# Strange Creature in Panama: Hoax? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730 "2009-10-05T21:17:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/1 "2009-10-05T21:17:41Z")
Have you seen this news clip from CNN about an alleged finding by four kids in Panama? I was wondering if the Dopers may have other sources revealing any more information. Here’s a link to the CNN video clip: > **[Video News - CNN](https://www.cnn.com/videos)** > > Watch breaking news videos, viral videos and original video clips on CNN.com. - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/2 "2009-10-05T21:26:12Z")
Here’s an [article](http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0919-beast.html) suggesting that it’s a [three-toed sloth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-toed_sloth), found throughout Panama. It looks like it’s been in the water for a while. Hair is one of the first thing to go when a corpse is submerged for any significant length of time. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/3 "2009-10-05T21:47:56Z")
Huh, I thought a sloth looked more like a monkey (with no tail) or koala. I saw one once climbing the ceiling in the tropical rainforest at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. This thing looks like a small dino! ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/4 "2009-10-05T21:53:22Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Huh, I thought a sloth looked more like a monkey (with no tail) or koala. I saw one once climbing the ceiling in the tropical rainforest at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. This thing looks like a small dino! Sloths look more monkey-like when they have all their fur on. It can be surprising to see how much of an animal’s shape is due to its fur or feathers. Google “Montauk monster” for another example - it was ultimately determined that the “monster” was a waterlogged, bloated, dead raccoon, but this was by no means obvious from its appearance. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/5 "2009-10-05T23:11:57Z")
A similar video link was sent to me by some friends in the US. It’s quite definitely a sloth; you can see the hooked claws on the front forefoot in the video. I haven’t seen clear enough images to be sure whether it is two-toed or three toed. As **cwthree** says, decomposing animals will often lose the hair off the skin, which could produce the hairlessness. It has also suggested that it could be a fetus. However, it is probably more likely that it just a dead animal that has been in the water a bit. There’s more discussion [here](http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/blue-hill-horror/), including a photo of the corpse after it had decayed more which makes the claws on the feet more evident. [This site](http://telemetro.com/insolito/2009/09/15/nota39732.html#) gives an account in Spanish: > [@](#): > > El hallazgo de una extraña criatura en Cerro Azul ha despertado polémica entre la población, pues mientras algunos aseguran que puede tratarse de un ser de otro planeta, otros creen simplemente que es un animal. > > Cuatro adolescentes de entre 14 y 16 años, se encontraron con él en el Chorro de Cerro Azul, el pasado sábado, mientras se divertían en el lugar. > > Según relató uno de ellos al programa Código 4, de pronto vieron que la criatura salía de una cueva ubicada detrás del chorro de agua. Al ver su apariencia y que ésta comenzó a escalar sobre las piedras hacia uno de ellos, se asustaron y comenzaron a apedrearlo y tirarle palos, logrando matarlo, luego de lo cual lo tiraron al agua y salieron huyendo. Quick translation: > [@](#): > > The finding of a strange creature in Cerro Azul [a town in the hills near Panama City] has begun a controversy among the population, since while some are sure that it could be a being from another planet, others think it is simply an animal. > > Four adolescents of between 14 and 16 found it in the waterfall of Cerro Azul, last Saturday, while they were enjoying themselves there. > > According to what one of them told the program Code 4, they suddenly saw that the creature was coming out of a cave located behind the waterfall. Upon seeing it appear and that it started to climb over the rocks toward one of them, they were scared and started to stone it and throw sticks, succeeding in killing it, after which they threw it in the water and ran away. The kids were certainly bullshitting about it being alive and pursuing them. It sounds like a dead sloth got stuck in an eddy behind the waterfall, where it lost its hair. When the kids disturbed the pool, it floated out. It may have bumped up against the rocks at the edge of the pool, making them think it was alive. They panicked and “killed” it. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/6 "2009-10-05T23:23:31Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The kids were certainly bullshitting about it being alive and pursuing them. It sounds like a dead sloth got stuck in an eddy behind the waterfall, where it lost its hair. When the kids disturbed the pool, it floated out. It may have bumped up against the rocks at the edge of the pool, making them think it was alive. They panicked and “killed” it. I’d certainly go all Lord of the Flies if that floated out at me wile I was swimming. Very (hairless) sloth-like body. Imagine this [sloth baby](http://cuteoverload.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/you-complete-me.jpg?w=500&h=374) all bloated with no hair. Or [this little horror](http://zoocountry.com/images/Animals/ugly/sloth.jpg). They can be seriously freaky even _with_ hair let alone waterlogged and decomposing. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/7 "2009-10-06T05:19:46Z")
