Because of its misfitting skin, which is covered with warts and moles, it is always unhappy...Hunters who are good at tracking are able to follow a squonk by its tear-stained trail, for the animal weeps constantly.

When cornered and escape seems impossible, or when surprised and frightened, it may even dissolve itself in tears.Later retellings included that squonks were slowest on moonlit nights as they try to avoid seeing their ugly appearance in any illuminated bodies of water.

[3] Some substances are stable in solution or some other "wild" form but cannot be isolated or captured without actually catalyzing their own polymerization or decomposition ("dissolving in their own tears").

[5] "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" is a song written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker that was first released by Steely Dan on their 1974 album Pretzel Logic and has the line "Have you ever seen a squonk's tears?

The progressive rock band Genesis has a song (simply entitled "Squonk") about this creature on their 1976 album A Trick of the Tail.