ZACHARY MANN on a STRANGE ANIMAL PHOTOGRAPH

Virginia Trail Camera Bigfoot 2013

On July, 18^th, 2013, a trail camera in Virginia (my home state) took a picture of a most unusual creature. This photo has been making its way through the Bigfoot and Cryptozoology community for a while now, but I thought I would give my two cents on it.

The trail camera took just one photo of this strange animal. The subject in question is walking away on all fours from where the camera is stationed. The head is turned away from the camera, so we can’t see its face or even get a look at its ears or nose. The bulk of the body as well as up around the head is very hairy, while the legs especially the right front leg is very slender looking, most likely due to the lack of fur. The way it is gripping the logs it is crawling over in the picture suggests that this is an animal quite used to walking on all fours as well as on the ground.

When I first saw this photograph I was, to say the least, unimpressed. To me it looked an awful lot like the infamous Jacobs Photos. For those of you who don’t know, or don’t remember, on September, 16, 2007, in Northwest Pennsylvania a trail camera captured three images that night. The first was of an obvious bear cub, the second two caused much more controversy.

 They showed a creature that was clearly not the same individual as in the first photo, but something else. This something else appeared to be slimmer than the bear cub, but still moving on all fours. And even though  there were no moving images taken by the camera, it’s pretty clear judging by the position of the creature in the first photo and the second photo that it almost certainly moved like a bear. Just like in this new photo from 2013, neither photo showed the creature’s head.

But now back to the 2013 Virginia photos. Some people have claimed that when you look really closely at the right hand you can see what looks like fingers. I must say I spent a long time carefully looking at it and I don’t see any. This is one of the things that most intrigues me about photos and videos about supposed Cryptids. You can show somebody a photo of something and ask him to make out the best details he can and you won’t get much. But show them a photo of an alleged Cryptid, and suddenly people are able to make out the tiniest little details about everything and almost everyone one both sides of the argument will come up with different details.

So what could the creature really be? Based on the fact that it seems perfectly adapted for moving on four legs, as well as having muscles in the rump which suggest such a life style, the conclusion has been by many on both sides that this photo represents a bear. A bear is also the most likely explanation for the 2007 Jacobs beast.

 Some still aren’t convinced saying that bears don’t have fur pattern like this. And normally they don’t, but what is almost surely happening is that this poor creature is infected with mange. Mange is a skin disease caused by parasitic mites. They suck blood from the animal and cause sickness and hair loss. Some say mange isn’t an answer because this animal only seems to have hair loss in certain places, the legs, and not all over the body. While total hair loss is the more common symptom of mange, anyone who really knows about the disease knows it doesn’t necessarily work like that.  Mange can result in hair loss over just a small portion of the body or in patches.

So it seems that this photo is likely a bear. I can’t say I’m too surprised. After being able to look at the photo, it becomes clear. But when I first heard this story before being sent a link with the photo, I was already skeptical it was of a Sasquatch. In fact I’m skeptical of pretty much any story of a Sasquatch spending much time traveling on four legs. After all, from what we can gather, Sasquatch seems to be perfectly evolved to walk bipedally, on two legs. Why would something so perfectly designed to walk erect, walk so much on four legs? It just doesn’t make much sense. Though I'm sure the hunt for proof will go on.