fulfill their voracious appetite for human flesh. In the harsh conditions brought on by winter, men and women often found themselves doubting that the little food they had would carry them through to spring. Eventually, supplies would begin to thin, and many had to face starvation and, eventually, death.
It is here that the wendigo is said to make its appearance, where desperation meets self-interest and people are left with an unthinkable choice: consume another human being or die. Anyone who succumbs to this temptation, the most reprehensible act possible in Algonquin culture, was said to become possessed by the spirit of the wendigo and would undergo a horrific transformation in both mind and body.
In eating the flesh of a fellow human, one was forced to surrender their own humanity. And though they ate, they would never be satisfied. Since the time of the earliest contact with the Native American and First Nations people, sightings of the wendigo have been reported from Canada, the Great Lakes, and northern Minnesota, though they are almost certainly present in a much larger geographic area.
My grandfather, anthropologist Harold Zeiger, would often tell me stories of the Ojibwe people, among whom he spent a considerable amount of time observing their culture and rituals and documenting their oral histories. These stories frequently included accounts of the wendigo, a creature that, I must admit, kept my younger self awake many a night, hardly daring to glance at my bedroom window lest a cold, pale shadow in the woods outside should catch my gaze.
Of course, as is commonly known, many years ago, while on a university-funded trip to the Minnesota-Canada border, Professor Zeiger went missing, and I never heard from my grandfather again. But that is a story for another time.
The Virus
There is perhaps no greater external agent of change than the lowly and insidious virus, an organism exquisite in its simultaneous complexity and simplicity, forged by eons of specialization. Viruses inhabit nearly every biome on the planet, and the frigid regions of central North America are no different.
At some point in early human history there, there appeared a strain that I believe to be part of the class Herpeviricetes, a virus that I have tentatively dubbed the Progressive Anthropophagic Virus, or PAV. Indeed, PAV would be a new addition to a class previously occupied solely by Herpesvirales, an order that includes numerous herpesviruses, none of which are normally fatal in humans or which cause such drastic revisions to their hosts' cellular genomes.
My reason for this potential classification has to do with PAV's structural similarity to HSV-1. Like that virus, PAV is a double-stranded DNA virus with an icosahedral capsid enclosed in a glycoprotein-containing lipid envelope.
What separates this virus from its likely cousin, however, is its method of infection and the areas of the body it targets.
Upon infection, usually via the mucosal epithelium of the mouth, the virus spreads via axonal transport along the internal laryngeal nerve and ultimately to the inferior ganglion of the vagus nerve.
Infection is usually inapparent, and if any symptoms are present, they're often dismissed as the common cold or even seasonal allergies - sore throat, slight fever, and general malaise. But once the virus has spread to the inferior ganglion, the viral genome goes silent, seeming to cloak itself in a coating of nucleosomes, and enters an extended latent phase.
Occasionally, however, certain environmental conditions may cause the virus to reactivate, at which point it uncoats its nucleocapsid and begins the process of replication, transcription, and assembly before budding from the host cells and finally traveling back to the nearby mucosal epithelium.
As you might have guessed, during a flare-up, the infected individual's saliva is highly contagious, and even sharing an eating utensil could easily pass the virus to a new host. Fortunately for most infected individuals, these occasional reactivation cycles trigger a rapid immune response, and the virus is usually effectively forced to return to a latent state within a few days.
Indeed, after the initial infection, the virus may remain latent for decades, and in many individuals, no symptoms will ever present themselves. It is my belief that in the cold northern regions, PAV has silently thrived for hundreds of years within a very large population, though given the rarity of long-distance travel, at least relative to modern times, it remains somewhat isolated.
And so an infected individual may be content to live with the virus indefinitely, never any the wiser. That is, unless the victim undergoes a very particular and immense psychological strain, one that perhaps may include the life-and-death decision of whether to engage in the most horrific act known to their culture–and one that will surely fracture their humanity forever.
I've now described the microbe that causes this terrifying transformation, but the question likely tugging at your mind is this: how can a latent virus, housed in a very specific part of the anatomy, trigger any widespread changes?
To find the answer to that very question, I packed my equipment and traveled north. I had to find a specimen for myself. I met an Ojibwe tribe in an area just west of Lake Superior and in close proximity to the very place my grandfather had visited years before.
The details of what transpired there are beyond the scope of this presentation. Suffice it to say that what I encountered was immensely beneficial to my research, and as a result, I believe I can hypothesize accurately as to the direct nature of this virus.
