New Montauk Monster Pic and Cryptid Marketing

Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 1st, 2008

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New photographs, above, have been published of the “Montauk Monster,” which allegedly washed up on a beach in Montauk. These photos are by Christina Pampalone.

The Montauk Monster has created an Internet sensation. It is today’s #1 Yahoo search. It’s been on Cryptomundo, Boing Boing, and The Anomalist for days. It reminds me of the “Maine Mutant.” Sometimes these kinds of things have a life of their own, so to speak, especially if there is a compelling image.

Now we are seeing everyone under the sun piggyback (pun-intended) on the Montauk Monster. That’s okay. We’ve been here before.

It is a cryptid, an unknown animal, until it is identified, of course, and that makes for a great story for the mainstream media, when they have a photo or even a few.

Joye Brown of Newsday reports today that the story is indeed real.

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Brown tells of how the famed photo (seen directly above) has a known photographer: “Jenna Hewitt, of Montauk, and three friends crept up to examine one side. And Hewitt snapped the camera shot heard ’round the world.”

Christina Pampalone, of East Northport, however, had actually taken the first photos (one is shown at the top of this posting).

“I was telling people, all day (Wednesday), that I had better photos,” Pampalone said.

“Everybody I showed her pictures to said it looks like a dead dog,” her friend Ryan O’Shea, of Brooklyn, said.

“But looking at the claws, and at the teeth in the front, it looked like it could be something else, something vicious.”

It was relatively small, roughly 21/2 to 3 feet long, he said.

Brown notes that the rumor that the thing is in someone’s backyard is false, apparently, as it has been moved.

Interestingly, Brown has collected some other interesting info from his readers:

Joann Dileardo saw it at the end of Roe Avenue in Patchogue, a few weeks ago. “I didn’t know what that thing was,” she said. “It looked like a pig.”

Another reader, Pat, e-mailed that the ladies in his office saw it on an East Quogue beach — back in April.

Elizabeth Barbeiri said her family saw it about a mile east of Gurney’s Inn in Montauk, July 14. And Ryan Kelso, via iPhone, said he spotted it — alive! — in the Montauk dunes. “It looked about the size of an average fox, gray in color, eyes like a mole, hairless and was breathing quite heavily,” he wrote, “needless to say we were freaked out by this discovery and fled the area quickly.”

Lavey Fater saw a surfer bring one to shore, near Ditch Plains.

“It was hairless and gross,” Fater reported. “… The surfer said he had no idea what it was, but that he threw it in the dunes because he didn’t want to be surfing next to it.”

Keith found something last week in Greenport; Chris found one a month ago at Jones Beach east of Field 6. (“The one I saw had a longer snout or beak or whatever you want to call it.”) Sean said he buried one, 3 feet deep, in South Jamesport.

Of course, you notice Cryptomundo carried news of this as soon as we heard about it three days ago, and, no doubt, contributed to spreading the news. Then we became positively involved through commenting on the Venom search for the “monster.”

Cryptid Marketing

The response has been generally good-humored and filled with crypto-intrigue regarding the fact Dr. Pepper/Snapple’s Venom Energy Drink would offer a bounty for the live capture of the Montauk Monster.

Prizes, bounties, and cryptomarketing are nothing new to the popular cultural side of cryptozoology.

As recently as the Bushnell Trailcam and the Wizards of the Coast Duel Masters Card prizes, there have been bounties.

In only a small percentage of the comments recorded at Cryptomundo (two that I could quickly find) did I note a lack of historical referencing, regarding cryptids being used in ads.

People wrote in, saying:

“Is this the beginning of a new advertising trend? Will companies begin to monetize cryptid sightings?”

“And for Venom to so quickly jump in with their ad campaign, utilizing loren of all people, and playing this up so, smacks of hype, Madison Avenue, and frankly muddies the waters where genuine cryptozoological interests can be raised.”

While there have been many older examples, one can look back to 1997, to discover Rene Dahinden was immortalized in a popular television ad for Kokanee beer.

Dahinden’s pursuit of Sasquatch had made him so famous that the brewers of Kokanee beer asked him to play himself in the commercial. Even then he didn’t get to see the Sasquatch. Facing the camera, with the unpretentious mobile home he lived in as background, an off-camera narrator asks if Dahinden ever used B.C.-made Kokanee beer to lure a Sasquatch.

