What Monkey-Like Animal?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 3rd, 2009
Michelle Basch (above) reports:
We’ve been telling you about a report of a monkey-like animal on the loose in Southern Maryland, and WTOP [October 3, 2009] has spoken with a man who could fill a zoo with all the strange animals he’s seen around here.
For more than 30 years, Robert Beyer’s been responding to animal nuisance calls for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
“I went to investigate a sighting of a tiger in Montgomery County, and I went to the guy’s backyard and by gosh there was a tiger,” he recalls from a case early in his career.
Beyer says the big cat found in Silver Spring apparently escaped from a private home.
“The one thing I learned in all my years of working, when a person calls and says I saw this and I saw that, never say never,” Beyer says.
Also in Montgomery County several years ago, Beyer says a buffalo got loose from a farm. Loads of people contact the agency with crazy critter stories.
“People report injured eagles, and you go out there and you find out it’s a seagull.”
He adds that large feral cats are often mistaken for bobcats or cougars.
Other amazing animal sightings are right on the money.
“Last year we had a black bear on the Eastern Shore. We finally did catch it and it had an ear tag in it and we found out if was from New Jersey. That’s why we want people to report when they see something.”
If you want to report a bizarre backyard visitor, more information is available at the following websites: [here]
Okay, what is she talking about at the top of the story?
I found it in the previous day’s WTOP site:
Mulder and Scully from the “X-Files” may be needed in Charles County.
A man who speaks fluent Spanish, but little English, went to the County Sheriff’s Department to report that he had seen something bizarre last month in the White Plains area.
“A brownish type animal that he described as a chupacabra[s], which is a mythical animal in the spanish culture,” spokeswoman Crystal Hunt says.
Chupacabras are usually described as doglike creatures, but the man in this case says the animal walked on long arms like a monkey. When the report was made Sept. 19, county investigators searched the area and found nothing. A farmer in the same area reported finding several dead kittens in a nearby barn that day, but there’s nothing indicating a link to the strange creature.
Hunt says investigators poured flour on the ground in the area of the sighting, so if the animal returned, it would leave visible tracks. They also set several traps in the area. But Hunt says “to date, nothing has been found.”
There have been no additional sightings.
Anyone with any additional information is asked to call the Charles County Sheriff’s Office at [see here].
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.
A tiger!!! Yikes!!!
Just off the top of my head; After the flooding of NOLA (and its zoos) and the downward economy (and private animal collections).
Do you think we’ll be seeing an increase in out of place animals? I was reading some links (in a previous posting) about the amount of OOP animals in Florida alone, and as our winters become milder I have to wonder how far North some of these misplaced critters will wander.
“The one thing I learned in all my years of working, when a person calls and says I saw this and I saw that, never say never,” Beyer says.
Jolly good.
Good attitude. Great post as always, Loren.
You make a good point flame821
For tigers alone, a report last year called:
“Paper Tigers?: The Role of the U.S. Captive Tiger Population in the Trade in Tiger Parts”
estimated that there are app. 5000 tigers in captivity in the United States (probably more).
There are only 4000 tigers in the wild.
People constantly lose there dogs and cats, tell me why the same thing could not happen with a tiger.
Many of these captive tigers are illegal “pets” that were bought as cute little babies that 5 years later
are not as cuddly.
While people don’t hesitate taping a poster to a sign post with a photo of dear missing Fluffy the beloved kitty. They might just decide not to do the same for an escaped Bengal tiger or Mexican jaguar, especially if a 4 year old girl down the street had also suddenly gone missing.
A note to flame821: While 80% of New Orleans was underwater after hurricane Katrina, Audubon Zoo did not flood. There was considerable wind damage (mostly downed trees) but there were no animal escapes and loss of animal life was minimal (2 otters and a raccoon). Much of the zoo’s survival was attributed to 12 brave volunteer zookeepers who hunkered down in the reptile house during the storm and cared for the animals afterwards. However, here in the New Orleans area, as in many parts of the U.S., the keeping of large, exotic pets is still an occasional problem. Many readers may recall the discovery of a serval running loose in uptown New Orleans several months ago and pythons turn up from time to time as well. One urban zoo that was affected by a hurricane was the Miami Metro Zoo during hurricane Andrew. I remember seeing troops of monkeys strolling through Miami residential areas on the evening news.
A TIGER IN AFRICA?!
Sorry, can’t resist the opportunity to post a movie quote.