Montauk Monster

[G&T]

It's a strange story so here is best overview:

 

What's brownish-purple, goes to the beach and stinks of rotting flesh?

 

New York's celebrity-obsessed Hamptons summer season got even sillier this week when a strange-looking, very dead creature washed up on a beach in Montauk at the far eastern end of New York's Long Island.

 

On Tuesday afternoon, a photo was posted on Gawker, the Big Apple's reigning gossip blog, which treated the Montauk monster with characteristic respect: "Good Luck With Your Hell Demons."

 

The animal looks like a bloated, hairless dog, except that it's got an eagle-like beak, a prominent brow ridge and a curiously elongated front paw.

 

Speculation immediately arose that it might be a hitherto unknown marine mammal, a sea turtle without its shell, an artful Photoshop creation or — cue the " X-Files" theme — an escaped experiment from the government animal-disease research facility on Plum Island, just offshore from Montauk.

 

The animal's resting on sand in the photo, with no other indication of location or scale except for what appears to be a large fly on its back.

 

Gawker itself thought it had broken the case late on Tuesday, when it noted that the woman who'd e-mailed in the photo worked for a viral-marketing firm.

 

It all tied in neatly to "Cryptids Are Real," an upcoming Cartoon Network show about mysterious, scientifically undocumented animals such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the Chupacabra.

 

But the tipster, whom New York magazine identified as Los-Angeles based Alanna Navitski, denied that her efforts were part of any campaign.

 

She said she'd gotten the picture from her sister, who'd gotten it herself from a friend in New York who actually saw the darn thing.

 

"I saw the monster," said another witness, a waiter at a nearby restaurant, to New York magazine. "I just came walking down the beach and everyone was looking at it. No one knew what it was. It kind of looked like a dog, but it had this crazy-looking beak. I mean, I would freak out if something like that popped up next to me in the water."

 

Plum TV, a sort of upscale public-access network carried on Hamptons cable TV as well as in other tony summer resorts, promises an interview Friday with the original photographer as well as two other women who say they saw the animal.

 

FOXNews.com thinks one commenter on the Plum TV Web site may have figured it out.

 

The short beak-snout and long, flipper-like paw certainly don't belong to a dog, but they could easily belong to a young raccoon whose fur and nasal cartilage rotted away in the water. Check out images of raccoon skulls here and here, and this image of a raccoon's paw.

 

To complicate matters, no one seems to know exactly where the mysterious beastie is now.

 

It's no longer at the beach where it was supposedly found; then again, the sand it's resting on in the photo could be anywhere in the world.

 

"They say an old guy came and carted it away," Navitski told New York magazine. "He said, 'I'm going to mount it on my wall.'"

 

Foxnews

 

I assume this is fake since the only picture is the one in the article and nobody knows what happened to it. But what the hell, I'll post it anyway.

Actually, there is one other picture here

Edited August 3, 2008 by G&T

[Kyyle23]

It certainly isnt a turtle without its shell. Turtles dont just fall out of their shells as if it was a backpack, they are connected.

 

When i first started looking at it I thought it was really strange, but the more I look at it I think its a raccoon or something. The picture is decieving, the lower jaw is disconnected and the angle shown makes it look more like the bottom of a beak. The top part also looks like a beak, but its most likely the bones in the snout starting to poke through because of wear from being in the ocean.

 

Some kids were on CNN showing the bones of the "monster". I think you can watch the video on cnn.com still

[DrunkBomber]

Whatever the hell it is Im glad I wasnt around it when it was alive.

[Milkman delivers]

Ha, I love stories like this. I'm sure there's a logical explanation, but they always make you wonder what's out there that we don't know about.

[dasox24]

If Jeff Corwin says he thinks its a racoon, like he has, then I tend to believe him.

Edited August 3, 2008 by dasox24

[witesoxfan]

It certainly isnt a turtle without its shell. Turtles dont just fall out of their shells as if it was a backpack, they are connected.

 

When i first started looking at it I thought it was really strange, but the more I look at it I think its a raccoon or something. The picture is decieving, the lower jaw is disconnected and the angle shown makes it look more like the bottom of a beak. The top part also looks like a beak, but its most likely the bones in the snout starting to poke through because of wear from being in the ocean.

 

Some kids were on CNN showing the bones of the "monster". I think you can watch the video on cnn.com still

 

 

If Jeff Corwin says he thinks its a racoon, like he has, then I tend to believe him.

 

oh hey good call kyle

[Jake]

So what the hell are raccoons doing in the ocean?

[BobDylan]

So what the hell are raccoons doing in the ocean?

 

What you don't see, the mob doesn't do.

[Jake]

What you don't see, the mob doesn't do.

 

[Kyyle23]

oh hey good call kyle

 

the sun shines on a dogs ass every once in a while

 

So what the hell are raccoons doing in the ocean?

 

He could have been scrounging through garbage cans on a pier and fallen into the ocean and drowned. Raccoons get themselves into trouble alot because of how inquisitive they are and how determined they are to get food.

Edited August 4, 2008 by kyyle23

[Jake]

the sun shines on a dogs ass every once in a while

 

 

 

He could have been scrounging through garbage cans on a pier and fallen into the ocean and drowned. Raccoons get themselves into trouble alot because of how inquisitive they are and how determined they are to get food.

 

Did you see on the Gawker website that other "montauk monsters" had been found? I wonder if raccoons wash ashore often or if something drove a bunch of them into the water.

[Kyyle23]

Did you see on the Gawker website that other "montauk monsters" had been found? I wonder if raccoons wash ashore often or if something drove a bunch of them into the water.

 

Im sure there are alot of monsters found on the beach. Everyone has a story when the first picture comes out. I would like to see some more pictures if there are any. At work I cant access gawker.com

[HuskyCaucasian]

I think the "viral ad" idea is very plausible.

"To complicate matters, no one seems to know exactly where the mysterious beastie is now."

 

If it mysteriously disappeared without scientific study, my hoax alarm goes off. My bet it is a very elaborate movie style prop.

[Kyyle23]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396182,00.html

[CubKilla]

A DNA test will clear all this up. DNA can specify species.

[G&T]

Apparently it's only 2.5 to 3 feet long which supports the raccoon theory. For some reason it looks a lot bigger.

 

Newsday

[DrunkBomber]

Ive never seen a 3 foot long raccoon.

[Kyyle23]

Ive never seen a 3 foot long raccoon.

 

I have. Plenty of them. the bigger they get, the more humpbacked they get, but there are definitely some huge raccoons out there.

 

 

How could you not see any on the side of the road in Southern Illinois? those things are mutants down there

[southsider2k5]

I have. Plenty of them. the bigger they get, the more humpbacked they get, but there are definitely some huge raccoons out there.

 

 

How could you not see any on the side of the road in Southern Illinois? those things are mutants down there

 

Samething with the coons in the park systems. Those are some huge dudes.