“Do you think I’m crazy or something?” asks Dahinden, unaware that behind him a Sasquatch is sneaking into his trailer to make off with a case of beer.

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The Kokanee Sasquatch has become so famous itself today that you can find a nine-foot statue out in front of the Columbia Brewery’s Kokanee Beer Gear Store at 1220 Erickson St. Creston, British Columbia. (Anyone able to pick up some Sasquatch souvenirs there for the International Cryptozoology Museum, if you stop by? Thanks.)

Other recent examples of cryptids and commercial campaigns have included

Adrian Shine and the Loch Ness Monster selling Toyotas, and

beef jerky being sold in the series of “Messin’ With Sasquatch” commercials.

Cryptids and ads have been friendly companions for quite a few years now. There is no reason the Montauk Monster shouldn’t get the same honor.

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Save The Museum!!
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Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


71 Responses to “New Montauk Monster Pic and Cryptid Marketing”

  1. krvega responds:

    Just created an account. This is my first ever post.

    Ok…here goes: That looks like something unusual.

  2. Yankee responds:

    I really don’t mind the marketing aspect of cryptids.

    I’m guessing that this “monster” could be a Pit Bull.

  3. kittenz responds:

    It looks like the bloated decomposed carcass of a fat dog with the toes either chopped off or eroded away, and the nose eroded away.

  4. mystery_man responds:

    That’s weird. The body is in a completely different position in the two photos and the face, coloration, and amount of hair are noticeably different as well. Two different specimens? From the reports, it seems like these things have been popping up all over the place even though to my knowledge nothing like this creature has been sighted before this. What is going on here? I’m watching this whole thing with amusement.

    In my opinion, the top picture seems kind of fake. I don’t know what it is, and I’m not well versed in photoshop to say that this is the reason, but it does not look to me like the image of an actual carcass. I could be wrong, but the image just doesn’t sit right with me. I haven’t seen anything about the physical evidence to accompany the photographs. Any progress on that front? DNA tests? Thorough examination by scientists? Where is the body now?

    I’m at a loss what to think. We have these intriguing photos, yet no follow on the body that I’ve seen. The reports are suddenly coming out of the woodwork on an animal that no one has ever heard about in even a cryptid sense. That top photo, I don’t know, it just doesn’t look real, and I just don’t know how much credence we can lend all of these reports regarding the animal. Even though it is said by Brown here that the story is real, is there any way at all that Venom could be fabricating the whole thing for advertising purposes?

  5. mrdark responds:

    It’s a dog. Dead, bloated, and may have had sarcoptic mange before that, but it’s a dog.

  6. Charlotte responds:

    I saw a video of this creature with back hooves tied, set in what they said was Saudi Arabia. The voice-over was in Arabic. Said the creature had been captured there. Yeah. Right.

  7. ConsentRevoked responds:

    wow. that new pic seems infinitely creepier to me. if i shaved my overweight dog, would he look like that?
    is that hide with hair on it?
    are we still thinking raccoon?
    i just don’t know what to think. it looks rather fat to me, and since we rarely see overweight animals in the wild, since (unlike my chubby dog) they have to work for their food, signs point to a domestic….something? i’m at a loss. all i can say with certainty is that there is something eerily human-like about the way it’s lying there in the top pic, the back end especially. i wasn’t really creeped out until now.

  8. gloomer responds:

    Hmmm. Seems toi lose a lot from this new angle. Dog ears more pronounced… beak gone… lumpy, puffy dog body clearer to see. Just a dead dog.

  9. Greg102 responds:

    I’ve always thought it looked like a pit bull! The new picture confirms those suspicions.

  10. HOOSIERHUNTER responds:

    It’s a dog. Poor puppy probably never got anywhere near this much attention in life.

    As to the ads–I don’t really think marketing exposure helps cryptozoology. It does not focus light on possible cryptids in a positive way. Instead it transforms serious research into a joke and leaves the impression with the general public that cryptids are not to be taken seriously.
    Would Jane Goodall star in a commercial that makes her research look lighthearted and unimportant?
    If we play along with the attempts, unintentional as they may be, to make cryptozoology look like a silly pastime and the people rather ridiculous. Not that I’m against a good sense of humor about the subject, mind you. But most of the people out there don’t know or care about what we know about cryptozoology. Consequently, any critical thought or even passing belief in it is undermined. Just my two cents on the subject, (I’ll make change if needed.) 🙂

  11. ConsentRevoked responds:

    hmm….yes, shape of head looks very pitbullish, but the hair looks like it may be too long? maybe a cross? also, if what i take to be an eye is really an eye, it doesn’t seem to be quite in the right place for a pit. would be too close-set.
    however, having never seen a bloated waterlogged pitbull carcass before, what do i know?
    i’m not backing down on the creep factor, though.

