By Tim Binnall
A peculiar trail cam photo of a mysterious creature caused something of a stir over the weekend after bewildered wildlife officials in Texas shared the picture online and indicated that they could not identify the animal. The strange concession came about this past Thursday when the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park posted the image on their Facebook page. "We're scratching our heads trying to identify this elusive creature," they declared, explaining that the picture was a game camera photo of a "mystery animal lurking in the Rio Grande Valley." The department went on to speculate that it could be "a new species" or "an escapee from a nearby zoo," before turning the proverbial guessing game over to people on social media.
The weird photo quickly went viral and, as one might imagine, spawned all manner of theories as to the nature of the curious critter. Some of the more fantastic suggestions from observers were a capybara, a nutria, a wolverine, two boards moving in opposite directions, and, of course, the requisite paranormal suspects, including aliens or a chupacabra. That said, among those many possibilities put forward by people online, an answer to the mystery seemingly emerged as, later in the weekend, the departed updated their post, marveling at the attention it had received and indicating that "we agree with most of the comments that this is very likely an American Badger."