A wendigo is a demonic entity from American Aboriginal folklore, similar to the Arabic Ghoul. It often takes the form of a zombie-like, anthropomorphic caribou or deer with no flesh on its hands or skull, but more human designs are not uncommon. It has no feet, simply stumps that trail off into a cloud of mist.

Similarly to ghouls, they come about from a starving person eating a famine victim, and endlessly hunger for flesh. Unlike ghouls, they can conjure and control blizzards, which they use to trap traveling parties in the hopes that they will eat each other in desperation.

The zombie-deer-man appearance is purely pop-culture, originating from the 2001 film "Wendigo," and is in fact a different sort of man-eating Native-American folklore creature. In the original Canadian Aboriginal myth, they were, at first, almost indestinguishable from a human, albeit emaciated and frostbitten. However, with every meal of human flesh they would eat, they would instantly grow that much bigger, ensuring they would never be able to eat enough to not be hungry. Eventually, they would become gigantic, "many times bigger than a human." In the early stages of the transformation, the changes can be reversed by eating animal flesh rich in fat, or even pure animal fat. A wendigo was preceeded by a foul stench of decay and unseasonably cold weather. They can be killed by dismemberment or being lit aflame. Some say that for each person the wendigo eats, it must be killed once.

See also:

• windigo (mlp) – Inspired by the wendigo, but far less monstrous looking.