  12. Loren Coleman responds:

    Hoosierhunter asks:

    “Would Jane Goodall star in a commercial that makes her research look lighthearted and unimportant?”

    Well, of course, we aren’t Jane Goodall, but one should be careful about what people we are held up against, I suppose.

    After all, Ms. Goodall has come out firmly in the pro-Sasquatch camp, and gosh, she even did a few commercials in her past showing she has a sense of humor about her “important research.” How about the following one, for example?

  13. ToTheLastSkeptic responds:

    With it being this bloated it’s kind of hard to tell what kind of dog it might have been, but I’m 99.9% sure that’s all it would turn out to be.

  14. pitch black moon responds:

    For the most part I’m going to agree with this being a dead dog.
    Two things bother me, however:
    1 – A canine skull would have pronounced upper canine teeth (fangs), but the photo only reveals lower. This could be natural, or could have been caused by physical damage to the top jaw.
    2 – While the rest of the corpse seems consistent with a dog, the front paws seem off. In the newest photo they are obscured by sand, but the older photo shows them to be elongated and strange for a member of the canine family.

    I also wanted to comment on the excerpt above that reads “…via iPhone, said he spotted it — alive! — in the Montauk dunes. “It looked about the size of an average fox, gray in color, eyes like a mole, hairless and was breathing quite heavily…”
    The part about it being hairless really bugs me. This new photo shows that it clearly had a coat at one time. In fact, the entire statement smacks of this person seeing the first photo and just claiming that he saw it alive.
    I think that whatever this creature turns out to be, it didn’t look the way it does now when it was alive.

  15. domi responds:

    It looks a bit more like a rottweiler than a pit bull to me, given the eye position and the size (up to 3ft.) The remaining coat could also easily be a sun-bleached rottweiler coat.

  16. Jonathan_maberry responds:

    Could this be an animal with mange that escaped from the testing facility on Plum Island?

  17. Sordes responds:

    Very nice to see another view of the carcass. And it is also interesting how fast many people were to say “photoshop”. I still think a badger would be no bad idea, especially as the size is now known. There are several things which would speak for this idea too:

    -shape of the body with a stocky backside and comparable narrow fronside
    -shape of the skull. Dogs, even pitbulls have in general an “angle” from the snout to the front which is not seen in this animal. Furthermore the skull proportions with a mandible which makes out only comparable little from the whole head, which is typical for mustelids and their relatives.
    -the fur, even if there is not much left is very similar to those of a badger.
    -the limbs, which are comparably short, with much more massive hind legs and longer front legs.
    -the claws. They are comparably straight, very bright and also very long. They don´t become more narrow at their ends. They look not like normal dog claws which are much shorter, and also not like racoon claws which are shorter, curved, with pointed ends and dark colour.
    -Even the ears would fit with the general anatomy of a badger.

  18. shaynafay responds:

    Doesn’t anyone else see the large “tusklike” bottom teeth. Once I saw the new picture, I immediately thought wild pig or boar. And a young one at that.

  19. jayman responds:

    It seems like not just the upper canines, but most or all of the upper teeth have been removed. The lower jaw appears to have been defleshed. Kind of reminds me of the old animal-mutilation stories.
    Maybe a badger? Squat, thickset body, short legs.

  20. Maine Crypto responds:

    The new angle really makes me think dog. Loren, you are right, it is the Maine Mutant all over again!! Did anyone get a blood sample???

  21. cryptidsrus responds:

    I’m sorry, I’m having a heck of a time seeing this as a pig, or even a dog, but I’ll leave open the possibility.

    There is nothing wrong with marketing this. This was an unusual find, so people can use it as part of a campaign. If Sasquatch can be used, so can this.

  22. mellowknees responds:

    I thought there was a news story that had confirmed that it was a skinned raccoon? Sure looks raccoony to me.

  23. proriter responds:

    Just a dog, folks.

  24. jjs1138 responds:

    This link leaves my with little doubt that this animal is a raccoon.

