Exclusive Photos of the Yardley Yeti
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on September 21st, 2006
Cryptomundo reader Jonathan Maberry sends Cryptomundo these exclusive photos of the Yardley Yeti that were taken by he and his wife.
Personally, I feel guilty using the name "Yardley Yeti", but that is what this creature has been dubbed by the press.
My wife and I took photos of the creature that’s being called ‘The Yardley Yeti”. It’s definitely not a fox, though it has some foxlike characteristics. Later this afternoon I’ll be posting my pics on my website. I’m an author and folklorist (with a strong interest in Cryptozoology).
Don Polec, a reporter for the ABC affiliate here in the Philly area interviewed me today and will be running the segment on the 6 o’clock news (Channel 6 in this area) tonight. I gave him a disk with copies of the pictures and he should be showing them tonight.
-Jonathan Maberry
Photo credit Jonathan Maberry and Sara Jo West. Used with permission.
Photo credit Jonathan Maberry and Sara Jo West. Used with permission.
Photo credit Jonathan Maberry and Sara Jo West. Used with permission.
Photo credit Jonathan Maberry and Sara Jo West. Used with permission.
It looks like a mangy red fox to me. What do the readers of Cryptomundo think?
Jonathan Maberry sent another photo of the creature near a vehicle for size comparison.
Photo credit Jonathan Maberry and Sara Jo West. Used with permission. Click on image for full-size version
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Just what red fox’s usually look like with a bad case of mange.
Wayne
There are several reasons why these “sightings” of mangy dogs are becoming more common.
Most people nowadays have very little contact with nature. They may have a pet dog or cat, usually a purebred that they purchased or an animal they adopted from a shelter. They see animals on Animal Planet, but most of the animals they see there are more or less healthy (unless they watch Animal Cops … if they do they will sometimes see dogs as mangy as this fox). So people fix an image of what an animal should look like in their minds, and if they see something out of the ordinary, they think it must be something new and different, or even supernatural.
Most people do not realize what a scourge mange can be. Mange can kill. Even sarcoptic mange, which is easy to treat, can kill. (There are several other types of mange, all caused by mites, but they usually produce localized lesions, not total body involvement) When you see an animal like this fox, covered all over with sarcoptic mange, it will almost always be a young animal whose immune system is still maturing. Older animals are more resistant. Older animals can certainly get mange, but it takes longer for it to affect them, and usually does not involve the whole body. Mange affects not only canids but also cattle and othet animals. Herds of cattle are routinely run through dipping vats to treat and prevent mange. People can catch it, but when people get it it is called scabies, ans usually makes little sores around the ankles & wrists. Sarcoptic mange is highly contagious, but it is usually not fatal, except in the case of young animals such as this fox. When it covers the entire body like this, it leaves the animal with no protection from cold or heat, and the intense itching causes animals to scratch themselves, leaving sores which in turn can become infected with bacterial or fungal infections. Even though sarcoptic mange can completely denude an animal, the good news is that it can be treated 100% effectively, with older treatments such as dips, or with newer treatments such as spotton miticides and injectibles ivermectin.
Among wild canids, the mortality rate for young animals is at least 60% and often higher. At least 60% of young canids die before reaching maturity, from diseases, worms and other parasites, or predation. Worms or disease compromise the immune system and allow skin conditions such as sarcoptic mange to run rampant.
The human population is skyrocketing. More people are living in areas where once only wildlife lived. Also, in some areas, foxes and coyotes are experiencing their own population boom. Foxes and coyotes are very adaptable and are often found living close to humans. More people plus more critters equals more peple seeing critters.
Last but not least, there are many more cameras floating around than ever before. Digital cameras abound, especially since the camera married the cellphone. So there are many more occasions when someone happens to have a camera on hand to photograph the unusual animal, and the internet makes it possible for that photo to be seen by many more people than was possible even a few years ago.
Meow! Well said Kittenz.
You got to be kidding me, they call this the yardely yeti. I’m like everyone else here, what I see in the photos are a wild dog of some kind. This is not a mystery. There is no such thing as a yardely.
From my best un-scientific guesstimation, it appears to be a very emaciated/hungry and scared canine-esque animal. With all the “fox” references, could be a fox/dog mix, or 100% fox. (The tail doesn’t look “foxy” to me.)
The rehab post about the GermanShep is a reasonable assertion. Could just be a sick, hungry dog.
I hope someone is able to get this unfortunate “beast” some TLC, or at least treat its skin condition and set it free, providing it is wild.
To clarify, the newspaperman who dubbed it the “Yardley Yeti” chose the name as a joke. Yardley is one of the towns in Bucks County, where it’s been spotted; and JD chose Yeti for purely fun and alliterative purposes.
So, no need to get hung up on the name.
As far as the nature of the beast, mangy fox is the leading contender (thanks to so many members here), or some kind of dog/coyote mix.
Definitely not ‘just a dog’. That’s about the one thing everyone seems to be agreeing on.
