New Mystery Animal Photograph
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 13th, 2006
Is this photograph the “Mystery Animal” seen for decades in West Virginia’s Potomac Highlands?
This picture was taken by an automatic digital camera set on private property in a 3000 acre wilderness in which no human inhabitants live. It was caught on film on August 8, 2006 at 0700 Hours.
Since the original owners do not want to become embroiled in the heated Eastern Mountain Lion mystery debate, the Eastern Puma Research Network will be fielding all responses for this photograph. The EPRN can be reached via email at epuma [at] beaconnet [dot] net.
Photograph courtesy of the initial West Virginia photographer/owner of the digital camera, via John Lutz of EPRN.
To gain permission to show the “Mystery Animal” photograph (top), the above italicized statement was required to be published with it.
Obviously, your thoughts via comments may still be registered below, regarding what kind of cryptid, animal, feline, canid, or beast the object in the photograph might be. Various comparative photographs of felines, for analytical reasons only, are posted below. I am not suggesting any firm “answer” for this “Mystery Animal” photograph.
The Florida Panther (above), the southernmost verified subspecies of mountain lion or cougar, is found in the USA. The coat of the Florida Panther frequently appears to have dusty gray tones.
The mountain lion shown (above) demonstrates an extension of the body and legs, somewhat similiar to that found in the Mystery Animal photograph.
The above is a photograph of a caracal, also called a Persian lynx or an African lynx (Caracal caracal, sometimes Felis caracal), a felid obviously not naturally found in North America. The position of the caracal’s body mirrors what can be seen in that of the Mystery Animal, and this is the reason I have placed it here.
The Mystery Animal is pictured again.
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I know the head is not very clear in this shot, however I am thinking dog. What I can see of the head just says hunting dog to me. I am likely wrong, but that is what I see.
It looks like a big, tan, rather plump dog. Its rump, which is about all the picture shows, just does not look feline, and its coat looks like a slick shorthaired dog’s coat. Interesting that its head, which would confirm its real identity, is obscured. But that back end sure looks like a big tan pit bull or boxer.
On the other hand, a couple of years ago there were a few sightings of what peopel swore was an African lion. I am not sure what part of West Virginia the lion was seen, but the report was on the Huntington/Charleston station, WSAZ-TV. African lions have a short, sleek coat. But where is this critter’s tail? I suppose it COULD be a lioness. I don’t think it is a puma though. Pumas’ fur is different.
I think it is a big dog.
DOG-Gone-IT!
Big ole Boxer…old… with hip dysplasia…
I too want to say dog but I think I’m gonna sit on the fence a bit. I think what may be the tip of the tail can be seen just behind the ‘knee’ joint. Then again, it could just be something in the background. I’m not sure if it is my imagination but looking at where the head is I think I see the right eye surrounded by a lighter ring of fur and a squarish nose. Of course, using that same imagination I see what looks like a long neck goose in the trees.
My first impression was of a deer.
But without a clear view of the head or the tail I couldn’t say for sure.
Looks like another mountain lion trying to find a place to live. Human development seems to be pushing these poor creatures. Sightings in the eastern states are more frequent in the last 10 to 20 years. Up into Maine and Canada. State official don’t seem to want evidence. Cost to much money to protect another endangered species.
Wow, confused me at first. I was kind of looking at it backwards, and it looked human to me. Then I look closer and see that I was looking the wrong way. But yeah, its either a dog or a mountain lion, and for my crazy guess, I’d say it might be an albino doe?
This looks definitely canine, most likely a Great Dane.
With the head completely obscured by that bush, I think it’s impossible to positively identify this animal. If there was a higher resolution picture the rear foot might be the key, but you can’t zoom with enough detail to tell anything from this photo.
The legs look very thin, appears to me of a deer, jumping over a log. Also the body looks too slender and the hair too short to be a cougar.
Definitely a deer I’s say. Check it out:
Here’s a deer head.
Here’s that deer head in same position as the the mystery animal’s head:
deer in photo
Maybe she’s shaking her head as she’s jumping over that log.
One has to ask the question why was the camera there in the first place? Were they looking for such an animal or were they simply looking to do some scouting for deer or bear? I looks like to me a large dog as for the head you cant see any of it. Nothing. I do not think it is a cougar it looks too thin. It doesnt look like it has been without food. Just look at the right rear leg. Not bony just thin. Looks like a rather large sized dog.
looks like a deer jumping away from the camera to me.
