Topic: What the heck is it?

[Gambler]

Mystery Creature Lurks In Baltimore County

POSTED: 5:19 am EDT July 19, 2004
UPDATED: 6:54 pm EDT July 27, 2004

GLYNDON, Md. -- A mystery animal is on the loose in Baltimore County and not even the experts can pin down what it is.

A Glyndon man found a way to secretly record the beast while it grazed in his yard. For a while it was just lurking in the woods watching the Wroe family until the Wroes started watching it.

Jay Wroe: "My truck was parked here, started getting in my truck. I kind of saw it there where the sunlight is and said what in the world is that?"

Jacob Wroe: "It looked so weird to me. I didn't know what it was."

Wanting to get a better look at the beast stalking his family, Jay Wroe put technology to work for him.

Jay Wroe: "The next day, I hooked up just portable motion detectors, and put them down back in the woods there."

The trap worked.

Jay Wroe: "Very bizarre. I went and got my father and cousin and they came and looked at it and their reactions were pretty much the same -- what in the world are we looking at?"

More than a month after the first sighting, the creature has become a neighborhood regular and showing up often.

Kim Carlsen: "It comes to our house. It's been up in the woods for a while and it comes up through the bottom of our yard and eats our cat food."

Despite the fact it's lurking in these woods and no one knows when or where it will come out, no one here seems afraid of it.

Jacob Wroe: "I don't know, it doesn't look like it's going to harm anybody."

Even the other neighborhood animals like Bullwinkle the dog next door seem okay with the beast.

Kim Carlsen: "It's not afraid of the cats and the cats seem to get along with it fine."

The beast is not shy, and visits most often under bright sun. While no one here knows what it is, they do have a name for it -- the hyote, a combination of a hyena and a coyote.


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[Gambler]

Mystery Animal Possibly Spotted In Harford Co.

POSTED: 6:17 am EDT July 21, 2004
UPDATED: 11:40 am EDT July 21, 2004

JOPPA, Md. -- There may be more than one mystery animal running around Maryland -- there are pictures from a sighting in Harford County.

At the Mathis family's rural home in Joppa, they're used to animals, but not this kind.

"I looked out the window and I saw something drinking out of the water trough," said Lisa Mathis. "It looked like something out of Lord of The Rings."


"I couldn't figure out what it was," Mathis said. "I though it was a dog and then I looked closer and then I got the camera and pulled it in closer just so I could show the rest of the family."

Mathis's sighting occurred about a year ago. They didn't think much of it until last week when home video of a very similar looking beast appeared on 11 News.

"I saw it and immediately thought of this picture that my wife had taken," said Jon Mathis. "(It) looked exactly like the same animal."

On their Harford County land the Mathises have seen all kinds of foxes and other animals running around, but never one like this.

"I'm from New Jersey so I immediately thought it was the Jersey Devil," said Jon Mathis. "In New Jersey folklore, it's a wild beast -- sort of like the abominable snowman."

"My first impression was this was a red fox with sarcoptic mange," said Paul Peditto from the Department of Natural Resources.

With theories running wild, Maryland's Department of Natural Resources says it's very likely a fox, but even they can't be certain.

"We can't discount the possibility that someone had some type of exotic mammal as a pet and released it for whatever reason," said Peditto.

But even with maybe more than one so-called hyote running loose, DNR is going to leave the beast or beasts alone for now.

"We would respond if we knew we had a public safety situation developing," said Peditto. "If we had an animal that was acting in a way that would put people in danger, we would respond immediately."

The only way to find out what the animal is would be to trap it, but DNR says it would only do that if the animal were seen as a threat.


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[Gambler]

Maryland Mystery Animal 'Seen' All Over The World


POSTED: 6:08 am EDT July 29, 2004
UPDATED: 6:53 am EDT July 29, 2004

BALTIMORE -- Since the mystery animal appeared on our Web site two weeks ago, millions of people from around the world have looked at the pictures and sent in guesses as to what it may be.

However, new pictures of a strange animal in Texas have some wondering if it is the same creature seen in central Maryland.

A farmer in Elmendorf, Tex., said a strange, blue creature massacred his chickens and grabbed 35 of them in just one day. When the farmer finally shot the 20-pound animal and killed it, he was blown away at what he saw.

"The first thing that came to mind is surely everybody's going to think this is a Chupacabra," Devin Macanally said. "But it is so odd because it has no hair."

