An unusually animal has been spotted near my home here in North Carolina. We have been talking about it on NCdeer.com and now the local press has picked it up.
[quote] For the past two months a bizarre-looking animal — employees have dubbed it the “Tyco Animal” — has been skulking in the fields around Tyco Electronics’ woodsy campus in Fuquay-Varina.
With its super-thin coat, the animal looks like a hairless fox from afar. Viewed with binoculars, it appears to have the head of a baby kangaroo and the sleek, elongated tail of a rat.
“It’s definitely a very strange-looking thing,” said Jerri Durazo, an employee who has photographed the animal.
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Speculations of what it is varies widely but the biologists believe it’s a Samson fox.
[quote] “I swear it’s a whippet,” said Dana Pierce, a lab technician, referring to the pointy-nosed breed of dogs.
This week, the guessing game spread online after Tyco Animal’s picture was posted on a North Carolina deer hunting Web site.
Visitors to the site offered several possibilities, including a Mexican hairless dog, a fox-possum crossbreed and the Wampus Cat, a creature from Appalachian folklore that can walk on its hind legs.
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[quote] Brad Gunn, a wildlife biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said Tyco Animal is likely a Sampson Fox. Sampson foxes have an inherited genetic trait that causes them to lack a thick outer coat. [/quote]
Video of this strange animal http://www.ncdeer.net/images/misc/TheTHING.wmv
My bet is that it’s a fox but to fill the time till turkey season rolls in its great to speculate as to what it is and maybe it is the evidence to prove the existence of the Wampus Cat.
The N&O story
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/415781.html
Link to NC Deer forum additional photos are posted
http://www.ncdeer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=018236
