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Weird hairless rat-like thing on a tropical beach: photo...

Went back to cryptozoology.com to see what the speculation was like there and found this ... not that i think it could be a bear, but it shows how much a mammal's appearance changes with hair loss, and that a lot of things could probably look like that if they lost their fur... in particular, the bear's ears look a lot bigger without the fur on its face.

Also, i found some pictures of the Yapok or South American Water Opossum mentioned in the thread over there, which does have a tail as long as the mystery animal's (although IMHO the head doesn't look right):
http://images.google.com/images?q=Chironectes&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en
 
I live on a carribean island, (I know) we have two mammals here ; bats (which are native) and the agouti - a rabbit sized rodent which was introduced to many carribean islands by early settlers for food. It comes from south america, lives in burrows & is shy and rarely seen.

Although it does not look like an agouti at first glance I believe it could be one. The back legs look similiar for example as do the eyes and the way the front legs become dark towards the feet.

They may have wild agoutis on the island but this the only hairless one and they just do not recognise it as an agouti - well I wouldn't.






http://www.honoluluzoo.org/images/agouti.htm
 
Whatever the poor creature is (and my money's on agouti) I wish someone would take it to a vet, or even feed it. :( It has a furrowed brow that I find particularly distressing.
 
My money's on a mangy Virginia Opossum. The ears and face are a dead give give-away. I've handled a number of normally furred possums once the last couple years (working as a member of the local animal control organization). I don't know the range of the possum, but I'm willing to bet that it was brought to island as a pet and was dumpd as it got older and less cute.
 
I live on a carribean island, (I know) we have two mammals here ; bats (which are native) and the agouti - a rabbit sized rodent which was introduced to many carribean islands by early settlers for food. It comes from south america, lives in burrows & is shy and rarely seen.
Click to expand...

Isn't an agouti tailless? I think it's an opossum.

edited to say...whaddya know, I'm a yeti!
 
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