I also think it’s a deer. That black spot in the center of the bush, with the white patch just on top of it looks like a deer muzzle to me. Seems like a very young buck. The deer model fits the long, slender front legs very well, and the lack of a visible tail. The back leg seems somewhat problematic, but if the hoove is behind the log, and the angle of the photo is just so, it could appear as it does, and still be a deer.
Rooby-rooby roo!
There has to be more pictures….I wonder. My first reaction however, is that it is a dog. I’ll stay tuned as usual!
No tail, No Head, Hind leg looks like a dog. Picture not clear
Probably not a fake and the position of the animal does have a feline “feel” to it. The Jury will be deadlocked!
“The Wheel Goes Round
I have a photo of my dog walking down some stairs at a very similar angle. This is a dog. Not a hoax, not a mountain lion, a dog.If I ever buy a scanner, I’d be happy to post it, my dog’s pic, that is.
It is 100% a deer. Looks like the pic was taken with a trail cam catching it in motion with some focus issues (we get pics back like that all of the time from ours). Horns are at the top of the head region (possibly still with the velvet on them) and the head is looking to the right side facing edge of the pic. The black dot is the eye with the dark line that is often leading down the muzzle of the eye from it to the snout. That ‘feline’ posture is not that uncommon with deer stepping down carefully. And as a native WVian who loves the motherland deeply as well as its people…only believe half of what you see from there and none of what we tell you…well almost none of it.
Though my initial reaction was that of a dog, I am now leaning more towards a deer. I still have a feeling there is more than just this one photo. Maybe more? Then again, I don’t know the delay time between photos on this particular “automated digital camera”. Maybe this is the only photo snapped. Curious.
Agreed…it appears to be a dawg…a large breed, fawn in color, until recently well fed…perhaps a Dane or Mastiff, the head is too obscured to determine the breed…JMHO
seeing is believing….
ole bub and the dawgs
first impression of the rump also suggested deer to me. Nice overlay, Zenbug!
Loren - need we ask - any higher resolution image available? Any answer to the question on why the camera was there in the first place? (for interest’s sake only).
My first impression was it was a large cat, possibly a lynx or bobcat, but the more I look at it, I think it is possibly a deer. No mystery animal here except that we can’t seem to decide which it is…
I think Deer.
To me it looks like a Dog. Most likely a Great Dane.
Some type of large cat.
It’s legs and hip are definitely feline. It is panther, not that unusual. We have them in southern Indiana, we have seen 5 over the last few years. A black one too.
I’m squarely in the whitetail deer camp. A young doe, but she does appear strangely malnourished.
There is another simple way to identify it as a cat of some type. Cats and camels are the only animals when walking, the legs are moving in the same direction from the same side of the body. Right front forward, right rear forward. T
The picture shows right front forward, but since I can’t see the rear left…someone else here may be better to discern the body position, considering his rear is coming over a log. Still a mystery, but I say cat, the strips on the legs are in favor of being a cat. Also, what I can see of the head, it looks too small for a dog.
I’d have to say no to it being a deer. I have 2 reasons. First, even though the head isn’t real clear, the eyes seem to be forward facing like cat. Deer’s eyes are on the side of it’s head. Second, if you notice the rear leg where the joint bends from coming up the foot, its a much shorter distance than a deer’s. Thats where a deer gets its speed and leaping ability.
Put me down for Mountain Lion.
- If you look directly to the left of the visible rear leg you can see what looks very much like a tail the same color (with some darker parts) as the rest of the animal curling up.
- There’s really only one thing that size and that general color with a tail that long - Mountain Lion.
- It’s possibly a juvenile because there seems to be a spot(s) at the top of the semi-visible foreleg, although this could be some of the brush that’s in the line of sight.
Yes West Virginia, there are cougars in residence.
Without reading any of the comments first, my very first thought was “Lynx”. If it is a dog of some variety, it has an unusually small head.
Those aren’t stripes on the leg. It is plant matter. If you look around the picture those plants (ferns?) are all around it.
The body shape and posture shout feline to me. I’m no expert, by any stretch, but have had both cats and dogs — and it just looks catlike.
