Need help IDing strange critter in the lower Appalacian foothills

I haven't read the thread yet. I wanted to give my initial impression.

It is possibly a wild dog.
Dogs will kill like that. Not to eat, but just for the sport of it. I had a boxer once that ran down a deer, killed it, and removed only the leg. It brought the leg home to show it off to my dad. Didn't eat it.

Update:

I just got the trail camera. It's a Wildview Xtreme3 model TGL-3M. I just went through the manual and it looks pretty nice. Got a few glitches they mention, but nothing major. It is probably an older model because it can't handle an SD card larger than 2 Gigs... and the one we have is 4 Gigs. So I will be using it for still images for a while. It can take up to 33 using only internal memory.

My thinking is that I need to get a shot, any shot, of it first, then adjust the camera to star getting video. I'll have a better idea of exactly where to place it when I get a few initial images. Animals are usually habitual; they tend to do the same thing over and over again as long as it works, so I should have plenty of time to catch the critter.

The guy would wait until now.... had plenty of time earlier in the week, but I'm starting to get busy now... still I think I can maybe find time to set it up tomorrow. I got all new Duracell batteries, time/date set, and all the options set: 5 minutes between triggers, auto-flash, and single-shot 1.3 Mp (until I get a card).

Everyone wish me luck!

reply to post by JayinAR

If it's a rogue dog, it better find a new playpen. That's to big a dog to trust.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


Good luck with your adventure!!
I hope it catches a glimpse of whatever it that's out there!!

Good luck, I hope it doesn't catch any images of your wife biting the heads of Bunnies and such..

reply to post by TheRedneck


Ah, so hopefully, you can catch something the next few nights. Will be checking!

Feels like some pics are coming, but no idea what I expect at this stage.

Well, looks like it might be as late as Saturday before I have time to get the camera up; just didn't have time today. I'll try tomorrow, but I already have a fairly full day planned. I just didn't want anyone to think I had abandoned the thread.

I do have a SD card on order now; should be here by Monday. This far back in the sticks, we try to order everything electronic, as what's available in the stores is usually lesser quality and grossly overpriced. If I'm real lucky, it might get here Saturday, and if so I'll reset the camera for high-resolution images (3.1 Mp). I figure I'll stick with pics at first until I am pretty sure what its patterns are, then switch to .avi format for a video or two.

I'll guarantee some pics of deer, the neighbor's boxer, Beta (sweet dog, but ugly as sin), and maybe some rabbits depending on how sensitive the trigger is on this thing. If we're lucky, I'll get a pic of the red foxes that live around there.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck
I said I would help and I haven't been much help have I?

However, sounds like you got a good thing going with your set-up there. What did you think of my idea about staking a live chicken in the area where the squirrel "offering" was made?!?

HEY, I'm an animal lover, y'all, but we're talking about serious bidness here should an anomaly be about up 'round these parts. So don't no-one give me grief about sacrificing a chicken...although when I say it like that it does sound freaky haha!

We do have some pretty serious terrain on and around these mountains. Riddled with "rock villages," and rocks riddled with caves and multitudinous overhang "dens' in places not accessible to us humans without rappelling into...

Originally posted by TheRedneck
Well, looks like it might be as late as Saturday before I have time to get the camera up; just didn't have time today. I'll try tomorrow, but I already have a fairly full day planned. I just didn't want anyone to think I had abandoned the thread.

Hey, don't rush or delay things on our account! These things take time. I for one will be around whenever, if ever, you get something.

Originally posted by The GUT
We do have some pretty serious terrain on and around these mountains. Riddled with "rock villages," and rocks riddled with caves and multitudinous overhang "dens' in places not accessible to us humans without rappelling into...

Rocky areas are known for many of those odd disappearances, so, caution is advised! For you, Gut, if you help out, and for you, Redneck, whenever you can get to this. Going with someone is a very good idea, just to be safe. I grew up around the mountains (east Tennessee), and know how inhospitable some places can be! Beautiful, peaceful, but able to conceal just about anything.

Again, to Redneck, be SAFE.

Any new sightings of this thing, or any more dead animals? This situation still bothers me. Worried about all of you there!

reply to post by TheRedneck


I would pin the dang animals up and then wait for the critter to come and attack.

I still wager it is a dog.
Dogs can get pretty damn big.

Originally posted by TheRedneck
reply to post by ValentineWiggin

Oh, yeah, we get the occasional mountain lion. They sound like a dying woman screaming. The first time I heard one I thought it really was a woman dying! My dad told me what it was.

The three most dangerous animals we have are, in order, wild boar (which are plentiful 20 miles away on another ridge, but so far are not here luckily), mountain lions (rare as I said), and black bears (very dangerous if starving or threatened). That list of course does not include the most dangerous critter on the mountain: me.

