Mystery Creature from Panama: Cryptid or Hairless Sloth?
Aida Ekberg
Aida Ekberg, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Sep 21, 2009 "Contribute content like this. Start Here."
Teens in Panama have allegedly discovered a creature that has already been dubbed the new Montauk Monster. The teens stated that the hairless, rubbery creature that has been referred to as a living Gollum in reference to the LOTR character and a stillborn or hairless sloth was alive when they first discovered it, and that they beat it to death with stones before fleeing from it and return later to take pictures of the corpse. The sloth is a creature that is native to Panama, so the large consensus on the web seems to be that the mystery creature from Panama is no more than a big hoax that the kids cooked up by shaving the dead body of a sloth or that the sloth was a stillborn, hairless baby or an adult sloth with some kind of condition that left it hairless. Regardless, the pictures of this Gollum-like creature are truly disturbing, as it looks somewhat human (you can see pictures of it here.)
Cryptomundo.com also has pictures of the alleged decayed body of the Panama creature up on its website, reportedly taken at a later date. What makes the hairless sloth theory so plausible is the fact that the creature has the long limbs of a sloth, but even more telling is the hook-like claw at the end of one of its arms, which looks almost exactly like the claw of a sloth. The creature, however, does not have the dark face of an adult sloth, so it could also be possible that it was the body of a stillborn baby sloth that the kids in Panama stumbled upon, and that they made up the story of killing it to sensationalize their tale. There are no marks on the body of the sloth where it was hit with stones, although not all of its body is visible in the pictures. The creature's skin also has a sheen to it that other hairless animals (think of a hairless cat or a naked mole rat) do not have, although this could have been caused by exposure to water.
There's also the possibility that this is some undiscovered species of sloth that is born hairless. It was found near a cave, after all, and a hairless animal would need such cover to avoid predators. It's the
fact that this creature was found near a cave along with its creepy appearance that has led it to be dubbed a real Gollum by some, although it was probably not an evil creature at all, and it's pretty sad that the kids destroyed it if their story is true.
Cryptomundo has dubbed the creature "The Blue Hill Horror", and visitors to the site have weighed in on what they think of it, with many comparing it to the deformed baby in the movie 'Eraserhead' (which it does look disturbingly similar to) or a real E.T. One thing's for sure, the creature does have human-like features that make it difficult to look at, but I'm pretty sure it's just an unfortunate sloth and not an otherworldly being or some kind of cave monster. And if it was a real Gollum, I hope he wasn't in possession of the all-powerful ring.
SOURCES:
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/blue-hill-horror/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1214182/Remember-Monster-washed-ashore-Terrified-teens-claim-beat-new-mysterious-beast-death-Panama.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloth
