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Cryptids on camera: weird trailcam captures

The Shrike

Philosopher
The Shrike
Joined
Nov 2, 2009
Messages
5,147
Location
Oklahoma, USA
Dear JREF,

I did some searching around and found no one-stop shop for examples of weird things that show up on camera traps. By "weird things," I mean strange-looking animals and other anomalies often interpreted by the credulous as evidence for cryptozoological creatures. If you've got access to such photos, please consider this an appropriate repository.

My primary motivation for this thread is that I am a wildlife ecologist, and I have just begun my first study that involves wildlife survey of species attracted to bait piles (whole kernel corn). We've got about 20 cameras deployed at a research station in the southeastern U.S. In our first round of sampling, we activated the cameras for one week in mid-September and obtained about 50,000 photos. I scrolled through about 2/3 of those photos the other day, and was delighted to find evidence of at least 3 cryptids!

cameratrapcryptids.jpg

Top left: A blurry crow in flight looks quite like a photo alleged to be a bigfoot at the edge of a garden (from Maryland, if memory serves) that was the blobsquatch du jour a couple of years ago.

Top right: A near perfect "rod", no doubt evidence that these tiny interdimensional travelers are at least as interested in feral hogs as they are in convenience store parking lots.

Bottom: Is there anything more pitiful and sinister-looking than a 3-legged chupacabra? This 3-legged, mangy coyote comes to mind.
 
You know the "rods" are insects, right? They've been demonstrated on high speed cams. I'm guessing the parking lot reference alludes to that.
 
I feel so sorry for the guy in the bottom pic. He's starving to death. I would feel sorry for a chupacabra in that condition.

We have some trail cams and have gotten mountain lions, bighorns, elk, and a lot of people doing interesting things, but nothing unidentifiable.
 
The Shrike said:
Top left: A blurry crow in flight looks quite like a photo alleged to be a bigfoot at the edge of a garden (from Maryland, if memory serves) that was the blobsquatch du jour a couple of years ago.
Click to expand...


It would require a deeply held delusion and a desperate desire to cling to it to see something other than a bird in that picture.
 
You folks do recognize satire when you see it, right?

Let me be more explicit: This is the first time I've ever done a camera trap study. This is the first sample of photos I've ever obtained from such a study. In my first sample from my first attempt to do this, I've obtained examples of things previously passed off as "cryptids" by gullible/disingenuous people:

1) Yes, my "bigfoot crow" is obviously a crow. The photo from Maryland to which I referred was blurrier and less obvious than mine. The bird in my photo, however, was captured in almost the identical pose.
2) Yes, I know that "rods" are overexposed insects flying past the camera using wingbeats faster than the shutter speed.
3) Yes, my "chupacabra" is more obviously canine than other such photos, but it wouldn't take much blurring or distortion to get this photo passed off as something other-worldly to the credulous out there.

Moral? It's surprisingly easy to find anomalies among photographs. I found three such anomalies on my first attempt to get camera trap photos.

There are many other examples of perfectly explainable weird things and odd events being captured on camera. If you know of some, please share them (links and photos) in this thread.
 
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Here. Both of these pics show Northern Tapplecaks.


vstetset_zps3223cda9.jpg


F6trr_zpsed4faec5.jpg
 
GT/CS said:
What is a Northern Tapplecak?
Click to expand...

It's the animal in those photos. This is a large wild hairy bipedal primate but it is not Bigfoot. Sorta like how the Wood Ape of Operation Purses & Tents is not Bigfoot either.
 
William Parcher said:
Here. Both of these pics show Northern Tapplecaks.


[qimg]http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w310/william_parcher/vstetset_zps3223cda9.jpg[/qimg]

[qimg]http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w310/william_parcher/F6trr_zpsed4faec5.jpg[/qimg]
Click to expand...
A characteristic of the Northern Tapplecak is its wooden left front leg (pic#2) that sometimes breaks (pic#1).
 
This Tapplecak pic can be confusing. He's actually going after a Caneron in its burrow. This is a species of subterranean cervid which has never been described by science. The trailcam guy could have documented it but it was eaten.


67ss3_zps412da681.gif
 
CORed said:
I agree. It never occurred to me when I saw it that it was anything other than a bird.
Click to expand...
The original from a couple of years ago was much blurrier and not at all obvious as a bird. Hopefully someone will post that photo. When you see it, my crow in flight will make more sense.
 
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