Gollum beaten to death in Panama?

[Oolon Colluphid]

Daily Torygraph: New 'Montauk Monster' spotted in Panama (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/panama/6201333/New-Montauk-Monster-spotted-in-Panama.html)

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01483/m1_1483504c.jpg

According to reports in Panama, the teenagers spotted the creature crawling out of a cave while playing in the town of Cerro Azul north of Panama City.

Fearing for the safety as it moved towards them, the youths claim they attacked the beast with sticks before throwing its lifeless body into a pool of water.

They returned later to take pictures of the corpse which were then posted on the website of the Central American country's Telemetro television station.
More pics from the ever-reliable Sun: www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/weird/2642152/Mystery-beast-terrified-kids.html
Experts have yet to examine the images — or make any statements regarding their discovery.

But locals told Panama news channels, who ran the story, that the water-monster was "Gollum from Lord of the Rings".
Okay, so what do we think it is? The Torygraph says cryptozoologists suspect a (somehow) hairless sloth...

[Octavia]

Fearing for the safety as it moved towards them, the youths claim they attacked the beast with sticks before throwing its lifeless body into a pool of water.

If that thing is Gollum, I'm betting those nasty louts are orcs.

[Oolon Colluphid]

I'm thinking more and more it's a sloth. Big gut for leaf fermentation; long neck (sloths are one of the few mammals with more cervical vertebrae (nine) than the standard number (seven) -- because they hang belly-up and need to look at the ground); apparently muscular tongue for leaf-stripping; and the putative clawed foot.

But, if the kids are to be believed (big pinch of salt there ;)), it was alive and in a cave. A sloth in a cave is improbable; a hairless sloth is also improbable; multiplied together, that's too much improbability for me to take.

I reckon they found it washed up, and the pelt had somehow been the first thing to come off as it had been decomposing... nah, that can't be it, cos the skin would have come off with the fur... :confused:

[Gaojie]

Could be a film prop, or maybe something put together just for a stunt. It's a little suspicious that no one else saw the body, just a bunch of kids.

[DMB]

It looks like some sort of fake, not even as good as the alien autopsy ones.

It doesn't look as though it has a single bone in the "body". No nipples, nothing.

[Anne]

stupid kids.

too bad randi's dropped his prize.

[Monad]

It looks like some sort of fake, not even as good as the alien autopsy ones.

It doesn't look as though it has a single bone in the "body". No nipples, nothing.

Yes, those joints are just not right. Looks fake to me (inflatable or plastic/rubber)

Looks more like ET than a Sloth

[Eudaimonist]

I'm thinking it's a hobbit transformed by the power of an evil artifact.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[Christina]

It looks like a blow-up toy to me also.

[Bane]

Yeah, it looks like an inflatable toy or something made out of plasticine to me too....

[Ray Moscow]

I'm guessing it's a shaved sloth or just a toy or prop, as already suggested.

[willynilly]

LOL, nice try though.

[Ray Moscow]

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01483/m1_1483504c.jpg



CNN, 18 September 2009: Rush Limbaugh Found Naked, Dead from Painkiller Overdose

[Notta]

Where are the marks from the beating with the sticks??

[JamesBannon]

Definitely looks like a sloth, but without remains, I'd say a joke of some kind.