New Monsters Everywhere: Montauk Monster, the Honey Island Swamp Monster, Chupacabra

Adding Modern Monsters to the Lists of Legends

Bigfoot. Loch Ness Monster. Yeti. Common lore abounds with tales of strange beasts and creatures that roam our deep woods or live in the misted swamps or swim in dark lakes. Stuff of legend, most of these creatures are seen from afar and/or photographed, videotaped, or drawn by various unreliable sources. In the end, they become just another weird tale in the pantheon of strangeness that persists in exciting believability in such things. But recently there have been a rash of strange sightings and photographs (and videos) taken of creatures apparently still roaming about.

The Montauk Monster

The most recent addition to the mysterious creature fold is the Montauk Monster, or the Monster of Montauk as some refer to it. A couple of pictures taken by beachgoers have taken the internet by storm, causing one site to crash (Newsday.com) and generating thousands of stories and speculative queries. The creature itself looks somewhat canine with a hooked or missing facial snout and some vicious-looking teeth. The first picture of the Montauk Monster appeared on July 29 on Gawker.com.

As to what it is, the answers are varied. The offerings range from dog to whale fetus to alien invader. And the origins of the 'monster' is also pondered. With the Plum Island Animal Disease Center nearby, speculation runs high on whether or not they might be missing an experimental hybrid animal (denied by the Center, of course). But the government (the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Department of Agriculture jointly run the facility) is suspect, as per usual, so anything they say, of course, cannot be taken at face value.

Or that is the way that these stories generally go, that is...

Chupacabra