Black bears are not dangerous at all unless you punch one in the face. I live in BC Canada and I encounter hundreds of them every summer. Black bears, deer etc are not going to kill little critters and line them up. Cougars will not do that either. They would take the kill immediately to eat the whole thing or take it to their kittens. I seriously doubt you will ever "see" a cougar where you live and you will not hear them either unless one is being cornered, separated from its young or shot.
A marten as suggested in an earlier post is laughable as they are like ferrets.
In my opinion the critters you saw are more than likely the result of a human boy with his instincts to hunt kicking in at a young age and mutilating small animals. This is human nature. Even I have tennis racketed a chipmunk when young, shot birds with bb guns and tracked down and killed rabbits with Chinese stars for god sakes. Whatever the witness saw is normal. There is no unknown little critter killer running around. In my opinion it is nothing more than speculation wrapped in entertainment to spend time guessing.

Originally posted by TheRedneck
There is no hunting allowed on the property (and we do enforce that!) and anyway, what human could catch a rabbit or squirrel to cut its head off? And why?

I caught and killed rabbits or squirrels with my bare hands or Chinese stars. They are no match for an agile young boy. I cut heads off after catching them and skinned them and dumped their guts out and ate them on occasion bringing them home for my buds grandma to cook in a skillet growing up in Indiana. I also caught a small squirrel with my bare hands, dipped it in paint and lighter fluid, lit it on fire and tennis racketed it flaming over the neighbors house.
No I am not a serial killer now hahaha. Boys do crazy things. Yes it is more than possible. No reason needed.

reply to post by The GUT

Hey, don't worry... as I told you, your skill documenting and witnessing is going to be invaluable! Thank you for offering to help. I'm just trying to get some hard data to go on first.

This mountain is dotted with small caves. It's a limestone mountain with three banches (short cliffs running along the side of the mountain) and some areas which are indeed pretty rocky. Most of the caves are little more than cracks in the rock banches, far too small for humans, but there are some caves large enough to get into. The area behind my house is probably the roughest of all... areas of brush too thick to get through and rock formations scattered around, not to mention the fact that it will get the most experienced hiker turned around. Once inside the tree line, an animal pretty much has cover to go anywhere it wants; it just has to make that one crossing between mountain and swamp across the hay field.

Whatever it is... mundane, unusual, cryptid... we'll find it.

TheRedneck

reply to post by LadyGreenEyes

Don't worry about safety. I grew up in these mountains. I'm as safe here as a regular kid playing in their own sandbox. I'm called "redneck" for a reason.

If it is something unusual, I'm hoping if I can get a shot or three where it enters the treeline, maybe I can start moving the camera deeper to track it back along it's path.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


Hey, maybe you could call the turtle man and get on TV?!
That guy is wicked awesome!

Originally posted by TheRedneck
reply to post by LadyGreenEyes

Don't worry about safety. I grew up in these mountains. I'm as safe here as a regular kid playing in their own sandbox. I'm called "redneck" for a reason.

If it is something unusual, I'm hoping if I can get a shot or three where it enters the treeline, maybe I can start moving the camera deeper to track it back along it's path.

TheRedneck

That would be nice! I can't help concern, though; just in my nature. Sure I don't have to say, "Be cautious!". Hoping for pics! Have a feeling you have something unusual there.

Originally posted by TheRedneck
reply to post by LadyGreenEyes

Don't worry about safety. I grew up in these mountains. I'm as safe here as a regular kid playing in their own sandbox. I'm called "redneck" for a reason.

If it is something unusual, I'm hoping if I can get a shot or three where it enters the treeline, maybe I can start moving the camera deeper to track it back along it's path.

TheRedneck

I read the whole thread from beginning to end I thi.k we are ruling out the possibility of spiritual (or demonic) staring at your wife a the half circular formation of headless animals. The guy in the green muscle car could have summoned it.

I set up the trail cam, but so far no pictures. I don't think it is working correctly, as it should have gotten pics of some deer at least by now.

Just wanted to update so no one thought it had been forgotten. I may see if I can squeeze out enough cash to buy my own trail cam. My wife did see it again a couple of days ago crossing the road where we thought it was crossing.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


Thanks, i was looking for this thread yesterday for an Update...

I read a few, but not all, the pages of this thread, so I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned. At the risk of sounding fantastical (not discounting a natural predator like a mangy bear, wild boar, etc) could we entertain the possibilty that it could be a juvenile Sasquatch, despite no real proof of their existence either way?

Originally posted by TheRedneck
I set up the trail cam, but so far no pictures. I don't think it is working correctly, as it should have gotten pics of some deer at least by now.

Just wanted to update so no one thought it had been forgotten. I may see if I can squeeze out enough cash to buy my own trail cam. My wife did see it again a couple of days ago crossing the road where we thought it was crossing.

TheRedneck

It seems like your wife sees it.