Comments on: Exclusive Photos of the Yardley Yeti

By: Jonathan_maberry

Jonathan_maberry — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:46:08 +0000

I recently showed these photos to Adam Denish, DVM, a veterinarian and exotic animals consultant for a zoo in Pennsylvania. He said that although there are some similarities to the fox, he did not believe that the creature in the photos is a fox with mange.

I’m no biologist, so I’ll just say that I’m still keeping an open mind on what this critter is.

By: SittingFox

SittingFox — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 17:00:40 +0000

I run a fox website, and that is DEFINITELY a fox with mange. Foxes are tiny (scarcely bigger than a house cat) but they always look bigger at a distance. Even with my regular foxes, I'm always surprised at how much larger they seem when at a distance. Size-wise, they are an optical illusion. It is wrong to kill an animal for having mange for two reasons: the disease is easily treatable, and it is only present in North America because the federal government decided to deliberately infect wolves with it in the 19th century. Call it biological welfare if you like, but it was an appalling act driven by the demands of the cattle lobby. This fox, like countless hundreds of thousands of animals, is suffering as a result.

By: Margie07

Margie07 — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:52:42 +0000

Saturday 10/14/06 my daughter Sarah and I were traveling on Pine Road when just before Byberry Road this strange animal darted in front of my car. I said to Sarah it looks like a Kangeroo. The best description we can give is it brown, almost hairless, thin, pointed ears, and large back legs. Glad to hear others saw this.

By: Little Jessie

Little Jessie — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:39:14 +0000

some kind of k9

By: kittenz

kittenz — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 01:26:51 +0000

I wish that everyone could have the opportunity to work in a busy rural veterinary hospital for at least a couple of years.

I guess it’s hard for anyone who has not seen a dog or fox completely denuded by mange to comprehend just how alien they can look. Even a completely shaved dog still has enough fur to look like a dog (although they can look so different when they have been shaved that their owners don’t recognize them!) But when an animal has mange to the extent that it is nearly hairless, it does look startling. Add to the complete hairlessness the fact that the skin is also swollen and inflamed, which makes the paws looks bigger and the facial skin look puffy, and you have a strange-looking critter indeed. But anyone who has seen it and had to deal with it can recognize severe mange infestation – and I have no doubt that what I am seeing here is a fox with mange. Period.

By: Confused99

Confused99 — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 18:24:32 +0000

Did anyone ever compare this to the image of an italian greyhound or perhaps a Whippett.

I remember the first time I saw on my first thought was it wasn’t a dog, it seemed more like a Kangaroo’s head on backwards dog body.

Just a thought but if you google Italian greyhound you may see something that looks similar.

By: rwyly

rwyly — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:21:08 +0000

Both my mother and I saw the same animal in my front yard in West Chester, PA on two seperate occassions. Trust me, it was the same animal and if you ask me, it was nothing I have ever seen before. Looked like a cross between a kangaroo and fox. I have seen plenty of fox, I have seen plenty of dogs- this was not like that. And you should see it run- very fast with it’s legs stretched out far. WIERD is all I have to say. I am just happy that this thing has been seen by others because my mother and I thought we were seeing things!

By: natedana

natedana — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 02:35:24 +0000

My first thought was a hyena (young and underfed). Any thoughts? Look at this photo.

By: sempai

sempai — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:50:27 +0000

My wife and I saw this same creature about 4 months ago in Croydon in Bucks County, daytime walking up and down our sidewalk. We called animal control but they never came. We called it in as a sick fox.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 23:45:43 +0000

If the photos were taken a year ago, the fox either beat the mange & recovered, or it died. It would not be able to survive for long in the condition it presents in these photos.

My guess would be that it died, especially if it was not able to overcome the mange before really cold weather set in. But foxes are very resilient animals, and there is a chance that as it matured its immune system became strong enough to outlast the mange mites. In that case it will probably never become so heavily infested again.

We will probably never know, of course. Wild animals usually try to hide when they become very ill in order to avoid opportunistic predators. But if I were a bettor, I’d bet that the poor thing has left this life.