New species in the woods

[onondaga]

I have fished and hunted Western New York's eight counties from the Great Lakes to the PA border since 1955. I am stumped. Took my Grandson Turkey Hunting today on my own camp in Lyndon, NY and he starts poking me saying, "What is that animal climbing that tree?" I am looking and cannot say. It was golden brown about 35 Plus pounds, It's head was a little darker than the body. It turned it's face toward us and the face was very much without a snout like a coon, porky or bear. My grandson said it kind of looked like a monkey face. It was pudgy and slow moving. The forelegs were awkwardly very thick and paws were awkwardly broad with long visible claws. I said it looked like a Sloth on the wrong continent! Here is the most odd part, the tail had no rings of color. The topside of the tail was very dark and the underside was the same golden brown as the body.THE SHAPE of the tail was startling. It was very broad at the base, perhaps 5 inches across and the tail was easily over a foot long and had a straight taper to a point. The tail looked heavy and not fluffy and dragged straight down behind the animal as it climbed upward. I don't know what this flat faced animal was. It came down the tree backwards slowly when we stood up and waddled away in the brush.

My woods there is hardwood only, mostly Maple, Cherry, Hickory, Ash, Hornbeam and Hawthorne. Altitude 2200 Ft. A visibly rocky forest floor with Juniper, May Apples, Trillium, Wild Leeks, Strawberry and Ivy

This animal had a strange way of climbing with all 4 legs stretched as wide as they would go and just moving one broad claw at a time, very slowly like Sloths I have seen in Zoos. It was not 3 toes to a paw like a sloth, It had five toes per paw and long visible claws.

Sure wish I had a picture. Does anybody know what this animal is?

Gary

[6.5 mike]

Sounds like one of my x mother- in- laws.

[9.3X62AL]

Chupacabra. No doubt about it.

[kyswede]

Sounds like one of my x mother- in- laws.

That was hilarious.
kyswede

[geargnasher]

No help here, Gary. The tail shape, five long claws per foot, and flat face are what really puzzles me. The only flat-faced critters I can think of offhand out there are primates of some variety.

Did it have opposable thumbs?

Gear

[MtGun44]

How about sokmebody's pet kinkajou escaped? Claws don't look right and sloths don't
have tails, IIRC.



Nothing native to this continent fits that description. Gotta be an escapee. Wonder if
it can find food in those woods. Get a havahart trap and put it out there with dog food
and some honey and see what you get.

Bill

[waksupi]

Medical marijuana? Bad moonshine? No idea what that type of critter would be. I'd go back and look for it. Could be an alien.

[onondaga]

The tail looked about half as long as the tail on the kinkajou, legs were much fatter, claws much longer and face flatter. The thumbs stuck out a little but not like a primate. I saw it close its claws into the tree with every reach climbing. I didn't want to get near this critter. We were about 30 yards from it watching / I used an 8X monocular and Colin uses 10X binoculars. We Had it in view at least 4 to 5 minutes.

I also looked up photos of the Brown Badger. Badgers have very striped faces, and long snouts not like this flat faced critter we saw.. It wasn't a brown badger. and a badger would be as rare as a chupacabra in Cattaragus County, NY.

I am not joking or trying to pull a prank. My grandson and I both want to know what this was, right on my own property. The general area is very hilly , high altitude with scarce hunting camps and some dairy farms in the valleys.

Gary

[MtGun44]

OK, a few more possibilities. The lemurs and tamarins sound close, not sure about the
exact coloration but that often is highly variable between individuals.

golden bamboo lemur


golden lion tamarin



golde lion tamarin - face



Whatever it is, it is probably going to freeze to death or starve eventually, so live trapping
it and getting it to a zoo would be doing the poor guy a favor. Probably an exotic (maybe illegal) pet
that escaped. You might ask around any town folks that might know of a person with a weird
pet, reported missing or not.

Bill

[onondaga]

The color of the tamarin is close but the whole body was very different and the face was fur covered on the critter we saw.

[fatnhappy]

next time kill the darn thing and get some pictues.

