C2C’s Cryptid Canid
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 19th, 2008
I’m playing catch-up from material published during the days I was out along the wilds of the St. Johns River.
One item that has surfaced is a new mystery photograph of a strange-looking but familiar animal.
Over at Coast to Coast, a image of an unusual canid (dog, coyote or wolf related mammal) was photographed along the Milwaukee River and then recently posted. The picture has raised several questions about what the animal might be.
Is it a coyote with mange? Does the underlying musculature look too bulky for a coyote with this illness?
Is it a well-fed coyote? A cross-bred wolf-dog mix? Or a coydog?
This is a widely disseminated Internet photo of a coydog.
Or is the C2C picture of a truly mystery canid?
Perhaps a Shunka Warak’in? Above is the Shunka Warak’in photograph from my book, Cryptozoology A to Z.
Close-up of the Milwaukee River Cryptid Canid.
What I find most intriguing about the animal shown in the new photo is the configuration of the ears, which stick out from the side of the mystery canid’s head. Something seems a little off about them.
What are your opinions?
Almost looks a bit like a hyena.
Strong rear legs, tail hanging down,
large shoulder area.
Strange.
Beaver in a rubber suit
coybeaver
My God, this animal looks terrific!
very interesting shot!
Looks to me like someone has taken the face of one animal and placed it on the photo of another
coypitbull
I agree with otonabee. It looks to me like the body is feline, a large cat of some type, with a canid’s head photo-shopped onto the body.
Definitely a very nice looking animal, however!
Very strange indeed! Does look a bit like a hyena, except that the ears of a hyena are almost oval and stick up vertically. Wolves, dingos and other wild canid species also have their ears sticking up vertically too. Although when a wolf is in defensive mode, or feels threatened it can lower it’s ears to a horizontal position. See picture of an agressive wolf here:
http://www.blackfive.net/main/images/2007/09/28/angry_wolf.jpg
Sorry but to me this looks like an animal such as a wolf or coydog or even a wolfdog with a severe case of mange!!! Mange is a parasitic infestation of the skin of animals. Common symptoms include hair loss, itching and inflammation, all of which are caused by microscopic mites. Mange is most commonly found in dogs and other canines, but it can occur in other domestic and wild animals. …
I got the same impression as omne51. When I first glanced at the photo, I thought it looked like a big cat.
I have to agree that the photo looks a bit fake.
An animal so elusive probably would have darted off at the first sign of humans, and there is a big, noisy looking building in the background, and it seems to be looking right at the camera.
Didn’t the shunka warak’in mount recently have some DNA testing?
Any word on the results?
However, I hope it is real. Very interesting looking body structure.
Do you really think that picture is photo shopped? I spent some time looking at the lighting and the patterns in the fur and got the impression it was a legit photo. Even though the head of this creature looks way too small for the body that is the only thing that looks overtly wrong. That in itself shouldn’t disqualify the photo as real. The blurring of the focus, coloring, and overall texture look consistent to me. A nice job of photo shop work if it is a hoax. A second shot, even if not as detailed, would go a long way in verifying this encounter. Hopefully the photgrapher snapped another.
Boy there is a lesson for all of use in this digital age. If you see something, snap away.
Comparing the Shunka Warak’in to the cryptid turns up some interesting corrolations between the two, especially in the body types and posture. It’s hard to fairly compare the heads even though the cryptid head still seems small to me. Only the hyena gives me that same impression of an undersized head.
Really an interesting photo if real that deserves some investigation.
No doubt about it, its a coyote with mange. Animals with mange look nothing like our common conceptions of them. The way the limbs are set on the body and the size of the tail rule out any sort of photo shop with a cat’s body. Thats a dog’s body for sure. The only comparison with a large cat would be the thin hair. IE the mange.
Its absolutely, without a doubt a coyote with mange.
Yikes! It’s obvious what it is.
It’s the Beast Of Bray Road, captured on film at last.
Ta daaaaaaaaaaa!