September 16, 2009

Carolina Cryptid Caught: It’s A Coati


Mr. Austin and what appears to be an example of Nasua narica.

Reporter Robert Boyer of the Burlington (NC) Times-News writes:

William Austin has lived in the country for most of his 66 years.

He’s seen his share of wildlife near his home at 4724 Cobb Road, a golf shot east of the Guilford County line off Spoon Road and N.C. 62 in southwestern Alamance County.

But nothing like this.

Several weeks ago, the lawnmower repairman spied a rather strange creature the size of large cat munching on a discarded tomato at the edge of his garden.

Whatever it was, this kitty looked like a genetics experiment gone awry, a strange amalgam of miniature bear paws, a raccoon’s ringed tail and an aardvark-like snout.

The exotic critter eventually wandered off into the woods but returned later that evening and pilfered some supper from a bird feeder in his yard before vanishing again.

Days rolled by and Austin saw no more of his hungry new friend.

On Monday, a neighbor called. It’s here— come and shoot it, she pleaded.

But Austin had a different plan.

“Nobody believed me when I told them. That’s why I thought I would go ahead and catch it.”

So he did, with a live trap cage.

Rest of the article, here.

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.

Filed under CryptoZoo News, Eyewitness Accounts, Out of Place