Serious question, as I don’t know — would a deer step over a fallen log like that, or would it just jump over it? The only deer I’ve ever watched in the wild seemed to more ’scramble’ over obstacles, and this looks like a very deliberate step.
Same question for dogs — my dogs always hopped up and over obstacles like this, descending squarely on both front feet.
BTW..if you look to the right where the eye is and follow that black line it leads you to the end of the snout where you can make out the black tinged nose area and back under to the lower jaw line. Most digital cameras tend to be very poor at catching movement because of the way the receptors are built. By taking photoshop and running the unsharp mask filter (amount 75% radius 8.3 pixels and threshold 0) on it you can make out the green tint on the ‘leg stripes’ as well as seeing a nostril hole. The short rear leg appears to be an illusion because it is masked by the fallen log.
Definitely feline.
yeah, and apparently near starving. Watch yer poodles.
My first thought at seeing the picture was “Great Dane”. Definitely some kind of dog.
Come on people, some common sense?
Which of these is *most likely* to be photographed in a wooded area “in which no human inhabitants live”?:
A Great Dane
A Mountain Lion
A Deer
Really, I enjoy this stuff, but you guys need to go out and buy The Big Golden Book of Dogs. Look at the pictures. Then the next time you see a picture of a dog, you will know what it is, even if it has mange or is sick and starving.
Really, I enjoy this this stuff, but you guys need to go out and buy The Big Golden Book of Dogs. Look at the pictures. Then the next time you see a picture of a dog, you will know what it is, even if it has mange or is sick and starving.
My first thought, like many others, was Great Dane, because of the thick front end and the thin rear.
But it’s in a strange position coming over that log, and that distorts things just enough to keep me scratching my head a little and declaring emphatically that it is a dog. I grew up near the KY/WV border and heard lots of big cat stories from folks I know. My dad claims that when he was a kid he had a “panther” stare in his bedroom window at him, and that it wasn’t too uncommon of an occurence to see one of them back then, so when an eastern puma is finally captured on film, I won’t be surprised if it is someplace like Wild Wonderful WVa.
I can’t make heads or tails of this photo.
It’s most likely a deer. My first thought was a panther, but it’s merely a product of motion blur. Blowing it up didn’t really help but shrinking it a bit did. It’s a deer, looks like he’s either eating or rubbing felt off his antlers. His body is in an odd postion for a deer and this helps to make the image a little confusing.
If this were a feline or canine in this position, it’s tail would be clearly visible as both use it for balance. The deer uses it’s tail for communication, and thus it’s declined position.
As I said though it gets much clearer if you shrink the image a bit. At 30-50% it’s fairly easy to see it’s a buck and I would say he’s at least an eight pointer.
Everyone has guessed what it could be. I see no reason for cougars not to be in that area. If I go with cougar it is only because I really don’t think there’s enough neck to say great dane or deer. Possibly a shorter necked dog, but not sure. The thing, besides the obscure head, that is throwing me off is the size of the legs. Back one doesn’t look that long and with small feet. The front one reaching for the ground looks super long and big cougar like feet. Being an automatic camera, there must be more pics.
It does not even look like a feline as they travel closer to the ground and try not to dispose the outline of their body when move through the woods. More often than not they will not “walk” over a downed tree they will either walk around it or jump over it. Just my thoughts!
I remember hunting across various wilderness areas from Pocahontas across through Webster and Randolph Counties, where older hunters (particularly those who went into the Cheat Mountain wilderness on horseback and brought deer loaded on handmade railcarts, muzzleloaders slung over their shoulders)telling stories of ‘panthers.’
I heard yowls in the pre-dawn morning while hiking in to areas, and spent afternoons perched on cliff edges where the rocks poked through the oak canopy into the cold sun., where under the ledges you could find old flint workings and an entire natural history of gnawed bones, some deep under the ledges, old, dry, and powdery, and some new, still with bits of tendon. Rabbits, grey squirrels, raccoons, a deer femur.
I certainly imagined, back then, that there were panthers. Not until my mammology courses at MU in the Ohio River Valley did I learn how silly that thought was. Alas, I still remember the yowls. I know bears, and I know domestic tomcats, and that sound that would rattle through those icy mornings near Valley Head was neither. It is the memory of a young teenage boy and his own 30-06, the smell of a red fox startled from a laurel thicket. I still say panther, but no, I can’t prove it and dont need to.
