What is the Montauk Monster?
The Montauk Monster is the carcass of an unidentified animal that washed up in July 2008 on a beach in Montauk, a town at the eastern tip of Long Island, New York. With a hairless body, a mouth like a bird’s beak and limbs with sharp claws, it looked so strange that when photos were posted online, it became a worldwide sensation.
All kinds of speculation
Because a government facility researching livestock diseases had once been on an island near Montauk, speculation flew that it might be “a creature produced in a secret experiment.” However, the carcass disappeared after the photos were taken, and experts were never able to examine it directly.
What is the Montauk Monster really?
Most experts who analyzed the photos think it was a raccoon that drowned and was badly decomposed. Soaking in water made its fur fall out and its skin swell, and the flesh around the mouth came away, making it look like a beak. Because decomposed animal carcasses are hard to recognize, they are often mistaken for cryptids, as with the New Nessie.
