Despite their outlandish appearance and tendency to defend their territory with loud, bellowing roars that echo for great distances, bunyips are very rarely sighted by humanoids, leaving many to question their existence. For hundreds of years, bunyips were widely regarded as nothing more than folk tales, and even now that their existence as a species has been proven, the existence of any particular bunyip in a local area is often met with heavy skepticism. While their limited shapechanging abilities are no doubt a significant part of the reason for this air of mystery, another major factor is that the aquatic creatures rarely hunt humanoids, preferring to eat smaller animals. Most bunyips avoid human contact, except when one wanders too close to their den or favorite hunting spot, at which point the territorial bunyip attacks with swift and terrible ferocity. Many scholars agree that a large number of unexplained disappearances near coastal areas are the result of unreported bunyip aggression.