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Unusual striped skin

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Anonymous

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Over at cryptozoology.com there are some pics in the gallery of an unusual striped skin, apparently purchased in the UK, which appears to be the skin of a large (approx wolf size) carnivorous animal (the proportions look more canine than feline), with a stripe pattern corresponding to no known animal... the finder of the skin took it to the Natural History Museum and they said that it hadn't been dyed...

pics 1
pics 2

There is some discussion about it on the cryptozoology.com forums here:
http://www.cryptozoology.com/forum/topi ... ree_23.php (look under "Beast photos") and here: http://www.cryptozoology.com/forum/topi ... tree_4.php (look under "UK Thylacine/Girt Dog")

It has similarities to, but doesn't seem to quite match tiger, hyena, thylacine and large domestic dog skins... any ideas?
 
Weird. I wonder if the museum chap who looked at it really knew his stuff? Unless he was an absolute expert in this sort of thing, a hoax is still the most likely answer. If it were me, I'd want to get it down to the natural history museum, but I'd keep a few hairs/small section for analysis in case the skin "went missing".
 
Maned wolf doesn't seem too likely to me, I never heard of them (or any canid, in fact) being striped like that, and the skin looks like it belonged to something more heavily built than the very slender and leggy maned wolf (which IIRC is actually a very large fox)...

The nearest animal I could think of was striped hyena, but the colouring is too dark and the dimensions of the skin (cited in one of the cryptozoology.com forum threads) are bigger than the maximum sizes given for the striped hyena by a fairly large amount (head to rump length 148cm vs approx 120cm)...

The only animals i can think of that would fit the general size, build and hair type are grey wolf, brown hyena and large breeds of domestic dog - none of which have stripes...

Juvenile Siberian Tiger was suggested, but the proportions look wrong... much more canine than feline, with apparently non-retractable claws. Thylacine and any other breed of tiger than Siberian have too short a coat.

Options I can think of:

1) Dog with seriously one-off coat colour mutation
2) Half-grown and unusually dark coloured Siberian tiger skin which has been stretched (accidentally or deliberately) to appear more canine in proportions
3) Unusual hyena - perhaps a hybrid between brown and striped hyena (has such a hybrid ever been recorded?)

Were there any eyewitness reports of the colouration of the "Girt Dog"? I can't remember whether that allegedly had stripes or not...
 
Goldstein said:
Juvenile Siberian Tiger was suggested, but the proportions look wrong... much more canine than feline, with apparently non-retractable claws.
Click to expand...

Could it be that a cats claws cease to be retractable after death?
 
Am I crazy to say its a tiger skin? Why is that not so possible?
 
Kings Cheetah have stripes and non retractable claws, dont they?

But the fur is too fluffy for that.
 
Of course, it's an obvious thing to say but, because it was purchased in the uk it could be any number of aimals 'bagged' by some posh bloke on a shoot during the days of the british empire.

Also because of the way it's layed out the proportions can look a bit deceptive. It looks squatter and thinner than the animal would have in life because it is hung accross an ironing board. As well as that, that the head has been removed (which could also point to it being a hunting trophy with the head hung up on someones wall perhaps) and the arse end of the creature is layed out over the pointy bit of the board which, inadvertantly i think, could cause some to mitake it for the missing head.

I think it's a tiger skin but either a very well preserved one or a fairly recent kill.
 
It's got a head (or the skin of a head) - in the bottom picture in the first link, you can see the ears and eye holes - in the pics with the woman and dog in the head is hanging off the ironing board on the left.

Re the cat claws thing - I'm sure i saw someone demonstrate retractability once using a dead cat's paw and just pushing them in and out... But you're right, it could be that claws which were retractable in life wouldn't seem so in a preserved skin.

King Cheetah is an idea I hadn't thought of - will google for some pics. Not sure i've seen one that uniformly striped tho...
 
Could it be that a cats claws cease to be retractable after death?
Click to expand...

Forgive me if the distinction seems pedantic, but cat claws are protractable (in by default) rather than retractable (out by default). It seems unlikey they'd die with them stuck out and they'd stay that way.
 
It doesnt look like a tiger to me at all. Tigers have round ears and this doesnt seem to. Also the stripes dont look tiger like. Tigers tend to have distinct breaks in the stripes as they wrap round the body. They also have horizontal stripes on the legs rather than vertical which the beast has. Also the fur length is too long and bushy to be any of the various subspecies of tiger (except maybe siberian).
Striped hyena is a possible. It even looks like it has the remnants of a hyaena "mane" beginning mid-back.
www.livingdesert.org/ animals/striped_hyena.asp
Either that or a hoax as the stripes look suspiciously regular.
The vertical leg stripes are very odd. I dont think that many animals (due to the genetics of coat patterning and development) could produce them like that. Maybe a fur that has been dyed to make it look more interesting for sale?
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
Could it be that a cats claws cease to be retractable after death?
Click to expand...