This gives me a chance to trot out one of my favorite recently-learned taxonomic trivia items: The three-toed sloth, _Bradypus sp._, is the surviving genus of a family, Bradypodidae, of tree sloths. But its larger, more active distant cousin, the two-toed sloth, _Choloepus sp._, is, if you’ll pardon the oxymoron, an arboreal ground sloth. There were three families of ground sloth: Megatheriidae, Mylodontidae, and Megalonychidae, the last group having a type specimen named by Thomas Jefferson, who thought they might survive in the upper reaches of the Louisiana Purchase or the Oregon Country, and instructed Lewis and clark to be on the lookout for them. President Jefferson wasn’t far from wrong. The Shasta ground sloth survived well into Recent times (geologically, that is), and related forms survived in the West Indies later than 3000 BC. But recent revisions to sloth taxonomy have put Choloepus into Megalonychidae, the tree-living member of a family that is otherwise mostly ground sloths (and mostly extinct, of course). ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/8 "2009-10-06T10:39:45Z")
Here’s a good blog all about the Panama find: [tetrapodzoology](http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/09/panamanian_blue_hill_monster.php) ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/9 "2009-10-06T12:07:09Z")
Yes, but was it debauched? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/10 "2009-10-06T12:52:55Z")
I heard recently that the two-toed sloth has three toes. That was an unexpected twist. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/11 "2009-10-06T14:19:04Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Yes, but was it debauched? It was never bauched in the first place! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/12 "2009-10-06T23:17:55Z")
Panama is filled with strange creatures, **Colibri** for example. ---
**Author:** ![Dynamo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dynamo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dynamo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/13 "2009-10-06T23:22:04Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > Here’s an [article](http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0919-beast.html) suggesting that it’s a [three-toed sloth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-toed_sloth), found throughout Panama. It looks like it’s been in the water for a while. Hair is one of the first thing to go when a corpse is submerged for any significant length of time. The article and video said the kids beat it to death, however (implying that it must have been alive before the encounter). ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/14 "2009-10-06T23:28:36Z")
> [@Dynamo](#): > > The article and video said the kids beat it to death, however (implying that it must have been alive before the encounter). As I once read ‘Watch E.T. , the alien is real. It is the boys who are fakes. Real boys would have beaten an alien to death with rocks’ ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/15 "2009-10-07T00:16:04Z")
[Third down](http://www.orble.com/formalin-preserved-animals/) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/16 "2009-10-07T04:46:38Z")
> [@Dynamo](#): > > The article and video said the kids beat it to death, however (implying that it must have been alive before the encounter). I have no doubt at all the kids were lying (or just mistaken that it was alive). The animal is certainly a sloth, and considering its hairless condition was evidently decomposing. It could not have been recently alive in the condition the body was shown in the video. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/17 "2009-10-07T05:23:13Z")
Any discussion of the three-toed sloth would be incomplete without [Flanders and Swann’s ode to slothdom](http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fas/bestiary_sloth.html). ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/18 "2009-10-07T09:50:53Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > [Third down](http://www.orble.com/formalin-preserved-animals/) If I hadn’t already been convinced, that pic would clinch it. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-creature-in-panama-hoax/512730/19 "2009-10-07T13:36:27Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > If I hadn’t already been convinced, that pic would clinch it. Exactly. The picture **Fubaya** linked to looks like the closing scene from _2009: A Sloth Odyssey_. 😉