A dark, heavily built giant — two and a half to three meters tall — that lives in the crowns of great trees and smokes an enormous cigar whose ember can be seen glowing in the canopy at night. The smell of tobacco smoke in deep forest, with no person in sight, is the classic kapre signature.
The kapre is more guardian than predator. It does not hunt; it watches. It is territorial about its tree — accounts of construction crews felling old balete trees and suffering weeks of equipment failure and unexplained accidents recur across provinces.
A kapre that takes a liking to someone may follow them at a distance for years, and witnesses describe a heavy, pipe-sweet presence more melancholy than menacing. If a kapre befriends you, tradition says, you will never be lost in its forest.