what is this on my game-cam?

[EMaker]

Okay, I was a firm believer in the OP's mystery creature being a juvenile cougar (mountain lion), and in fact I was one of the first to suggest so, UNTIL a moment ago. Out of curiosity, I copied the game cam photos and opened them on my computer using Windows Photo Gallery. I enlarged each photo and adjusted the brightness and then the contrast, and having done so, I will switch teams and agree that it is a grey fox. Once you adjust the brightness and contrast, you can see more of the ear shape and hock shape on the animal. As well, it's abdomen is quite tucked up, a trait more common in a grey fox than a feline, even a hungry feline. In one of the side shots of the animal moving, after adjusting the contrast, I could see that the animals ears are probably back and turned outward, thus making the shape of the skull appear more feline in the unaltered original cam pic. If you have Windows Photo Gallery, or any photo program that allows adjustment of brightness and contrast, give it a try and see what you may see.

 

[9Catsz]

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I'd like to see that pic. Can you post it? I couldn't find it.

 

[dinahmoe]

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with a gene that makes it dislike the taste of chicken ,right?

 

[Chinchilla2]

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with a gene that makes it dislike the taste of chicken ,right?

Nope, they didn't quite get that part figured out but it is allergic to chicken feathers so the sneezing will let you know when it's around.

 

[ellieroo]

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I'd like to see that pic. Can you post it? I couldn't find it.

There are 5 or 6 pages of photos on the site I listed. I think it was on the 3rd page #3169203 look at small pics plus the enlarged version. One thing you see at this site is the array of lions some dark ,some light, heavy weights ,some with really long tails and some with not so long tails.

 

[9Catsz]

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Thanks for the #, it's the first pic that comes up when you click on the link. The reason I didn't think it was THAT picture is because that cat doesn't have its tail in the same position as the OPs animal does..... not even close.

Here is the pic:

Original pic cropped:

Side by side pic:

 

[dretd]

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Thanks for the #, it's the first pic that comes up when you click on the link. The reason I didn't think it was THAT picture is because that cat doesn't have its tail in the same position as the OPs animal does..... not even close.

Here is the pic:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v381/catsz99/LION.jpg

Original pic cropped:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v381/catsz99/005crop.jpg

Side by side pic:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v381/catsz99/origonal4.jpg

That, and look at the diameter of the forearms in relation to diameter of the tail. The OP's photo shows the tail about twice as thick as the legs whereas the cougar shows the arms thicker than the tail.

 

[ellieroo]

I was looking more at form than exact angle

and I did find it similar, eye of the beholder I guess. Your cloud will never be mine

I found more on that site that could fit also but all this is pure speculation unless the creature in question makes a cutrain call !

 

[9Catsz]

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Yes exactly. You can also tell that the tail of the OP's pic has much thicker fur than that of a lion and the fur is blending into the background.

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Eye of the beholder only works with something that's not able to be proven. In this case we have picture proof of how the animal holds its tail.

As for "looking more at form than exact angle" ???? What does that mean? I'm not looking at angle, I'm looking at how the tail is carried which I would consider form. I don't know what 'form' you're going by, but these 2 animals have very different tail 'forms'.

The OP's animal holds at least half of its tail horizontal from its body and then the rest of the tail has a flip on the end. The lion in the pic you think looks the same holds its tail at about a 45 degree angle from its body....as do all the other lion pics I looked at. I looked at gray fox pics and just about every one has the animal holding its tail in the manner of the OP's animal.

I've added some free-hand drawings.

What more proof do you need? If the OP gets a good pic of a gray fox, then the ppl who see a lion are going to say it's a different animal.....yet the tail tells the whole story. Why would this one cat hold its tail like a fox? Because it is a fox.

 

[greenkalki]

You guys are still focused on the false choice between a big cat (Puma concolor) and a gray fox. Just because it is obviously not cougar, doesn't mean it's automatically a fox. Likewise, just because it's obviously not a fox, that doesn't make it automatically a cougar. As I see it, team fox and team big cat keep focusing on each other, because the best way to get others to agree with your position is to focus on the weakest counter position. It's like saying, "well it's obviously too big to be Bigfoot, so that proves it's a chupacabra,"... Then the counter argument becomes,"well a chupacabra's tail doesn't curve that way, so it must be Bigfoot." In stead of arguing about which of the most unlikely suspects is less unlikely, why don't we start with the two most likely suspects, the domestic house cat, and the jaguarundi, and see which one is most likely? We have already conclusively eliminated cougar, and gray fox for various reasons that have been inumerated through out this debate, yet the most likely candidates have been virtually ignore in the "high-tech" photo analysis of tail curvature, etc. This is likely because most people simply say "oh look, it's a house cat... big deal," and never again return to this discussion. Others are probably turned off by the fact that the debate is dominated by a fight between two animals that can't possibly be the animal in question. That leaves us with Chupacabra and Sasquatch... Or cougars and foxes... Oh my!