Imagine, if you will, that you and a few close members of your family have embarked on a hunting trip deep into the snow-covered forest. At some point, you find yourselves lost in a blizzard. By the time it clears, you've completely lost your bearings.
After weeks of wandering, you've exhausted your supplies. Gradually, your hunger overwhelms your every thought. Eventually, one of your family members falls to the cold.
You and the others mourn, but in the days following, you begin to trade uneasy glances. Still, though the situation is desperate, you are not willing to cross that line. But as the days wear on, hope begins to dwindle, and you struggle to fight the urge to simply eat, to quell the pain, the hunger, to fuel your body.
Then one night, you sit at the fire with the relentless wind gnawing at your tattered clothes. You can no longer feel your frostbitten feet, but still you try to warm them. The body of your deceased loved one lies nearby underneath the hastily constructed rock grave.
Your mouth waters, but still your mind resists. Amazingly, despite the cold, a bead of sweat trickles down your cheek, and you feel your pulse quicken. In your mind, an agonizing battle rages. You know you cannot give in, but you also know that you must.
Suddenly, you can bear the mental torture no longer. Something snaps, and almost as if propelled, you move toward your relative's lifeless form.
What I've described here, dear reader, is the trigger that leads to the wendigo's transformation. As previously mentioned, for many individuals, an extreme viral reactivation would, blessedly, never occur. But in times of sheer desperation, a unique combination of factors would send the virus into overdrive, overwhelming the immune system's attempts to stop it.
It has been well documented that the lateral portions of the orbitofrontal cortex fire when, despite their moral beliefs, one is faced with no choice but to cause harm to others. In fact, this region of the brain has long been associated with feelings of extreme displeasure, and needless to say, for many, no act is so revolting as that of consuming a member of their own species.
But the orbitofrontal cortex plays another role as well. Through a network of neural pathways, it is connected to the amygdala, a structure responsible for emotional processing and, crucially, regulation of the stress hormone cortisol.
Normally, these two structures form a kind of feedback loop. The amygdala detects and responds to emotionally relevant stimuli, while the orbitofrontal cortex processes this information and sends signals back to the amygdala and other brain regions to help modulate the emotional response.
But when faced with starvation, death, and a complete upheaval of the values it holds, the amygdala floods the body with cortisol as per a normal response to stress, and the virus lying in wait within the vagus ganglion begins its process of reactivation.
It is the sustained release of this hormone, fueled by the increased neural activity within the lateral regions of the orbitofrontal cortex, that begins a vicious cycle.
First, in preparation for a fight-or-flight response, cortisol is known to suppress the immune system, and chronic elevations can even lead to a decreased number of circulating lymphocytes.
Second, and more directly, though the exact process is still yet to be proven, it appears that cortisol itself reactivates the latent PAV by a process known as glucocorticoid receptor-mediated reactivation.
It does this by binding to a glucocorticoid receptor on the virus's host cell, which then causes the host cells to express genes which promote the replication of PAV. In short, prolonged exposure to elevated levels of cortisol has been shown to greatly increase the virulence of pathogens within the body and overall pathogenicity, even with other viral infections such as HSV-1.
The virus then spreads via axonal transport from the inferior vagal ganglion along the entire vagus nerve, eventually directly infecting the larynx, thyroid, and even aspects of the digestive system—crucial points to which we'll return shortly.
And thus, the virus spreads like a wildfire, fanned by cortisol and to a lesser extent, epinephrine, until it triggers a cascade of alterations to the victim's anatomy and physiology, the result of which is an irreversible loss of their essential humanity.
The first signs of viral reactivation within a PAV victim are subtle. Numbness in the feet and hands may occur, as well as a dark discoloration of the digits. At first, this is likely to be attributed to frostbite, but in fact, though frostbite may also be present, it is due to a severe increase in blood sugar, a point we'll come back to shortly, leading eventually to damage in the blood vessels and nerves of the extremities.
This is actually a form of necrosis, and over time, the victim's rotting flesh will begin to emit a pungent scent, one that has been described as an odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption. But sadly for a victim of PAV reactivation, this is only the beginning.
As the virus travels along the vagus nerve, one of the first organs it infects is responsible for metabolic regulation: the thyroid. This results in a condition known as viral thyroiditis, which in turn leads to inflammation, enlargement, and an overproduction of hormones of and by the thyroid.
For those affected by PAV, this appears to be a form of hyperthyroidism. And for the first few days following viral reactivation, the victim's circulatory system is flooded with, among other hormones, thyroxine.
