Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 15th, 2006
A remarkable photographic image has been snapped on the morning of June 13, 2006, in a woman’s backyard in the Midwestern state of Nebraska. KETV-7 in Omaha broadcast the picture on June 14, and it appears to be an animal unlike any most people have seen locally.
In the short dispatch, the Nebraska news staff report that:
Mary Ann Carta lives near 138th and Hamilton streets, and she took some pictures of the animal that she saw. She said it could be a bobcat, but it has her scared about taking her morning walk or allowing her grandchildren to play outside.
"I was not afraid at the moment. I was in the house, but I was just thinking about yesterday with the grandkids it was like, what would I have done," Carta said.
An expert at the Henry Doorly Zoo is examining the pictures. He thinks it could be a feral cat.
What are we to make of the hint of striping on the back? The long canid-like legs? And long thin tail?
A werewolf, perhaps? I’m mildly joking, but that moniker has been used in reports before, as we know from the work of Linda Godfrey, northeast of Nebraska, in Wisconsin.
Or how about something else from the upper Mountain States? The image does have an cryptid canid or hynea-like appearance, reminding me of the Shunka Warak’in mystery taxidermy mount from the 1880s, seen and recorded from the Yellowstone area, as pictured below, and discussed in Cryptozoology A to Z.
What do you think?
The following was not added by Loren Coleman; posted by Cryptomundo editors:
Click on image for full-size version
Enhancement provided by Cryptomundo reader Annie.
Out of curiosity, I thought I’d see if I could bring any more detail out of the photo.
My outline of the animal was the best I could judge, based to the photo. The face area was fairly difficult to determine. The animal definitely appears to have a tail, but one with a kink in it at the top, giving the impression of a bobbed tail.
Anyways, everyone is welcome to judge for themselves.
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.