There’s nothing quite like a trail camera photo of a wild animal in Maine to get Bangor Daily News readers thinking, and guessing.
On Wednesday, we offered up the attached photo, which was captured by camera trapper extraordinaire Allie Ladd of Byron. He has provided some amazing video and still images from his favorite spots in western Maine.
This one was more on the strange, or even a little disturbing, side because of the animal’s proximity to the camera and the angle at which the photo was taken.
Your guesses were numerous and included bear, moose, porcupine and even a tree. Of course, there were a bunch of jokesters who threw out answers such as bigfoot and the chupacabras.
Perhaps not surprisingly, many folks — approximately one-third of you — correctly identified the image as the south end of a northbound moose.
Here’s how Allie Ladd described what he had photographed.
“Tail on a cow moose,” he said. “Noticed what looked like eyes, then after zooming in noticed the nose, mouth, a tooth and a beard. Moose rubbing the area to rid the ticks or rubbing the old winter fur off.”
Ladd estimated that the moose weighs probably 600 to 700 pounds.
It turns out the featured mystery image actually is a zoomed-in look at the moose, which also includes a calf right next to the cow.
Laurie Reynolds Turner knew the animal’s identity right away, as she promptly posted a photo on the Bangor Daily News Facebook page that shows the same view of a moose, albeit from a bit farther away.
Kudos for the most creative response to the query about the identity of the mystery creature came from Anna Smith of Philadelphia.
“Mangey moose caboose,” was her description.
If you have an especially beautiful or strange video or photo of Maine wildlife, please share it with us. Send it to pwarner@bangordailynews.com and tell us, “I consent to the BDN using my photo/video.”