However, as far as the picture goes, it could be a felid but more likely it is a large hunting dog, either feral or just wandering. In the ridge and walley section, there are packs of mixed pig-dogs (lower, heavy bodied bulls and pit bulls running through the woods with feral-born foxhounds and walker coon hounds, they can be very large)
Ok, so I reminisced hard on that one. I miss those hills.
It looks to me as though the back foot is actually on the log, bearing weight as would be indicated by the angle of the rump. If this is the case, it could not be a deer, because deer never step ON logs, nor does any hoofed animal. They step over or jump over to avoid slipping and falling.
Very interesting photo. I don’t know how to call that one!
Lookslike a big kitty to me, I’d like to see it’s tracks !
It looks like a picture of an animal thats head is blocked out by a branch. Or maybe its a new undiscovered animal that has a branch for a head. I am officially starting the legend of “Branch Head.” Havn’t you ever wondered why cryptid’s faces and bodies always seem to be blocked by shrubbs? Well now you know. They have evolved to have bodies that look like trees are blocking them or heads that look like branches are covering their faces. Oh and they also evolved to look blurry. Thats why we always think pictures are out of focus. Woahhh! I just blew my mind!
People - look at the mystery animal picture.
Then look at the second mountain lion picture that Loren posted - the mounted one that is perched on the rocks.
Then look at the mystery animal picture again. There is a long tail that curls up at the end in nearly the same position in relation to the back leg. The tail is lighter in the mystery animal than in the dummy animal, but it is in nearly the exact same position.
There’s only one thing that color that could be out in the woods like that with a tail that long - a mountain lion.
My first thought was “someone’s pet caracal got loose”.
But it could be a mountain lion.
Definitely feline.
BTW, I just asked my boyfriend, sitting across the room from me, “whats this a picture of” with no explanation of the “mystery animal” sighting.
He said “It’s a cat”.
Makes me wonder how much SAYING an animal is a “mystery animal” makes our brains look for weird explanations.
The head isn’t very clear, but looks like a cat’s face rather than a dog.
I’d go with mountain lion. If one starts by assuming a mountain lion and then seek to find any reason why it isn’t, nothing seems to definatively say it isn’t to me. First impression was that the haunches seemed more dog like, but the back leg which is visible isn’t quite at the right angle to be sure of the shape of its haunches. I’ll warrant if it was seen side on the doubt would dissapear.
I think I can see the tail just behind the knee joint to, and that would then be a cat’s tail. If a dog then any tail would more likely have been up in the air as it stepped down from the log, this seems to be a natural balancing reaction to stepping down for dogs, fore quarters go down, tail goes up.
Mountain lion seems to be the result of apllying Occams razor.
The positioning of the rear leg does make the figure look sort of un-catlike. But once you pick out the tail the mystery’s solved - nothing recognized in North America has a tail that long.
There is no tail in the picture. See the enhanced version. It’s still a Deer.
The loins look too wide to be a cougar. I saw dog from the hocks to the feet that look too bony and long. Could be deer with moving head.
Why do we love speculating about these fuzzy images? They just make us crazy and prove nothing.
Why the heck do all these “mystery” animal photo’s always have a critical, identifying feature of the animal obscured!?
I vote for some sort of hound/great dane. The hind quarters look too skinny to be a mtn. lion, IMHO.
Hawaiiman is right. Dog. Yellow lab. Not a mystery. Not a cat. Deer? Are you kidding me? For people interested in this stuff you people sure don’t recognize animals very well.
Maned lions are one of the cryptic animals that appear out of place ranging as far north as Alaska.
My personal opinion is that it is a mountain lion
At first I thought maybe a deer? but there is no way that haunch is a deer. I also thought “dog” and in ways I still do, because of the way the back of the animal is “tucked” down. However, after playing with the image a bit, the face is very feline (what is visible), but that can be angle. The haunch and the leg are not feline, the squareness of the rump is canine. Babble babble babble..
You know what else is bothering me? Where’s the tail? There is no indication of a tail which, on such a kitty, would be very long and visible somewhere in the photo, especially on that angle, it would be out for balance.
Well it could be a couger because recently scientists are trying to build up the population again
A golden retriever, nothing more, nothing less!