Mystery Photo: More Clues
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 23rd, 2009
Since no one has exactly identified the “Mystery Photograph,” here are some more photographic hints about this animal. Once again, there is no trickery regarding the size of this animal.
It is an animal. It is a mammal. It has striped sides.
You may click on these images to increase the viewing size for all photographs on this page.
Update: I guarantee that those are not sneakers, flip-flops, or other footwear seen in the above photograph on the animal under speculation. This is not a human in a fur suit. It is a non-human mammal.
ClicknPsycho writes in to correctly point out, “It is obviously a reflection of a man in jeans with flip flops on.”
Your thoughts and wishes to save the International Cryptozoology Museum are appreciated as you today do…
🙂 Thank You.
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.
That second photo is really weird! I see sandals on its feet. Hmmmmmm
It’s obviously a two tonged sloth.
Tasmanian Tiger!!!!!
…it’s a mammal, it has stripes…it has been to the taxodermist and wears flip-flops!
the reflection, geesh! if it’s extinct or obscure, i don’t have a prayer of a guess. tail looks canid, but i wouldn’t rule out weasel.
this is fun, Loren!
Loren,
I’m not trying to start anything, I just have to ask, in that last photo, it looks like a double exposure or a photo taken through glass. Can you clear that up? In the middle pic, I’d think it was an elk or deer, or moose even. But those feet in the last pic just look funny. I can’t wait to find out what it is!
I’ll take a stab at it and say Banded Mongoose.
Mandrill?
Looks like a wolf or dog to me
The 3rd photo is obviously a double exposure.
I was going to say some sort of Bear, but these new pictures- especially #2- the shoulder joint/upper limb does not look bear like to me, so now I say some sort of extinct or rare Wolf (behind glass?)
I agree with kittenz. It appears to be a double exposure. On the right side of the picture, you can see angular edges to the border between the light and dark areas. This looks like the reflection of part of a display of some sort (zoo?). On the left side, if you start at the sandals (standing at the base of the display) and move upwards, it looks like someone’s legs, pelvis and beginnings of the torso. You can see it if you don’t look at the fur. Reminds me of one of those optical illusions where one picture looks like two different things.
As for the animal, I have no idea. Kinda looks like my old neighbor’s irish wolfhound to me.
The bottom photo looks like it was taken through a sheet of glass. Like previously mentioned you can see a person with sandals on in the reflection. Also can see what looks like classroom.
Anyway, its the tail section of the creature in the bottom photo.
Well, i’m baffled. It looks canine, but then again its really hard to say. The angle of the “neck” area on the first photo makes me want to say wild boar. But its tail is too long and shaggy for that.
So i’ll just guess Some sort of Pig then. lol
My guess?
An Aardwolf (Proteles cristata), from East/North East, and Southern Africa.
Why it is wearing sandals though I do not know or care.
It is obviously a reflection of a man in jeans with flip flops on.
As far as the animal on the OTHER side of the glass, then no, it is not wearing flip flops.
I was thinking, possibly “Saber Tooth”?
OK….I will take a stab at this one Loren.
Could it be a Dire Wolf ?
From what I could get out of the photos, That is what I come up with.
Thanks Loren …..this is great !!!
When will we get the final answer though ?
Ditto for me in agreeing with Kittenz in regards to the 3rd photo being a double exposure.
Good job, Kittenz.
As to the animal itself…
I still lean towards Dog. Small One.
Clearly it’s an otter =D
I think it’s some kind of bear.
I am guessing because of the tail and canine look that it is a dire wolf.
Aardwolf or possibly striped hyena.
I was thinking Agouti or Capybara but then I remembered the article about the Patagonian mara. So that’s what I am betting on.
How about the almiqui?
Youre playing with our minds, Loren!
Are you seriously telling us that those arent two human legs wearing blue pants, with flip flops (or jandals as we call ’em here) on the feet?
Plus youre confusing things now, as the second photo is a different one than the third.
I was going to say coyote or some small wild dog….but if youre going to stick the shoes and pants being not what they seem, and a true part of that animal…..then im stumped. another clue needed perhaps?
I’m guessing it’s a dead, stuffed animal in a glass case, or an animal behind glass in a zoo. The third pic simply reflects a bystander or the photographer.
Having said that, where is the pic taken ? It looks like the inside of a wooden-walled room. A curio museum somewhere ? USA ? Australia ? New Zealand ?
The animal itself seems to have a thick bushy tail, and wirey fur. Maybe four legs.
My best guess would be an aardwolf.
How can it be a saber tooth or dire wolf when the furs of neither have ever been found?
Short Faced Bear
Is it a chipmunk?