MIT Mystery Hunt 2020/Monty Minotaur's Magical Menagerie

Monty Minotaur's Magical Menagerie is a word search puzzle from the round of the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt.

Puzzle Elements
Flavortext - ''Oh no, Monty Minotaur is running late for the Cretian Comedy Club’s Showcase at the Acropolis. If he can’t find his friends and make his way there, they’ll be ridiculed by the other animals! Help locate each of his friends below so they can skip along the path together and get to the show on time. Whether they make it to the comedy club or not, Monty and his pals will be…''

Hint in Flavortext - ''Oh no, Monty Minotaur is running late for the Cretian Comedy Club’s Showcase at the Acropolis. If he can’t find his friends and make his way there, they’ll be ridiculed by the other animals! Help locate each of his friends below so they can skip along the path together and get to the show on time. Whether they make it to the comedy club or not, Monty and his pals will be…''

Word Search - The main body of the puzzle is a word search, where the words to find are all animals. Incidentally, all words found are horizontal or vertical, because...

Maze - ...they also form the walls to a labyrinth (as befitting the minotaur theme). Find the shortest path to the exit...

Alternation - ...and read every other letter ("skip along the path") to get one of two messages.

Wrong Turn - One indicates that it is not the message and asks the solver to look at the other set of letters...

Knowledge Required (Mythology) - ...the other is a list of mythological hybrid creatures, each of which can be represented by a crossing of two of the animals in the word search. Taking the letter at the intersection and ordering by the list provides the answer to this puzzle...

Asked and Answered - ...which fits with the flavortext's description of Monty and co. being subject to ridicule.