Montauk Monster facts for kids
The "Montauk Monster" was a strange animal body that washed up on a beach in Montauk, New York, in July 2008. People wondered what kind of creature it was. Many stories and ideas about the monster quickly spread.
The Mystery Begins
The story started on July 23, 2008, when a local newspaper called The Independent wrote about it. A woman named Jenna Hewitt, who was 26, and three friends said they found the creature on July 12. They were at Ditch Plains beach, a popular place for surfing.
Jenna Hewitt told the newspaper:
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.
The newspaper printed a photo of the creature. They gave the article a funny title, "The Hound of Bonacville." This was a play on words, mixing "Bonackers" (a name for people from East Hampton) with a famous mystery book, The Hound of the Baskervilles. The article wondered if the creature was a turtle or a strange experiment from the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center.
Larry Penny, who worked for the town's natural resources, thought it was a raccoon. He believed its upper jaw was missing. There were also rumors that the animal's body had been moved. Some people said it was only the size of a cat and had mostly turned into a skeleton by the time the news came out. Jenna Hewitt said "a guy took it and put it in the woods in his backyard," but she did not say who or where.
Photos of the creature quickly spread through emails and online blogs. National news outlets then picked up the story. This made many people wonder even more about the creature. The story became like an urban legend, a popular tale that spreads widely. The Montauk Monster was even talked about on TV shows like Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura and Ancient Aliens.
What Was It?
When the news first came out, people had many ideas about what the Montauk Monster could be. Some thought it was a turtle without its shell. Others guessed it might be a dog, a large rodent, or even a science experiment from the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center.
William Wise, who works at Stony Brook University, looked at the photo. He and a colleague thought the creature might be a fake. But if it was real, he guessed it could be a sick dog or coyote that had been in the ocean for a while.
Wise also thought about other animals and why they probably were not the monster:
- Raccoon: Its legs seemed too long compared to its body.
- Sea turtle: Sea turtles do not have fur or teeth.
- Rodent: Rodents have two big, special front teeth.
- Dog or coyote: The body looked like a dog, but its eye area and feet did not match.
- Sheep: The face looked a bit like a sheep, but sheep do not have sharp teeth.
A scientist who studies old animals, Darren Naish, also looked at the photo. He studied the creature's dentition (teeth), skull shape, and front paws. He decided the creature was a raccoon. He believed its strange look was just because it had been in the water and had started to break down, losing most of its hair and some flesh. Naish disagreed that the legs were too long for a raccoon. He even showed a picture of a raccoon's body placed over the monster's photo to prove his point. Jeff Corwin, a famous animal expert, also said it was a raccoon in a TV interview.
See also
In Spanish: Monstruo de Montauk para niños
