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"Beast of Bosnia" (Mystery Animal Corpse)

James_H

James_H

And I like to roam the land
Joined
May 18, 2002
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Beast of Bosnia.jpg


I found it on a site, labelled the "beast of bosnia"... we have been debating it on IRC, looks like a skinned cat most of all
 
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Are cats heads normally that large?

I'd accept the paws coming out finger-like (as the
photo shows) -- but, geez!

TVgeek
 
Is it really from Bosnia? what kinds of big cats do you get there?
If it's not real, is it a deliberate hoax or some intrepid underinformed cryptophotoguy taking a photo of some skinned cat thing he didn't fully understand?
 
The head looks very feline, but the limbs look too fleshy for a cat, and it seems too skinny (perhaps as it's guts are out)
 
Its insides are hanging out - the heavy head and thick legs make it look like a big cat . If it was ,say ,a snow leopard , the pelt would be valuble . Having seen big and small species cat pelts , I think they are skinned whole with claws and ears and eyelids intact .

The longish narrow ribcage would indicate that it is not a dog , it is much more feline in character .
 
Okay. My impressions are - the front legs look too short, and look shorter than the back. The jaws looks wrong somehow. The lower jaw in particular seems to resemble a pike's. The paws look too short for an animal of that size.
 
Some kind of eurasian "mountain lion"?
TVgeek
 
Helen said:
the front legs look too short, and look shorter than the back. The jaws looks wrong somehow. The lower jaw in particular seems to resemble a pike's. The paws look too short for an animal of that size.
Click to expand...
Could it be a kind of pieced together jenny-haniver thing?
 
I think the paws look short because they are the upper part of the foot with the flesh removed by skinning , the lower part , the toes , would have been cut off with the pelt .
 
But the front paws look like they have toes, and the front legs look too short.
 
Paws look toe-like, and I image postmortem they might separate a bit...
Moreover, making those toes would be easing photoshopping.
Thanks,
 
there was something funny about it for a cat, and i just thought: looks like an otter
edit-it doesn;t really, come to think of it. Oh well.
 
Apparantly, a pine marten
Embedded link is dead. Here's a forum thread claiming it turned out to be a skinned pine marten.
https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/topic/27196-another-fantastic-creature/#comments

Date: June 29, 2005 09:48AM
A local Bosnian university studied it and determined it to be a skinned pine marten, which is a critter in the weasel family (the biggest relative being a wolverine).
Click to expand...
SOURCE: https://www.plus613.net/?page=show_image&action=categorize&imageID=17133&category=14
 
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I still think the back legs and front legs are out of proportion. Then again, I haven't seen many skinned cats, I'm glad to say.
 
Hmm, to me this looks like a model of some sort, not a real animal.
 
it looks real to me. as in, really not a model. I don't know how much it looks like a skinned cat.
Thanks,
Seth "More than one way to..." Merridew
 
It looks far too rounded and muscular to be any sort of cat, domestic or feral. So, if the link given states it's a pine marten, I guess that's quite a safe bet. (Then again, one has to be cautious about the provenance of the info about the vets, etc.).
 
After ::shudders:: going to peewee's link I'm inclined to agree. A pine marten is more probable-- they posess a similar neck shape, as well as a similar build.
Thanks,
 
It's a bit big to be a pine marten isn't it?
But to me it definatley looks like a large weasely sort of thing, but the front paws look rended ie the feet have been cut away and the remaining tendons give the finger-like appearance.
Besides, the head is not as pointy as a pine marten's would be see pic: ?
pmarten2.jpg


Anyone know any big weasely creatures
 
I still think the head looks like a cat's skull, I had to draw one for A level Biology.
It's the legs that bother me on this creature, I mean if those back legs look like they would be great for jumping. lol
 
This carcass was explained in ANIMALS & MEN a few issues back...I can't remember what they said it was, but it was nothing exciting.
 
oo - err!

NEIL said:
This carcass was explained in ANIMALS & MEN a few issues back
Click to expand...

Sounds like a particularly dodgy magazine if you ask me!:eek: :D
 
The thing has a great long tail , of course it isn't a mustelid ! And it has a feline head . The thing is dead its muscles might have swollen up with post mortem changes . I'm not changing my idea that it is a simple skinned big cat carcase .
 
Looks too big for a pine marten to me (they are about cat size, I think?), but mustelid in general sounds likely. The European Otter (Lutra lutra) would be my candidate. They are a lot bigger than the otters commonly seen in zoos (which are, I think, an American species), and have a long, powerful tail as well as the finger-like paws. Also their fur is probably valuable so someone is quite likely to have skinned one.
 
Could it be some kind of Viverrid? Maybe some kind of large civet or genet? Viverrids are of the cat subclass, but not cat family, which would explain it's feline characteristics and also discrepencies.

I wouldn't rule out a Mustelid, but its head looks too bulky for a pine marten... it could be well an otter, or maybe even a small Wolverine?

In fact its feet look like they could be plantigrade rather than digitigrade, which would suggest a Mustelid or even a Procyonid... any chance it could be an OOP Raccoon or Cacomistle?
 
I've recently completed a biology degree in which I speshelised in palaeontology and morphology. So looking at the teath I can tell you it is definatly not a rodent (pointed cheack teath are present) or a dog/wolf ( absence of crushing teath) or a feline ( absence of cutting teath of correct leangth).
The teath are consistant with a stoat, pine martin, ferret or otter.
I wold dismiss the pine martin and ferret because they are too thin in relation to body length to be this beastie which leves otter or stoat as the most likly candidates. looking at the tail it is clearly not an otter, this is also borne out by the lack of webbing or any reminants of it, on the feet.
That leves stoat, which seams to gel with head size and body length so that would be my guess as to what animal it is. (dispite all that though I could still be wrong:eek: )
 
What is it

having lived in california most my life. seeing that photo , I thought right off the bat ,a skinned Otter. It got itself skinned! Maybe stolen from a zoo or something , but that is a california Otter
 
The legs are way too long for an otter , especially the hind legs . Any other mustelid type creature including badgers and wolverines would have shorter weaker tails and probably shorter legs in proportion too . The structure of the front feet has been lost in the skinning process and can't help with identification .
 
I have been studying pics of big cat skulls and have found there are significant differences between the mystery head and skulls of clouded leopards and leopards , both in the size of the canine teeth and the layout of the lower teeth in the jaw and general skull shape . I have changed my opinion now - it is not a big cat !
I also do not think it is an otter after looking at pics of otter skulls ( their skulls are longer , thinner and finer than the mystery creature )!
The teeth are wrong for a wolverine .
 
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