Montauk Monster
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This article documents a current event. Information here may be incomplete, or may change as the event progresses.
The "Montauk Monster"The "Montauk Monster" is an unidentified creature which allegedly washed ashore dead at the Ditch Plains beach two miles east of the Montauk, New York business district in July 2008.[1][2] It has generated some speculation on National news channels such as CNN, as well as Internet discussion, but has not been available for examination. An unidentified woman told the same reporter that the animal was only the size of a cat, and had decomposed to a skeleton by the time of the press coverage. She would not identify its location for inspection.[3]
History
The story began after Jenna Hewitt, 26, of Montauk and three friends said they found the creature on July 12 at the beach which is a popular surfing spot at Rheinstein Estate Park owned by East Hampton, New York. She was quoted:
We were looking for a place to sit when we saw some people looking at something...We didn't know what it was...We joked that maybe it was something from Plum Island. [4]
Her color photograph ran in black and white on July 23 on page 10 in The Independent, under the headline of "The Hound of Bonacville" (a take off on the name Bonackers which refers to the natives of East Hampton). The light hearted article speculated that the creature might be a turtle or some mutant experiment from the Plum Island Animal Disease Center before noting that the East Hampton Natural Resources Director Larry Penny had concluded it was a raccoon with its upper jaw missing. The article concluded that "someone took it away... to be buried... we hope."[5]
Hewitt and her friends were interviewed on Plum-TV, a local cable television show.[6] Alanna Navitski, an employee of Evolutionary Media Group in Los Angeles, California, passed a photo of the creature to Anna Holmes at Jezebel, claiming that a friend's sister saw the monster in Montauk. Holmes then passed it along to fellow Gawker Media website Gawker.com which gave it wide attention on July 29 under the headline "Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk".[7] Photographs were widely circulated via email and weblogs, and the national media picked up on it raising speculation about the creature. The potential urban legend stature of the Montauk Monster was noted by Snopes.[8]
[edit] Possible identifications
Speculation in published reports included theories that the Montauk Monster might have been a turtle without its shell—even though the shell of a turtle cannot be removed without damaging the turtle—a dog, a raccoon, or perhaps a science experiment from the nearby government animal testing facility, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.[9] The creature's appearance was believed to have been altered through immersion in water for an extended period before coming to rest on the shore, making it difficult to identify.[10]
The father of the woman who took the photo told a reporter that reports that his daughter was holding out to the highest bidder to make some cash were "nonsense."[3]
On July 31st, William Wise, director of Stony Brook University's Living Marine Resources Institute, interpreted the photo along with a colleague, and suggested it was a hoax after discounting the following possibilities:[11]
Raccoon. ("The legs appear to be too long in proportion to the body.")
Sea turtle. ("Sea turtles do not have teeth.")
Rodent. ("Rodents have two huge, curved incisors in front of their mouths.")
Dog or other canine such as a coyote. ("Prominent eye ridge and the feet" don't match.)
Sheep. (Sheep don't have sharp teeth).
On August 1st, Gawker[12] published pictures and x-rays of a Rakali (or Water Rat, Hydromys chrysogaster) showing several convincing similarities with the Montauk Monster: the "beak", tail, feet, size, and general appearance are similar. The Rakali originates from Australia. On the same day, Jeff Corwin appeared on Fox News and claimed that upon close inspection of the photograph, he feels sure the "monster" is merely a raccoon or dog that has decomposed slightly.[13] This was backed up by Darren Naish, a British paleontologist, who examined the images and agreed that, if real, the creature was a raccoon. Naish says that "claims that the limb proportions of the Montauk carcass are unlike those of raccoons are not correct", and on his blog he furnishes an illustration of an intact raccoon corpse drawn over the corpse in the photograph.[10]
On August 5, Fox Channel's Morning Show repeated speculation that the beast is a decayed corpse of a capybara, even though capybaras do not have tails.[14] The next day, the same program reported that an unnamed man claimed that the animal's carcass had been stolen from his back yard.[15]
From August 5, the promoters of the independent horror film Splinterheads announced that the creature was a prop they had made, and that the story was an intentional viral marketing promotion.[16] The film's website included the claim "We have the Montauk Monster", but this was taken down a few days later.[17]
[edit] See also
Zuiyô Maru
Globster
Stronsay beast
Cryptid
[edit] References
^
gawker.com/5030531/dead-monster-washes-ashore-in-montauk ^
www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/07/31/moos.montauk.monster.cnn?iref=videosearch ^ a b Henderson, Nia (2008-08-03). "Montauk residents proud of their 'monster'". Newsday. Retrieved on 2008-08-03.
^ The Montauk Monster: Legend or latex? - Newsday - July 31, 2008
^ - The Hound of Bonacville - The Independent - July 23, 2008
^
hamptons.plumtv.com/blog/whats_going/paging_darwin_montauk_%E2%80%9Csea_monster%E2%80%9D_real_or_photoshop_phantasy Paging Darwin: Is Montauk Sea Monster Real or Photoshop Phantasy - plumtv.com - July 30, 2008].
^ Investigating the Montauk Monster: The Story Deepens! - July 30, 2008
^ The Montauk Monster - Snopes.com - August 5, 2008
^
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,395294,00.html
^ a b
scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2008/08/the_montauk_monster.php ^ Brown, Joye (2008-07-31). "The Montauk Monster: Legend or latex?". Newsday. Retrieved on 2008-08-02.
^ "Montauk Monster: Vole or Satan ??" (2008-08-01). Retrieved on 2008-08-04.
^ "Montauk Monster burning up on the Web" (2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-05.
^ Capybara. British Broadcasting Corp.: Science and Nature: Animals. Retrieved on December 16, 2007.
^ 15 "FOX & Friends" with Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade, Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5 am, PST
^ Monster In A Hall Of Mirrors
^ Montauk Monster was Viral Marketing For Splinterheads Movie?