[onondaga]

I couldn't shoot it. It was so oddly cute and I was actually talking Turkey with my calls when Colin spotted it. I really didn't want to stand as there was a turkey responding from out of sight but likely about 100 yards from us....We didn't get that either and the turkey was silent after we stood.

Gary

[MtGun44]

Tree kangaroo? Wrong color, but color is the biggest variable, see if we can find a body
type fit and then start seeing what variations might exist.







Does the paw/claw seem similar?

Bill

[edsmith]

find some photos of martens and fishers, it may be one of them. some people call them fisher cats, not a cat, member of the weasel family.

[onondaga]

The body proportions were very different than the roo. Forelegs were much thicker, claws were about 3/4 as long as paws were wide and could not have been retractable due to length. Head was much broader and ears didn't stick up. The roo tail is much longer also... Thanks for trying.

Gary

[c3d4b2]

did it look something like this?

[onondaga]

I have Fisher Martins in the area and occasional Mink. This animal was not long and slinky like them and was easily 4x the weight of a large Fisher Martin. It waddled side to side like a possum or porky waddles on the ground with a much different gait than a Martin or Mink

Gary

[onondaga]

Not like that, the hair was not rhone tipped and was like the color of the Tamarin. That looks like a rodent, maybe a crucified marmot! or an odd angle of a squirrel? What is that??? It looks pretty small too.

Gary

[Bullwolf]

Not trying to Hijack your thread here onondaga, but I have a small Ranch in the unincorporated area of the California coast. It also happens to be close by a famous Rock Star's place. (Neil Young)

Apparently my neighbor has quite the exotic zoo at his place. While I never got a confirmation if any of these things came from his place or not, we always just assumed that was the case.

I recall in the 80's a bunch of white deer apparently had gotten loose and suddenly appeared in the area. They were one of the strangest things I had ever seen in my back yard.

Every time I saw one, I mentally would try to convince myself it was something else, like a white pony, or a goat, but the more you looked at it, it was obvious it was an all white deer. They eventually dispersed over the years. Maybe they were poached, or migrated out of the area slowly, or perhaps the local predators enjoyed their lack of camouflage. Heck for all I know they could have just been bred out by other deer, I really don't know for sure. They just slowly vanished from sight, until one day they just weren't around anymore. They sure were interesting to see for a few years though.

Another memorable critter that I spotted in the back 40 one day was an Ostrich, or perhaps it was an Emu, I never found out for sure. It was trying to drink out of the horse's water trough. As far as I knew, no one in the area was raising them at the time. That was definitely something I had not expected to see in the horse pasture! It was so strange looking, and it definitely did not belong there any more than the white deer did. It was the biggest bird I had ever encountered, and a real head scratch-er at the time.

And my favorite odd sighting did not happen to me personally. It was a large Buffalo found in my neighbors front yard. It was easily as tall, if not taller than his Ford F150, and definitely not native to the area. He had an amazing photograph of it standing in front of his truck that really put the size of the thing into perspective. I wish I had the picture around today, so I could scan it.

Other than coyotes, bobcats, the rare big cat (mountain lion, cougar or whatever you want to call it) and a few packs of stray dogs that I have spotted in the area, the rest of the stuff I have seen is pretty tame. Still it's no surprise that I walk around the property wearing at least a pistol, and often a shotgun, or a rifle is no farther away than my truck.

So, I have had a couple of surprises over the years myself. A few animals that definitely were not native, and typically did not belong in my location

I am not sure what you have spotted there onondaga, I can't really place it from the description. It is possible that someone just let something exotic loose, and it went native. Maybe that is an explanation for what you have seen, or perhaps it is just some species that we all aren't really familiar with.

Either way, I bet you wish you had a camera with you, so you could have taken a picture of it now. I hope you manage to figure out what it is, as my curiosity has been piqued.

- Bullwolf

[docone31]

Perhaps, by chance, it might be Sasquatch, or a young version of the same thing.
We have Swamp Apes down here, lots of sightings that match yours. Also without photos as the sightings happen so quickly.
Don't abandon hope,
They are out there!