This serves to boost the body's production of energy, which the victim may at first find invigorating. However, prolonged exposure over the course of roughly two weeks causes a number of side effects, including greatly increased metabolism, appetite, and a significant loss of adipose tissue.
Interestingly, it is the increased body temperature resulting from the spiked metabolism that allows victims of PAV to survive the cold winter weather far longer than a normal human could, giving them a stark advantage in the frigid landscape. But this is only the start of a cascade of physiological events that lead to the wendigo's notoriously ravenous appetite.
The vagus nerve is also responsible for the regulation and feedback reception of numerous digestive processes. And as the reactivated virus makes its way to the gut, it will eventually travel along its pancreatic branch. At the pancreas, it appears to induce beta cell apoptosis via the activation of gene networks under the control of various, though specific, transcription factors.
In other words, this causes the rapid and widespread death of insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, which in turn causes blood glucose levels to rise uncontrolled, a condition known as hyperglycemia. This process of beta cell death has been observed in other viral infections, but never to an extent I have observed in PAV infection.
Thus, even as the victim intakes increasing amounts of food, without insulin, their body is unable to process or store glycogen or glucose, leading to an increased severity of hunger known as polyphagia. This, in turn, causes specialized cells in the stomach lining to continuously release ghrelin, a hormone that travels to the hypothalamus, a region of the brain that regulates hunger and the balance of energy, and binds to specific receptors there to stimulate hunger, further exacerbating the victim's unrelenting desire for food.
Paradoxically, no matter how much food the victim consumes, they remain not only unsatiated but they continue to lose fat, resulting in a gaunt and deeply emaciated appearance.
But the legends of the wendigo often describe not only ravenous hunger but a specific taste for human flesh. My own observations have led me to believe that while humans are certainly targeted by victims of PAV, they will also pursue any source of protein available to them. It just so happens that in the dead of winter, humans are often the most readily available food source.
Ultimately, over the course of two to three months, PAV leads to a complete disruption of energy homeostasis. This upending of the natural order is mirrored in the legends of the wendigo. The spirit of the lonely places is itself a disruption in the natural order of the world, the eventual consequence of this self-focus is ruin.
And sadly, with victims of PAV, that is exactly what happens. Because they can neither effectively fuel their bodies nor resist the urge to eat at any cost, many wendigo die of starvation within three to four months. Many others are killed before their full transformation takes place, while others freeze to death.
Ultimately and tragically, prognosis for PAV victims following a traumatic reactivation is universal fatality.
But the aforementioned lack of insulin in the victim's body has another side effect. My observations indicate that, as with lycan physiology in response to the Lycanthropic Parvovirus, victims of PAV undergo a similarly unprecedented bone growth. This is especially apparent in the major bones of the limbs.
The increase in metabolism brought on by the virus appears to stimulate the production of growth hormone-releasing hormone, growth hormone itself, and insulin-like growth factor from the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and liver, respectively.
The low levels of insulin in the body, a hormone that normally regulates production of these other hormones, instead allows them to increase unchecked. This leads to increased endochondral ossification, or longitudinal bone growth, along the tibia, fibula, femur, humerus, radius, and ulna, as well as certain regions of the digits.
As with LPV, this appears to involve the activation of hyaline cartilage cells in the epiphyseal plate. This zone, which is usually dormant in adults, seems to experience sudden reactivation. During this process, osteoclasts, a type of cartilage cell, break down the mineralized matrix of the bone through a process called bone resorption.
This is followed by chondrocytes forming new cartilage to replace the missing bone. Fibroblasts then strengthen the cartilage by reinforcing it with collagen. After the completion of this process, new cartilage can stack inside the open growth plates and spread across the exterior of the skeleton to form new bone tissue, a process carried out by osteoblasts, which replace the old cartilage as it degenerates.
However, unlike LPV, I have observed very little appositional growth. This is likely due to the fact that wendigo musculature remains largely unaltered. Indeed, victims of PAV exhibit average human strength and speed. Without the need to support enhanced muscles, it is my assumption that additional bone density simply isn't necessary.
The ultimate effect is not only one of increased limb length, adding to the victim's uncannily skeletal form, but also of increased overall height. Reports often cite the wendigo's exceptional size, and indeed, within approximately two months, an infected individual may reach a height of eight feet, depending on their size prior to infection.
It is here that I feel compelled to mention the wendigo's characteristic skin tone. While some pigmentation remains, in every specimen I have studied, there is little doubt that an as-yet-unknown mechanism, whether by the viral infection or ensuing response, results in the death of melanocytes throughout the skin, bestowing on the victim an exceedingly pale appearance.
This could give a wendigo a purposeful advantage in the snowy regions where it hunts, but it could also be an unrelated side effect of another, admittedly unknown process.
Another notable aspect of wendigo morphology is their overall lack of hair. Indeed, hair loss is one of the earliest signs of viral reactivation in PAV victims. Subjects often notice their hair thinning or even coming out in chunks within mere days following the traumatic episode.
I should note that while hair loss is common, it is the least predictable symptom of the virus. Some individuals may lose virtually all the hair on their body, adding to their ghastly visage, while others may only notice a slight thinning. And still others may exhibit a delayed response or no hair loss at all.
In those victims where hair loss does occur, it appears that the body's response to the virus results in a condition similar to telogen effluvium, in which hair follicles prematurely stop growing and essentially suspend in the telogen, or resting, phase.
For victims of PAV, however, the hair affected by telogen effluvium will stay in the resting phase indefinitely, causing the follicles to fall out and, at least in my observations, never regrow. It's possible that if a cure were ever discovered, the follicles could exit the telogen phase and regrow, but at this point, that remains pure conjecture.
While the exact process that causes this hair loss is still undefined in my research, I suspect it has to do with the victim's extreme stress response, a known cause of hair loss in many other diseases and syndromes.
Now, though, I'll move on to another hallmark of the wendigo's appearance: its deadly claws. Rather than extensions of bone, as is the case for lycans, individuals with PAV present an accelerated rate of keratin production by onycoblasts within the proximal nail matrix of the digits in both the hands and feet, leading to a marked thickening and augmentation of the nails themselves.
Unlike in patients afflicted with the Human Vampiric Virus, whose nails undergo a similar growth pattern, here the rate of nail growth occurs much faster than normal. Rather than taking months, patients with PAV have typically formed rudimentary claws within three days.
I have yet to determine the exact mechanism by which these cells produce these claws, so to speak, at such an abnormally rapid pace. But at this time, I hypothesize that it is the result of the victim's greatly increased metabolism.
In my own observations, however, I have noted that infected individuals rarely use these claws to dismember their victims, relying instead on their mouthful of razor-like teeth to inflict mortal wounds, though they can certainly cause deep lacerations during an attack.
Additionally, it has been reported that wendigo have been glimpsed climbing through trees and even along walls, a feat likely made possible by the strengthened and elongated nails.
Indeed, perhaps the most viscerally disturbing aspect of the wendigo biology is its seemingly enlarged mouth, from which protrude a staggering number of sharp teeth, formed in what appears to be a completely random arrangement. In fact, the teeth of a PAV victim are grotesquely elongated by a process very similar to what I have previously described in both vampires and lycans.
In short, the virus appears to trigger new amelogenesis, and additional enamel is formed on top of existing teeth by proliferating ameloblasts derived from the epithelial cells of the dental papilla, traveling through the dentinal tubules towards the tooth's crown.
The ameloblasts appear to secrete an additional extracellular matrix composed of enamel proteins and minerals. Though this process occurs rapidly, at least by normal standards, it is still quite slow, taking up to three weeks to form the sharp teeth seen in late-stage victims of the virus.
Just as obvious, however, is the misshapen and misaligned appearance of the wendigo dentition. This is likely due to a combination of factors, the first of which is simple. In their unrelenting hunger, victims of PAV often attempt to consume matter which is far too solid to be broken down easily, such as frozen bone. As a result, trauma to the underlying jawbones can cause irregular healing patterns.
Now, unlike lycanthropy, odontogenesis, or the formation of new teeth, may or may not be triggered in a PAV victim. When hyperdontia, or the growth of supplemental supernumerary teeth, does occur, it does so without the benefit of an elongated jaw as we see in lycans. As a result, for a certain number of PAV victims, the teeth become severely overcrowded, leading to a truly gruesome appearance.
Finally, their unusual dentition is often due, in part, to abnormal growth in the alveolar processes of both the maxilla and mandible, likely a side effect of the increased growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor responsible for the widespread changes throughout the rest of the skeleton. This growth can actually lead to tooth loss, though this appears to be rare and does little to diminish a wendigo's fierce lethality.
On a related note, I have observed that wendigo often exhibit torn and tattered flesh around their mouth. This is due, in part, to the unnatural length and crowding of the teeth within. But disturbingly, it is also due to the victim's unnatural hunger, which often causes them to gnaw at their own cheeks.
