Of course there is always the hoax element when dealing with these things, but in my opinion it cannot really be underestimated just how bizarre a bloated, deteriorating carcass can look to the average person. Under the right conditions, a carcass that has decomposed, bloated, worked over by scavengers can look entirely alien and nothing like the original animal. As I’m sure you are well aware, all of these factors work to do strange things to a body. Different parts bloat out, hair falls out, skin pulls back over teeth, claws, or bone, scavengers eat away soft tissues. These things all conspire to create a carcass that may easily be mistaken for something more mysterious than it really is, simply due to a lack of awareness of what the effects of these natural processes can have. I just don’t think a lot of people are aware of just how profoundly different a carcass can look from the animal in its living state.

I don’t even really think it necessarily has anything to do with how connected to nature a person is. Even a person who is very familiar with animals could be taken off guard by the bizarre appearance of a decomposing carcass. People who were biologists or experts in whales were baffled for years by globsters before new techniques conclusively proved that most were decomposed whale carcasses. Sometimes a DNA test is needed to figure out just what the heck a decomposed carcass could be. I mean, look at the original Montauk Monster. Most people are fairly familiar with raccons (I’m American, U.S. spelling ), yet the speculation ran the gamut from dead seals to pug dogs, and very few people at first could accept that the carcass could possibly be that of a raccoon. Yet it has been pretty conclusively shown that that is exactly what it was.

I definitely think that the media hypes things, and that hoaxers abound. But I also believe that people can make an honest mistake with regards to carcasses. Bear carcasses can look a lot like human or Bigfoot bodies, basking sharks turn into sea serpents, dead dogs become chupacabras, and so on, it is hard to tell sometimes. I don’t think that people are always necessarily intentionally hoaxing in all of these cases. They just simply don’t know any better and are grasping at fantastic explanations without accepting that a decomposing carcass could be something more mundane.

I think the problem is not that people are being caught off guard or dumfounded by bizarre corpses. The problem as I see it is that people are jumping to conclusions before rationally subjecting the body to scientific analysis or looking at mundane explanations first. Perhaps if people were more aware of the natural processes that go to work on a carcass, they might be more willing to logically deduce just what it could be without crying “No way that could be a raccoon! It must be a monster!!”

The people who make these claims may be sincere in their beliefs, however a rational, scientific mindset and analysis is important, and all angles must be considered before jumping to fantastic conclusions or creating a media circus.

The “feet” are obviously not the feet, but the protruding tendons and bones of the lower leg.

Personally, I think # 2 is the motivation for these really lame reports. That and journalists are getting too lazy to do real investigative and analytical reporting, so they run these bloated carcass stories and pictures of butt-ugly dead dogs as “monster” stories. Sheesh.