Giant White Porcupine?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 26th, 2009
Las Cruces Thirty-Four
[published in the] New Mexico Territory
October 8, 1879
Jackson, N.C., is excited over a strange animal, the size of a calf, white, and with quills like a porcupine, occasionally seen near that village.
Thanks to Jerome Clark for this gem.
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Sounds llike an animal.
Well, he said Like a Porcupine which means it isn’t.
Could be a hybrid or new.
Since he said not “it’s a porcupine cause of the face” and what not, then it’s not.
I think this maybe me dangerous, with the large quills.
This reminds me of the ole “White Thing” stories. Where I grew up it was called the “Brookside White Thing” and some really scary stories were told by my uncle who swore to the heavens that the stories were true and he had a run-in with the creature. When I got older and even more interested in cryptozoology and paranormal phenomenon I did a little internet research and found that the “White Thing” story pops up from time to time in different parts of the US with varying descriptions of the beast, all white, but appearances typically vary from a werewolf type creature to a white, menacing, monsterous looking sasquatch.
From the size and the quills, it sounds like some descriptions of a Chupacabra.
This reminds me vaguely of a line in a biography of John “Grizzly” Adams. In California, Adams once “narrowly missed killing or capturing the rarest, most bizarre animal he’d ever seen. The beast, which looked like a hedgehog with the head and feet of a bear, escaped.”
Any pleistocene megafauna that might fit that description considering quills might not be preserved? Giant anteater or armadillo? Punk bear?
It could be an albino porcupine. They not unheard-of;:
http://www.ngsprints.co.uk/popup_image.php?pID=133201&image=0
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2398980
Porcupines are among the largest rodents, and when they raise their quills they look much larger than they really are. Apparently albino porcupines don’t have much problem living in the wild. There was one in Michigan that was documented living in the samee area for at least seven years.