Forgive me if the distinction seems pedantic, but cat claws are protractable (in by default) rather than retractable (out by default). It seems unlikey they'd die with them stuck out and they'd stay that way.
Click to expand...

But there would be no muscle, bone or sinew to keep the claws either in or out. Would there?
Actually you have me thinking now, why would a claw, which is joined to the end of a digit be present on the skin of an animal? It would be attached to the bone, no? Its like saying it has teeth but no skull.
 
Its a rather small, tiger with messed up stripes. Not every animal who has stripes gots perfect ones. Its nature people, tigers dont come from factories.
 
could be.

Thinking on what striped animal would be a prey of a big game hunter...

"No, no NO! thats a brindle dog!"
 
its either a pokemon "tigon"(sp?) or its the thundercat "tigera"(?) :D
 
I'm with barndad. It's obviously a fake! :roll: The way the stripes run down the leg is a dead giveaway. :x
 
Looks like the idea of it being a fake isnt too popular. Didnt mean to piss anyone off. Could be real just ive never seen any animal with stripe patterns like that and thought it was unusual enough to comment on.
Id be happy to see the problem resolved whatever way. But im certain its not a tiger.
 
Its got MANY of the same qualities of a tiger skin, its just that the pic is horribly blurry. I realize its a bit different, but it coulda been a freak tiger by all means. Anyone who thinks animals are made in factories needs a walk in the park. Heres a tiger skin for comparison. And then the "beast". lol

confisc4.jpg


106278114.jpg
 
My point is that im suspicious because it looks like it came from a factory, rather than a natural source. The stripes are too regular and not broken up like would be found in a real tiger skin. Its as if someone got a normal dog skin and thought "you know what would sell better than a dog skin?" and then painted on some stripes.
 
barndad said:
My point is that im suspicious because it looks like it came from a factory, rather than a natural source. The stripes are too regular and not broken up like would be found in a real tiger skin. Its as if someone got a normal dog skin and thought "you know what would sell better than a dog skin?" and then painted on some stripes.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with this idea. Dogs are used for fur in many countries and this does look like an unnatural pattern.
So the "expert" at the museum says it isnt dyed. What do we know about him? Nothing. This thing might not have even been to a museum. What do we know about the skins owner? Where was it bought? It all reminds me of those yeti scalps made of yak hair
 
some of you guys should do some research before shouting its a fake, the lady took it to a person who can authorize if it is real are not. the guy said it HAS NOT been exposed to dye. No this cant be a tiger, you can clearly see that his has maine from its neck down to it's back. tigers stripes are nothing like that, this MAY be some type of hybrid hyena are just a striped hyena with a weird color gene.. i dont think its a fake though...
 
barndad said:
The stripes are too regular and not broken up like would be found in a real tiger skin.
Click to expand...

I know next to nothing about big cats but have kept domestic cats of all shapes and sizes. The younger they are the more defined the markings which seem to roughern or fade with age. Could it not be only a young specimen of whatever breed it is?
 
But there would be no muscle, bone or sinew to keep the claws either in or out. Would there?
Actually you have me thinking now, why would a claw, which is joined to the end of a digit be present on the skin of an animal? It would be attached to the bone, no? Its like saying it has teeth but no skull.
Click to expand...

It's not really poss. to see on those photos what they're talking about. I'm trying to remember if those awful fox stole things some women used to wear (my mother had one) had claws still, certainly they had paws so I guess there's some way of skinning that keeps certain bits. If there are claws though, I suppose it doesn't mean they'd necessarily be in the same state as they were generally kept in life. So I dunno:D

The skin does look funny. Wouldn't have put it down as cat myself.
 
Tiger cubs from what ive seen still have the characteristic broken stripes of the adults.
As far as the fact that people at the NHM say it hasnt been dyed. They are biologists and taxonomists, not dye chemists. Just because someone is an expert in one field doesnt mean their testimony should be relied on in an adjacent field.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary prrofs and while i'd like this to be a real undiscovered creature, im sceptically inclined to think of it as fake, or some well described beast which isnt familiar to me.
 
My fox fur still has the claws but they're not as claw-ey as on a live fox.

I like the idea of a hyaena-hybrid. I mean, look at it. It has the mane, it's canine-like and feline-like at the same time, it LOOKS like a hyaena. Assuming it's not a fake (and I hate that idea) I'd say that's what it is - also assuming striped and brown hyaenas can breed (and I don't see why they couldn't).
 
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