And for those who have commented that we should get the think to a vet. That’s assuming we know where it is. I took those photos in a parking lot a year ago. Haven’t seen it since. The various folks throughout Bucks County have seen it, but only briefly.
Certainly, if the thing was caught it should be taken to the humane society immediately. Partly for its own welfare and partly to reduce the risk of contagion with other animals. But you actually have to find it first, and so far no one’s done that.
Another point is this: no one is claiming that it’s anything supernatural. All we here in Bucks County are saying is that it’s there, it’s real and we’re not sure what it is.
So, there’s no attempt at hoax-building or myth making. Just curious residents looking for answers.
Also, I did send the photo of the animal with the car in the background to the owner of this website. That was a few days ago. He can post it any time he wants. Someone in an earlier post did some math based on measurements and determined that my guess of its height was off. Probably true. So, if the animal is several inches shorter than my guess, then its weight would be proportionately less. This again brings us back to “red fox with mange”.
Now that we’ve more or less agreed on what it is, any suggestions on what to do next? I’ll pass them along to the police and the local humane society.
Finding it would seem to be a priority but unfortunately, I doubt any law enforcement agency is going to spend a lot of man hours and rescources looking for a mangy fox. It just isn’t at the top of the list of priorities. Maybe the Humane Society? It is unfortunate, but the vast majority of people just aren’t going to care. I am unfamiliar with this area and the terrain around there. How feasible is it to go out looking for it? I remember there was another animal like this awhile back, can’t remember where it was. They caught it using a baited trap and it turned out to be excactly what people have been saying this one is, a fox with mange. Maybe a trap is possible?
If the photos were taken a year ago, the fox either beat the mange & recovered, or it died. It would not be able to survive for long in the condition it presents in these photos.
My guess would be that it died, especially if it was not able to overcome the mange before really cold weather set in. But foxes are very resilient animals, and there is a chance that as it matured its immune system became strong enough to outlast the mange mites. In that case it will probably never become so heavily infested again.
We will probably never know, of course. Wild animals usually try to hide when they become very ill in order to avoid opportunistic predators. But if I were a bettor, I’d bet that the poor thing has left this life.
My wife and I saw this same creature about 4 months ago in Croydon in Bucks County, daytime walking up and down our sidewalk. We called animal control but they never came. We called it in as a sick fox.
My first thought was a hyena (young and underfed). Any thoughts? Look at this photo.
Both my mother and I saw the same animal in my front yard in West Chester, PA on two seperate occassions. Trust me, it was the same animal and if you ask me, it was nothing I have ever seen before. Looked like a cross between a kangaroo and fox. I have seen plenty of fox, I have seen plenty of dogs- this was not like that. And you should see it run- very fast with it’s legs stretched out far. WIERD is all I have to say. I am just happy that this thing has been seen by others because my mother and I thought we were seeing things!
Did anyone ever compare this to the image of an italian greyhound or perhaps a Whippett.
I remember the first time I saw on my first thought was it wasn’t a dog, it seemed more like a Kangaroo’s head on backwards dog body.
Just a thought but if you google Italian greyhound you may see something that looks similar.
I wish that everyone could have the opportunity to work in a busy rural veterinary hospital for at least a couple of years.
I guess it’s hard for anyone who has not seen a dog or fox completely denuded by mange to comprehend just how alien they can look. Even a completely shaved dog still has enough fur to look like a dog (although they can look so different when they have been shaved that their owners don’t recognize them!) But when an animal has mange to the extent that it is nearly hairless, it does look startling. Add to the complete hairlessness the fact that the skin is also swollen and inflamed, which makes the paws looks bigger and the facial skin look puffy, and you have a strange-looking critter indeed. But anyone who has seen it and had to deal with it can recognize severe mange infestation – and I have no doubt that what I am seeing here is a fox with mange. Period.
some kind of k9
Saturday 10/14/06 my daughter Sarah and I were traveling on Pine Road when just before Byberry Road this strange animal darted in front of my car. I said to Sarah it looks like a Kangeroo. The best description we can give is it brown, almost hairless, thin, pointed ears, and large back legs. Glad to hear others saw this.
I run a fox website, and that is DEFINITELY a fox with mange. Foxes are tiny (scarcely bigger than a house cat) but they always look bigger at a distance. Even with my regular foxes, I’m always surprised at how much larger they seem when at a distance. Size-wise, they are an optical illusion.
It is wrong to kill an animal for having mange for two reasons: the disease is easily treatable, and it is only present in North America because the federal government decided to deliberately infect wolves with it in the 19th century. Call it biological welfare if you like, but it was an appalling act driven by the demands of the cattle lobby. This fox, like countless hundreds of thousands of animals, is suffering as a result.
I recently showed these photos to Adam Denish, DVM, a veterinarian and exotic animals consultant for a zoo in Pennsylvania. He said that although there are some similarities to the fox, he did not believe that the creature in the photos is a fox with mange.
I’m no biologist, so I’ll just say that I’m still keeping an open mind on what this critter is.