talkingDigital

You read it on the Internet, so it must be true. No, really, it was on TimeOnline.com, so it’s real!

By now this image has circulated through every blog (like this one) that is looking for a few hits to bring in some Google Adsense revenue. Even legitimate news sites are running the story without any confirmation.

We will be the first to call it a hoax, or a misidentified creature at best. What makes us jump to that conclusion? We’ve been there before.

Besides intuition and past experience, how do we know it’s a fake or a hoax?

Look at the rungs behind the creature. For some reason most of the bars mysteriously end before they go behind the creature.

Notice the strange focus along the creatures back. Everything in the foreground and background is in focus, but in the spots where the bars disappear and along the creatures back, it is mysteriously fuzzy.

There is no point of reference. The only way we know that this thing is the size of a bear is because that is what the story reports. It very likely is the size of a large rat or small Kangaroo.

No moving video has been posted. Oddly, there is a YouTube slide show (the moving kind) but it features still pictures of the animal and explains that China does not allow moving video to be uploaded. First, China has no idea whether the video being uploaded is video of an Oriental Yeti or a slide show containing still images of an Oriental Yeti.

Similar hoaxes from the past.

Montauk Monster – It turned out to be a partially decomposed raccoon.

Mermaid Corpses & Florida Mermaid – Read the attached for various explanations.

Dead Fairy – Yep – another fake.

Oh how we could go on with pig-human hybrids, chupacabra and so much more.

As we prepare to post this, it looks like someone else has gotten to the bottom of it. We love the Internet.