  25. krvega responds:

    It’s a dog. Decomposed. Rotting away. The sun, the sand, and the water: great contributors to the decomposition process. Don’t read into this any more than needed.

  26. Andrew Minnesota responds:

    According to the first post there was an animal testing facility nearby…

    could this be Al Gore’s MANBEARPIG?

    I’m definitely more open to the dog theory with these new photos however the front feet in the original photo still make me think, could it be something else? Also the hair about the neck in the original photo is curly while in the new one we see that it is smoother. Supposedly the new one was taken before the first photo that we got to see, so perhaps the corpse drying has changed the coloration of the skin and the texture of the hair, fur, whatever it is. Looking forward to more updates 🙂

  27. akrako1 responds:

    best suggestion I’ve heard is that it’s a turtle/tortoise without it’s shell.. The ‘snapper’ type of ‘beak’ makes me think turtle, and the short arms, and tail all add up. Anyone know what a turtle looks like without it’s shell? it would be nice to compare..

    Though I do have to admit, the ‘new’ picture looks a lot different from the last one. Wonder why there aren’t any close ups…

  28. ShefZ28 responds:

    if the newer pic was the original pic taken, then the darker discoloration would be the blood pooling in the lower areas of the body correct? You see the same thing in human bodies if they aren’t found for a little bit of time. Also if you look at the back legs in the new pic, you see the pale skin.

    Either way, it was fugly.

    Anyone know what happened to the body?

  29. Loren Coleman responds:

    4:44 PM Update: More photos added.

  30. Xee responds:

    It’s just a raccoon.

    I work for a nuisance wildlife removal agency in Oregon, and we pull dead raccoons out of crawlspaces ALL THE TIME.

    trust me on this one, I know a dead raccoon when I see one. The faces are always the first things to rot off in stagnant water, and the noses are nothing but flesh and cartilage, which rots fast and is a favorite of scavenging bugs, birds, rodents, and fish.

    You can see the feet are exactly like raccoon feet, the tail is the same size and shape, the fur tufts still stuck to the body are the same color as well. It’s just a raccoon that got chucked in the water somewhere and it’s been floating for a few days.

    Also if you look – that isn’t a beak, it’s the sinus cavity. Do a google search on skulls and it’s clear as day.

    Anyway – I’m not stranger to dead and decomposing things. We actually got in a dead fish wrapped in plastic bags and duct taped… it had been sitting in someone’s attic in sweltering conditions for over a month… It was massive too, we thought it was body parts at first. After freezing it though and having a good look it was quite obviously a fish.

    It’s weird how things look SO different decomposed. Though you’d think more people would know basic anatomy than they do. Everything looks flat-faced with no skin on it. You ever see an elephant’s skull? Crazy stuff.

    Hand pads just like a raccoon, teeth just like a raccoon, raccoon colored fur, raccoon shaped body… dudes… it’s a raccoon. I think the main issue is that there isn’t anything for scale in the pic. It’s not huge, and people calling it a “monster” is making everyone believe it’s massive when it’s actually no bigger than a small dog.

  31. Sordes responds:

    The new photos are really interesting, especially those posted at the link by jjs1138. It makes the raccoon-identity very probable, especially as it shows better views on the hands. What looked llike a bit claw was actually a whole finger, i.e. the anatomy of the hand is in fact much more similar to a raccoon than to a badger. Raccoons have very mobile paws with long fingers, unlike dogs which have shorter and plumper toes, and normally no pointed claws.

    Thanks for the new photos, it is really sad that they were not known from the beginning.

  32. ashura responds:

    The creature looks a lot like a pig

  33. LadyKilla responds:

    As for being around these beautiful creatures for quite some time, like Yankee originally said, it is definitely of the Pit Bull Terrier grouping. It is relatively safe to say either APBT or an American Bully.

  34. Holmes responds:

    How bout a big type of cat?

  35. Topher Lan responds:

    Hey. Whatever it is, whomever is handling it better be SUPER

    careful if it did come from some kind of laboratory. Who knows

    what was done to it, if that’s the source! No further speculation

    here until DNA testing is done….take care!

  36. size 13 responds:

    OK, it’s not an Otter, please bury him.

  37. illuminaughty responds:

    put some lipstick on that pig. with all the flooding that has occured that is no doubt a pig that has drowned and the hair has slipped from the hide just as if it had been scalded off.hard to say what happened to the snout though, but most likely a pig.

  38. Spinach Village responds:

    its a poor dog that has been floating in the ocean for a while… they would have been more responsible if they released this photo first

  39. Spinach Village responds:

    I’m actually starting to get upset… it does resemble a pit bull, and we all know the brutality that can happen to there lives… the big city is not far away… this could possibly be a good opportunity to denounce animal cruelty nation wide

  40. chrysischylde responds:

    They ARE going to do DNA testing on it, right? Or did no one take samples from it? I haven’t heard anything about that in any of the articles I have read about it. It would kill the rumor mill too fast I suspect.

  41. Richard888 responds:

    Wow! What a difference a second picture makes! From a half-mammal half-bird beast chimera, we have beyond shadow of a doubt a drowned pitbull. I agree with one previous poster that it looks like two distinct specimens. One side has been roasted by the sun while the other side has still all the moisture and there is a big hole caused by scavengers. But certain marketing companies might keep the legend alive.

  42. rdcool27 responds:

    I don’t know about the dog or racoon theory, or badgers, or whatever. But I know hogs, and I can state with great certainty that this picture is not of a pig. The teeth are wrong, there appears to be a penile sheath in the wrong place, the tail is wrong, the head does not look pig-like and even the general look of the legs and feet doesn’t look right, This is not a pig.

  43. JP responds:

    I took a photo of a real raccoon skull off the internet to compare it to the animal via overlay, and it’s an excellent match (albeit the corpse has some missing teeth and jaw parts). Yeah, it’s a raccoon.

  44. gkingdano responds:

    Just a poor drown dog folks, let’s move along.

  45. mystery_man responds:

    Ok, the new pics put some perspective on this. I take back what I said before about photoshopping. I’m still going with a dog on this one, although I have to take into consideration the expertise of the poster Xee regarding the possibility of it being a raccoon. A couple things I’d like to humbly point out.

    First, the sightings of “pig like” living ones have descriptions that match more or less the appearance of the dead one we see in the photos. Sure, the sightings may be bogus, but if they were genuine that means that the oddness of the creatures appearance was not caused by scavengers or decomposition. Something to at least consider, I think.

    Second, I suggest people look carefully at the article. This wasn’t the only one found. I tend to lean more towards dog, and posters have suggested pitbulls and pugs. But how does this fit into the multiple reports of living ones and reports of more bodies that were found. Unless I’m reading the articles wrong, there were FIVE bodies. The one pictured, the one found by the surfer, the one found by Keith (I’m assuming it was dead), the one found by Chris, and the one Sean allegedly buried three feet under.

    Could some of these been reports of the same body? Maybe. But it seems to me it is likely we are dealing with more than one possible carcass. That means more than one pit bull, or pug, or whatever, and this should be considered. These are not exactly cheap or very common dogs. So I find myself asking which is more likely, that more than one (up to five) pitbulls or pugs were mutilated and killed, or that it was the decomposed bodies of raccoons (which are often fairly common in some areas.) I won’t start speculating on why they all are dead, I’m just pointing out that it seems there was more than one and wonder if this is consistent with the dog idea.

    If I have my facts wrong, then I apologize, I’m just going on what I see in the article. And the article states that there were sightings of live ones similar to the dead ones in appearance, and there were more than one body found. That is strange.

  46. JP responds:

    Here’s those raccoon skull animations…here & here.

    No doubt in my mind it’s raccoon.

  47. HOOSIERHUNTER responds:

    Ha ha…point taken Loren. 🙂

    Still, I think anything that moves cryptozoology from the serious study to the funny myth side isn’t helping us all that much. At least we know chimps really exist.

  48. HOOSIERHUNTER responds:

    Xee–
    I initially said dog, but you sound like you’ve got some serious experience backing up your analysis. I’m going with the racoon theory.

    JP–
    Nice idea of the skull overlay. That clinches it for me.

    Dead coon in the middle of the beach, stinkin’ to high heaven.

  49. pimpsuit responds:

    I really that the folks taking pictures like this would know to put something in there for scale.

  50. hudgeliberal responds:

    Sadly,I think this is just a dead pit bull with some teeth or part of his upper jaw missing. I dont know..the claw deal. A good pic anyway. I think when all is said and done(if someone is testing it)it will end up a pit bull. Peace.

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