The mediæval heralds were not scientists, but military staff officers who believed what the learned scholars at the universities told them. And if the scholars believed that fantastical creatures like dragons and griffins existed, who was any mere herald to disagree?

So the strange creatures catalogued by the learned men of those times found their way into coats of arms, as did animals that really do exist, doing things that modern zoologists scoff at, like pelicans that wounded themselves to feed their young. Indeed, many mythological creatures became so firmly entrenched in heraldry because of their symbolism that it was well nigh impossible to eradicate them, even when science proved that they had either never existed or could not do what they were reputed to.

Not many have found their way into South African heraldry, but for a start we can look at the griffin (an amalgam of eagle and lion) and the wyvern (or two-legged dragon).