The Chupacabra is part of Mexican folklore. It supposedly kills other animals by sucking the blood out of them.

Other people have written in with their guesses about what the Maryland mystery animal could be. A Baltimore veterinarian said he thought it was a dog with mange and an official from the Department of Natural Resources believed it was a fox.

However, e-mails from Australia, South Africa and Alaska have labeled the animal as a razorback hog, a hyena, an aardwolf, a coyote, a capybara, a Mexican hairless dog, a warthog, a wolf, or an African wild dog. Some people say the animal is a previously thought extinct Tasmanian Wolf.

The creature -- or one similar to it -- has also allegedly been spotted in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, Texas and even England.


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Pictures next post

[Sirgod]

When I read the Topic Title, the first thing I thought of was that Old Steve Martin/ Belushi Skit on Saturday night live.

That is odd though, so many people seeing this Mystery Creature.

Stephen

[Gambler]

This is a picture of an animal killed in Texas. Does it look like the mystery animal from Maryland?



Here are the animals side-by-side. Are they the same?


This is a picture of a unusual animal seen near Joppa.


This is a picture of a unusual animal seen near Joppa.


This is a picture of a unusual animal seen near Joppa.



This animal was seen near Glyndon.


This animal was seen near Glyndon.



This animal was seen near Glyndon.



This animal was seen near Glyndon.


This animal was seen near Glyndon.


This animal was seen near Glyndon.

[Gambler]

Looking at the pictures it's totally strange.  What surprises me is that animal control isn't curious to find what the heck it is unless it proves dangerous. 

Aren't they curious?

[J. Carney]

If this is not a hoax, it looka a lot like a Hyena.

[Gambler]

The next article I expect to read is somebody saying "I don't know what it was.  But damn it was good eatin'."

[kmelew]

Have you ever noticed that photos of supposedly unknown animals are almost alway blurry?  The Loch Ness Monster, Champ of Lake Champlain, Ogopogo of Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, Bigfoot and now this guy.

When are we going to get a really good picture?! 

[Sirgod]

Have you ever noticed that photos of supposedly unknown animals are almost alway blurry?  The Loch Ness Monster, Champ of Lake Champlain, Ogopogo of Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, Bigfoot and now this guy.

When are we going to get a really good picture?! 

Stephen

[jualdeaux]

I know what it is!!! It is an animal that some geneticist engineered that got away. Next we'll be seing mutant humans wandering around drinking out of troughs.

[Dash Jones]

I asked my aunt (who's a biologist) to take a look.  Her area of expertise isn't mammology specifically, but she's had to study mammology in pursuit of her main area of Conservation Biology.

She says it isn't a Hyena, though it looks like one, but it cannot be one since Hyena's don't have tails, otherwise, it looks a LOT like a hyena.

She says it's more likely a crossbreed of some sort from what she's seen.  Possibly someone was trying to crossbreed them, or one was in the wild and crossbred with other animals?  Her thought is someone is doing some wierd breeding.

She says it is VERY rare to find a new animal, and in an area like New Jersey which is pretty populated suggests that it escaped from some place, or as she said, someone did some wierd breeding.   She says it is very unlikely it is a new species, it's either something we know or something that someone did something wierd to.

Those are her exact words (typed it as I was speaking to her over the phone).

Addendum:  She also says that it's snout looks wrong for the Tasmanian Wolf (which I think is extinct anyways) but the tail is right.  It doesn't have stripes, but even without the stripes the snout doesn't look right.

Addendum 2:  She says just on looks it looks like it's in the Order of Carnivora, which includes wolves, hyenas, muskrats, cats, racoons, but she says the best way to know what it is, is to get some sampling of it and get a DNA trace if they could identify it down to a family perhaps.  Another way is to catch the animal and look at the skull structure.  It could be identified by it's skull structure.

[Gambler]

It seems carnivorous to me too Dash.  I just can't get why they aren't trying to catch it.

[Dash Jones]

It seems carnivorous to me too Dash.  I just can't get why they aren't trying to catch it.

Order of carnivora isn't necessarily carnivorous, they also have omnivors and herbivores.  I hung up talking to my aunt so I can't ask her if she thinks it is carnivorous or not.  Sorry.

[Darth Sidious]

With things like this i always wonder if photoshop is involved.  Still - if it is a new animal, coolness.  I for one welcome our new animal overlords

[Nemesis]

When are we going to get a really good picture?! 

As soon as you stand still and pose properly.