It certainly could have been just a teenage hoax. The Thetis Lake and original Puerto Rican Chupacabras sightings have both been recently linked to Sci-fi movies, so why not the Dover Demon? “Close Encounters” wasn’t released until six months after the Dover sightings, but small child-sized aliens with large heads didn’t exactly start then. “Invasion of the Saucermen” in 1957 and the list goes on and on. And
certainly the drawings by “witnesses” look more like aliens than natural world animals.

But if it wasn’t a hoax, then to my mind the most likely candidate for the Dover Demon is an escaped monkey. The general overall appearance and behavior described fit. And only in the Baxter sighting is the creature observed moving. And the gait is never described. Dover is a wealthy suburb of Boston and only 16 miles away from the center of the city. Greater Boston has always been a major center for medical and biological research where monkeys are used extensively. Understand, all three claimed encounters happened at night, so to match the physical desciptions, the best candidates I would submit are the Barbary ape or Japanese macaque. Anyway, if it wasn’t a hoax
what is more likely? An escaped exotic monkey from some affluent household or a completely unknown animal lurking 16 miles from downtown Boston?

Anyway, I just took the time to refer to Loren’s revised “Mysterios America” and found that scene measurement reinactments were made from the two sightings from moving vehicles. The duration of the sightings was set at five seconds (one witness actually claimed it lasted 30-45 seconds). Occupants of the first car stated they were going about 40mph or 45mph, the second sighting 40mph. Both sightings were at night, headlights centered on the road. Just examine the very first sighting. It began when Bill Bartlett says he thought he saw “a dog or cat creeping along a low wall of loose stones.” The “reinactments” determined the car passed about 20 feet from where the creature was sighted. Huh? Just do the math and conservatively make it 40mph. Excuse me, but even Sherlock Holmes in a 1970′s VW Bug with the brights full blast in a neighborhood with zero streetlights isn’t going to notice any small creature 20 feet off the road at the length of a football field. Doesn’t mean Bartlett didn’t see something. Just maybe not exactly as described.

Please understand I’m just an armchair amateur like most of us here.
Hey, the Dover Demon is a great mystery. It’s just that I personally don’t think any unknown animal has anything to do with what really occurred.