So far, we've discussed many aspects of wendigo anatomy. But it should be noted that changes occur not only in the body but in the mind as well. The chronically increased levels of stress hormones, paired with a cascade of broken feedback loops resulting in unregulated and painful hunger cues, will take their toll on even the strongest of wills.
And because these hormonal changes occur relatively early in the process of viral reactivation, the mind tends to deteriorate before the body exhibits its extreme alterations. In more modern times, some have called this affliction "wendigo psychosis." I am not a psychologist, however, and I do not claim to possess clear insight as to the reasonableness of this retroactive diagnosis.
What I can say is that late-stage victims of PAV lose all semblance of virtue. They consume without conscience. However, higher levels of cognition may remain for some time. And though I have not observed this for myself, it is conceivable that a wendigo may speak with its victims or even play sadistic games with them before acting on their biological imperative to eat.
Even still, my mind recoils at the thought. At this point, my valued reader, you may be wondering: even with these anatomical enhancements, how can a being with average human strength and intelligence be such an effective predator?
The foremost reason has to do with their method of hunting. Rather than relying on sheer force or great speed, wendigo often lure their victims, unsuspecting, to their death.
Legends frequently tell of unwitting travelers, perhaps lost in the wilderness, whose companions have gone missing in the cold. Suddenly, they hear a call in the distance from a friend or loved one they thought lost. They move toward the sound, calling back, relief filling their voice.
Eventually, they reach the source of the voice, only to find nothing more than desolate forest. It is then, when their target is confused, tired, and often disoriented, that the wendigo strikes. This method of lure and ambush is highly effective. But how exactly can a wendigo create sounds capable of fooling their victims into chasing after it?
Interestingly, the bodies of those infected with PAV undergo numerous changes to facilitate a heightened ability to mimic sounds and then to project them over long distance.
First, the virus appears to initiate proliferation of branches of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, itself a branch of the vagus nerve described earlier. As the name implies, the laryngeal nerve innervates the larynx, as well as several muscles which surround it, including the thyroarytenoid and the lateral cricoarytenoid.
In particular, these muscles, which appear hypertrophied in victims I have studied, adduct to the vocal cords with far more strength than in normal humans, creating naturally loud vocalizations. In fact, there are occasional reports of a wendigo shriek overcoming victims with their volume alone.
But there is more to these vocalizations than mere decibel count. Particularly as a result of the increased innervation of the thyroarytenoid, this allows for extraordinarily precise control of the vocal cords, allowing a wendigo to mimic vocal patterns across an uncanny range.
Even more astoundingly, this ability is paired with what appears to be increased neural density in the left inferior parietal lobe, and specifically the left supramarginal gyrus, areas of the brain largely responsible for speech recognition and vocal reproduction efficiency.
Late-stage victims of PAV exhibit exceptional access, storage, and retrieval capacity of auditory episodic events, detailed phonetic representation and phonemic awareness, and finally, generally exhibit a well-developed oromotor system, even though their articulation capacity is often reduced due to their dentition.
In short, their enhanced vocal musculature and specific brain capacity makes them remarkably good at reproducing vocalizations they've encountered at nearly any point in the past. This ability is so advanced that I can confidently warn you, my dear reader: if ever you happen to find yourself lost in a frigid northern forest, never trust what you hear.
We've spent a significant amount of time together, and I thank you for reading this far. I realize that there are many aspects of wendigo biology that appear to have been omitted from this presentation, but often, what we expect and what we find in reality are two very different things.
One common conception I would like to dispel outright is that of the wendigo's appearance in popular media. Many illustrations and descriptions depict a large, antlered, humanoid deer of some kind, or perhaps a gargantuan demon. These depictions, while certainly impressive in their own right, are in no way representative of the original legends, nor of those affected by PAV.
Instead, they are inspired from books and films that took great liberties with their source material. Indeed, these animalistic depictions can even obscure the wendigo's true place in Algonquin culture.
And whether you take my studies and observations as truth or not, it's difficult to deny that the spirit of the wendigo is very real. As Ojibwe author Basil H. Johnston states:
"The wendigo exemplifies human nature's tendency to indulge its self-interest, which, once indulged, demands even greater indulgence, and ultimately results in the extreme - the erosion of principles and values."
Given modern convenience and luxury, agonizing life-and-death decisions are, blessedly, no longer as commonplace, at least not in many of our relatively privileged lives. But while the threat of PAV may not be as prevalent as it once was, the spirit of the lonely places still haunts us today.
His mimicry makes me want to think of shapeshifters and changelings, hope he does a video